A Glimpse of Chaos (OOC)

[ShakenInnocent]

<Vermillion-Priority Transmission> <Thought for the Day: A Moment of Laxity Can Spawn A Lifetime of Heresy>
<Sender: Inquisitor Thedrus Mallimanus>
<Recipent: Interrogator Jarn Klivan>
<Date: 2.389.315 M41>

Jarn:
Heresy and sedition stir within the Draus Sector. My network informs me that a new threat, a self-styled "Imperator Iacta Occasus" has led a full four worlds into open rebellion. While we are taking steps to ensure his removal, we feel that he is not alone. The Draus sector is instrumental to the continued supply of the Cadian defence. I hereby grant you full Inquisitorial remit to assemble a cell and root out the hidden allies of this insurrection. Remember always that you must burn the witch, that you must purge the alien, and you must kill the heretic. Let none of the unclean escape His Majesty's wrath.

<End Transmission>

This story is to be set in the dark millennium, in the year 40,315. For those of you familiar with Games Workshop and their products, this will be based off of the Warhammer 40k line. For those unfamiliar, here is a brief overview.

This setting is based loosely off our own reality. However, key is the existence of a second universe, layered over ours, known as the Warp, Empyrean, or Immaterium. This universe is the home of daemons and the Chaos Gods, twisted beings that seek to exploit, rule over, or merely butcher humanity. As years go by, technology evolves and humanity settles the stars. However, a disastrous incident creates a multitude of "warp storms" that block Terra (aka Earth) from her colonies. Humans begin to war amongst one another, and the Earth is ravaged.

This era is known as the Dark Age of Technology, for Man did not worship the spirit within the machine, or pay it homage. A cult, known as the Adeptus Mechanicus, or the Cult of the Machine-God (or Omnissiah) springs up on Mars. They revere the aforementioned Omnissiah as the giver of all knowledge, and to use proscribed knowledge is sin. They call themselves the tech-priests.

Not only are the warlords of Earth at war with one another, however, they are also at war with Mars. Eventually, near what will become the end of this dark age, a new warlord emerges, at the head of an army of genetically-enhanced super-warriors clothed in power armor. He calls himself the Emperor, and his goal is to unite humanity, to reclaim its lost colonies, and (though he keeps this goal secret) to stop the twisted horrors of the Warp (which is still relatively unknown - daemons are but a myth). The Emperor is the most powerful psyker (a term for, you guessed it, an individual with psychic powers) to have ever lived, and he forges an alliance with the Cult of the Omnissiah based on reason, science, and logic.

Shortly after unifying Terra, he creates 20 Primarchs, beings based upon his own, arguably perfect, DNA, and the template for what will become the 20 Space Marine legions. However, the Chaos Gods, fearing the Emperor, spirit his children away and spread them across the galaxy. Shortly after this event, the warp storms abate, and the Emperor leads his newly created Space Marine legions (the previously mentioned super-humans, perfected) in the Great Crusades, an attempt to reclaim Mankind's worlds. Over the course of these crusades, the Emperor encounters each of his children, each a King in his own right, and brings them back into the fold of the Imperium of Man. Their stories are legend, their deeds heroic, and all is well.

Then, the Emperor announces that he is giving command of the war effort to his favored son, Horus, first amongst the Primarchs. The Emperor, realizing that the Chaos Gods fear the increasing emergence of human psykers, returns to Terra and undertakes his Great Works, his attempts to allow humanity to rebuff the influence of Chaos. For every psyker gains his power from the warp, and as such, is susceptible to the predations of Chaos.

However, this causes stirrings amongst his Primarchs, each of whom is now in firm command of their legion. Many feel betrayed or abandoned by their father. Others meet his censure. The Word Bearers have begun to worship him as a God, terming him the God-Emperor. This, he forbids, and gently attempts to stop. The World Eaters have begun to sink to truly barbaric acts of violence and slaughter, and this too he denies. The Night Lords inspire fear by mutilating, brutalizing, and committing truly heinous acts in his name, and this repulses him. The Thousand Sons study sorcery, the magic of the Warp, and the Emperor forbids the study of Chaos.

First to fall are the Word Bearers. So desperate are they to find divinity, and so insulted by their father's denial of it are they that the Word Bearer legion is easily tempted by the Chaos Gods. Then, Horus is wounded grievously, and a mysterious warrior-lodge heals him. This lodge, secretly worshipers of Chaos, bands together with the Word Bearers to tempt Horus down the path of treason.

Simultaneously, a number of unexplainable miracles are occurring throughout the Warmaster's fleet. The human elements of the fleet begin their own worship of the God-Emperor.

Finally, Horus masterminds the stroke of betrayal. Of the twenty legions, two have been removed from all records by this time due to mysterious circumstances. However, Horus has converted a full 9 to turn traitor. Luring their unsuspecting brothers in, the Traitor Legions strike. The toll is horrific.

And thus begins the Horus Heresy, when the traitors vie against the loyalists. Eventually, Horus besieges Holy Terra itself, and his armies break through the walls of the Emperor's Palace. But the Emperor and two of his Primarchs are able to teleport aboard Horus's flagship. One Primarch, Sanguinus of the Blood Angels, is slain by the time the Emperor confronts his wayward son. Though they fight, Horus is the avatar of all four Chaos Gods. Nurgle, the Lord of Decay. Khorne, God of Slaughter. Slaanesh, Prince of Pleasure. Tzeentch, Lord of Magic. They fill him with their power, and the Emperor is unable to bring to bear his might against he who he called son. And so, the Emperor is broken, mortally wounded. But, as Horus gloats, one of the Emperor's protectors reveals that Horus is no longer the Emperor's son, no longer human, and the Emperor slays the traitor. The second Primarch is able to find the Emperor's body and teleport back to the Throne Room.

The Chaos Legions, devoid of their unifying leadership, begin to bicker and squabble. Their forces, poised upon the brink of victory, pull back and retreat to the Eye of Terror, an ever-present wound in reality, a massive warp storm that the Imperium cannot enter and hope to survive.

But the battle is lost, as well as won, for the Imperium. The Emperor is dying, and so he is interned within the Golden Throne, a massive life-support machine that will keep his condition from degenerating. But, for all intents and purposes, his body dies.

His mind is active, occupied at all times with keeping the Warp in check. But he no longer communicates, and regents calling themselves the High Lords of Terra emerge to "interpret His will." Around him, psykers continue to emerge. Chaos pokes through holes in reality, and atrocity after atrocity is committed in his name.

For ten thousand years, the Emperor has psychically battled with the four Chaos Gods, all the while broadcasting the Astronomican, a psychic beacon by which Navigators, one of the few sanctioned mutants, are capable of plying the warp. For all space-faring vessels must enter the warp to arrive at their destination. But, unbeknown to all but the highest ranking of tech-priests, the Golden Throne is failing. They have not the artifice to restore it, and every day, more cracks appear in its once pristine surface. The Loyal Primarchs are long gone, dead or disappeared. Xenos threats beyond counting lurk amongst the stars, besieging humanity on all sides.

To live in such a time is to be one amongst untold trillions. No individual, no matter their rank, their position, truly matters. There is only the God-Emperor, who has since his ascendancy been worshiped as divine. In fact, worship of any other deity, or even neglecting his worship, is heresy, and the sentence for heresy is death. This is a time of brutal warfare, of madness, mutation, and witchcraft and the constant threat of Chaos.

Standing between these threats and Humanity is the Inquisition, a shadowy organization that is respected by most, and feared by all. Inquisitors have absolute power - they can virus-bomb worlds, should they so desire. And yet, many are secretive, hidden warriors with teams, cells, and networks that they employ.

To quote the truly chilling passage from all Black Library novels (Games Workshop's publishing arm):
"It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.

Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst His soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely able to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants - and worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods."

 

[ShakenInnocent]

Now that that (believe it or not) brief and condensed history is out of the way, let me go into a quick description of this story. Characters are to be in some way, shape, or form related to the Inquisition. Whether they are low-ranking acolytes (Inquisitors often employ a massive variety of individuals in their retinues ranging from gangers to law enforcers, psykers to Space Marines) or Inquisitors in their own right is up to you. The characters could even be opponents of the Inquisition, though this will be a bit more challenging and require frequent communication with me.

I plan to merely GM, taking the role of the many miscellaneous individuals the characters will interact with, and possibly adjudicate strenuous circumstances within the story.

I pride myself on knowing waaay too much about the 40k setting, so if anyone has any questions at all, feel free to ask, whether within the contents of a PM or in this thread.

Also, allow me to explain my fascination with the setting. This is quite literally the most horrific setting I can possibly imagine. From the draconian worship of the Emperor (something He would be aghast to learn of) to the persecution of psykers, this is not a fun place to live. The Imperium of Man is a feudal arrangement, and the vast bulk of the population (an uncountable number, as the Imperium is present on literally millions of planets) live as serfs or incredibly impoverished laborers.

This is completely at odds with everything I personally believe in. And that is why it's so intriguing to me. To play a character in such a setting is not only challenging, but incredibly rewarding. This isn't an easy story to tell or to participate in, as it deals with themes of human morality, religion, often obscene violence, and the general tale of our race.

There's also the added "bad-ass" value. This, of course, is what originally drew me to the tabletop version of the game, but it still holds true. A friend of mine put it best when he said, "Oh, it's like our world, but times like 40,000." Well, pretty much. Nothing is modest or humble about this setting. Marines are ten-foot tall juggernauts in nigh-indestructible armor that can take a tank shell and keep coming. Their guns, called bolters, are .75 caliber and fire bolts, AKA rocket bullets. I mean, their swords are either surrounded by a power field which slices through matter or are frickin' chainsaws!

But the thing that draws me to RP in this setting, and to read books set in it, is the tales of individuals trying to make their way in a galaxy utterly inimical to human life. Whether it's the numberless, terrifying alien races or the mind-numbing horror of Chaos, the characters in this setting are constantly faced with the most deadly threats imaginable. Yet they survive, or don't in some cases, and some even thrive. And this, ultimately, is what attracts me to the setting - a miniature re-telling of human struggles, enhanced, multiplied by the aforementioned factor of 40,000 and set to the backdrop of the 41st millennium.

 

[BenedictWolfe]

I'm very much interested in roleplaying in the 40k setting, but the lack of information about this RP in particular is somewhat worrying. So is the possibility that the people I'd be playing with aren't familiar with the very alien nature of the cultures, technologies and spiritual tenets of the Imperium.
40k simply cannot be briefly explained.

Pending information about the exact setting of the game, and interest from others, I might be interested.

And I recommend Lexicanum for all things 40k related.

 

[ShakenInnocent]

Allow me to provide some details about this specific story (past the very brief teaser).
In short, the Draus Sector is located within the Segmentum Obscurus, perhaps a 2-week warp jump from the Cadian Gate. 2 sub-sectors to the galactic west, Millius and Poriture, have declared open rebellion against the Imperium. They have unified under the rule of the mysterious "Imperactor Iacta Occasus," or Emperor in the West. Because of its proximity to Cadia, this sector bears particular significance. The rebelling sub-sectors are home to a forge world, as well as 3 major hives and 2 agri-worlds.

While the Guard has been officially deployed, there is no coordinated push yet. It takes time to muster, and it's expected that the Lord General in charge of this operation, Turius Kalimun, will officially muster within 5 years. This combination of factors has warranted a relatively large Inquisitorial presence. Within the last year, the Inquisition has rooted out 12 separate attempts to infiltrate the other 4 sub-sectors (Jolar, Hearth, Cumana, and Sillar) by the traitors.

Therefore, Inquisitors who are busy chasing the masterminds of this operation are establishing cells dedicated to finding and eradicating any such operatives.

As a result, characters can take on one of several possible roles: they can be Inquisitors (though the fewer the better), intent on the grander scale. They could also be acolytes of the Inquisition, drawn from any world and any profession into the employ of the Imperium's most powerful (arguably) arm through some motive. These acolytes would either work alone or in the company of an Inquisitor or Interrogator to make themselves as useful as possible. They could even be the traitors themselves (though as previously mentioned, this would require serious coordination between the writer and myself).

In any case, the structure of the story is thus: the characters would (presumably) be working together to uncover the source of the rebellion, its hidden backing, and ultimately, to put a stop to it. For very obvious reasons, traitors would be working at odds with this goal, and the possibility remains that the characters could eventually turn traitor themselves, or become Istvaanians (a radical sect of the Inquisition that believes that the Imperium becomes stronger through strife and disaster), fomenting the rebellion.

This story would center on investigation and social interaction rather than armed conflict (though this is the dark millennium - eventually, getting your hands dirty becomes unavoidable). Keeping with the general tone of the setting, combat is a loud, violent, and incredibly deadly affair.

I have the story primed and ready, but as with my pen-and-paper GM'ing, the tale is open to interpretation and change as a result of character actions. As a result, if the characters were to discover something more important (in their minds, anyway), they'd be free to pursue it (within reason).

Finally, this may seem all a bit general and ambiguous. Such is the point at the moment, as I don't want to put constraints on characters. Only after the various characters are put forth do we need to worry about how the group met.

Some of you may have heard of the excellent "Dark Heresy" role-playing game from Black Library/Fantasy Flight. While it and this thread are far from the same thing, I've GM'ed several campaigns within the setting for both experienced know-it-alls to novices ignorant of the setting with (what I consider) great success. 2 campaigns completed - the story arc finished, the characters satisfactory with their players, and in general, good times for all to enjoy. I also have 1 in progress which I'll confess isn't quite where I want it to be at (though it's not a failure yet), and I'm trying to jockey it back into a more enjoyable experience (the problem being two of the players can't seem to wrap their heads around "role-playing" and seem to be obsessed with meta-gaming).

In any case, I hope that addresses your concerns. If that's unsatisfactory, please let me know what more I can add.

P.S. I'm not normally this long-winded.