Orpheus Sector - The Rising Storm and the Birth of the Orpheus Sector: Whereas other regions of the Imperium were weakened by the events of the 35th and 36th Millennia, the Segmentum Tempestus knew a period of stability. The strong Warp Storms that had given the Segmentum its name were slowly abating and with the end of Goge Vandire's Reign of Blood and the death of the usurper, the Imperium turned its eyes to the Dark Marches Region.With the approval of the High Lords of Terra, the Segmentum authorities declared a series of interlinked campaigns and crusades to rid themselves of xenos plagues and other menaces, but also to fortify the Imperium's borders. It would take some time before the Imperium ventured into those regions that had been left abandoned since the Horus Heresy, but following the launch of the Dark Marches Crusade, the Dark Marches Region became a primary focus of the Imperium's drive for expansion.Although the Crusade would take nearly a solar century and a half to reach its conclusion, the Dark Marches Crusade would prove a great victory. It would culminate with the formal creation of the Leyak, Hazak and Eurydice Sectors as well as the Orpheus Sector. This name was chosen as an homage to both the Rogue Trader Arica Orpheus who had first explored this region of space and to the crusade's mastermind, Lord Tempestus Hal Orpheus, who became the new Sector's first appointed Governor. The former Imperial outpost on Amarah Prime was rebuilt and soon became the Sector's new capital world where the aging Lord Tempestus built his palace.But the Orpheus Sector remained a frontier region of the Imperium, a realm with no august name to draw settlers to it and where life proved particularly harsh and dangerous. The uninhabited system of Myre was given over to the Adeptus Mechanicus which soon began to exploit the system's riches and thus laid the foundation of the sector's trade-routes. Other worlds were given over to victorious regiments of the Astra Militarum that had participated in the Dark Marches Crusade, claiming by Rite of Conquest what they had fought and bled for.However, apart from zealous pilgrims and the warrior-priests of the Frateris Militia, few other colonists followed. This ran counter to the High Lords of Terra's plans. Soon entire planetary populations were placed under an Edict of Transmission and were forcibly transported across the galaxy to their new home in the Orpheus Sector. Most notoriously, millions of Imperial citizens were brought in from the overcrowded Hive Worlds of the Warre and Uhulis Sectors, while refugees from distant worlds ravaged by war or environmental degradation were rerouted to colonise the Orpheus Sector and its neighbours.These new colonists formed the core of the new population of the Orpheus Sector. To better protect the sector's rapidly expanding trade routes, the people of Orpheus were gifted the right to form their own Imperial Navy warfleet, the Battlefleet Orpheus, whose mighty flagship, the Apocalypse-class Battleship Arica Dominus had once carried Lord Tempestus Hal Orpheus into battle. The battlefleet soon took the Lantern of Orpheus as its official symbol, a design believed to have been derived from the personal heraldry of Lady Arica Orpheus in whose honour the Arica Dominus had been named.For more than a millennium, the Orpheus Sector knew nothing but prosperity, an era that is now seen as something akin to a first Golden Age. With the sector's first millenial anniversary close at hand, the entire sector rejoiced, ordinate, commoner and noble alike celebrating the good fortune of the ever-growing sector which had quickly risen to prominence amongst the other sectors of the Segmentum Tempestus. As part of the celebrations, the preserved corpse of Hal Orpheus, now regarded as the spiritual father and founder of the Orpheus Sector, was borne upon the Arica Dominus to complete a tour of the sector's most influential worlds. Many holy miracles and visions were reported to have occurred in the wake of the relic-corpse's passage.Yet, in a relatively short period of time, the atmosphere of optimism and religious zeal of the Orpheus Millenial was replaced by one of wary caution. When in 976.M37 all contact was lost with the neighboring Leyak Sector, the High Lords of Terra declared several edicts that would see the Orpheus Sector prepared for war. The sector's wealthiest worlds began to fortify themselves, securing their domains by raising new regiments and investing a large portion of their wealth and industrial output into orbital defence platforms.Battlefleet Orpheus also greatly benefited from this build-up, both in terms of manpower and warships made available as the ever more paranoid sector authorities diverted their growing resources to their own defence. By Imperial Edict several Frontier Worlds of the sector were declared Perdita and Imperial citizens were barred from trespassing upon them under pain of death, but the huge expenditures on a military build-up ultimately led to increasing political instability within the sector.While the sector continued its military build-up, the heavy tithes imposed to finance the naval expansion bred considerable social discontent and the Adeptus Arbites and the Ordo Hereticus were frequently called upon to conduct social purges or violently reprimand any outbursts of an anti-Imperial nature. Reports of Chaos Cult activities steadily rose in frequency across the sector, but the first true test of the region's defences did not come from the Outer Darkness or from the silent Leyak Sector as had been long feared, but from within.