Setting:Brighthammer 40,000/2nd edition

In the Noble Brightness of the 40th millennium, the Emperor of Mankind has ruled over ten millenia of peace.

Brighthammer 40k is a mirror universe of Warhammer 40k. In this setting, the incredibly GRIMDARKness of regular 40k is replaced by NOBLEBRIGHTness and instead of war, there is only HIGH ADVENTURE!

The second edition of Brighthammer was developed as a reconstruction of the underlying pulp sci-fi basics that make up Warhammer40k and were largely lost as the editions advanced.

Background

In the Noble Brightness of the 41st millennium, there is only HIGH ADVENTURE! Beginning after the ascension of the Eldar that created the Order God of Passion Slaanesh some 10,000 years ago, the Emperor of Mankind appeared to ensure guide humanity out of a self-imposed dark age. After a great war with the Lords of Order, his most favored son Horus and several of the Emperor's noble princes, or primarchs, sacrificed their mortal form to become princes of Order within The Warp and save mankind. Since then the Emperor has ruled for 10,000 years from the Golden Throne on Terra, bringing peace and the lost knowledge of the Golden Age of mankind. There is clearly no better time to be alive. Now the last vestiges of the Eldar go forth to seek out the secrets of ascension, found too pure to ascent with their brethren 10,000 years ago. Theirs is a desperate race against time, and a struggle to claim their place among their people as lords in the Warp. Opposing them are the dark forces of Eldrad, who leads the Exodite Eldar; those who have turned their back on ascension to seek the power of the ancient and terrible Old Ones, sealed away before the rise of mankind. To this day Eldrad's convoluted schemes are a constant source of pain and discontent for all the people of the galaxy. Across the galaxy the brutal but noble Orks seek the limit of their own strength, pushing themselves to new limits and beyond, but held back by their own brutal culture. In the distance the battle cry "For the Lesser Evil!" echos through the worlds of the eastern galaxy. The dark and chaotic empire called the Tau have formed a brutal fascist empire utilizing mind control, genocide, and cannibalistic Kroot slave-soldiers on all the worlds they invade. Despite the amoral and often savage methods used to expand their domain, the Emperor believes they can be stopped by means other than open warfare. Hidden beneath the surface of countless worlds, the immortal Necrontyr awaken to spread the knowledge of ancient technologies to man. They spread the unheard of message that prosperity is possible without the Lords of Order, and whisper again the secrets of godhood through technology that almost destroyed mankind once already. The Zoanthropes flee into the galaxy followed by a hungry horde of their own creation – the Tyranids. In their pursuit to create the perfect slave race through genetic engineering, they doomed their own galaxy and two others they have fled to before this. The races of the galaxy stand together, united to face the Tyranids and ensure they are not the fourth. But will the Zoanthropes truly turn out to be helpful – or will their inhuman experiments create even more terrible abominations? In the Warp, the Lords of Order are the god of hope and compassion, Nurgle, who builds civilizations and yet stifles them under his crushing grip, Tzeentch, god of knowledge and magic, who plays trickster, giving hope and taking it away at a whim, Khorne, the noble warrior king, who is the newest form of the former god of the Eldar, the savage Khaine. He is a merciless warrior god, sitting upon his throne of relics, rewarding the strong and crushing the weak. Finally, the newest and for now most powerful of the gods, Slaaneesh, god of passion, art, and possessed of a capricious and cruel nature. Across the Imperium not all is well, however. It is a vast empire, and planets fall out of the sight of the Emperor. Corrupt politicians seek to subvert the Democratic order and ways of the Imperium. Dark tyrants seek to rise up and rebel, oppressing their people brutally. Though the Lords and Princes of Order work with the Emperor to bring civilization to all mankind, the universe remains a strange and beautiful place, filled with HIGH ADVENTURE!

History

Unknown: => The first sapient species start appearing in the galaxy. Among them are the C'Tan, the Star Children who live within suns. => The terrible Great Old Ones roam space, enslaving and modifying species on their whim. Their evil spawns the first Warp Horrors. => The Necrontyr make contact with the C'Tan and become a transhuman species. => The Great Old Ones, bolstered by their mastership of the material universe begin to turn their attention towards the Warp. They begin to exercise control over the various Horrors, forming corrupt Warp Gods that thrive on harshly enforced worship of the slave races. => The War in Heaven: The Necrontyr and C'Tan fight the Great Old Ones. The C'Tan flee into hibernation and the Necrontyr are likewise scattered and beaten. => Critically weakened, the Great Old Ones are subject to a massive slave uprising. Siding with the slaves are some of their own Warp gods, who later take on the identity of the Lords of Order. => Lord Kroak, their Enlightened Supervisor, sends the last handful of his species into the darkest corner of the galaxy before he, too, is forced into hibernation. The Great Old Ones are finally defeated in the Materium. => The Immaterium, bristling with the hatred of the dead Old Ones and the slaves that perished, forms one last Warp Horror out of the loyalist Warp Gods, The Universal Destroyer, against which even the assembled armies are helpless. Only the ascension of the Ork brainboyz Gork and Mork stops the Destroyer from outright collapsing the entire galaxy.

=> The War of Souls: The Destroyer and his adversaries wage war in the Warp for millenia. Spacetravel becomes nearly impossible. => During the long darkness in the galaxy, the Initates of Order - originally a warrior brotherhood during the rebellion - reform on countless worlds. => The Enslavers, minor manifestations of the many-bodied Destroyer, burst forth through into the galaxy and kill entire worlds. => Three Lords of Order begin to take their modern form as result of the work of the Initiates. Eventually, as the Enslavers that had crossed into the Materium are thought annihilated the warp becomes usable again (although still dangerous). => The Eldar Ascendancy forms.

12000 BC => The Universal Destroyer begins harvesting the souls of unprotected Psychers. => The first Ork Empires form.

8000 BC => At the end of the last Ice Age, the Emperor of Mankind is born in central Anatolia.

M2 => A ruinous global wars leaves the human nation states in ruins. Humanity creates one united government, the Terran Alliance, to prevent the divisions of the past from resurfacing.=> Terraforming of Mars begins under a multinational conglomerate which eventually evolves into the first truly global corporation.

M15 => Age of Exodus: The Terran Alliance begins colonising distant worlds via sleeper ships. => Mars begins its specialisation into a purely industrial world. Eventually, it evolves into the vital point for manufacture to support outlying colonies further out into the solar system.

M18 => The Emperor of Mankind defeats the C'Tan known as the Void Dragon on Mars, forcing technological secrets out of him. => Thusly, humanity develops the Warp Drive and the Geller field. => Drained by the battle, the Emperor falls into a regenerative coma that will last 10,000 years. => After countless millenia, human Psychers are being born again.

M19 => The Dark Age of Technology: Unguided by the Emperor, whisperings of the Void Dragon drag humanity into the abyss of transhuman advancements.

M25 => The Golden Men (the followers of abstract transhumanism) declare An End to Flesh and starts a civil war that destroys the Terran Alliance. Opposing them, the Iron Men take up the flag of humanity. Thus begins the Human Age of Strife. => The Universal Destroyer, bloated on the spirits of countless Psychers, tears into the Materium again. Spacetravel is again rendered impossible, starting the Galactic Age of Strife. An entire sector of space is destroyed outright; it has since been known as the Void.* => The Elder Ascendancy begins a concerted effort to create a fourth Lord of Order, the Lord of Passion. While some Eldar only join the effort to finally get rid of the Destroyer, most are genuine about bringing peace to the galaxy.

M26 => Large parts of the the Initiates of Order reforge themselves into the Adepts of Unified Order and begin a crusade to convert whole worlds to their worship of the three Lords.

M28 => The Emperor reawakens on destroyed Terra. He sheds a manly tear before bringing the local civil war to an end. => Next, the sends the Void Dragon into hibernation. => The Emperor's rule begins to slowly extend to the closest solar systems, those reachable with slower FTL methods than direct warp travel.

M30 => The Eldar create the Lord of Passion, Slaanesh. Most of them ascend, except for the Bright Eldar (who are rejected as being too impure, but continue to study the means of ascension) and the Exodite Elder (who never liked the idea to begin with). => The Universal Destroyer is finally overwhelmed by his opponents and its composite Warp Gods are forced apart and sealed. Most succumb to lack of worship, but some endure. => The Exodie Eldar make it their mission to subdue pieces of the Destroyer to gain power in the Materium. => As the Warp calms, botht he Adepts of Unified Order and the new Imperium of Man begin to integrate the wayward human colonies into their respective realms. => The Emperor begins his Primarch project, creating 20 superhumans with his genes. Thanks to sabotage by immaterial sources, they are spread throughout the galaxy. => While searching for one of the missing Primarchs, first contact occurs between the Adepts and the Imperium. While the Primarch Sanguinius is recovered, the encounter ends in bloodshed, war is declared soon afterwards. => The Adeptus Maximus declares the Imperium of Man a heretical abomination, the Imperium in response starts fielding the first Space Marine legions during The Great Crusade.

M31 => After many long and difficult battles, the fleets and armies of the Adepts are decimated, but the Lords of Order themselves begin to affect the Materium to support their worshippers. => Sensing a solution that will not require untold millenia of bloodshed, Horus the Great and several of his fellow primarches ritually sacrifice themselves to ascend into the warp. => While himself an atheist, the Emperor declares the Initiates of Order an accepted religion. Many more religions follow. => The last remaining Adepts are reintegrated into the Initiates. The Great Crusade ends.

M32 => Due to many outside forces acting upon the Imperium, the disparate nature of many of it's worlds often acting against one another, and endless low level conflict with the many aliens and remaining Initiate dissenters, the Emperor's Secret Service is formed to deal with matters before they flare into war. They are granted great power and authority due to their position, and the importance of their job.

M36 => The Imperial Secret Service records the first known conflict between the Exodite Eldar and a species of amphibians called the Slaan. Further battles between these two adversaries continue with disturbing regularity over a selected few worlds. Further search of local archives point to conflicts leading back before humanity's recorded history. The Secret Service is tasked with disrupting such engagements and collecting whatever is fought over. Most of what they recover is ordered sealed.

M39 => The Slaan track down some of the Great Old Ones and reawaken them. Soon, covert operations to reassure galactic control are begun.

M40 => Rise of the Tau Empire. Declaring the Elder, Imperium, Orks, and Initiates a great evil on the galaxy, the Tau (led by the Ethereal Caste, which suddenly appeared several centuries prior) embark on a mission of enforcing The Lesser Evil, a unification under their rule.

M41 => First contact with an extragalactic species. The Zoanthropes raid the Klendathans' (a semi-indepedant human civilisation) worlds for genetic material. Contact ends as suddenly as it began. It is only realized why when a Klendathan scout makes contact with a pursuing species above the world of Tyran. => The conflicts with the Tyranids shocks most galactic powers into an uneasy alliance, as the sheer scale of the threat becomes known.

Races

Eldar

When the Bright Eldar were betrayed by the Craftworld Eldar, Slaanesh was left to fend for himself as the Eldar Pantheon led by Khaine attempted to murder all those whom refused to join them to serve the old ones. The Craftworld Eldar worship these gods whom they see will bring forth the victory of the Old Ones.

Isha was the deposed queen of the Eldar, giving birth to mostly maleviolent mortal children by her husband Asuryan. Khaine spited most of them and ordered Vaul to make him 100 blades to cause the most amount of suffering on Isha and Kurnous. As following the myth, a war in the heavens began with Khaine being the victor after causing death and agony to the Eldar worlds. eventually in the midst of Khaine's bloodlust, she prayed for a god that will be able to love and have compassion unlike the bloody pantheon of gods who have orchestrated a plan to cause countless cases of abuse to her. Thus was born Slaanesh. Slaanesh, the goddess of love and compassion attempt to reason with Khaine and Asuryan's second hunt. However in Khaine's anger, he had murdered most of the Eldar gods before being restrained by Khorne and leading Slaanesh to their pantheon where they keep Isha safe from Khaine's ire and the Laughing God's attempt to bring forth disaster.

Orks

During the age before history, war raged between the Old Ones and the Necrons. The Old ones, pressed hard in their fight against their foes, raised up several races as soldier/slaves in their conflict.

Two of the most notable were the Eldar and the Orks. During the war they formed a team of power that complimented each other excellently; the Eldar were cunning tricksters, misdirecting their foes and striking as a scalpal, and the Orks were the implacable, strong and unstoppable foe.

Not all orks were satisfied with this life of eternal oppression and bloodlust, however, and wanted more - and two Orks changed the path of the universe.

The Orks were two brainboyz, leaders of the Orks, who combined the innate abilities of all the classes of the boyz; the powerful Warbosses physical size, the Madboyz incredible powers as psychers, and above all, the Mekboyz capabilities with building and using powerful Kustom Meks and Gargants.

Even as the war was waged in the heavens above, the two Orks, starting as mere Grots, started by hijacking the War Meks of their oppressor taskmasters, traitor orks.

Taking these Meks, Gork and Mork waged a campaign of unstoppable power and capability, drawing many others to their cause. Eventually their WAAAGH covered the entire surface of their homeworld, and the climactic battle came between the great Warboss Krorkome.

Together, Gork and Mork faced their foe and won, channeling the spirit and belief of the entire planetary WAAAGH behind them, they could not be stopped.

Upon their victory, the Old Ones attempted to stop the rebellion by throwing the planet's moon at the surface of their world, stopping them forever.

Undaunted, Gork and Mork called upon the power of the planetary WAAAGH and built the greatest Gargant ever seen, and blew the moon up. Though their world was still battered, they did not hesitate in striking out and continuing their rebellion, taking world after world and constructing bigger and bigger Gargants, not satisfied until they won their freedom from the Old Ones.

The Eldar took the opportunity the weakening of the Old One's power presented, and used their intelligent and cunning schemes to now strike down the Old Ones, at their weakest. They threw their full might in with the Orks and Necrons, turning full-on the Old Ones.

Eventually, the sheer power of the Necrons, the Cunning schemes of the Eldar, and the unrelenting tenacity of the Orks led them to face the great armies of the Old Ones in a final climactic battle.

It was here the Orks showed their true power, for the Eldar cunningly maneuvered their forces so that the Orks could make a final and fatal strike against the Old Ones most powerful champion; the universal destroyer, and with a single blow end the war.

In that conflict, the greatest Gargant ever to exist, piloted by Gork and Mork themselves, struck out and fought the leader of the Old Ones in a galaxy shaking battle.

In the end, Gork and Mork sacrificed themselves, sealing the Old Ones away and rising to godhood to become Lords of Order in the warp.

Orks today retain the fighting spirit of Gork and Mork, and although considered savages by many, Orks live for nothing less than facing great challenges, leading great WAAAGH's against the foes of all that is good in the galaxy, and building the biggest, shootiest, choppiest, orkiest Gargants there is.

To this day, no Ork has ever reached the power of Gork or Mork, but the time is soon coming when the Old Ones will awaken, and they must stand ready to face their old foes again.

Modern Ork WAAAGHs tend to be a lot smaller, a lot more rag-tag and generally less awesome than the legendary one of GORK and MORK. However, they all abide by three hard and fast rules. They also expect you to abide by them as well.

Rule one: Don't touch da Civies! Orks are single gendered, and from birth to death are fit to fight and driven to combat. But they understand that most races don't have this exquisite biology working for them. This rule started out as a mere suggestion that little members of other species were less fun to fight and has evolved into a strict code that forbids targeting any non-combatant. Anyone who targets Civilians will be beaten to within an inch of death by Orks.

Rule Two: Winna keeps da swag! Orks will wager their wargear and treasure on the outcome of a battle-defeating the orks typically leads to the WAAAGH partially disarming and paying you a lot of 'treasure' although given the number of races they do battle with Ork treasure ranges from their own exquisite jewelry and fine eldar crafts to random rocks that someone thought looked nice. Players who loose to Orks will be expected to honor this rule, and doing so will let them walk away with their skins intact.

Rule Three: Follow da boss-no matta who 'e is. Orks have a very complex code of honor-even the Eldar don't fully understand it. In general however, you gain honor in Ork eyes by defeating your enemies with minimal force and assistance, by building tributes to GORK and MORK and by winning one of the hundreds of rough and tumble sporting events played by the Orks. Whoever accrues the most honor in a WAAAGH is considered the strongest candidate for being the Boss, although when it's close the Orks go with the smaller, younger, more dynamic Ork. And sometimes, when you least expect it, someone who's not an Ork can become a Boss. Such is the case of Commissar Yarrick, legendary Hero of Armageddon who has gone on to become the leader of one of the greatest WAAAGHS in the galaxy, along with his blood brother, Ghazghkull.

Slaan

The Slaan are an ancient race raised to sentience and power by the Old Ones, embracing magics more incredible than even the most powerful of the Bright Eldar.

Unlike the other races created by the Old Ones, they stood with the few who would remain to defend them, believing wholly in their great plan. They stood without hesitation or remorse against their former comrades in arms, using their great power to strike against them.

In the last battle, the great war was fought above the skies of their homeworld of Itza. There, their foes were the newly formed armies of the Lords and Angels of Order. Their leader, the indomitable Lord Kroak, used the vast powers he had received as a psycher in the lap of the Old Ones themselves. In a single vast strike, he sacrificed a million captured enemies to form a psychic defense that covered the entire planet. Upon it's walls bashed the Militants of Khorne, the Lifebringers of Nurgle, and the Magos of Tzeentch, all to no avail. Nothing, from the mightiest Gargants of the Orks to the pinpoint strikes of the Eldar could penetrate it.

In the skies above, however, the old ones battle raged and they were defeated when the Destroyer was sealed away through the sacrifice of Gork and Mork. Robbed of the source of much of their power, the shield weakened and the armies pressed against them increased.

In the space between, as the shield finally collapsed, the entire Slaan fleet assembled for a desperate final stand; they would hold off the enemy and give time to Lord Kroak to complete his great and final work.

Though the forces of Order were valiant and strong, the armies of the Slaan held for three days against their relentless assault, and when they were finally broken and troops landed on the surface, they were held back yet more by their expert guerrilla fighters, who took full advantage of the terrain of their jungle home.

At the last, this too did break, but it gave Lord Kroak the chance he needed to enact his final vengeance - a assault using powers of the warp that was the domain of no less than the gods themselves. With a thought, he sent out supernova levels of power, and formed black holes to devour entire enemy fleets. Whole ships were lost forever as they were swallowed by the winds of chaos.

At the last however, even this vast power was not to win the battle, as the cunning Eldar leader Eldrad had managed to maneuver himself into a position to strike, cutting down the lord of the lizardmen with a single blow to the back.

Even as he lay dying, however, Lord Kroak used the last of his power to scatter his people across the galaxy.

In the aftermath, his people recovered his body, and used all of their arcane arts to try to restore it to life. Such was his malevolence that not even death could stop him forever, and as the last few cells clinged to life he ordered the construction of a vast throne, in which his body would one day be restored. In the mean time, his people would still serve the old ones.

Now the Slaan are returning, and Lord Kroak is regaining life. They seek the sealed Old Ones return, that they might serve them once again.

Zoanthropes

Long ago in a distant galaxy, a race called the Zoanthropes focused upon molding, shaping, and creating the greatest biological technology known to the universe. They were highly successful. Too successful; their genetically engineered slave races, all highly adaptive in order to suit their needs and every whim, eventually rebelled.

The result was a race that consumed their entire galaxy, and several others.

Now the last remnants of their race flee to the Milky Way, with the Tyranid swarms in hot pursuit. Now they seek new biological information, new power, new allies, and a chance to rebuild their empire and stop their creations.

Factions

The Praetorians

The Praetorians are a proud, conservative, and cultured people, who favor gentile and civilized life above all else.

Despite this, they have always been fierce warriors, with indomitable resolve. No gentleman would run from the field of battle like a coward, and the Praetorians are anything but cowards. It is this resolve alone that saved them from the first attack of their savage neighbors, the Kroot.

The war began over a boundary dispute. The Praetorians colonized a harsh, uninhabited world in Tau space by accident, and are technically living outside the Imperium. The Tau claimed their territory; the Praetorians refused annexation. With the only option for the Tau to go to war with the entire military might of the Imperium, they relaxed their claim, yet found a loophole in the peace treaties that would allow them to take Praetoria anyway.

Their allies, the Kroot, are not an official part of the Tau empire, instead acting as mercenaries or slaves.

With the promise of freedom if they were victorious, the Tau setup an elaborate plot to allow a fleet of Kroot slaves to break away from the Tau empire, who would then take Praetoria. Upon their victory, the Tau would put down the rebellious Kroot, and claim the planet. The Imperium as a whole could not respond because the Praetoria was in contested space between the Tau and Imperials, meaning that full scale war would break out if they retaliated. The Praetorians would be on their own.

The initial strike nearly destroyed the Praetorian homeworld, but for the luck of an astropath detecting the entrance of the Kroot fleet.

The Kroot invaded the Praetorian system, and the Praetorian fleet scrambled to respond to the unexpected attack. The endless waves of Kroot ships broke against them like the tide against a rock, and bought the time desperately needed to assemble defenders on the ground.

Though they could not hold in space, their fleet was not destroyed, and hid in the asteroid field, to repair and rebuild, holding against future assaults.

On the ground, the armies of the Praetorians marched, meeting the endless tide of savage Kroot in battle, each man cutting down dozens. The bloodletting was fierce, the field of combat ever changing.

The Praetorians are still on the defense, lead by their Gentleman Commander Sir Robin Fitzgerald, a man of tactical mind and Iron will. His fierce determination in the face of the foe has lead to countless victories for the Praetorians, even against desperate odds.

Only time will tell who will win the war for Praetoria; whether it will be claimed by the savage Kroot or defended successfully by the Praetorians.

Peacekeeper Corps of Frieden

The world of Frieden was once a paradise planet - the center of culture and civilisation for the whole sector, a shining example of Imperial rule.

This, however, was not to last. The governor of the planet rebelled against the Imperium, declaring himself an Autarch and bringing the once bright, peaceful world under his steel-clad boot. Soon, the rebels took over nearly the entire planet - all but the Hive Ferrograd, defended by the brave and noble Colonel Jurten.

His heroism became a tale of legends in the Imperium; one city, and a single regiment of plantary defence forces of a world which very name meant "peace", forces that nobody seriously expected to ever see real battle - they stood against the entire world, valiantly protecting Ferrograd with their lives against Autarch's treasonous forces. Even when confronted with impossible odds, Colonel Jurten and Frieden 83rd never faltered, holding ground until reinforcements could arrive to help liberate the planet.

When the Imperium finally arrived in force, it was Colonel Jurten who led the way to depose the Autarch, his bravery confirming his earlier reputation even further - and it was him who finally struck the treasonous governor down in a culmination of the assault on his fortified palace. Unfortunately, it was all too late.

The Autarch, in his final moment of spite, launched a massive campaign of nuclear purging from his last positions, prepared specifically for this purpose. As the courageous forces of the Imperial Guard prepared to assault the palace, they could not help but watch as enormous thermonuclear missiles streaked through the air. The Autarch, finally overcame with madness, would rather destroy his entire world than let the Imperium have it. Even though the Imperial Navy shot down many of the missiles, they were too numerous and the attack too sudden to prevent the tragedy. Only the heroic action of Lieutenant Tiberius, who rammed his fighter into the final missile, destroying both with barely split-seconds left for him to eject, saved Ferrograd from total obliteration. Others were not so lucky.

Colonel Jurten and the men of Frieden 83rd could only watch in horror as everything that they fought to protect crumbled in thermonuclear fire. The entire biosphere was destroyed, along with countless lives; the once-paradise world now turned into barren, toxic hell, forcing the remaining population underground.

It was then that the Peacekeeper Korps were born; the Colonel, overcame with grief, took an oath that he will not allow such a terrible tragedy to repeat itself ever again. All of his men joined him, as well as many civilians, men and women with no families or homes left, destroyed by Autarch's insane reign.

Even though Jurten long since died in battle, taking a monstrous Tyranid Biotitan into the grave along with himself, his ideal lived on. Frieden now has one of the highest recruitment rates in all of Imperium, its people fighting amongst the stars with relentless determination to ensure that nobody would have to live through the same tragedy as they did.

The troops of Peacekeeper Korps are noble, compassionate and determined in their quest to ensure peace and end war - the Korps take great care to prevent civilians from being harmed during combat operations and have proven to excel at war relief operations, their crippled world teaching them well about the utmost neccessity of caring for their fellow man. They, after all, want to protect others from the tragedies of war, not merely kill Imperium's enemies.

When it comes to battle, the heroic tales of Colonel Jurten and his soldiers are proven right once again - the regiments originating from his 83rd will always stand against enemy odds, no matter how overwhelming; an unwavering shield protecting the innocents from those who would harm them. The men of Frieden are determined to protect and preserve peace all over the galaxy - no matter how much it costs them, never shall the tragedy of Frieden be repeated.

The Elysians

The Hive world of Elysia sits in the middle of a busy and highly dangerous sector of space, situated between innumerable small nebulae, asteroid fields and small, low gravity worlds.

The world of Elysia itself is small and gravity is light, and is known for its towering spires and endless skies where aircars and more traditional aircraft never cease moving. The world is a center of commerce, and draws in people from all across the Imperium and beyond.

Despite the richness of their world, or perhaps because of it and the conditions of the systems surrounding it, pirates are a relentless problem in the nearby sectors of space.

Countless nearby sectors of space hide pirate strongholds, both human and Eldar. The everchanging battlefield makes it nearly impossible to find and destroy these vile fiends, and space travel is always dangerous in the space around Elysia.

Moreover, a dread outcast Tau imperial named Ning Mu has moved into the surrounding space, capturing people for his vile experiments, creating hideously mutated monsters and rallying the pirates to new levels of dark depravity.

To combat this threat, the Elysian Sky Corps was born. Equipping their soldiers with the best Carapace armor available and jetpacks, they have become a familiar sight in the skies of a dozen nearby worlds, from the eternal twilight Slaan infested jungles of Zothique, to the towering spires of their sister metropolii and even into the asteroid fields inside the ever changing myriad colored nebulae near their home, the Sky Corps are ready with lasgun in hand to defend their world and their people.

The Sky Corps fights as many battles inside dense asteroid fields in space as on the ground, and the terrain they meet is often exotic and dangerous. Nevertheless, they never hesitate in the face of danger, and always bravely fly on, ready for any challenge.

Klendathans

The Klendathans are a semi-independent group living on the most distant fringes of the Imperium, and unlike many Imperial worlds are not lead by a hereditary aristocracy, but a democratically elected government, whom anyone who has earned their citizenship can vote in. To earn one's citizenship, they must simply serve the government, be it in the military or in a civil service roll.

Despite this requirement, the majority of the work was for a very long time makework, with the majority of applicants doing nothing more severe than spending two years polishing floors.

All of this changed when rebellion suddenly erupted upon their homeworld, and the city of Aries was wiped out.

In the weeks that followed the eruption of rebellion, it became clear that the populace of Aries had been infected with the gene altering condition caused only by one group in the galaxy - the Zoanthropes.

Even as they cleared their world of the unfortunate mutants in their midst, the Zoanthropes came into their system in massive waves, seeking to steal as many of the Klendathans as possible in a short period of time.

The Klendathans soon learned why; on their tails were the inexhaustable hordes of the Tyranids, the very first contact ever made with those terrible creatures.

Bravely, the Klendathans stood and faced their foes, donning some of the best Carapace and Powered armor seen in the hands of the Imperial Guard anywhere in the Imperium, produced by their sister world, which over the centuries had become a great forgeworld.

Wave after wave of the enemies broke against them, and eventually the Zoanthropes escaped into other sectors of space, taking their ill-gotten genetic information with them. The Tyrands first fleet was shattered, scattering across the nearby systems and spreading for thousands of lightyears, all the while pursued by the Klendathans.

The war is still waged across their sector of space; they stand resolute in defense against their terrible foe, and no matter how hostile the environment, they will fight, and they will win.

Among the guard the Klendathans are famed for their extensive use of powered armor, high quality carapace armor and light walkers such as sentinels. They are light on combat vehicles, as they are often fighting on terrain ill-suited for heavy tanks, but more than make up for it with the power of their infantry.

The Adeptus Sororitas

The Brides of the Emperor: The Adeptus Sororitas.

In a universe filled with the power of hubristic psykers and laughing tyrant gods, the emperor's secret service is sometimes not enough. Mankind needs protection against the powerful forces of the warp and the lords of Order, and sometimes, darker things.

The Emperor found a solution in a group of women fanatically devoted to the Imperium – the Adeptus Sororitas. Using his own godlike abilities, he infused them with a small part of his own essence – forever binding them to him, but protecting them from the crushing powers of the warp, and in those who are already psychers, awakening great power within them.

The Adeptus Sororitas are all women for the same reason Space Marines are all Men. The process of becoming one will only work for a woman – the genetic enhancements and psychic soul-binding process will kill a man. The Adeptus Sororitas's legendary resistance to the powers of psychers and their influence simply do not transfer over to men – nor, indeed, to all women. Of the trillions of women in the Imperium, only a select few can become the Brides of the Emperor.

The secret behind what women can become Sororitas is in training – a kind which can last a lifetime – and above all else, an unyielding, unshakable faith in mankind, the Imperium, and the Emperor of Man. The Emperor's Binding brings it's great resistance to the powers of psychers because of that faith, but it requires rigid self-discipline, courage, and self-confidence as well as humility. Few can master the mindset necessary – and fewer still can master it sufficiently to become truly able to resist the most powerful psychers.

Those that do master themselves, however, find that they have joined one of the most powerful organizations in the Imperium, responsible for the protection of humanity from the threats of the warp. They are given access to the most rare and powerful forms of rediscovered powered armor, the latest weapons, and powerful space fleets. Alongside the Space Marines, they were the force that first broke the forces of Order during the Great Crusades, in their earliest form as the Sisters of Silence.

The Sisters of Silence still exist today, as a smaller part of the Adeptus Sororitas.

The Initiates of Order

The Initiates of Order were originally formed as a warrior brotherhood during the final war on Itza. Following the sealing of the Old Ones, the sacrifice of Gork and Mork, the death of Lord Kroak, and the still raging war in the Warp, the initiates travelled the galaxy, to bolster the Lords of Order by rebuilding the galaxy with hope instead of harm in their minds.

Never numerous, the Initiates started a massive recruitement drive during and after humanity's war with the Iron Men and the Age of Strife (which were both caused by the Universal Destroyer's death throes). Over the following centuries, they established a central authority and a unified government.

When the warp storms that followed the death of the Destroyer finally ceased, the Adepts of Unified Order began an aggressive program of expansion, all the while cleaning their ranks from peacenik and xeno elements. After unifying a third of the Galaxy, the Adepts came to blows with the newly founded Imperium of Man in a conflict that lasted millenia. Now dubbed the "Great Crusade" by imperial history, the conflict officially began when the Imperium was declared a heretical warping of the old Terran Alliance by the Archadept, although there had been brief flashes of conflice before. Consequentially, the Adepts began to cleanse all imperial planets of "heretical" life-forms. Appaled by the mass-slaughter, a minor faction split from the Adepts and joined the Imperium, which had already begun a massive counter-attack over one hundred and twenty solar systems.

Due to the heavy losses of Adept fanatics, the very Gods of Order were beginning to swell with their souls and began to turn into oppressive tyrants. When the first attack of the corrupted Gods of Order froze an entire solar system in a crystaline husk, some the Primarchs under the leadership of Horus, committed ritual suicide to join with the Gods of Order and counteract their corruption.

In the end, the Imperium proved victorious and the Adepts were destroyed, with the emperor personally slaying the Archadept.

Any Adept troops who surrendered were granted full pardon, and most of the joined the Imperial's Initiates. Today's Initiates of Order are one of the Imperium's sanctioned religions, and among the first to spread Imperial influence and thoughts on non-imperial worlds. However, no central unified structure exists anymore, and is strongly discouraged.

Commissars

Commissars are carefully trained in the arts of war and serve to keep up morale and advise officers in its arts. Because war is relatively rare in Brighthammer 40k, they serve to keep the Guard in good working order. They are always the first in the charge, and the last in retreat. In times where their units fail, Commissars have been known to take their own lives rather than face the shame of defeat, knowing it was they who supposed to keep the unit battle ready.

The Imperial Secret Service

His Imperial Majesty's Secret Service

When dark forces rise, the Secret Service is there to cut them out, quietly and stealthily. They are the secret agents of the Emperor, acting on his authority when all peaceful measures fail. When mad psykers arise, they are there to take them out. When corrupt governors starve their people, the Special Agents are ready to remove them. Notably, they are not as extreme as their Warhammer 40k counterparts (the Inquisition) and are mostly focused upon more James Bond like secret agent action.

The Secret Service makes use of several different specially trained operatives, apart from general Special Agents. These individuals are usually trained at specialized combat schools from the elite of the elite.

Callidus School is still dedicated to infiltration tactics, scouting, information gathering.

Eversor School is for assault, designed to take on even the strongest foes in single combat, and receive a number of physical, mental, and cybernetic enhancements.

Vindicare School is dedicated to long-range support, master of weapons, especially sniper-based ones. The noble fallen knight LIVII belonged to this organization.

Culexus School trains specialized individuals who are capable of uplifting moral to immense levels and increase the performance and natural healing abilities of their companions, despite lacking psyker capabilities. Aka, the reverse of the Pariah trait. These individuals are incredibly rare, but make highly effective team leaders.

All are recruited from existing special forces and receive the Inquisitions best training in general operations before proceeding on to their permanent combat school, in which they receive training in their specialized area.

After the training at their respective schools, they go to a third phase of training where all of them will attend the same school for team building and developing alongside each other to use each others strengths to eliminate all the weaknesses they had as individuals. After graduation, they are known as Imperial Special Forces, second only to the Astartes in terms of awesomeness.

The Catachan

They move as swift as the wind, invisible as a shadow, and strike with ruthless precision. The Cachatan Jungle Fighters are the subtle knife of the Imperial Guard, whose strike and fade warfare style leaves them feared and respected by friend and foe alike.

Raised from the Deathworld of Cachatan, these fearless men and women are absolute masters of all arboreal terrain. A single squad of Cachatans, and it is rare to see more than that in any campaign, can be dropped behind enemy lines, and use their small-unit tactics and improvisation let them punch far above their weight.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the now-immortalised operation on Amoz-7: In a single night, a lone squad from the 24th Cachatans eradicated an Eldar pirate base and rescued more than 90 civilians, without losing a single civilian and only suffering a broken arm during the fierce fighting.

The White Ships

Wherever the Emperor's arm reaches, there the White Ships of His Majesty's Secret Service will go. Palaces of the psychic arts, they provide budding psykers with a fundamental education or a vessel to carry them to more specialized training in the form of the many offices of the Scholastia Psykana. Such advanced training is on a strict volunteer only basis, but those who seek out the highest levels may be inducted into the ranks of the Secret Service or some other great agency and brotherhood of heroes. For others the White Ships provide a haven and a healing rest from the trials of life and service. Sanitariums as well as schools, the abundance of psykers aboard means that the White ships almost invariably take aboard the mentally ill for treatment. Time and telepaths combine to wipe away the stain of almost any trauma, and the wide variety of medicine available to the medicae aboard such a vessel makes them fully able to cure any malady of the mind.

Schola Progenium

Far more than reading, writing and arithmetic are taught at the Schola Progenium. These facilities serve as academies for the best and brightest of the Imperium's children. Most are noted for their progressive and exhaustive curriculum, which can lead any graduate directly into a career as any one of a number of high ranked positions within the Imperium's power structure. Commissars are almost universal educated at these facilities, although some private academies do produce young men and women capable of passing the dreaded examinations of the Commissariat.

Warp Entities

The Lords of Order

Nurgle

Papa Nurgle is the god of compassion; he care for all creatures, no matter how small. He is still a god of sickness and disease, but he cures them in Brighthammer rather than inflicts them. Nurgle is a lord of stability, even among the other lords of Order. If he has a weakness, it is that he is unchanged and forever unchanging. He helps to build civilizations, and is a bringer of law, order, and stability. However, he is not adaptive, and some find his embrace stifling. He is not necessarily a good guy; his followers sometimes are highly oppressive.

Khorne

Khorne is the noble lord of war. He is still a war god, but a god of honorable combat. He sits upon a throne throne of Relics. The Throne of Relics consists of captured armor, arms, and various artifacts from Khornes honorably defeated enemies. He may gift those who please him with a powerful artifact selected from his throne. Khorne favors the strong above all else, and blesses those who are already mighty warriors. He does not, however, have much compassion for the weak, and does not believe in helping those who cannot help themselves. He has little compassion.

Tzeentch

Tzeentch is the most changing and adaptive of the Lords of Order, and is a god of powerful warp sorcery and knowledge. His ways are often dangerous, with a "leap before you look" sort of mentality. He is known for his cunning plans and endless schemes. Because he is the most chaotic of the lords of Order, however, he is also one of the weakest. It is his cunning plans that keep him in power.

Slaaneesh

Slaaneesh is the god(ess) of passion, created by the Eldar to assist them with their ascendence to the warp. This does not me he/she is all pink hearts and kindness, however. Slaaneesh is the lord of excess, of passion, and volatile emotion. People fall in and out of favor with Slaaneesh on mere whims, and those who get his/her attentions and refuse them do not end well. Think of Aphrodite here - she was not kind to those who stood in her way. Slaaneesh is vain, ill tempered, and very easily offended. When thinking of Slaaneesh, remember the story of Eros and Psyche. Love does not mean good or nice.

The Spawn of the Universal Destroyer

Alias: The many-bodied Beast; The Nameless Of all the horrors of the Warp that the Great Old Ones spawned, remnants of the Universal Destroyer are all that remain. It formed when, faced by the betrayal of the later Gods of Order, the Great Old Ones' hatred spawned their final warp entity. Within its first few minutes of existance, it had already slain and absorbed most of Old Ones' blasphemous Warp Gods, growing ever stronger and subsuming their identity with its own. Only with the help of newly ascended Gork and Mork was the entity stopped from ripping a galaxy-sized hole in reality. Already weakened by the sealing away of the Great Old Ones' at the hand of the Necrontyr and their C'Tan allies, the Universal Destroyer was finally defeated for good millenia later by the ascendance of Slaanesh and the Primarchs.

But just as it is impossible to eradicate a God of Order, so it is impossible to eradicate the embodiment of unthinking malice. While the conscious form of the Destroyer was defeated, parts of it still exists, drifting through the warp in the form of screaming fog. The Gods of Order are standing vigil against its influence, sending messages and directions to their servants when a piece of it starts to threaten reality again.

While unable to consciously act, the Destroyer still extends influence into the galaxy. On many backward worlds, cults exist which draw from its power, almost always revering some god of vengeance, blood, or ritual murder; some might own powerful and evil relics created during the millenia when the Destroyer was still sentinent. While such relics can no longer be created, their corrupting influence can still lead to madness, mutations, and the spawning of minor warp horrors (which redissolve into one of the bodies of the Destroyer when slain). Its remaining worldly influence is countered mostly by the Adeptus Telepathica, the entire Ork race, and the Elder servants of Khaine. Individual Horrors

The Enslavers

While thought defeated during the War of Souls, the Enslavers are occassionally encountered on planets which harbour many uneducated Psychers.

The Screaming Fog

The fog is all that remains of the Universal Destroyer which was formed just before the sealing of the Great Old Ones and the fall of the Slaan, their last remaining servants. It was destroyed at the beginning of the Age of Strife, dissolving into countless clouds of screaming fog, which continue to travel to the Warp to this day. The Adeptus Telepathica theorizes that the fog is not destroyed because the Gods of Order realized that such an act would force the creation of a new embodiment of malice. Individual fog banks can possess careless Psychers, driving them utterly mad, animate dead bodies into mindless monsters, and drive unsuspecting warp-travelling vessels into disaster. The fog cannot be destroyed in the Materium, but the destruction of its vessels force it back into the Warp, where it is again a helpless victim to its currents.

The Wanderer of the Warp

Alias: The Oldest Brother; Sprit of Shadow

The Wanderer of the Warp is a ancient Horror; possibly one of the few remaining of the Great Old Ones' original servants. It is encountered maybe twice every millenium, but some of its appreances have been well documented. It may appear when a summon of an Order Daemon is improperly warded, gradually superimposing itself over the Daemon until it gains access to the Materium in its stead. Its appearance varies; generally, its body appears looking like one of its summoners, replicating clothes down to insignificant details; however, the Wanderer's body does not emulate flesh but solid shadow. Terribly powerful, it has been known to immediatly attack its summoners, not stopping until a sufficient level of destruction has been inflicted. It has been observed to immolate its victims, as well as turn parts of its body into piercing weapons. While powerful, it can be defeated and sent back into the Warp; in one notable encounter, the Primarch Rogal Dorn single-handedly fought it to a bloody stalemate until it retreated through a Warp portal, clearly weakened by the encounter. The Adeptus Telepathica theorizes that this Horror is a manifestation of man's desire to hide his darkest secrets from himself.

The Dread Moon

Alias: The Watcher in Darkness

The Dread Moon may appear in the Materium when an entire planet is engulfed in war, should that planet have at least one moon. Its manifestation superimposes the moon with the image of an unblinking reptilian eye. Its influence (aside from the visual manifestation) is subtle: peace negotiations fail, comrades are more likely to start infighting, equipment fails with the most dangerous effects possible. As soon as the war ceases, the manifestation disappears. At least two hundred and twenty-four wars since the rise of the Empire of Man have been stopped dead as soon as the Watcher in Darkness appeared in the system - both sides realizing that the only way to survive this encounter was peaceful negotiation. The Adeptus Telepathica fears that it may be allied to the dread Tau, as it has been seen during their last three attempted invasions of imperial planets.

Doom Rider

A Horror of unknown origin, Doom Rider may appear in the midst of battle through a portal, fight a random battler, and then disappear again. It appears as a motorcycle-riding man with his head on fire. The Adeptus Telepathica is unable to determine who or what this Horror is, its motivation is a total mystery.

Furies

Appearing a leathery winged beasts, Furies are thought to be formed by a gathering of souls of the Universal Destroyers. Their influence of the Materium and Immaterium is negligible, as destroying them in both realms is a high priority of the Gods of Order and their servants; individual Furies might escape this fate and assist cults of the Destroyer for a while, before inevitably consuming their souls to increase their own power.

Gameplay

This is a setting best adapted for Dark Heresy games and for Kill-Team scenarios in regular tabletop 40k, due to its emphasis on adventure and heroics.