Hello all

I'm running a Rogue trader game atm but so enjoyed the fluff on the Jericho crusade in Deathwatch that i've decided to introuce it into my campaign.

So basically, my players are starting the crusade. From scratch. They found the Jericho gate and are now working with various militant groups in the Calixis sector to rally support for the crusade. These groups include several marine chapters, the Imperial Navy, Drusian linked church groups and so on.

Now, my players have barely stepped foot into the Jericho reach itself and part of their list of "things to do" includes some scouting, setting up a fortress world or two and making contact with other worlds.

I've got the stuff in the Deathwatch book and i've come up wih a bunch of worlds myself but i'm very interested in seeing what worlds you Deathwatch GMs have created for your own use.

So, please could you use this thread to share any worlds you've created and a bit of fluff for them.

I'll start the ball rolling: (N.B. I can't recall whether i got these from the books or from novels i;ve read or whether i made them up myself)

Chaeronia - An old forge world. Devastated by chaos reavers many millennia ago, Chaeronia has become something of a regression. Out on the plains and mountains, a feudal society based on the concept of knightly honour has arisen. Knightly religious groups control large amounts of territory and protect those that support them while making war on the other knightly orders. Some of the orders are very large, controlling much land. Dotted through their domains are the crumbling hive cities of the Adeptus Mechanicus, long abandoned and fallen to ruin. The knights leave the cities alone, believing them to be cursed places and only approaching them to trade with the feral scavengers that live there. These scavengers are the distant and much reduced remnants of the tech-priest brotherhood. Living in the crumbling vast cities and trying to scavenge useful tech while also trying to learn the mysteries of the Adeptus Mechanicus to recover the lost knowledge. Mostly they do not understand their technology although they have some surprisingly advanced equipment looted from vaults and ruins. Even more of a cargo-cult than the rest of the Mechanicus, they are deeply superstitious and place much emphasis on omens, prophecy and ritual. While the knightly orders will be happy to deal with the PCs, the tech-primitives are obsessively protective of their ruined cities and will not take kindly to visitors.

Senth - Once a prosperous Imperial world, a centre of learning and scholarly teachings, as well as the Adeptus Administratum's centre in the Jericho Sector. Senth is now a divided world. After the Imperium fled the Jericho Sector, Senth was subject to a number of civil wars. One of these used forbidden atomic weapons and large areas of the planet were dosed with high radiation and made uninhabitable by humans. While human society rebuilt itself, out in the poisonous wastes, mutants, who could tolerate the radiation, organised and raised armies. With so much of the world too deadly to settle, the mutant groups had unparalleled mobility. In a series of devastating wars, they conquered the fledging human nations and effectively enslaved the non-mutated humans. Senth now is a parody of an imperial world, where mutants rule and humans form the oppressed underclass. As the millennia passed, the mutants organised huge work gangs, millions strong, to rebuild the cities, scrub the radiation rich wastelands and serve the mutant overlords. As Senth stands now, the population of humans is about 2 billion, with about 3 billion mutants. The mutants make up the police and army, the ruling classes and priesthood and hold all positions of authority. Humans have few rights, are horribly oppressed and do all the manual labour. The mutants have long since fallen to the worship of darker gods than the Emperor and now the upper classes spend their lives competing to sample the latest pleasures, the most extreme bloodshed and the most convoluted intrigue. A human resistance movement is in existence but is weak and even rumours of its presence and responded to with outlandishly violent retribution.
The mutants of Senth will not be pleased to see the explorers. Senth's defences are formidable and certainly sufficient to deal with a rogue trader fleet. The mutants will however welcome them to the surface in an attempt to divine the nature of their visit, ascertain where they came from and try and seize their ships. The PCs will be drugged, captured and interrogated. Hopefully, one of them will have the nouse to escape and they can make a daring exit, all while their ships come under fire. Senth will be a perfect target for the crusade.

Husnoth - Husnoth is a forest death world settled by large human tribes. Initially populated with all manner of deadly macro fauna, the larger and deadlier beasts have been hunted to extinction millennia ago using advanced imperial weaponry. Now, the world is still deadly, but more due to the extremely poisonous nature of the plant life. Smaller animals can also kill a man quite easily but tend to avoid human settlements. The people that live here are expert survivalists. They are raised from infancy to understand the forest and to become simply another predator, albeit one at the top of the food chain. With a technology level that allows smelting metal but has not yet reached gunpowder, the natives go about their lives, hunting in the forests, raising small herds of exceptionally dangerous but thankfully docile lizards and generally keeping the imperial faith. Imperial gothic is spoken well thanks to a strong aural tradition of storytelling and a group of psykers called spirit walkers keeps contact between the tribes and ensures that weak willed psykers and mutants are promptly slain. All in all, it is quite remarkable how stable a society the locals have. They will welcome the PCs as long foretold servants of the Emperor to bring them back into the faith. Recently however a darkness has landed on Husnoth. Foreshadowed by a meteor shower, something has arisen in the jungle near the tribe the PCs contact. Several hunters have gone missing and the tribe is worried as they have not been able to work out what killed them. They ask the PCs to investigate and send a bunch of their expert guides with them. This is in fact a Lictor, one of many that were dropped off by a Tyranid scoutship (the meteor shower was in fact a bunch of biological drop pods). These lictors are scouting the planet, mapping the biological resources and investigating the human population. There are some thirty on the planet and their psychic call has already alerted the Tyranid fleet to a rich prize. The PCs will be able to find and hopefully kill the lictor but the world is certainly doomed. Maybe they can evacuate the inabitants when the Tyranids arrive.

Calisi - This world is a harsh desert world with a human population based in cities near the poles and in a string of smaller cities along the equator. Using phenomenally deep boreholes, the cities on the equator draw up water to feed their crops and citizens. Water discipline is tough here and the people who live here are hardy desiccated looking folks well accustomed to hardship and violence. Periodically Calisi is subject to invasions by chaos reavers at which point the population mobilises and unites to fight the aggressors off. Due to this history of war, the cities are well defended and armed, and the populace are familiar with combat, training frequently to prepare themselves for the next invasion. Why the Chaos Reavers keep coming every 10 years is a mystery known only to themselves. The Calisians follow a religion based on martial pride and honour which seems distinct from the Imperial creed. They are a proud people and will not give up their religion without a fight as they believe it has made them strong. They have strong defences against orbital ships and their cities are built as fortresses. The have a surprisingly large population given the nature of their existence, using vast fields of fungi to help form a base for their cuisine.

Got any you'd like to share?