Calixis Sector - The Tyrant Star: The Calixis Sector is beset by many threats, but few of them are as obvious as rampaging aliens or widespread rebellion. Perhaps the most troubling is the prophecy of the Tyrant Star, the horrific harbinger of ruin and desolation, the spectral sun which consumes light, hope and sanity. This prophecy is known as the Propheticum Hereticus Tenebrae ("the black doctrine" or "the shadow heresy" in High Gothic) by the Inquisitors of the Calixis Sector. Reports of the conflict, destruction and psychic cataclysm that accompany apparitions of the black sun are often suppressed, in case disorder and fear overtake entire worlds.The Tyrant Star, also known as Komus, is an uncategorised stellar anomaly that appears as a black dwarf star whose arrival in the sky of a world is seen as an imminent herald of catastrophe, while the existence of the Tyrant Star is itself part of a wider prophecy called the Hereticus Tenebrae that is of great interest to the Imperial Inquisition. Unraveling this prophecy and the role of the Tyrant Star may be crucial to preventing a cataclysm that will consume not only the worlds of the Calixis Sector but perhaps the entire Imperium of Man.The baleful Tyrant Star casts an ill light upon the Calixis Sector and nowhere seems immune from its influence. Cults and seditionist groups fester in its underhives and moral corruption gnaws away at the Calixian nobility, which holds much of the power on the sector's scattered worlds. Conflicts brew between the Imperial adepta and the great noble families who trace their lineage to the times before Lord Militant Golgenna Angevin's conquests. Mysteries abound, for the Calixis Sector was quite evidently occupied by more than one long-vanished civilisation in the past. The previous inhabitants of this province of the galaxy have left their indelible traces behind them. Certainly, many Inquisitors of the Calixian Conclave fervently hope that the spectral sun is a legacy of aliens long since gone to dust, for the alternatives have implications that are unspeakable.Komus is described in a doom-laden vision which speaks in apocalyptic terms of a "darkness" that will engulf the worlds of Humanity and ultimately devour Human civilisation. The engulfing darkness will be preceded by signs and portents, so-called "herald events," that will gradually transmute Human minds and make them ready to embrace the darkness. Many believe this to be an obvious allusion to a rising of Chaos and the Warp, though this explanation is far from universally agreed.There are many considerable threats in the galaxy. The prophecy could as much apply to the Tyranids (scholars note a repeated use of the word "devour" in the prophecy text) or the Aeldari as to the Warp. However, given the Warp's manifest ability to uncreate and mutate reality, much weight is given to this idea by the Tyrantine Cabal of the Inquisition in the sector. The actual text of the prophecy is secured in the archives of the Bastion Serpentis on Scintilla's moon of Lachesis, and Inquisitor Lord Anton Zerbe, the leader of the Tyrantine Cabal, only allows a very favoured few to examine the complete transcript.In speaking of the herald events, the Propheticum Hereticus Tenebrae, as the manuscript is called, makes many references to "Komus" or the "Tyrant Star." Komus is said to be the harbinger, a portent of the encroaching darkness. It is said to be a "black sun" or a "halo of black flame." This preternatural harbinger is represented by an unholy rune, best described as a clawed bird's foot. The rune has resisted specific translation and no previous occurrence of it has yet been found.Zerbe believes it can be no coincidence that the Calixis Sector is fraught with a curious, recurring phenomena: that of the "Spectral Sun." From time to time -- no specific interval period has been identified -- a monstrous "black sun" matching the prophetic descriptions has mysteriously appeared in various locations throughout the sector.No two appearances have been quite the same but the pattern of visitation is usually this: with little warning, a ghostly star apparently emitting black flames and esoteric, unknown radiations, spontaneously materialises in a planetary system, shines malevolently for a few solar days, and then, just as mysteriously, vanishes without trace. The visitation is accompanied by psychic disturbances, geological upheaval and sociological problems, including mass rioting and unrest.Most often, the Spectral Sun actually eclipses a system's natural star, as if possessing it, causing consternation and panic on the orbiting worlds as their sun goes black. However, the Spectral Sun has also on occasion appeared less directly -- a strangely bright star at night, a phantom corona around a moon -- before disappearing.No astronomer has successfully explained the eerie phenomenon. It belies Human science and has thus far evaded close investigation. Its visitations cannot be predicted. The Tyrantine Cabal believes that the Spectral Sun phenomenon is the Tyrant Star, Komus, as it so closely matches various descriptions in the prophecy. Some suggest the Tyrant Star is the ghost image of some stellar body in the Immaterium, shining through the worn fabric of space. Others say it is a mirror image, a Warpspace star that is partially translating into realspace, trying to find a way through. Yet others claim that the Tyrant Star is an artificial body, driven by xenos engines and mechanisms Mankind cannot comprehend.Whatever the truth, the phenomenon is a fact. It has manifested eighteen times in the Calixis Sector during the last standard century (8th century of the 41st Millennium). Every single visitation has caused public unrest and geological instability. Where the Tyrant Star appears, earthquakes and volcanic upsurges follow. A world will experience a violent period of upset and revolution prior to its appearance. Many more psykers than usual will be born or become spontaneously active. Mutation will occur. These things will usually take place in the two or three solar months leading up to a manifestation.Signs and portents will be widespread: these generally are a matter of birthmarks, odd runic sigils appearing upon walls without explanation and the rise of fanatical Chaos Cults. Some sources also describe premonitory half-sightings, fleeting glimpses of the black-flamed sun in mirrors, pools, puddles or even on the surface of wine or water in drinking vessels.Mass panic and insanity precede a visitation of the Tyrant Star. No one has been able to explain how it appears and covers a system's natural star with its noxious black smoke. Sometimes, disorder and civil unrest lead to nothing and, for all the portents and cues, the Tyrant Star never actually appears, though this may be because it has manifested in a way that is hard to detect. On at least two recorded occasions, the Tyrant Star has appeared merely as a distant star above a world, no larger than a morning star, instead of eclipsing the local sun.The Tyrantine Cabal believes it is a vital part of its work in the Calixis Sector to trace and investigate these visitations, and to actually be on site to witness a manifestation. Inquisitor Lord Zerbe hopes that important data may be gathered during a genuine sighting. In the sector at large, the visitations are a matter of myth and rumour. The Inquisition has carefully suppressed any official confirmation of the phenomenon.