Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - The Forging (ca. M32 - ca. M35): The Forging is also sometimes known to Imperial historitors as the Golden Age of the Imperium. During this period the Adeptus Terra brought the most important Human-settled star systems of the galaxy that had not been reached by the Great Crusade under Imperial control and expanded the interstellar borders of the Imperium. Internal stability was gained with the establishment of astropath choirs on countless worlds, with major hubs established on the best-garrisoned Imperial worlds, including Armageddon, Bakka and Macragge. This allowed a reliable network of interstellar, superluminal communication to function using the power of an astropath's astrotelepathy to send and receive messages across light years.This period also saw a slowing in the gradual decline of the Imperium's technology level from its pre-Heresy height and the growth of the interstellar economy due to the rediscovery of a valuable portion of a Standard Template Construct (STC) database from the Age of Technology in the Cana System as the Imperium expanded. Once more the Imperium repelled the forces of Chaos Renegades, Heretics and aliens alike across the galaxy and reclaimed countless lost and rebellious regions for the Human species.The Emperor, always an object of veneration and divine worship since the Great Crusade and the days of the cult of the Lectitio Divinitatus, only increased His devoted following of worshippers after being joined to the Golden Throne, which was hailed by His faithful as His "ascension" from the physical to the spiritual plane from whence He would further guide and protect Humanity. Many Imperial cults dedicated to the worship of the Emperor as the one, true god of Humanity arose over the following centuries, the majority of which were ultimately repressed, united with or absorbed into a centralised faith known as the Temple of the Saviour Emperor.This powerful church gained further momentum among the masses of the Imperial faithful until, in the 32nd Millennium, it was finally granted the status of the official state religion of the Imperium and the title of Adeptus Ministorum, more often called the "Ecclesiarchy" by the people of the Imperium. It was only a few standard centuries later in the mid-32nd Millennium that Ecclesiarch Veneris II received a seat amongst the High Lords of Terra, and after 300 standard years, the seat reserved for the state church's governing ecclesiarch was made permanent within the ranks of the Senatorum Imperialis.It was in 646.M32 that Agnathio, the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, united over 50 leaders from other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes as noted above and arrived upon Terra. Such a show of power and faith put an end to the squabbling for the contentious seats of the High Lords of Terra that had consumed the differing Imperial factions since The Beheading. In locked council with the mightiest of Humanity's warriors, such matters were quickly sorted out. To this day none know exactly what was done or said, but when the Space Marines departed back to their far-scattered missions, there once again sat twelve High Lords of Terra in the Senatorum Imperialis. If there was further dissension, none dared speak it aloud.In 888.M32 the Imperium was consumed by the event known as the Astropath Wars. There is no further information on this conflict available in Imperial records.In 910.M32 the event known as The Firestorm unfolded. There is no further information on this conflict available in Imperial records.Sometime during the 33rd Millennium, the War of the Confessor unfolded when in a particularly violent display, the Adeptus Ministorum exerted its newfound political strength. Many key Shrine Worlds were added to its holdings during this first of the many Wars of Faith to come.In 265.M33, Admiral Usurs of the Imperial Navy was cast down by the High Lords of Terra for becoming too ambitious. However, he was still too powerful within the Navis Imperialis to be executed without initiating a costly civil war, so he was instead despatched on an Explorator mission to the intergalactic gulf beyond the rim of the galaxy. For the following solar decade, Usurs' reports reached Terra by astropath, detailing the conquest of new star systems for the Emperor. After two solar decades, these reports finally ceased. Contact was never reestablished by the Imperium with the star systems Usurs mentioned in his reports.In 313.M33 the Siege of Eternity's Gate unfolded. No further information is available.In 615.M33 the Blade of Infinity, a pre-Heresy cruiser, emerged from the Warp, its re-entry signature suggesting that it had left realspace over 20,000 standard years before. This period predated even the Warp-Drive's invention in the Age of Technology and suggested a radical time stream disorder. Vox transmissions picked up from the vessel suggested that the Blade of Infinity was trying to communicate some type of warning, but before much could be deciphered, the ancient starship disappeared once again into the Warp. In its wake arrived an invasion fleet of Chaos Space Marine Traitor Legions, the Archenemy of the Imperium who wreaked much havoc. The Blade of Infinity reemerged from the Warp several more times in subsequent years, always as a harbinger of further incursions into Imperial space by the forces of Chaos from the Immaterium.In 831.M33, during what became known as the Year of the Ghosts, the honoured dead rose up in the Segmentum Solar to drive back the terrors of the Warp.Sometime during the early years of M34 a great threat to the Imperium arose beyond the Ghost Stars. Even today, its true nature remains suppressed or redacted within Imperial records. The ravages are said to cause the extermination of a score of Space Marine Chapters and souls unnumbered. Much of the extant evidence relating to this threat has been censored or purposely destroyed by the Inquisition, but there are contradictory indications which describe the nature of the threat as both a "star-spawned plague" that swept away scores of worlds and to "Nightmare Engines" that slaughtered the populations of whole sectors. This threat is remembered only as the Pale Wasting.In 401.M34 the terrible crisis known as The Howling unfolded. Black Templar Space Marines ended the Catelexis Heresy by executing the Cacodominus, an alien cybernetic psyker whose formidable powers allowed it to psychically control the populace of thirteen hundred star systems. Unfortunately, the Cacodominus' death scream was amplified by the Warp and burned out the minds of a billion Human astropaths while it also distorted the beacon of the Astronomican. Millions of starships were lost in the resulting upheaval and entire sub-sectors of the Imperium slid once more into barbarism without the dictates of the Adeptus Terra to guide them. It is a terrible price to pay for victory.Following a fierce Warp storm bursting from the Eye of Terror in 666.M34, the first of many unnatural phenomenon known as "Warp Stars" are sighted. The tendrils of their power pulled any starships or small planets that fell within their reach to a grisly, if spectacular, doom.In 934.M34 came the Warnings of the Craftworld Ulthwe to the Imperium. No further records are available as to the nature or content of this warning.