Editing Quest:The Long Night:Sparks at Midnight (section)

==The Third Grand Conclave==
Well, first there is another Council meeting. Two main decisions are made. One is to start creating new Navigators. That required some backroom talks with the existing Houses, to assure them they retain control. The second is about the Vestri League. Our favorite Squats have been hard-pressed by a nearby Chaos realm lately. Probably won't be so much now that we've sent them a few tens of thousands of our obsolete ships.

Then, it's time for the third Grand Conclave (my, has it really been 150 years since the last one? Time flies). There are three new faces of importance. Commander [[Farsight]], the Blood Angels' Lord Commander...

And [[Characters of Battlefleet Gothic: Armada#Admiral Spire|Admiral Spire]].

Here, he came out of the Warp a few thousand years later than in ''[[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II]]''. For the past centuries, he's been fighting Chaos wherever he can (thankfully, he has a Paragon trait allowing his forces to suffer far fewer permanent casualties in battle). Right now, he's helping out the [[Silver Skulls]], the only sizable Sane polity in Obscurus (four Sectors). With him guiding their fleets, the Skulls have managed to not only take territories from Abaddon, but even rout a retaliation force of Dragon War veterans led by [[Telemachon Lyras]] himself.

The Silver Skulls' four sectors contain a seventy trillion population. The Trust is 55 trillion in three sectors, for comparison.

Going back to Farsight, Ridcully had recently tried to divine data about his blade. He didn't find much, but a Krork veteran did recognize it. A Rashan Lifeblade, containing the life essence of a member of the only Blank race from the War of Heaven. For now, all you've managed to learn from the Blade is the proper name for the Life Force: Ka.

Most of the Sanity forces are doing reasonably well. Callamus numbers over a quadrillion inhabitants and 250 sectors now, and is holding well against the [[Story:The Shape Of The Nightmare To Come 50k section03#2) The 'Ophelian' Imperium|Ophelian Theocracy]]. Thankfully, the Necrons are leaving them alone. The Secundus and Tau are holding back the Destroyer's forces, though barely, and might actually have a shot at the C'tan itself now that the Eldar Blackstone Fortress is online. They are around five hundred sectors combined. The Quartus had managed (with some help from Ridcully) to shatter [[Huron Blackheart]]'s realm. They are over three hundred sectors in size and growing at the Pirate's expense. The Baal Protectorate (Blood Angels) isn't expanding much, preferring to build up the existing worlds.

The Krork have grown to eight hundred Sectors. The Eternal Conflagration surrounding them is eleven hundred sectors, and is finally trying to build [[Attack Moon]]s. Of course, with the Krork having Moons of their own, they have managed to destroy every single one before it could be fielded. Now, the Krork have finally started deploying War Worlds, with two online already and a third expected in a few years. In fifty years, they expect to start sparing forces for other fronts.

Once the status of the galaxy is summarized, Leman Russ speaks. He tells of the Primal Warp. It is another realm of Immaterium, composed of the thoughts of wildlife and plants, distinct from and incompatible with Chaos. The most powerful entities there are World Spirits: the gestalt minds of planetary biospheres. Fenris, Catachan and Pech are the three that survived the War in Heaven, with Fenris being the oldest and in charge. While the speed and strangeness of the Spirits' thoughts makes it hard for them to communicate with regular sapients, they have recently started trying, with Russ chosen as their emissary. Alliance means access to the Primal Warp, which allows it to quickly transport armies without the risks of Chaos. Starships are still a problem.

Alongside Fenris there is the First Worldship, an ancient exploration vessel from the times of the Old Ones. It is not specialized for war, but is still powerful, and its knowledge is considerable, especially when it comes to [[Machine Spirit]]s.

After this, there is another meeting. This one isn't for the polity leaders. This one is to prepare for the Incursion of Doom. Avernites are in the meeting, along with Krork and Eldar.

The Eldar are sending every warrior they can spare, as well as half a dozen gods. The Krork are sending trillions of troops, as well as three [[Attack Moon]]s. Of course you always knew the humans will be a minor player in the Incursion, but this...

Avernites are making whatever requests they can. Gear, materials, fortification help...

Naturally, you ask for that as well. In addition, you discuss the possibility of a unified command for the various People of Avernus. That's agreed to, with a Krork put in charge. As you learn, the Planet Mind will be providing evacuation, as well as warded defenses of geographic scale. It seems the Avernites are as surprised at the knowledge as you are.

The Eldar agree to help with the Cults and Psyker equipment, as well as provide some weapons for your regular forces. The Krork agree to have their protectorates build Psychic Cannons for you.

The Tech exchange gives many new pieces. For starters, [[Cawl]] finally managed to complete the [[Primaris Marines]].

In this setting, Cawl was warned by the Emperor early enough to flee for Macragge, but came out of the Warp centuries later, and in Tau territory at that. He didn't come to Macragge until right after Guilliman awoke. By then, he knew that Corax had made the Primaris Project all but obsolete, by creating a better alternative. Trueborn Astartes, a variant made with direct use of fresh Primarch material.

Still, Cawl continued his project. Now, centuries later, he finally succeeded. And, in addition to the regular Primaris, he did manage to work out a variant for the Trueborn. The end result is just a bit under Custodes level.

A lot of other technology is shared as well. Better Forges, Planetary Shields, and weather control equipment. Naval scale Neutron Laser weapons for both ships and Hives (these were actually found on Roskilde, but needed a lot of work to get them out of the prototype stage. Tranth never found the time for that, but a Callamus Magos did). There are new Terminator Armour variants, like one built to create a star-level firestorm around it, or one optimized for Alpha strikes. There are stations intended for channeling star energy into beams powerful enough to damage moon-sized ships (the precision makes them sub-optimal against smaller vessels). There is also a vastly improved first aid kit.

The most prominent new player, however, is an unexpected one. The First Worldship, an ancient planet-sized vessel built by a now gone race from five billion years ago, and hiding in the intergalactic void ever since the War in Heaven. Once the Necrons and Tyranids started dishing it out, the ship reentered the galaxy and went to the Fenris system, the only place completely free of Chaos (its Machine Spirit was close enough in thinking to a World Spirit for them to find a common language). The First Worldship is not combat-oriented; rather, [[Star Trek|it's an exploration vessel, though it can hold its own in an emergency]]. It brings a lot of new tech, including data about [[Machine Spirits]], medicine, and other knowledge the many races inhabiting it had collected over five billion years. Pretty little is military though, mainly high precision bombardment artillery and Disintegrator Cannons (sandpapers away even the best naval armour, though a bit slowly).