Edited ASLGD Saber Edit

A Slightly Less Grim Darkness is an alternate timeline with its main story set at the end of the thirty-first millennium. The divergence point from canon is the start of the Great Crusade. In this timeline the construction of the Human Webway occurs alongside the crusade. As such the Horus Heresy never happens.

Webway travel was a great revolution for Humanity. Warp Travel became safe, swift and reliable to an extent that even the Dark Age of Technology couldn’t equal. However the Webway was not as impermeable as it had been before the fall. Numerous leaks existed, and the Custodians and Sisters of Silence were constantly engaged in clearing these leaks. What was more sinister was that the seepage of the raw stuff of the Warp began to affect people moving through it. Humanity’s evolution into a Psychic Race went into overdrive. Latent powers activated just by passing through the Webway, and women who made a journey through it were over three times as likely to have psyker children. Soon the great tithe was no longer capable of handing the vast numbers, and there were too many Psykers for all of them to be brought to Terra for processing. Numerous sub-processing stations were founded across the Imperium, where weaker Psykers were disposed of and the stronger ones sorted. Only the most capable ever made it to Terra now.

Many feared the explosion of Psykers, and muttered darkly about a new Age of Strife being born from them. But the threat that came did not come from the new tide of Psyker births. It came from other, tougher flesh.

It began three hundred years ago, and it began out of an old prophecy sadly come true. The Emperor once told Malcador that he believed the task of a ruler is to make himself obsolete, so that his people will replace him when they are mature enough. Malcador never agreed with that. Malcador believed that without the Emperor, mankind would fall apart of its own. Only a being with a will as strong as the Emperor’s could ever hold the disparate fragments of Mankind together.

As it turned out, the Emperor was true to his word, and Malcador was true to his prediction. After a thousand years of peace, the Emperor abruptly vanished. No one knows how it happened, or where, if anywhere, he went. Malcador was declared Regent of Terra, but he knew that there was almost no real power to that name. He ordered a great search to commence for the Emperor, but he knew better than anyone that it was a pointless endeavoured. The Emperor had laid the groundwork, and now it was up to mankind to prove it could sustain its rule over the galaxy.

Mankind almost failed that test from the very beginning. No one man could ever replace the Emperor, though many tried. Malcador was a masterful politician, but even he could barely hold things together as the Terran Council, the Segmentum Counters and the Primarchs and their Legions all fought for control of the Imperium. Though little blood was spilled compared to what would come later, the political crises shook the once-mighty Imperium to the foundations.

In an attempt to create a unifying force for all these disparate entities, Malcador had the Cult of the Emperor legalised in an attempt to use religion as a unifying force. This was deeply unpopular among many of the Primarchs and the secular elite, and proved not to be as unifying as he had thought when the many separate Cults of the Emperor ended up feuding among themselves as to which was the ‘correct’ interpretation. The Ministorum feuded with the Confederation of Light and the Temple Tendency, and no one could amass enough power or followers to overthrow its rivals. Thus further seeds of dissolution were planted.

With the Imperium now on shaky ground, Malcador pulled off his finest moment. On Terra, he convened a grand council and managed to affix a temporary patch to the yawning hole left by the Emperor’s departure. The Adeptus Terra was granted absolute power over civil society, while the Military remained under the control of the War Council, with Horus at its head. (It was a balancing act, but one which would p...) All 18 Primarchs were in attendance, and they together swore an oath to fight to the last to keep the Emperor’s dream alive.

Unfortunately shortly after this moment of triumph Malcador, the only one who had proven he could keep the status quo alive, was assassinated by an unknown party. Some claim it was one of the Primarchs, perhaps Alpharus who did him in in order to bring about wars that would cleanse the Imperium of its ills. Others claim one of the members of the Council of Terra who wanted to break the power of the Primarchs and Legions. Some even go so far as to say the Emperor himself killed him as he was the last fragment of the Emperor’s old order. Regardless, the death of Malcador was the last straw, and from then on the Imperium’s slide into anarchy was impossible to prevent.

The new Lords of the Council of Terra were determined to secure all power for themselves. Centralization was the key and every world would be governed and controlled separately. Towards this end the most controversial of changes was ordered. The Imperium had many self-governing Empires existing within its borders. They ruled dozens or even hundreds of systems directly and acted as an intermediary between them and the main Imperial bureaucracy. To the Terran Council, such a thing put those worlds under the control of others, and not the Council. So they ordered these Empires, such as Ultramar and the Manichean Commonwealth to be broken up, their worlds freed to be administered directly by Terra.

Most of these Empires meekly surrendered to the Terran High Administrators send to oversee their dissolution. Ultramar did not. The 500 Worlds of Roboute Guilliman was the most powerful and stable realm in the Galactic East, which was still largely a wilderness even after the Crusade’s end. Guilliman’s words were regarded widely as a shining example of what the Imperium could be. For a bunch of Terran Bureaucrats to come in and claim they could do it better rankled with Guilliman, even more so when he saw the shambles and chaos that ensured as the other empires were disbanded. Widespread dissatisfaction with Terra was rife across growing swathes of the Imperium as shortages bit everywhere when shipments were lost due to the growing red tape of the Terran administration. Guilliman declared that he would not let the same happen to the Empire both his Fathers had built, and questioned what right they had to try and overthrow a system the Emperor himself had set up.

To declare an edict of the Emperor as null and void was a ballsy move, but that is what Terra now did. They revoked the contract that had established the empire of Ultramar, and declared Ultramar disbanded. This had no real effect but to split Guilliman further from the Imperium. The Primarch met with several of his brothers including Vulkan, the Khan, Sanguinius and Perturabo. None know what was said, but it is believed that Sanguinius tried to dissuade Guilliman from acting hastily. What is known is that Guilliman declared that the Council of Terra could not revoke any of the Emperor’s edicts and in retaliation halted all shipments of goods from Ultramar. Across the eastern fringe this created panic and major disruptions. In response Terra began sabre-rattling, mustering the Solar Fleet and calling the Emperor’s Executioner, Leman Russ of the Space Wolves to muster his men. They hoped to intimidate Guilliman into backing down, but the Primarch of the Ultramarines held firm.

Finally the Council of Terra lost patience, and they decided that a show of force was needed. Russ and his Wolves, backed by the might of the Solar Fleet would head for Macragge, and there order Guilliman to come to Terra and face judgement for his crimes. The Macragge Censure Host as it was named was deemed powerful enough to destroy the Ultramarines if needed. Certainly the might of the VI Legion who were the only Legion with experience in killing other Space Marines was reassuring to Terra, as was the undying loyalty of Leman Russ to the Council.

To this day it is not known who shot first. Some claim it was a Macragge defence platform that fired upon the Censure Fleet, others that one of the Censure fleet ships opened up at the Ultramarine Warships that held firm against the massive Terran fleet. Either way, a huge space battle began above Macragge, while VI Legion Drop Pods streaked through the Macragge skies. The Battle for Macragge was a bloody and vicious start to the Age of Anarchy. The Wolves found that Guilliman had not been idle. The Ultramarines legion was over twice as big as had been led to believe, with over half a million Ultramarines deployed across Ultramar with half that number on Macragge itself, outnumbering the Wolves two to one. The tactical genius of Guilliman’s sons was more than a match for the bloodthirsty skill-at-arms of the Wolves. Vicious fighting erupted across Martial Square and the Octagon Fortress. The New Senate burned, and the Avenue of Heroes was chocked with corpses. But the Ultramarine numbers and the support of Titans of the Legio Praesagius and Knights of House Vornherr along with hundreds of thousands of Ultramarine Auxilia forces crushed the life out of the Wolves. Russ Himself led the last charge to buy time for his sons to evacuate the city, and there he faced Guilliman in combat. For the first time Primarch met Primarch on the field of battle. It was Russ who emerged victorious, slashing Guilliman’s throat with his sword before both sides hastily withdrew.

The broken remnant of the Wolves withdrew to orbit and along with the battered Censure Fleet broke orbit and fled for Terra. Of 100,000 Space Wolves to land, only 5000 managed to escape. Ultramarine Losses were similarly horrific, but their numbers were enough that it meant little real harm in the long run. The real significance of the battle was that for the first time since the Crusade Space Marine had fought Space Marine and the unity of the Imperium was shattered.

Roboute Guilliman was so badly wounded by the blades of Russ that he had to be placed in stasis to preserve his life. It is unknown what he would have done next, but the Ultramar Council were unequivocal. The 500 Worlds of Ultramar declared their secession from the Imperium. Terra in turn declared Ultramari in Rebellion and ordered the Primarchs to burn the 500 worlds. But now the true legacy of Russ’s actions was seen. The Lion was the first to declare that he would not accept the verdict of Terra that Guilliman was in the wrong, and when the Terran Council in turn declared his loyalty suspect the furious Primarch declared that the Dark Angels would not obey any edicts from the Council of Terra. Other Primarchs followed suit. Lorgar, angered as followers of the Imperial Truth came down on faith, had Colchis and the Word Bearers secede from the Imperium as well. Perturabo, always paranoid and fearing that he might be next, declared the creation of the Empire of Iron and all the planets closest to Olympia found themselves under virtual occupation as Iron Warrior forces landed and began fortifying each planet in turn.
The Imperial Fists stayed fiercely loyal to Terra; the Blood Angels, Iron Hands, and Salamanders sided with Terra as well, despite their doubts about the Council. Horus disapproved of Terra's actions yet remained loyal out of duty as Warmaster.

War now began to break out across the Imperium. Several planets resisted the Iron Warriors and were stormed and taken. Terra declared the Iron Warriors renegade and sent Ferrus Manus and his Legion to censure them. On Sulis, iron met iron in a huge battle where tens of thousands of marines died but to no appreciable gain. The Imperial Fists sent a half the legion to support the Iron Hands, and soon grinding sieges broke out across the fringes of the Empire of Iron.

Other Legions stood aloof. The Emperor’s Children garrisoned the worlds around Chemos but refused to move against either side. The other neutral Legions did likewise. They would move for no man save the Emperor. With their worlds preoccupied with the conflict, psyker processors came to neglect their duties, eventually forgetting entirely. Soon the Imperium had millions, if not billions, of latent and unprocessed psykers, each a ticking time bomb.

These wars were largely localised, and though they caused severe disruption, they did not threaten to destroy the Imperium. But it was now that a third party chose to enter the fray, and a new and terrifying enemy made itself known.

The first target was the largely unremarkable planet of Ardamantua. A force of Imperial Fists were sent for some routine pest control against a insectoid Xenoform known as the Chromes. Suddenly an entire moon materialized in the system, the entire planetoid transformed into a massive battlestation full of Orks. The moon was armed with a Gravity Weapon which tore the Imperial fleet apart while hordes of Orks, well trained, equipped and surprisingly disciplined were teleported onto the planet where they destroyed the Imperial forces. Dozens of other ‘Attack Moons’ began to appear above planets across the Imperium. Their Gravity weapons caused massive devastation to the planets and any defending fleets, while the Orks simply overwhelmed the pitiful defence forces of each planet one by one. Those Attack Moons that entered Legion space were swiftly destroyed by the formidable Legion forces, but outside those spaces the Moons were free to destroy world after world.

Some legions did what they could against this new threat. Rogal Dorn led the Phalanx to Inwit, where several Attack Moons had been assaulting the former planets of his Grandfather’s empire. There he met and destroyed an Attack Moon, the first one to be felled by loyal Imperial forces. Dorn even crossed blades with a monstrous Ork Warlord bigger than he was, the first of what was later dubbed the ‘Primorks’, Ork Primarch-equivalents. This victory, though small was celebrated across the free Imperium, but it was far from the turning of the tide.
The Beast stirred Fulgrim to bring his Legion out of seclusion and he joined the fight against the Orks. His Legion won a series of victories and slowed the Ork tide, but could not stop it.
Meanwhile the separate Astartes Empires dealt with Orks as necessary. The Lion destroyed an Attack Moon on the outskirts of the Caliban system, while no less than seven were brought down in Ultramar.

The Beast’s greatest successes were against the heart of the Imperium, where few Legion forces were present. World after world was laid waste, and for the first time Terra itself looked vulnerable. Yet the war between the Imperium and the Astartes Empires raged on. This posed a dilemma to the loyal legions. Most lacked the sheer numbers necessary to deal with both separatist forces and the Beast. With no time to create mass batches of new Marines, another means to bolster numbers was necessary.

Meanwhile, the Imperium's latent psyker problem was now out of hand. Sanguinius, sensing a perfect opportunity, was moved to action for the first time since the Emperor's disappearance. At his bequest, sufficiently powered psykers throughout Baal and the surrounding worlds were gathered into an army and given hypnotraining. At the command of psychic powerhouse Liyaga Michi, the newly-formed Psykana Auxiliae channeled their powers to fight the Orks. This allowed the "main" XVI Legion more men to send into Astartes conflicts. Other loyal Primarchs, seeing this idea work, created similar forces within their own legions.

Mortarion, on the other hand, did not approve of widespread psyker use. Rather than sending them in to aid Terra, the XIV Legion set to hunting down and culling all psykers on and around Barbarus. Magnus and the Khan, both longtime pskyer supporters, confronted their brother about his actions. In response the Reaper defected to the separatists, taking Angron with him.

Nonetheless, using so many psykers proved effective. As the Attack Moons finally made their move on Terra, so did the Legions' auxiliary forces band together for their epic last stand. By this point, the remaining neutral legions had auxiliae as well; after all, if the Orks took Terra, their worlds could be next. In addition, Konstantin Valdor had formed a similar force of Terra's psykers. And here they all stood, side by side, casting one power after another while also cutting and shooting down the fungal menace. Although many a psyker fell, those who remained made a far larger dent in Ork numbers. Eventually the remaining Attack Moons took their fight somewhere else - specifically, to Macragge.

The fight, by now, had taken its toll on the separatist forces. Even with two more Legions on their side, their numbers dropped critically. Resources similarly dwindled, and many separatist worlds faced shortages. Caliban, for example, had almost entirely stripped itself of metals. Although Macragge remained prosperous, it had lost a fair deal of wealth and now risked entering shortages of its own. With Attack Moons now headed their way, they clearly had to do something, and fast.
In a desperate move, temporary Ultramarine acting-primarch Marneus Calgar contracted with the Eldar to revive Guilliman from stasis. Calgar hoped Guilliman's leadership would rally the separatist forces into a triumphant comeback. The true Primarch, however, had a better idea. He ordered a ceasefire and had all Ultramar worlds readmitted to the Imperium. Better to lose his empire, he figured, than Macragge and his Legion. Their numbers now diminished, the other separatists soon had no choice but to follow suit.

Although reunited, the Imperium still faced numerous troubles. The question remained of what to do with all the psykers. The Eldar felt the Imperium now owed them. Ork Waaaghs still wreaked havoc on Imperial worlds. And a new Xenos species now threatened the galaxy as well.
They came without precedent, with no warning or omen. The superbugs just showed up and ate everything. Everything, only stopping when the planet was stripped clean - at which point they simply moved on to the next. Tyran Prime was the first to fall to the insectoid menace, for which the bugs were dubbed Tyranids.

Sanguinius remembered something. The Imperium had countless unprocessed psykers, and his psyker auxiliaries had worked before. Why not use them now? Horus agreed, and the War Council officialized the Astartes Auxiliae.
Throughout the Imperium, psykers of sufficient power were once again gathered. Once processed and trained, each was assigned to the Legion determined their best fit. Despite lacking some capabilities of "full" Astartes, Auxiliae proved effective once again and even offered tactical advantages of their own. But their power came at a price.