Great Collapse

The **Great Collapse** is the name used for the period that proceeded following the mysterious deactivation of the Transwarp Gates, and the subsequent fall of the Alysian Democratic Republic. Anarchy reigned supreme and the galactic population was halved in less than a decade. Strangely enough, the Great Collapse is also known as the period wherein psykers — individuals whose bodies are capable of harnessing and manipulating dark energy — started to appear en masse.

## **Chronology**

### Fall of the ADR

#### Discovery of the Transwarp Gates

The centuries that followed the Fourth Galactic War over Cengkeh was one of peace and stability. In the wake of the Terran Dominion’s collapse, the Alysians uncovered a massive device located deep beneath Pluto’s surface in the late 26th century. When they uncovered the device from the ground, it bursted into action and lifted itself into Pluto’s atmosphere, defying all known laws of physics. Upon closer examination, the research team responsible for the device discovered that this ‘gate’ was connected to a large, intergalactic web of similar relays, allowing for near-instantaneous intergalactic travel. As the Pluto Transwarp Gate made its debut to the greater Alysian Democratic Republic, it triggered a chain reaction that ultimately led to the activation of the ‘transwarp gate network’.

With the discovery of the Transwarp Gates, the Alysians and their subjects decided to abandon their developments on long distance hyperspace engines in favour of utilising the Transwarp Gates. The Alysians expanded outward at a pace the likes of which the galaxy has never before seen, conquering thousand of star systems every year. Twenty years after the discovery of the Pluto Transwarp Gate, their domain stretched from one end of the galaxy to the other. However, their growing dependency on the Transwarp Gates would be their greatest mistake.

#### Psionic Awakening

Sources are unsure when exactly the Psionic Awakening took place, but historians predict that the event occurred sometime during the 28th century, standard Terran calendar. Overnight, tens of thousands of people of all races found themselves with new abilities — one harnessed directly from the warp. This event saw the ‘awakening’ of 1/8th of the Democratic Republic’s population. Most were dazzled by their newfound abilities, but others viewed these psykers with discontent. Dozens of planets across the Democratic Republic began to lynch these psykers, denouncing them as a blight on the Progenitors’s grand design. The sudden appearance of the psykers divided Alysian society and one could even feel that the regime was beginning to feel very xenophobic. Alysian psykers were protected, even trained by professional ‘gurus’, while non-Alysian psykers were publicly humiliated and crucified on the streets of their homeworlds. This drove some of the races in the Democratic Republic to rebel against the Alysians. One of the most prominent faction of rebels that rose during this period were the Loriens, a militaristic and honourbound people who took great pride in their culture, which stressed the importance of honour, discipline, and war above all else. The Loriens encouraged the discriminated peoples and psykers of the Democratic Republic to flock to their worlds, where they would be treated as equals. Upon hearing of their insolence, the High Rex of the Alysian Democratic Republic ordered for a crusade to be launched against the Loriens, but it was too late.

#### The Lorien War

The Lorien War lasted only three years, but it left behind a massive impact on the political landscape of the Alysian Democratic Republic until its timely collapse in the mid 29th century. Billions were killed in the conflict and the capital of the Democratic Republic was sacked twice by the Lorien force. In the end, the Alysians launched a devastating campaign against the Loriens, resulting in the destruction of their homeworld, Mandalore.

#### Deactivation of the Transwarp Gates and the Appearance of Transwarp Storms

Approximately two decades after the Lorien War, the Alysian Democratic Republic began experiencing a number of major issues with the Transwarp Gates and the warp in general. Due to the increased usage of the Transwarp Gates, the **aether** had become highly unstable, resulting in some problems ranging from ships appearing hundreds of lightyears away from their intended destination to the mysterious disappearance of entire fleets. These malfunctions were beginning to affect the Alysian economy, whose worlds rely on other worlds to sustain their respective populations. The Alysians attempted to fix these issues, but the mechanisms behind the Transwarp Gates were far too advanced for them to renovate. Then, the unthinkable happened.

Four centuries after its discovery, the Transwarp Gates suddenly found themselves deactivated. Travel using the Transwarp Gates impossible as all other Transwarp Gates in the galactic network had also ceased to function. When the Alysians attempted to use their archaic hyperspace technology, they found themselves lost in a whirlpool of energy denying any ships the possibility of traversing the warp safely.

With the Transwarp Gates deactivated and hyperspace travel rendered impossible, the Democratic Republic found themselves in an interstellar crisis. The once orderly worlds of the Alysian Democratic Republic fell into anarchy as countless worlds starved to death. Additionally, some of the psykers began to channel untold amounts of warp energy into their bodies, resulting in the destruction of many worlds as they are consumed by a hailstorm of daemonic, warp entities. The first daemon worlds.

Ten years after the deactivation of the Transwarp Gates, the Alysian Democratic Republic was but a dying memory.

## Aftermath

#### Loss of Technology

In the wake of the Great Collapse, galactic society regressed to the point where the common and inexpensive technologies of the High Alysian period were regarded as mystical artifacts more valuable than a hundred worlds. However, after two centuries of constant warring and bloodshed, galactic society began to rebuild itself after the God Emperor unveiled her fleets of warp-capable ships to the galaxy.