Warhammer: Class is in Session
With only one all-nighter (ahem…Min Kim) we are ready to take our 500 point armies to the field of battle. But first we had to go to Warhammer School, wherein Professor Mosqueira goes over the fundamentals of the game, and explains the difference between normal and invulnerable saves about forty times.
We still don’t quite get it. Professor Mosqueira is an extremely patient man.
School is currently in session twice a week. We are taking applications. No previous Warhammer experience is required, but we’re gonna need your work history and a cover letter.
OK fine we’re actually taking job applications, but Warhammer School is included with every job at Bonfire Studios — for free! I should probably put it as the main perk on our careers page.
The morning of our first battle, we receive this transmission from beyond the stars (turns out they still use Slack 40,000 years from now):
++++++++BEGIN COMMUNICATION+++++++++
///SENTRY STATION Cadius VIII to Mechanicum FX-T3EX
+…x3 s5p 7rg3lv92…
///CYPHER.RUN+++AQUILA.CLEARANCE
\\\SUCCESS
+…it has returned…
The Red Scar
The Cicatrix Maledictum has split the Imperium in two.
From the Eye of Terror in the galactic west to the Eastern Fringes, the Cicatrix Maledictum has not just isolated huge swaths of the Imperium, but shorn the very fabric of reality, spewing forth the blasphemous forces of Chaos.
Millions of worlds and untold billions of souls have been lost as the Neverborn unleash their legions in a murderous torrent of blood and terror. Beset from within and without, the Imperium teeters on the verge of collapse, and while most eyes are fixed on the countless battlefields bordering the Red Scar, five factions have discovered a world long thought lost over a millennia ago…
…a world which may have the clues needed to close the Cicatrix Maledictum — or open it wider.
Planet Ghemina (23.PHI.74b, Ultima Segmentum)
Ghemina vanished from known space sometime in M38 — though its existence had long since been kept secret by the tech priest of Mars even before its disappearance during a warp storm.
Discovered towards the end of the Horus Heresy by the Adeptus Mechanicus, Ghemina held ancient factories and, more importantly, vast storehouses of information that predated the Dark Age of Technology. From the vaults far below the rust sands of Ghemina, the Tech-Priests unlocked secrets deemed so dangerous and important that they erased all records of the planet from Imperial records — easy to do while the Horus Heresy raged across the galaxy.
For 8 millennia the Tech-Priests dug deeper, unearthing more secrets, until one fateful expedition when the whole planet vanished from real space.
The Adeptus Mechanicus kept probes in the area of space where Ghemina was once located, in case the warp storm should abate and the planet return. For over a millennia the servitors scanned the empty void until only but the most ancient members of the priesthood Mars even know about their mission.
And those servitors would have remained there for untold millennia more had the Cicatrix Maledictum not torn reality asunder and returned Ghemina to real space.
Now five factions race for Ghemina to uncover its secrets.
The T’au
The T’au were the first to detect the emergence of planet 23.PHI.74b. Naming the planet Shoal, they dispatched a Seeker Cadre to investigate. That was 2 years ago. Now Shoal is home to a research station and the T’au have begun to explore a new set of ruins that predate the Imperium’s forges and factories that span the surface of the world.
27th War Cohort, Primera Macrocade, 773rd Battle Congregation of Mars
The Tech-Priest of Mars were notified the moment Ghemina re-entered real space. Even so, it took Mars nearly 3 standard years to mobilize a Congregation to reclaim the the lost Forge World. Led by Magos Domina Invictus Acquisitora Arxa.c37, the 773rd Battle Congregation was dispatched to Ghemina by Belisarius Cawl on a mission to recover the planet for the Red Planet and keep its secrets safe.
3rd Brotherhood, Unyielding Anvil Detachment
Led by Grandmaster Voldus, the Grey Knights of the 3rd Brotherhood were informed of Ghemina’s re-appearance by the Inquisition itself. Fearful of what horrors the lost planet may harbor, Grandmaster Voldus is charged with preventing the planet from falling into impure hands, even those of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
The Silent Legion of Mephrit
Beneath the sands of Ghemina, deep within their tombs, the Legions of Mai’un the Merciless stir. Unbeknownst to the T’au explorers, their excavations disabled safeguards the Adeptus Mechanicus had put in place to prevent the dormant Necrons from waking up. Now Mai’un assembles his legions far below ground to prepare to once more rule the planet they know as Thana — crown world of the Mephrit Dynasty.
Gul-Hai, Brood of Hive Fleet Kraken
Sensing the appearance of a new planet rife with biomatter, the Hive Mind reached out to the Broodlord the Orks feared and named Thrak-ul — the Bringer. Hibernating onboard the wreckage of an Ork hulk adrift in space, Thrak-ul stirred.
In the 300 years the ship drifted in space, its crew succumbed to the Broodlord’s sleeping influence — worshiping Thrak-ul as a god. The Ork followers of Thrak-ul set a collision course for Ghemina. Crashing near the northern pole, only Thrak-ul and his brood survived, his worshipers the first victims of the Hunger Beyond the Void.
