Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grimdark future there is only war. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. To live in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the xenos, heretics, mutants - and worse. 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. Greatest amongst His soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. 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. Yet even in His deathless state, the Emperor continues His eternal vigilance. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that he may never truly die. He is a rotting carcass sustained only by power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Master of Mankind, a million worlds and inexhaustible armies. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Holy Terra. Welcome to the forsaken system, where corruption, fear, and superstition are rife. Decimate horrific daemons with righteous zeal and arcane technology. Foil hidden heretics with faith, ingenuity, and merciless violence. Undo the perfidious plots of strange and ancient alien species. Walk under the shattered skies of forsaken worlds, and defend the Gilead System from enemies within and without.
This is a game about the struggle to stop the doomsday clock from striking midnight. This is a game of intrigue and adventure. The Imperium of Man has lost contact with untold worlds, and stands on the brink of disaster. Daemons surge into realspace, sowing destruction in their wake. Time and space have bent and buckled under the Warp storm’s wrath. The Cicatrix Maledictum, the Great Rift, has torn the galaxy apart. Prepare to face the perils of the Dark Imperium, a grim and dangerous future plagued by the star-spanning schemes of the Ruinous Powers.