Worst Eras and Places of Warhammer 40K Lore

there is no peace Among the Stars only the laughter of greedy Gods despite the vast expanses of the Galaxy in the Grim darkness of the far future it is quite challenging to find a place or a period that could unequivocally be called a golden age some might recall the times of the great Crusade or even the dark era of Technology but even during these seemingly triumphant times of mankind there were far too many ways to suffer a terrible and ganizing death and at all times it so happened that some people were somewhat luckier than others lucky to be born in a relatively calm slice of history in a more developed state in a more fortunate family than many less fortunate could boast but in the galaxy of the far future it is much easier to find a place and time where the chances of living to old age are close to absolute zero rather than a place where one could live out a modest yet long life for example few would wish to find themselves a resident of Terror at the beginning of the 36th Millennium when the era of apostasy began the blackest of epochs the saddest of times and let no one remember the name of the one who doomed us the second period of civil war in the history of the Imperium of man which flared up due to disagreements between the ecclesiarchy and the administratum by the 34th Millennium the power of the ecclesiarchy had spread into all all aspects of life in the Imperium from ordinary Miners and Clarks to planetary Governors and the high Lords Of Terror all were devoted to the Imperial Faith at least in theory in practice the high Lords periodically yielded to the ecclesiarch believing he represented the eye of the emperor in turn the adeptus ministorum remained inactive and did not obstruct this state of affairs the power of the ecclesiarchy grew a situation that did not suit certain sectors of the Imperium at the Council of high Lords the fabricator general of the adeptus mechanicus openly opposed the will of the ecclesiarchy and many orders of the adeptus aartis also questioned the orders coming from it with their help the administrator began to combat The Growing Power of the ecclesiarchy at this time go vany was elected the 361st master of the administratum and immediately appeared as an opponent of the absolute power of the adeptus ministorum among the high Lords Of Terror the practice of subtly manipulating other branches of Imperial Authority including the ecclesiarchy was widespread nonetheless Vanier was not inclined to constantly resort to such methods activating his plans to gain power over the Imperial church after assembling a military group vanir attacked the ecclesiarchy's palace on the planet ofilia iith and declared the incumbent Ecclesia paulus III a traitor after which he mercilessly executed him subsequently go Vander took on Dual duties as the head of both the administratum and the ecclesiarchy being simultaneously the ecclesiarch and the master of the administratum Vanier became the most powerful figure in the Imperium at the peak of his might he effectively controlled not just the administratum and the ecclesiarchy but also the oficio assassinorum the adeptus Astro telepathica and the Imperial Guard as vanir's power grew he began systematically Exterminating all the Cardinals and officials of the ecclesiarchy who opposed him many Cardinals attempted to flee Terror but as they entered the imum a strong warp storm arose destroying the fugitive ship vanir declared this a sign from the Emperor God himself after which he began filling the vacant Cardinal positions with his loyal servants unsurprisingly such a concentration of power eventually turned into tyranny despite Goa Van's Noble aspirations to free the Empire from the excessive influence of the ecclesiarchy his own rule proved far worse he quickly demonstrated his own Madness taking great pleasure in torturing anyone regardless of their guilt or innocence claiming in this way he purified their souls it was said that he would fall into trances during which he muttered or even loudly SC screamed later claiming he had received a message from the god Emperor these messages were followed by acts of extreme cruelty towards his subjects yet despite nearly a century of his rule vany hindered too many and eventually Tera was besieged again this time however The Siege was not led by a mad traitor under the influence of destructive forces on the contrary the Warriors storming Terror were convinced they were fulfilling the will of the emperor a vast Army supported by the adeptus mechanicus and the adeptus aartis descended upon the Cradle of humanity and ultimately the Tyrant fell struck down by his own Warrior making pilgrimages to Terror or being its permanent resident at the height of this conflict was far from the best idea unless you intended to become a direct participant even if we discount all obvious outcomes such as being torn apart by the bolts of the sororitas or aartis being burned by a plasma Salvo from a Titan or an orbital strike the very necessity of choosing a side in such a conflict is more than a dubious pleasure especially when both sides Proclaim their sanctity and brand each other as Heretics however even when the goals are clear when you know for sure you are fighting for the truth and that you are LED into battle by the emperor himself things might not be so straightforward when people talk about the great Crusade they speak speak of Humanity's Triumph of times of glory and fulfilled dreams of how the desperate worlds of humans were finally reunited under the light of Terror and how the emperor once again opened the way to the stars for Humanity yet many forget that times of Glory often mean times of great sacrifices blinded by the triumphs of the estares legions many forget the numerous armies of ordinary people who although significantly different from the familiar Imperial Guard largely shared their fate after all at the end of the day there is no difference in the trench whether you carry the banner of a guard regiment the Imperial Army or even the proud solar auxiliar and the difference between a commissar and a overseer is merely in uniform and this Army requires people no less than the regiments of the Imperial Guard who will likewise be forced to fight against the horrors of space and while the estares are likely to be at the spearhead of any attack does it really matter at the moment when an orc gargant immediately aims its weapon at your position however one must not forget those who were on the other side of the campaign imagine that your star system has been isolated from the rest of space for thousands of years but you are lucky you have preserved the Technologies of your ancestors you have not degenerated into barbarism on the contrary your Society has developed and flourished and by the 30th Millennium you fully control your system live in your own constructed Utopia and most likely don't even maintain an army because there is simply no one to fight with and for thousands of years not even the Orcs have come knocking and then ships of the Imperium appear above your planet the fleeting Joy of reunification with distant kin quickly dims with a simple ultimatum compliance or flame and you have no choice but to accept it for even if you had Armed Forces it is unlikely they could truly stand against these Warriors in power armor and now all your high tech production is under the control of the tech priest your Utopia is Shattered by Imperial laws and orders perhaps a governor not of your own will be appointed to your planet it will be an officer from the Imperial Army among the high commanders who are about for some reason to be removed from the Expedition a hereditary Aristocrat from a planet at the other end of the Galaxy will rule as well as he can and under the banner of the Aquila your Society of complete well-being slowly regresses into a long extinct and even forgotten feudalism money something you have never heard of appears on the planet and you have to find a way to acquire it for instance at the new manufactorum which now occupies a quarter of the continent welcome work shifts are 16 hours no holidays or weekends but do not worry in case of a serious injury at the factory you will be immediately sent for servitization if anything is unsatisfactory there is always an alternative you can join the Imperial Army of course this is not an ordinary case the great Crusade indeed brought Deliverance to many worlds the Warriors of the emperor liberated people from the Yoke of xenos or the perverse intellect pulled peoples from barbarism and found those who had long forgotten that there existed others beyond their world yet some sometimes darker events occurred such as the fate of planet 4,716 discovered by the Legion of the word bearers the inhabitants of the planet were fully prepared to embrace the Imperial truth and were even interested in the legion's faith as they had somehow obtained a copy of the lectio divinitatus however the recent fate of the monarchy and reproaches for slow progress have already determined the fate of this world despite the planet's complete agreement lorgar ordered a military campaign indeed if even at the dawn of humanity there were ample ways to die what to say about its Darkest Hour the Great Rift a colossal warp storm that engulfed the Galaxy at the end of the 41st Millennium even before the fall of kadia the materium showed signs of increasing turbulence travel and communication suffered from the growing unrest in the war the events of the 13th Black Crusade served as a catalyst for this process cess the materium could not withstand and a huge warp Rift enveloped the Galaxy stretching from the terror to the hadex anomaly in the Eastern Fringe the Great Rift is a tear in the fabric of reality splitting the Imperium into two its emergence literally broke the Galaxy apart plunged the Imperium into chaos and marked the beginning of new Wars for its worlds so mighty and vast is this storm that the very laws of physics ceased to operate and temporal paradoxes once confined to places like the eye of Terror are now encountered across the Galaxy some worlds felt the weight of centuries in mere seconds others almost froze in time While others suffered from temporal Rifts the part of the Galaxy cut off from The Guiding Light of the astronomican was named Imperium nihilus or the dark Imperium the exact reasons for the rift's appearance are unknown but there are many theories the breach of the cadan gate the sorcery of the Demonic primarch Magnus the red during the siege of the Fenris system the destruction of parts of the webway or the massive bloodsheds and fires in the dles Gulf perhaps all these factors contributed to it gradually realizing the nightmarish realities of the Galaxy altered by the Great Rift the Imperium strive to adapt to this new Dreadful situation there were no longer worlds of shields or BAS Christian systems henceforth any Planet even sacred Terror was on the front line for the survival of humanity one can talk a lot about the difficulty of surviving in the age of Darkness you could fall during the defense of Cadia holding back the hordes of demons and traitor aartis perish in an overwhelming Crusade or even rot alive in the plague Warriors defending Ultramar but imagine yourself in the place of those whose home was where the Great Rift Now lies no matter who you were a mutant a laborer an arbitrator or an aristocrat your entire world suddenly found itself in an impossible hell in the realm of the immaterium where even death would not Grant relief literally Anything could happen to you because of events on the other end of the Galaxy over which you had not only no influence but also no awareness without a chance to do anything or somehow save yourself you are now forever forced to experience horror in comparison to which a Dark Eldar raid would seem like a mundane routine you could become part of a gigantic mound of living flesh inside which impossible monsters Gore tunnels and you feel every move they make you could become part of a new rotting Garden serving as food for numerous fungi and larvi or simply join the chorus of constantly screaming voices that the keepers of Secrets relish even all of the above does not reflect a hundredth of a percent of what can happen in such world worlds in the end in the immaterium the concept of impossibility does not exist and even a person with the richest imagination can always be surprised and yet these are billions of people who have vanished without a chance for salvation or any further deliverance and if one considers the statistics the chance of ending up among them is much higher than the chance of joining the ranks of the new primar Space Marines the Imperium encompasses a vast array of entirely different planets from Death worlds to paradisical ones of course life on such planets varies greatly but even among the most inhospitable worlds there are those you would least like to find yourself on one such is Bal the home world of the blood Angels chapter in ancient times Bal and its moons Primus and secundus had an atmosphere similar to Earth's but while the planet itself was one vast red desert its satellites were a paradise where humans lived freely in harmony with nature and in idleness the local inhabitants built gigantic monuments carved statues of rulers and gods in the rocks and even traveled to the surface of Bal to create a colony and erect monuments no one knows what exactly brought an end to this Idol the only certainty is that during the terrible events marking the downfall of human society and the end of the Dark Age of Technology the moons of Bal suffered terribly when ancient viral and nuclear weapons were deployed on their surfaces cities turned into pale glass after the Lush vegetation only dirty wastelands remained and the Seas were filled with toxic waste millions of people died and it seemed that their kind would soon become extinct in the barl system but on the outskirts of the radioactive zones there were those who desperately clung to life they became scavengers picking over the bones of their own once great civilization in the dark times that followed some fairly even lower and turned to cannibalism however all this was before the coming of sanguinius and subsequently the Imperium after 10,000 years Bal might not have become a paradise but among other options it certainly isn't the worst most importantly it is there that the blood angels recruit their neopit and many would agree to endure the harsh climate for a chance to become one of the Imperial Angels but what if you were unlucky enough not to have been born on before the events when the entire planet faced a trial that even many aartis could not survive at the very end of the 41st Millennium a tendril of the high Fleet Leviathan struck the planet hundreds of thousands of bioships flying in such dense clusters that the invading Force seemed like a single gigantic organism with numerous appendages raced towards Bal they were met with a frontal attack by the fleet of the blood angels reinforced by Starships from several successor chapter fleets the Skies of Bal erupted in a firestorm the sturdy massive ships of the adepto aartis breached the center of the approaching tyranid Armada unleashing devastating broadsides and volleys of torpedoes with nuclear warheads however their void operation was equally gallant and hopeless the zenos successively isolated combat barges and cruisers from their allies before dispatching them with Organic missiles and swarms of smaller biocraft arriving in orbit around Bal and its moons Leviathan spewed clouds of spores into the atmospheres of these celestial bodies as a battle raged overhead the Warriors below awaited the opening onslaught of the tyranids occupying positions on fortifications from the time of the Horus heresy which had been excavated and reinforced by the order's servants and servitors in preparation for the defense the Space Marines transformed Bal and its twin moons into colossal fire traps dotting their surfaces with artillery routs minefields in narrow passes and pillboxes with intersecting fields of fire the first few swarms of tyranids that landed in the order's home world were completely annihilated under the volleys of well- aimed guns and devastating storms of Bolter shells not even managing to approach the Imperial defensive lines however new spores from low orbit kept landing on Bal every second and the battle organ organisms springing from the bursting fleshy envelopes of the tyranids immediately threw themselves into combat by the time the 10th wave of Invaders surged the planet's surface was almost concealed beneath swarms of aliens towering over the living carpet of Flesh were gigantic synoptic creatures The tyranid Hive Tyrant and immense Turon spawning gaunts by the dozens these monsters commanded the surrounding creatures incessantly bombarding the enemy with scorching plasma or breaching the fortifications with their massive Limbs and Blades wherever they made breaches Broods of gin Steelers rushed in turning the battle into frenzied hand-to-hand combat and Slaughter in the rear of the tyranid Swarms stood yet another Mighty creature which observed the slaughter analyzing the Strategic moves of the sons of sanguinius and directed its lesser kin to counter the Imperials this monster demonstrated cunning and wittiness developed over entire epochs of warfare the hive mind once again brought forth its messenger the Swarm Lord to ensure the eradication of the blood angels over several weeks of battle the descendants of sanguinius repelled 19 assault attempts demonstrating Valor and skill worthy of the memory of their fallen primarch the flesh Terrors fought handin hand with the angels soaked in blood taking a circular defense what warriors with blades and bolters repelled the onslaught of tyranid Warriors the blood angels assault squads dived into the thick of the enemy swarm hunting the largest and most ferocious Monsters Among the radiation scorched desert valys massed formations of armored vehicles and self-propelled guns clashed with attacking carnifex Broods merging into a cacophony of metal and flesh however no matter how bravely The Defenders of B fought they simply could not stand each tyranid attack took the lives of battle brothers five masters of the successor chapters sacrificed themselves to hold back the surging waves of zenos but the higher the piles of corpses grew the more it seemed that the heroism of the Warriors was in vain the fall of Bal seemed inevitable in that Dark Hour a new Calamity befell the Bal system a catastrophic discharge of Imperial energy occurred splitting the Galaxy with a colossal warp storm named The Great Rift the sky above the homeland of sanguinius burst into ethereal fire and the ancient malevolent denisons of the imum turned their terrible gazes upon tangible reality meanwhile on Bal the blood angels successors Unleashed their fury on the tyranid Swarms just as the brutal battle reached its Zenith existence itself tore aunder and the air smelt of boiling sulfur and burning life-giving moisture from the expanding breach chanting praises to the blood God corn in unison demonic Legions charged in the orbit of Bal thousands of bioships disappeared pulled into the immaterium by tendrils of ethereal energy or consumed by fishes in space soon only the burning hulls of gutted organic vessels remained in space entering the planet's gravitational well they fell as a fiery rain upon the ravaged surface of the homeland of the blood angels as the heavens open to reveal a blazing hell Dante the chapter Master of the blood angels led a handful of surviving Warriors who were retreating to the walls of the monastery Fortress the Mad outbursts of the imperion intensified and it seemed as if time itself had become its victim the slaughter seemed to stretch on for years xenos and Space Marines continued to fight and kill swiftly approaching Mutual Annihilation at that decisive moment of the battle the Swarm Lord itself joined the fry advancing forward it cleaved the Space Marines to pieces with its serrated bony blades Dante weary and full of Sorrow yet still indomitable hued his way through the dense mass of alien flesh with his axe mortalis to reach the Beast and decapitate it they fought under Skies Ablaze and the duel ended with the Lord of angels bleeding from a dozen mortal wounds slaying the Swarm Lord Dante himself collapsed soon after and while Warriors consumed by spiritual Agony struggled to reach their Commander's body the tortured Sky finally cleared the storm has passed where the tyranid Armada had once obscured the Stars not a single enemy ship remained in their place Majestic Imperial spacecraft appeared prar robot Gillman the resurrected avenging son arrived at Bal at the head of an irresistible Crusade these events are not simply referred to as the devastation of Bal the chances of surviving such a battle especially as a mere mortal are incomparably less than the chances of being struck by lightning on a clear day while sitting at home however even if only for a short while you would still have had the chance to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Imperial angels in battle the galaxy of the far future always offered plenty of chances to die and one didn't even have to be part of apocalyptic events but even in such a grim World there are times and places where these chances virtually surge to 100% however the alternative is even worse for there is no peace Among the Stars only the laughter of thirsting Gods

Channel: Imperial Iterator

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Id: WiF3broS84s

Length: 23min 34sec (1414 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2024