Unification Wars - Origins: By the late 29th Millennium, it had been nearly three hundred Terran centuries since Humanity first left the polluted, used-up carcass of what was once known as Earth for the unknown bounties and perils of the stars beyond the world of its birth.In those forgotten early days of the Age of Technology it is now unknown what enemies and trials Humanity had to overcome but overcome them we did, and in doing so Human colonies spread across the galaxy so that Mankind was scattered across a million worlds and found treasures and horrors uncounted.In the heights of those times, lost now to all but supposition and myth, Humanity made themselves as unto gods -- their sciences and arts able to remake planets in the image of remembered Old Earth, harness the power of the stars, and fashion servants from clay and iron and give them counterfeit-life to do their bidding.Thus was the Dark Age of Technology forged and for Terran millennia it reigned, until almost at a stroke the dominion of Humanity fell and was undone in a maelstrom of brutality and ignorance and untold billions died, their screams unanswered and unheard.During the turbulent era known later as the Age of Strife or by some as "Old Night," the Sol System and Old Earth, or Terra as it is now known, and the nearby star systems that had been colonised by Humanity during the Age of Technology were effectively cut off from interstellar travel or communication with each other.This was due to the massive Warp storms that swept the galaxy as the Immaterium was roiled by the millennia-long gestation of the Chaos God Slaanesh and the turbulence that marked the decay of the Aeldari Empire before its Fall. During this dark time, Terra sometimes held sway over the Sol System, while at other times the rulers of Mars or Luna were dominant. The different settled worlds of the system found themselves constantly at war.During this long, 5,000-standard-year-period of anarchy, fear and violence, Old Earth's once unified planetary government had completely broken down and been divided into dozens of warring, backwards states and tribes of so-called "techno-barbarians." Continuous warfare raged across the surface of Terra for 2,500 standard years, beginning in the middle centuries of the 27th Millennium.Across the galaxy things were little better, as the Human colony worlds, bereft of central authority or protection, and with the web of economic support and supply that had maintained the threads of Human interstellar civilisation cut, fell into anarchy and war. Human civilisation was torn apart as local factions and pocket empires fought for control in the shattered realm while others, utterly cut off from aid, succumbed to the horrors of planet-wide famine, insanity and worse -- the perils of the Warp.The existence of Warp creatures and the dangers they posed to the Human mind were then barely understood. On worlds with large concentrations of newly-emergent Human psykers the entities from beyond were able to breach the barrier between the Immaterium and corporeal reality and it cannot be known or guessed how many worlds were ravaged or swallowed whole by their incursions.As Human interstellar civilisation fragmented, hundreds of alien species and enemies unknown seized their chance for revenge on Humanity for its past conquests, or to plunder unprotected worlds and enslave their populations. Hundreds of Human-inhabited star systems were sacked and ravaged, their peoples slaughtered, mutilated or stolen. Those that survived the alien onslaught rapidly reverted to barbarism, stripped of civilisation, knowledge and culture in the raw battle to simply endure.Humanity, standing on the brink of total annihilation and endless night, gathered round its children. Alone and beset by internal strife, famine and plague, under incessant attack by aliens and facing the peril of Warp incursions, the Human worlds that survived were pitiable shadows of what they had once been in an age when Mankind's dead far outnumbered its living.For those few with time to spare thought to such matters it seemed as if there were no hope and no help -- the end times were at hand -- a slow bitter decay into destruction was all that any could see as Humanity's future, and no force imaginable could save Mankind and free it from its hellish bondage. But they would be proved wrong.