Early history of the Skolarii sector

As I said yesterday, I have been working on the background material for the Skolarii Sector, my own little 40k playground. Today I have the first instalment of the history of the sector.

History of the Skolarii Sector

The Skolarii Sector lies far out to the Galactic East on the fringe of the Astronomicon, near the Damocles Gulf. Today it is a bustling sector filled with teeming Hive Worlds, verdant Agriworlds and industrious Mining Worlds, but once it was infested with Orks and the first human settlers had to cling tenaciously to their precarious existence.

Dark Age of Technology
The Skolarii sector was first colonised in M.24. Travelling on a prevailing warp current from the neighbouring Teuvo sector the colonists made first footfall on Kualum. This planet became the sector capital as the colonists used it as a base to populate nearby systems.

The first worlds were chosen for their natural resources. Later, other systems were chosen for their location on stable warp routes, staging posts for later colonisation attempts and some because they bore the remains of an ancient alien civilisation. Of course, many other systems capable of supporting the colonists were found but they were largely infested with the Orks that plagued the entire sector and therefore ignored.

Over the next two millennia sixteen systems were colonised. From sub sector one they were Luzon, Borne, Celebes and Kualum; in sub sector two Luzon II, Windar, Ustra, Manil, Cairn and Bataan were colonised; while sub sector three saw Kore, Naich, Formo, Hakoda, Mias and Tibe settled.

The Age of Strife
In M.26 the Skolarii sector saw a massive increase in the number and intensity of warp storms and other warp-related phenomena. Never totally self sufficient even at it's height, the sector's systems became more and more isolated both from each other, from the other sub sectors and from other sectors.

Sub sector two bore the brunt of the early warp activity. Once stable warp routes became treacherous and unnavigable and many ships were lost. Across all the worlds of the sub, psychic mutations developed and spiralled out of control. The colonists were completely unprepared for what was to follow. Cairn fell first, it's government toppled by rioting citizens and extremists. A similar fate befell Bataan. Manil, Ustra and Windar were too paralysed to help. They, like all the systems in the Skolarii sector, had periodically been troubled by Ork incursions. Each system's isolation left them more vulnerable to the hardy aliens who could never be fully eradicated. Already reeling from the same anarchy that had destroyed Cairn and Bataan, they succumbed to the Orks. All contact was lost.

Luzon II was particularly afflicted by creatures from the warp. It's ruling council was snared by Enslavers and they turned their armed forces against the civilian population. No humans survived the carnage.

Sub sector three was next to fall. The planetary crust of Kore became unstable when a star cruiser was deliberately flown into it's capital city by insurgents. The resulting ice age all but wiped out the human population. Formo was overcome by an Ork invasion. Mias was completely enveloped by a ferocious warp storm for six millennia. No-one survived. Tibe came under the control of an insane dictator who cowed the population in a reign of terror, his Night Squads carrying the citizens away into slavery. He was the last to die, cackling amidst the ruins of Tibe's capital city.

Hakoda came under attack from an unknown xenos species. The last anyone heard from them was a garbled distress call pleading for assistance. All kinds of Apocalypse cults sprung up on Naich. The authorities evacuated as many of its population as it could on 30 mass transporters, leaving the Apocalypts behind. Only 1 transport survived the perilous warp journey and landed at it’s destination, Kualum in sub sector 1.

Sub sector one held out the longest, but even so it eventually succumbed to the inevitable. Forbidden weapons were unleashed by separatists on Luzon and the radiation that swept the planet reduced it's once proud colonists to shambling mutants. Celebes hung on while it was battered by wave after wave of Ork invasions originating from it's own moon, then it's governor was killed in a shuttle crash and the resistance collapsed. Borne was devastated by plague and only a handful of people survived deep in the interior.

Kualum was already in disarray as it's weak, inbred royal family had neglected it's armies and frittered away it's wealth. It ignored the crisis in the neighbouring sub sectors and turned a blind eye to the psychic mutations sweeping the population. Eventually, the whole royal family was burned alive in it's palace and the populace split itself into numerous infighting factions. Those that survived were reduced to barbaric tribes, shambling through the ruins of their once great civilizations.

One ray of light in those dark days was the landing of an expedition of the Adeptus Mechanicus upon Manil in M.28. Their Explorators found the ruins of a dead xenos civilisation. More Adepts arrived over the next millennia as the importance of the find became apparent. They brought with them a Legion of Titans, Legio Avernus, and managed to found a small Forge World in the image of Mars. It endures to this day.

If you have any comments, let me know.