Ghoul Stars

"Here be dragons."

– Inscription on the Hunt-Lenox Globe, circa 503.M2

"...Fourth Company reports the asteroid settlements of the Orcades brought into Compliance as per the edict of the Second Crusade, one thousand souls claimed as bondsmen for the Legion that it may grow and prosper. Expect our return to Atargatis within the month for reassignment."

– Transmission of unknown provenance, detected by Imperial craft during routine patrol of the Ghoul Stars, 068.M31

Overview

The Ghoul Stars are a far-flung region of space in Warhammer 40,000, located on the northeast fringes of the galaxy, beyond the Ultima Segmentum. The Stars are so far out, in fact, that the light of the Astronomican barely reaches them, meaning that Warp travel in the region is dangerous at best and suicidal at worst. It is also one of the most fucked up places in the galaxy, even by 40k standards. Before the Age of Strife, the Ghoul Stars were home to many human-populated worlds, but some unknown catastrophe (possibly the Khrave) appears to have scoured all these planets of life, leaving behind an unusually large number of Dead Worlds. Many horrendous xenos species inhabit the Ghoul Stars, including creatures with powers that defy even the already bent rules of reality that 40k operates under. The Imperium at large considers the region to be such a dangerous place that it has an entire chapter of Space Marines and a Deathwatch garrison dedicated solely to guarding the border between them and the rest of the galaxy. This is entirely justified, as the Ghoul Stars have produced several major threats to the Imperium over the millennia. Something called the Pale Wasting (most likely related to the aforementioned ugly Xenos) emerged from the Stars during the Nova Terra Interregnum of the 34th Millennium and destroyed entire sectors and ELEVEN Space Marine Chapters before being defeated. The Novamarines participated in this campaign, but their histories make no mention of it. Let that sink in. An Ultramarines SUCCESSOR chapter fought here, and there are no Matt Wardian celebratory slaps on the back for the Novamarines. That's how brutal it was. In 977.M41, a Tyranid splinter fleet, horribly warped by its passage through the Ghoul Stars, attacked the Sentinel World Orask and were only beaten back by a stubborn defense, shored up by a company of Red Talons and a Titan maniple from the Legio Magna. Just before the Third War for Armageddon in 998.M41, the Black Templars declared a crusade against the xenos species known as the Cythor Fiends, and were able to nearly exterminate the xenos entirely. However, when they reached the Fiends' homeworld, they found it completely deserted. Before they could investigate further, they were called to Armageddon to help in the battle against Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. In M42 the Black Templars Oparian Crusade disappeared into the Ghoul Stars, though many believe they still continue fighting onward.

The Bone Kingdom of Drazak

The Bone Kingdom of Drazak is effectively a Necron leper colony, as it is inhabited entirely by Flayed Ones. They roam the ruins of their world, fighting each other for scraps of meat and bone. Their Overlord, Valgûl the Fallen, is somehow immune to the Flayer virus, and is therefore the only sane Necron on Drazak. He spends most of his time sitting on a throne made of broken bones and flayed skin, but every few months he rounds up his batshit-crazy subjects for the "Time of Bounty", which is a fancy way of saying "violently raid nearby planets to acquire more squishy organic bits to fight over".

The Kingdom is featured in the Twice Dead King series. Valgul is dismissed by the protagonist Oltyx as a myth, believing that it is impossible for a Necron to keep his sanity after contracting the Flayer Virus. Yet circumstances conspire that he must bring his Dynasty, heavily afflicted by the Flayer Curse, to Drazak while it turns out he himself has it yet somehow retains all of his faculties. Eventually when his arrives at Drazak, he finds it completely empty and lifeless, seemingly waiting for a king to reign over it. Heavily implying that he became Valgul in the end (also aided by the fact he ends up losing his eye, exactly like how Valgul is described in the codex). How this works is left ambigious; he may have traveled back in time (due to travelling through an alternate dimension called the Ghostwind which is also revealed to be the same dimension Flayed Ones use for their travel), Valgul may be a title passed down between Necron Lords over the generations or it may be that Valgul truly was a myth until Oltyx took on his role.

The Ashen Claws Empire

The renegade Space Marine chapter known as the Ashen Claws originated from a group of Terran Raven Guard who were more or less banished from the XIX Legion after the Battle of Gate 42 during the Great Crusade. Corax wasn't fond of the Terrans in his legion, as they were too ruthless and brutal for his tastes. He therefore volunteered the survivors of Gate 42 to join a crusade fleet that was dispatched into the Ghoul Stars to bring the region into Imperial compliance. These survivors were still out there when the Horus Heresy erupted. While they remained nominally loyal to the Imperium, they eventually deteriorated into a chapter of renegades, attacking loyalists and traitors alike in order to secure their own survival. They are now based on the world of Atargatis Prime, and almost no one except for the Carcharodons knows that they still exist, where they remain nominal loyalists who are de facto independent due to obscurity. They are tenuously allied with the Carcharadons and exchange gear and gene seed. Astropathic fragments intercepted indicates that as late as 062.M31 the Ashen Claws was still bringing worlds into compliance according to edicts of their 'Second Crusade'.

Echoes of the Black Library

Echoes of the Black Library persist within the materium. The last of these traces were located at the western fringes of the Ghoul Stars, within a triangle formed by the Grand Shrine of Asuryan and the Exodite worlds of Syph and Quilan after the Great Rift.