The galaxy in the Era Indomitus, divided into the Imperium Sanctus and the Imperium Nihilus by the Great Rift. The Veiled Region lies in the deep galactic south of the Imperium Sanctus.
The Veiled Region is a vast, unmapped region of Wilderness Space in the Segmentum Tempestus of the galactic south that consists of dense nebulae and newborn stars. As a result, this area of space is afflicted by high concentrations of ionising radiation, various space-time anomalies and a heavy cloak of stellar dust that makes the region very difficult to penetrate with the use of Imperial sensing technologies, hence its name.
The great expanse of the Veiled Region is known to be home to Ork Freebooters and xenos mercenaries as well as many Imperial traders seeking lucrative new routes and unexplored planets. The Veiled Region is also populated by a large number of Necron dynasties, though this is unknown to much of the Imperium.
The inhabited worlds of the Veiled Region are also known to have greatly suffered at the hands of the Khornate Berserkers of the World Eaters Traitor Legion.
History[]
Since the time of the Great Crusade, this area of space in the galactic south has been referred to as the Veiled Region. It is known that Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleets have barely probed the surface of its dense nebulae since the time of the Horus Heresy and so Imperial knowledge of the Veiled Region remains largely sketchy.
A Rogue Trader known to have travelled to the outskirts of the Veiled Region before heading to the western edge of the galaxy had limited encounters with several intelligent and previously unknown alien species in the region. The Veiled Region's astrographic hazards make it very difficult to navigate and some scholars believe that it has remained largely unexplored simply because of the large amounts of time and resources that would be required to fully map it.
Among the greatest difficulties in exploring the Veiled Region was the limited nature of astropathic communication with any Imperial vessels that ventured into the region. Astro-telepathic communications transmitted from outside the Veiled Region were often reflected back, making communication with any explorers impossible.
For all these reasons, exploration of the region was rarely attempted, and no expeditions had yet proven successful by the time of the 41st Millennium.
Due to the scarcity of knowledge of what lies within the Veiled Region, the Imperium long ago banned any Human colonies from being settled within the area. However, despite this prohibition, there are persistent but unproven rumours of many Human-settled worlds in the Veiled Region.
Sources[]
- Codex: Dark Angels (6th Edition), pg. 26
- Hellforged (Novel) by Ben Counter
- White Dwarf 477 (June 2022), "Index Hereticus: World Eaters," pg. 81