Nobledark Imperium

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The Primarchs

The Warlord in his conquests of Old Earth and Sol created the title of Primarch and awarded it to twenty of his greatest generals that they might become leaders of leaders. This was partly to maintain an ordered hierarchy but also to promote autonomy of his forces. The Warlords long term dream of the time was creating a system of governance so efficient that he would become obsolete. His short term dream of the time was to free up enough time to spend all evening in the pub. Of the twenty awarded that rank only eighteen are by name and deed remembered to history under that most august of title.

Horus

- 100% human from Luna, possibly of Void Born stock.

Russ

Russ was the first to recruit into his super human ranks men from beyond the borders of Sol. The people of Fenris were excellent recruitment stock for all that they required additional education due to their barbarity and primitive nature.

Russ himself was from an at the time discontinued line of super soldiers, savage and with heightened senses the Canis Helix (or Dog Soldier as it's detractors of the time referred to it) project proved to be too unstable. If news of the monsters born from it had become common knowledge on Earth the Warlord would have lost support. On a distant world seldom visited and remote as Fenris was the project could be begun an new at Russ' behest and any monsters arising are the problem of a few distant primatives and no one else needs to know.

The Emperor claimed no knowledge at first that new Dog Soldiers were being created and when he learned of it Russ claimed that the "failure rate was well within acceptable parameters", the Emperor was trusting of his generals and so left the matter alone.

The Space Wolves, as the legion became known, served with great distinction during the Great Crusade and excelled primarily at tracking and assassination and close quarters ambush.

In the wretched days of the War of the Beast a regrettable number of the wolves were tempted down the path of bloodshed for bloodshed's sake and forsook the Empty Throne of Earth for a throne of brass and bone where the God of War held court. Of these oathbreakers no name was cursed more by Russ than that of Skyrar of Caledonia whom Russ would once have called brother.

Some measure of honour was restored to those broken ranks torn back from turncoats and anointed with blood. The name of Russ' Wolves was held in esteem on Old Earth as he made great speed towards the home he had left a lifetime ago and his heart was broken to see even from orbit that globe aflame.

In the name of redemption the wolves threw themselves into the inferno and fought like mad beasts, without hope for tomorrow or thought of the past.

Russ were there at the Last Roll of Thunder when Arik Taranis, Bearer of Lightning, fell in battle in the great plaza before the Eternity Gate and took up the tattered old Unification banner.

When the last of the fires grew cold none would again question the loyalty of the Space Wolves. For all that a shattered remnant of a Legion remained they felt whole again and for all that they were covered in blood and soot they felt clean.

In the days of rebuilding what was left of the Space Wolves rebuilt also, the Imperium would always need it's tame monsters.

Some two centuries later Russ, now an old warrior and King of his adopted world, walked out into the snow. His friends and servants followed his tracks into the cold fir woods of the frozen north but he was never seen again. Some say the Old King will return one day when Old Night returns and hope withers and the stars grow dim.

Ferrus Manus

The unimaginatively named Ferrus Manus was born in the manner of the Mechanicus enclaves of Antarctica, which is to say grown in a jar from anonymous genetic samples. Deemed free of malformation and unwanted deviations in his early development he was permitted to be born rather than recycled.

As a child among those people of that time he had no name at birth although the markings on his tube did superficially resemble the name Gorgon in several Old Earth languages. This was adopted as his unofficial name in his youth after it became apparent that he would grow up to be aesthetically displeasing.

He was given a basic and general techno-ecumenical education until age 12 when he began training for full inclusion to the Mechanicus. By age 14 he had achieved the rank of lowly Technician-acolyte and so escaped the fate of Servitorhood that awaited underachievers. But a purely priestly life was deemed in efficient use of his talents and he was transferred to the Skittarii training.

By his 18th year he was a mechanically augmented soldier of the priesthood tasked with defence of the Nuemyana Port, one of the few places where primitive outsiders were permitted to have dealings with the Terran Mechanicus.

As he rose through the ranks of the Mechanicus military, receiving all the augmentations appropriate to his station, he began to see the world in the black and white notions of the Weak and the Strong and how it was the duty of the Strong to rule and protect and the Weak to serve.

Sadly he started also to see all of humanity not a part of the Mechnicus as Weak. Even more sadly this was a view shared by many of the Elder Magi.

It was deemed that the greatest threat to the Enclaves was Hy Brasil due to a combination of proximity, organization and sophistication. A bitter war of attrition was waged that saw the Enclaves holdings on the southern tip if South America either destroyed and irradiated or captured.

Due to this extreme laps in good judgment the elders were deposed and the survivors servitorized.

With space at the top of the hierarchy now cleared there was a social reshuffling and Gorgon found himself as General-Sentinel and Protector of the Northern border, a prestigious job that nobody wanted due to the surety of retaliation from the Brasilaanii peoples.

It was at this point that Gorgon became known as Ferrus Manus after his latest physical upgrade had his arms replaced by superior cybernetics.

It was not long before the stirring of retaliation became imminant in Hy Brasil and a horde of, relatively, well disciplined and well armed soldiery was clearly preparing to move southwards to the cold lands of the Mechanicus.

It was at this time that the Warlord approached the Enclave with an offer of inclusion into the Imperium. The Elder Magi calculated the possibility of survival against the Hy Brasil military would jump by 90% in the event of all out war, all the way up to 92%.

As it was the young leader Dalmoth Kyn, leader of most of South America, decided that attacking the Warlords forces was suicide at best. The war never happened by the Kyn family never forgot who the Warlord sided by and fate was set then that they would never be part of the Imperium.

As the Mechanicus Enclaves one by one were subjugated or assimilated into the Imperium Ferrus Manus once more found himself rising up the ranks of the military due to his tactical acumen and the mechanical strength of his soldiery that were capable of easily overcoming all techno-barbarians, bar those strange biological agments employed by the Warlord himself of whom even Ferrus Manus had to admit a certain grudging respect.

As the years passed and wars were moved off of the surface of the unified Terra the Iron Hands, as his soldiery were collectively known, held themselves with great distinction as they were capable of fighting in harsh environments for extended time with little ill effects, their cyber-blessings even resisting the vacuum and radiation of open space.

The inclusion of the Mechanicus forces, treated with due respect and dignity, within the Stewards forces was probably a contributing factor to the Terra-Mars partnership, almost certainly this itself was a contributing factor to the old Gorgon being recognized as a Primarch.

His forces were invariably among the numbers sent to parlay with distant Forge Worlds to reunite them with Holy Mars and by extension the Imperium.

During the War of the Beast the Iron Hands were more concerned with the holding of the Forge Worlds and enclaves of the Mechanicus than they were with the Preservation of the Imperium as a whole. A fact they were called out on numerous times and that they never denied.

They reasoned, or at least the reasoning they gave to outsiders, was that the Forgeworlds were the industrial heart of the Imperium and that with their loss there could never be a hope of rebuilding. there may have been some truth in this but it was more likely that the Gorgon Primarch simply felt more loyalty to the Mars and the Fabricator General than he did Terra or the Steward.

Of the primarchs Ferrus Manus was only 1 of 3 that lived long enough to see the Steward become Emperor and was last of that title to die.

His end came on the fields of Armageddon before the gates of Hades Hive in the year 616M40. In truth he had been suffering health errors both biological mechanical for some years and there was little operational time left for his body. He took a bloody and glorious toll with him but his passing marked the end of an era. Although he and the Emperor had never been friends his passing was felt.

Fulgrim

- Astartes pattern from Merika

Vulkan

- Astartes pattern from Afrique League

Dorn

- Calbi born, early model astartes pattern. Desensitization problems.

Roboute Guilliman

Guilliman was born to a minor noble house in the great and relatively prosperous realm of Europia. His parents were able to afford him admittance to Parisiorum University, the most prestigious educational institution of that fair nation. By the onset of adulthood he was well versed in the classics of language, mathemetics and the basic sciences but it was in military theory that he truly excelled.

As a young man he was transferred to the Avelroi military academy where he trained to be an officer. Although he was no mean tactician and a more than adequate soldier it was in the arts of strategy and logistical planning that his brilliance was found.

Upon completion of his training to declarations of brilliance from his tutors he was assigned to the southern border where his nation rubbed shoulders with the Nord Afrik Enclaves with whom they had warred often.

Within a month of being assigned to the semi-derelict Jibraltonius border fort the area was brought up to peak efficiency nad effectiveness. Whole swathes of the border defenses were brought back up to and exceeding standard from the beating they took in the last border dispute under his watch as he was transferred from ruin to ruin. And not before time.

Before long it the sun had risen and it was time for another war. To the consternation of the Nord Afrikaanus and their cyber-thrall army commanders it was not to be a quick bout of raid and pillage.

The barbarians broke upon the hardened shell of Europia like rain upon granite. They tried and tried and their assaults and savagery bled their nation white.

The counter attack orchestrated by General Roboute Guilliman was expertly calculated and Nord Afrika burned to ashes from which they never recovered.

The customary actions to follow in such instances as this was for nations to assume the territory of the fallen and incorporate it into their own realm as a subjugated and broken people. Indeed this would have been the case but for Guilliman's address to the senate imploring them to let that foul place rot, Europia didn't need to devour that which would only make them weaker.

This was of great disappointment to the other neighbouring nations who were looking forward to invading the over extended and weakened Europia in the following years.

For his apparent wisdom and martial brilliance Guilliman was given the honorific title of Lord, a title that would not normally be bestowed upon him until his fathers death. Further more in the time of relative peace the nation now found itself in it needed an ambassador that was already a man of accomplishment and worth. In these day The Warlord not yet Emperor was still a distant rumbling to the south and east.

It was during his time in the Kingdom of Franj that he met the young (alright, youngish) Queen Yolande Fouché. The two had little in common at a personal level and neither ever completely trusted each other. It was, however, deemed by both their respective governments imperative that they marry as a prelude to the unification of the two nations. Franj itself was deeply wounded and only slowly recovering from devastating biological and warp based attacks by the Unspeakable Tyrant of Gredbritton and would not survive even a half hearted assault from any of it's neighbors, and the Dusht Jemanic was looking to settle old grievances. For the people of Europia it would mean access to the produce of the huge tracts of agricultural land.

When The Warlord came before the senate of Europia, modest in a scribes robes, he came with opens arms and a warm smile.

The senate of Europia saw this new "Imperium" as a macrocosm of their own well ordered nation and felt much would be gained from inclusion, provided they would be represented in the decision and policy making processes of such a regime.

The Warlord accepted their inclusion as well as the joint inclusion of the Kingdom of Franj as neither realm would be willing to part from the other.

In short time Lord Guilliman rose through the ranks of the new Imperial Army, proving his brilliance upon a global level.

When it came time for the Warlord to implement his super soldier project on a much expanded scale it was a sad fact that Lord Guilliman was biologically too old and would almost certainly have died during the implantation process. As consolation he was granted some limited gene-forging and rejuvenant procedures that his usefulness might be extended for centuries to come.

And down the centuries his usefulness was proven.

When the Warlord became the Steward before the Empty Throne and looked to the stars it was Guilliman amongst his generals who was best suited to the task of planning large scale interplanetary warfare, a feat not considered for millennia. For his dedication and adaptability Lord Guilliman became Primarch Guilliman, a leader amongst leaders and when the eye of the Steward looked beyond the confines of Sol whole stellar clusters were brought under the Aquila by the old man of Europia. Of those wars that could fill a library the greatest, the Primarch considered, were the ones not fought.

He was and old man. He looked of middle years but he had lived long past his time. Memories of loved ones, their faces and voices, had become dim and faded. He had outlived his wife and his children and his grand children and in truth his beautiful nation. He was an old man and he was so very tired of war.

When the War of the Beast descend like a hammer upon the still fledgling Imperium it was Guillimans reforms to the trade routs and military integration that allowed whole sectors to recover from the initial shock and mobilize what forces they had with merciless efficiency.

His well ordered and equipped soldiers and warriors and legionaries made the Beast and his horde pay for every light-year. For every slain citizen under his care a hundred deaths were meted out but all could see that the line was being ground back to the Sanctum Sanctorum of humanity; Old Earth.

For all that the forces of The Beast were weakened it was the other legions that were remembered as striking the death blow. Guilliman was not upset by that; good men were seldom remembered as long as entertaining monsters.

After the slaying of The Beast the time of rebuilding was to begin. It was dirty work but it was good work, rebuilding something after so long fighting soothed his aching soul somewhat even when most of his fellow Primarchs refused his suggested reforms to their legions.

Guilliman endured for a centuries longer than any thought would be possible but In 014M32 he began the long sleep but his legacy would endure for ages to come. Despite his belief otherwise he was remembered fondly by most.

Magnus the Red

- child of a high end psychic mother and a Navigator father. No augmentations. Court of Ursh.

Sanguinius

- Astartes from Dusht Jemanic.

Lion

- Astartes. Franj born

Perty

- Late stage Thunder Warrior commander of the Macedonia Garrison.

Mortarion

Mortarion was a born in the abject squalor of the slums of Gredbritton in the aftermath of the unrest following the fall of the Unspeakable Tyrant. His mother was the daughter of the Unspeakable Tyrant and his father was unknown. Some claiming that his father was also the Unspeakable Tyrant, not a baseless accusation considering that most depraved individual.

His mother made ends meet as a maintenance skivvy and lay-technician of the great Tintajus Hive and capital of that broken nation.

Mortarion was in his youth sickly due to his environment and grew up pale and gaunt from lack of sunlight and food.

Gredbritton was one of the earlier nations brought into the Imperial fold. Being part of a greater and more prosperous union of nations went some way to restoring the nation and with it the reformation of the military infrastructure.

like so many young men with no hope Mortarion joined the regiments of the Imperial Army for the promise of at least one meal a day, a pair of trousers he didn't have to share and some spare cash to send home to support his family.

He served with merit if not distinction until he was in his 22nd year despite recurring bouts of old childhood illnesses. At some point in this year he learned that the Warlord was looking for volunteers for Thunder Warrior conversion, known to be a procedure that carried considerable risks.

Despite warnings from the Apothocarium and the Biologicus in regards to his physical imperfections Mortarion volunteered, even demanded, that they strap him to a table, tear him apart and put him back together. The payout his family would get for his death in this manner would set his mother and younger sisters up for life and that would be worth dying for.

By some strange twist of fate he did survive. This was in the later days of the Thunder Warriors and the process had been refined and made considerably safer than the days when Angron was "upgraded".

By time served, out living and a methodical if unimaginative attitude to battle Mortarion won many victories in the name of the Imperium and it's Warlord.

He won the respect of his men but they had no love for him. His methods were brutal and costly in life for all that they were effective. He would often dismiss inventive but untried tactics and strategies in favour of the certainties of more costly ones.

His only virtues, so far as his men were concerned, was his willingness to lead from the front, be found where the fighting was thickest and risk death with the worst and the best of them.

Forces under his command saw great victories against the savage men of Ursh and the sorcerers of Achaemenidia who dabbled in things that should not be dabbled in.

Indeed it was in the Achaemenidia campaigns that Mortarion developed a fear and borderline hatred of all psykers and never in his career did he employ them, even when it might have been advisable to do so.

Mortarion soon developed a reputation for being unkillable, much to the disgust of his subordinates. He would return from the field of war his armour rent, is weapons broken and spent, half his men dead and the other half maimed and sporting wounds that would have felled a lesser Thunder Warrior and remain standing and not long after do it all over again.

When the forces of the Steward looked to the rest of Sol his forces were used primarily as a garrison and defensive force due to the costly nature of his method of warfare. In these engagements they held themselves with distinction.

By the time Sol was subjugated, one way or another, and the galaxy lay before the Imperium the Emperor named him Primarch due to his sheer tenacity and list of victories.

It was revealed in later years as documents were released that the Warlord/Steward disapproved greatly of Mortarions methods of warfare. Mortarion had, by methods undisclosed, obtained the entire stockpile of biological and chemical weapons owned by his late grandfather and father. He had also obtained his library, the constituent tomes of which were hastily handed over to the Warlord's Sigillite.

It was the favored method of taking a city for the Dusk Raiders and later Death Guard to besiege it, fire contamination artillery rounds filled with some gods forsaken contagion and give it a few months. The soldiery would then go through the city killing anything that looked too lively with plasma, napalm, promethium or radiation. Only Curze was more questioned in his methods than Mortarion. Mortarion justified these acts by pointing out that a conventional assault would have created a corpse heap on both sides. This way there was only one corpse heap. The Warlord was never satisfied with this answer, but the results of his campaigns were undeniable.

It was an attitude to war that he took off-world.There was no reason to fight when misery and time would do your work for you. Many whispered that he was his father's son. This was not the case. The Unspeakable Tyrant had done such things in the name of gods to terrible to contemplate and because it aroused him to contemplate them. Mortarion did them because it meant that his soldiers and warriors would be more likely to survive. FOr all that they hated him he did not hate them although they wouldn't have believed that.

During the War of the Beast the Death Guard were the dirty, dirty hands of the Imperium.

Worlds enslaved were infected with flesh eating diseases and the exsanguination virii to name but a few. This was not as their detractors had claimed to punish a population for submitting but to remove the world as a contributing member of the opposition whilst leaving much of it's assets intact.

Hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions died in this manner to ensure a weakened foe. Many, Sanguinius and Vulkan in particular, publicly decried these attacks but Mortarion did not care. They called him a monster and he did not care. The spat on his legions banner and called him and hes followers monsters and abomination and he did not care. Dorn called him a coward and were it not for Typhus the Pilgrim the two would have come to blows.

His Legion were not cowards. None could ever claim that. They fought with mechanical determination, grinding and grinding the enemy down in grueling battles of attrition so that other better, more heroic and inspiring men might live and fight and give heart that other might fight more fierce.

When the smoke had cleared and the Steward and Eldrad stood over the corpse of The Beast to much jubilation there were no cheers from the Death Guard.

They were busy rebuilding their legion. The galaxy was relentless, the work would never be over, there would never truly be time to rest. The Death Guard never, in all the ages to come, acknowledged that the Great Crusade was over. Merely postponed. Even unto the Dark Millennium they maintain their old Expeditionary Forces ships and organization and push back the edge of the map. Not one step back. Not one step back that lasts.

Mortarion finally died on some distant world on the western fringe known as Macharius' Rest. Compounded injuries in the crusade that went no further and simple time had took their toll.

Members of the Dusk Raiders, Death Guard and all the other crusader forces descended from his old Legion make the pilgrimage to that world on the edge of the Imperium.

Logar

- Limited gene-forged. Ynsdonesic Bloc theocracy.

Khan

- Former military commander of Ursh. Early Astartes.

Konrad Curze

Konrad Curze was a man that could politely be described as driven and accurately be described as a frothing at the mouth lunatic. Of all the Primarchs appointed none were more questioned than he.

He had grown up in the final days of the Age of Strife in the rambling under city Tordashimya in the Pan Pacific Empire with all of the horrors and excess that this entails. To say that this had an effect on the deepest levels of his mind would be insufficient, he say the fledgling Imperium as only existing as a means of imposing some sort of order and some basic justice on a world that was in dire need of both and he saw it as his duty to make it happen.

Sadly his means of doing so left much to be desired. The easiest way to rebuild a society is to break it down, the quickest way to gain obedience is through fear and the quickest way to install some system of punishments for crime is to decapitate the government and install a new one.

Despite, or some darkly whispered because of, the Stewards insistence that he change his tact Curze became stubborn and resentful and his predations became more brutal. Unable to halt his course the Steward of Earth directed him instead to the worlds of no hope, worlds so broken that they could never be brought in to the Imperium. Worlds he couldn't make worse.

It was on the world of Nostramo seemingly cursed by gods and men that the Night Haunter found some strange joy. If he could bring a world so broken, so unspeakably wretched, as this to the light of civility then he would be vindicated before the whole galaxy.

The subjugation of that world was the harrowing stuff of nightmares. The Dark Eldar could barely have done better to make every day-cycle a new nightmare.

But in time Night Lord Curze was vindicated. His people took control of ever position of authority and the malcontents and all of their families and friends be hey man or woman or elder or child were removed and rediscovered mutilated and quite dead.

But order was brought, hideous as it was.

For all the horrors his legion inflicted on one world ten more surrendered without raising arms. Examples were made of the worst so that more virtuous peoples could be saved.

When the dark whispers of Chaos afflicted his mind and the eldar of the Crone Worlds arose from their dark corners of space assailed and his dreams and offered him such tantalizing thing they found their blandishments wanting. Their envoys were cut down, their offers refused and a their promises met with scorn. They had assumed that something so monstrous as Curze had become would revel in their depraved debaucheries without considering that he would find them as repulsive as other, better, people found him.

Some, of course, fell. Younger soldiers who had maybe joined the cause for self gratification, creatures in mans guise that had enjoyed their work.

For the entirety of the War of the Beast the Lords of the Night were found sowing discord and misery amongst the fleets and the armies of damnation. For every horror the invaders committed more was inflicted upon them.

Few of that despised Legion fought on the soil of Old Earth and never were they allowed to forget this. But because of their actions the forces of damnation were weakened and poorly focused with one eye always over their shoulder.

In the aftermath of that war it was in no small part due to Curze that more provincial worlds didn't try to leave the Imperium. In the Imperium they had protection. Outside the Imperium Curze would "convince" them to rejoin the Imperium.

Curze was in latter years well aware that he had become everything he had despised in his youth. In the year 243M32 he had himself tried and executed for war crimes as the ultimate testament that none were beyond judgement. He had deemed himself to have outlived his usefulness and although the Imperium could tolerate a useful monster it should have no love for them.

Angron

Angron was a slave pit fighter in what was left of the Nord Afrik Enclaves.

He was liberated quite early on in The Warlords campaign. Signed on to join the Thunder Warriors.

Rose through the ranks and earned great fame and respect. Munched loved by his men due to his tendency to lead from the front and getting stuck in where the fighting was thickest.

Was one of the older generation of TW with all the damage and flaws this brought with it.

Due to his astounding aptitudes he was promoted to the rank of Primarch and given command of a batch of the new Astartes model Space Marines.

Plagued by health issues despite attempts to repair his faulty upgrades. Refused the retirement offer that many TW took to make lives for themselves. He wouldn't have been able to deal with a peaceful life.

Survived all the way to the end of The War of the Beast but not much longer. Died peacefully in his sleep. Probably the oldest TW.

Kharn the Oathsworn took over, new type of super soldier for a new era.

He didn't live a happy life, but given the nature of his childhood he could have lived a worse one and a statue of him stands outside the gate of the Carthisisa Hive Cathedral.

Corax

- Bania, astartes.

Alpharious & Omegon

"I am the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." these are the last known records of the primarchs ‘’Alpharius and Omegon’’. All documents and records were deleted by inquisition, Those that were thought to be associated with the primarchs disappeared and all that was left was a parchment with those words and a small wax stamp beneath depicting the lernaean hydra of old terran mythology. Now the only way to learn about the individuals and their legacy is by eyewitness accounts and rumours that have gone under the inquisitions watchful gaze.

One eyewitness report tells of two figures clad in dark robes standing next to the warlord and his war council, they describe that the figures were much shorter than the other in the council. It is unknown if these are the individuals known as Alpharius and Omegon because other reports say that they were tall men fighting battles and cutting down enemies. It is now even known if they are two persons and might in fact be one individual. This comes from a witness that said to have met a man dressed in the clothes of a highly revered official that presented himself as ‘’Alpharius Omegon’’. All that is known that there was at one point one or more individuals called Alpharius and Omegon. But what is known is that he or they had a large part in the counterintelligence and espionage of the unification war. They were said to be masters of infiltration and were supposedly to have a deep network of agents and assassins so that the mysterious individuals could act at multiple places at once. This Network is thought to become what we now know as the inquisition.

‘’Cut off one head and two shall take it’s place.’’ -Last words spoken from a prisoner before committing suicide.

A popular theory about the origins of the mysterious individuals, is that they were the members of the even less known ██████████ that were a secret society of old terra. It’s thought that that they joined the warlord after seeing the potential power that they could have they sent their most loyal and brightest two members to help the warlord in his endeavours.

‘’You search the darkness, while we hide in the light. You see not the serpent lying in wait, you see only a brother. We witnessed your beginning and we will be your end.’’ -Said to be whispered to an imperial official before her assassination.

Another theory is that they originate from ███ ████ a group of Xenos set on destroying the ‘’primordial annihilator’’ and thus sent their best human operatives to aid the warlord and his future plans.

‘’Cut the head off the snake and the body will die shortly after’’ -thought to be a direct quote from either Alpharius or Omegon.

Alpharius and Omegon are thought to be major members in the creation of the inquisition and that after the alliance with the eldar their influence has only increased. Acting as puppet masters, they are thought to be behind both the starting of wars and the ending of them, doing as they see fit for the better of the imperium.

It was around ████ that all records and documents of Alpharius and Omegon were deleted. Theories say that they had died and that their successors order the purge of information surrounding the primarchs so that their legacy and actions can be forgotten. Other theories say that the warlord declared them traitors and therefore got rid of all evidence of their existence. But yet to this day there are whispers about legions of men and women walking among us, executing the orders of their puppets masters, killing the corrupt, eliminating the foe from the inside and bearing the brand of the hydra

‘’Hydra Dominatus’’ -Alpharius and Omegon the Beginning and the end

The Craftworlds

ALAITOC:

A Craftworld of contradictions, Alaitoc is both highly-regimented and highly liberated-. The reason for this is that while the majority of the Craftworld's population are highly dedicated to Eldar ideals, a sizeable minority seek freedom from their home's stifling environment. As such, its relations with the greater Imperium are also as contradictory.

Officially, Alaitoc is only marginally allied with the Imperium. While they do send small tithes of soldiers as needed, the still-proud Eldar of Alaitoc refuse to have any more dealings with mon-keigh than is strictly necessary. Their troops, even those of the lowest ranks, are notorious often treat non-Eldar of any rank with breathtaking disdain fit to rival any three hive princes one could name. An exasperated Saint Macharius was once heard to remark "Better a thousand armies of the Beast's cultists at my rear than a single Alaitoc Farseer at my side!"

The same cannot be said however, for the Rangers that Alaitoc regularly sends out, albeit unintentionally. Freed of their stifling homes, many eventually find solace in the familiar, though not as restricted, environments of other Craftworlds. More notorious however are those Rangers who find Imperial life to their liking, and in a strange, yet peculiarly Eldar way, often find themselves as obsessed with non-Eldar life as an Exarch on their path, sometimes even combining two or more cultures in their quest for freedom and reinvention. Even the most seasoned galactic traveller must take pause when they find themselves meeting "Fio'La Bork'an Rialieath, Magos Prime of Forge Alpha."

BIEL-TAN:

As one of the Imperium's most militiarized Craftworlds, Biel-Tan Aspect Warriors are the ones most often seen on both the battlefield and in Imperial media, with the gruff, battle-hardened Biel-Tan warrior being a staple of Imperial entertainment. Of the major Craftworlds aligned to the Imperium, the Biel-Tan are perhaps one of the most fanatical in expanding Imperial borders, seeing in the Imperium a chance to recreate the Eldar Empire of old. This has sometimes caused friction even within the Imperial military, as Biel-Tan officers regularly advise all-out offensives regardless of the state of the greater army.

One notable aspect of Biel-tan's society is the surprising amount of regard they hold for the inhabitants of Tallarn, a desert world. During the War of the Beast, a large cultist army sought ancient relics long-buried beneath Tallarn's surface. With Imperial forces being in disarray at the time, many Imperial authorities wrote offf Tallarn as lost, and prepared for an assault from that side, Cursing their new allies and their own kin for their cowardice, the Eldar of Biel-Tan rushed to Tallarn, determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible.

However, upon arrival they found the devastated Tallarni not waging a desperate war, but holding onto a bloody stalemate despite being outnumbered and outgunned. When the ferocious Eldar fell upon the cultist forces, the Tallarni were quick to take the advantage. Though their once prisitine farmworld had been turned into a vast desert, they had managed to win the respect of the Eldar. Though today the Craftworld maintains a careful distance, both socially and physically, from their adopted planet, they do make short visits in small numbers to carefully shepard the desert warriors. Most adult Tallarni that the 'djinns' of their childhood stories are really the Imperium's major alien ally, but even their oldest generals often show more than the usual respect humans give one of the elder race.

IYANDEN:

In official records and Imperial propaganda, Iyanden is one of the most successful examples of Imperial-Eldar relations in history, a friendship won in blood and iron. And while this may be believed by the rank and file of both peoples, the truth is a little more complex than that.

Even after the marriage between the Steward (as he was still known at the time) and Isha, the Craftworld of Iyandem refused to be part of the alliance. They saw the evil that lurked in the hearts of men, and lambasted the idea of chaining their entire race to the barely-tamed, barely-evolved pseudo primates that had the gall to call itself a sentient species. Even so, they knew that angering said wild beast would only prove detrimental, so they made a deal- they would of course honour any request the Imperium would make of them, on the condition the Imperium never made any such request. Though the High Lords took great offence at this snub, they also knew that antagonizing Iyanden would risk the rest of the alliance, and so quietly backed down.

And so matters were left, Iyanden being an island of isolation in the middle of the Realm of Ultramar. Though they opened their docks for limited trade in late M36, they only did so for the handful of Rogue Traders who managed to find their home. Even then, it was only for what few luxuries the Craftworld could not provide, and would be safe for those on the Path to consume.

Then the Hive Fleets came.

Isolated as they were, Iyanden was almost engulfed by the Shadow in the Warp when they managed to send their distress signal. Even so, it said that only by miraculous guidance from the Eternal Emperor and Empress did Prince-Admiral (later Saint) Yriel manage to find the beleagured Craftworld (indeed, it is officially recorded as the Saint's first miracle). Though the rescue effort was a success, the Craftworld was left devastated, with many of its population reduced to soulstones. Even worse, the Imperial fleet that had saved them could barely spend enough time for rest and repairs, as the chitinous tide threatened to drown Ultima Segmentum. No ship could be spared to defend Iyanden, not even the most grievously wounded ones guaranteed to die pauper's deaths in the void.And so it was that Iyanden found itself making another unfair deal. They offered to make themselves a mobile dock for the Imperial Navy, on the condition that there would always be ships provided for their protection.

Today, Iyanden is so integrated into the Navy organization of Ultima Segmentum that it is officially designated a void station colony instead of a Craftworld. Sailors from a hundred member races, from a thousand times more worlds, mingle every day in bustling streets where once Eldar took quiet walks. So many ships orbit the Craftworld that at times they block the stars. And while many of the younger races and Eldar youth see this as a great thing (some even proclaim Iyanden's colours of blue and gold, the same as the Imperial Navy's, to be a sign of divine intervention), older Eldar simply sigh, and mourn the lost purity of their home as yet another casualty of the Tyranids, and they fear what the outsiders might bring in.

SAIM-HANN:

The Craftworld of Saim-Hann are an anomaly in the Imperium's dealings with the Eldar. In the early days of alliance negotiations, the Eldar Seers negotiating with the High Lords insisted almost every Craftworld be given proper due and respect, even prideful ones like Biel-Tan and Iyanden. Almost every Craftworld- save for Saim-Hann. When Imperial authorities tried to find out the reason for this surprising reticence, they found out just why the Seers let them carry out the fact-finding mission in the first place.

The Saim-Hann were wild, more wild than even the humans were used to. In many of their dealings, the Eldar displayed a surprising lack of respect for Isha, calling her 'soft-bodied' and throwing the word 'gentle' like an insult. Negotiations quickly degraded, and would have broken down had not the Saim-Hann Farseer in charge of his side's negotiations noticed one of the humans taking a swig of the drinks the Eldar gave them ("You think us barbarians, mon-keigh?" one of them is reputed to have asked. "Perhaps you are right- but we are not savages."). Unlike the other Imperials present, who only took polite sips with grimaces on their faces, this giant Imperial seemed to actually enjoy his drinks. Seeing the chance for a bit of fun, the Farseer said that he would sign whatever deal the Imperials wanted, if that one man could outdrink the Farseer amd his council.

"Wasn't like I could say no, right?" Leman Russ later remarked. "I managed to outdrink the Steward while he still walked among us, I could outdrink a bunch of prissy Eldar," he would add, endearing him and his Wolves even further to Saim-Hann.

His terms were surprisingly lenient, though it did include a proviso that the Eldar stop by the Fang for a drink once in a while. Even long after Russ's disappearance, Saim-Hann warbands often stop by Fenris, and the halls of the Fang echo with tales of ribaldry and derring-do, all equal in their magnificence and unbelievability.

ULTHWE:

One of the last Craftworlds attempting to escape the Eye of Terror, Ulthwe was instead doomed to forever orbit the afterbirth of Slaanesh, pulled dangerously close to the Eye by gravitational fields. Ever since then, the Eldar of Ulthwe have fought against Chaos, though it is not a fight they face alone. The stalwart warriors of Cadia can often be found back-to-back with Ulthwe Eldar, and their Kasrkin train alongside Aspect Warriors and Exarchs.

Like Biel-Tan, Ulthwe has found itself admiring the humans with whom they shed blood together, even moreso since they've been doing so since the Eye of Terror was formed, before even the alliance. These ties have only grown stronger since; it is said that the average Cadian will know how to strip his gun before they are 10 and learn to swear in Eldar by 15. Despite the facetiousness of that claim, it is true that Cadians are generally adept in both Eldar customs and language at amazingly young ages, with only the highest reaches of both being beyond human grasp as they require subtle psychic signals only Eldar are capable of. Many Ulthwe Eldar even prefer the harsh utilitarianism of Imperial equipment as opposed to the grace of Eldar technology, and it is not uncommon to see Ulthwe Guardians wearing adapted flak armour and fatigues on campaign. In exceptional circumstances, Ulthwe Eldar have even served directly in the Cadian Guard, often to great acclaim- the career of Farseer-Colonel Taldeer of the Cadian 412th (later the 1st Kronus Liberators) is the most well-known example, one that is often compared to the career of Commissar-Colonel Gaunt.

Incidentally, the most Eldar-human couplings on record are those between Ulthwe Eldar and Cadian humans, and while no children have been recorded as resulting from these unions, many such married couples assure those who ask delicately that it is not due to lack of trying.