Time of Ending

The Time of Ending is an era of the Age of the Imperium that lasted from ca. 750.M41 to ca. 999.M41.

It was a period marked by rapidly growing threats to the stability of the Imperium of Man, as newly-encountered xenos species like the T'au, Necrons and Tyranids awakened or first appeared in the Milky Way Galaxy to threaten the dominion of Humanity.

The era ended with the victory of Abaddon the Despoiler and the forces of Chaos in the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, with the fall of the Fortress World of Cadia and the subsequent birth of the Great Rift across the galaxy.

History
As the threats to the Imperium grew in the last centuries of the 41st Millennium, Humanity stood on the precipice of utter extinction. The "Time of Ending" is the era of humanity's judgment, where faith was tested by fire and all men's courage was pushed to its limits -- and well beyond.

Secession, rebellion, Chaos corruption and heresy were now rife within every corner of the Imperium. Sensing weakness, alien empires ancient and new to humanity's experience -- Orks, Aeldari, T'au, Necrons and perhaps worst of all, the Tyranids -- close in from every side.

Zealots ranted that the xenos are Mankind's punishment, its just consequences for straying from the Emperor's guidance. The rise of mutants and witches was yet another sign of humanity's sin. Desperate messages from across the galaxy echoed through the Warp.

Astropaths worked feverishly to pull the transmissions from the Immaterium and translate them, to sift the meaning from the garble. The messages were increasingly dire: Planetary Governors sent desperate pleas for aid, Astra Militarum officers called for reinforcements, fleet commanders issued ominous warnings of enemy starship movements.

The forces of the Imperium fought with the valour of ancient heroes, defending humanity from within, without and beyond -- but they could not be everywhere at once.

The Space Marines and Astra Militarum were at war as never before, even during the Horus Heresy, defending humanity from threats within, without and beyond the boundaries of reality.

The news grew worse daily, the attacks on the Imperium steadily increasing. Most ominous of all, the prescient foretell of great ripples in the Warp, like a swell in the water disturbed by some colossal but unseen menace in the depths below.

Fell things were gathering in that dread realm, straining as never before to break the bounds of reality.

The Imperium made official first contact with the T'au during the Damocles Gulf Crusade, also called the Damocles Crusade, which was the first military conflict fought between the Imperium of Man and the rapidly expanding T'au Empire in the Lithesh Sector of the Ultima Segmentum in the galaxy's Eastern Fringes during the late 41st Millennium.

The conflict essentially ended in a stalemate, as the Imperium was forced to conclude its military offensive early to deal with the encroaching Tyranid threat while the T'au sought to begin diplomatic negotiations with the Imperium to show humanity the benefits to be had by accepting the Greater Good.

Members of the T'au Water Caste had established trade agreements with Imperial worlds on the frontier of the T'au Empire, near the Damocles Gulf region of the Ultima Segmentum in the galactic east, and exchanges of goods and technology were common.

Alarmed by the threat of alien contamination, the Administratum readied a suitable response and almost a Terran century later, the Damocles Crusade smashed into T'au space, destroying several outlying settlements and pushing deep into the T'au Empire.

When the Imperial fleet reached the T'au Sept world of Dal'yth Prime, however, the crusade ground to a bloody stalemate as the formidable numbers and high technology of the T'au and their Kroot allies thwarted every attempt to capture the world or its star system.

Many solar months of terrible fighting ensued with nothing gained on either side. By late 742.M41 the crusade's commanders eventually agreed to requests from the Water Caste for peace talks.

The negotiations were successful and the Imperial fleet withdrew from T'au space unmolested, primarily due to the impending approach of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth.

The Time of Ending earned its name in 744.M41 when Taggarath, the Seer of Corrinto, proclaimed the approach of the End Times. He prophesied a time of unprecedented upheaval, in which even the light of the Emperor was eventually swallowed in darkness, perhaps a premonition of the Noctis Aeterna to come.

Taggarath was swiftly executed by the Inquisition for heresy -- and to keep his prophecies unknown by the wider Imperial public, but the doomsayer's cry was picked up by other psychic sensitives on planets beyond count across the human-settled galaxy.

In 745.M41 the Tyranids first entered the galaxy and the Tyrannic Wars began. Hive Fleet Behemoth destroyed the Imperial star systems of Tyran (for which the Tyranids are named) and Thandros. Later that same year, Hive Fleet Behemoth descended upon the Realm of Ultramar, the fief of the Ultramarines, laying waste to several worlds and badly damaging the Space Marines' greatest Chapter.

The bold deeds done during the Battle of Macragge are one of the most enduring of the many legends of the Ultramarines. Chapter Master Marneus Calgar was gravely wounded by the horror known as the Swarmlord, and the Ultramarines' Veteran 1st Company were slain to the last man, but their sacrifice bought time for two Imperial Navy battlefleets to converge upon Macragge and finally end the Behemoth's threat.

Still reeling from the terrible wounds, Imperial Commanders across the Ultima Segmentum looked to their borders with growing unease.

The Blood Star Campaign unfolded in 748.M41, when the star Ares turned blood red. It heralded increased daemonic activity in the Scarus Sector. Before the brutal campaign ended, it claimed untold lives, including three Chapter Masters and the Fleet Admiral of the Segmentum Obscurus.

In 750.M41 the Great Exodus occurred. A strange swirling phenomenon in the Argos System was only a curiosity until the sudden appearance of six Aeldari Craftworlds.

By the time the Imperial Fleet arrived, both the swirling mass and the Aeldari were gone, yet in their passing all prime suns within sixty light years were extinguished.

The Imperial Fleet and innumerable transports attempted to ferry the countless billions of Imperial citizens to neighbouring star systems, in what was the largest exodus ever attempted by the Imperium.

It is estimated that nearly 12% of the population and 32% of the heavy industry of the region were safely removed. The ring of dead planets and suns is now known as the Deadhenge, a salvager's paradise and refuge of pirates.

The year 757.M41 saw the first recorded incidence of the dread Zombie Plague erupting on the world of Hydra Minoris. A quarantine was imposed by the Imperial Navy, trapping 23 billion uninfected people alongside a rising tide of the hungry, contagious and mindless undead children of Nurgle.

In 766.M41, many Imperial watch stations and listening posts in the Catachan and Ryza Systems are attacked by Eldar pirates under the command of Yriel. Without their early warning "eyes and ears," this leaves both star systems vulnerable for decades to come.

In 783.M41 Aeldari Asuryani from the Ulthwé Craftworld destroyed an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet above the Dead World of Maedrax, but not before several probes were released and a distress hymnal despatched.

Some solar months later, Space Marines from the Blood Angels' 3rd Company arrived at the point of the fleet's disappearance and became embroiled in the ongoing war between Ulthwé's forces and the Necrons that the Explorators inadvertently awoke on Maedrax's surface.

An uprising in the Krandor System in 795.M41 was harshly put down by the 23rd Cadian Regiment. Several of the Chaos Cults involved in the rebellion, notably the followers of the Shining Deity, the Cult of Many Tentacles and the red-robed Brotherhood, had not been seen since the Fourth Quadrant Rebellion.

Although both military and civilian losses are high, the Krandor Rebellion's quick subjugation is vital. The Imperium could ill-afford to lose the resource-rich Krandor System, which held planets strategically vital to the whole of the Segmentum Obscurus.

Throughout the Segmentum Ultima, in 797.M41, countless Ork invasions threaten to mass into a single colossal WAAAGH! The forces of the Imperium are stretched to their utmost to contain each individual war zone. Notable actions include Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, holding the gate alone for a night and a day against the Greenskin hordes during the Siege of Zalathras and the 2nd Company's utter devastation of Warboss Brug's planetary stronghold.

In 801.M41 a brief flicker in the Astronomican throws thousands of ships off course, dooming them to destruction in the Warp. The incident indicates that the Emperor may be weakening.

The lamentable campaign known as the Siege of Vraks occurs from 813-830.M41. The Apostate-Cardinal Xaphan leads the Armoury World of Vraks Prime into the service of the Ruinous Powers. As the forces of the Imperium arrive to quell the rebellion, they are immediately met in battle, followed by a rapid escalation of forces on both sides. The seventeen-year-long campaign ends in a full-scale daemonic incursion and, finally, the intervention of the Ordo Malleus and the Grey Knights. By the end, Vraks is entirely laid waste, its entire population exterminated.

In 822.M41 the Warmaster of Chaos Abaddon the Despoiler raids the Eldar Maiden World of Ildanira, seeking a long-lost Chaos artefact. He is driven away by the forces of the Alaitoc Craftworld. Such an action is only minor compared to the many wars consuming the galaxy at this time, but its portents loom large in hindsight.

By 853.M41, the uprising against Imperial rule on Krandor III, thought to have been successfully suppressed over fifty standard years previously, had once more grown strong. Mutants, psykers and all manner of outcasts had been nurtured in darkness and corruption by the whisper of cowled Chaos Cultists. Even as the surging rebellion takes over the planet's surface, hive city by hive city, the orbital sentinel stations and moon-based defence lasers are captured by Chaos Space Marines accompanied by loathsome creatures, neither man nor mutant but wholly daemonic. Three Space Marine Chapters, led by the stoic Imperial Fists, secure resources, Imperial artefacts and a few Adeptus Administratum officials before an Exterminatus is mercifully delivered. Some 42 Imperial Guard regiments from Krandor III still exist, the only survivors of their lost and benighted world because they had been shipped to distant war zones before the rebellion began.

In 863.M41 the Saint Cyllia Massacre occurred when the Adamant Fury Titan Legion betrayed the Emperor and fell to Chaos. The Traitor Titan Legion turned its guns upon Loyalist regiments of the Saint Cyllian Planetary Defence Forces before making good their escape off-world. The loss of a full Titan Legion sends ripples of concern through the Imperium and great effort is exerted to find and destroy them, particularly by the Mechanicus and its Collegia Titanica.

In 876.M41 Chaos came to the world of Van Horne in the event later known as The Bloodtide to the Inquisition. The Bloodthirster Ka'jagga'nath, Lord of the Bloodtide, broke free of his bonds and unleashed a tide of gore that corrupted everything it touched. For eight solar days and nights, the orgies of blood continue, each fresh death luring yet more daemons to the mortal world as the barrier between the Materium and the Warp breaks down on Van Horne. Only when the Grey Knights' 4th Brotherhood arrived was the Bloodtide abated, and then only at great cost. Ka'jagga'nath is cast back into the Warp. The psychic backlash also banishes the Bloodtide and the daemons it had drawn forth.

In 883.M41 the 423rd Cadian Regiment's spearhead, led by Knight Commander Pask, was the largest armoured assault undertaken by the Imperium since the Battle of Tallarn during the Horus Heresy. Over 8,000 Imperial tank companies and 35 super-heavy tank detachments were annihilated during the nearly total destruction of the Renegade Adamant Fury Traitor Titan Legion upon the Planus Steppes.

In 888.M41, during the Crusade of Wrath, the Black Templars Chapter inflicts heavy losses on the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, reclaiming several star systems previously lost in the Maelstrom.

In 891.M41 the worlds of Persya suffer attacks from Eldar Corsairs during the Long Midnight, who swathe their targets in utter darkness before pillaging and slaughtering at will. The vicious raids only cease upon the arrival of the Praxion Patrol.

In 897.M41, the fortress-convent known as Sanctuary 101 is destroyed, with all the Sisters of Battle within, by the Necrons. No survivors or signs of the perpetrators are left behind. Some few savants in the Imperium begin to understand the vast threat that the awakening Necrons might become to Mankind.

In that same year, 897.M41, a new Tyranid menace, code-named Hive Fleet Gorgon, is spotted by Imperial outposts, heading directly for the growing T'au Empire in the Eastern Fringe. No warnings are given to the T'au of what is to befall them.

In 901.M41 the terrible civil conflict known as the Badab War begins when Lufgt Huron, the Chapter Master of the Astral Claws Space Marines, refuses to hand over his Chapter's tithe of gene-seed to the Administratum and instead announces his secession from the Imperium, declaring himself the "Tyrant of Badab." Twelve standard years of intersystem war follow, wreaking havoc on shipping lanes in the Maelstrom Zone and embroiling more than a dozen Space Marine Chapters. With much loss, Badab Primaris finally falls to the Loyalist forces, but Lufgt Huron and some 200 of the Astral Claws escape to take refuge in the Maelstrom of the Ultima Segmentum. There, they become Heretic Astartes and change their name to the Red Corsairs. They become dreaded pirates and raiders of Imperial commerce. Huron adopts the title of "Blackheart" and continues to recruit more Astartes Renegades to join his growing Chaos empire.

In 907.M41 Ork WAAAGH! activity rises throughout all five Segmentums of the Imperium, forcing the Novamarines, Raptors and Howling Griffons to be redeployed away from the Badab War to counter the growing Greenskin threat.

In 913.M41 the disciples of the Thousand Sons Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman sack the Librarium on the world of Jollana.

In 920.M41 Eldar pirates attack the advance Escort of a fleet of Black Ships as they exit Warpspace in the Thanos System. The pirates destroyed three Frigates and captured the troopship Emperor's Faithful. The pirates quickly disappeared, taking with them a vast complement of Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy personnel. As a result, the fleet of Black Ships is left vulnerable and is picked off one by one in further raids.

In 925.M41, the Necron Worldengine is revealed as the architect of the destruction of the Vidar Sector. It is finally destroyed, thanks chiefly to the sacrifice of the entire Astral Knights Chapter.

In 926.M41 during the Vaxhallan Genocide, a Chaos Space Marine warband known as The Purge slaughtered over 14 billion Imperial citizens and claimed the planet Vaxhall as their own. Vaxhall served as an Astropath relay hub and as an Imperial Fortress World, the buttress of the Herakles System.

In 937.M41 Inquisitor Pranix lead 5 companies of Space Wolves and units of the 301st Cadian and the 14th Tallarn Imperial Guard regiments in an attempt to reclaim the 9 Hollow Worlds from the clutches of the Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs warband. The Imperium's forces are stunned to see how quickly the Red Corsairs have expanded and how vast their Renegade empire of pirates has grown.

In 941.M41 the Second War for Armageddon began when the largest and most powerful Ork in millennia, the Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, lead a vast WAAAGH! that, after much rampaging, meets its match upon Armageddon, a Hive World of vital strategic importance to the Imperium in the Segmentum Solar. The Orks are defeated only by the stubborness of the defenders, the combined might of three Space Marines Chapters and the legendary heroics of Commissar Yarrick. Ghazghkull escapes and vows to return one day.

In 963.M41 the Imperium ran afoul of the T'au Empire when the Ultramarines clashed with a T'au expeditionary fleet for control of the cursed planet of Malbede. When the conflict awakened the Necrons whose tombs were hidden on Malbede, the Ultramarines joined the T'au in a temporary alliance to defeat the emerging Necrons. In the wake of the battle, Exterminatus is proclaimed on Malbede by the Ultramarines' Chapter Master Marneus Calgar, but he generously allows the T'au to evacuate before the surface of the planet is destroyed. The planet's destruction sets off a brief flicker of unknown energy on dozens of planets throughout the galaxy. Many fear that more Tomb Worlds are awakening. Unfortunately, the Imperium of Man now finds itself facing two more alien enemies -- the humanoid T'au who seek to expand their growing interstellar empire to "serve the Greater Good" and the Necrons who seek to reestablish their galaxy-wide empire of ages past.

In 969.M41 the ancient starship Blade of Eternity is once again sighted, this time near the Cando System. As it is approached, the ship is mysteriously replaced by the infamous Death Guard Plagueship Terminus Est. The Zombie Plague sweeps across the system. Infected refugees carry the Chaos foulness far and wide across the Imperium.

In 973.M41 a violent Warp Storm troubles the dreams of men across the galaxy -- for those more psychically aware, the storms prove catastrophic. Nightmares crack the barrier between realspace and the Warp, slaying many psykers and creating rifts between the Immaterium and reality. Although brief, thousands of daemonic incursions cause untold damage and many dark seeds of corruption are planted.

In 975.M41 the Bloodthirster Skarbrand materialises on the Cadian Fortress World of Lutoris Epsilon. His berserk rage infects all he surveys and soon the fortifications are drenched in blood as the Imperial Guardsmen turn upon each other in crazed bloodlust. Lutoris has since been considered cursed and is currently classified as a quarantined Forbidden World by the Inquisition.

In 976.M41 a massive Ork invasion smashes into the western sector of the Segmentum Ultima. WAAAGH! Grax is denied taking the Forge World of Ryza, but the surrounding sectors suffer great devastation.

In 989.M41 WAAAGH! Snagrod rampages across the Loki Sector, culminating in an assault on Rynn's World that nearly wipes out the venerated Crimson Fists Chapter of Space Marines when an unfortunate accident destroys their fortress-monastery. Imperial forces retake the Agri-world in 991.M41 and the Crimson Fists begin the long process of rebuilding the Chapter back to full strength. Though the Orks were finally driven off Rynn's World, Chapter Master Pedro Kantor declines the opportunity for pursuit, instead throwing his efforts into rebuilding the Crimson Fists to their former glory. Snagrod himself escapes, and proceeds to wreak further havoc across the sector.

In 992.M41 Eldar forces attack Cadian holdings on the world of Aurent, only to be utterly defeated through the inspired tactical genius of Ursarkar E. Creed.

In 993.M41 the Ultramarines crush a rebellion on the industrial world of Ichar IV, only to find themselves in the forefront of a desperate defence against the arrival of the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Kraken. Elsewhere, the Eldar Craftworld Iyanden is simultaneously ravaged by other tendrils of the Kraken. Two Space Marine Chapters--the Scythes of the Emperor and the Lamenters -- are all but wiped out by the Hive Fleet and hundreds of Imperial worlds are lost to the ravenous Tyranids before the incursion later known as the Second Tyrannic War is finally halted.

In 138.997.M41 humanity peers into the abyss when the twin tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan emerge from intergalactic space and strike at the underbelly of the Imperium from below the galactic plane, cutting a swathe of truly horrific destruction through Segmentum Tempestus, Ultima and Solar in what is sometimes called the Third Tyrannic War. It becomes clear that the two previous Tyranid incursions into the galaxy were only reconnaissance expeditions for the main Hive Fleet. From Macragge to Ultima Macharia, the forces of the Imperium hurry to confront this new threat, leaving many sectors open to attack by other enemies.

In 221.997.M41 the world of Piscina IV is invaded by Orks under the joint leadership of Ghazghkull Thraka and the Bad Moons klan Warboss Nazdreg. Orkish teleportation technology is employed in a surprise attack and only the stout defence commanded by Master Belial of the Dark Angels Chapter and the timely arrival of reinforcements ends the Ork threat. Although the Imperial victory is great, several Imperial commanders, including Belial, feel that Ghazghkull has another trick up his sleeve.

In 509.997.M41 elements from the Ultramarines and Mortifactors Space Marine Chapters make a stand against one spur of Hive Fleet Leviathan on the world of Tarsis Ultra. The defenders defeat this tendril with the use of a genetically-engineered biological plague, but the remainder of the enormous Hive Fleet rampages on unaffected.

In 601.997.M41 Ghazghkull Thraka comes face-to-face with his old human nemesis, Commissar Yarrick, on the battlefields of the world of Golgotha. Yarrick is captured by the Orks but ultimately released as Warlord Ghazghkull is planning to invade Armageddon once more and wants to ensure a good fight. Greenskins flock to Ghazghkull's WAAAGH! in even greater numbers.

In 977.997.M41 the small but vibrant T'au Empire begins its Third Sphere Expansion. The T'au forcibly capture half a dozen more Imperial worlds on the Eastern Fringe near the Damocles Gulf and several more join the T'au Empire willingly to serve their Greater Good. The war has suffered several lulls and escalations and shows no sign of relenting.

In 757.998.M41 Ghazghkull finally returns to Armageddon for his long awaited rematch in the Third War for Armageddon at the head of a new, even greater Ork WAAAGH!. Ghazghkull has further perfected the teleportation technology that he experimented with on Piscina IV and begins the campaign with devastating victories over the Imperial defenders. Imperial Commanders, having learnt from their previous encounters with this wily Ork Warlord, commit massive numbers of troops and quickly send out the call for nearby Space Marine Chapters and further reinforcements. Several solar months into what rapidly becomes a battle of attrition, Ghazghkull grows bored with the grinding stalemate and leaves his minions behind to finish the fight while he sets off to conquer the surrounding planets. He is pursued by Commissar Yarrick and the Black Templars, who swear an oath to finally bring the Greenskin to heel.

In 718.999.M41 Hive Fleet Leviathan invades the large Ork Empire based in the Octarius System, unleashing the Octarius War. The battle between Tyranids and Greenskins rages on with no signs of stopping. Imperial Navy scout patrols keep a close eye on the conflict, for should a victor emerge, there are precious few forces of the Imperium on hand to counter whichever enemy should arise out of the sector-wide bloodbath.

In 884.999.M41 the Dark Angels' 5th Company battles elements of the Crimson Slaughter Chaos Space Marine warband for the control of the artefact known as the Hellfire Stone. The Nephilim Sector trembles as the hated foes clash...

In 975.999.M41 the light of the Astronomican grows noticeably dimmer, while contact is lost with Ultima Macharia and is intermittent with Macragge and Cypra Mundi. Some Imperial savants theorise that this is because of delays and losses amongst the Black Ships, while others point to omens of impending doom and the weakening of the Emperor.

In 978.999.M41 Dark Eldar raiders cripple the massive Imperial Navy moorings at Bakka, leaving many Imperial star systems vulnerable to attack.

In 980.999.M41 the Red Corsairs launch a major raid from out of the Maelstrom, bringing the Chogoris, Kaelas and Sessec Systems under siege. Rumours report Huron Blackheart has grown his group of Renegades as large as the full Space Marine Legions of ancient times. The Chaos Lord now wields military power unseen since the time of the Heresy.

In 982.999.M41 "The Great Awakening" occurs, when a ripple of psychic activity passes through the Imperium, awakening the dormant powers of countless latent psykers. The resulting backlash creates innumerable Warp rifts and a thousand worlds are lost, hopelessly embroiled in daemonic incursions.

In 987.999.M41 the Necrons rise to strike the Cypra Segentus System -- the first recorded Necron attacks within only 2,000 light years of Terra.

In 989.999.M41 the Ultramarines' 3rd Company liberates the Lagan System from the T'au Empire during the conflict known as the "War of the Rising Sons." Even while they do so, several key worlds of the neighbouring Dolmac System capitulate without firing a shot to T'au ambassadors and join the T'au Empire.

In 990.999.M41 the Devastation of the Octarius Belt occurs when Eldar from the Biel-Tan and the Saim-Hann Craftworlds assault many worlds surrounding the Octarius System with the intent of denying crucial biological resources to Hive Fleet Leviathan. Many are Ork-held worlds, but quite a few were colonised by the humans of the Imperium. The loss of human life is substantial, as is the loss of tithes that the planets would have paid to the Imperium in its time of need.

In 992.999.M41, the Night of a Thousand Rebellions occurs. Uprisings and discord strike countless planets across the Imperium. Unrest races like wildfire, consuming many outlying planets, but also supposedly secure worlds like Enceladus, Darkhold, and Minisotira. Even the homeworld of the Lions Defiant Space Marine Chapter is lost to anarchy caused by secret cults and frenetic agitators. Contact is lost between Terra and large swathes of the Segmentum Pacificus.

In 993.999.M41, wave after wave of Astropathic pleas for help flood at once from all across the galaxy, though there is only an eerie silence from the Segmentum Pacificus. So powerful is the influx, so overbearing is the psychic current, that the Adeptus Astra Telepathica suffers serious personnel losses amongst their Astropaths. Whole choirs collapse at once, driven mad or slain outright, their minds bursting. Vast breakdowns in Imperial communications ensue, increasing both anarchy and panic as the endless psychic screams for help echo across time and space.

In 999.M41 the Blood Angels are tested as never before. A tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan is judged to be on a direct course for their homeworld of Baal. Worse, the dread Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha returns from the darkness of the Warp with a daemon army at his command, his first blow striking against Ammonai, outermost planet of the Baal System. Faced with a terrible war on at least two fronts, Lord Commander Dante of the Blood Angels makes swift preparation, uniting many Imperial and non-human worlds under the banner of survival. Even some former foes can be counted in Dante's alliance, though whether or not they can be entirely trusted is another matter.

In 995.999.M41, Abaddon the Despoiler launches the 13th Black Crusade out of the Eye of Terror with the intent to seize the world of Cadia and the surrounding worlds of the Cadian Gate it defends and so allow the Forces of Chaos to assault the heart of the Imperium for the first time since the Horus Heresy. The forces of the Chaos Gods read like a roll call from epic battles of past ages. Always in the vanguard are the Black Legion, followed by the Death Guard, World Eaters, Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, Night Lords and others from the annals of the Imperium's blackest days. Legions and Renegade Chapters of Space Marines long thought extinct renew their assaults on the realm of the hated Corpse Emperor. Before them run infected, plague-ridden Chaos Cultists, deranged mutants and traitorous scum in numbers too great to be counted. Behind them tower Daemon Princes, Daemonhosts and other Warp creatures eager for the slaughter to be found in the mortal realm.

Astropaths everywhere cringe to open their minds to receive messages, for the Empyrean rings with mind-splitting peals, possibly the sound of the myriad tears ripping in the barrier between the Materium and the Warp, or perhaps it is simply the laughter of the Dark Gods. The Imperium is forced to mobilise the largest military force in its history since the Heresy to meet the massive Chaos assault. After a gruelling campaign with a death toll that spirals into the trillions, Abaddon the Despoiler succeeds in tearing down the strange pylons that for millions of standard years had held the Cadian Gate as a stable region of space by using the damaged Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity as an artificial meteorite to assault the Fortress World.

Despite the best efforts of the Imperium's staunchest defenders -- including the Black Templars, Imperial Fists, Dark Angels and Space Wolves -- the Fortress World of Cadia, lynchpin of the defences surrounding the Cadian Gate, eventually falls and a wave of Warp Storms roars into being across the length of the galaxy. Though reinforcements continue to arrive for both sides, Imperial forces begin a great exodus while battles still rage throughout the sector.

Strange events, the appearance of the ancient Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl and a cryptic alliance with a mysterious Aeldari faction known as the Ynnari conspire to awaken the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman from his millennia-long slumber in a stasis chamber during the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade. The Primarch is immediately embroiled in battle as a Chaos assault by the Black Legion as Abaddon attempts to prevent his return, though he successfully drives the servants of the Dark Gods from Ultramar, for a time.

Guilliman then embarks upon the successful Terran Crusade through many tribulations to return to Terra and meet with his father the Emperor for the first time in ten thousand standard years. What passes between them is unknown, but when he emerges from the Imperial Palace, Guilliman initiates plans for Imperial survival that he first set into motion in the days immediately after the end of the Horus Heresy.

But even as Cadia falls and a Primarch returns to the Imperium, the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan march ever closer to Terra, drawn by the light and power of the Astronomican in the Warp inevitably towards the heart of the Imperium. The heroism of the Space Marines and the Inquisition manages to slow down the progression of the massive Hive Fleet, but its ultimate objective is never in doubt.

With doom looming over the Imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicus learned a terrifying secret in 986.999.M41: the mechanisms of the Golden Throne have begun to fail and they no longer possess the knowledge required to repair that ancient piece of technology. Unless something can be done, the God-Emperor will die and then humanity will face the drawing darkness alone...