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{{Topquote|The night is dark and full of horror, but the dawn is coming - and it will be glorious. All we must do is survive.|Sgt. Marcus Albus, Mustavaar 3rd Rifles Regiment, 845.M40}}
Welcome to Nobledark Imperium: a fan envisioning of the Warhammer 40,000 universe given a buff to competence and common sense akin to a high-fantasy fiction with many races working together à la Elder Scrolls. Generally speaking, Nobledark deviates less from Vanilla 40k than the writefagging of [[Hektor Heresy]] and [[Imperium Asunder]]; we still have the same xenos races, the same Primarchs (at least in name), and the vast majority of the same Space Marine Legions (and later chapters).  Keep in mind that this is just ''one'' example of Nobledark.  Nobledark is a type of setting like Grimdark is.  You can make your own Nobledark Imperium that is not even remotely like this one (such as the Men of Gold thing).  Just, y'know, not on this page.


== To-do List ==
A brief summary of the deviations and their results, in chronological(ish) order:


*Finish Primarchs
* The Emperor (formerly the Warlord, then the Steward) is a relic from the Dark Age of Technology instead of a bunch of reincarnated Shamans; Malcador was the one who found him and the closest thing he had to a parent.
*Establish timeline and events, and how similar they are to canon 40k
* The Primarchs have all died of battle or age; only three of them (Ferrus Manus, Vulkan, and Magnus) lived to see the Steward ascend to the Golden Throne. However, they were all just regular(ish) humans that the Warlord/Steward found to be worthy of the title, and they still had roles/themes approximating their Vanilla selves (with some changes); for example, Manus was born and raised Mechanicus and given a legion of Super Skitarii © , while Russ and his legion were given the experimental Canis Helix variant of the Space Marine augmentation.
**Origins of Warlord/Steward/Emperor, and his own timeline
* No dickwaving contest over Warmaster, and Steward actually tells everyone about Chaos, so no Horus Heresy. Instead the War of the Beast is given more prominence, with many of the primarch's defining moments taking place therein.
**Unification of Terra
* First contact with the Eldar leads to an alliance that leads a raid into Nurgle's Mansion in the Realm of Chaos to rescue Isha in return for all sorts of technological and psyker goodies. Imperium is not the xenophobic hellhole, many species are Imperial citizens, and the Mechanicum's "dickslapping the big red button" is not prominent. It's akin to a galaxy-wide [[Interex]] done right.
**Great Crusade
* Chaos Gods are pissed, and turbocharge the War of the Beast with Crone Eldar (while Dark Eldar join in for shits and giggles), replacing the Horus Heresy in fucking over the Imperium of Man. Battle of Terra, Sangy dies, etc.
**Rescue of Isha
* Steward doesn't get permarekt because Eldrad Ex Machina, so no Ecclesiarchy (SoB part of secular Ordo Securitas, fulfills a lot of the same functions). Marries Isha at some point because politics.
**War of the Beast (replacing Horus Heresy)
* Legions generally split into chapters within or close to the lifetime of the primarchs (typically shortly after their death).
**Armageddon?
* Goge Vandire is seen to be fit for the Golden Throne; when he goes mad, Steward throws a fit and finally becomes Emperor himself.
**Tyranids? Have they fully arrived yet
* Orks, Necrons, Tyranid vanguard (several millennia early) and DEldar are still doing their thing, as well as Croneworlders being a threat. Few (if any) Primarchs left to help put out fires.
**Other SMs? Only the original legions, or others? Chapters?
* After short indignant protests from both sides, T'au are absorbed into the Imperium after first contact (save for the conservative and xenophobic Farsight Enclaves).
* Tyranid main fleet begins to make galaxyfall.
* Well, shit.


*When is present day?
For more detail on the general nature of the universe and what each of the individual factions have been up to, see [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notes#So_What.E2.80.99s_The_Deal_With_Nobledark_Imperium_Anyway|So What's the Deal with Nobledark Imperium Anyway?]]
*Repercussions of Imperium/Eldar alliance?


NOTE: NEW STUFF IS BEING WORKED ON AND WILL USE THIS AS A HUB PAGE CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION. [[Nobledark Imperium Drafts | THE ORIGINAL PAGE IS HERE.]]


==Introduction==
It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Eternal Emperor and Empress have been joined in their holy union. He, the last relic of a lost age when hope and wisdom ruled the galaxy, still clinging to his purpose of forging a better future. She, the last remnant of an ancient pantheon, a mother watching over dying children brought low by their own hubris. Together, they are the Masters and Guardians of Man and Eldar, the keepers of the Last Alliance, the embodiments of the Imperium to which a hundred sapient species swear their fealty.


== The Imperium ==
At the core of the Imperium is Humanity, its teeming multitudes ever resilient, stubbornly carving out a future amongst the hostile stars. The greatest of Man’s allies are the Eldar, ancient and wise, their shared bond forged in battle and sealed in blood millennia ago. Since then, others have been judged worthy to join in the light of the Imperium, to stand with Men and Eldar as fellows; the industrious Demiurg, enigmatic Tau, countless strains of Abhumans, and many more.


== The Primarchs ==
Yet for all the Imperium’s numbers, it is barely enough to stave off the monstrous forces that would tear it down. United under savage Beasts, the Orkish hordes throw themselves at the great edifice of the Imperium. The Necrons are awakening to a changed galaxy, and seethe at the primitives who would dare harbor their greatest foes, the Eldar. From galactic east the Tyranids have made landfall, and sweep over countless worlds in their hungering tide. In the shadows lurk the Dark Eldar, reveling in the carnage of a galaxy at war. And from the Immaterium, the Chaos Gods brood and plot their eternal vengeance, served by the twisted Chaos Eldar.


The Warlord in his conquests of Old Earth and Sol created the title of Primarch and awarded it to twenty of his greatest generals that they might become leaders of leaders. This was partly to maintain an ordered hierarchy but also to promote autonomy of his forces. The Warlords long term dream of the time was creating a system of governance so efficient that he would become obsolete. His short term dream of the time was to free up enough time to spend all evening in the pub. Of the twenty awarded that rank only eighteen are by name and deed remembered to history under that most august of title.
To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold trillions. It is to live in the last bastion of civilization, as the darkness draws near. These are the tales of those times. Forget the stories of peace and harmony, for they are fables of a gentler time, when the world still made sense. Remember the stories of struggle and defiance, of brotherhood and sacrifice, for those are the ones that truly matter. Peace is a distant dream growing ever fainter, and there is only war as Men and Eldar hold the line for the promise that has been whispered through generations, from father to son, from mother to child: that there is good left in the world, and that is worth fighting for.


=== Horus ===
==The Road to M41==
The Imperium of Man is at war. It has been at war since the day it was created, since an ancient Man of Gold took it upon himself to unite Terra - and the stars beyond - into a single, glorious Imperium. It has not been an easy journey, but nor has it been the debacle it could have been. Perhaps there may even still be hope for the human race.


- 100% human from Luna, possibly of Void Born stock.
===Unification===
In the depths of the Old Night, the one known as Malcador discovered a relic of the Dark Age of Technology: a Man of Gold. Gifted with intellectual, martial and psychic prowess far beyond any human, his kind had devastated humanity in wars long gone, yet this one would restore it to its former glory. The Man of Gold, returning to Terra to find it a war-torn shell of a homeworld, immediately vowed to dedicate his existence to restoring the race he was created to serve. Thus, he became the Warlord, unifying his world through alliance, war, and every flavour of diplomacy in between. Nations either united under his banner or were conquered by it, and soon a few great leaders distinguished themselves for their achievements in the fledgling Imperium, whether done in the Warlord's name or their own. These men would become his Primarchs.


=== Russ ===
The years passed, and the Warlord looked to the stars. After the alliance with Mars gave the Imperium the material strength to begin reclaiming their former worlds, the Great Crusade began in earnest. Many worlds saw the bright future of the Imperium and greeted the Warlord with open arms. And for those that did not? The Warlord had his Primarchs, who each commanded a legion of elite Space Marines with their own unique brand of warfare. A world with elite armies able to fend off the ferocity of Leman Russ's Vlka Fenryka would be dismantled by the logistical superiority of Roboute Guilliman; one fortified enough to stall the methodical Ultramarines would find themselves with no escape from Mortarion's Death Guard and their horrific plagues; and one with their own arsenal of poisons would see them shrugged off by Ferrus Manus' inhuman Skitarii.


Closer to home, however, there was a problem; The Warlord had originally been designed to serve humanity, not lead it, and it was a curious irony that the greatest leader in human history did not see himself fit for the role. Nevertheless, he was concerned at how an artificial construct such as himself (though precious few other than Malcador knew of this fact) was shown such reverence across the reclaimed worlds; some worlds' veneration approached worship. Thus, he declared that the Golden Throne of Terra, an ancient artifact discovered that may have predated even him, was the center-piece of the Imperium, and that he would serve as its Steward until a suitable Emperor emerged.


<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">'''''The Great Wolf''''' - or ''The Lapdog:''
===An Unlikely Alliance===
In the depths of space, as the Imperium rose, the dying embers of the Eldar Empire spotted a raft of order and sanity they could cling to in a galaxy filled with war and Chaos. After a few violent ''incidents'', a more discreet formal first contact was made; the Steward of the Golden Throne and Farseer Eldrad Ulthran both saw one another as a vital stepping stone to the revival of their respective races' former glory. At the time, the two were both beginning to stall in their ambitions - the remaining Craftworlds were beginning to splinter and rebel from Eldrad's guidance, while the forces of the Great Crusade were facing determined resistance from worlds populated by corrupt abominations instead of mere men.


Russ was the first to recruit warriors from beyond Sol into his superhuman ranks. The people of Fenris were excellent recruitment stock, even for a barbaric and primitive planet that needed extensive education to learn the discipline necessary in war. Russ himself was from a discontinued line of super soldiers; savage and with heightened senses, the Canis Helix (or Dog Soldier as its detractors often referred to it as) Project proved to be too unstable, even for the best minds in the Imperium. If news of the monsters born from it had become common knowledge on Earth the Warlord's support would have crumbled - but on a distant world as remote and seldom visited as Fenris, the project could not only be buried but begun anew at Russ's behest. After all, any monsters arising from the Project were the problem of a few distant primitives, and certainly not the concern of the glorious Terra. For his part, the Emperor at first claimed no knowledge of the new Dog Soldiers, and even when he did learn of it he trusted Russ's claim of the failure rate as being "well within acceptable parameters", leaving the Fenris and its canine guardians well alone.  
Although the Steward knew of Chaos, he knew little ''about'' it, for he had been shut down and mothballed in an age where the perils of the Warp were only beginning to manifest, and the great psyker Magnus the Red could articulate little of his own innate, instinctive abilities. The Farseer was only too happy to school the Man of Gold on the intricacies of the warp, and the power available to those who had the gift for it.


<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
===The Dream Shatters===


===The Dark Millenium===


The Space Wolves, as the legion became known, quickly made up for their questionable origins by serving with great distinction during the Great Crusade, excelling at tracking a target and assassinating them, often in a close-quarters combat. Regrettably, in the wretched days of the War of the Beast, a number of the wolves were tempted down the bath of bloodshed for bloodshed's sake and forsook the Empty Throne of Terra for the one of brass and bone, where the God of War held coart instead. Of these oathbreakers no name was cursed more by Russ than that of Skyrar of Caledonia - whom Russ once would have called brother.
==The Imperium==
The Imperium, in its millennia of existence, has endured horrors that so easily could have crippled it and crushed its dreams for the future. Yet, in the near future, it faces its most daunting challenges yet - all for mere survival.


Some measure of honour would be restored, however, to the ranks broken by turncoats and anointed in blood. Russ's Wolves made great speed back towards Terra, and seeing the home he had left a lifetime ago aflame in war broke the Great Wolf's heart. The wolves threw themselves into the inferno and fought like mad beasts with neither thought of the past or hope for the future; no thirst for vengeance but instead a plea for redemption. Russ himself was there at the Last Roll of Thunder when Arik Taranis, Bearer of Lightning, fell in battle in the great plaza before the Eternity Gate and took up the tattered old Unification banner.
=== The Primarchs ===
{| class="wikitable"
!|Primarch
!|Aliases
!|Homeland
!|Fate
!|Legion & Successors
!|Attributed Quotes
|-
| style="width: 5%" |'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Horus_Lupercal|Horus Lupercal]]'''''
|style="width: 13%" |''King of Empty Space''
''Steward of the Void''
| style="width: 10%" | None (Void Born Migrant Fleet)
| style="width: 17%"| Natural death between War of the Beast and First Black Crusade, exact date/location unknown.
| style="width: 20%"|Void Wolves
*Black Legion
*Luna Wolves
*Sons of Horus
|style="width: 28%"|''"I am the captain of this migrant fleet, yes, but I am also a businessman. In this place, '''I''' am the one who proposes the deals. Now, get off my ship."''
~To a Chaos "negotiator", date unknown.
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Leman_Russ|Leman Russ]]'''''
|''The Great Wolf''
''The Lapdog''
|Skand, Nordyc territory
|MIA, forests of Fenris 200 years after War of the Beast.
|Space Wolves [Canis Helix]
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Ferrus_Manus|Ferrus Manus]]'''''
|''The Gorgon''
''Ice and Iron''
|Orioc, Antarctic Mechanicus Enclaves
|KIA, defending Hades Hive on Armageddon.
[616.M40]
|Iron Hands [Enhanced Skitarii]
|
''“While Mars stands, the Imperium shall stand; when Mars falls, the Imperium shall fall; when the Imperium falls, the galaxy shall fall”.''<br>
~Ferrus Manus, on the nature of the Imperium.
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Fulgrim|Fulgrim]]'''''
|''Furis Doe''
|Merika
|
|Children of Terra [Mk ? Astartes]
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Vulkan|Vulkan]]'''''
|''The Promethean''
''Vulkan the Invincible''
|Afrique League
|MIA, presumed lost after "Centuries of Silence"
[M37-38?]
|Salamanders [Mk 3 Astartes]
*Black Dragons
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Rogal_Dorn|Rogal Dorn]]'''''
|''The Wall''
|Calbi
|KIA defending Cadia, 1st Black Crusade
|Imperial Fists [Mk ? Astartes]
*Crimson Fists
|"''W...what are you doing soldier? Go back and man the damn wall you idiot, because I sure as hell won't be able to.''"<br>
~The dying words of Rogal Dorn, chewing out the soldier trying to save his mortally wounded primarch's life by pulling him off the battlements of Cadia
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Roboute_Guilliman|Roboute Guilliman]]'''''
|''The Artist of War''
|Europia
|Natural Death.
[014.M32]
|Ultramarines [Mk ? Astartes]
*Mortifactors
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Magnus_the_Red|Magnus the Red]]'''''
|''The Arch-Psyker''
|[[Nobledark_Imperium_Drafts#Ursh|Ursh]]
|Natural Death, date/location unknown.
[Early M36, soon after Age of Apostasy]
|Thousand Sons [Mk ? Astartes]
*Grey Knights (Heavy Influence)
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Sanguinius|Sanguinius]]'''''
|''The Martyr Angel''
|Duscht Jemanic
|KIA dueling The Beast, Battle of Terra.
|Blood Angels [Mk ? Astartes]
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Lion|Lion El'Jonson]]'''''
|''The Black Knight''
|Franj
|MIA, in stasis after dueling Luther around 1st Black Crusade
|Dark Angels [Mk ? Astartes]
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Perturabo|Perturabo]]'''''
|''The Warsmith''
''The Mad Architect''
|Štip-Isar, Macedonia
|"Retired" to Terra, natural death. Date unknown.
|Iron Warriors [Mk ? Astartes]
*Silver Skulls
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Mortarion|Mortarion]]'''''
|''The Vermin Lord''
''The Man Who Would Not Die''
|Gredbritton
|Natural death, Macharius' Rest. Date unknown.
|Dusk Raiders [Mk ? Astartes]
*Death Guard [Post-WotB]
*Black Templars
|''"You think of us as '''scum''', you call us '''vermin'''? Then like vermin we shall fight, with tooth and claw until even the mightiest of enemies is overpowered. We shall scour their lands clean, and leave nothing that can be used against man - '''for vermin always have the last word.'''"''
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Lorgar Aurelian|Lorgar]]'''''
|
|Yndonesic Bloc
|Natural death, date/location unknown. [lived 1100 years]
|Word Bearers [Mk ? Astartes]
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Jaghatai_Khan|Jaghatai Khan]]'''''
|''The Noble Savage''
''The Scarred Khan''
|[[Nobledark_Imperium_Drafts#Ursh|Ursh]]
|Natural death while touring the Imperium, date/location unknown.
|White Scars [Mk ? Astartes]
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Konrad_Curze|Konrad Curze]]'''''
|''The Unforgivable''
|Tordashimya, Pan-Pacific Empire
|Surrendered himself to the Inquisition for trial and execution over war crimes.
[242.M32]
|Night Lords [Mk ? Astartes]
*Carcharodons
|''"I am not a decent man."''
~Only defence given at trial; last known words.
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Angron|Angron]]'''''
|''The Gladiator''
''The Red Angel''
|Nord Afrik Enclaves
|Natural death, shortly after WotB. Location unknown.
|War Hounds [Mk ? Astartes]
*Minotaurs
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Corax|Corvus Corax]]'''''
|''Raven King''
''The Stormcrow''
|Sino
|Disappeared while visiting newly founded chapters when his legion was split, date/location unknown.
|Raven Guard (voluntarily split)
|
|-
|'''''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Alpharius_and_Omegon|I am]]'''''
|''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Alpharius_and_Omegon|The Alpha]]''
''[[Nobledark_Imperium_Primarchs#Alpharius_and_Omegon|and the Omega.]]''
|The beginning,
|and the end.
|Cut off one head,
*And two more
*Shall take its place.
| H█y █d██ r██a█  Do██ ██m█ in██ a█t███us
~[DATA EXPUNGED BY INQUISITORIAL ORDER]
|-
!|Primarch
!|Aliases
!|Homeland
!|Fate
!|Legion & Successors
!|Attributed Quotes
|}


When the last of the fires grew cold none would ever again question the loyalty of the Space Wolves. For all that the shattered remnant of a legion was covered in blood and soot, each man felt truly clean.
[[Category:Nobledark Imperium]][[Category:Homebrew Settings]]
 
[[Category:Warhammer Homebrew]]
 
 
 
The remains of the Space Wolves retreated to Fenris, licking their wounds, and quietly rebuilding their legion as the Imperium rebuilt itself - for no matter how enlightened or holy it may become, Russ knew that the Throne would always need its tame monsters. But the Great Wolf himself was not to fall in glorious battle, and certainly not to fall to the temptations of the Ruinous Powers. Instead, the legends say, some two centuries later Russ - now an old warrior and the King of his world - simply walked out into the snow, alone. His brothers, friends, servants all followed his tracks into the cold woods of the frozen north but he was never seen again. Some say the Old King is resting, and will return to face the Old Night in the days when hope withers and the stars grow dim.
 
</div>
</div>
 
=== Ferrus Manus ===
 
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> '''''The One of Ice and Iron:'''''
 
The unimaginatively named Ferrus Manus was born in the manner of the Mechanicus enclaves of Antarctica - or rather, grown in a jar from anonymous genetic samples. Deemed free of malformation and unwanted deviations in his early development, which were rare and valuable assets in this age where clumsy genetic enhancement created mutants more horrific than radiation or plague ever could, he was permitted to be born rather than recycled. Being born and raised where he was and at the time he was, he had no name at birth, at birth although the markings on his tube did superficially resemble the name Gorgon in an ancient tongue recognised by one of the oldest magi. This was adopted as his unofficial name in his youth; doubly so after it became apparent that he would grow up to be aesthetically displeasing.
 
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
 
 
He was given a basic and general techno-ecumenical education until age 12, after which he began training for full inclusion to the Mechanicus. By age 14 he had managed to achieve the rank of Technician-acolyte, escaping the the fate of Servitorhood that awaited underachievers, but a purely priestly life was deemed an inefficient use of his talents and he was transferred to the Skitarii for training. By his 18th year he was a mechanically augmented soldier of the priesthood tasked with defence of the Nuemyana Port, one of the few places where primitive outsiders were permitted to have dealings with the Terran Mechanicus.
 
As he rose through the ranks of the Mechanicus military, receiving all the augmentations appropriate to his station. He began to see the world in absolute terms, the black and white notions of Weak and Strong; and it was the duty of the Weak to serve the Strong, who in turn were to rule and protect. But it was as if his heart was slowly being replaced with machinery as much as his body was, beginning to see all humanity not a part of the Mechanicus as Weak. Perhaps this was merely conformity, however, as many of the Elder Magi shared similar views, and... '''enforced''' them. Regardless of their attitude to more baseline humans, however, the Enclaves soon came under threat from Hy Braseal. Although hardly a superpower, the nation was close enough, sophisticated enough and organised enough to push the Enclave's off the tip of South America, leaving their former holdings destroyed, irradiated or captured.
 
 
 
 
 
Due to their perceived incompetence in the piecemeal defence of their lands, many of the Elder Magi were deposed by those below, while the new Elders had the few remnants of the old order servitorised. Soon, the ambitious and the popular rushed in to fill the power vacuum at the top of the hierarchy, and at the end of the reshuffling Gorgon found himself as General-Sentinel and Protector of the Northern border, a prestigious yet demanding job that commanded the first line of defense against the Braseali peoples - and would be the first to be servitorised, were they to force their way onto the Antarctic mainland.
 
At this point, in spite of the Mechanicum's preference for function over form, Gorgon ordered for his new cybernetic upgrade to be encased in the toughest alloy known to the Mechanicum. True, it would serve no purpose; although the material was indeed potent armour, his position as General-Sentinel precluded any situation where that would be useful. Instead, it was a surprisingly perceptive move to bolster his stature in the eyes of others; the intimidating size and power of the modifications intimidating both any who sought to mutiny as much as they did Braseali spies. Thus, the Gorgon was no more - in his place there was only Ferrus Manus.
 
Even as he rallied his Skitarii and began to forge them into something stronger, the generals of Hy Braseal had already raised a horde of relatively well disciplined and armed soldiers, and was beginning to lead them into the cold Antarctic enclaves. Salvation came in the form of the Warlord, who sought the advanced technology horded by the Mechanicum. The Elder Magi saw their survival projections in a total war with Braseal jump over tenfold merely by being on friendly terms with the Warlord, and all the way to an astounding 93% were they to accept his offer; which they did without second thought. However, Dalmoth Kyn - the leader of most of South America - and his descendents would never forget how the Warlord had sided with the Mechanicus, forever opening a rift between their people and those of the Imperium. In time, they too would eventually join, but not before a long and bloody war consumed much of the Braseali population.
 
As the Mechanicus Enclaves one by one were assimilated into the Imperium, Ferrus Manus once more found himself rising up the ranks of the military. His existing rank the Mechanicus - who were a few isolated enclaves that had fought valiantly against an entire continent - was prestigious, and his tactical acumen was formidable; as were his legions of cybernetic soldiers who could comfortably overrun any techno-barbarian on the planet and even go toe-to-toe with the Warlord's own biologically augmented warriors. The one who, as the Gorgon, had looked down on all flesh as weak, was now beginning to find a grudging respect for it.
 
 
 
 
Years passed and wars were moved from the surface of Terra to the stars, and his soldiers - now known as the Iron Hands - became renown for resisting the harshest of environments with ease, proving as comfortable in the cold vacuum of space as they were in the sand-blasted remains of Ursh. Thus, although often (and rightly) feared by many, the Mechanicus forces were respected by all and proved to be a key factor in cementing the Terra-Mars partnership, which would be a story repeated at each world they encountered their cybernetic brothers on. Perhaps it was this - securing the mighty forges of mankind - rather than the Iron Hands' martial prowess, that earned the old Gorgon his recognition as a Primarch.
 
During the War of the Beast, however, the Iron Hands lost much of their prestige and reputation by primarily seeking to defend their Forge Worlds instead of the Imperium as a whole. Perhaps this was simply because their primarch had seen how hard mankind would fall if they once again lost the machinery that held its precious Imperium together; or perhaps (as many others claimed), their loyalties lay more with the Fabricator-General of Mars than they did the Steward or Terra. For their part, the Hands never denied the accusations levelled at them, only defending them.
 
 
 
 
Of the primarchs Ferrus Manus was one of only three who lived to see the Steward become Emperor; and he was the last of them to die, meeting his end on the fields of Armageddon before the gates of Hades Hive in the year 616.M40. In truth his health - both biological and mechanical - had been deteriorating for centuries, and although he knew that there was little operational time left for his body he did his best to ensure that neither his Legion nor his Emperor knew of the fact. He took a bloody and glorious toll with him, one worthy of respect from any and all, but his passing marked the end of an era, and although he and the Emperor had never been friends his passing was felt by the flesh-bound of the Imperium just as much as it was by his Mechanicus brethren.
 
</div>
</div>
 
=== Fulgrim ===
 
- Astartes pattern from Merika
 
=== Vulkan ===
 
- Astartes pattern from Afrique League
 
=== Dorn ===
 
- Calbi born, early model astartes pattern. Desensitization problems.
 
=== Roboute Guilliman ===
 
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">'''''The Artist of War:'''''
 
Guilliman was born to a minor noble house in the great and relatively prosperous realm of Europia. His parents were able to afford him admittance to Parisiorum University, the most prestigious educational institution of that fair nation. By the onset of adulthood he was well versed in the classics of language, mathematics and the basic sciences; but it was in military theory that he truly excelled. Soon he was spotted by a visiting officer, and was quickly transferred to the Avelroi military academy. He was a more than adequate soldier, and a fairly skilled tactician, but it was in the arts of grand strategy and logistical planning that his brilliance was found. During wargames and simulations, his peers often managed to gain the upper hand on Guilliman's forces, flanking or encircling them only to find themselves critically short of materiel and facing positions prepared long in advance, thanks to his unconventional focus on interdicting supply lines. Thus, while he graduated with glowing recommendations from his tutors, he was somewhat resented by his fellow alumni who felt his tactics underhand or cowardly.
 
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Shortly after, he was assigned to the southern border where his nation rubbed shoulders - and often warred - with the Nord Afrik. Within a month of his assignment, the area was brought up to peak efficiency and combat effectiveness. Whole swathes of the border defenses were brought back up to standard, often exceeding them, becoming greater and more formidable than they were in the last border dispute; the semi-derelict Jibraltonius border fort seemed to change overnight from a ceremonial headquarters to an impenetrable bastion. And not a moment too soon, as before long the Nord Afrikaanus and their cyber-thrall army commanders were ready for war, instead of the brief raids and pillages that Guilliman's defenses had been blooded against.
 
 
The hordes of Nord Afrik, armed and armoured with most powerful technology they had recovered from the rotting corpse of the old world, charged with ferocity that would've shattered the defences of just years before. They played every hand they could; hit-and-run raids, armoured assaults, wave attacks and attempts at infiltration, yet in the end it did not matter, as their crusade broke upon the hardened shell of Europia. For every of Guilliman's soldiers, there were ten Afrikaanus barbarians - but in turn, there were a dozen shells, plasma charges or lascannon shots for each of '''them,''' and it is said that fresh reinforcements would arrive before their dead predecessors had even hit the ground. The counter-offensive orchestrated by General Guilliman was nothing less than a masterpiece of warfare, facing the Afrikaanus as if on his own home turf. The waves of techno-barbarians were bled white, their counterattacks shrugged off and shattered, their homeland burned to ashes from which nothing could ever recover.
 
 
The customary actions to follow in these conquests was for nations to incorporate the territory of the fallen into their own empire, lording over the few remaining broken people. This would have been the fate of Nord Afrik, too, but for Guilliman's address to the senate imploring them to let that foul place rot. This was perceived as weakness by some, yet his foresight would go on to frustrate the other neighbouring nations who were looking forward to invading a Europeia overextended and weakened by their subjugation of Nord Afrik. For his martial brilliance and wisdom, Guilliman was given the honorific title of Lord, a title that would not normally be bestowed upon him until his fathers death. Furthermore, in the time of relative peace the nation now found itself in, it needed an ambassador - albeit one with enough accomplishment and worth behind him for the leaders of neighbouring realms to sit up and listen.
 
 
It was during his time in the Kingdom of Franj that he met the relatively young Queen Yolande Fouché. The two had little in common at a personal level and neither ever completely trusted each other, but their respective governments deemed it imperative that they marry as a prelude to the unification of the two nations. Franj itself was deeply wounded and only slowly recovering from devastating attacks by the Unspeakable Tyrant of Gredbritton's horrific weapons, and would not survive even the most halfhearted of assaults from any of its neighbors - least of all the Dusht Jemanic, who were looking to settle old grievances. In turn, such an alliance would allow the people of Europia access to the produce of the huge tracts of agricultural land, which were sorely needed as using Nord Afrik as a psuedo-colony to feed their growing population was no longer an option.
 
 
 
 
When The Warlord came before the Senate of Europia, in the modest robes of a scribe, he came with open arms and a warm smile. Unlike elsewhere, the Senate of Europia saw this new "Imperium" as a macrocosm of themselves; their own well ordered nation merely taken to its logical conclusion. Thus, their inclusion was brief and painless, and allowed them representation in the decision and policy processes of such a regime, while the Kingdom of Franj was joined along with them as both realms were nearly dependent on one another at this point.
 
Lord Guilliman quickly rose through the ranks of the new Imperial Army, thanks to his history amongst one of the more civilised realms of the Imperium, as well as his unparalleled logistical prowess. Yet, when it came time for the Warlord to implement his super soldier project on a much expanded scale it was a sad fact that Lord Guilliman was biologically too old and would almost certainly have died during the implantation process. As consolation he was granted some limited gene-forging and rejuvenation procedures that his usefulness might be extended for centuries to come.
 
And down the centuries his usefulness would be proven.
 
 
When the Warlord became the Steward before the Empty Throne and looked to the stars, it was Guilliman amongst his generals who was deemed to be best suited to the task of preparing for interplanetary warfare, a feat considered logistically impossible by many, yet achieved through meticulous calculation and planning. His dedication and adaptability earned Lord Guilliman the title of Primarch, a leader amongst leaders and a legend amongst legends. When the eye of the Steward looked beyond the confines of Sol, he saw Guilliman was was needed more than ever.
 
The Primarch rose to the challenge, reorganising the Imperial Army into a force that seemed able to be everywhere at once yet, to its enemies, was truly endless, and giving the Steward's war machine efficiency more befitting a creation of the Mechanicus.  Whole stellar clusters were brought under the Aquila by the old man of Europia, with wars that could fill a library - the greatest of which, he believed, were the ones not fought. He was and old man. He looked of middle years but he had lived, long long past his time. Memories of loved ones, their faces and voices, had become dim and faded. He had outlived his wife and his children and his grandchildren, his beautiful nation and even the greatest of its monuments. The old man had never relished war like the others, seeing it instead as an intellectual exercise - and by now he was so very tired of it.
 
 
 
 
When the War of the Beast descend like a hammer upon the still fledgling Imperium, it was Guilliman's reforms - from the optimisation of trade routes to the streamlining of military integration and combined arms - that allowed whole sectors to mobilise their forces fast enough to weather the initial shock. His well-disciplined and -equipped legionaries made the Beast and his horde pay for every parsec, every light-year, every '''metre'''. For every slain citizen under his care a hundred deaths were meted out, but all could see that the line was being ground back to the Sanctum Sanctorum of humanity: Old Earth. The Beast and his forces were defeated, just like all the others were, but the legions that struck the deathblow were glorified far more than the one that hamstrung a tide of Ork that would've otherwise swallowed them whole. Guilliman held no jealousy or resentment over that; he was old enough to understand that good men were seldom remembered as long as entertaining monsters, and had resigned himself to that fact long ago.
 
After the slaying of The Beast the Imperium began to rebuild. It was dirty work but it was good work, the Primarch relishing in the opportunity to rebuilding something after so long fighting. Those close to him claimed it soothed his aching soul and reminded him of the miracles he worked on the borders of his homeland, long ago - even when many of his fellow Primarchs outright refused his suggested reforms.
 
Guilliman endured for centuries longer than any thought possible - even himself - but In 014.M32 he began his long, dreamless sleep. His legacy, however, would endure for ages to come; remembered fondly even by those who thought him nothing but a glorified penpusher, and proving that the quiet administrators and quartermasters of the Imperium that they had just as much to be proud of as any other.
 
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=== Magnus the Red ===
 
- child of a high end psychic mother and a Navigator father. No augmentations. Court of Ursh.
 
=== Sanguinius ===
 
- Astartes from Dusht Jemanic.
 
=== Lion ===
 
- Astartes. Franj born
 
=== Perty ===
 
- Late stage Thunder Warrior commander of the Macedonia Garrison.
 
=== Mortarion ===
 
Mortarion was a born in the abject squalor of the slums of Gredbritton in the aftermath of the unrest following the fall of the Unspeakable Tyrant. His mother was the daughter of the Unspeakable Tyrant and his father was unknown. Some claiming that his father was also the Unspeakable Tyrant, not a baseless accusation considering that most depraved individual.
 
His mother made ends meet as a maintenance skivvy and lay-technician of the great Tintajus Hive and capital of that broken nation.
 
Mortarion was in his youth sickly due to his environment and grew up pale and gaunt from lack of sunlight and food.
 
Gredbritton was one of the earlier nations brought into the Imperial fold. Being part of a greater and more prosperous union of nations went some way to restoring the nation and with it the reformation of the military infrastructure.
 
like so many young men with no hope Mortarion joined the regiments of the Imperial Army for the promise of at least one meal a day, a pair of trousers he didn't have to share and some spare cash to send home to support his family.
 
He served with merit if not distinction until he was in his 22nd year despite recurring bouts of old childhood illnesses. At some point in this year he learned that the Warlord was looking for volunteers for Thunder Warrior conversion, known to be a procedure that carried considerable risks.
 
Despite warnings from the Apothocarium and the Biologicus in regards to his physical imperfections Mortarion volunteered, even demanded, that they strap him to a table, tear him apart and put him back together. The payout his family would get for his death in this manner would set his mother and younger sisters up for life and that would be worth dying for.
 
By some strange twist of fate he did survive. This was in the later days of the Thunder Warriors and the process had been refined and made considerably safer than the days when Angron was "upgraded".
 
By time served, out living and a methodical if unimaginative attitude to battle Mortarion won many victories in the name of the Imperium and it's Warlord.
 
He won the respect of his men but they had no love for him. His methods were brutal and costly in life for all that they were effective. He would often dismiss inventive but untried tactics and strategies in favour of the certainties of more costly ones.
 
His only virtues, so far as his men were concerned, was his willingness to lead from the front, be found where the fighting was thickest and risk death with the worst and the best of them.
 
Forces under his command saw great victories against the savage men of Ursh and the sorcerers of Achaemenidia who dabbled in things that should not be dabbled in.
 
Indeed it was in the Achaemenidia campaigns that Mortarion developed a fear and borderline hatred of all psykers and never in his career did he employ them, even when it might have been advisable to do so.
 
Mortarion soon developed a reputation for being unkillable, much to the disgust of his subordinates. He would return from the field of war his armour rent, is weapons broken and spent, half his men dead and the other half maimed and sporting wounds that would have felled a lesser Thunder Warrior and remain standing and not long after do it all over again.
 
When the forces of the Steward looked to the rest of Sol his forces were used primarily as a garrison and defensive force due to the costly nature of his method of warfare. In these engagements they held themselves with distinction.
 
By the time Sol was subjugated, one way or another, and the galaxy lay before the Imperium the Emperor named him Primarch due to his sheer tenacity and list of victories.
 
It was revealed in later years as documents were released that the Warlord/Steward disapproved greatly of Mortarions methods of warfare. Mortarion had, by methods undisclosed, obtained the entire stockpile of biological and chemical weapons owned by his late grandfather and father. He had also obtained his library, the constituent tomes of which were hastily handed over to the Warlord's Sigillite.
 
It was the favored method of taking a city for the Dusk Raiders and later Death Guard to besiege it, fire contamination artillery rounds filled with some gods forsaken contagion and give it a few months. The soldiery would then go through the city killing anything that looked too lively with plasma, napalm, promethium or radiation. Only Curze was more questioned in his methods than Mortarion. Mortarion justified these acts by pointing out that a conventional assault would have created a corpse heap on both sides. This way there was only one corpse heap. The Warlord was never satisfied with this answer, but the results of his campaigns were undeniable.
 
It was an attitude to war that he took off-world.There was no reason to fight when misery and time would do your work for you. Many whispered that he was his father's son. This was not the case. The Unspeakable Tyrant had done such things in the name of gods to terrible to contemplate and because it aroused him to contemplate them. Mortarion did them because it meant that his soldiers and warriors would be more likely to survive. FOr all that they hated him he did not hate them although they wouldn't have believed that.
 
During the War of the Beast the Death Guard were the dirty, dirty hands of the Imperium.
 
Worlds enslaved were infected with flesh eating diseases and the exsanguination virii to name but a few. This was not as their detractors had claimed to punish a population for submitting but to remove the world as a contributing member of the opposition whilst leaving much of it's assets intact.
 
Hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions died in this manner to ensure a weakened foe. Many, Sanguinius and Vulkan in particular, publicly decried these attacks but Mortarion did not care. They called him a monster and he did not care. The spat on his legions banner and called him and hes followers monsters and abomination and he did not care. Dorn called him a coward and were it not for Typhus the Pilgrim the two would have come to blows.
 
His Legion were not cowards. None could ever claim that. They fought with mechanical determination, grinding and grinding the enemy down in grueling battles of attrition so that other better, more heroic and inspiring men might live and fight and give heart that other might fight more fierce.
 
When the smoke had cleared and the Steward and Eldrad stood over the corpse of The Beast to much jubilation there were no cheers from the Death Guard.
 
They were busy rebuilding their legion. The galaxy was relentless, the work would never be over, there would never truly be time to rest. The Death Guard never, in all the ages to come, acknowledged that the Great Crusade was over. Merely postponed. Even unto the Dark Millennium they maintain their old Expeditionary Forces ships and organization and push back the edge of the map. Not one step back. Not one step back that lasts.
 
Mortarion finally died on some distant world on the western fringe known as Macharius' Rest. Compounded injuries in the crusade that went no further and simple time had took their toll.
 
Members of the Dusk Raiders, Death Guard and all the other crusader forces descended from his old Legion make the pilgrimage to that world on the edge of the Imperium.
 
=== Logar ===
 
Lorgar Aurelian was a child born in the theocracy of the Ynsdonesic Bloc and as all children born in that awful place was the result of a state designated union. Unions in that dysfunctional realm in that time usually being decided by perceiving omens be it from smoke patterns or entrails augury despite the degenerate unions that this often created.
 
As with all youths of that nation he was raised in the Kartharanite branch of religion. He was taught that only through suffering was any worth found be it inflicted on the self or on others and that the unbeliever must be cleansed from the world by fire and sword. It was not a faith of kindness that he was raised in.
 
His appointed mentor in matters of religion was Bishop Kor Phaeron of Jakurtana. Had he had any other master then history would have taken a decidedly different path.
 
Bishop Phaeron was secretly a member of the Katholian sect from which the Kartharanite had once sprung and in this more kind and just faith did Lorgar find peace and purpose.
 
The old faith spread through the downtrodden and the hopeless of society despite the brutal and cruel efforts of Cardinal Tang to suppress, contain and exterminate it.
 
Eventually the outrage and animosity of the people for their leaders reached a fever pitch and civil war ensued. As Bishop Phaeron was the highest ranking member of the hierarchy on the side of the people he was looked to for guidance. As the Bishop's right hand man Lorgar soon learned the ways of war. He learned to inspire and comfort. He learned to appeal for calm and how to whip peoples passions to a frenzy. Although not lacking in martial prowess his voice, his cunning and his keen intellect were his favoured weapons.
 
It was maybe just in time that the subversion erupted into open rebellion when it did. The forces of the Warlord were marching down from the North and the Ynsdonesic Bloc was well up on the "Burn it down and start again" list.
 
With the possibility of an unwinnable war on two fronts Bishop Phaeron went to the parlay with the Warlord in person, dressed in only a crude hessian robe, with only Lorgar Aurelian accompanying him.
 
An audience was granted to the Warlord in his tent, at the heart of the enemy war camp, surrounded by genetically modified super soldiers and heavy weapons.
 
Expecting some sort of zealous speech of defiance and martyrdom the Warlord was taken aback some what when the two got down on one knee and swore allegiance.
 
The cared deeply about their faith and the word of their God. But their God cared deeply about the people he had made. Their God would understand if he was to be forgotten but not forgive men who should know better leading children to the slaughter. They would rather their people be free and happy than pious.
 
Moved by their words the Emperor gave them grace time. Should they triumph over their oppressors they would be welcomed into the Imperium as any other member state. Should they would have the harsh treatment of conquest and subjugation.
 
By insurgencies, underhanded tactics, assassinations and a brutal 12 year war the Katholians claimed victory and Cardinal Tang's broken but still living form was dragged before the Warlord as a token of gratitude.
 
It was somewhat of a pyrrhic victory for the people of the Ynsdonesic Bloc. They nation was in a hundred pieces, each swearing loyalty to some tin hat despot with delusions of grandeur, some almost as bad as Cardinal Tang. It would not be long before the fighting for dominance began, to say nothing of annexation from another nation.
 
The forces of the Warlord prepared to march again and again Lorgar begged the Warlord to stay his hand. They were just sheep without a shepherd, lost children in a very dark night. Once more swayed by the strange kind passion in Lorgars voice the Warlord relented.
 
Over the next five years as Bishop Phaeron became Patriarch Phaeron Lorgar went to the isolated and the lost and the scared with open arms and promises of reconciliation.
 
For the most part he was well received and his homeland healed. It was only after the talking was done that those too stubborn or monstrous to come home again were removed. Great pains were taken to minimize casualties but it was not a wholly peaceful end to that bitter conflict.
 
Ynsdonesic Bloc was the first of the old nation states to disband it's own military completely and throw it's own might, such as was left of it, wholeheartedly into the Imperium.
 
Lorgar, now a Chaplain-General in the Imperial Army, was considered too old for conversion from human to superhuman but did receive some discrete genetic modifications.
 
It was a regiment overseen by Lorgar that lead the final assault on the Despot of Ursh's palace that signalled the unification of Old Earth. But Chaplain-General Aurelian considered all of his victories to be nothing but tragedies. The only true victory, he would often claim, was one where no war was to be found. For his valour and astounding levels of inspiring oratory skill he was declared the unlikely Primarch.
 
Of all the Primarchs in the time of the Great Crusade his forces brought more worlds into the Imperium peacefully than any other.
 
They didn't bring more worlds in, oh my no. They were quite slow and their tardiness was no end of frustration to the now Steward. But Lorgar was tolerated because the worlds he claimed were brought into the Imperium whole and undamaged and contributing.
 
In the War of the Beast Primarch Aurelian and his Legion struck back with an unexpected force. Many of the other war leaders of the imperium considered his Legion to be full of pacifists and weakness. Like many of the damned in the armies of the Beast they had mistaken the olive branch for a white flag and they were punished hard for it.
 
Across the breadth and depth of the burning Imperium, to the aid of human or xeno, the Word Bearers could be found holding the line and inspiring others to hold the line. Where they strode despair turned to hope and weary hands held firm blessed weapons and shaky voices roared the old battle hymns.
 
Lorgar and his forces were on Old Earth when Sanguinius died and ever afterwards Lorgar blamed himself for not fighting hard enough to have saved his brother Primarch.
 
Lorgar lived and served for many years. He eventually died of old age at near eleven hundred years old. A small but modest shrine was erected at the Jakurtana Seminary that is sometimes visited by Word Bearer chaplains even into the Dark Millennium.
 
=== Khan ===
 
- Former military commander of Ursh. Early Astartes.
 
=== Konrad Curze ===
 
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> '''''The Unforgivable:'''''
 
Konrad Curze was a man that could politely be described as driven, and accurately be described as ''a frothing at the mouth lunatic.'' Of all the Primarchs appointed, none were more questioned than he.
 
He had grown up in the final days of the Age of Strife in the rambling under city Tordashimya in the Pan Pacific Empire, along with all of the horrors and excess that this entails. To say that this had an effect on the deepest levels of his mind would be a woeful understatement, and he saw the fledgling Imperium as only existing as a means of imposing some sort of order and some basic justice on a world that was in dire need of both and he saw it as his duty to make it happen. Sadly his means of doing so were as crude and brutal as those who he sought to bring to justice; after all, the quickest way to gain obedience is through fear, and and the easiest way to rebuild a society is to behead it and tear apart the body.
 
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Despite - or, some whisper in hushed tones, '''because of''' - the Steward's insistence that he change his tact, Curze became stubborn and resentful; his predations becoming ever more brutal. Realising the futility of bringing to heel, the Steward instead directed him instead to the worlds of no hope, worlds so broken that they could never be brought into the Imperium. Worlds he couldn't make worse. It was on one of these worlds, Nostramo, that the Night Haunter found some strange joy. If he could bring a world such as this, so broken, so unspeakably wretched, as this to the light of civility then he would be vindicated before the whole galaxy. If a world so cursed by both gods and men could be rebuilt, there was nothing that could not be.
 
The subjugation of that world was the harrowing stuff of nightmares. The Dark Eldar could barely have done better to make every day-cycle a new nightmare; indeed, some claim that they were there to simply soak up the suffering as a welcome break to their long campaigns of torture and enslavement. But in time Curze, now infamous as the Night Lord of Nostramo, was vindicated. His people took control of every position of authority, while the malcontents were quickly '''disappeared''', often winding up dead and mutilated along with their families and friends, whether man, woman, elder or child. Hideous as it was, order was brought - and order began to spread, as for each world his legion inflicted unspeakable horrors on, ten more surrendered without raising arms. Hideous, brutal examples were made of the worst, but through them the more virtuous were saved.
 
 
 
 
Soon enough, the dark whispers of Chaos began to tempt his mind, the fallen Eldar of the Crone Worlds assailing his dreams with tantalising offers of untold riches and endless power. Yet every offer was found wanting; every envoy cut down, every promise met with scorn. They had made the mistake of assuming that one such as Curze had become would revel in their depraved debaucheries, without considering that he would find them every bit as repulsive as other, better, people found him. He was a monster, this was true, but he was a monster who ripped and tore and tortured in the name of order; by the Emperor he was the '''Imperium's''' monster and nobody else's.
 
Some, of course, fell. Younger soldiers who had maybe joined the cause for glory, for strength, or even for mere self-gratification. But the vast majority of them were, like their Primarch, disgusted by the offerings of Chaos, horrified by the fall of their battle brothers, and insulted at the implication that they and the forces of Chaos served the same ends. For the entirety of the War of the Beast, the Lords of the Night could be found sowing discord and misery amongst the fleets and the armies of damnation. For every horror the invaders committed more was inflicted upon them, and for every innocent killed by the Ruinous Powers the Night Lords would swear vengeance on a dozen daemons.
 
Few of that despised Legion ever fought on the soil of Old Earth, and never were they allowed to forget this. But because of their actions the forces of damnation were weakened and poorly focused with one eye always over their shoulder. Even if their military successes had counted for naught; even if they had not managed to save a single soul, '''they had made Chaos fear ''them'''''. And that was an achievement beyond all others.
 
 
 
 
In the aftermath of that war, many small provincial worlds and systems tried to strike out on their own, away from the light of the Throne, often being brought back by force. None of Curze's worlds, however, had ever tried to secede - after all, they knew both sides of the Imperium's protection, and had seen first hand the wrath that the Night Lords could unleash. If that was what they would to in ''defence'' of the Imperium, what they would do to willing turncoats did not bear thinking about.
 
In his later years, Curze was well aware that he had become everything he had despised in his youth, and he sometimes derived black humour for this; that he had finally rediscovered across the galaxy what he had first learned in his youth on a small Terran kingdom: that the ends cannot, and do not, justify the means. In the year 243.M32 he had himself tried and executed for war crimes as the ultimate testament that none were beyond judgement. He had deemed himself to have outlived his usefulness, and to some extent he was right; although the Imperium could tolerate a useful monster, it should have no love for one.
 
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=== Angron ===
 
Angron was a slave pit fighter in what was left of the Nord Afrik Enclaves.
 
He was liberated quite early on in The Warlords campaign. Signed on to join the Thunder Warriors.
 
Rose through the ranks and earned great fame and respect. Munched loved by his men due to his tendency to lead from the front and getting stuck in where the fighting was thickest.
 
Was one of the older generation of TW with all the damage and flaws this brought with it.
 
Due to his astounding aptitudes he was promoted to the rank of Primarch and given command of a batch of the new Astartes model Space Marines.
 
Plagued by health issues despite attempts to repair his faulty upgrades. Refused the retirement offer that many TW took to make lives for themselves. He wouldn't have been able to deal with a peaceful life.
 
Survived all the way to the end of The War of the Beast but not much longer. Died peacefully in his sleep. Probably the oldest TW.
 
Kharn the Oathsworn took over, new type of super soldier for a new era.
 
He didn't live a happy life, but given the nature of his childhood he could have lived a worse one and a statue of him stands outside the gate of the Carthisisa Hive Cathedral.
 
=== Corax ===
 
- Bania, astartes.
 
=== Alpharious & Omegon ===
 
"I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." these are the last known records of the primarchs ‘’Alpharius and Omegon’’. All documents and records were deleted by inquisition, Those that were thought to be associated with the primarchs disappeared and all that was left was a parchment with those words and a small wax stamp beneath depicting the lernaean hydra of old terran mythology. Now the only way to learn about the individuals and their legacy is by eyewitness accounts and rumours that have gone under the inquisitions watchful gaze.
 
One eyewitness report tells of two figures clad in dark robes standing next to the warlord and his war council, they describe that the figures were much shorter than the other in the council.
It is unknown if these are the individuals known as Alpharius and Omegon because other reports say that they were tall men fighting battles and cutting down enemies. It is now even known if they are two persons and might in fact be one individual. This comes from a witness that said to have met a man dressed in the clothes of a highly revered official that presented himself as ‘’Alpharius Omegon’’. All that is known that there was at one point one or more individuals called Alpharius and Omegon. But what is known is that he or they had a large part in the counterintelligence and espionage of the unification war. They were said to be masters of infiltration and were supposedly to have a deep network of agents and assassins so that the mysterious individuals could act at multiple places at once. This Network is thought to become what we now know as the inquisition.
 
 
‘’Cut off one head and two shall take it’s place.’’
-Last words spoken from a prisoner before committing suicide.
 
A popular theory about the origins of the mysterious individuals, is that they were the members of the even less known ██████████ that were a secret society of old terra. It’s thought that that they joined the warlord after seeing the potential power that they could have they sent their most loyal and brightest two members to help the warlord in his endeavours.
 
‘’You search the darkness, while we hide in the light. You see not the serpent lying in wait, you see only a brother. We witnessed your beginning and we will be your end.’’
-Said to be whispered to an imperial official before her assassination.
 
Another theory is that they originate from ███ ████ a group of Xenos set on destroying the ‘’primordial annihilator’’ and thus sent their best human operatives to aid the warlord and his future plans.
 
‘’Cut the head off the snake and the body will die shortly after’’
-thought to be a direct quote from either Alpharius or Omegon.
 
Alpharius and Omegon are thought to be major members in the creation of the inquisition and that after the alliance with the eldar their influence has only increased. Acting as puppet masters, they are thought to be behind both the starting of wars and the ending of them, doing as they see fit for the better of the imperium.
 
It was around ████ that all records and documents of Alpharius and Omegon were deleted. Theories say that they had died and that their successors order the purge of information surrounding the primarchs so that their legacy and actions can be forgotten. Other theories say that the warlord declared them traitors and therefore got rid of all evidence of their existence.
But yet to this day there are whispers about legions of men and women walking among us, executing the orders of their puppets masters, killing the corrupt, eliminating the foe from the inside and bearing the brand of the hydra
 
‘’Hydra Dominatus’’
-Alpharius and Omegon the Beginning and the end
 
== The Craftworlds ==
 
=== ALAITOC ===
 
A Craftworld of contradictions, Alaitoc is both highly-regimented and highly liberated-. The reason for this is that while the majority of the Craftworld's population are highly dedicated to Eldar ideals, a sizeable minority seek freedom from their home's stifling environment. As such, its relations with the greater Imperium are also as contradictory.
 
Officially, Alaitoc is only marginally allied with the Imperium. While they do send small tithes of soldiers as needed, the still-proud Eldar of Alaitoc refuse to have any more dealings with mon-keigh than is strictly necessary. Their troops, even those of the lowest ranks, are notorious often treat non-Eldar of any rank with breathtaking disdain fit to rival any three hive princes one could name. An exasperated Saint Macharius was once heard to remark "Better a thousand armies of the Beast's cultists at my rear than a single Alaitoc Farseer at my side!"
 
The same cannot be said however, for the Rangers that Alaitoc regularly sends out, albeit unintentionally. Freed of their stifling homes, many eventually find solace in the familiar, though not as restricted, environments of other Craftworlds. More notorious however are those Rangers who find Imperial life to their liking, and in a strange, yet peculiarly Eldar way, often find themselves as obsessed with non-Eldar life as an Exarch on their path, sometimes even combining two or more cultures in their quest for freedom and reinvention. Even the most seasoned galactic traveller must take pause when they find themselves meeting "Fio'La Bork'an Rialieath, Magos Prime of Forge Alpha."
 
===BIEL-TAN===
 
As one of the Imperium's most militiarized Craftworlds, Biel-Tan Aspect Warriors are the ones most often seen on both the battlefield and in Imperial media, with the gruff, battle-hardened Biel-Tan warrior being a staple of Imperial entertainment. Of the major Craftworlds aligned to the Imperium, the Biel-Tan are perhaps one of the most fanatical in expanding Imperial borders, seeing in the Imperium a chance to recreate the Eldar Empire of old. This has sometimes caused friction even within the Imperial military, as Biel-Tan officers regularly advise all-out offensives regardless of the state of the greater army.
 
One notable aspect of Biel-tan's society is the surprising amount of regard they hold for the inhabitants of Tallarn, a desert world. During the War of the Beast, a large cultist army sought ancient relics long-buried beneath Tallarn's surface. With Imperial forces being in disarray at the time, many Imperial authorities wrote offf Tallarn as lost, and prepared for an assault from that side, Cursing their new allies and their own kin for their cowardice, the Eldar of Biel-Tan rushed to Tallarn, determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
 
However, upon arrival they found the devastated Tallarni not waging a desperate war, but holding onto a bloody stalemate despite being outnumbered and outgunned. When the ferocious Eldar fell upon the cultist forces, the Tallarni were quick to take the advantage. Though their once prisitine farmworld had been turned into a vast desert, they had managed to win the respect of the Eldar. Though today the Craftworld maintains a careful distance, both socially and physically, from their adopted planet, they do make short visits in small numbers to carefully shepard the desert warriors. Most adult Tallarni that the 'djinns' of their childhood stories are really the Imperium's major alien ally, but even their oldest generals often show more than the usual respect humans give one of the elder race.
 
=== IYANDEN ===
 
In official records and Imperial propaganda, Iyanden is one of the most successful examples of Imperial-Eldar relations in history, a friendship won in blood and iron. And while this may be believed by the rank and file of both peoples, the truth is a little more complex than that.
 
Even after the marriage between the Steward (as he was still known at the time) and Isha, the Craftworld of Iyandem refused to be part of the alliance. They saw the evil that lurked in the hearts of men, and lambasted the idea of chaining their entire race to the barely-tamed, barely-evolved pseudo primates that had the gall to call itself a sentient species. Even so, they knew that angering said wild beast would only prove detrimental, so they made a deal- they would of course honour any request the Imperium would make of them, on the condition the Imperium never made any such request. Though the High Lords took great offence at this snub, they also knew that antagonizing Iyanden would risk the rest of the alliance, and so quietly backed down.
 
And so matters were left, Iyanden being an island of isolation in the middle of the Realm of Ultramar. Though they opened their docks for limited trade in late M36, they only did so for the handful of Rogue Traders who managed to find their home. Even then, it was only for what few luxuries the Craftworld could not provide, and would be safe for those on the Path to consume.
 
Then the Hive Fleets came.
 
Isolated as they were, Iyanden was almost engulfed by the Shadow in the Warp when they managed to send their distress signal. Even so, it said that only by miraculous guidance from the Eternal Emperor and Empress did Prince-Admiral (later Saint) Yriel manage to find the beleagured Craftworld (indeed, it is officially recorded as the Saint's first miracle). Though the rescue effort was a success, the Craftworld was left devastated, with many of its population reduced to soulstones. Even worse, the Imperial fleet that had saved them could barely spend enough time for rest and repairs, as the chitinous tide threatened to drown Ultima Segmentum. No ship could be spared to defend Iyanden, not even the most grievously wounded ones guaranteed to die pauper's deaths in the void.And so it was that Iyanden found itself making another unfair deal. They offered to make themselves a mobile dock for the Imperial Navy, on the condition that there would always be ships provided for their protection.
 
Today, Iyanden is so integrated into the Navy organization of Ultima Segmentum that it is officially designated a void station colony instead of a Craftworld. Sailors from a hundred member races, from a thousand times more worlds, mingle every day in bustling streets where once Eldar took quiet walks. So many ships orbit the Craftworld that at times they block the stars. And while many of the younger races and Eldar youth see this as a great thing (some even proclaim Iyanden's colours of blue and gold, the same as the Imperial Navy's, to be a sign of divine intervention), older Eldar simply sigh, and mourn the lost purity of their home as yet another casualty of the Tyranids, and they fear what the outsiders might bring in.
 
=== SAIM-HANN ===
 
The Craftworld of Saim-Hann are an anomaly in the Imperium's dealings with the Eldar. In the early days of alliance negotiations, the Eldar Seers negotiating with the High Lords insisted almost every Craftworld be given proper due and respect, even prideful ones like Biel-Tan and Iyanden. Almost every Craftworld- save for Saim-Hann. When Imperial authorities tried to find out the reason for this surprising reticence, they found out just why the Seers let them carry out the fact-finding mission in the first place.
 
The Saim-Hann were wild, more wild than even the humans were used to. In many of their dealings, the Eldar displayed a surprising lack of respect for Isha, calling her 'soft-bodied' and throwing the word 'gentle' like an insult. Negotiations quickly degraded, and would have broken down had not the Saim-Hann Farseer in charge of his side's negotiations noticed one of the humans taking a swig of the drinks the Eldar gave them ("You think us barbarians, mon-keigh?" one of them is reputed to have asked. "Perhaps you are right- but we are not savages."). Unlike the other Imperials present, who only took polite sips with grimaces on their faces, this giant Imperial seemed to actually enjoy his drinks. Seeing the chance for a bit of fun, the Farseer said that he would sign whatever deal the Imperials wanted, if that one man could outdrink the Farseer amd his council.
 
"Wasn't like I could say no, right?" Leman Russ later remarked. "I managed to outdrink the Steward while he still walked among us, I could outdrink a bunch of prissy Eldar," he would add, endearing him and his Wolves even further to Saim-Hann.
 
His terms were surprisingly lenient, though it did include a proviso that the Eldar stop by the Fang for a drink once in a while. Even long after Russ's disappearance, Saim-Hann warbands often stop by Fenris, and the halls of the Fang echo with tales of ribaldry and derring-do, all equal in their magnificence and unbelievability.
 
=== ULTHWE ===
 
One of the last Craftworlds attempting to escape the Eye of Terror, Ulthwe was instead doomed to forever orbit the afterbirth of Slaanesh, pulled dangerously close to the Eye by gravitational fields. Ever since then, the Eldar of Ulthwe have fought against Chaos, though it is not a fight they face alone. The stalwart warriors of Cadia can often be found back-to-back with Ulthwe Eldar, and their Kasrkin train alongside Aspect Warriors and Exarchs.
 
Like Biel-Tan, Ulthwe has found itself admiring the humans with whom they shed blood together, even moreso since they've been doing so since the Eye of Terror was formed, before even the alliance. These ties have only grown stronger since; it is said that the average Cadian will know how to strip his gun before they are 10 and learn to swear in Eldar by 15. Despite the facetiousness of that claim, it is true that Cadians are generally adept in both Eldar customs and language at amazingly young ages, with only the highest reaches of both being beyond human grasp as they require subtle psychic signals only Eldar are capable of. Many Ulthwe Eldar even prefer the harsh utilitarianism of Imperial equipment as opposed to the grace of Eldar technology, and it is not uncommon to see Ulthwe Guardians wearing adapted flak armour and fatigues on campaign. In exceptional circumstances, Ulthwe Eldar have even served directly in the Cadian Guard, often to great acclaim- the career of Farseer-Colonel Taldeer of the Cadian 412th (later the 1st Kronus Liberators) is the most well-known example, one that is often compared to the career of Commissar-Colonel Gaunt.
 
Incidentally, the most Eldar-human couplings on record are those between Ulthwe Eldar and Cadian humans, and while no children have been recorded as resulting from these unions, many such married couples assure those who ask delicately that it is not due to lack of trying.
 
== Timeline ==
Mid to Late M29 Warlord arises on Old Earth. Divides nations of Earth into two lists. One one side are the ones worth inclusion to the Imperium and on the other the ones that need to be destroyed and their lands divided amongst more worthy men.
 
Begins global unification using diplomatic means when possible and brute force when not possible.
 
Late M29/Early M30 First use of early model Thunder Warriors
 
Early to mid Refinement of Thunder Warriors.
 
Old Earth unified (Except for Hy Brasil). Warlord sets up the Throne of Earth and refuses to sit in it instead becoming the Steward of the Empty Throne. The Throne stands waiting for a worthy individual to become Emperor.
 
Steward looks towards the sky and is inspired to take the Unification to the other planets of Sol. Appoints 20 generals the title of Primarch to be his leaders among generals.
 
Sol is unified in a sequence of assimilations, partnerships and short brutal wars of conquest.
 
Steward sets up High Lords of Terra to run the day to day affairs of the Imperium. Long term goal is to make the Imperium self-governing and then fade away again. Short term gaol is to get be able to spend all evening in the pub.
 
Warp storms subside enough for large scale warp travel to become viable.
 
Steward looks to the stars and the dream of Unification burns again.
 
Steward is contacted by Eldrad "fist fight with Skarbrand and won" Ulthuran. The two of them concoct a fiendish plan to break in to Nurgle's mansion and steal Isha back. Eldar send a band of the most fearsome ninja clowns and the Imperium sends its most brutal nutters. Steward leads the expedition. Isha is rescued.
 
Isha is rescued. Imperium earns the eternal hate of the Chaos Gods. Eldar petition Stewards for inclusion into Imperium. Steward agrees in exchange for Webway access. Eldar are reluctant due to potential damage to webway. Compromise is reached that Inquisition can have unlimited access and the Eldar will upgrade the Astronomican.
 
Chaos Gods direct the Crone World Eldar to manipulate the orks into unifying under the banner of a warboss know as The Beast. The Beast and all his Boyz are directed towards Old Earth and other key worlds of the Imperium. Dark Eldar join forces with the Crone Worlders for the promise of plunder and slaves.
 
Primarch Sanguinius dies in the ruins of the Eternity Gate of the Imperial Palace.
 
Steward about to be pummelled into fine red paste by The Beast. Eldred Ulthuran smashes through the wall and joins in the Beast beating festivities and he and the Steward beat The Beast is a savage brawl.
 
As payment for saving his life the Steward owes a favour to Eldrad. Eldrad immediately call that favour in demands that the Steward marry Isha so that the union of Human and Eldar can never be broken.
 
Imperium Recovers over time. Most of the Primarchs die off in battle or simply by time. The title is never given to another; relic of a past age.
 
Chaos forces usually from the Eye of Terror periodically form Black Crusades to try and topple the Imperium. Imperium stays strong.
 
Eventually at about the turning point of M35 and M36 a great man by the name of Goge Vandire arises to be the head of the Administratum. Steward believes that he has found a worthy man to sit upon the Empty Throne of Earth. Emperor Vandire is an asset to the Imperium. Steward steps down and fades into the shadows of some distant world and disappears for some time.
 
Goge Vandire goes nuts.
 
Inquisitor Sebastian Thor raises rebellion against him and causes the Great Civil War. Steward is rediscovered with the High Priestess of Isha sitting at the bar of a tropical beach resort on some backwater nowhere planet. Apparently having been on that beech for the last ~150 years.
 
After 10 years of devastating war Goge Vandire is slain and Sebastian Thor bullies the Steward into sitting on the Throne of Earth and becoming Emperor. 3 of the old Primarchs survive long enough to be present at the ceremony.
 
Due to substantial Demiurg assistance in the war the new Emperor permits the space traveling craftsmen membership to the Imperium, to the grumbling of the elder. Imperium becomes open to the idea of accepting other "lesser" peoples into the fold.
 
Late M36 and the first scouting fleets of the Tyranids are sailing through the Imperium. Connection with gene-stealers is made. Scouting fleets eventually slain and it is believed for a time that they are defeated.
 
Mid M37, Hive Fleets have arrived. A few are slain eventually and at great cost over the next handful of centuries. Most shatter into splinter fleets and terrorize huge swathes of the Galaxy for a long, long time.
 
At about the M38 mark the Necrons start to rise from their half-death into mechanical unlife. Up till the end of the Dark Millennium there is a gradual and unstoppable increase in Necron activity.
 
Mid M38. Tau expeditionary forces encountered for first time. Contact made. Fledgling Tau Empire is unaware of the scale of the wars across the galaxy or the vastness of the Imperium. Refuses all efforts at inclusion.
 
Late M38. Tau have a serious Artificial Intelligence rebellion after ignoring the repeated warnings of the Mechanicus. Dark Eldar take advantage of this time of weakness to use their failing Empire as slave raiding grounds despite the Tau themselves being "bland". Still refuse inclusion to Imperium when offered.
 
Mid M38 and Tau have recovered their old Empire bounds and are once more expanding their borders. Historians note passing similarities to the expansion of early Imperium.
 
Mid to Late M38. Series of crippling wars with the Hive Fleets and pyrrhic victories leaves the Tau once more vulnerable to Dark Eldar raids, and raid they do. They finally accept the offer of inclusion to the Imperium.
 
Mid M39. Ethereal Council of the Eastern Fringe is once more pressing for closer relations with the greater Imperium. Fire Warrior general by name of Farsight believes that too much of the ideologies of the Greater Good have already been compromised by outside influences. Demands return to old ways.
 
Political turmoil and minor skirmishes that the Tau believe are real wars erupt across the eastern fringe. Largely the Imperium fails to notice. Or care.
 
Farsight and friends carve out their own Enclave and defy the Imperium. Ethereals furious at this breach of Tau honour. General Shadowsun swears a blood oath against Farsight.
 
M40. Necrons awakening increases. Silent King spotted. Silent King tries to rebuild old Necrontyr Star Empire. Silent King wishes to find a way to reverse the biotransferance. New rebellions against The Silent King erupt on both scores.
 
Some of the more minor and "eccentric" Necron Lords seek refuge in the Imperium. Emperor eventually agrees on the logic that it's better to have them in here pissing out than out there pissing in. Necron Lords, inhumanly powerful and prideful as they are, swear to obey their new liege so long as he never actually orders them to do anything.
 
Eldar are livid at the inclusion of the Necrons. Some craftworlds consider trying to leave the Imperium.
 
Mid M41. Brain Boys spotted. Any talk of abandoning ship stops abruptly. Nobody wants to jump off the boat, no matter how many vermin are in it, when the alternative is sharks.
 
Late M41. The Hive Fleets were just a vanguard. The Tyranids are assaulting the entire eastern galactic edge in such numbers that they blot out the stars.

Latest revision as of 08:36, 22 June 2023

"The night is dark and full of horror, but the dawn is coming - and it will be glorious. All we must do is survive."

– Sgt. Marcus Albus, Mustavaar 3rd Rifles Regiment, 845.M40

Welcome to Nobledark Imperium: a fan envisioning of the Warhammer 40,000 universe given a buff to competence and common sense akin to a high-fantasy fiction with many races working together à la Elder Scrolls. Generally speaking, Nobledark deviates less from Vanilla 40k than the writefagging of Hektor Heresy and Imperium Asunder; we still have the same xenos races, the same Primarchs (at least in name), and the vast majority of the same Space Marine Legions (and later chapters). Keep in mind that this is just one example of Nobledark. Nobledark is a type of setting like Grimdark is. You can make your own Nobledark Imperium that is not even remotely like this one (such as the Men of Gold thing). Just, y'know, not on this page.

A brief summary of the deviations and their results, in chronological(ish) order:

  • The Emperor (formerly the Warlord, then the Steward) is a relic from the Dark Age of Technology instead of a bunch of reincarnated Shamans; Malcador was the one who found him and the closest thing he had to a parent.
  • The Primarchs have all died of battle or age; only three of them (Ferrus Manus, Vulkan, and Magnus) lived to see the Steward ascend to the Golden Throne. However, they were all just regular(ish) humans that the Warlord/Steward found to be worthy of the title, and they still had roles/themes approximating their Vanilla selves (with some changes); for example, Manus was born and raised Mechanicus and given a legion of Super Skitarii © , while Russ and his legion were given the experimental Canis Helix variant of the Space Marine augmentation.
  • No dickwaving contest over Warmaster, and Steward actually tells everyone about Chaos, so no Horus Heresy. Instead the War of the Beast is given more prominence, with many of the primarch's defining moments taking place therein.
  • First contact with the Eldar leads to an alliance that leads a raid into Nurgle's Mansion in the Realm of Chaos to rescue Isha in return for all sorts of technological and psyker goodies. Imperium is not the xenophobic hellhole, many species are Imperial citizens, and the Mechanicum's "dickslapping the big red button" is not prominent. It's akin to a galaxy-wide Interex done right.
  • Chaos Gods are pissed, and turbocharge the War of the Beast with Crone Eldar (while Dark Eldar join in for shits and giggles), replacing the Horus Heresy in fucking over the Imperium of Man. Battle of Terra, Sangy dies, etc.
  • Steward doesn't get permarekt because Eldrad Ex Machina, so no Ecclesiarchy (SoB part of secular Ordo Securitas, fulfills a lot of the same functions). Marries Isha at some point because politics.
  • Legions generally split into chapters within or close to the lifetime of the primarchs (typically shortly after their death).
  • Goge Vandire is seen to be fit for the Golden Throne; when he goes mad, Steward throws a fit and finally becomes Emperor himself.
  • Orks, Necrons, Tyranid vanguard (several millennia early) and DEldar are still doing their thing, as well as Croneworlders being a threat. Few (if any) Primarchs left to help put out fires.
  • After short indignant protests from both sides, T'au are absorbed into the Imperium after first contact (save for the conservative and xenophobic Farsight Enclaves).
  • Tyranid main fleet begins to make galaxyfall.
  • Well, shit.

For more detail on the general nature of the universe and what each of the individual factions have been up to, see So What's the Deal with Nobledark Imperium Anyway?

NOTE: NEW STUFF IS BEING WORKED ON AND WILL USE THIS AS A HUB PAGE CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION. THE ORIGINAL PAGE IS HERE.

Introduction[edit]

It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Eternal Emperor and Empress have been joined in their holy union. He, the last relic of a lost age when hope and wisdom ruled the galaxy, still clinging to his purpose of forging a better future. She, the last remnant of an ancient pantheon, a mother watching over dying children brought low by their own hubris. Together, they are the Masters and Guardians of Man and Eldar, the keepers of the Last Alliance, the embodiments of the Imperium to which a hundred sapient species swear their fealty.

At the core of the Imperium is Humanity, its teeming multitudes ever resilient, stubbornly carving out a future amongst the hostile stars. The greatest of Man’s allies are the Eldar, ancient and wise, their shared bond forged in battle and sealed in blood millennia ago. Since then, others have been judged worthy to join in the light of the Imperium, to stand with Men and Eldar as fellows; the industrious Demiurg, enigmatic Tau, countless strains of Abhumans, and many more.

Yet for all the Imperium’s numbers, it is barely enough to stave off the monstrous forces that would tear it down. United under savage Beasts, the Orkish hordes throw themselves at the great edifice of the Imperium. The Necrons are awakening to a changed galaxy, and seethe at the primitives who would dare harbor their greatest foes, the Eldar. From galactic east the Tyranids have made landfall, and sweep over countless worlds in their hungering tide. In the shadows lurk the Dark Eldar, reveling in the carnage of a galaxy at war. And from the Immaterium, the Chaos Gods brood and plot their eternal vengeance, served by the twisted Chaos Eldar.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold trillions. It is to live in the last bastion of civilization, as the darkness draws near. These are the tales of those times. Forget the stories of peace and harmony, for they are fables of a gentler time, when the world still made sense. Remember the stories of struggle and defiance, of brotherhood and sacrifice, for those are the ones that truly matter. Peace is a distant dream growing ever fainter, and there is only war as Men and Eldar hold the line for the promise that has been whispered through generations, from father to son, from mother to child: that there is good left in the world, and that is worth fighting for.

The Road to M41[edit]

The Imperium of Man is at war. It has been at war since the day it was created, since an ancient Man of Gold took it upon himself to unite Terra - and the stars beyond - into a single, glorious Imperium. It has not been an easy journey, but nor has it been the debacle it could have been. Perhaps there may even still be hope for the human race.

Unification[edit]

In the depths of the Old Night, the one known as Malcador discovered a relic of the Dark Age of Technology: a Man of Gold. Gifted with intellectual, martial and psychic prowess far beyond any human, his kind had devastated humanity in wars long gone, yet this one would restore it to its former glory. The Man of Gold, returning to Terra to find it a war-torn shell of a homeworld, immediately vowed to dedicate his existence to restoring the race he was created to serve. Thus, he became the Warlord, unifying his world through alliance, war, and every flavour of diplomacy in between. Nations either united under his banner or were conquered by it, and soon a few great leaders distinguished themselves for their achievements in the fledgling Imperium, whether done in the Warlord's name or their own. These men would become his Primarchs.

The years passed, and the Warlord looked to the stars. After the alliance with Mars gave the Imperium the material strength to begin reclaiming their former worlds, the Great Crusade began in earnest. Many worlds saw the bright future of the Imperium and greeted the Warlord with open arms. And for those that did not? The Warlord had his Primarchs, who each commanded a legion of elite Space Marines with their own unique brand of warfare. A world with elite armies able to fend off the ferocity of Leman Russ's Vlka Fenryka would be dismantled by the logistical superiority of Roboute Guilliman; one fortified enough to stall the methodical Ultramarines would find themselves with no escape from Mortarion's Death Guard and their horrific plagues; and one with their own arsenal of poisons would see them shrugged off by Ferrus Manus' inhuman Skitarii.

Closer to home, however, there was a problem; The Warlord had originally been designed to serve humanity, not lead it, and it was a curious irony that the greatest leader in human history did not see himself fit for the role. Nevertheless, he was concerned at how an artificial construct such as himself (though precious few other than Malcador knew of this fact) was shown such reverence across the reclaimed worlds; some worlds' veneration approached worship. Thus, he declared that the Golden Throne of Terra, an ancient artifact discovered that may have predated even him, was the center-piece of the Imperium, and that he would serve as its Steward until a suitable Emperor emerged.

An Unlikely Alliance[edit]

In the depths of space, as the Imperium rose, the dying embers of the Eldar Empire spotted a raft of order and sanity they could cling to in a galaxy filled with war and Chaos. After a few violent incidents, a more discreet formal first contact was made; the Steward of the Golden Throne and Farseer Eldrad Ulthran both saw one another as a vital stepping stone to the revival of their respective races' former glory. At the time, the two were both beginning to stall in their ambitions - the remaining Craftworlds were beginning to splinter and rebel from Eldrad's guidance, while the forces of the Great Crusade were facing determined resistance from worlds populated by corrupt abominations instead of mere men.

Although the Steward knew of Chaos, he knew little about it, for he had been shut down and mothballed in an age where the perils of the Warp were only beginning to manifest, and the great psyker Magnus the Red could articulate little of his own innate, instinctive abilities. The Farseer was only too happy to school the Man of Gold on the intricacies of the warp, and the power available to those who had the gift for it.

The Dream Shatters[edit]

The Dark Millenium[edit]

The Imperium[edit]

The Imperium, in its millennia of existence, has endured horrors that so easily could have crippled it and crushed its dreams for the future. Yet, in the near future, it faces its most daunting challenges yet - all for mere survival.

The Primarchs[edit]

Primarch Aliases Homeland Fate Legion & Successors Attributed Quotes
Horus Lupercal King of Empty Space

Steward of the Void

None (Void Born Migrant Fleet) Natural death between War of the Beast and First Black Crusade, exact date/location unknown. Void Wolves
  • Black Legion
  • Luna Wolves
  • Sons of Horus
 "I am the captain of this migrant fleet, yes, but I am also a businessman. In this place, I am the one who proposes the deals. Now, get off my ship."

~To a Chaos "negotiator", date unknown.

Leman Russ The Great Wolf

The Lapdog

Skand, Nordyc territory MIA, forests of Fenris 200 years after War of the Beast. Space Wolves [Canis Helix]
Ferrus Manus The Gorgon

Ice and Iron

Orioc, Antarctic Mechanicus Enclaves KIA, defending Hades Hive on Armageddon.

[616.M40]

Iron Hands [Enhanced Skitarii]

“While Mars stands, the Imperium shall stand; when Mars falls, the Imperium shall fall; when the Imperium falls, the galaxy shall fall”.
~Ferrus Manus, on the nature of the Imperium.

Fulgrim Furis Doe Merika Children of Terra [Mk ? Astartes]
Vulkan The Promethean

Vulkan the Invincible

Afrique League MIA, presumed lost after "Centuries of Silence"

[M37-38?]

Salamanders [Mk 3 Astartes]
  • Black Dragons
Rogal Dorn The Wall Calbi KIA defending Cadia, 1st Black Crusade Imperial Fists [Mk ? Astartes]
  • Crimson Fists
 "W...what are you doing soldier? Go back and man the damn wall you idiot, because I sure as hell won't be able to."

~The dying words of Rogal Dorn, chewing out the soldier trying to save his mortally wounded primarch's life by pulling him off the battlements of Cadia

Roboute Guilliman The Artist of War Europia Natural Death.

[014.M32]

Ultramarines [Mk ? Astartes]
  • Mortifactors
Magnus the Red The Arch-Psyker Ursh Natural Death, date/location unknown.

[Early M36, soon after Age of Apostasy]

Thousand Sons [Mk ? Astartes]
  • Grey Knights (Heavy Influence)
Sanguinius The Martyr Angel Duscht Jemanic KIA dueling The Beast, Battle of Terra. Blood Angels [Mk ? Astartes]
Lion El'Jonson The Black Knight Franj MIA, in stasis after dueling Luther around 1st Black Crusade Dark Angels [Mk ? Astartes]
Perturabo The Warsmith

The Mad Architect

Štip-Isar, Macedonia "Retired" to Terra, natural death. Date unknown. Iron Warriors [Mk ? Astartes]
  • Silver Skulls
Mortarion The Vermin Lord

The Man Who Would Not Die

Gredbritton Natural death, Macharius' Rest. Date unknown. Dusk Raiders [Mk ? Astartes]
  • Death Guard [Post-WotB]
  • Black Templars
 "You think of us as scum, you call us vermin? Then like vermin we shall fight, with tooth and claw until even the mightiest of enemies is overpowered. We shall scour their lands clean, and leave nothing that can be used against man - for vermin always have the last word."
Lorgar Yndonesic Bloc Natural death, date/location unknown. [lived 1100 years] Word Bearers [Mk ? Astartes]
Jaghatai Khan The Noble Savage

The Scarred Khan

Ursh Natural death while touring the Imperium, date/location unknown. White Scars [Mk ? Astartes]
Konrad Curze The Unforgivable Tordashimya, Pan-Pacific Empire Surrendered himself to the Inquisition for trial and execution over war crimes.

[242.M32]

Night Lords [Mk ? Astartes]
  • Carcharodons
 "I am not a decent man."

~Only defence given at trial; last known words.

Angron The Gladiator

The Red Angel

Nord Afrik Enclaves Natural death, shortly after WotB. Location unknown. War Hounds [Mk ? Astartes]
  • Minotaurs
Corvus Corax Raven King

The Stormcrow

Sino Disappeared while visiting newly founded chapters when his legion was split, date/location unknown. Raven Guard (voluntarily split)
I am The Alpha

and the Omega.

The beginning, and the end. Cut off one head,
  • And two more
  • Shall take its place.
 H█y █d██ r██a█ Do██ ██m█ in██ a█t███us

~[DATA EXPUNGED BY INQUISITORIAL ORDER]

Primarch Aliases Homeland Fate Legion & Successors Attributed Quotes
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