Earth Time, Year 15,278 CE.
After six internal wars, with the Solar System's resources steadily depleted, a hidden laboratory belonging to the Human Federation was established.
Funded without limit by the upper echelons, supplied with the best minds, and furnished with the most advanced equipment, its experts solved one technological challenge after another under the watchful eyes of the world.
Now, at long last, the long-awaited breakthrough had arrived:
the sublight engine was complete.
For the first time in history, humanity had earned the qualification to step beyond the Solar System and into the greater stars.
This advance ensured that mankind would not remain forever trapped within its home system.
---
Meanwhile, in a distant corner of the Milky Way, the Aeldari had reached their own zenith.
After sixty million years of history, and countless trials, they had finally defeated the last of their rivals.
Even with the occasional interference of Warp entities and strange anomalies, they had prevailed.
At this time, the Chaos Gods of the Warp were otherwise occupied — gambling together in their endless games, or simply disinterested in the Prime Universe.
And so, within the galaxy, no race remained to challenge the Aeldari.
The Aeldari had become the uncrowned rulers of the Milky Way.
Civilizations across the galaxy began to bend the knee.
The spiral of stars, over a hundred thousand light-years wide, became their domain alone.
With supremacy came privilege.
Countless species, whether willing or not, were required to send tribute.
The finest resources in the galaxy flowed inexorably into Aeldari hands.
Even among the commoners, it became clear that lifelong struggles were losing meaning.
Everything once sought through effort now seemed within effortless reach.
What should I do with myself?
That question spread through Aeldari society.
Though life grew ever more comfortable, idleness became their new theme.
Hedonism began to flourish.
And among a people so acutely sensitive in both body and spirit, with no external threat to restrain them, indulgence became not just common — it became an art.
One day, when a tributary race offered homage with slight disrespect, the Aeldari leadership responded by detonating the race's sun as though it were a firework.
Watching the survivors swallow their rage in silence, the Aeldari realized the truth:
their supremacy was unshakable.
Arrogance flared within them.
Their humility and grace curdled into conceit.
Their pride swelled — swollen beyond measure.
Some, more rational than the rest, could not understand the change in their kin.
Why had things shifted so swiftly?
Thus, alongside the rising hedonists, traditional factions endured — those who continued their research, martial training, and artistic pursuits as before.
Only now, their work was cushioned by privileges and wealth beyond imagination.
---
The Warp — the Crimson Heaven.
Seated upon his throne, Orsaga propped his chin with one hand and gazed through the veils of dimension.
With a single glance, he saw the events unfolding across tens of thousands of Aeldari colonies.
Threads of fate traced back to the deeper Warp — where the fifth Chaos God slumbered:
the twin-aspected deity, bearer of the godhoods of Excess and Pleasure, and Love and Beauty —
the Prince of Pleasure, Slaanesh.
As an entity spanning the timeline, Slaanesh had already taken shape in the future.
Only the right conditions were needed for awakening.
And now, the countdown to that awakening neared its end.
As his slumber waned, the Aeldari would fall into corruption, twisting ever deeper into decadence — until at last, they themselves became his nourishment.
The Aeldari — who had ruled the galaxy, who had struggled for sixty million years — were destined for this.
Their greatest significance was simply this: to become Slaanesh's first meal upon his birth.
It was cruel, but already inscribed upon the timeline.
Not even the other Chaos Gods could prevent it.
Interference would only hasten his awakening.
Thus, even if they despised him, the four elders who idled in the Warp — playing games, scheming, or indulging in diversions — chose to watch quietly.
Life continued as usual:
those who brewed their plots brewed, those who fought fought, those who played played.
---
Earth Time, Year 15,887 CE.
Humanity's sublight vessels were no longer a handful of prototypes — they had entered mass production.
The large-scale development of planetary systems beyond the Solar neighborhood was finally underway.
But for centuries prior, exploration had been perilous and slow.
Voyages took years to reach their destinations, followed by decades of study, and then years again for the return.
Altogether, each mission consumed a lifetime — unless one lived to humanity's new average of three hundred and fifty years.
And even then, there was no guarantee of survival.
With little experience in long-range travel and limited logistical support, a single mishap meant certain death.
Barely one in four expeditions returned.
Every explorer gambled their life.
Success meant a hero's glory. Failure meant a martyr's name, etched upon the rolls of the lost.
It was, in many ways, an age of discovery akin to Earth's early seafaring era — when ships first crossed vast oceans to reach unknown continents.
Each journey held the same risk: the promise of untold wealth, or death and disappearance.
Yet ambition burned bright.
Drawn by the lure of new worlds, wave after wave of explorers hurled themselves into the stars.
Thus began humanity's own Age of Sail —
an age not of oceans, but of the star-sea.
No pirate kings had yet arisen — for in this age, starships were too costly, and common brigands lacked even the means to leave their ports.
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