HH2节译：人类的黑暗时代与复兴
The Dark Age and the Rebirth
Long ago, Mankind first left the spoiled, worn-out shell of what was once known as Old Earth to forge a domain amidst the stars. That lost realm spread across our galaxy so that humanity was scattered across a million worlds. In the heights of those times, lost now to all but supposition and myth, humanity made themselves as living gods by their achievements, and were all but limitless in power. Thus was the Dark Age of Technology born and for millennia it endured, until almost at a stroke Mankind's first empire fell into bloody ruin, isolation and ignorance. The terrible period of history that was to follow lasted for over five thousand years of nightmare and predation. During this time, the worlds of Mankind were isolated by searing warp storms that made interstellar travel virtually impossible and Old Earth, or Terra as we know it, was totally cut off from its colonies and former allies. Famine, war, invasion and the terror of infection by the horrors beyond reality; all ran rampant and drove humanity to the brink of extinction.
很久之前，人类第一次离开了自己已经被破坏的母星——那个曾经被称为旧地球的世界，前往群星间开辟自己的疆域。这个失落的王国拓展到了银河各处，人类分散到了一百万个世界上。在这段时期的高潮阶段，人类的成就令其成为了活生生的神明，而且拥有着无限制的力量——但这段历史现在已经全部沦为了假设与神话。就这样，黑暗科技时代开始了，并持续了几千年，直到人类的第一个帝国几乎在瞬间陷入血腥的毁灭、孤立与无知。紧随这段恐怖的历史时期而来的持续时间超过五千年的噩梦和掠捕。在这个时期，猛烈的亚空间风暴使星际旅行变得几乎不可能，让人类世界们（彼此）孤立起来，旧地球，或者说我们所熟知的泰拉，被完全切断了与自己的殖民地和前盟友之间的联系。饥荒、战争、入侵和来自现实之外区域可怖之物的恐怖感染席卷人类世界;一切灾厄都在猖獗蔓延，将人类逼到了灭绝的边缘。
But it was on Ancient Terra, long wracked by insanity, genocide and incessant warfare as terrible as any fought amidst the dark stars that salvation was to spring. Here, from the seemingly endless cycle of violence a leader emerged, a warlord unlike any other. He was the Emperor, unequalled in might and in reason, and blessed of preternatural power. The Emperor fought for control of Ancient Terra in what would become known as the Unification Wars and those who would not join him he destroyed, and where he reigned the idols of fear, misrule and blind faith were cast down, and order and rationality were raised up in their place. Under his rulership humanity would be restored, intellectually, spiritually and physically to the heights it had once known, and the shackles of darkness cast aside. In his conquests the Emperor was aided by regiments of gene- enhanced superhuman warriors of his own design; first the Thunder Warriors and later the far more stable Legiones Astartes — or Space Marines— as they would later become colloquially known. Born from Primarchs —purpose engineered post- human beings— each Legion had its own strength and character, but all were ultimately first and foremost Space Marines, sworn warriors matchless in might and power. Though the Primarchs from which they were created were lost under mysterious circumstances, the Legions that flowed from them were a triumphant success. Ultimately, none could stand against the combined might of the Emperor and his warriors, and so unity was won.
古老的泰拉也长期遭到疯狂暴行、种族屠灭和持续不断战争的破坏，这些灾厄就和黑暗群星间发生着的灾难同样恐怖，但也正是在人类的母星上，救赎将要到来。从地球上看似无尽的暴力循环中，出现了一位领袖，也是一名不同于其他任何人的军阀。他就是帝皇，拥有无与伦比的力量和理性，并且被赋予了超自然的力量。帝皇通过被称为统一战争的军事行动夺取了古老泰拉的控制权，并且毁灭了那些没有加入他（政权）的势力。在帝皇统治的疆域内，人们抛弃（自己曾经）敬畏的泥偶、暴政和盲目的信仰，高举起秩序和理性的旗帜。在他的统治下，人类将在智力、精神和身体上恢复到曾经所知的高度，黑暗的枷锁会被抛却。在他的征服过程中，帝皇得到了他亲自设计的基因强化超人战士的协助：先是雷霆战士，之后则是更为稳定的阿斯塔特军团战士——或者说星际战士，这是他们后来更广为人知的称呼。每个星际战士军团都诞生自基因原体——有目的地设计制造出的超人类存在，军团们都有自己的长处和特性，但归根结底和最重要的一点是：他们都是星际战士，都是实力和力量无与伦比的宣誓效忠于帝国的战士。尽管用于创造星际战士军团的原体们由于某些神秘原因失踪了，但那些源自他们的军团仍是一个巨大的成功。最终，没有人能抵挡住皇帝和他的勇士们联合起来的力量，人类之主赢得了统一。
The Dawning of the Great Crusade
大远征的黎明
Where Terra had once been a realm of unending war, it now became a place of unceasing activity, production and planning, for it was the Emperor's great cause not simply to bring Terra once more to the light of prosperity and order, but to liberate the unimaginably vast and scattered worlds of humanity from the darkness and reunite them into a single Imperium of Man. Just as the conquest of Old Earth was complete, however, a mighty and unforeseen cosmic event occurred. A massive shock wave blasted across the Immaterium, clearing the warp storms that had cloaked much of the galaxy. It seemed to some divine providence, fuelling the beliefs of those who considered the Emperor to be himself divine (no matter how much he decried this claim). The way was now open and the Emperor's armies would now be able to take to the stars. The Great Crusade had truly begun.
泰拉，这片曾经的无尽战火之地，现在正不断进行着活动、生产和计划。因为帝皇的伟大目标不仅是要再次将泰拉带入繁荣与秩序的光芒中，而是要将广袤且分散到难以想象的人类世界从黑暗中解放出来，并将之统合为唯一的人类帝国。然而，就在帝皇完成对古老地球的征服之时，一件强大且不可预见的宇宙事件发生了。一股巨大的冲击波冲击了非物质宇宙各处，驱散了笼罩着银河系大部分区域的亚空间风暴们。这似乎是某种神圣的天意，助长了那些视皇帝为神的人的信仰(无论他本人如何谴责这一主张)。通路现在已经打开，帝皇的军队现在能够奔赴群星。大远征真正开始了。
With the lords of Mars now part of the Imperium by treaty of alliance and serving as a power house of industry, the Space Marines were massively expanded in number, re-armed and re-equipped for the task of subduing a chaotic galaxy. The Great Crusade was a mammoth operarion of inconceivable scale and complexity, involving billions of troops and tens of thousands of ships, and it is perhaps true that only a mind such as the Emperor's could have had a hope of successfully comprehending and giving birth to the great 'Pax Imperialis' ,the Imperial Peace, across the galaxy.
现在，随着火星的领主通过盟约成为人类帝国的组成的部分，并充当着帝国强大的工业生产基地，星际战士们的人数大规模扩张，他们也重新换装了用于完成征服混乱银河任务的武器装备。大远征是一项有着令人难以置信的（庞大）规模与复杂程度的行动，数十亿军队和数万艘舰船涉及其中，事实上，可能也只有帝皇这般伟人的头脑，才有希望能够成功地理解并产生伟大“帝国圣平”——遍及整个银河的帝国太平局面。
The Space Marine Legions were the spearhead of the expansion—the Great Crusade's killing edge against which the strength of a foe was broken and which toppled empires, human or alien, by ripping out their heart. At the centre of the Great Crusade was the creation of the Astronomican on Terra. A psychic navigational beacon able to cut through the Warp, those attuned to its unique frequencies and modulations, the Navigators, were able to use it when plotting journeys through the Immaterium, enabling them to more accurately traverse the void than would ever have been conceivable before. Alongside this it was the Astropaths who also made the Imperium possible. Capable of communicating with others of their kind over vast inter-stellar distances, they enabled inhabited worlds many light years apart in physical terms to act as one realm, and bound the fledging Imperium to Terra and its worlds to each other as one domain.
星际战士军团是人类拓张的矛头——他们是大远征的戮敌之刃，负责摧毁敌人的兵力；他们掏出人类或异星人的心脏，以此来推翻那些阻碍帝皇伟业的帝国们。大远征的中心是建造于泰拉上的星炬，这座灵能导航灯塔（的光芒）能够射穿亚空间，那些能够协调到星炬独特频率和（信号）调制的人们——导航者，能够在设定穿越非物质宇宙的航线时用到星炬，使他们能够比以往任何时候都更准确地穿越虚空。另外，星语者的出现也让建立人类帝国成为了可能。星语者能够跨越广阔的星际空间与自己的其他同类交流，他们令那些彼此相隔很多光年的人类世界作为同一个国家（的组成部分）共同运作。新生帝国和泰拉被绑定到一起，帝国的诸多世界们被彼此绑定起来，成为了同一片领域。
By this Great Crusade, the Emperor undertook his mission to free humanity from the aliens and warp creatures that had nearly destroyed it. World after world was reconquered; where human society existed it was made a part of the Imperium. Such integration was reached with diplomacy and the promise of a better future and a wider connection with a galactic human society where possible, and by force of arms where not. For the alien there was no mercy, and such alien empires and species were routed or annihilated in a series of epic wars. Nor did the Great Crusade shirk from its direst task; where worlds were encountered that had become infected with warp creatures and the barriers of reality slashed open, those worlds were cleansed with powerful virus bombs and vortex missiles in apocalyptic orbital barrages designed to slay the living and seal the breach一this act, known as 'Exterminatus', was never undertaken lightly.
通过大远征，帝皇开始了他的任务：将人类从那些几乎将其毁灭的异星人与亚空间生物手中解救出来。一个又一个世界被重新征服，存在于其上的人类成为了帝国的一部分。如果可能的话，帝皇是通过外交手段和承诺来实现这种融合的——他许诺了更美好的未来，以及和银河人类社会的更广泛联系；如果不可能的话，就采用武力。人类帝国对于异星人毫无仁慈，他们在一系列的史诗般战争中击溃或根除了此类异星人帝国与物种。大远征也避免不了那些最可怕的任务；如果远征军遭遇到了那些被亚空间生物污染和现实屏障（在其上）被打破的世界，就会在启示录般的轨道炮击中用强悍的病毒炸弹和漩涡导弹清理它们，此类武器被用于屠杀活物和封闭缺口——这项被称为“灭绝令”的举措从来都不是被轻松进行的。
During the Great Crusade, the Space Marine Legions were reunited with their lost Primarchs as the worlds on which they had been scattered were each found by the Emperor. These worlds were, in most cases, marked as their Legion's home world and heavily fortified and developed. These worlds, along with a handful of other strategically occupied planets, became the lynchpins of the Great Crusade as it moved further and further away from Terra and direct central command, and co-ordination became more difficult. From these new bases, and the re-absorbed far-flung Forge Worlds of the Mechanicum, the Great Crusade spread to the furthest corners of our galaxy and war was fought across numberless star systems.
在大远征期间，随着帝皇发现了原体们散落其上的各个世界，星际战士军团们也纷纷与自己失散的原体重聚，而在大多数情况下，这些世界也被标记为军团的母星，并得到了大幅度的要塞化和发展。随着远征军愈发远离泰拉，直接的中央指挥和协调变得更加困难，这些世界和其他被战略攻占的星球成为了大远征的关键。从这些新的基地与那些被重新吸纳的遥远铸造世界出发，大远征扩展到了我们银河系中最遥远的角落，战争也在无数的星系中进行着。
The Warmaster
战帅
After a series of glorious victories that marked the culmination of the Great Crusade's expansion, the Emperor returned to Terra and set in motion the next stage of his great plan in secrecy, in the faith that his sons, the Primarchs, could prosecute the Great Crusade to its end. The Emperor bestowed upon the Primarch Horus Lupercal the title of Warmaster and ceded to him control of all of the Imperium's military forces in his stead. The other Primarchs were thereby instructed to follow Horus and obey him in war. There was, it is said, some disquiet among the Primarchs that the Emperor had decided to no longer fight alongside them, but the Emperor was as adamant as he was close-mouthed as to what the future would hold. After the Emperor withdrew, Horus made plans for the resolution of the Great Crusade with almost feverish haste, knowing that while some would welcome his new rank and authorities, others would be at best indifferent and at worse resentful of them, and only by success could he prove worthy of the Emperor's faith. Closest to him were the Primarchs Angron, Mortarion and Fulgrim. Horus the Warmaster promised them victory—he promised them that he would never fail in his command and never leave them leaderless or bereft of brotherhood while breath remained in his body.
在经历了一系列标志着大远征拓张高潮的光辉胜利后，帝皇返回了泰拉，秘密开启了伟大计划的下一阶段行动。他相信自己的子嗣——原体们能够将大远征进行到底。帝皇将战帅头衔授予了原体荷鲁斯 卢佩卡尔，并将帝国所有军事力量的控制权都转交给他。其他原体因此被指示要跟随荷鲁斯，并在战争中服从于他。据说，原体间出现了某种不安情绪，认为帝皇已经决定不再和他们并肩作战，但帝皇对于未来(的规划)态度坚定，并且对内容守口如瓶。在帝皇离开后，荷鲁斯以近乎狂热的速度计划出了大远征的决议，他知道某些原体会欣然接受他的新身份和新权力，而其他的原体的态度往好了说是漠不关心，往坏了说则是怨恨。只有通过胜利才能证明荷鲁斯配得上帝皇的信任。与战帅关系最为密切的是安格隆、莫塔里安和福格瑞姆，荷鲁斯对他们许诺了胜利——只要战帅本人还一息尚存，他就永远不会指挥失利，也永远不会令他们群龙无首和兄弟失和。
Where the Warmaster was to command the on-going conquest, the Emperor convened another new body, the Council of Terra, to command the peace and provide law and administration for his vast realm, sparing him the minutiae of rulership while he concentrated on his own secret projects uninhibited.
战帅将会指挥进行中的征服行动，同时帝皇也召集起了一个新的机构——泰拉议会来在帝国辽阔的疆域中维持和平，并进行法律治理和行政管理，以让自己从统治帝国的琐事中脱出身来，不受约束地专注于自己的秘密计划。
Led by Malcador the Sigillite, the Council monopolised the civilian administration of the Imperium and acted as a barrier between the Emperor and his Primarch sons by their estimation, displacing a portion of their previous authority and fostering acrimony among their ranks. The less stable of the Primarchs were outraged by the scorn they felt inherent in this act, the others —even the most stalwart— were concerned and troubled by this turn of events. For some this seemed a sign that the Emperor was willing to turn his back on his greatest warriors and give power to mortals over his immortal sons. Thus, in the hearts of some, was the canker of doubt and the bile of resentment sown.
在掌印者马卡多的领导下，议会独占了对于帝国公民的管理，而在原体们看来，议会成了自己与帝皇之间的一道障碍，并且取代了自己之前的一部分权力，还在他们的队伍中制造了尖刻的不和。那些情绪不太稳定的原体们对这种行为所固有的蔑视感到恼火，而其他原体——哪怕是其中最为坚定忠诚的——则对事态的发展感到担忧和不安。对某些人而言这似乎是一个信号，标志着帝皇愿意背叛他最伟大的战士们，将权力交给凡人而非他不朽的子嗣们。因此某些原体心中被播下了怀疑与怨恨。
It seems that the honour of being Warmaster, as great as it was, did not prevent such bitterness breeding in the heart of Horus. By later and perhaps apocryphal report, as time went on the Warmaster's victories seemed hollow, the sacrifice of the Space Marines under his command unregarded and increasingly irrelevant to a silent Emperor. Nor did it seem to him that his authority was as unchallenged or respected as the Emperor's had been and that several Primarchs begrudged Horus his rank, questioned his decisions, or contrived to quietly twist his orders more to their own liking. As the years passed, resentments and rivalries that had long existed between certain Primarchs broke out into open argument and dissent that he could not quell as easily as the Emperor might have, further adding to Horus' ire. He came therefore to display his favour only upon those he felt held him in high regard, or at least would obey without question, and blamed the Emperor for his mounting difficulties of command and conquest over an increasingly thinly spread and far-flung military effort. Gradually, Horus and his followers became ever more estranged from the Emperor and the wider realm they served, and the conquest of the galaxy bought little but cold comfort for him and his Legions .
担任战帅是一项荣耀而伟大的职责，但这似乎未能阻止荷鲁斯的内心滋生出此类痛苦。之后那些或许带有虚构性的报告中称，随着时间推移，战帅的胜利似乎变得空洞，星际战士们在其指挥下的牺牲对一位沉默的皇帝而言愈发不受重视和无关紧要。在荷鲁斯看来，自己的权威也并非如同帝皇陪在身边时那般不可挑战和受到尊重，一些原体嫉妒他的地位，质疑他的决定，或者设法悄悄地扭曲他的命令，使其更符合自己的喜好。随着数年时间过去，某些原体之间长期存在的怨恨和敌对爆发成公开的争论和异议，而荷鲁斯也不可能像皇帝那样轻易平息，这令他更为愤怒。因此，他开始只青睐那些对他极为尊敬，或者至少会毫不质疑地服从他的人们；军事行动愈发分散遥远对荷鲁斯的指挥和征服也造成了越来越严重的困难，而这些问题都被他归咎于帝皇。逐渐地，荷鲁斯与他的追随者们与帝皇和他们为之服务的广阔地域愈发疏远，征服银河给他和他的军团带来的只是些许冷酷的安慰。
It is widely believed that it was upon the world of Davin that Horus fell to shadow at last. Whether by the intervention of the Ruinous Powers or as the culmination of his own growing vanity and malign resentment, but more likely a bitter marriage of the two, Horus turned upon his father in his soul and forged a pact with the Dark Gods of the Warp. The baleful intelligences beyond our dimension of sanity promised Horus the galaxy for his own, with his father's blood and the lives of billions the price, and on those terms he swore fealty. So was the course set for the Imperium to descend into the greatest civil war humanity has ever known.
人们普遍相信荷鲁斯最终是在达文世界上堕入了阴影。无论是由于毁灭大能们的介入，还是由于他不断增长的虚荣心与恶毒怨恨达到了顶点，不过更可能是在二者的结合下，荷鲁斯在灵魂中背叛了他的父亲，并与亚空间的黑暗诸神缔结了契约。那些处于我们理智维度之外的恶毒灵智们向荷鲁斯许诺：银河将为他个人所有，代价则是他父亲的鲜血与数十亿生命。荷鲁斯依照这些条件宣誓效忠于诸神。这便是帝国陷入人类有史以来最大规模内战的过程。
