Sector Equites is a nearly forgotten realm tucked into the far north of Segmentum Obscurus. It is a sector shrouded in mystery and largely free from direct imperial control. It owes this freedom to its unique geographical isolation, bordering the Halo Stars to the galactic North and the warp storm, Infernum, enveloping the majority of the sector. Such is its isolation that there has not been an official sector Governor in over 900 years.

However, despite the difficulty reaching the sector, it is still a major hub of trade for the Segmentum Obscurus. The bravest, or most foolhardy, of Rogue Traders, and a variety of less savory characters, have managed to navigate the perilous warp ways leading to the riches of Equites. These fortunate few have a virtual monopoly on the rare resources of the sector. These mercantile operations are the lifeblood of the system. The independence of Equites (Eh-kwih-tes) is maintained by a steady supply of goods and men flowing to the major battlefronts of the Segmentum Obscurus. They also provide the only reliable warp travel to the frontier worlds of the sector, and they are the only means to import necessary expertise and luxury goods.

One of the most unique, and perhaps heretical, aspects of sector Equites are the warp gates. These ancient tunnels through the warp are relics of the sector’s mysterious past. The gates come in pairs that create a fixed, one way portal. There are two types of gate: the dominius and the vias. Dominius gates are links between solar systems within subsectors. Vias gates are links between subsector capitals and the Imperatoris sector. The gates are the only means to travel throughout most of the sector as they provide the only known method to travel through the warp storm, Infernum. The gates also directly shape the geopolitical landscape, as the worlds that make up each subsector are based entirely on which cluster of dominius gates they belong to.

Bread and circuses aptly describes a healthy portion of the Equites culture; honor and spectacle create an intoxicating mixture that brews deep within the heart of its citizens. Competition, virtue, and tradition create a steady foundation for the pursuits of nobles and commoners alike. All year long grand tournaments and competitions are held, and at several notable festivals commoner participation is a dominant theme.

At the forefront of these grand tournaments are the Imperial Knights. Knightly combat is a sacred, exhilarating affair where the greatest heroes of the sector meet and prove their skill and valor. While any number of the games and martial pursuits on display during these tournaments attract the masses' attention, the sheer fanatical devotion the Knights inspire by their admirers is unrivaled. One beloved tradition regarding Knightly combat is the settling of disputes. Anticipation reaches such a fevered pitch that they have been known to cause violence; aggression is a common symptom of the citizenry’s zeal for their chosen side, and factional feuds are known to last for months preceding a verdict based on righteous combat.

Another integral concept of life in Equites is that of Oaths and Quests. Oaths are fairly straightforward, binding contractual agreements between parties, and are strictly adhered to within Equites society. Particularly significant oaths are often officiated by a liege-lord or witnessed by a member of the ministorum. The notion of Quests is something quite unique to the sector. Quests are a sacred undertaking that most of the citizens of Equites participate in. They are typically a form of Oath that involves a transitionary period in a person’s life or the dedication to a specific cause or goal. Quests can be a simple coming of age ritual required to become a full-fledged member of society, or they could be a generation spanning oath of vengeance based on a perceived slight. Whatever the Quest may be, they are mandatory displays of one’s value for tradition and honor.

An entirely new division of the Administratum has been established in the Equites sector, the Dejuritorum (Deh-jour-ih-tor-um). It has two major functions: the first is the recording and accounting of official oaths; the second is the enforcement of those oaths. The recording of oaths is fairly straightforward. Legions of scribes work in courts and noble houses in order to maintain the legal framework of the system.

When an official oath is broken it is not taken lightly. Within the Dejuritorum division is a subdivision called the Corcitors. Corcitors are made up entirely of oath breakers whose skill-sets were deemed appropriate. Being inducted into the Corcitors involves a lengthy, ritualized reeducation program. Essentially the Corcitors job is to hunt fellow oath breakers down and bring them to justice, where they will be branded and face their punishments, and potentially be set on the path of becoming a Corcitor.

The worlds outside of the warp gate system occupy a precarious position. Far from the protective comfort that the gates provide, these planets suffer the ravages of warp storms, pirate raids, and constant incursions from foul xenos.

There are two major types of frontier worlds belonging to the Equites nobles, those within the imperial sanctioned Equites sector and those beyond the boundaries of the Imperium in the Halo Stars.

Occasionally the warp storm Infernum will recede revealing long forgotten planets. These cursed worlds were all at some point inhabited, and often still are, but the taint of the warp is clear. That does not stop the rapid reabsorption of the tainted resources by the noble houses. More often than not it is the task of an up-and-coming noble house to reclaim these ancestral lands for their patron lords. Unfortunately, the tides of Infernum are unpredictable, and how long any given world is left exposed can never be predicted.

The Halo Stars frontier systems are in some regards even more dangerous than their warp-tainted counterparts. Even further away from reinforcement and almost entirely at the mercy of rogue traders these distant worlds are the prize jewels of the noble houses. Rogue traders charge a sizeable sum to chart the Halo Stars, and an even more exorbitant fee for information regarding valuable resources. Where the warp is a constant threat for the systems within the interior, those part of the Halo are constantly under threat from invading and raiding forces. Whether they are xenos, pirates, or rival noble houses, these frontiers are constantly facing new external threats. On top of these threats is the ever persistent logistical difficulty of belonging to a parent sector that is shrouded by a millennium old warp storm. Despite these struggles, the economic benefits of maintaining such worlds often outweigh the risks for those houses rich enough to take a hit should any given colony be overrun. Nobles also considered these worlds to be great theatres of war where great honor and prestige may be accrued.

The guardsmen of Equites are some of the most loyal and veteran in the galaxy. Raised in a culture where honor trumps all else, they often make fearsome, if not foolhardy, warriors.

As valorous as the Equites guard may be, they are not typically the best equipped of guard units. Recycling out-of-date equipment is common, and munition stores are more often than not pressed to dangerous levels. Rogue trader shipments, sourced from the noble houses the guard units represent, are unreliable, at best, and are often dictated by the ebb and flow of favor from Imperatoris. In essence, they are more like private armies of nobles than a unified force.

The primary duty of the guardsmen is to protect the realm from the threat of vile xenos. Most Equites guardsmens’ first tour of duty involves a post on a frontier world within the Halo Stars, protecting the interest of the noblemen they serve. However, despite the seemingly independent nature the Equites guard has developed, most of the standard imperial structure remains. The generals on the Halo Stars frontier have the ultimate say as to where resources are allocated. While they typically rely on more politicking than is usual to garner all the necessities of war, the commanders of the Equites guard have waged an efficient war of conquest into the Halo Stars region near their home sector.

The unreliable nature of warp travel makes war in the Imperium, in general, an even more daunting task than it already is; despite the lack of a true Imperial naval force within the sector and the lack of outside resources, the Equites guard have managed some remarkable feats of logistics through several highly integrated rogue trader families and a series of well fortified way stations.

Over time the guardsmen leadership has managed to acquire a variety of concessions from the noble houses of Equites. Integral to the command structure of the Imperial Guard, the ability to replicate the Commisarial units was long ago lost within the Equites sector, along with nearly the entire Schola Progenium system; as such, Commissars must be imported en masse, at great expense. Similarly, most plasma and melta type weapons are imports.

Despite their great influence, the noble houses have relatively little authority over the guard. The rigid, loosely meritocratic basis of the guards have held strong, and their expertise is so greatly valued that they have been entrusted almost entirely with the campaign into the Halo Stars. However, that is not to say the nobles have no role within the guard. Noble enlistment into the guard is commonplace, and the more powerful noble houses will even dedicate some of their precious imperial knights to aid the cause on the frontier. Military service is also one of the few ways a disgraced house may restore its honor.

For the majority of guardsmen the prospect of homesteading one of the frontier worlds they defend is the primary appeal of faithful service. However, individuals with potential have opportunity for social mobility within the hierarchy of the Imperial Guard itself, and while true nobility is out of reach for most, truly exemplary individuals are also eligible for high-ranking positions amongst the Ecclesiarchy, in addition to the honor of decorated military service.

The Adeptus Ministorum and imperial guard in Equities have formed a powerful and unique bond. Due to its isolation the Ecclesiarchy has managed to permeate throughout the ranks of the guards at almost every level. Chaplains are far more common figures of authority than the increasingly rare commissar, and there are even divinely sanctioned units within the guard that act as the Ecceliarchy’s militant arm. Religious fervor is actively promoted within the guard through an established dogma: that through service to the Emperor ultimate honor and glory may be achieved and to do otherwise is damning. This is strongly reinforced by the constant warfare with xenos which are virtually synonymous with demons.

Maintaining rare and ancient technology, such as an Imperial Knight, is incredibly difficult, and doing so in isolation is an even more daunting task. However, despite the odds, the forge world of Gundamar has managed to keep most of their Imperial Knights operational. Even more peculiar is that Gundamar has shown the unique capacity to create new Imperial Knights.

Sadly, these colossi of archeotech are shadows of their former selves: the ion field generators were lost ages ago; most of the ancient armaments have been abandoned and forgotten in favor of more honorable melee modifications; the standard Throne Mechanicum has been heavily altered in order to preserve a semblance of its original functionality.

Despite these setbacks (more likely because of them) the alterations made to the core design of the Gundamar Imperial Knights have proven quite effective in some regards. In order to preserve these ancient machines drastic adjustments were made to the basic composition of the Knights. They have been retrofitted with an alloy unique to the Equites system known as Nobalys(no-bal-is), that rivals adamantium in toughness and has a minor capacity for self-repair. A Gundamar Imperial Knight is considerably bulkier, with extra reinforcements placed in order to make up for the lack of shields. Due to the improved flexibility and weight of their Nobalys armor the limbs of these Knights are notably longer and more agile, and they can also pivot their upper bodies a full 90˚ without difficulty. Their melee capabilities are significantly improved with dramatic increases in mobility and stability.

The forces of the Inquisition are an incredibly rare sight in the Equites sector. The difficulty of obtaining current or relevant information about the sector is almost as difficult as getting into the sector itself, and because of these factors and the fringe position it occupies in the Imperium, it is not a terribly popular destination, even for the more curious Inquisitors.

However, every now and then an Inquisitor gets the urge to pay the sector a visit. Of the few Inquisitors who enter the Equites sectors, even fewer are ever heard from again, and that number dwindles further with respect to those who have actually emerged from the sector intact.

Despite the troubling reality of the situation, sector Equites is in such a fundamentally awkward political and geographical circumstance that even those Inquisitors concerned with the region and its extreme isolation are typically affected by a malaise when a course of action concerning the sector is considered.

Equites, as a whole, is essentially a loose feudal federation of subsectors, governed by Imperial Knight houses. Each subsector has a ruling noble house with feudal ties to all of the lesser noble houses within their domain. Similarly, each subsector owes its allegiance to the ruling sector: Imperatoris. The precarious balance of power between subsectors is constantly in flux. However, there is one constant bastion of authority amid the tumultuous political landscape: the dominance of Imperatoris.

The supremacy of Imperatoris is entirely due to its control of the only two forge worlds within the sector: Alienorum (ah-lee-uh-nor-um) and Gundamar (Gun-da-mar). As far as the noble houses are concerned, the only means by which they can repair or modify their Imperial Knights are in the forges of Gundamar, and thus their entire claim to honor and nobility are dependent on maintaining favor with the ruling house. Likewise, the forges of Alienorum are the only reliable source for weaponry required to defend frontier lands.

The basic political model of the Equites sector is a feudal hierarchy weaved from intricate links between lords and vassals. However, unlike in the traditional sense of feudalism, land is not typically the reward for rendering services and swearing loyalty. The prerequisite for vassaldom is “noble” blood; as such, the most common reward is the recognition of nobility and the use of a greater noble family’s resources. Claiming nobility is a complicated, and expensive, set of rites and rituals that culminates in the candidate’s pilgrimage to the holy forges of Gundamar to test whether or not they possess the correct genetics and mental disposition in order to pilot an Imperial Knight. The dream of every newly minted noble is to establish their family’s name and one day be awarded land and, eventually, an Imperial Knight to pass down their line.

The Imperial Creed in Equites has developed into a highly ritualized version of the standard Imperial Creed in which the veneration of saintly ancestors is paramount. Ancestor reverence, particularly among the noble class, is taken to extremes. Lavish offerings to the deceased and grand funeral rites are paradigm. In some ways the deceased are better cared for than the living; the services of entire monasteries can be purchased in order to perform prayers and masses for the dead. The chantry services are in ever increasing demand, but more importantly, the canonization of saints is one of the chief responsibilities of the Ecclesiarchy, one that grants the ministorum a great deal of influence. To be beatified or recognized as a full-fledged saint is the highest honor bestowed within the sector.

The Ecclesiarchy, with its monetized rituals and tithes, has worked its way into nearly every aspects of life. Baubles and blessings make up a sizeable portion of the ministorum’s income. While a great deal of wealth is poured into the ministorum, one of its primary functions is as a font of relief and entertainment. The Ecclesiarchy sponsors a majority of the holidays and a number of festivals for commoners and nobles alike.

The ministorum also provides a rudimentary form of welfare. The poor can look to the ministorum for basic health care, shelter, and food when in need. The Ecclesiarchy has also maintained some semblance of its traditional role when dealing with the sector’s orphans. While the Schola Progenium may have deteriorated, its role was assumed by the Ryceum (ruh-see-um). The major differences between the two programs is what they emphasize. The Ryceum provides a less physically strenuous upbringing, instead focusing largely on philosophical pursuits, instilling the Emperor’s truths through the rigors of academia and piety. That is not to say that the students of the Ryceum have no martial training, far from it. They are trained by some of the finest warriors in the sector; however, their training only includes honorable forms of combat. Much to the chagrin of the Imperial Guard forces who receive officers from the program, the first form of active duty for the officers-to-be involves a crash course in the Tactica Imperialis.

Despite the predominance of the Ecclesiarchy in religious affairs, it does not possess a monopoly on the trade; the Cult Mechanicus has managed to carve out an unusually active role for itself concerning the religious affairs of the masses. Considering the cultural impact the mere presence of Imperial Knights has had on the sector, it comes as no surprise that reverence for the sacred mechs and their machine spirits is a major concern for the citizenry. This has helped bolster the Cult Mechanicus to all-time highs, even outside of the forge worlds of Alienorum and Gundamar, and as a result many tech-preachers of Gundamar have obtained celebrity status. Similarly, it is the Cult Mechanicus who have the sacred duty of establishing new noble houses.

Rogue Traders are vital to the Equites sector; they function as a makeshift imperial navy and merchant fleet. The only known warp-routes to the outside of the sector are heavily guarded secrets of the traders, and even if they were not, the lack of warp-worthy vessels in the sector guarantees the continued reliance on the rogue trader ships. Equally important is that the rogue traders, by virtue of their trade, are the only viable pioneering force. The exploratory fleets of the mechanicus have been reduced to salvage ships, designed to quickly reclaim resources left exposed with Infernum’s withdrawal.

The Rogue Trader dynasties that operate within the Equites sector occupy a bizarre position within Equites; they are absolutely necessary for the survival of the sector, but they are also social pariahs. The traders themselves have no need to follow the strict cultural observances or rituals required by the rest of Equites society. Honor and tradition are eschewed by many of the rogue traders. These blasphemous inclinations are more than enough to earn the scorn of the citizenry, but what is truly abhorrent is the method of recruitment employed by the traders. It is a simple venture to join a rogue trader crew and abandon any and all oaths and obligations, to hide from the shame of failure, or avoid the consequences of one’s actions. As such these crews of outcasts are condemned and are more often than not the targets of public shamings and violence. The social stigma attached to these rogues is so great that the families of these individuals are typically forced into military service in order to properly atone.