Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - Age of Strife ("Old Night") (M25-M30): During the Age of Technology Humanity had reached its scientific and technological peak, enjoying a golden age of prosperity and advancement. The "Standard Template Construct," or STC, an artificially intelligent computer database of schematics for all known advanced Human technologies, had been perfected by Human scientists and engineers and allowed an unprecedented expansion of Humanity throughout the galaxy.As already noted, one of the reasons Humanity was so successful at conquering a large part of the galaxy was the development of the artificially-intelligent constructs now only known in Imperial legend as the "Men of Iron." These powerful and fully intelligent combat robots won many wars for Humanity, but for some reason turned against their masters at the end of the Dark Age of Technology in the great conflict called the "Cybernetic Revolt." This war was eventually won by Humanity, but at a great cost and only through the intervention of other factions. The damage of this conflict proved catastrophic and shattered much of Humanity's power. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of Mankind's misfortunes as the Age of Technology came to its end.As Humanity became widely dispersed across the galaxy during the Age of Technology, the ancient Aeldari Empire began its decline; the great success of the advanced Aeldari species had led to decadence and hedonism on a grand scale in their empire's final millennia. Within the immaterial, psychic universe of the Warp, the spiritual corruption of the Aeldari civilisation was reflected in the forming of a new potent, psychic gestalt entity or "Chaos God," Slaanesh, which in turn caused massive disturbances in the Warp; parts of the galaxy became isolated by these "Warp storms," making Warp travel and astrotelepathic interstellar communication increasingly impossible as the years passed, cutting off many Human colony worlds from one another, including those of the Sol System.Towards the end of the Age of Technology psykers first appeared among Humanity. While persecuted on many backwards, regressive Human worlds as witches, in enlightened and progressive societies these psykers were at first protected and accepted. Yet the initial intolerance for the emergence of psykers among Humanity would later seem prescient, as many Human worlds fell to the dominance of Daemons and other Warp creatures using possessed, weak-willed psykers as gateways into the physical world. Only worlds which had rigorously suppressed psykers survived the Age of Strife.The Age of Strife followed the Age of Technology, as the interstellar Human civilisation collapsed in widespread insanity, Daemonic possession, anarchy and inter-Human civil war. Terrible weapons of the golden age of technology were unleashed, devastating many Human colonies and turning once-verdant worlds such as Baal Secundus into irradiated desert planets. Many isolated and vulnerable Human-colonised worlds also became prey to hostile alien species, such as the Orks.In a relatively short span of time, the once galaxy-spanning Human civilisation was brought to its knees, and was forced to endure nearly five Terran millennia of anarchy, terror, war, genocide and slavery. Other than tales of great suffering, little information concerning these long years survived this dark time to be known to the men and women of the Imperium.