What is Vigilus? The Warhammer Community dives into it, where hopefully we will be seeing new releases coming soon.
via Warhammer Community
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/11/21/vigilus-101gw-homepage-post-2/
Something big is coming to Vigilus. Over the past year, we’ve seen this beleaguered world evolve from a backwater to a key flashpoint, bringing together several major factions of the 41st Millennium in a struggle for supremacy.
With the Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Weekender on the horizon (and some exciting reveals on the way), we’re taking a look at the story on Vigilus so far. Not since Cadia has a world been so hotly fought over, or vital to the Imperium…
What is Vigilus?
Vigilus is a bastion world not far (galactically speaking) from what used to be the Cadian Gate. In the years before the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum, Vigilus was a vital source of manpower and material for the Imperium’s endless wars. The planet is made up of vast hive cities and colossal forges, broken up by dust-bowl wastelands and fortified reservoirs holding the planet’s scarce supply of potable water.
The Rift Opens
The opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum transformed Vigilus into a key flashpoint. Cut off from the Imperium proper, Imperium Nihilus – the vast, desperate swathe of worlds on the other side of the Great Rift – stands on the brink of destruction. Vigilus now stands guard over one of the few “safe” channels through the Great Rift known as the Nachmund Gauntlet. Were it to fall, the consequences would be dire, essentially cutting the worlds on the far side of the Cicatrix Maledictum entirely off from reinforcements.
The Coming of the Greenskins
From the Great Rift came hordes of Orks, spat from the maw of “Gork’s Grin” (as some Orks refer to the Great Rift) in a colossal force that crash-landed on the Vigilus. The wastelands of the planet were immediately turned into brutal battlegrounds, the cities of Vigilus only kept safe by their immense Bastion-class forcefields. Driven to a stalemate, the Orks turned their efforts to conducting vast death races, known as a Speedwaaagh!, across the planet’s surface.
The Cult Rises
Vigilus is also playing host to an insidious Genestealer Cult known as the Pauper Princes. They’ve been planning their Day of Ascension since before the arrival of the Great Rift, secretly spreading their vile creed across the entire planet. The arrival of the Orks necessitated they launch their uprising a bit earlier than intended, unwilling as they were to see years of work undone by an Ork invasion!
Now surging across the planet in vast numbers, the Genestealer Cults are one of the deadliest threats facing Vigilus, sabotaging supplies and setting deadly ambushes in a frighteningly coordinated assault – one that the Astra Militarum and Adepta Sororitas already on the planet could not deal with alone.
Aid From Beyond
The plight of Vigilus would not go unanswered, with the Ultramarines, Space Wolves, Iron Hands and more Chapters besides committing their forces to the planet as the conflict raging across its surface escalated. The Space Wolves would prove invaluable in driving several elements of the Genestealer Cults underground once more.
Aeldari of Craftworld Saim-Hann would also arrive to aid Vigilus in an effort to assassinate the Chaos cult leader Vanaddan the Firebrand. Despite accomplishing their mission, they were then massacred by the Imperial forces, and then returned to the planet to wage a brutal blood-feud against their would-be allies.
The War To Come
So, we have a world that finds itself on the new front line of a galaxy-spanning war, assailed from within by Genestealer and Chaos cults, raided by bands of Commorrites and Craftworlders, and with countless Orks wreaking havoc in the wastes waiting for the hard-pressed defences to finally fail – and this is just the beginning.