vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Age of Apostasy - Terran Crusade: The Adeptus Astartes and the Adeptus Mechanicus had both become estranged from Terra during Vandire's rule, fortifying their own fiefdoms while undertaking their traditional duties as best they could.Space Marines still stood against marauding aliens and the Forge Worlds of the Mechanicus still churned out the arms and armaments needed to defend Humanity from its many enemies.Yet, both institutions did so according to their own judgement, rarely coordinating their long-term goals with those of Terra. The Mechanicus and the mighty Space Marine Chapters continued to play only a small role in the events of the Age of Apostasy. The vagaries of Warp travel made any long-distance journeys hazardous at best and impossible in some areas.Instead, the Adeptus Astartes' Chapter planets and the Forge Worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus became fortresses amidst a sea of anarchy. These organisations were on the defensive, protecting the few star systems they could from the ravages of the Age of Apostasy and the carnage of Vandire's Reign of Blood.With news of Sebastian Thor and the spread of his mighty army of the faithful -- the Confederation of Light -- many Space Marine Chapter Masters in the Segmentum Solar and the sectors nearest to Terra in the rest of the Imperium began voicing their support for this reform movement.The Chapter Masters of the Adeptus Astartes and the fabricators of the Adeptus Mechanicus began to voice their concerns. Gastaph Hedriatix, the fabricator-general of Mars and the very highest of the servants of the Machine God, issued a demand to the Holy Synod of the Ecclesiarchy. The High Lord Vandire had to be immediately indicted and called to account for his deeds.In response, Vandire dissolved the Senatorum Imperialis, the Council of the High Lords of Terra, and ordered what forces he had left to assault those of the Adeptus Astartes and the Adeptus Mechanicus who questioned his authority. Needless to say, most of Vandire's commanders refused such a suicidal course of action, and the insane High Lord condemned these as Heretics.Finally, the fabricator-general saw that he and his allies had no choice but to depose Vandire themselves. A vast army of Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Guard, spearheaded by four Chapters of Space Marines -- the Imperial Fists, Fire Hawks, Soul Drinkers, and Black Templars, launched themselves towards Terra to besiege the Ecclesiarchal Palace in 378.M36 in what became known as the "Terran Crusade."
Age of Apostasy - Aftermath: With Vandire's death, order was restored to the Imperium. Sebastian Thor became the new ecclesiarch, and he moved to dismantle most of Vandire's "reforms" and the political power base he had used to enact his tyranny.The Confederation of Light essentially usurped the Temple of the Saviour Emperor's theology within the Adeptus Ministorum at Thor's behest.For thousand of standard years, the Imperial Cult had taught that the state church must be the dominant political organ within the Imperium, for only the church truly served the Emperor's will and was capable of making that will manifest for Humanity.Following Thor's reformation of the Ecclesiarchy, the church's focus shifted from the pursuit of a secular political agenda to one far more concerned with the pursuit of purely spiritual values.While the Ministorum remained a powerful player in Imperial politics as a result of its sheer wealth and sway over billions of believers, its doctrines now emphasized the quest for individual morality and salvation through belief in the God-Emperor rather than the acquisition of institutional power. Never again would the church so completely dominate the political direction of the Imperium.Independent High Lords of Terra were restored to all of the positions on the Senatorum Imperialis, and the Ecclesiarchy and the Administratum once more became autonomous, and highly competitive, adepta.To restore the proper role of the Adeptus Ministorum in the Imperium, Thor dismantled the fanatical legions and fleets of the Frateris Templar, and issued the Decree Passive, which held that the Ecclesiarchy could maintain "no men under arms."However, seeing that the Ministorum still had need of armed protectors who could work the will of the God-Emperor and undertake Wars of Faith when necessary, Thor soon exploited the loophole in his own decree and transformed the Daughters of the Emperor into the Adepta Sororitas' Orders Militant, who became better known in the Imperial imagination as the "Sisters of Battle."But Thor was not the only one who sought to restore balance to the Imperium's political structure. To prevent another tyrant like Vandire from ever again arising from within the Imperium's own internal power structure, two new divisions of the Inquisition were created: the Ordo Hereticus, tasked with eliminating all threats to the Emperor's will which came from within the Imperium, no matter how high up they were to be found, and the Ordo Sicarius, which was tasked with policing the Officio Assassinorum and ensuring that no Imperial Assassin would ever again get diverted from their task to serve their own or some other official's ambitions.The Sisters of Battle were named the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Hereticus, for while they shared the faith of the Ministorum, their ultimate loyalty was to the God-Emperor alone -- and the Inquisition always spoke for the Emperor.In a clash between the Ministorum and the needs of the Imperium as defined by the Ordo Hereticus, the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas always looked to the Inquisition first.
Age of Apostasy - Confessor Dolan: Bucharis knew Chirosius would be coming to Gathalamor soon and the Apostate Cardinal wanted his slaves' first glimpse of their supposed saviour to be one of a man bound in chains and whipped through the streets. Soon enough, Chirosius shuttle was boarded as it neared the world and the Confessor was taken into custody, charged with various acts of heresy and treason against the Emperor by Bucharis.As Bucharis had intended, Dolan was chained and driven through the streets. Soldiers from his army whipped the Confessor with flails and hurled stones at him. They stuck hooks into his flesh and hung them with weights, driving him onwards with kicks and punches. The crowds, however, were not so impressed. There were no cheers of approval, but there were no cries of condemnation either. Dolan was dragged across the entire continent in this manner for over six months.All the while, however, his fiery stare would not diminish and he never bowed to Bucharis. Bucharis then ordered a public trial, but it was a complete sham and would only find Dolan guilty. After five solar months, the prosecution had finished and a thousand worlds waited for the results. Dolan represented himself and freely admitted to stirring up the people of all of the rebellious worlds to fight against Bucharis' rule.He used the time to appeal to the masses, although Bucharis didn't see this. It was Dolan's appeals to the masses that Bucharis allowed during the show trial that eventually led to his downfall. Bucharis had Dolan tortured for eight solar months.When at last the Confessor died, his maimed body was flung from the walls of the Cardinal Palace of Gathalamor for the scavenging dogs and birds to feast upon. Despite the horrendous torments inflicted upon his body, Dolan's face exuded a calm serenity and peace lay like an aura across his corpse.Those who saw it wept openly, even though any who exhibited such grief were themselves accused of heresy and put to death. The scavengers never had their meal: Dolan's body disappeared shortly after and was never found.
Age of Apostasy - End of an Empire: Cardinal Bucharis' plan to shame the Confessor backfired horribly. By allowing Dolan to speak he had given him the ability to rally the masses on all of the worlds ruled by Bucharis. When Dolan's death was announced, the entire Apostate empire erupted in rebellion. The populations of a thousand worlds overthrew their cruel overseers, almost at the same time. The men, women and children were inspired by the will of the Confessor and faced their enemies' guns with bare hands.Bucharis' Cardinal Palace was stormed as traitors from within his own ranks opened the gates. Bucharis fled the palace while a small handful of loyal warriors held back the tide of doom coming his way. He used tunnels to escape the palace and ran to the spaceport, giving up all he had worked for to save his own life.Just as he was boarding a shuttle, the inhabitants overran the electric fences by piling on them to make them short-circuit. He was captured in a wave of screaming Humanity and his body was torn to pieces. The remains of his body were never recovered, but when the mass of citizens moved away, the scattered ashes of a fire was all that was left to mark the place of his death.With the Apostate Cardinal's death, the Inquisition moved swiftly to conduct a massive purge of Bucharis' empire, sending tens of thousands of those who had served Bucharis to the Emperor's justice.The High Lords of Terra soon reestablished full control over the regions of the galaxy that Bucharis had controlled while the Ecclesiarchy established thousands of Missions on the worlds of Bucharis' empire to restore the true teachings of the Imperial Cult. The Plague of Unbelief, the final symptom of the Age of Apostasy, came to a merciful end.
Age of Apostasy - Fallen Idols: During the Reign of Blood, the worlds of the Imperium were strewn with mighty statues depicting the figure of the High Lord Goge Vandire; many so massive they towered over those of the Emperor Himself.During the reformation of the state church that followed the high lord's fall, many of these hated idols were torn down by the masses, and either broken up or dragged off to distant regions of the worlds, there to slowly erode as the vagaries of nature dictated.Many such "graveyards of fallen idols" still exist, all access to them denied to the masses as an example of the high lord's evil. These are eerie, doom-laden places, heavy with the weight of ages and haunted by the ghosts of that tragic era, where only the insane and the deluded dare trespass.Some monuments to Vandire were simply too massive to tear down, or else were incorporated into the fabric of even larger cathedrals, so that they could not be removed without recourse to destroying the entire structure. Many of these were remade in the image of other saints or of Sebastian Thor himself, turning the hated countenance of Vandire into one more deserving of the adulation of the masses.A very few were desecrated when the high lord fell, and stand to this day as a grim reminder of the danger of worshipping a mortal man over the divine godhead of the Emperor Himself.
Age of Darkness (Anthology) - Age of Darkness (Anthology): Age of Darkness is the sixteenth volume in The Horus Heresy series of novels and is an anthology of short stories.
Age of Darkness (Anthology) - Synopsis: After the betrayal at Isstvan V, Horus begins his campaign against the Emperor, a galaxy-wide war that can lead only to Terra. But the road to the final confrontation between father and son is a long one -- seven years filled with secrecy and silence, plans and foundations being formed across distant stars. An unknown history is about to be unveiled as light is shed on the darkest years of the Horus Heresy, and revelations will surface that will shake the Imperium to its very foundation...
Age of Darkness (Anthology) - Contents: Age of Darkness contains the following short stories:Rules of Engagement by Graham McNeillLiar's Due by James SwallowForgotten Sons by Nick KymeThe Last Remembrancer by John FrenchRebirth by Chris WraightThe Face of Treachery by Gav Thorpe Little Horus by Dan AbnettThe Iron Within by Rob SandersSavage Weapons by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Age of Redemption - Age of Redemption: The Age of Redemption was an era of the broader Age of the Imperium that began roughly in ca. 010.M37 and ended in ca. 112.M38. These dates are only approximate.The Age of Redemption followed the civil conflicts of the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium and was marked by a tremendous surge in religious fervour among the peoples of the Imperium of Man.This was expressed in the form of a new willingness to launch countless Imperial Crusades and other conflicts against those deemed to be the enemies of the God-Emperor.The Age of Redemption came to an end early in the 38th Millennium as the power of the Imperium began to weaken under increasing assault from Chaos and xenos enemies. This marked the start of the long period of slow decline and stagnation known as "The Waning."
Age of Redemption - Notable Events: The Age of Redemption marked the era when the Imperium recovered from the sins of apostasy unleashed in the prior millennium in a rain of blood and tears. The Imperial Cult grew in zeal as never before.Heretic pyres burned night and day on a thousand Imperial worlds as the people of the Imperium sought to mortify their sins against the God-Emperor through the scourging of the flesh of others.Imperial Crusade after crusade was launched by the Adeptus Astartes and other Imperial military forces to recapture the lost wealth of the Imperium and push back the hordes of Chaos, Orks and other alien threats to Humanity.This religious fervour eventually peaked in an orgy of fanatical devotion to crusading in the Emperor's name and thousands of worlds were left with inadequate defences as sector fleets of the Imperial Navy, Space Marine Chapters and Astra Militarum regiments were drawn into longer and more terrible crusades spurred on by this religious fanaticism.
Age of Redemption - Wrath of the Chaos Sun: In 010.M37 the Wrath of the Chaos Sun fell upon the Imperium when the red giant star at the heart of the Maxil Beta System exploded in an expanding cloud of Warpflame. The inhabitants of every world for hundreds of light years were either mutated beyond recognition or possessed by the denizens of the Warp.In response, the High Lords of Terra ordered the mobilisation of whatever Imperial forces were close at hand. So it is that the Grey Knights were joined by a dozen other Chapters, countless Imperial Guard regiments and the nascent Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas.The resulting battle did much to heal the remaining wounds in the Imperial body politic that had been opened by Goge Vandire's treachery during the Reign of Blood.
Age of Redemption - Great Cull: In 020.M37, the High Lords of Terra, in their mercy, began a systematic and deadly purge within the ranks of the Adeptus Terra's bureaucracy and on many worlds across the galaxy to ensure that such a corruption of faith as occurred during the Reign of Blood could never happen again. This purge becomes known as the "Great Cull."
Age of Redemption - Abbysal Crusade & Occlusiad War: Among the most devastating of the conflicts unleashed during the Age of Redemption were the Abyssal Crusade and the Occlusiad War.The Abyssal Crusade of 321.M37 began when Saint Basilius found thirty Space Marine Chapters wanting in their devotion to the Emperor.The guilty embarked upon a crusade into the Eye of Terror to earn their salvation and purge those Human-settled worlds stolen from Mankind by the birth of Slaanesh.The Occlusiad War of 555.M37 started when the northwestern fringe of the galaxy was ravaged by the Heretics known as the Apostles of the Blind King, rogue Tech-priests who viewed Humanity's very existence as an utter affront to the Machine God.The Apostles had uncovered wondrous artefacts from the Dark Age of Technology that made possible the transformation of ordinary stars into supernovae. The constellations of the galaxy were changed forever when the Apostles purged the outer Segmentum Obscurus of human life using these weapons.War raged for a solar decade until the Navigator Joyre Macran discovered the palace-warship of the Blind King hidden in a fold of the Warp. Escaping with this crucial intelligence, Macran guided the Imperial Navy's Emperor-class Battleship Dominus Astra to the palace's location.The Blind King was killed and the genocide ended when the Dominus Astra 's Lance batteries pierced the palace-warship's hull and without his psychically prescient leadership the Apostles were swiftly overcome and their weapons hidden away in the vaults of Mars.
Age of Redemption - Benedictine War: The Benedictine War was a War of Faith that targeted the Benedictine Sub-sector in the 37th Millennium. It was led by the Black Templars Chapter and five Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas, though it included many other armies dedicated to the faith of the God-Emperor.During the campaign, several Aeldari worlds were captured and in the ensuing conflict two Black Templar High Marshals were slain in rapid succession.Due to these losses, the Ecclesiarch himself declared an end to the war, claiming that the Imperial forces had achieved enough in the Emperor's name.However the new High Marshal of the Black Templars Constantine continued the campaign regardless and the Black Templars alone successfully purged the remaining worlds of the sub-sector of the xenos assaulting them.
Age of Redemption - Lost Crusade: By 754.M37, on thousands of planets, menials rebelled against their dreary drudgery with wild-eyed leaders espousing a better way of life -- a galaxy of tolerance. The movement proved especially popular amongst the youth of the Imperium, earning it the title of the "Children's Crusade."Billions of earnest pilgrims were lured to seek transport to Terra; some were waylaid by pirates, but the majority disappeared into the Warp. They became known collectively as the "Lost Crusade."
Age of Redemption - 7th Black Crusade: The 7th Black Crusade, also remembered informally as the "Ghost War," was a Black Crusade against the forces of the Imperium led by the infamous Chaos Lord Abaddon the Despoiler and his Black Legion, launched out of the Eye of Terror in 811.M37.  At this time, the forces of Chaos spewed forth from the great Warp rift past Cadia and then disappeared.This event is what earned this conflict its informal name of the Ghost War. The following years saw a game of hide-and-seek played between the forces of Chaos and the Imperium of Man which spread confusion, paranoia, disinformation and deceit across the galaxy.Raids became commonplace in far-flung areas but eventually the servants of the Dark Gods returned to the Eye of Terror, having caused enough trouble but having proven unable to significantly degrade Imperial defensive capabilities at that time.
Age of Redemption - Heavenfall Massacres: In 956.M37 the Heavenfall Massacres unfolded. Little else is known about them in the Imperial records.
Age of Redemption - 8th Black Crusade: In 999.M37, Abaddon the Despoiler launched the 8th Black Crusade of Chaos out of the Eye of Terror into Imperial space.During this incursion into the realms of Mankind, Abaddon completed a complex series of ritualistic massacres known as the "Skullgather" in the name of Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways.On worlds throughout the Segmentum Obscurus, Imperial citizens were slaughtered in precise numbers using esoteric rituals.Only when the Inquisition finally broke the code of damnation was the Imperium able to bring an end to the Black Legion's rampage across the segmentum in time with these mysterious attacks, but not before countless worlds had been saturated in death and Abbadon's true aim -- to gain access to the favour of Tzeentch -- had been achieved.
Age of Redemption - Abyssal Crusade Returns: Having purged more than 400 worlds within the Eye of Terror, the survivors of the Abyssal Crusade returned to Imperial space in 112.M38.Without pausing to claim the honours due for such a successful and protracted Imperial Crusade, Chapter Master Konvak Lann of the Vorpal Swords declares the now-ancient Saint Basillius a false idol and adoration of him tantamount to betrayal of the Emperor.In less than a standard year, every known sepulchre and shrine dedicated to the false saint is destroyed. After his execution, his bones, along with countless relics, books of doctrine and thousands of living worshippers, are placed on a derelict bulk-freighter and launched directly into a nearby star.
Age of Strife - Age of Strife: The Age of Strife, also sometimes referred to as "Old Night" based on the name for the era on Terra in older Imperial histories, is the name for the apocalyptic and highly-fragmented period of Human history that began roughly in the 25th Millennium A.D. and ended in the 30th Millennium with the birth of the Imperium of Man.It was in this time that the great Human interstellar civilisation created during the golden age of the Age of Technology collapsed into isolation, constant warfare, disease, rampant mutation, famine and a host of other terrible tragedies. These events killed tens of billions of people and pushed Humanity to the brink of extinction.According to the "official" histories of the Imperium, the precise details and dates of the Age of Strife are not known. This is due to the data having been lost over vast amounts of time, the sheer chaos of the period, and censorship by various Imperial authorities who seek to prevent the people of the Imperium from learning more about the rampant uncontrolled psykers and Daemonic Chaos incursions that afflicted many of the Human worlds of the period -- including Terra itself.It was in reaction to the horrors and loss of life that befell Humanity during the Age of Strife that the Emperor of Mankind first decided to unite all of Humanity beneath His enlightened rule, building the foundation of what eventually became the Imperium during the Unification Wars on Old Earth starting in the late 29th Millennium.It was also the sheer amount of suffering and death that defined the Age of Strife that would shape the later culture of the Imperium. These tragedies, alongside the traumas of the Horus Heresy, brought into being the Imperium's extreme intolerance towards outsiders and Human genetic difference, its people's ingrained hatred for mutants, psykers and aliens, its knee-jerk rejection of political change, and the technophobia that created an appreciation for ignorance and backwardness over the advancement of science and technology.
Age of Strife - Dark Age of Technology: The Dark Age of Technology, also called simply the Age of Technology, is the name given to the period of Human history that immediately precedes the Age of Strife. It began in the 15th Millennium A.D. and ended in the 25th Millennium, and was marked by rapid fundamental advances in science and technology that first transformed Humanity into a true interstellar civilisation.The Dark Age of Technology saw the development of the specialised psychic mutants known as Navigators and the earliest use of the Warp for interstellar space travel and astropathic communication by Human beings. The greatest extent of Human interstellar space exploration and colonisation across the galaxy took place during this period after the development of the Warp-Drive that allowed faster-than-light space travel.Other notable developments include the first appearance of the Standard Template Construct (STC) database system and the constructs remembered in legend as the "Men of Iron," powerful, fully self-aware robots and artificial general intelligences.The Age of Technology ended in inter-Human war and anarchy, at the start of an era known as the Age of Strife, when the sudden and unexpected onset of massive Warp storms cut off interstellar travel and communications across the whole of the Human-settled galaxy.The STC systems once ubiqitous across Human space lapsed into disuse or the knowledge they contained was fragmented or lost outright. The Adeptus Mechanicus of the 41st Millennium have made finding a complete, untainted STC system their ultimate goal and are willing to go to any lengths to find even the smallest fragment of lost archeotech contained within an STC database.
Age of Strife - Terra and Mars: Old Earth, increasingly called "Terra" by its people, and the rest of the settled worlds of the Sol System were surrounded by terrible Warp storms at the start of the Age of Strife, isolating the Human homeworld for several thousand standard years from the rest of the galaxy.Control of the Sol System shifted constantly between the worlds of Terra and Mars during the first half of the Age of Strife. By the 28th Millennium almost all traces of advanced technical civilisation on Terra were long gone; instead, techno-barbarians battled one another over the scraps of the ancient Human interstellar society that remained on the world.Little information still exists about this dark time, but it is known that brutal tyrants such as Kalagann of Ursh, Cardinal Tang of the Yndonesic Bloc, and "the half-mad, half-genius" Narthan Dume of the Pan-Pacific Empire ruled during this era.Other known Terran nations of the time period include the Yndonesic Bloc, Ursh, the Urals (a centre of industry), Jermani, Gyptus, Merica, Afrik, the Terrawatt Clan and Alba. Another ethnicity mentioned in fragmented records from this time are the "Nordyc" people.Mars underwent a very different transformation. After a brief period of anarchy at the end of the Age of Technology that saw the destruction of the Red Planet's once pristine terraformed ecosystem, the Tech-priests of the ancient Mechanicum emerged victorious over the psyker mutants and rampaging artificial general intelligences or "Silica Animuses" that had claimed the surface of Mars. They slowly unified their homeworld beneath their theocratic rule in service to the beliefs of the Cult Mechanicus of the Machine God.The Tech-priests then visited Terra but were appalled by the destruction and anarchy that ruled there and saw nothing worth saving. Instead, the Martians studied the Warp and after many lifetimes learned to detect "lulls" in the raging Warp storms. At the same time the immense robotic fighting machines known as Titans were created to defend the Red Planet.For over a thousand standard years the Cult Mechanicus watched and waited. Whenever a break in the Warp storms occurred, an expedition was sent, complete with a full Titan Legion and thousands of servitors and Tech-priests. Some of these expeditions were lost in the Warp or died on faraway worlds. Others succeeded in establishing Forge Worlds -- industrial replicas of Mars and the theocratic society of the Mechanicum.Broken astropathic messages were transmitted to Mars, but it was not until the time of the Great Crusade that the Forge Worlds and Mars would be reunited.
Age of Strife - Rise of the Emperor: Eventually, amidst the ruins of Terra, an immensely powerful Human leader and psyker known only as the Emperor of Mankind divined that the final birth of the new Chaos God Slaanesh was nearing, as well as the effect this birth would have on the turmoil afflicting the galaxy.He began to accelerate His preparations for this history-changing event. From the beginning of the Age of Strife the Emperor had no longer been content with guiding Humanity from the shadows under a myriad of different historical identities, some of them quite well-known even in the 41st Millennium. The Emperor had come to believe that if His species was to survive, He would have to take charge Himself of Humankind's destiny, openly and without subterfuge. Within His underground gene-labs beneath the Himalazian Mountains (Himalayas) in the remains of the ancient stronghold of the Sigillites, the Emperor began to experiment on the Human genetic code.Through deeds of great valour and His own personal charisma, the Emperor recruited from the techno-barbarians that wandered Terra's surface and genetically altered them, turning them into the Thunder Warriors and the other early transhuman supersoldiers who would comprise his first armies.Once He had gathered sufficient military forces, He conquered Terra and later its satellite of Luna. Even before the completion of these Unification Wars, the Emperor initiated the great project of genetic engineering necessary to create the primarchs using His own DNA as a starting template. From the primarchs' genomes and the genetic blueprints of his prior super-soldiers, the Space Marine Legions were His final creations.Upon the final birth of Slaanesh sometime in the 29th Millennium, the crippling Warp storms that had long marked the Age of Strife ended, which allowed for easier interstellar travel and astropathic communication between worlds. The Aeldari species was nearly annihilated in what they termed "the Fall" and the Aeldari Empire's hold over much of the galaxy disintegrated.In this environment, the Emperor began to carry out His plans to reunify Mankind under His rule. With the Emperor's ascension and the creation of the Imperium of Man in a political and military alliance between Terra and the ancient Mechanicum of Mars, the Age of Strife was finally ended and a new age in Human history, the Age of the Imperium, begun.This age of conquest, heroism and unity began with the Emperor's Great Crusade to reunite all the scattered worlds of Humanity beneath the rule of the Imperium. It would in turn be forever tainted and corrupted soon after its inception by the terrible tragedy of the massive interstellar civil war now known only as the Horus Heresy.
Age of Strife - Legacy: The Age of Strife had a tremendous impact on Human civilisation. Humanity barely survived the period and the knowledge of the previous golden era was lost, much of it irrevocably; in particular, the loss of the STC system is seen as a serious setback for the technological and scientific advancement of the present-day Imperium.The Adeptus Mechanicus regards the STC as a holy artefact of the Machine God and constantly searches for remnants of STC systems. Although much lost information has been recovered by the efforts of the Mechanicus, by focussing all of its efforts on recovering knowledge from the ancient STC databases and spending little energy on basic scientific research and development, the Imperium advances at only a snail's pace technologically and in many areas has simply outright regressed. This is further compounded by the centralisation of all Human technical and scientific knowledge in the hands of the theocratic and secretive Mechanicus, preventing the dissemination of known science and technology across the galaxy that might speed up the process of innovation.Humanity as a whole became more superstitious and distrustful of advanced technology and of the unknown because of the myriad horrors perpetrated during the Age of Strife. This is a characteristic which the Imperial government goes to great lengths to encourage. In particular, the Imperium's people distrust mutants, aliens and psykers; this distrust runs so deep that the Imperium has a powerful secret police force, known collectively as the Inquisition, devoted to finding and destroying all aliens, Daemons, mutants, unsanctioned psykers and "Heretics" -- anyone deemed to be straying from the official doctrines of the Imperial Creed.Despite the general Human distrust of psykers, they still perform many critical functions for the Imperium, most notably the maintenance and powering of the Astronomican, interstellar communication and navigation, so they are often rounded up by Imperial agents and forced into service as part of the Imperial Tithe.The Adeptus Ministorum, the official state church of the Imperium, enforces a strict dogma including absolute devotion to the God-Emperor, who is treated as the embodiment of every divinity ever worshipped by Humanity's prior religions, all embodied within a single personage.In short, the authoritarian, theocratic, often harsh and unjust Imperium of Man possesses its unique cultural characteristics in large part as a continuing reaction to the great suffering and near-extinction endured by Humanity during the Age of Strife.
Age of Technology - Age of Technology: The Age of Technology, informally often referred to as the "Dark Age of Technology," was the zenith of Humanity's scientific knowledge and technological prowess in the Milky Way Galaxy, which lasted from the 15th Millennium A.D. until the onset of the Age of Strife in the 25th Millennium.It saw the development of the first true Human interstellar civilisation and the birth of some form of stellar confederation centred on the Human homeworld of Terra. Even tens of millennia later, Mankind has not been able to equal or regain its former height of achievement attained in this era.This age occurred long before the current Age of the Imperium and knowledge of this time period is now incredibly sparse. Many "facts" about the Age of Technology are no more than legend.Although a "golden age" for Humanity in terms of scientific achievement, because of the catastrophic effects of the following Age of Strife in which so many of the technologies developed in this era were used to cause massive destruction and suffering on countless Human-settled worlds, much of Mankind has since come to regard advanced scientific knowledge as an abhorrent and dangerous commodity.It is this innate suspicion of reason and progress and their scientific fruits born of the horrific aftermath of the Age of Technology that has led Humanity in the Age of the Imperium to be so willing to embrace ignorance and superstition.The lost Age of Technology is thus considered "dark" by most of the elites in the Imperium of Man's current era because of the dangers it unleashed.This period is also considered a dark age in the minds of the faithful and the priests of the Ecclesiarchy because Mankind in the Age of Technology had come to worship science as its god, and the God-Emperor had not yet revealed Himself as the true saviour of Humanity.
Age of Technology - Stellar Exodus: The "Stellar Exodus" is the name given by Imperial savants to the historical period that was defined by Humanity's earliest interstellar colonisation of other worlds beyond the Sol System, actually starting in many cases in the millennia before the Age of Technology officially began in the 15th Millennium AD.Humanity initially established colonies within Terra's solar system. Spacecraft were still only capable of sub-light speeds at this time. Voyages beyond the Sol System took generations and the colonies that were established by the so-called "Long March" sub-light starships were effectively isolated from each other and from Terra.These Long March vessels established many of the colonies later called Knight Worlds as they carried the designs of the combat walkers called Knights that were used by the early colonists for both defence and labour.Interstellar trade was therefore severely restricted or non-existent. This forced the individual, colonised star systems to be completely self-sufficient in all of their vital requirements (food, medicine, technology, etc.) and allowed them to develop distinctive languages and cultures.
Age of Technology - Warp-Drive: The true start of the Age of Technology was marked by the development of the Warp-Drive and the Gellar Field sometime around the 18th Millennium A.D., allowing Human spacecraft to make short jumps through the recently discovered extradimensional realm known as the Immaterium, or "the Warp," traveling vast interstellar distances in a relatively short amount of time.Though such vessels could now jump multiple light years, the many dangers inherent in the Warp meant that journeys could still take several standard years and many vessels never arrived at their destinations at all. Slowly, through many disasters, Humanity learned to use the Warp to make faster than light journeys out of their own star system.The Warp-Drive's development greatly accelerated the Human colonisation of the Milky Way Galaxy, and for the first time allowed interstellar trade and communications between the far-flung extrasolar Human colonies and the homeworld of Mankind, Terra. Also, during this time, the first sentient alien races were encountered by Mankind's explorers and colonists.
Age of Technology - Navigators: The second vital development of the Age of Technology was the creation of the psychic Navigator Gene by unknown parties (many Imperial savants see the Emperor's hand at work in the discovery) and the resulting birth of the mutant Navigators, mildly psychic Humans with a "third eye" of extrasensory perception who could see into the maddening currents of the Warp and navigate a course through them for Human faster-than-light starships.This allowed Human spacecraft to make longer and more accurate Warp jumps than previously possible when relying wholly upon a computer for navigation in the chaotic realm of the Immaterium.Navigator families, initially controlled by industrial and trade cartels, had become individual forces in their own right by the 19th Millennium.By the 20th Millennium, Humanity had proliferated and settled many of the countless star systems of the galaxy.It was a golden age for scientific achievement; technology provided all the answers. Thinking machines aided civilian and military production, allowing enormous labours to be accomplished at a frenetic pace.
Age of Technology - Cybernetic Revolt: One of the reasons Humanity was so successful at conquering a large part of the galaxy during this era was the development of the artificially intelligent humanoid constructs now only known in fragmentary pre-Imperial records as the Men of Iron and the Men of Stone.These powerful and fully autonomous intelligent robots intended for both labour and combat won many wars for Humanity, but for some unknown reason turned against their masters at the end of the Age of Technology some time in the late 23rd Millennium and unleashed a terrible war upon the Human worlds.During this ancient conflict, remembered only as the "Cybernetic Revolt," both sides unleashed fearsome weapons of advanced technology. These included the mechanivores, massive thinking machines capable of lifting entire continents and ripping open chasms on planetary surfaces that extended down to the world's core. The mechanivores could even absorb space-time itself as a form of data.Among the other terrible weapons of mass destruction unleashed at this time were the serpentine machines called "sun-snuffers" that uncoiled into great structures in the void larger than the rings of Saturn and were designed to devour the stars themselves.And perhaps the most ubiquitous and dangerous of the weapons of this terrible war were the omniphages, swarms of intelligent, microscopic nano-machines that could consume everything across the surface of a world in only solar hours.The Cybernetic Revolt was eventually won by an alliance of galactic powers, some of whom may not have been Human, but at a terrible cost. The damage to interstellar Human society was catastrophic and shattered much of Humanity's hard-won economic strength and political unity, and lay the foundation for the later collapse caused by the onset of the Age of Strife.It is as a result of this ancient war that it is now considered one of the greatest crimes in Imperial space to develop an artificially intelligent thinking machine, an "Abominable Intelligence," or Silica Animus.The widespread fear and revulsion towards artificial general intelligence amongst the worlds of Mankind in the wake of the terrible conflict with the Men of Iron led to the development of the first servitors at the end of this period.Servitors were cybernetic servants lacking true sentience created from the bodies of condemned criminals or lobotomised, vat-grown humanoids whose bodies and brains were partially replaced with machine systems. They served a as a replacement for the labour force once provided by the Men of Iron.
Age of Technology - End of the Golden Age: This Golden Age for Humanity would not last. Warp travel became increasingly difficult and ultimately impossible due to the great Warp Storms that convulsed the Immaterium and would herald the violent birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh and the later Fall of the Aeldari that first began in the 25th Millennium.The economy of the Human interstellar civilisation had already been damaged by the terrible wars against the Men of Iron, and the growing frequency and extent of the Warp Storms caused trade and communication between the Human colonies to collapse, restoring the isolation of Human-settled planets and star systems.Within this relative isolation Abhumans, new Human mutant subspecies like the Ogryns, Ratlings, and Squats, adapted to their environments and developed on several planets in the galaxy.In this situation, certain high population worlds like Terra that relied heavily on trade with the rest of Humanity were suddenly unable to feed their enormous populations. Hunger and starvation followed.Those Human psykers who had recently developed their powers were relatively weak and inexperienced, and at constant risk of possession by Daemons and other Warp entities after the great Warp Storms began.The sudden impossibility of Warp travel meant that the once-unified interstellar Human civilisation broke apart into completely isolated star systems and worlds. Daemonic possession, widespread insanity among the psyker population and the increasing interstellar isolation led to inter-Human conflict, utter anarchy and the regression of most Human civilisations into forms of barbarism.The 5,000 Terran years following the end of the Age of Technology are thus aptly named the Age of Strife by the scholars of the Imperium of Man.
Age of Technology - Age of Founding: The Squats' Age of Founding corresponds to the overall Human Age of Technology.
Age of Terra - Age of Terra: The Age of Terra, also sometimes called the "Age of Progress" in older Imperial texts, is the era of Human history between the 1st and 15th Millennia (1 - 14,999 AD).This is the era when Mankind advanced from a pre-industrial Iron Age culture to become a star-spanning Fusion Age civilisation.
Age of Terra - History: The original reason for numbering the years from the start of this era is because it was believed to be the year of the birth of the ancient religious leader Jesus of Nazareth, which has long been forgotten by Humanity. Mankind now possesses only one religion -- a deep faith in the God-Emperor of Mankind and His Imperial Cult.During the long years of the Age of Terra, Humanity came to dominate the Earth culturally and technologically. Myriad Human civilisations came and went during this long span of now mostly lost Human history.The first three Chaos Gods -- Khorne, Tzeentch and Nurgle -- were birthed in the Immaterium in this era, all coming into existence at various points during Old Earth's European medieval period.Their emergence at this time was the result of the constant warfare, the growth of sophisticated early modern nation-states and continued outbreaks of global plagues, respectively, which marked that era and fed the final formation of the Dark Gods' consciousnesses.The Sol System was ultimately colonised once Humanity developed the necessary technology to leave the Earth's orbit in the late 2nd Millennium and the early 3rd Millennium. Mankind first colonised Mars and lived on the moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune.Mars became the first planet to be terraformed by Humans when it was settled by various industrial cartels. The Red Planet soon became synonymous with technical expertise and scientific advancement, a characteristic that would mark it for many millennia to come.Advanced nuclear fusion and anti-matter propulsion technology was developed that eventually allowed Humanity to construct interstellar starships that could colonise other star systems, though the slow travel times of these vessels meant these Human colonies had to be self-sufficient to survive, as no aid could arrive from Earth in time.At the end of the period and stretching into the next era in Human history, the Age of Technology, Humanity began to colonise the stars using these sub-light spacecraft.At first only nearby star systems could be reached and the Human colonies established on them were required to survive as independent states since they were separated from Old Earth by up to ten Human generations' time of travel.Almost nothing of this period's events is known to current Imperial historitors save as myth and legend, though it is clear that the Emperor was alive and on Earth throughout this era.He is believed to have been born in the 8th Millennium B.C. in Anatolia, then disguised His true abilities and immortal Perpetual nature as He moved from identity to identity throughout Old Earth's ancient history. In every guise, He always sought to better the lot of Humanity, physically, intellectually and spiritually.
Age of the Imperium - Age of the Imperium: The Age of the Imperium is the name given by Imperial lexographers and historitors to the period of Human history that spans the 10,000 standard years following the end of the Horus Heresy and the emergence of the Imperium of Man in its recognizable form.The precursor to the Age of the Imperium began in the 30th Millennium when the Emperor of Mankind emerged from long centuries of obscurity to unify Terra beneath His rule and end the terrible suffering and civil conflicts of the Age of Strife.The Emperor forged a political and military alliance with the Cult Mechanicus that had reunified the Forge World of Mars and together the two most populous worlds of Humanity birthed the Imperium of Man.Using the advanced technology of the ancient Mechanicum, the Emperor created the twenty Space Marine Legions of the First Founding to launch the "Great Crusade," an attempt to reunify all the Human-settled colony worlds across the Milky Way Galaxy under a single government once more.While this campaign proved largely successful in reunifying the majority of the Human race, that unity was eventually destroyed by the terrible galaxy-wide civil war known as the "Horus Heresy." Half of the Imperial armed forces, led by the Emperor's favoured son, the Warmaster Horus, were corrupted by the Dark Gods of Chaos and followed Horus into rebellion.The Traitor Legions and their allies launched themselves in an assault upon the Imperium that ultimately led to Horus' death, the Emperor's eternal internment within the Golden Throne and the dawn of a new age of technological stagnation and constant warfare.It is this terrible moment that truly marks the start of what became known as the Age of the Imperium.
Age of the Imperium - History in the Imperium: The road the Human race has walked through history stretches long and bloody at their collective heels. Its origins are hidden by the swirling dust of aeons, its present wreathed in the flames of war and ahead the future yawns like a dark and forbidding pit.Still, Imperial historitors do what they can to preserve the truth of Humanity's journey, even if none may survive to read it.Beneath the Imperial Palace complex on Terra lie thousands of kilometres of catacombs, hushed vaults and scroll-stuffed libraries. They are protected by rune-sealed bulkheads so formidable they could endure sustained orbital bombardment.Their guardians are shadowy terrors, unsleeping, ever vigilant. So vast is their sprawl that predatory things have evolved amidst the shadows and the dust, ruling over trammelled ecosystems of pallid troglodyte vermin.The knowledge kept here under lock and key spans the great ages of Humanity. Even this ultimate repository is mouldering and much eroded by entropy's inescapable touch, yet just those fragmented records that remain would take many lifetimes to study, and contain secrets enough to blast the reader's sanity or bring the entire Imperium crashing down.It is well, perhaps, that few even know of the endless archives' existence. Fewer still are permitted beyond their doors.