Battlefleet Victorum

Battlefleet Victorum has guarded the worlds of the Victorum Sector since the time of the Great Crusade. It is the Imperium's shield, the first line of defense against the dangers of the galactic dark. The influence of its high officers spans the sector, from feudal worlds where kings give up their children to the Navy's most menial positions to gilded hive cities where Navigators vie for distant postings that will seal their House’s fate.

Despite its power and wealth, Battlefleet Victorum is hard-pressed to answer the threats now encroaching upon the Victorum Sector. While the large volume of void traffic and the attendant wealth of the sector fueled its growth beyond the size of most sector battlefleets, much of its strength was concentrated in escorts and light cruisers. While this mix of ships is well-suited to the warp patrols and pirate hunting operations that typify the Segmentum Tempestus, the losses and subsequent requisitions of The Tyrannic War drained Battlefleet Victorum of both escorts and capital ships, a situation worsened by the rising threat of full-scale void war.

Battlefleet Victorum once took a place of prominence in the crusades of the Segmentum Tempestus. Far-ranging were her ships and well-respected were her warriors. The Age of Apostasy brought this storied establishment low; torn between faith and heresy, power and responsibility, Battlefleet Victorum went to war, first against the adherents and followers of Battlefleet Bakka, then against itself.

A Brief History

Battlefleet Victorum was once a by-word for honour, tenacity, and skill. But it fell from such lofty heights long ago, and the reputation of its betrayals has haunted it ever since.

The precursors the hallowed battlefleet were drawn from three sources: The Imperial Navy task forces attached to the Seventh Tempestus Crusade, the indigenous naval forces assembled by Saint Castor during her wars with the Falxian Gladocracy, and the remnant Imperial Army traditions which survived the interregnum between The Great Crusade and The Scouring. From these disparate traditions, a legacy was established, one which focused as much or more on commerce raiding and the skillful use of attack craft as traditional broadside, line-of-battle tactics. Shaped by the experiences of crusading against ramshackle void fleets and hunting down lone marauders, the strategies and theories developed by the Battlefleet Victorum were broadly indicative, though unique in detail, of the evolution of Segmentum Tempestus naval strategy. This collection of theories would eventually be dubbed the "Insular School," for it was invariably championed by officers whose primary experiences were limited to the Segmentum Tempestus.

These theories would be opposed by schools of orthodox Naval strategists, many of whom were veterans of expeditions, crusades, and battles beyond the typical Tempestus experience against xenos empires, Black Crusades, and other fleet-level engagements. This "Orthodox School" eventually established itself in strength at the Segmentum Naval Base of Bakka, whose officers were drawn from across the Imperium and whose ships could be summoned as far as the Eye of Terror and the Ghoul Stars when demanded by the Imperium.

The Insular School contained a powerful and vocal contingent hailing from the Victorum Sector, one which championed their own crusading experience in the Veiled Region and Segmentum Pacificus. However, the locus of political and materiel influence ended up being the Sector Naval base of Gareox, far to the galactic north and close to the Segmentum Solar.

By the opening of the 36th Millenium, the two schools of had evolved into competing political factions: The Orthopraxic Tradition, which emphasized the tried-and-true tactics and weapons of the Imperial Navy, and The Gareox Prerogative, which argued for an overhaul of Imperial naval tactics to incorporate rediscovered technologies and explore new tactical theories. They eventually gained enough political control to influence ship designs across multiple segmentum and numerous sectors.

Battlefleet victorum, as a major contributor to the Gareox Prerogative, was a leading voice in the lead-up to The Gareox Incident. As the opposing schools clashed, first in politics and then on the warp routes, large elements of Battlefleet Victorum became involved in a titanic civil conflict that was only masked by the rising unrest of the Reign of Blood. The Battlefleet's naval hierarchy saw this as their chance to dethrone Bakka as the preeminent naval influence in the Segmentum Tempestus, a view not entirely shared by the captains and commanders in the field.

In the end, much of Battlefleet Victorum was caught up in the chaos of Reign of Blood before they could become fully enmeshed in the Gareox Incident, and many of the pro-Gareox officers would die in the massive war that overthrew the reign of Goge Vandire, and the rebellions which followed. Victorious Bakka did not forget, however, and Battlefleet Victorum was much-diminished in future millennia.

Current Conspiracies

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