It is an era of legends and myths. The countless legions of the Emperor of Mankind have marched across space to the four corners of the Galaxy in the Great Crusade, destroying all who would resist the Emperor and His Imperial Truth. The end of the Age of Strife and the rebuilding following the Old Night appears nigh. His Armies stand victorious, and there are none left in the Galaxy with the might left to resist Him and His children, the demigod-like beings called the Primarchs, and their own children, the Legiones Astartes, the Space Marines. Upon the world of Ullanor, the Emperor broke the ork empire of Urrlak Urruk, the final threat to the Imperium of Man.
It was the culmination of two centuries of nigh-incessant warfare and the death of billions of humans, the scouring of thousands of worlds of all life, the extermination of hundreds of species. Ullanor was the Emperor's greatest triumph, and upon the world, the Emperor named one of his children as his Warmaster, to conclude the Great Crusade He had begun, while He retired back to Terra for reasons unknown.
The Emperor never arrived. Days passed, as it was dismissed as simply being the vagaries of Warp travel. Days became weeks, but as the Astronomicon still blazed bright and the Imperium still ran smoothly, worries were dismissed. The Emperor would arrive any day now.
Weeks became months. The War Council, chaired by Malcador the Sigillite, stated that in the absence of the Emperor, the War Council would collectively rule the Imperium until the Emperor should return. This caused no amount of disquiet among the ranks of the Primarchs, as their roles as leaders of the Imperium's armies would keep them far from the War Council upon Terra, and among the ranks of the War Council itself, as many believed that the vast and lumbering organisation would not be able to function as a substitute in the place of the Emperor's will. The War Council proposed to name Malcador as Imperial Regent; Malcador declined, stating that the Emperor had intended for the War Council to rule collectively, not with a substitute Emperor in His absence.
With Malcador's refusal, the War Council turned instead to the loudest of the supporters for an Imperial Regent; the Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes, Constantin Valdor. Believing that indecisive, collective rule would weaken the Imperium, Valdor put himself forwards to the War Council as Imperial Regent, but was voted down by the War Council. Ever a man of decisive action and not wishing to see the Imperium die a slow death from paralysis, Valdor, along with his supporters in the Council and Imperial Army, held a session of the War Council from which the Custodes barred Malcador and his supporters, unanimously voting Valdor to be Imperial Regent.
Malcador, outraged, declared the vote to be illegitimate and a blatant coup, along with his supporters. Valdor, in response, had the Grand Provost Marshal of the Adeptus Arbites arrest those who supported Malcador on grounds of sedition and treason. Malcador was only able to flee Terra due to the aid of the Officio Assassinorum, along with a handful of his supporters. Regrouping upon the world of Nova Terra, Malcador called upon the Imperial Army and the Legiones Astartes to remove Valdor from Terra and crush his coup. Valdor called upon the same to crush the seditionists. All the while, the newly-named Warmaster stands with legal authority over the full might of the Imperial military, yet such power is untested and new, and challenged.
The Imperium of Mankind, once upon the edge of an Age of Light, now stands upon the edge of an Age of Darkness.
Rules
1 ) No Godmodding and/or Meta-Gaming.
2 ) No flaming.
3 ) No steamrolling other players. Players are instead expected to communicate effectively to other players to prevent and/or resolve disputes. This is, ultimately, an attempt to tell a story.
4 ) No canon Primarchs. Be creative.
5 ) The Operator Team as a collective will be the final arbiter in regards to the strengths of military forces.
6 ) Respect the Operators and Admins. If we have to weigh a ruling it will be done as a collective and it is final.
7 ) Applications are subject to Operator Team changes and suggestions being made as a collective. OP rulings by yours truly are final only if the OP Team cannot agree as a collective.
8 ) As a general rule, legions will be soft-capped at a maximum of 250,000 unless there are extremely good reasons provided for exceeding such and stellar domains should a) be proportional to how late the Primarch is found and b) the size of legion domains should be greater the later a Primarch is found. In regards to the latter, bear in mind Ultramar is very much an exception to the rule of the average size of legion domains, which could range anywhere from a single world up to 80 typically.
9 ) Rules subject to amending as needed.
10 ) Tau is banned. This rule is not subject to appeal.
Dramatis Personae
Morgan Duri, Legion I 'Amber Order'
Victoria Ave Aldatia, Legion II 'Emperor's Eagles'
Cornelia Caelestis, Legion III 'Umbral Praetors'
Tykos Poio, Legion IV 'Liberators'
Vasilisa Sanguina, Legion V 'Sun Angels'
Metillius, Legion VI 'Marauders'
Arkadij Dreyksyn, Legion VII 'Grey Dragons'
Titania Ironheard, Legion VIII 'Leviathans'
Heraklus Hamartia, Legion IX 'Achillean Spears'
Praessian Corro, Legion X 'Imperial Lions'
Clausewitz Parcarian, Legion XII 'Burning Scrolls'
Ekkehart, Legion XIII 'Storm Lords'
Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Legion XIV 'Star Spears'
Aleksandr Zorkastanov, Legion XV 'Primordial Guard'
Sceafa Kentigern, Legion XVI 'Wild Hunt'
Domhnall Ainfean, Legion XVIII 'Astral Walkers'
Sevren Pentecost, Legion XIX 'Azure Serpents'
Lucretian Karath, Legio XX 'Midnight Host'
Brigadier Emmett Macguire, Calbernian Darkwatch
Ada Vilisturu, Navigator
Pellolk Tyronan, Leviathan Dreadnought