No-Man's-Land

Near the center of Subsector Cambria, there lies a dark, forgotten region. A space between the enlightened constellations, where Triumvirate Fleets seldom fare and the worlds stand alone in the dark.

This is the No-Man's-Land, a region torn from the Imperial Fold during the last Surge of Thetys, and never truly reconquered by the forces of the Imperium. Too few worlds of import existed there, too few souls survived to warrant a new crusade. And yet, in the dark between the mighty stars lingers the unbroken spirit of humanity, a will to survive which has driven those scant survivors to raise entrenchments in this regions unlike any in the Sector, safe for the Limes Gondwana itself.

## Astrography

The No-Man's-Land is surrounded on three sides by mighty imperial domains. To the galactic north, there lies the Glacial Nebula and its anchorages for the Imperial Fleet. Impenetrable, the cosmic storm of ice encroaches every so often into the No-Man's-Land, when mighty clouds of ice separate from the Glacial Nebula itself and drift into southward regions, enveloping worlds and systems in celestial snow.

East of the No-Man's-Land, there lies Glaive's Reach, home to the Astartes Chapter of Nimbus Imperatoria Laurentia. There are the hallowed worlds, blessed by the warrior lords from afar. Their worlds are safeguarded by the mighty and despised for the same reason by many living in their shadow.

On the opposite side, to the galactic west, open the glowing maelstroms into the Immaterium. The Thetys Rift expands and dwindles in centuries long tides, pressing against the No-Man's-Land again and again, only to recede and give way to the forces fighting to repel the ruinous foe.

At last to the south, the Triumvirate Trantor guards the borders of its domain. The Trantor Reef is fortified and forbidden to those who dwell in the No-Man's-Land. But those living in the shadow have not forgotten the war millennia past when they were overrun and beaten and Trantor itself was brought to the brink of destruction. More than the people of Trantor itself, the dwellers of the No-Man's-Land know how vital they are to the Administratum World. Some despise, but more pity those living upon Trantor for their ignorance. For in their heart, the survivors of the No-Man's-Land know, they will live at the right side of the Emperor as true warriors of the Imperium, whilst those living comfortably on the Administratum world will have to gaze at the Golden Throne from afar.

## Systems of the No-Man's-Land

The embattled space of the No-Man's-Land is dominated by the Forlorn Fortress World Gahmuret, the mightiest military force of the immediate region. Under a number of forgotten suns, there exist minor worlds, small in their knowledge and populace, but nonetheless vital to the wider machinery of war maintained by Gahmuret.

### Pilgrims of Laurentia

The Pilgrim Fleets of Laurentia often journey in between these stars, seeking to uplift these worlds and lend them the strength to rebuild after chaos incursions. Some such systems have indeed managed to recuperate since the last mighty surge of the Thetys Rift and developed civilizations reaching out to other worlds of their system.

More often, the minor worlds of the No-Man's-Land form strategic chokepoints for the shadow fleets of Gahmuret to defend. As targets for any incursions from the rift, they will attract the foe and lure the ruinous powers into ambushes and traps, and buy other worlds time to prepare for the onslaught coming.

### Orphan Stars

Aside from the minor systems, there are many orphan stars in the No-Man's-Land, lone fires in the void supporting no worlds. These are empty, silent regions far removed from the vestiges of civilization left in this part of Sector Gondwana. Even so, they are sometimes staging grounds to forward fleets of Forlorn Gahmuret, to prepare attacks against the Thetys Rift itself.

## History

### The broken civilization

In ages long past, there existed in this region a civilization, not unlike the mighty fiefdom governed by the Crimson Queen. Sustained throughout the Age of Strife, these worlds maintained minimal travel among their own stars and communicated through the storms of the Immaterium. Unlike the Fiefdom, however, they had no intention to submit to the rise of the Imperium. As a gesture of her fielty, the Crimson Queen went forth aboard the Tabernacle, leading her own fleets deep into this erstwhile mighty domain and burnt down the proud worlds standing against the Emperor.

The broken civilization was not merely defeated, but erased wholly from galactic history. Already, in this ancient time, it was decided for these stars to be shunned as the home to traitors of ancient times.

### First imperial rule

By the Imperium coming, the worlds of the Fiefdom were uplifted and allowed a continued existence as a shadowy realm of their own. The erstwhile traitor worlds were left to themselves and received little aid in rebuilding after the decisive war. The greater powers of the Imperium forming around them, reached out slowly to the tainted stars and thus the region remained, as a blank space on the star charts of old.

### Falling into shadow

When the long shadow fell, the soldiers of the Imperium came – not to defend these worlds, however, but to use them as the battlefield upon which to defend the worlds more valuable to humanity. Nonetheless, for the first time, these worlds were built up into mighty fortresses and citadels, allowed to thrive under strict military rule. These were their age of iron and blood, preparation for a war the Imperium knew was coming.

When Thetys surged and the war came, the worlds of the No-Man's-Land fought well, before inevitably falling into shadow. Billions of their souls newly raised, entire generations bred to fight in this war, were sent into battle and sacrificed for the glory and continued existence of the Imperium. There was no hope for their victory, only to hold off the enemy long enough. But in this, the forces of the No-Man's-Land failed and the cursed stars fell before their time, allowing the surge to overrun the inner systems of Subsector Cambria and bring even the Administratum World Trantor to the brink of defeat.

For this, the worlds of the No-Man's-Land could not be forgiven, and after the war, they fell entirely into shadow, lost to the oblivion of time.

### No land for mankind

At the end of the 41st Millennium, there is no place for mankind among these forgotten stars. It has become a graveyard for hopeless worlds, where only the last bulwarks and entrenchments of the most defiant peoples persist. Those scant survivors of the last crusade show no hospitality to the servants of the Imperium. They might even be deemed heretical, if not for their insignificance. No lord nor inquisitor found it worth their time to seal those beaten world's fate. Thus the regions of the No-Man's-Land are neither banished nor exterminated, but simply, by all of the Imperium, forgotten.