It is the 41st Millenium.
For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor 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
Imperium 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 battle fleets 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 defense 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 from aliens, heretics, mutants - and 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 re-learned. 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.
Prologue copyright Games Workshop publishing arm.