Event · M41

Gothic War

The Gothic War, also known as the Twelfth Black Crusade, was Ezekyle Abaddon’s assault on the Gothic sector, dated from 139.M41. Before the invasion proper, Chaos sorcerers sought two artefacts, the Hand of Darkness and the Eye of Night, which could be used to seize control of Blackstone Fortresses scattered across the sector. Warning signs of the coming war included the massacre of the garrison on the world of Arx, the appearance of plague-ridden derelict vessels drifting between systems, and the ringing of the Bell of Saint Gerstahl on Laurentix. Warp storms closed the Gothic sector to Imperial reinforcement; one account places the onset of this closure in 142.M41. The Black Legion seized Blackstone Fortresses at Fularis and at Anvil 206, and Abaddon’s flagship, the Planet Killer, destroyed the cardinal world of Savaven. He later used captured Blackstone Fortresses to fire upon the star of the Tarantis system, causing it to go supernova and destroying the system. The main Chaos attack on Imperial naval bases in the sector, including the shipyards at Port Maw, is dated to 143.M41. At Orar, the defenders repelled the attack and held the world. Lord Admiral Cornelius von Ravensburg commanded Battlefleet Gothic throughout the war, and under his command Imperial forces contested the sector even as Aeldari and pirate fleets fought their own, separate actions within it. In 151.M41, Ravensburg defeated a Chaos fleet at Gethsemane with the aid of Aeldari allies, and the warp storms that had isolated the sector from the wider Imperium eased, allowing reinforcements, among them the White Consuls, the Exorcists and the Red Talons, to arrive at last. Abaddon was subsequently brought to battle at Schindlegeist and defeated there, withdrawing with the Blackstone Fortresses still in his possession into the warp rather than lose them to the Imperium. Accounts differ as to how many fortresses he retained: one account holds that four of the six fortresses contested in the war were destroyed and that Abaddon kept two, while a separate sector account states that he captured three of the six. Both accounts are recorded, and neither is preferred here over the other. Accounts also differ as to the war’s end: the withdrawal and the defeat at Schindlegeist are placed in 151.M41, while the clearance of the remaining Chaos, pirate and Ork forces still active in the sector is dated to 160.M41. Both dates are recorded, and the war’s close is not fixed to one or the other.

See where Gothic War occurred on the galactic map in the 41st Millennium.

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