Chaos Daemons - Time of Ending, M40-M42: An age marked by war, Warp Storms and unprecedented rifts between the Immaterium and realspace begins.Corewar of Cocholos (052.M40) - The Necrons of Cocholos awaken to find their planet's inner fires dead. They eventually find the truth in a colossal hollow sphere at the planet's core, where the Daemon Prince Beublghor now makes his lair. The titanic entity, having grown mighty after slaughtering the humans of Cocholos, takes exception to the metal ants stalking through his burrow. He summons his Daemonic followers and plunges headlong into the Necrons. Battle rages in the darkness until the Necrons are obliterated, and their metal skulls heaped deep within the planet's cold womb.The Coup-Daemons (248.M41) - The Drukhari Archon Ysclyth learns the folly of harnessing Daemons to his cause when his rival, Asdrubael Vect, seals off Ysclyth's territory from the rest of Commorragh. Trapped with only the Daemon legion for company, Ysclyth and his Kabal are slowly torn apart.The Horrors of Lissandro (383.M41) - Warp Storm Iagon visits its fury upon the planet of Lissandro. Reports of psychic activity multiply tenfold overnight. The ruling body of the planet, the Quorum Immaculate, orders the planet's libraries scoured for any information on Warp Storms. They find records of an ancient hexagrammic symbol that wards off Daemonic intervention -- a symbol that is systematically implanted as a sub-dermal electoo on all registered citizens. It does not halt a wave of Daemonic possessions; every citizen with an electoo falls writhing to the ground, a Pink Horror clambering from their convulsing husk. By sunset, Lissandro is overrun. By the time the Grey Knights arrive, every city on the planet has been irrevocably changed. The Grey Knights take the battle to those Daemons still cavorting in the ruins, but find not a single soul alive. When the purgation teams breach the libraries, they encounter the architects of the catastrophe -- the legendary Blue Scribes -- who vanish into the aether. In their wake, it becomes clear that the symbol left in the grimoires was not one of banishment, but of invitation.A Game of Blood (820.M41) - The Flesh Tearers Chapter respond to an unfolding conflict in the Adeonis Sector and battle against several of Tzeentch's Conflagration Legions, ultimately sealing the Warp Rift through which the Daemons arrived. But victory is not as simple as it first seems, for the scheming Changeling lies at the heart of this strife. Ever manipulating the cosmic strands of fate, the Changeling has plans afoot to not only strike a blow against Khorne, but also to tempt the Flesh Tearers towards damnation...The Bloodtide Returns (876.M41) - The Blood Legions of Khorne rampage across the galaxy. Although one such Daemonic legion is repelled at great cost by the Daemon-slaying Grey Knights on the world of Van Horne, dozens more spread slaughter across the stars.The Perillian Catastrophes (877-987.M41) - The Perillian gas belt, described in Gungsten the Heretic's Approximations as "the blasted remains of some vast star predator," swirls across several systems, infesting each with Daemonic incursions. As the pattern of destruction continues, a Radical sect of the Inquisition resorts to sorcery to disperse the malignant gas belt.Gheistos Cataclysm (ca. 955.M41) - On the Agri-world of Gheistos, a young meat-worker's migraines lead to an escalating Daemonic incursion that culminates with the planet's sky being cut open by Khorne's own blade. Despite the efforts of the Silver Skulls and Grey Knights Chapters, Exterminatus is enacted.Fall of the Seers of Lugganath (975.M41) - The Craftworld of Lugganath falls prey to the Brittle Coma. Its Seer Council project their spirits into the Garden of Nurgle, hoping to find the cure, but instead they meet a tragic and unsettling end.The Knight of Vhospis (984.M41) - A Warp Rift opens above the Feudal World of Vhospis. The beleaguered defenders, their tech-level so low that they still rely on polearms and metal armour, are easy prey for the Daemonic invaders. An astropathic distress call reaches the Silver Sabres Space Marines, whose Chapter planet, Mercuria, is less than a light year distant. Unfortunately for Vhospis, Daemons haunting the skies above the planet's besieged castles destroy almost all of the Drop Pods launched toward the surface. A single Space Marine survives and rallies the people of Vhospis, reigniting their potent faith in the Emperor. Slowly, day by gore-soaked day, he begins to turn the tide.Scarlet Hunt (990.M41) - The decadent Drukhari noble, Zorothriel of the Flaying Blade, outdoes his rivals by staging a daring hunt upon the Daemon World of Khornax. Amongst the captured beasts is a three-headed Flesh Hound that Zorothriel senses would make for a kingly gift in Commorragh's gladiatorial arenas, but the creature breaks its shackles, frees its packmates and prowls the Drukhari warship's corridors, killing all on board and feasting upon the corpses of its captors.Ghosts of Rhea's World (992.M41) - After an eruption in the heart of the cursed burial plateau of Rhea's World, a host of Plaguebearers fall upon the terrified defences of the planetary hive cities.The Warpsmith's Will (993.M41) - Vhostok Pistonhand of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion stages a coup over Diesos, a soul forge occupied by the Daemon-binding forces of the Dark Mechanicum. After a single night of bloodshed, the entire world is given over to the production of Daemon Engines for the Warpsmith's army. Each new horror is slaved to Pistonhand's will by the forbidden rite known as the Concatechism. The Warpsmith's Chaos Sorcerers summon Daemon after Daemon to the soul forges, binding them into the flames with iron-worded spells. The planet blackens with the poison smog of industry. Eventually, the Chaos Gods' gaze falls upon the wholesale abduction of their servants, and they are most displeased. Four Daemonic legions materialise upon Diesos, one sent by each of the Ruinous Powers. United in their outrage, they prove unstoppable. Though Pistonhand's armies boast thousands of mechanical terrors, the invaders seem without number. Diesos is conquered within a solar month. As the Daemon legions break apart and start to fight each other over the spoils of victory, the war for Diesos starts anew.Thridian Protocol (995.M41) - When a Warp-time dilation twists the firmament over Thridia, the planet's dark past come back to haunt it. In the skies above, clouds solidify into tentacled beasts, stars turn into unblinking eyes and Daemon climb out of the tortured clouds to fall claws-first onto the mortals below. Thridia's Imperial Guard regiments fix bayonets and fight back, but their officers are at a loss as to how to defeat an enemy that literally materialise out of thin air. The retreat is signalled. En masse, the regiments head to Hive Vertes, only to find their withdrawal is blocked by a thickening wall of Necrons that silently rises out of the ash dunes. Trapped and bewildered, the Imperial Guard resolve to die fighting. But the Necrons have their own plan for Thridia; plans that Chaos cannot be allowed to disrupt. They fire volley after volley into the Daemons with clockwork precision, systematically destroying the invaders wherever they manifest. The Imperial Guard have to conduct a running battle to escape, eventually fighting their way back to the Hive. From the safety of Vertes' noble spires, the high-ranking officers of the Guard have their men mind-wiped before coordinating a solar week-long blanket bombardment centred upon the battle in the wastes.The Laughing Death (997.M41) - A hundred thousand Daemonettes invade the rust planet of Ferrite Mons when the planet's over-privileged ruler jokingly invites the handmaidens of Slaanesh to his feast. Even the elite Astra Militarum regiments of the Vostroyan Firstborn cannot slay the Daemons, whose laughter blends with the screams of the Ferrite aristocracy.Triptych of Grief (871.998.M41) - On Galdemor, the violence committed by the Daemon legion of Braskh'har the Devious, a Herald of Slaanesh, causes such grief that a new Warp rift opens. The armies of Khal'thar'rak, the Bloodied Fang, and a host of necrotic, Nurgle Daemons pill forth, led by Ku'Gath Plaguefather and Prince Gurglish the Ever-rotting. The three Daemonic armies fight over the spoils of the world, leaving no creature alive by the time they eventually depart back to the Realm of Chaos.The Great Awakening (992.999.M41) - A ripple of psychic activity passes through the stars, awakening the supernatural abilities of countless latent psykers. The resultant backlash create innumerable Warp Rifts and the spate of Daemonic invasions that follow tests the Imperium to its limit. A thousand worlds are lost, hopelessly embroiled in Daemonic incursions.The Fracture of Biel-Tan (ca. 999.M41) - The Daemonic Herald of Slaanesh known as The Masque masterminds an invasion of the Maiden World of Ursulia, where she had discovered a secret route of ingress to the Craftworld of Biel-Tan. Having beguiled the exiled Daemon Skarbrand and his followers to aid her, The Masque uses the Bloodthirster's rage-fuelled strength to shatter the runic locks of a Webway portal to the Aeldari world-ship. Once aboard, The Masque leads her sistren to corrupt Biel-Tan's Wraithbone core, fracturing the Craftworld and releasing a veritable feast of Aeldari souls for Slaanesh to consume.The 13th Black Crusade (ca. 995.999.M41) - Abaddon the Despoiler leads a Black Crusade of unprecedented size against the Fortress World of Cadia, intending to overrun its defences and plunge on towards Terra. With him come the Daemon legions of the Warp, reality buckling before their advance. The Imperium shudders as a tidal wave of Chaos pours into realspace, and the galaxy stands on the brink of ultimate destruction. Cadia falls, although many Imperial forces escape its destruction as infighting -- and the intervention of the newborn Aeldari faction known as the Ynnari -- hampers Chaos' pursuit.Return of a Primarch (ca. 999.M41) - The blind spot in Tzeentch's precognitive sight clears, but too late for the Ruinous Powers to halt the revival of the Loyalist Primarch Roboute Guilliman during the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade.The Opening of the Great Rift (ca. 999.M41) - Reality itself cracks under the pressure of millennia of Chaos machinations come to fruition. With the release of a tidal wave of apocalyptic energies, a seam tears between realspace and the Warp. The Noctis Aeterna -- the Blackness -- blankets the galaxy, snuffing out the light of the Astronomican and throwing the mortal races into disarray. For a time, the Ruinous Powers glut themselves on the raw emotion that runs rampant. When the darkness eventually passes, the galaxy remains afflicted by Warp Storms of a severity not seen since the Age of Strife. The Imperium reels as thousands of populated planets are destroyed or corrupted, and many more cut off and isolated. They name the pulsing tear in the galaxy the Cicatrix Maledictum in High Gothic, or more commonly, the Great Rift.Note: All dates from this point forward are provisional due to errors in the Imperial Calendar, meaning these events could actually have occurred at any time from the early 41st Millennium to the early 42nd Millennium.The Scourge Stars (Unknown Date.M42) - Nurgle sends forth from his garden dozens of Plague Legions to overrun the three sprawling star systems to the galactic north of Ultramar. Once conquered, these worlds become a stronghold for the Plague God's mortal and immortal followers alike.The Blood Crusade (Unknown Date.M42) - Revelling in the knowledge of the slaughter to come, Khorne roars, its power creating further cracks in reality. Riding upon the crests of these Warp Storms come the Blood Legions, forming eight different spearheads that sweep across the galaxy. Their only aim is to maim, ravage and slaughter in the name of the Lord of Battle, and the Daemon legions go wherever the erratic storms take them. Sometimes the armies materialise for mere moments, appearing to those mortals that behold them as nightmarish visions of death. More often they manifest long enough to decimate entire worlds. Mortal followers of Khorne, from Chaos Cults to Heretic Astartes Renegades, follow the trail of blood they leave.Invasion of the Stygius Sector (Unknown Date.M42) - Tzeentch looks upon Nurgle's newborn realm in the Scourge Stars with jealousy, and desires new territory of his own in realspace. Far to the galactic north, behind the darkest shroud of Warp Storms, Tzeentch sends forth his Scintillating Legions to create a new realm of madness in the Stygius Sector. Many wars follow as prismatic Daemon Worlds take shape.Plague Wars (ca. 999.M41-111.M42) - Issuing forth from the Scourge Stars, Nurgle's Plague Legions begin a lengthy campaign to corrupt Ultramar. Although they achieve many triumphs, final victory is thwarted by Roboute Guilliman's masterful counterattacks. The ensuing stalemate is only broken when Nurgle recalls much of his strength, ordering his most powerful Greater Daemons and their legions to help defend the Scourge Stars from an attack by the forces of his brother Chaos Gods.The Crowns of Excess (Unknown Date.M42) - The explosion of entropic energies released into the galaxy by the formation of the Great Rift signals the start of a hedonistic rampage for Slaanesh's Daemons. Aimlessly following the strongest of the Warp Storms, the Legions of Excess cavort wildly across a multitude of star systems, drinking in the emotions of the terrified populaces before feeding upon their souls. The humans of Hive World Gholdroth are enticed into a gluttonous, cannibalistic feast that only ends with their own self consumption. The Legions of Excess throw themselves into such performances with abandon, and the pleasure-seeking Daemons scatter across the galaxy in search of increasingly shocking methods with which to catch their master's wandering gaze. Slaanesh's mortal followers flock to such epicentres of decadence to enact their foul rituals, and amused by their antics, the Dark Prince offers Crowns of Excess to those worshippers that commit the greatest acts of sheer sensory delight.War in the Rift (Unknown Date.M42) - Tzeentch tricks Khorne into averting his gaze from his Blood Crusade to look instead upon the Scourge Stars. There, the Blood God espies Nurgle's diseased bloomfields blossoming within realspace. Bellowing with rage, Khorne redirects his legions to attack his brother's growing domain in the mortal realm. Dozens of Tzeentch's legions follow in their red wake. So begins the War in the Rift -- the largest conflict of the Great Game to ever spill over into reality. In response to the invasions, Nurgle launches seven counterattacks, the largest of which strikes into the Stygius Sector, for the Plague God rightly suspects Tzeentch is behind the assaults upon his realspace stronghold. Even as Kairos Fateweaver leads an assault upon Nurgle's garden, Rotigus heads the invasion of the Stygius Sector. Slaanesh allies with all three of his brothers at different times, his fickle nature drawing the ire of all, but Khorne especially. The titanic engagements between the Chaos Gods' Daemonic legions take place across a hundred fronts, but one single battle stands above all others, for none can match the sheer scale of slaughter that occurs upon the planet of Vigrid. Armies clash and powers of such magnitude are released that the planet, now reshaped into a Daemon World, is shattered, the debris shifting into the Warp where the surviving combatants continue their battle as they float upon the formless seas of the Immaterium. It is a maelstrom of conflict unending, with each side sending in a constant stream of new Daemon legions. Seeking an end to the battle, Tzeentch suggests a contest of champions to settle the matter. Each of the Chaos Gods, sure of their own victory, agrees.Clash of Champions (Unknown Date.M42) - For a brief moment, the galaxy is freed of the baleful gaze of the Chaos Gods, for their attention is drawn elsewhere. Each of the brothers selects their mightiest champions alongside a few favoured Daemonic legions. A portion of each of the gods' realms is reformed into the Amalgrimm -- a swirling hell-field upon which the gladiatorial battles will take place. Slaanesh's champions use their speed to quickly establish dominance, but stagger before the resilience of Nurgle's chosen. Tzeentch's champions unleash sorcerous bolts of such magnitude that time itself collapses around them, but none can match the martial prowess and endless fury of Khorne's warriors. The advantage continues to change hands, until Tzeentch's foremost champion, Kairos Fateweaver, emerges victorious through trickery. So loud is Khorne's bellow of fury, however, that all of Kairos' illusions are broken and the battlefield itself blasted apart in fire, and even realspace shakes at its foundations. With that, the Great Game resumes in a million different forms across a million different fronts. The galaxy's respite from Chaos passes, and the Daemonic legions of the Chaos Gods once again turn realspace into a constant battlefield at the behest of their dark masters.