Along the coreward borders of the Askellon Sector is a string of systems, the stars of which are orbited by numerous barren worlds that are host to what is supposed to be a long-extinct civilisation. These worlds are known for the enormous, black stone dolmens raised by unknown builders at some point in the region’s pre-history. No hint of the identity of the builders remains, but that is not to say they have left nothing behind.
These dead worlds are steeped in some form of psychic field, an effect described by those psykers able to bear it as a stain or some manner of underlying resonance. This effect can even be felt by those without any psychic ability, in whom it often manifests as an itching of the skin and trouble focusing the eyes. At times the effect is so pronounced it causes memory lapse or bouts of psychosis, and the effect is still more pronounced in psykers. When caught in these periods of intense mental feedback, psykers have been known to lose their sanity entirely, unleashing their powers on all nearby, whether friend or foe.
As a result of this effect, all prudent Navigators and ship’s masters shun the Cluster. Each of its systems is seeded with interdiction buoys that transmit a continuous warning against travelling into the inner systems, although in truth there are scant legitimate reasons for any registered vessel to be passing through the area. There are plenty of illegitimate reasons for doing so, however, making the cluster a natural home to outcasts, pirates, and heretics. Those that reside in the region for too long become permanently altered, their sanity compromised and their souls forfeit to some unnamed power.