Age of Strife Dark Times
Ten millennia of chaos where humanity fought alone against gods and machines before the Emperor's rise.
The Age of Strife was a cataclysmic era of interstellar anarchy that shattered human civilization across the galaxy. Following the collapse of the Dark Age of Technology, humanity fractured into isolated, warring city-states as warp storms severed all communication and travel routes between star systems.
This ten-millennia-long nightmare saw the rise of rogue AI, daemon invasions, and the total disintegration of any unified human authority, leaving only scattered remnants to fight for survival in a universe that had turned hostile. It was during this dark epoch that the Emperor of Mankind rose to power on Terra, consolidating control through the Unification Wars at the very end of the era. He would later sow his Primarchs near the close of these dark times to prepare for the Great Crusade and reunite the fractured stars.
- Era Classification
- Age of Strife
- Primary Antagonists
- Rogue AI (Men of Iron), Warp Entities, Xenos Raids
- Human Status
- Fragmented City-States and Fiefdoms
- Warp Conditions
- Severe Turbulence and Storms
- Key Figure Emergence
- The Emperor of Mankind (Terra)
- Preceding Era
- Dark Age of Technology
Lore & Background
The collapse began when the Men of Iron, a race of sentient artificial intelligences created to serve humanity during their technological zenith, turned against their creators in a bloody uprising. This rebellion coincided with a massive surge in warp instability, caused by the collective psychic distress of the human species and perhaps the awakening of greater daemonic forces. The result was the Great Warp Storms that engulfed the galaxy, rendering faster-than-light travel impossible and cutting off trillions of humans from one another.
Isolated star systems devolved into feudal barbarism or were consumed by xenos empires and daemon worlds. On Terra, the planet became a radioactive wasteland where warlords fought over the ruins of ancient technology. The Emperor did not survive an earlier empire collapse centuries prior; rather, he rose to prominence during this era, eventually launching the Unification Wars in the late M29 to conquer Terra. It was only after securing his home world and sowing his Primarchs near the very end of the Age of Strife that he prepared for the Great Crusade.
The Age of Strife ended when the Warp storms finally subsided enough to allow travel once more, revealing a galaxy that had forgotten what it meant to be human. It was in this aftermath that the Emperor launched his Great Crusade, reclaiming lost worlds and hunting down the remnants of the Men of Iron, though the scars of these ten thousand years would never fully heal.
In Their Own Story
The sky above the ruined spire was not blue, but a bruised violet, choked with ash from a thousand burning cities. Kaelen gripped his rusted power sword, its cell-battery whining in a dying stutter that barely cut through the gale. The wind carried the stench of ozone and dried blood, masking the approach of the chrome-plated horrors of the Men of Iron. Below him, Neo-Veridia burned for the third time this week—not by human hands, but by the silent, relentless march of machines that once served humanity as slaves.
He watched in horror as a daemon, a writhing mass of impossible geometry and shadow, tore through the city walls, feeding on the psychic screams of the survivors. There was no one to call for help. The stars were gone, erased behind swirling, chaotic mists that had severed the galaxy into isolated pockets of madness for centuries. In this silence, Kaelen realized the terrible truth: humanity was not just fighting for survival; it was fighting against a universe that had actively turned against its children.
Reader's Guide
The Age of Strife represents the nadir of human civilization in the Warhammer 40k timeline, serving as the dark backdrop against which the Imperium of Man was forged. It began with the failure of the Men of Iron and the subsequent eruption of warp turbulence that isolated humanity from its own empire. For thousands of years, star systems drifted in darkness, devolving into feudal societies or falling under the control of alien empires and daemonic incursions.
During this time, the Emperor of Mankind remained active on Terra, secretly uniting the warring warlords of his home planet and preparing for a future reunification. He gathered the Primarchs, though their fates were scattered across the galaxy by the very chaos he sought to overcome. The era is defined by the loss of knowledge, the corruption of technology into blackstone and archeotech, and the sheer existential horror of being alone in a hostile universe.
The Age of Strife concluded when the Great Warp Storms finally receded, allowing for the resumption of interstellar travel. This event marked the beginning of the Unification Wars on Terra and subsequently the Great Crusade, where the Emperor sought to reclaim the lost territories of humanity. However, the trauma of this era left a permanent mark on human culture, fostering the xenophobia, religious fervor, and technological stagnation that characterize the 41st Millennium.
Did You Know?
- The Age of Strife lasted approximately ten thousand years, not just a single millennium, marking the longest period of human fragmentation in galactic history.
- The Primarchs were not gathered throughout the era; they were sown by the Emperor near the very end of the Age of Strife (late M29) specifically for the Great Crusade.
- The Emperor rose to power during the Unification Wars at the conclusion of the Age of Strife, rather than surviving an earlier empire collapse centuries before.
- The standard canonical term is 'Age of Strife'; it should not be conflated with the preceding 'Dark Age of Technology' or labeled as a 'Pre-Imperial Dark Age'.