"It seems the High Lords of Terra approve of the work we've done together. We've been given our Crusade...The Sabbat Worlds!" — Warmaster Slaydo, after the Khulan Campaign
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade was an Imperial Crusade fought over the course of more than 45 standard years beginning in 755.M41 which had not yet ended by 791.M41, to retake the Sabbat Worlds Sector located at the rimward edge of the Segmentum Pacificus from the heretical Forces of Chaos. This Crusade was one of the largest and most significant Imperial military operations undertaken in recent history and ultimately ended in the reconquest of the sector by the armed forces of the Imperium of Man.
Origins:
The Sabbat Worlds:
Situated along a rimward portion of the Segmentum Pacificus, the region now known as the Sabbat Worlds Sector was first annexed for Imperial colonisation in the 35th Millennium. This often volatile region of space is composed of over 100 inhabited star systems, subdivided into a number of discrete territories or Sub-sectors, most notably the Newfound Trailing, the Khan Group, the Cabal Systems, the Carcaradon Cluster and the Erinyes Group. It is rumoured that the Blood Pact, a highly organised Chaos warrior-cult devoted to the Blood God Khorne, originally came from a star system in this sector. First annexed for Imperial colonisation in the 35th Millennium, the name Sabbat refers to the area's original redeemer, Saint Sabbat, a young girl who received a vision from the Emperor of Mankind to bring the region into the Imperium during a Crusade that lasted for 105 standard years and began in 500.M35.
By the 37th Millennium Mankind was well-established throughout the region, with an estimated population of roughly five trillion and a thriving local economic infrastructure. However, due to its exposure to the eternal threats of the outer dark along the galactic rim, control of the Sabbat Worlds was ever disputed with the Forces of Chaos and various xenos. Throughout the 38th Millennium, the region suffered a series of brutal wars and conflicts with the barbaric Chaos-worshipping human tribes of the so-called Sanguinary Worlds, located further rimwards of the spinward extent of the Sabbat Worlds, and the area soon became known as a "troublesome province" to the Administratum. However, during the first centuries of the 41st Millennium, the situation altered drastically. A charismatic, brutal warlord known as an "Archon" rallied the tribes of the Sanguinary Worlds to war, and a series of assaults began from galactic trailward into the region. The assault was thought at first to be a return to the minor Chaotic conflicts of the 38th Millennium in the region, but in the years following 600.M41, it became impossible to ignore the true threat presented by Chaos Undivided. The Ruinous Powers had decided to take the whole region away from the Imperium and launched a series of devastating attacks into the sector, conquering and destroying everything in their path. The ultimate goal of the Forces of Chaos in the sector was to drive out the Imperium and reestablish their mastery over the worlds they had been driven from by Saint Sabbat and her original Imperial Crusade in the 35th Millennium.
These Sabbat Incursions were just one of a half-dozen major Chaotic invasions suffered by the Imperial star systems of the Segmentum Pacificus during this period. The Imperial defence of the Sabbat Worlds proved valiant but ultimately unequal to the task, though it should be noted that the Imperium was simultaneously fighting eight other significant campaigns throughout Imperial-controlled space during this period. To consolidate their lines of defence, the Segmentum Pacificus High Command had to make bitter decisions, sacrificing certain portions of Imperial space in order to enhance the Imperium's best chance to resist the Chaotic onslaught. Severely underestimating the Archon's forces, the High Command tried to do what they thought best for the Sabbat Worlds. But ultimately, the meager Imperial defence was not enough and the sector was conquered wholesale by the servants of the Ruinous Powers, returning the Sabbat Worlds to their heretical roots.
