Historically, during the long drawn-out and tragic period
known as ‘Old Night’, the populations of the majority of the worlds inhabited
by mankind in the Abstruse Sector slipped back to the worship of the Old Gods
in varying guises, and were brought to compliance with the Imperial Truth only
with great difficulty during the Great Crusade (M31). Soon enough, when Horus Lupercal and many of
his brother Primarchs rose up against their father, many worlds in the Abstruse
Sector also rose up in support of Horus, and threw off the yoke of Imperial
oppression.
For thousands of years thereafter, the Abstruse Sector
became synonymous with words such as strife, unrest, and upheaval. Many were
the campaigns which sought to bring this troubled region of the galaxy back to
the Emperor’s light. The ‘Path of the
Martyr’ is a string of shrine worlds and moons linking the rim-ward fringes of
the Seriphos Sector to the core-ward fringes of the neighbouring Abstruse
Sector. The ‘Path’ is so named as it
marks the route of successful campaign of reconquest undertaken by Imperial
forces led in part by Saint Felicitè, during M37.
A series of shrine worlds were erected in ensuing centuries,
marking out key sites of victories, designed to act as lasting monuments to the
sacrifice of millions of Imperial lives. At the end of the ‘Path’, lies the
world of Felicity, which marks the site of the eventual doom and ultimate
sacrifice of Saint Felicitè, where she
was stricken down as she concluded rites of banishment which ended a Daemonic
incursion, and paved the way for a decisive victory against the more corporeal
forces of the Archenemy. Following this
victory, the hold of chaos over the Sector waned, and was seemingly expunged.
All rejoiced.
Relative peace followed until mid M39, when the entire
border region between the Seriphos and Abstruse sectors was embroiled in one of
the most severe warp storms in Imperial history (although due to the vagaries
of misplaced data and the bureaucratic processes within the Administratum, this
cannot be verified). Cut off completely from the divine light of the
Astronomicon, unreachable by astropath, warp travel or even travel in real
space for centuries, the Abstruse Sector had become a watchword for misfortune,
nay, a curse, an augur of misery. It was a region of the galaxy that was largely
ignored, although the angry stain of the warp storm dominated the skyline of
many worlds at that fringe of the Seriphos Sector. A stain that was said to
echo that of the very Eye of Terror itself.
In recent times, as inexplicably as it arose, the warp storm
has suddenly receded. The Path of the
Martyr is once again accessible to travel, and exploratory missions of the Holy
Ordos of the Inquisition have begun, with the purpose of recovering relics and
attempting to ascertain the possible causes of the Warp Storm. Eventual repopulation of the area is a
secondary concern. Surrounding space is heavily interdicted by elements of the Imperial
Navy which call the Seriphos Sector home.
Reports from the Holy Ordos indicate that exploratory forces
of the Archenemy and the greenskin have been encountered on the Path, though
the Throne knows what sinister purposes and motivations have brought them to
the region…
Lovely read. With the warp storm, you’ve pretty much given yourself a blank slate to work from and start up a new story.
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of the plan. Its setting the scene for a weekend of gaming come mid-september
Delete