Overview
The Hecuba Sector is a background setting for Warhammer 40,000, 40k skirmish and the Dark Heresy RPG. The Hecuba Sector is part of the Segmentum Obscurus, borders the Halo Stars and has proximity to the Calixis Sector featured in Dark Heresy and to the Scarus sector featured in Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn[1] and Ravenor[2] novels. The intention is to develop the Hecuba sector as a fully detailed setting which moves through three time frames:
- The Glory of Mankind – In which politics conspiracies and heresies dominate.
- The Drawing of Shadows – In which things start to fall apart, and the drums of destruction start to beat.
- The Bloody Tide – In which hell is loosed and all becomes a desperate bid for survival
Primary Volumes
The Hecuba sector is divided into six major volumes:
- The Mandragora Sub-Sector
- The Witch Head Nebula
- The Ephisian Sub Sector
- The Stygies Cloud
- The Hilician Sub-Sector
- The Halo Margins
The Three Eras
Most of the Hecuba Sector setting is described as it is during an era referred to as The Glory of Mankind. This is a period which stretches from the late 40th Millennium to the last few centuries of the 41st Millennium. Things, however, do not stand still in the Hecuba sector and as the sector is pushed with increasing spead towards terrible events it moves through the era of The Drawing of Shadows and into the terror of the time of The Bloody Tide. Each of these later two eras is described separately in terms of the major events that take place and the effects they have on the locations in the setting.
- The Glory of Mankind: Defined as being a time starting from the mid 40th Millennium until 720.M41 when the Lost Messenger enters the Shebol System.
- The Drawing of Shadows: A time of increasing chaos and strife defined as lasting from 720.M41 to 963.M41 when communication is lost with the medical facility in the Hippocras System
- The Bloody Tide: A time of terror and destruction defined as beginning with the rise of the Children of Typhus in 964.M41.