The Setting
‘Trust not the word of the Moireans or the actions of the Nova Terrans. Those who seek to destroy the Imperium bring nothing but death to humanity.’
The Nova Terra Interregnum is a vast 900-year long civil war, in which the Imperium underwent numerous schisms, rebellions, and struggled to hold itself together.
Most famous was the rebellion of the Ur-Council of Nova Terra, which claimed authority over the Segmentum Pacificus in the Imperial west. Beyond this was the great Moirae Schism, which tore the Adeptus Mechanicus apart over the prophesies from the Forge World of Moirae. This page gives an overview of the major events.
The events below are based on the official canon but have been expanded upon by the community. Please do not share, cite, or confuse these interpretation of this era as official lore.
The Pale Wasting
As M35 began, the Imperium exited a period of relative prosperity known as the ‘Forging’, in which the modern bodies of the Imperium came into being. At the end of the Forging, the Imperium came under attack from two great xeno menaces. The first was the Cacodominus, whose death-scream at the end of ‘the Howling’ catastrophically burned the minds of billions of Astropaths, crippling Imperial logistics. The second was the Pale Wasting, a vast invasion from the Ghoul Stars which strained the already struggling Imperium whose events were later covered up lost by the Imperium.
Having previously dominated the affairs of Terra, the power of the Adeptus Ministorum waned following these crises, opening a new era of Administratum hegemony in the Imperium. Administratum bureaucrats now controlled the spiritual and physical lives of Imperial citizens – using the Ministorum not for spiritual leadership but as a tool of power and authority.
The Nova TErra Interregnum
In the Segmentum Pacificus, the immense pressures of the Pale Wasting, alongside the mismanagement of local ecclesiastical dioceses has led the region to the brink of civil war. Murderous cults, sanctioned by the High Cardinals on Terra, demand human sacrifice in the hope of breaking the tides of the Pale Wasting. Under a mysterious Space Marine known only as ‘the Saviour of Praxus’, alongside a brigade of black-armoured Astartes under ‘Lord Hrakon’, the people of the Segmentum Pacificus fight back and liberate themselves from the blood-thirsty cult.
The punishment for the murder of sanctioned priests of the Adeptus Ministorum is handed down from Terra and, rather than surrender their victorious leadership, the Ur-Council of Nova Terra decides in 104.M35 to secede from the Imperium, sparking a war that would last nine centuries.
Beyond the Segmentum Pacificus, the weakness of the Imperium present an opportunity to ambitious and power-hungry rebels. A wave of revolutions burns across the Imperium, stretching its resources ever thinner.
The Moirae Schism
On the forge word of Moirae, tech priests have long studied the technologies of interstellar travel. Being situated so close to Nova Terra, a trio of Moireans identified a new way to study the Astronomican. In their research, they found that small variations in the code of the Astronomican could be deciphered into nothing less than whole prophesies; that one day the Mechanicus and Ministorum will be united, even that Cadia would fall and Primarchs return!
The divinations of Moirae spreads as new cults are established across the Imperium. Outraged by their heretical teachings, Mars exacts vengeance on Moirae by razing the planet from orbit – an act that causes outrage in the loss of so much of Moirae’s relics and technologies.
The razing of Moirae in 131.M35 begins the Moirae Schism, in which forge worlds and their allied forces, including the Space Marines and successors of the Iron Hands, fight over the future of the Mechanicus.
The Alexian UprisingS
In 198.M35, the Adeptus Ministorum chooses to leave Terra to re-establish itself on the holy world of Ophelia VII – giving space for the Ministorum to reassert its authority and leave the grasp of the Administratum. Three centuries later, in 500.M35, the Ministorum returns to Terra, finding its great and ancient palaces crumbling.
Under Ecclesiarch Alexis, the costs of repair soar, requiring ever more tithes from the faithful. The costs of repair – alongside likely politicking from the Administratum – lead to uprisings across the Imperium beginning in 509.M35, bringing a new age of religious dissent and conflict.
The Cataclysm of Souls
Towards the end of M35 the Imperium is in a state of severe crisis. Warp storms, fuelled by centuries of war and hate, cut off entire regions of the Imperium from one another. On Terra, the Administratum’s once tight control of the Imperium collapses in the defeat of the Alexian Uprisings. The Adeptus Ministorum achieves unprecedented power on Terra.
Fuelled by the belief that only the zealousness of humanity can rescue the Imperium, the High Lords of Terra attempt to reform the Imperium into a true theocracy under their stewardship. The result is a great war – the Cataclysm of Souls – as full-scale rebellion against Terra occurs. Those areas of the Segmentum Pacificus since re-conquered rebel once more, entire sectors joining together to make patchworks of revolution. A war on a scale not seen since the Horus Heresy unfolds, only to conclude with the reconquest of Terra under the command of a Space Marine remembered only as Oricalcus.