- M37 to M41 The Shadows Descend - Darkness and dissolution descend upon the Jericho Sector, restoring it to the name of the pre-Imperial Jericho Reach and initiating the time period in the region known as the Age of Shadows. From this point onwards, the records of its history are no more than a few fragments of an unknown whole, with only the Deathwatch’s tireless vigil maintaining any semblance of Imperial involvement in the region.
- 101.M38 The Koronus Fragments - During the preparations for a proposed Imperial Crusade to bring the volume of space known as the Calyx Expanse into Imperial Compliance, a number of apocryphal documents come to light in the vast data-stacks that house the Segmentum Obscurus naval records on Wykthorne Prime. These documents, which become known as the Koronus Fragments, are the degraded and incomplete logs of an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet of unknown age and provenance that purports to have discovered a stable passage through a vast swathe of Warp Storms at the edge of the Calyx Expanse. The few complete sections mark dozens of mineral-rich worlds, life-supporting biospheres and other areas for later exploration, which presumably never occurred. Also missing from the fragments was any concrete data on how to reach this zone, rendering them effectively useless. Nevertheless, the Koronus Fragments were added as addendum to the Angevin Crusade data, and later served to breed the legend of a vast untouched spatial zone littered with (oft-overstated) riches just beyond the reach of the numerous Rogue Trader vessels attached to the Crusade efforts.
- 111.M38 The Nightmare Lords - The Feudal World of Ynnen falls to the tyranny of an Enslaver outbreak in the Jericho Reach. A full eighty Deathwatch brothers and two Dreadnoughts have to undertake the elimination of the Enslavers. Only eleven Battle-Brothers return alive and both occupants of the Dreadnought sarcophagi are slain, but successfully returned to await new interments.
- 116.M38 The Changeling and the Maiden - TheEldar of Craftworld Il'sariadh are visited by a large troupe of Harlequins. The warrior-dancers pledge to assist the Craftworlders in their ongoing war against the daemon-worshipping humans of the Viliad Collective. Preparations are made for the Harlequins' traditional pre-battle performance. In the hypnotic spectacle that follows, the Solitaire -- who alone can play the role of Slaanesh -- begins to depart from the usual sacred patterns. To the wide-eyed horror of the Eldar elite present at the performance, the Solitaire catches the warrior playing the Great Harlequin, Cegorach, just as is he is supposed to escape from Slaanesh's clutches and breaks his neck. Cackling madly, the Solitaire billows outward, becoming a wraith-like daemon that burns with magical fire. The spellbound witnesses, their exquisitely powerful senses wide open to the Changeling's glamours, react too slowly to stop the daemon from summoning an old ally into the Great Harlequin's broken body. The Masque of Slaanesh blossoms into existence with a deafening scream of triumph. Their senses shattered, the Eldar prove easy prey. The Daemonic Heralds vent their spite upon Harlequin and Craftworlders alike before opening a portal into a haunted spar of the Webway and allowing their daemon brethren to pour through. Though the arrival of an Aspect Warrior warhost saves the Craftworld from a full-scale daemonic invasion, Il'sariadh effectively has its heart torn out with the loss of its best and brightest in the Changeling's gambit.
- 261.M38 - The Imperial Assassin Thereaux, unaware of the temporal stasis, proceeded to his target only to find the Governor long dead and replaced by an anti-Imperial committee with 1,000 members. Thereaux spent three days poisoning all the chairs in the council's auditorium to kill all the members and end the rebellion against the Imperium.
- 299.M38 - 309.M38 Altid Crusade - The Dark Angels played a crucial part in the Altid Crusade, a decade-long campaign that ended on the colony world of Altid 156. The Dark Angels committed an assault upon the colony world of Altid 156 after it had rejected the rule of Terra decades before and declared independence from the Imperium. The Dark Angels Crusade force was composed of 3 Ravenwing Squads, 5 Deathwing Terminator Squads and 5 Tactical Squads of the 5th Company, along with various support vehicles. Assaulting the pilgrim-colonists’ headquarters, the Deathwing met the foe they had really come to fight. Not the separatist colonists, but their leader – Elucidax the Keeper, a Heretic known to have inspired dozens of rebellions across the quadrant. But Elucidax was known by the Dark Angels by another name: Zeriah, the one-time Captain of the Dark Angels Legion's 14th Assault Company. Though Zeriah was a formidable opponent, killing a dozen Dark Angels, the Ravenwing captured him and transported him back to The Rock. Interrogator-Chaplain Asmodai extracted a confession from the Fallen Dark Angel, leading to the eventual capture of Zeriah’s entire band. Zeriah refused to admit his sin in joining Luther in rebellion against the Dark Angels Legion, and languishes alone in a cell to this day. Though their actions on Altid 156 had not been coordinated with the rest of the forces of the Imperium engaged in the Crusade so that they could capture the Fallen Angel, the Dark Angels claimed that "Elucidax the Keeper" had been slain at their hands. This ensured that despite the breach in protocol, no inquiries by other Imperial authorities would be made.
- 437.M38 - Iybraesil Eldar Craftworld first detected in the West Quadrant of the Segmentum Obscurus.
- Mid-M38 The Meratis Settlement - Isolationist voider families fleeing persecution in the dynastic wars of the Ixaniad Sector settle the Meratis Cluster in the stellar dead zone between the abyss and their former home. In time their numbers are swollen by human Renegades, outlaws and worse, forming the Meratech Clans.
- 537.M38 - The 9th Black Crusade erupts out of the Eye of Terror.
- 606.M38 to 792.M38 Campaign of Cleansing -The first prolonged campaign of the Tau Empire against the Orks. The Tau suffer many defeats but are ultimately able to eradicate the Greenskins, thanks in part to the Earth Caste refinement of the first Pulse Rifle. Dal'yth Sept is founded.
- 666.M38 The Blackest Time- Three Grand Masters of the Ravenwing are lost in a single year in 666.M38, each one slain while in pursuit of a group of Fallen Dark Angels. This marks the beginning of an unprecedented two-decade period where the Ravenwing has no Grand Master. During this time, the Ravenwing are given direct orders from the Grand Master of the 2nd Company of the Angels of Vengeance, as the Dark Angels wait until a suitable candidate can be found from within their own ranks.
- 788.M38 - Ecclesiarch Deacis VI creates two more orders of Adepta Sororitas, including the Order of the Bloody Rose and the Order of the Sacred Rose.
- 844.M38 The Union of Tau and Kroot- In order to combat Orks, the fortunate alliance between Tau and Kroot is established. Within a decade the Water Caste has established embassies upon Pech, the capital world of the Kroot realm.
- 873.M38 - Explorator vessel Incalculus Stellar brings an alien edifice to the asteroid research base at Skopios. The base is taken over by an unknown enemy which refashions the base to manufacture skeletal robots which may have been an early encounter with the Necrons. The Skopios base is destroyed by an Imperial strike force, and declared Purgatus for 300 standard years.
Sources
- Codex: Chaos Daemons (6th Edition), pg. 21
- Codex: Dark Angels (6th Edition), pp. 35-37
- Dark Heresy Apocrypha - Dark Heresy Timeline by Alan Bligh (RPG Web Supplement)
- Deathwatch: Know No Fear: History of the Jericho Reach (RPG)
- Rogue Trader: Epoch Koronus - A History of the Koronus Expanse (RPG)
- Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition), pg. 28
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