Editing Imperium Asunder (section)

===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.