# The Forgotten Apacolypse



## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

So after rummaging through the interwebz and the labyrinths of /tg/, I found this piece of lore that might interest some of you...


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## Xisor (Oct 1, 2011)

It's an interesting outlet, but with a few of the elements of the FFG material (notably the Tyrant Star itself and the Servants of Twilight), I'm reluctant on them. Mainly because they open up an avenue really quite alien to 40k's setting - one which is a bit like the the Yuuzhan Vong... it's something of a game-changer.

The following were not alien enough:
- Aliens (Orks & Tau)
- Ancient Aliens (Eldar)
- Ancient Robo-Aliens (Necrons)
- Ancient God-like Aliens (Old Ones)
- Ancient Alien-like Gods (C'tan)
- Ancient Aliens from beyond the Galaxy (Tyranids)
- Daemons (Chaos Daemons)
- Daemonic Gods (Chaos)
- Not-daemon warp aliens (Psycheneuein)
- Ancient not-daemon warp aliens (Enslavers)

We need _more_ again, not just exotic universal stuff (Tyranids, Necrons, C'tan etc) or exotic mystery-universe stuff (daemons, Old Ones etc)... something else as well!

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*The Forgotten Apocalypse*

The problem with much of the speculation, I fear, is that the suggestions like 'misinterpretation of a Chaos/Tyranid invasion' are meant to be there for folks who just want to write off the whole event as normal.

Whilst you can probably already tell that that's my instinct... it's also deeply unsatisfactory. The whole point of these legends is to encourage more extravagant creativity by players in the setting - either in roleplays, or fanfic, or table-top... you get the idea.

So, if we accept it's not just Warp Rift/Chaos/Tyranids... _what is it?_

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*Instinct Number 2*

The gamble's first port of call is to suggest: Schismatic C'tan. One of the Stargods which didn't side with them in the War in Heaven, or was somehow 'lost' in the Deceiver's rumour-mongered 'original war' between the Old Ones and C'tan.

As you see, it relies on 'super-powerful exotic alienness', suspecting corners of/beyond reality that we aren't familiar with. If we take the sharded C'tan as the limit of human's experience with the Stargods, could the 'Thing In The Echoing Vault' be a non-C'tan Stargod? (I.e. one not aligned to the Necrons?)

Such a thing's affinity could well be nudged into coordination alongside the Slaugth. (If the Slaugth are TITEV's equivalent of Necrons, then this pseudo-Stargod could simply be the Stargod-god of the Slaugth. Which sortof works, but is also a _massive stretch_.)

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*Instinct Number 3*

Don't bother with the legend directly; accept the misinterpretation. How does it mesh with other 'unknown' things?

Well, the other massive, gaping mystery in the Calixis Sector is the Yu'vath & the Rak'gol.

If we accept mankind's role in the legend as the route of the mystery, then we could make some serious progress. What if it wasn't M32, but before the GC? What if the main protagonists were aliens rather than humans? What if the original phaeonites (techno-sorcerers) defeating the Harrowing and the Echoing Vault wasn't defeated by mankind, but by xenos?

Well, the Yu'vath could well have stepped up to the plate. They embraced 'chaos' and sorcery - despite being a superbly advanced race - and thus fell to the Phaeonite doctrine, despite the caveat that they're not humans. The Rak'gol are 'little ghosts', the Yu'vath who fought against Drusus in the founding of the Sector were simply the survivors of the war against the Echoing Vault.

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*Intuition Number 4*

When was the Forgotten Apocalypse then?

Well, my instinct is to put it in the War in Heaven. Not only between the Eldar and the Necrons, but between the Old Ones and the Stargods (C'tan) and all the young races.

The Necrons served (and later broke) the C'tan - but did anyone else serve with them? 

I'm inclined to think the Slaugth are another such race, other servants of the Stargods. By the same extension, I'd see the early (pre-chaos) Yu'vath as servants of the Old Ones (like the Eldar, Rashan, K'nib, Krork, Jokaero). 

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*Intuition Number 5*

What is the Echoing Vault? Well, I'd guess it's the Tyrant Star. The Tyrant Star encloses a C'tan, but does so by binding an immense Daemon to it, or something like that. (The Traveller acts as gate-warden to contain the C'tan/Stargod that's held inside the Tyrant Star. As the Yu'vath fell to Chaos, they gained the upper hand against the Stargods... but it cost them - ruining their civilisation. As per the legend.)

The Imperium then purge the Yu'vath, fighting against the end of this so-called Apocalypse, but well after it was actually fought. Obliterating the Yu'vath and casting their own apocalypse beyond the mists of eternity allows it to be picked up in tiny fragments by the Phaeonites and the humans who hear about it. Because things like the War in Heaven, the Necrons, the C'tan and, hell, even the Eldar are not exactly _well known_... even to the highest of the Inquisition and the Adeptus Mechanicus, it's hardly bloomin' surprising that even the best of the Radical's attempts to make the legend fit (M32, Humans & Aliens vs... horror from beyond) are laughable at best compared to what the truth of it is.

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*The Truth of It: Xisor's Account*

I'd say a handy interpretation is that the Slaugth and Yu'vath are ancient enemies who fought on opposing sides of the War in Heaven, for the C'tan and the Old Ones respectively. The Yu'vath trapped/killed a C'tan in the Tyrant Star, but in doing so broke themselves as they had to dabble in Phaeonite-y things. Thus the Tyrant Star's nature is still not really known - is it a prison, is the Echoing Vault & the Harrowing the intended cause or a mere side effect? Was the Harrowing and the Vault the thing the Tyrant Star _stops_, or a symptom of the thing itself... slowly returning?

Not much of a truth, but M32 and Imperium? I'm not convinced.


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## Gret79 (May 11, 2012)

How old is this? 

I alway's thought the harrowing were Dark Eldar - Everything would fit if it was. the echoing vault could quite easily be a webway portal. 
'There removed from both euclidean realspace and the empyrean sea's of the warp' - would fit commorragh quite nicely.

If this fluff is old enough, it could have been pre-dark eldar codex's and would have been a good precursor. If it's new then i don't see it as DE - They'd just have written about mankinds early meetings with the Dark Eldar.


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## Xisor (Oct 1, 2011)

It's text from _The Radical's Handbook_ which is a 2009/2010 publication by FFG for _Dark Heresy_.


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## Gret79 (May 11, 2012)

Xisor said:


> It's text from _The Radical's Handbook_ which is a 2009/2010 publication by FFG for _Dark Heresy_.


At which point I'll shut up and sidle away...:blush:

Edit:Been and checked - I was thinking of the harrowers from 'wolf at the door'


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## Codex Todd (Mar 22, 2009)

Hmm may have just found a good opening for my home brew chapter  Still undecided if loyal or renegade yet. But this is what I've been looking for!! Thank you


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