He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die. Yet in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battle fleets cross the Daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the shining psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bioengineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard, the evervigilant Inquisition, and the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name but a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants—and worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of the thirsting gods of Chaos.

Prepare to enter the nightmare world of DARK HERESY.

Even in the quieter reaches of the Galaxy, the fight against Corruption and Chaos never ends. In the Askellon Sector, part of the Segmentum Pacificum, the wealthy elite seek forbidden thrills and endanger the masses through seemingly inoffensive dealings in Xenos Artifacts, not realising the corruptive nature of forbidden items tainted by Chaos.

From souls destined to die on the mining penal colony of Pellene, Inquisitor Silas Augustus ran a brutal selection with the survivors formed into Section-01 to 12 to investigate these dark dealings. Section-08 has met with some success in investigating the source of these artifacts on the Hive World of Desoleum, not only have they found some tangible leads and recovered a few Forbidden items but three of the funding members have even survived so far. Other sections have not been so lucky and their numbers are dwindling. Handler Hammar Keisarans, charged with the operation of the different Sections, requires results and an end to the forbidden trade to polish his credentials with the Inquisitor. Results will be had one way or another.