History
The Imperium is established on Terra (Earth) in the 30th millennium AD as the planet's sole authority; several centuries later, it embarks on a Great Crusade, an interstellar crusade intended to bring all human-settled worlds in the Milky Way galaxy under its banner. Over the course of two Terran centuries, the Crusade reaches star systems more than 50,000 light years away from its original staging point in the Sol (Solar) System, assimilates millions of worlds into the Imperium, and gives Humankind a dominant position among the galaxy's species; according to Imperial propaganda, it is humanity's "Manifest Destiny" to rule the galaxy.
Early in the 31st millennium, the Crusade comes to a sudden stop as the Imperium is nearly torn asunder in a galaxy-wide civil war known as the Horus Heresy; the war decimates and eventually redefines the Imperium. Following the Horus Heresy, the crippled institution undergoes a centuries-long, often violent rebuilding.
Read more about this topic: Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)