Jericho Reach - The Fall of Jericho: The Fall of the Jericho Sector (M36-M37) - The fall of the Jericho Sector from grace was swift, and much is recorded of its cause before the darkness descended and blotted out hope and reason.The Age of Apostasy (ca. 100-600.M36) - High Lord Goge Vandire tightens his stranglehold on the Imperium, beginning a monstrous tyranny that will become known as the Reign of Blood and thereby gives birth to the Age of Apostasy, the darkest period of bloodshed and strife the Imperium has known since the Great Heresy. As part of his web of power and control over both the Adeptus Administratum and the Adeptus Ministorum, Vandire ensures that numerous key Imperial Sectors singled out either by their strategic importance or wealth are firmly within his sphere of control by placing in control of them puppet-commanders whose only loyalty lies with him. The Jericho Sector is soon encompassed by this policy and at the High Lord's direct command a new ruling partnership comprising the Lady Sector Castagar Murella and Arch-Cardinal Udo Asterus are appointed as Over-Governors Temporal and Spiritual, respectively, of the Jericho Sector. All Ecclesiarchy prelates and Imperial Commanders in the sector must bend their knees to their new masters, whose authority is backed by squadrons of the Imperial Navy and tens of thousands of Frateris Templar shock troops. Taken by surprise by this unexpected turn of events and the legitimate authority that carries out the change, the control of Vandire’s puppet rulers goes initially all but uncontested, and what little resistance that forms is quickly beaten down and a bloody period of tyranny and oppression previously unseen takes hold of the Jericho Sector. Meanwhile, the Over-Governors become infamous for the speed and callousness with which they swiftly proceed to expand their personal wealth and power. The Deathwatch of the Jericho Sector, operating in secrecy, and with their extent and holdings unknown to Vandire’s lackeys, follow their usual millennia-old pattern of non-interference in the Imperium’s worsening domestic affairs unless they impinge on their remit. However, the Master of the Watch at Watch Fortress Erioch orders all under his command to studiously protect their inviolate nature and the secrecy of the Watch. Any Frateris Templar vessel or force that strays too close or interferes with the Deathwatch’s activities is quietly and efficiently diverted or destroyed as a matter of policy, and the secrecy of the Deathwatch is maintained.The Voice of Truth (245.M36) - Yoren Kipraus, Cardinal of Verronus, speaks out publicly against the "worldly sin and excess" of Arch-Cardinal Asterus and is soon taken in the night by Frateris Templar forces. His basilica is stripped and laid waste and his clergy slain or enslaved. Kipraus himself, after months of torture, is declared a Heretic and is torn apart by marrow-jackals as entertainment at a great feast in the honour of the anniversary of the Over-Governors’ appointment. For his martyrdom, Kipraus will later be beatified as a Saint of the Imperial Cult by order of the future reforming Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor.The Poison Hatches Out (257-262.M36) - Revolts and armed resistance movements flare up across the Jericho Sector, as quota-tallies demanded by the Over-Governors increase exponentially. While most of these insurrections are quickly and brutally crushed, the resulting collateral damage is extensive, marring the Jericho Sector’s production capacity further, which in turn means ever increasing demands to make up a shortfall that cannot be fulfilled, creating an ever-worsening cycle of repression and revolt. The Over-Governors begin a paranoiac series of purges to remove anyone that they perceive as a potential threat and increase their revenue by plundering the coffers of the Sector’s magnates and nobility. Among these, the estates and vessels of the then-absent Free Captain Mordecai Haarlock, whose holdings span the Jericho Sector and several others beyond its borders, are seized by order of Over-Governor Murella Mordercai on his return. In protest, Haarlock resists arrest, slaying those who would hold him. He flees with a single vessel, the Spear of Destiny, into the Slinnar Drift, swearing bloody vengeance.The Lord of Lightning (263.M36) - In response to the opening of a cell in the Omega Vault and the revealing of a broken spear of archaic design and unknown material, a Deathwatch Kill-team undertakes a quest to the Feudal World of Sovereign, which they discover suffers under the grip of a murderous xenos energy-entity known as the Thunder Lord which has offered itself as a false messiah to the natives. The spectral creature has grown strong on the life-forces of the thousands sacrificed in its name and is worshiped by an army of savage warriors. A single Deathwatch Battle-Brother returns to Watch Fortress Erioch with the Thunder Lord’s shattered crystal heart.Haarlock's War (263-270.M36) - Through force of personality and fear, Free Captain Mordecai Haarlock convinces a vagabond fleet of privateers, refugee merchants and disgruntled Chartist Captains to join him in a war of resistance against the Over-Governors of the Jericho Sector and those that stood with them. They begin a guerrilla war of ambush and lightning attacks against tithe-shipping, lone Frateris Templar vessels and outposts, as well as smuggling weapons and Ecclesiarchy priests who have turned against Vandire’s mastery of the Adeptus Ministorum to resistance movements against Vandire’s rule across the Jericho Reach and in neighbouring regions. Mordecai Haarlock displays an uncanny genius for this kind of shadowed warfare, both as a corsair captain and spymaster. As his infamy spreads, he becomes known as the Spider Lord. He is the single man at the centre of a web comprising countless strands of terrorist cells, spies, agents, and corsair ships. His emblem of the golden spider clutching an Imperial Aquila becomes a symbol of hope for those crushed under the Over-Governors’ rule, and a mark of fear for their vassals.Haarlock and Erioch (266.M36) - The annals of Watch Fortress Erioch record the arrival of The Spear of Destiny on the edge of the Erioch System. Not knowing where he is becalmed, Mordecai Haarlock moves in-system, and he is swiftly surrounded and brought under the guns of the Deathwatch. Forced to power down, Mordecai and his close associates are taken on board the Watch Fortress under guard by Kill-teams. Three days later, Haarlock and his starship are permitted to leave. He never speaks of what occurred within those three days, nor does he ever return to the Erioch System.The Darkfall (268.M36) - A vast city-sized vessel of unknown origin appears hurtling out of the Warp at great speed in the Andronicus System, and crashes into Andronicus Prime’s second moon, shattering it. Debris rains down on the planet, blotting out the sun and laying its verdant forests waste. All life on Andronicus Prime is exterminated in a matter of days.The Defector (273.M36) - Revolt against the Reign of Blood has sparked across the Imperium like wildfire, and elsewhere, the holy Sebastian Thor’s Confederation of Light is steadily destroying the strength of Vandire’s rule. Fleeing the assassin’s blade for his Thorian sympathies, Flag Captain Durek of the Imperial Navy Battlecruiser Power of Terra encounters Free Captain Haarlock and agrees to join his cause. With him he brings a network of contacts within the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Jericho and alliance with the forces and agents of the Confederation of Light.The Darkling Stirs (273.M36) - Something alien stirs amid the frozen, night-shrouded surface of Andronicus Prime, and the Deathwatch respond. Kill-teams sweep the shattered ground and targeted bombardments take place from orbit. In the aftermath, a Deathwatch Watch Station is established in the turbulent asteroid fields that now strangle the near-orbital approaches to the planet.The Wrath of the Deathwatch (275.M36) - Lady Sector Murella, Vandire's puppet Sector Governor of the Jericho Sector, learns of the existence of fortified Deathwatch Watch Stations scattered across the sector from contacts within the Navis Nobilite. Unable to establish who controls them, but fearing that they pose a threat to her rule, she orders the Watch Stations seized. None of the forces sent to capture them ever return. Ever larger forces are sent to the fray, forcing the Deathwatch to unleash its own power in defence of its watch and sacred duty, which is not for such a petty tyrant to dispute. Realising the folly of making war on the Adeptus Astartes far too late, the Over-Governor’s power is critically weakened, and the best of her warriors and warships squandered in battle.Downfall of the Over-Governors (277.M36) - Free Captain Mordecai Haarlock leads a fleet of insurgent vessels in a surprise attack on Verronus, having drawn the forces of the remaining Frateris Templar warships in the Jericho Sector away through a diversionary attack on Eleusis. His strike fleet succeeded in breaking through the system’s defences. Accompanied by an elite force of unrecorded nature, Mordecai Haarlock executes Lady Sector Castagar Murella for "betrayal of the ideals and soul of the Imperium of Mankind." Meanwhile, the Arch-Cardinal Udo Asterus is torn apart by an enraged lynch mob while trying to flee.Aftermath of the Reign of Blood (395.M36) - After the death of Goge Vandire and the end of the Reign of Blood during the Terran Crusade, Free Captain Mordecai Haarlock is granted a Warrant of Trade and declared a Rogue Trader by the reforming Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor. The warrant is a greater charter of writ to him and the heirs and successors of his blood unto the end of all things, and conditional first upon the restoration of order to an Imperium still plagued by heresy, war, and division. This honour is supposedly in recognition of Haarlock’s actions against Goge Vandire’s forces in the Jericho Sector, but some sources note that Mordecai had been expected to ascend to rule the Jericho Sector himself, and that the granting of the Warrant of Trade effectively banished Haarlock (who was perhaps, at best, too dangerous and resourceful a man to entrust with such a task) beyond the bounds of the Imperium once the Wars of Apostasy were over and his usefulness was at an end. Almost exactly a century later (in 395.M36), Mordecai Haarlock, taking up the mantle of Rogue Trader, vanishes from the Imperium, taking his fleet with him. What ties, if any, he kept with the Jericho Sector remain unknown. However, the dark coincidence of his deep connection to the later founding of the far distant Calixis Sector, a region that would prove inextricably linked to the Jericho Reach’s future, is a matter of shrouding mystery that has troubled many within the Inquisition.The Coming of the Great Storm (416.M36) - The voidship carrying Masimat Helicos, the Lord Sector Designate of the Jericho Sector, disappears during the onset of a violent Warp Storm during transit through the Empyrean, marking the beginning of the darkest days of the Jericho Sector. Astropathic messages become so unreliable that a message explaining that the official ruler of the Jericho Sector never arrived takes five years to be received at Terra. From this point, Warp Storms on the edge of the region become more violent and more frequent, all but cutting it off from any swift access to the wider Imperium, critically stymieing any efforts to rebuild or consolidate following the end of the Reign of Blood. Even the Deathwatch within the Jericho Sector is forced to retrench, as it too is largely cut off from ready access to reinforcement or re-supply, although its own resources and vessels prevent this interference from completely isolating the Astartes of Watch Fortress Erioch.