"It is the 41st Millennium. For more
than a hundred centuries the
Emperor of Mankind has sat
immobile on the Golden Throne of
Earth. He is the master of
mankind by the will of the gods
and master of a million worlds by
the might of His inexhaustible
armies. He is a rotting carcass
writhing invisibly with power from
the Dark Age of Technology. He is
the Carrion Lord of the vast
Imperium of Man for whom a
thousand souls are sacrificed
every day so that He may never
truly die. Yet even in His deathless
state, the Emperor continues His
eternal vigilance. Mighty
battlefleets cross the daemon-
infested miasma of the Warp, the
only route between distant stars,
their way lit by the Astronomican,
the psychic manifestation of the
Emperor's will. Vast armies give
battle in His name on uncounted
worlds. Greatest amongst His
soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes,
the Space Marines, bio-
engineered super-warriors. Their
comrades in arms are legion: the
Imperial Guard and countless
planetary defence forces, the
ever-vigilant Inquisition and the
Tech-priests of the Adeptus
Mechanicus to name only a few.
But for all their multitudes, they
are barely enough to hold off the
ever-present threat to humanity
from aliens, heretics, mutants --
and far, far worse. To be a man in
such times is to be one amongst
untold billions. It is to live in the
cruelest and most bloody regime
imaginable. These are the tales of
those times. Forget the power of
technology and science, for so
much has been forgotten, never to
be relearned. Forget the promise
of progress and understanding,
for in the grim dark future there is
only war. There is no peace
amongst the stars, only an eternity
of carnage and slaughter, and the
laughter of thirsting gods."
