vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Time of Ending - Saint Cyllia Massacre, 863.M41: In 863.M41 the Saint Cyllia Massacre occurred when the Adamant Fury Titan Legion betrayed the Emperor and fell to Chaos. The Traitor Titan Legion turned its guns upon Loyalist regiments of the Saint Cyllian Planetary Defence Forces before making good their escape off-world.The loss of a full Titan Legion sends ripples of concern through the Imperium and great effort is exerted to find and destroy them, particularly by the Mechanicus and its Collegia Titanica.
Time of Ending - The Bloodtide, 876.M41: In 876.M41 Chaos came to the world of Van Horne in the event later known as The Bloodtide to the Inquisition. The Bloodthirster Ka'jagga'nath, Lord of the Bloodtide, broke free of his bonds and unleashed a tide of gore that corrupted everything it touched.For eight solar days and nights, the orgies of blood continue, each fresh death luring yet more daemons to the mortal world as the barrier between the Materium and the Warp breaks down on Van Horne. Only when the Grey Knights' 4th Brotherhood arrived was the Bloodtide abated, and then only at great cost.Ka'jagga'nath was cast back into the Warp. The psychic backlash also banished the Bloodtide and the daemons it had drawn forth.
Time of Ending - Battle of the Planus Steppes, 883.M41: In 883.M41 the 423rd Cadian Regiment's spearhead, led by Knight Commander Pask, was the largest armoured assault undertaken by the Imperium since the Battle of Tallarn during the Horus Heresy. Over 8,000 Imperial tank companies and 35 super-heavy tank detachments were annihilated during the nearly total destruction of the Renegade Adamant Fury Traitor Titan Legion upon the Planus Steppes.
Time of Ending - Crusade of Wrath, 888.M41: In 888.M41, during the Crusade of Wrath, the Black Templars Chapter inflicts heavy losses on the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, reclaiming several star systems previously lost in the Maelstrom.
Time of Ending - Long Midnight, 891.M41: In 891.M41 the worlds of Persya suffer attacks from Aeldari Corsairs during the Long Midnight, who swathe their targets in utter darkness before pillaging and slaughtering at will. The vicious raids only cease upon the arrival of the Praxion Patrol.
Time of Ending - First Necron Assault on Imperium, 897.M41: In 897.M41, the fortress-convent known as Sanctuary 101 is destroyed, with all the Sisters of Battle within, by the Necrons. No survivors or signs of the perpetrators are left behind. Some few savants in the Imperium begin to understand the vast threat that the awakening Necrons might become to Mankind.
Time of Ending - Hive Fleet Gorgon Approaches, 897.M41: In that same year, 897.M41, a new Tyranid menace, code-named Hive Fleet Gorgon, is spotted by Imperial outposts, heading directly for the growing T'au Empire in the Eastern Fringe. No warnings are given to the T'au of what is to befall them.
Time of Ending - The Badab War, 901-913.M41: In 901.M41 the terrible civil conflict known as the Badab War begins when Lufgt Huron, the Chapter Master of the Astral Claws Space Marines, refuses to hand over his Chapter's tithe of gene-seed to the Administratum and instead announces his secession from the Imperium, declaring himself the "Tyrant of Badab."Twelve standard years of intersystem war follow, wreaking havoc on shipping lanes in the Maelstrom Zone and embroiling more than a dozen Space Marine Chapters. With much loss, Badab Primaris finally falls to the Loyalist forces, but Lufgt Huron and some 200 of the Astral Claws escape to take refuge in the Maelstrom of the Ultima Segmentum.There, they become Heretic Astartes and change their name to the Red Corsairs. They become dreaded pirates and raiders of Imperial commerce. Huron adopts the title of "Blackheart" and continues to recruit more Astartes Renegades to join his growing Chaos empire.
Time of Ending - Ork Activity Increases, 907.M41: In 907.M41 Ork WAAAGH! activity rises throughout all five Segmentums of the Imperium, forcing the Novamarines, Raptors and Howling Griffons to be redeployed away from the Badab War to counter the growing greenskin threat.
Time of Ending - Sack of Jollana, 913.M41: In 913.M41 the disciples of the Thousand Sons Chaos Sorcerer Ahriman sack the Librarium on the world of Jollana.
Time of Ending - Attack on the Black Ships, 920.M41: In 920.M41 Aeldari pirates attack the advance Escort of a fleet of Black Ships as they exit Warpspace in the Thanos System. The pirates destroyed three Frigates and captured the troopship Emperor's Faithful.The pirates quickly disappeared, taking with them a vast complement of Astra Militarum and Imperial Navy personnel. As a result, the fleet of Black Ships is left vulnerable and is picked off one by one in further raids.
Time of Ending - The Worldengine, 925.M41: In 925.M41, the Necron Worldengine is revealed as the architect of the destruction of the Vidar Sector. It is finally destroyed, thanks chiefly to the sacrifice of the entire Astral Knights Chapter.
Time of Ending - Vaxhallan Genocide, 926.M41: In 926.M41 during the Vaxhallan Genocide, a Chaos Space Marine warband known as The Purge slaughtered over 14 billion Imperial citizens and claimed the planet Vaxhall as their own. Vaxhall served as an Astropath relay hub and as an Imperial Fortress World, the buttress of the Herakles System.
Time of Ending - Empire of the Red Corsairs, 937.M41: In 937.M41 Inquisitor Pranix led 5 companies of Space Wolves and units of the 301st Cadian and the 14th Tallarn Astra Militarum regiments in an attempt to reclaim the 9 Hollow Worlds from the clutches of the Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs warband.The Imperium's forces are stunned to see how quickly the Red Corsairs have expanded and how vast their Renegade empire of pirates has grown.
Time of Ending - Second War for Armageddon, 941-943.M41: In 941.M41 the Second War for Armageddon began when the largest and most powerful Ork in millennia, the Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, led a vast WAAAGH! that, after much rampaging, met its match upon Armageddon, a Hive World of vital strategic importance to the Imperium in the Segmentum Solar.The Orks are defeated only by the stubborness of the defenders, the combined might of three Space Marines Chapters and the legendary heroics of Commissar Yarrick. Ghazghkull escapes and vows to return one day.
Time of Ending - The Enemy of My Enemy, 963.M41: In 963.M41 the Imperium ran afoul of the T'au Empire when the Ultramarines clashed with a T'au expeditionary fleet for control of the cursed planet of Malbede. When the conflict awakened the Necrons whose tombs were hidden beneath Malbede's surface, the Ultramarines joined the T'au in a temporary alliance to defeat the emerging Necrons.In the wake of the battle, Exterminatus was proclaimed on Malbede by the Ultramarines' Chapter Master Marneus Calgar, but he generously allows the T'au to evacuate before the surface of the planet is destroyed. The planet's destruction sets off a brief flicker of unknown energy on dozens of planets throughout the galaxy.Many fear that more Tomb Worlds are awakening. Unfortunately, the Imperium of Man now finds itself facing two more alien enemies -- the humanoid T'au who seek to expand their growing interstellar empire to "serve the Greater Good" and the Necrons who seek to reestablish their galaxy-wide empire of ages past.
Time of Ending - Plague Ship, 969.M41: In 969.M41 the ancient starship Blade of Eternity was once again sighted, this time near the Cando System.As it was approached, the ship was mysteriously replaced by the infamous Death Guard plague ship Terminus Est.The Zombie Plague sweeps across the system. Infected refugees carry the Chaos foulness far and wide across the Imperium.
Time of Ending - Infernal Dreams, 973.M41: In 973.M41 a violent Warp Storm troubles the dreams of people across the galaxy -- for those more psychically aware, the storms proved catastrophic.Nightmares cracked the barrier between realspace and the Warp, slaying many psykers and creating rifts between the Immaterium and reality.Although brief, thousands of daemonic incursions cause untold damage and many dark seeds of corruption are planted.
Time of Ending - Curse of Lutoris Epsilon, 975.M41: In 975.M41 the Bloodthirster Skarbrand materialised on the Cadian Fortress World of Lutoris Epsilon.His berserk rage infected all he surveyed and soon the fortifications were drenched in blood as the Imperial Guardsmen turned upon each other in crazed bloodlust.Lutoris has since been considered cursed and is currently classified as a quarantined Forbidden World by the Inquisition.
Time of Ending - Greenskin Assault on Ryza, 976.M41: In 976.M41 a massive Ork invasion smashed into the western sector of the Segmentum Ultima. WAAAGH! Grax is denied taking the Forge World of Ryza, but the surrounding sectors suffer great devastation.
Time of Ending - Invvasion of Rynn's World, 989-991.M41: In 989.M41 WAAAGH! Snagrod rampages across the Loki Sector, culminating in an assault on Rynn's World that nearly wipes out the venerated Crimson Fists Chapter of Space Marines when an unfortunate accident destroys their fortress-monastery.Imperial forces retake the Agri-world in 991.M41 and the Crimson Fists begin the long process of rebuilding the Chapter back to full strength.Though the Orks were finally driven off Rynn's World, Chapter Master Pedro Kantor declines the opportunity for pursuit, instead throwing his efforts into rebuilding the Crimson Fists to their former glory. Snagrod himself escapes, and proceeds to wreak further havoc across the sector.
Time of Ending - Battle of Aurent, 992.M41: In 992.M41 Eldar forces attack Cadian holdings on the world of Aurent, only to be utterly defeated through the inspired tactical genius of Ursarkar E. Creed.
Time of Ending - Second Tyrannic War, 993.M41: In 993.M41 the Ultramarines crushed a rebellion on the industrial world of Ichar IV, only to find themselves in the forefront of a desperate defence against the arrival of the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Kraken.Elsewhere, the Aeldari Craftworld Iyanden was simultaneously ravaged by other tendrils of the Kraken. Two Space Marine Chapters -- the Scythes of the Emperor and the Lamenters -- were all but wiped out by the hive fleet and hundreds of Imperial worlds were lost to the ravenous Tyranids before the incursion later known as the Second Tyrannic War was finally halted.
Time of Ending - Third Tyrannic War, 997.M41: In 138.997.M41 humanity peers into the abyss when the twin tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan emerged from intergalactic space and strike at the underbelly of the Imperium from below the galactic plane, cutting a swathe of truly horrific destruction through Segmentum Tempestus, Ultima and Solar in what is sometimes called the Third Tyrannic War.It becomes clear that the two previous Tyranid incursions into the galaxy were only reconnaissance expeditions for the main hive fleet. From Macragge to Ultima Macharia, the forces of the Imperium hurry to confront this new threat, leaving many sectors open to attack by other enemies.
Time of Ending - Ghazghkull Returns, 997.M41: In 221.997.M41 the world of Piscina IV is invaded by Orks under the joint leadership of Ghazghkull Thraka and the Bad Moons Warboss Nazdreg.Orkish teleportation technology is employed in a surprise attack and only the stout defence commanded by Master Belial of the Dark Angels Chapter and the timely arrival of reinforcements ends the Ork threat.Although the Imperial victory is great, several Imperial commanders, including Belial, feel that Ghazghkull has another trick up his sleeve.
Time of Ending - Battle of Tarsis Ultra, 997.M41: In 509.997.M41 elements from the Ultramarines and Mortifactors Space Marine Chapters make a stand against one spur of Hive Fleet Leviathan on the world of Tarsis Ultra. The defenders defeat this tendril with the use of a genetically-engineered biological plague, but the remainder of the enormous hive fleet rampages on unaffected.
Time of Ending - Battle of Golgotha, 997.M41: In 601.997.M41 Ghazghkull Thraka comes face-to-face with his old human nemesis, Commissar Yarrick, on the battlefields of the world of Golgotha.Yarrick is captured by the Orks but ultimately released as Warlord Ghazghkull is planning to invade Armageddon once more and wants to ensure a good fight. Greenskins flock to Ghazghkull's WAAAGH! in even greater numbers.
Time of Ending - Third Sphere Expansion, 997.M41: In 977.997.M41 the small but vibrant T'au Empire begins its Third Sphere Expansion. The T'au forcibly captured half a dozen more Imperial worlds on the Eastern Fringe near the Damocles Gulf and several more joined the T'au Empire willingly as Gue'vesa to serve their Greater Good.The war with the T'au suffered several lulls and escalations and the xenos showed no sign of relenting in their drive for further expansion even as Imperial resistance increased in the region.
Time of Ending - Cryptus Campaign, 998.M41: As Hive Fleet Leviathan moved ever closer towards their Chapter homeworld of Baal, the Blood Angels mobilised to stop the Tyranids in the Cryptus System. Also known as the "Cryptan Shield," the binary system served as a primary strategic defence of the approaches to Baal.The Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters were forced to forge an alliance with the Necrons of the Mephrit Dynasty to unleash an Exterminatus-class Necron weapon known as the Magnovitrium across the system.The ancient weapon ignited the core of the gas giant Aeros, unleashing a miniature supernova which scoured the Tyranids from the system, though also at the cost of many Imperial lives.But the Leviathan was only delayed by this campaign, and continued its inexorable movement towards Baal.
Time of Ending - Third War for Armageddon, 998.M41: In 757.998.M41 Ghazghkull Thraka finally returned to Armageddon for his long awaited rematch in the Third War for Armageddon at the head of a new, even greater Ork WAAAGH!.Ghazghkull had further perfected the teleportation technology that he experimented with on Piscina IV and began the campaign with devastating victories over the Imperial defenders.Imperial Commanders, having learnt from their previous encounters with this wily Ork warlord, committed massive numbers of troops and quickly sent out the call for the aid of nearby Space Marine Chapters and further reinforcements.Several solar months into what rapidly became a battle of attrition, Ghazghkull grew bored with the grinding stalemate that had developed and left his minions behind to finish the fight while he set off to conquer the surrounding planets.He was pursued by Commissar Yarrick and the Black Templars, who swore an oath to finally bring the greenskin commander to heel.
Time of Ending - Octarius War, 999.M41: In 718.999.M41 Hive Fleet Leviathan invaded the large Ork Empire based in the Octarius System, unleashing the Octarius War.The battle between Tyranids and greenskins raged on with no signs of stopping. Imperial Navy scout patrols kept a close eye on the conflict, for should a victor emerge, there were precious few forces of the Imperium on hand to counter whichever enemy should arise out of the sector-wide bloodbath.
Time of Ending - Battle for the Hellfire Stone, 999.M41: In 884.999.M41 the Dark Angels' 5th Company battles elements of the Crimson Slaughter Chaos Space Marine warband for the control of the artefact known as the Hellfire Stone. The Nephilim Sector trembles as the hated foes clash...
Time of Ending - Astronomican Weakens Further, 999.M41: In 975.999.M41 the light of the Astronomican grows noticeably dimmer, while contact is lost with Ultima Macharia and is intermittent with Macragge and Cypra Mundi. Some Imperial savants theorise that this is because of delays and losses amongst the Black Ships, while others point to omens of impending doom and the weakening of the Emperor.
Time of Ending - Drukhari Raid on Bakka, 999.M41: In 978.999.M41 Drukhari raiders cripple the massive Imperial Navy moorings at Bakka, leaving many Imperial star systems vulnerable to attack.
Time of Ending - Battle of Chogoris, 999.M41: In 980.999.M41 the Red Corsairs launched a major raid from out of the Maelstrom into the Yasan Sector, bringing the Chogoris, Kaelas, Gartuli, Thaxis and Sessec Systems under siege.Rumours reported that Huron Blackheart had grown his group of Renegades as large as the full Space Marine Legions of ancient times. The Chaos Lord now wields military power unseen since the time of the Heresy.
Time of Ending - The Great Awakening, 999.M41: In 982.999.M41 "The Great Awakening" occurs, when a ripple of psychic activity passes through the Imperium, awakening the dormant powers of countless latent psykers. The resulting backlash creates innumerable Warp rifts and a thousand worlds are lost, hopelessly embroiled in daemonic incursions.
Time of Ending - Necrons Strike Cypra Segentus, 999.M41: In 987.999.M41 the Necrons rise to strike the Cypra Segentus System -- the first recorded Necron attacks within only 2,000 light years of Terra.
Time of Ending - War of the Rising Sons, 999.M41: In 989.999.M41 the Ultramarines' 3rd Company liberates the Lagan System from the T'au Empire during the conflict known as the "War of the Rising Sons." Even while they do so, several key worlds of the neighbouring Dolmac System capitulate without firing a shot to T'au ambassadors and join the T'au Empire.
Time of Ending - Devastation of the Octarius Belt, 999.M41: In 990.999.M41 the Devastation of the Octarius Belt occurs when Aeldari from the Biel-Tan and the Saim-Hann Craftworlds assault many worlds surrounding the Octarius System with the intent of denying crucial biological resources to Hive Fleet Leviathan. Many are Ork-held worlds, but quite a few were colonised by the humans of the Imperium. The loss of human life is substantial, as is the loss of tithes that the planets would have paid to the Imperium in its time of need.
Time of Ending - Night of a Thousand Rebellions, 999.M41: In 992.999.M41, the Night of a Thousand Rebellions occurs. Uprisings and discord strike countless planets across the Imperium. Unrest races like wildfire, consuming many outlying planets, but also supposedly secure worlds like Enceladus, Darkhold, and Minisotira.Even the homeworld of the Lions Defiant Space Marine Chapter is lost to anarchy caused by secret cults and frenetic agitators. Contact is lost between Terra and large swathes of the Segmentum Pacificus.
Time of Ending - Astropaths Overwhelmed, 999.M41: In 993.999.M41, wave after wave of astropathic pleas for help flood at once from all across the galaxy, though there is only an eerie silence from the Segmentum Pacificus.So powerful is the influx, so overbearing is the psychic current, that the Adeptus Astra Telepathica suffers serious personnel losses amongst their Astropaths.Whole choirs collapse at once, driven mad or slain outright, their minds bursting. Vast breakdowns in Imperial communications ensue, increasing both anarchy and panic as the endless psychic screams for help echo across time and space.
Time of Ending - Siege of the Fenris System, 999.M41: In 999.M41 the Thousand Sons effected their return to realspace when the Legion launched the Siege of the Fenris System in ca. 999.M41. The attack drew the Space Wolves back to defend their homeworld, allowing the sons of Magnus the Red to wreak vengeance upon them.The scions of Leman Russ were forced to join with their longtime rivals the Dark Angels and other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes to cleanse their system of all Chaos taint.But first they had to overcome a plot of Tzeentch unleashed by its daemonic servant the Changeling intended to make the Dark Angels think that the Space Wolves had fallen to the Ruinous Powers.Unnatural footsoldiers from the entire Chaos pantheon joined in the slaughter before Magnus himself stepped forth from the Warp onto the surface of Fenris, there to face the Chapter that had thought to execute his sons on Prospero ten thousand years before. Space Wolves, Dark Angels and Grey Knights champions fell to Magnus' psychic might, their minds and bodies dashed to particulate matter.But the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar was able to land a blow on the Crimson King, allowing the Daemon Hunters of the Grey Knights to work their rites of banishment.Though the invasion was driven back, its purpose had been achieved. The psychic anguish of a billion deaths rippled through the Immaterium, providing the final component in a ritual millennia in the making.The power taken from the worlds of the Space Wolves saturated the Thousand Sons homeworld in the Eye of Terror, the Planet of the Sorcerers. It vanished from the Warp only to burst violently into realspace, appearing near the burnt husk of lost Prospero.The old and new homeworlds of the Thousand Sons now orbit the same cursed star -- a star that has become an omen of doom in the skies throughout the Imperium.
Time of Ending - Baal Prepares for Invasion, 999.M41: In 999.M41 the Blood Angels are tested as never before. A tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan is judged to be on a direct course for their homeworld of Baal even in the wake of the delaying action successfully unleashed during the Cryptus Campaign of 998.M41.Worse, the dread Bloodthirster Ka'Bandha returns from the darkness of the Warp with a daemon army at his command, his first blow striking against Ammonai, outermost planet of the Baal System.Faced with a terrible war on at least two fronts, Lord Commander Dante of the Blood Angels makes swift preparation, uniting many Imperial and non-human worlds under the banner of survival. Even some former foes can be counted in Dante's alliance, though whether or not they can be entirely trusted is another matter.
Time of Ending - 13th Black Crusade, 999.M41: In 995.999.M41, Abaddon the Despoiler, the Warmaster of Chaos, launched the 13th Black Crusade out of the Eye of Terror with the intent to seize the world of Cadia and the surrounding worlds of the Cadian Gate it defends. This would allow the forces of Chaos to assault the heart of the Imperium for the first time since the Horus Heresy.The forces of the Chaos Gods read like a roll call from epic battles of past ages. Always in the vanguard are the Black Legion, followed by the Death Guard, World Eaters, Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, Night Lords and others from the annals of the Imperium's blackest days. Legions and Renegade Chapters of Space Marines long thought extinct renew their assaults on the realm of the hated Corpse Emperor.Before them run infected, plague-ridden Chaos Cultists, deranged mutants and traitorous scum in numbers too great to be counted. Behind them tower Daemon Princes, Daemonhosts and other Warp creatures eager for the slaughter to be found in the mortal realm.Astropaths everywhere cringe to open their minds to receive messages, for the Empyrean rings with mind-splitting peals, possibly the sound of the myriad tears ripping in the barrier between the Materium and the Warp, or perhaps it is simply the laughter of the Dark Gods.The Imperium is forced to mobilise the largest military force in its history since the Heresy to meet the massive Chaos assault. After a gruelling campaign with a death toll that spirals into the trillions, Abaddon the Despoiler succeeds in tearing down the strange pylons that for millions of standard years had held the Cadian Gate as a stable region of space by using the damaged Blackstone Fortress Will of Eternity as an artificial meteorite to assault the Fortress World.Despite the best efforts of the Imperium's staunchest defenders -- including the Black Templars, Imperial Fists, Dark Angels and Space Wolves -- the Fortress World of Cadia, lynchpin of the defences surrounding the Cadian Gate, eventually falls and a wave of Warp Storms roars into being across the length of the galaxy.Though reinforcements continue to arrive for both sides, Imperial forces begin a great exodus while battles still rage throughout the sector.Strange events, the appearance of the ancient Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl and a cryptic alliance with a mysterious Aeldari religious faction known as the Ynnari conspire to awaken the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman from his millennia-long slumber in a stasis chamber during the Ultramar Campaign of the 13th Black Crusade.The Primarch is immediately embroiled in battle as a Chaos assault by the Black Legion as Abaddon attempts to prevent his return, though Guilliman successfully drives the servants of the Dark Gods from Ultramar, for a time.
Time of Ending - Terran Crusade, 999.M41: Guilliman embarked upon the successful Terran Crusade through many tribulations to return to Terra and meet with his father the Emperor for the first time in ten thousand standard years.What passes between them is unknown, but when he emerges from the Imperial Palace, Guilliman initiates plans for Imperial survival, such as the creation of the Primaris Space Marines, that he first set into motion in the days immediately after the end of the Horus Heresy.
Time of Ending - The Great Devourer Comes, 999.M41: But even as Cadia falls and a Primarch returns to the Imperium, the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan march ever closer to Terra, drawn by the light and power of the Astronomican in the Warp inevitably towards the heart of the Imperium.The heroism of the Space Marines and the Inquisition manage to slow down the progression of the massive hive fleet, but its ultimate objective is never in doubt.
Time of Ending - Threat to the Throne, 999.M41: With doom looming over the Imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicus learned a terrifying secret in 986.999.M41: the mechanisms of the Golden Throne have begun to fail and they no longer possess the knowledge required to repair that ancient piece of technology.Unless something can be done, the God-Emperor will die and then humanity will face the coming darkness alone...
Time of Rebirth - Time of Rebirth: The Time of Rebirth, also known in certain sources as the Age of Rebirth, was the first era of the Age of the Imperium and lasted roughly from the end of the Horus Heresy in ca. 014.M31 until the middle of the 32nd Millennium.During the Time of Rebirth, the Imperium of Man slowly recovered from the Horus Heresy, economically, politically and even technologically. The myriad wars of the Great Scouring were fought in the years immediately after the end of the Heresy and the death of the traitorous Warmaster Horus Lupercal.In a lengthy campaign, the Imperium's forces hunted down and banished the remaining Traitor Legions from their strongholds in Human-settled space. Eventually the Chaos Space Marines and the Ruinous Powers' other followers among the forces of Chaos found refuge in the massive Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror as the Emperor had planned.For a time the Imperium knew peace from the corrupted followers of the Chaos Gods. At the same time, many alien species that had been fought and defeated during the Great Crusade reappeared in Human space to take advantage of the disruptions caused by the Horus Heresy and plagued the vulnerable worlds of Mankind.
Time of Rebirth - Great Scouring (ca. 014.M31 - Unknown Date.M31): The Great Scouring, or simply "The Scouring," was the Imperium of Man's great counteroffensive against the Traitor Legions. It began immediately after the end of the Horus Heresy following the death of Horus and the failure of his assault on the  Imperial Palace during the Siege of Terra in 014.M31.The Scouring succeeded in driving the forces of Chaos from Imperial space into finding a refuge in the permanent Warp Storm known as the Eye of Terror. Before actually being confined for all time within the life support mechanisms of the Golden Throne, the Emperor had pronounced judgment on the Traitors: He declared them Excommunicate Traitoris, and determined that they were to be driven into the hellish region of the Warp rift called the Eye of Terror, which would hold them for all eternity.All records and memory of the Traitor Legions were to be expunged from the Imperial archives. Worlds such as Istvaan V and Davin would be scoured clean of all life because of their corruption by Chaos.The Traitor Legions' associated troops from the Dark Mechanicum, the Titan Legions or the Traitor regiments and starships of the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy that had turned to Chaos were to be destroyed or driven into the Eye alongside their leaders. It would be as if the Traitor Legions had never existed to sully the Imperium with their betrayal.After the death of Horus, those Traitors who had not been slain outright during the Siege of Terra fled before the vengeful wrath of the Loyalist forces. Many made good their escape into unexplored space or disappeared into the Eye of Terror or other, lesser-known Warp rifts such as the Maelstrom.Fighting continued for solar decades after the Heresy had ended before the Traitor forces were wholly destroyed or exiled into the Eye of Terror. Many Chaos-corrupted star systems were cleansed and placed under the watch of the newborn Inquisition.The Emperor's dream of a new age of enlightenment, a time when Mankind was freed from superstition and ignorance, would turn into something far different. The Great Scouring would be followed by the true start of the ten-millennia-long era known as the Age of the Imperium.
Time of Rebirth - Second Founding (ca. 021.M31): In the midst of the Scouring campaign, the Second Founding occurred. In order to prevent a single person from controlling as much military power as Horus had amassed and eliminate the risk of another large-scale civil war, numerous reforms were enacted at the hands of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines to reshape the Imperium of Man's political and military structure.In this way the men and women of the Imperium could face the new post-Heresy realities of an interstellar government where the Emperor was no longer capable of carrying on the day-to-day tasks of ruling the galaxy.The remaining 9 Loyalist Space Marine Legions were divided to form the far smaller 1,000-warrior organisations known as Chapters, each along with their own supporting spacecraft and planetary fiefdoms in accordance with the established dictates of Guilliman's magnum opus on military strategy and organisation, the Codex Astartes.In the wake of the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's "ascension," Guilliman had become the ruling lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent, the first among equals among the Senatorum Imperialis that now ruled the Imperium in the silent Emperor's name.A portion of the Space Marines, now collectively known as the Adeptus Astartes, maintained their parent Legions' original names, badges and colours whilst the remaining Chapters took on new names and heraldry. The majority of these Second Founding Chapters still serve the Imperium today.The Imperial Army was divided into the land-based forces of the Astra Militarum and the space-based forces of the Imperial Navy, each with a separate chain-of-command structure and bureaucracy.Resistance from several Space Marine Legions to Guilliman's order to break up their Legions, particularly among the Imperial Fists, nearly brought the Imperium to another crisis, until the scions of Rogal Dorn suffered through the battle of the Iron Cage and Dorn relented after the V Legion was only saved by the intervention of Guilliman's Ultramarines.The Imperium suffered a great blow when Guilliman was mortally wounded at the Battle of Thessala in 121.M31 by the Daemon Primarch Fulgrim and was placed in stasis in the Temple of Correction in the fortress-monastery of the Ultramarines, the Fortress of Hera, on Macragge. It became a major pilgrimage destination for believers of the Imperial Cult over the next 10,000 years.
Time of Rebirth - 1st Black Crusade (781.M31): In 781.M31, Abaddon the Despoiler, the Chaos Lord of the Black Legion, made his first attempt to launch a new offensive against the Imperium of Man following the Horus Heresy. He initiated the campaign known as the 1st Black Crusade, which opened with the conflict remembered as the First Battle of Cadia.The 1st Black Crusade also marked the start of the Chaos Space Marines' ten-thousand-year-long attempt to throw down the Imperium that they named the "Long War."Abaddon had made many blood pacts with the Dark Gods in the wake of Horus' defeat during the Horus Heresy. Following this deadly incursion, the Ruinous Powers granted Abaddon the means to further increase his already formidable power.After the First Battle of Cadia was won, the forces of Chaos under Abaddon's command plunged the worlds of the Segmentum Obscurus into a terrible conflict that ravaged hundreds of worlds for several solar decades.At the end of that time, on the world of Uralan in the Eye of Terror, Abaddon recovered the Daemonsword Drach'nyen after battling his way through a haunted labyrinth to the great inner chamber where the blade had languished in stasis for millennia.The howling sword contained the bound essence of an ancient and dangerous Warp entity who had once been defeated by the Emperor Himself during the Horus heresy and had the power to rend reality apart wherever the weapon strikes.After the recovery of the malefic sword, Abaddon's power swelled to inhuman proportions much like his predecessor Horus, and he was recognised by the Chaos Gods as Horus Lupercal's true successor amongst the Traitor Legions, the new Warmaster of Chaos Undivided.
Time of Rebirth - Rise of the Adeptus Ministorum: The Emperor, always an object of veneration, only increased His following after being joined to the Golden Throne, an act remembered by his followers as His "ascension." Many Imperial cults arose over the following centuries, the majority of which were united into a larger body known as the Ecclesiarchy led by the largest cult, the Temple of the Saviour Emperor.This powerful church gained momentum and a following across the galaxy until, in the 32nd Millennium, it was granted the status of official state religion of the Imperium and the title of Adeptus Ministorum within the Adeptus Terra.It is only a few centuries later that Ecclesiarch Veneris II received a seat amongst the High Lords of Terra, and after 300 Terran years, the seat reserved for the Ecclesiarch, the church's high priest, was made permanent. The political power of the Ecclesiarchy only continues to grow as the centuries pass and the people of the Imperium's faith in the God-Emperor becomes ever more intense.
Time of Rebirth - The Beheading (546.M32): The byzantine politics of the Imperium took a calamitous turn in 546.M32 in the wake of the War of the Beast in an event remembered as The Beheading.The High Lords of Terra, the successors of the Council of Terra that had been established to administer the day-to-days affairs of the Imperium and now ruled in the Emperor's name, were slain to a man on the orders of Drakan Vangorich, the Grand Master of Assassins and a veteran political manipulator.Vangorich took this action because he had become convinced that the self-interested ambitions of the High Lords meant that they would never be able to take the steps required to safeguard Humanity as a whole.Vangorich then proceeded to rule the Imperium as a near-dictator for solar decades as it recovered from the dislocations caused by the War of the Beast. However, some eighty standard years after The Beheading, Vangorich began to act more and more like a tyrant, becoming himself a threat to the Imperium. The Adeptus Astartes decided to act.Almost a standard century after Vangorich's rule began, a Space Marine retribution force of 400 battle-brothers drawn from the Halo Brethren, Imperial Fists and Sable Swords Chapters and commanded by Lord Commander of the Imperium and Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists Maximus Thane tracked the grand master to an Officio Assassinorum temple. The designated commander of the Astartes strike force, Chapter Master Qublicus Amar of the Sable Swords, was assassinated as soon as he made planetfall, but the remaining battle-brothers, including Maximus Thane, carried out the attack without him.Inside the temple the Space Marines were attacked by 100 Eversor Assassins. Only a single Space Marine survived to reach Grand Master Vangorich and end his life with a bolter. The Imperium descended into anarchy for several standard years as new High Lords rose to power under the aegis of the Adeptus Astartes.
Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe: This article briefly summarises the known historical events of the Milky Way Galaxy from the ancient history of the galaxy before the birth of Humanity up through the 41st Millennium in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Throughout, comparative references to present dates will be made with respect to the original Imperial Calendar used before the birth of the Great Rift.This is the time period in which the perspectives of the Imperium of Man and the Aeldari are particularly relevant and it represents the present time. All dates are given in the format 999.M41, which should be read as the year 40,999 A.D. in the ancient Gregorian Calendar.Knowledge of the long ages of Human history has been wreathed in shadow, buried beneath the aeons or simply lost over the expanse of time. Some historitors continue to seek knowledge, but their work can be compared to holding a candle against the dark abyss. The historitors of the Adeptus Administratum seek, gather and dutifully collect the history of each planet within the Imperium.Once, perhaps, this was done with purpose. Now, however, it is most often an indiscriminate compilation of data, a process where scribes unthinkingly copy content onto scrolls, preserving complete records in constant fear of missing a single inconsequential letter.The ability, or even desire, to translate what these facts mean in any larger sense is almost entirely absent, found only in a few individuals who are eyed suspiciously, or perhaps punished for their enthusiasm.The largest and most complete collection of such records exists beneath the surface of Terra, where the colossal under-halls stretch out of sight -- endless vistas of datascrolls tower upwards like mountains.With flickering candlelight provided by floating Servo-skulls, processions of curators, scriveners, and ciphers wind through the valleys, attempting to illuminate that which was. Over the years, old truths have been lost to the "adjustments" and redactions made by revisionists of the Adeptus Ministorum, the Inquisition and even the High Lords of Terra themselves.
Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - Chronostrife: The Chronostrife is a bitter, ongoing internal conflict within the Inquisition's Ordo Chronos over the Imperium of Man's standard dating system that occurred during the Era Indomitus. Sometime after his resurrection in the 13th Black Crusade, Roboute Guilliman, the lord commander of the Imperium, Imperial Regent and primarch of the Ultramarines, was intent on making a full and accurate accounting of the Imperium's fragmentary and often contradictory history, the truth of which would inevitably help Humanity's advancement out of the darkness that had befallen it in the millennia after the Horus Heresy.For this task, Guilliman created the small Imperial organisation known as the Logos Historica Verita, formed from individuals of an inquisitive and liberal nature. After training them personally in objective methods of data collection, the primarch assigned them the daunting task of discovering, collating and cataloging thousands of standard years of Human history that had been lost or was woefully inaccurate due to superstition, suppression or purposeful obfuscation by the High Lords of Terra.But the monumental task Guilliman had set before them was made all the more daunting when the primarch discovered that even the Emperor's calendar had not survived the millennia intact. During the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, the standard Imperial Dating System had provided some idea of the order of events over time, but like everything else the Emperor had created, the calendar had become degraded by both dogmatic adherence and thoughtless revisionism. Various rival dating systems had evolved from the Imperial Standard, making a true chronicle of the Human-settled galaxy almost impossible to construct.As the first phase of the Indomitus Crusade drew to a close sometime around what had originally been believed to be 012.M42, Guilliman calculated the current year by the five main factional variants of the Imperial Calendar to be anywhere between the early 41st Millennium A.D. and an entire millennium later, and that was leaving out the numerous lesser, more heretical interpretations.Guilliman had been hoping to find a solution to the Imperium's tortured dating system; he had instead found there was none. It was something else that would ultimately require his personal attention to repair. As a result, all dates mentioned below in the millennia after the Horus Heresy should be considered only approximations, and for many, the 41st Millennium has not yet come to a close.
Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - Birth of the Star Gods: The birth of the entities later known as the Star Gods occurred at the same time as the moment of Creation itself, as they formed from the vast, insensate energies first unleashed by that churning mass of cataclysmic force. In that anarchic interweaving of matter and energy, the sea of stars began to swirl into existence and for an eon the universe was nothing more than hot hydrogen gas and light elemental dust ruled over by the gravitic force of billions of newborn suns.Long before the first planets had formed and cooled, the very first truly self-aware beings emerged into the universe, their thoughts encased within the lines of force produced by the plasma and electromagnetic flares of the stars themselves. In later times, these entities would become known as the C'tan, but early in their existence they were nothing like the malevolent beings they would eventually become. They were little more than monstrous energy parasites that suckled upon the solar energies of the stars that had brought them into existence, shortening the lives of otherwise main-sequence stars by millions of standard years.In time, these star vampires learned to move along the lines of the universe's electromagnetic flux, leaving their birthplaces to drift through the cosmic ether to new stellar feeding grounds and begin their cycle of stellar destruction once more. Beings of pure energy, they paid no mind to the hunks of solid matter they passed in the vacuum of space, the blazing geothermal fires and weak geomagnetic fields of these nascent planets insufficient to be worth feeding even their ravenous hunger.
Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - Old Ones: Just as the stars gave birth to their children so the planets of the newborn Milky Way Galaxy eventually gave birth to lifeforms composed of matter which began the long evolutionary climb to self-awareness. The first intelligent beings of the galaxy known to have developed a civilisation technologically advanced enough to cross the stars was a reptilian species of beings later called the "Old Ones" by the Aeldari, who knew them best of all their creations.The Old Ones possessed a slow, cold-blooded, but still deep wisdom, having long studied the stars and raised astronomy and physics to such a level that their science and technology appear now to Humanity like an arcane art. Their understanding of the workings of the universe were such that they could manipulate alternate dimensions and undertake great works of psychic engineering.The Old Ones were potent psykers who routinely used the powers of the Warp for a wide variety of technological applications. This included the construction of a system of instantaneous faster-than-light portals through Warpspace. These portals connected all of the Old Ones' colony worlds, allowing them to cross the vast gulfs of space with only a single step through the myriad Warp Gates they built to connect the worlds of the galaxy. This was a vast interdimensional network much like the Webway of today which is its direct descendant, though on a much larger and more advanced scale.Through this network the Old Ones spread their spawn to many places in the galaxy, but they also knew that all life was precious. Where they passed, they seeded new intelligent species and reshaped thousands of worlds to make them their own according to their predetermined environmental and geographic criteria. It is believed by some in the Adeptus Mechanicus that even Terra felt the Old Ones' touch long before Humanity's rise to self-awareness, though this notion is considered heretical at best by the Ecclesiarchy, as the Imperial Creed teaches that Mankind was made in the image of the God-Emperor before His spirit was incarnated in physical flesh millennia ago.The Old Ones' civilisation reached its height in excess of 60 million standard years ago. The Old Ones were responsible for the creation or genetic advancement of most of the currently active intelligent species of the galaxy, including the Aeldari, the Krork (the Orks' precursors), the Slann and the Jokaero, though it is unknown if they played any direct role in the evolution of Humanity.
Timeline of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe - The Tide Turns: The Old Ones' psychically-empowered servant species spread across the galaxy, battling the advanced Necron technology with the psychic power of their Warp-spawned "magic." Facing this new onslaught, the C'tan's empire was shattered, as the psychic forces of the Immaterium were anathema to soulless entities whose existence was wholly contained within purely physical patterns of electromagnetic force. For all the destruction they could unleash, they were unable to stop the Old Ones and the younger races' relentless advance across the stars.The remaining C'tan, unified by this great threat for the first time in millions of Terran years, sought a way to defeat the soul-fuelled energies of the younger species. They initiated a great warding, a plan to forever defeat the psychic sorceries of the Old Ones by sealing off the material universe from the Warp, a plan whose first fruits could once be found on the Imperial Fortress World of Cadia in the form of the great pylons that littered the surface of that world in intricate networks and create the area of space-time stability near the Eye of Terror known as the Cadian Gate.With their god-like powers, it was only a matter of time until the C'tan succeeded. But before their great work was complete, the seeds of destruction the Old Ones had planted millennia before brought about an unforeseen cataclysm. The growing pains and collective psychic flaws of the younger species threw the untapped, psychically-reactive energies of the Immaterium into disorder.War, pain and destruction were mirrored in the bottomless depth of the Sea of Souls that was the Warp. The maelstrom of souls unleashed into the Immaterium by the carnage of the War in Heaven coalesced in the previously formless energies of the Warp. Older entities that had existed within the Immaterium transformed into terrifying psychic predators, tearing at the souls of vulnerable psykers as their own environment was torn apart and reforged into the Realm of Chaos.