It is a time of legend.
Mighty heroes battle for the right to rule the galaxy. The vast armies of the Emperor of Mankind set out into the stars in a Great Crusade - the myriad alien races are to be smashed by his elite warriors and wiped from the face of history.
The dawn of a new age of supremacy for humanity beckons. Gleaming citadels of marble and gold will celebrate the many victories of the Emperor, and countless systems will be returned to his control. Triumphs are raised, on world after world, to record these first steps of his most powerful champions.
First and foremost among these are the primarchs, superhuman beings who were created to lead the Space Marine Legions. They are unstoppable and magnificent, the pinnacle of the Emperor's genetic experimentation, while the Space Marines themselves are the mightiest human warriors the galaxy has ever known, each capable of besting a hundred normal men in combat.
Yet not all is as expected. Forces yet unknown have stolen the primarchs from their incubation in the Emperor's Luna laboratories, and scattered them among the stars. The Emperor had foreseen this, and built his sons to survive the trials to come. Yet the primarchs did not land on the worlds that both the Emperor and his enemies had intended for them. Instead, against both their designs, the primarchs and the galaxy shall follow an entirely different path out of the night.
The Imperium of Man rises from the ashes of the Age of Strife. But greater fires are yet to come, stoked by ancient plans both defied and embraced.