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Hive Fleet Gorgon

2020-02-16T17:38:53Z

2607:FEA8:91E0:ED00:29CF:C0D4:AAD2:6BE5: /* Gorgon Returns */

Hive Fleet Gorgon is a [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Fleet]] that threatened the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, and in particular, the borders of the [[Tau Empire]]. It's one of the first splinter fleets created after the First Tyranic War ended with the imperial victory in the Battle of [[Macragge]] in 745.M41.

==Aftermath of Macragge==
The destruction of [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] during the Battle of Macragge was the first major victory against a major Hive Fleet. The splintering of the remaining nid Hive Ships and its dispersal throughout the area kept imperial forces very busy, but even with all that activity, there were too many isolated splinters, certainly too many for the imperial forces to find and purge alone. Thus, slowly but steadily, some smaller splinter fleets began growing in mass and power, feeding on backwater planets. After a while, it started to move further and further from the Imperium's borders, finally making contact with the Tau Empire.

==Tau's first contact with the tyranids==
By the time Gorgon arrived to the first [[Tau]] controlled planets, it had grown to become quite a threat in its own right, although it didn't reach nearly the size of the original Behemoth. The Tau knew something was very wrong in the area, due to the loss of multiple trading posts in Imperium-controlled territory. In 900.M41, Gorgon attacked the planet of Sha'draig, which would become the battlegrounds for the first Tyranid-Tau war. The Tau's forces were able to entrench themselves within their ships and bases, and just let their drones make good work on the hordes of Tyranids. After a distress signal was launched, a rescue fleet was sent to the colony as soon as possible, arriving soon enough to assist the planet, but long after the moon was lost. The landwar didn't go well for the Tau either. Despite the effords of the Kroot forces dispatching Tyranids quite efficiently in the forests, the nid's advance kept going and the loss of the planet became quite clear for Tau command. In a last ditch efford to keep the planet, and going against orders from their superiors, the Fire Cast commander launched a series of suicide attacks in order to kill the bigger synapse creatures and cause major havoc upon the invaders. Against all odds, they managed to succeed, and with a last final push, managed to kick Gorgon out of the planet. An impressive feat considering the Imperium lost quite a few planets before managing to obtain a major victory against the Nids. Score one for the Greater Good, I guess. Then again, Gorgon was far smaller than Behemoth ever was, the Tau didn't destroy it here, it just moved on to other planets, and Sha'draig ended up so damaged by the invasion that it was abandoned shortly after.

==The war against Gorgon: adapt or die==
After this first encounter with the tyranid fleet, the Tau authorities were scared shitless. Hive Fleet Gorgon was a threat unlike anything they had seen before: the planet was in ruins. Poisoned and bereft of resources, it barely had any use now for anyone. Most of the forces that fought the Hive Fleet had been wiped out, and most of Gorgon was still out there, attacking nearby Tau outposts, not that much worse for wear. Unlike the Imperium, there was no chance of negotiation, and unlike orks, once a planet is lost it can never be recovered (bad for a massive empire like the Imperium, almost unbearable for the small Tau Empire). To top it all off, Hive Fleet Gorgon was exceptionally apt in changing and adapting its strategy in the face of new threats. The Tau forces, <s>way</s> sometimes more flexible than its Imperium counterpart (a million planets, most producing unique regiments, can and does give incredible flexibility), had fought the nids on Sha'draig with many strategies: massive drone attacks, stealth attacks, kroot charges and traps, stealth suits, kamikaze attacks... And to all of them, the nids had developed a strategy to deal with each one. One of the most important adaptations of the Hive Fleet was the developement of carapace body armour strong enough to deal with plasma and ion weaponry, both favourites of the Tau military, and creating faster and faster creatures to meet the bluies in melee combat, which Tau are too weak against. The Tau kept changing their strategy too, either spamming droids and kroot armies to deal with the swarms, stealth suits to catch the bigger organisms off guards, switching their weapons to older models based on outdated tech once the nids adapted to <s>plasma</s> particle and ionic tech (ion weapons ''are'' the Tau plasma weapons, pulse weapons fire accelerated, charged particles, one per barrel)... The Tau managed to get an edge in their fights thanks to the biological nature of the tyranid weaponry and adaptations. Changing the DNA of your units and then spawning them fast enough into the battlefield took longer than just using normal tech, which limited the size and strength of their units during vital moments, which was then used by the Tau to snipe the bigger synapse creatures from affar and break the cohesion of the tyranid swarms. Which <s>doesn't really make sense given both the sheer number of tyranids, including giant synapse creatures, and that the sheer number of spawning sources for the 'nids would likely outproduce the entire Tau industry. This isn't another minor xenos empire they're fighitng; it's a damn ''Tyranid '''Hive Fleet'''''</s> makes sense given it was a tactic meant to keep the nids away from Sha'draig, not destroy the fleet entirely.

==The Necrons and the Imperium join the fray==
After Gorgon's retreat from Sha'draig, the Hive Fleet started looking for other planets to eat, to replenish the losses suffered on Sha'draig. One of the more interesting scenarios was the Ka'mais system. A rather undefended planet, the local forces were no match for the relatively small fleet coming for them. When all hope seemed lost, a dormant necron tomb awakened on the dead moon of the planet, managing to fight off the tyranids in space. This became the Tau's first contact with the necrons. And the local ethereal made the totally sound decision of declaring a party in their honor, this would have been perfectly fine had it been eldar, but this ended with the predictable outcome of all of the bluies killed and flayed alive...because necrons.The few survivors of the planet (plus the ones from nearby worlds too, having heard of the utter slaughter the necrons had unleashed there) were evacuated and fled, [[Fail|only for Hive Fleet Gorgon to eat them once in space]]. Welcome to the galaxy, meat.

The war was not going well for the Tau in other fronts either. They had lost quite a lot of ships due to the new and improved bio-ships, now immune to Tau weaponry, and a couple of small worlds had fallen to the Hive Fleet already. Suddenly, and without warning, a huge fleet from the Imperium of Man emerged from the Warp. The fleet was originally meant to fight in the Damocles Crusade, but it had become stuck in the Warp for more than a century. Not knowing the Crusade was lost (read: wandered off to go kill daemons), they immediately attacked the nearest planet. Trying to make sense of the situation, the Tau authorities tried to bring them up to speed with the latest events. At first, the fleet admiral didn't believe the obvious lies of those filthy xenos, but then they found Hive Fleet Gorgon, and decided it was a bigger risk than the bluies. Displaying an uncharacteristically adept level of teamwork, Imperial and Tau forces were able to fight Hive Fleet Gorgon to a standstill, cutting deep into their forces and severely hurt most of the bio-ships. Considerably wounded, Hive Fleet Gorgon tried to run away from this sudden opposition, but it was chased down by the combined forces, unable to adapt quickly enough to handle two combat docrines as different as the Tau and the Imperial Guard at the same time.

==Aftermath of Gorgon==
By 903.M41, Hive Fleet Gorgon had been presumed erased from existence. Most of its reproductive organisms had been destroyed, and the ones left were thought to be too weak to replenish their numbers. The Tau Empire had learnt a valuable lesson fighting the forces of the Great Devourer, a threat it would soon become commonplace in its borders. They had also made first contact with the Necrons, although that threat would prove much different from the Tyranid menace. The Tau-Imperium alliance quickly ended once Gorgon had been driven off, but the rapid breakdown of the truce prevented either of them from wiping it out entirely. This would prove to be a terrible mistake for both the Tau and the Imperium.

==Gorgon Returns==
Within a few decades, Hive Fleet Gorgon had fully reconstituted itself. And it had learned well from its past defeats.

As evolving the individual bioforms had proven to be too slow when dealing with multiple disparate forces, the Hive Mind hit on the idea of evolving their toxin sacs instead. Now filled with a bizarre semi-sentient spore, these new toxin sacs could adapt to kill any life form they came into contact with and allowed different bioforms to "share" the most effective toxins instantaneously via the synaptic network. The first known use of these new poisons was able to bring down an entire Plague Hulk, with the famed resilience of the [[Death Guard]] proving worthless against spores that simply made their rotted flesh fall off their bodies. <s>Which actually contradicts one of the few things that can be considered genuine canon. Using toxins against the favored forces of the god of plagues (''including toxins'') should not work.</s> The forces of Nurgle are only immune to plagues and poisons because their bodies are not attacked by them. A semi-sentient, Tyranid-made toxin not under control of Nurgle, but of the Hive Mind has no such issue.

The Hive Fleet has also demonstrated a greater proficiency in using its poisons against its foes in general; in the case of one system composed mostly of agri-worlds, it appears that the Fleet never intended to consume it in the first place. Instead, it had attacked them as a distraction while the crops on said agri-worlds were laced with toxic spores. Millions of Imperial Guardsmen died to protect plantations which were already unfit for human consumption. The poisoning was never discovered until months later, when several worlds reported freak outbreaks of people drowning in their own foaming blood after consuming the contaminated food. This right here is why the Tyranids are so damn dangerous. They're not just freakishly powerful, psychic space locust. They're freakishly powerful, psychic space locust ''that are smarter than you''.

{{Tyranids-HiveFleets}}

Hive Fleet Gorgon

2020-02-16T17:38:01Z

2607:FEA8:91E0:ED00:29CF:C0D4:AAD2:6BE5: /* Gorgon Returns */

Hive Fleet Gorgon is a [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Fleet]] that threatened the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, and in particular, the borders of the [[Tau Empire]]. It's one of the first splinter fleets created after the First Tyranic War ended with the imperial victory in the Battle of [[Macragge]] in 745.M41.

==Aftermath of Macragge==
The destruction of [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] during the Battle of Macragge was the first major victory against a major Hive Fleet. The splintering of the remaining nid Hive Ships and its dispersal throughout the area kept imperial forces very busy, but even with all that activity, there were too many isolated splinters, certainly too many for the imperial forces to find and purge alone. Thus, slowly but steadily, some smaller splinter fleets began growing in mass and power, feeding on backwater planets. After a while, it started to move further and further from the Imperium's borders, finally making contact with the Tau Empire.

==Tau's first contact with the tyranids==
By the time Gorgon arrived to the first [[Tau]] controlled planets, it had grown to become quite a threat in its own right, although it didn't reach nearly the size of the original Behemoth. The Tau knew something was very wrong in the area, due to the loss of multiple trading posts in Imperium-controlled territory. In 900.M41, Gorgon attacked the planet of Sha'draig, which would become the battlegrounds for the first Tyranid-Tau war. The Tau's forces were able to entrench themselves within their ships and bases, and just let their drones make good work on the hordes of Tyranids. After a distress signal was launched, a rescue fleet was sent to the colony as soon as possible, arriving soon enough to assist the planet, but long after the moon was lost. The landwar didn't go well for the Tau either. Despite the effords of the Kroot forces dispatching Tyranids quite efficiently in the forests, the nid's advance kept going and the loss of the planet became quite clear for Tau command. In a last ditch efford to keep the planet, and going against orders from their superiors, the Fire Cast commander launched a series of suicide attacks in order to kill the bigger synapse creatures and cause major havoc upon the invaders. Against all odds, they managed to succeed, and with a last final push, managed to kick Gorgon out of the planet. An impressive feat considering the Imperium lost quite a few planets before managing to obtain a major victory against the Nids. Score one for the Greater Good, I guess. Then again, Gorgon was far smaller than Behemoth ever was, the Tau didn't destroy it here, it just moved on to other planets, and Sha'draig ended up so damaged by the invasion that it was abandoned shortly after.

==The war against Gorgon: adapt or die==
After this first encounter with the tyranid fleet, the Tau authorities were scared shitless. Hive Fleet Gorgon was a threat unlike anything they had seen before: the planet was in ruins. Poisoned and bereft of resources, it barely had any use now for anyone. Most of the forces that fought the Hive Fleet had been wiped out, and most of Gorgon was still out there, attacking nearby Tau outposts, not that much worse for wear. Unlike the Imperium, there was no chance of negotiation, and unlike orks, once a planet is lost it can never be recovered (bad for a massive empire like the Imperium, almost unbearable for the small Tau Empire). To top it all off, Hive Fleet Gorgon was exceptionally apt in changing and adapting its strategy in the face of new threats. The Tau forces, <s>way</s> sometimes more flexible than its Imperium counterpart (a million planets, most producing unique regiments, can and does give incredible flexibility), had fought the nids on Sha'draig with many strategies: massive drone attacks, stealth attacks, kroot charges and traps, stealth suits, kamikaze attacks... And to all of them, the nids had developed a strategy to deal with each one. One of the most important adaptations of the Hive Fleet was the developement of carapace body armour strong enough to deal with plasma and ion weaponry, both favourites of the Tau military, and creating faster and faster creatures to meet the bluies in melee combat, which Tau are too weak against. The Tau kept changing their strategy too, either spamming droids and kroot armies to deal with the swarms, stealth suits to catch the bigger organisms off guards, switching their weapons to older models based on outdated tech once the nids adapted to <s>plasma</s> particle and ionic tech (ion weapons ''are'' the Tau plasma weapons, pulse weapons fire accelerated, charged particles, one per barrel)... The Tau managed to get an edge in their fights thanks to the biological nature of the tyranid weaponry and adaptations. Changing the DNA of your units and then spawning them fast enough into the battlefield took longer than just using normal tech, which limited the size and strength of their units during vital moments, which was then used by the Tau to snipe the bigger synapse creatures from affar and break the cohesion of the tyranid swarms. Which <s>doesn't really make sense given both the sheer number of tyranids, including giant synapse creatures, and that the sheer number of spawning sources for the 'nids would likely outproduce the entire Tau industry. This isn't another minor xenos empire they're fighitng; it's a damn ''Tyranid '''Hive Fleet'''''</s> makes sense given it was a tactic meant to keep the nids away from Sha'draig, not destroy the fleet entirely.

==The Necrons and the Imperium join the fray==
After Gorgon's retreat from Sha'draig, the Hive Fleet started looking for other planets to eat, to replenish the losses suffered on Sha'draig. One of the more interesting scenarios was the Ka'mais system. A rather undefended planet, the local forces were no match for the relatively small fleet coming for them. When all hope seemed lost, a dormant necron tomb awakened on the dead moon of the planet, managing to fight off the tyranids in space. This became the Tau's first contact with the necrons. And the local ethereal made the totally sound decision of declaring a party in their honor, this would have been perfectly fine had it been eldar, but this ended with the predictable outcome of all of the bluies killed and flayed alive...because necrons.The few survivors of the planet (plus the ones from nearby worlds too, having heard of the utter slaughter the necrons had unleashed there) were evacuated and fled, [[Fail|only for Hive Fleet Gorgon to eat them once in space]]. Welcome to the galaxy, meat.

The war was not going well for the Tau in other fronts either. They had lost quite a lot of ships due to the new and improved bio-ships, now immune to Tau weaponry, and a couple of small worlds had fallen to the Hive Fleet already. Suddenly, and without warning, a huge fleet from the Imperium of Man emerged from the Warp. The fleet was originally meant to fight in the Damocles Crusade, but it had become stuck in the Warp for more than a century. Not knowing the Crusade was lost (read: wandered off to go kill daemons), they immediately attacked the nearest planet. Trying to make sense of the situation, the Tau authorities tried to bring them up to speed with the latest events. At first, the fleet admiral didn't believe the obvious lies of those filthy xenos, but then they found Hive Fleet Gorgon, and decided it was a bigger risk than the bluies. Displaying an uncharacteristically adept level of teamwork, Imperial and Tau forces were able to fight Hive Fleet Gorgon to a standstill, cutting deep into their forces and severely hurt most of the bio-ships. Considerably wounded, Hive Fleet Gorgon tried to run away from this sudden opposition, but it was chased down by the combined forces, unable to adapt quickly enough to handle two combat docrines as different as the Tau and the Imperial Guard at the same time.

==Aftermath of Gorgon==
By 903.M41, Hive Fleet Gorgon had been presumed erased from existence. Most of its reproductive organisms had been destroyed, and the ones left were thought to be too weak to replenish their numbers. The Tau Empire had learnt a valuable lesson fighting the forces of the Great Devourer, a threat it would soon become commonplace in its borders. They had also made first contact with the Necrons, although that threat would prove much different from the Tyranid menace. The Tau-Imperium alliance quickly ended once Gorgon had been driven off, but the rapid breakdown of the truce prevented either of them from wiping it out entirely. This would prove to be a terrible mistake for both the Tau and the Imperium.

==Gorgon Returns==
Within a few decades, Hive Fleet Gorgon had fully reconstituted itself. And it had learned well from its past defeats.

As evolving the individual bioforms had proven to be too slow when dealing with multiple disparate forces, the Hive Mind hit on the idea of evolving their toxin sacs instead. Now filled with a bizarre semi-sentient spore, these new toxin sacs could adapt to kill any life form they came into contact with and allowed different bioforms to "share" the most effective toxins instantaneously via the synaptic network. The first known use of these new poisons was able to bring down an entire Plague Hulk, with the famed resilience of the [[Death Guard]] proving worthless against spores that simply made their rotted flesh fall off their bodies. -Which actually contradicts one of the few things that can be considered genuine canon. Using toxins against the favored forces of the god of plagues (''including toxins'') should not work- The forces of Nurgle are only immune to plagues and poisons because their bodies are not attacked by them. A semi-sentient, Tyranid-made toxin not under control of Nurgle, but of the Hive Mind has no such issue.

The Hive Fleet has also demonstrated a greater proficiency in using its poisons against its foes in general; in the case of one system composed mostly of agri-worlds, it appears that the Fleet never intended to consume it in the first place. Instead, it had attacked them as a distraction while the crops on said agri-worlds were laced with toxic spores. Millions of Imperial Guardsmen died to protect plantations which were already unfit for human consumption. The poisoning was never discovered until months later, when several worlds reported freak outbreaks of people drowning in their own foaming blood after consuming the contaminated food. This right here is why the Tyranids are so damn dangerous. They're not just freakishly powerful, psychic space locust. They're freakishly powerful, psychic space locust ''that are smarter than you''.

{{Tyranids-HiveFleets}}

Hive Fleet Gorgon

2020-02-16T17:37:41Z

2607:FEA8:91E0:ED00:29CF:C0D4:AAD2:6BE5: /* Gorgon Returns */

Hive Fleet Gorgon is a [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Fleet]] that threatened the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, and in particular, the borders of the [[Tau Empire]]. It's one of the first splinter fleets created after the First Tyranic War ended with the imperial victory in the Battle of [[Macragge]] in 745.M41.

==Aftermath of Macragge==
The destruction of [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] during the Battle of Macragge was the first major victory against a major Hive Fleet. The splintering of the remaining nid Hive Ships and its dispersal throughout the area kept imperial forces very busy, but even with all that activity, there were too many isolated splinters, certainly too many for the imperial forces to find and purge alone. Thus, slowly but steadily, some smaller splinter fleets began growing in mass and power, feeding on backwater planets. After a while, it started to move further and further from the Imperium's borders, finally making contact with the Tau Empire.

==Tau's first contact with the tyranids==
By the time Gorgon arrived to the first [[Tau]] controlled planets, it had grown to become quite a threat in its own right, although it didn't reach nearly the size of the original Behemoth. The Tau knew something was very wrong in the area, due to the loss of multiple trading posts in Imperium-controlled territory. In 900.M41, Gorgon attacked the planet of Sha'draig, which would become the battlegrounds for the first Tyranid-Tau war. The Tau's forces were able to entrench themselves within their ships and bases, and just let their drones make good work on the hordes of Tyranids. After a distress signal was launched, a rescue fleet was sent to the colony as soon as possible, arriving soon enough to assist the planet, but long after the moon was lost. The landwar didn't go well for the Tau either. Despite the effords of the Kroot forces dispatching Tyranids quite efficiently in the forests, the nid's advance kept going and the loss of the planet became quite clear for Tau command. In a last ditch efford to keep the planet, and going against orders from their superiors, the Fire Cast commander launched a series of suicide attacks in order to kill the bigger synapse creatures and cause major havoc upon the invaders. Against all odds, they managed to succeed, and with a last final push, managed to kick Gorgon out of the planet. An impressive feat considering the Imperium lost quite a few planets before managing to obtain a major victory against the Nids. Score one for the Greater Good, I guess. Then again, Gorgon was far smaller than Behemoth ever was, the Tau didn't destroy it here, it just moved on to other planets, and Sha'draig ended up so damaged by the invasion that it was abandoned shortly after.

==The war against Gorgon: adapt or die==
After this first encounter with the tyranid fleet, the Tau authorities were scared shitless. Hive Fleet Gorgon was a threat unlike anything they had seen before: the planet was in ruins. Poisoned and bereft of resources, it barely had any use now for anyone. Most of the forces that fought the Hive Fleet had been wiped out, and most of Gorgon was still out there, attacking nearby Tau outposts, not that much worse for wear. Unlike the Imperium, there was no chance of negotiation, and unlike orks, once a planet is lost it can never be recovered (bad for a massive empire like the Imperium, almost unbearable for the small Tau Empire). To top it all off, Hive Fleet Gorgon was exceptionally apt in changing and adapting its strategy in the face of new threats. The Tau forces, <s>way</s> sometimes more flexible than its Imperium counterpart (a million planets, most producing unique regiments, can and does give incredible flexibility), had fought the nids on Sha'draig with many strategies: massive drone attacks, stealth attacks, kroot charges and traps, stealth suits, kamikaze attacks... And to all of them, the nids had developed a strategy to deal with each one. One of the most important adaptations of the Hive Fleet was the developement of carapace body armour strong enough to deal with plasma and ion weaponry, both favourites of the Tau military, and creating faster and faster creatures to meet the bluies in melee combat, which Tau are too weak against. The Tau kept changing their strategy too, either spamming droids and kroot armies to deal with the swarms, stealth suits to catch the bigger organisms off guards, switching their weapons to older models based on outdated tech once the nids adapted to <s>plasma</s> particle and ionic tech (ion weapons ''are'' the Tau plasma weapons, pulse weapons fire accelerated, charged particles, one per barrel)... The Tau managed to get an edge in their fights thanks to the biological nature of the tyranid weaponry and adaptations. Changing the DNA of your units and then spawning them fast enough into the battlefield took longer than just using normal tech, which limited the size and strength of their units during vital moments, which was then used by the Tau to snipe the bigger synapse creatures from affar and break the cohesion of the tyranid swarms. Which <s>doesn't really make sense given both the sheer number of tyranids, including giant synapse creatures, and that the sheer number of spawning sources for the 'nids would likely outproduce the entire Tau industry. This isn't another minor xenos empire they're fighitng; it's a damn ''Tyranid '''Hive Fleet'''''</s> makes sense given it was a tactic meant to keep the nids away from Sha'draig, not destroy the fleet entirely.

==The Necrons and the Imperium join the fray==
After Gorgon's retreat from Sha'draig, the Hive Fleet started looking for other planets to eat, to replenish the losses suffered on Sha'draig. One of the more interesting scenarios was the Ka'mais system. A rather undefended planet, the local forces were no match for the relatively small fleet coming for them. When all hope seemed lost, a dormant necron tomb awakened on the dead moon of the planet, managing to fight off the tyranids in space. This became the Tau's first contact with the necrons. And the local ethereal made the totally sound decision of declaring a party in their honor, this would have been perfectly fine had it been eldar, but this ended with the predictable outcome of all of the bluies killed and flayed alive...because necrons.The few survivors of the planet (plus the ones from nearby worlds too, having heard of the utter slaughter the necrons had unleashed there) were evacuated and fled, [[Fail|only for Hive Fleet Gorgon to eat them once in space]]. Welcome to the galaxy, meat.

The war was not going well for the Tau in other fronts either. They had lost quite a lot of ships due to the new and improved bio-ships, now immune to Tau weaponry, and a couple of small worlds had fallen to the Hive Fleet already. Suddenly, and without warning, a huge fleet from the Imperium of Man emerged from the Warp. The fleet was originally meant to fight in the Damocles Crusade, but it had become stuck in the Warp for more than a century. Not knowing the Crusade was lost (read: wandered off to go kill daemons), they immediately attacked the nearest planet. Trying to make sense of the situation, the Tau authorities tried to bring them up to speed with the latest events. At first, the fleet admiral didn't believe the obvious lies of those filthy xenos, but then they found Hive Fleet Gorgon, and decided it was a bigger risk than the bluies. Displaying an uncharacteristically adept level of teamwork, Imperial and Tau forces were able to fight Hive Fleet Gorgon to a standstill, cutting deep into their forces and severely hurt most of the bio-ships. Considerably wounded, Hive Fleet Gorgon tried to run away from this sudden opposition, but it was chased down by the combined forces, unable to adapt quickly enough to handle two combat docrines as different as the Tau and the Imperial Guard at the same time.

==Aftermath of Gorgon==
By 903.M41, Hive Fleet Gorgon had been presumed erased from existence. Most of its reproductive organisms had been destroyed, and the ones left were thought to be too weak to replenish their numbers. The Tau Empire had learnt a valuable lesson fighting the forces of the Great Devourer, a threat it would soon become commonplace in its borders. They had also made first contact with the Necrons, although that threat would prove much different from the Tyranid menace. The Tau-Imperium alliance quickly ended once Gorgon had been driven off, but the rapid breakdown of the truce prevented either of them from wiping it out entirely. This would prove to be a terrible mistake for both the Tau and the Imperium.

==Gorgon Returns==
Within a few decades, Hive Fleet Gorgon had fully reconstituted itself. And it had learned well from its past defeats.

As evolving the individual bioforms had proven to be too slow when dealing with multiple disparate forces, the Hive Mind hit on the idea of evolving their toxin sacs instead. Now filled with a bizarre semi-sentient spore, these new toxin sacs could adapt to kill any life form they came into contact with and allowed different bioforms to "share" the most effective toxins instantaneously via the synaptic network. The first known use of these new poisons was able to bring down an entire Plague Hulk, with the famed resilience of the [[Death Guard]] proving worthless against spores that simply made their rotted flesh fall off their bodies. _Which actually contradicts one of the few things that can be considered genuine canon. Using toxins against the favored forces of the god of plagues (''including toxins'') should not work_ The forces of Nurgle are only immune to plagues and poisons because their bodies are not attacked by them. A semi-sentient, Tyranid-made toxin not under control of Nurgle, but of the Hive Mind has no such issue.

The Hive Fleet has also demonstrated a greater proficiency in using its poisons against its foes in general; in the case of one system composed mostly of agri-worlds, it appears that the Fleet never intended to consume it in the first place. Instead, it had attacked them as a distraction while the crops on said agri-worlds were laced with toxic spores. Millions of Imperial Guardsmen died to protect plantations which were already unfit for human consumption. The poisoning was never discovered until months later, when several worlds reported freak outbreaks of people drowning in their own foaming blood after consuming the contaminated food. This right here is why the Tyranids are so damn dangerous. They're not just freakishly powerful, psychic space locust. They're freakishly powerful, psychic space locust ''that are smarter than you''.

{{Tyranids-HiveFleets}}

Hive Fleet Gorgon

2020-02-16T17:25:37Z

2607:FEA8:91E0:ED00:29CF:C0D4:AAD2:6BE5: /* Tau's first contact with the tyranids */

Hive Fleet Gorgon is a [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Fleet]] that threatened the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, and in particular, the borders of the [[Tau Empire]]. It's one of the first splinter fleets created after the First Tyranic War ended with the imperial victory in the Battle of [[Macragge]] in 745.M41.

==Aftermath of Macragge==
The destruction of [[Hive Fleet Behemoth]] during the Battle of Macragge was the first major victory against a major Hive Fleet. The splintering of the remaining nid Hive Ships and its dispersal throughout the area kept imperial forces very busy, but even with all that activity, there were too many isolated splinters, certainly too many for the imperial forces to find and purge alone. Thus, slowly but steadily, some smaller splinter fleets began growing in mass and power, feeding on backwater planets. After a while, it started to move further and further from the Imperium's borders, finally making contact with the Tau Empire.

==Tau's first contact with the tyranids==
By the time Gorgon arrived to the first [[Tau]] controlled planets, it had grown to become quite a threat in its own right, although it didn't reach nearly the size of the original Behemoth. The Tau knew something was very wrong in the area, due to the loss of multiple trading posts in Imperium-controlled territory. In 900.M41, Gorgon attacked the planet of Sha'draig, which would become the battlegrounds for the first Tyranid-Tau war. The Tau's forces were able to entrench themselves within their ships and bases, and just let their drones make good work on the hordes of Tyranids. After a distress signal was launched, a rescue fleet was sent to the colony as soon as possible, arriving soon enough to assist the planet, but long after the moon was lost. The landwar didn't go well for the Tau either. Despite the effords of the Kroot forces dispatching Tyranids quite efficiently in the forests, the nid's advance kept going and the loss of the planet became quite clear for Tau command. In a last ditch efford to keep the planet, and going against orders from their superiors, the Fire Cast commander launched a series of suicide attacks in order to kill the bigger synapse creatures and cause major havoc upon the invaders. Against all odds, they managed to succeed, and with a last final push, managed to kick Gorgon out of the planet. An impressive feat considering the Imperium lost quite a few planets before managing to obtain a major victory against the Nids. Score one for the Greater Good, I guess. Then again, Gorgon was far smaller than Behemoth ever was, the Tau didn't destroy it here, it just moved on to other planets, and Sha'draig ended up so damaged by the invasion that it was abandoned shortly after.

==The war against Gorgon: adapt or die==
After this first encounter with the tyranid fleet, the Tau authorities were scared shitless. Hive Fleet Gorgon was a threat unlike anything they had seen before: the planet was in ruins. Poisoned and bereft of resources, it barely had any use now for anyone. Most of the forces that fought the Hive Fleet had been wiped out, and most of Gorgon was still out there, attacking nearby Tau outposts, not that much worse for wear. Unlike the Imperium, there was no chance of negotiation, and unlike orks, once a planet is lost it can never be recovered (bad for a massive empire like the Imperium, almost unbearable for the small Tau Empire). To top it all off, Hive Fleet Gorgon was exceptionally apt in changing and adapting its strategy in the face of new threats. The Tau forces, <s>way</s> sometimes more flexible than its Imperium counterpart (a million planets, most producing unique regiments, can and does give incredible flexibility), had fought the nids on Sha'draig with many strategies: massive drone attacks, stealth attacks, kroot charges and traps, stealth suits, kamikaze attacks... And to all of them, the nids had developed a strategy to deal with each one. One of the most important adaptations of the Hive Fleet was the developement of carapace body armour strong enough to deal with plasma and ion weaponry, both favourites of the Tau military, and creating faster and faster creatures to meet the bluies in melee combat, which Tau are too weak against. The Tau kept changing their strategy too, either spamming droids and kroot armies to deal with the swarms, stealth suits to catch the bigger organisms off guards, switching their weapons to older models based on outdated tech once the nids adapted to <s>plasma</s> particle and ionic tech (ion weapons ''are'' the Tau plasma weapons, pulse weapons fire accelerated, charged particles, one per barrel)... The Tau managed to get an edge in their fights thanks to the biological nature of the tyranid weaponry and adaptations. Changing the DNA of your units and then spawning them fast enough into the battlefield took longer than just using normal tech, which limited the size and strength of their units during vital moments, which was then used by the Tau to snipe the bigger synapse creatures from affar and break the cohesion of the tyranid swarms. Which <s>doesn't really make sense given both the sheer number of tyranids, including giant synapse creatures, and that the sheer number of spawning sources for the 'nids would likely outproduce the entire Tau industry. This isn't another minor xenos empire they're fighitng; it's a damn ''Tyranid '''Hive Fleet'''''</s> makes sense given it was a tactic meant to keep the nids away from Sha'draig, not destroy the fleet entirely.

==The Necrons and the Imperium join the fray==
After Gorgon's retreat from Sha'draig, the Hive Fleet started looking for other planets to eat, to replenish the losses suffered on Sha'draig. One of the more interesting scenarios was the Ka'mais system. A rather undefended planet, the local forces were no match for the relatively small fleet coming for them. When all hope seemed lost, a dormant necron tomb awakened on the dead moon of the planet, managing to fight off the tyranids in space. This became the Tau's first contact with the necrons. And the local ethereal made the totally sound decision of declaring a party in their honor, this would have been perfectly fine had it been eldar, but this ended with the predictable outcome of all of the bluies killed and flayed alive...because necrons.The few survivors of the planet (plus the ones from nearby worlds too, having heard of the utter slaughter the necrons had unleashed there) were evacuated and fled, [[Fail|only for Hive Fleet Gorgon to eat them once in space]]. Welcome to the galaxy, meat.

The war was not going well for the Tau in other fronts either. They had lost quite a lot of ships due to the new and improved bio-ships, now immune to Tau weaponry, and a couple of small worlds had fallen to the Hive Fleet already. Suddenly, and without warning, a huge fleet from the Imperium of Man emerged from the Warp. The fleet was originally meant to fight in the Damocles Crusade, but it had become stuck in the Warp for more than a century. Not knowing the Crusade was lost (read: wandered off to go kill daemons), they immediately attacked the nearest planet. Trying to make sense of the situation, the Tau authorities tried to bring them up to speed with the latest events. At first, the fleet admiral didn't believe the obvious lies of those filthy xenos, but then they found Hive Fleet Gorgon, and decided it was a bigger risk than the bluies. Displaying an uncharacteristically adept level of teamwork, Imperial and Tau forces were able to fight Hive Fleet Gorgon to a standstill, cutting deep into their forces and severely hurt most of the bio-ships. Considerably wounded, Hive Fleet Gorgon tried to run away from this sudden opposition, but it was chased down by the combined forces, unable to adapt quickly enough to handle two combat docrines as different as the Tau and the Imperial Guard at the same time.

==Aftermath of Gorgon==
By 903.M41, Hive Fleet Gorgon had been presumed erased from existence. Most of its reproductive organisms had been destroyed, and the ones left were thought to be too weak to replenish their numbers. The Tau Empire had learnt a valuable lesson fighting the forces of the Great Devourer, a threat it would soon become commonplace in its borders. They had also made first contact with the Necrons, although that threat would prove much different from the Tyranid menace. The Tau-Imperium alliance quickly ended once Gorgon had been driven off, but the rapid breakdown of the truce prevented either of them from wiping it out entirely. This would prove to be a terrible mistake for both the Tau and the Imperium.

==Gorgon Returns==
Within a few decades, Hive Fleet Gorgon had fully reconstituted itself. And it had learned well from its past defeats.

As evolving the individual bioforms had proven to be too slow when dealing with multiple disparate forces, the Hive Mind hit on the idea of evolving their toxin sacs instead. Now filled with a bizarre semi-sentient spore, these new toxin sacs could adapt to kill any life form they came into contact with and allowed different bioforms to "share" the most effective toxins instantaneously via the synaptic network. The first known use of these new poisons was able to bring down an entire Plague Hulk, with the famed resilience of the [[Death Guard]] proving worthless against spores that simply made their rotted flesh fall off their bodies. Which actually contradicts one of the few things that can be considered genuine canon. Using toxins against the favored forces of the god of plagues (''including toxins'') should not work. (Not necessarily. As has been stated elsewhere in this wiki, the Shadow in the Warp produced by the Nids has in the past been shown to have detrimental effects on daemons and other Warp-powered beings. In this case, it could be that the Death Guard’s warp-granted immunity to plague and toxin had been weakened by proximity to the Tyranids to the point that it was merely ''near'' immunity).

The Hive Fleet has also demonstrated a greater proficiency in using its poisons against its foes in general; in the case of one system composed mostly of agri-worlds, it appears that the Fleet never intended to consume it in the first place. Instead, it had attacked them as a distraction while the crops on said agri-worlds were laced with toxic spores. Millions of Imperial Guardsmen died to protect plantations which were already unfit for human consumption. The poisoning was never discovered until months later, when several worlds reported freak outbreaks of people drowning in their own foaming blood after consuming the contaminated food. This right here is why the Tyranids are so damn dangerous. They're not just freakishly powerful, psychic space locust. They're freakishly powerful, psychic space locust ''that are smarter than you''.

{{Tyranids-HiveFleets}}

Hive Fleet Kronos

2020-02-16T17:20:30Z

2607:FEA8:91E0:ED00:29CF:C0D4:AAD2:6BE5:

{{Topquote|There are few defences more extreme than that of the bombardier beetles. These insects deliberately engineer explosive chemical reactions inside their own bodies, so they can spray burning, caustic liquid from their backsides. The liquid can reach up to 22 miles per hour, at temperatures of around 100 degrees Celsius. It’s painful to humans [...] and potentially lethal to smaller predators like ants.|Phenomena, a science discussion, National Geographic}}

'''Hive Fleet Kronos''' is one of the latest [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Fleet]]s to threaten the galaxy, introduced in the [[Warhammer 40,000 8th edition|8th edition]]. Appearing not as another Tyranid fleet coming from outside of the galaxy, but as the melting-pot result of the concentration and evolution of multiple Splinter Fleets (mostly Leviathan ones after its destruction caused by the disasters of the [[Octarius War]] and the invasion of [[Baal]]), this relatively small Hive Fleet has evolved to better fight the creatures of the Warp.

After the [[Cicatrix Maledictum]] started blocking the [[psychic]] Wi-Fi of the galaxy, dozens of Splinter Fleets were lost, either fighting against daemons, being lost in the Warp or just by starving after not being able to find food. Hive Fleet Kronos appears to be the first attempt by the Hive Mind to create a Hive Fleet that can thrive in a post-[[Great Rift]] galaxy, as can be assumed by its disproportionately powerful Shadow in the Warp.

Another adaptation it has demonstrated is its skill in fielding ranged bioforms, the better to protect itself against the many melee-oriented servants of Chaos. Hordes of [[Termagant]]s assault the battlefield from afar, while keeping bio-artillery like [[Tyrannofex]]es and [[Biovore]]s in reserve for the final blow. Speed is a vital factor for them, as their armies have fewer close quarters fighters than other Hive Fleets. It also possesses an impressive amount of psychic units, like [[Maleceptor]]s and [[Neurothrope]]s, able to hit [[daemons]] right where it hurts the most: their link with the warp.

This strategy has worked wonders for this Hive Fleet, having had multiple great victories against the forces of Chaos. They now travel around the regions of space most affected by the Great Rift, taking advantage of the low defensive capabilities of both the Imperium (they are busy everywhere else) and Chaos (the Shadow in the Warp is quite a thorn for them). In fact, the fleet's growth rate has been so fast that its psychic imprint is even able to close small Warp rifts entirely, leaving the affected planets bereft of life after that, of course.

Of particular note is Kronos' interactions with other hive fleets. Normally when two Hive Fleets meet, they battle it out to see which is stronger, with the winner absorbing the biomass and useful traits of the loser. This is not the case with Kronos, and other hive fleets have been observed to strip planets of their defenses, then leave to allow Kronos a free meal. This is a so far unseen level of cooperation between the Hive Fleets.

{{Tyranids-HiveFleets}}

Hive Fleet Kronos

2020-02-16T17:07:54Z

2607:FEA8:91E0:ED00:29CF:C0D4:AAD2:6BE5:

Great Rift

2020-02-16T16:59:00Z

2607:FEA8:91E0:ED00:29CF:C0D4:AAD2:6BE5: /* What does this mean for the galaxy? */

[[File:Galaxy.jpg|thumb|Daww, the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom had a baby! It stretches to the Hadex Anomaly actually.]]

The Great Rift, also known as '''Cicatrix Maledictum''' (which more or less means the Cursed Scar), Gork's Grin, Mouth's Ruin, the Dathedian... is a massive chain of Warp-storms that has torn realspace in half after the destruction of [[Cadia]] and its pylons by the [[Warmaster]] of [[Chaos]], [[Abaddon | Abaddon the Despoiler]]. In its current state, it has divided the galaxy into two halves, plus a couple of independent warpstorms in certain areas. This has obviously meant bad news to every major faction in the galaxy other than Chaos (and maybe orks, because now there are more spiky gits to krump), and has especially affected the [[Imperium of Man]], dividing its territory into two halves almost isolated from each other: the part where the [[Astronomican]] still shines normally, and the part where its light can barely reach. This half of the Imperium usually gets the name Imperium Nihilus (or the Dark Imperium), both because it's been darkened by the Great Rift and because it's becoming an increasingly bad place to live in, due to Warp shenanigans and xeno attacks.

==So what exactly started it all?==

During the last couple of centuries, the tides of the [[Warp]] had been more and more erratic and violent, making space travel more and more dangerous. It's been widely believed that Abaddon the Despoiler's Black Crusades had the secret objective to destroy a series of ancient structures that kept the Warp from overflowing into the materium. During the [[13th Black Crusade]] and its final assault on Cadia, Chaos forces managed to destroy the last big series of pylons, the ones that prevented the growth of the [[Eye of Terror]]. The destruction of those last pylons alongside the rest of the planet started a chain reaction that formed multiple warpstorms throughout the galaxy. Abaddon's original plan was, in theory, cause a warpstorm big enough in Holy Terra's direction to either destroy the planet and the Emperor of Mankind or to invade with all the forces Chaos could muster, assuring the destruction of the Imperium. However, these massive warpstorms started joining with each other, and instead of growing into the direction of the Segmentum Solar, it went into the [[Maelstrom]], consumed the Galactic Core, then moving into a straight line and dividing the galaxy neatly in two.

Despite supposedly destroying the Cadian pylons, Abaddon still managed to get a hold of some from somewhere, either from the wreckage or dug up from somewhere else. He managed to actually transport them in giant grand cruisers to various worlds in the [[Segmentum]] Solar, originally part of a plan to becalm the warp-space around [[Terra]] and isolate [[Roboute Guilliman]] while the [[High Lords of Terra]] tried to depose him, this was only thwarted because the [[Sisters of Silence]] and the [[Adeptus Custodes]] performed a rogue operation and exposed the plot before it was completed. [[Dante]] is then assigned by Guilliman to be the regent of the Dark Imperium.

==What does this mean for the galaxy?==

It means bad news. Horrifically, apocalyptically bad news.

Imagine the danger that the Eye of Terror represented to the galaxy back when it was just a single region in realspace. Now imagine that same danger multiplied by a hundred and spread around most of the galaxy. The Eye of Terror spreads the madness and dangers of the Warp into realspace at twice the rate, and affects a much, much bigger area than before. Hundreds, if not thousands of systems were immediately sucked into its warpstorms, with all the horrific consequences implied from that. Not to mention all the space-time distortions effects that an event like this could mean, with some planets frozen in time while other lived full millenniums in the blink of an eye, some planets changing place and appearing out of nowhere, or just disappearing...you get the idea. It's gotten so bad that even in-universe any kind of objective measure of time is no longer meaningful.

Each faction, however, has reacted to it differently.

*Chaos is obviously the one [[profit]]ing from this, although after the birth of the Great Rift, Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade started to slow a bit due to the desire to pillage and burn for their own gain, instead of following an organized plan. But let's be fair, this is Chaos we're talking about- it's a miracle they even followed the plan as long as they did. Millions of Chaos pirates assault every planet they can, while the Chaos Gods try to occupy more territory than their rivals. If it weren't for the Great Game monopolizing their attention, the Chaos Gods might have been able to completely wipe out their opposition on the spot.
**It's important to realize that Chaos is much more than Abaddon's own agenda. Whatever his goals might have originally been, the fact that daemons can more easily be brought into realspace is a BIG deal. Almost as soon as the Great Rift erupted Daemons of Khorne''(without Marines, or even the approval of the other three Chaos Gods)'' managed to attack Terra, and [[Plague Wars|Ultramar got a full-blown Nurgle/Death Guard invasion]] later on.
**Chaos Marines have always used warp storms to conceal their movements, while they may not be the most safe or reliable of places to hide, Chaos forces have a notable advantage when it comes to navigating them over everyone else. It is notable, however, that the traitor legions considered the Eye a "prison" as much as a haven, but they seem to be better able to leave the Rift more easily than they could leave the Eye of Terror.
* The Imperium of Man almost loses half of its territory, only managing to get in contact with the Imperium Nihilus by two warp corridors, constantly attacked by daemons. The [[Indomitus Crusade]] was launched during the aftermath of the Great Rift's birth, trying to push back the Chaos hordes pouring from it. While Roboute Guilliman's leadership was able to stabilize the situation in the Dark Imperium for the time being, he expects that holding onto it will be difficult even for him.
** To help partially alleviate matters and give the dark side of the Imperium some actually reachable leadership, Roboute installed [[Chapter Master]] [[Dante]] of the [[Blood Angels]] as Lord-Regent of the Imperium Nihilus. Not quite as powerful, but more than capable of keeping the peace while shit gets sorted out.
* The Orks are having a zogging good time, smashing, krumping and chopping all of the spiky gits and other fun things coming from the Rift. Indeed, they interpret the Great Rift as a divine miracle from their gods and a sign of their upcoming arrival on the mortal plane to usher in the final WAAAAGH! They've also recently taken up the habit of deliberately flying into it in the belief that the warp storms will scatter them somewhere else in the galaxy.
** Ghazzy is still trying to get the GREAT WAAAGH! going. So far he's stomped the Tyranids of the [[Octarius War|Octarius system]] real good and won the war, so he's making some progress. Seeing as how he's somehow been able to be in multiple places at once, it may be possible that Gork and Mork gave him another power-up somewhere along the line (or someone dusted the old 'time travel in warp' explanation out of the deep, dark closet it had been tossed into, and put it to use. Ghazzy might even be insane enough to travel back in time via Warp Express™ to fight in multiple places at the same time).
* The Eldar are trying to find a way to repair realspace, the dangers of the Immaterium being a very real threat to them. Travelling through some sections of the [[Webway]] has become impossible, and some even fear the Cicatrix Maledictum could even end up breaking it. As such, there has been a massive collaboration between the different Aeldari groups in an effort to contain the warprift (even the Dark Eldar, who no doubt profited from all those undefended human planets before the daemons arrived), with the ultimate effect on this being the birth of the [[Ynnari]] and its "alliance" (along with Craftworld [[Alaitoc]]) with the Imperium of Man. The former has caused problems of its own, in no small part because many Eldar are suspicious at best about the newcomers' claims.
* [[Necron]]s are more or less unaffected by the Warp, having no soul and such, but some Necron Lords have become interested in stopping the Rift's growth as this is a threat to the ones attempting to rebuild the ancient Necrontyr empire. Plus if all the organics are gone or corrupted by the warp, how are they suppose to get flesh-and-blood bodies again? Some Necron Lord's empires have been expanded during this, too.
** The pylons that held Cadia together were originally Necrontyr. Necron Crypteks (and at least [[Belisarius Cawl|one enterprising archmagos]]) are frantically trying to recover and [[Meme|construct additional pylons]] to pin the universe back together, although this has been a slow process and often involves scrape-ups with the Mechanicus.
* The [[Tau]], trying to take advantage of the situation, launched a full expansion sphere equipped with their brand new Warp drives to prey upon the undefended planets they could. And immediately lost it due to said Warp drives opening a rift in the Warp. Contact was later re-established with the Fourth Sphere, but it's suggested their time stuck in the Warp may not have been good for their sanity. The fact that the Tau still don't fully understand what Chaos is means bad news for the short term safety of their empire. Especially since [[Death Guard|another big Chaos force]] is headed their way. Having created a warp drive is one thing, but a warp drive is not to be toyed with unless you have a [[Gellar Field]]. Guess what? They don't. But now we have xenophobic, and Chaos worshipping Tau and hints at avatar of the greater good.
* The [[Tyranid]]s have been hit hard by this. The warp storms blocks most psychic light in the galaxy, so they have lost track of thousands of potential meals, and some are travelling blind. A couple of splinter fleets have probably been lost into the Warp by the sudden warpstorm. [[Hive Fleet Leviathan]] managed to reach [[Baal]], but not before Khornate forces of [[Ka'bandha]] also launched an attack on the system and expressed his unwillingness to let the bugs steal his chance for revenge. [[Devastation of Baal|After fighting daemons, the Blood Angels and Guilliman's reinforcements]], Hive Fleet Leviathan has been reduced to a collection of splinter fleets like Behemoth and Kraken before it. This, combined by the fact the ‘nids lost against [[Ghazghkull Thraka]] in the [[Octarius War]], means that, as of now, there is no major Hive Fleet threatening the galaxy, only relatively harmless (by tyranid standards at least) splinter fleets. This, however, has not discouraged the Great Devourer, and from the remains of all splinter fleets around, some new Hive Fleets have begun to emerge, more and more specialized in fighting daemons and Chaos elements. [[Hive Fleet Kronos]] in particular has become infamous for its success rate against daemons through massive long range firepower and a supercharged [[Shadow in the Warp]]. [[Hive Fleet Tiamet]] is also up to something, building a giant living structure in a backwater region of Ultima Segmentum which nobody else can tell what it is (although some speculate its a rally beacon for the Hive Fleets, which can be trouble for the galaxy as this will be another staging area for the Nids to use)

So basically everyone but Chaos and arguably the Orks have been fucked in one way or another.
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

Great Rift

2020-02-16T16:50:59Z

2607:FEA8:91E0:ED00:29CF:C0D4:AAD2:6BE5: /* So what exactly started it all? */

[[File:Galaxy.jpg|thumb|Daww, the Eye of Terror and the Maelstrom had a baby! It stretches to the Hadex Anomaly actually.]]

The Great Rift, also known as '''Cicatrix Maledictum''' (which more or less means the Cursed Scar), Gork's Grin, Mouth's Ruin, the Dathedian... is a massive chain of Warp-storms that has torn realspace in half after the destruction of [[Cadia]] and its pylons by the [[Warmaster]] of [[Chaos]], [[Abaddon | Abaddon the Despoiler]]. In its current state, it has divided the galaxy into two halves, plus a couple of independent warpstorms in certain areas. This has obviously meant bad news to every major faction in the galaxy other than Chaos (and maybe orks, because now there are more spiky gits to krump), and has especially affected the [[Imperium of Man]], dividing its territory into two halves almost isolated from each other: the part where the [[Astronomican]] still shines normally, and the part where its light can barely reach. This half of the Imperium usually gets the name Imperium Nihilus (or the Dark Imperium), both because it's been darkened by the Great Rift and because it's becoming an increasingly bad place to live in, due to Warp shenanigans and xeno attacks.

==So what exactly started it all?==

During the last couple of centuries, the tides of the [[Warp]] had been more and more erratic and violent, making space travel more and more dangerous. It's been widely believed that Abaddon the Despoiler's Black Crusades had the secret objective to destroy a series of ancient structures that kept the Warp from overflowing into the materium. During the [[13th Black Crusade]] and its final assault on Cadia, Chaos forces managed to destroy the last big series of pylons, the ones that prevented the growth of the [[Eye of Terror]]. The destruction of those last pylons alongside the rest of the planet started a chain reaction that formed multiple warpstorms throughout the galaxy. Abaddon's original plan was, in theory, cause a warpstorm big enough in Holy Terra's direction to either destroy the planet and the Emperor of Mankind or to invade with all the forces Chaos could muster, assuring the destruction of the Imperium. However, these massive warpstorms started joining with each other, and instead of growing into the direction of the Segmentum Solar, it went into the [[Maelstrom]], consumed the Galactic Core, then moving into a straight line and dividing the galaxy neatly in two.

Despite supposedly destroying the Cadian pylons, Abaddon still managed to get a hold of some from somewhere, either from the wreckage or dug up from somewhere else. He managed to actually transport them in giant grand cruisers to various worlds in the [[Segmentum]] Solar, originally part of a plan to becalm the warp-space around [[Terra]] and isolate [[Roboute Guilliman]] while the [[High Lords of Terra]] tried to depose him, this was only thwarted because the [[Sisters of Silence]] and the [[Adeptus Custodes]] performed a rogue operation and exposed the plot before it was completed. [[Dante]] is then assigned by Guilliman to be the regent of the Dark Imperium.

==What does this mean for the galaxy?==

It means bad news. Horrifically, apocalyptically bad news.

Imagine the danger that the Eye of Terror represented to the galaxy back when it was just a single region in realspace. Now imagine that same danger multiplied by a hundred and spread around most of the galaxy. The Eye of Terror spreads the madness and dangers of the Warp into realspace at twice the rate, and affects a much, much bigger area than before. Hundreds, if not thousands of systems were immediately sucked into its warpstorms, with all the horrific consequences implied from that. Not to mention all the space-time distortions effects that an event like this could mean, with some planets frozen in time while other lived full millenniums in the blink of an eye, some planets changing place and appearing out of nowhere, or just disappearing...you get the idea. It's gotten so bad that even in-universe any kind of objective measure of time is no longer meaningful.

Each faction, however, has reacted to it differently.

*Chaos is obviously the one [[profit]]ing from this, although after the birth of the Great Rift, Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade started to slow a bit due to the desire to pillage and burn for their own gain, instead of following an organized plan. But let's be fair, this is Chaos we're talking about- it's a miracle they even followed the plan as long as they did. Millions of Chaos pirates assault every planet they can, while the Chaos Gods try to occupy more territory than their rivals. If it weren't for the Great Game monopolizing their attention, the Chaos Gods might have been able to completely wipe out their opposition on the spot.
**It's important to realize that Chaos is much more than Abaddon's own agenda. Whatever his goals might have originally been, the fact that daemons can more easily be brought into realspace is a BIG deal. Almost as soon as the Great Rift erupted Daemons of Khorne''(without Marines, or even the approval of the other three Chaos Gods)'' managed to attack Terra, and [[Plague Wars|Ultramar got a full-blown Nurgle/Death Guard invasion]] later on.
**Chaos Marines have always used warp storms to conceal their movements, while they may not be the most safe or reliable of places to hide, Chaos forces have a notable advantage when it comes to navigating them over everyone else. It is notable, however, that the traitor legions considered the Eye a "prison" as much as a haven, but they seem to be better able to leave the Rift more easily than they could leave the Eye of Terror.
* The Imperium of Man almost loses half of its territory, only managing to get in contact with the Imperium Nihilus by two warp corridors, constantly attacked by daemons. The [[Indomitus Crusade]] was launched during the aftermath of the Great Rift's birth, trying to push back the Chaos hordes pouring from it. While Roboute Guilliman's leadership was able to stabilize the situation in the Dark Imperium for the time being, he expects that holding onto it will be difficult even for him.
** To help partially alleviate matters and give the dark side of the Imperium some actually reachable leadership, Roboute installed [[Chapter Master]] [[Dante]] of the [[Blood Angels]] as Lord-Regent of the Imperium Nihilus. Not quite as powerful, but more than capable of keeping the peace while shit gets sorted out.
* The Orks are having a zogging good time, smashing, krumping and chopping all of the spiky gits and other fun things coming from the Rift. Indeed, they interpret the Great Rift as a divine miracle from their gods and a sign of their upcoming arrival on the mortal plane to usher in the final WAAAAGH! They've also recently taken up the habit of deliberately flying into it in the belief that the warp storms will scatter them somewhere else in the galaxy.
** Ghazzy is still trying to get the GREAT WAAAGH! going. So far he's stomped the Tyranids of the [[Octarius War|Octarius system]] real good and won the war, so he's making some progress. Seeing as how he's somehow been able to be in multiple places at once, it may be possible that Gork and Mork gave him another power-up somewhere along the line (or someone dusted the old 'time travel in warp' explanation out of the deep, dark closet it had been tossed into, and put it to use. Ghazzy might even be insane enough to travel back in time via Warp Express™ to fight in multiple places at the same time).
* The Eldar are trying to find a way to repair realspace, the dangers of the Immaterium being a very real threat to them. Travelling through some sections of the [[Webway]] has become impossible, and some even fear the Cicatrix Maledictum could even end up breaking it. As such, there has been a massive collaboration between the different Aeldari groups in an effort to contain the warprift (even the Dark Eldar, who no doubt profited from all those undefended human planets before the daemons arrived), with the ultimate effect on this being the birth of the [[Ynnari]] and its "alliance" (along with Craftworld [[Alaitoc]]) with the Imperium of Man. The former has caused problems of its own, in no small part because many Eldar are suspicious at best about the newcomers' claims.
* [[Necron]]s are more or less unaffected by the Warp, having no soul and such, but some Necron Lords have become interested in stopping the Rift's growth as this is a threat to the ones attempting to rebuild the ancient Necrontyr empire. Plus if all the organics are gone or corrupted by the warp, how are they suppose to get flesh-and-blood bodies again? Some Necron Lord's empires have been expanded during this, too.
** The pylons that held Cadia together were originally Necrontyr. Necron Crypteks (and at least [[Belisarius Cawl|one enterprising archmagos]]) are frantically trying to recover and construct additional pylons to pin the universe back together, although this has been a slow process and often involves scrape-ups with the Mechanicus.
* The [[Tau]], trying to take advantage of the situation, launched a full expansion sphere equipped with their brand new Warp drives to prey upon the undefended planets they could. And immediately lost it due to said Warp drives opening a rift in the Warp. Contact was later re-established with the Fourth Sphere, but it's suggested their time stuck in the Warp may not have been good for their sanity. The fact that the Tau still don't fully understand what Chaos is means bad news for the short term safety of their empire. Especially since [[Death Guard|another big Chaos force]] is headed their way. Having created a warp drive is one thing, but a warp drive is not to be toyed with unless you have a [[Gellar Field]]. Guess what? They don't. But now we have xenophobic, and Chaos worshipping Tau and hints at avatar of the greater good.
* The [[Tyranid]]s have been hit hard by this. The warp storms blocks most psychic light in the galaxy, so they have lost track of thousands of potential meals, and some are travelling blind. A couple of splinter fleets have probably been lost into the Warp by the sudden warpstorm. [[Hive Fleet Leviathan]] managed to reach [[Baal]], but not before Khornate forces of [[Ka'bandha]] also launched an attack on the system and expressed his unwillingness to let the bugs steal his chance for revenge. [[Devastation of Baal|After fighting daemons, the Blood Angels and Guilliman's reinforcements]], Hive Fleet Leviathan has been reduced to a collection of splinter fleets like Behemoth and Kraken before it. This, combined by the fact the ‘nids lost against [[Ghazghkull Thraka]] in the [[Octarius War]], means that, as of now, there is no major Hive Fleet threatening the galaxy, only relatively harmless (by tyranid standards at least) splinter fleets. This, however, has not discouraged the Great Devourer, and from the remains of all splinter fleets around, some new Hive Fleets have begun to emerge, more and more specialized in fighting daemons and Chaos elements. [[Hive Fleet Kronos]] in particular has become infamous for its success rate against daemons through massive long range firepower and a supercharged [[Shadow in the Warp]]. [[Hive Fleet Tiamet]] is also up to something, building a giant living structure in a backwater region of Ultima Segmentum which nobody else can tell what it is (although some speculate its a rally beacon for the Hive Fleets, which can be trouble for the galaxy as this will be another staging area for the Nids to use)

So basically everyone but Chaos and arguably the Orks have been fucked in one way or another.
[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]