When the Sani Sabik cults were first deemed heretical by the Council of Apostles millennia ago, they were driven out of the homelands of the Amarr Empire. Many of them fled to the Bleak Lands, where they sulked in hiding for centuries fighting amongst themselves until one stood victorious, The Blood Raiders. The Bleaks remained their seat of power until June 107 when, following the horrors of Mabnen, the Amarr Navy descended upon the region with all their fury and rage, forcing the Blood Raiders to retreat out of the Bleak Lands. Their presence is still felt, as the region remains a lawless danger to even the most wary traveler.
Recent times have pushed this traditionally neglected region once more back into a position of some prominence. The brief War of Defiance was fought almost entirely within this region, and the ripples of that conflict and its fiery conclusion are still spreading. Many see the Bleaks as a central battlefield in the oft-predicted conflagration between the Empire and its former slaves, ensuring that some at least still have serious plans for the volume.