Lazy person's guide to 40k fluff part 2

Yesterday I discussed the Golden era of human civilization which brings the time line up to the 20th millennium

So what events lead up to Old Night?  Let's dive in! 

Near the end of the Golden Age of Technology two types of mutants began to appear in human society; psykers, and navigators.

Psykers are humans who can tap directly into warp space and use the energy there to complete acts of awesome power.  Psykers can variously control minds, immolate a tank with etheric fire, move objects (think of them like Yoda + Harry Potter + Professor X+ that scary fire starting dude from X- Files).  Different psykers have different powers and only an extremely powerful one can do all of the things listed above. 

This might not seem like a bad thing, but the realm of warp space isn't empty.  Warp Space is filled with predators of pure emotion, that love to enter the mortal realm.  How do they enter the mortal realm?  There are two ways, a rift in space or through a psyker. 

A psyker who isn't careful can become possessed and they are extremely dangerous and completely evil.

 

A Possessed Psyker

 

 

The other mutant to appear are called navigators.  Navigators have a third eye slightly above and between their normal two eyes. 

 

 

 

 

These mutants could read the currents of Warp Space which allowed ships to make longer and longer journeys through the Warp.

 

 

New human colonies could be planted even further away from Earth as man was confident that now that they had navigators, communication between worlds would always be possible.

 

 

They were wrong...

 

 

In the 25th millennium horrific storms began to ravage Warp Space.  Known as warp storms, these storms made it impossible for ships to travel to certain planetary systems.  Man had spread out so quickly and so far that it was impossible to reach these systems by conventional means, people just didn't live long enough. 

 

Eventually the storms got so bad that almost all human planets were cut off from each other, where even Earth and Mars were separated by storms.  Each planet had to fend for themselves and many couldn't as aliens, as if sensing blood, descended upon the helpless planets. 

 

Added to this was the growing number of people who were born as psykers and the huge number of these psykers that would become possessed by warp entities.  Attacked from without by hordes of aliens, and now assailed from within by possessed humans the golden empire of man splintered and fell apart in flames. 

 

For it's part Earth descended into anarchy as a global war consumed it.  Atomic weapons were unleashed until the oceans were burned away and the entire planet became a rad waste. 

 

Humanity was on the verge of extinction.  The Golden Age was dead, the Age of Strife was born.  The light was gone, and the long night was to begin. 

 

Next time- The Unification Wars and The Great Crusade