Half a million words. That’s equivalent to nearly 10 of the old-style “Doc Savage” paperbacks of my youth.

It’s  a lot of words. Yet that’s how many we’ve written about our incredible adventures in the Corvus Cluster.

As this is quite a milestone for our little band of gamers, I think it’s worth a moment of reflection.

When this blog began in late 2014, our ambitious vision was to write an “encyclopedia” about our small corner of the 40K galaxy. We wanted a rich backdrop for our tabletop battles—so that each battle wasn’t just an “one -off” event but part of a larger story with consequences, heroes, and worlds whose fates really mattered.

Brother-Sergeant Valerus

I would argue that we’ve succeeded. In nearly 500 blogs, we’ve detailed every battle we’ve fought over the past seven years.

But we’ve done much more. To “fill out” the narrative story, we’ve written fictional “historical” accounts of other battles that have had an impact on the Corvus Cluster. Our semi-regular series, “Rumors of the Underhive,” also provides insights into events—both profound and mundane—that have occurred over the past seven years.

We’ve also written biographies of various heroes and villains, as well as “encyclopedic” entries about planets, cultures, and historical events.

(Perhaps my favorite is the first blog, which tells the sad story, The Lament of Brother-Sergeant Valerus, about an Astartes who fell from grace and ended up a lobotomized servitor in his own chapter.)

We’ve even written some fiction to share the experiences of various characters and provide a more personal perspective of the lives of those who endure a time of endless war.

Have you read about Rogue Trader Adeon Drake’s rescue of innocent farmers kidnapped by the Balar Slaves? What about the fawning grot, Slapdash, who “cheerfully” serves the ork warlord Rumlar in hopes that he isn’t squished by his ever-angry master?

And then there are the cynical reflections of Private Tyesha Levers, a sniper who keeps an unauthorized diary of her adventures in the 728th Cadian Regiment.

Rogue Trader Adeon Drake is a bit of a “scamp,” but his heroics cannot be denied.

If there’s any weak spot in our accounts, it’s a limited collection of more traditional 40K blog entries: ie. articles about painting, modeling, and terrain building.

It’s not that we don’t want to write on such topics. The Gaffer loves writing those. But, while we know they would be popular, the main goal of this blog is to develop the “narrative” of our campaign. Also, we only have so much time to devote to our writing, and the “story” comes first.

No doubt our focus on storytelling influences the size of our readership. Not everyone wants to read battle reports, for example. But we are grateful that so many of you are following events in the Corvus Cluster—some of you from the far side of the planet. That’s quite a treat for us.

Indeed, over the years, we’ve enjoyed interacting with our followers when we can. For a time, two wargamers linked their campaigns to ours. Under the Category section (in the right column), you’ll find links to the “Yaisdra Campaign” and the “Burning Frontier.”

These were early attempts to “cross-fertilize” our story with those of others. For a time, it was a wonderful collaboration. Alas, life is complicated, and the demands of reality (work, family, etc.) take precedence over the hobby. So, for a variety of reasons, both corners of the Corvus Cluster have fallen silent.

The High Mayor of Aruna, Petrov Karlson, was forced to flee the port city that he had proudly led for the past decade.

Still, we keep trying. You may have read about the Tau sympathizer, Lecia Athena, who was created in response to some pro-Tau propaganda that a follower shared as comments to certain Tau-oriented blogs. Now, Athena is a recurring character of the campaign, and we wrote up a battle report involving her attack of an Imperial supply depot.

(We’ll likely hear more about her treasonous activities in the future.)

Another character is the former mayor of Aruna, Petrov Karlson, who barely escaped the city with his life after the Tau overran his domain. Now, he has picked up a lasgun and is leading a ragtag guerilla band in the forests of southeastern Dar Sai. His creation sprang out of a follower’s concerns about civilians inside the besieged city of Port Aruna—and which we answered with a detailed report.

Our story is far from over. Our club is running half a dozen campaigns across the Corvus Cluster, with armies of Death Guard, Imperial Guard, Mutants, Orks, Space Marines, and Tau. battling for control of worlds and star systems.

(In the Categories comments, you find links to the campaigns on Al’gel II, Dar Sai, Dozaria, Hegira, Morkai, and  Tophet.)

What’s really exciting is that we still have the enthusiasm to keep this narrative going for years to come.

So, here we are:  seven years of work, nearly 500 blogs, half a million words, and a growing encyclopedia of our corner of the galaxy. We can’t wait to see where we’ll be when we hit 1 million words.

Thanks for following our story.—TheGM

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our hobby adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.