Reclamation of Orberus: The Grand Alliances

 

In the first post to the lead up of the Reclamation of Orberus campaign I thought I would go over the three grand alliances that dominate the Orberus Sector and their goals. Essentially these are the alliances each and every player choose to enter into when they join the campaign and their actions will directly affect that alliance's success in the wider conflict.

There are three grand alliances in total: The Legions of Silence, the Forces of Reclamation and the Agents of Discord.

The Legions of Silence is the collective term for all those that serve, or at least ally themselves with the Silent King and his cause.

Several years ago the Silent King had sent the forces of the Khertet Dynasty into the Orberus Sector, a pocket of real space that bordered the dominion of the dreaded Pariah Nexus in order to expand his sphere of influence. The Khertet Dynasty ultimately were successful in granting the Necron legions a foothold in the sector, soundly defeating the Astartes of the Dark Angels chapter that had been sent to combat the threat and establishing the capital planet of Python IV as their base of operations in what was originally a significant portion of Imperial rule.

Shortly after the Khertet Dynasty laid claim over Python IV their numbers gradually disappeared from the sector until, in time all their nobility and Cryptek conclaves had migrated to the Nihilus Imperium in order to strengthen their numbers by awakening the tombs they had situated there. Little did they know that without their presence they had allowed the Imperium to regroup and build their numbers to take back the Orberus Sector.

Now that they have returned, after an ultimatum delivered by the Triarch themselves, the Khertet Dynasty are now leading a greater effort to prevent the Imperium from taking what is rightfully theirs by the laws of conquest, and to ensure that the claim of the assets within the Orberus Sector remain under the sole control of none other than the Silent King himself.

The Forces of Reclamation is the collective term for the factions that are actively aiding the armies of the Imperium to reclaim the worlds that were lost to the Necrons.

Once a prominent Imperial region on the outskirts of the Pariah Nexus, the Orberus Sector was a relatively peaceful area of real space until the Necron dynasties invaded. Under the orders of the Silent King the Imperial Citizens were overwhelmed by the eldritch nightmares and those who survived were forced from their homes and either made to settle on the outer fringe planets in the sector or on more dangerous temperate planets such as Perelus.

Over the last few years the Orberus Sector had gone suspiciously quiet. The Imperial forces begun to send fleets comprising of Astartes, Militarum and Mechanicus to the outer fringes in preparation for a full on, all out attack from the Necrons... yet none came. Suspecting a trap lay in wait from their notoriously shrewd foes they awaited intelligence before taking the fight back to the Silent King's armies, that is until reports from the Nihilus Imperium had betrayed the Khertet Dynasty's abandonment of the sector in favour of an unexpected alliance on Ultrus Prime.

Now the Imperium have launched a full scale assault against the planets the Silent King has laid claim to, forcing the Necron forces to scramble together a counter assault from the newly returned Khertet Dynasty as well as from dynasties and allies hastily rerouted from other regions within the Nephilim warzone.

The Agents of Discord is the collective term for those forces whose goals do not align with those of either the Silent King or the Imperium.

When Python IV fell to the Silent King's forces, it threw the entire Orberus System into disarray. Imperial Citizens in their panicked state resorted to various powers in their desperation to be saved, such as the newly assembled Chaos Cults of the moon Vector Alpha or the mobs that have made insidious protection pacts with the various factions on Perelus. Worse still the growth in power for these previously manageable threats have invited the presence of those who share in their hunger for domination and destruction.

Of all the factions within the "alliance" there are two that have risen to prominence - those of the ruinous powers of Chaos who are actively seeking to destroy the Pariah Nexus's noctilith pylons to restore the warp to it's "natural" order, and those Necron dynasties who have allied themselves to the upstart Imotekh the Stormlord in his quest to weaken the Silent King's position within the Orberus Sector.

With these factions acting as a hinderance to both the Silent King and the Imperium, it is possible their interference could swing the war in favour either way, or should they decide to unite their efforts against both sides they could create a dangerous stalemate that would result in the total abandonment of order within the sector.

- D J Driver