Today’s 40k 8th edition preview is going into a little backstory on the Great Rift. Come find out what they had to say about it.
Warhammer Community shared a little insight on the Great Rift.
The Great Rift is a tear in reality that essentially divides the Imperium in half. Its emergence was a literal galaxy-shattering event, which threw the Imperium into chaos and ushered in new wars across nearly every world in the Imperium. So powerful and far was this storm that the very laws of physics fray at the edges as the inconsistencies of time fluctuations, once largely localised to larger storms such as the Eye of Terror, spread across the galaxy. Some worlds felt centuries go by in an instant while others were all but froze in time, and still others have suffered constant temporal shifts.
None fully understand the origins of the rift – though there are many theories: the breach of the Cadian Gate, the sorcery of a Daemon Primarch, catastrophe in the Webway, mass bloodshed and fire in the Damocles Gulf – all may have caused or contributed to it. The rift is variously known by the cultures of the galaxy as the Crimson Path, the Mouth of Ruin, the Warpscar, the Dathedian, Gork’s Grin and a thousand other names besides. To the Imperium it is the Cicatrix Maledictum, or just the Great Rift. To those on the Terran side, it is a tainted scar across the sky. To those unfortunates on the far side, it is far worse…
While we saw the beginnings of this great tear in the events of the Gathering Storm, in the story of the new Warhammer 40,000, Roboute Guilliman, Lord Commander of the Imperium’s armies, looks out over the ruins of his Father’s empire and sets about its reconquest in a crusade to liberate those worlds embattled by the forces of Chaos and free those beset by xenos predators closing in on the weakened worlds of Mankind.
The Great Rift is spreading more than some of us could have imagined. The updated map came out last week, and it was a little bit of a shock to see how far the Rift was actually reaching, almost a full divide across the galaxy.
Alberto Pastor, a reader over at La Voz De Horus, was able to get his hands on the new 40k Galaxy map in color. It’s a lot more clear and much easier on the eyes.
Now let’s recap some questions that this map brought up and what we know so far.
Huron and Abaddon both recently disappeared from the GW display cases, and there is rumored to be a new Chaos Triumvirate on the way. Could this be further proof of said rumor?
Warpstorms are starting to pop up all across the galaxy, something Magnus the Red and Abaddon have been trying to accomplish in recent events, and that will also most likey disrupt the Astronomican, the Emperor’s Divine Light.
Cadia recently fell and you can see the obvious warp signature where it used to be on the far left of the map. The warp’s tendril’s then stretch out to the right of the ma throughout the Tau Empire in the Eastern Fringe. But the rift developing in the Ultima Segmentum and the designation Imperium Nihilus is what’s raising a couple questions.
We’re not sure what Nihilus means, but Nihilistic is defined as:
Rejecting all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless.
Will this side of the galaxy soon become rejecting of the the Imperial Truth, and descent into Chaos? Is it increasingly becoming too late for the Imperium? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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About the Author: James Rodriguez
I’m a huge fan of anything tabletop. I play strictly Chaos in Warhammer, and Imperial in anything Star Wars. I spent 8 years in the military. Now I’m happy to be a civilian working with a great group of people.
“We are all tyrants. Do not fool yourself. We were bred for nothing else.”
-Mortarion
