The Federacy is a seccessionist group of Human Worlds who left the Imperium many decades ago after the arrival from the warp of Admiral Haskell, a great leader from the time of the Horus Heresy who was tricked by Horus into supporting him. When Haskell found out, he fled to the warp only to return ten thousand years later. After various secessionist wars the Federacy established itself as an ally to the Tau Empire, promoting the original Imperial Truth of science and innovation, turning its back on all forms of religion.
Now the Federacy finds itself embattled with frequent chaos incursions from the rift. During the upheaval several federal planets and outposts were lost, but it has maintained contact with the bulk of the Tau Empire. However, the Federacy now finds itself on the Front line against the Imperium's fight to reconnect to the Dark Imperium and must face threats on three sides.
The Tyranids have ravaged the Aleph Sector on a number of occasions. Hive fleet Leviathan spawned several splinter fleets, namely Megalodon, Morph and Triton, which ravaged the southern reaches of the sector, destroying Orvicare and leaving several worlds uninhabitable. But far worse was Nemesis, of unknown orogeny and entering the sector from apparently within Imperial Space, this ultra intelligent Hive fleet laid waste to much of the Zadoc subsector before disappearing into interstellar space. Just before the Great Rift appeared, Nemesis had resurfaced in the Perseus Deeps.
Now the Hive Fleet is loose, somewhere, in the vast depths of space in the Dark Imperium. The motivation to feed is strong but Nemesis in particular has been known to employ particularly elaborate strategic moves, rather than to just devour whatever it comes across. Nemesis will withdraw if outmatched, and has proved a deadly foe in the sector. One the Imperium at least must now deal with without reinforcement.
The greenskin race is and has been a constant menace in all sectors, although in the Aleph Sector no Full scale Waagh! has ever come about. A few warbosses have come close however, and infamous ork names in the Aleph Sector are Snazzteef, Nazghat, Thrugnik, Krumpgutz, Da Verminator, Kogh and Na'Porkleon. None are known to have been killed, although some must have died as part of internal greenskin rivalry.
The orks exist both sides of the warp rift that spans the Aleph Sector. The long war on the Imperial world of Hylas shows no sign of coming to an end, and with the destruction of many worlds in the Vork Ork Expanse, the orks now fight constantly against daemonic incursions. But orks in constant combat can only result in one thing, bigger and stronger orks...
The eldar of the Aleph Sector are few in number and scattered into various factions. The Kel Sandros Craftworld hangs aloof and safe above the galactic sphere, all but immune to events in the sector, while attempting to manipulate events to eventually lead to the rebirth of the Eldar Empire. Other Craftworlds are also present in the Deeps, and it was in the Aleph Sector that the Disciples of Y'neadd fortold the coming of the eldar god of the dead, many years before these events came to pass. Often seen acting in concert with the Harlequins and Dark Eldar, it was in the Aleph Sector that the first steps of the Ynnari began.
Now following the rift, the Craftworld of Ondelinde has been destroyed, her people scattered and homeless. Eldar worlds of Sentinel and Ares, hard won off the Imperium, were consumed by the Great Maw - but perhaps that was already known to the Harlequins when they assaulted and took the worlds for themselves. Perhaps knowing that the infantile humans would be corrupted and form part of the traitor armies if they still held those worlds.
Now the Aeldari remain splintered and have their own agendas, but they must also ensure the final defeat of Chaos, and will do anything to ensure this is brought about. Even if their motive appears unclear or contradictory, the eldar farseers will have planned their interventions in advance to twist fate in their own favour.
The Perseus Deeps had once been home to a mighty necron dynasty, the Harakhty, before they entered the long sleep. Necron worlds began awakening decades ago, and gradually world after world in the Perseus Deeps fell to the necrons as their numbers fell. By 013M42 the Harakhty dynasty once again resembled its former glory, but that was not to last.
One by one tombs began to rehibernate, as the Cryptek's realised there was an endemic fault in the reanimation protocols. The Harakhty struggled furiously with this problem, as their armies simply deactivated, and were able to hold on to their empire, but the age of expansion was over. Only with the introduction of new "blood" in the form of the Charnovokh Dynasty did the necron empire of the Deeps survive.
With the coming of the Great Rift the Harakhty Dynasty suffered greatly. three tomb worlds were devoured, leaving the remnants of the Harakhty Dynasty on the western side of the warpscar, while the reinvigorated Charnovokh took total possession of the core of the Perseus Deeps. The Charnovokh would look to expand once more, while the Harakhty were now vulnerable, weak and completely isolated.
Despite a successful expansion of the Tau empire, helped by their alliance with the Federacy, the Aleph expansion sphere is now in deep trouble. Major Imperial systems such as Tarsis Major, Melberg and Libria have been conquered, but several new Tau colonies in the Perseus Deeps have been swallowed by the Cicatrix Maledictum. Now the entire Aleph expansion sphere is cut off from the rest of the Tau empire by the Great Rift.
Having lost their base on Cernunnos, the Tau beyond the Rift now seek to reunite with the rest of their race by finding a way through the seemingly impenetrable warp storms. Meanwhile the Tau Empire itself is heading up an expedition into the Hadron Expanse, while sending forces to aid the beleagured Federacy.
The forces of chaos, once a threatening presence in the Perseus Deeps, were almost annihilated prior to the coming of the Great Rift. Many leaders came and went attempting to unite the forces of Chaos, but the gods of the warp lost many key worlds, including Calliden and Bastien, throughout the course of their demise. Now however they are resurgent, and able to strike across the sector. While the traitor legions plan their assault on the beleaguered defenders of the sector, the gods themselves have many new daemon worlds to claim for themselves from those planets sucked into the maw of the Cicatrix Maledictum.
The primary aims of chaos are to claim the "fallen worlds" for their patron god within the warp tear which cuts across the sector, as well as reuniting the scattered remnants of the chaos domain across the sector.
The Imperium once controlled much of the sector, but since 001.M42 have lost the Aleph and Zadoc subectors to the separatist Federacy and Tau. General Veers’ Crusade made headway in the Perseus Deeps, but now Bastien and Corticant lie on the wrong side of the Great Rift. Inquisitor Vorushko’s crusade has been devastated by the coming of the Cicatrix Maledictum, but now the Imperium is united once again under Titus Luthor in its holy purpose to reconquer and reunite it’s peoples across the Aleph Sector.
Titus Luthor's new campaign will be initiated on three fronts. The armies of the Imperium will attempt to find a way through the Cicatrix Minoris which has cut off the Vastrid subsector from General Veers and the remainder of the Crusade in the Perseus Deeps. From the south, another attack will be launched into the Enceladus and Aleph subsectors, while expeditions will be launched to find a way through the Cicatrix Maledictum through the Hardon Expanse.
This is the Aleph Sector. Sitting on the far eastern fringe between Ultramar and the Tau Empire the region has been rent by the Cicatrix Maledictum. Temporal distortions make it impossible to gauge how much time has passed between the battles at Corticant and today. Some measure it in mere days, others in years. The Imperial Governor of the sector, Titus Luthor, has decreed the time of the "Noctis Aeterna" to be void, and the date is 2006.017M42.
Now that the shock of the coming of the Great Rift has died down, each of the factions of the region are preparing their next moves. To rebuild, to consolidate, to brace themselves against onslaught or to go on the offensive. The Aleph Sector is about to be plunged into a greater conflict than it has ever known.
The Cicatrix Maledictum, the Crimson Path, the Mouth of Ruin, the Warpscar, the Dathedian, Gork's Grin. Just a few of the names for the Great Rift, an enormous tear in reality itself following the destruction of Cadia. Unfortunately for the Aleph Sector, the Rift itself ripped through the very heart of the region at the end of 016M42, cutting it in half and causing destruction on a massive scale not seen since the Horus Heresy.
For the Imperium it was the final blow to their attempt to hold on to Libria and their holdings in the Zadoc subsector, but it started in the Vastrid subsector, the other side of the Perseus Deeps. First the glowing sky became more and more visible as the warp began to manifest along the path of the Great Rift, before Inardion, a previously peaceful and untouched agri-world, was sucked into the abyss in what is now reckoned to be 06.017M42.
The psychic scream from the deaths of millions was just the first of many, and across the sector daemonic possession and incursions caused havoc. The Astronomican winked out and the Imperium was unable to defend its worlds against attacks, with each system having to defend itself as best it could. Fortunately for the sector, the events of the Noctis Aeterna were mercifully brief, as the time of the Aleph Sector slowed dramatically as the great maw of chaos swept across it. Many reckoned the disappearance of the Emperor's light in mere days, others weeks, but for those on the wrong side of the rift, it never returned.
Libria fell swiftly to the Tau as the Imperial Fleet supporting it was thrown half way across the galaxy. The Tau had their own problems however, as the Aleph Expansion sphere found itself cut off from the rest of the Empire, creating a new Enclave. The Tau and Alliance dd not avoid losses either, as Parataea, and Aganthus disappeared into the Cicatrix Maledictum, and Zadoc, already a warzone with chaos, was overwhelmed with new daemonic incursions. Cernunnos, the main Tau base in the Perseus Deeps and launching point of Operation Sunstrike which established the Aleph Expansion sphere, disappeared completely without a trace.
The Federacy had little time to object to the Tau anexation of Libria, as the warp swallowed Myrentas II and Ravitane. Tallax and the rest of the Federacy were only saved by work which had been proceeding on Protogonus, creating the Federal Shield utilising ancient Necron technology. More Federal lives could have been saved, but the research had been disrupted by agents of Inquisitor Vorushko.
The Eldar in the Aleph sector suffered greatly, with the loss of Sentinel and Ares, although Ares was not consumed by the Great Rift, instead left as a lifeless blackened hulk after the Eldar themselves destroyed the world in order to prevent it falling into the hands of Chaos. The Eldar had been prepared however. The Disciples of Ynead had long predicted the events now coming to pass, and with the arrival of the Ynnari, they led the majority of the eldar population, including an entire Craftworld to safety. Those who were unwilling to leave, died. The Ynnari recognised the work of the Disciples in the preceding years, and it was for the preservation of their race that they had waged their campaigns through the Perseus Deeps. The status of the Kel Sandros craftworld remains unknown, although its position above the galactic plane is assumed to have spared the Craftworld from the ravages of the chaos incursions.
The Dark Eldar fared worse, with several Kabals wiped out by the Great Rift, including the vast installation of Slaughterpoint station. The Necrons too suffered great losses, as the weakened Harakhty dynasty was unable to repel the onslaught of daemonic armies unleashed on Scallius, Skera and Cathasaea. All were lost to the warp, and the Harakhty Dynasty was shatterd beyond salvation. Now the Charnovokh rule in the remaining Necron holds in the Perseus Deeps, while the Sautekh Dynasty look to add the rump of the Harakhty to their own domain.
In the Vork Ork Expanse, several worlds including Magark and Skabgrod suffered extinction at the hands of the forces of chaos, but the orks went down with their usual enthusiasm for a fight, and overall the orks of the Aleph Sector barely registered their loss, although their ability to unite into a Waaagh! was even further compromised.
The chaos worlds of the sector received the coming of the rift as a revelation, with ecstatic delirious joy overtaking the populations of Mordecai and Kendrenec. Little did the mortals realise that both worlds would soon be overcome by daemons and plunged into a frenzy of bloodshed as the great powers conducted the war in the rift. Kendrenec became a daemon world, with Lord Tragean ascending to daemonhood. His followers cheered rapturously as they were slain to a man by the denizens of the warp.
On Mordecai a similar fate befell the mortal population, though some were spared for the workings of the mighty fleet base. Now only the Federacy and the Tau empire stood between the reunification of the chaos worlds in the Deeps with those of the Norsfire Empire and the Enceladus subsector. A massive daemon army assailed Tallax but was repulsed, though seriously weakening the Federacy's military strength. Meanwhile on Minos, Warsmith Stahl watched the mayhem with ambivalence, realising that while his objective of overthrowing the Imperium was now closer to hand, his own personal influence over the chaos forces in the Aleph sector had been diminished.
Lastly, the effect on Hive Fleet Nemesis remains unknown. Their assault on Bastien and Corticant which had been imminent, receded. When the warp storms died down across the sector their warp signature had disappeared. Only a fool would believe the most intelligent Hive mind yet encountered had succumbed to the coming of the Cicatrix Maledictum. More likely the Hive fleet had withdrawn to a place of safety. Where it would reappear, no one could say.
