Background/inspiration for an event

[SotonShades]

Toreldos Palace was once an Imperial Governor's retreat, hidden away on Defiance, the tenth world of the Nexaris system. With the seat of system governance on Sistec Prime, the unspoilt landscape of Defiance offered a peace and perceived isolation for generations of Governors, all of Toreldos lineage. All was not well within the bounds of Nexaris though; in the midst of the 40th millennium, hidden cults coalesced under the surface of civilisation, scheming a coup that would see the downfall of the Toreldoses. Unwittingly, they planned out and performed a ritual to the Chaos gods, orchestrated by none other than Marfalcon Fletcher Toreldos, second son of the incumbent Governor Thohorn Toreldos. Jealous of his older brother's upcoming ascension to the throne of governance, Marfalcon turned from the Emperor's light in search of power of his own over the course of nearly a century, he consorted with Sorcerers and Psykers, travelling across the galaxy to seek forbidden knowledge such that he might overpower the armies at his brother's command and take the throne for himself.

Foolhardy and blinded by the prospect of power, he threw in his lot with a fickle Daemon-prince of Tzeentch. Xyr'kain Fi'thg'rin promised Marfalcon that the sun would set on his brother's empire if he followed the ritual the daemon prescribed. Without hesitation Marfalcon returned to Nexaris, unravelled the scrolls of flayed human skin he had been given and began following the instructions as closely as he could. Fi'thg'rin's script changed and flowed with the eddies of the Warp, only solidifying on events that had all ready come to pass. Acting from the deepest dungeons of Toreldos Palace, Marfalcon watched events he set in motion unfold. As Hynes-Dubbled crossed the Black Iron Asteroid Belt, he sliced his own wrist with an anathame of blue crystal. As his blood stained the blade, so too did that of the riotous cults stain the streets of all the worlds of Nexaris. The ruby droplets sank in to fractures of the crystal's surface, turning the blade an acrid black. Unbeknownst to Marfalcon, the tear in his skin had opened a warp rift, which in turn bled the dark energies into the system's star.

Light faded into a perpetual night as the Black Star hissed and spat, irradiating the closest worlds and corrupting the populations of those that survived. Marfalcon Toreldos emerged from his lair to find the empire he had hoped to claim for himself blighted beyond recognition or repair. With the rattling of Xyr'kain Fi'thg'rin's laughter grating at the back of his skull, the last vestiges of his sanity were stripped away. The man that had formally been the second son of Governor Toreldos became a cackling madman; clutching his black crystal blade, he set off into the warp-fuelled darkness to become a creature of legend, a slaughterer who fed the Black Sun with the blood of his victims.

Nexaris never recovered. The population endures to this day, though tainted by extreme mutations. Wisps of warp energy drift across all the worlds under the Black Sun, seemingly defying every order of Exterminatus sanctioned against the planets within their clutches. Officially quarantined by the Imperium, regular cleanses must be maintained to ensure no threat to the rest of man-kind could muster there. Such duties are extremely risky however and on more than one occasion, contact with the armies sent to raze those worlds has been lost. All the Imperium can do is be ever vigilant.


What do you guys think?

This will form the core background for a charity Apocalypse game I will be running later in the year (I'll but a link in to this thread when I have some more of the details sorted.) Would this get you excited to take part? I've used a system that is displayed in relative detail on the big galactic map in the back of the big rulebook, but isn't acknowledged elsewhere (as far as I can tell) so if you want more details about the system, check there!

[Katharon]

It sounds like you've recently read "Storm of Iron" by Graham McNeil. However, from a different standpoint, it doesn't make sense that a planet like this wouldn't be destroyed via Exterminatus - no need to maintain a quarantine or send armies that are needed elsewhere into what is a waste of men and resources. Contrary to popular belief, not every Munitorium officer and high ranking Imperial Guard general is willing to send millions onto proven suicide missions, especially if it is proven that there is no chance of actual victory. (Again, they'd cut their losses and viral bomb the place.)