Welcome to the Shattered Imperium

A Dark Age Among the Stars

It is the closing age of the 41st Millennium.

Humanity rules an empire of more worlds than any mortal could visit in a lifetime, yet the Imperium of Man is not a realm of progress or unity. It is an ancient, divided civilization held together by faith, fear, military power, bureaucracy, and the distant light of the Emperor.

Across the galaxy, fortress worlds guard unstable borders. Hive cities rise like mountains above poisoned wastelands. Voidships carry soldiers, pilgrims, prisoners, merchants, and secrets through the nightmare dimension known as the Warp. Tech-Priests preserve machines they no longer fully understand. Inquisitors pursue enemies both real and imagined. Alien civilizations defend their own futures, while the servants of Chaos seek to corrupt, conquer, or destroy all that stands before them.

In this age, survival is never certain, truth is rarely safe, and even the greatest victories demand sacrifice.

The Gathering Storm

For ten thousand years, the Eye of Terror has served as both refuge and prison for the Traitor Legions and countless servants of Chaos.

The most reliable passage around this vast Warp rift is guarded by the Cadian Gate and the fortress world of Cadia. Cadia’s fortified cities, disciplined armies, orbital defenses, and ancient xenos pylons make it one of the Imperium’s most important strongholds.

Now omens multiply.

Warbands vanish from old territories. Traitor fleets gather beyond reliable augur range. Cult uprisings appear unconnected but bear strangely similar signs. Imperial authorities compete for resources while refusing to admit the scale of the danger. Abaddon the Despoiler prepares a campaign intended to accomplish what twelve earlier Black Crusades could not openly achieve.

The Thirteenth Black Crusade is coming.

Its exact course, however, has not yet been decided.

Adventurers of the 41st Millennium

The Shattered Imperium focuses on individuals and small groups moving through the immense conflicts of Warhammer 40,000.

Player characters may be:

• Imperial soldiers or veterans

• Inquisitorial agents

• Deathwatch operatives

• Mercenaries and bounty hunters

• Hive scum or underworld survivors

• Sanctioned psykers

• Tech-Priests and Skitarii

• Mutants or abhumans

• Rogue Traders and voidfarers

• Aeldari outcasts

• Kroot mercenaries

• T’au explorers

• Ork freebooters

• Necron exiles or awakened constructs

• Chaos renegades

• Cultists seeking power or redemption

• Members of temporary alliances formed by necessity

Some parties may serve a recognized authority. Others may be bound together by debt, survival, prophecy, shared enemies, profit, coercion, or a mission no established faction can openly undertake.

Mixed groups are permitted, but unusual alliances carry consequences. An Aeldari wanderer entering an Imperial fortress may be treated as an enemy. A known mutant may face suspicion or persecution. A Chaos-marked warrior may be hunted by Imperial agents. A loyal servant of the Emperor traveling beside a xenos mercenary may be forced to defend that decision.

Franz should portray these consequences honestly without automatically preventing unusual character concepts or alliances.

A Familiar System in an Unforgiving Setting

The campaign uses Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition as its primary mechanical foundation.

Characters possess familiar ability scores, classes, levels, hit points, Armor Class, saving throws, skills, proficiency bonuses, backgrounds, feats, equipment, and class features.

Weapons such as lasguns, bolters, plasma guns, chainswords, and power weapons use D&D-style attack rolls and damage. Power armor functions as advanced armor. Psychic disciplines, miracles, Warp sorcery, machine rites, Aeldari runes, Necron arcana, and other extraordinary powers may use spellcasting mechanics while retaining different narrative origins.

A psychic power is not automatically magic in the traditional fantasy sense. A faith miracle is not the same force as Warp sorcery. A Tech-Priest’s machine rite may use the mechanics of a spell without being presented as wizardry. Similar rules allow these abilities to remain practical at the table while preserving their distinct identities.

Not every class casts spells. Not every class requires a unique resource pool. Broad base classes represent battlefield and adventuring roles, while subclasses, races, backgrounds, equipment, feats, and factions create more specific 40K archetypes.

The Future Has Not Yet Been Written

The Shattered Imperium begins before the full invasion of Cadia.

Established Warhammer 40,000 history provides major powers, personalities, military preparations, ancient grudges, and looming disasters. It does not dictate what the players must do.

Characters may fail to recognize the threat. They may expose hidden enemies before those enemies are ready. They may save settlements that history records as destroyed, assassinate commanders, steal strategic relics, unite hostile factions, strengthen Cadia’s defenses, serve Abaddon’s forces, or pursue goals unrelated to the wider war.

The canonical destruction of Cadia and the formation of the Great Rift describe what happened in established Warhammer history. Official accounts identify the Thirteenth Black Crusade as the campaign that destroyed Cadia and broke the Cadian Gate. In this campaign, those events are possible outcomes rather than unavoidable commands.

The players may preserve history.

They may alter it.

They may make it worse.

They may create something no surviving Imperial chronicler would have believed possible.

Whatever happens, the galaxy will remember the cost.

Related Areas

• Cadia

• The Cadian Gate

• Necromunda

• Krell’Sharr Platform

• Medrengard

• The Imperator Illuminatio

• The Eye of Terror

Related POIs

• Gate of Arrival

• Scavenger’s Rest

• Hall of Supplication

Krell’Sharr Platform and the Imperator Illuminatio currently function as Areas and may contain several future POIs.

Related Factions

• The Imperium of Man

• The Inquisition

• The Astra Militarum

• The Adeptus Mechanicus

• The Deathwatch

• The Black Legion

• The Forces of Chaos

• Kroot Kindreds

• Future campaign-specific factions

Related Characters

• Abaddon the Despoiler

• Ursarkar E. Creed

• Future starting-location contacts

• Future player characters

Related Items

• None