Sabbat Worlds Crusade
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade is a big part of Black Library's Warhammer 40,000 fluff about a campaign that so far has taken 23 years and counting to complete. The campaign started in 755.M41 and is still ongoing. It was a setting created by the legendary Dan Abnett for somewhere to place his first novel in the 40K universe.
History[edit]
The Sabbat Worlds is a region of space on the edge of Segmentum Pacificus that was first annexed for Imperial colonization in the 35th Millennium. This often volatile region of space is composed of over 100 inhabited star systems, subdivided into a number of discrete territories or Sub-sectors, most notably the Newfound Trailing, the Khan Group, the Cabal Systems, the Carcaradon Cluster and the Erinyes Group. It is named for the leader of the crusade that liberated them Saint Sabbat. Sabbat was a humble farm girl who had a vision from the Emperor to bring the sector into the fold of the Imperium. After a 105 year long crusade, Sabbat was slain on the world of Harkalon and immortalised as an Imperial Saint, though despite this the crusade still moved forward for a few more years after her death. Records of what happened between the end of the crusade and M.41 are scarce as the Imperium is so great at storing and archiving information (he said through gritted teeth), but over time and neglect, the system fell into a state of fighting off Chaotic forces and multiple worlds were lost or in a continuous battle for survival, with travel in and out of the sector being extremely difficult. Eventually in mid-late M.41 the Imperium was pushed out of the region, leaving most of the worlds to fend for themselves. The Highlords of Terra began to argue the point of retaking it and if the cost was worth the gain.
It was the state of the Sabbat Worlds and the disrespect to their founder, that caused Sabbats' #1 fanboy, Lord Militant Slaydo, to step forward and argue for a crusade to retake the sector. After arguing with the High Lords about how "it was wrong to abandon the worlds of an Imperial saint" followed by the more persuasive argument "if we don't clear them out there will be a great bloody nest of chaos worshippers in the Segmentum Solar", Slaydo was granted permission to start a crusade to reclaim the sector and after being given the rank of Warmaster, he began to plan his attack strategy to reclaim the lost worlds of his waifu.
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Notable forces of the crusade[edit]
Imperial Guard Regiments[edit]
- Tanith First (And Only) - Light infantry who specialise in stealth. Lost their world due to a mistake made during the crusade and also the main characters of the book series.
- Royal Volpone - Heavy infantry. Recruited from the aristocracy of their world and come with the appropriate amount of ego because of it. Got their own standalone novel once Abnett's setting grew big enough to fit more writers.
- Vitrian Dragoons - Shock infantry. Wear carapace armour made from a glassy metal from their home world, and are a mix between ancient Babylon and the Ottomans. They also have their own codex which tells them tactical situations and how to react in combat scenarios.
- Roane Deepers - Light infantry with armoured support. Basically the Anzacs and British during the north African campaign.
- Phantine Air Corps - An unusual regiment in the fact they are made up almost entirely of pilots (as their home planet is so completely covered in unholy flesh-melting pollution fog that only the very tip-tops of the highest mountains are even REMOTELY habitable, making land-based Guard forces COMPLETELY pointless) and separate from the Imperial Navy. Have a very cool WW2 RAF theme going on.
- Phantine Skyborne - Drop troops of Phantine Air Corps.
Space Marine Chapters[edit]
- White Scars - The mad Mongolian biker boys. Took part in the original crusade with Saint Sabbat and came back for round two.
- Iron Snakes - The posterboys for the Sabbat Worlds marine forces. Second Founding, Ilyad-themed, get shit done. They even have multiple Black Library books to their name.
- Silver Guard - A small chapter. Their only known campaign is the (current) Sabbat Worlds Crusade, and while competent, they're not as badass as the Scars and Snakes.
- Imperial Fists
- Raven Guard
- There was a 6th chapter involved in the Crusade, but it is unlisted in current records.
Forces of Chaos[edit]
- Blood Pact - A surprisingly organized and dangerously competent Khornate cult. Gives no end of problems to the Imperial forces in the sector.
- Sons of Sek - A heretic's own personal attempt to create a force more elite than Blood Pact. They're relatively new to the conflict.