Power Groups of the Koronus Expanse

[The Hive Mind]

Power Groups of the Koronus Expanse
"Anyone who looks upon a star and thinks himself the first to do so is a fool. Every planet, moon, or glittering sun is the grave of untold races and the slumbering tomb of secrets lost to the passage of time."
—words attributed to Rogue Trader Solomon Haarlock

The Koronus Expanse is a gulf of darkness in which the few facts known by humanity stand like guttering candles. Within its vast bounds wait worlds and secrets that it would take generations of explorers to discover, and within these vast gulfs of the unknown and uncharted dark other things move and plan with inhuman minds and soulless purposes. From the long-dead makers of the Halo Artefacts to the treacherous Eldar, many other powers have a claim or interest in the Koronus Expanse, and each has its own purposes and knowledge that drives it to act. These motivations frequently bring them into contact with the Rogue Traders who are but the youngest of their kind to walk these stars.

Ork Menace
"An Ork has no fear of pain, is not cowed by doubt or failure, and is single minded in the pursuit of what he wants. That makes him the most dangerous thing I can imagine, and the crudity of their weapons does nothing to dim my own fear of them."
—Marius Lorrt, captain of the warship Victus Gloriana

The Orks are a race of brutish, ugly aliens with an unquenchable thirst for violence. They are a green-skinned blight on the galaxy, constantly spawning, gathering together in huge numbers, and battering through the stars like a bloody fist, looting and destroying all that is in their path. That might is right is an unquestionable and obvious mantra to all Orks and one that they understand in every cell of their being. They constantly fight amongst themselves, and only the strong survive in Ork society. Those who achieve authority over other Orks ("da Boss" as they are known to Orks) do so because they have proven that they are the meanest and toughest Orks around.

An average Ork stands as tall as a human but is hunched with muscle and would tower over most humans if he were to stand fully upright. They have long arms that are knotted with slab-like muscle; they have a thick skull set low on their hunched shoulders with a heavy brow and glittering red eyes. Their mouths are filled with jagged fangs that jut out like a feral predator. The physiology of an Ork is such that they are exceptionally hard to kill and can shrug off injuries that would kill a human, and can survive and recover from having limbs severed and crudely reattached later. Orks speak a harsh guttural language that mirrors their physical appearance and blunt outlook on existence.

Though their technology is crude, they are possessed of an innate understanding and affinity with machinery and weapons. This racial genetic knowledge manifests through the abilities of so-called Oddboyz, who possess a strange quirk of understanding or ability that sets them aside from the rest of the Orks. Of these the most crucial to the Ork war machine are the Mekboyz who create the weapons, armour, and vehicles used by Orks to do what they do best: kill things. Mekboyz are ingenious but unreliable artisans who are masters of creating ramshackle but fearsome starships, war machines, and weapons from scrap and salvage. Even if they do not come out exactly how they were intended, these devices are still terrifyingly effective -- most of the time.

Ork Freebooterz
There are those who would claim that the Orks are not the greatest of spacefaring races, that their voidships and weapons are unreliable constructions of scrap and parts salvaged from the ships of the other star-faring races, crudely refitted by luck rather than judgement. There are others, however, who point to the fact that the Orks can be encountered in every corner of the galaxy and the supposed limitations of their technology have not held them back from being some of the most feared and effective pirates in the galaxy. Their ships are massively armed and loaded with Orks eager for a fight, and an Ork’s natural love of violence and acquisition make him a terror to other space-faring races.

Ork Freebooterz want more of everything: more weapons to grow stronger, more salvage to build ships and war machines, and more wealth for prestige among their kind. While many items captured in raids are of little use to the Orks, such plunder is valued highly by other races that fight and die to protect it. Thus, the value lies in the opportunity for battle, and no Ork shirks from a good fight! Orks rarely organise above the level of a single ship. However, small fleets can form around a particularly charismatic or successful Ork leader, known as a Kaptin. To the mind of an Ork Freebooter, two things are uppermost: battle lust and greed. In the Expanse, Orks are usually encountered in small raiding ships, roughly the same size as an Imperial escort vessel. However, the size of an Ork voidship is deceptive: invariably, the ship is crammed with a green tide of Orks, which ensures that any boarding action is likely to only go one way.

An attack by Ork Freebooterz tends to be brutal and direct, with the Ork ships rushing headlong toward the enemy firing every gun they have before ramming and boarding their victims. The directness of an Ork Freebooter attack does not mean, however, that an Ork Freebooter Kaptin lacks cunning. Orks often lurk in asteroid fields on the edges of systems where they cannot be seen by the sensors of ships passing to or from the void. Ambushes on convoys of supply ships from this kind of hidden position are common, and even small fleets or warships are not unheard of. Should an Ork Freebooter Kaptin feel the need for bigger prey, the crew may descend on an inhabited world or space station, loot and burn it, and withdraw to their ships and the protection of a debris field. If, however, the Orks of a Freebooterz fleet are really spoiling for a big fight, they are likely to brutalise a world or void station and just wait and see who or what turns up to try and stop them.

Ork Freebooterz lurk throughout the Koronus Expanse. From crude space stations built in asteroid fields or debris clouds, numerous Ork Freebooter Kaptins lead their fleets to loot whatever they can find and fight whoever crosses their path. Even the relatively explored systems close to the Maw have all felt the iron fist of Ork piracy; in the past Footfall itself has come under attack from the ships of Ork Kaptins who had become powerful enough to command great swarms of gunships and kroozers. Luckily for those journeying into the Expanse, the presence and predations of the many Ork Freebooter fleets is haphazard and without unified purpose, and they are often inclined to war upon their own kind as much as anything else.

The Orks dominate a tract of worlds within the Expanse known as Undred-Undred Teef. They exist in untold numbers, spawning like a plague within the Koronus Expanse, and the rising tally of worlds and vessels that these pirates have sacked suggests that their numbers are growing. The Ork Freebooterz are becoming a dire threat to the Expanse. The more Orks there are the bigger and meaner an Ork must be to become the leader. The more powerful the leader (called a “Warboss” in the Ork parlance), the more likely he is to gather together a huge force and batter his way across the stars. No such supreme leader has emerged from the mass of warring Orks in Undred-Undred Teef, but it can only be a matter of time.

One of the most prominent Freebooterz in the Expanse is making a bid for overall leadership of Undred Undred Teef -- Morgaash Kulgraz. Morgaash is a cunning and ambitious Freebooter Kaptin. He is taking ruthless advantage of the numerical superiority of the Flash Gitz and Freebooterz in Undred Undred Teef, as well being bigger and harder than all the other Warbosses, to support his rise to power. This brutal Ork leader first appeared in the Koronus Expanse aboard a heavily damaged Space Hulk, the Fist of Gork. Although barely spaceworthy, the Hulk was filled with loot from other parts of the galaxy. None could say how long the Space Hulk had drifted in the Warp before arriving at Undred-Undred Teef, but Morgaash’s impressive arrival was just the beginning of his rise to power.

A cunning master of ship-to-ship combat, Morgaash wrested control of the largest and most powerful ship in the system, a massive Battlekroozer named Da Wurldbraka. Morgaash then got a crew of the strongest, most aggressive Boyz from the other Kaptins, including as many of the psychic Ork Weirdboyz as he could find. Da Wurldbraka quickly became a ship as legendary as its Kaptin, a nightmarish sight that caused panic amongst smugglers and Rogue Traders alike.

Morgaash has struck quickly and forcefully in every raid, allowing handfuls of survivors to spread his infamy across the Expanse. Armed with weapons of baleful and bizarre cast, Da Wurldbraka is constantly surprising its enemies with the breadth of its capabilities. Most vessels in the Expanse can only hope to get clear before the dark xenos warship ends the battle by crippling its opponent and planting its Kaptin firmly on the enemy’s bridge.

Stryxis
"Do not fear, biped. We Stryxis are no threat to you, just poor scavengers and merchants, not like yourself, biped -- with your ship and friends. They are good friends, yes? Good friends, strong and pretty. Are they for sale? We Stryxis have pretties too: deadly weapons, secrets, lies, hatreds, and joys. All of these can be yours, biped. Tell us, what is your pleasure?"
—Sirred Fain, Stryxis Merchant Master

The Stryxis are a sparse, nomadic xenos race with a reputation as untrustworthy traders, wanderers, and sometimes slavers and pirates. Encountered infrequently in Koronus Expanse, their reputation is a dark one. The Stryxis are a truly hideous xenoform to look upon beneath swathes of ragged, bonecoloured cloth and trinkets, described variously by human onlookers as a gangling and multi-eyed creature that resembles a human-sized, skinned, dog embryo. Yet they communicate easily with willing humans through a common language of greed, curiosity, and self-interest. Scavengers and obsessive hoarders, they possess a wealth of technology stolen and bartered from countless races. They delight in trade, attaching worth only by perceived value and rarity of things they can grasp in their bony talons. They seem to care nothing for conquest or territory, abstract wealth, nor even their own species, but are driven instead by avarice and viperous petty intrigues. This being said, they are not to be underestimated and can be extremely dangerous and treacherous. They are creatures wrapped in subtle lies and conceal dark intellects behind their eccentric behaviour and obsession with trinkets and baubles. They will not hesitate to betray those they deal with if they perceive a great profit in doing so. The Stryxis will trade with almost anyone, human or xenos, even the worshipers of the Ruinous Powers, but they despise the Eldar. They will kill them if they can, and avoid them otherwise.

The Stryxis inhabit wandering caravans of starships plying commerce routes between distant worlds. These caravans are often salvaged mishmashes of patchwork vessels and hollowed-out asteroids, fitted with engines and augmented with numerous stolen or traded technologies. These caravans contain relatively few adult Stryxis, along with larger numbers of slaves, mercenaries, "acquisitions," and gene-engineered servant creatures. Aside from the adult Stryxis -- who continuously politic and backstab each other for rank and prominence in the caravans' social hierarchies -- no young, gender variations, or other culture to speak of has ever been encountered. When questioned about their own species, the Stryxis will spin endless and often contradictory lies about the matter.

Stryxis Caravans interest Rogue Traders who do not mind dealing with these nefarious xenos for their myriad opportunities for commerce and profit. In addition, as inveterate wanderers and collectors, Stryxis are often troves of secrets, legends, and information. Their contacts span the Koronus Expanse and beyond -- if the Rogue Trader has the wit to separate the truth from the lies.

Forces of Chaos
"I have seen what the rewards of 'freedom' are: the screams of those not allowed to die, the drip of blood, and the howling of hungry things on the edge of sight."
—from the proclamations of Inquisitor Xerxes, Ordo Malleus

Within the realm of psychic energy that is called the Warp exist dark and malign intelligences formed from the darkest thoughts, desires, and fears of sentient creatures. The greatest of these beings are called variously the Dark Gods, the Ruinous Powers, or the Chaos Gods, and they promise all manner of powers and gifts to those who are foolish enough to bend their knee in worship to them. These deluded fools who become enthralled to the power of Chaos have forfeited their immortal souls, and their lives are subject to the whims of their dark masters; whether they believe it or not, they are slaves to darkness and eternally damned.

Tempting and seductive, brutal and punishing, the servants of the Dark Gods take many forms in the Koronus Expanse. The most dangerous are the piratical Renegades who are made up of vicious and deluded men, some of whom have fled the Imperium and fallen into the worship of dark gods. Others hail from worlds deep in the Expanse where the light of the Emperor’s truth has never penetrated, and the taint of Chaos has gone unchecked since the Age of Strife. Piloting captured or Renegade Imperial starships, or mysterious vessels of unknown origin, they are truly monstrous and rapacious creatures, no longer fully human. It is better to die than be taken to join the ranks of their slave crews and corrupted Servitors. These disciples raid any convoy or world too weak to defend itself. They come in search of slaves, murder, and riches.

Using sorcery and the fickle guidance of daemons bought with blood and souls, some Chaos pirates traverse the Warp and roam the Koronus Expanse in search of prey, either as lone ships or in predatory packs that can pose a threat to even the most heavily armed vessels, harrying them and finally brining their larger quarry down like a pack of wolves attacking a lion. Some of these corrupted pirates are bonded together by loyalty to a particular cult of the Ruinous Powers, and their ships are ruled by pirate demagogues, their holds given over to vile fanes. Others are warbands of corrupt and often mutated warriors, bound together under the will of a charismatic individual who is touched by the power of Chaos. To some, the acquisition of more power, resources, and prestige is what they desire, and the power of Chaos is something that they foolishly believe can help achieve these desires. Others seek only to burn and destroy, leaving things of value in an orgy of slaughter and realising their darkest desires in the service of their daemonic patron.

The Koronus Expanse is the hunting ground of many enemies of the Imperium, from the barbarous Orks to bitter Imperial exiles, but greatest of these voidfaring predators are the Chaos Reavers. Pirates and slavers pledged to the glory of the Dark Gods, Chaos Reavers prowl the Warp routes, eager for the blood of the foolish and the unwary. Agile and well-armed reaver vessels wait in ambush amongst the outer clouds of those star systems that draw Imperial explorers like Rogue Traders, pouncing savagely before the prey can react. The reavers cripple their targets in short order and board them before repelling crews can be mustered. Once on board, the reavers unleash an orgy of bloodshed as they slaughter all resistance, working their way towards the bridge and the final confrontation with the vessel’s master and his guards. Having gained control of the ship, the reavers put it and its crew to a range of uses. Useful vessels are captured as prizes and converted to pirate ships, while the best the captured crew can hope for is a quick death. Most are enslaved, to be sold into a cruel life of misery to one of the petty empires to be found in the expanse. Others are slaughtered in the name of the Ruinous Powers, or forced to serve in the pirate hordes, or press-ganged as crew.

Many different reaver groups prowl the Expanse. One such group are the damned hosts of Iniquity, under the control of Karrad Vall, the Faceless Lord. These debased brigands have, as their home, a world many believe to host beneath its blasted surface something utterly malign and born of the Warp. It is not only in the hearts of hunters and reavers that the touch of the Ruinous Powers is to be found in the Koronus Expanse, for like many regions of its type, the area is host to countless worlds settled countless millennia ago and subsequently lost to humanity during the Age of Strife. Such worlds are entirely ignorant of the greater galaxy, their ancestors having lost contact with Mankind long before the coming of the Emperor and the rise of the Imperium on Terra. Yet, Chaos lurks in the hearts of men despite the specifics of their existence, and even the most isolated colonist is not deaf to its whispers. Indeed, the populations of many such worlds exist in such abject misery and ignorance that the Dark Gods are their only succour. Wilderness Space is strewn with worlds entirely in the thrall of the Ruinous Powers, some so steeped in the power of the Warp that they are the hunting ground of daemons.

For one who treads the path to glory in the name of the Dark Gods, the Koronus Expanse represents an opportunity to forge his own destiny according to his own vision. He might attempt to build an empire, or simply to satiate his bloodlust in endless attacks upon those who would stray beyond the borders of the Imperium. Others seek to uncover ancient secrets and, in so doing, gain immeasurable power. These are the most dangerous, for should they ever gain the power they seek they will plunge once more through the Maw and visit upon the Imperium of Mankind doom that it has not known in ten thousand standard years.

Chaos Space Marines

Chaos Space Marines are mighty superhuman warriors of the Adeptus Astartes who have betrayed the Imperium, forsaken their vows, and become monstrous warriors who answer to nothing but their own dark desires and the Chaos Gods. These Renegades and Traitors are terrifying warriors who are amongst the most potent and terrible of the servants of Chaos. From hidden bases and defiled spacecraft they wage war against the Imperium that they once protected. Fell whispers have begun to spread that warbands of Traitor Marines have been drawn to the Expanse in search of something that might be an apocalyptic weapon or a terrible fragment of lost technology. These fallen Astartes have assumed dominion over the lesser servants of the Dark Gods like proud and bloody lords who demand that lesser men bend their knee or be subject to torment and death. If this proves true, the danger these Chaos-tainted, superhuman killers represent is a terrible one, and no world or domain of the Expanse is safe.

Saynay Clan
The Saynay Clan is a dynasty of corrupt monsters that fled the fetid world of Dusk after the corruption of their blood was discovered by agents of the Inquisition. In time they made their way to the Koronus Expanse, and here they exist still in disparate spacecraft whose insides are like slaughter houses hung with the dismembered corpses of those taken in the Clan’s raids on shipping and isolated outposts. The Clan and its vassals feed on the dead, daub foul Chaotic runes on the hulls of the voidships, and perform terrible sacrificial rites to summon daemons into the defiled flesh of the dead. Above the slaughter preside the flesh-gorged matriarchs and patriarchs of the Clan, their finery and rotting wigs cracked with dry gore. Such is the reputation of the Saynay Clan that even other pirates and raiders shrink from them and cower at the threat of their attention.

Reavers of Karrad Vall
Karrad Vall’s name is a dark curse on those who have ventured into the Koronus Expanse. No one has ever seen him, but the barbed prows of his starships and the baying of his scarred warriors are enough to have caused captains to scuttle their craft rather than be taken before Karrad Vall, the Faceless Lord. Some whisper that Vall was once an Adept of the Departmento Munitorium, a former tithe-master swayed and fallen to the lure of the Dark Gods, whilst others claim he was once a trusted admiral of the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Calixis. What is known is that Karrad Vall braved the Maw in 794.M41 and promptly established his intent by shelling Footfall and engaging Calligos Winterscale in battle. His small fleet tore through the defences arrayed against them. As Vall departed, he cast several last taunting messages in his wake before disappearing without a trace for the next decade.

The ships of Karrad Vall are a brutalised selection of Imperial voidships taken in raids or pulled as hulks from the void and refitted, and steered by the craft of vassal Chaos Sorcerers and powerful daemon pacts. Each of the Reavers of Karrad Vall owe loyalty to him above all, but the Dark Gods and the punishments for treachery are as terrible as a dedicated servant of Chaos can devise. So far all of the Reavers’ actions have been aimed at gaining resources to expand Vall’s pirate fleet: voidships, weaponry, and slaves. With each successful raid on ships in the Expanse, the danger posed by these jackals of the void becomes greater.

Karrad Vall’s fleet is often called “the Wolfpack,” a mismatched group of vessels including many of obvious Imperial origin. Some of these ships are captained by ruthless raiders as infamous as the vessel itself. A partial list of known starships belonging to Vall’s Wolfpack is presented here:

Excrucian
Gift of Despair
Mortis Ex Astra
Optimus Nemesis

Followers of False Gods

There are worlds waiting to be discovered within the Koronus Expanse that are inhabited by people who have fallen to the worship of false gods which are but a mask for the Ruinous Powers. Proud and decadent civilisations build temples to the Dark Gods and bind their societies together with sorcery, terror, intrigue, and atrocity. On certain planets, they may worship the glory of Chaos as a pantheon of gods and divine servants, the dark reality of their beliefs cloaked in strange names and mystery. Others may have fallen into the embrace of worship of a single Chaos God, becoming a world in which war and bloodshed is the bedrock of existence, or one which has evolved an elaborate social and political hierarchy around which intrigues, lies, and secrets move like poison. Where these worlds may be or what devilries they harbour are yet to emerge from the dark unknown of the Expanse, but they are there waiting like serpents in long grass. Were ever such a world to be discovered, the all true servants of the Emperor would destroy its people and the lie of its gods completely and utterly, lest its poison and lies spread.

Eldar of the Expanse
"I am Athel Astaan -- the Blade of Shadow. Perhaps you fancy yourself a swordsman... if so, you shall soon regret your error."
—unknown xenos voice from the final transmission of the Dolorous Prize

The Eldar are an ancient and highly advanced alien race who voyaged across the stars long before Mankind could even comprehend such a thing. An extremely long-lived species, the Eldar are physically similar to humans, but with longer, cleaner limbs, slim and elegant features, pointed ears, and penetrating eyes. Though they may share superficial anatomical features with humans, an Eldar could not be mistaken for anything other than an alien. They move with an inhuman grace and elegance, live with an intensity of experience many times greater than humans, and possess potent psychic potential.

The Eldar have a long and complex history as a spacefaring race. They have been travelling across the gulfs of space for aeons and once ruled an empire of worlds that spanned the galaxy. Those days of dominance and glory have long passed, and the Eldar that exist in the late 41st Millennium are the dwindling remnants of a once-proud race. They are all that remain of a lost and wondrous age that ended with a cataclysmic event known as the Fall of the Eldar, which caused the collapse of the great Eldar civilisation as a result of the birth of Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure and youngest of the Chaos Gods in the early 30th Millennium. Most of those Eldar who survived the Fall did so by fleeing the death of their worlds on great city-like starships called Craftworlds, huge spacecraft many times more vast than the greatest ship of the Imperium that drift through the void on a journey without end.

Though they are a dwindling race, the technology and artifice of the Eldar is highly advanced. Most Eldar technology is based on the manipulation of psychoplastic materials collectively called Wraithbone using psychic energy to create breathtaking architecture, light but extremely effective armour, and deadly weapons. Their starships are swift and sleek craft propelled by solar sails and hidden by Holofields that hide their position and confuse observers. Incredibly manoeuvrable and armed with devastating weapons, an Eldar starship under the command of a master of space warfare is almost without peer.

For those Eldar who dwell within the Craftworlds, the heightened pitch at which Eldar experience life is tightly controlled by adhering to a Path which creates bounds and limits on an individual Eldar’s experience. Occasionally an Eldar turns his back on the Path and embraces an existence without restrictions; these Eldar are called Outcasts. This decision is a perilous one, as it not only leaves the Outcasts more vulnerable to the thirsting nemesis of Slaanesh that has pursued the Eldar since the Fall, but also opens them to the risk of becoming consumed by their experiences and so lose themselves to darkness. The Elder Corsairs that prey on other races in the void are Outcasts from the Eldar Path and are highly dangerous and unpredictable, equally likely to act with magnanimity or wanton slaughter.

There are several Eldar Corsair fleets active within the Koronus Expanse, ranging in size from single vessels to large and dangerous fleets. The exact number of separate fleets remains unclear, and distinguishing between different groups of Eldar or the finer points of alliance and fealty among Eldar is beyond most humans. Some hunt weak and underprotected vessels like predators drawn to feeble and sickly animals, using the exceptional manoeuvrability to take or destroy craft that stray into their hunting grounds.. Rarely do the Corsair ships attack the strongholds of other starfaring races openly, choosing rather the approach of the silent predator, unseen by its prey until it pounces. Of Corsair bands that lurk in the Koronus Expanse, two whose names are known with fear and dread are the Children of Thorns and the Crow Spirits.

Children of Thorns

When voidfarers in the Expanse speak of the fickle and vicious ways of Eldar Corsairs, their tales most often speak of the Corsairs known as the Children of Thorns. Clad in glossy beetle-black armour, the proud and capricious warriors of the Children of Thorns are merciless in combat and are said to slaughter their enemies to the last once battle is joined. It is said that one is fortunate to hear the keening war cries of the Children of Thorns and live to tell of it. The leader of the Children of Thorns is a female who long ago cast herself from the strictures of the Eldar Path to lead her Children of Thorns in bloodshed across the Halo Stars. Her true names long ago discarded, she is now simply known as the [[Mother of the Shadows]]. When attacking in the void, the night-black ships of the Children of Thorns prize stealth above all tactics. Only once they have ensured complete surprise and a perfect position of attack, they strike with ferocity and precision, crippling their prey and leaving the ship reeling and boarded by screaming, dark, and graceful shapes that kill and kill until there is nothing left alive and the prize is theirs.

Despite their terrifying reputation, the Children of Thorns have had dealings with a number of Rogue Traders in the Expanse and have even made compacts with a few or fought as mercenaries for those brave enough to seal such a bargain. It is perhaps these ties that give the Children of Thorns the phenomenally accurate information that allows them to strike at human craft close to the Maw with such accuracy. One or more Rogue Traders have sealed a compact with the Children of Thorns -- one paid for in the blood of their rivals.

Crow Spirits

The Crow Spirits are grim, cold killers who seem bent not on piracy but the selective annihilation of humanity within the Koronus Expanse. Clad in glittering armour that shines as if filled with moonlight, they make no sound in battle and are led by witches robed in pale tatters with tall helms of gleaming bone. Their starships are like pale dead things driven by a cold and broken will. Their tattered ethereal sails propel them from the depths of the void to strike at Imperial ships, colonies, and stations in the Foundling Worlds, Accursed Demesne, and Unbeholden Reaches. Cloaked and unseen until it is too late, the Crow Spirits are borne on a storm within the Warp and realspace that boils and screams with ethereal voices. They destroy and kill with a cold precision -- and then leave, taking no prizes. Who leads these mysterious Corsairs and what their purpose is remains unknown, but some have speculated that they are guarding something, or keeping something from being discovered. At least one Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos believes that the Crow Spirits have some tie to a notorious Eldar Corsair in the Calixis Sector -- Ulthyr Ellarion.

Ghost Ship

The Koronus Expanse has its share of legendary vessels -- among them Karrad Vall’s Wolfpack and Da Wurldbreaka -- but none are as infamous as the Whisper of Anaris. This spectral Eldar voidship has reaved the Expanse for centuries, its appearance considered a portent of unholy calamity. Tattered ethereal sails propel the Eclipse-class Cruiser from the depths of the void, cloaked and hidden by holofield technology far more effective than most Eldar ships. The Whisper of Anaris ' potent pulse Lances have shattered ships across the Expanse. On some planets, a sighting of the Whisper of Anaris in local space is enough to kick off a frenzy of prayer and sacrifice to drive the ghost ship of the Expanse away.

The first reported encounter with the Whisper of Anaris was filed by Rogue Trader Aspyce Chorda on a resupply run to Lucin’s Breath. The ease with which the ghost ship shed pursuit and its tattered, keening solar sails became the genesis of a hundred stories of haunted vessels. There is only one certainty with the Whisper of Anaris -- it obeys an inscrutable plan. The ghost ship has been known to help Rogue Traders, on occasion, only to turn and attack in another encounter.

Rak'Gol Marauders

"...They’re coming through the walls...we’ve lost the enginarium and the port gun deck...urgent assistance requi...the...need heavier arms...the. [screeching sounds interlaced with rapid Shotcannon fire]...falling back! God-Emperor save me...broken thr..."
—transcription of Vox data recovered from the wreck of the Merchant Brig Daughter of Regals, lost with all hands in 811.M41

The Rak'Gol are a relatively new threat to those who would ply the Koronus Expanse, encountered first in the dim stars past the Alenic Depths a little more than a century ago. A xenos breed of which little is known for fact, they take the appearance of rough-hewn and irregular stone reptilids, eight-limbed and over three metres long. Chalky white in colour and mantis-like in bodily arrangement, Rak’Gol warriors favour cybernetic augmentation to increase their abilities and replace lost limbs. Their point of origin remains unknown, as does the motivation for their sporadic attacks on human-held worlds and vessels, other than to slaughter indiscriminately and steal minerals and weapons. Their rasping, screeching language remains incomprehensible, and no successful communication between the Rak'Gol and humanity has been recorded; no Rak’Gol has ever been captured alive. Indeed, even their name is taken from children’s stories of mythical monsters from Footfall’s slums, legends which they superficially resemble.

Rak'Gol technology is judged by the Adeptus Mechanicus' Magos Explorators to be inferior to the Imperial standard, but what they lack in this regard they more than make up for with their ferocity and single-mindedness, as well as their individual combat prowess, which is considerable. Many mysteries surround them, not least of all the location of their homeworld, already marked for destruction by many Rogue Traders should it ever be found. Some believe that they may possess a pocket xenoempire somewhere deep in the Expanse; others claim they are no more than nomads, moving locust-like through the stars. Another mystery the Explorators and Ordo Xenos would like answered is how they appear to be able to navigate the Empyrean with some skill, as no psykers have been reported among them. A few Adepts with the dark wisdom to know such things have noted that the distorted symbols they use to adorn themselves bear some similarity to the blasphemous iconography of Chaos.

Disciples of Thule
"The galaxy is a midden scattered with the bones of humanity’s glory."
—aphorism dictated by Paracelcus Thule

Archmagos Paracelcus Thule’s vast Explorator fleet is a potent force in the Calixian Adeptus Mechanicus. Despite that, he and his followers disappear beyond that sector’s boundaries for decades at a time. In 528.M41, a sub-fleet of Thuleans under Magos Solus Kanceme entered the Koronus Expanse and scattered far and wide, spurning xenos worlds in search of pre-Imperial artefacts sacred to the Omnissiah.

Little is known of Kanceme’s fate. The Disciples of Thule are a mystery to Rogue Traders, vanished into the far voids for centuries now, uncommunicative and fixated upon their own goals. Many believe the Thuleans lost, consumed by the myriad dangers of the Expanse. If the devotees of Paracelcus Thule still come and go through the Koronus Passage, then they do so secretively, avoiding both Port Wander and Footfall. A Rogue Trader who finds himself vying with Thuleans for a prize of ancient human technology should consider them as great and ruthless a foe as any xenos breed.

Yu'vath
"If it does not rot, if it can lie like this here forever... is it truly dead?"
—Savant Preem

The Koronus Expanse is rife with unnatural drifts of dead stars, each a dim ember, the remnant of a mighty cataclysm wherein a star convulsed in death throes, casting forth a shell of burning outer matter into the voids. The dark outer reaches of the Rifts of Hecaton were long ago sculpted by the violent deaths of dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of stars. A great evil indeed must have moved across the Expanse in a past age, a dark power that murdered the very stars, cluster by cluster. Dead Xenos Worlds orbit these stellar remnants, blasted molten in ancient death throes and then frozen beneath the wan light of a star-ember. Their ruins are cyclopean, their under-crust warrens labyrinthine, and their dire symbols, where not worn to dust by the passage of aeons, warn of xenos sorcery and ancient doom; they speak of the Yu’vath.

The Yu’vath were a blight upon the Calyx Expanse in the era of Lord Militant Angevin, prior to the creation of the Calixis Sector in the fourth century of the 39th Millennium. The Warp-worshipping Yu’vath enslaved worlds though vile xenos sorcery, expending the lives and souls of corrupted human slaves to build such horrors upon the Calyx Hell Worlds that chroniclers of the Angevin Crusade forbore to record them. The Warp-ridden Yu’vath and their tormented slave armies bled the Crusade’s forces for decades before their ultimate extinction at the hands of General (later Saint) Drusus and the Adeptus Astartes. Even now, chronicles of the Angevin Crusade’s victories over the Yu’vath are restricted works, and few savants know what came before the blessed establishment of the Calixis Sector.

Kroot
"The best mercenaries are those for whom war is part of their base nature: they understand instinctively the requirement for loyalty to one’s employer and the pointlessness of betrayal. Those who die at the hands of their own hirelings do not understand this fact."
—remark attributed to Rogue Trader Hiarm Sult

The Kroot are a predatory, often mercenary, avian breed of alien who fight with ferocity and feed on the dead. The Kroot maintain a nomadic society strangely divided between feral savagery and proficient high technology-use. Their homeworld is Pech and is fully part of the Tau Empire. However many Kroot fight for others as mercenaries, which is at odds with the Greater Good and something the Kroot seek to keep from their Tau allies. These mercenary kindreds will fight for anyone for the right price. They are thinly spread across the galaxy and cross the voids in imposing Warspheres, yet they abandon almost all of their technology to live and fight in a feral fashion once set down upon a habitable world. Most disturbingly, the Kroot eat the flesh of other species with an avid, selective hunger, and the ugly forms of their future generations take on some characteristics of the consumed. Much of their culture is driven by these unholy acts, carried out at the direction of their leaders, beasts known as Shapers. Every Warsphere contains many branches of the Kroot breed, made diverse and often corrupt by their Shapers’ past choice of victims -- some which were clearly human. Marauding Kroot Warspheres move across the Koronus Expanse very infrequently, though none can say from whence they came or what destination they see ahead. Some Rogue Traders have taken a handful of Kroot mercenaries into their employ where they have encountered them, but others exterminate them on sight, weary of so predacious a species gaining a foothold in the region.