Games - Eye of Terror

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	Games - Eye of Terror

In the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame, the Eye of Terror has two meanings. In the fictional universe of the 41st millennium, it is a massive rift where Warp space and realspace combine. Eye of Terror also refers to the massive worldwide campaign run by Games Workshop in 2003.

In the Warhammer 40,000 Universe

Ten thousand years before the rise of the Imperium of Man, the ancient race known as the Eldar fell into decline, caused partially by an increase in the exercising of primal urges and carnal desires. The emotion generated by these excesses was channelled into the psychically charged medium that is the Immaterium (better known as The Warp), slowly forming into a new power. Gaining strength from the debased actions of the Eldar, the power eventually gave birth to the entity known as the Chaos god Slaanesh, whose birth cries drew the souls of billions of Eldar into the Warp, devastating the once proud race and bringing into being the warpspace/realspace interface that came to be known as the Eye of Terror.

The region of space contained within the Eye of Terror is literally a living hell, home to the darkest evils of the galaxy. The Eye stains the night skies of many worlds with a smear the colour of infected blood; able to be seen from every world within ten thousand light years. Deadly warp storms surround the Eye, making interstellar travel practically impossible.

Within the Eye, the laws of reality no longer apply; time flows at erratic rates, and matter and energy are indistinct. Horrible daemons fly through space along Warp currents, terrorizing any creature unfortunate enough to end up inside.

Most of the Traitor Legions fled into the Eye of Terror at the conclusion of the Horus Heresy, and use the Eye as a base of operations, striking out at opportune, seemingly random moments. The close proximity to Chaos causes horrific, painful mutations in the manner befitting the Chaos god that represents closest what the Marines hold in their hearts. Each legion has a homeworld somewhere within the Eye; hellish mockeries of their original worlds.

The Imperial world of Cadia lies nearest to the best-known stable gateway between realspace and the Eye. This world, and the surrounding systems, are all dedicated to the military in one way or another, for when Chaos embarks on an assault on the Imperium, these worlds are the first line of defence. Many believe that the stable route leading to Cadia is caused by an immense network of pylons on the surface of the planet. Another widely held belief is that these pylons were created by the Necron race, as part of their ancient war against the Warp-manipulating Old Ones. Their true origins and function, however, remains unknown. The pylons were created long before the Eye of Terror occurred, and through the fact that neither the C'tan nor any Necrontyr has/had any prophecing abilities defies the theory the Necrons created the pylons, it has yet to be proven.

Warhammer Fantasy

In earlier editions of both Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy, it was believed that the planet on which the Warhammer Fantasy fictional universe was located resided somewhere within the Eye of Terror. In later editions, this opinion has disappeared from the official material, although aspects of it are still staple topics of the fan community.

The Worldwide Campaign

The fictional Eye of Terror was used by Games Workshop as the setting for their 2003 worldwide Warhammer 40,000 campaign. The campaign itself represented Abaddon the Despoiler's Thirteenth Black Crusade against the Imperium, primarily the attempt by the united forces of Chaos to break through the Cadian Gate.

The campaign ran for eight weeks, in which more than forty thousand players registered over a quarter of a million games played on the campaign website. The conclusion of the campaign resulted in a minor victory for the forces of Disorder (Chaos, Dark Eldar, Orks, Tyranids and Necrons). The line was held in many places, but on the strategic level, the Disorder players were considered to have consistently out-fought and out-manoeuvred their opponents. The Chaos forces made slow but somewhat steady progress on many fronts, yet made no decisive victory, especially when a "backstage" plan to gain a foothold in the Eldar Webway system turned into a complete and total failure.

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