Corona Noctis Sector

Introduction

The Corona Noctis Sector is located in the distant fringe of the Segmentum Obscurus, where the authority of the Imperium of Man is stretched thin, and the promise of riches has drawn many doomed souls. A terrible warpstorm has torn into realspace, isolating worlds and severing them from the Emperor's light. Here, frontiers of uncharted voids are haunted by rumors of ancient xenos relics, drifting hulks, and the restless spirits of the damned.

In centuries past, the Explorators of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the daring Rogue Trader dynasties have carved out a bastion of human might in the stars. Yet human avarice and the sheer forces of entropy have worn down the promise of these intrepid pioneers. Piratical raiders and dangerous Xenos roam the outer systems, while cults of the Ruinous Powers plot in the darkness.

A Realm Divided

The promise of wealth, discovery and power has divided the faithful servants of the God-Emperor in their noble quest to dominate the stars. The factions of the Imperium are houses divided, each looking to their own position, and in the aftermath of the galaxy-wide disaster of the Cicatrix Maledictum, the forces of humanity face a new and terrible test as the sector is consumed by a terrible warpstorm ravaging the centre of its power.

Though battered by adversity, the faithful of the Emperor endure. Battlefleet Anglican maintains its vigil in the Sector's main shipping lanes, ever wary of xenos threats and heretical incursions. The forces of the Astra Militarum muster their strength and quell sedition and heresy with extreme prejudice. However, in this brave new age for the sector, as the institutions of power shudder under the pressure of multiple crises, those who are willing to risk everything can amass great wealth and power.

A Truth Concealed

The Ordos of the holy Inquisition dispatch their limited resources in a desperate race for information on the nature and cause of the warpstorm. Those who serve the Emperor's Inquisition are divided in doctrine and embroiled in their own rivalries, but face grave threats from the resurgent forces of Chaos and the opportunistic Xenos. Only time will tell if the brightest of humanity are up to the task of unravelling the true nature of events in the sector and halting this encroaching madness before it engulfs all.

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of His inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that He may never truly die.

Yet even in His deathless state, the Emperor continues His eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst His soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants — and far, far worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.