Great Rift

The Great Rift is a tear in reality that essentially divides the Imperium in half. The rift is variously known by the cultures of the galaxy as the Crimson Path, the Mouth of Ruin, the Warpscar, the Dathedian, Gork's Grin and a thousand other names besides. To the Imperium it is the Cicatrix Maledictum, or just the Great Rift. This catastrophic warp storm has rent the Imperium nearly in half. Even before the fall of Cadia, the Immaterium had been growing ever more turbulent. Travel and communication suffered increasing disturbances as the events of the Gathering Storm unfolded. It seems that eventually reality could take no more, and a titanic warp-rift tore across the galaxy from the Eye of Terror to the Hadex Anomaly on the Eastern Fringe. To those on the Terran side, it is a tainted scar across the sky. To those unfortunates on the far side, it is far worse.

Background
No one fully understand the origins of the rift – though there are many theories: the breach of the Cadian Gate during Abaddon's recent 13th Black Crusade, the sorcery of the Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red during the Thousand Sons invasion of the Fenris System, catastrophe in the Webway, mass bloodshed and fire in the Damocles Gulf – all may have caused or contributed to it. Its emergence was a literal galaxy-shattering event, which threw the Imperium into chaos and ushered in new wars across nearly every world in the Imperium. So powerful and far was this storm that the very laws of physics fray at the edges as the inconsistencies of time fluctuations, once largely localised to larger storms such as the Eye of Terror, spread across the galaxy. Some worlds felt centuries go by in an instant while others were all but frozen in time, and still others have suffered constant temporal shifts.

On the far side of the galaxy-spanning warp storm, things have quite literally gone to hell. There, the light of the Astronomicon is obscured behind a psychic maelstrom of nightmares and the entire region has been dubbed ' Imperium Nihilus ', or the Dark Imperium. Amongst the besieged Imperial worlds in this Dark Imperium are many Space Marine Chapter Planets, including Baal, home of the Blood Angels. Things were already looking pretty grim for the sons of Sanguinius, with a hive fleet closing in on them, and now it looks even bleaker. Cut off from the light of Terra, the Angels and their Successors stand unbowed against the might of Hive Fleet Leviathan, hoping they can withstand the storm.

In response to the emerging Forces of Chaos throughout the galaxy, the recently resurrected Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, and now Lord Commander of the Imperium and its vast armies, has launched his Indomitus Crusade. Gathering his new armada, along with elements of the Adeptus Custodes, a small contingent of the Silent Sisterhood, and a vast war host of Primaris Space Marines from many newly founded Chapters, the Primarch has set a winding course. Strike forces from over a dozen pre-existing Chapters of Space Marines, led by the Imperial Fists, have joined the fleet. Thus began many new legends as Guilliman travelled to aid beleaguered planets, breaking sieges and sweeping away invaders to bring hope back to the desperate defenders. It was not long before word began to spread, as all those planets that could receive astropathic messages hailed the return of a hero out of myth. Once more, one of the demigods of the past fought for the Imperium of Mankind. The scale of Guilliman's task is monumental. Following the emergence of the Cicatrix Maledictum, no world in the Imperium has been untouched by war, and there are many thousands of planets that cry out for aid and reinforcement.

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