Welcome

Sector Maledicta lies far to the galactic east, at the outer reach of Ultima Segmentum. Two stable warp corridors - Maxima Quarta and Maxima Sextus - emanate from the ominous Sphera Tenebris, and facilitate travel back into the galaxy at large. Imperial control is nominal at best, this far from the Emperor's Light, this deep in the Dark Imperium, and this close to the galactic edge.

In the dying days of the forty-first millennium, the Sector Maledicta was beset by then-emergent Necron raiders. Early strikes on Janneria Prime were simple awakenings, attempts to transition off-planet and relocate to St. Wulfruna's Haven. 

Unbeknownst to the Imperium, the shrine world had been a battleground of the War in Heaven. Before the first humans looked up at the night sky with dreams of conquest, ancient aeldar fought the Charnovokh dynasty to retreat, leaving behind them an entity - or artefact - that drukhari legends name the Mourning Sun.

Aeons later, Phaerekh Tekeshi returned to reclaim what had been lost, and found Astartes waiting. The Mourning Sun was reclaimed, and stars trembled and went dark, and Tekeshi's crownworld was no more.

That was then, and this is now.

Since the opening of the Great Rift, Sector Maledicta has been contested for the Imperium by a penitent crusade under Captain Talassar Kaine. Kaine and his company - the Seventh of the Hawk Lords Chapter, in exile - are sworn to hunt the Necron for a hundred years, atoning for the sins of deceit that almost compromised their Chapter's honour.

Please, meet your protagonists.

Force Commander Garbutt

That's him! Garbutt had lived a hams-free life for nine years, dissolving his Dark Eldar and Tau collections and retaining a mere Battle Company's worth of luridly purple Space Marines. Then I innocently offered him halvesies on a Recruit Edition box, because I wanted to see how his Dropfleet Commander colours looked on a Space Marine. Then I got him a Combat Patrol for Christmas. Now the sickness is within him again, and our old rivalry resumed.

Strengths: Gets Shit Done, hyperfocusing on hobby and storytelling.
Weaknesses: overthinking, perfectionism, scope creep (ask him how long he's been working on his Stormraven).

Armies: The Sworn (Primaris Astartes), Hawk Lords (Firstborn Astartes).

 

Base of operations: St. Wulfruna's Haven, named for the rogue trader whose fleet set out from the Black Planet and made the first planetfall in Maledicta during the Great Crusade. 

Supreme Overlord Von

That's me! Described by my colleague as "a relentless narrative machine," I am the designated heel of any narrative I'm in, and have a thing for a) undead abominations against all that is good and pure and b) the colour purple. Living as I do very Rurally, I don't really get to do much pick-up gaming, so even my thousand point knockabouts are invested with undue importance and heft. Hence, all this storytelling malarkey.

Strengths: forever GM energy, rules deconstruction, speed painter extraordinaire.
Weaknesses: doesn't actually like painting, easily tilted in game.
Armies: Kavadah Dynasty (Necrons), Hand of Vengeance (Chaos Kill Teams).

Base of operations: the Firestorm Nebula, one sixth of which shines with the red of bloated, dying stars. Beyond Eign's Gate, you will find a single uncategorised desert rock, and on that rock the tomb and prison of Phaerekh Tekeshi, and an artefact of unimaginable power and malice. Within the Firestorm also drifts the space hulk Kaisarion, rumoured to house a coalition of Traitor Legionaries currently licking their wounds and scheming their next move...