| Date | Event |
| THE RISE OF THE SLANN
60 million BC |
60 million years BC (approx) - Galaxy Wide Catastrophe. Faced with extinction, the Slann were hugely depleted in numbers, the remaining Slann degenerated into barbarism. |
| 6 million BC | The Slann civilisation is now more powerful than at any point in history, there population is still few in numbers but there technology is awesome. They decide to solve there production problems by creating child races. The first race to be created was the Eldar. |
| 4 million BC | The Eldar are evolving quickly and the Slann are delighted with studying there children, another race is created using the same template, this time named humans. |
| 3 million BC | An unknown threat attacks the Slann and they are forced into creating a warrior race to defend them, there numbers are further depleted until they finish the Orks, a rapidly breeding race which has technology implanted into it's DNA so an Ork can fight as soon it has matured without having to evolve, invent or learn. |
| 15000 BC | ELDAR learn secrets of Warp Tunnel technology from the SLANN. |
| 9000 BC | Earth's spiritualists are unconsciously aware of Warp energies and the manipulations dangers of the warp, as the Human, Ork and Eldar psyches began to cause disharmony in the warp, the spiritualists and shamen are unable to use there abilities to reincarnate. Over thousands of years the feelings of a coming darkness and the difficulty in reincarnation have grown ever stronger. After years of indecision and increasing fear, the most powerful of the psychics and spiritualists commit mass, ritual suicide and combine their souls into a single, all-powerful entity. It works, but the phrase, "All your eggs in one basket" comes to mind. This creates an immortal being who will not need to reincarnte. The release of so much energy disrupts planetary weather patterns and causes severe flooding in many areas. |
| THE RISE OF THE EMPEROR
THE FALL OF THE SLANN 9000 - 8000 BC |
The Ork race is hugely successful and spreads across the
galaxy eventually coming into conflict with the emerging Eldar who swiftly
crush them with there potent technology and create a large empire.
Birth of the EMPEROR in Central Anatolia, Old SLANN culture dies out when the Slann sickened by the fighting between there children decide to leave the galaxy in the great migration. The Slann, being an unemotionatal (so having very little reflection as a race in the warp) but warp sensitive race, witness the birth of Gork and Mork. Fortunatly, Gork and Mork are of no threat to the Slann... Mainly because they are not interested in anything other than fighting each other, or watching the Orks do battle. The Slann do however see Slaanesh slowly growing in the warp and warn the Eldar of their own impending fall before they leave, there are however ignored by most of the Eldar who in there arrogance have turned there back on there former masters. There are a few exceptions who start the maiden world project and become exotides. The maiden world project begins where a whole host of planets are terraformed by the Eldar ready for colonisation. |
| 8000 - 1400 BC | The Chaos gods Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeentch are born as the humans emotional and intellectial corruption creates huge ripples in the warp. Daemons walk the Earth and for a while it looks like the Earth will be sucked into the warp, but the Emperor leading a primitive tribe of humand create the pyramids which act as a psychic anchor shielding the Earth from the effects of the warp gods they are creating. |
| THE FALL OFF THE ELDAR
3000 BC |
Spiritual awareness has been developing over the millennia across the planet, and the mind-shattering cry of the Fall of the Eldar brings the more psychic humans to their knees. Myths and legends of fair, pointy-eared beings and other-worldly demonic entities arise. Daemons walk the Earth for the first time. The Emperor leads many heros into combat in an attempt to hunt them down, killing the last few by the end of the year 1000. Rumours of a few survivors persist, some examples being the Yeti, and Loch Ness Monster - these are slain once technology advances enough to track them down. |
| 0 AD | The Emperor of Man is born and makes his first attempt to unite the world. His philosophy of peace, love and unity becomes quite popular but fails to impress the local leader, Tiberius. After a particularly stressful day, he holes up for a while before leaving the area. |
| 2100 AD | MARS Terraforming initiated, |
| 2250 AD | Mars terraforming abandoned. The planet has become a primary industrial center, and corporate manipulations finally succeed in overriding ecological concerns. Human habitation is restricted to arcologies and enclosed bio-domes as industrial pollution and waste products poison the planet. |
| 2800 AD | The existance of the Warp is discovered by the rest of mankind. The implications of an extra-dimensional energy that affects human evolution horrifies most religious organizations. Several secret organizations are founded with the express purpose of purifying the human race. |
| 2900 AD | Waves of sublight colonization ships, termed "generation ships" are launched. Most are automated ships carrying deep-frozen human cargo, but a few carry an onboard society. The vast majority are destroyed or vanish. |
| 3000 AD | A method of harnessing Warp energy to create Faster-Than-Light starship drives is discovered. Warp drives are first used by the government to exile political prisoners and fringe groups to colony worlds. Over the next hundred years population pressures force ever-greater colonization efforts, until the technology is released to private corporations. This opportunity, combined with an increasingly restrictive government, leads to dozens of colonies within ten years and hundreds more planned. |
| 3100 AD | The Great Diaspora begins. Over the next several hundred years, humans spread across the local spiral arm of the galaxy and colonize hundreds of planets. Humans and Terran-based fauna spread throughout the local spiral arm. The Terran-based government gradually disintegrates into a loose confederation. Dozens of alien races are encountered and while most are reasonably friendly, others aren't. The Diaspora ends when the first known Waaagh! obliterates two dozen colonies and threatens hundreds more. |
| THE RISE OF MAN
3350 AD |
The Ork Wars force humanity to reunite under a single government for the first time in nearly 300 years. This confederation is formed initially to fight off the Ork Waaagh! and continues long afterward as corporations find it good for business. |
| 3400 AD |
The
first major war against the Orks ends in a stalemate. Humans have better
starships, tactics and adaptability but the Orks are more numerous, have
better weapons and, once on the ground, are able to breed new troops.
After 50 years of inconclusive warfare, humans establish a defensive
perimeter and the Orks begin to turn elsewhere for easier targets. Losses
on the ground against Ork infantry and vehicles prompts the development of
both powered armor and Titans. |
| 3600 AD | Human colonization reaches a thousand planets by this time and the central government contains both hereditary and elected representatives. The capitol on Earth becomes known as "The Court of a Thousand Suns." The development of the STC series of automated factories increases productivity and ever-larger war machines are designed, culminating in the completion of the Titan project. |
| 3700 AD | The first of the Emperor's plans bear fruit in the form of the Astronomicon and the Navigators. Together they allow humanity to travel through Warp space without suffering the effects of genetic alteration. The Astronomicon also provides starships with a known reference point and increases both the speed and safety of space travel. Exploration and colonization promptly increase by an order of magnitude. |
| 3900 AD |
The
technology of genetic manipulation have increased to the point that
colonists can be altered to better adapt to their planned environments.
Adaptations such as increased temperature tolerances, poison & disease
resistance and altered physical size are possible and, in most cases,
successful. Most near-human races, including Beastmen, Ogryn, Ratlings
& Squats, spring from this era. Orks, Eldar raiders and other aliens remain a threat and continue to destroy colonies, but military technology and numbers gives humans parity with most threats. Colonization continues to be disorganized but has reached most parts of the galaxy. Authority remains centralized on Earth and the warning signs of colonial independence begins to appear, especially among the frontier worlds. The Emperor of Man recognizes the need for FTL communications and begins selectively breeding for telepathy (this project will eventually produce the Astropath). |
| 4000 AD |
A human exploration team encounters a stasis chamber and manages to waken a tribe of Slann. The newly-awakened Slann realize that things have gone horribly wrong and are horrified to learn of the effects of their extended sleep. The attempt to get in contact with there brothers, only to find that they have migrated to another galaxy. They move to warn them before Chaos can grow any stronger. Tzeentch, Nurgle, Khorne and Slaanesh have grown strong enough to pose a direct threat to the Slann themselves and, faced with the threat of obliteration, the Slann panic. They reach there fellow Slann and together they make a final child race, the Tyranids. This new child race has a negative warp shadow, instead of trying to minimise the effect of the warp on there creations, the Tyranids absorb all the warp energy in the vicinity and use it to enhance there already potent adaptability. This also restricts psychic powers and warp travel in the area around the roaming Hive Fleets, before the Slann can harness them and sent them to do battle against Chaos however, the Tyranids turn on them. The Chaos Gods are growing, and explode into existance as senient beings! There evolution is like an explosion within the warp, overloading the dimensional barriers and spilling out into real space, a permanent rift is opened widening the existing hole over the old Eldar homeworlds and turning the small rift into the massive Eye of Terror. The disruption kills virtually anyone with any trace of psychic sensitivity. The human Navigators and Astropaths are nearly obliterated, the ranks of the Eldar Warlocks and Farseers are descimated and the Orks are driven into a racial homicidal rampage. Worse, instead of merely killing the sensitives by psychic overload, it kills them by merging them with huge amounts of uncontrollable Warp energies. The resultant hordes of Chaos daemons, driven only by madness and pain, devastates virtually all civilization in the galaxy - Human, Eldar, Ork and other aliens alike. Many societies are reduced to the stone age, the STC system is lost, the Astronomicon is destroyed, the Navigators obliterated and the Emperor stranded on a colony world thousands of light-years from Earth. Many of the Exotide worlds are also lost in the expanding rift. |
| 4050 AD |
Warp
drives still work, but Warp storms and the lack of the Astronomicon make
it virtual suicide to attempt any large-scale interstellar travel. Human
populations either adapt to the isolation or die off. Non-agricultural
worlds that depend on imported supplies see riots, chaos, famine and the
death of billions. Others completely lose their industrial base and
degenerate into barbarian societies, and religious cults rise on the
"wrath of God" theme. Most Chaos spawn are killed or die off,
but the horrors of the Warp and the fear of psychic powers is never
forgotten. Many
of the genetically-altered humans begin to undergo accelerated evolution
as Warp energies saturate their planets. For example, Ratlings continue to
breed smaller and Ogryns lose many of their higher-order brain functions.
Beastmen lose virtually all intellect and gain in aggression and viciousness.
Still others, many close to the Eye of Terror, are blatantly changed by
Warp energies and become creatures of Chaos. The
Orks once again become the dominant force in the galaxy. They had already
touched by the madness of the Warp and the current disruption does little
more than enhance their restlessness and aggression, sending them on a
galaxy-wide Waaagh! lasting more than a thousand years. It quiets down a
little after that, but most cultures that achieve any sort of electric or
radio-frequency emissions are identified as targets and eventually
attacked. Since the Orkish starships use Warp drives they are indeed
affected by the dangers of interstellar travel, but the Orks are both
stubborn and numerous enough to eventually get there. The Orks serve their
purpose of galactic plumber quite well, flushing away those races that are
unable to unite and defend themselves. Since the disruption of the Warp, 'oomies
fall into this category and are juicy targets. The
Eldar slowly recover. Most of the Warlocks and Farseers died or were
corrupted by Chaos and many Craftworlds suffered damage from Warp beasts,
but as their technology is not based on Warp energy they emerge relatively
unscathed. Their investigations reveal humans as the instigators of the
catastrophe, causing distain for the 'semi-evolved monkeys that rush in.' The
Tau civilization has yet to achieve written history. The event is probably
in their myths and legends, but otherwise long forgotten. The
Squats survive the devastation with remarkably little loss, mostly because
they never had many psykers to begin with. The Squat home worlds are also
in a relatively close-knit stellar cluster and they are able to maintain
communications and military cooperation. They are subject to Orkish raids
and invasions almost continually, laying the foundation for the
traditional Dwarf-Ork rivalry. Also, ten thousand years of warfare after
the death of their intellectual elite lays the foundation for the Dwarven
values of family, tradition, weaponsmithing and tenacity. |
| 4200 AD | The First Empire of Man disintegrates into thousands of separate kingdoms, most composed of a single planet. Some star systems are close enough that they establish trade and commerce, and a few adventurous scouts and merchants still travel between far-flung planets. Travel from one end of the galaxy to the other, once measured in months, is now measured in decades. The continuing Orkish raids against any emerging technological society continues to retard any major growth, and few planets retain any significant space-based population or industry. |
| 4300 AD | The Emperor of Man arrives in the Sol system after a sub light voyage. The populations of Earth and (especially) Mars have been reduced to a pitiful fraction of their First Empire levels, and the dying struggles of billions have wrought massive damage to the industrial infrastructure. Ongoing conflicts periodically flare up as various organizations compete for the few remaining resources. The Emperor immediately begins rebuilding his power base and initiates second-stage genetic manipulation to replace the lost Navigators and Astropaths. |
| 4500 AD | Mars is united under a single banner, led by the Emperor. Mining and ore-processing facilities are re-opened in the asteroid belt and negotiations are opened with the remaining Earth governments concerning trade. |
| 4650 AD |
Earth
and Mars begin a war that lasts for more than a century. Millions of
Earthers die from orbital kinetic strikes and millions more from famine
and bio-weapons. The Emperor personally leads the final invasion of Terra.
Reports of super-soldiers leading his army abound but remain
unsubstantiated. After the surrender of all Earth forces, it takes less
than a year for the remaining planets in the Sol system to once again be
under the control of a single leader. |
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