Introduction

THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT

All of the information in this section is commonly known, and both players and characters can choose to know it or not as they please. A basic knowledge of the Warhammer 40k setting is assumed – if you want more information on this, resources such as the Lexicanum can be used, or feel free to email the ref team.

Include a brief summary of the setting and history as is currently relevant to the game (see summary from the website, edited around a bit and cut down).

Include links to the relevant pages so people can find what they need:

Downtimes Known Space Dynasties Characters

History – Before the Current Campaign

Nearly one hundred years ago, the Hypatian Crusade started in the Ruhrort Sector when Governor Militant Achen, supported by powerful Rogue Trader Dynasties, picked up the banner of war and received sanctioning from the High Lords of Terra. What followed was half a century of bloodshed and death, as the forces of the Imperium pushed into the unknown, and drove back the Arch Enemy, firmly planting the flag of the Imperium, and moving the Sector from a border zone to an established Imperial territory.

Fighting was particularly vicious near the world of Esramir, in the region known as Eddard’s Reach, which had been taken from the Arch Enemy in the early days of the crusade, and made into a Shrine world for Saint Perit Tairay. Scholars debated why such a tactically insignificant world had been such a centre for carnage, but it remained a curiosity until twenty years ago, when Esramir, Eddard’s Reach, and the Void Station which shared its name with the region all went dark.

Esramir had been the closest planetary system to the “Maw of Ni’ir”, a cosmological phenomenon causing warp storms to sometimes scour the surrounding space, and which had been guarded by the void station of Eddard’s Reach. The Maw was famous for “spitting out” unknown materials, vox transmissions, and other strangeness, but in the years following the Crusade the Maw had become increasingly erratic. The last reports from the Station Commander of Eddard’s Reach had requested aid both in investigating the phenomenon and assessing any potential threat, and in repairing damage done by its activity. The Maw was, however, a significant distance from Esramir, and thus the Administratum had not considered it to be an active danger.

The Admistratum were in error.

The Maw of Ni’ir had changed, turning from a whirling astrological phenomenon into a twisting portal in space, several million miles in diameter, which exerted a powerful attractive force on materials across the Reach and beyond. Through this portal, augur arrays detected star systems, and uncharted space. Eddard’s Reach was gone, Esramir was gone, the planets of the system destroyed or missing and the star was bleeding plasma towards the Maw in a twisting, incinerating ribbon.

These reports prompted an abnormally decisive response from the Imperium. Voidships were dispatched to gather more information, and to establish as much of a cordon as possible. It became apparent that the Maw was now the mouth of a warp passage; a rift connecting points of realspace through a conduit in the Immaterium. The tidal forces were still a major hazard, but the rift itself was a source of great opportunity.

Actual use of the rift was impossible until recently, however, as the gravitic shoals and currents leading to the passage – not to mention the warp tides of the passage itself – tore apart every vessel that attempted approach. Eventually, scholars established that passage was possible, with the use of vanishingly rare Sanctus Gellar fields, and augur arrays capable of tracking the tidal shifts in real time.

The route to the Abyss was still far from open. Passage through the Maw, to the region of space they dubbed The Stygian Abyss, was strictly limited, but still stories of the worlds, the xenos, and of course, the riches that lay beyond started to filter back to the Imperium. This in turn lead to a fateful meeting of the most notorious Rogue Traders of the Sector.

In that meeting it was agreed to move the Arkangel Station – the long standing freeport of the sector – through the Maw of Ni’ir, and beyond Imperial tax jurisdiction once more. The Station’s Gellar field generator was strong enough for the task, and with the crusade finished, the opportunities in the Ruhrort Sector were thinning. An approach from the Sector Governor offered a resupply line back through the Maw for up to a century. With this lifeline in place, the Rogue Traders committed their fortunes and dynasties to the project. The Arkangel Station was transported to the edge of the Maw. The ships of the dynasties were secured in dock, and as the first game began, Arkangel transitioned through the Maw, a journey that was eventful, dangerous, and wracked with equipment failures.

Arkangel Station

Arkangel is a former-Naval Ramilles-class star fortress, that was used as a forward fleet base during the Third Ruhrort Crusade, over a century ago. It was reduced to ruins following a successful strike by the forces of the Archon and abandoned in deep space. Some years later, it was claimed by a trio of Rogue Trader Dynasties as legitimate war salvage, in accordance with Imperial Law.

It is said that in conjunction with several outspoken radical Arch-Magoi the Dynasties repaired systems including an archaeotech Gellar field generator of unimaginable power, and invited the collected Rogue Traders of the Expanse to tow the station through the warp to a point well beyond the Line. Here it became the seat of the Council of Angels, the appointed governing body of the Rogue Traders, although few meetings of the Council actually took place on the station.

Back across the Maw, closer to Imperial space, Arkangel was a hive of scum and villainy from which Rogue Traders launched their endeavours into the void in search of profit. It was a safe harbour and a still point in the storm of a dynasty’s existence.

Out here beyond the Maw of Ni’ir, Arkangel is the only sanctuary the Rogue Trader crews have and their last life line to the Imperium.

Law of Arkangel

Before the crusade, the Council of Angels – a collection of some of the most influential Rogue Traders in the Sector – ran Arkangel beyond the reach of Imperial Law. With the losses during the Crusade, the structure of Arkangel broke down and anarchy reigned for some time as Dynasty stood against Dynasty.

What emerged from the chaos was a bicameral division of power. “The Captains’ Table”, where the head of every Dynasty in good standing has an equal voice, took control of the business of the station, maintaining both the security and the lucrative nature of Arkangel’s business. The Captains’ Table deals with matters of policy, setting the agenda for the station and mediating disputes between the dynasties. They police their own, set and enforce expected codes and standards of behaviour, and work together for the good of the entire enterprise while, of course, furthering their own agendas, building their own legends and filling their own vaults. They are also responsible to the Imperium for keeping the space around the station open to what traffic there is, and enjoy the benefits of the main supply from Imperial Space.

The administration of the station falls under the purview of the Malakhim of Arkangel. These blank-faced servitors, bound by tight data engram-enforced loyalty to the station, fulfil the role of the Administratum. They make certain that the station is stocked, that the vaults are secured, that ships are refuelled, and that the station is mechanically and logistically kept functional. You can speak in front of one about murder, treason, or gross dereliction of Imperial Law, and – as long as nothing you say endangers the station itself – there will be no reaction. They serve to coordinate the “back room” activities that make the station functional, and to provide a non partisan ‘civil service’ that allows the Rogue Traders to be confident that the port will remain free. They take no sides in inter-dynastic disputes, but if they determine that an individual or dynasty is sufficiently beyond the pale – worshipping the dark powers, for example, or guilty of the blackest realms of Tech Heresy, or worse yet, of actions deleterious to the good order of the station – they will declare that individual or dynasty persona or personae non grata; no longer welcome at Arkangel. Access to central station resources – fuel, supplies, oxygen – will be cut off as and where practical, they are expelled from the station, and the defence grid will open fire on them and any vessel carrying them should they attempt to return.

What is crime on Arkangel?

Arkangel has minimal laws mostly offences against the station itself, in the form of the Malakhim and the machine spirit which controls the station’s central systems. These do not have strict definition, and the ‘law’ of Arkangel is very much to be considered a code, rather than a formal body of statute.

To actually have the Malakhim act against a person or crew unilaterally and without warning would involve crimes against the station itself. Worshipping the ruinous powers or performing daemonology on the station would certainly count, as would any direct attempt to damage the station or the Machine spirit itself, recklessly endangering the station or its machine spirit, attacking essential supply ships, and other deeds which threaten both the station and the premise of the entire game season. In summary: the Rogue Traders, led by the Player Character dynasties, are The Law on Arkangel in almost all circumstances, and the ref team would only intervene via NPC representatives of ‘the station’ in extreme cases e.g. very obvious demon worship, or actions that would cause serious damage to the safety of the station or its supply ships. Malakhim will rarely, if ever, show up at games.

Celestus Supply Ship

An Imperial Navy Vessel, captained by Eloise Plessner, which arrives at Arkangel once a year, bringing with it supplies, and guiding the odd wandering ship to the safe haven of Arkangel. This ship is the lifeline that the Imperium provides to resupply the station, as well as the means by which it monitors the actions of the Imperium’s quasi-official presence in this sector.

The Celestus is an archeotech design – a rare example of the Senator class voidship, and possesses a genuine relic of Mars – a Sanctus Extremis class Gellar field and Revelatio navigation array. This allows the ship to pick a safe path through the Maw of Ni’ir, as long as the Arkangel beacon is lit to guide it to home port – and to project its field a short distance beyond the hull, to carry another, smaller, ship with it.

Due to the rarity, and value, of the Senator class, whilst it is an exploration vessel, the Imperium will not send it into a known danger zone. The Captains’ Table is tasked with keeping the Arkangel station, and its immediate surrounds clear for the Celestus and her consorts to translate into.