Editing Great Crusade

The Great Crusade was an important event in the history of [[Warhammer 40,000]], seeing the formation of the [[Imperium of Man]] and reunification of humanity, and is basically the best time to be alive - If you are a loyal subject of the Emperor, that is. If not, you are endangered by just being in this galaxy, and try as hard as you can to stay out of the Imperium's reach until they are done with their megalomanic crusade.

==The Emperor Emerges==

For much of the 20,000's, [[Terra]] and the other human colonies were riven by war after the rebellion of the [[Iron Men]], an era later known as the [[Age of Strife]]. The techno-barbarians (UNTZ! UNTZ!) ruled little fiefdoms on once-proud [[Earth|Terra]], and all seemed lost.

Then, the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] appeared in M28, and started conquering Terra, piece by piece. His army consisted of the first generation of [[Space Marines]], the [[Thunder Warriors]], using [[Power Armour|powered armor]] that wasn't even void-sealed (although they still had massive [[pauldrons]]). This was approximately the time that he decided that religion was bad for humanity and implemented the [[Imperial Truth]], as seen in the story [[The Last Church]]).

==The Next Step==

Of course, Terra wasn't enough for the Emperor; he wanted to rule over all of [[Humanity]]. He had already arranged for the [[Void Dragon]] to be sealed on Mars so that, by this time in history, he would have the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] to build awesome weapons for his armies, and now he needed some armies to wield those weapons. And to lead those armies, he needed generals, so he started the [[Primarch]] Project in M29, creating twenty super-human warriors, his sons, and his generals. The [[Chaos Gods|Gods]] of [[Chaos]] perceived this project to be a threat to them, so they scattered the Primarchs throughout the galaxy, but the Emperor had enough data to create his [[Space Marine]] Legions based on their DNA, what would later be called the [[First Founding]]. He sent the Legions out to find their Primarchs, and to re-unite the human colonies as they went.

==The Age of the Imperium==

Over the course of the next two hundred years or so, the Space Marine Legions found their Primarchs, and the [[Imperium of Man]] grew, world by world, until it spanned almost the whole galaxy. Many [[Xenos]] were exterminated along the way, as well as the [[Interex]] as the Emperor believed them to be a threat to humanity's dominance. Between this directive and the influence of his [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] daemon blade, [[Fulgrim]] wiped out many [[Eldar]] worlds, which resulted in mutual animosity between the Imperium and the Eldar for millennia to come. It was generally considered [[Kharn|a pretty fun move on Fulgrim's part]].  To be fair, though, nearly all the xenos killed had descended upon human worlds during the Age of Strife and turned them into "Nightmare Worlds".  As you might imagine, the crusading Imperium was not amused.  In fact, most worlds added to the Imperium were of this sort, which went a long way to entrenching humanity's hatred of all things alien.  Even the Jovian colonies in the Sol system were pretty much horror-infested ruled over by incalculably cruel alien overlords.  While Eldrad tried to contact the Emperor to warn him that he should be more concerned with stopping Chaos than with expanding the Imperium, the Emperor refused to listen to him.

After the Ullanor Crusade, the Emperor announced that he was returning to Terra, saying that his sons were to prove that they were the leaders he had made them to be, and appointed [[Horus]], Primarch of the [[Black Legion|Luna Wolves]], as Warmaster of the Great Crusade, and withdrew to the Imperial Palace. In truth, the Emperor was ready to begin his next phase of star travel, creating a [[Webway]] portal under the Palace using the Golden Throne. Unfortunately, the Emperor's detachment from humanity created a great deal of rivalry and resentment among his sons, and his failure to fully explain matters to his sons only exacerbated the situation. The [[Chaos|Ruinous Powers]] were quick to take advantage of these weak spots, and slowly but steadily began to corrupt some of the [[Primarchs]].

This culminated with the [[Horus Heresy]].

==See Also==

*[[The Last Church]], a short story taking place towards the end of the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]]'s conquest of [[Terra]].

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[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]