Editing Imperium Asunder (section)

==Contested Territory==

===Tempestus Gap===
The Tempestus Gap is the region dividing the Chaos Marches from the Crusader States, where the firewall comes to an end in the Tempestus Segmentum. The Chaos Marches and the Crusader States  do not directly border each other here. Rather, the two are divided by a wide region of space which has no overall ruler. Millennia of warfare and raiding have reduced the Tempestus Gap to a cesspit of anarchy and misery. The continuous back-and-forth between Chaos warbands, Xenos pirates, and Crusader State expeditionary forces have gradually destroyed most infrastructure and nearly all governance. The average world of the Gap is helpless, with no knowledge of what happens beyond its system's boundaries and no navy or ground forces capable of holding off any but the most anemic raider. 

On the Chaos side of the gap, the primary force is the Iron Hearts, who rule the line of fortress-worlds that forestall any attempt by the Crusader States to launch a raid through the gap into the Dark Imperium itself. On the far side, the Unyielding Vigil and the Forgespace maintain similar lines of defensive works. However, forces from all over the galaxy can make their way into the gap, lured by promises of glory, plunder, and blood, contributing even more to the utter anarchy.

The forces of Chaos and the Crusader States both occasionally attempt to establish a foothold here, but they rarely last. Such footholds almost inevitably attract attacks once they are discovered; even if one attack is beaten off, or two, or three, there will always be more, until the strongholds are reduced to dust. Planets which seek out some greater patron often meet the same fate; assuming, of course, that their patron doesn't have its own horrible fate in store for them. (This is more a Chaos or Xenos thing than a Crusader State thing; but I would be lying if I said that the loyalists had no atrocities to their name at all.)

For more information, some of the forces operating in the Gap have been detailed in [[Realm Guard and Mercenaries]].

===The Hunting Grounds===
As the Iron Hearts, Forgespace, and the Unyielding vigil face off across the Tempestus Gap, so too do the Storm Kingdoms and the Bloodhounds face off across the Hunting Grounds. 
Above the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, where the Firewall 'begins', there are the Hunting Grounds. This is a very different environment than the Tempestus Gap, despite the similarities in astrography. First, it's simply less dense than the Gap; further out on the galactic rim, stars are further apart, journey times are longer. Second, the temperament of the Bloodhounds are very different from the temperament of the Iron Hearts. Where the Iron Hearts are (relatively) content to keep to their fortress-line and leave the fighting in the gap to lesser warbands, the Bloodhounds regard the Hunting grounds as their personal, well, hunting grounds. The majority of Chaos forces operating in the Grounds are therefore either the Bloodhounds themselves or their direct vassals, affiliates, franchisees, and subordinates. 

Which is not to say the Bloodhounds ''rule'' the grounds, of course. No; they ''cultivate'' it, as a game warden cultivates a hunting ground. A rapidly industrializing and militarizing world might be left alone for decades or centuries, so that it develops into a worthy and entertaining fight. Another might suffer relatively light yearly raids, to keep the population sufficiently cowed without ever dropping below sustainable levels. A third might be carefully goaded, calculated indignities heaped upon one another to encourage dreams of revenge- and an eventual fall to Khorne. Each warband has its own preferred methods and prey, and conflicts often arise when one poaching warband strays onto another's turf. Like cultivating bonsai, but with more chainswords and screaming. 

In response, the Storm Kingdoms also have a generally higher level of activity in the Hunting Grounds than the Unyielding Vigil or Forgespace do in the Gap. Despite the sparsity of stars, direct Astartes-on-Astartes combat is commonplace in the Hunting Grounds. Which is just how the Bloodhounds like it- you will find little worthier prey than Astartes.