Pravus Cruento
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Conquest & Campaigns – How It Actually Works
This system exists to let stories grow into something larger without turning the setting into chaos or a race to the biggest gun.At the highest level, the galaxy is shaped by Major Factions. These are the great powers everyone recognises. The Imperium, the Orks, Chaos, the Aeldari, the Tyranids. They move slowly, deliberately, and with weight.
No single player controls them. Instead, they are guided by moderation to keep the setting coherent. Think of them less as factions you play, and more as the tide your stories move within.
Major Factions
Major Factions define the state of the galaxy. They decide where pressure builds, where wars ignite, and what the wider tone of the setting feels like.Players don't command them outright. What you do is contribute to them.
This matters, because it prevents the usual spiral of escalation. No one can suddenly decide their force has conquered a sector or toppled a crusade. The larger picture remains stable, and when it shifts, it does so for a reason.
Minor Factions – Where You Actually Play
Your stories live in Minor Factions.These are the things you directly control. A Guard regiment. An Inquisitorial cell. A Mechanicus enclave. A Space Marine Chapter. A Rogue Trader dynasty.
Outside the Imperium, it might be an Ork warband, a Chaos cult, a renegade host.
These groups have their own tone, their own leadership, and their own problems. They can succeed, fail, fracture, or grow. That freedom is the point.
They are not isolated, though. Everything they do sits within the interests, limitations, and pressures of their parent Major Faction.
Threads – The Day-to-Day
Most of the game happens in threads, and not all of them are battles.You might be fighting through a hostile manufactorum, chasing down a xenos signal, or holding a collapsing line. Equally, you might be negotiating, recruiting, investigating, or dealing with internal politics.
Solo play is fine. Group play naturally carries more weight. Neither is invalid.
What matters is the quality of the writing, the sense of consequence, and how well the thread fits into the world around it. This is not a numbers game. You are not grinding for points.
Progress (What You're Actually Building)
As threads are completed and approved, your faction begins to build momentum.We deliberately keep this abstract. It might represent influence, intelligence gathered, logistical strength, battlefield success, or simply the sense that your faction is becoming harder to ignore.
It is not conquest. Not yet.
Think of it as preparation. You are positioning yourself to matter when something larger begins.
When Small Stories Start to Matter
At a certain point, individual efforts begin to align.This is where cooperation comes in. Minor Factions can pool what they've built, formally or informally, and push towards something bigger. You might see several Guard regiments and an Inquisition cell preparing the ground for a sector offensive. Or multiple Ork warbands coalescing into a Waaagh. Or scattered cults drawing the attention of something far worse.
When that threshold is reached, you can approach moderation to escalate.
Campaigns – The Big Moves
A Campaign is where a Major Faction truly acts.These are not single threads with a decisive ending. They are multi-stage, reactive, and shaped by what players do over time.
Early on, campaigns are usually player-driven efforts against moderated opposition. Moderators take on the role of the enemy's command structure, reacting, adapting, and pushing back.
As things develop, more direct faction vs faction conflict can emerge, but always with oversight. The goal is tension and consequence, not one side steamrolling the other.
Campaigns can change things. Territory might shift. Political realities might alter. Conflicts might escalate or fracture.
But nothing hinges on one post, one roll, or one moment.
Safeguards (And Why They Exist)
There are limits, and they are there for a reason.No single faction can declare sector-wide victories. No one wipes out worlds or launches exterminatus without approval. Large-scale outcomes are always moderated.
This protects everyone's work.
It keeps the setting alive, rather than letting it collapse under competing power plays. It also means that when something does change, it carries weight.
The Point of All This
This system isn't about winning.It's about building something that feels earned.
Your stories matter. Your faction grows because of what you write. When something larger happens, it's because multiple threads, characters, and groups pushed it there together.
The Imperium remains vast and slow. Orks remain chaotic and explosive. Chaos remains fragmented and dangerous.
And the galaxy moves forward in a way that feels like it belongs to everyone involved.