Event · M41
Second Tyrannic War
The Second Tyrannic War was a 998.M41 tyranid invasion in which splinter fleets of Hive Fleet Kraken struck dozens of worlds, including the craftworld Iyanden. Unlike Hive Fleet Behemoth’s earlier, more concentrated advance, Kraken divided on its approach to the galaxy’s eastern fringe, sending independent tendrils against Imperial, Eldar, and other holdings across several sectors at once. The war is remembered chiefly for the devastation it brought to Iyanden, whose losses during the conflict marked one of the gravest crises in the craftworld’s history. Kraken’s fleets fell upon Iyanden after the craftworld, already reduced by generations of losses that had left it reliant on the spirits of its dead, committed its forces to holding nearby systems against the tyranid advance. Its seers roused the Avatar of Khaine and called upon unprecedented numbers of Wraithguard and Wraithlords to make good the shortfall in living warriors, with the autarch Yriel commanding the defence in the field. Elsewhere, other splinters of the same hive fleet struck worlds such as Ichar IV and the Space Wolves’ home system of Fenris, so that Imperial forces fought the invasion on several fronts at once, the Ultramarines and Space Wolves each engaging their own incursions in parallel with Iyanden’s battle. Iyanden survived, but only after expending much of its wraith-hosted strength and its remaining infantry, a cost that left the craftworld dependent on its constructs and on Yriel, who emerged from the war as one of its most prominent commanders. Across the wider campaign, Imperial and allied forces eventually blunted and dispersed Kraken’s splinter fleets, though at heavy cost, a pattern that would recur as later tyranid incursions tested the same worlds. The Second Tyrannic War is generally reckoned to follow the First Tyrannic War’s destruction of Hive Fleet Behemoth and to precede Iyanden’s subsequent, precarious efforts at recovery, anchoring the craftworld firmly within the galaxy’s ongoing tyranid narrative.
See where Second Tyrannic War occurred on the galactic map in the 41st Millennium.