The Caligari Sector

The **Caligari Sector** is a vast, ancient and forgotten region on the fringes of the Segmentum Tempestus, filled with shadows that hide hundreds of tainted worlds. It is a sector plagued by the mysterious "Warp Surges," which are smaller, but highly unpredictable manifestations of the dreaded Warp Storms.

Far from the guiding light of the Astronomican and torn apart by the foul empyreal tempests that can twist reality and cut off entire star systems for Terran centuries, the Caligari Sector is a haven for the Heretic, the xenos, the outlaw, and the corruptions of Chaos.

## History

The Caligari Sector is a vast region located in the fringes of the Segmentum Tempestus on the southern rim of the galaxy. Despite its tremendous size and the countless resources the worlds of the sector have to offer, the territory has been largely ignored by the Imperium for many Terran millennia, and even experienced Rogue Traders tend to scoff at travellers supposedly hailing from this area.The Caligari Sector is separated by great distances from the Segmentum Solarand, compared to more significant sectors, it could be justly claimed that it is sporadically populated. It is a shattered territory, where thriving star systems alternate with lost regions, quarantine zones and uncharted areas plagued by strange anomalies. However, over the centuries it has gradually become an extremely important area of operation for the Inquisition.

This far from the light of the Astronomican, shadows gather, and dark corners hide ancient secrets and dangerous creatures. In the Caligari Sector, heretical ideas tend to spread freely, not to mention a steady flow of newcomers from the heartlands of the Imperium who bring dubious agendas or questionable dogma with them, hoping to find refuge among the flickering stars of the galactic rim. In other words, the Caligari Sector is an extremely ripe hunting ground for the Inquisition, and the Caligari Conclave of Inquisitors wields far more power -- and employs a significantly greater number of Acolytes and agents -- than might be expected.

There are ample reasons why this region is so difficult to reach and control. In addition to the distance from Holy Terra, large sections of the Caligari Sector have been frequently cut off from the Imperium by the region's infamous Warp Surges. These have been a clear and present danger since the arrival of the first scouts seeking out new worlds for Mankind. Certain local sects of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and some Navigator families, have dedicated centuries to studying the Caligari Warp Surges, but information on them remains scarce and controversial...or simply classified.

These Warp Surges could be categorised as smaller equivalents of the huge, whirling Warp Storms that manifest throughout the galaxy, such as the Maelstrom or the Eye of Terror. Warp Surges are relatively small anomalies, but they appear frequently, sometimes without warning, and they can last for an indeterminable amount of time, rising and abating, and blocking established Warp travel routes. Some surges disappear in solar weeks, but others can linger for decades.

Warp Surges can cut off star systems or, in extreme cases, even large portions of an entire sub-sector. Consequently, there are always a huge number of unreachable systems in the sector, and this is why the Caligari Conclave keeps a close eye on the affected territories. Some systems suffer only minor inconveniences during these periods of undesirable separation, while other systems spend far too long behind the impenetrable wall of storms, and when contact is reestablished, whole worlds have succumbed to heretical ideology, fallen victim to foul xenos raids, or encountered the forces and servants of Chaos.

In extreme cases, there are even worlds that have forgotten that they used to be part of the glorious Imperium of Man. On these worlds, Inquisitors find hive cities on the verge of total annihilation, consumed by their own starving population, shrieking to new, alien gods for redemption. On Shrine Worlds, Imperial statues have been knocked down to erect false marble idols in their place. Inquisitors do their best to pacify these reclaimed territories, but their work is difficult and unforgiving.

The Warp Surges present a clear and present danger in the sector, and Navigators, Imperial fleet commanders and Rogue Traders have learned to cope with these anomalies over the centuries. Recently, however, the Caligari Warp Surges have started to exhibit disturbing signs -- mere impediments suddenly turning into full-blown unholy ruptures in the Immaterium, distorting space and time locally, and spitting out the daemonic filth of Chaos into realspace. It is almost as if a colossal tide had torn across the galaxy, destabilising the Warp and everything within it...

## Notable Sub-sectors

####    **Tenebra Sub-sector**

The Tenebra Sub-sector includes some of the oldest worlds in the sector. Some of these planets were colonised by humans as early as the Dark Age of Technology, while others were claimed by the early Imperium during the Great Crusade of the late 30th Millennium. As the region is relatively free from the infamous Caligari Warp Surges, the lack of these extremely unpredictable Warp Storms allowed a lengthy period of growth and progress to ensue during which only a dozen systems were lost to the Warp or cut off from the Imperium.

For a considerable length of time the core Tenebra worlds have remained relatively peaceful and important, far from the great clashes in the galaxy, but the shift in the power structure in the expanding sector eventually left this sub-sector overlooked and forgotten.

The Tenebra sub-sector is rich in ancient technology -- such as unique xenos artefacts, carefully guarded by one of the local sects of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Tenebra Sub-sector also has its fair share of shadowy corners over which the Inquisition must keep constant vigil. But the Inquisition has only just begun to investigate certain disturbances that could be tied to the sub-sector's uncanny relics.

#### **Triglav subsector**

For a long time, the Triglav Subsector used to be one of the most important industrial hubs in the Caligari Sector, with entire planets dedicated to the manufacture of industrial products, an impressive list of productive mining worlds and several very ancient Hive Worlds founded during the age of the Great Crusades.

The abundance of the infamous Caligari Warpsurges in this Subsector, however, always made the transportation of the manufactured goods problematic and costly, and some Sector Governors in the past decided to increase the industrial output of other Subsectors, leaving the Triglav systems somewhat neglected.

With the recent and inexplicable rise in Warpsurge activity, the entire Subsector was cut off entirely from the rest of the Imperium for a very long time, right until now, and the decades of isolation had terrible consequences on the worlds that lost the protection of the God-Emperor.

## Notable Star Systems

* **Aethon System** - There is little information in Imperial records regarding this system. Part of the Tenebra Sub-sector. Status: Pacified.
* **Balthar System** - There is little information in Imperial records regarding this system. Part of the Tenebra Sub-sector. Status: Threatened.
* **Chernobog System** - There is little information in Imperial records regarding this system. Part of the Tenebra Sub-Sector. Status: Pacified.
* **Dagnor System** - There is little information in Imperial records regarding this system. Part of the Tenebra Sub-sector. Status: Locked.
* **Lacaon System** - There is little information in Imperial records regarding this system. Part of the Tenebra Sub-sector. Status: Unknown.
* **Nereus System** - A war-torn system, Nereus was once a thriving hub of agricultural activity, well protected from severe Warp Surges. It fed the rest of the sub-sector with crops and the meat of bovine creatures raised from amongst its carefully maintained herds. But the Nereus System is now a troubled area that has fallen prey to periodic raids by marauding corsairs. Part of the Tenebra Sub-Sector. Status: Pacified.
* **Rengris System** - The Rengris System was cut off from the rest of the Caligari Sector by a sudden -- and particularly vicious -- Warpsurge more than five standard years ago. Before that time, it was a major hub of sub-sector commerce and the local base of operations for one of the sector's most reputable merchant organisations, House Mosinda.

## Principal Worlds of the Caligari Sector

* **Rengris VII** - Rengris VII was a planet of builders. A heavily industrialised world, trade with the rest of the sector soon burgeoned, which made the planet rich as long as it lasted. It was to this place in the sector's economic balance that Rengris VII's Planetary Governor sought to return once the Warpsurge that isolated the Rengris System five Terran years ago abated. Rengris had the raw materials to produce anything, and the capabilities to do so. The Imperium's automated heavy metal mining platforms had long since eroded the world's hills, emitting poisonous particles into the air, and then scouring the land for the metal after it settled. The planetary nobility and other members of the planetary elite lived in platform cities high in the mountains, or on great, city-like dirigibles suspended in the lower atmosphere, while the masses of the world toiled in hardship on the ground to recover ever more raw materials to feed the Imperial war machine.