40K: Vigilus Is Shaping Up to Be the Next Armageddon
GW has been dropping a lot of hints on what’s happening on Vigilus, and what it may mean for 40K’s future.
Vigilus is clearly an important world in the new 8th Edition post Great Rift 40K universe. We have been getting hits of it’s potential back since the Drukhari Codex.
Here’s the summary of what we know so far via those Loremasters at Lexicanum who have putting it all together:
Vigilus
Vigilus is located within the Imperium Nihilus and is one of the only stable routes from one side of the Great Rift to the other, making it strategically vital. As a result, Vigilus has become a sanctuary for refugees crammed within its Hive-sprawls who wish to traverse the Nachmund Gauntlet. Each such sprawl is protected by psychically charged Bastion-class force fields that render comatose any who would seek to breach their boundaries, enabling the defenders to slaughter them at leisure. These force fields proved so effective that even when an Ork Waaagh! smashed into Vigilus, the greenskins were unable to assail the hivesprawls beyond, so took to seeking entertainment elsewhere by engaging in violent races across the sweeping open plains that separate the vast hivesprawls. However, since the Great Rift tore across the galaxy, these Bastion-class force fields began to experience glitches, and eventually collapsed entirely to leave the hivesprawls open to attack. To make matters worse, the tide of Orks that poured past the inactive force field networks also had other, unforeseen consequences.
A Genestealer Cult known as the Claw of the Thirsting Wyrm has been thriving on Vigilus, having taken root in the depths below the reservoirs known as the Greigan Hollow. The Ork attack directly forced the Cult’s hand, creating a bloody uprising. Though Skitariiforces were able to contain the uprising, they were unable to find and eliminate the Cult’s source. This eventually led to a Space Wolves strike team under Haldor Icepelt to arrive at Vigilus after being thrown off course while chasing Chaos forces rampaging across the Stygius Sector. Upon arrival, the Space Wolves vessel Fins of Fimnir forced a passage through the flotilla of Ork spacecraft orbiting Vigilus and Strike Force Icepelt made planetfall. Using their gene-boosted tracking abilities, the Space Wolves were able to track down the source of the Cult. When Icepelt led his warriors into the ruined cityscape of Greigan Hollow that the full extent of the Genestealer Cults menace was revealed and the true battle for the survival of Vigilus began.
In addition to the Genestealer and Ork threats, Vigulus has become a target for the Kabal of the Black Heart, who have annihilated whole flotillas of escape craft, before spiriting their captured Human cargo back to Commorragh.
Special Note: Though on Warhammer-Community site it is said that Genestealer Cult known as the Claw of the Thirsting Wyrm have major uprising on Vigilus and Skitarii fought with them, in the Devoted Sons (Sourcebook), description on the back of cover said that Cult of the Pauper Princes is the main source of Genestealer Cult rising (and Skitarii was their greatest enemy). This can be either an mistake or a fact that there are not one Cult of Genestealers on the Vigilus but many.
Vigilus is on the north side of that “tunnel” through the Great Rift in between Cadia and Belis Corona.
This Place is Hopping
So right off the bat we have the following races involved with the world from reading the various sourcebooks:
- Orks
- Genesteal Cults
- Ad-Mech
- Space Wolves
- Drukhari
- Chaos Marines
- Space Marines (Iron Hands & Brazan Claws)
- Astra Militarum
Enter Wake the Dead
And now we have the announcement of the arrival of Saim-Hain Craftworld and the Ultramarines. This a new one, as we have an unfolding narrative story that is the subject of TWO of those ever more common 40K Starter Boxes we were talking about last week. With all those races in the mix, and Orktober around the corner I have a feeling that GW is setting up Vigilus to be 8th Edition’s version of the new “key world to fight over” like Armageddon used to be. The Orks on the world are named: “The Speedwaaagh”. I would expect to see Vigilus returned to in future boxed sets, or even campaign supplements in the months ahead. Who knows – the world might make a great setting for a Global Campaign next summer.
~In any case – Orktober is just around the corner. Any bets the Greenskins are going to be all over Vigilus within a month?
Coming to Vigilus soon I’d wager.
