Imperium Asunder

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Overview of the Project

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Galaxy has been beset by strife and torn by war. The Emperor, who had once dreamed of uniting the Galaxy under His banner, is long dead. Half of the Primarchs, his demigod sons turned against him, and in a climactic battle on Terra the Emperor was cast down. With his death, Terra was consumed by a Warpstorm and half the Imperium fell forever under the shadow of Chaos.

The Dark Imperium reigns in the ring of Segmentum Solar, where the watchful Eyes of the Warmaster consume the souls of the weak. A 1984 state of utter madness where groupthink doesn't even begin to describe things. The Warmaster's agents could be anywhere, and you can be sure they are watching you at all times. Dark foundries churn out metric gigatons of munitions for the Long War, Temples to the Gods of Chaos are found on every street and Daemons lurk in the shadows. Those who grow tired or too weak to work are never heard from again. Those who ask questions are never heard from again. Those who deviate, those who hesitate, all who are doubted even a hair, are never heard from again. Men who whisper dark rumors about the dark things that happen to those who are never heard from again, are never heard from again.

Surrounding the 'ordered' heartland of the Dark Imperium is the Chaos Marches, a screaming anarchy comprising hundreds of chaos warlord states. Some are ruled by Veterans of the Long War that still wear the colors of their legions, but most are ruled by warbands of outcasts, exiles and dissidents with their own ways. Some of these states may last for centures or millenia, while others rise and fall in a matter of years. The borders between them are constantly shifting as Warlords rise and fall. The citizens of this area live in permanent fear that the Angels of Hell may come from the skies to reap and enslave, to sacrifice and feast.

To the east, across the mighty barrier that is the Firewall in what was once Ultima Segmentum lies the Eastern Imperium, the last lingering fragment of the Emperor's Dream. Yet even here that dream is a sham. The Eastern Imperium is not a united entity, but rather a fractous union of crusader states founded by the blessed loyalist primarchs long ago as they fled the fall of Terra. Imperium Minorum and their Angels of Light, the Forgespace of the Fists of Mars who maintain the Mechanicum in Exile, and in the far Ghoul Stars of the eastern fringe the Paladins of Kor keep their protectorate, where all worlds are safe, xenos or otherwise, so long as they pay fealty to their Astartes lords. These states war with one another as often as they war with the Lords of Chaos to the West, and border disputes often flare up into violence.

Segmentum Tempestus is a warzone. Like the ancient trenches of Verdun, Soldiers of the Dark Imperium and the Crusaders fortify their holes and fight the enemy when their commanders say charge. Thirteen such crusades have been called. Some are renowned as victories, such as the Second Crusade, where the Undying Scions reclaimed the Maelstrom Zone. But none have every truly altered the long, slow tide of defeat. For Chaos is rising, and none can slow it down.

To be a man in such times is to be living on the knife-edge. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody times imaginable, where extinction is just around the corner. These are the tales of those times. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for it died with the Emperor. Forget about unity, for brother against brother is the norm and even the Crusader States remain at each others throats. Forget the hope of final victory, for the inhumanity of man against man is the iron currency of these times. In the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

Atlas

Important new planets in the Imperium Asunder Timeline go here.