During the dark and terrible times known to later historians as the Nova Terra Interregnum, when the Imperium fractured into warrior factions during the 34th Millennium, there exist in what records remain scattered and veiled references to a great threat arising from the Ghoul Stars known as the Pale Wasting. Much of the extant evidence relating to this threat has been censored or purposely destroyed, but there are contradictory indications which describe the nature of the threat as both a "Star-spawned plague" that swept away scores of worlds and as "nightmare engines" slaughtering the populations of whole sectors. Those partial records which have been uncovered suggest that the threat was xenos in nature and that more than one Space Marine Chapter may have been completely destroyed in th