Editing The Markian Pact (section)

==The Crimson Reign and the Fall of the Markian Pact==
As the Imperial Truth could not resist the iron heel of the Ecclesiarchy, neither could Markia weather the Imperium's growing superstitions. The Markian Pact was on a path for destruction, but the Markians could not accept that. They pretended they would forever remain a beacon of reason in the seas of despair and lies, while the galaxy around them fell to pieces. Thanks to the efforts of the aristocrats and the artisans, Markia as an alliance ended not with a bang but a whimper. There were several points that could be considered signs of the Markian Pact's decline-the Imperial Navy Incident, the Flight of the Free Legions, the Lost Corps-but the true death of the Markian Pact came in the wake of the Age of Apostasy, with one Athenais Vernier.

Grand Marshal Athenais Vernier was commander of the 733rd Army of the Markian Corps, whose tale from guardsman to grand marshal was a story worth hearing ten times over. Vernier became a distant darling of the Markian people, her feats reaching across the galaxy back to Subsector Markia. An aristocrat of Atashia invited Vernier home for a party, which she accepted, returning home a hero. However, Vernier did not see familiar faces; even those who she once knew well were now as strange and alien as the creatures she fought in the darkest corners of space. Vernier was no longer like her former brethren; she succumbed to the ruthless pragmatism befitting of an Imperial general, and now saw only weakness in the false idealism of Markia. As she reacquainted herself oath the nobility she could not help but feel disgusted at the willful ignorance of the aristocracy, playing their games and acting as if their soldiers were only wasting their lives fighting for an Imperium already safe. 

Vernier left the Markian Pact once again, only to return with not one but three armies of the Markian Corps. The Markian Corps stormed the capital, and Vernier personally marched into the council chambers, and randomly shot several councilors. Upon a steel throne atop a Leman Russ Vernier ensconced herself in those chambers, surrounded by politicians too terrified to so much as move or utter a word. The Crimson Reign of Vernier had begun, but it would not be Vernier but the people of Markia themselves who would enact bloody vengeance upon each other, for they had at last succumbed to the despair that consumed the purest of hearts. The Crimson Reign would continued for only a year, however, as Vernier committed suicide by throwing herself into the seas of Atashia, her own spirit broken by years of tragedy and war.

When the Crimson Reign ended, the Markian Pact simply… Ceased. The ties between worlds were severed down to a gilded string of trade, and the old council dissolved. The Markian Corps, the last vestiges of the old Pact of Verdun and Ranc, drifted with the warp's winds, the various grand corps finding new lives as Navy armsmen, Inquisitorial militants, rogue trader mercenaries, planetary defense forces, Ghalhallan auxiliaries, or the simple Imperial Guardsmen they always were; and to this day, they maintain their old traditions even with new commanders and soldiers. Only Ghalhal escaped the dissolution unscathed, as it was only ever an honorary member. Today there is no Markian Pact, only Greater Markia where the old alliance once lay, with Atashia, Kouralia, Karmia, Lemartia, and Thenar; five insignificant worlds which once mattered.