The War of the Bleeding Dawn

"They sought to drown the stars in blood. We answered with light."

— High Loremaster Elyria Vaelith

Overview

A brutal campaign fought between Craftworld Vanari and the Word Bearers warband "The Choir of Entropy", the War of the Bleeding Dawn (735.M41) was a defining conflict that tested Vanari’s philosophy of enlightened warfare against the raw horror of Chaos Undivided.

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Key Events

1. The Corruption of Maiden World Elennarë

• The Word Bearers, led by Dark Apostle Vorthugal the Unshaped, defiled the Vanari-aligned Maiden World Elennarë, using its world-spirit to amplify a warp ritual.
• The planet’s skies turned black-and-scarlet, birthing a daemonic rift that threatened to spread to neighboring systems.

2. Vanari’s Response

• The Vanari, refusing to abandon the world’s spirit, deployed Hyshian Blademasters and Rune Mages to cleanse the corruption.
• Their strategy relied on geomantic warfare: using wraithbone obelisks to anchor "pure" psychic nodes, countering the Word Bearers’ ritual.

3. The Battle of the Shattered Monolith

• The climax of the war occurred at Elennarë’s heart, where the Word Bearers had erected a living altar from fused corpses.
• Regent-Lord Kaelis Sunborn led a suicide charge of Wraithblades, their spirits immune to corruption, to disrupt the ritual.
• The Vanari Rune Mages completed a counter-ritual, channeling the Maiden World’s dying spirit into a searing blast of light that:
  • Banished the daemons.
  • Reduced Vorthax to a calcified statue.
  • Shattered Elennarë into a barren husk.

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Tactical Innovations

• Wraithbone Geomancy: Vanari psychomancers manipulated the planet’s ley lines like a "circuit board" to disrupt Chaos.
• The Silent Gambit: Blademasters fought without battle-cries, their discipline stemming the Word Bearers’ hate-fueled prayers.
• The Price of Purity: The Vanari rejected orbital bombardment, opting for precise strikes to save the world-spirit—a decision that cost thousands of lives.

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Aftermath & Legacy

• The Bleeding Dawn: The war’s name comes from the blood-red auroras that lingered over Elennarë’s corpse for decades.
• A Pyrrhic Victory: The Vanari saved the sector from Chaos, but the loss of Elennarë fractured their ruling council. Some saw it as wisdom; others, weakness.
• Vorthugal’s Curse: The petrified Dark Apostle’s remains were taken to Vanari as a trophy. To this day, his hollow eyes weep black tears, a grim reminder.

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Quotes

• Dark Apostle Vorthax: "You burn a world to spite the gods. You are no better than us."
• Regent-Lord Kaelis: "Ashes are the fate of all. But from ours, a phoenix rises. From yours? Only silence."