Oestalan Sector

Oestalan Sector Map

Oestalan Sector is the combination of efforts of fa/tg/uys to create another homebrew sector of the Warhammer 40k universe to go alongside the Tiji Sector.

Oestalan Sector

For over a thousand years the most western fringe of the Imperium has been barred to travel. Cloaked by a violent warp storm, it has long since fallen out of step with the broader Imperial institutions. But the Warp Storms have receeded, and the Sector is revealed to the Galaxy again. They find it to be different place, a wild dangerous land. A Crusade has been launched into the sector to reclaim it for the Throne, to bring the human worlds back into the fold, and to eliminate the xenos and heretics that inhabit it. Banners are gathered, ships are launched, the preachers beat the war drum. It will not be easy, but the Osetalan Crusade has begun!

Known Systems Of The Oestalan Sector

• Medigeminus System
• Mechanicus Empire - 6 Systems
• Rinitrakis Sytem
• Oestala Prime System
• Sternsides Eyes
• Xi Corvi System - Eldar presence is here
• Keller's Gambit - Abandonded Shrine world, gas giant, agri-world (Ten Kings pass through here)
• Isontor System - Three gas giants, one has a resource extraction space station run by the Kings, another has a neutal ground moonbase.
• Theta Lyrem VI System - molten world, paradise world with three competing industrial moons, two ice worlds.

• Blue Rock

Named by the unimaginative and hopelessly lost Rogue Trader Pavel Heleanis as he wandered through the Oestalan Sector searching for a way out of the fickle, weak warp currents, Blue Rock is a world of terrible beauty.

The atmosphere is choked with thick clouds of methane, and the surface of the planet is tinged blue both from water and deposits of various bluish minerals. Geologic surveys indicate that the world could be a valuable mining station, but the unusual coloration of the planet spooked the Trader, fearing that the Lord of Change had somehow left his mark upon it.

No evidence emerged to confirm these fears, but Pavel left as soon as he could.

Blue Rock seems to interact unusually with the weak Warp currents in its vicinity, and they pool and ebb near the planet like tides on an ocean. Sometimes the Warp is virtually nonexistent, sometimes powerful auroras crackle through the atmosphere, giving ships leaving the planet a massive "tailwind", and all but preventing ships from arriving, forcing them to drop out of warp far away and crawl there in a long realspace journey.

• Landry's Rest

Landry's Rest is the name given to a planet near the Medigeminus system, and is totally dead and barren. The planet is important only because it is the last recorded presence of the Imperium in the sector, identified only by an ancient church that has stood the fires of what was surely an Exterminatus-class weapon, yet did not fall.

Though the planet is vacuum and lifeless, the Ecclesiarchy has funded an expedition to dig beneath the crust of ash, for perhaps holy relics yet remain.

• Pahk'tev

A Feral World only recently released from the grip of Chaos by the storm's receding. The planet was once a haven of Imperial power, one of the few major Imperial presences in the thinly claimed sector.

They fought Chaos with tanks and Titans. They fought with airplanes and bolters. They fought with gliders and cannon. They fought on horseback and in phalanxes. They fought with club and spear. They fought with bone and rock and fist.

They fought for so long they forgot who they were, or why they fought. They are a people who has forgotten their humanity, but have triumphed over Chaos, and if the Crusade ever makes contact with them, they will make excellent shock troopers, and perhaps even the raw material for a new Chapter of Space Marines to guard the sector once the Imperium has reclaimed it.

Who knows what the future may bring?

• Grand Dakshan and Iron Dakshan

Twin planets orbiting a brilliant white star, the Dakshan system plays host to two worlds once near and dear to the Imperium. Grand Dakshan was once a fortress world, built to defend Iron Dakshan, its Forge World sibling.

Both worlds are wrecked ghost towns, picked over by remaining human scavengers and shattered by what appears to be Gauss fire. A cataclysmic conflict must have raged beneath the Warp Storm, and both parties did their business unseen by the galaxy. What provoked the Necrons, and where they are now, remains unknown and worries the high level planners of the Crusade even now.

• The Great Spiral

The Spiral is a name given to a planetary anomaly which orbits a massive blue supergiant star, one of the few massive stars in the sector. The Spiral is nearly the size of Terra, orbiting a massive, red-hot gas giant larger than Jupiter.

Massive tidal forces from planet and star squeeze and stretch the Spiral like pulling taffy, and the planet convulses on a daily basis, its crust rising and falling dozens of meters as gravity twists play across the surface.

Titanic volcanoes blast unimaginable quantities of molten rock into space, and without the massive gas giant nearby, would soon form a moon. Instead, the complex gravitic dance pulls the nascent moon-ring apart, scattering it across the entire system forming a galaxy-shaped red-hot spiral of dust and debris, billions of miles wide.

Such is the speed the debris is ejected at, that the rocks do not cool until well past what would be the orbit of Saturn, and the Great Spiral is visible for light-years in all directions with even a simple telescope.

• Titan's Rift

The Rift is a gigantic gas cloud riven through by the passage of a rare stellar remnant, a low-mass black hole. Its passage has churned a gash through the cloud, spurring the ripples of what will become new star incubation nebulae, but the black hole is approaching the end of its life, not having enough mass to defy Hawking Radiation for long.

The top of the gash is wide, from when the hole had greater mass, and tapers to a narrow tip at its current location.

It is steadily getting brighter and brighter as it travels, and within a few decades will disappear in a blinding flash, blowing a great hole in the nebula.

For now, it represents a profligate source of energy, and for those strong enough and daring enough to try and claim it, could become a valuable resource indeed...

• Helladikos

The planet is best known for being small, barren, and mostly worthless. However, it is extremely valuable to the forces of Chaos, for it is the 8th planet in its system, and occupies a favorable location for the Warp's favor.

Helladikon boats the largest remaining Warp Rift in the sector, hardly a Warp Storm, and nothing compared to the Eye, but in a desert, any water is precious. It is bitterly contested by cult remnants, and their blood has soaked the world a dull red visible from orbit.

All the gods are worshiped here, but it is clear that Khorne keeps a closer eye on the planet than most. Here, demons can be found, here, warp weapons may be forged, and here, the Black Oracle interprets the will of the Gods, passing their desires to the mortal world even as his flesh is ever so slowly dissolved by the Warp Rift he lives directly beneath.

• Anomaly Gamma-Delt-9

An uninhabited planet, blackened and scarred by a colossal impactor.

The meteor was not natural, it was a Space Hulk of colossal size, hundreds of miles wide and massing trillions of tons. When the Warp Storm abated, it was left behind like flotsam, too close to the gravity well of the planet.

It crashed with terrible force, but most meteors travel at colossal speeds as they orbit. This Hulk simply emerged near the atmosphere's edge, and though the impact shattered its surface, the Hulk remains largely intact.

A mountain beyond measure, jutting up far beyond the atmosphere into low orbit, the wealth it contains is incalculable, in the form of salvage if nothing else.

Gene-stealers lived within the wreck, consuming what native animals managed to survive the impact. There is no sentient life for them to infest, and no Tyranid Hive Fleet anywhere remotely nearby for them to contact, so they've simply lived as they pleased, roaming around aimlessly and eating the feral native tribesmen. Tyranids must evolve, though, and their social dynamics are becoming more and more complex as they finish consuming the last remaining humans on the planet. Over time, the line between Human and Tyranid has become blurred, and though they can no longer contact the Hive Mind, they are nevertheless much stronger, fiercer, and perhaps more intelligent than humans. Though operating at a very low level of technology, some of the human-xenos hybrid mutants have even begun fiddling with the remaining intact components of the Hulk, and the energy flares have been noticed sector-wide.

A treasure world it is, and many now covert its wealth. Who will claim it? None can say for sure. And its strange inhabitants are now developing their own culture.

They may not appreciate interlopers.

• Marauder's Grave

"Run away, hide away Captain Cutthroat's out to play!" -Nursery rhyme recorded upon Oestala V

Deep within the dark depths of Oestalan space lies the star system known as the Marauder's Grave. Its twin stars dully illuminate the three planets orbiting them, once home to an unknown xenos empire whose eroded ruins still lay scattered upon the lifeless, poisoned world of Upas in the cold outer reaches of the system. The other two, a yet nameless gas giants with mighty dust rings and a small, freezing world with a thin atmosphere of corrosive gas and the remnants of a sturdy Ork settlement bear no signs of life either.

But it is not these planets of dubious value for which the system is known, but the graveyard that lies inward, in the middle regions of the system, sitting amidst dust clouds impenetrable to eye and auspex alike.

It is this cloud of wreckages, both xenos and human, ancient and recent, where lies the empty hulks of a fleet of five Chaos Reaver vessels, in the midst of them the Heavy Cruiser whose name brings vague fear to the few surviving human civilizations living in the ruins of the Oestalan Sector to this day.

The Cutthroat's Prize, as it is called, once lead this Chaos fleet on merciless raids, preying on the defenseless planets of the Oestalan Sector once it was engulfed by the terrible Warp storms milennia ago, seemingly not hindered by what made it impossible to traverse to all else. Yet the name and true likeness of the leader of this fleet, which played a crucial part in thrusting the sector into darkness once it was cut off from he Imperium has been lost, in an ironic twist of fate: The surviving cultures only know him as the Cutthroat Captain, He Who Descends From The Dark Sky, to wreak terrible havoc upon worlds and take away those who do not fall to the bloodied blades of his men or have their blood spilled upon perverse altars dedicated to thirsting gods, and many a child grows up fearing this bogeyman of distant legend.

What fate befell this Captain Cutthroat and his nightmarish fleet is unknown. Only the drifting hulks of these unclean vessels remain to tell the tale, and those few who found their way to the Marauder's Grave and dared board them whisper of distant screams of torment echoing across the airless corridors; and blood that still seems fresh dripping down the rusted bulkheads.

• The Xanzhou Blight

"The Blight" is the common name for a star cluster featuring Xanzhou, a neutron star with particularly strong electromagnetic emissions. There are several systems in the Blight cluster, most of which would likely be only a few days' Warp travel from one another if properly surveyed.

Xanzhou, however, makes travel in the cluster extremely hazardous. At long interstellar distances it poses only a minor annoyance to communication and navigation, and two of the outermost stars in the cluster are thought to have been visited by multiple explorers. Xanzhou's emissions cause rapidly increasing difficulty for the machine spirits of voidships, as well as the ability of Navigators to perceive the configuration of the Warp. Furthermore, every few decades Xanzhou has been observed to "glitch"--an unpredictable and powerful emission of radiation that might have catastrophic effects on nearby voidships.

As famously inaccessible as the systems in the cluster are known to be, rumors abound about remains of strange colonies upon those words, and the value of the artifacts that a few daring souls are said to have brought back. Such stories tend to spring up around any poorly-explored region of space, however, and they remain entirely unproven.

• Stellaluna

The planet is a frozen rock, drifting alone through space. Once, it was a star of great beauty and power, eons ago. Then, it became a white dwarf, puffing off a stellar nebula that can be seen to this day.

Now, it has drifted away from the gossamer deathshroud it built for itself, and the cold relic has entered orbit around an unassuming Sol-like star, itself alone in its lonely orbit around the galactic core.

Stellaluna, the moon-that-was-a-sun, has evolved into a gigantic diamondlike crystal over its long slow death, and it sparkles and gleams in the heavens like a jewel. The world is worthless, for carbon and diamonds are trivial to come by in the 40th Millennium, but the center of the starheart glows of its own accord.

Though Oestalan is at the very edge of the galaxy near the Halo Stars, Stellaluna resonates with the Astronomicon, beaming the Emperor's grace into the local area like a distant reflection of his light.

This, then, is the lighthouse of Oestalan, ceaselessly resonating with the Emperor's grace. The Crusade must secure a hold of the system and its priceless relic, for a Chaos warlord has been given a quest, to find the diamond, protected as it is in the vastness and sluggish Warp currents of the Halo Zone, and shatter a crystal the size of Terra itself.

Legend has it that if Stellaluna is broken asunder, the Great Storm will return with a terrible vengeance, and Oestalan will be lost eternally.

• Tel-Shan

This world is unusual for the Oestalan Sector. It is a verdant paradise, shielded from the ravages of the Great Storm by means unknown. Nothing lives here but plants of every type and description, and their diversity is as astounding as it may be lucrative. A handful of Genetors operating in advance of the Oestalan Crusade have arrived on the planet, and are busy rendering down everything they can get their mechandendrites on in the search for useful chemicals or genetic strands.

The Ecclesiarchy has petitioned to have the world dedicated to their use as a holy site (and a wonderful vacation home for the high rankers), and the Administratum likewise wants it as a Pleasure World for their people. Both want the Genetors off the planet before they chop down everything that makes Tel-Shan habitable and pleasant.

The political debate rages on, and is beginning to grow quite heated. If someone doesn't act soon, there may be outright conflict in short order.

What few know is that Tel-Shan is a Maiden World, seeded by a Craftworld now lost to the Great Storm. They landed their massive ship to ride out the storm, and over more than a thousand years of raging Chaos, the entire Craftworld became buried in hundreds of years of growth, decay, and eventually dirt.

The Craftworlders are just now emerging from their impromptu bunker, and though they are planetbound, they will defend the world to the death if need be, for it has finally aged to the point where they could at last have a true home after so many years.

• Anomaly Ost-Theta-Maxima

Orbiting a red dwarf at the farthest edge of the Oestalan Sector, a small asteroid has been cored out, with a mile-wide hole bored through and filled with an ancient portal device. Dead and inert, it is surrounded by equally decayed defensive weaponry and a host of ancient derelict vessels whose age defies explanation and whose origin is totally unknown.

An Ark Mechanicus has journeyed out to investigate the colossal ruins, in the hope that it is something akin to the Jericho Gate, though activating the gate has proven impossible thus far.

What no one knows is whether or not the gate builders left the fleet to guard their back door, to hold their entry point, or if the fleet is even of the same species as the gate makers.

Rumors and fears have begun to circulate that the dead fleet is actually guarding against something better left sealed away in the darkness beyond the galaxy.

However, tantalizingly, the gate itself has a few eroded markings that are very similar to Dark Age of Technology script. One of them is reminiscent of the symbol for an STC. The prospect of recovering a complete STC has made the magi uncaring of the danger, and they will unlock the gate if it takes them ten thousand years.

• The Parable Worlds

This unjust solar-system-spanning theocracy, controlled by a splinter group of the Ecclesiarchy was noted for its advanced nanotechnology and pharmacology, for they delved deep into the body in search of apotheosis.

It was destroyed by a revivalist cult acting on behalf of Sebastian Thor because of the people's extreme immorality, for they cleaved to the principles of the hated Goge Vandire, and were destroyed long ago, leaving behind only navigation charts of old trade routes, no longer valid after the Great Storm, various fragmented records and scientific knowledge, which was recovered by the legendary Rogue Trader Pavel Heleanis.

Once a haven of darkness, the ten planets they controlled are now shattered beyond repair, each one a decaying hive world with titanic ruined edifices dotting the surface. The system is a byword for the sins of pride, the perils of heresy, and the inevitability of the Emperor's Justice, even in the Halo Zone.

Pavel managed to take what he was able to recover and synthesize several new curatives, which he sold for a king's ransom to the Mechanicus and Administratum. Only the nobility can afford it, but through this new treatment they can add decades to their already overextended lives.

• Cyphus Anomaly

A small system discovered when Rogue Trader Khar'lev Stanch's fleet was forced out of the warp and back into the materium while attempting to cross what appeared to be calm warp space.

Located between the first planet and the sun are 2 large ringed metal cylinders of unknown origin, locked in orbit parallel to each other. Once within the system, it was clearly visible from the warp. Cursory scans revealed no signs of life within the system, so it was marked for further exploration at a later date.

• The Screaming Void

A xenos empire of a dozen solar systems grew strong and proud at the farthest reaches of the galaxy's edge. Never knowing major rivals, they delved into scientific thought practically unrivaled in the cosmos.

The secret to their success was a defunct Necron Tomb world, damaged in some unknowable way aeons ago, and by re-engineering the technology, the younger xenos advanced themselves by leaps and bounds. With great power cane great recklessness, for they believed that the Tomb World held all the information that was worth knowing, and they applied its every detail and tidbit as often as they could, weaving Necron ideas into every facet of their culture.

At last, they unlocked the secrets to making a terrible weapon, the Aeonic Orb.

They took the central star of their empire, a mighty furnace of tremendous power, and after mining their entire home system to build the cage, they sealed the sun away.

But, a single line of code, scratched out by a random micrometeoroid, or perhaps a small earthquake and avalanche, rendered the device unstable. The star, compressed beyond reason by Necron science, collapsed too far, crushing itself so quickly that a pair-instability supernova occurred.

Its sheer energy forced antimatter into being in the core, and the entire star converted its mass to antimatter.

For light years in every direction, star systems ceased to exist, and the blast wave was stopped only by the Great Storm, which fed off the energies released to help drive its wrath.

Now, there is simply a colossal void in the Halo zone, and the faint outlines of a supernova remnant. Inside, ships augurs see ghost images, Geller Fields flicker as if disembodied creatures press in upon it, and faint screams, low and almost beyond conscious hearing, pervade every deck of every ship.

None will venture here, though the voices beckon travelers ever inward. What might lurk at the epicenter of the blast, none can say.

• The Triplets

Deep within the Oestalan Sector, a trinary star revolves. The three red dwarves are an extreme rarity in the galaxy, and are high on the investigation priority list of the Mechanicus.

However, in a dance impossible through natural means, a lone planet orbits in a complex pattern around the three stars, a rarity in the galaxy.

Even stranger is the position and measurements of said star. The planet would be optimally heated for human habitation, and never falls out this zone despite the triple star dance.

The planet has no atmosphere and is ravaged by meteoric impacts, but traces of water, vegetation and oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere has been found.

The now lost Ark Mechanicus The Copper Blessing sent reports of unusual energy readings in the planetary core, but was ambushed by orks and forced to abort the measurements.

• The Gold Station

Named after the gold-like coating around it, this space station orbits a lone star in a zone of low stellar density. The station appears to be human in origin, but bears no obvious insignia. While it has been breached and examined, not much has been uncovered. Large, optical telescopes seems to have been aimed toward the sun, and much of the interior is composed of mirrors, crystals, prisms and lenses, arranged in strange patterns, all arranged on small, adjustable arms. Vast banks of cogitators seem to have controlled these, and the multitude of thrusters on the outer shell suggest that the station's orbit was once geostationary.

When the orbit and rotation angles the station's telescopes at the sun, a remarkable display of light is seen for an instant, until the spinning once again angles the telescopes at empty space. The exact purpose of this device is unknown, and no plausible theories have yet been laid forth. For now, the station rests undisturbed, as it lies in unfavourable Warp currents.

• Thief of Vartai

Named by the personal retinue of Rogue Trader Vadimass Vartai, the world is a well-kept secret due to the dangers it presents to any planetside parties.

On first inspection, the planet appears normal. Sensor data shows a planet with little life, but a oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere fully supportive of life. The surface seem to bear faint traces of buildings. closing on it, sensor data will start misbehaving. Different sensors will report different data on size, mass and such. Images on telescope, however, are consistent, if a bit unclear. They also indicate large city ruins present. However, the true strangeness does not appear until one attempts to land.

From all outward appearances, the hive-ruins appear alien, but rich, and quite a few strange and valuable trinkets have been brought back from outside the ruins themselves.

Space does not behave the way it should on the world. The closer one gets to the surface, the more space starts to bend and buckle. When outdoors, the effects are greatly diminished, but the large hive ruins are where the great mystery lies. In there, space warps beyond the limits of sanity, causing the same corridor to stretch out for miles if walked one way, but be but a step long and leading to another room the other way. Rooms are bigger on the inside than the outside, and chambers may be round on the inside but seem triangular on the outside. Rogue Trader Vartai entered the ruins personally, with a large retinue of guards, and returned after five weeks with only a twentieth of his guard and his sanity shattered. His fractured tales told of doors, big, square, shimmering doors, and of corridors and rooms and walls and so on. The crew left on Vartai's ship then named the planet and left as swiftly as their warp drives could allow, vowing to tell no-one. Vartai himself died shortly after, and so did most of his escort.

• Camael

Camael is a desert planet near the Medigeminus System full of valleys and badlands, and lacking vegetation. Though, in the southwestern hemisphere, the land is nothing but crisscrossing canyons breaking the dry earth apart. Lush jungles full of life have developed at the bottom of these deep chasms.

The Imperium of man has set up several research outposts. It has one small city, Camael's Cross, and a starport. The planet is defended by a militia force from the local settlement.

The Inquisition has set up a base of operations within the city in the most recent years.

Factions within the Oestalan Sector

The Imperium of Man

• The Osetalan Crusade - Beginning its first push into the sector, starting in the Medigeminus System
• The Vengeful Seraphim *NAME PENDING APPROVAL* Adeptus Astartes Chapter
• The Order of the Violet Flame

Seperatist Mechanicus

"Through the blessings of the Omnissiah, we have tamed the very stars themselves. Through our understanding of the Omnissiah, we have survived the long death of the Imperium of Man. Through the Empty Years, we grew stronger as others rusted away before the oblivion of time and entropy.

You say our belief-engrams are damaged? No, brother. It is simply that your dogma is out of date."

- Archmagos Hexapan-Seq-88A, First Imperial Contact with the Seperatist Mechanicus

• The Seperatist Mechanicus *NAME PENDING* is a sprawling empire that has survived the fall of the sector. Run by mechanicus adepts, it came to believe during its isolation that the Imperium had fallen and that it would have to continue the legacy of mankind.

Human Renegades

• The Ten Kings - Operating across the entire Oestalan Sector. They are mostly pirates and brigands, scrounging what life they can amongst the ruins of the once prosperous sector. Most of these pirate 'Kings' do not venerate the God-Emperor of Mankind, opting instead to trust fate or even darker powers; the sole exception is 'King' Manasit Tolario.

Eldar

• Craftworld Zhar-Tan- Has lots of fire dragons and a fire dragon hero who killed lots of tau in the past. They are allied with human pirates, and are enemies of the forces of Chaos in this sector.

Dark Eldar

• None Reported. There seems to be insufficiently rich grounds for them to raid in this largely depopulated sector, or perhaps the Webway of Oestalan is fragmented beyond repair. Either way, we can give praise to the Emperor that these foul xenos journey elsewhere to do their dark work.

Tyranids

• Rumors exist that perhaps some of the xenos in this sector are the feral remnants of Hive Fleets long past, though there may have never been Tyranids in the sector at all, as far away as it is from their mail fleets. We are fortunate then, that the planets we recolonize won't suffer their fangs and claws for some time yet. Ave Imperator, His grace provides!

Ork Warbands

• The Green Traverse Warbands - Operating exclusively in the Medigeminus System. Fights with the armies of the planet Sigma-Noblesse for their shiny weapons, armor and knicknacks
• Oestala V Warbands - Operating primarily in the Oestala Prime System

Necrons

• Canoptek Dynasty - Operating on Silence, in the Medigeminus System

Forces of Chaos

• The Rust Horde of Warsmith Tyranus Sternside. Sternside is a favorite foe of the greenskins of the Oestalan sector, with a song existing just for him, calling him "Oomieboss Funsides" for the "fun" fights he gives the orkz. Currently he is under siege by the Otraki Dominion, and is relishing the chance to fight foes who actually think for once
• The Cult of the Unborn - Operating Primarily in the Rinitrakis Sytem.

Minor Xenos Powers

The Otroki Dominion

• Avian/Raptor Xenos from a multi-system empire somewhere in the Halo Stars. In their first ever movement beyond the Halo Stars, they have expanded opportunistically into the Oestalan Sector. Their Dominion is comprised of several minor Xenos races and even two human feudal worlds, one of which is in the Oestalan Sector. As a result of these mighty conquests, the Otraki view themselves as the largest superpower in the Galaxy, completely ignorant of the size of the Imperium and their own insignificance. Eager to face the Tau and gain their superior tech, and ready to stare down the full might of the Crusade, the Otraki Dominion is prepared to send its slave-legions to battle.

Zsc-boteh

• This xenos race is a paradox, large, swift, quadrupedal and viciously brutal, sporting sharp claws and a mouth full of spiked teeth, yet they are xenophobic to a degree that even the Imperium would find excessive, and seem to instinctively fear even breathing the same air as another sentient species.

The race is known for its rows of infrared sensitive spots running along the body from head to tail, giving the Zsc-boteh 360 degree awareness of their surroundings, and the two tendrils, much like the ancient Terran anglerfish, that extend from the head and serve as psychic foci. The Zsc-boteh use these feelers as Warp-radar, sensing hostile presences even through walls in a limited radius.

Heat is known as "painlight" to these xenos, for their infrared sensors are exposed and easily damaged by infrared radiation, and they have developed many brilliant infrared laser technologies for waging war against each other. The best of these guns are a prized commodity among Rogue Traders, easily outclassing all but the most advanced meltaguns available.

Unfortunately, the Zsc-boteh are a nomadic people, never remaining on one planet for very long in case outsiders learn their location, and their warren-hives are deadly, unlit (because they use IR and Warp-sense to see, not visible light) mazes within which the monsters control the flow of battle.

Nevertheless, a small handful of examples of their weaponry have been seen in high ranking Imperial hands, and rumor has it that Rogue Trader Pavel has managed to build peaceful trade relations, though none can say how he gained these paranoid xenos' trust.

All that is known is that the Zsc-boteh's original homeworld was in the Halo Stars, and whatever they still flee and fear must surely have originated there...

The Dance-Lights

• A cluster of eight hot, young stars ranging in size from one to two Solar masses move through the cosmos as a bound cluster. Millions of years from now, random perturbations will separate the cluster, but for now, they orbit together.

An empire of minor xenos has established itself within the cluster, for its blistering light and radiation helped to push back the Great Storm. Massive beasts forged of diaphanous currents of energy tracing itself through colossal spheroid bodies, they feed off the energy of the stars and ride currents of magnetism from star to star at tremendous speeds.

They are shockingly peaceful, for they need nothing of planets and know nothing of war, content to live in their own unique habitat, contemplating the cosmos.

The Imperium has made peaceful contact with them, and the nameless species, for they are of one communal mind in many bodies, has shared much information about the Oestalan Sector. These luminous beings cannot see small things like people, but they are sensitive to magnetic fields of spaceships, planets, and especially stars, and can read the motions of most of the sector's large bodies.

The Imperium has benefited from their presence, and having no particular reason to kill them, has let them be, pursuing more immediate threats. Conversation continues with the orb-creatures, and though their perspective is very non-human, they have assisted the Mechanicus in developing a few innovative plasma containment technologies, which have been dutifully sent back to Mars under the guise of being holy relics recovered from ruins.

Only one unfortunate accident has marred the peace, when a single overenthusiastic Magos tried to siphon one of the orb-creature's energy and bottle it for study. His destroyer-class vessel was later found drifting in the void, twisted neatly in half.The Magos, who survived the death of his ship, has reaped great rewards, left behind at his personal request by Rogue Trader Pavel. Though he has re-established peaceful accord with the xenos, he is paranoid that his secret may be found out. He considers himself the equal of Arkhan Land, and is building great renown for himself, but though his inventions may benefit the Imperium greatly, to the dogmatic Mechanicus, they are Heretek through and through. So long as none discover the lie, all will be well.

External Links

First creation thread: [1]

Second creation thread: [2]

Third creation thread: [3]

Fourth creation thread: [4]

Fifth creation thread:[5]

Sixth creation thread:[6]

Seventh creation thread: [7]

Eighth creation thread: [8]