Age of Strife

In the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Age of Strife is the name for the chaotic period of human history between the 26th and 31st millennia.

According to the "official" histories of the Imperium, the precise details and dates of the Age of Strife are not known, due to data having been lost over vast amounts of time, to the chaos of that period, and partly to censorship by various Imperial authorities.

Dark Age of Technology
The Dark Age of Technology is the name given to the period of human history that began in the 2nd millennium and ended in the 26th millennium, during which huge advances occurred in science and technology. The Dark Age of Technology saw the development of the specialised mutants known as Navigators and the earliest use of the Warp for space travel by human beings, with the greatest extent of space exploration and colonisation taking place during this period. Other notable developments include the Standard Template Construct (STC) system and the Iron Men.

Much of human civilisation underwent a catastrophic collapse at the end of the Dark Age of Technology, known as the Age of Strife, and very few records of the period survive in the 41st millennium. The Adeptus Mechanicus, original caretakers of the STC systems, have been trying to find a functional system and are willing to go to any lengths to find even the smallest printout from an STC.

Causes and Beginning
At some point during the 26th millennium, humanity was nearing the end of a period of great success, the so-called "Dark Age of Technology"; human-kind had reached its technological peak. The "Standard Template Construct", or STC, had been perfected by human scientists and was being used on a large scale. Despite an apparent lack of central authority, humans inhabited vast portions of the galaxy, and their civilization was largely free from difficulties with external factions--namely, other races. This success was about to come to an end.

One of the reasons humanity was so succesfull at conquering large part of the galaxy, was the development of the artificial constructs now only known as the "Iron Men". These powerful and fully autonomous battle robots won many wars for humanity, but for some reason turned against their masters at the end of the Dark Age of Technology. The war was eventually won by humanity, but at a great cost. The damage was catastrophic and had shattered much of humanities' power. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning.

At that time, the ancient Eldar Empire began its decline; the great success of the advanced Eldar race had led to decadence and hedonism on a great scale. This rampant corruption, which would eventually cause the Chaos God Slaanesh to be born, led to a great increase in Warp Storms. Parts of the galaxy inhabited by humans became isolated by these storms, cutting of all forms of travel and communication, leading to revolts and civil wars. Many isolated and vulnerable human-inhabited systems also became prey to unfriendly alien forces, such as the Orks.

However, by far the worst event of this period for humanity was the spectacular rise in the occurrence of human mutation, especially the mutation leading to psykers and the psychic powers they wielded. Prior to this, humans had had little experience in dealing with the forces of the warp, and the unexpected appearance of humans who could draw upon its energies led to riots, witch hunts and lynchings. Many psykers themselves were driven insane, either by the great power they suddenly possessed, the fear of persecution, or both.

Many psykers were overwhelmed by Chaos entities, and were possessed. These possessed psykers, as well as other selfish (or insane) psykers who learned to control their power, would cause even more havoc, leading to mass hysteria and devastating wars. Horrific weapons invented previously during the era of technological achievement were unleashed, turning verdant worlds such as Baal Secundus into barren, irradiated desert planets--or worse.

In a relatively short span of time, the galaxy-spanning human civilization was brought to its knees, and was forced to endure nearly five millennia of anarchy, terror, war and slavery. Other than tales of great suffering, little information has survived this dark time.

Earth and Mars
Control of the Sol System shifted constantly between Earth, Luna and Mars during the first half of the Age of Strife. By the 28th Millennium all traces of civilization on Earth were long gone; instead, techno-barbarians battled one another over the scraps of the ancient culture. Little information remains from this dark time, but it is known that tyrants such as Kalagann of Ursh (northern Asia/Russia), Cardinal Tang, and Narthan Dume of the Panpacific Empire ruled during this age. According to the novel Horus Rising by Dan Abnett, Dume was opposed by the Yndonesic Bloc, while the Urals remained a centre of industry.

Mars underwent a very different transformation. After brief anarchy, the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus emerged victorious over the mutants and unified their homeworld. The tech-priests then visited Earth but were appalled at the destruction there and saw nothing worth saving. Instead, the Martians studied the warp and after many lifetimes learned to detect 'lulls' in the warp storms. At the same time the immense fighting machines known as Titans were created.

For over a thousand years the Cult Mechanicus watched and waited. Whenever a break in the warp storms occurred, an expedition was sent, complete with a full Titan Legion and thousands of servitors and tech-priests. Some of these expeditions were lost in the warp or died on faraway worlds. Others succeeded in establishing 'Forge Worlds' - replicas of Mars. Broken messages were transmitted to Mars, but it was not until the time of the Great Crusade that the Forge Worlds and Mars would be reunited.

The End of the Age, and the Rise of the Emperor
Eventually, an immensely powerful human leader and psyker known as the Emperor divined that the final birth of Slaanesh was nearing, as well as the effect this birth would have. He made preparations for this galaxy-changing event; he gathered military forces, began his conquest of Earth, and started the processes necessary to create his genetically tailored super-warriors, the Primarchs and then, from the Primarchs' genes, created the Space Marines.

Upon the birth of Slaanesh sometime in the early 31st millennium, the crippling warp storms were swept away (which allowed for easier galactic travel), the Eldar race was nearly annihilated, and the Emperor began to carry out his plans to reunify humankind under his rule. With the Emperor's ascension, the Age of Strife was finally over and a new age had begun. This brief age of conquest, heroism and unity would be known as the Great Crusade, and it would in turn end with the tragedy of the Horus Heresy.

Legacy
The Age of Strife had a tremendous impact on human civilization. Humanity barely survived the period, and most of the knowledge of the previous golden era was lost, much of it irrevocably; in particular, the loss of the STC system is seen as a serious setback for the advancement of the Imperium. The Adeptus Mechanicus constantly searches for STC technology, and jealously guards what little it finds— in fact, it treats the STC as holy, virtually worshipping it. This focus on re-attaining and worshipping the ancient STC rather than inventing new technology, as well as the centralization of this knowledge in the hands of the Adeptus Mechanicus, has led to a stagnation of Imperial science.

Humanity as a whole became more superstitious and distrustful, something which the Imperial government goes to great lengths to encourage. In particular, the Imperium distrusts mutants, aliens and psykers; this distrust runs so deep that the Imperium has a complex secret police force, known collectively as the Inquisition, devoted to finding and destroying all aliens, daemons, mutants, unsanctioned psykers and "heretics" (anyone deemed to be straying from official Imperial doctrine) existing within the Imperium. Despite the general distrust of psykers, many critical functions of the Imperium, notably the maintenance of the Astronomican, are performed by them, so they are often rounded up by Imperial agents and forced into service. The Adeptus Ministorum (aka. the Ecclesiarchy), the official religious hierarchy of the Imperium, enforces a strict dogma including absolute devotion to the Immortal Emperor (who is treated as a god), closed-mindedness, xenophobia, and blind dedication to one's duty.

In short, the authoritarian Imperium of Man is the way it is in large part due to the great suffering endured during the Age of Strife.

Why the "Dark Age" of Technology?
During the Dark Age of Technology, humanities' power and technology were at its zenith. Yet, the people of the Imperium invariably refer to it as a "dark age". The main reason for this is that during this time humanity began to rely more and more on its technology, in particular artificial intelligences like the Iron Men. Eventually, man became so dependant on its creations that (according to Imperial mythology) it became unclear who was the master and who was the slave. Eventually this culminated in the war with the Iron Men.

With the rise of the Imperium of Man, humanity swore never to repeat the mistakes of the Dark Age of Technology by relying on "Abominable Intelligences". Instead it would rely on on the strengths of humans and humanity itself. For example, instead of autonomous warmachines, the Emperor relied on his Space Marine Legions to reconquer the galaxy. This has continued up to the 41th millennium, where AI's are considered technoheresy even by the Adeptus Mechanicus. Even technological constructs with a limited form of autonomy (often referred to as a machine spirit) will either have very limited intelligence (like a hunter-seeker missle), human biological components (servitors), crew to control it (titans) or combination thereof.