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 setting awareness of Warhammer 40k is assumed – if you want a more basic explanation of the setting 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.