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Warhammer 40K

Warp rift

The Maelstrom

A churning galactic-scale warp storm in the south, a lawless haven for pirates, renegades, and the servants of the Dark Gods.

Astrographic Chart

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Chart of Warhammer 40,000

The Maelstrom is a titanic warp storm coiling through the heart of the Segmentum Ultima, second only to the Eye of Terror in size and menace. Like its northern counterpart it is a permanent rift where the Immaterium boils into realspace, wreathing hundreds of worlds in unnatural tempest and shrouding the region in perpetual danger.

Unlike the tightly held domains of the Traitor Legions, the Maelstrom is a chaotic frontier of shifting allegiances. Renegade warbands of Chaos Space Marines, pirate fleets, and cults beyond number make their lairs among its storm-wracked stars, warring endlessly against one another and against the Imperium that hems them in. The howling tides carry Chaos Daemons into realspace whenever the storms surge, and no world within reach of the Maelstrom's fury sleeps easy.

For millennia the Imperium has struggled to contain the threat, ringing the storm with fortress worlds and vigilant fleets. Yet the Maelstrom cannot be conquered, only watched, for it is a piece of the Warp itself given a foothold in the material realm. It endures as a festering sore in the galaxy's south, ever ready to spill its horrors upon the surrounding void.