The Maelstrom

When the Maelstrom erupted from the heart of humanity’s Capital Worlds, it destroyed hundreds of light years of space in the blink of an eye. A colossal energy storm spanning light years, the Maelstrom expanded ever onward, traversing dozens of parsecs mere hours. It ripped apart the center of humanity, destroying worlds in an instant, leaving no time for escape. After this initial frenzy, the expansion of the Maelstrom slowed to a fraction of its initial speed as it left the matter dense Capital World systems, its coruscating purple-red blight on the sky becoming a harbinger of utter destruction to all.

The destructive stormfront of the Maelstrom is composed of a mutated form of cybel energy. Just like conventional cybel, the Maelstrom reacts strongly to large masses, consuming them swiftly and spreading along the large and stable cybel tunnel networks that linked them. The Maelstrom travels slowly as it expands through empty space, but accelerates as it reaches a star system and begins to react with the mass contained within. This gives the Edge a chaotic, churning appearance at large scales, reaching ahead in some places like a solar flare, and curving around empty areas of space, or breaking off at a tangent to tear through a cybel tunnel. A world thought safe from the Maelstrom for centuries might suddenly come under threat, while another in the face of imminent destruction is temporarily spared as the Maelstrom diverts towards a richer target, buying them a few more years but cut off from any possibility of escape.



The remaining galactic civilization is caught between the Maelstrom’s Edge and the tip of the Sagittarius Arm. While the vast majority of rim-ward systems will not have to directly face the specter of the Maelstrom for millennia, the damage it has already wrought is incalculable. With the degradation of travel and communication, and the constant stream of stellargees from devastated systems, the Maelstrom has created a permanent state of unrest. This has allowed both humans and xenos species to indulge their most wanton desires: greed, power, ruthlessness and butchery, all under the flimsy guise of survival.

And yet, there is a glimmer of hope. Researchers across the spiral arm toil endlessly to understand the Maelstrom, looking for ways to divert or halt its progress. Recently, stories have circulated from the backwater planet of Zycanthus, where the progress of the Maelstrom seems to have inexplicably slowed, leaving scientists racing to the system to learn more.


Karist Assault


Click on the links below to read about the different factions that fight on the Maelstom's Edge, and to see the ever-expanding range of models that represent these factions on the tabletop.

The Epirian Foundation

The Epirian Foundation is the descendant of a corporate entity responsible for the terraforming and colonisation of many outer worlds across the galaxy. As the Maelstrom approaches, they wish to evacuate as many of their colonists and resources as possible, ensuring that they can survive and prosper in the universe that the Maelstrom is created. There are countless franchises and branches with specific specialities and rivalries across the galaxy. They rely heavily on their robotic workers and use adapted and weaponised versions in battle.

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The Karist Enclave

The Karist Enclave are an insidious presence on many worlds threatened by the Maelstrom. The Karists live for the Maelstrom, believing that it brings the end of days and that by allowing the energies of the Maelstrom to consume them, they will ascend to a higher plane of existence. They strive to keep as many people on threatened planets as they can to help mankind ascend or at least meet the Maelstrom in peace. In battle, they harness the power of cybel energy in their weapons and as a drug to control the monstrous space creatures known as the Angels.

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The Broken

When a planet is threatened by the approach of the Maelstrom, the rich buy ships and the able sign up for conscription. Many are still left behind, unable to escape as their destruction approaches. Plenty give up hope, and others resort to violent protest and terrorism to destroy and steal from those with more. The Broken is a loose alliance of those protestors, the poorest and the dispossessed, as well as those alien workers without an organisation to save them, such as the elongated Kasmenai, the draft animal Rachus and the huge hulking Gnolti.

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The Kaigus Pact

There is hardly anything now in appearance, behavior or technology that betrays the Kaigus heritage, but they are the descendants of the first humans to expand into the spiral arm. After generations living in weak gravity, the Kaigus have grown tall and slender, towering over normal humans, and their bodies have undergone significant modification to protect against the damaging effects of micro-gravity. The Kaigus species today are perhaps the most resilient humanoids in the spiral arm, with each of their weaknesses having been overcome through a combination of body modifications and symbiotes, all carefully developed by the Biologis.

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The Artarian Remnant

The Remnant Fleet's homeworlds were among the first to be destroyed by the Maelstrom. They took to the stars in giant evacuation ships, too big to traverse the cybel network. Although they originally intended to resettle on new worlds, the implacable advance of the Maelstrom led to them remaining on the ships, which gradually became their new homes. The Remnant's fighting force is made up of highly trained champions equipped with advanced Lorican combat suits.

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