- ca. M28 Age of Trade Begins - Despite being cut off by the turbulent Warp storms that raged across the galaxy, the Squat homeworlds are able to take advantage when there is a slight abating of these Warp Storms that leads to encounters with other alien races. While the rest of the Imperium was still locked in the wars of the Age of Strife, the Squats made contact with both Orks and Aeldari, and though initially hostile, quickly realised that trade was a more practical arrangement. The Squats remained carefully neutral in the numerous conflicts between Aeldari and Orks, maintaining trade links with both sides. (These events are now non-canon; see Leagues of Votann for current Squat canon.)
- ca. M28 Old Night Falls Across Terra - By the 28th Millennium Old Earth's global government broke down completely and the planet divided into dozens of inter-warring nations. After two and a half thousand standard years of continuous warfare, little remained of the once sophisticated Terran civilisation of the past. The planet had become a battleground fought over by techno-barbarian warlords and their warrior hordes. This was a dark time for the people of Earth -- a time dominated by brutal rulers like Kalagann of Ursh, Cardinal Tang, and the most infamous of all, the half-mad/half-genius Narthan Dume, Tyrant of the Pan-Pacific Empire. The world was wracked by never-ending conflict as one tyrant displaced another. Petty empires rose and disintegrated; tribes formed, were destroyed and re-formed as diminishing, brutalised shadows of lost glories and forgotten triumphs. Uncounted billions died unknown and unremembered, while whispered names such as the Unspeakable King and the Seven Neverborn left legends to terrify generations to come. Anarchy and bloodshed was lord over all.
- ca. Late M28 The Emperor Emerges - From out of this seemingly endless cycle of violence and doom among the ruins of Old Earth a new leader emerged in the late 28th Millennium -- a warlord more powerful than any before Him. He was the man who would become the Emperor and His power lay in His rationality and potent psychic precognitive powers, and his mastery of science was as unequalled as His might as a warrior, although few suspected the true range of his powers and abilities.
Sources[]
- Codex: Space Marines (3rd Edition), pg. 45
- The Horus Heresy Book One: Betrayal (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 13-15
- Warhammer 40,000: Compilation (2nd Edition), "Space Marine Armour," by Rick Priestley, pg. 19
- Warhammer 40,000: Compendium (1st Edition), "Chapter Approved: Legiones Astartes," by Rick Priestley & "Warhammer 40,000: Squats - Space Dwarf Warriors & Mercenaries," by Bryan Ansell, Nigel Stillman & Graeme Davis, pp. 19, 165
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