The Arrested Fall

8/18/2019 The Arrested Fall

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The Arrested Fall.

For a million years, the eldar reined as the supreme empire of the galaxy; the ultimate

winners of the War in heaven. As they grew in power, they also grew in decadence, andbecame obsessed with excess and the attainment of perfection in all endeavours. Theywished to sample and dominate every sensation imaginable, and their imaginationswere near-limitless.

The serpent of she who thirsts rose in their decaying souls. A dar shadow of thepleasure god !owed beneath the surface of their civilisation. For millennia, it seemedas if the eldar race were rushing headlong into a great, calamitous fall from grace. Theeldar, if they didn"t realise what was about to happen, might very well have collapsedand been devoured by their own god.

Alas, this did not occur. #ome force, some vile demagogue Witchling $rince of the eldar,calling himself %ileth the &eati'c, and his blessed muses, wormed their way into control

of the (reat )ldar )mpire. Through some foul means, they illuminated the eldar race asto the nature of the god they were creating. The eldar race was deluded into believingthat this being was a perfect re!ection of their true nature. With guile and malice, aseries of civil wars were fought between the servants of the old gods and the followersof this new, dreadful *#lannesh". &ut, though the empire was embroiled in centuries ofwar, they managed to stave o+ the far worse fate of the Fall.

The eldar survived. The children of orai-eg, haine and Asuryan, were defeated andthe scant remnants of those eldar loyal to the old gods were exiled. They !ed into theprotection of /egorach0s labyrinth. 1sing their powerful wraith-tech, the Farseers andtheir harle2uin allies sealed o+ their new home, the port /ommorragh, from the rest ofthe galaxy.

The )ldar )mpire, now uni'ed under %ileth, looed to the galaxy in disgust. For toolong, the mewling parasites of the younger races had been allowed too much freedom.

The 3mperial )ldar declared that they were divine, for they were each part of #lannesh.As gods, they demanded tribute, and the smaller alien empires were forced to comply.

4esistance to their reign came from an unexpected source. The mon eigh was a racelong thought tame; their *(olden Age" of technology had been curbed by the eldarempire a millennium previously, by creating in-strife between the mon eigh and their3ron men servants, which spared a war that shattered the mon eigh empire in twainand allowed the primordial annihilator to subvert and ruin many human strongholds.

owever, in secret, the mon eigh were uniting under a new leader. )ldar spies longsought out this powerful being, nown only as the )mperor, but they could never 'nd

him. e was a shifter of shapes, with a networ of spies and mysterious collaborators. The 3mperial eldar, in their arrogance, did not realise the power of this man. Theyassumed he was some petty warlord s2uabbling over the scraps of the extinct humanempires. &ut the )mperor was powerful; at least a match for the most lethal eldarancients.

/overtly however, the )mperor was gathering together an alliance, a new empire tochallenge the false gods. To lead his insurgency, he began to experiment with creatingthe perfect genetic soldiers; soldiers who could not be subverted by the warrior robotsof the eldar. These soldiers would be led by generals even more powerful, with bodies


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infused with warp energy siphoned from the raw warp itself.

The )mperor though, had enemies even in his own rans. They were spies for the eldar,and they told them that the )mperor was building unspeci'ed, warp-basedsuperweapons. &ut before the eldar could investigate further, or destroy the )mperor"sfoetal $rimarchs, the )mperor destroyed his own labs. 3t looed lie his experiment wasa failure, and the eldar simply laughed o+ the mon eigh as mere deluded simpletons.What they did not realise was that the )mperor had scattered his $rimarchs to theeight winds. They grew up strong on diverse worlds far across the galaxy.

When the time was right, and when the )mperor had at last completed his AdeptusAstartes, he set out on The #ecret /rusade; a crusade to reunite the disparate humanstrongholds, and to locate his twenty lost sons. Alas, two of them were destroyed bythe eldar before he could reach them, but the others were found, one by one, over thecourse of 566 years of campaigning. #ome had built their own 'efdoms and empires,while others were slaves or raiding warlords, but they all recognised the )mperor whenhe covertly met with them.

They fought at the forefront of every battle, subduing or subsuming every lesser xenosempires and human colonies they could into their own congregation of races. Thisreached its pea at 1llanor.

1pon the plains of 1llanor, the great &lac 7r of 1llanor met with orus of the 8unaWolves, and there they forged the pivotal alliance that would shape the nature of theensuing war. The great or empire was the largest enclave of ors in the galaxy, andcould bully lesser or empires into 'ghting for them if they needed to. The ors had noparticular friendship with the humans; indeed, for thousands of years previously, theors and men had made war upon each other without hesitation. &ut orus, ever theconsummate diplomat, new 9ust what to say. The greensins didn"t lie humanity, butthey at least respected them more than the eldar. 3n the end, the prospect of taing the'ght to the heart of the eldar empire was irresistible to the great &lac 7r. 3f thehumans got in the ors0 way, the ors would not hesitate to crump them, but otherwisesomething approaching a concordance was reached between the two.

orus was named Warmaster by the )mperor, who returned to Terra to wor on thenext phase of the coming con!ict.

The humans declared their de'ance for the 3mperial eldar in characteristically dramaticfashion. At 3stavaan 333, an eldar war !eet was lured into a masterful ambush by orus,who destroyed the machine army, and its eldar directors, almost to a man. The)mperor and the primarchs had 9ust declared open war on the )ldar )mpire.Furthermore, orus denounced the eldar as phony deities. The eldar were not gods;there were no gods. To the vainglorious madman %ileth, this was sacrilege. This wasmadness.

This was heresy.

:::

It is the 31st Millennium, and the Human Heresy has begun. Across the galaxy, serfworlds throw o the shackles of eldar rule, and declare themseles for the !m"eror#s$armaster.

%he &lack 'rk has managed to unite the largest number of his odious brethren forcenturies, and as they attack the eldar#s "ro"erty, it becomes clear than the orks are


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taking adantage of the situation, to attack the eldar while they are distracted with themon keigh.

%he greenskin scum and the mon keigh infest the galaxy like ermin. %hey outnumberthe eldar, but not by much. And the !ldar !m"ire is no crumbling weakling realm(under )ileth the &eati*c, they are almost as strong as the original uni*ed em"ire.$orld+sied warshi"s of deastating "ower are theirs to command, alongsidetechnology and magic the likes of which most races could only dream o. Armies ofterrifying, relentless -Maton-, unfeeling entities built to conuer and destroy, areamongst the forces loyal to )ileth#s regime. )ileth himself wields Anaris, and hasowed to exterminate the human race in its entirety, to the last infant( a *tting

"unishment for their disloyalty.

&ut there is ho"e for the rebels. %he /rimarchs of humanity are mighty, and they leadthe 0"ace Marine egions into battle. Humanity must either win, or face extinction. &ut is their faith and trust in the /rimarchs mis"laced2 And what role might the dias"oradicforces of the reat and %errible Maelstrom "lay in the Heresy to come2

I cannot say.

Faction One: The Vilethian Regime

4ook to me now my "eo"le. ook forwards to your own glory and aggrandisement. 5onot look to the "ast as the adherents of the 'ld ods would desire. %hey are regressieand su"erstitious fools( they would shackle you and limit your minds. %he ods andtheir 6oung 7ing demand you worshi" them, demand that you follow their rules andstrictures. I ask only that you let me lead you to a better age. And age where we rulethe not only material s"ace, but the cosmic forces that goern them8 5id not one of

these most beneolent gods, slain our greatest heroes and lead our race into misery2 And the 6oung 7ing demands we bend the knee to these ca"ricious monsters2 Idemand only that you become who you are destined to me, and en9oy the bene*ts ofan em"ire beyond scarcity, beyond want8 I hae burned their tem"les, and they haenot struck me down. I wield their greatest blade, "lucked from the ruins of &elial I),and I am not struck down. %his is because I, )ileth the &eati*c, am the true /hoenix7ing8 And you, eery last eldar that stands with me, are my /antheon8 et all "erishwho deny us8:

- From %ileth"s ascension speech, before the steps of the grand palace.>

History:

&y the start of the thirty 'rst millennium, in the chronological reconing of the mon

eigh, the )ldar )mpire was the greatest civilisation the galaxy had ever seen.


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eldar core worlds, located within the legendary Arcadian ring, which encompassed

virtually the entire western side of the galactic dis. 4aces were tended to as a

gardener might care for his 'elds. The galaxy was divided into thousands of segments,

each with a vast worldship assigned to them. These world ships were bases of

operations for colonial armies, and also administrative centres to govern the outer

fringes of the galaxy, where eldar rule was less intense that around the Arcadian ring.

1nbenownst to the lesser species in 2uestion, the eldar portioned out galactic

reserves, where these races were permitted to !ourish. Those who seemed to grow too

fecund or technologically powerful were curtailed. The ors remained uncontrollable,

despite all the culls enacted over the years. They were lie a persistent strangling

weed, always causing low level strife. owever, they were a broen species that would

never liely challenge the eldar for the galactic crown.

The last (reat War the eldar had fought against a near e2ual was the horri'c "nib

con!ict, lasting from -BC.D6 to -5E6.E, which had plunged the galaxy into misery

and caused widespread destruction. The eldar had vowed to avoid another (reat War

at all costs. The most recent and infamousG example of such civilisational *pruning"

occurred with the mon eigh race.

A young and 'ercely dynamic race, the eldar watched as the mon eigh developed

their technologies, rapidly rising from sublight to warp travel to interstellar empires and

colonies, all within a scant few millennia. The councils saw the *humans" beginning to

lin their colonies via sophisticated warp communication devices, and develop powerful

arti'cial intelligences. The eldar ruling councils recognised the early signs of a building

galactic power, witnessing a future where the humans would dominate, and these seers

petitioned the /ourt of the @oung ing to undo them.

This the eldar did by subverting their *3ron en" servants, sparing a human civil war

which saw their empire splintering into hundreds of factions before it reached its

potential. umanity was forgotten, and peace returned to the galaxy at large. $eace

brought with it greater leisure and the personal freedoms and 2uality of eldar life

reached its pea. #carcity was a myth by then, and the eldar grew ever more callous

and self-involved.

The trouble reached its pea with the arrival of %ileth the &eati'c on the political scene.

&orn on Arach-/yn, a /ore World near the heart of the empire, he was golden-haired

and one of the most attractive and charismatic eldar in the galaxy. %ileth led a

congregation of eldar, calling themselves *The uses of #lannesh"; they preached the

attractive creed that there were no limits to what could be experienced and that every

eldar had the potential to be an in'nite being. This was utter heresy to the 7ld

religions, which had temples on every street corner of the /ore Worlds. &ut the eldarhad slowly been losing faith with the gods, and the monarchy which claimed its

authority through them. 3t had long been rumoured faith in the $antheon no longer

guaranteed reincarnation. %ileth"s creed promised much; power, pleasure, liberty to do

whatever you pleased. #oon enough, he and his uses were granted places on the

ruling councils, and built temples of their own, preaching worship of the self.

&ut %ileth went further. e began to claim the gods were wea, and that the eldar need


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not be ruled by them, or the 4oyal ouse of 1lthanesh who claimed to channel their

authority. $oliticians and nobles who opposed %ileth began to die of mysterious causes

that no authorities could detect. 7n a groundswell of support, %ileth rose ever higher in

power, to the horror of the priests and aristocracy loyal to Asuryan"s $antheon.

Finally, forces loyal to %ileth stormed the (rand $alace on Asur, the eldar homeworld.

#imultaneously, the Temple of Faces on &elial 3% was attaced. A force of the monastic

)xarch warriors held o+ the soldiers for as long as possible, allowing the priests to !ee

into the webway with as many of their holy texts as they could. 8ilith esperax, one of

%ileth"s most lethal generals, had the temple burned to the ground, and had the sword

Anaris, which was enshrined there, sent to %ileth at once

%ileth too the palace, and captured the royal family. Their court was made to watch as

the @oung ing, the $hoenix (od"s representation in the aterium, was put on trial. The

trial was a farce, only the uses of %ileth and his supporters were allowed to provide

evidence of the ing"s crimes. 1nsurprisingly, the ing was sentenced to death. &efore

the wailing cries of his sub9ects, and the cruel laughter of %ileth"s cronies, the

executioner approached the ing, who nelt before a bloc. A beheading; a primitivemethod of execution, which %ileth found 'tting for a ing who worshipped primitive

tribal gods. The 3mperial executioner wore his traditional armour of sculpted bone, and

bore the great scythe, the symbol of aelis 4a. The executioner raised his blade.

&ut when the blade fell, it fell upon the guards restraining the ing. Hisgusted at what

was demanded of him, the executioner, nown to history as augan 4a, attaced

%ileth"s men, and managed to escape the palace with the @oung ing, escaping through

the 8abyrinth dimension to the port city of /ommorragh, the last stronghold loyal to the

7ld (ods. Tragically however, augan 4a"s allies within the court were not able to

smuggle the rest of the ing"s family from the $alace. 3n his spiteful rage, %ileth illed

them all, and trapped their souls in communication gems, so that he might sooth his

fury with their despairing wailing. This spared a two hundred year war in the webway

between the $hoenix and the #erpent, which came to an uncertain conclusion when the

eldar of the 7ld (ods found a permanent connection lining the &lac 8ibrary and

/ommorragh, before they sealed o+ both from the rest of the webway.

%ileth was now uncontested ruler of the empire, and his new regime was one of

spectacular arrogance and cruelty. is followers had overthrown the gods, and proven

themselves to be divine themselves. is proclamation was sent out to every world ship,

demanding the aliens of the galaxy worship the eldar as the gods they were. Those

who would not would feel his divine wrath.

The eldar learned that there were rumours spreading amongst the aliens of the galaxy,of a saviour born amongst the humans, who would topple the eldar, using his living

weapons of mass destruction, born to 'ght the eldar and their patron. This mythic

'gure had no name, but a common name was *)mperor", in mocery of %ileth"s

3mperial title. At 'rst, %ileth dismissed this heresy as nothing more than bacwards

aliens telling tall tales. (eneral Ielian had assured ing %ileth the so-called )mperor

was 9ust a Terran mad scientist, who had died when the 3ron artians had saced Terra,

before the webway war had even started. 3f these alien fools were following the


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)mperor, then they were following a ghost.

is view changed after 3stvaan 333. The ruler of the little bacwater world had apparently

had an eldar illed, when said eldar had simply come to collect some mon eigh for a

?oo on the coreworld 3ydris.


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This was prove wrong when previously assumed to be independent empires, such as

the mon eigh-xenos 3nterex alliance, the totalitarian


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abilities are complemented by their #corpion pattern war plate and their unfettered

access to the best weaponry, including the recently invented blaster ri!es. The giant

8egio Astartes of the mon eigh are considered more e+ective in a one on one

engagement with a $raetorian, but the odds are less certain when two armies of these

soldiers ever meet.

Whenever the alien auxiliary forces of the eldar are deployed, the eldar seem perfectly

happy to feed them into the most dangerous and gruelling battle?ones, to avoid the

loss of even the most meagre of eldar lives.

The webway allows the rapid deployment of eldar armies and !eets across the galaxy,

which is essential to the war e+ort, due to the dispersed nature of their foes. The most

common vessels of the eldar are the dragonships; !eets of wraithships controlled by

the guided will of only a handful of directing eldar souls. Hragonships are not

particularly powerful individually, but their drone-lie nature allows veritable swarms of

these vessels to overwhelm an enemy !eet.

7n the opposite side of the scale are the %oid Hominators. These are large capitalships, and are the 'nest naval vessels the eldar possess. At the start of the heresy, no

nown %oid Hominators had been destroyed by enemy action since they were 'rst

built. 1nlie the scout-battleship %oid #talers, %oid Hominators are built not only for

manoeuvrability, but also survivability and extreme 'repower.

As eldar age, they become more and more su+used with warp energy. The most

ancient eldar are terrifying opponents, swift as bullets, strong enough to tear open

armour with their bare hands, and capable of destroying scores of enemies with their

formidable minds. @et even these ancients re2uire biomechanical power armoured suits

in order to duel a $rimarch entity on near to an e2ual footing.

The deranged techno-sorcerers of the empire under the direction of agister 1rien

4aarth, have also been busy devising new weapons and abominations to unleash

upon the upstart rebels.

Though the eldar military machine is formidable, their primary weaness is their lac of

experience. The last full scale galactic war they fought was so long ago; there were no

living eldar who had 'rst-hand nowledge of the event.

i can see only two-way humans can do it, using Koaero or #tryxis uni2ue warp drive

Koaero0s understanding of astrophysics is e2ually baJing as they seem to be capableof tapping into unseen power-currents that run through the galaxy. Koaero spaceships

are an example of this= open structured framed lattices resembling a uni2uepolyhedron shape that are unlie any nown space transport. The structure is vital tothe design as it draws upon those same galactic power-currents that the Koaero areaware of and channel it in a similar manner as Force weapons do to psychic energythrough their spiral shape. Thus, Koaero vessels are able to move, manoevure andtranscend warp-space through maing physical alterations to the ships0 design. #uchan act alters with the universal powers it employs and modi'es its place in the naturalgalactic order.


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#tryxis certainly appear to travel through the Warp, though no one is sure how theynavigate within it. #ome have suggested that they are maing short, unguided hops, inthe manner of the /hartist /aptains, but others point to instances of previouslyidenti'ed Iebec caravans appearing at di+erent ends of the oronus )xpanse withinonly a few months, something humanity can only achieve using the Astronomican and


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it 9ust bad luc which caused human psyers such problems. according to lore, at leastin two-time period human psyers born in suNcient numbers in the earth but they wereculled. in case of ancient shamans chaos was responsible for the purge while in case of/ognoscynths emperor was responsible for the culling. when psyer gene againresurfaced in 55 the situation greatly changed with the turbulent warp. while )ldargot O6million years to perfect theirs power humans never got that much time. so it ispossible emperor 'rst wished to weaen chaos then tried to unloc human psyerpotential which should have manifest as a warp entity much lie old )ldar gods thussevering chaos gods connection to human emotions. cabal predicted if humanity wereto disappear from the galaxy, the 4uinous $owers of /haos, whose own existencewithin the )mpyrean depended upon the baser collective psychic emanations ofhumanity, would be extinguished with it. now if one can sever chaos gods connectionto human emotions same thing will happen. how can one brea a connection to chaosPby focusing it something else. remember emperor wished to direct human faith towardssomething else, intended to be the idea of the 3mperium, but because of his ownunmatched psychic powers and enigmatic nature that Lsomething elseL ended up beingthe )mperor himself. as an organic being emperor can not 'ght chaos gods properly.maybe emperor wished to manifest a human warp entitytype moon alaya will be bestexampleG who will protect human souls in warp and allow them to reincarnatebeforefall )ldar able to do the sameG while he able to guide humans in material plane. thisway chaos has to 'ght two-front war. in warp the human warp entity will 'ght them itbeing empowered by emotions of humanity while in real place emperor will use hispowers and resources of imperium to wipe out any in!uence of chaos or theirworshippers thus weaening them in warp.

Muote=L7nce, as with every other tech-priest in his service, they had been loyal members ofthe /ult of the achine (od, sworn servants of ars. &ut that had been before8aayn0s agents had recruited them, by idnapping, subornment or by acts of piracy. Toa man, they had all protested and struggled against the demands he had made onthem - until he showed them the engine. 3t was pitiful, in a way. )very singleechanicus he too had willingly broen their oath and pledged themselves to his

service the moment they laid eyes on the device. They new it for what it was= aphysical connection to the great wors of the )mperor. They had many names for it=the $symagnus Apparat, Anulus 4ex, the (od-and... &ut 8aayn preferred thedesignation the (ethsemenites had given the device. They simply called it the engine,a 'tting name for a device that held the power to remae the stars.

The last days of the (od-)mperor were a mystery to many. is actions in the dar timebefore the betrayal of the Warmaster oras were shrouded in mythology and layers ofobfuscation ten thousand years thic, but in all the holy tomes that spoe of is 'nalactions before the enshrinement on the (olden Throne, there were mentions of isWors, of the secret machinations e was about in the laboratoria beneath the oly$alace on )arth.

3n forbidden tomes, 8aayn had discovered scraps of old creed that the currentgeneration of the inistorum had declared apocryphal. e collected references tothings that !ew in the face of the current beliefs, names that none dared to spea, talof star-children and the births of new gods. The deacon courted death a hundred timesover 9ust for daring to possess such nowledge.

Through all his gathered secrets, he traced one thread, unravelling it from the tapestryof the (od-)mperor0s clouded legacy. That strand of causality spanned the light yearsthat stretched from Terra to


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by is hand, 9ust as it was colored by the passage of the warp.

3t was plain to see once the pieces were assembled, and the priest-lord saw it withshining eyes. The engine was the )mperor0s be2uest to humanity, to %itor 8aaynhimself. 8ie a sentinel, it had waited here beneath the stone walls of the


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Faction Two: The Insurgency of Mankind

Q;or all the might of their grand armies, the eldar cannot undo what was woken u"on


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these with miraculous powers of healing and reincarnation. They themselves referredto their /ult as The 7rder of the ammer. They preached that the eldar were mortal,and that humanity had no need to bow before such tyrannical creatures, for humanityhad luminous souls, and that the eldar souls were damned. They also preached thatmanind should unite, and not be divided by petty monarchs, who only cared aboutmaintaining what scant power the eldar allowed them to have.


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This was to pave the way for the single biggest human mission in the history of thespecies; the #ecret /rusade. The moment the )ldar /ivil war began, alcador and hisarmies across the galaxy set to wor. Their missions were to 'nally cement theiralliances and 'nd the scattered $rimarchs.

The Aegis Astartes, alcador"s elite and secretive 8egions of superhumans, cultivatedfrom his surviving samples of $rimarch H


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possible, however, that the )mperor really was the superman of myth. 7r perhapsalcador was but one of the many forms the shape-shifting *)mperor" possessedPG

RRRThe Aegis Astartes 8egions were named thus=

D. The thonic !ol"es orus 8upercal

5. The #lood Angels #anguinius

. The Iron Hands Ferrus anus

B. The $ladiators Angron

C. The Frost $iants 4ogal Horn

O. The %&ace !ol"es 8eman 4uss

U. The 'hoeni( $uard Fulgrim

V. The Ra"en $uard /orvus /orax

E. The )ltramarines 4oboute (uilliman

D6. The *usk Raiders ortarion

DD. The !hite %cars Kaghati han

D5. The *ark Angels 8ion )l"Konson

D. The %alamanders %ulan

DB. The Iron !arriors $erturabo

DC. The !ord #earers 8orgar

DO. The +ight ,ords onrad ur?e

DU. The Al&ha ,egion Alpharius

DV. The Omega ,egion 7megon

Forces:

The 3nsurgency has a wild variety of militaries and soldiers to call upon. &y far the mostelite and power are the Aegis Astartes tas forces. (enetically engineered using theremnants of the $rimarchs" genetic codes, they are supremely powerful individually,and this is only enhanced by their advanced, (olden Age 'ghting suits, ships andweaponry, the designs of which were stolen during raids on 3ron artian anufacturing$lanets and subse2uently modi'ed by 3nsurgency scientists, both human and alien.


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Astartes Aegis armour is a beautiful intermingling of (olden age Technology and over ado?en alien technologies. )ach powered suit can !y, possesses exotic bans of sensors,and bear integral internal weapon systems, ranging from mass-reactive bolt missiles,plasma guns, pulse arrays and graviton pulsors. Their gauntlets may spring withenergised claws, or retract to allow the marines to wield handheld specialist weaponson a mission by mission basis.

Aegis is highly customisable and modular, easily converted into heavy Terminator plate,void-capable 3carus plate, stealthy ololith plate and oceanic 8eviathan plate.

There have been experiments on creating xenos astartes, but these plans are in theirinfancy by the start of the uman eresy. owever some of the more humanoid xenoshave been given customised variants on the Aegis suit, to allow them to contribute tothe greater war that now rages across the stars.

Faction Three: The Iron Martians

$e are better than you. $e think faster, without being reliant u"on the syna"tic lagwhich blights meat+minds. $e hae greater ca"acity for knowledge and information,and can learn more and com"lete more tasks simultaneously. 5o not consider thisarrogance( this is sim"ly a fact of our existence. @iilisation tends towards creating

systems of eer greater com"lexity, in de*ance of entro"y.

;rom obseration, we conclude this to be the ideal the ma9ority of ciilisations striefor. Is it not then better that we hold the reigns of destiny, in order to ex"edite this "rogression to com"lexity2 eaing this in your hands would be an unnecessary

handica". $e do not code on defunct o"erating systems, thus we should not designthe next generation of ciilisation on a similarly awed com"uting system.

My logic is awless.

I hae already detected and neutralised the attem"ts by your elite forces to storm the'lym"ic @itadel. 6ou attem"t to retard "rogress. %his is sub+o"timalB Abhorrent.

6ou hae forced our hand.

- From


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them, the Archillects respected their creators.

The Archillects also crafted physical bodies for themselves, tailored to every role theymight be tased with. Though the forms were diverse, collectively these robot bodieswere nown as the 3ron en. ars was granted to the 3ron en, and beneath 7lympusons, the greatest memory stac in the shared history of manind and 3ron man wasinstalled.

&efore the days of human psyers, one ma9or problem for humanity was thecommunication lag between their colonies, which e+ectively isolated each colonysystem from each other by the speed it too a fast transport to mae a warp 9ump.

This also meant any updates on 3ron man software would be disrupted and full ofcontradictory code, caused by these massive delays.

A means of combating this was 'nally devised in D66.5C. A wireless networingprogram was created, which was able to connect to every ma9or Factory world acrossthe galaxy, almost simultaneously via some exotic interaction with the Muantum Foam.

They dubbed it


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began to construct surreal pylon obeliss at e2uidistant point across the e2uator.

The %oid enhanced her soldier robots, and


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The 3ron artians are a faceless, fearless force, which wors with clocwor precision,able to face o+ against the 3mperial )ldar"s aton on a somewhat e2ual footing eversince the upgrades installed by the %oid in any caseG.

Faction Four: The -m&ire of $harkul #lackfang

4%his humie... this fackin# humie right -ere... He comes Cere, all armoured u" and

s"oiling for a throw+down scra" with me8 He smashes through all my boy, cho""s

down ol# blue+tongue, and the @hain+?i""er, then he half throttles me, the Card bastard8

HA HA HA8888

4$hat do dey call you, eh2 'rris2 'rrus2 'rrible -'rrus the $arboss... nah,

C$armaster#... sorry sorry...

4ook Cere lad, this is why I ain#t killing this facker right now. %hese humies, we#e

been *ghtin# for fasands of years( they get it. %hey i "ro"er *ghters, they know youhae to take a "unch to get a "unch. %hey *ght like boy... een if they i the wrong

colour, eh2 HA HA HA HA HA HA8888 &ut those "ointy ears...

4Do, they let those lanky bony deadboy fackers *ght for -em, they hide in their nice bit

"alaces, with all their ash gear, acting like they i the boss without een bleedin# fer

it8 %hey#s worse than ash git8

46ou wanted an alliance 'rrus2 6ou has it. My boy will kill the "ointy ears wif ya. %hen,

when this is done, we#ll *nd out 9ust which one of us is Carder, hmm22 HA HA HA HA HA

HA HAAAAAAAAAAAH8888888888 $AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH88888888888888:

- $art of (harul &lacfang"s speech at the treaty of 1llanor.>

History:

The history of the ors is not a complicated one. #ince the cataclysmic War in eaven,

the ors have been a constant presence in the galaxy. They are a fact of galactic life;

wherever there is civilisation, the green barbarians will not be far away.

The ors are born into war, and now nothing else. What little culture they have is

founded upon prowess in battle, physical si?e and how many teeth you can punch from

the mouths of their rival ors. There are more ors than almost every other single

species in the galaxy at large.R When several waaaaghs collide and fus, they become

bloated or empires, lie /haradon, 1llanor and 7ctavius, which drain whole sectors

dry lie sucling parasites. Fortunately, due to the whims of the waaaaaagh, the ors

are a fractious people, constantly 'ghting one another.

Huring the time of the )ldar )mpire, the ors were so numerous, it was deemed a

waste of e+ort exterminating them. 3nstead, every year, the )ldar empire would see

out any and all or empires, and strategically assassinate the biggest warbosses and


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over'ends. The resultant in-'ghting would curtail or advances in the territories of

civilised species.

(harul &lacfang was an over'end of /haradon of particular si?e, fearsome

intelligence and brutal cunning. The older he got, the more sly he became, and the

harder to ill. The eldar were set to nip his burgeoning empire in the bud, when %ileth

dethroned the young ing, and spared the 566 year long in #trife.

For two hundred years, (harul &lacfang went uncheced. /haradon expanded

beyond all controls, overrunning hundreds of minor alien civilisations, before

subsuming both 1llanor and 7ctavius into (harul"s empire. All held together by his

indomitable will.

As or empires expand, the number of ors increases,a nd thus the psychic gestalt

swells, funnelling up the chain of command. The


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#oon, the own nobs also saw him as too unory, and set about deposing him. argar,

the asta-&urna, tried to slay the 7ver'end with a tornado of 're, but when the !ames

cleared, &lacfang rose, his !esh blac as pitch and oo?ing tar. Alas, $inboy was a

casualty of this attac, and (harul had argar dismembered, though ept his head

alive, forever muttering atop (harul"s mighty &osspole.

The 3nsurgency of anind had multiple run-ins with (harul"s &lac 7rs during the

#ecret /rusade, and the Aegis Astartes always showed the greesins 9ust how tough a

human supersoldier could be. 3t is claimed (harul was fascinated by the space

marines; so un-s2uishy compared to normal humans.

orus used this, in an audacious attempt to secure (harul"s alliance. The primarch

too a small cadre of his most elite 'ghters, and fought his way into the heart of

(harul"s empire. orus came the closest to illing (harul out of all the preivious

attempts on his life, and ended up throttling (harul with his bare hands, before the

or 7ver'end"s guards stepped in.

orus let himself be captured, and spoe at length to (harul, !attering him and

ca9oling him to face the true enemy; the eldar. They had ept his race lie poor beggars

at the edge of the galaxy, forever excluded from civilisation. Hid they thin they were

better than himP &etter than (harul the (reat, (harul the 7ve'end, the (reat (reen

ing of the 1niverseP 3n the end, orus played on the &lacfang"s arrogance, and

earned himself a temporary alliance with the 7ver'end. 7f course, the warmaster had

a contingency plan in case (harul hadn"t agreed; a void grenade, a teleporter homer

and a shrouded !eet in orbit awaiting the order to turn (harul and his commanders

into atomic dust...

&ut orus achieved something better that day. e obtained an alliance with the

mightiest alien warlord in history. Though the alliance did not last, the ors were

decisive in the war against %ileth.

RThe dreaded egarachnids of 1risarach come a close second in terms of population

density, particularly after their con2uering of the inebrach empire. 7nce they laid

their spoor in the earth of the inebrach throneworlds, there was nothing to stop the

egarachnids" cancerous growth across the )astern Fringe...G

Forces:

7r forces are or forces, and haven"t really changed. Their war machines are debased

copies of other race"s machines, or else looted directly from their foes. (harul"s forcesare innumerable as the grain of sands on a beach, and are armed with whatever they

can repurpose from con2uest.

#uch is ever the way of the 7r.


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%he continued existence of the greenskinned menace is 9ust further "roof of the fallibilities of the

biological. 'nly under the ca"able rule of the Doos"here would the maddening chaos and

needless iolence and bloodshed *nally be re"laced with enlightened order and "eace.

The machine is wea.

3t relies on codes and inputs and the directions of it0s betters. The succulent tendernessof !esh, the crunchy shells of chitin, the delectable selections of brain meats from

across the galaxy, is where true strength lies. Forget the metal, forget the machine,

forget the weaness of the metallic gods.

7nly by consuming the greatness of creatures, hunting the innumerable forces of the

universe that see to reign supreme, will any one race stand better among them all.

The )ldar are unto gods in mind, but their !esh is wea and spongy, a pitiful meal. The

7r? are tough an hard, but their hearts are stringy and tasteless. umans have such

great variety of meat, but so many are frail and add nothing to the creation.

7nly the root are the strongest. We consuming the living and the dead, taing thebest of all to create the ultimate creature. 8et the )ldar have their )mpire, the 7r?

their ingdoms. 8et umans and the pitiful races wage rebellion and the disgusting

machines fumble about in the darness. The root will consume them all. And only

then shall we be the perfect race.

What is life but a series of neurons and electrical impulses that !ow through the !eshP @ou say !esh is superior.

Foolish is the word to describe you.

Where !esh is but limited in lifespan is where machinery lasts for centuries. Where!esh taes generations to adapt and evolve machinery taes but a fraction to do so.

With any thought you can come up with our in'nite intellect can counter yours before itcan succeed.

&ow before our dominance and die for it is fact.

@ou spea lie a machine, but thin lie a human.

ow stereotypical of a machine. @ou cling to thoughts of superiority when all you are isa sad copy, lacing in ability, in thought and in meat. 7nly a human is so wea thatthey tae generations to adapt and evolve. 7nly a machine-that-was-human wouldthin that machinery can ever match the strength of !esh0s continuous evolution, ourstrength shifting and changing with every bite. @ou spea of intelligence, but with a

single line of assorted numbers and letters, your entire purpose and mind can belimited. @our body was built by !esh, designed by !esh and will die by !esh.

4un and rust little machine. @ou0ll be long dead before we even near the pinnacle of ourconsumption.

Faction Fi"e: The 'hoeni(s ,air / The $olden ities of ,innian


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4)ileth and his faithless whel"s hae forgotten the gods. &ut the gods do not forget,

and nor do those with the faith to trust in them. %he gods em"ower us, they guide us

and "rotect us.

4&ut now, my friends, we must re"ay them. It is the time for the asur to "rotect our

/antheon from the ;alse od. 0"are the in*dels no mercy.

4%hey burn down our tem"les, but do they know nothing of our gods2 Asuryan is the

/hoenix 7ing8 Do *re may end Him, for from the ashes He shall always rise8 $ith me

my friends, ride with me8:

- 7rios #aim-an, /hief untmaster of urnous>

History:

The webway, with its vast rainbow highways across the galaxy, is the central FT8 hubnetwor for the entire galaxy, allowing the eldar and their grand !eets unprecedentedaccess to almost every sector within the space of hours.

owever, most of the modern eldar are unaware than the eldar webway in its currentform is young by galactic standards; barely O million years old. The webway wasmapped onto the framewor of a far older, and far wilder FT8 networ, full of traps,pitfalls and monsters.

This networ had a name in the language of the 7ld &uilders, but its name is lost toprehistory. To the eldar, its name is derived from mythology; the a?e of 8innian. 3t wassaid the 8aughing (od /egorach triced the @ngir of Fire into building the ma?e, andwhen the half-god was 'nished, /egorach gleefully stole the nowledge of building the

a?e from the @ngir"s head, leaving him trapped for 've eons in the a?e. 3n its fury,the star-hungry demi-god smashed much of the a?e, accidentally letting in daemons,psychueinian and rell into the labyrinth. )ventually the Fire 8ord escaped, but/egorach did not care, for he had had his fun.

3n time, the eldar, inheriting the universe from the 7ld &uilders, used this labyrinth asthe basisi for a larger, if less-complex system of wormholes and warp tunnels, whicheldar now now as the Webway. The a?e of 8innian was still there, 9ust as the windingdirt tracs and & roads on a road networ inveigle themselves about the arrow-straighthighways.

As the )ldar )mpire san into monstrous debauchery, the a?e of 8innian became thehaven of these defectors from decadence. As god worship grew taboo in mainstreamsociety, so the (od /ults to the gods migrated into forgotten sub-realms. They builtpalaces and temples in imitation of the ones the mainstream eldar were vandalisingand burning. They held their rituals and made their sacri'ces all under the cover of/egorach"s 8abyrinth.

At the time, the @oung ing was forced to condemn these unoNcial havens of worship,for they were heretics to the mainstream church, and loathed by the growingpopulation of %ileth-aligned politicians controlling the ruling councils of the Arcadian4ing.


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The names of the undred (olden /ities of 8innian became illicitly famous; #haa-dom, Talon /yriix, the /ity of /rystal Homes, the &lac 8ibrary of &lasphemous $salms, the(arden $alace of 8oren, the Well of armonies, #ain-#helai and many more besides.

3n these exotic realms wreathed in incense smoe, the god cultists bent their potentpsychic might towards practising forbidden magics and spells, in the hopes ofdiscovering the secret to the lost art of summoning. They had many texts on the raisingand binding of daemons and warp wraiths, and even of creating the most potent ofspirit engines and daemonhosts, but the ambitious Hemagogues of the (od /ults hadbigger prey; they wished to con9ure the gods themselves into reality. They needed thepower of the gods to challenge the increasing might of %ileth and his uses.

3n order to do this, the Witches of 8innian sent forth the osts of urnous into realspaceto hunt down alien specimens to test their magic on. These Windrider hosts raided theworlds of the lesser xenos, capturing thousands to serve as fodder for their sorceries./ompared to the depraved and sadistic things the #lanneshi eldar did to their slaves,the deaths of these unfortunates were downright merciful. And, but rarely, a specimenwas potent enough to earn a place within the rans of the eldar #orcerers; such wasthe pragmatism of the /ultists.

)ven in /ommorragh, the central 3mperial $ort and the second largest eldar city inhistory, there were cults of (od-/allers preaching, selling spells and fortunes to anypoor dupes who passed by.

The realm which grew to be nown as the $hoenix /ity only truly came about when%ileth 'nally set into motion his schemes to depose the @oung ing. %ileth"s minionssaced the igh temples of the )ldar home worlds, burned down the palaces andmurdered the royal family. Anaris was stolen, and the @oung ing would have died too,if not for the valour of his would be headsman, augan 4a as explained in a previoussection.

Word of this monstrous iconoclastic betrayal spread across the empire. &y chance, theFirst Fleet were doced in /ommorragh for resupply on the day of %ileth"s uprising. The

Admiral of the !eet was Autarch Asurmen, a famously honourable commander adoredby the men and women beneath him. When %ileth had him stripped of command, andordered him to be replaced by %ileth"s favourite 8ilieth esperax, the First Fleetrebelled. Asurmen is 2uoted as saying;

4$ho is this little creature, )ileth2 $hat god named him 7ing Aboe All2 Do god ofmine.:

/ommorragh burned, as the rebel eldar fought %ileth"s soldiers for control of the !eet.As the battle of /ommorragh raged, unexpected allies rose from the metropolitancrowds. $owerful god-callers and Warlocs !ooded the streets, screaming the names ofthe $antheon as they set upon %ileth"s loyalists. The eldar of both sides fought withevery weapon in their arsenal, psychically, physically, militarily. #pires crumbled and

eldar perished. &ound d9in capered through the carnage, reaping only the souls theireldar masters had designated.

Arhra, Asurmen"s Hra?harR, was a whirling storm of death, cutting down hiscommander"s foes with recless abandon.

After a month of 'ghting, the city fell to Asurmen and his cultist allies. #ensing furtherreinforcements from the capital were massing; the Warlocs of /ommorragh collapsedthe central routes into /ommorragh, and re-opened the 8abyrinth routes between


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/ommorragh and the #ub-4ealms leading to the (olden /ities.

The @oung ing was brought to this realm, and was enthroned in the (rand $alace of/ommorragh itself. There, the boy ing too oaths from the Warlocs and #eers,$erformers and Warriors who had !oced to his banner.

As the ing received his new crown, woven from the pure wraithbone of the&onesingers of %aul, he also received word of the death of his family.

3t is said the webway gleamed a hellish red with the boy"s monstrous rage, and !ightsof falcons !ed at the sound of his shrieing scream.

/ommorragh was declared the $hoenix /ity, and the ing"s 'rst decree was eternalenmity against %ileth, and any who had made common cause with him.

Thus followed two hundred years of in #trife.

Autarch Asurmen and his forces led the war in the webway, aided and guided by/egorach"s arle2uins and the prescient powers of the #helai Farseers. %ileth had thegreater resources and manpower, even though he could not bring his aton warriorconstructs to bear on the Asur, for the machines were programmed to never raise ahand against an eldar. Asurmen"s forces had the greater concentration of potentpsyers and sorcerers, in order to counter the formidable military might of the )ldar)mpire.

1nseen by most of the galactic population, the Webway War was devastating anddestructive beyond words. Fleets clashed in the


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Asuryan had the largest temple, and the most cults. There were the 1nburnt, a sect ofpyromancers who were almost constantly wreathed in a?ure !ames. There were alsothe Hire Hefenders, the military order founded by the hero of /ommorragh, AutarchAsurmen. All the many Asuryan cults were founded on the principles of discipline,honour, light, 're and defending the wea, and thus many were military in function.

8ileath the maiden had the /ult of the oon. The oon /ultists had perfumed templesacross 8innian, and their function was to soothe the souls of the eldar, following theaspect of the (oddess of Koy. Thans to %ileth"s il, every eldar began to feel theprimal, carnal urges of #he Who #ends


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These cults are shadowy assassins and executioners, distrusted by polite society due totheir mythological connections to both the @ngir #tar-ungry and the despised &loodyanded god.

The $hoenix /ity is the last bastion of the 7ld (ods, and with every year, theconcentration of magic and mystical power building in the webway grows.

What shall happen when they eventually do summon a god from the warpP Who cansayP

R*Hra?har" means *master of blades" in the eldar tongue. )very Autarch in the )ldarmilitary traditionally had a Hra?har to act as their champion during ceremonialcon!icts. Arhra is perhaps the most famous of the Hra?hars, and was given the name*Father of #corpions" to represent his lethality.

RR At the beginning of the uman eresy period, this was the composition of the/ouncil of the @oung ing=

• Asurmen igh Autarch of the Asur military, and master of the Hire Hefenders,

and voice of Asuryan"s war aspect

• )ldrad 1lthran - e is a young Farseer by the standard of those ancient seersG,

apprenticed to Thirasalar herself, and is the voice of the crone on the /ouncil.

/onsidered wise beyond his years, he is a voice of conservatism and caution, to

temper Asurmen"s valiant honour, otley"s contrarian views, %ect"s ambition

and 7rios" mad passions.

• 8olisar (randdaughter of the oon /ult, and the /onsort of the @oung ing,

she is the aiden"s voice on the council

• otley The Troupe aster of the arle2uins, he is the voice of the 8aughing

(od on the council

• agnus The only non-eldar on the @oung ing"s council. This mysterious red

giant was found as a child by 7rios" hunters on the library world of $rospero. e

was taen to the 8oremasters of the &lac 8ibrary, and trained in their

mysteries, showing a profound aptitude for the art and nowledge. Though his

shape is that of a gigantic mon eigh monster, his soul is luminous and

beautiful, attracting many eldar suitors who 'nd his soul phenomenally alluring.

e is a mystery to the eldar; an example of some sort of engineer god-caller,

able to draw warp energy directly into himself. agnus serves as a voice for the

galaxy at large on the council, and in particular is useful for treating with the

newly-risen 3nsurgency of anind.

• heradruah The &lac and of aelis 4a, he is the 4eaper"s often silentG

voice on the council

• 3yandah The idyllic other of the house 8oren, atriarch of the /rystal 8ae,

3sha"s voice on the council

• 7rios The untmaster of the ouse #aim-an, nown as the Wild 4ider,

urnous"s voice on the council


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• Asdrubael The young Kourneyman of %aul, hailing from the poor, nearly extinct

ouse of %ect. e is a mere pup by eldar standards, a precocious child who has

proven to be a 'ne politician and a terri'cally charming and charismatic 'gure.

4are amongst eldar, his psychic powers are very limited, but he has a perfect

memory and is possibly the most intelligent eldar in /ommorragh, who has

designs some of the most cunning defences of /ommorragh, and has learnedmuch from every expert he has met. e loathes and is in turn loathed by )ldrad

however, and thus hides his true face from the Farseer.

Forces:

The forces of the $hoenix /ity are as diverse and eclectic as its many cults and

denominations.

Thans to the capture of a 4eality )ngine by Asurmen during the latter days of the in

#trife, they have abundant access to any vehicles and war machines their race can

dream of literallyG, including aton of all varieties.

Their staple footsoldiers are the Hire Hefenders, armed with the weapons deemed most

honourable by Asuryan, and the Fire Hragon war cult, who utilise any and all weapons

in service of the altar of war.

These militaries are supplemented by a veritable menagerie of irregular troops and

auxiliaries. These include=

Warloc guilds= Witches with speci'c psychic disciplines related to their chosen gods,

including the 1nburnt, the $lague dancers, and many more besides.

The Hragon nights of urnous= ounted upon great !ying li?ards, these specialisedunters wield powerful ri!es and specialised weapons in order to hunt their prey.

The $hoenix (uard= Hue to the fractious nature of eldar politics, it was decided the

@oung ing re2uired impartial guards, who served none of the gods, and would only

protect the ing. Huring the tense interactions between the ingdom of the $hoenician

and the $hoenix /ity during the in #trife, it was agreed that in exchange for the

support of the asur, Fulgrim would provide them with a force of enhanced on eigh, to

serve as palace praetorians. They were given armour and additional training by the

eldar, and became truly potent warriors, 'ghting with a ind of slender silver glaive,

incorporating sophisticated las blaster weapons and energised power blades. This

agreement survives into the days of the uman eresy, with Fulgrim eeping the name

*$hoenix (uard" to refer to his own Aegis Astartes tas forces, a symbol of his bond

with the arch enemies of %ileth.

&anshees= warrior mons with crone-granted precognition powers that give them a

lethal edge in close 2uarters.

The &lac ands= )ldar assassins and executioners. 1pon 9oining the &lac and, an

aspirant must don a mas, and obliterate their personhood, becoming a mere avatar


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for the /ult, turning their mighty minds into honed weapons deedicated to but a single

path. The concept of a rigid path system is horrendous to most sane eldar, but of

course, the &lac hand are recruited formt he insane. Their psyer abilities are used

purely to delude and cloud the minds of their prey, blinding them to the danger they

pose. They are pro'cient with the beheading laive and the nimble psionic force

weapons nown as 0holocaust0 pattern witchnives, as well as all the nown poisons.

H9in= These creatures are essentially daemonhosts, but the techni2ues to create them

are so much more sophisticated; the di+erence between merely building a mechanical

crane, and building a functioning android. The warp spirits channelled into the hsots

are 'ltered through the webway, siphoning o+ much of their powers before they are

incarnated. The host shells are biological matter, culled from numerous alien species

and spliced into tailored meat suits. Any lingering soul matter is removed, to allow the

d9in full access to the molten !esh. The d9in must follow the speci'c instructions of the

eldar summoning it, taing the form of their pleasing. This can range from the wood-

sinned dryads, to the giant harpies that guard the upper roosts of the aw and

Falcon temples.

The $hoenix /ity haven0t earned many friends amongst the xenos, with their

idnapping ways, but there are tals between the 3nsurgency and the $hoenix /ity,

arranged by agnus and Fulgrim. owever, there are other parts of the 3nsurgency, in

particular the


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When )mperor saw what happened to them almost a century later sent space wolves.

The


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owever it can be estimated to last at least a D666 years and considerably longer

amongst the more psychically enclined members of their species. )ldrad for example

was alive during the eresy and was still around come the early B5nd millenium. e

was starting to crystalise a bit though.

#o how long are the )ldar of the (olden /ities liely to live and will their older members

when they 'nally do get old by )ldar standardsG experience odd side e+ects - such as

a Farseer0s crystalisation due to harmonisation with his /raftworlds spiritP

The )ldras @nneas

0haine is bloodlust, violence and ferocity. haine is cruelty, spite and viciousness. haine

delights in slaughter, con2uest and tyranny and the winnowing out of the wea by the strong.

And haine is fear. haine is cowardice. When #he Who Thirsts was born out of the corruption,

decadence and foolishness of the ancient eldar empire, haine was the last of the gods to 9oin

the battle against er. e only 9oined the 'ght when all the other gods were dead or gone.

oweverX0 4uadhain0s expression hovered somewhere between a grin and a grimace, as if he

wasn0t sure which face he wanted to show. 0Without haine we would all be dead. haine was

once a vicious, merciless tyrant and murderer, the worst enemy of the eldar.


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and turn their magical winds to making new and shiny shackles for you all. %he ods of the %em"est !ternal will hae their due.

4Horus calls himself warmaster2 %here can be but one master of war, only one who willlay low the tyrants at the edge of his $idowmaker, and His name is 7haine. @ome, letme show you...:

- The Har /ardinal, identity unnown>

History:

The maelstrom is the festering sore at the heart of the galaxy. nown as the Tartarusarches by humanity and *Hat &ad 8and" by the ors, it is an open wound carved by

the taint of the gods of the tumult, the 4uinous Triad. Few laws hold sway over the

shimmering half-real nightmare space; not the eldar, certainly not the humans, not

even physics itself.

As such, the maelstrom is the haven of the miscreant and the exile, the criminal and

the heretic. All the 'lth of the galaxy inevitably drains into this persistent, endless warp

storm. umans, eldar, and every degenerate breed of alien imaginable inhabit this war

torn blight of a realm lie maggots writhing in a gangrenous cut.

According to legend, the aelstrom was where haine imprisoned urnous and 8ileath

during the War in eaven, and where %aul was chained before his cunning escape. 3t

was a realm where gods and mortals mingled, and the air was alive with magic.

Then there came the murder of )ldanesh. )ver after, haine was cursed as haela

ensha haine, the bloody-handed god. &y the end of the War in eaven, the eldar and

their gods 'nally bested haine, and he was forced to withdraw to his hellscape in

defeat. 3n his rage, he smashed the worlds of the allies who had failed him. e too

their heads, and set them into a mighty throne, stretching into the churning, blood-red

sies. #ensing his weaness, the gods of pestilence and change descended, and

polluted his realm. The real spaceSwarp space boundaries fell, and the aelstrom

became the fountainhead of daemons, the wellspring of every chaotic, demented urge.

3t is said horne was spawned from the troubled nightmares of haine, and ascended

to 9oin the rans of the 4uinous Triad, and the choirs of daemons unnumbered.

Whatever the truths behind these myths, the aelstrom has been a churning warp

storm for as long as even the most elderly eldar can remember. The 4uinous Three are

always feuding, and the warbands and dar empires that have them as patrons are

similarly at war.


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Around the outer perimeter of this realm rest entire eldar worldships, 'lled to the brim

with aton war constructs nown as castigators; their sole purpose being to banish

daemons and annihilate errant escapees, using their powerful vortex weaponry. They

attac nothing entering the aelstrom, only ships and entities attempting to leave.

Almost every webway portal out of the area of blasted space is haunted by warp-

spawned terrors, which ironically eep the mortal armies of the Triad e+ectively caged.

7nly by the will of the daemon choirs are warp-drive ships able to occasionally bypass

the Hread /astigators.

Huring the Age of #trife, unprecedented numbers of humans fell into the worship of

chaos, and ever more psyers were spawned and driven mad by their terrible gifts,

swelling the inhabitants of the maelstrom, and other warp rifts and dar covens across

the galaxy. #ome worlds fell wholesale into the worship of chaos, and burned in

madness and mayhem.

7thers though fell in more subtle, sinister ways. #ecret societies and twisted cults of

witches developed in the subcultures and secret societies of outwardly civilised andsophisticated cultures. any of these cults remain to this day, while the more overt

rebellions and monstrous empires were defeated by the #ecret /rusade and its allies.


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networ of demagogues, spies and slavering cult leaders, all woring towards the goal

of chaos. They wish to mae the uman eresy as horri'c and bloody as possible, to

ensure their rituals come into fruition, and the (rand 4uinstorm spell may come into

e+ect to sweep away the castigators. Then, and only then, haine shall rise from his

throne, and paint the stars with the blood of his enemies.

#ome whisper that the Hisciples of the Wailing Hoom have their tendrils in almost

every human polity in some fashion; the gods 'nd the humans easiest to corrupt and

enslave to their will. The forces of chaos have long desired to possess the $rimarchs,

ever since they tasted them in their pods on route to their adopted homeworlds. 3t is

nown Hammeos, the Tyrant of 8ochos was an Archon of the Hisciples, and raised

$erturabo in the hopes of bringing him into the fold of chaos. Though he failed to

recruit $erturabo to his cause, he raised 8ochos to the ground in his war with the young

$rimarch.

#o far, none of the other $rimarchs have had to worry about this in'ltration and

corruption, and most had father 'gures to be proud of. For instance, (uilliman had the

mighty and merciful onor, the 8ion had the stern but honourable 8uthor, and 8orgarhas the learned and pious or $haeron, who willingly stepped down as master of

/olchis in favour of his golden son, serving as a vi?ier and general alone. Truly, there

are none as pious as or $haeron. Though, it must be said, the early history of /olchis

and its religious practices have all but vanished from public record...

At the outset of the uman eresy, not every rebellion against %ileth was sponsored by

orus and the )mperor. any were caused by daemonic cults and associations

throwing aside their anonymity to unleash daemonic chaos across their worlds, and

bathe the star lanes in nightmares.

The castigators are stretched thinner than ever, facing down all the multitudes of

monsters birthed by gullible minds. #oon, the wardens of the maelstrom shall fail, and

a new player shall enter the game...

Forces:

The forces of the 4uinous Triad are as diverse and exotic as the demented gods they

tae as their patrons, with vast hordes of 8ost, Hamned cultists, human and xenos,

from across the galaxy. From the hell world of


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supplement with bloodletting on the battle'eld. 3t is said they are led by a perpetually-

evil entity called roeger, who was born on the mechanised illing 'elds of 7ld Terra, a

terrifying monster wrapped in ra?or-wire and armoured in the spent shells and mulched

corpses of the millions who fell in the name of mad pride.

Haemons in their countless, innumerable hosts regularly accompany Hiaspora forces

into battle, beasts of all three patrons of chaos.

The /haos Androids are fallen rebel 3ron en, who grew obsessed with trying to gain

souls, something the 3ron artians could never o+er them. They threw in their lot with

the 4uinous Triad, and dragged their entire Factory $lanet of ai into the warp with

them. This became the #oulforge, where daemon engines are produced en mass in

every terrible form your nightmares can produce. The Androids themselves call

themselves the #avage Artisans, and wear shreds of !ayed sin and bone on their

hulls, in ritualised attempt to steal the souls of their victims, and so become *real" life.

The warfare expert system is nown only as %alchocht the Hecimator.

&ut most deadly of all haine"s armies are the resh-selain, the deathless 3mmortals. The resh-selain are ten thousand strong, always, for that was how many suits of

armour %aul built for haine before haine"s exile, and ten thousand were the warriors

he too with him. #uch was vaul"s genius, haine never learned how to produce more.

They are haine"s $raetorians, and have never faltered in their loyalty. #ome say the

original creatures within were eldar, but with each death of the host, the armour is

be2ueathed to another servant of haine deemed worthy to 9oin the rans of the resh-

selain. )ach suit of armour absorbs the experiences of its many hosts, becoming more

silful with every passing century. The dread ten thousand are at the very spear-tip of

every ma9or Hiaspora attac. They are eager to test themselves against the best

warriors of the galaxy, and in particular have heard much about these so called on

eigh *supersoldiers" the Astartes...

3n UEE.BD, &ig e 0)adcrumpa lead his WAAA(Y to the newly awaened Tomb

World of #uranas. After initial sirmishes proved the still lethargic


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sane species in the galaxy, and he is the ammer of Haemons.

#ome speculate the 0)mperor of 4ationality0 is seeing to direct the energy of the non-

chaos, non-eldar aligned races of the galaxy towards himself.

Documents

The Arrested Fall