vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Aexe Cardinal - Cultures: The overall cultural and technological level of Aexe Cardinal was similar to that of Terra in the final century of the 2nd Millennium, with elegant cars, trains, and high-ranking military officers drawn from its planetary nobility. Aexegary was the largest and strongest of the seven different nation-states that composed the Aexe Alliance, and was ruled by its High Sezar. Its currency was called the "scuto." The nation had a proud military history, and the High Sezar was guarded by an elite military unit, the Bande Sezari, in his palace of Mons Sezari.The country's capital, Brunsgatte, was a grand city with docks and a commercial district located on the Naeme River. In the ancient days of Aexe Cardinal, generals rode to the Mons Sezari in jeweled palanquins from the city's Fortress Gate. This tradition was still maintained in the city, and it was customary for the palanquin's driver to be paid a scuto in return for his service. At the time of the Imperium's intervention in the war with Shadik, the High Sezar of Aexegary was Leonid Fip Krefuel.Kottmark was a similarly proud nation, which was often reckless in its military efforts as its people tried to showcase to the rest of the Alliance their skill and fortitude.
Aexe Cardinal - Technology: Much like their culture, the technology of Aexe Cardinal was similar to that of Terra in the late 2nd Millennium, though they did possess more advanced technologies that were closer to the galactic standard for the more advanced worlds of the Imperium. Though the main Aexe armies utilised bolt-action Auto Weapons, rhomboidal tanks with sponson or dorsal-mounted cannons, tri-wing propeller-driven aircraft, and cavalry, they also made use of cybernetic neural links when forging bonds with their cavalry mounts.Energy shield technology was also available to protect command posts from artillery bombardment, though sufficient shelling could ultimately penetrate even this form of defence. Servitors were available to carry out especially hazardous or dangerous tasks and to serve the needs of the planet's nobility.The arrival of the Imperium and the forces of Chaos on ther world brought enormous change, as despite being hamstrung by the primitive military doctrines of the Aexe forces, the greater technology base of the off-world Imperial and Chaos forces was capable of overwhelming the much more primitive militaries of the Shadik and the Aexe Alliance.
Aexe Cardinal - Aexegary: The largest and strongest of the members of the Aexe Alliance, Aexegary was a nation with a long and illustrious military history that had a long-standing rivalry with the Shadik Republic, having fought and bested them in five separate earlier conflicts. A nation with a great deal of ritual, pomp, and circumstance behind it, Aexegary's nobility were proud and would never admit the possibility of losing a war, as Aexegary had never lost in its history. Aexegary was ruled by its High Sezar, who reigned from the capital city of Brunsgatte. He was protected by the bodyguard force known as the Bande Sezari. The Aexegary currency was called the "scuto."The Aexegary cavalry, which held the premier place within its military forces, rode the quadrupedal avian mounts known as struthids into battle, though the species' dwindling numbers meant they were becoming a rarer and rarer sight on the front lines. Those ridden by frontline cavalry had become thin and haggard, unlike the ones who remained behind safe in Brunsgatte, which remained prime examples of the species. Aexegary's coat of arms was a pair of leaping behj, the local ursinoids that were similar to Terran bears. The High Sezar wore a behj pelt as part of his badge of office, and sometimes the locals used their claws as lucky charms.
Aexe Cardinal - Kottmark: Kottmark was a large nation-state to the west of Aexegary, divided from its neighbour by the mountainous wall of the Kottmark Massif. Kottmark was the other senior nation of the Aexe Alliance. Its people were proud and brave, and it fought Shadik with as much fury as Aexegary.
Aexe Cardinal - Fichua: The Principality of Fichua was a more recent addition to the Aexe Alliance, having joined in 763.M41. It was a fairly small nation, located to the east of Aexegary and nestled between it and the Kottmark Massif. Its primary route to the Cardinal Ocean lay to the south, in a large bay that lent the country a crook shape.
Aexe Cardinal - Shadik: The Republic of Shadik was the primary enemy of all the other nation-states of Aexe Cardinal, who had formed the Aexe Alliance to combat its ambitions to rule the whole world. In ancient times it had lost five different wars against Aexegary. This history of humiliation had made it a ripe target for the machinations of Chaos, which had suborned the nation's rulers and given them the power needed to make a sixth and final attempt to defeat their ancient foes.After forty standard years of warfare, Shadik had managed to successfully hold the seven other nations of Aexe Cardinal at bay, and was supported in the endeavours by the off-world Chaos warband known as the Blood Pact even as the regiments of the Astra Militarum arrived to reinforce the Loyalists of the Aexe Alliance.Unlike the forces of the Aexe Alliance, the Shadik Republic began to fight a more modern kind of war, often raiding trenches and using more advanced technology and different tactics, which made the situation more and more desperate for the Alliance. Shadik soldiers wore gas masks and chain-veil helmets, with khaki and brown fatigues. Old pattern Autorifles, pistols, and curved daggers were also used, and Shadik trench raiders carried makeshift shields of flakboard.
After Desh'ea (Anthology Short Story) - After Desh'ea (Anthology Short Story): After Desh'ea is an anthology short story published in The Horus Heresy series that was originally part of an anthology novel. After Desh'ea was first published as part of the Tales of Heresy main series anthology in April 2009. The cover image used is that of the unabridged audiobook version After Desh'ea which was released in November 2015.
After Desh'ea (Anthology Short Story) - Synopsis: With the discovery of the lost Primarch Angron came violence and confusion, and what should have been the defining moment of the War Hounds Legion instead became a humbling embarrassment. As their senior officers fall one by one to the rage of the newly freed gladiator-king, it seems that they are doomed -- perhaps their last chance for redemption comes in the form of the Eighth Captain, Khârn. Will this calm and level-headed warrior be able to lead his father into the Emperor's light, or will he join the rest of his Legion in death?
Ag'Ni - Ag'Ni: Ag'NiDeath WorldVelk'HanSeptT'au EmpireJericho ReachSegmentum Ultima
Ag'Ni - History: The T'au discovered Ag'Ni very soon after they arrived in the Reach, long range sensor scans suggesting the world would prove ideal for early settlement. In fact, the world appeared so ideally suited for colonisation that a Water Caste contact cadre was assembled in order to bring the word of the Greater Good to whatever natives lived there.The T'au envoys were greatly surprised to discover that the world was entirely untouched by intelligent life, though its continents and island chains teemed with plant and animal life.It was only when the first of the Water Caste envoys removed the helmet of his sealed environmental suit and took a deep breath of the seemingly pristine air that the T'au discovered why no higher life forms had settled Ag'Ni.The instant the envoy breathed the air, his system was flooded with airborne microbes so voracious that he was dead before his body hit the ground.Within seconds, his horrified companions bore witness to his body being broken down before their very eyes by the most aggressive microbial life forms the T'au had ever encountered.Contact doctrine dictated that the surviving members of the envoy team should be quarantined on Ag'Ni, and supplies were dropped to them from orbit. Yet, within a solar day the remainder of the team was dead, the microbes having breached their suits and overrun their systems.The leadership of the Velk'Han Sept has since declared that Ag'Ni should be purged of all life so that it can be reseeded by Earth Caste geo-engineering cadres. This process is still underway, and the planet has come to be used as a weapons testing ground by the Fire Caste, who have been given free reign to test the most destructive of devices without fear of unleashing unwanted levels of destruction.Every form of weapons technology has been tested on Ag'Ni, from planetary defoliant to ionospheric inversion. Mass yield pulse plasma warheads have levelled entire mountain ranges and the detonation of a seismic discontinuity charge brought about the creation of an entire chain of super-volcanoes at the world's southern pole.Despite the destruction wrought upon Ag'Ni, the voracious microbial predators continue to exist. In fact, even in regions subjected to high levels of radiation the microbes persist, recolonising the blasted wastes within solar days.The proud Fire Caste has begun to take the eradication of the microbes as a matter of honour, and the world has taken on the character of a warzone in which a bitter campaign is being fought against a totally invisible enemy.The Earth Caste geo-engineering cadres have been side-lined by the Fire Caste and there appears to be no end in sight to what has long since escalated into a bitter war of conquest against an enemy that, it appears, cannot be beaten by even the most unconventional means.
Agaith - Agaith: An Agaith, which means "false face" in the Aeldari Lexicon, is one of the iconic masks worn by the enigmatic Aeldari Harlequins. These small holographic devices project daemonic visages and scenes of death onto the mask and has a short-range psychic amplifier which increases enemies' sensitivity to fear and despair.Other versions of the Agaith include the Rictus Mask worn by Death Jesters, which projects an aura of death in the general vicinity of the wearer, or the Dread Mask, which senses an enemy's worst fears and displays them on the mask, and uses a more potent psychic amplifier like the ones used on the Mask of Fear.In battle, a Harlequin's mask projects terrifying images of his victims' worst nightmares. Physically, however, the mask will usually be crafted in the likeness of whichever character the Harlequin is playing. Different roles are indicated by all manner of flourishes, be they opposing halves of black and white, such as in the case of the Dawnsinger or the Blinded Princess, patches of checks or diamonds like those displayed by the leering Scion of Cults, or soft gradients and subtle strokes, like the stylised tear of Isha's Sorrow.Most Harlequin masks project whatever appearance the wearer wishes, yet a Shadowseer's mask shows only a twisted reflection of those who stare into its depths.Unlike their fellow Players, Troupe Masters wear grotesque masks that mock the sinister, ugly face of war. Their ever-shifting features flicker between nightmarish horror and leering, sardonic humour at the mortal plight of their foes.The Solitaire's mask is cruel and unsettling, reflecting the exaggerated androgynous features of the Chaos God Slaanesh in all their daemonic grandeur.
Agaith - Sources: Codex: Eldar (2nd Edition), pg. 51Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pg. 48Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pg. 46Codex: Harlequins (7th Edition), (Digital Edition), pp. 12, 21, 30, 50, 82-83, 85, 100, 106, 165Warhammer 40,000: Compendium (2nd Edition), "Harlequins," pg. 191White Dwarf Weekly Magazine Issue #53 (31 Jan 2015), "Harlequin Troup," pg. 7
Agamatus Jetbike Squad - Agamatus Jetbike Squad: An Agamatus Jetbike Squadron was an airborne formation of the ancient Legio Custodes, who utilised the powerful Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike as a rapid response and elite air cavalry force during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras.Squadrons of Agamatus Custodians are still deployed by the Adeptus Custodes of the 41st Millennium.
Agamatus Jetbike Squad - Role: The Agamatus Squadrons were specialised in the use of the heavy duty, plasma motor-boosted Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike as their steeds in battle. The increased power of the design supported not only the heavily-armoured Custodian Guard, but also allowed it to mount a powerful Iliastus Accelerator Cannon as its on-board armament.The Agamatus Squadrons exploited these war machines to operate both as a rapid response and suppression unit in the field. In this they operated much in the manner of the elite cavalry forces of ancient times, screening the main Legio Custodes force from potential encirclement, reacting quickly to blunt enemy attacks, and hunting down mercilessly any foe which broke and fled before the might of the Custodes, ensuring the utter extermination of the foe.
Agamatus Jetbike Squad - Unit Composition: 3-6 Agamatus Custodians on Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbikes
Agamatus Jetbike Squad - Wargear: Custodian ArmourPower LanceMisericordiaPlasma Grenades (Horus Heresy era only)Krak Grenades (Horus Heresy era only)Refractor Field (Horus Heresy era only)Iliastus Accelerator Cannon (On Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike)
Agamatus Jetbike Squad - Optional Wargear: Melta Bombs (Horus Heresy era only)Any member of a Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbike Squadron may upgrade his jetbike's Iliastus Accelerator Cannon with one of the following options:Adrathic DestructorTwin-linked Corvae Las-Pulser
Agamatus Jetbike Squad - Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike: More powerful even than the Scimitar Pattern Jetbike associated with the Legiones Astartes, the Gyrfalcon is a heavy design more akin to an armoured, one-man speeder than a true Jetbike. In addition, it augments its grav-repellor systems with a plasma-thrust motor for huge temporary bursts of speed. A Gyrfalcon Jetbike is armed with an Iliastus Accelerator Cannon.
Agathean Domain - Agathean Domain: The Agathean Domain, also known in some sources as the Agathon Domain, is an alliance of several interlinked Imperial star systems in the northern Segmentum Obscurus dominated by the Hive World of Agathon.The Domain is not truly big enough to be warranted true sub-sector status. It is the outermost and final anchor point of the Imperium of Man before the dark frontier of the galactic north.At its centre lies the thriving world of Agathon, an Imperial Hive World that bears strong resemblance to such famous Hive Worlds as Necromunda or Khur, despite the fact that these worlds are thousands of light years away from Agathon's border.The system rightly counts as one of the most isolated of the Imperial realm, being surrounded on three sides by the inter-galactic void and only accessible through the tenuous Warp routes of Numinal which link it with the other worlds of the Coronid Reach and the Manachean Commonwealth.
Agathean Domain - Origins: The history of Agathon has always been forged by war. As such, Agathon and the entire Agathean Domain has always been intricately bound to the history of the former 60th Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade and the MaSade family.The Agathean Domain is located in the outer region of the Segmentum Obscurus where it borders the Ultima Segmentum. This region of space is one of the oldest centres of Human habitation, and the initial Human colonisation of Agathon may well lie back as far as the early Age of Technology. Not all the worlds of the Agathon System had been bereft of intelligent life, as a highly substantial population of Ogryns was discovered on the Feral World of Othion.Surviving both the horrors of Old Night and the lurking dangers of the Age of Strife relatively unscathed, Agathon's surface has always been dominated by the three spires that constitute its principal hive cities. But integration into the Imperium was not swift, nor was it without bloodshed, as Agathon resisted for nearly fifteen standard years against Rogue Trader Militant fleets and smaller expeditionary fleets.Imperial Compliance was only achieved through the mobilisation of a far-larger force, the 60th Expeditionary Fleet which had already achieved several successful Compliances but was now severely depleted. At its core stood the  1522nd Solar Auxilia Cohort, also known as "The Lord Marshal's Own," under the command of the famed Lord Marshal Ireton MaSade.This tactically-brilliant general would lead the 60th Expeditionary Fleet in a successful, if bloody, Imperial Compliance action that would see the purge of the cultic aristocracy that ruled Agathon and its domains added to the Imperium of Man.In reward for this final victory and a lifetime of service, MaSade and his officers were awarded the right of conquest over Agathon and became the new ruler of its five billion inhabitants. The 60th Expeditionary Fleet was disbanded and most of its vessels entered the Agathon System Defence Forces whilst its troopers became the world's new ruling elite.These loyal subjects of the Emperor who had fought countless wars in His name would see that Agathon became one of the most productive and organised worlds of the Segmentum Obscurus Orient; for the descendants of the 1522nd Cohort would guarantee that their world would ever be ready to fight for itself.
Agathean Domain - 41st Millennium: The martial tradition of the Solar Auxilia lives on in the Agathean regiments of the Astra Militarum which have since then acquired great honour in the service of the Imperium. To this day, Agathon still greatly contributes to the Imperial war effort within the Segmentum Obscurus.More recently in Imperial history, the Agatheans' courage and sense of duty was commended in 932.M41 for their defence of the Agri-world of Jollov in the Ghoul Stars region against the Tyranid menace.Through their valiant efforts at the side of other Imperial Guard regiments as diverse as the Catachan Jungle Fighters, Mordian Iron Guard and regiments drawn from the worlds of Kanak and Molov, the Agatheans ensured the withdrawal of Techno Magus Stannum Vir and the valuable STC fragments he had uncovered on Jollov before being overcome by the chitinous hordes of Hive Fleet Moloch.
Agathean Domain - Society: At the time of the Horus Heresy, the culture of Agathon possessed an overriding military aesthetic and the world's military forces, the Agathean cohorts of the Solar Auxilia, boasted a direct lineal descent to the initial Solar Auxilia Cohort of the 60th Expeditionary Fleet.Trained and equipped in the traditions of the elite Solar Auxilia of the Imperial Army, the Agathean cohorts form a sizable and impressive military host with the resources of an entire star system at their disposal. Their reputation for excellence has been well-deserved, as they have successfully defeated alien invasions and would go on to distinguish themselves during the dark days of the Horus Heresy and the Imperium's campaigns.
Agathean Domain - Forces of the Agathean Domain: Battlefleet Agathon - As something akin to an Imperial sub-sector, the Agathean Domain fields its own squadrons of warships. Agathon's industrial might permits the construction of escort and even cruiser-sized vessels. At the time of the Horus Heresy, Battlefleet Agathon consisted of at least two fully-equipped squadrons of dark-bronze cruisers of different types, all bearing the fiery lantern-sigil of the Agathean Domain.1522nd Solar Auxilia Cohort ("Lord Marshal's Own") - The original 1522nd Cohort participated in the Agathon Compliance campaign and established itself as the ruling elite of this new Imperial world. By the beginning of the Horus Heresy it had grown to become an elite force that formed the heart of the Agathean forces. Thanks to the charismatic figure of its commander, the Lord Marshal Ireton MaSade, his tactical genius and his nigh-bottomless coffers, the newly recreated 1522nd Cohort is a highly mobile and well-equipped force: the entire infantry complement is transported in Dracosan Armoured Carriers and each infantry sub-cohort benefits from its own dedicated armoured support squadron. At High Command level the 1522nd can field a number of dedicated armoured sub-cohorts, three mobile artillery sub-cohorts as well as two dozen Malcador Heavy Tanks that form a heavy armoured assault cadre.
Agathean Domain - Agathean Domain Regimental Appearance: Descending from a proud military tradition, Agathon has mostly conserved the trappings and emblems of its founders. As such the Equis Astra, the original emblem of the 60th Expeditionary Fleet, can often be found next to the reconstituted sigil of the 1522nd Solar Auxilia Cohort.As its name indicates for those versed in High Gothic, the Equis Astra is a typical horse head-emblem the like of which has been in use by Human military forces for uncounted millennia, with the Agathean variant fielding a white horse head on a green field. At the time of the Horus Heresy, this emblem was commonly worn as a cross-unit badge of unity.The 1522nd Cohort's emblem is an antique crested helmet as worn by the legendary Spartans of Old Earth. It is perhaps in reference to these legendary warriors that the Agatheans' primary colours are noted as dark bronze and green, supplemented by white details where needed.
Agathean Domain - Notable Vehicles: Telemachus - The Telemachus was a cruiser of unknown pattern of Battlefleet Agathon, the former command of Jocasta MaSade, grandaughter of the famed Ireton MaSade that would distinguish himself during the Horus Heresy. The Telemachus was the sole survivor of the eight Agathean cruisers sent to the great Armada Imperialis muster at Port Maw. Its courageous escape from the trap sprung there and its arduous return would set events in motion that determined the Agathean Domain's participation in the Horus Heresy.Terra's Hammer – Malcador Heavy Battle Tank. Terra's Hammer is an illustrious battle tank, a veteran of the Agathon Compliance campaign that would go on to fight during the wars of the Horus Heresy.
Agathean Domain - Sources: Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pg. 23The Horus Heresy Book Four: Conquest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 54-63, 74-75, 90-95The Horus Heresy Book Six: Retribution (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 103-115
Agathon (Deathwatch) - Agathon (Deathwatch): Agathon is the Deathwatch Chapter watch master who serves as the watch commander of the watch fortress Mortguard of the northern Segmentum Ultima in the Imperium Nihilus.It was he who led a majority of Mortguard's Watch Companies into battle against the T'au Empire's Fifth Sphere Expansion and the Hivewyrm Genestealer Cult on the Shrine World of Saint's Halt during the Chalnath Expanse Campaign.
Agathon (Deathwatch) - Chalnath Expanse Campaign Begins: For the servants of the Emperor, each new contact with beleaguered regions in the Imperium Nihilus brought fresh news of falling or fallen worlds, continuing to far outweigh any tales of heroic resistance. In the blighted Chalnath Expanse of the northern Ultima Segmentum, scores of Imperial star systems were in the throes of uprisings and civil wars, scourged by fear-mongering prophets. Into these fractures, more than one xenos ideology seeped. Since the emergence of the Cicatrix Maledictum, the nearby watch fortress of Mortguard and its surrounding watch stations had weathered not only the ferocious Warp storms that had afflicted the surrounding sectors, but surges of xenos as well. Though many aliens had been wiped out by the birth of the Great Rift, many more were driven to invading new territories after losing their own, or were scattered into the path of weakened Human worlds by raging empyric tempests. Such threatening occurrences seemed to have afflicted the Chalnath Expanse.From its own network of astroduct splicing, comm shunts and informants, Mortguard identified a growing alien influence on the Imperial systems of the Chalnath Expanse. Its exact nature was revealed by Inquisitor Jazad D'ontor. The elderly Ordo Xenos investigator sent an encrypted missive to Mortguard's watch commander, Agathon. The Inquisitor's transcripts and vid-captures showed the hand of the T'au Empire at work. After worming their way onto poverty-stricken Frontier Worlds, the T'au had openly moved against several recalcitrant systems. On some worlds, D'ontor revealed, Astra Militarum regiments attempted to hold back T'au offensives, but other regiments were embroiled in vast civil uprisings of unknown origin. D'ontor had no answers as to how or why the T'au had appeared so far to the galactic north of their primary territory in the Eastern Fringe, but made clear that this was surely only a prelude to a full-scale invasion.The old investigator had intercepted T'au delegations making for the pivotal expanse worlds of Cestis and Saint's Halt. He had lost a sizable party of Inquisitorial Acolytes in the Arrajian System, too, and believed that all three locations faced being lost. Should they fall, the T'au would spread like a stain, corrupting the Chalnath Expanse from the inside out to threaten the vulnerable worlds at the southern rim of the region. From there, a major Warp route led directly to the Segmentum Fortress at Kar Duniash. The xenos could not be allowed to threaten so vital an Imperial stronghold.In response, Watch Master Agathon led three entire Watch Companies from Mortguard to the worlds of the Chalnath Expanse. D'ontor's evidence gave suggestions of possible T'au disposition, but the Deathwatch had deeper suspicions. The T'au, they believed, were not the only aliens in the expanse. Broken reports of mutants and religious sects, not to mention D'ontor's missing retinues, all reeked to Agathon of Genestealer Cult infections -- a foe the Deathwatch of Mortguard had fought before.
Agathon (Deathwatch) - Battle of Saint's Halt: The Chalnath Expanse Shrine World of Saint's Halt was home to billions of people. They crowded into cramped coastal cities that were squeezed between acidic seas and inland plateaux dominated by continental reliquary palaces. The Deathwatch strike cruiser Void Sentinel, upon translation into the system, found the world already under siege by the forces of the T'au Empire. Native Planetary Defence Force infantry regiments of the Saint's Tidecasters fought alongside the battle-sisters of the Order of the Blue Robe, and Astra Militarum forces from the Riatov and Pennutsk Systems that had breached the T'au orbital blockade to reach the surface.From Void Sentinel's command throne, Watch Master Agathon conducted Mortguard's global campaign against both T'au cadres and Genestealer Cult uprisings. Hive Tor Saev burned, illuminating the southern pole. At Hive Delina, the Absolutis Arch was hung with bloody Loyalist corpses as their Genestealer Cultist murderers defended the city from T'au bombardment. Vast battle lines had opened up around every major hive city; Agathon concentrated his strikes against three.At Leonis Hive, the watch master directed kill-teams to sabotage a Shield Generator protecting the T'au flank from Riatov artillery companies. To Gedronis, he dispatched waves of Storm Speeders to cut off the xenos grav-tanks attacking the Gate of the Emperor's Vengeance, hoping to allow the Adepta Sororitas trapped there to break out. Mortguard's Watch Company Quintus in its entirety smashed into the T'au offensive outside the planetary capital city, Boran Prime. In a storm of special-issue bolter ammunition, cleaving blades and psychic scourges, the T'au buckled. The Deathwatch drove them back into the claws of xenophile cultists who declared themselves to be the Hivewyrm, forcing the two breeds of xenos to turn on each other.In orbit, Deathwatch reserves awaited the ambushes Agathon knew both faithless xenos species were capable of initiating. When the next one struck, he would be ready, as the war for the Chalnath Expanse ground on.
Age of Apostasy - Age of Apostasy: The Age of Apostasy was a second period of interstellar civil war that consumed the Imperium of Man in the early 36th Millennium. The terrible conflicts of the Age of Apostasy grew in part out of a long-running political struggle between the Administratum and the Adeptus Ministorum for dominance over the Imperium's governance.The period is usually divided into two separate major events by Imperial historitors known as the "Reign of Blood" and the "Plague of Unbelief."The struggle began when control over the Imperium's government was essentially seized by a single man, the High Lord of Terra Goge Vandire, who commanded both the Administratum and the Ecclesiarchy as Master of the Administratum and ecclesiarch and ruled the Imperium according to his own wishes instead of in accordance with the Emperor's will.Fortunately, his brutal reign eventually came to an end with the coming of the reforming preacher Sebastian Thor and his reborn Confederation of Light, a sect of the Imperial Cult based on the previous Confederation of Light's banned teachings that were once a rival to the then-orthodox theology of the Imperial Cult's most dominant sect, the Temple of the Saviour Emperor.The Confederation of Light sought to end Goge Vandire's corruption of Imperial theology and reform the faith of the Imperium in what its adherents viewed as a more moral form that embodied the Emperor's own sacrifice for Humanity.High Lord Vandire was in power for almost a standard century before finally being overthrown in the midst of the Terran Crusade and slain by his own bodyguards, the Daughters of the Emperor, who later became the Adepta Sororitas.Vandire was replaced as the Imperial ecclesiarch by Sebastian Thor, who unleashed the Imperium's second major era of reform following the Horus Heresy.The end of the Reign of Blood resulted in a major reformation of the Ecclesiarchy, the creation of the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus to police those enemies of the Emperor who lay within the Imperium's own structures, and the creation of the Adepta Sororitas to serve as both the Ecclesiarchy's new military force and the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Hereticus.The Plague of Unbelief is considered to be part of the Age of Apostasy, although it occurred several solar decades after High Lord Goge Vandire's death and Sebastian Thor's ascension to the position of ecclesiarch. Many false prophets appeared throughout the anarchic Age of Apostasy, some little more than madmen leading rebel armies, others who were spiritual demagogues who commanded worlds and armies.The most powerful of these was the Apostate Cardinal of Gathalamor, Bucharis, whose heresies reached such proportions they became known as the "Plague of Unbelief," not to be confused with the Curse of Unbelief, a potent arcane disease spread by servants of the Chaos God Nurgle in the 41st Millennium, better known as the Zombie Plague.The Age of Apostasy is considered to be one of the bloodiest eras in the Imperium's history after the terrible civil war that was the Horus Heresy.
Age of Apostasy - Reign of Blood: At the dawn of the 34th Millennium the Adeptus Ministorum held nigh total power over the Imperium of Man, which it used to ensure that every single subject of the Emperor of Mankind in the Imperium paid their dues, both spiritually and financially, to the duly-appointed officers of the state faith.Zeal eclipsed reason, and misrule reigned supreme. The word of the Emperor was subverted wholesale by corrupt ideologues, each struggling to usurp total control for themselves. In time, the Ministorum exercised such power that it began to dictate the policies of the Senatorum Imperialis of the High Lords of Terra. The head of the state church, the ecclesiarch, came to be viewed as speaking with the authority of the Emperor Himself, and he influenced every aspect of the governance of the Imperium.Perhaps it was inevitable that the other great bureaucracies of the Imperium should grow resentful of the Ministorum. The Adeptus Administratum in particular found its own powers greatly curtailed, for the Ministorum's tithes took precedence over its own raising of funds and resources, leaving little in the coffers to pay for the running of the Imperium.The Administratum's influence soon waned so far that the Ministorum was able to dictate policy in secular matters as well. The raising and deployment of armies, the prosecution of wars, the commitment of significant Imperial resources and the appointment of sector lords all fell under the effective control of the Ministorum.In time, other institutions began to distrust the Ministorum's power, and the Adeptus Astartes and the Adeptus Mechanicus in particular became increasingly estranged. This dark period of history in the 36th Millennium came to be known as the Age of Apostasy.
Age of Apostasy - Seeds of Heresy: Over the course of the 35th Millennium, the Administratum managed to claw back some of its former influence, but only through a series of machinations that were ultimately to the detriment of the Imperium as a whole.By the insinuation of covert supporters into key positions of power across the Imperium, the Administratum slowly eroded its rival's power and ensured that those officials the Ministorum did succeed in placing were weak, incompetent or venal.Though this ruthlessly instigated policy regained some of the Administratum's lost power, it set in motion a series of events that would see the Imperium face its greatest catastrophe since the Horus Heresy.In an effort to reverse the decline in its fortunes, Ecclesiarch Benedin IV declared that the Ministorum's upper echelons would move from Terra to the planet of Ophelia VII, a world in the Segmentum Tempestus and one of the richest in the Imperium after Terra and Mars.Moving the operations of the Holy Synod to Ophelia VII was a vast undertaking, but the effort proved well worthwhile. Separated from the machinations of the Senatorum Imperialis by ten thousand light years, the Ministorum's power waxed anew.The Synod became a force unto itself, and freed from the interference of the other High Lords the ecclesiarch was able to raise entire armies and fleets in order to enforce the state church's newfound influence across the Imperium.These forces, known as the Frateris Templar, came to rival the conventional military armies and fleets of the Imperium, and they soon came to be greatly resented wherever they travelled.Three hundred standard years into this new age of influence and power for the Ecclesiarchy in the late 35th Millennium, Greigor XI was elected to the rank of ecclesiarch.Heralded as a deeply spiritual individual who desired only that the faithful work together as one, Greigor announced that the Holy Synod would return to its rightful home on Holy Terra, the seat of the Emperor and the heart of the Imperium.The cardinals opposed this course, not least because the Ministorum was so firmly entrenched upon Ophelia VII that a move would be a vast logistical exercise that would stretch the institution's resources to the limit.Subsequent history would prove the naysayers entirely correct, but none were able to deter Greigor from his grand undertaking. The relocation took over a solar decade to organise and carry out, and it was only possible due to a massive increase in the Ministorum's tithes.Greigor XI was ultimately discovered dead, the victim of food poisoning. The true cause of his death may never be known, but the anarchy deepened still further as the Ministorum's upper echelons continued as before, imposing more unreasonable demands on their congregations.Eventually, entire worlds buckled under the strain, their own populations starving to fund the reconstruction of the long-abandoned Ecclesiarchy palaces on Terra.
Age of Apostasy - Age of Apostasy: As if the situation could not get any worse, the entire Imperium was soon plunged in the early 36th Millennium into even deeper despair. The incidence of Warp Storms, a phenomenon that cuts off vast swathes of the Imperium's space from interstellar travel, increased by an order of magnitude.The Warp began to seethe with roiling energies which bled forth into realspace, making travel between anything other than worlds in the same planetary system increasingly perilous.The central governance of Imperial worlds that was limited to only periodic contact at the best of times entirely collapsed. Seeing that their foes were tearing themselves apart, the myriad enemies of Humanity struck. The Traitor Legions sallied forth from the Eye of Terror, using their own blasphemous sorceries to strike planets otherwise cut off from outside aid.Orks traversed the Warp in their ramshackle space hulks, uncaring where the tides of the Empyrean regurgitated them and wreaking havoc in regions previously beyond their reach.The Drukhari used their Webway to freely navigate the galaxy, and struck wherever they desired, dragging millions of captives screaming to their infernal realm of Commorragh, to suffer tortures and degradations beyond a sane man's imagination.The entire Imperium was gripped by an apocalyptic frenzy of doom and anarchy. Countless new religious sects sprung into being, many proclaiming that the God-Emperor was enacting His final judgement upon Mankind and that the End Times were at hand.No world was untouched by the anarchy, as whole populations rose up in increasingly bizarre and extravagant acts of penance and self-flagellation. Anyone who dared attempt to reason with such doomsayers were declared Heretics, and world after world tore themselves apart in an orgy of bloodletting and violent penance.
Age of Apostasy - Rise of High Lord Goge Vandire: Goge Vandire was the 361st Master of the Administratum, a position he had attained in the early centuries of the 36th Millennium by the ruthless application of bribes, threats and outright assassination. A strident opponent of the power of the Adeptus Ministorum, Vandire had plotted against it for many years.Shortly before his ascension to the rank of High Lord of Terra, Vandire brought about the selection of a man of his own choosing to head the Ecclesiarchy, ensuring that none could stand before his subsequent rise.The new ecclesiarch, Paulis III, was perhaps the weakest man ever to have served in that office, and soon after his ascension rumours regarding the myriad degeneracies in which he revelled began to circulate amongst the upper echelons of the Imperium's ruling bodies. As confidence in the new ecclesiarch plummeted, Goge Vandire made his move.Leading a band of his most trusted retainers, the Master of the Administratum forced entry into the Ecclesiarchal Palace, gunning down any who attempted to deny them access to Paulis' personal wing. It is said that when Vandire and his troops came upon the ecclesiarch, he was engaged in some vile debauchery that, were it known to the people, would bring eternal shame down upon the entire Imperium.Without trial or appeal, Paulis III was slain. In what amounted to a daring coup d'etat, Vandire proclaimed himself both the new ecclesiarch and Master of the Administratum, claiming control of both institutions.The next days saw the High Lord consolidate his power in a series of brutal purges of the Holy Synod. Many cardinals simply fled before Vandire's warriors could come for them, while others were defiant, mounting futile, if brave objections.These were slaughtered, to be replaced with new cardinals either so weak that they would obey Vandire's every word, or by cunning supporters who shared his own agenda. With his power base firmly established, High Lord Vandire was able to give free rein to the unfettered extremes of his ambition.Whether or not Vandire was mentally unbalanced before his rise to supreme authority, after it was achieved he plumbed new depths of insanity. The High Lord claimed that he spoke with the authority of the Emperor Himself, and that he communed with the God-Emperor during the many trance-like fugues into which he would regularly fall.Coming out of these trances, the High Lord would enter a rage, insisting that his every utterance be transcribed by the army of clerks that waited on his every word. Many of these orders defied logic, with Vandire taking violent action against whole sections of the Imperium's population.
Age of Apostasy - Breaking Lord Phaedrus: During this time, Vandire had considerable trouble bringing the Adeptus Astra Telepathica under his control. Lord Phaedrus, the Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, was a potent psyker and as such was not swayed by Vandire's charisma or charm. Phaedrus saw through Vandire's veil of lies and deceits, and understood the corrupt High Lord's true intentions.Vandire realised that Phaedrus was using his considerable psychic abilities to stay one step ahead of him, and simply killing Phaedrus would never do, for he would just be replaced by a powerful psyker of equal potency. To remove Phaedrus required a much more cunning plan.Luring the Master of the Astra Telepathica into a trap, Vandire utilised the innate anti-psyker abilities of a Culexus Temple Assassin to nullify Phaedrus' psychic abilities. The helpless Phaedrus was then strapped into a specially prepared life-support machine, where the Culexus Assassin permanently severed Phaedrus' ability to tap into the Warp, making him incapable of using psychic powers.Such an operation would have normally killed the powerful psyker, but with the life-support system and a bribed Magos Biologis, Vandire was able to keep Phaedrus alive. Robbed of his psychic powers, Phaedrus was utterly distraught, which resulted in multiple attempts to take his own life.But Vandire was always there to thwart him, removing the blade from his hand or to loosen the noose around his neck. In the end, Phaedrus was broken and Vandire achieved his aim: control over the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.If Phaedrus did his bidding, Vandire promised that he would not disclose the loss of his psychic capabilities to his subordinates, who would have immediately replaced him, and even worse, pitied him.With his powerful position put in jeopardy, Phaedrus had little choice in the matter and acquiesced to all of Vandire's heretical demands.
Age of Apostasy - Brides of the Emperor: Through trickery and manipulation, Vandire's grip on the Imperium increased still further when he managed to co-opt Alicia Dominica and her sisters of the newly-discovered all-female religious order known as the Daughters of the Emperor from the distant Agri-world of San Leor into his personal bodyguard, renaming them the Brides of the Emperor.Having heard of the existence of a small sect of warrior-women on San Leor dedicated to the service of the Emperor who trained themselves in the ancient arts of war as an expression of their devotion, Vandire realised they would prove to be a potent addition to his personal forces. As such he arranged for San Leor to receive a rare ecclesiarchal visit.But after the large ecclesiarchal retinue arrived on San Leor and made its way to the Daughters of the Emperor's convent, the sisters barred the ecclesiarch from entering, claiming that they did not believe that he truly served the will of the Emperor.Having expected such an insolent response from such a pious group of women in light of his reputation as a tyrant, Vandire knew exactly what to do to get them on his side.Vandire convinced the Daughters that he was personally blessed by the Emperor when he told Dominica to fire a weapon at him. The shot bounced off of the High Lord, who was secretly wearing a Conversion Field generator, though he pretended that it was the Emperor Himself who would not allow him to be harmed, earning the Daughters' absolute but naive loyalty as they had never seen such advanced technology before.He then took the Daughters as his new ecclesiarchal bodyguard and brought them back with him to Terra. From then on, the warrior women became his personal retinue of soldiers and companions, and Vandire renamed them the "Brides of the Emperor."They were trained by the best mentors in the Astra Militarum to combine their own skills with the modern weapons of war. Word of their dedication to the protection of Vandire spread throughout the Imperium. They were his constant guardians and his silent executioners, who would kill with a word from their lord.The Brides not only served as Vandire's bodyguard, but also as his servants and companions. They tasted the High Lord's food, fed him when he fell weak with illness, nursed his frail body back to health and entertained him with singing, dancing and other, more exotic, skills.For all their gaiety on occasion, the Brides of the Emperor were still hardened fighters, and when the Holy Synod of the Ecclesiarchy tried to have Vandire assassinated a few years later to rid themselves of the tyrant, the Brides went into the Synod's meeting chambers, locked the doors, and emerged a solar hour later carrying the severed heads of every cardinal present. Opposition to Vandire within the Ecclesiarchy collapsed swiftly soon after.
Age of Apostasy - Reign of Blood: This violent repression and wanton slaughter continued for seven solar decades after Vandire's ascension to the Ecclesiarchal Palace, and provided a new name for Vandire's rule -- the "Reign of Blood." The immense resources of the Adeptus Ministorum were directed towards bloodthirsty pogroms against often imagined Heretics and the building of immense new monuments to the Emperor and Vandire.However, Vandire's insanity was always directed outwards, and though distant planets boasted kilometre-high spires and cathedrals, the Terran Ecclesiarchal Palace was allowed to fall into decay once more. Vast wings of the palace fell silent, none save the Brides of the Emperor daring to enter the presence of the High Lord, so erratic had his paranoid outbursts become.For the masses, there were only two choices. Submit utterly to the rule of High Lord Vandire, or be crushed by the Brides of the Emperor and the Frateris Templar. Those worlds not gripped by anarchy or locked within the deadly embrace of Warp Storms were entirely in Vandire's thrall, the toils of the populations directed towards his glory.Yet, in one distant corner of the galaxy, upon the once-decimated world of Dimmamar, there sparked a glimmer of hope. That hope was a man, and his name was Sebastian Thor.
Age of Apostasy - Sebastian Thor: Sebastian Thor was a supremely humble priest of the Imperial Creed, who never courted or coveted the immense power he would one day come to wield. He was a simple preacher, but the passion and wisdom of his oratory caused the faithful of Dimmamar to flock to him from far and wide.He spoke out against the injustice of the High Lord's rule, and while most who did so would soon be ruthlessly suppressed, his supporters always protected him from the attentions of Vandire's agents.In fact, many of the assassins dispatched to deal with the bothersome backwater rabble-rouser were converted themselves, and protected him against many subsequent assassination attempts.In a rage as Thor's influence slowly grew across his world and his actions were reported to Terra, Vandire mustered a vast army of the Frateris Templar at the Clax System, and dispatched them to Dimmamar to reduce the nest of Heretics to ashes once and for all.The army never arrived, for the vessels of the fleet that carried it were torn apart as they traversed the Warp, by a Warp Storm so mighty it afflicts the region still, 4,000 Terran years later.Astropaths and others gifted with the psyker's power claim the screams of those slain in the so-called "Storm of the Emperor's Wrath" can be heard there even now.Soon, Thor had amassed a sizeable following, and people were even travelling from off-world to hear his impassioned sermons. It was then that members of the ancient and proscribed Confederation of Light, a sect of the Imperial Creed that had once opposed the Temple of the Saviour Emperor that became the established Adeptus Ministorum, came to Thor, men and women who had hidden their faith since the dark time of the First War of Faith in the 32nd Millennium.What words passed between Sebastian Thor and these hooded ambassadors may never be known, but Thor and the Confederation became as one, and those who had been so ruthlessly suppressed centuries earlier by the Ministorum were once more a force in the galaxy.