Prologue: The Ghost Who Burns in the Void
Over a thousand years ago, a civilization was broken. As ordered by the High Lords of Terra, the Noxian Crusade swept into what would become Sector Nox, and dismantled nearly all they saw. The people that had come to rule the Sector, the so-called "Ascendency", had united the various xenos species and human cultures under there banner.
The Imperium, in its ambition and zealotry, saw this as the foulest of heresies, only to be met with not words, but with sword and fire. They came and tried to lay waste to the Ascendency and its holdings, only to be met with a stern and wise foe. What they thought would be the swift conquering of naive rivals, became a long and drawn out conflict that would become one of the most costly Crusades in Imperial history.
But in the end, ruin would come to the Ascendency. Attrition weighed against them, inevitably. Their people grew weary of war. Their xenos allies began to look out for their own, seemingly abandoning the tired humans who were their uniters. The humans of the Imperium saw this as proof of their holy purpose. They saw themselves as liberators of a beleaguered and enslaved people. The Steel Guard, Red Stars, Infinitum Angels, and the Platinum Sons were entire Chapters of Astartes that were formed to conquer and then protect them against the horrors of the Galaxy.
A people were ruined. A culture, torn apart and stitched together like a fleshwarper creating a horrid abomination. An ascendence to the stars was quashed. An eternal night that fell upon them.
The Ghost thinks these thoughts within the Void that he has called home for months now. Around him are his brothers, long dead, yet bound within their armored forms. He has stood here, all this time. In his vision, he looks upon that world where it all began. A world of Ascendance. A tiny speck it is, from this lone rock within the void between worlds. But it is still a beautiful sight. The beauty of it, he admires with his kin standing around him, there ceramite forms standing there, their souls dormant until he awakens them to battle.
The Ghost sits here, in this void of dust, rock, and long buried dreams. Awaiting a Young Fool to come and claim the treasure of his career. But there is time before that happens. For now, he can look upon this world of ascendance and look upon the children who still cling to the Old Ways, bastardized as they are. He looks upon the boy who lives among them. Whose soul is like an ember within the Empyrean. There's promise in him. Ambitious. Hopeful. Benevolent. A fire in his heart, that could set ablaze a new dawn for his people. A chance for Nox to rise once again from the ashes of the civilization that crushed it. The chance for a people scorned to earn their new dawn.