+++

Cults of the Green Man are thriving in the Imperial frontier of the Prigorian Divide.

Promethium storages, way stations, trade harbours and mining towns are witnessing a surge in belief practices paying tribute to the verdant version of the Emperor reborn as the Green Man.

Viridic tabernacles and shrines have become abundant in intersections and crossroads throughout the Rift. Way chapels, known in the region as Woochte, are becoming more and more frequent. Particular customs and rituals, like dried leaves, holy thorns, luciferin candles and plasticrete garlands mixed with written devotions, are scattered throughout the divide like a million small beacons of spiritual light illuminating the bleak Imperial frontier.

Since the sudden rise in Imperial activity across the divide – an activity which ended as abruptly as it began when the crusader fleets left – they have provided more than spiritual light; On countless occasions, the Green Man has performed miracles. He has wept, bled, or moved his eyes, even those carved in rockrete. Some have taken vengeance or made dead flowers bloom once again. Others have been heard chanting at night in a rasping, dryatide voice;

“Green Man Cometh, Green Man Cometh!”

+++

The idea for the Prigorian Divide was born early 2016 for the Pilgrym Game, where I developed a narrative, which has haunted me since;

The story of nature and its place among humanity in the war torn future of Warhammer 40.000…

It was here – on a drifting Space Hulk in the divide – that Bio-Archaeologist Brostten Haggwers and his team of Bio-Explorers discovered small fragments of Archeo-tech, which has become known among Imperial chroniclers as The Daerwynne Palimpsest.

The Prigorian Divide is bleak Imperial frontier space.

It is a vast interstellar void separating the expanses of Imperial colonization in the Gothic Sector from the fading Halo Stars of Crataegus Fragmentum, an old region of space in the outer fringes of the galactic north. Among local Rogue Traders the divide is known simply as ‘the Rift’ (no, not that rift, Cicatrix Maledictum, which Games Workshop developed later for Warhammer 8th Edition).

Prior to the Thorn Moons Crusade – where the gathered might of an Imperial crusade devastated a hundred Thorn Moons and their boreal inhabitants – Crataegus Fragmentum had been left largely unexplored. Mainly because of the Prigorian Divide, which kept the Thorn Moons out of sight from official Imperial concerns.

+ Prigorians +

The Prigorian Divide is well known in Segmentum Obscurus for its wealth of natural ressources and Imperial mineral companies have run ore extraction facilities in the region for countless centuries. Rogue Traders and explorers have been drawn to its way stations, trade harbours and promethium storages, which are dotted throughout the divide to facilitate long-distance space travel required to traverse the region.

There are great uncertainties about the exact number of inhabitants in the divide today, but the continuous increase in mineral extraction and mining facilities has led to a slow but steady rise in permanent settlements during recent millennia.

Even though native-born ‘Prigorians’ can now be counted in billions there are only a few large hive cities in the region. The remaining settlements are much smaller, far and few between and situated near natural ressources, which are extracted, sold and dispatched to traders in Segmentum Obscurus – and beyond.

For Prigorians faith seems to be the only guiding light illuminating the otherwise bleak Imperial frontier!

+ The Ark of Omen +

For our new Arks of Omen collaborative, I have decided to continue my Crataegus Legion with a narrative that is more human than during the Thorn Moons Crusade. As human as it gets in 40K!

While the divide is frontier space for the Imperium, for millennia the Elder Ones have been slowly but meticulously preparing the Prigorians for the Great Metamorphosis;

The transformation of the Golden Throne into the Green Seat of the Emperor Reborn!

One of their preparations have been to influence the Prigorians using clandestine activities and arcane witchcraft. Over the course of centuries, this has lead to the rise of countless Green Man Cults among the Prigorians;

So far I have built and prepared 30 cultists from the Cult of the Viridic Cross, Cult of the Verdant Heart and Cult of the Brier Moon. They are some of the most devout followers of the Green Man – and on route to the Primogenitor!

Green Man Cometh!