Event · M41
Burning of Tanith
The Burning of Tanith denotes the annihilation of the Imperial world by Chaos forces in the 41st millennium. The attack fell upon Tanith on the very night that its sole Imperial Guard regiment, the Tanith First-and-Only, departed to join the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, leaving the newly founded unit without a homeworld to return to. Tanith had been noted for its dense nalwood forests and for the stealth and woodcraft of its soldiery, qualities that distinguished the Tanith First-and-Only among the regiments gathered under Warmaster Slaydo. With their world reduced to ash, the survivors of the regiment became known informally as the Ghosts, a name reflecting both their origin as the last remnant of a dead world and the reputation for silent, unseen movement they carried into subsequent campaigns. The destruction removed Tanith from the roster of Imperial worlds and ended any prospect of further levies from the planet, making the First-and-Only permanently irreplaceable within Guard tradition. The episode has become closely associated with the regiment’s chronicled service during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, framing its later campaigns as those of a unit fighting without a home to which it might return.
See where Burning of Tanith occurred on the galactic map in the 41st Millennium.