The Black Cubes are five ancient weapons of mass destruction created millions of years ago to serve as weapons between several of the first sentient races to inhabit the Milky Way Galaxy. Only five of these weapons were created or have been encountered so far by Imperial forces. Whatever their original origin, the Black Cubes were Chaos artefacts whose powers could only be activated through the use of a blood ritual. Once initiated, the weapon's activation phase typically took a standard Terran day to complete and the device could not be deactivated due to the dangerous build-up of potent Warp energies. A Black Cube possessed the power to completely transform a target world's climate, transmuting its atmosphere into toxic fumes that were inimical to all forms of life, unleashing horrific c