Editing Warp Riders (section)

==The Birth of the Dust Bowl==

Before the Warp Riders came Dust Bowl had been a very different place. A healthy, thriving agri-world, pious in its devotion to the God-Emperor. With green fields and gold fields of grain, and pleasant lakes that saw even the poorest had a meal of fresh fish. The people were humble, happy, and safe.

In those days it was called Verdania. It was governed by a Bishop of the Ecclesiarch and provided a way station for pilgrims. It fed half a system.

Then a strange pilgrim came on one of those ships that often stopped by Verdania. A wild young man, who drank and debauched and caused quarells to break out where ever he went. Handsome, he caught the eye of a young lady of the church. He pursued her as if it were a mission, and she became receptive to his advances, breaking her vows of chastity.

When the Bishop discovered the affair he put the young man to death and sent the young woman to a penitence.

When he was being led to a funeral pyre she prayed for his salvation.

Unfortunately for her, it came.

A warp road jester had caught her pleas on the wind, heard her words through the vibrations of the immaterium. And he told his Overlord, a Diamon Dog Slaaneshi, who took deep amusement in the affair.

They sent out to the woman instructions, disguised as the dictates of a holy saint. Blinded by her love she followed them, offering up her own soul willingly to spare her wild lover.

A warp storm set on Verdania, and out of it came the flagship of the Warp Riders. It was only as the drop pods began to fall and the mad cackling broke over the vox network that she realised her terrible mistake, and the doom she had brought to this world.

He rode with them that day, using the road jester as a vessel and burning the fool apart. The Doomrider blitzed through the fields of the agri-world, churning wheat to ash, and the warp riders struggled to keep up with the Prince.

They slaughtered their way into the capital, killing any that crossed their path. They kept their bargain, they freed the wild young man and his lover. And the lady of the cloth who broke every vow wept when she saw the young man embrace the overlord of the riders like a lost brother, and gave no resistance when he offered her up to him in tribute.

And they gave him a suit and a bike, and he rejoined their brotherhood. He took up the bishop and wrapped him in chains. Gracing the bishop with a kiss, he tore across the countryside on a daemon-bike, dragging the bishop all the way until the priest rattled apart all over the road.

And the rampage continued, the tread of the bikes ripping up the fertile fields and destroying the crops. The lakes boiled from the warp touch and they pitched the screaming peasants into it, until the waters dried altogether.

And Verdania died, and Dust Bowl was born..... 

On some windy days on that blasted world, A howl can be heard amongst the dust. Crying through the winds like a banshee's scream. It comes from the tortured spirit of that woman who's only crime was falling for the lies of a bastard. Her spirit driven mad by grief and guilt she is unable to die. She roams the dust bowl praying for salvation that may never come.