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→The Gloaming Worlds
{{GalaxyPortal}}
{{QuoteBox
|quote = '''''"Listen! Listen, don’t you hear? They sing to us, such a sad lament..."'''''
|source=—Last recorded words of the [[Navigator]] [[Sol Burgundus]]{{Fn|2a}}
|}}
[[Image:ScreamingVortex.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Screaming Vortex Map]]
The '''Screaming Vortex''' is one of two massive [[Warp Storm]]s which separate the [[Calixis Sector]] of the [[Imperium]] from the [[Koronus Expanse]] {{Fn|1}}. Within the storm, several worlds are known to the [[Chaos]] renegades who reside in the region.
The history of the Screaming Vortex is lost to legend and myth, but a popular legend has been propagated by the denizens of the Vortex throughout its history: before it was formed, the sector now dominated by the Screaming Vortex was thought to be a nest of [[Eldar]] worlds until the [[Fall of the Eldar]]. As the [[Eye of Terror]] erupted, the Screaming Vortex was formed as one of several secondary warp storms. Uniquely, the Vortex resonates with the tormented voices of the slain original residents, audible to any [[psykers]] outside the Vortex, and to all within, hence its name; when the storm wanes, the voices grow louder and more desperate.
The Screaming Vortex encompasses an area much larger than the original grouping of worlds it formed around, swallowing many additional systems and even pulling additional systems into itself via realspace disruption. It also has varied in size throughout its past - the world of [[Saint Annard's Penance]] was thought to be held within the Vortex for a time, though it currently sits in Imperial hands at the edge of the [[Malfian Sub-Sector]]. As with many Warpstorms, relative time and space within the Screaming Vortex are highly mutable as the laws of physics are constantly warped by the influence of the Immaterium. The [[Imperium]] remains largely ignorant of the interior of the Vortex, and the various powers within are largely preoccupied trying to dominate one another or otherwise survive; but if they were to unite even for a short time, they would make a powerful force against the Imperium. Because of the difficulty of traversing the Vortex, and the tides of the storm constantly shift the relative positions of [[System|planetary systems]] therein, conquest is a difficult proposition, and a given warlord will have considerable difficulty conquering more than a handful of worlds at a time or for a meaningful length of time. Aside from small-scale wars and developing war materiel, [[slavery ]] and [[Pirate|piracy]] are major enterprises within the Vortex.{{Fn|2}}
==Layout==
*[[Xurunt]] — A [[feral world]] of primitive savages and massive beasts.
*[[The Hollows]] — A [[forge world]] trapped in perpetual civil war and mined nearly to total exhaustion.
*The [[The Writhing World]] — A world covered with enormous, maggot-like lifeforms.
*[[Sacgrave]] — A small, ruined world saturated with the Warp, and formerly the seat of the pirate lord Margrave until the Eldar drove the world to ruin and Margrave into hiding.
**The ''[[Kasserkratch]]'' — Margrave's flagship, until he fled Sacgrave and the ship was lost in the Vortex; its final resting place is a subject of interest in many legends and to treasure hunters.
===The Ragged Helix===
The region known as the [[Ragged Helix]] is the line of demarcation into the Inner Ring, where the relative stability of the Gloaming Worlds gives way to the heavy influence of the [[warp]] within the Inner Ring. The Ragged Helix is a chain of asteroids that hold their own atmospheres, and impossibly connected by bridges. It's not determined whether this occurs due to forgotten xenos technology within the area, or due to the influence of the Warp. It's home to numerous workshops and shipyards of many [[techpriests]] of the [[Dark Mechanicus]]. More infamously, the Ragged Helix is home to the [[Pirate Princes of the Ragged Helix|Pirate Princes]] that plague the Screaming Vortex.{{Fn|2}}
===The Forbidden Portal===
The [[Forbidden Portal]] is a [[Webway Gate]] near Messia and a similar distance from the Screaming Vortex's heart as the 13th Stations of Passage. It is often used by [[Dark Eldar]] raiders scouring the robust and hardy populations of the local worlds for [[slave]]s. These Eldar not only see the Vortex as a fertile supply for slaves, but as opportunities for the thrill of challange against the most dangerously skilled warriors and devious plotters attracted to this area of space. Two notable Drukhari [[Kabal]]s that routinely use the portal are the [[Kabal of Crimson Woe]] and the [[Children of Thorns]], both gathering slaves in pursuit of differing goals. The former has goal to overthrow [[Asdrubael Vect]] while the latter seeks to tear down the existing order of [[Commoragh]] entirely and replace it with their own.{{Fn|3b}}
Some say there is another group that uses the Forbidden Portal, one that doesn't do so to harvest slaves. It is unknown who these brightly-clad and deadly warrior hunters of incredible grace might be.{{Fn|3b}}
===The Inner Ring===
===The Lower Vortex===
All the worlds at the deepest point of the screaming vortex are [[Daemon World]]s:
*[[Crucible (planetScreaming Vortex)|Crucible]] — a world which re-shapes according to the [[Chaos God]] whose forces currently hold sway.
*[[Contrition]] — a world of daemonic cities.
*[[The Frozen Heart]] — The eye of the storm, and reputed to be where the dynamo which fuels the warp storm is located.
==Sources==
{{CiteCitation issues}}*{{Endn|1}}: [[Rogue Trader Rulebook]], {{Cite ThisMarker End}}
*{{Endn|2}}: [[Black Crusade Core Rulebook]], pgs. 319–339
**{{Endn|2a}}: pg. 323
**{{Endn|2b}}: pgs. 344 & 345
*3: [[Black Crusade: The Tome of Decay]]:
**{{Endn|3a}} pg. 31