Hallstat Wars of Faith

The **Hallstat Wars of Faith** was a long-running series of conflicts fought in the Hallstat Sector. While religious belief was the primary motivator, other factors such as territorial expansion and past grievances also contributed to regional instability.

## Formation of the Covenant and the First War of Faith

The Hallstat Sector was full of Vandire loyalists who had successfully suppressed revolts by sympathisers of the Confederation of Light. When his murder was announced proudly from Terra, his followers hurriedly supressed the news, lest it lead to public disorder. Local officials gathered on the Cardinal World of Tartessia and agreed to band together to form a resistance against the reformist heretics who would surely come for their heads. They each penned a sermon which were collected together to form *The Covenant of Tartessia* which swore:

1. to avenge High Lord Vandire's murder;
2. to retake the Throneworld in the God-Emperor's name; and
3. to burn every last vestige of heresy thrown against the true faithful.

The cardinals elected one of their own, Xavier Magnil, as the new Ecclesiarch and sent astropathic readings of the sermon across the galaxy. In doing so they alerted Thor's followers to their existence but also inspired others of a like mind to rise up and fight.

Within several years, multiple Imperial Guard regiments arrived in the Hallstat Sector to pledge their forces to the Covenant. Some had defied their real deployment orders to do so. Their commanding officers knew there was a risk they would be declared renegades for doing so but felt a newly-empowered conservative Ecclesiarch would absolve them of their crimes.

Word of this did not reach the ears of Ecclesiarch Thor until 375.M36. Immediately, he decreed a War of Faith and ordered that the Daughters of the Emperor would form the core of the Church's elite forces. Though it would have served his purposes, Thor was reluctant to acquire regiments of the Imperial Guard through edict or coercion. Even so, numerous regiments pledged themselves to his banner. Greater still were the hordes of Frateris Militia fanatics - who, thanks to the Decree Passive, served as the informal spiritual successors to the Frateris Templar of Vandire's time. The crusade took a full two decades to muster, departing for the Hallstat Sector in 396.M36. The first foe it encountered, however, was not the heretical Covenant.

#### The Reformists Reclaim Diosa Primus (399-404.M36)

During the Age of Apostasy, the Obsidian Fists Space Marines organised the defence of the shrine world of Diosa Primus against an ork Waaagh! in early M36 but abandoned it when their chapter's homeworld was invaded by Chaos. This act incurred the fury of the Adeptus Ministorum and the tyrant Ecclesiarch Goge Vandire was on the verge of decreeing the chapter *excommunicate traitoris* for their 'selfish action' but he became distracted as revolts against his rule erupted all over the Imperium.

Diosa Primus fell to the greenskins, and would later be one of the first worlds reclaimed by the forces of the Adeptus Ministorum sent by Sebastian Thor. It was in the war for this planet that the future Adepta Sororitas first established their reputation as fearsome defenders of the reformed Ecclesiarchy. Their style of warfare proved incredibly effective against the dense hordes of orks; their flamers and meltas destroyed all orkoid spores which eliminated any chance of the horde regrowing. The campaign is so efficient that the planet is utterly cleansed of all orkoid life in just under five years. While hordes of colonists and labourers were brought in to repair the damage and reconsecrate the world, the Crusade fleet moved on.

#### The Invasion of the Caraga System (404-430.M36)

The Caraga System was one of the outermost areas of Covenant space and it was where the new Adeptus Ministorum first clashed with the old. When they realised what was coming, the promethium miners on the Ice World of Caraga Extremis stormed the planetary capital, murdered the Vandirite administration and presented the corpses as proof of their submission to the new order. A handful of preachers were left to ensure a total conversion to the new orthodoxy.
When saboteurs silenced the planetary defence cannon on Caraga V one-by-one, the Daughters of the Emperor, Imperial Guard and hordes of loyalist zealots landed to clash with the Frateris Templar and Covenant Guardsmen in and around the planet's hives. The fighting here was fierce and utterly without mercy. The Covenant had prepared their defences well and the invaders were forced to advance on each hive through barbed wire, tank traps and minefields from their landing zones. Great dogfights filled the skies as fighters battled for aerial supremacy.

### The Obsidian Fists Join The War (425.M36)

Representatives of the reformed Ecclesiarchy approached the Obsidian Fists to enlist their aid against the Vandirite heretics of Tartessia. Hoping to find a strong Chapter fully-prepared for war, the envoys were disappointed when they found only 100 Space Marines and almost that number again in neophytes rebuilding their fortress-monastery. Having been isolated, the Obsidian Fists agreed to provide aid once they were briefed on how Vandire's regime brought the Imperium to the brink of collapse. In exchange, the accompanying Mechanicus provided tech-priests and servitors to aid in the reconstruction of The Caer. The 10th Company departs for the Caraga System where they take part on numerous fronts. They take significant casualties but by the end of the war the survivors are elevated to the rank of battle-brother.

### The Covenant's Legacy

The death of 'Ecclesiarch' Magnil put an end to any hopes the Covenant of Tartessia might have had of reclaiming the Adeptus Ministorum. Its cardinals and other officials were publicly executed as heretics. Most of its other followers were killed in battle by reformist forces. The Imperial Guard regiments who rallied to the Covenant's banner were wiped out and their names struck from the Departmento Munitorum's rolls of honour.

The Temple movement was driven into hiding soon after the Covenant was crushed. A once-omnipotent religious body driven to worshipping in secret; its hidden holy places guarded by retainers bearing the vestiges of the Frateris Templar.

The Covenant of Tartessia's founding doctrine would inspire other religious rebellions down the millennia, ensuring that the Temple of the Saviour Emperor would regain temporal and spiritual power, though often not for very long.

## The Second War of Faith (581-583.M38)

Following the Obsidian Fist chapter's earlier refusal to surrender its homeworld of Dalriada to the Church, the arrogant Cardinal Blaeg-Ovize declared the Space Marines should be brought to penance by force and ordered his followers to attack them. A vast invasion fleet laid siege to the Obsidian Fists homeworld fortress-monastery The Caer for two solar years. The Ministorum armies consisted of 60,000 battle sisters of the Order of the Hallowed Hawthorn and thirty million Frateris Militia at its outset. They are pitted against a loyalist Chapter at nearly full strength. The siege is lifted when an Imperial Fists cruiser accompanying elements of the Obsidian Fleet enters the system. In their haste to withdraw, the Ecclesiarchy abandons thousands of its adherents on Dalriada and its neighbouring planets. They are subject to the barely-repressed fury of the Obsidian Fists and the Dalriadan clans. None survive.