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Defeat means extinction, and the path to victory leads only to war.
- First said by Malal and later repeated by Hsiagn'la as the one truth it said.
Extracts from Arc 1: Arrival
1.2: The Swarm versus the Orks
By Retired General Tereyev, The Ocean of War, 510M35.To say the reputation of the Fay 20th Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Guard throughout the military forces of the Nyx Sector was poor when the Orks crashed into their home system would be a considerable understatement. In the Petersburg Campaign, this particular regiment, along with the Fay 8th and 6th Infantry, had been severely mauled in a matter of days, its heavy equipment and two-thirds of its deployment effectives lost. To add further humiliation, General Wu-Liu, in charge of the operation's theatre, chose to send the survivors back to Fay III rather than merge them into another Fay force, confirming their poor fighting skills without making an official statement. Wu-Liu's probable intention was to put the maximum number of light years between the crippled Fay units and any xenos threat, and then forget their sub-optimal performance as quickly as possible.
If that was the good general's plan, force was to assess it backfired spectacularly. The Ork threat came to the Fay System in the typical brutish manner of this loathsome race, and the Fay 20th Infantry found itself back on the frontlines despite being quite short on mechanised transports. If Lady Weaver had not started her illustrious career there, it is very likely the Fay 20th would have disappeared in one of the millions of archives as a record noting the destruction of another Imperial regiment. As it was, these soldiers did not fade into obscurity. Difficult to imagine that one hundred years later, no less than six generals of His Most Holy Majesty would demand that Fay regiments be transferred to their Sectors...
1.3: Enemies Arise
By Retired General Tereyev, The Ocean of War, 510M35.There are many strategists to argue the Orks were their own worst enemy on the Fay Campaign, an observation reported millions of times since humanity first encounter with this odious race. It is difficult to argue with this assessment. The xenos committed a series of blunders a novice officer would have avoided. The groups of greenskins which were sent in pursuit of the retreating Imperium soldiers were pathetically small, letting more than a regiment turn around and destroy them piece-meal. A large quantity of the limited equipment looted on the site of their first victory was expended against each other or threats of little value. No general goal was fixed to conquer the planet. Save spatial mines, the space around the planet was left virtually unopposed. And last but not least, the Orks chose to attack the strongest defensive position on Fay III guarded by Lady Weaver and three regiments of His Most Holy Majesty's Guard, with its immediate bloody consequences...
1.4: Shield of Fay
By Retired General Tereyev, The Ocean of War, 510M35.That the Second Battle of Ramev Pass was of an unimaginable ferocity was not a surprise. When the enemy is the Orks, Imperial commanders have long since learnt to expect the worse from the very beginning.
What was more surprising was the scenario of the destructive engagement. By all rights, the Guard and PDF regiments' only choice was to stand on the defensive. The orks rushing to kill them were too numerous, had too many war machines and had destroyed mere days ago a human army far more powerful and motivated than this one. Even in this case, the simulations gave to the Fay 20th and its reinforcements exactly 2.476% of chance to stop the greenskins the time necessary for the Navy and support to reinforce them. Several generals of the time were known to comment the simple act of delaying the green tides by two or three hours in the mountains where orbital strikes could easily obliterate them would already be a fantastic victory.
But this time, the paradigm changed. For the first time in their long and bloody history, the orks faced a strategist more unpredictable than them. The xenos did not find an answer on this day. To give the monsters their due, there were far from the only ones to bite the dust that decade in the Nyx Sector.
Lady Weaver has never been viewed as a commander easy to counter...
1.5: Stand and Kill
By Retired General Tereyev, The Ocean of War, 510M35.The Second Battle of Ramev Pass saw twenty-three Order of Fay 1st class being awarded to the Guard and PDF regiments which stood against the orks. For twenty-one of the recipients, these decorations were awarded posthumously.
1.6: To the Stars
Retired Lord Militant Tor, Victory at all cost, 630M36.The battles fought in the Fay System were of course close to insignificant in numbers by the Imperium standards. If events had stopped at this point, undoubtedly the eyes of strategists and other war students would have never been attracted to such unremarkable and distant planets.
But the challenges had only just started for the Nyx Sector. The Fay 20th Regiment had not yet earned their well-deserved reputation as 'Weaver's Own', but the first steps on this path had been walked...
Ciaphas Cain, To Serve the Emperor: A Commissar's Life, 106M42.
In my long and glorious career, I have long concluded it is best to stay far away from the Fay regiments when they launch their attack. These men are so convinced Lady Weaver is watching over them they're ready to kill Gargants with their bare hands to prove their devotion.
It wouldn't be so bad if they were not expecting me to lead by example...surely blowing up one of those cursed behemoths was enough? On the good side, they provided me so much tanna afterwards I did not manage to drink all the stock until my retirement...
Extracts from Arc 2. Peril
2.1: Inquisition War
From The Limits of the Inquisition's power by Thomar Darkor, 631M33. The author was declared Hereticus and executed the day after the publication of his work.By the Imperium sacred laws, the word of a man bearing the Inquisitorial rosette must be ordered like it comes from the mouth of the Emperor Himself. There is no limit to the power an Inquisitor can wield: Admirals commanding thousands of warships, Cardinals having converted hundreds of lost human cultures and Lords of the Adeptus Terra are known to obey the Holy Order of the Inquisition without reservation.
With this kind of authority at his disposition, one would expect any Inquisitor to face little opposition from local authorities, whether they are civilians or military. In truth, cooperation is generally far from assured. Not only the work of an Inquisitor is as likely to save an inhabited planet as reducing it to a rock devoid of life, the actions of the Ordo are often skirting the line between dubious loyalty and outright heresy. No wonder then tales of Inquisitor tend to be frightful things terrorising old and young, veterans and ignorant...
Unofficial motto of the Holy Order of the Inquisition.
Innocence proves nothing.
2.2: Shadows of the Hive
Extract from The Systems of the Nyx Sector Volume Three by Adept Victor Yew, 204M35.If there is one planet prized by the elite of the Nyx Sector for its superb sights and heavenly conditions of life, this planet is not Wuhan Secundus. Discovered in 906M31 by the 811th Expedition Fleet of Lady Admiral Theresa, Wuhan Secundus was recognised as a Hive World at the beginning of M34 and started to pay the Administratum tithes still in effect today. Six Great Hives have been built during the previous millennia in addition to a hundred minor Hives, thousands of factorum and various production hubs for the Departmento Munitorum. The skies are permanently clouded by the pollution of the sheer industry manufacturing day and night the guns and tanks the Imperial Guard needs to fight in His Most Divine Majesty's name. The gravity is recorded at 1.34G and the average temperature on the ground is 14 Celsius degrees. While augmentation and other procedures are not strictly necessary for visitors staying less than a day on the surface, the protocols demand every non-augmented personnel to use a rebreather mask outside the air-purified sectors.
Together with the Imperial Navy facilities around the ice giant Wuhan Sextus and the sparsely populated Mining World of Wuhan Tertius, the Wuhan System is the sub-sector capital, boasting one hundred and thirty-five billion souls in the service of the God-Emperor. Its security has not been violated since the 'Gadargh Incident' in 004M35 and hundreds of regiments and warships are serving proudly the Imperium of Mankind all over the galaxy. Wuhan Secundus is the seat of well-known trade organisations such as the Hubei Cartel, the Shanxi United Shipping Company and of course the Wuhan-Cao Cartel.
2.3: The Vault of Infinity
Extract from a speech of Cadian General Kurtzer before the Kar Duniash academy cadets, 980M38.The Necrons are one of the most redoubtable xenos races the Imperium of Mankind has ever had to fight across the stars. These metallic creatures are impossible to scare, incredibly difficult to destroy and their armament is ignoring so many laws of reality it is akin to sorcery no matter what the Tech-Priests say.
For all their strengths, it is evident the Necrons are a shadow of their former glory. The very technology they used to sleep through hundreds of thousands years was far from perfect and has resulted in the madness of at least five-sixths of their tomb-worlds. A large number of their most important citadels have not survived the aeons, resulting in a broken chain of hierarchy. Where before the Necrons would have mustered in an invincible tide of silver and green energy, their nobles are now fighting between themselves and pursuing old grudges. These xenos who regain consciousness have also lost a lot of their capacity for innovation and stratagems. The Crypteks of the Tomb-Worlds are often the sole beings able to understand and repair their terrible mechanisms and each loss of this particular techno-caste suffer is a grieving blow for their race.
However let's be no mistake: even this shadow is able to threaten the galaxy. The smallest Necron platoon is able to cause untold massacre if it is not stopped at the very start of its rampage. The smallest Necron army, commanded by a determined Overlord, can wipe out all existence on an Imperial World in a matter of hours. If the Imperial archives are so confused on the date of first contact with the Necrons, it is because many dynasties of these murderous xenos leave no survivors when they have the means and the opportunity. This is why the awakening of any Tomb-World always requires the formation of an elite strike force of Guard regiments led by Astartes companies at full strength. Unless the Imperial planet is a Fortress World or a Death World, there is little chance the local PDF will be able to resist these metallic xenos...
2.4: The Endless Swarm
Preaching of Cardinal Greyer at the Great Cardinal Council of Weaveria-Syr, 120M41.It is an old saying one can estimate the value of a person by the number and the strength of his or her enemies. Common soldiers of His Most Holy Majesty have generally hundreds of them. Officers have thousands. Heroes of the Imperium and legendary generals have millions of them. But nowhere this proverb was more justified than in Saint Taylor's example.
All her life the most famous Heroine of the Nyx Sector held the line against uncountable enemies.
Yet among these legions of Traitors, Mutants, Heretics and Aliens Lady Weaver erased from the surface of this galaxy, there are foes which stand above the rest of the vermin tides. Some of these beings were so powerful that few but the Emperor's own Angels of the Death had the strength to mount an effective resistance. These abominations and monsters are thankfully long gone, and the souvenir of their heretical and treacherous deeds has faded away.
Then there were the Endbringers, the name by which the eight Great Enemies of the Saint were known. Victories against these entities have been celebrated on millions of worlds and hundreds of thousands awards recompensed the Emperor's Faithful who helped Saint Taylor against these dreadful threats.
By the declassified reports the military authorities and the Inquisition have rendered available today, the first time one of the Endbringers was battled by Saint Taylor took place during the year 289M35 on the world of Wuhan.
The opponent was Iash'uddra, better known as the Endless Swarm. It was to be the first confrontation between the shard the silver life-eater and soldiers of the Imperium. It would not be the last.
2.5: Victory of Politics
Memories of a Wuhanese soldier from an anonymous author, 530M34.We fought for twenty-seven years the Orks on Dacium. It was a horrible war, the greenskins had complete aerial superiority for the first ten years and in the first months my regiment was wiped out three times before being brought back to strength anew and thrown back on the frontlines all over again. We bathed in the blood of our companies and fired with the weapons of destroyed armies. We had to fight night and day the xenos and their technologic aberrations that should never have functioned correctly. For twenty-seven years I prayed the God-Emperor to send be away from this forsaken hellhole.
When the bureaucrats of the Administratum finally noticed my service terms were long fulfilled, I was a general and one of the few men having participated to the first landing. They shipped me back home aboard a light cruiser two Terran months later. At the time, I thanked the God-Emperor for his merciful deliverance.
Then I came back home and discovered that as long as fought the orks in the trenches and the swamps, at least I hadn't to deal with the nobles of my Hive...
Extracts from Arc 3. Sentinel
3.1: A Short Detour
Extract from Memories of the Fay 20th and the 35th Millennium, by Wei Cao.I can say without lying I've lost count of the number of times people have asked me why I hate so much the Eldars.
I hear their whispers, behind my back. Perhaps I am angry I found a xenos species which makes my blue-blooded arrogance small and unimpressive. There are also hints I tried to spare an Eldar during my first battle with the Fay 20th and the same xenos humiliated me afterwards. Another motive which arrived to my ears was that my infamous commanding officer psycho-indoctrinated every member of her staff to hate one xenos species specifically. I –supposedly – was the one chosen to hate the Eldars.
In the end, these rumours are just that: rumours.
I do not hate Eldars because I want to twist and cut their Warp-forsaken long ears. Not that the temptation isn't great. I do not curse them because they have fielded on thousands of occasions technological devices which are more akin to sorcery. Lasguns, shells and bayonets may be underwhelming from a certain point of view, but I can say safely thousands of this perfidious species have lost their lives to them.
No, I hate them because they are hypocrites to a point challenging the very concept of imagination. Humans are not perfect, but our claims are often backed by something like reality. Eldars have not that problem. All in one, the long ears love to pretend they are at the apex of the predator chain, they are the most technologically advanced species in this galaxy, they are the rampart against Chaos and they are so wise every one must bow to their supreme greatness.
It's infuriating how much stupidity these arrogant xenos can voice. One might think that annihilating their very own empire and ravaging the Galaxy by sheer decadence would have taught them a thing or two like moderation, tolerance and self-introspection.
After all, even the orks, amusing war-lovers idiots, can sometimes learn of their errors.
Unfortunately, on this very subject like on thousands of others, Eldars have proved themselves inferior to the greenskins.
The Ork leaders may not be geniuses, but they understood faster than the Farseers attacking the Fay 20th in anything but overwhelming strength was going to result in disaster...
3.2: Dragons and Eldars
Extract from Memories of the Fay 20th and the 35th Millennium by Wei CaoWe don't often think about it, but humans and orks are the most numerous species in this galaxy. Ork census is of course impossible, but the lack of Hive Worlds established by the green barbarian-xenos and their tendency to murder each other the moment they don't have another opponent let me believe humanity has held the first place for the last millennia.
Between technology and numbers, the Imperial Guard and the other military forces of the Imperium can crush about eighty-six percent of the threats as they are confined to a single planet. And with hundreds of battle-tanks, bombers and of course the good-old lasgun, Guard regiments have built their traditions of victories for centuries.
Contrary to what some vox-broadcasts say, the Imperial Guard is not outnumbering the enemy ten-to-one each time a regiment makes a landing against xenos forces. Many systems held by non-human species have large populations and the multitude of crusades, counter-rebellion and pacifying offensives fought thorough the galaxy are demanding staggering efforts. It is entirely possible for regiments to be sent against enemy forces more powerful.
That said, the xenos races able to stand one-on-one against human veteran soldiers are few and far between. Even the orks, the large green tide threatening the stars when they roar, needs four or five large specimens to counter a trained Guardsman in optimal conditions.
The eldars are a very different proposition. When I joined the Guard to serve Lady Weaver, it was normal doctrine to not engage this perfidious species without a ten-to-one advantage. Report of the Nyx High Command I was later authorised to read told me this warning was optimistic to a high degree. There are Guard forces which were defeated by eldar strike teams when they had thousands of men to oppose to a few scouts.
As distasteful as it is to admit it, the mobility, the esoteric weaponry, the furtiveness of their equipment and the sorcery of this psyker race are giving them insurmountable advantages that even the presence of the Adeptus Astartes sometimes fail to negate.
A wise commander therefore tries to use the biggest weakness of the long-ears: their arrogance...
3.3: Blood and Delusion
Extract from Memories of the Fay 20th and the 35th Millennium by Wei CaoMany eldars are insane, treacherous, arrogant, haughty, backstabbing addicts, bloodthirsty monsters and sometimes they have all of these traits in the same body at the same time.
The Biel-Tan eldars are admittedly worse.
They are delusional.
I don't think there is a single living being who can remembers the moment these warmonger long-ears began their insane crusade to reconquer the galaxy. It was in all likelihood millennia ago. The simple fact that the name 'Biel-Tan' apparently means 'Rebirth of the Ancient Days' in eldar tongue is a clear indicator how deeply the madness has sunk in their arrogant minds.
Think about it for one or two minutes. The Biel-Tan Farseers and their High Exarchs are trying to conquer the galaxy with a few allies and their own resources, a task the God-Emperor only managed with hundreds of thousands Astartes and countless billions men of the Imperial Army. And His Most Holy Majesty needed two hundreds standard years to achieve this exploit, at a point of history where human petty kingdoms and commonwealths were spread all over the stars.
Now no proper census is available for Biel-Tan, but various sources and a huge dose of speculation gave me a number of nine billion eldars living in the Biel-Tan Craftworld. Not nine billion soldiers; nine billion eldars in total. Artists, farmers, void-crews, warriors, revenant constructs and xenos sorcerers are all included in this number.
I think it is completely safe to say waging a galactic-spanning crusade with such an insignificant population base is madness.
Somehow, it didn't stop the Biel-Tan eldars to try.
There had to be sacrifices, of course. Levels of militarisation on this Craftworld, already largely above average for the Eldar race, went completely out of control. Thanks to their techno-sorcery and mastery of forbidden powers, the warmongers could put under arms a far greater proportion of their population than most Imperium worlds would have tolerated.
For all their declarations their people were free to pursue whatever Path they wanted, Biel-Tan equivalent of our Generals gave little choice to their subordinates. Biel-Tan needed Aspect Warriors and there weren't enough volunteers to sustain wars against orks, 'mon-keigh' and other xenos species.
With their new edicts and impossibly harsh measures, Biel-Tan mustered new armies. The consequences on their civilian society were nothing short of horrific. By M35, the conscription rate of the Biel-Tan population had reached forty-eight percent. It was also worth noting that according to Inquisition agents, the Craftworld had in the last five centuries absorbed six Exodite planetary forces and three minor Craftworlds on the edge of annihilation, and despite these reinforcements, Biel-Tan population never increased.
Forty-eight percent might not seem too high from the perspective of a non-initiated. After all, famous worlds like Cadia or Catachan have far higher recruitment levels. But the Shock Armies guarding the Eye of Terror have a dedicated Forge-World to equip them and several Agri-Worlds to feed them. Death Worlds are also by sheer necessity arming everyone the moment you're in age to walk; you won't survive to adulthood otherwise.
Biel-Tan had not hundreds of planets to support its efforts. The Aspect Warriors had to be fed, their armours repaired, warships had to be built and portals of the labyrinth-Webway had to be monitored. The other Craftworlds were shaking their heads and finding excuses to not participate when they discovered the atrocious price demanded by this war without end.
Biel-Tan culture grew more intolerant than ever. Any Maiden World discovered, no matter its state and history, was 'liberated' by force of arms. In most cases, the eldars wilfully ignored they had not set a foot on this planet for tens of thousands years and given their depleted resources, it would be thousands more before they had the capability to establish a colony there.
But Biel-Tan's delusions didn't stop there. In the case an Imperial or Ork counterattack arrived to conquer a second time the Maiden World, then these worlds would be defended with the might of the might of the Tempest of Blades, Biel-Tan's elite army. The Farseers of the Craftworld went also to ridiculous heights if they judged Eldar lives had to be saved or avenged. Where other eldars cut their losses and waited several centuries before another move, the Biel-Tan warriors struck fast and rarely withdrew before their objective was reached.
This is why Biel-Tan never forgot or forgave the beating they received on Andes Primus.
I would love to say that if given the benefits of hindsight, the long-ears would have chosen a totally different course but Eldar arrogance is something difficult to exaggerate and overcome...
Extracts from Arc 4. Escalation
4.1: The Death Star
Extract from file 5-DBV-999-ZYF-QVR, dictated on the orders from Lord Inquisitor Volk in 046M33, stored on Level 7-OC of the Archives of the Encaladus Tertiary Library.The galaxy is not a peaceful place.
Xenos. Traitors. Heretics. Mutants. Warp-spawn. Abominations new and old.
The list of enemies humanity has to fight on a day-per-day basis would be enough to terrify the most courageous souls if they had conscience of the perils waiting mere light-years away to ravage their homes and murder their families in horrifying ways.
Yet for all their techno-sorcery and blasphemous powers, the enemies of humanity have failed again and again. For all the myriad of threats assailing the Imperium planets, there are few threats capable to rival the sheer amount of firepower an Imperial Battleship can concentrate with its countless macro-batteries. More often than not, the self-proclaimed xenos 'super-weapon' will be reduced to orbital debris days after its reveal. When Eldar Craftworlds, Traitor battleships and thousands years-old races have been consigned to oblivion, most enemies encountered in space can be beaten; the problem lies in gathering the required tonnage of warships to wipe out the enemy having the audacity to declare war against His Most Holy Majesty's Imperium.
Then there are the Ork Attack Moons, also known as Battle-moons, Omega-type battle-stations and dozens of other names, all more fearful than another.
The prototypes of these monstrous creations were supposedly met during the Great Crusade, and humanity paid dearly to exterminate the gigantic greenskins in command of these massive scrap-hulks.
They were nothing but a shadow of the real threat. When in M32 the War of the Beast began, the orks had dozens of these Attack Moons ready to massacre the planets of the Imperium.
The fact these massive voidcrafts have more powerful void shields than the greatest of battleships is bad enough. But there is worse. On the entire surface of the moon, the xenos place a sufficient amount of firepower to sterilise entire worlds, break armies and destroy Astartes Chapters. These are the secondary weapons, by the way. The Battle-moon has on average three to five super-cannons an Apocalypse-class battleship would be unable to fire alone and a formidable 'Gravity Whip' which can be the doom of worlds and fleets if given sufficient time to charge.
At the height of the Beast's power, any arrival in-system was preceded by gravitic anomalies. While the moon was flickering in and out existence, phenomena causing massive geological catastrophes like super-tsunamis were unleashed over the unsuspecting world. Tides were reversed, orbital structures crashed on a planet and forces were soon too busy fighting for survival to oppose more than a token resistance against the incoming green monsters.
The list of bad news could continue on and on. It has been acknowledged these planet-machines built by a merciless xenos race can and will create others from the ruin of the systems they attack, razing and carving planets after the eradication of all resistance. Moreover, the battle-moons could and would disgorge an endless tide of ork warships and armies to protect itself. At the heart of the abominable structure, ork portals teleported millions of reinforcements at will. In mere minutes, beam emitters could tear every shield and adamantium armour by simple but unlimited gravity manipulation.
It went without saying that in mere years, the Ork Attack Moons became a symbol of terror and dread for all living races and especially humanity.
Entire Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes and Battle-fleets of the Imperial Navy fell in futile attempts to destroy them. And the successful battles, bought in oceans of human blood, revealed themselves hollow victories. For every Attack Moon made inoperable, there were two or three to take the empty place left by their cousin planetoid.
In the end, only the Third Battle of Ullanor and the death of the Beast allowed the Imperium to claim victory in this era of death and defeats.
With the death of the greenskin leader, the Ork Empire fell apart as Imperial strategists had predicted. Seconds after the execution of the gigantic xenos, the great Orks Warboss began to fight each other and the greatest xenos weapons to threaten the existence of Imperium did not escape this rising civil war.
United, the Adeptus Astartes counter-attacked and profiting of the divisions plaguing the ork ranks, detonated plasma cyclonic torpedoes in the heart of the moons. The Orks, unable to rally, accelerated their decadence themselves and dozens of battle-stations and super-sized engines were wiped out in an infamous and desperate attempt to use a technology level now unavailable to them.
By the beginning of M33 as I write these lines, the Imperium has formally declared an end to this Extremis-Alpha-level threat and while wars against orks are unfortunately all too common all over the galaxy, the forces of the Deathwatch, the Astartes Chapters, the Mechanicus Biologis and of course my own Order of the Inquisition have sworn to remain eternally vigilant. The simple presence of an Ork Attack Moon increases considerably the aggression and the growth size of the greenskins. Should any of these xenos planetoids reappear, their destruction is a priority surpassing every other potential enemy, and yes, I include the Black Crusades in the list of lesser threats.
The Beast is dead. It is the duty of the Order Xenos to ensure the throne it left empty finds no successor until the stars grow cold.
4.2: Salvation of the Past
Desmerius LankovarTo save the future, we must rediscover our past.
We have not the choice.
Too much of the technology humanity considered for granted has been lost during the Age of Strife. At the height of the Dark Age of Technology, mankind could and did terraform thousands of worlds, allowing human colonies to spread and prosper across the galaxy. Civilisations flourished. Billions raced to the stars as there was no known limit to human ingenuity and the power of the weapons developed by the Artificial Intelligences.
The greatest strength of humanity in this era was undoubtedly the holy Standard Template Construct, which was encapsulating the entirety of human technological knowledge. A complete, functioning STC system was able to provide the templates for all colonist demands, whether it was a bunker, a house or a hive, and to adapt the plans depending on the available materials. It was a guarantee Mankind would never lose the data and the processes which had allowed it to become the dominant race of the galaxy.
No one had anticipated how long the Age of Strife would last, alas. As millennia of darkness, xenos oppression and cataclysms isolated the colonies of Blessed Mars and Holy Terra, the ST Cs faded into obscurity, the sacred texts and the copies of the Dark Age being fought over a thousand times. The existence of the Holy Construct couldn't be denied, but traces leading to a working example were rare and millennia-old forgotten.
Then the Omnissiah came and the Great Crusade began. In a mere two standard centuries, more first-generation print-outs and comprehensive templates were found than in the last millennia. It was a time of triumph for Mars, as Forge-Worlds were once again able to share their technological acquisitions and a new age of knowledge beckoned for the servants of the Machine-God and the Imperium of Mankind.
This age was brutally murdered by the Arch-Heretic and his treacherous armies. In two decades, the Great Heresy and the Scouring destroyed more templates and knowledge than any Tech-Priest in his worst simulations would have believed possible.
The Omnissiah Himself remained on the Golden Throne, his knowledge and his technological blessings denied to us. War never ended against the mutants and the xenos, and innovation had proved on all points it could not be trusted to not fire on your positions when the sensors didn't watch over.
The Quest for Knowledge, the Quest for the Holy STC, is now our only hope to regain what was cruelly taken from our flesh and our augmetics. From Mars to the Eastern Fringe, from the Veiled Region to the Halo Star, hundreds of fleets crewed by servants of the Omnissiah are searching fragments and clues leading to new databases.
My name is Desmerius Lankovar, Magos Explorator of Stygies VIII.
And on 7.618.289M35, by the Grace of the Omnissiah, I was blessed to be the witness of a Thrice Holy Standard Template Construct's discovery.
Extract from Memories of the Fay 20th and the 35th Millennium by Wei Cao
The governance of a Craftworld is dominated by the Farseers or whatever titles the long-ears trying to unravel the threads of the future choose to call themselves. From a human point of view, this might seem ridiculous. Imagine any high-ranked administrator, General, Admiral, Governor or influential official unable to make any significant decision if he has not consulted for several hours the imperial tarot.
Of course, Farseers are far better trying to predict the future than any human psyker. And much as it is painful to admit, their success in preventing what's left of their civilisation to die against the myriad of threats wanting to eradicate them once for all justifies the authority they are granted.
All of this is true. But it is impossible to forget the future is this: the future. It is, by its very definition, out of reach for the moment...and no mind, eldar or human, is strong enough to navigate the treacherous currents of the Warp and take into account the tens of billions possibilities birthed every second. Quite often, the experienced Farseers managed to win something they will be praised profusely by their kin once they go back to their Craftworld, no matter that the minor details they often have missed will provoke major cataclysms which will force them to return and meddle again when their assistance is unwanted and undesired.
But there are those times where for one reason or another, something has been obscured from their view and the threads of the future they manipulated are not the ones they must play with.
On these rare occasions, the Farseers are seeing the future like a psyker tries to manipulate a set of burning cards while under the fire of a thousand lasguns.
I think the outcome of these attempts can be best summed-up as...'poorly'.
4.4: Endbringer
Extract from Inquisitorial file_VV88-45217RMAD, dictated on the orders of Inquisitor [REDACTED], 047M36.The Empyreal Abomination calling itself the Blood God is not without cunning, and like everything coming from the darkness, it is a grave mistake to underestimate the danger represented by its plans.
Fortunately, the same can't be said for the majority of its champions, slaves and other entities shackled to its will. The red abominations screaming battle-cries before charging are without contest the least subtle of their brethren. Their range of tactics is incredibly slim. They are constantly at war, either with each other or against the living species of this galaxy.
Some inexperienced recruits might say after this explanation the forces showing the mark of their bloody master on their standards are weak, justifying their reasoning by the combination of lack of intelligence and inability to adapt. These recruits are in general the first to die. The lesser entities in service of the Blood Empyreal Abomination are formidable at close-quarters, and their unnatural aptitudes ensure they survive the seconds necessary to engage the enemy at their distance of predilection. A lesser daemon can and will cut through even the armour of a Space Marine if it is given the opportunity. Lesser red-skinned hordes are largely sufficient to exterminate armies on their own.
Unfortunately for the races which inhabit this galaxy, the lesser entities are led by bigger and more dangerous enemies. And when it comes to the forces of Blood and War, martial abilities are everything. The higher these abominations are in the hierarchy of their murderous master, the more impressive their ability to wage war.
At the top of the mountain are the Greater Abominations. Wrathful, eternally in quest of war, carnage, slaughter and blood, the Bloodthirster is an entity built for one thing: kill until the stars are no more. All are beyond mortal comprehension. The smallest and least powerful of these specimens is stronger than the most redoubtable sword-master of the Adeptus Astartes. Entire regiments have been wiped out in less time it takes to say it by these abominations.
And yet, even among these hosts of murder and ruin, there are eminent names.
The Angel's Bane, Second Endbringer, is one of those.
Strong enough to duel the Primarch Sanguinius before the Eternity Gate, uncountable generations of Inquisitors prayed the Siege of Terra would be the last instance humanity would have to fight this horror.
It was not to be.
The abomination returned in 050M34, eager to avenge in blood its defeat at the hands of the Primarch. Twenty worlds burned, the death toll was in the billions, and it took the sacrifice of thousands unsung heroes to banish once more the daemon.
And for over a thousand years, the galaxy was spared the cruelty of this killing machine.
But nothing is eternal.
The daemon returned in 290M35, fighting the Imperial forces in the Battle of the Death Star, its hatred for Sanguinius and its sons greater than ever.
It was thus on a damaged warship fleeing a dying artificial ork moon that the Angel's Bane would meet a woman it would grow to hate more than the Great Angel Himself...
Trazyn The Infinite Collector
“In this case, I will say the current disaster is not my fault, Neferten. I am only a Collector. No, all our problems begin and end with a single arrogant and perfidious race.”
Trazyn paused.
“I blame, of course, the Aeldari.”
- from Escalation Interlude: A New Hope
The laser shot was intercepted well before it hit its target by a bright green field, but Dupleix added several bolter shots to it and suddenly the illusion was no more. Where seconds ago there had been a human with a blue cloak, now there was a tall creature of silver metal garbed in a violet cloak, holding a long sceptre glowing with green energy.
“Oops. It is exactly what it looks like?” tried Trazyn the Infinite Collector.
- from Decision 5-3
“Hear my words, Aeldari, Harlequins, Asuryani, Drukhari, I am Trazyn the Infinite Collector! I survived three hundred and forty thousand battles with your kind! I have betrayed the Deceiver and danced in the core of your stars. I was here before your Empire was born. I am the Chief Archaeovist of Solemnace, Overlord...and first cousin to the Silent King. I am Triarch-Elect of the Necron Dynasties and I. DO. NOT. SLEEP!”
- Trazyn stands against Aenaria Eldanesh/Lelith Hesperax in Extermination 8-3B
