While the racial and faction frictions fluctuate with their normal frequency, all is relatively stable across the Imperium. Although many refuse to acknowledge the overall governance of the largest military and political structure in known space, they are more than happy to retreat to the safety of their secure systems when things start to get crazy out near the Rim (Rim/Rimwards = outwards from Galactic centre; Corewards = Towards the centre although ‘The Core’ in Human circles usually refers to the central Imperium area). Uneasiness resides amongst the populace however, and even indications that some post-physical entities (Highers) are becoming perturbed are filtering down to the average galactic denizens. Over a hundred years ago and preceding visible knowledge, a wave of gravitational, subspace and hyperspace fluctuations began making itself known, indicating that a multi-field event which had greatly disturbed spacetime had taken place in the 30-Doradus nebula centered near where the vast star R136a1’s was located. Shortly afterwards, a massively blueshifted multi-spectal wavefront from the region gave us our last unspoiled snapshot of that area of space.
Some now call it the stain, some refer to it as ‘The hole’ and others more imaginatively refer to it as the “Dark Eye of Chaos”. Cruder ones reference portions of a devil’s anatomy, but most call it simply ‘The devourer’. Whatever the name, less is known; only that it is spreading, making its steady progress towards inhabited space. The timing of the events initial occurrence some 163(ish) thousand years ago also ties in suspiciously well with the Grey’s loss of communication with their home Galaxy, Andromeda. What is much less-well known is that the expansion of this zone is accelerating at an alarming and rapidly increasing rate, its border increasing by hundreds of parsecs with each stutter of expansion; flashes of dark cosmic lightning leaving nothingness in its wake. It has already encroached upon the outer fringes of the Perseus arm of our galaxy, approximately 16 kpc spinwards of our position in the Orion spur, and so it is only a matter of time before we intersect the anomaly. Curiously, it seems not to be rotating with our Galaxy, yet does seem to be on the same trajectory while travelling through space. Numerous scouting observation missions have been undertaken, which have now been withdrawn due to the unpredictability of the expansion with most data now being collected by unmanned outposts.
Oddly, however, there do seem to be infrequent pockets that have managed to remain untouched, and it is generally accepted that this is due to the influence from one or more of the ‘Highers’ (throughout this document the term ‘Higher’ will refer to any race or creature either existing in a post-physical state or having such technology that puts them beyond currently conceivable technological comprehension) exerting whatever forces that are at their command in order to maintain their territory in its natural state. Hence the so called ‘Higher Hunters’, a minor faction only worthy of notice due to their educationally esteemed and usually very rich and eccentric members, have suddenly been pushed to the fore of galactic notice as their knowledge, it is hoped, may be able to broker some form of communication with any entities that have managed to withstand the spreading darkness. For the most part, the overall galactic threat has little impact on ‘the small guy’, and most are not overly concerned, content to let the governance worry about threats on the galactic level. A few upstart cults are collecting like-minded individuals and already powering away from civilized space as fast as possible, while yet others are planning pilgrimages into the very heart of the anomaly itself; it is this backdrop into which you find you and your allies thrust. Commonly encountered races are listed below with the last four considered to be hostile and extremely dangerous, and are also classed as ‘Aliens’ due to their dissimilarity to all other sentients so far encountered.
| Sylvan (Elves) | Methanoid (Snowmen) | Mycon (Pan-racial symbiote, select individuals) |
| High-G Humanoids (Dwarves) | Aquatic (As per Earth-Analogue) | Avoid the Alien races below at all costs. |
| Gas Giant Dwellers (Gasbags) | Photoid (Angels) | Syntrexian |
| Mechanoids (Toaster, derog.) | Cthonic (Demons) | Shattered |
| Silicoid s(Sibalifo(s)/Sib’s) | Void Dwellers (Ghosts) | Corrupted |
| Greys (Probers) | Cyborgs | The Host |
| Insectoids (Bugs) | Human | |
| Reptoids (Snakes) | Biomorph |
For further details on most of the above, select the racial descriptions link at the bottom of this page.