It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the
Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is
the master of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a
million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a
rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of
Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a
thousand souls are sacrificed every day,