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Made in se
Been Around the Block




This is a homebrewed modification of the 40k setting lore. It posits a vast diaspora of chaos controlled territory bordering the empire and the Eye of Terror.

I wrote it as a way to make Chaos a more active part of the setting. Chaos seem to often get stuck in the Eye of Terror. Occasionally they get to leave for the odd invasion but since the setting must live any such invasion usually falls or stalls or disappears after a while. The intent here is have them around and set up for a lot of potential stories. As a setting device it's very modular, you can come up with your own 'empires', ignore established ones, do what you want.

Empires of Chaos - Those maddening realms which ever blight the Imperium of Man

After their defeat at the Siege of Terra and with the death of Horus Lupercal, the Traitor Legions of Chaos staged a desperate retreat with the resurgent forces of the Imperium taking back enormous amount of lost territory and carving significant losses out of the traitor legions.
But the Chaos Legions did not hide completely within the Eye of Terror.
The Imperium had been weakened by the civil war, same as the traitor legions, and the farther they pushed into the fallen worlds, the heavier resistance they met.
In time the Chaos Legions managed to hold worlds, subsectors and sectors, and the empire was forced to halt their assault.



The Empires of Chaos is a disparate territory of worlds. Depending on what millennia and century you reference, it is between 10 to 30 percent the size of the Empire.
Despite its name, it is composed of multiple policies, some smaller than even a single world, some spanning hundreds of worlds controlled by a wide variety of servants of chaos.

The Frontlines.
The Frontlines are composed of the subsectors intersecting the Realms of Chaos with the Empire of Man. These systems have seen constant and heavy warfare for the past ten thousand years, and the allegiances and shape of the front lines have vastly differed across the millennia.
Sometimes large swaths of the Imperium has been taken as Chaos has launched mass invasion fleets or deamonic hordes have spawned from the Eye, or when the other foes of the Imperium have run rampart.
Sometimes the Imperium have cut into the Empires of Chaos laying waste to them and reclaiming enormous amounts of worlds, either because the Imperium were able to refocus more resources on them, or because the Empires of Chaos faced even greater strife, discord and internal fighting than usual.
Sometimes stalemates running for millenia have occured, with only minor trades of one world for another.

While the Frontlines are almost exclusively a fight between the Imperium and the Realms of Chaos(Craftworld Ulthwe one notable exception), the Empires of chaos are facing incursion in their other flanks by everything from Tyranids, Chaos, Necrons Orcs and even Tau in one corner.
Though in the case of Tau it's a question of who's raiding who.

The Eye
The Eye of Terror lies close to the frontlines and almost always have been. It seems to drift in galactic realspace to always lies close to the frontlines.
It is a bastion and a fortress for the Empires of Chaos, a swath of maddening worlds that are nigh impossible to besiege, a territory where the warp and realspace blend completely into eachother.
Yet it is also a prison, the chaotic warp surrounding it making it only slightly easier to escape than it is to invade. In the rare occasions when the Eye opens, hordes of chaos space marine fleets, deamons and unnamable horrors tear into real space and lay waste into the Imperium(and often the worlds of their nominal allies as well).
When the Eye is closed there is still the eternal threat of warbands finding the paths out or smaller fleets opening up a way, or external forces managing to calm a path trough Eye or summoning something from the Eye into realspace.

Cadia
Cadia was one of the most important worlds of the Frontlines as it lied close to the Eye of Terror yet had still managed to stand its ground for millennia. With its fall, and the fall of its neighboring subsectors, for the first time in millennia chaos has a corridor straight trough the frontlines and into the heartlands of the empire.
This catastrophe is only slightly dulled by the fact that the Empires of Chaos at this time are as beset by external foes as much as the Empire is.

Warlords of Chaos
* Abbadon - Controls some of the strongest sectors surrounding the Eye of Terror. No other warlord within the Empires hold as much ground as he, not even the Deamonic Primarchs (though in their case it might be more due to a lack of interest than ability).
* The Tyrant of Baddab - Holds a few worlds, though in the 41st millenium they are mostly bent to supporting his fleets, and he spends little time ruling them.

Deamon Primarchs and the Empires
* Horus - Dead
* Magnus the Red - Magnus hold few world outside the Eye, only occasionally seizing one for his own purposes, only to abandon it a few decades or centuries later. However, many sorcerer kings swear fealty to Magnus or entreat him for aid, some even going as far to abandon their posts to pilgrimage into the Eye of terror in search of his world. Rare it is that any win his favor.
* Fulgrim - Fulgrim holds a few sectors near the core of the empires. He plays and prunes and adorns these empires as you would with a set of toys or a fashionable pair of clothes.
* Perturabo - The worlds Perturabo holds are isolationist fortresses, devouring resources and pumping out war material.
* Konrad - Dead
* Angron - The First among Khorne's slaves holds no worlds, save for the world within the eye of terror.
* Lorgar - Holds the most worlds of all deamon primarchs within the Empires of chaos. Within them fanatic choirs sing dark hymns, sacrifices run plenty, and the faith of chaos in all its forms are honored.
* Alpharius and Omegon - They are probably dead.
* The Tenth - Rumours keep surfacing that the tenth Primarch is still alive and that he holds territory both within the Eye and without, but no one can say for sure.

Legions and the Empires
* Iron Warriors - Iron Warriors are prevalent at the frontlines. They hold many worlds, all kept in total obedience to the legion. It is not uncommon for the Iron Warrior legion to attack and take over the worlds of other followers of chaos, and many worlds within the realms live in terror that the needs of the Iron Warriors should ever fall on them.
* The Black Legion - The Black Legion does not keep Empires as a singular organization. Rather individual champions, warbands and subdivisions within the legion will take over a world or part of a sector trough their own might, and hold it trough their own might. There is also little in the way of official tithing. The champions who are wise will provide what is requested by those stronger than them, and take what they need from those weaker. While these realms have a great deal of independence, they are still ultimately all part of the same legion, and outsiders are wise to tread carefully in their vicinity, least they incur the wrath of an entire legion in lie of a single world.

Who Else Rules the Empires of Chaos?
Whoever has the strength to take and hold one
* Chaos Space Marines - The dream of many a champion is to enslave a single world. Such measly ambition can only win disfavor with the gods.
* Sorcerer King - Almost exclusively in the service of Tzeentch, these mad sorcerers might mutate an entire planet.
* Deamon Princes - Few worlds within the Realms would hesitate to swear fealty to such power.
* Mortal Men - Strangely it is not uncommon. Many greater powers are beyond the petty administrations of a single planet or even a few systems and will set a loyal slave to rule in their stead. And many mortals are every bit as depraved or megalomanic as the most corrupt Chaos Space Marine. More than one Chaos Space Marine has found himself betrayed and usurped by what he thought was an insignificant nothing, dying as his lesser ascends his throne to the laughter and jeers of both his peers and his gods.
* Dark Mechanicus - The steel must flow, be set, and scream. To do this, industries and territories must be held. The Dark Mechanicus holds many worlds, and trades with many more.
* Greater Deamons - Deamon Worlds does not exist only within the Eye, and many ruined worlds in the Empires have as the lord one of Chaos own.
* Lesser Deamons - It is very rare, but it happens that a lesser deamon of chaos will be blessed with a drive and ability its peers do not have and grasp a few systems for its own.
* Xenos - Many lesser xeno races holds slivers of territory within the empires. These races trend towards the esoteric. They do not welcome outsiders and little is known of them. Of the major races there are eldar craftworlds between the stars within the empires. Some fallen to chaos, some belaguered by constant warfare, some long abandoned, and some avoided by all except the most foolish. There are also a few tyranid infestations, and some ork privateers and warbands.

Example of Custom Empires
* Ix, and the Empire of Ix - A secretive empire that has reigned since a little after the Heresy. It holds a few sectors deep within the Empires which it has stridently defended. It will usually side with whatever power seems ascendant in any given century. It is known for its byzantine and grievously complicated bureaucracy, and for the secretive nature of its upper echelons.
Known for being one of the few stable empires within the territories, Ix is considered a veteran of the long war. Though some debate exist if Ix is truly a Chaos Space Marine, if he's a deamon prince or even a deamon, or maybe strangest of all a mortal that has been granted the gift of immortality from the gods.
The truth of the matter would destroy this small collection of systems. Ix is the last surviving clone of Horus Lupercal though you'd be unlikely to realize his ancestry by looking at him. The cloning process that created him was a failure, and as Ix was brought to life he was badly deformed, warped in both body and mind, and trough the ages he has suffered further mutations. This turned out to be a blessing. As the false Warmasters were butchered by the Traitor legions Ix managed to hide his identity. Should it ever be brought to light he knows his empire would be torn asunder and his life forfeit. As such he hides and jealously rule over his few systems, siring no children and ever cursing his lineage.

* Olyx, Great Empire of Chaos Undivided, Throne World for the Dark Gods - An insignificant power ruling over a mere dozen smaller countries on a single continent on a small and insignificant planet. It is in a stalemate with the other continents for supremacy over the world for ages. Its one noteworthy feat was that Lorgar himself once visited the world to hold a vast ritual in praise of the dark gods. This was over seven thousand years ago. Not only has the world not forgotten, technically the current "empire" has only existed for about eighty years yet still claims to be the same polity that honored Lorgar on his ancient visit.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/05/13 20:13:16


 
   
 
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