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==Overview==
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 [[pskyerspsykers]] 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 surviv; 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 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 piracy are major enterprises within the Vortex.{{Fn|2}}
