Chapter 46: Timeline of past events
Unknown Time : The Warp has arisen, a dimension of pure psychic energy. Other names are Warpspace, Immaterium, Empyrean, Ether, Sea of Souls and Others. A little later, the Warp retreats in some places, creating the first pockets of Materium where the laws of physics apply, and instead of swallowing it, the two dimensions continue to peacefully coexist.
As more and more pockets are created, countless universes are created. The Warhammer Multiverse was created.
13.7 billion years ago : Big Bang. The Warhammer 40k universe was created.
The first appearance of "life" in the Galaxy. Star vampires appear, the first self-aware entities. They feed on the stars, eventually shortening their existence by billions of years, ignoring the other matter that forms.
Date unknown: The Old Ones appear. They build the Webway, and seed and encourage life of all kinds on many planets.
A Necrontyr appears. Evolving on a planet orbiting a fierce star, they were shaped with a short lifespan, a fact that haunts them and hurts them immensely.
The Necrontyr turned out to be a great interstellar empire. But as a species they continue to live in constant agonizing pain due to genetic errors caused by the deadly radiation of their home world. At the very peak, with the exception of the nobles, most necrontyrs lived in mud houses. Treatment attempts fail because the disease ceases to be only of biological origin.
Over time, the concept of cancer and death became so ingrained in them and their culture that it turned into a spiritual defect. Chaos worshipers build monuments to their gods, Imperials build monuments to the Emperor, and Necrontyr build monuments to themselves in death and then to their illness.
As time went on, new conflicts came to Necrontyr. As their territory grew wider and more diverse, the unity that had made them strong was shattered, and fierce wars raged as entire empires fought to gain independence. Eventually, the Triarch - the ruling council of the Necrontyr - realized that the only hope for unity lay in conflict with an external enemy, but few could mount a credible threat. Only the Ancients, the foremost sentient life in the galaxy, were a potential enemy large enough to bind the Necrontyr to a common cause. Such a war justified the simplicity of it all, for the Necrontyr had ever been angered by the Ancients' refusal to share the secrets of eternal life. Thus, the Triarch declared war on the Ancients. At the same time, they offered amnesty to any secessionist dynasties that willingly returned to the fold. Thus lured by the spoils of victory and the promise of immortality, the separatist realms abandoned the rebellion, and war began.
Predictably the Necrontyr were eventually outmatched by the Old Ones within a year and exiled to the edges of the galaxy and their own homeworld.
Twisted by a hatred towards all life and looking for weapons to use against the Old Ones, the Necrontyr create a body for the star vampire feeding upon their own sun, creating the Night Bringer. They create more bodies for other star vampires, turning several star vampires into the C'tan, called Yngir by the Eldar. The ever-hungry C'tan discover their ultimate delicacy: Souls. The C'tan known as the Deceiver tricks the Necrontyr with the promise of immortality and the C'tan turn all living Necrontyr into Necrons, feasting upon their souls.
The War in Heaven has begun.
65-60 million BC: War in Heaven: After undergoing biotransfer (unknowingly sacrificing their souls in the process) and receiving a horrific physics-defying weapon from their new gods, the C'Tan, the War in Heaven begins in earnest. The C'Tan, clad in bodies of star metal and now capable of manifesting the innate energy of reality in corporeal form, descend upon the Old Ones, hungry for their souls. While the two factions of gods wage a physical battle, the Old Ones create thousands of new races created to fight the necrodermis armies, these races include the Aeldari, Krork, K'nib, and Hrud.
The Old Ones gather literal armies of gods to fight the C'Tan with some success. The discovery that the Old One's psi-material (analogous to wraithbone) can be reversed by Blackstone completely dooms the Old Ones' war effort. The power of the Old Ones and their Gods is severely neutered. Only God Summoners can bypass this newly discovered "pariah effect", but they are few and far between and their summoned deities cannot survive under the effects of Blackstone.
The war spreads to include most of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. Time is soon weaponized as countless battles are eternally repeated and information is sent into the past to change future outcomes. Countless paradoxes are created until life and death no longer mean anything at the front.
Trillions die, entire species are devoured and turned into Necrons. Entire sectors become dead zones inhabited only by cold necroderms and hungry Star Gods. The increasingly desperate Old Ones create entire species as cannon fodder, which slows the Yngir advance a bit. Finally, the long sacred rules of species creation are broken and new weapons are deployed. Designed to exist solely for war and united by the form of a psychic wheel and a God that feeds on every aspect of its kind.
In an unknown way, an entity known in human language as Adam, known to others as God-Emperor, Atham the Revelation and Adam Kadmon, is created. The entity destroys its creators and erases all information about its creation, making the exact process of creation and purpose impossible to determine. The entity was a natural miracle, something impossible to create and which should not exist. Instead of joining any side, the entity remains neutral, attacking in the background.
For millions of years, the Galaxy has existed in a terrible state of war. Entire species and worlds are born and killed in this period of the gigad of death. This is the real War in Heaven. Krork and Aeldari form the main force against Nekron and both species thrive in this nightmare. Khaine grows in power, and the god-summoning Aeldar struggle to control him. (This is well before Eldenesh's time) Eventually, the stalemate is broken in a cataclysmic event, as Nyadra'zatha, the Burning, a C'tan of energy, breaks through the Webway under the command of Mag'ladroth, the Void Dragon and First among the C'tan. The Old One's mobility advantage is destroyed and the C'tan gain the upper hand.
The Old Ones have not been idle in the time they have lost, the been working to craft a weapon capable of killing the C'tan. The Blackstone Fortresses are completed, and the Void Dragon is gravely wounded. Several pieces of the Void Dragon break loose in the battle and become the first smaller C'tan shards. The Silent King secretly captures them and begins studying how to defeat the C'tan, who in his mind have betrayed his people. With the Void Dragon MIA, the War in the Heaven reaches new lows. For all his evil and power, the Void Dragon has acted as a voice of order and control among the C'tan. With his departure, C'tan's unity begins to crumble as "food" becomes scarce.
Soon only the most defended enclaves of the Old Ones remain and every attempt to break through them fails. In one such attempt, Khaine battles the Nightbringer and wins, but some of the essences of the two beings are exchanged. The increasingly desperate, hungry C'tan turn to cannibalism to fuel their addiction and gain power. The cheater orchestrates this and drives the outsider crazy. Previously devouring another C'tan was the most severe punishment and highest reward among the C'tan. Something that only the Void Dragon and a few others have successfully done. The feeding frenzy that begins among the C'tan drops them from thousands to a few dozen. All incredibly powerful and mostly crazy. It is only a matter of time before the last sectors of the Fortress of the Old fall. Or worse, turned into mind farms like some C'tan did to deal with the shortage.
Desperate and fearing not only extinction but the end of all organic life. The Old Ones unleash their last weapon. The one they theorized for a long time, but never dared to create. The gods the Old Ones create are based on and powered by one species. Attempts to create gods from multiple species produced dangerous and insane beings, the product of innate incompatibilities between different sentient organisms. Similarly, attempts to create monogods instead of pantheons produced schizoid beings torn apart by different beliefs. So as long as the Old Ones ruled the Warp, they created precise Gods that formed a pantheon for one species. In the frenzy created by the impending disappearance, they broke those rules.
Chaos was born, a single/many God who could be powered by all soul-bearing life. It is the ultimate Warp weapon. Taking the self-contained system of the Krork, the power and passion of the Aeldari, the insidious infection of the K'nib and every other creation of the Old Ones and perfecting it. In an attempt to control this newborn god complex, the Old Ones broke it into pieces and bound those pieces to certain species in order to have greater control over Chaos. The K'nib were tied to the 7th piece, the Aeldar to the 6th and 8th. The craftsman took the most controllable piece, the 5th for himself, to try to control this creation. For a time these efforts succeeded and Chaos fought the C'tan. Armies of demons fighting Nekron.
Quickly, control was lost as Chaos grew, breaking through the Warp and learning to feed on every opportunity in the Deep Warp and the Multiverse. Soon the Old Ones find themselves facing two apocalyptic threats, fighting for the right to devour the Cosmos. At this time, the Silent King approaches the Old Ones and does the impossible. It offers a truce and an alliance. The deal is simple, the Old Ones give the Necrons what they always wanted, perfect meat. In turn, the knowledge of both sides is used to end the war. The old ones accept and the work begins. Combining the secrets of the Matter and Immatter leads to the creation of Tesseract vaults and weapons that can permanently destroy a Daemon or C'tan. Nerve was killed, and the Old One's theories about what would happen if C'tan were destroyed were confirmed. So they bring Plan-B and C'tan gets busted and locked away.
With that victory, the Old Ones and the Necrons unite and fight the forces of Chaos. Selected species of the Old Ones are locked away in pocket systems hidden in the Webway and superweapons are unleashed. The Necrons and their torturous instruments of destruction battle the demons on the physical plane, while the Old Ones release the Enslavers into the Matter. The devastation is extraordinary and the chaos seems to have been destroyed, but the galaxy is in ruins. The few remaining Elders promise to honor their deal with the Silent King and create a new perfect race of Necrontyr for his people to transition into. But they need time to heal the galaxy and build the infrastructure necessary for such a project.
The old ones have started work, but they encounter numerous complications. The Krork were left to fight and die alongside the Necrons, their warlike nature not conducive to regeneration. However, a few spores survived the height of the War in Heaven and restarted the Krorkish cycle of reproduction. The psychic circle that made up the god Krorks was badly damaged and split in two. Broken, uncontrolled and existing only for war, Orcs are born. They are, however, a secondary threat to the rebirth of the Galaxy. Chaos survives, having thoroughly wormed its way into the Warp. His corruption spreads and both the Old One and God fall under his rule. After numerous catastrophic betrayals, the shrinking hideout of the Old Man in the deepest parts of the Webway. To work on solutions to Chaos and honor the oaths of the Necronis.
Vashtorr the Arkifane is born.
The secrets of the God's Call are lost with the Old Ones, and only a few Summoners survive through cycles of reincarnation. Until only two remain, Eldanesh and his brother Ulthanesh. The conflict between the two brothers gives Khaine an opening. The God of War is increasingly unstable, the infection of Chaos seeping through him. Eldanesh refuses to help Khaine, realizing that the God he calls his friend is becoming corrupted. Without Ulthanesh's help, Eldanesh kills Khaine, and Chaos plays its hand. The united Aeldar stand against the growing Chaos, and Ulthanesh rips the Chaos venom from Khaine and frees the Bloodhand. This torn piece of Khaine is cast into the Warp and provides the seed for the 8th piece of Chaos to be reborn. Seeing the danger of the God's Call and the other gods becoming corrupted, Ulthanesh allows the secrets of the God's Call to die with him. But some fragment of this knowledge survives and is rediscovered by the Craftworld that bears his name. Placing Eldrad in the canon on the path to the creation of Ynnead.
Only two C'tan were spared the fate of the rest of their kind; Tsara'nog the Outsider fled the galaxy, drowning in madness, while Mag'ladroth proved too powerful to be completely shattered. However, the Aeldari seized the opportunity presented to them, using the full power of the Talisman of Vaul to inflict a great wound on the Dragon, weakening it enough for the Aeldari Pantheon to bind the Void Dragon within the dead star.
60-58 million BC: The galaxy lies in ruins, the corpses of star systems lie across the cosmos. Szarekh leaves the galaxy, both to banish himself for his great sin and to defend the ruined galaxy from other, far more terrible things.
The Enslavers, having cleared the galaxy of their loot, return to the now somewhat calm Warp. The last remaining living races created by the Old Ones come out of hiding to repopulate the galaxy; it's a dangerous place now, as the anomalies created by the conflict in the Heaven set their sights on the Materia - with unused doomsday weapons and Necron tomb worlds scattered across the galaxy. Civilizations rise and fall and rise again; The Krork genetic code, not designed for long-term survival, eventually degenerates, turning them into Orcas.
58-1 million BC: Xenos civilizations rise and fall. Countless lesser Chaos Gods arise but are quickly purged by the powerful Aeldari Pantheon. But the Empire of Chaos is a cancerous wound in the Warp itself that refuses to heal and poses a threat to mortal life.
The Aeldari Empire controls the galaxies. Proud but benign, they act as wise sages, offering wisdom and guidance to the younger races. The Aeldari build legions of psychomaths to serve as their servants, and over the long years their mastery of sorcery has reached such heights that they have managed to somewhat calm the rising tides of the Warp, while the Primordial Annihilator is suppressed.
900,000 BC: The Fall of the Aeldari Begins - A vision of the future by the Oracle Goddess Lileath indicates that Khaine will be torn apart by an army of mortals. In his anger, the God of War turned his wrath against the Eldar with their mother, the goddess Isha, weeping for her children. The Phoenix King heard her cries and upon learning of Khaine's plans, Asuryan created a great barrier that separated the realm of the gods from mortals for all eternity. This left Isha distraught at being separated from her children and so she, along with her husband, Kurnous, went before the Smith God Vaul who made Spirit Stones from her tears through which she spoke to the Eldar. Upon hearing her speak to them, Khaine informed his brother and the Phoenix King was enraged that his command had been violated. He therefore told Khaine to work with Isha and Kurnous as he saw fit for their act of betrayal against him.
Abandoned by their gods, the desperate Aeldar decided to create their own god, one who would love them forever and lead them to paradise. In their pursuit of pleasure, they forget much of what made them strong, and without the protection of their gods, Chaos sees an opportunity to corrupt a lost race. And so the Eldar fell further into a spiral of hedonism. It's slow at first, the corruption process takes a million years, but eventually the Eldar become dark, cruel parodies of their former selves.
Date unknown: Ancient Aeldar visit Terra. Fair-Folk and similar legends about bizarre humanoids with blue/orange morals are inspired by these encounters.
15,000 BC : Oll Persson is born.
8,000 BC : In an ancient land that the children of Terra would call Anatolia, thousands of shamans dressed in furs and carrying ward totems gather on a black mountain of crystal that rises into the sky. These shamans are a dying race; the initial psychic spark in certain bloodlines is extinguished. In their last gathering, through the communion of mind and soul, the shamans decide that they will not go quietly into the darkness; they will forge a guardian who will embody their legacy and protect humanity from the thirsty gods.
Unknown to the shamans, they had an uninvited guest who was following everything from the depths of the Warp and who merged into a mass of souls that would become the protector of humanity. This entity who was known as Adam and in the future the God-Emperor was born.
Later the father of the Emperor was murdered by his own brother. The Emperor is uses his psychic power to murder his uncle in revenge. The Emperor leaves for the "cradle of civilization", determined to bring law and rule to humanity.
The emperor destroys the entire valley in order to eradicate the proto chaos cultists, including the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Emperor, along with his Warmaster Oll Persson, leads an army against a warp-generating tower built by the Chaos Cult, which would eventually become known as the Cognitae. After securing the structure, the Emperor wishes to preserve it for study. However, Oll sees this as too dangerous and destroys the structure with the Enunciation.
Somewhat later, Erda uses some of the knowledge she gained from the Emperor to create half-divine children. These organic homunculi are rapidly maturing and treating humanity like toys. The Emperor fights against them, but since death would only mean survival in the Warp. The Emperor absorbs the essence of these demigods and launches a campaign to purge their presence from Terra. History would write down these events as Greek Mythology.
284-305.M1 : A visitor from the stars lands on Earth. Escaping from the prison in which the Aeldari Pantheon placed him so long ago, one of the last C'tan decides that Terra will be the first step in restoring his power. Finally, a golden warrior arrives to counter the dragon's plans. The warrior and the dragon fight for one hundred days and one hundred nights. Finally, the Warrior emerges triumphant, with the Dragon defeated. He cannot be killed, for he is beyond mortality, but he can be bound, and so the Warrior sealed him away on far Mars.
M2 : The Chaos Gods Khorne, Tzeentch and Nurgle is born.
The daemon known as the Ragged Knight is born.
Khorne Daemon prince Doombreed is born.
World War I and World War II take place.
M3: The Event Horizon spaceship is destroyed, giving humanity its first glimpse into the existence of the Warp and its inhabitants.
Mars is being terraformed and colonized.
M4-M10: Humanity spreads across the galaxy in sublight ships. Humanity's first contact with Xenos is the aggressive Orcs and sadistic Aeldar. The first Ai was created, albeit a very primitive one.
M11: The concept of a universal language is developing among the many worlds of humanity. It will later grow into Proto-High Gothic, a mixture of Latin and Old English.
M15: The dark age of technology begins. Humanity begins to colonize nearby star systems using conventional sub-light spaceships. New colonies must rely on local resources and be completely self-sufficient in all vital areas in order to survive. Ten generations are needed to travel between the more distant new colonies and Terra. This situation continues until M18.
The Kinebrach empire flourishes at this time.
The Emperor arrives on Molech and makes his first real contact with the Chaos Gods.
M16: A human exodus fleet that will eventually form the Olamic Quietude leaves Terra.
M17: The first navigators are created. Originally owned by the companies that financed their creation, they soon split off to form their own organization. The first Gellar Fields were created around the same time.
Fenris as an RP amusement park is open.
M18: Human colonization accelerates with over a million worlds boasting a human presence. The resource explosion is accompanied by an explosive growth of resources as land and resources became cheaper.
Commoragh was created.
The Rangdans launch their first invasion of the Galaxy. This invasion was repulsed with huge losses and strange alliances.
M19-M20 : Damon Prytanis kills Holiard in the Glass Temple of Manunkind on the order of the Cabal.
Humanity is the main force in the Galaxy in light of the isolationism of the Aeldari Empire.
Humanity is divided into several human nations; some of them are peaceful, others aggressive. Many small wars take place between different human nations. Conflicts and alliances with numerous Xeno races have been signed. Mass genetic and cybernetic breeding experiments have begun on numerous planets. They will bear fruit in the next millennium.
The solar system has moved closer to the center of the galaxy.
M21: The first gene war breaks out. Humanity's progress has led to transhuman ruling castes forming across the galaxy. The specific nature of these systems varied across the galaxy, from nation to nation, from world to world. These trans-humans masters are at war with each other and with other non-augmented human nations.
M22: The Great Orc War is happening. So named because it was the last major Orc invasion before the Iron Rebellion.
The remaining human nations merge into the Galactic Federation.
Perfection of the Standard Template Construct (STC) system allows an almost explosive Human expansion to the stars. This Golden Age of Mankind continues until M25.
On the order of the Cabal, Damon Prytanis murders Maser Hassan in the Spire Temple before he can give his Word of the Law speech.
First appearance of the psyker.
M23: The Golden Age is at its peak.
M24: The Spirit of Eternity begins a journey into the Warp that will eventually see it lost in time.
-300.M24 : Malcador the Sigillite is born.
M25 : The Iron Men begin their rebellion. Their first act is to bring down the Terran anti-gravity platforms causing entire flying cities to fall down and continents to be torn from their crusts. The first attack left trillions dead.
Entire sectors cease to exist as the machine legions consume them, leaving no cosmic dust behind. The machines release countless dreaded diseases to torment the survivors.
Almost every planet has been hit by attacks from the Iron Men as they continue their march towards Terra. Countless Xenos species have been driven to extinction. Out of over four million inhabited worlds, humanity is losing close to half of it.
Desperate humanity unleashes the Scrap Code and strikes the machines, destroying them to the last and driving the survivors into madness.
The Federation is disintegrating into numerous successor states, many of which engage in terrible experiments in an attempt to replace the until recently ubiquitous AI. All of this empowers Vashtorr the Arkifane.
On many planets, enraged masses are destroying the STC.
M26 : Powerful warp storms suddenly appear across the galaxy, making Warp travel nearly impossible. Terra and its colonies are isolated from each other, destroying their interdependence. Worlds that relied on external supplies suffer periods of anarchy and civil war, and some even retreat to pre-industrial levels of technology. The remaining Standard Template Construct technology is largely lost. Hostile xenos such as the Orks begin attacking the now vulnerable colonies. Isolation leads to the divergent evolution of abhumans and psykers. Weak and inexperienced psykers suffer from demonic possession, causing even more chaos and destruction. The Dark Age of Technology ends and the Age of Discord begins.
Numerous quarantine worlds collapse and countless hostile Xenos species are unleashed upon the galaxy. The remaining alliances and non-aggression pacts with the Xenos are broken as each species turns on itself.
Necromunda was colonized by lost colonization ships.
M27 - M28 : The Unspeakable King is active on Terra.
No one knows what happened to the Indescribable King. All that is known is that he disappeared somewhere in the M28.
M29 : The emperor returns from his exile and recruits Malcador. The Imperium was founded in the Himalayas. The first prototypes of the Thunder Warriors were created. The Primarch Project has been launched.
M30 : Wars of unification begin and last 700 years. Some of the most notorious Terran techno barbarian lords have been defeated.
Craftworlds are fleeing the borders of the Aeldari Empire.
The fall of the Eldar is happening. Eldar society collapses completely, and Slaanesh is born, devouring most Eldar souls and destroying the pantheon. Slaanesh becomes an enemy of the Eldar, always hungry for their souls. The center of the Eldar civilization, the homeworlds of the Eldar, were lost to the Warp, and the Eye of Terror was formed in its location.
A number of human psykers die due to the psychic shockwave that engulfs the galaxy. With the Eldar civilization nearly destroyed, the Warp Storms finally end in one storm of massive proportions. Warp calms down allowing re-travel.
The Primarch Project is over. The 21 Primarchs are created by the Emperor.
-750.M30 : Chaos Force's attempt to scattering the Primarch babies fails. The emperor regains his memories. Fic begins.