The Pale Wasting was an obscure conflict fought between the Imperium of Man and a mysterious, likely xenos threat arising from the Ghoul Stars in the Segmentum Ultima, which took place at some point during the late 34th Millennium.
The only known participant in this campaign is the Novamarines Chapter, though eleven unnamed Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes were lost in total.
History[]
During the dark and terrible times known to later historitors as the Nova Terra Interregnum, when the Imperium fractured into warrior factions, there exists in what records remain scattered and veiled references to a great threat arising from the Ghoul Stars known as the "Pale Wasting."
Inquisitorial investigation has discovered that much of the extant evidence relating to this threat has been censored or purposely destroyed, but there are contradictory indications which describe the nature of the threat as both a "star-spawned plague" that swept away scores of Human-settled worlds and as "nightmare engines" slaughtering whole sectors.
The only evidence for the Novamarines meeting this threat is an ancient stelae relating to this conflict in the Imperial Palace itself. This artefact praises the Chapter most highly and records them compellingly as having "By their mortal sacrifice and unmatched valour unmade that which cannot die and so preserved the most holy realm of Mankind."
Those partial records which have been uncovered about the event suggest that the threat was xenos in nature. The xenos threat briefly mentioned in Imperial historical records might be the Thexian Elite of the Thexian Trade Empire.
The inscription naming the Novamarines also indicates that eleven other Space Marine Chapters were lost in the final battles of what must have been a truly apocalyptic struggle. The chronicles of many Chapters noted in other sources to have taken part in this campaign are curiously empty of any reference to this conflict, and it is quite possible that this ancient threat may also account for the unusually large number of formerly Human-inhabited Dead Worlds in the region.
The Novamarines' own chronicles are curiously empty of any reference to the conflict, which makes one of their earliest recorded great battle honours remain one of the most shadowed and mysterious.
In response to the events of the Pale Wasting, the Imperium initiated the 13th Founding of the Adeptus Astartes. The Death Spectres are one of two known Chapters to have been created during this unusual Founding. Following their creation, the Death Spectres were stationed beyond the frontiers of the Imperium and charged by the High Lords of Terra to maintain a constant vigil to ensure that the inhabitants of the Ghoul Stars never again threatened the galaxy as they had in the Pale Wasting.
The nature of the threat could not be overstated enough, and the containment of such a species as the Thexians was worthy of the attention of an entire Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. To this day, the Death Spectres maintain a constant vigil to ensure that the inhabitants of the Ghoul Stars never again threaten the galaxy.
Sources[]
- Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pg. 26
- Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War, Part One, pg. 118
- Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (5th Edition), pg. 117