Cicatrix Maledictum pulses dangerously

As 03.020M42 progressed, all races in the Aleph Sector began to notice some worrying signs within the Cicatrix Maledictum. It began in the Hadron Expanse, far to the galactic east of the sector, as the warp around Hexis began pulsing, sending waves of warp energy across the Expanse, disrupting interstellar travel and leading to localised "warp afflictions", with some planets experiencing an upsurge of psychic phenomena.

 

Initially, it was hoped that the warp effects being felt in the Expanse were due to the local destruction of the mysterious necron "device" on Hexis, but gradually the pulsing effects of the great rift began rippling all along the warp anomaly. All races using the warp for travel were affected as even the Foramen became unstable, trapping or sending off course ships trying to traverse the Cicatrix. Psychic phenomena began affecting worlds nearest to the rift, and like an unstoppable contagion, psykers became attuned to the pulsing effects, transferring the warp affliction even further afield.

 

By 2003.020M42 the Imperium was forced to suspend all interstellar travel between worlds in the vicinity of the Cicatrix Maledictum. Not only between to and from the Imperium Nihilis via the Foramen, but even between neighbouring systems. Only the eldar had forseen this psychic awakening across the sector, and the webway stayed, for now, relatively stable. For the other races, supplies became a critical concern as warzones found themselves isolated from their logistic hubs. However, the wars continued.

 

A new reality dawned across the sector, one that had escaped the worst effects of the coming of the Cicatrix. Wars became more desparate and grand offensives on a planetary scale became ever more difficult to organise. The wars on Mordecai and elsewhere would continue, but on a far less grand scale. Meanwhile, the eldar, realising the Ynnari were right all along, now began to act in unison for the good of their race.