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Hi Guys, Ive been working on some in depth lore for my upcoming forces (Guard, Titanicus, Astartes etc) I wanted something that was large enough in scale to create something totally unique to me, but also 'realistic' in terms of the setting as a whole. Its only in the rough stages atm and I'll be adding more depth to each of the forces as and when I think of it / make them. :-)

Comments and criticism most welcome, it is very much a work in progress but would love some feedback, I kinda feel alone in my headcannon at the minute and maybe need a little reality check....

(I have no idea why I am totally incapable of picking an existing army / faction and model and build them... after a break of a decade and a half this still hasn't changed from my cringe worthy days of the Shadow Angles chapter of the Astartes... yes 'Angles' .... was supposed to have been 'Angels' .... I even made them a website and everything *cringe*)

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The Stranding[/i]

Long before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy the 750th Expeditionary Group charted a course for the Galactic East’s Segmentum Pacificus. Consisting of one of the largest fleets ever assembled the Expeditionary Group encompassed two Mechanicum Ark ships, a considerable force from the Collegia Titanica, a significant flotilla of the Astra Militarum and a demi company of the Iron Warriors Legion Astartes. The recorded purpose of the expedition was to reconquer the galaxy for humanity and the Emperor, however rumours abounded that their secondary mission was to seek out lost secrets and technologies from the long distant Age of Technology. Twenty years into the expedition, and leaving a significant trail of compliant worlds in its wake, the fleet entered into yet another uncharted system, however when attempting to translate from the Warp the fleet was savaged by what was thought to be a freak Warp storm which swallowed the entire force. Buffeted and assaulted by the aetheric tides the fleet was cast asunder before eventually falling from the Warp in a far distant sector of the galaxy. The event was to become known as ‘The Stranding’.

Several ships, guided by the best and preeminent navigators of the fleet, were tasked with charting a course through the Warp back to the Imperium. Of those ships dispatched only a fraction returned, their navigators either driven mad or expired by their attempts to cross what they perceived to be an aetheric reef. It quickly became clear to the commanders of the expedition that they could not leave the sector in which they had been deposited. Upon this realisation they named this new and undiscovered sector Tempestus Caveus (Storm’s Cage) and set about completing their mission to bring worlds to compliance and order.

Over the course of the next millennia many more vessels, Astartes, Militarum, Mechanicus and Xenos, have found themselves cast into the Tempestus Caveus sector. Upon their arrival they are met by the Guardians of the Gate a splinter fleet based at the entrance to the sector, informed of their fate and directed to the inner systems of the sector, or viciously attacked if deemed to be a threat. For over the millennia the Tempestus Caveus sector has been transformed into a model of Imperial compliance, under the governorship of Purgatorium Council and primarily defended by the Exiled Brotherhood chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, a unique brotherhood of warriors pledged to defend Tempestus Caveus until the time that loyal inhabitants of the sector can re-join the Imperium as a whole.

The Diaspora

The various elements of the 750th Expeditionary group dispersed throughout the new sector, each with their own agenda but a common purpose – the build a splinter of the Imperium in this cut off space. The Mechanicus founded their new Forge System Gehenna which also became home to the Titan Legion Exsillium. The Astartes christened an uninhabited world Redoubt forming a strong force consisting of Astartes from most of the original Legions, a feat unique in the Imperium as a whole. Rebranding themselves as The Exiled Brotherhood. The Astra Militarum forces spread out to worlds throughout the sector, some uninhabited, some more feudal in nature. On each world they established themselves as governing bodies and began the process of their Imperial Compliance and the raising of new armed forces, equipped by the forges of Gehenna.
However, despite this dispersal it was decided that the an official seat of Imperial governance should be established on the closest habitable world to the translation point. This world was named Umbra Sedes literally ‘shadow seat’ and became the focal point for all Imperial power in Tempestus Caveus sector, and home to the Purgatorium Council. The Council was formed around the main forces of the expeditionary fleet, consisting of equal representatives from the Astra Militarum, Astartes, Legio Titanicus, Mechanicum, Imperial Navy and the Militarum. As more of the sector was brought into compliance the Council was supplemented by the formation of the Purgatorium Senate made up from representatives of each compliant world. As the centuries and millennia have passed Umbra Sedes was transformed from a barren wilderness to a true imperial gem, a world to rival Macragge or Prospero at its height.

With each new arrival of Imperial forces each of the factions find their resources bolstered and their manpower reinforced. To begin with new arrivals were greeted with fanfare and jubilation as they brought news of the Emperor’s victories in the Great Crusade. However the good news soon soured as the Horus Heresy began to unfold in the galaxy at large. Now the arrival of Imperial ships, often heavily damaged was a cause for trepidation and heartache as each bore the news of the perfidies of once allies, and worse still, for the Astartes, new of the wider Iron Warriors Legion. A grand meeting was called of the Purgatorian Council to discuss the future of the sector and the forces within. It was decided at the Council, by unanimous decision, that should the forces of the sector ever return to the wider Imperium they would reaffirm their loyalties to the Emperor by seeking out traitor units wherever they may be found. However, it was not lost on the assembly that their loyalties would be questioned, and motives be subjected to speculation, especially the Astartes brothers who hailed from now traitor legions.


[i]The Truth

The fateful day came when, out of the Warp, appeared a golden vessel displaying the ident His Justice and Light. The ship was immediately identified by the Warp Gate picket ships as an Adeptus Custodes vessel and as such as accorded all honours as it was escorted to Umbra Sedes. Despite the honours bestowed on the vessel it remained all but silent with only essential, basic navigational acknowledgments being transmitted to the escorting picket ships. This heavy stony silence remained throughout the journey to Umbra Sedes and upon reaching orbit a single lander launched from the Light and journeyed towards the fortified keep of the Council. Following the news of the Heresy the defences of fortress keep housing the Council had been redoubled and all care and suspicion was placed on any vessel arriving from beyond the sector. The sentry guns of the keep would normally have tracked such a lander closely with a hair trigger ready to respond at the slightest provocation, however with this being a Custodes vessel the guns had been taken offline, servitors unplugged and human crews stood down. No threat, perceived or otherwise was to be shown to the Emperor’s own. The lander set down on the vast landing fields of Sanctuary’s Gate spaceport, and six golden giants marched from the vessel. The fields had hastily been filled with the entire garrison of Umbra Sedes, each garrison member stood at parade ground ready, although they may as well have been ghostly apparitions given the lack of interest the Custodes took in them. Even the presence of two Warlord Titans, flanking the Imperator Titan Vulnus Textoris – Woundweaver had no impact upon them in the slightest. The giants marched towards a dais which had been erected with all haste following the first news of the Custodes’ arrival in sector. Upon which knelt the members of the Purgatorian Council. What happened next is seared into the psyche of every Imperial man, woman, and child in the Tempestus Caveus sector. The Shield Captain of the Custodes strode onto the dais and commanded the members of the Council to their feet. He then strode to the leader of the Council, the once Iron Warrior’s Warsmith who had commanded the 750th Expeditionary Fleet all those years before who now lead not only the Exiled Brotherhood but the Purgatprian Council as a whole. The Shield Captain took the Warsmith’s forearm in a warriors embrace and spoke these words, loud enough that they reverberated across the landing fields and found their way to the ears of every soul there that day.

“The Emperor knows you all. He knows of your collective loyalty and is aware that the sins of fathers are not necessarily the sins of the sons. The actions and hubris of leaders need not stain those that are sworn to follow. He knows that you have held to your vows of loyalty to the throne and to him above all other vows and brands of allegiance. You are to be his force in the shadows, awaiting the day of your return to his light, until then you must thrive in the darkness, content in the knowledge that this was all planned, your stranding was not by accident, or twist of fate, it was by His design. Now go forth and conquer in His name, build your forces, for the day will come where you will be direly needed by His Imperium, direly needed by all mankind”

The jubilation of all gathered on the fields was tremendous, the cheers were deafening even before Woundweaver blared its horns and fired its mighty cannons into the air.

Following this very public showing of support the Custodes and the Purgatorium Council met in private to discuss the meanings behind the public declaration. The Shield Captain produced a scroll, sealed with the mark of Malcador the Sigilite, within which the ‘mission and purpose’ of the Tempestus Caveus sector was laid out. The scroll ended with the writ of ‘Liberum arbitrium ad bonum imperii’ or Free will for the good of the Imperium. This writ effectively placed the Purgatorium Council above the laws of the Imperium, granting them total autonomy to pursue what they deemed to be in the best interests of the wider Imperium.

The Era Indomitus

The centuries and millennia following the arrival of Custodes saw the Imperial forces of the Tempestus Caveus sector grow, both from internal recruitment and from sporadic elements arriving through the warp. The members of the Purgatorium Council never strayed from their purpose, always striving to meet the expectations placed upon them by the Master of Mankind.

The day finally came though when the astropathic choir of Umbra Sedes cried out in pain, many of its members dying in agony whilst others became overjoyed and euphoric. When the master of the choir was calmed, through medication, he reported to the Council that contact had been made with the wider opinion. While at first this seemed to be the cause for endless celebration the master broke down as he explained that the Imperium had been torn asunder by a tremendous series of warp storms. A side effect of the creation of these warpstorms was the dissolution of the aetheric reef that had hitherto prevented passage from the sector back to the wider Imperium. The council immediately ordered their fastest ship, the Star Bastard to immediately enter the warp to test the passage. Bastard made the journey and returned to report to the Council. The Bastard’s navigator reported an unusually smooth and fast journey from Tempestus Caveus through to the Veiled Region an entire galactic cardinal point away from where the 750th Expeditionary Force had last reported its coordinates before the ‘stranding’.

The Council immediately ordered the ‘mailed fist protocol’ to be enacted, the protocol by which all military elements in the sector be mobilised for immediate return to the Imperium. Each ‘finger’ of the ‘fist’ was made up by one of the main military forces of the sector, Skitarri, Astra Militarum, Collegia Titanica, Astartes, Navy. While the forces assembled the leaders of the Purgatorium Council boarded His Justice and Light along with the remaining Custodes from those dispatched sporadically to the sector under the strictest of secrecy. Included in their party was the Shield Captain who had originally delivered Malcador’s writ all those Millenia ago, who was now interned in a dreadnaught. Their destination was Holy Terra itself, bound for a meeting with the Lords of Terra. What happened at this meeting is a source of much conjecture, however what is clear is that the Lords have accepted the forces of the Tempestus Caveus sector back into the wider Imperium and have wasted no time in despatching them against the forces of Chaos running rampant nearest to the Cicatrix Maledictum.

I enjoyed the background you've made, and think the 40k galaxy is big enough for something like this to have happened where an entire expeditionary fleet gets stranded in an unknown sector.

My only reservation is the the attitude of the Custodes on discovering them and the carte blanche awarded for their autonomy. This seems a little too much to me.

I'd suggest some conflict if they were found by the Custodes, especially since established stories make clear the Custodes look down on space marines and seem to hold them in contempt, sometimes intending to wipe out entire chapters when there is suspicion of Chaos influence etc.

I think it would be improved if there was no official contact with the Imperium, but they got there news from the occasional stranded ship over the centuries and millennia. When they isolation ends, the survivors and their descendants could try to make contact with the Imperium, unsure how they'll be received etc or could be stranded in Imperium Nihilus, so still cut off from Terra, but now able to make contact with the rest of the Imperium that is also stranded on that side of the rift, met by some with skepticism, but willing to ally with them but by others with open hostility.

Edit: This post is probably better suited to the 40k Background Forum rather than 40k General Discussion.

Hi, thank you very much for reading my work and for commenting, it means a lot.

I totally understand what you mean about the Custodes part as well. I was aiming to have the original stranding of the fleet to have been some sort of ‘grand plan’ either of the big E or Malcador, similar to what Malcy did with the GKs on Titan…. Kind of like a backup force held in reserve. The Custodes were despatched to the sector to deliver those there their ‘orders’ and to inform them that this all hadn’t happened by ‘accident’…

I do however like the idea of them having to return to suspicion and having to ‘prove’ themselves as loyalists again

Thanks again, really means a lot to me