Psychic Awakening - Faith and Fury: The birth of the Great Rift during the Era Indomitus found the Imperium of Man reeling, assailed on a million fronts by the surging forces of Chaos. It was only the return of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman and the fury of the Primaris Space Marines that held back the tide. But at this dark hour, the power of faith would offer Humanity the faintest glimmer of hope.The Indomitus Crusade swept forth from Terra with furious purpose, driving the forces of Chaos before them and bringing hope to hundreds of besieged worlds. None but the primarch of the Ultramarines could have overseen such a decisive counterattack.To those whom he commanded, it seemed that Roboute Guilliman did not rest for a moment. No sooner had one victory been achieved than he began to lay the foundations of the next. The crusade's momentum could not slow, for that might allow the heretical forces an opportunity to regroup.So it was that the crusade's various fleets ventured deeper and deeper into occupied territory, pushing into regions ravaged by daemonic hordes and migrating xenos fleets, those territories in their wake were left to manage as best they could. The threats they faced were many. In the aftermath of the Great Rift's birth the entire galaxy was stricken by nightmarish phenomena, temporal disruption and terrible Warp Storms.It was the Imperium Nihilus -- those regions of the Imperium that lay beyond the line of the Great Rift -- that suffered the worst of these occurrences, but nowhere in the Imperium of Man was left unscarred. Even across the gleaming sanctuary worlds of the Segmentum Solar at the heart of the Imperium Sanctus, horror struck.Isolated Warp Storms tore through unprepared star systems, swallowing battlefleets and spilling daemonic entities across the surface of worlds. Such was the anarchic disruption of reality that Chaos armadas, Ork raiding fleets and other deadly xenos forces were carried vast distances across the tides of the Warp and vomited back into realspace on the far side of the galaxy.Worse still, the predations of the Archenemy intensified. Like slavering wolves, the Heretic Astartes and their mortal allies struck at the underbelly of the Imperium, emerging from the roiling stars to raid and pillage across the Segmentum Solar. Many of these incursions were directionless and savage, little more than the servants of Chaos indulging their base desires for blood and slaughter.Yet they masked a greater plan, overseen by those who served the will of the Dark Gods with a far more insidious agenda. The Word Bearers Traitor Legion sought to spread their heretic faith into the very heart of Humanity's domain. The sons of Lorgar had foreseen a struggle not only for the territory of the Imperium, but its very spirit. The souls of mortals were the currency over which this war of faith would be fought.Allying with fellow Traitor Legions who served Chaos Undivided, such as the piratical reavers of the Night Lords and the relentless Iron Warriors, the Word Bearers sought to spread fear and hopelessness far and wide. Through dark ritual, system-wide sacrifice and terror tactics, they intensified the power of Chaos, hoping to break the will of the Imperium's mortal populace. Those who accepted the primacy of the Dark Gods were spared -- their collective damnation empowering the spread of corruption.Blind to the subtle, hexagrammatic patterns of the Word Bearers’ rituals, Imperial forces failed to recognise either the disaster building behind their lines, or the rampant spread of panic and heresy. Planet by planet, the shadow of Chaos spread.Only the Sisters of Battle, the zealous warrior-champions of the Imperial Creed, foresaw this deadly threat. Many a Canoness of the Adepta Sororitas witnessed the same apocalyptic visions: maws of utter blackness stretching wide to devour the light of the faithful, twin-headed aquilas torn apart by hungering shadows, and stars drowned in the blood of innocents.The holy orders of the Sisterhood could not spread word of the horror they had uncovered, for across the galaxy astropathic communications were drowned out by warp-screams and the howling static of daemonic entities. Word would have to be delivered in person.Thus it was that the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas dispatched their battlefleets in greater numbers than ever before, guided by the visions granted by their beloved God-Emperor.Even as the Sisters of Battle brought hope and fierce defiance to scores of war-ravaged worlds, it seemed certain that the Word Bearers' plans would come to fruition. Yet the sons of Lorgar had not counted upon the new and dramatic phenomenon that began to manifest across those contested planets.The immense eruption of psychic energy unleashed by the Cicatrix Maledictum gave rise not only to Warp-spawned nightmares, but acts of faith and wondrous miracles on a scale unheard of. Humble, mortal worshippers of the God-Emperor bore witness to manifestations of the Emperor Angelic, flocks of golden eagles and columns of scintillating flame that seared daemonic and Heretic flesh alike.These miracles galvanised those who bore witness to them, firming their resolve and filling their hearts with defiance even in the face of the horrors unleashed against them. So began a great War of Faith that set the dark prophets of the Heretic Astartes against the acts of hope and belief inspired by the Sisters of Battle and their allies.While the rest of the Imperium was beset by ever-growing threats following the opening of the Great Rift, the sanctified Talledus System was considered a safe zone under the protection of the Ecclesiarchy, and by extension, the Emperor Himself. The Shrine World of Benediction in particular stood as a gleaming, golden monument to the Emperor's might.Perhaps this semblance of peace is ultimately what attracted the Ruinous Powers to it. The psychic trauma wrought by the birth of the Cicatrix Maledictum gave rise to increasingly bizarre and terrifying phenomena.Just as fringe cults began to reveal themselves as servants of the Dark Gods, an armada of six Traitor Legions of the Heretic Astartes, directed by the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron of the Word Bearers Legion, arrived to destroy the Talledus System once and for all, and deny the notion that anywhere might be safe from the predations of Chaos.The Sisters of Battle and the Astra Militarum -- bolstered by a massive strike force of Adeptus Astartes led by the Black Templars of the Rutherian Crusade -- stood firm in their creed to defend Humanity, no matter the cost, in the Talledus War.As this War of Faith grew ever-more bloody and brutal, the psychic trauma generated by the Cicatrix Maledictum gave rise to miracles and psychic manifestations of unrivalled scale and power.To some, these bizarre and terrifying occurrences were yet further proof that the galaxy is approaching its inevitable final hour of doom. To others, these events were proof of the God-Emperor's divine will, actualised through His loyal servants.