[center][img]https://i.ibb.co/LRjwZcv/images-66-1.jpg[/img][/center]

In the grim darkness of the 51st Millennium, the endless war continues.

There was no great conflagration or calamitous final battle.

Across the vastness of the galaxy, the Imperium died-- not with a bang, but a whimper. The galactic empire of humanity crumbled, its enemies too many, too great and too terrible to imagine. The great conflict of Octarius had no victory, a war without end. In the fiery chasm of strife, the locust and the green holocaust fused, as beast looked upon barbarian and both saw the other as kin. The new entity spread with a speed undreamt of by Ork or Tyranid. War and hunger melded into a singular desire to ravage and remake all in the image of the New Devourer. Seeing the greatest fight since the War in Heaven, Ghazghul Mag Uruk Thraka led a billion trillion Orks against the New Devourer. The gleeful Orks fought and died until none were seemingly left, and for a season, the galaxy thought the orks extinct. Alas, their hopes would be quickly dashed by this new horror.

The Devourer's hybrid nightmares were regenerative and spore-born, combining into a grand horror which murdered the galaxy, leaving naught but fragments as it left. Metallic sentinels of unflinching dread rose up on some worlds, leaving them safe from the New Devourer Waaagh, but instead made them slaves to the silver sentinels, and fodder for their glowing metal gods.

As if things could not go worse, the Emperor perished. It is said by some that he could no longer bear the torment of sitting upon the Golden Throne; others believe that an assassin somehow slew him once and for all. Whatever the case, Terra collapsed into a second Eye of Terror, and every soul in the Solar System dead. Only Titan remained as a sphere of defiance, where the Custodes and Grey Knights still fight against hordes of demons every single day.

With the death of the God Emperor, the Imperium shattered like glass. Echoing the fate of the old Greater Human Federation during the final days of the Dark Age of Technology, its sectors were isolated from each other. Unfortunate worlds were set upon the devious legions of Chaos, hungering xenos, or simply fell to the internal strife inherent to humanity. Many planets, reliant on shipments from agri-worlds, simply starved to death. Mad preachers roared a new rhetoric; the Emperor had punished humanity for its sin, and that they rightfully deserved their fate. Clusters of planets that were within short range warp from each other consolidated; some waited in vain for the greater Imperium to relieve them, while others rightfully concluded that the Imperium was gone, and they were on their own. So were the Petty Imperiums born as shards of mankind's empire.

Surging from the Eye of Terror, Abaddon the Despoiler’s 19th Black Crusade swept across the west, and conquered thousands of planets. In a galaxy bereft of the Emperor’s light, there could be no coordinated response, no crusade to be launched. Abaddon forged his own Chaos Imperium, and none could stop him. In the Maelstrom, Huron Blackheart did the same, with his Red Corsairs and hordes of Chaos cultists seizing control of hundreds of systems. 

However, there are some worlds that refuse to succumb to despair and madness. The greatest of these patches of sanity left are the Three Thousand Worlds of Ultramar, which successfully held back the New Devourer and Necrons alike. From here, the returned Primarchs, Roboute Guilliman, Vulkan, and the Lion plan the grand reclamation of their Father’s dream. How could they accomplish this, however, when His light can no longer be seen in the Warp? Even with their allies (though 'allies' may be a strong word to describe them; some are utterly self serving, but useful regardless), such as Belisarius Cawl and his string of four score Forge Worlds, the highly advanced Farsight Enclaves, the mysterious Realm of Fathers, and at times, the Craftworld Eldar, whose diplomatic missives are led by the ancient Wraithseer and arch-manipulator Eldrad Ulthran, what they have before them is a seemingly impossible task.

However, from a planet in the Eastern Fringes, a Mechanicus Explorator vessel had returned, reporting of an artifact of great power. The techpriests were unable to extract and analyse it as they were attacked by mysterious foes. With no resources to be spared from keeping Ultramar protected from outside forces, several rogue traders had been commissioned by the Primarchs to seek out this artifact, and return it to Ultramar. Only time can tell if they are successful.

[hider=Somewhat optional backstory]
The Eldar, who had clung to life for so long, began to wink out one by one. Many of the great Craftworlds were destroyed, the New Devourer consuming their people with nothing but the wraithbone skeletons of the continent sized vessels left behind. That, and the innumerable soul gems that lay glowing with countless murdered Eldar souls. Many Exodite worlds were also preyed upon by Chaos, other xenos, and Petty Imperiums. However, many of the more clever Exodites instead moved to conceal their presence, infiltrating high positions amongst the humans that colonized their planets. Some of the Petty Imperiums would thus be led in secret by Exodite Eldar, who had so cleverly disguised themselves as the mon’keigh. Their need for survival had outweighed their pride. In the meantime, the Phoenix Lords kept on fighting the enemies of the Eldar, their power swelling from the hundreds of thousands of Exarchs that had donned their armor by this time.

Nevertheless, the Craftworld Eldar refused to bow to fate. The Ynnari, led by Yvraine, the prophet of Ynnead and supported by Craftworlds Iyanden, Ulthwe, and Altansar, have repeatedly invaded Slaanesh’s palace. Each attempt so far has failed, but they are getting closer and closer to their goal of taking the final Cronesword from beneath the perverse Prince of Pleasure’s throne of excess. 

Meanwhile, the remnants of Biel-Tan, allying with Lugganath, Yme-Loc, Alaitoc, and Saim-Hann, have sought to free Isha from the Realm of Nurgle. To the surprise of the galaxy, they have succeeded with the aid of a silver knight, a shadow raven, and a great gray wolf. It is said that the Wolf had asked for one strand of Isha’s hair, and was granted three. The knight, the raven, and the wolf soon disappeared, leaving the Eldar with their goddess of life, who immediately joined Cegorach in the Webway. Isha offered another path to her children: one of life. Her followers would be known as the Ishari, and would be at odds with the Ynnari.

While the Second Age of Strife may seem to be a Golden Age for the Dark Kin, Commorragh has changed much. Many of the Dark Eldar, fearful of losing their souls, had instead laid their allegiance to the Ynnari or the Ishari rather than their capricious Archons and the Supreme Overlord, forsaking their cruel ways in order to be assured a place in the Infinity Circuit. The Ynnari and the Dark Eldar would fight many battles in the Webway and realspace in these times.

In the galactic core, the Kin of Leagues of Votann find that almost all of their ancient supercogitators, the Votann, had finally failed. Though some of the Fanes had ascended into Votann, these were few in number, and nowhere as great as those original relics from the Dark Age of Technology. Furthermore, the New Devourer consumed many of the Leagues, with their Votanns going mad as they sought to deny the New Devourer the biomass of the Kin by feeding on their corpses first. It is said that only the Greater Thurian League, Kronus Hegemony, and Ymyr Conglomerate remained as the powerful Leagues of the Core, though they had expanded many times their original size as thousands of orphaned Kindreds flocked to their banners. Nevertheless, the Leagues continued to trade with whoever they can reasonably charge prices from, be it human, Eldar, Tau, or any of the numerous xenos empires that arose from the broken shards of the Imperator's broken dream.

The Tau, naive in their hope of unity, expanded into a realm of corpses and ash. Every world they came across was dead, life annihilated by the New Devourer. The hard and unpleasant task of terraforming each world turned the Tau into bitter, self-righteous beings. They were disgusted at the actions of their predecessors and vowed to not understand their fellow races, but to control them. Only the Tau could be trusted with worlds. And so, the Tau Empire grew into a powerful technological juggernaut of ten thousand planets and a hundred species, jaded as they witnessed the full horror of this galaxy. 

Across the galaxy, the Necrons have yet to awaken in full, though they have become a powerful force that all other races know and fear. Imotekh the Stormlord and his Sautekh forces continually battle the vast Tau Empire in the east; the Silent King has continued to seek out ways to return his people to the flesh in the wake of the New Devourer. The Empire of the Severed continues to grow as a malignant tumor, robbing Necrons of what little spark of a soul they have left. And in other places of the galaxy, it is said that the Infinite and the Divine have continued their feud over the millennia, with entire planets destroyed in the wake of their petty rivalry. 

In the turbulent energies of the Warp, the Chaos Gods also suffered, for with the end of the Emperor, something else was stirred. Birthed upon the death of the Carrion Lord on Terra, the Starchild suckled upon the rage and religious lunacy of the dying Imperium, consuming every soul remaining upon Terra in its birth pangs. This is what killed the Astronomicon. Ophelia became a focus for this dark zeal. At the dawn of the 50th millennium, the Starchild became the Star Father, and the Warp became a battleground. For a brief instance (or perhaps an eternity-- in the warp, none can tell for sure) the Star Father became dominant over the Chaos foes. Then, with the sickening inevitability of the great game of Chaos, the Star Father became one amongst the five, a god of order amongst gods of chaos.[/hider]

It is the 51st millennium, and this a Second Age of Strife. And conflict shall never end…

Hello, everyone! Long story short, this will be set in a hypothetical Warhammer timeline, where the Emperor suddenly died and the Imperium shatters with Him. Players will be playing as members of a rogue trader crew sanctioned by the three Primarchs of Ultramar in a mission to recover an artifact of some kind. If you fail and die, well, nothing of value has been lost. If you succeed, however, you will be elevated as heroes, and be exalted by the Primarchs themselves. What is there for you to lose, anyway?

Players can initially apply as humans, Kin/Squats from the Leagues of Votann, or any of the other accepted abhumans, such as Ratlings and Ogryns. The RP will be open for as long as it runs; this gives the opportunity for people to app as other races such as Tau or Eldar, who we may pick up in the middle of our mission as our desperate situation demands.

As for knowledge of the Warhammer universe, you just need to know the gist of it. Any questions on the lore could simply be answered, probably in discord if this does get off the ground to warrant me making one.

[hr]
[h2]Character Sheet[/h2]
Take note that we'll be playing as higher ranking members of the expedition, as in the ones that will regularly come to/be regularly contacted by the bridge. Being a menial in the bowels of the ship wouldn't have too many opportunities for interactions with others.

You may have noticed that I didn't add a personality section. That's because I prefer that to be developed naturally in the IC over time. 

[code][h3][b][u]CS[/u][/b][/h3]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Species:[/b] Human? Super-human? Abhuman? Kyn? (xenos can join sometime in the middle of the expedition)
[b]Appearance:[/b] Image, along with height in feet and inches.
[b]Role in the ship:[/b] Basically what you do as part of the expedition. Are you in charge of maintaining the engines, leading boarding actions, or what?
[b]Notable Equipment and Augmentations:[/b] No need for a detailed list for literally everything. Just need what weapons, armor, and cybernetic enhancement your character has, if any. Make sure to describe their capabilities.
[b]Skills:[/b] What are you good at? Are you a good shot? Great at stabbing heretics? If you're a psyker, add what psychic disciplines you specialize in.
[b]Biography:[/b] Basically your life story. Two paragraphs minumum. It is essential that you add how they got to be part of the Rogue Trader expedition to begin with.
[b]Additional Notes:[/b] Trivia, theme, or whatever else that isn't covered yet.[/code]