(If you read this in a voice other than the Dawn of War Narrator, you are Doing It Wrong)
The locally declared Crusade, by the previously unimportant world of Calavar, was indicative of the many such occurrences throughout the history of the Imperium. Indomitable Human spirit was once more pitted against the many foes that would seek their destruction, and once more emerged victorious as they had so many times before!
Even so, the political scene of the Lativa Subsector, was irrevocably changed by these events! What was once a quiet provincial zone was now, after so much blood spilt and treasure spent, the new power of the Subsector. Even isolated behind the imposing fortresses of Waaagh Gunbreaka and the Traitors of the Hylian Stretch, the inhospitable but now slightly less mysterious Silent Stars, and the Ork infested ruins of the former core of Lativa, the Calavan Crusade was now the undisputed master of these ruined worlds.
Bagalog, overtaken by refugees from the fallen Subsector, is now host to a new merchant republic, made up of those fortunate enough to flee ahead of the greenskin horde, spilling over what was once Lativa. With the aid of an Explorator of the Adeptus Mechanicus, an eccentric master of forbidding technology, their Houses once more ply the void! Moving cargo of great military, and commercial value for a variety of customers, the new and reformed Houses have their positions cemented by the agreement between the one who had the force of will to corral their members from flight, the one wealthy enough to tempt an agent of the Mechanicus, the one who had bargained with the new military power to join their forces against the greenskins and Traitors. Loree Mulyran, the woman who had saved her dynasty and made it indispensable to the new government on Calavar and who would see great success in the remainder of her days. Including, serving the Reclamation campaigns to come.
The Dark Star Alignment, free to mature their near heretical ideas, festered and fermented in time. Much of their population saw the light, returning to embrace the Emperor in approved ways that did not risk their souls, yet many held tighter to their deviant beliefs. These heretics began plundering the grand vaults their world contained, arming themselves for a future confrontation with the true faithful when the sum of their belief reached critical mass...
Lexicalum, good friend of Calavar throughout the whole of their self proclaimed crusade, revels in their newfound freedom and power as ships from their parent Forge come with some regularity with supplies and personnel to build up the newly proclaimed Forge World. Escorted by Calavan warships, these reinforcements have busied themselves building new stations of the orbiting Lexicalum. Befitting of it's origin, the assembled Magi of Lexicalum, unlike many of their compatriots, closely cooperated with the Imperial worlds in their vicinity. Such a new Forge was wholly incapable of fielding the Titan Legions their order was famed for, but made do with the Calavan designed Landships. Their sprawling forms, and even larger derivatives, would be seen in every Reclamation in the Subsector alongside their Calavan built equivalents.
Their parent Forges, Grudan and Laskin, would, after many years of rebuilding, be the first to truly investigate the Silent Stars in some time. Drawn by the scent of more vessels like that traded to them by Calavar, after prying it from a conglomerate of wreckage, they would begin a spirited war against the Abominable Intelligences that resided within the unnatural region. However, even by the Reclamation campaigns this would bear more relation to skirmishes, than the all encompassing campaigns ancient and well respected Forges would wage to acquire items of interest to their reclusive orders.
And of those of more spiritual inclination, the Shrine World of Lativa crushed the final infestation of Orks on their soil with a significant investment from the Calavan Crusade. When the Orks of the far off portions of their land stopped coming back it was met with much rejoicing from the entire population. Even so, it would continue to be a sore spot that despite their overall importance to the region, they were left to fight the Orks alone at times by the Crusade, even after the claims made to protect them by the same. Under understandable circumstances, perhaps, but it would remain a sore spot between some elements of the Adepta Sororitas that stayed on their world along with their auxiliary armies and the Crusade they felt should have protected their holy world before all others.
Of the Solar Hawks, those Astartes who had held back the darkness for at least half a century, little is known other than their appreciation of the Crusade for their help and generosity. Their departure had been a major opportunity for the survivors of the Subsector to come together to show off their military prowess in a way acceptable, to all parties.
This is the circumstances of the new Lativa Subsector. The Imperial Navy is still rarely seen and if the Inquisition is operating in the area once more it is with great circumspection that their order is simultaneously known for and for their eschewment of such. The foul pawns of the Ruinous Powers remain, but are undone by the nature of that they say aids them. The only source of relief for such Traitors is the fallen Forge of Incleon, whose Dark Mechanicus masters trade the foul product of their corrupted manufactories for what it needs to function. Aliens and their vessels are a common sight, from the mechanically supported, predatory and psychic Locroft to the technosorcerous Hashim and their Human laborers. Ork Freebootas remain the most common foe, for all navies in the region, as they attempt to plunder what they can from the growing realms.
Yet for all of this, the circumstances are much changed from what they were. Vessels stream from the shipyards of the new Human powers to fight war in the name of peace while endless armies march forward to do battle with their opposites.
Yes... The future of this region holds much promise. For those who live there, and those outside of it.
And this, this was just one of those tales.
[GM Note: ...I honestly expected to stall out on, like, turn three. So this is a major achievement. So... Yeah. Thank you to everyone who played, and doubly so to those who added their imagination to this shared world space.
For those who only read the main updates, a sequel is being planned for this story where you, the players, will control a single Guardsman during one or more of the Reclamation campaigns in the Lativan Subsector, using and supported by the equipment developed in this game, following in the steps of the events players set out responding to stimuli by being set in the Reclamation campaigns. I hope to put it out... Sometime in the next two weeks, thereabout, using what is essentially the Only War RPG rules but with a few changes to resolving challenges that is more in line with the rather good Star Shock quest on SB in that it will use your stats against challenges rather than tracking every act inside a scene.
I hope to see you all there when the time comes.]
