The Archenemy

Of all the foes the Imperium fights the nebulous 'Archenemy' is the most insidious and widespread. Known also as the Forces of Chaos, the Slaves to Darkness and the Servants of the Dark Gods amongs a myriad of alternative names these are the mortal servants of the otherworldly powers beyond the veil the Dark Gods that dwell within the Warp. Most Inquisitorial agents are lucky if they only get a glimpse and what lurks on the other side, of the true face of Chaos - creatures of the hell-like dimensions beyond reality that humanity calls 'Daemon'.

The Inquisition prefers it this way the true face of the Archenemy is kept hidden from the population, the mortal face of madness is all that it permits the majority of the Imperium to see. The Ordo Malleus keep a tight lid on this knowledge going so far as to purge or wipe the minds of entire planets in order to protect this horrifying secret. Even senior Inquisitorial agents are only trusted, bar those of the Ordo Malleus, with the knowledge that these -things- exist.

Unfortunately, in the grim reaches of the Prosperitas Sector, one cannot avoid an encounter with the Servants of the Dark Gods for long.

The Old Religion

The Prosperitas Sector is stained by a legacy written by tainted cults.

Before the coming of the Imperium, for millennia, the worlds of the Sector were the domain of the Regency, a heretical hegemony that laboured in the belief that the Horus Heresy had been won by the Arch-Traitor, Horus. When the Regency collapsed before the Prosperitas Crusade the various Priests scattered with their forbidden texts, but many ancient corrupted shrines and texts remained within the Prosperitas Sector to be uncovered, and many of the lay-preachers escaped the pyres of the Inquisition to spread their heresies and establish tainted legacies.

Many Annwfyn and Ruwwad natives bitterly refer to this as the Old Religion it's legacy for their people a history of slavery to foul Priest-Kings. The name has been adopted by the Inquisition for ease of differentiating the dark faith from other Archenemy cults. For while other cults are dangerous the Old Religion is formalized, and more dangerously, united by shared practices. To it's followers, the collected texts and rituals of the Old Faith are simply known as the Way short hand for the Way of Truth.

The Old Religion is formalised around Eight Mystery Cults known as 'Sects' each with their own formalised rituals to gain acceptance as an 'Initiate' and follow that Sects 'Path' to 'Truth'. Where it is more common in the wider galaxy for the Archenemy to be referred to a four gods, these Sects form the priesthood of a pantheon of eight entities known as the Divine Octad each one representing a point of the foul Eight Point Star, a foul geometry that is the most common icon of the united Archenemy across the Galaxy. Beneath theses Initiates there come cultists dedicated to service to the Sect in the hopes of induction into the Mysteries, and the truth and freedom that induction falsely promises.

For hundreds of years since the Regency was shattered the Old Religion was a recurring infection born from a religion preserved by families that concealed their ancestral ties to the Regency, tainted shrines that festered in the dark places and forbidden texts that inspired others to pursue the Mysteries of the Way. But now the Sovereign Order has reemerged from the rimward wild space many turn to the Old Religion in hope of mercy and cult uprisings erupt to welcome the old masters of the sector home.

Warp Cults

Warp Cults are an insidious and constant threat to the Imperium. Many are insane heretics who give worship to false “gods” they claim to have seen in dreams and visions sent from realms beyond reality. These false religions bring with them unspeakable horrors, said to foster bonds with Witches and Mutants to undermine the moral security of Imperial citizens. Though rebels – and xenocults, when they occur – are no less a threat, it is the warp cults that the Imperium most swiftly brings judgement upon. No single cult is the same: some are obvious in their foulness, bringing bloodshed and plague, whereas others are more subtle corruptors and manipulators but all serve the same horrific ends.

The Cults of the Old Religion are, as noted above, myriad their attitudes depending on which of the Eight Sects they ascribe to the Path of. The Imperium is most familiar with three of the Sects;

The Serpent Sect or Serpent Cult

But the Old Religion is not the only foul faith that has emerged across the sector;

The Red Hand is a foul butcher-cult that worships an entity they call the Red Saint - born from the refuse of the Prosperitas Crusade the Red Hand found purchase in the souls of those soldiers left behind by the Crusade, disbanded units never given their prize, deserters, war wounded who turned to what the cult calls the Red Lodges to create their own support networks in the absence of Imperial ones. Here their anger was twisted through what began as fight clubs to vent anger and turned into bloodletting and destruction, before descending into cannibalism and horror. The Red Hand is a terrorist group by its nature, but since the emergence of the Red Saint had targeted the Ashen Cults heedless of collateral. To make matters worse through exposure to tainted blood the Red Hand have been seen to 'baptise' innocents with foul marks that drive them into insane frothing blood-hungry monsters that are unleashed before the brutally disciplined warriors of the Cult.

The Regency

Not all humans fall under the righteous dominion of the Imperium. Many live upon the untamed worlds where warp-cultists and their foul mutant brethren hold sway, though every year more fall to Imperial might. Unlike the warp cults within the Imperium, it is not uncommon for heretical demagogues and warlords to arise in these untamed places, gathering vast warbands of the lost and the damned – before assaulting the Imperium in the name of foul false “gods”.

The Regency Remnant are the foul remains of the false Priest-Kings of the Prosperitas Sector, military units that continue to fight a war they lost five hundred years ago. The Regency are a grim reflection of the noble Imperial Military – unlike the Archenemy forces encountered across the wider Imperium – drilled to a high standard rather than a barbarian horde. Their weakness is in their scarce numbers – the Remnant are but a shade of what they once were, vastly outnumbered by the Imperial Military.

In 583.M41, a Regency battlegroup known as the Talons of the Way successfully invaded the Titan proving ground at Henlock supported by Heretek elements and the foul Undine. Since establishing this foothold – well away from the warp-blighted worlds the Remnant survives on on the Eye’s edge – the Talons have engaged in little direct warfare with the Imperium. Their conquest of Henlock was seemingly settled, until the Imperium launched a third battle for the planet in 593.

The Weeping Eye and the Creeping Death were for many years the greatest military threat to the Prosperitas Sector, a foul conglomerate of diseased tribes from the depths of the Tenebris Eye Storm. These foul hordes were led by a pair of twins, the warlords or Herforingi Arnkatla Tain and her brother Greppur. The Tain Twins led a series of major assaults on Imperial space resulting in the invasion of the Crusade HQ at Polarnus Station in 592. Thanks to the brave efforts of Imperial forces, they were beaten back. However, neither of the Tain Twins were defeated or captured, and their barbaric horde of assembled warp-tribes may rise again as a threat in the future.