Just something I've been working on, filling out some of the planet's that are just kind of names with no background. I've used bits and pieces I could find here and there but I wanted to make the Calixis Sector feel a bit more like a living, historical thing.

Golgenna Reach Subsector

The Golgenna Reach was the first area of the Calixis Sector to be consolidated by the Angevin Crusade when it surged down from the southern reaches of the Scarus Sector. The culmination of the seizing of Malfi and Solomon was a psuh to link up the two forces, which was achieved before a larger link up with Admiral Vaakhon's forces pushing in from the Ixaniad Sector, achieved at Orendel before a tactical retreat was forced upon the crusaders . Three major Xenos empires were cleansed from the Golgenna Reach as well as several human realms. During the Bleak Years when the Crusade was faltering much of the Golgenna fell to breakaway states, pirates, the forces of chaos, and emergent x enos. The Golgenna Reach was eventually pacified , and the sector capital moved from Malfi to the populous world of Scintilla; Warp routes from Scintilla stretch into the Malfian S ubsector and the Adranti Nebula, as well as to the valuable worlds of Sepheris Secundus and Iocanthos. The Reach is heavily settled and industrialized, plied by charter vessels, free captains, and Adeptus Administratum cargo freighters, and is a major conduit of trade between Scarus (the Crusader's Road, Scintilla up to Sepheris Secundus, Valon Urr, and Sinophia ) and Ixaniad (the Admiral's Wake, Iocanthos, Zillman's Domain, Fenksworld ), to the Koronus Expanse (the Vigilant Road, a trickier route either via Aryus One or Vigil ), and downwards to the Fydae Great Cloud (the Coldstars Trail, Tranch to 88 Tanstar ). Great quantities of troops and equipment are passing through the Golgenna Reach from the surrounding Segmentum Obscurus westwards to the Jericho-Maw Passage, to feed the Achilus Crusade. There are also troops and materials passing northwards to the ongoing Periphery campgain. The Golgenna Reach contains its share of pirates and renegades, uncontacted human worlds, and xenos civilizations; despite the long-standing presence of the Imperium here the Golgenna Reach is in many ways still sparse ly settled and foreboding, at least outside established trade routes.

Luggnum

Classification : Mining World

Planetary Governor : Lord-Foreman Valerian Moreton, elected miners ' representative

Adeptus Presence : Very low. Some Adeptus Ministorum clergy, Adeptus Arbites Precint-Fortress, Administratum.

Principal Exports : Luggnum exports large amounts of metals, ores, and fuel to the rest of the sector. Luggnum has some mines that produce the rare metals needed for computerised ship-control systems , and there are a few pr escious veins of diamond, gold, and silver.

Principal Imports : Luggnum requires frequent top-ups of vital air filter components, too complex for the Luggnum workshops to produce. Food is also needed to support the

the locally produced sustaiance of Luggnum (subterranean adapted animals and plants).

Military : Luggnum Vault Guard (PDF, medium quality); Imperial Guard: Luggnum Sewer Rats (notable Luggnum Sewer Rats 3rd Light Infantry Legiment).

Geography : No surface water; the planet surface is bare rock with deep canyons and open pits. The c limate is dry and arid; the air is gradually being leached away from the atmosphere. Luggnum is orbited by a space station, the Crystal Manse, a delicate construction of glass abd metal where Adeptus officials and the court of the Lord-Foreman dwell. The surface of Luggnum is harsh: surface mining camps need to be ringed by air scrubbing towers, and covered by huge mesh reflectors to keep out the deadly light of the Luggnum sun. Luggnum's interior world is accessed through "the pits", sink- holes lined with processing plants, hab towers, warehouses, and oxygen/water tanks. The pit depths fall into a subterranean network of tunnels and caverns, rich with minerals, ores, and fuel sources, and populated by a mix of serf miners, mutants, 'restitutioners' ( mining company hired thugs) , bandits, renegades, and vicious cave wildlife. The 'deep shafts' are Luggnum's most remote environment, tunnels sunk at crushing depths were hardy pioneers can be cut off by natural disasters, pirate ambushes, mutant cannibals, o r hostile beasts.

History: The planet is still haunted by the atrocities committed by Lady Orlea Grey many years ago, although they are seldom spoken of in polite company. Despite attempts by the authorities to cover up the truth, there are few on Luggnum who have not heard whispers of the sadistic blasphemies committed by Grey and her courtiers in the once-fruitful Ironback Mines, though few know, or even suspect, the true scale of her crimes. A two-year long witch-hunt rooted out the recidvist elements. The Ironback Mines, "the Red Vaults", are long since sealed by order of the Inquisition, that the lingering taint of Chaos not pollute Luggnum's material output or its population. Rumours persist, however, of dark, twisted things glimpsed in the deepest shafts of Luggnum's other mines, ghoulish figures that may once have been human.

Present : On Luggnum the pit-shafts are so dangerous that all miners undertake hour-long blessings by the station abbot before they descend. Miners that have refused or avoided such blessings are scorned (or even killed) by their co-workers, lest they bring ill-luck to all, proving that perhaps the blessing does in fact protect from harm. Pit-taverns play a big part in Luggnum cultural life: some are situated in disused mine shafts, others hanging over rock precipes on the edge of a pit- slopr . The gruel-like ale of the Luggnum pit-tavern, and the omnipresent guttering flicker of lamplight, give Luggnum a distinctly medieval look. Life on Luggnum is tough; mines frequently flood, stragglers are picked off by mutants or giant venemous cave rats , vaults can unexpectedly collapse. Non-mineworkers serve in agricultural divisions harvesting the suspended gardens of the pit s , or work at tapping underground rivers and lakes for water . Life on Luggnum is so unrelen tingly dull and grim y that miners welcome the chance to escape the crushing deep-shafts and rock pirates to sign up for the Luggnum Sewer Rats and experience the wider galaxy.

Settlement 228 ( Angevina )

Classification: Frontier World

Planetary Governor: Governor Kern Wallasz, Scintillan nobility

Adeptus Presence : Very small Adeptus A rbites precinct, small Adeptus Ministorum mission, Administratum facility at the space port to manage exports

Principal Exports: "Cram beans" a high yield, high energy crop that is rendered into paste, poweder and bars to supplement the diet of heavy industrial workers on Hive and Mining Worlds.

Principal Imports : Food, water, light and heavy farming equipment, building materials, weapons, fresh colonists. Settlment 228 has little in the way of anything to offer its inhabitants.

Military: PDF : Homestead Militia, Settlement Guard (low quality); Settlment 228 does not have the population surplus or specialization to raise any Imperial Guard regiments.

Geography : Savanna-like terrain with a midly arid climate, one large landmass where Settlement 228 is located, several smaller land groupings. Vivid azure seas and faintly greyish-coloured polar caps. Possesses an orbital Adeptus Administratum facility and one moon, Tarsus (Dead World). Settlment 228 is an untidy compound of habitation stacks, bulk warehouses, and watch towers, surrounded by barbed-wire topped walls of plasteel. Tiny farming combines and indivudal homesteads set out in a grid-pattern fields of cram bean crops. Settlement 228 sits in the shadow of a snow-capped mountain range and is near 'the Desert of Tears', a lonely expanse of sand and rocky outcrops.

History : Settlement 228, informally called Angevina pending its official recognition by sector authorities, was discovered by a free captain who tried and failed to chart a warp route connecting Scintilla to the Lathe Words. The captain left some of his crew to survey the world and returned to Scintilla, where his failure to chart a route resulted in him being stripped of his free charter and executed. When Scintillan authorities got round to visiting the world the captain's garrison were long dead, but it was decided Settlement 228, as it was named, would be a good location deporting for Scintillan mid-hive overspill. Port Angevin was established by the Adeptus Administratum, but it is a group of merchant corporations that run and operate the planet.

Present : Settlement 228 is an exporter of cram beans, a native Angevinan crop that is rendered into high energy pellets and bars. The population is diffusely spread out across the immediate area around Port Angevina, with some long-range outposts edging towards the precious water of the southern polar cap. The people of Settlement 228 are pious, Emperor-fearing pioneers, well used to handling a rifle to take down canid scavengers that pr e y on the vatborn bovinoids the Angevinans live on. Workers in Port Angevin are slightly more 'hiveborn' in nature, frequenting taverns, b ordellos , and narco dens run by the Scintilla corporations. Settlement 228 is gradually moving towards a conflict with its parent world; Scintilla refuses to recognise Settlement 228 as Angevina, denying it is a seperate world and people from Scintilla. Hive gang toughs from Scintilla are imported to harass farmers who are slow with gathering their crop tithe, and Scintillan corporate representatives have refused to help the colony build the water pipeline to the southern polar ice cap that would really benefit crop growing . Other settlers have complained Settlement 228 is nothing like as prosperous as they were promised when they were resettled, and that they were sold their land rights frauduently, and argue for a return to Scintilla. There is a storm on the horizon between the "Returnee" faction, "The Angevinans" 'native' faction , the Corporate Elect of the First 228 Company, and the Scintillan authorities.

Cyrus Vulpa

Classification: Agri World

Planetary Governor : Governor Paulos Patros, Imperial Commandery dictated by rich landowners and Scintillan trade guilds

Adeptus Presence : Low. The Adeptus Administratum has the usual number of representatives in place, mostly concerned with Grox-counting and related fields of inquiry. The Adeptus Arbites maintains a single Precinct-Fortress within the capital, but has about two dozen judges on semi-permanent sheriff postings across the globe.

Principal Exports : Most of Cyrus Vulpa's production of grox meat is seasonally harvested and exported to the Imperium, to be shipped to manufactorums and oonverted into protein base.

Principal Imports : Cyrus Vulpa needs to import anything complex or heavy-duty as it has no industrial base of its own.

Military : PDF: Governor's Own Lancers (medium quality mechanized troops), Regional Light Cavalry (medium quality mounted), Ranch Militias (medium quality infantry).

Geography : One gigantic super-continent with a ring of gem-green ocean. Cyrus Vulpa is largely a reddish colour, as its landmass is almost entirely covered in crimson mossy down. This down is a highly nourishing bioconstruct of the Adeptus Mechanicus and was introducted at the colonisation stage. The world has artifcially extended summer periods, and shortened winter period, characterized by blizzards and hurricane-winds. The migrations of l arge grox herds completely change the landscape, stripping the biodown carpet to bare earth in days and leaving kilometre-wide stretches of waste. The biodown is very quick g r o w ing and uses Grox dung as an active fertiliser.

History : Cyrus Vulpa was identified as a potential colony during the Angevin Crusade, but the presence of toxic compounds in the atmosphere prevented a full-scale settlement programme. Instead it was settled during the closing years of M39, following a centuries-long campaign of atmospheric adjustment and other terraforming efforts. About ten million imported colonists – and their descendants – laboured for half a millennium to fully transform the world into its current state: t he largest producer of Grox meat in the Calixis sector.

Present : The capital of Cyrus Vulpa is Cassandane, a desperately overcrowded minor hive filled beyond capacity with failed herders and their families who have drifted there. Cassandane and its space port are the focus of continent-spanning Grox drives. The rest of the world's population are tied to powerful hereditary ranch lords. The size of ranches varies; some cover tens of thousands of square kilometres, others a few hundred. The hundred or so largest ranches are known as the Primariae . This system has endured for more than a thousand years, providing sufficient dividends to meet the tithe without devastation the ecology. Of late this balance has begun to fail as increasing tithe demands have been aggravated by local corruption and greed. If nothing is done the planet may experience severe problems later as it will become less and less able to meet its obligations to the Imperium.

This Agri World sports endless herds of grox and other domesticated animals. Great trade vessels carry the slaughter to Scintilla where it will be devoured by the moderately rich (those wealthy enough to enjoy true meat, but too poor to afford more luxurious fare). Life for the average Cyrus Vulpa n involves tending to the herds in all possible ways, from raising them from calfs, to caring for them through adulthood , and eventually slaughtering them. Cyrus Vulpa has no predators of any kind, but the hardy Grox are vulnerable to a few diseases and parasites (yellow eye, grourdge, Freylingham's malady, Borusan rot-whistle). Other Cyrus Vulpans serve in the great ranch houses, toil in light industry in Cassandane, or serve on the titanic water purification rigs in the Circular Sea.

(various sources are being used here, mainly stuff off Lexicanum. a lot of the Golgenna worlds are very standardy, standard Pleasure World, standard Cemetery World; I wanted the thing they all revolve around Scintilla; Valon Urr should have the feel of one of those completely abandoned places after wars like Oradur-sur-Glane, the north-south Cyprus border, or places like Pompeii)

Quaddis

Classification: Pleasure World

Planetary Governor : Majordomo Warina Mattix, head of the Quaddis Household

Adeptus Presence: Minimal, small presence of Administorum and Ministorum; substantial Arbites presence at the Quaddis City precinct and spaceport, acting as security and ensure to ensure sector law is maintained. Astra Telepathica choir at Quaddis City.

Principal Exports : Quaddis produces many rare and delicate examples of haute cuisine and fine living: t hree wines are listed here: the Sorrowful Vintage, is widely regarded as a pale imitation of the real thing (but still highly desirable); the Golden Tokay, is perhaps the most accessible “true” Quaddis wine; the Kataline Malmsey, is the stuff dreams are made off—hugely valuable and, legend holds, capable of killing an over-indulgent drinker with pure pleasure.

Principal Imports : There is no industry of any kind conducted on Quaddis, so anything complex must be imported from elsewhere, as must any comforts or desires that the relaxing nobility request.

Military : The Attendant Guard (medium quality PDF security force); a contingent of permanently on stan d by Imperial Guard ( 10th Scintillan Fusiliers ) , an Imperial Navy squadron , and on Quaddis-D a small Stormtrooper rapid response force , the 5758th Storm Trooper detachment.

Geography : Quaddis has eight continental landmasses as well as thousands of island chains. The majority of Quaddis' land is covered in cool woodlands and rolling meadows . The trees of Quaddis are permanently in the brilliant orange and brown hues of autumn, and the meadows are always green and bountiful with rare flowers. Vineyards and small pastures cultivate Quaddis' food supply. Quaddis' ocean is an especially striking cream colour, matched against polished obsidian cliffs. Jutting mountain peaks are home to exquisitely constructed resorts, palaces, and mansions. Quaddis City is the world's capital and main spaceport, an open city of beautiful white columns, plazas, and statues of Calixis's heroes of years past. Quaddis has four moons, but unusually no violent climatic activity; Quaddis-D is home to a classified military facility where Imperial Guard stormtrooper forces train for rapid deployment to the planet's surface in case of danger, as well as to anywhere else they are needed.

History : Quaddis was settled towards the end of the first phase of the Angevin Crusade. An unknown xenos civilization had colonised and stabilised the world into its present state; the Imperials hunted them down and exterminated them. Weird twisted stone ruins are to be found in the deep forests, but are paid no heed by the nobility, usually riding past at high speed chasing a pheasant. At the conclusion of the Angevin Crusade Drusus offered his most favoured commanders retirement to the peace of Quaddis. Over time retirement to Quaddis has become only the privilege of the Scintillan elite, and hosts members of the Imperial Guard, Navy, Ecclesiarchy, Administratum, and even a retired Rogue Trader. Highly placed Scintillan nobles can visit the world, but only the elite of the elite can settle here permanently.

Present : Quaddis is a closely guarded secret of the Scintillan elite: it appears on few star charts. The permanent population of only a few thousand Scintillans are attended to in their every whim by a legion of servants, guards, coordinators, and most of all servitors who maintain the largely empty wild sections of the planet. Nobles reside in huge country houses, mountaintop retreats, or grand citadels, whatever is their fancy. Pleasures on Quaddis are generally respectable: extravagant society dinners and balls (and extravagant society drinking); vigorous outdoor hunting and sports; and using Quaddis' servitor population to recreate battles from the distant historical past. Indulgence on Quaddis occasionally gets out of hand, which is where the sizeable Arbites presence steps in. The palace of Golgenna Angevin has stayed empty since that great heroic figure's demise, and is a regular pilgrimage site for visiting nobles.

Granithor

Classification: Cemetery World

Planetary Governor : Cardinal Romulutus Betjam, Ministorum

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Ministorum, Adeptus Sororitas

Planetary Exports : None

Planetary Imports : The dead

Military : Adeptus Sororitas stand guard on the planet's surface and deep inside the chambers and catacombs underground.

Geography : Granithor is a planet-wide necropolis, every available inch is dedicated to tombs, statues, and memorials. The planet creaks under the weight of mausoleums of marble and granite, gradually grinding lower level catacombs to powder. Granithor is a world of eternal near-darkness, being situated on the far edge of the Granithor System, and is lit entirely by billions of guttering candles. Some of the necropolises on Granithor are truly staggering, the size of hive complexes, as are the laser-carved statues of personages from Calixian history that gaze out over the realm of the dead. A small landing area and quarters for visitors are set aside amid the tomb conurbations, as is a modestly-sized Ecclesiarchy palace.

History : The architecture of the deepest and most hidden layers of Granithor suggest a pre-Imperial human culture once interred their dead here, ornate but empty sarcophagi marked with the patterns of nature, rivers, animals, and trees. For the contribution of Scintillan soldiers in the last days of the Angevin Crusade, the nightmarish liberation of the Bale Childer chattel-worlds and the fiery cleansing of the Hazeroth Abyss, Granithor was deeded to Scintilla in perpetuity for internment of the greatest Scintillan nobles, generals, and clergy.

Present : To be interred on Granithor is a tremendous honour, the greatest achievement in the status-seeking Scintillan culture. Negotiation with the Scintillan based order of The Keepers of the Honourable Dead last a lifetime, as rituals, formal and informal agreements, and liturgical debates over plot and tomb construction are intricate and involved. Once a spot is picked, an invariably grand and tall mausoleum is erected over the crumbling graves of many thousands, which are pressed a little further into the earth each time a new structure is added to the planet. The Keepers of the Honourable Dead on Granithor handle all aspects of burial procedure, and care for the graves for eternity, if that is a privilege the honurable departed has paid for. Journeys to the deepest catacombs of Granithor require either a Servoskull guide, or an experienced traveler of the tunnels, as Granithor's immense labyrinthine complexity is its main deterrent against grave robbers. Only a few thousand are buried on Granithor a year, although with the outburst of many wars on the edge of the Calixis Sector numbers are creeping up. Death is unlikely to come to a visitor on Granithor, although the most deadly incident took out 945 members of the Scintillan nobility conducting the Rear Admiral Gresson to his tomb, when a tottering marble spire collapsed and caused an avalanche of stone and human remains to crush the burial party. It is reported the Keepers for that particular section were walled up alive in the deepest ossuary of the Granithor lower levels, their screams echoing as the last Adepta Sororitas withdrew her candle flame and sealed the door behind her.

Valon Urr

Classification: Shrine World

Planetary Governor : Cardinal Hildrebant sur'Chren II, Ministorum

Adeptus Presence : small Adeptus Arbites precint to protect pilgrims and prevent illegal trade in relics.

Primary Exports : Tightly controlled awarding of holy relics to petitioners from across the Segmentum. Exorbitant sums are charged by the local Ecclesiarchy.

Primary Imports: Valon Urr needs to import small quantities of food, water, and other supplies to support its pilgrim population, who are highly ascetic anyway.

Military : Reliquary Guards (medium quality PDF); Pilgrim Militants (very low quality militia). Adeptus Sororitas detachments are stationed here.

Geography : Valon Urr is a dimly lit, bitingly cold planet, eternally caught within a thick layer of frost, ash, and dust. Valon Urr's cold grey seas and barren landscapes are empty of all life, the landscaped dotted with petrified forests. Valon Urr's cities are abandoned, preserved as they were when virus bombs scoured the planet of life. The part of the world were the old spaceport was located was heavily infested with Orks, and is presently a deep-sided toxified crater. Valon Urr has multiple orbital facilities that were abandoned by after the Exterminatus , but have since been repopulated by Imperial Navy and Ecclesiarchy personnel.

History : The Valonians were swift and enthusiastic converts to the Imperial Creed and participated in many of the operations to consolidate the Golgenna Reach. In 467.M39, the moderately advanced and highly civilised world of Valon Urr indirectly fell victim to the War of Hubris, a covert trade war instigated by the nearby independent world of Sinophia. The Sinophians feared the increasing industrial might of the Imperials and undertook a campaign to use every means at their disposal barring outright war to maintain their position. A favourite Sinophian gambit was to use their agents to discover course logs and manifests for voidships carrying Imperial cargo and then pass the information on to xenos and pirates. Countless Imperial merchantmen were attacked, stripped, and destroyed. The situation became so desperate that four capital ships had to be assigned to the protection of merchant convoys entering the Golgenna Reach. Fortunately these were well placed to respond when an Astropathic distress call was received from the besieged world of Valon Urr. The rich pickings of the pirates had attracted a larger predator in the form of a coalition of Ork Freebooter vessels under the command of the Greenskin Warlord Brazzer Magtoof. The four capital vessels formed a temporary squadron led by the Fire of Heaven under Admiral Lightman-Kapes and engaged the Orks over Valon Urr. Lightman-Kapes defeated the Orks, but tragically the planet was heavily damaged by debris from the ensuing orbital battle and Ork infestations. In 601.M39 Valon Urr was declared a Shrine World in memory of the sacrifice of the millions of citizens who died that day. Calixis Sector command had no option but to declare Exterminatus upon Valon Urr; Naval vessels unleashed a barrage of conventional weapons and virus bombs that specifically targeted Ork-infested areas and all organic life. To Sector Command, Valon Urr was too important to lose but not important enough to save. The results of the War of Hubris resulted in a harder line against Sinophia and the Periphery.

Present : Valon Urr is a Shrine World, dedicated to the memory of the pious population of this world. The Valon Urr Cardinal Palace, and the thousands of Ministorum shrines and temples that survived the war, are focal points of pilgrimage. Relics from this shrines, from Imperial prayer books to chips of flooring tiles, are sold for fortunes to the faithful of the Segmentum. Wealthy supplicants can pay to rent a cell in the fortress monastery here, to silently contemplate the nature of fate. Ships on their way to the Periphery pass though the Valon Urr System.

Sophano Prime

Classification : Mining World / Gas Giant

Planetary Governor : Governor Emil Zau, representative of Primus-Concern Combine (Scintilla)

Adeptus Presence : Small Arbites precinct, Administratum facilities, Adeptus Mechanicus

Primary Exports : Sophano Prime is a treasure trove of natural gases, both conventional and exotic, exporting large quantities of helium, methane, and hydrogen in addition to elements unique to the world .

Primary Imports : Water is easily extractable from Sophano Prime's atmosphere. Raw materials, food , and heavy machinery are in constant need, as Sophano Prime is amongst the most resource desolate places to work in the Sector.

Military : Sky Guardians (medium quality PDF); Imperial Guard: Sophano Prime Air Rangers.

Geography : Sophano Prime is a greenish-yellow gas giant with a binary ring system and around eight-hundred orbiting stellar object s , very near Sophano Sol. Moon s , planetoids, asteroids, clouds of stellar dust, wrecked space vessels, and orbital gas-processing facilities surround the world. Sophano Prime's atmosphere is a mix of super-dense and super-ligh t layers of gases, creating a surface level liquid ocean that platforms, ships, and even settlements can float on , with grav-repulsers and grav-tethers for stability. Adeptus Mechanicus technicians believe Sophano Prime's impossible atmsophere is sustained by combinations of unknown exotic gases that create the oceanic effect. Habitations the size of small hives and containing several million gas-miners float across the surface supported by monumental floats, grav-tethers, and repulsor engines. Sudden areas of low pressure can cause the hive to dip and sway wildy, so the hives have a limite d capacity for self- propulsion so they can avoid dangerous areas .

History : Sophano Prime was a waypoint for naval and merchant shipping passing between the Crusade beacheads of Solomon and Malfi, used for refueling and refitting. Gas extraction operations were followed by experimental floating hive cities, skillfully constructed by the Mechanicus using what are now obscure methods . Sophano Prime's only revolt occured when Hive-Airship Ouew declared itself independent of the Imperium and the Emperor a fa l se god: the revolt ended when Imperial battleships knocked out Ouew's floatation systems from orbit, sending it and its million inhabitants to be instantly crushed in the depths hundreds of miles down.

Present : To live on Sophano Prime humans must either be mechanically attached to breathing apparatus, have permanent surgergy conducted by the Biologis to their respitory system, or live within sealed atmosphere environments. Sophano Prime has a large population of techpriests to aid in everything from surgery on newborn Sophanoans, to managing volatile gases, to steering the Hive-Airships thr ough storm pockets . Life in a hive is much like any other with a big focus on gas processing and sto r age. A large ecological network of simple microorganisms and aeroformic plants reside in the upper atmosphere, which is all carefully extracted and harvested by hovering agri-rigs. Gas is extracted by a fleet of manned 'cruisers' that use grav-anchors to station themselves over promising gas pockets and extend probes and scoops to absorb and store usable resources. Sophanoan 'wildcatters' are independent gas-miners, free from the heavy-handed Primus-Concern Combine, which dispatches squads of brutal revenue men to kill illegal 'smugglers'. Sophanoans who venture outside their vessels are equipped with aerodynamic wing suits and grav-flights that allow them to 'swim' the upper atmosphere. Sophano Prime Air Rangers are Imperial Guard regiments especially tasked with missions in upper-atmosphere environments, underwater environments, and missions in open space.

Ysai Ydumee

Classification : Frontier World

Planetary Governor : Magos Kamara I n ran, Biologis research unit

Adeptus Presence : A deptus Mechanicus, little otherwise

Primary Exports : Export is forbidden from Ysai Ydumee at present, but the Adeptus Mechanicus have allowed the dispatch of cetain plant fibres, hardwoods, and medicinal herbs from the local jungle.

Primary Imports : Food, water, supplies. Mechanicus technical equipment.

Military : Skitarii, New Tenebrae PDF (medium quality).

Geography : Ysai Ydumme is a troubling world for the Imperium, defying explanation. Ysai Ydumee is composed of around 46,741 different island landmasses, each only a few square miles: each hosts a completely different biome drawn from another world somewhere in the Segmentum Obscurus. There are biomes of deserts, forests, jungles,

fields, mountains, swamps, tundra, snow fields, areas of high radioactivity, areas of localised gas environments, and many more that have yet to be catalogued. The biome islands also contain plants and animals relative to the worlds they have come from; the world is a huge artificial menagerie. Biome-1AAA is a jungle biome where humans first landed on Ysai Ydumee, and the vine-covered ruins and small graveyard are testament to the intense resilience of Ysai Ydumee's environments to colonisation. Each biome is seperated by a shallow aquamarine sea. Ysai Ydumee has an orbital station run by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

History : Strange underground electrical field fluxes have been noted by Adeptus Mechanicus observers, suggesting some pre-Imperial or xenos technology underground. The world does not appear in the annals of the Angevin Crusade, but an Adeptus Mechanicus expedition on a routine mapping mission found humans here, possibly descendants of a shipwreck. The jungle biome they had settled in was an environment similar to Death Worlds like Cat a chan, and after decades of attacks by disease, predator, and the natural environment, the inhabitants of Ysai Ydumee were grateful to be evacuated offworld. The world has been granted by Sector authorities to the Adpetus Mechanicus for study.

Present : A large orbital facility, 10 Ysai , houses an Adeptus Mechanicus research station, as well as a contingent of Skitarii. Colonists from Scintilla have been settled in New Tenebrae, a walled compound of a few hundred in Biome-37 -ARK, a very mild jungle area with a bounty of edible fruits and medicinal plants. Smaller outposts are set up at a dozen outposts. Access to the Ysai Ydumee System is highly restricted to everyone but those sent by the Calixian authorities or the Adeptus Mechanicus; the techpriests of Ysai Ydumee are covetous over this unique find. Currently archeological work is underway at "the blank", the only biome-zone on the world not occupied by any environment, but instead a quantum-locked cover of alien metal. This cover may lead to a way to access Ysai Ydumee's underground heart and its many mysteries , not least discover the source of Ysai Ydumee's regular electrical fluctuations. The Adeptus Mechanicus are loathe to admit it, but they may need to risk encouring the wrath of the Inquisition, whose expertise might be the only way to unlock the mysteries of Ysai Ydumee, but who will be shurely enraged they have been kept out of the loop for so long.

(Sophano Prime is meant to be very high sci-fi sort of world, huge floating hive cities, gas-based lifeforms, air barges, all that stuff; Ysai Ydumee is meant to just be weird, as having a couple of couple of Frontier Worlds near Scintilla didn't feel too likely, so it's meant to be somewhere with limited settlement, more to "test the waters" in a very unusual environment, plus galactic menageries are very cool, very sci-fi)

Strank

Classification : Feral World

Planetary Governor : Lord Gordus Amptara, Scintillan nobility

Adeptus Presence: Several missionaries of the Ecclesiarchy, a small number of Administratum

Primary Exports : Strank produces many useful items for the Imperium: healing marsh mosses; finewoven gossreed; and innumerable narcotics. The Beast House has sent several failed missions to capture the elusive Stenchbeast of Strank.

Primary Imports : T he peoples of Strank are too primitive to benefit from the Imperium's science and technology.

Military : Brothers / Sisters of the Hold Band (low quality tribal PDF); Granite Fighters (medium quality tribal PDF); Swamp Ranger Mounted (medium quality PDF); Strank Swamp Raiders (Imperial Guard).

Geography : T he entire planet is covered in shallow fetid water, sucking mud, teeming jungles, and black lagoons. There are no real areas of solid ground on Strank, so the tribes of Strank make their homes in tree villages in the branches. There are some inhabited underground hollows. Strank possess a staggering range of carnivorous and poisonous lifeforms, including plants, lizards, fish, insects, and the infamous Stenchbeast, said by some to be like an enormous shaggy boar, others like a giant ape, with a host of other descriptions giving it wings, an elastic extendable tongue, or to be able to spit acid : it is likely one animal is being confused with another. Strank has an orbital palace, the Tower of Roses, an enormous rosestone construction studded with defensive weapons where the ruling Amptara family dwell.

History : Strank was once held by a minor forgotten xenos empire . After this species were driven into the Fydae Great Cloud troops from several Guard regiments were settled on this world, before being cut off by a series of devastating warp storms. Contact has only been recently reestablished, and the population was found to have broken up into several tribal groups, must but not all speaking a Low Gothic dialect and loyal to a local variation of the Imperial Creed.

Present : Lord Gordus Amptara was a renowned merchant navy captain who was expelled from the service; Lord Amptara had been found guilty of engaging in covert negotiations of certain familial houses of the Ixaniad Sector, opposed to the Calixian nobility. Amptara had friends in the Navy however, and was shuffled to one side into a governorship of the backwater world of Strank. Amptara and his extended retinue of family and cronies were installed in the Tower of Roses, a Crusade-era relic, and pass their exile in managing Strank's exports and tormenting their staff of servants and servitors. The Amptaras show no willingness to administer to the world they govern or even to conduct basic surveys. The only visitors are the missionaries of the Ecclesiarchy who preach the to Strank's wayward tribes. In a fit of pique the Countess Liza, Amptara's daughter, murdered a visiting missionary, transported his body to the surface, and blasted it from orbit with the station's antique macrocannons. In another incident the son Count Haris entertained himself by destroying a village with frag grenades and plasma pistol fire. This and more has been reported to the Ecclesiarchy, who have alerted the Ordo Hereticus, who have a mission enroute to clarify and act upon the situation. The Strank Swamp Raiders are typically only raised when the Imperial Guard require a regiment suited to the hardy, semi-aqu a tic, jungle terrain the Strank 's tribes are used to. Strank regiments make good scouts and light infantry and have operated valiantly on several fronts; several are currently conducting operations in the Jericho Reach. Guardsmen who return to Strank tend to become leaders of large tribal confederations that for a time at least hold a region of the world in stability: Lt. Ala'Waeor currently commands a significant confederation of several thousand warriors; his position on the Amptaras is unknown.

Merov

Classification : Hive World

Planetary Governor : Duke Tinian Overold-Damuna, Adeptus Terra

Adeptus Presence : Astropathic Choir ( Tsares Hive ), Several Arbites precincts, small Inquisitorial conclave, Adeptus Ministorum, Administratum

Primary Exports : Merov produces the usual heavy machinery, vehicles, and weaponry that all Hive Worlds produce. Merov is the sector's, and perhaps the stellar region's, premier producer of nightvision technology for civilian and military uses.

Primary Imports : Food, water, and raw materials need to be imported to Merov in bulk to feed both population and industry. Weird and exotic sources of lighting are imported for Merov's mid and upper hives, ranging from bioluminescent glo-worms from Dusk , to forbidden xenos items from beyond the Koronus Expanse.

Military : Merov Patricians (PDF, high quality), Merov Indentured Troops (PDF medium quality, some mechanized and armoured); Citizen Militia (low quality PDF); Merov ian Rifles (Imperial Guard), Merov Penal Legion (Imperial Guard).

Geography : Merov is located at a great distance from the Merov System sun and sits in eternal night: all light on Merov is therefor artificial. Merov is a rocky world of jagged mountian ranges and extremely deep lakes and seas. Merov's hives are located in hollowed-out mountains and extend all the way down to the depths of the old mine workings. Merov is circulated by orbital s hipyards and defence platforms. Hive Tsares sits pre-eminent amongst four hives; the lights of the hives, surface installations, and transport routes are visible from orbit.

History : Merov was discovered by Crusade r forces pushing eastwards to meet with forces moving southwards from Solomon. Merov was populated by the abhuman strain known as 'nightsiders', small in stature, with white translucent skin, no eyes, and hyper-sensitive hearing from a developed sensory system. The Merovians were enslaved by the Imperials and began working the raw fields of iron ore located in Merov's foothills. When billions of humans were liberated in the Hazeroth Abyss and Adrantis Nebula many were resettled in the Merov mines: soon the mines were exhausted, and Merov converted to being a Hive World.

Present : Merov, settled by Adrantis and Hazeroth inhabitants, and plunged into eternal night, is a distinct part of the Golgenna Reach. The Merovech Combine, the powerful industrial combine that rules the world, are pushing for further independence from the distant overlordship of Scintilla. Life for the Merovian inhabitants is much like life on any other Hive World, except that much of the environment is mold-covered rock rather than rusting metal; and that social class can be evidenced by what quality lighting a worker possess es: the hovel-stacks of workers are lit by small discoloured candles, the upper hives by brilliant chandeliers or exotic lighting; the underhives by nothing at all . Merov has a population approaching 11 billion, and work is constantly under way to dig new extensions to accomodate more habs, manufactorums, and storage facilities. Some settlements, lit by gigantic webbings of flood lighting, have begun to appear on the surface mountain slopes. The Merov nightsiders are still active, making their homes in deserts and abandoned mineworkers outside the hives ; nightsiders frequently raid to steal valuables and abduct humans for their own purposes. The Merovian PDF are engaged in continous counter-insurgency combat against nightsiders, masters of Merov's rugged terrain. The main fear of the Merovech is being realised, as nightsiders have been seen within the under hives, pillaging, kidnapping, and sabotaging machinery. The best of the Merov PDF join the Merovian Rifles, an Imperial Guard regiment with a reputation for excellence in counter-insurgency combat and a deep, unabiding brutality and cruelty, that makes them unappealing comrades for most Guardsmen from more civilized worlds. The worst of the Merov hives join the Merov Penal Legion, hardened criminals pumped up with combat dru gs who fling themselves enthusiastically at death, with the prospect that survival might mean freedom. " Special Detail" attachments of the Penal Legion are filled with sanctioned mutant nightsiders, used for dangerous night-time operations where their senses allow them to excel, or, if a commander is particularly callous, used as live minesweepers or designated forlorn hopes.

(Strank - there are a lot of generic swamp world / death worlds around, so with this I wanted to throw in a thing more about conflicts between branches of the Imperium, like ND0/K4 has a Mechanicus-Ecclesiarchy thing, so Strank can have a Nobility-Ecclesiarchy conflict. Imperial nobility would also be some of the most vilest, nightmarish people on the 'not Chaos' side of humanity; the Stenchbeast is quite transparently Florida's elusive skunk ape

Merov - night worlds are eluded to but rarely elaborated on, so Merov can have a settler conflict as well; again with this idea of conflict Merov, like all the large worlds or areas of the sector, will have their own separatist ambitions, being unwilling to serve a very distant capital worlds full of unpalatable snobs. The Merovian nightsiders are very much a cross between Pan's Labyrinth's Pale Man and the creatures from The Descent)

Bront

Classification : Hive World

Planetary Governor : Lord Lavreaus Albani, Adeptus Terra

Adeptus Presence : Astropathic Choir (Hive Abronta), Several Arbites precincts, small Inquisitorial conclave, Adeptus Ministorum, Administratum

Planetary Exports : Enormous quantities of finished materials, equipment, and vehicles. Bront is a truly productive Hive World: Bront meets the bulk of the s ector's need for bayonets and bladed weapons .

Planetary Imports : Few, sometimes additional water supplies are needed to supplement what Bront purifies itself. Bront prides itself in its capacity for cultivation and autarky.

Military: Brontian Arms Militant (high quality PDF); Brontian Long Knives (Imperial Guard Regiment).

Geography : One super continent with strips of sulphuric ocean. Bront's landscape is marked by the remains of pyroclastic flows and dotted with huge still-active volcanos. Bront's air is just on the side of being breathable to a Brontian, and deeply uncomfortable for an off-worlder. Bront's hives are huge artificial towers containing stacks of hab blocks, manufactorums, loading docks, stores, agri floors, and water treatment facilities. The upper levels of the Bront hives extend above the poisonous smog of the surface to the clearer, colder air of the upper atmosphere, whilst the lower levels plunge into the sweltering depths of the earth and are at constant risk of destruction from subterranean earthquakes and magma plumes .

History : Bront was founded almost a decade after the end of the Angevin Crusade, as a reward to the 33rd Army Group, the last of the Crusade’s forces to be demobilized as the sector fully established itself as part of the Imperium of Man. The 33rd was supposedly composed wholly from the population of Brontopath, a Feral World in the Scarus Sector, raising 75% of the world's available reserves into Bro n tine Centurion regiments that set out on a great pilgrimage to the ends of Scarus and beyond. The remains of the 33rd settled on Bront; w hil st not originally a Hive World, Bront was swiftly industrialised, and reclassified by the Administratum as a Hive World within a mere thousand standard years of its founding. The discipline and traditions of the Brontians attracted many settlers who had also formerly been Imperial Guard troopers. Bront's populace was formed from the descendants of countless thousands of Imperial Guardsmen and their families who were originally drawn from dozens of different worlds, who had been brought together by the shared experience of conflict.

Present : The population of Bront have strong traditions of military discipline and ancestral ties to the Imperial Guard, with old regimental affiliations forming a system of clan-houses. These clans form the heart of Brontian society, maintaining ancient traditions from their ancestors' distant homeworlds and instilling a deep sense of loyalty and duty to the God-Emperor in its people. However, the military tradition that defines Brontian culture also ensures that the clans work tirelessly to be ready to defend the Imperium as their ancestors once did. Disputes between clans are resolved through ritualised mass battles, favouring an assortment of blades over pistols, rifles, and other ranged weapons.

These ritual battles typically leave little more than scars, which are worn openly where possible to display a warrior's victories and losses, and every Brontian warrior knows and can recount the history of every one of his scars. While most scars are regarded as a sign of experience and honour, a few are viewed with scorn: scars upon a warrior’s back are universally regarded as dishonourable, whether from the bite of a lash to punish a criminal, or from the edge of a blade when fleeing from battle. Ne'er-do-wells and cowards are ill-favoured in Brontian society, and seldom rise to achieve any worthy status once marked as such. The people of Bront grow up surrounded by crowds in the hive cities, and they are used to weaving through even the densest mobs with ease. Brontians seldom endure the horrors of the open sky or suffer the indignities of the great outdoors. When recruited into the Imperial Guard, Brontian Longknives regiments are deliberately drawn from multiple clans, with individual companies, platoons or even squads all holding different ancestral affiliations. This means that each Brontian regiment represents the world and its people as a whole, rather than any one element of it, and the bonds of bloodshed formed during ritual battle hold these disparate groups together in spite of their differences. A Brontian knows to respect those he faces in battle for the death they can deliver, and the warriors of the other clans have been faced many times. Individual Brontian Guardsmen are still known to bear their scars openly, and carry their favoured knives about their person, adding new blades to their collection with every campaign survived -- a Brontian soldier's experience can be seen in the scars on his arms, torso and face, and in the knives strapped to his armour. Brontian officers are known to carry the tradition a step further, with an array of swords worn at their belts and over their shoulders, and their scars used to help determine their worth as front-line leaders -- rare is the Brontian officer who achieves a significant rank with dishonour's mark upon his back.

Bront is presently ruled by Lord Albani, an Administratum-appointed official hailing from Holy Terra itself; Albani was granted Bront after his ancestral world of Albani Locum in the Ultima Segmentum was devoured by Tyranids. Albani's high officiating ways do not endear him to his subjects, and so far the number of failed assassination attempts numbers five. Although Bront is distant from Scintilla, it is bound to the world by pacts, oaths, and treaties, dating back to the close of the Angevin Crusade. Long Knives regiments have become gradually more and more essential to the sector, making up in skill, ingenuity, cohesiveness, and ferocity what many of the newer frontier worlds lack; Brontian commanders have been picked to lead campaigns in the Jericho Reach and elsewhere, and many sit on important councils of state.

Bront has already surpassed waning powers such as Solomon, Tranch, or Zweihans World in renown and fervour, and stands to become a top tier world within the emerging power blocs of the Calixis Sector.

(There's a planet called Brontopath in the Scarus Sector, so it makes sense the Brontines/Brontians would come from there; also makes sense that they'd have a very good, pragmatist, approach to sector politics (ie. warfare) that would see them as being a, if not the, major world of the sector - after all the Scintillans ideally prefer to pay other people to fight on their behalf, and the Malfians are locked in century-long homicidal blood feuds that stop them from being entirely in control of even their own subsector)

On to,

Malfian Subsector

Malfi was one of the main jumping-off points for the widening of the Angevin Crusade into the greater Calyx Expanse. Malfi had been a human world for so long its origins were lost to history; the Malfians possessed a large population and large mercantile fleet. Malfi quickly swore its loyalty to the Imperium and its population joined the huge Crusader forces, or 'legions' in an old Gothic variant, hence the Malfian Legionaries Imperial Guard regiments. The Malfians knew many things about the unexplored region of space to the northwest. There were many human and xenos inhabited worlds, and many uninhabited worlds of rich resources. The Eldar were believed to inhabit this region of space millenia ago, and many worlds still bear marks of their habitation. Ork-inhabited worlds and pirate fleets existed in abundance in the space southwest of Sinophia. A reasonably large human-xenos federation known as the Crux occupied a star cluster to the far northwest of Malfi. In time all the human worlds known to the Malfians would be reincorporated, and all the xenos worlds, including the Crux, conquered and colonised.

The Malfian subsector consists of three different regions: the worlds connecting directly

to Malfi such as Landunder, Vaxanide, or Orbell Quill; the Zweihans Grouping, the old coreworlds of the stellar cluster controlled by the Crux; and the Lepidus Arm, an archipelago of contigous worlds connected by very unstable warp tunnels. None of these three regions have good communications with the others, which is what prevented Malfi from becoming the dominant power in the sector it should have. Parts of the Malfian subsector are very wartorn, and very distant, with the worlds at the extremities of the Lepidus Arm taking an almost double figures number of warp jumps to reach. Large amounts of troops and ships are committed to internal Malfian conflicts, from the chaos-worshipping necrophages of the Dusk jungles, to the heavily-armed mutineers of Facrast, to the pirate-ridden outlaw country of the Fydae System. It is very possible one day the worlds of the Zweihans Grouping, many ancient and powerful Hive and Forge worlds, will look to align with the northern secessionist Severan Dominate; or that a bad warpstorm will cut the Lepidus Arm off for good.

- Malfi is meant to have two other worlds in its system, Gallowglass and Borusa, and it makes sense if both were Agri Worlds to feed a population of Malfi's size-

Gallowglass

Classification : Agri World

Planetary Governor : Senior Administrator Yatrina Foros, appointed from Malfi

Government Type : Collective agricultural

Adeptus Presence : Ministorum worship halls, large Administratum presence, a small congregation of Adeptus Sororitas guard the Shrine of the Seventeen Holy Martyrs.

Geography : Gallowglass's landmass consists chiefly of small island chains with towering vertical farming stacks built on top of them. Gallowglass's polar regions have melted, considerably raising sea level.

Economy : Gallowglass exists purely to supply food to the hungry hives of Malfi. There is no economy on Gallowglass, only rationing overseen by the agriculture commision.

Primary Exports : Food: Gallowglass is an experiment in new techniques of mass farming, utilizing towering vertical field stacks and seed beds. Every inch of the sky -reaching field stacks are dedicated to growing some staple crop or vegetable.

Principal Imports : Few, Gallowglass is highly self-sufficient. Building materials are being imported to construct massive coastal defences, to protect the farming towers.

Military : Gallowglass has no internal PDF, its function being too important. Imperial Guard regiments of the Malfian Legionaries are rotated through garrison duty.

Contact with Other Worlds : Warp routes to all the places that can be reached from Malfi, inter-system travel routes within the Malfian System.

Gallowglass was originally a Feral World within the Malfian System that produced little more than some crops and the high quality Gallowglass Imperial Guard Regiments. Several thousand years ago the supply situation on Malfi became acute, as refugees from nearby wars fled to the hives. The noble families of Malfi decided to convert the Feral World of Gallowglass and the Feudal World of Borusa into Agri Worlds dedicated to feeding the megapolis. Two different approaches were taken: the population of Borusa was almost entirely servitorized and turned into a whole world of tireless slaves; whilst the moon of a gas giant, Gallowglass was emptied of its population, which was dispatched en-masse to the Margins Crusade, and turned into an experiment in accelerated and efficient growing. The polar ice caps were artificially melted and the global temperature raised to achieve optimal warmth for growing conditions.

Today Gallowglass is staffed wholly by Adeptus Mechanicus personnel and several thousand workers and administrators from Malfi. The geoengineering that altered Gallowglass generations ago is still having an effect, and whirling hurricanes sometimes send waves crashing against agri-hives. There are proposals to harvest from the Gallowglass world ocean, but there has been unexpected difficulty in finding or crafting an organism or plant that could flourish in its high salinity and high temperature conditions. Each agri-hive is linked to an operative "space elevator", a high tech winch that lifts food containers off the world to specially adapted ships, so as not to risk the possibility starship effluent or exotic particles taint the crop.

Gallowglass is of paramount strategic importance to the whole subsector. A small force of Adeptus Sororitas Battle-Sisters died to a woman defending Gallowglass from a Chaos Cult of decay, slaying an incarnate daemon of great power in the process. A permanent shrine is raised to their honour in remembrance of this great deed.

Borusa

Classification : Agri World

Planetary Governor : Magos Heireonymus

Government Type : Adeptus Mechanicus

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Mechanicus, Administratum presence from Malfi

Geography : Borusa's planetary surface has been gradually filled and smoothed with imported soil from nearby worlds: the mountains have been ground down, and the water drained and used for agriculture. Huge underground storage tanks hold the planet's water, supported by extractors. Borusa is dotted with Mechanicus workshops and storage sheds for the servitor workforce. Borusa's whole landmass is covered in basic culture farms for growing food.

Economy : Borusa produces a high quantity of food and other agricultural products.

Planetary Exports : Borusa exports vast quantities of food to feed the hives of Malfi. Borusa exports algae, vat-grown meats, nano-crustaceans, and other basic food staples that can be further cultured and packaged on Malfi. Borusa also produces some leather, cotton, and other similar items.

Planetary Imports : Replacement servitors when servitor cohorts are damaged, and high i ntensity farming equipment.

Military : Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii garrison

Contact with Other Worlds : Links to the same worlds as Malfi but less stable; inter-system transport to Malfi.

Borusa was originally a Feudal World within the Malfian System. Borusa was divided between warring clans and fiefdoms, producing a low tithe of precious metals and Borusan Heavy Cavalry Imperial Guard regiments. When it was decided Malfi needed increased agricultural imports to survive, Borusa drew the "short straw" between it and Gallowglass. Gallowglass fell within the purview of the Ministorum and Administratum, but Borusa was fiefed to the Adeptus Mechanicus to be turned into a fully operative Agri World. One third of Borusa's population were forcibly transported and settled on Malfi; another third were fully mobilized into several hundred Borusan Heavy Cavalry regiments and dispatched to the Margins Crusade along with the Gallowglass Guards; the final third suffered a grim fate. The remaining population were transformed into mindless mono-servitors, tending Borusa'a new land usage of growing vats, fields, terraces, automated ocean trawlers,

and underground water reservoirs. Borusa has nearly as successful a food output as the more 'humane' methods employed on nearby Gallowglass. Whilst Gallowglass uses 'vertical' farming, Borusa favours a huge 'lateral' sprawl of areas and facilities. The sight of Borusa is grim to visitors: the whole world is like one vast nursery, tended to by mute zombies, carrying out the same tasks endlessly until their biological components degrade and are replaced by Malfi. The Ecclesiarchy puts a lot of pressure on Malfian nobility to curtail the Borusa experiment; not only do they see the population as abhorrent, they also have a significant stake invested in Gallowglass's future.

Both worlds, Gallowglass and Borusa, respectively believe that as one farming method triumphs over the other, it will be enforced on the less productive world. In truth the 'competition' fuels spectacularly increased tithe quotas from both worlds as one tries to out-do the other through increased effort or new innovations: Malfi is quite happy to let the two worlds think they are competing for as long as needs be.

Orbell Quill

Classification : Agri World

Planetary Gover nor : Adept Lokrian von Cular, Tithes Chamber Notaries, sub. Planetary Census (Abhumans)

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Administratum (transportation of produce, and abhuman departments), Adeptus Mechanicus orbital research station

Principal Exports : Varied animal and plant produc e : L ong-grass and oats for export, and exotic aeroformic plants. The spectacular varied plumage of Orbell Quill's avians are highly prized for clothing and quills.

Principal Imports : Very little – the Adeptus Mechanicus and Administratum stations require regular imports of food, water, and technical supplies.

Military : Orbell Quill PDF, low quality; Orbell Quill's population are hard to rouse into military formations; Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii.

Geography : Orbell Quill has a very low field of gravity; plants can grown to enormous heights and most animals are capable of flight. Orbell Quill is one continental landmass with small inland seas, covered in verdant plains of plants and dense grass forests. Trees never evoled in the Orbellian ecosystem so their place is taken by species of grass that grow tall and tightly interwoven into formidable organic spires. The surface of Orbell Quill is like being at the bottom of a shallow sea, long-grass spires reach a mile into the sky and yet are only centimetres thick, swaying as if caught in a current. Above enormous shimmering shoals of gas-propelled avianoids swoop through the sky, with arrowheaded carapceans diving down to snap up an unfortunate straggler. Great kite-like aeromorphs lazily float through the breeze, their long tendrils scooping up anything ulucky enough that they trail over. Huge ameobic colonies spread out into photosynthesizing clouds of organisms capable of obscuring one of the Orbellian suns when they mass. There are even stranger creatures in the upper atmosphere of Orbell Quill, possibly even cloud-dwelling civilizations of uncontacted xenos. Terran avian stock was imported to Orbell Quill but has never truly adapted to flight on the world, becoming larger and making up a land-based ecosystem. The Orbellian 'Land Chicken' is in fact a bloated ostrich-derived species that are herded by the Orbellians; 'hawklyon' are the descendants of Terran birds of prey, generally evolved into more of a simian, quadrapedal-life, and the apex ground predator.

History : Originally 'Orbell's Quill' and named for the Explorator who charted the world and the fine dexa-weave feathers of the 'dexa pseudobird' of the Arulian Plains, Orbell Quill has been inhabitted for humans for thousands of years. The earlier colonists adapted both in body and mind, becoming close to the prejoratively known abhuman species called 'longshanks' ( homo elongatus ), and adopting a migrato r y herding lifestyle. After being recontacted Orbell Quill has turned into a major food-producing Agri World for the Malfi and Scintilla hives, sending large tithes from Orbell Quill's rich and inexhaustive biosphere. Orbell Quill's seas hold ancient xenos ruins on the seabed, holdovers from some alien civilization that died out long before humans ever settled on Orbell Quill.

Present : Baseline humans can't survive on Orbell Quill, let alone move comfortably in its atmosphere and gravitational conditions. When the Administratum wish contact with the world, the Adeptus Mechanicus send down adepts with especially modified cybernetic augments to allow correct blood-circulation and respiration. The Orbellians live in long trains of wagons that contain all their wordly possessions; they follow the migratory paths of land avians and the greater masses of aeroforms. The Orbellians are languid, contemplative people, but unmatched hunters both on land and in the air, using canvas-based wing and rotor vehicles to ascend with nets and chemicals to snare and capture millions of organisms at a time.

Orbell Quill and its population are unusual in one additional regard: every Orbellian, regardless of circumstances, does not live past the age of 40. Orbellians upon reaching their 40th birthday have been know to die of disease or injury, be clawed to pieces by packs of kingrooks, be pulled inside the gooey digestive organs of a hovering greater gas-gullet, or to simply drop stone dead. Intensive study at Orbell Quill's orbital research station, including the unsanctioned dissection of several Orbellians, have uncovered nothing in Orbell Quill's atmosphere or Orbellian biology to account for this; to the consternation of the Mechanicus the cause may not be physiological at all. The answer may lie within Orbell Quill's sunken ruins and the technologically advanced xenos who once dwelt here, possibly a mighty race descended from servants of the Old Ones themselves.

- It's an abhuman world because there aren't nearly enough of those, and its essentially meant to be a Wayne Barlowe planet, with lots of extremely non-Terran types of bioforms and plantlife; the die at 40 years thing comes from the info on Warhammer 40k wiki and since its that region of the galaxy it could be fun to pin it on Old One ancient astronauts -

Can I just say, this is a fantastic thing you're doing friend. Thumbs up from me

(thank you!)

Loss

Classification : Feral World

Planetary Governor : Bosun Igor Murl, chief bosun of Rights Landing

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Administratum orbital station

Principal Exports : Packaged seaweed and kelp

Principal Imports : Merchants have traded weapons and technical equipment wit the people of Loss

Military : Each of Loss's atoll-ships comes equipped with its own guards, militia, and defensive gun batteries

Geography : Loss is a world entirely covered inn a seaweed and kelp-choked ocean. Continent-sized masses of tightly interwoven plantlife create a dark green, spongy surface, inter-spaced with open seas of brown, brackish water. Loss has an orbit that couples it with 'The Demon Sun', a huge, baleful purple-violet gas giant that blocks out the natural light of the local star. Glowing night-reeds and electric blue ball lightening provide the only natural light on this world. Loss is believed to have a whole oceanic ecosystem, but the undersea world is beyond the Loss inhabitants' capacity to explore. The surface of Loss is inhabited mainly by insect, mollusc or crustacean xenos lifeforms. Surface wildlife is generally harmless, although the giant amphibious dermaptera has been known to invade ships holds and establish nests of clicking, poisonous horrors. The real threat on Loss comes from the giant cephalopods known as 'demonfish', many-tentacled, toothed abominations that dwell just below the surface. The demonfish of Loss are voracious meat-eaters, sometimes massing in their hundreds to attack an atoll-ship and pluck crew off the decks and dragging them into the red, foaming waters. The people of Loss dwell in what are known as atoll-ships, part prehistoric survival ark and part artificially constructed islands of junk, waste, and improvised defences. An atoll is a twisting superstructure of metal and wood built around the becalmed hulk of the multi-story survival vehicles the people of Loss built in ages past to save their world. Their sides are generally studded with turrets, balconies for pike-armed repeller squadrons, and spikes and coverings of barbed wire. While the engines of the atoll-ships have long been removed and turned into power generators, travel can still be achived by following the Ghost Trails, marked out pathways over particularly solid patches of kelp and seaweed that can support people and supply-laden vehicles. The risks of being attacked by wildlife are immense, as are the chances of straying from the path in the eternal dark and sending the convey straight into the depths; the walkers of the Ghost Trail are greatly respected and frequently leave Loss to become scouts and trackers in mercenary armies.

History : The Loss System was the beachhead with which the renowned Fydean Pirates and the depraved cultists of the Saynay Clan, as well as several other renegade xenos and human cultures could launch raids into Malfian space. The start of what became known as the Lepidus Arm Crusade, or the 'c rusade-within-a- c rusade ' , led by General Varro Lepidus of the 9th Army Group, forces gathered from the so-called 'Imperial Worlds' of the Finial Sector. The Lepidus Arm Crusade lasted a year longer than the main Angevin Crusade, such was the isolation of the single warp corridor leading from Loss to Dusk. It was said General Lepidus at the Crusade's conclusion had little over a thousand men to conquer Dusk and break the Saynay brood warriors; he and his soldiers died in a glorious last stand that preceded the arrival of a combined Calixian battleforce. Loss never realistically offered anything to the Imperium other than an anchorage for ships, so is largely unchanged since General Lepidus contacted the Loss atoll-ships many centuries ago.

Present : The people's of Loss are generally regarded as tough and dour characters. They have little to say about Loss's past or present other than to curse the precursors who built their survival ships for their failings, too cramped, too tight, too prone to rust. Imperials do not generally visit Loss, as there is realistically no reason to. Ministorum clergy have so far not got around to proselytizing to the population, nor have Mechanicus techpriests arrived in any numbers. Loss is almost a literal backwater of the Imperium, ruled by tribal groupings tied to each atoll-ship. By right whoever is overlord of Rights Landing , biggest and best defended of the atoll-ships, a towering pile of pipes, gantries, cranes, gun batteries and hab-decks. Bosun Igor Murl is bosun of Rights Hold , the third son of the Murl dynasty to hold the post, a vain and fragile man who is even now unaware that in the bowels of his ship opposing forces are plotting his overthrow and usurpation. Life on an atoll-ship for the population is hard, most being held in servitude to a tribal faction, either born into it or kidnapped in an over-water raiding action on another atoll-ship. Wars are frequently bloody stalemates between technologically less advanced, lightly-equipped raiders, with the only ones who profit the demonfish skulking beneath the kelp-line.

- if you've ever read William Hope Hodgson's 'The Boats of the "Glen Carrig"', minus the island of the fungus that we will be getting to on a different planet ; the atoll-ships of Loss are meant to be Castle Gormenghast-like environments, like hives run along the lines of a feudal 17th century Royal Navy ship - the world itself is meant to be a very strange environment

Stunning work and truly helpful for both players and GM's alike.

Bilani

Classification : Agri World

Planetary Governor : Adminstrator-Director Hershel Zikitch, Adeptus Administratum

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Administratum, Ministorum, orbital shipyard facilities, Adeptus Mechanicus

Principal Exports : Bilani is a bulk producer of food for the Malfian subsector, exporting huge amounts of protein-rich insects to the hives of Malfi and beyond.

Principal Imports : Water, technical parts for repair of cab-striders

Military : Bilani PDF (medium quality PDF), offworld mercenaries based at the orbital shipyards , typically drawn from Malfian hive gangs.

Geography : Bilani is unique in the Calixis Sector in both its strangeness and horror. The surface of the planet Bilani is entirely covered in a living carpet of insect, arachnid, annelida, and other arthropod lifeforms. The actual surface of Bilani is several meters below this writhing, disgusting mass of creatures, of which many to the confusion of the Magos Biologis are Terran in origin. It is believed that a combination of low gravity and the soil of Bilani containing some natural enriching agent that accelerates the growth and life cycle of arthropod lifeforms has resulted in this occurence (the soil has been examined and tested on other plant and animal life to no effect). Bilani has no landmarks of any kind; any structures built on Bilani would inevitably crumble under the gnawing mouth parts, but more-so the pressure, of trillions of living bodies. The beasts of Bilani eat nothing but each other. Most of Bilani's animal population are small, larvae such as worms, caterpillars, and maggots. There are perhaps in excess of several millions species crowding the Bilanian surface, at a combined total of trillions if not perhaps quadrillions of individual creatures. Bilani is home to several thousand larger species of creature, grown corpulent and strong off feasting on thousands of their weaker kind; Golachnids are the most feared, eight-legged crawling sacks of poisonous bile and over-developed razor-like forelegs, able to rear up to almost the same height as a cab-strider. Bilani has no sources of food or water but that which can be processed from the insect harvest. The orbital shipyards of Bilani house all off-world habitation and Imperial facilities, as well as a company of paid mercenaries to act as PDF.

History : The stomach-churning world of Bilani was first discovered when a flagship of General Lepidus's navy was idly testing its main weapons on the planet's surface. Instead of leaving a smoking crater, the bare earth was almost immediately covered-up again by the brown-green material that seemed to comprise the planet's surface. Probes and examination showed the true nature of the world; in his wisdom Lepidus ordered shuttles carrying a specially synthesized nerve gas to the planet to knock out as many creatures as they could for transportation. Few shuttle crews made it back, either eaten-alive by thousands of swarming horrors or chopped into pieces by shambling grotesques, but enough samples were returned to suggest Bilani could be a very useful source of food. General Lepidus placed a station in orbit that provided the Lepidus Arm Crusade and the forces of Angevin with food for years to come following Lepidus's original method.

Present : Harvesting on Bilani is dangerous, so is only conducted by convicts assigned from prisons and Penal Worlds across the system. Penal workers are assigned a 'cab-strider', a vehicle based on the Sentinel model walker, capably of standing above the filthy, squirming mass of Bilani and keeping the driver relatively safe. Only some of Bilani's ecosystem has been deemed safe to eat, so cab-striders wander the landscape looking for the tell-tale signs of a colony of edible insects. The driver then fires a canister of specially attuned nerve gas that knocks every living thing in the area out. The driver then radios in their location and waits for Bilani's fleet of mass conveyors to arrive to collect the cargo: meanwhile, Bilani's ever present struggle for Darwinian supremacy goes on, as still living organism crunch and slurp their way towards the feast of stunned animals. There are many ways to die on Bilani. Sleep is not possible and drivers are kept awake through constant stimfeeds from systems within the cab-strider cockpit; mistakes are very commonplace. Rescue is not expected on Bilani, and a cab-strider has only the most basic offensive weapons: many of Bilani's predators are powerful enough to overwhelm a vehicle and bite their way through to the tasty morsel inside. Bilani is a world with statistics: a day's harvest on Bilani can feed several Hive Worlds, if correctly rationed, for a week; the death rate of Penal workers on Bilani is higher than several actual Penal Worlds; and the average life-expectancy of a Bilani cab-strider driver is usually to one week at most.

Penolpass

Classification : Feudal World

Planetary Governor : Arch Tyrant Lyzandat V, Dictator of Polypolis

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Ministorum missionaries, some Administratum, based in the White Court of the Arch Tyrant.

Principal Exports : Small tithed amount of raw materials such as metals and stone

Principal Imports : Advanced weapons such as stubbers and lasguns

Military : Levied Bands (low quality feudal PDF), City Legions (medium quality PDF), Senatorial Guard ( medium quality feudal PDF), Penopassian Blood Order (high quality palace guard) ; Imperial Guard: Penolpass Imperial Guard regiments.

Geography : Penolpass is a world with an all-encompassing turquoise ocean dotted with a handful of large forested, rocky islands. The islands of Penolpass are all clustered in close proximity towards the direct centre of the world. Penolpassian fishing smacks sail far out into the "World River" to good fishing grounds, bringing back stories of fantastic floating islands, reptilian sea monsters with snapping jaws, and nations of ocean-going humans with strange customs and adapted gills and fins; it is a common belief it is possible to sail completely off the edge of the world. Penolpass has four moons (the Father, the Mother, the Son, the Daughter) which can wrack the city-states of Penolpass with gigantic waves and fearsome tearing winds, hurling triremes against the rocks and smashing them to matchwood. The islands of Penolpass are almost all occupied by city-states, grand conglomerations with atriums, arenas, and temples to the Ecupater, the local name for the Emperor. The city-states are ringed by formidable walls and defences, farms and vineyards, and wilder places which occasionally contain a garrison, outpost, or monastery. Polypolis is the Imperium-designated capital of Penolpass, a city on a hill with shining marble walls, ornate temples, and the huge Palace of the White Court, seat of power on Penolpass. The citizens of the "core" cities of Penolpass enjoy a bountiful life, with support such as bread and social securities provided by the Tyrannical state; "lesser" cities are used more as hubs for farming or marketing. Part of the rolling gardens of the White Court estate have been converted into a minor Imperial spaceport, infrequently visited and understaffed.

History : The forces of the Lepidus Arm Crusade smashed apart a powerful xenos civlization that had colonised or perhaps evolved within the Penolpass System, said to be large, solar-powered sentient spacecraft, a blasphemous affront to the Imperium and the Machine God. The War of Pewter, as it became known, ended with the last of this xenos machine race plunging themselves into Arix, the Penolpass sun, rather than be captured and dissected by the Adeptus Mechanicus techpriests. Penolpass, the only habitable world of the system, was granted to forces of the 9th Army Group to settle – hailing from the so-called "Imperial Worlds" of the Finial Sector, regiments such as the 10th Malendan, the 1st Spartine, and the 71st Nobunagians. In the long intervals between Imperial conflict that followed the conclusion of the Lepidus Arm Crusade and the redeployment of forces to wars such as the War of Brass, Penolpass developed its own distinct martial culture. Penolpass fell into an endless series of religious, ethnic, and economic conflicts, such as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Wars of the Blades, the Century War, the War of the Blood Orders, and the War of the Three Tyrants. It was this final war that saw Arch Tyrant Lyzandant V become over dictator of all Penolpassian city-states, following a brutal war that had killed hundreds of thousands. The lack of regular Imperial contact meant that Penolpass produced many masters of more primtive weapons, such as myriad varieties of swords, axes, and the famous Penolpass "double flail." The need for fresh troops for the Severan and Jericho Reach campaigns has required Penolpass to be increasingly contacted so its soldiers can be recruited into newly formed Imperial Guard regiments.

Present : Three regiments of Imperial Guards were drawn mainly from the eunuch, palace guards of the merciless flailmasters palace guardians of the Penolpass Blood Orders. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Penolpass requited themselves well in campaigns in the Jericho Reach; the 'Second Founding' aimed to draw another seven regiments from Penolpass, this time from the diverse cultures of the city-states. " The War of the Second Fouding" erupted over which city-states would have the honour of forming armies, a conflict that simmered for a year and a half before being violently settled by the Adeptus Arbites, allowing new regiments to be raised . Imperial Guard recruiting is currently suspended on Penolpass following the Battle of Duke's Stump on Kulth, which saw an action by the 15th and 26th elite Maccabean Quintus Armoured against a Severan Dominate formation when the three regiments of Penolpass Light Infantry accompanying them fled under sustained and accurate firing: the Maccabean tanks disappeared under a hail of anti-armour fire from Dominate skirmishers. The Battle of Duke's Stump, whilst a minor engagement, robbed Lord General Ghanzorik of two elite tank regiments that could have turned the Number One Redoubt Campaign from a stalemate into a victory. Ghanzorik eased his rage by sending all the remaining Penolpass Regiments forward as a forlorn hope attack against the walls of Number One Redoubt, and suspending Guard recruitment from Penolpass pending investigation.

- Bilani is based on two ideas, one that the mass cultivation of insects is meant to be a good source of protein and the coming thing in farming; and that scene from Peter Jackson's King Kong where they fall into the canyon full of giant bugs that eat Andy Serkis and his buddies alive. Meant to be a very, very strange, alien planet, not really very Imperial, which is the theme for the Lepidus Arm sub-subsector.

Penolpass is a mirror image of Bront, that instead of where you get an ordered, communitarian society, you get constant warfare and internecine conflict. Penolpass has a vaguely Greco-Roman culture (Peleponessian War, you see), but I see each city state being its own thing, with the primary culture kind of Spartan but also containing Japanese, Zulu, Mughal, and Mayan style cultures.-

Faldon Kise

Classification: Frontier World

Planetary Governor : Overseer Harald Malcon, Elected by Council of the Lowlands

Adeptus Presence : None

Principal Exports : A little fish – very minimal tithe.

Principal Imports : Little official Imperial contact; some trade in medical supplies.

Military : Faldonian PDF (medium quality).

Geography : Faldon Kise could be described as an 'Alpine World': the planet's one landmass is dominated by a large network of mountain ranges covered in snow, ice, and dark green forests. The lowlands of Faldon Kise are usually filled with scree and rubble, along with big clear lakes teeming with fish. The forests of Faldon Kise are home to creatures such as deer, rabbits, bears, and wolves; the uplands tend to have richer soil and are more commonly settled than the deep woodlands or barren valley floors. The capital of Faldon Kise is called Kasr Faldon, the name of which 'Faldon Kise' is believed to be a corruption of the original Cadian in the local Low Gothic. Kasr Faldon is a smoky, walled town of wooden buildings and primitive living conditions. Roads link smaller settlements such as mountainside mining posts, lakeside fishing harbours, and the string of outposts at the very edge of the white expanse that takes up 30% of the planet's surface.

History : Faldon Kise had been settled by humans centuries ago, who bought with them a Terran stock of animal life that completely displaced the native lifeforms. When General Lepidus's forces defeated a Fydaean pirate fleet in orbit over this world wreckage fell here, dramatically changing climatological conditions and starting a rapidly progressing ice age. The war-mammoth riders of Faldon Kise resisted the Imperial troops who landed, and were shortly broken and crushed. Lepidus granted this world for settlement to a company of the 6,180th Cadian Shock Troopers who had been called up from the Segmentum Obscurus reserves; the Cadians intermingled with the local population and began settling the still habitable parts of the world, leaving many in the population with the distinctive violet eyes noted in the Cadian people. The situation on Faldon Kise has stabilised and the 'mini ice age' is in retreat, with a few more meters every year available for land hungry settlers to move into.

Present : Faldon Kise is a long way from the Imperium, an often passed over planet: it was this quality that made Faldon Kise the perfect place to settle for a heretical cult fleeing a round of purges of the hive cities of Malfi. The 'Universalists' had begone to grow in strength in the underhives of Malfi, preaching not just tolerance but clemency and love for the mutant and abhuman populations of the underhives. Imperial investigators suspected the involvement of the Pale Throng that had caused devastation in the Adrantis Subsector; Universalist leaders pre-empted an Imperial strike and fled, using their funds to charter ships to Faldon Kise, and distant Frontier World. The Universalists settled in high mountain redoubts, secretly infiltrating their way downhill into Faldon Kise's scattered farming communities. The Universalists have been able to offer advanced technology and other benefits to Faldonians who convert to their creed; so far the Universalist faith is unknown to the ministers of the Imperial Creed, its actions covert. Several commanders in the Faldonian PDF, essentially communal militias, have joined the Universalists. The Universalists have attracted mutant fighters from the Fydaean System to settle in their mountain homes; worse, they have actively attracted the attentions of xenos for trade and interaction. So far three xenos species have visited Faldon Kise, the reptilid scavengers the Morgauth, the protoplasmic Insidi, and the void-dwelling nanomachine species known as Species XN-75 . The Universalists intend to trade for weapons and technology that will help them fully seize the world, for reasons unknown but to themselves.

Aryus One

Classification : Feudal World

Planetary Governor : Malek Shah II, Hereditary monarchy

Adeptus Presence : Administratum, Arbites, and Ecclesiarchy based at the "Aliens Quarter" of the capital Jhagabad

Principal Exports : Aryus One exports fabrics, dyes, spices, pearls, jewelry and lumber; mining operations are being developed to enable the export of Aryus One's mineral resources

Principal Imports : Textile-processing machinery, heavy mining equipment, food, medical supplies

Military : Peasant Levies (low quality feudal PDF); Light Companies (medium quality feudal PDF), Heavy Companies (high quality feudal PDF): Imperial Guard: Aryusian Mameluks

Geograp h y : Aryus One is the closest planet to the Aryus System's sun, and as such is bathed in a large amount of exotic radiation; life expectancy on Aryus One are generally short. Aryus One is composed of several large continents, smaller land masses, and isolated island groups. The alluvial plains of the southernmost continent are home to the port city of Jhagabad, capital of Aryus One and the Aryusian Empire. Much of the rest of the world is covered in marshlands and jungles, or wind-swept radioactive deserts. The cities of the Aryusians are a mix of wood and stone, tottering shanty towns and grand imperial palaces. Many cities of rival states were bombed into ruins or razed to the ground by invading Aryusian armies; the bulk of Aryus's population work large cotton and other fabric plantations, with sidelines in subsistence farming and mining.

History : Aryus One had been settled by a human expedition launched sometime before the Great Crusade; the harsh conditions on Aryus One plunged it into a perpetual state of low intensity warfare between perhaps in excess of two hundred empires, states, principalities, monarchies, duchies, theocracies, pirate raiders, and wandering tribes. When the Imperials arrived with General Lepidus's forces they realised conquering Aryus One would be costly in life and material, both to vicious Aryusian warriors and deadly solar radiation. Lepidus is reported to have said words to the effect that "a single Guardsmen from the lowest, meanest world is not worth an inch of this cancerous rock." The Imperium sent agents to the world who identified the Aryusian Empire of Jhagabad as a likely candidate to conquer the world; the old, infirm emperor was assassinated by the Imperium and replaced by his more activist son. The new Shah's forces were supplied with Imperial weaponry and began a ruthless campaign against the other rulers of Aryus One, culminating at the apocalyptic Battle of the Bridge of Trees, when the allied armies of Reichskarl Teukner, Eiyerla Beg XXI, Ard Ri Domhull, and Princess Kyu of the Vei U were blown apart by autoguns, tanks, artillery and aircraft, supplied from the armouries of the crusader ships. Much of the land outside Jhagabad was devastated for centuries to come and the world was renamed Aryus One, after the conquering Imperial-backed power.

Present : Aryus One is being slowly developed by the Imperium with the cooperation of local royalty and is destined to become either an Agri World, or a Mining World. Outside the splendid coastal cities inhabited by the Aryusians most of the population is deject and immiserated, living in a poverty exasperated by hated Aryusian tax collectors. The situation on Aryus One is not stable, as their are threats both within the Golden Porte (Jhagabad's main palace), and the outer wilderlands. Aryus One has a large, developed military system, producing Aryusian Mameluks, warriors conscripted from the subject populations defeated by the Aryusians many years ago and commanded by Jhagabadi officers of the royal houses.

- Faldon Kise I wanted to be a world where; a) it was given to some Imperial Guard by right of settlement; and b) it had a local cult - Frontier Worlds are hard to write, all kind of samey, so this was just taken from the description of Frontier Worlds on WH40k wiki or Lexicanum -

- Aryus One suggested 'Aryan', si it would make sense the world would have an Indo-Vedic flavour to it, which is worthwhile as so many Imperial worlds are written as extremely monotonous planets full of Latin-spouting Anglos; Aryus One is vaguely Turkish, vaguely Mughal- also Aryus One is meant to be a way into the Koronus Expanse, which doesn't gel with Port Wander being the main gateway, so I ditched that bit

The Fydae System

The Fydae System contains three inhabited Imperial worlds, as well as several other planets and two large asteroid belts, the inner and outer. The Fydae System was discovered by voidfarers who mistakenly thought they had discovered a route direct from the Scarus Sector into the Fydae Great Cloud. The Fydae System was colonised by Scarusians and Ixaniadine settlers before shifts in the warp left the system stranded at the far end of the Lepidus Arm. The Fydaens turned to launching pirate raids on xenos and human worlds in the vicinity, sending raiding fleets as far north as the Crux League Worlds of the Zweihans Grouping. Centuries of raiding and interaction caused the Fydaen pirates to intermingle with the necrophagous cults of the feral planet Dusk, the Fydaens providing the Saynay Clan with the bulk of their feared Cannibal Fleet. Several devastating raids along shipping lines connecting the early Imperial acquisitions of Malfi, Landunder, and Vaxanide caused Lord Angevin to dispatch a mini crusade headed by General Varro Lepidus's 9th Army Group of tough, seasoned troops from the so-called 'Imperial Worlds' of the Ixaniad Sector to quell the thorns of Fydae and Dusk sticking into the Imperial side. The Lepidus Arm Crusade progressed well despite shifting warp currents and losses incurred taking Penolpass and Faldon Kise; it was the siege and occupation of the Fydae System that would bleed the crusaders dry.

The Fydaen pirate vessels were heavily modified versions of Imperial ships, faster, more durable, and better armed. The crusader fleet suffered huge losses before it had even passed the outer asteroid belt, constantly harried and ambushed by pirate raiders. The worlds of the Fydae System were defended by heavy orbital weapons platforms and stations that had been placed there to defend the colonies, and all of these needed to be taken at heavy cost. Decades were spent in just creating safe zones where Imperial shipping could be assured of bringing supplies to the crusader without risk of ambush. Crucially General Lepidus dithered about what should be done with the populations of the Fydaen worlds; he settled for declaring them all Penal Worlds and left much of the population unmolested, as he by this point did not have the troops to form effective garrisons. Lepidus's veteran troops were no match for the insurgency warfare the Fydaens waged against them, slowly sapping their energy, stretching their supplies, and making them fearful of leaving defended barrack-compounds.

The Great Rebellion struck the partially pacified system when a great shift in the warp current that carries traffic from one end of the Lepidus Arm to the other 'switched-off'. The planet-side Fydaens took their chance, assaulting Imperial forces wherever they could find them and taking off for the Inner and Outer asteroid belts in stolen or hidden ships. The remainder of General Lepidus's fleet made a desperate jump out of the system to regroup with forces further up the Arm, but were instead catapulted to the Dusk System, where only General Lepidus and a handful of his soldiers survived. Decades later when warp storms the worlds needed to be pacified all over again, but now there were thousands of independent statelets, monarchies, enclaves, free republic, and pirates based scattered in the depths of the Fydae Systems many asteroid and stellar debris fields. After other commitments, the Fydae System eats up a large amount of the Calixis Sector's reserves of soldiers and equipment in counter-insurgency and garrisoning operations.

Fydae Minos

Classification : Agri World

Planetary Governor : Lord-Procurer Anselmus Decimus, Adeptus Administratum

Adeptus Presence : Naval dock and maintainance yard in orbit, Arbites precinct, temples of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Ministorum, seveal Imperial Guard regiments, large Adeptus Administratum facilities.

Principal Exports : Fydae Minos is a classic Agri World: flooded arable land produces staple crops like rice and hardy Arcturan watersprouts; pastures raise meat in the form of cows, goats, sheep, pigs, and others; the seas provide fish and other ocean foods, such as the meat of the rare Fydaen Large Spider Crab. Fydae Minos has a number of orbital water-purifying platforms that extract and process water from frozen asteroids transported from the inner belt.

Principal Imports : Fydae Minos, ironically, due to the high nature of the tihe laws, requires regular imports of food and water to sustain a big surplus population of Imperial Guardsmen, Naval personnel, and Administratum.

Military : Fydaen Guard (medium quality PDF); Naval vessels, several Imperial Guard regiments (presently Malfian Legionaries and Landunder Varangians).

Geography : 90% of the sea and landmass of Fydae Minos is classed as agrarian in usage. Parts of the world are long strips of semi-flooded rice paddies, others are huge fenced-in plains for animals husbandry. Due to a quirk of being near the gas giant Fydae Majoris, the light that filters to this world is yellow in colour and gives the whole world a golden quality.

History : Fydae Minos served the food-production needs of the Fydaen pirate fleets, looking much as it did then as it does now. General Lepidus ordered the world taken intact so it could provide his crusader forces with sustenance, although this proved immensely costly as orbital platforms shot down scores of Imperial vessels. When the Great Rebellion occurred almost the whole of Fydae Minos's population fled to the Inner and Outer Asteroid Belts, as well as to the dust ring with surrounds the great yellow gas giant Fydae Majoris. The depopulation of Fydae Minos was one of the main contributing reasons for General Lepidus to abandon the system. When Imperial forces reconquered the world the planet was repopulated with thousands of colonists from the hives of Malfi and Landunder.

Present : Piracy is an ever-present problem around Fydae Minos, and there is a constant presence of Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard forces. Fydae Minos is a productive and bountiful world, exporting large amounts of food and water all over the Sector: it is vital its shipping lanes stay secure. Life on Fydae Minos is like any other Agri World in other respects, although there are tensions between Malfian farm workers and Fydaen "Loyalists" who did not abandon the planet during the Great Rebellion.

Fydae Minos has two moons, one is Sutter's Rock, a Mining World that has recently been declared Forbidden following an outbreak of plague, and Fydae Minos-1, a grey, rough lump of stone only remarkable for the huge carving in High Gothic embossed there by General Lepidus before his departure, reading: "I WILL RETURN."

Junos

Classification : Mining World

Planetary Governor : Commandant Judge Osmius, Adeptus Arbites

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Arbites, Administratum, orbital Naval station

Principal Exports : Junos's ocean rigs produce large amounts of promethium as well as natural gases; land-based mines produce coal, a selection of rare earth metals, and are also quarries for stone.

Principal Imports : Certain pieces of heavy machinery that can't be produced on this world

Military : Miners' Battalions (PDF – medium quality), Seaguards (PDF – medium quality); an Imperial Guard regiment is usually circulated in and out of garrison duty. The Fydae Penal Legion is also raised here.

Geography : Junos is an Ocean World, a planet almost entirely covered in permanently cold and stormy seas plag u ed with swells and maelstroms. Junos has a handful of small, rocky, and extremely inhospitable islands that are the locations of pit-heads leading to undersea mine-shafts, or huge stone quarries that leave large angular holes in the islands. Fort Sentinel is the capital, perched on a jutting rock outcrop, a main base for Imperial personnel on the world as well as the site of a Imperial Guard garrison and Arbites prison. Junos is a terrifying and hostile world: not only can storms whip up waves hundreds of metres tall, but a fearsome array of predators dwell here. Junos's ecosystem has never been catalogued, but it is known the depths are popu lated by a handful of gigantic superpredators. The cold seas of Junos do not produce any food edible to humans.

History : Junos was a main world of the Fydae System, inhabited humans dwelling in huge arcologies tethered to sub-surface mountain ranges. The population of Junos put up fear resistance to the Imperium but were subdued when General Lepidus began sinking their precarious cities. Many millions more taken prisoner across the system more freed from slavery were settled on Junos to work in sub-oceanic mining operations or inhabit the promethium-processing rigs built from the remains of wrecked arcology habs. Conditions for survival on Junos became short, cold, and brutish. The Great Rebellion saw the Junosians slaughter their Imperial overseers and take to the hidden habitats out at the system's edge or wild interior. Junos was later resettled and has become an important Imperial Mining World; the Fydaen Penal Legion is still raised here as punishment for the traitorous Fydeans who betrayed the Imperium.

Present : Junos is a harsh, unforgiving mining world; today a certain amount of young Junosians take the risk of reprisal on their families by fleeing Junos to join their brethren in the asteroid belts. Junos is located right on the edge of the Inner Asteroid Belt, and as such is a constant source of pirate irritation to the Imperium. Naval patrols so far have only properly scanned and investigated 0.04% of the asteroids, dust clouds, planetoids, dwarf worlds, and rogue moons within the Inner Belt, and have not even penetrated into the Heart of Fydae, said to be the broken, radiation-soaked rocks immediately surrounding Fydae Sol inhabited by the worst and most degenerate mutant outlaw nations. Life is hard for Junosians, and ruled over the strict hand of the Adeptus Arbites directly even the slightest misdemeanor is punishable by assignment to an inner system posting or conscription into the Fydae Penal Legion.

Kessae

Classification : Frontier World

Planetary Governor : Chancellor Hermione Jakovitz, head of representative council

Adeptus Presence : None

Principal Exports : Botanical product; many medicinal plants

Principal Imports : When Kessae is rarely visited by traders it typically is up to the council to barter for raw materials, food, and water

Military : Kessae Militia (low quality)

Geography : Kessae is a Desert World, a globe of rough sand, dry ocean beds, and salt-flats. The light of Fydae Sol is extremely bright and irradiates much of the planet's surface. Kessae has several ridgeback mountain spines that house the hab-vaults and eco-nurseries of the Kessaens . Kessea is a littler nearer Fydae Sol than Junos, and was once the capital world of the Fydae System: ruins of once great space ports and cities litter the desert. Asteroid strikes are a frequent occurrence, as are life-destroying bursts of solar activity.

History : Kessae was once the Fydean capital, protected by a battery of archeotech machines that transformed solar energy into power; protected by the Inner Asteroid Belt, the shipyards of Kessae could turn out the sleek, heavy-hitting craft and the ruthless crews that kept the Fydeans a major threat for several years. It was Kessae that took the most effort for General Lepidus to take, as much of the world was covered in built-up urban areas that took a heavy toll on Imperial occupiers even after the war to seize the Fydae System had ended. When the Great Rebellion occurred Imperial troops garrisoning Kessae were outnumbered by a factor of 100 to 1: not a single Imperial lived to tell of the fall of Kessae. Almost all of Kessae's population and still-intact shipyard facilities, for General Lepidus had made the magnanimous offer of Kessae to the Adeptus Mechanicus for a Forge World, departed for the secure hideouts the Fydeans had prepared generations in advance, and where their descendants till plague the Imperials today. When the Fydae System was retaken by Calixian forces Kessae was completely leveled, and slowly turned into a mutant-inhabited radioactive Desert World, now a source of mutant outcasts and outlaws who maintain shaky alliances with the Fydean pirates.

Present : 99% of Kessae in inhabited by mutants, wandering desert fighters who engage in bush warfare and sometimes raid subterranean Imperial settlements. Mercenaries frequently come here, as do archeologists, prospectors, and treasure hunters, drawn by the legends of Fydean wealth and technology still said to be hidden under the old ruined cities. Once every year the deserts of Kessae bloom with a million species of flower, briefly turning it into an orchard containing plants essentially for the production and medicinal and narcotic solutions. The Imperial loyalists on Kessae use enslaved mutant labour to gather the biomedicinal harvest, and trade it with a single Administratum ship that arrives once a year at harvest time. Kessae is a difficult world, inhabited by hostile mutants, bathed in radiation, and too far from the centres of Imperial control to really be called safe from pirate raiding actions. Inner Belt Fydean pirates frequently land on Kessae and conduct some covert dealings with the Imperial loyalists, without which the colony would not survive. A few thousand Imperials live secluded lives tending underground plant nurseries and water purifiers, donning voidsuits to conduct their harvesting; if ever organised and lead, the hundreds of millions of Kessaen mutants could massacre the poorly-armed Imperials in a single day.

Dusk

Classification : Feral World

Planetary Governor : Cardinal Trajanus Solarius, Adeptus Ministorum

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Ministorum presence, Cathedral of the Saviour Elana the Unshaken

Principal Imports : L ight weaponry, personal armour, and explosives to equip loyalist militias.

Principal Exports : M uch of Dusk's plant life is only beginning to be catalogued; so far herbs, plants, and roots with medicinal, narcotic, and highly psyc h oactive properties have been found in abundance, suggesting Dusk is a biomedical treasure trove.

Military : Armies of the Creed (low quality PDF, umbrella grouping of Imperium-loyal militias); thousands of bands of narco - tribes, cannibals, renegades, and openly Chaos-worshipping cults, including the Saynay Clan.

Geography : Dusk is the nightmare intersection of a teeming jungle Death World and a fetid Swamp World; the entire planet's surface is covered in dense, tall fungal trees, and pools of dank stagnant creature infested water. Sunlight does not penetrate the Dusk world-canopy, earning it its name for the permanent twilight bathing the jungle floor. Nearly all of the Dusk's fauna and flora is completely averse to human life; a great deal of it is poisonous or voracious for warm flesh. Such is the ferocity of Dusk's jungle predators that the plants and animals of this world have never been properly catalogued, thought it is known most lifeforms are naturally bio-luminescent. Known flora and fauna includes the eerie Glo-Slug. Dusk's largest permanent structure is the Cathedral of St. Elana the Unshaken, a shrine *** spaceport built on a natural rock outcropping high above the jungle floor. Indentured serfs work the grimy, chemical-soaked forges that churn out weapons and equipment, stopping only to attend services at adjoined shrines to St. Elana cut into the deep rock. Packaging plants process and store organic material for transport to infrequent merchant and Administratum visitors. Creed militia warriors, their families, and other workers, cluster in sprawling shanty towns around the Cathedral extending out into the jungle. The Cathedral contains the Solar Chamber, the palatial great hall where Cardinal Solarius entertains visitors with lectures on Imperial scripture and meets with Creed generals to plot the next moves of the pacification campaign. Nobody precisely knows what a non-imperial Dusk settlement looks like, for none and have returned to tell the tale, but stories suggest carefully concealed strongholds deep in the jungle, some cut inside kilometer high fungal mounds, overs descending into warrens of trap-laden cave networks.

History : Dusk has been settled by humans since long before the time of the Great Crusade, possibly stretching into the prehistorical Dark Age of Technology or further. The design of Dusk pirate vessels has always suggested development on Dusk took an extremely divergent course. Humans (and xenos) who dwell in the Calyx Expanse have long known the scourge of Dusk Pirates and feared their deprivations. The joining of Dusk clans and the Dark Eldar in the pillaging of the Exodite World of Hideem'uh earned their vessels an instant death sentence if they crossed paths with the Eldar; the Crux League Worlds lamented the loss and enslavement of the population of the entire Etrascian System; the shipping lessons of pre-Imperial Malfi and Scintilla were not declared safe for a hundred years following brutal raids. It is not known precisely when or how worship of the Chaos gods took hold on Dusk, but it is now certainly a fact of life. The long haul down the Lepidus Arm always saved the Dusk raiders from any retribution; Dusk colonists were among the first to traverse the Koronus Expanse and seed worlds with their population. It was witnessing the carnage following a Dusk raid on the model Malfian colony world of Ydanzk V that caused General Varro Lepidus to personally petition Lord Angevin for the troops to quash the Dusk menace. Lepidus's 10th Army fought a long, hard campaign down the Lepidus Arm, their supply lines stretched beyond breaking point and their troops depleted; the Fydaen pirates, allies or vassals of the Dusk, dealt a crushing blow during the Fydaen Great Rebellion, causing the surviving crusaders to make a blind warp leap that brought them unfortunately (perhaps by the hand of Chaos) into the Dusk System.

General Lepidus's survivors were ambushed by the whole assembled Dusk pirate fleet, mobbed and mauled particularly by the barbed boarding torpedoes filled with trophy-seeking night-walkers of the Saynay Clan. General Lepidus, his retinue, and an unknown number of Imperials managed to land on Dusk and strike out into the swamps and jungles. The heroic story is that General Lepidus and his 1,000 soldiers held out atop the great dark rock that would one day be home to the Cathedral of St. Elana before being overrun. The demise of Lepidus drew a temporary close on the Lepidus Arm Crusade.

20 years later St. Elana of Iocanthos would make a pilgrimage to the far worlds of the Lepidus Arm, spreading the Imperial Creed and recording her impressions of the shattered systems that had mostly fell into chaos or been absorbed under the emergent Saynay Clan yoke. St. Elana reached Dusk itself (via a Morgauth trader vessel gave her passage which she omitted from her journey, as Imperial shipping had become unknown), and discovered the more accurate demise of Lepidus had occurred when he and his handful of remaining bodyguards were ambushed by night-walkers in the jungle depths and dragged off to a fate worse than death. St. Elana returned weakened by disease and lived long enough to speak of her travels, of the colonies of Imperial faithful across the Arm cut off from the Light of the Emperor and besieged by dark forces. After her death the Ecclesiarchy organised a grand crusade (the Elanan Purge, or the 2nd Lepidus Arm Crusade) that swamped the Lepidus Arm with mainly demobbed veterans of the Imperial Guard who had served in the Southern Calyx. Dusk was conquered, subsumed by living waves of narco-crazed pilgrims who butchered any Dusk clansfolk they found. An area approximating 0.5% of Dusk's landmass fell under the direct control of the Ecclesiarchy, ruled over on behalf of the Imperium and centered around the might Cathedral to St. Elana.

Present : Much of the Lepidus Arm falls under the direct rule of Malfi and is safely encosed in the Malfian Subsector: Dusk is decidedly not. Almost all of the world is still held by chaos-worshippers of one kind or another; the main benefit of the Elanan Purge is that the strength of the Saynay Clan was shattered and disorganized. It takes many warp reaches to travel from Malfi to Dusk, even more from Scintilla, making several worlds in the Scarus and Ixaniad Sectors nearer the sector capital than Dusk. Supplies take a long time to reach Dusk, and the world is dangerously under-visited by Inquisitors or psyker blackships. Since the Dusk pirate fleet was scrapped or slipped away into the Koronus Expanse along with the bulk of the Saynay Clan, the Imperium no longer cares about Dusk as long as it stays quiet. The Elanan crusaders who reached Dusk stayed there and inter-married with the local population, becoming Imperial Loyalists organised into Armies of the Creed, fanatically faithful Imperial death squads. Cardinal Solarius, descendant of a Elanan lay preacher, typically sends Creed Armies out to terrorise and massacre neighbouring Dusk clans that do not pay tribute, as well as hunt Saynay or other Chaos-worshippers. The clans of Dusk can be split into those who are relatively friendly, cultivators of powerfully narcotic fungus and toxins; and the night-walkers, the vicious necrophagous sorceror clans of the deep jungle. Tales abound of part-human part-jungle trackers silently following their prey for weeks before striking; night-walkers are also said to be able to communicate and command deadly jungle animals. Night-walkers do not eat of the forest; their sustenance is the subterranean pits lined with wooden cages containing fattened human livestock. The consumption of human flesh hand powerfully-brewed narcotics opens the way for mages of the Saynay Clan to summon spirits, predict future events, and even have direct communication with the powers of the Chaos themselves.

- The Apocalypse Now planet, basically -

Zweihans Grouping

The star cluster to the northeast of Malfi is known as the Zweihans Grouping, a culturally distinct and highly productive region of the Calixis Sector. There are a number of populous Hive worlds here, as well as strategically vital Forge and Mining Worlds. The Grouping is bound to Malfi by ancient ties and agreements from the days of the Angevin Crusade, but the great distances involved have caused some secessionist-minded governors to look towards the example of the nearby Severan Dominate. Zweihans World Line Infantry, Lind Grenadiers, and Alactran Imperial Guard regiments make up the numbers in many campaigns, filling out specialisms with hazardous warfare-specialists the Cindarian Cave Spiders and the Ogryn regiments of Kuluth. The Zweihans World is too vital for any secessionist ambitions to be ever allowed to come to fruition.

The Grouping has a long and storied history. This region of space in ancient times was favoured by the Old Ones, and many species they had a hand in developing, including the Eldar and Orks, can be found here. The Grouping was home to the Crux, a large, organised federation of human and xenos worlds; the League Worlds of the Crux were remarkable places of bountiful wealth, harmonious cultural cooperation, and specialised, tough, armed forces. The Crux fought their wars carefully and thoughtfully, prefering to forge alliances with other humans worlds such as Sinophia and Malfi. The Crux League Worlds were well known to the Imperium though the reports of Rogue Traders, and it was one of the most famous of the Scarus Rogue Traders picked by Angevin to lead the assault on the xenos-tolerating heretics: Sebastiao Zweihans of the Zweihans Dynasty of Messina. Zweihans lead a 40th Army Group mainly composed of his own dynastic troops as well as soldiers raised from the southern Scarus region. Over a long and merciless campaign, winning some worlds by guile and others by brute force, the Crux fell apart, with many Xenos and Traitor worlds being subjected to brutal occupation or Exterminatus. Marshal Varro Lepidus, Zweihans' more official Imperial counterpart, split the Crusade forces to undertake his own personal journey into the isolated Lepidus Arm. The last of the League Worlds was obliterated near the mid-point of the Angevin Crusade; Zweihans' veteran legions were redeployed by the newly appointed Drusus to take on the awaiting nightmares in the southern Calyx that made conquering the Crux seem straightforward. Zweihans himself disappeared, some say into the unknown space to the far north of the Grouping, others into the unknown Koronus Expanse. The Zweihans Dynasty lives on, frequently departing themselves for wild, uncharted space using their still extant License of Trade. The Grouping is beset by a host of problems: overpopulation of its Hive Worlds; proximity to a large number of Ork occupied worlds; raids by Dark Eldar; and the still simmering threat of many uncontacted xenos empires.

Zweihans World

Classification : Hive World

Planetary Governor : Trader-Captain Heurelhyo Zweihans, currently regency council,

Adeptus Presence : All major Adeptus branches are represented here, along with Astra Telepathica personnel at Hive Warhid.

Principal Exports : Zweihans World has a specialism in producing heavy mining and industrial machinery, as well as vehicles, farming equipment, basic tools, and even some small-scale transport ships in orbital dry-docks.

Principal Imports : Food, water, raw materials.

Military : Hive Battalions (low quality PDF); hivescum gangers (medium quality irregulars); Imperial Guard: Zweihans World Line Infantry ; Zweihans Penal Legion

Geography: Zweihans World is the archetypical built up Hive World, a mass inhabited arcology built up from locally quarried Zweihans World stone. The planet has suffered several invasions and natural disasters, turning many hives into rubble that have been simply built over again with new structures. The hives of Zweihans World are proud, stained-granite blocks protuding out of miasmas of toxic sludge and bare, scratched earth, the Outlands inhabited by Feral Orks and human outlaws. Hive Warhid is the capital, a prominent tower built atop a jumble of centuries worth of collapsed stonework inhabited by billions of hive workers. There are seven worlds in the system, some home to Orks.

History : Zweihans World (then known by another name) was established by Imperial colonists during the period after the Horus Heresy, developing into a bustling Hive World with close trade links to Scintilla, Malfi, Sinophia, and the League Worlds of the Crux. Disaster struck when imperfections found their way into the planet's supply of genestock, spreading frightening degenerative diseases through the population and laying low hundreds of millions. Life on Zweihans World collapsed in gihting between local PDF, hive gangs, and doomsday cults. A raid by Ork Freebooterz unified the world behind a handful of merchant captains who launched a last ditch orbital defence against the Ork raiders; victory was won at the price of much of the surface bombed out and some of the Zweihans System's outer bodies becoming permanently plagued by Orks. The merchant-captains recruited thousands and lead fleets out into the Calyx Expanse to seize the equipment, materials and people to rebuild the world. What had been a salvation operation became a habit, as Zweihans World became an infamous free port for pirates and renegades, known for its wildness but fierce independence from the Malfians and Crux. Zweihans World was the first planet of the Zweihans Grouping to fall to the Imperium, to the forces of Rogue Trader Sebastiao Zweihans and his 40th Army Group. The world fell without a shot fired, the wily Zweihans striking a bargain with the merchant-captains that ensured a supply of materials and troopers to the crusader forces.

Present : Zweihans World is the central world of the Zweihans Grouping, the main port that links the disparate worlds of the star cluster. To the surprise of many Zweihans World smoothed its rough edges and became a highly disciplined world along the lines of planets like Mordian. The world is exemplary in its order and discipline in regards to tithe-fulfilment, and this extends to its Imperial Guard forces. The Zweihans World Line Infantry are known for just that, holding the line and digging into extended seiges; battles against outer system Orks and Zweihans World outlanders hone the rigid battle instincts of the cold-eyed men and women of Zweihans World.

Nahme

Classification : Mining World

Planetary Governor : Administratum-Prefect Ordenia Vanglor, Adeptus Administratum

Adeptus Presence : Orbital facilities containing mainly Administratum and Mechanicus personnel

Principal Exports : Nahme's volatile atmosphere contains an abundance of free floating metal oxides and sulphates, among many other valuable minerals.

Principal Imports : The Imperial personnel require regular shipments of food and material supplies

Military : N/A

Geography : The atmosphere of Nahme is an encompassing planet-wide storm of swirling inorganic matter, like a self-perpetuating maelstrom generated from strange electromagnetic fluctuations at the planet's core; t he Adeptus Mechanicus believes Nahme's core is artificial, possibly a large revolving perpetual motion device. No Imperial-built device or spacecraft is capable of standing up to Nahme's strange pressures or its swirling storms of splintered diamond and powdered iron. Nahme is connected to an archaic space station by a gravity tether, technology from the Dark Age of Technology of such complexity and ingenious design it is beyond the capability of the Mechanicus to reproduce or even properly examine . The environment of Nahme is so hostile that the present day Imperium simply cannot hope to ever begin colonisation attempts.

History : The fringes of the Nahme System were the site of a skillfully planned ambush of a Crux flotilla heading out to strike at the Imperial lines. Long drawn out fighting left two thirds of the Imperial Navy forces destroyed and the entire Crux flotilla as, drifting cooling scrap. The surviving Imperial vessels headed to the Nahme to investigate and find emergency supplies, when a powerful energy blast from the world temporarily shut down the fleet's systems. Moving closer to examine circumstances, the Adeptus Mechanicus frigate Enduring Vigour made contact with 'something' on the planet. Over several days the frigate completely surveyed the planet and discovered the gravity tether leading into the heart of the maelstrom. The people of Nahme were abhumans, descendants of shipbound pioneers who had arrived on Nahme in the distant time during the Dark Age of Technology; unable to leave the specialised environments of their ships, likewise no Imperial could enter the ships. A treaty was arranged with the Nahmeans, that they would use their powerful nautiloid hive-ships to extract metallic and mineral resources from the world and convey them to an Adeptus Administratum space station. And so the treaty has stood for ever after.

Present : Nahme is restricted to anybody who does not have special licenses from the Adeptus Mechanicus or Administratum. The Nahmeans have been reticent with information: the "hive-ships" of the Nahmean are fantastically powerful artifacts of the Dark Age, capable of taking on an orbiting spaceship, crewed by billions. Nobody has ever seen a Nahmean, and communication is conducted between the hive-vessels and the Imperium using complex mathematical code. Although there has been extensive study of Nahme, the Adeptus Mechanicus are nowhere near understanding the planet's fantastically old and advanced technology. There is a growing amount of suspicion, in the Adeptus Mechanicus and within the Inquisition, that the Nahmeans have never told the whole story, and that some degree of heretical or xenos technology is involved. The most outlandish theory advanced by certain Magos is that the Nahmean are not abhumans, but in-fact the hive-ships themselves are living, immense constructs, artificial intelligence, the purest form of technological heresy. The Administratum does its best to quash these theories, as without Nahme production in the subsector would implode.

Kuluth

Classification : War World

Planetary Governor : Commissar Vencher Buld ergrazt, Imperial Guard

Principal Exports : Kuluth is noted for its locally produced obsidian jewelry pieces, surprisingly delicate pieces of work for the Ogryn jewelers who craft them

Principal Imports : Weapons to particularly favoured Imperium-aligned tribes.

Adeptus Presence : Imperial Guard training facilities on Facility 4-Delta.

Military : Every Ogryn tribe is able to field itself for battle in close to its entirety. Imperial Guard: Kuluth Ogryn Backbreakers.

Geography : Kuluth h as one single supercontinent; it was once a heavily forested, heavy gravity world populated by saurian megafauna and mammalian herbivores (the ecological set-up had similarities to so-called Eldar 'Exodite' worlds). Kuluth completely changed when a supervolcano erupted and plunged the world into a deluge of lava, ash and darkness . The Ogryn population were the only beings hardy enough to survive this dramtic change, although even the demise of the ecosystem and poisoning of the atmosphere is starting to take its toll.

History : The ancient world of Kuluth was the site of a pitched battle between mixed human and xenos colonists of the Crux and the forces of the Imperium. The eco-farmsteads and smooth geometric cities typical of the Crux became the site of sweeping armoured warfare and house-to-house battles. Eventually the Crux commanders retreated into the forests to escape to their ships in a hidden spaceport. The Crux would have escaped, if not for the efforts of the Ogryns of Anark Zeta, would smashed through the forest undergrowth and beat back flesh-eating saurian monstrosities to lay siege to the spaceport. The Crux escape shuttles were left as torched ruins, with the remaining survivors surrendering to Imperial punishment. So impressed was Sebastiao Zweihans that he cleared it with his immediate superior Drusus that Kuluth (named for the Spirit of Calth , an Ultramar-donated ship that several worlds in the sector were named for), should be granted to the Ogryn by right of settlement. This was done, and Kuluth became an entirely Ogryn inhabited planet. Life continued on Kuluth as it does on most Ogryn worlds, feasting, fighting, and feuding, until the "Big 'un", the eruption of Emperor Mountain that wiped out Kuluth's saurians in a few short years. The Ogryns live on however.

Present : What stability there was on Kuluth collapsed into a resource war over the few patches of earth unaffected by the eruption, and the few surviving herds of cattle. The Ogryns have taken the fate of their world in their stride, and the situation has proved advantageous to the Imperium, producing Ogryn who have known a whole lifetime of fighting. Every year the band of habitable land shrinks further, and the dark days become shorter and shorter. The Imperium maintains a specially constructed training station on Facility 4-Delta on the far side of Kuluth's single moon, with the environment adjusted to the high gravity conditions favoured by Ogryns. Commissar Buldergratz is a Scintillan veteran of training and leading abhumans regiments, who takes his work extremely seriously; licking unruly, raucous regiments of Ogryns requires flexibility as well as a will of iron, which Buldergratz has.

Facrast

Classification : War World

Planetary Governor : N/A, previously Burgher Septimer de Morrys

Adeptus Presence : Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy

Planetary Exports : N/A, previously prociding planetside repair facilities for the internal systems of Navy vessels

Planetary Imports : N/A

Military : On the Imperial side, several deployments of Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard, including the 113 th Malfian Legionaries, the 91st Zweihans World Mechanized, and the 18th, 19th, and 20th Luggnum Sewer Rats . On the renegade side, Facrast PDF troopers, numerous chaos-aligned Traitor Guard, mutants, and chaos spawn.

Geography : Facrast is an orange coloured rocky planet, without water or vegetation, with a cold and dry atmosphere. The surface of Facrast crunches underfoot, and footprints can last for eternity in the windless, still condition. Facrast has a breathable atmosphere, but just barely, as hundreds of years of heavy industrial work have tainted land and atmosphere with toxic spillage, making breathing hard work even for Facrastians. The docks of Facrast are former quarries, huge angular pits lined with gantries, walkways, mechanics shops, and storage sheds; the workers habs are partly cut into the quarry walls, winding, painstakingly carved living spaces occupied by millions of workers. The ruling de Morrys clan once dwelt in a palace carved into the soft, crumbling walls of Facrast Primaris, the world's de-facto capital and largest dock. The habs are protected by titanic metal shutters that can be drawn down to prevent unshielded humans from being incinerated by engine blasts.

History : Facrast was originally a Mining World, providing quarried stone to build many of the grand monuments and palaces of Zweihans World to celebrate the end of the Angevin Crusade. The enormous quarries became filled with specialised docks for effecting repairs on Imperial Navy vessels small enough to be capable of landing; Facrast became an important naval depot in Imperial border space. It was one of these visiting navy ships that may have brought the taint of chaos to the world, a taint which soon spread throughout the habitation rookers dug into the quarry walls. Soon everyone from the PDF commanders to the de Morrys noble house were secretly worshipers of the ruinous powers; they chose their moment for revolt well, striking when several Navy vessels were sitting vulnerable in the docks. It took several months for the Imperium to launch a counter-attack, by which time the navy vessels had been taken over and launched by the traitors, and cultists reinforcements had arrived from wildspace. The traitor ships were no match for the might of the Imperial Navy, but took the lives of hundreds of thousands in ramming actions. Troop landers breached the orbital defences and reconquest began in earnest.

Present : Facrast is proving a tough world for the Astra Militaria to take: there are 25 docks on Facrast and each one is defended by resilient, fanatical chaos-worshippers. There are also numerous piping stations that need to be secured by ardous treks out into the wilderness. The defenders of Facrast are well-equipped with heavy weapons and anti-armour weapons, and have millions of mutants, cultists, and dock workers to throw away a cannon fodder. It is believed by Imperial tacticians that off-world psykers are leading the defence of Facrast. The docks of Facrast use their huge blast-shields as makeshift defences, impenetrable to most Imperial weaponry; shipboard weaponry could pierce them, but the facilities need to be taken intact. The only option for the Imperium is to dig down through the soft rock and lead deep penetration strikes into the workers habs. Imperial raiders have found the hab interiors disorientating, covered in shifting chaos runes and macabre trophies of battle. The Imperium, despite input from three regiments of the tunnel-fighting specialists Luggnum Sewer Rats, has only secured four pumping stations and three of the world's orbital docks. The heavy fighting against the ruinous forces is slowly bleeding the Imperial invaders dry as their heavy weapons are rendered ineffective.

Lind

Classification : Hive World

Planetary Governor : Potentate-Weaponsmith Luthyr Endragone, Noble oligarchy

Adeptus Presence : All usual Adeptus Arbites facilities, plus Astra Telepathica choir

Principal Exports : The Lind armoury-hives are geared towards producing grenades, explosives, artillery shells and heavy munitions for starships

Principal Imports : Food, water, raw materials, particularly phosphates to manufacture explosives.

Military : Lind Hive Battalions (PDF- high quality), Lind Factory Gangs (PDF – Medium quality), Adeptus Mechanicus servitors and Skitarii. Imperial Guard: Lind Grenadiers.

Geography : Lind is a blasted wasteland buried under tons of toxic sludge, produced by centuries of industrial runoff. The surface of Lind is almost nearly uninhabited except for some gangs of mutant scavengers or the very poorest of Lind's citizens. Lind's once bountiful oceans are now masses of solidified waste material; the land is covered in sucking oily swamps and the litter of centuries of production. Lind's hives sit in networks of automated sludge dredgers, raised rails and highways, and floating shantytown communities. The hives of Lind are built from heavy metal plating, sitting on huge rock pylons covered in caterpillar conveyors bringing up supplies and materials from the surface. Lind Magna, the capital of Lind, is home to the Lindwyrm Armoury, the sector's most prolific producer of infantry-level explosives: frag, krak, and melta grenades are churned out of the manufactorums at an incredible rate, and shuttled to waiting Departmentio Munitorum ships hanging in orbit. Accidents in Lind Magna are frequent, with Lind's Hive Battalion PDF doubling as a fire service to deal with the monumental blazes that sweep the lower hives; Lind factory workers frequently exhibit the cybernetic modifications of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

History : Lind was once one of the foremost League Worlds of the Crux, inhabited by a major partner species who had cultivated the rich deposits of ore and sulphates on this world. A decade long conflict eventually seized the world, and it was the intention of the Angevin Crusade planners to turn Lind into an Armoury World. The world was on the verge on becoming a gigantic ammo dump when the mass cargo conveyors were turned around to deal with insurrection in the Golgenna Reach. The weaponsmiths, mechanics, and specialist workers were already settled there however; they began to establish their own manufactorums and workshops. Soon Lind was a pollouted wasteland occupied by billions of armoury workers.

Present : Lind is regarded as a dangerous place by off-world visitors, a planet of fire, explosions, and noxious chemical smoke. The very structure of life on Lind is tied to munitions: huge empty ammo cannisters have been turned into workers' habs; ministorum temples are lined with shellacked grenade casings, immense basillicas to Imperial craft and ingenuity. The Lind Grenadiers are Imperial Guard regiments mustered from the Hive Battalions, heavy infantry specialists expertly trained in the use of high grade explosive weaponry. The Grenadiers are all modified with cybernetic implants, including modulated cybernetic eardrums; it has been known for armies pinned under deafening shellfire to look out of their trenches to see Lind Grenadiers advancing calmly in formation across no-man's land: "a fine day on Lind" is common Guard slang for sustained heavy artillery barrages.

Alactra

Classification : Hive World

Planetary Governor : Directorate-Magnus Ursuline Le'Sepulturan VI, monarch ic

Adeptus Presence : Astra Telepathica choir at Epihive , high concentration of Adeptus Arbites, and all other major Adepta represented

Principal Exports : Finished and processed goods, materials, chemicals

Principal Imports : R aw supplies

Military : Alactran Militant (medium quality PDF), Alactran First Respone Forces (high quality PDF); Imperial Guard: Alactran Imperial Guard regiment

Geography : The central landmass of Alactra is arrayed in a huge spiral radiating out from the centre of the world to the edges, sat like a brown-grey swirl of oil in Alactra's faintly pink-hued ocean. Epihive occupies the large central landmass of Alactra, an immense blocky tower surrounded by habs, manufactorums, and agriculture zones. The super continent, Alactran Prime, has ten 'arms' that radiate out, each one supporting some specialised aspect of production, agriculture, or storage. Radial Hive is the companion of Epihive, sitting on the very edge of one of these arms: Radial deals entirely in processing, storing and shipping promethium mined from the ocean depths. A population of nearly 12 billion is spread out across the Alactran landmass, with most concentrated in Epihive. Alactra has a large number of orbital habitation, defence, and storage facilities. Fauna and flora on Alactra is mainly contained in three of the Alactran radial arms set aside for cultivation, preservation, or recreation for the Alactran noble caste.

History : Alactra began life as one of the human worlds allied to the Crux, a powerful League World specialising in manufacture and trade; an Imperial orbital bombardment and invasion overtook the unprepared defenders in a matter of weeks. Alactra was redesignated a Penal World and became the dumping ground for the billions of Human-Crux collaborators found within the Crux sphere of influence. Alactra's newly built forges and labour yards were overseen by a brutal Adeptus Arbites regime; quickly the Alactra Penitentary grew into a Hive in its own right. The restive population, drawn from dozens of human worlds, bided their time, and when a warpstorm struck the whole subsector and temporarily shut down travel the Alactrans took their chance for a rebellion. Fighting was still ongoing weeks later when Imperial reinforcements arrived. The rebellion was crushed and a 'collaborationist' government was installed to oversee Alactran affairs, with the Scintillan noble family the Le'Sepultrans installed as overall authority. Alactra has quietly became a stable and productive Imperial world, although still treated with suspicion by certain authorities.

Present : Alactra is like many other Hive Worlds: Epihive is a compartmentalized tower of foppish nobles at the top, worrying middle classes, toiling workers, and a vast downtrodden underclass; Radial Hive is ruled more strictly by agents of the Administratum. The people of Alactra are very culturally defined from one another: the layer stack of habs in one hive may be completely different in culture, custom, and language to their neighbours above and below. There is a persistent rumour that when the Imperium brought so many human prisoners from so many worlds to Alactra, they inevitably overlooked many followers of Chaos, xenos, and rogue psykers among the cargo. The underworld of Epihive is rumoured to harbour small communities of xenos exiles, as well as warbands of Chaos-worshipping degenerated mutants. Alactra operates a highly organized militia system, training Alactran Militant PDF to be ever ready for emergency; the Alactran First Response Forces are a standing force used to strike Alactran underhive gangs, all descended from the old cell-block gangs that developed on Alactra. The FRR strike not to destroy but to make sure no gang gains the advantage over the other, and keeps the underhive in constant warring anarchy. Alactra contributes regiments to the Imperial Guard, composed of a draft on the men and women enlisted in the militia and staffed by veteran of the RFF: the Alactrans, particularly the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Mechanized, 4th Armour, and 5th Alactran under Colonel Simmon of the Greyhell Front, have a reputation for their high degree of training, cohesion, and battlefield skill .

Cindar

Classification : Mining World

Planetary Governor : Adept-Prevost Galina Ludovicus, Adeptus Administratum

Adeptus Presence : Ministorum, Administratum, Arbites

Principal Exports : Promethium and other conventional fossil fuels

Principal Imports : Food, water, medical supplies

Military : Rig & Mine Regulators (medium quality irregular PDF); Imperial Guard: Cindar Cave Spiders; permanent Imperial Guard garrisson, presently the 2,571st Malfian Legionaries.

Geography : Cindar is a barren, blackened D esert World with surface level seas contaminated with liquid promethium ( the generic term for any combustible fuel used by Imperial technology) . Cindar's fuel oceans are impure, mixed in with sand and dust, and need to be carefully sifted through and refined. Cindar is dotted with persistent firestorms, infernos triggered years ago by falling meteorites, concentrated sunlight, or a carelssly discarded match. The heat on Cindar is unbearable, as is the constant presence of grit in the air. Despite this humans have long been settled on Cindar. Cindar has a ring of debris surrounding it, a mix of rocky material from some long ago destroyed moon. Titanic basalt columns rise out of the inky seas, topped with squalid mining camps and pitheads that lead miles beneath the planet ' s surface to rich seams of coal, oil, and gas.

History : Cindar was settled by penal colonists about four hundred years ago. A mix of promethium extractor rigs and heavy mining camps were established, each abosrbing millions of hive dwellers from the worlds of the Calixis Sector . Revolts and insurrections are frequent, but rarely inflict lasting harm.

Present : The Cindarians have proved to be excellent labour organi s ers and plotters , and Cindar has not seen out a year without some large scale disturbance or revolutionary outbreak. Imperial Guard forces are permanently stationed here; troops from m any worlds have patrolled under the small white blinking Cindar Sol, and slept by the permanent orange glow of continously bur n ing promethium fires at night. The air on Cindar has been made just about breathable by several years of careful atmosphere scrubbing, which has only added to the flammability of the Cindarian atmosphere. Clear light on Cindar is infrequent, as immense grey and black clouds of dust and smoke drift across the sky. Currently the task falls to the 2,571st Malfian Legionaires, a scratch regiment of technically unusable hive dregs that can serve no better purpose than to terrorise the mineworkers and lazily carouse in the saloons, gambling dens, and bordellos of the capital, Basalt City, an awkward collection of hab units and barracks overseen by the s pa ceport and several collosal promethium storage silos. Adept-Prevost Galina Ludovicus is an Administratum official appointed from Malfi, considered something of a reformer and therefore under suspici on as a liberal labour sympathiser . One of her innovations has been to lobby hard for the Munitorum to recruit and train an Imperial Guard regiment, to give the Cindarians pride they are serving the wider Imperium and give them something to think about other than dying in a rockfall deep underground, or being incinerated by a rolling wave of burning promethium. Named for wildlife of the lower Cindar coal mines with a venemous bite, the Cindar Cave Spiders, like their distant cousins the Luggnum Sewer Rats, have excelled as close combat troops in confined environments: of the Cindarians who have joined the Cave Spider regiments, not a single one who has been demobbed has ever returned to Cindar.

Synford II

Classification : Forge World

Planetary Governor : Fabricator Locum Karo Tasmi n , Adeptus Mechanicus

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Mechanicus, Skitarii

Planetary Exports : Large amounts of conventional equipment, vehicles, and weapons; Synford II's specialist manufactorums are geared up to produce support vessel components for the Imperial navy: a number of half-built ship shells are in orbit around Synford II.

Planetary Imports : Raw materials such at metal ores, chemicals, and promethium; various specialised technologicaly components

Military : Skitarii legions, Legio Cybernetica maniples , Explorator ships, defence platforms

Geography : Synford II is an airless, barren, almost featureless Dead World. The surface of Synford II is bare rock exposed to the atmosphere; level grey sand sand dunes are moved imperceptibyl over the millenia by solar winds. Synford II is home to eight huge Adeptus Mechanics Hive facilities, home to billions of workers, servitors, techpriests, and skitarii inside vacuum-sealed metallic barrack-towers. The hives of Synford II are austere, bare metal, cut at sharp angles and crackling with the veridian energy of high-tech sheilding. The interiors are massive vaults containing workshops, cramped dormitories, and chapels to the glory of the Omnissiah. A huge superstructure of docks and lifter bays surround Synford II, with shuttles frequently ferrying workers and materials up to dock platforms in orbit. All of the Synford II's hives are more or less identical, with syn2:1 - 96e3 designated as the pre-eminent hive, as this is where Fabricator Locum Tasmin dwells when he briefly leaves his sanctified orbital habitat-palace.

History : The Malfian subsector was blessed with many things, but a Forge World was not one of them. Desperate to steady the fractious and war-broken systems, the n obility of Malfi requested a delegation from the Adeptus Mechanicus to establish a new Forge World. The Calixian Mechanicus obliged , sending forth the 96e3-RK-2 Explorator Fleet headed by the bright but unorthodox Magos Juksin Bresil of Synford . Magos Bresil was granted a lowtech xenos world, formerly part of the dissolute Crux. Bresil swept aside the xenos, and eventually consumed even the topsoil, seas, and atmosphere in order to set up Synford II, as he named the colony. Soon the world was the pure, clean, environment that the Mechanicus favoured. Synford II became a slightly distant world, part-removed from the authority of Synford and the Lathes, but dutifully fulfilling its sector quotas. The Synford II System was the site of the final demise of the rogue Archma gos Umbra Malygris. Following these events control was tightened on Synford II by the Calixian Mechanicus; the Malygris ian Heresy prompted investigation into Magos Bresil, who vanished many years ago into the depths of the Halo Stars with an Explorator Fleet. Bresil was suspected of some kind of tech-heresy during Synford II's isolationist years, but it could not be proved he had liased with the foul Malygris ians.

Present : Synford II's manufactorums produce the equipment and materials needed for dozens of military, industrial, and civilian purposes. In addition to this Synford II is a prolific shipyard, focusing on support and auxilliary ships such as cargo conveyors, troop carriers, and streamlined picket ships. The Synford II hives are perhaps a little cleaner, a little more well ordered, than the usual Mechanicus environment; something of the bold pioneering spirit still resides here. Synford II has a very activist Skitarii Legion, specialising in heavy weapons teams, armoured units, ship-based servitors, and Legio Cybernetica maniple units. Synford II's vacuum environment gives a perfect opportunity for training troops in zero gravity combat.

- I was unclear from what's available if it was the Synford II or the Synford System that was involved in the Malygrisian Heresy; I decided it'd be Synford II

- I was unclear from what's available if it was the Synford II or the Synford System that was involved in the Malygrisian Heresy; I decided it'd be Synford II

You're right, it's clearly stated in "The Lost Dataslate" supplement: "Synford II is a shadow of its former self and a casualty of the Malygrisian Tech-Heresy. Some form of seismic weapon was unleashed upon the surface during the Tech-Heresy, removing most of Synford II’s production capacity and destabilising the world’s surface so much that mining its abundant resources is now almost impossible"

Ah well, there you go, thanks!

Xeiros Prime

Classification : Forbidden World

Government Type : N/A

Adeptus Presence : Naval warning buoys rings the Xeiros System, warning incoming vessels to turn back or risk sanction.

Principal Exports : Previously Xeiros Prime exported a crop of the finest fruit and vegetables in the galaxy; presently none.

Principal Imports : N/A

Military : N/A

Geography : Xeiros Prime is world of millions of islands, all of them clustered in stringy bands around the equatorial region. Xeiros Prime's growing land consisted of thousands o f kilometres of mangrove swamps and jungles, which produce d rich and succulent fruits and vegetables. Xeirosians lived in small farming settlements clustered along the coastal jungles, where they were free from the diseases of the inner jungle and the rare but lethal arthropod predators on the shallows . Xeirosians had little to do with the sea , an endless milky blue terra incognito that seems to rise up to meet the sky at anyone looking out from the beaches and cliffs. Inter-island air traffic kept most of the Xeirosian islands connected and supplied, but some had dropped into complete isolation. The capital of Xeiros Prime was known as Port Xeiros, an irregular cluster of canning factories, warehouses, and palaces belonging to the plantation owning upper classes. Other worlds in the system are Xeiros Secundus (a gaseous Dead World), Xeiros Tertius (an airless world of sheer rocky canyons), and Xeiros Quaternary, a Night World at the fringe of the Xeiros System with a poisnous atmosphere home to tidepool dwelling micro-organisms.

History : Xeiros Prime was one one of the, if not the, pre-eminent human world aligned with the Crux. The world of Xeira, as it then known, was a League World that specialised in medicine and the biological sciences. The Xeirans were the descendants of human colonists from the Dark Age of Technology, unconstrained by the restictions that later effected the Imperium and Adeptus Mechanicus. The Xeirans provided the Crux with advanced surgery and transplantations that stretched human and xenos lifespans out beyond 500 years, and provided eternal health and strength. When the Imperium swung into the Zweihans Grouping, the Adeptus Mechanicus had it as a precondition of their involvement that the Xeirans were to be declared hereteks and wiped out. The Xeirans were swamped by Imperial troop landers once the Crux fleet screen had been swept away; in their death throes Xeiran agents across the Malfian subsector unleashed deadly manufactured biological plagues that burned through the population by the millions, continuing to fester long after the founding of the Calixis Sector and the close of the Crusade. Xeira had been stripped bare and replanted with dense jungles, with all of the great valley cities of the Xeirans flooded with seawater (not before the Adeptus Mechanicus had compiled a full archive of Xeira's secrets). Xeira was renamed Xeiros Prime, and the planet was resettled on the paradise planet by hive workers from Malfi who had won resettlement as their reward for exponential wartime production. For the next hundred years Xeiros Prime was a sleepy Pleasure World, untouched by wider sector events.

Present : An unexpected warp storm took Xeiros Prime out of Imperial conflict for one month. The lone astropath at Governor's Mansion in Port Xeiros could not be raised, and the regular tithe of preserved food and vegetable could not be gathered. The warp storm dissipated, and the merchant vessel Prophet of Wisdom headed from Zweihans World to recieve the tithe. Another two months passed without word from Xeiros Prime, and without the scheduled rearrival of the Prophet , a Falchion- class destroyer of Battlefleet Calixis, the Salience . Salience under Lt. Parmuk arrived in the fringe asteroid belt of the Xeiros System and immediately discovered the frozen wreckage of the Prophet of Wisdom . Armsbearer teams were dispatched to the Prophet and reported a drastically changed environment: the interior was filled a with pallid white, red scabbed fungal mass. Leaping tendrils ensnared armsbearers and dragged them screaming into airducts; bullets passed uselessly though multi-limbed shambling fungal hulks that had once been the merchant ship's crew. After reaching the bridge and dealing with the pulsing, mawed mass of writhing tendrils and poisonous spore sacs that had been the bridge crew, recovering the ship's logs, the boarding party withdrew. The Salience incinerated the Prophet of Wisdom and sent the remains crashing into an asteroid, pulverising it into fragments of rock and metal. The Salience headed on to the planet, analysing the records and discovering that the Prophet had found all well, with only rumours about disease in the upcountry out of the normal. Sometime after take-off for system's edge the cargo hold of the Prophet had burst open, flooding the ship with weird fungal lifeforms that consumed and overtook the crew. A detachment of the 93rd Zweihans World Line Infantry shuttled down to the planet and arrived at Port Xeiros, finding it completely deserted and in a state of ruin. The 93rd tried to push out to the jungle's edge and the hilltop Governor's Mansion, until the tramp and padding of feet began resounding from the swamps and jungles. Hundreds of thousands were upon the 400 Imperial Guard, blasting fungus-forms apart as they scaled the makeshift barricades put up by the Zweihans Worlders. Close support from the Salience cleared enough room for the survivors of the 93rd to withdraw; Port Xeiros was reduced to charred cinders by an orbital strike. The Adeptus Mechanicus suspected that an ancient plague or virus of the dead Xeiran civilisation had survived the purge of Xeira, and infected the local food supply. Xeiros Prime has been declared Forbidden to all Imperials; naval patrols keep the fringes of the Xeiros System secure from unwanted visitors, and orbital platforms ring the world.

JXMA18Z

Classification : Forge World

Planetary Governor : Fabricator Locum Yiannus Glen, Adeptus Mechanicus

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Mechanicus, Skitarii

Planetary Exports : Finished cogitators

Planetary Imports : Heavy industrial machinery, raw materials, food

Military : Skitarii legions, Legio Cybernetica maniples

Geography : JXMA18Z was once a Death World, a jungle-covered moon of the baleful green gas giant JXMA18. JXMA18Z was a dense, wet planet, filled with carnivorous vegetation and giant mammalian predators. JXMA18Z has been leveled by the Adeptus Mechanicus: currently only 15% of the world is still the original jungle terrain. The rest is scarred, glassified wasteland, dotted with the manufactorums of the Mechanicus and the temples to the Omnissiah. JXMA18Z was one large supercontinent, surrounded by an island dotted vivid pink ocean, the water level of which is slowly dropping as it is used for manufacturing and processing.

History : JXMA18Z was charted and logged by an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator Fleet that swept this part of the Zweihans Grouping in the dim prehistory of the Calyx Expanse. More in-depth study after the formation of the sector showed JXMA18Z to be a natural storehouse for rare metal ores vital in the production of cogitator circuits and databoards. The techpriests of Synford II lobbied hard for access to JXMA18Z, which was eventually granted after the agreement of secret pacts and clauses between the Malfians and the Mechanicus. An fleet was dispatched that settled in orbit around the jungle moon, using orbital weapons to mark out blasted open areas in the jungle to land their great conveyor ships. The concerted effort of several legions of Skitarii from Synford II as well as allied mercenary forces have so far cleared much of JXMA18Z 's dense vegetation and natural predators from the bulk of the world. Serf workers from Synford II have been transported over to begin the work of constructing opencast mines and large multi-level manufactorums to accelerate JXMA18Z 's output of cogitators.

Present : The goal of the Adeptus Mechanicus is to transform JXMA18Z into a Forge World primarily focused on producing cogitators: the store of available rare metals here is large , and only a little needs to be imported from Synford II and other subsector Mining Worlds to make the venture productive. Ultra Factorum, as JXMA18Z's supercontinent is known by the Mechanicus, is half barren rock, covered in production lines, dirt heaps, and mineshafts; the other half is as yet uncultivated wasteland . Mechanicus skitarii are often busy skirmishing with megafauna mammalian s i mian predators that come hurtling from the jungle. The Adeptus Mechanicus is slowly winning its war to tame the Death World, conducting its campaigns against living life in a slow, comprehensively brutal fashion. The directive of the Adeptus Mechanicus is that JXMA18Z reaches a perfect planetary state not unlike Synford II, with organic life stripped away and every available resource, even down to the air and water, strategically re deployed.

Festus

Classification : Feudal World

Planetary Governor : King Gerhardus II the Generous, feudal monarchy

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Ministourm, some Administratum and Arbites

Planetary Exports : Wool, cotton, food, fermented beers and wines

Planetary Imports : Little

Military : Grande Cohorts (peasant PDF low quality), Militairres (PDF medium quality); Festus ian Landsknechts (Imperial Guard)

Geography : F orests, mountains, deep valleys, wide fast rivers, and stormy oceans make up the geography of Festus. In the summer Festus's swamps are spawning grounds for disease-carrying insects. The pole's of Festus ar e icebound, and a large desert band surrounds a sliver of ferti l e, forested land across the four main continents . S tories abound of huge metallic ruined cities in the deep desert s . Festus's cities are primitive constructions of stone and wooden, centered on tall, imposing castles. Festus has a blood red moon and a few orbital Administratum facilities. The biggest Festusian cities have grand ministorum cathedrals and offices of the administratum.

History : In the distant past Festus was once a human League World of the Crux. The Imperium conquered this world following a series of seiges and campaigns that rooted out the native human and xenos defenders. Human prisoners were transported to the Alactra resettlement colony, and new Imperial settlers were imported from the Golgenna Reach core worlds. Festus developed into a reasonably organised feudal society under hereditary dukes, princes, barons, counts, and kings. The Festusians became ardent adherents to the Imperial Creed, building great cathedral edifices of rockcrete and burnished metal. Festus is frequently wracked by minor wars. The rulers of Festus are ambivalent about high technology; King Gerhardus has only allowed the import of technology that improves farming yield such as modified crops and mechanised cultivators.

Present : Festus is organized into the Palatinate, a federation of fairly stable city states bound under the rule of Gerhardus II the Generous, a pious and wise ruler entering old age. Verdamt is the main city and space port, where the most Imperial personnel can be found at any one time in the Chapel of Arches or the Tower of the Administratum . Beyond the baronial seats, coaching inns, market towns, and bucolic farms of the Palatinate cities are lonely stretches of abandoned fields, stinking marshlands, and haunted forests. Long columns of hooded, chanting, incense-burning monks are known to wander the woodlands on pilgrimages between their isolated monasteries. Th e wilds of Festus are known to be inhabited by brigands and wandering 'wild men', as well as ghosts, will'o'the'wisps, fairies, goblins, and other wild beasts of the woods. Festusian explorers have reported no other civilizations seemingly exist beyond the Festus woodlands, only strange ruins and huge, vast craters, the place where angels' tears had fallen as legend ha s it; many legends claim Festus was once an important galactic power and that the old Festusians trafficked with angels and spirits in great sailing ships that crossed between the stars. Travellers to the far black and green deserts report cursed places were people drop dead as if struck by ghosts, glowing miasmas, and wandering unquiet spirits. The greatest myths of all are desert cities filled with untold riches. The ruins are the remains of the Sanc-Ports of the great pre-Imperial civilization that inhabited Festus; the Sanc-Port storehouses and vaults are still full of the technology and resources imported from the wider Crux area and beyond into the Halo Stars.

Festus's Palatinate is only the pre-eminent power on Festus by the strength and organisations of its Militairre levies, professional soldiers raised from childhood to handle the two-handed Festusian greatsword. Beyond the fields and woods of the Palatinate are the pirate raiders of the Riverburgh Islands, the heretical half-men of the Moon Mountains, the little understood and feared Tower People, and the technologically minded Seer-Lords of the Templatian Confederacy. The best of the sword and arquebus wielding Militairres join the Festusian Landsknechts, an above average Imperial Guard Feudal Worlder heavy infantry regiment. Provided the Festusians are first slowly introduced to Imperial technology and the wider galaxy, they have been found to make good, solid soldiers.

Kinog

Classification : Pleasure World

Planetary Governor : Lady Agathe Commena, House Commena

Adeptus Presence : Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Administratum, Adeptus Ministorum

Principal Exports : N/A

Principal Imports : Luxury goods, food, water, manufactured goods

Militar y : Antarchis Guard (high quality PDF); Imperial Guard: Kinogian Regiment

Geography : Kinog is a jewel in the crown of the Malfian Subsector, a rare and unique world designated for the pleasure of Malfian and Calixian notables. Kinog is composed of multi-coloured layers of frozen algae-tainted and dust, chemically saturated snow; Kinog resembles nothing so much as a globe of oil hanging in space at the mid-orbit mark of the Kinogian System. The surface of Kinog varies: some parts are as solid as Terran soil; others are liquid, semi-liquid, or possessed of an unusually crunchy or smooth texture. Blizzards turn the surface into a kaleidoscopic whirlwind of colour. The Kinog twilight and dawn are highly prized times of day, when snow falls catch the brilliance of the sun and reflect it like a dancing prism upon the plains of ice and snow. Kinog is largely frozen water ice, but there are two continents, crescent moon shaped landmasses at located at opposing hemisphere. North Kinog is a land of towering mountain peaks, black-leaved fir forests, and the weird Kinog Swirls, snow-filled patterns deep cut into exposed rock. The dazzling, shifting snowfields run down the mountain sides to Antarchis, the Kingogian capital city. The air on Kinog is unbreathable, too heavily tained with natural chemicals, so Antarchis is a collection of linked private and public hab-domes containing concert halls, eating clubhouses, narco-sanitaria, games arenas, and the private homes of many rich and retired Malfians and Calixians. Antarchis is strictly guarded and defended by the Antarchis Guard, mercenaries hired from other PDFs and armsbearer squadrons: to visit the administrators, general, admirals, merchants, and other denizens requires special invitation. South Kinog is a rocky land without the visual scenery of the kaleidoscopic snow deserts of the north; South Kinog is a world of bleak cliffs, tumbling rock formations, and lapping ice-bearing waves. South Kinog is home to the Underhangs, shell-like hab zones welded to the underside of the a great overhanging cliff edge. The Underhangs are less salubrious than Antarchis, home to brothels, casinos, narco dens, and bars; the Underhangs are a famed shore leave destination for navy voidfarers and Imperial Guard. The Underhangs are policed by the Commisiary, tough offworld constabulary, and the Adeptus Arbites. Kinog is also home to isolated mountain retreats in the North, and a few Adeptus Mechanicus terraforming researchers in the southern island chains.

History : Kinog was discovered and marked by an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet that was dispatched from Synford II after the end of the Angevin Crusade. A follow-up survey found that none of Kinog's chemical or mineral resources were fundementally useful so relegated it to a low priority for colonisation efforts. Kinog developed into a Frontier World when voidfarers established an orbital base above it, that turned into a regional centre for smuggling. The Imperial Navy arrived and drove off the smugglers, at which point Captain Franklyne Commena of House Commena, Malfi, realised the potential in the beautiful world for establishing a resort. The Commenas pumped money into Kinog until its settlements had become attractive prospects for retiring Imperials; House Commena was granted formal settlement of the world when Lord Richold Commena declared it open and welcoming to brave Imperial service personnel. Kinog in the intervening centuries has suffered little, mainly from riots in the Underhangs but little more.

Present : Kinog is home to a population of several million noble families and their retainers, some visitors and some the descendants of nobles who were rewarded with retirement decades ago. North Kinogians are haughty and intrigue-ridden; the games, feasts, air races, and voidsuit-wearing climbs and hunts into the foothills nearly match the pleasures of gossip and scandal at Antarchis's Sun Dome. North Kinog has a few large animals living in the black forests, as well as chameleon-esque inhabitants of the great colour-changing ice fields. The Underhangs of South Kinog are home to an almost entirely transient population of shore-leave voidfarers and soldiers, serf workers, gangsters, and servitors. The worst of the Underhangs are the Shallows, the area that partially submerges into the icy coastal waters and is most exposed to the mind-altering and deadly chemical composition of the Kinog atmosphere. The Shallows are home to a few minor deranged mutant cults. House Commena prides itself on doing its bit and usually raises a single regiment for the Imperial Guard, the Kinogian 1st, staffed with house officers and rough and ready transients from the Underhangs. The Kinogians are not highly rated by Guard commanders and are frequently deployed on minor duties in and around the Malfian Subsector. For a brief period Colonel Aldus Commena and his troops were deployed to garrison the toxic, sweltering Mining World of Cindar; the Kinogian 1st antagonised the local miners and PDF troops and struck off the fatal riots known as the Battle for 120 Stack. The Kinogians were rescued by emergency shuttles of Cindarian Cave Spider regiments scheduled to be dispatched to the Achilus Crusade, who negotiated a ceasefire ; the forced delay and halt in production resulted in the decimation of the surviving Kinogian officer class. It may be some time before House Commena is permitted to raised another Guard regiment.

MMX215

Classification : Forbidden World

Planetary Governor: N/A

Adeptus Presence : N/A

Principal Exports : N/A

Principal Imports : N/A

Military : Regular Navy patrols and orbital defence platforms, system surrouded by warning buoys

Geography : In the age of the Crux MMX215 was a true planetwide arcology, entirely covered in densely inhabited cities, cleaner and healthier than similar Imperial hive worlds. Following Exterminatus it was a blased airless Dead World. Folloing investment from the Zweihans family and the Calixian authorities it became a verdant Agri World containing several million workers living in part-organic Agri Hives. After the Malgryisian Heresy, the world has become indescribale, something akin to a Daemon World said to have the texture of raw writhing flesh, wandered by weird savage hybrid creatures. The outer MMX215 contains several worlds that could be suitable for colonisation, but are declared Forbidden along with the primary system world itself.

History : MMX215 was once the designated capital world of the Crux, a League World of such wealth, power, and beauty that it was known by peoples as far away as the Solomon Empire and the Morgauth of the Fydae Great Cloud. The MMX215 System was the last world to be liberated by the battle group of the Rogue Trader Sebastiao Zweihans, a long, slow war of attrition against the hundred or so inhabited planets, moons, asteroids, and artificial stations of the MMX215 Ssystem. The fighting reached the world eventually, costing the lives of several million Imperial troops in the plazas, abodes, and raised levels of the Crux world city. MMX215 had a population of over 20 billion, a mix of humans, xenos, and heretek artificial intelligencies that fought for every inch of ground. Only the arrival of Space Marines of the Black Templars Chapter turned the tide in the Imperial favour after a combined assault by crack Scarus stormtrooper detachments and Black Templars on the Crux Parliament. The Imperials were able to seize some of the world's vital systems and disable certain defence controls that allowed Imperial reinforcements to strike the disarrayed Crux defenders. During the eighth year of fighting the Crux resorted to desperate tactics, ramming their stations into the planetary atmosphere to land on Imperial forces; the Imperials responded in kind by saturation bombing of Crux holdouts. The decision to take Exterminatus action was taken by the present Commander of the Black Templars once it became MMX215 was too heavily defended to ever really be taken, and that the world was still able to organise wider Crux forces in the subsector. A barrage of missiles stripped the world of its atmosphere after conusming the world cit in an explosive firestorm that burned for fiftenn minutes, taking the life of every Crux and unevacuated Imperial, some millions of troops. The fall of MMX215 was marked as the close of consolidation of the Malfia Subsector, and Zweihans handed his Army Group over to one of Angevin's Generals to command whilst he retired to Zweihans World to assess his new holdings.

MMX215 was terraformed and recolonised by a joint sector-wid effort to establish more Agri World colonies to support the growing sector. MMX215 supported a large range of Terran wildlife that was raised and exported to feed the hives of Malfi and Scintilla, as well as a population of millions concentrated in agri-hives. MMX215 had the misfortune to be one of the world's where the Arch-heretek Umbra Malygris and his followers tested their weaponry; the world was torn apart slowly over months, as body-warping, mind-altering drugs were introduced into the food and water supply. Inter-hive warfare descened into wholescale carnage and slaughter as the survivors turned upon each other. Finally the Malygrisians turned their more advanced weapons on the world, taking out entire hives in single strikes. When Imperial authorities arrived they found a broken, shattered world of violently mutated beings no longer recognisable as animal, plant, or human, organic or inorganic. MMX215 was declared off-limits to further Imperial contact, and is pending the organisation of a reclamation force that could one day take back the world. Strangely, the Calixian Mechanicus have blocked attempts for the organisation of such a force for some time, for reasons of their own.

Present : MMX215 has never been visited since after Malygrisian Heresy when a Naval vessel reported the world totally lost to the foul blasphemous heresies inflicted upon it and its population. The MMX215 is densely guarded by defence platforms and naval patrols: MMX215 is not marked on any star charts and its location has been forgotten by all but a few of the oldest most knowledgeable voidfarers.

- and that's the Malfian Subsector - a lot of its been give and take with source stuff but I'd like to think I got the idea across it's a pretty 2nd rate Subsector compared to Golgenna due to the diversity and isolation of a lot of its worlds -