While researching back story and setting for my reworked Haarlock campaign, I have come across an inconsistency that I hope someone can shed some light on.

According to Blood of Martyrs the Margin Crusade embarked in 784.M41 "across the Periphery and into the darkness of the galactic north." The Crusade is long since destroyed, a truth the Ecclesiarchy has concealed to be able to use the resources sent to bolster the Crusade for other purposes, including shipping troops to the Jericho Reach through the warp gate.

This post http://fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3716 for Only War outlines the setting for that game, the Spinward Front, like this:
"The Spinward Front is a region that will be both new and familiar to players of Dark Heresy. The warzone that forms the central setting for Only War is located just off of the Calixis Sector map players and game masters will know and love, taking as its basis the worlds on the edge of the Periphery Sub-Sector and expanding out into the inter-sector void beyond.

Further on it says:
"All is not well in the Spinward Front however, for the wars of the distant Jericho Reach take priority and draw ever more resources through the Jericho-Maw Warp Gate."

All this sounds too similar. Is the war in the Spinward Front the same as the Margin Crusade? If so, why would the Crusade be considered destroyed?

Having played RPGs for 20 years I understand that every word in every book need not be truth, especially if those books are written from different points of view. For example, the opinions and world views of the Ecclesiarchy and the Adeptus Mechanicus vary wildly and they also each have secrets they keep from each other, secrets that may be outlined as truth in one book and deception in another. So the answer to the above question may be yes.

However, I fail to see how the Ecclesiarchy, arguably the most powerful of the Adepta in the Calixis Sector, can consider the Crusade destroyed while at the same time troops are being deployed to the same region of space.

If they are not the same, then it seems impossible that the commanders of and the powers-that-be behind the Imperium's efforts along the Spinward Front would not notice that the Crusade has been destroyed.

I am at a loss as to how to explain this inconsistency. Thoughts, anyone? Please point me to any books that may shed some light on this.

My pure specualtion would be that the Margin Crusade got destroyed and the enemy they tried to conquor have moved towards the calixis sector. The spinward front is then where Calixis will try to hold them off for the time being.

If i am right you're going to fight an Orc empire in Only War, maybe the Margin Crusade was to eliminate this threat which then triggered the orcs advance since they like fighting and the fighting came from calixis.

I see your point, but that would not happen unless it was known that the Margin Crusade has been destroyed, which is stated explicitly in several places. So this cannot be the case.

Maybe the Only War "crusade" was meant as a flank towards the Margin Crusades enemy.
The margin crusade is intact according to official records and the Spinward front Forces are meant as a flanking group.

Could also see them as a fortification battlegroup. A slow advance is being used, so they need to fortify every inch the crusade takes from the enemy officially anyway.

Where exactly does it say the Margin Crusade was destroyed? I must have missed that reference.

In any event, is it possible that the Spinward Front is one theater in the Margin Crusade, like the Western Front was one theater in the battle for Fortress Europe during WWII?

To lend credence, without resort to quoted text, there are several references of the Margin Crusade being a complete cock-up within Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, and Rogue Trader supplements. The Powers That Be within the Calixis Sector have kept the Margin Crusade alive, on paper at least, and all troops and resources earmarked for it are instead diverted into the Jericho Reach. The Calixis Sector stands to gain considerable access and assets from both the Koronus Expanse and the Jericho Sector (once the Crusade there succeeds) as remuneration for their commitment of regiment levies and support due to their close proximity.

By my reckoning, Scarus is Spinward (or north) of Calixis (the reference point connecting them being Sleef), and could very well be FFG's link to Scarus (without actually treading upon Dan Abnett's literary toes).

I'm patiently awaiting the release of Only War. I'm interested in using it to connect the Calixis and Scarus Sectors. I know the timeline will be a little whacked, but I see this as an opportunity to engage my Players in the events leading up to the Helican Schism and the Ophidian Crusade. Supposedly, the Scarus Sector (a sub, anyway) is filthy with Orks, and the Severan Dominate smells like a good starting point for the involvement of anti-Imperial humans involved in the "true matter".

To answer the OP's question…
The Spinward Front may represent tattered remnants of the Margin Crusade. The Crusade itself is a wash, but after kicking the hornet's nest the Ecclesiarchy are not likely to pull everything away from the conflict for fear of it spilling into the (somewhat) stable Calixis Sector.

Adeptus-B said:

Alekzanter said: