Event · M41–M42

War of Nightmares

The War of Nightmares is the Chaos phase of the fighting on Vigilus, begun when Ezekyle Abaddon’s forces arrived. It forms a phase of the wider War of Beasts fought for control of Vigilus, rather than a separate war that began only once every earlier combatant on the world had been cleared, and it is distinct from the much earlier War of the Beast, an unrelated war of the 32nd millennium. Vigilus itself stands astride the Nachmund Gauntlet, a crossing point of the Great Rift between the Imperium Sanctus and the Imperium Nihilus, which gave the world its strategic importance to both sides. The dating of the war is not fixed in a single way: one reckoning places the War of Beasts, including the Chaos phase fought upon it, within the years 001 to 025 of the 42nd millennium; another places the defence of Vigilus as beginning in 999.M41 and continuing on into the 42nd millennium itself. Both datings are recorded, and neither is preferred here. The Chaos arrival was heralded by Haarken Worldclaimer, who announced to the defenders that Vigilus belonged to Abaddon and that Abaddon himself was coming to claim it. Abaddon’s fleet, led by the Vengeful Spirit, met the fleet of Marneus Calgar in the void above Vigilus and forced it to fall back, opening the way to the planet below for the forces that followed. The Vengeful Spirit then took station over the region of Storvhal. Abaddon’s stated aim was to destroy the blackstone deposits beneath Vigilus and so close the Nachmund Gauntlet, cutting the Imperium Nihilus off from the rest of the Imperium. To this end, Abaddon and his Bringers of Despair teleported to the Citadel Vigilant, in the region known as the Vhulian Swirl, where he fired an ancient gravitic weapon called the Voidclaw into the space between Vigilus and its moon, Neo-vellum. The resulting effect, known as the Vhulian Anomaly, scattered and crushed Imperial ships that had not prepared for it, and exerted a pull upon the hives and water of the surface below, disrupting the planet’s defences from orbit. At the Eyrie of Reflection, in Saint’s Haven, Marneus Calgar challenged Abaddon directly, and the two duelled before the defenders of the hive. Abaddon wounded Calgar with both the Talon of Horus and the sword Drach’nyen. One gauntlet was torn away, leaving the forearm splintered and stripped of skin; the other was cut through, severing two fingers and slashing open both hearts, which that hand had been raised to shield. Greater Possessed then pierced both hearts and tore open his throat. He survived. Apothecaries salvaged the secondary heart, but the primary was cloven through. His throat was sutured and regrown, and his voice was afterwards mechanical. He was not seen again on the front line, and continued to command from the Vigilus Senate. The Adeptus Ministorum later declared him a saint. The battle was broken off when Haarken Worldclaimer reported that an Aeldari vessel laden with Deathstrike missiles had struck the Vengeful Spirit, which was consequently forced into an emergency jump into the warp to avoid destruction. Abaddon teleported away to save his flagship and left Vigilus without having taken the world he had come to claim. Hidden blackstone deposits remained beneath Vigilus, and further deposits on Sangua Terra, so that the Nachmund Gauntlet remained open despite his efforts to close it. Rotigus is recorded among the commanders of Chaos forces in the wider war for Vigilus, but was not the commander of this particular phase. The Imperium continued to hold Vigilus after he withdrew. Saint Celestine appeared with her Battle Sisters at Hive Mortwald to rally its defenders and aid Inquisitor Cartavolnus against the Black Legion sorcerer Xagramothis, who summoned three giant daemonhosts. She led Sisters of Battle and Space Marines against the daemonhosts and the lesser daemons that accompanied them. Cartavolnus, escaping by dropship, saw her destroy all three daemonhosts before the battlefield was swept away in empyric fire; Celestine went missing thereafter.

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

Open in universe