Hi guys here are the descriptions and background for three of the planets I've created for my RT campaign hope you enjoy them.

For giestzieg I was inspired by a national geographic documentry on what a plent orbitting a red dwarf star would do as well as the long term (like millenia down the road) effects on the ecosystem of earth that global climate change and massive pollution could cause.

Geistzieg, the forgotten port

Found just below and to the galactic south of Lucien's Breath drifts the port of Giestzieg. Giestzieg is one of twelve planets in the system as well as Giestziegs one moon, thought to be a captured asteroid, which serves as the primary seat of imperial power and as the primary space-dock for the planet. Shuttles are readily vailable for transport to the chasm hives of the dark-side from the moon rendering the surface easily accesable. The system itself has been known to explorers for over eight centuries and despite being one of the most populous worlds lying relatively close to the Maw, Giestzieg has been left relatively unmolested by Imperial activity since it's discovery. Not to say that Giestzieg doesn't have any trade occuring but in comparison to Footfal giestziegs economy pale's.

Giestzieg itself is an enigma, it defies any real classification, part hive world part dead world and part death world Giestzieg fits all and none of these categories. The star Giestzieg orbits is a red dwarf. Red dwarfs burn cooler than that of a yellow dwarf such as Holy Sol as such planets must lie cloer to a red dwarf than a yellow dwarf if they are to support life. Giestzieg lies closer to it's parent than other worlds to their star and though the world is warm enough to be life friendly the star is able to exert a stronger pull than that of terra's sun. The gravity creats a tidal lock effect meaning theat Giestzieg has no day night cycle, one face is perpetually bathed in light the other in shadow. Lacking a day night cycle the day side of the planet is much hotter than the frigid night side of Giestzieg these extremes of temperature render most of the planet uninhabitable and mostly devoid of life save for a band of temperate climate in the "twilight ring". In addition to this Giestzieg was populated long before humanity ever arrived on it's surface meaning most of it's hive structure was not built by human hands and polution from millenium of imdustrialization has created radical changes in it's unique ecology.

If one can imagine slowly travelling from one portion of the planet too the other the description would go as follows. Starting at the most sunward portion of the planet at the equator a massive storm surrounds you. You are at the eye of this terrible storm, the air is bone dry and it shimmers in the heat so much so you can barely see the abnormally swollen red sun permentatly stuck at high noon which because it is closer than a normal star is giving you much higher levels of solar radiation such as UV rays. Travelling away from the sunward portion one enters the stormlands where a perpetual hurricane fuled by the unique conditions of Giestzieg's tidal lock has raged for time eternal. Dust and rock rip past your face so fast that they can shere flesh from bone and the lightning and thunder is more brilliant and terrible to behold than any you have seen before save for the storms of gas giants.

After passing through the storm the sun shows it's face again and peaks through the clouds onto a desolate stretch of desert flanked by the sea. Don't drink the water however, it's been poisoned by millenium of industrialization and acidified to the pH of battery acid. Creatues do live on this world, but not many are exactly hospitable to mankind. The desert only lasts for a short while and the sun slowly lowers in the horizon along with the temperatue which has finally subsided to a comfortable level. The first signs of vegetation begin to show themselves and eventually you are surrounded by all manner of flora as you enter the twilight wetlands of Giestzieg, the Acid Bogs.

The Acid Bogs are much closer to the industrial waste of Giestzieg's night-side chasm-hives. The ecosystem of this world unlike many other hive worlds has not witherd in the face of pollution but adapted to it. The ecology of life on Giestzieg is not longer harmed by pollutants which we ourselves find toxic, but is instead dependant on it. If humanity were to stop producing waste on Giestzieg, the life here would undoubtably suffer a massive extinction event which prehaps some of the worlds deep seas life and more adaptable bacteria would survive. Toxins which poison land on other worlds are vital nutrients for the biology of life on Geistzieg. The water of the Acid Bogs is toxic in the extreme and the predators and flora of this wilderness even more deadly. Murk-eels can swalow a man whole and cellapod like beasts can drag a man below by his legs to dissolve in the acid and be absorbed slowly through it's skin. The bogs have a thick carpet of floating grass and mosses which is both a blessing and a curse since it allows safe passage over the water but unwary travelers will fall through the less thick portions of the carpet it provides some times into burnpits where the pH has rise to such high levels that a man will dissolve in seconds. Mutant tribes also hunt in the dense leaves of this place, since even the few edible animals and plants of this place are slightly toxic the most succulent meal for the natives of this terrible place is human flesh.

Where the sun touches the horizon the temperature continues to drop and the first signs of civilazation appear. The acid rain here prevents structures made from anything but local vegetation from being built or at least standing for longer than a decade so the first populated areas will appaer rather more rural and unpopulated than the night-side hives. Finally we have begun to cross over to the dark-side of the world. As the sun sets the vegetation is replaced by more dessolation again but this time a desolation of ice and tundra. Here massive glaciears can bee seen on the horizon and one must climb in order to reach the night side, which while cold is for the most part windless. Eventually light can be seen to be coming from the distance and the deafening busle of a hive city replaces the cold silence of the rest of the night-side.

Curiously the noise seems to be coming from bellow and as you scale down from the glacier onto more rocky ground you find a massive canyon deeper than 6000 feet and close to 13 miles wide on average. An intense heat and glow can be seen coming from the bottom of the canyon and for good reason, the canyon floors are volcanic and rivers of lava flow through them providing the source of geothermal power for the hives which have been built into the walls of the gorges. These volcanic gorges criss cross the night-side of the planet making it seem to be cracking apart when seen from orbit. Large portions of the hives seems dead and unpopulated despite the fact that nearly 2 billion inhabit the whole hive. Underpopulated compared to imperial hive worlds maybe but here in the Expanse there is no greater concentration of human life short of the Heathan Stars or Damaris.

The Chasm-Hives as they are known are bustling with merchants of many xeno races. There is a modest imperial presence but the the Holy Imprium has yet to bring this world truly to heel and here xeno and human live side by side quite often. The culture of the world is quite interesting, great respect is payed to ones ancestors who are worshipped as near semi devine beings. When one dies your body will be cast over the side of the city balconies into the lava flows below and your ashes will drift free, carried on the same thermal updraft which now carries a lantern attached to a parachute with the dead's name painted on it. Hundreds of these lanterns drift between the walls powerd by the heat from bellow, they along with the laval glowing bellow provide the only light during the night-cycle. As one travels deeper into the walls the truly alien orgin of the chasm-hives quickly asserts itself. While humans have for millenium built over the previous owners works the alien architecture become clear the deeper one enters the "catacombs" which can be considerd the underhive of this world. Mutants and witches flee into these area's seeking refuge from persectution and slavery.

The major hives of today are Poi Poi Hoy, Hie-baun and Changraun. Once Hie-Baun was the capital of the world ruled by the Bauguan (pronounced bow-g-wan), or king of Giestzieg but when the last ruling Bauguan refused to convert to the imperial creed he was quickly killed along with his extended family. Many other noble families of the time met a similar fate. Though the missionarium has had much success in the centuries since the regicide with the conversion of the human population, old traditions die hard and many natives still lack the proper hatred for xeno they should have. More worryingly many resent even the minimal imperial presence on the planet despite sharing the same faith. The noble families which survived the slaughter have now become forced to rely upon more illegal forms of financial support such as the cold trade of artifacts from the deep of the catacombs and the drug trade. This has changed the noble families from political powerhouses to hereditarily owned criminal empires.

Giestzieg has the potential to rival Footfall as a port of trade but is held back by it's populations hatred of outsiders. If one were to some how restore the noble to power and appoint one of them as imperial governor surly this could be resolved yet noone has thought to do this. The acid-bogs must surely hold a beast or two fit for calixian beast-houses or prehaps some as of yet undiscoverd phamecuticals. The hids of animals from these areas are higly prized as well. There are many ooportunies on this world for profit if one is willing to invest the time and reasorces.

(Imagine the chasm hives as shanghai at night built onto the walls of a more narrow grand canyon with a lava river flowing below, the culture of this world is meant to be very very oriental)

I'LL be posting further settings and possibly homebrew xeno races in the future but as of right now it is late, I am tired and I must work in the morning.

Time for a j, hot cocoa and bed me thinks.

Details, history, and even included plot hooks? Nice work iedp. Looking forward to your other pieces.

I'm loving this as well. I can't wait to see some of your homebrew xenos!

Thanks everyone for all the views and compliments!

I'm kind of going for an Easter Island in space thing here.

Futility

A short weeks travel by a warp route from Giestzieg lies prehaps one of the most exciting xenoarcheological discoveries in decades if not of the century. A yellow sun beginning to make the transition to red giant holds the ruins of a mighty civilization in it gravity well. A space fairing species that barely managed to probe it's cradles oort cloud left behind only it's gods to remember them by. Curiously few rocky planets orbit this star only the three gas giants remain but an abnormal amount of asteroids can be found in the inner system where a solid world should lie. Instead massive moon sized statues can be found orbiting the star, the last legacy and presumably the demise of the xenos which once lived here, at least thats the curren theory held by xenoarcheologists.

The scholars account of waht happend here goes something like this. A long dead alien civilization doomed themselves by constructing massive idols of their gods which now stand sentinel in orbit at the edge of the system. All solid planets of this system were ripped appart and stripped of the precious minerals and metals to feed the construction process. What happened after is currently up to debate, most say that without reasources to support thier infrastructure and agriculture the aliens died off slowly from famine and disiese. Other maintain a darker story, pointing to the fact that orbitals could have easily been set up by the aliens and that their own extinction was no accident on their part. In this vision of the extinction the aliens chose famine over disapointing thie pantheon of dieties or simply upon completing the project comitted ritual suicide on a species level.

Regardless thier likeness is presumably preserved in thier tribute to the gods who dug these xeno's graves. Rogue traders are currently scrapping and salvaging the idols while imperial archeologists flock to behold the works of the dead before they vanish. The alien minig facilities have been refitted to serve as living facilities, market places and entertainment centers. This use of xeno ruins does not sit well with many and a proper human built space port is just begging to be towed here. As of recently an imperial system subject to tithes the rules here are lax. The governor is a drunk and there are many who'd like to keep it that way, people who like a bit of flexibility in their business.

Below is a description of the major sections of the system starting from the star.

Futility

A bloating yellow sun which the astromancer's foretell will swell in just a few short million years. The ships coming into the system aren't scurrying to leave just yet. Orbitting incredibly close are xeno structures presumed to be power collectors of some sort. The mechanicus is dying to sudy the alloys which allow these structures to sit so close unshielded to a raging star. Orginally thought to be permenant sunspots the rigs quickly turned into just one of the other marvels of this rich system. There have even been rummers of a portal built into the star itself but this has been dismissed by the tech priests as rediculous. Just another tale of the expanse told in taverns but old voidsmen trying to one up eachothers stories. Often psykers who travel to the star report a sesnsation of some great beast sleeping in the sun, often described as a god in a deep slumber. Some even claim to have seen its dreams, visions of the system before it's inhabitants died.

The Inner Ruble

Only the inner planet Husk remains remotely intact, how ever many rocky worlds were one here is now unkown, thought it is speculated there were 6 since there are now 6 asteroid belts in close proximity to the star. These massive volumes of asteroids are dotted with some ancient mining facitlities scatterd in clumps. This area is rife with pirates who find the debris a place to hide from retribution and to ambush passing prey.

Husk

It is an exageration to say that no planets remain in the system, one does still retain a vaguely spherical shape, Husk apears to have been ripped apart for its mineral then allowed to fall back together. The chunks of the world still have kilometer thick cables stuck into them holding the space platforms which preumably ripped this world to pieces to mine Husk's wealth. Husk serves as the hub of trade in the system, where realestate on the idols is brokerd for and the metals and artifacts salvaged are brokers bartered for and sold. The orbital platforms stuck the the planet by thick cables which seem hair this in comparison to the stations they stretch from are used as space stations by imperials, these wll serve until a proper human built sace station is constructed or imported.

Haze, GG-Alpha and GG-Beta

Past Husk three gas giants orbit, each devoid of moons but surrounded by an abnormal amount of rings up to 13 in the case of GG-Beta. Haze is the smallest of the gas giants and the furthest out, a massive trail of helium and hydrogen bleeds out of the planet giving it a tail, indeed it resembles a comet with a rediculously oversized nucleus. This tail is created by a still active xeno gas extractor unit approximately the size of a samll planetoid. The gas is spewed out from Haze into space at velocities approching the speed of light, and has been doing so for so long a cloud like jet hs accumulated. About half of the gas drifts back to Haze while another half is lost to the void. GG-Alpha and GG-Beta were uncreatively named for being gas giants and designated alpha and beta based on relative size. Their rings are probably a reult of their moons being reduced to reuble in the same strip mining process which cunsumber the rocky inner worlds. GG-Beta further from the sun that GG-Alpha.

The Idols

In far orbit beyond Haze the most startling feature of Futility rest in eternal vigil, the idols of the dead xenos. They vary massively in number of limbs and dress, some posses wings and others lack faces or eyes but there still resides some similarities between the statues. Those with eyes have six eyes which ring the head, the back of the head swells and extends where a humans would stop. If a human's head is a ball these balls have half an egg glued to the one face. How these statues don't colapse into spheres under thier own gravity is baffeling to xenoarcheologist and the mechanicus. Howmany of these structure cirlce the star has not been determined, the largest 26 which have been found share the same orbit and and orbital speed, and are found at eaqual intervals along the orbit. Other idols can be found scatterd at least 57 are known of. These statues are not solid or hallow but catacombed with tunnels filled with artistic masterpieces. Equipment does tend to malfunction inside these mazes and teams are known to simply disappear sometimes, the more supperstitous are of course inclined to blame ghosts. Most disturbingly psykers often report dark presences eminating from the statues, feelings of betrayl and unfinished business linger around these edifices. But witches seem to say many things about many places, and so far their meloncholy has been largely ignored by rogue traders looking to turn a throne off these gods.

Homebrew Xeno's

*A note on the wurgh, I concieved of this species before the ofcial cannon for a void kraken had been released describing them as creatures made of silicon and minerals. Though I had though of them as hunting star ships for the same reason proposed in kronus bestiary I prefer to imagine them as creatures of flesh and blood, prehaps with a lichen like feeding mechanism used to dissolved and consume the raw minerals found in asteroids and meteors

The Wurgh Tribes

To most of mankind the void is an anathema. A nigh incomprehensibly vastness uterly alien and dangerous to us. Even the void-born who call this place home cannot truly say that they don't experiance vertigo just from the sight out their viewports of the stations or ships of their birth. And nearly none have walked the open void for so long that they feel more at home in zero-gravity than under its pull. But while the void is not just host to man, other creatures walk these stars along side us, some of whom truly can call this place a home.

The number of sentient xeno's who traverse the stars is unfortunately beyond count. Though it is mankind's manifest destiny to rule the galaxy that day is not yet here, the emperor still has many trials ahead for his beloved children before we are truly worthy of our birthright. Home to the halo regions know as the Koronus Expanse reside the Wurgh a species unique in that it is prehaps the sentient species with the best claim to void as their natural habitat. Indeed the Wurgh themselves claim they were "made by the creator from the dust of the stars to gaurd the void between the realms of rock and gas". Reports of sightings of the Wurgh have been reported from footfall to the breaking yeards and even the disciples of thule have reproted encounters with these creatures.

(Post will resume tomorow)

The Wurgh Tribes

(The wolf-men of the expanse)

Long of limb and blue of eye the Wurgh are a rare sight in the expanse. Their entire bodies are covered in a thick insulating layer of silver fur, which grows shorter along the top and side of their head while the hair grows longer along their forearm, groin and at the "chin". In the area where fur grows longer it drapes and sways a few inches down. The wurgh grow to be little taller than humanity but not as large as an astartes or ork. A wurghs limbs however are long and equiped with four prehensile fingers at the end of each. The wurghs hands have one shorter finger placed closer to their other three than the shorter toe of their feet which are placed 180 degrees away from their middle toe. A wurghs shorter toe and finger posses three joints while their longer digits have four joints. While lanky the wurgh seem very muscular and appear much stronger than they are, in fact a wurghs agility is it's greatest physical attribute not it's strenght. The long limbs and agility of a wurgh combined with their quick grasping reflexes makes it clear they have evolved to live in a zero gravity environment and have done so for many thousands of years. Slowly evolution has moulded their physiology to live in this hostile environment.

Further adaptaions for the void are evident in their sensory organs. Their nose, while large, posses few olfactory receptors and the wurgh are thought to have worse sense of smell than humans. Their taste perception has yet to be fully analyzed but is theorized to be much less multimodal than in other sentient species. Their ears are large, pointed and angled backwards with tuffs of fur at their tip. A wurgh's range of hearing is much lower than a humans and while it does overlap with our own the wurgh can hear and speak in ultrasonic vibrations. This becomes obvious when two wurgh talk as their guteral speach dips in and out of human hearing but remains deep and low. The wurgh's strongest sense is by far their sense of sight. They posses four large slited predatory blue eyes which due a reflective surface at the back of thier retina appear to glow in the dark. The placement of their four eyes is such that they have a nearly 360 degree visual field which includes three bifocal fields and two trifocal fields of vision.

A wurgh is fully capable of focusing on three objects simultaneuously. They have two lateral bifocal fields and one frontal bifocal field. Along the edges of the frontal bifocal fiels are small areas of trifocal vision where they can focus three eyes at once on an object. When a wurghs attention is grabbed by something they look at it with three eyes in one of their trifocal fields. In conversation with an wurgh it means if they appear to have their head cocked to one side when speaking to you, you have their fulll attention. Much like a human will stare directly at you to focus both their eyes on you if you have theirs. The imperial biologis interested in the wurgh have very few cadavers to study and are offering a reward for individual who could bring them more specimens, prefereably live.

Contrary to popular belief the "wolf-men of the expanse" cannot breath the void. But do spend most of their lives clad in exquiselty wrought armoured void suits made of a silver metal decorated in wurgh runes and talismens. The wurgh are forbiddne by their religion from walking on a wolrd that possess its own atmosphere regardless if its breathable or not. A wugh who is known to have set foot on a solid planet is excommunicated from the tribes and thought to be cursed. Each Wurgh suit is a fully contained environment capable of supporting a wurgh for weeks on end as well as being a work of art. Wurgh decorate their bodies with piercings and talismens. The wurghs language looks feral and violent consiting of clawmark like scratches and series of straight lines and dots very little curvature is seen in the wurgh alphabet.

Little is known of wurgh cultrue or of their homeworld. It is well known they claim to live in the void itself where they areborn die and are burried but this seems an unlikely story. It is however supported by a journal of an unknown xenographer who calims to have earned thier trust. His or her name has been expunged from recored by the ordos xenos and his book itslef considered hereticle material. But enough works written about the journal exist which are not proscribed to allow for a deeper understanding of wurgh culture assuming the journal is not a fabrication. According to the xenographer wurghs live mostly in the accursed demense, shunning the unbeholden reaches and the rak'gol infested alenic depths.

According to the xenographer the wurgh traverse the warp without a voidship. They infact appear to have none at all. The heretic claims to have actually traveled with the wurgh in a "sprit-walk". The wurghs mystics known as void-shamans are known to be psykers who practice a form of ancestor worship and apparently they call upon their ancesteral spirits to protect them from the demons and corruption of the warp. The experiance is described below in the only surviving fragment of the proscribed journal.

"We walked out onto the surface of the ship we had been staying in at the breaking yards. The young were being housed in their own containers which were also decorated in the usual wurgh fashion. Some time last week the void-shaman had asked for my possessions to 'make ready for the journey ahead nobel one'. Not wanting to insult his customs and feeling that I had established a sufficient level of trust with these creatures I oblidged hime. Now my void suit and items were covered in wurgh talismans and my rebreather reakeed of some pugnent xenos incense. I was puzzeled to say the least as to the purpose of these "modifications". The space walk continued for some time, I could hear the wurgh conversing over my vox, which I had set to the clan I had been travelling withs frequency. After having first met them at footfall they told me if I wished to see them agin they would be spending some time at SR1 and then vanished the next day. I assumed they had hoped on some ship bound there and I did the same. But I was about to learn that they had taken a very different means of travel.

After nearly an hour we stopped and the wurgh formed a circle around their void shaman and his apprentices. The void shaman was begining to dance and I could hear the wurgh…singing. If there was some sort of melody it wasn't one my ears could hear but there was definatley a beat to it. Curiously the shamans apprentices were beating drums, which were silent in the vaccum. I began to feel my heart stired by the strange beuty of the wurgh song and then faintly I began to hear it. At first I thought it was only my heart since the sound seemed to be coming from within me but then I realised it was a drumbeat. My first thoguht was that there must be something else they but in my incense and suddenly I felt very afraid. All the old predjudices I thought I'd left behind in port wander came bubbling back. Xenos are feared for a reason after all and here I was alone surrounded by dozens of terra-cursed beasts. I thoguth they were going to eat me at best, I was no stranger to sorcery I knew all to well the bloody demands of the dark gods and I knew that humans were not the only ones to be turned to dark purposes.

Then the shamans eyes glowed with an internal light and a wind, or smoke or I dont quite know how to describe it other than some sort of aura began to swirls around him and lift him up with some sort of beutiful blue-white ribbons. The apparaition cam from nothing but seemed like it was simply hidding and it appeared to be gathering strenght. The patterns in the smoke resembled wurghs sometimes othertimes were more abstract but seemed laced with meaning, carrying concepts that danced just at the threshold of my understanding or ability to imagine.

The drum beat was now deafening and suddenly a wurgh two places down from me was struck by lightning and vanished. More and more of our company met the same fate, I was terrified but far to enthralled to run. I looked up and notices all the lightning was coming from one faint star. Or was it going towards it? I began to hear the song the wurgh had been singing in a different way, I could feel it. The song was beutiful, full of rythm and patterns and sounds that I had never heard and will never hear again. Even in remembering I tarnish the experience, my human mind cannot hear such music since it was made for alein ears but at some immaterial level it can be understood. It was sorcerous and beutiful. In that moment I heard voices and memories and felt ancient alien thoughts enter my head at first I could make no sense of them. But quickly I realised they were asking if I wanted to come with them.

My heart, long the source of my wanderlust answered before I could.

I was swept up and could feel my physical body become cosmic. I was rushing at impossible speeds, it was like hearing every sound imaginable all at once. I tasted the burning light of suns and it was wonderful. Time lost all meaning to me then and I was lost in an instant of eternity. I could see terrors lurking behind this veil of beuty however, but I was safe my guide kept me hidden from them and protected so that I only saw what wouldnt hurt me. Suddnly I was back in the physical world again underlight of a different sun, standing on a deserted asteroid. The runes on my suit were giving off the same blue smoke I had seen the shaman suspended by earlier, but it was quickly disapaiting. Around me ther circle was ebing reformed as one by one, wurgh appeared after flashed of lightning last to appear in the middle was the shaman himself who spoke over the vox one last time before a moment of silence was held and we began to move on. It was only then I could feel the damage that my mind had suffered. Not a corruption or a dirtying of my psyche but a stretching and filling with alien memories, feeling and thoughts. They quickly evaporated but they had left their mark and bent my sanity. I knew I would never again be the same.

I have now spent three days on this rock with the wurgh. There is no light here save the stars and our own encampments lights. I have been warned to not to jump and to move with caution less I drift off into the black. I think their trying to make a fool of me, even so the gravity here is worryingly low this rock cannot be more than a click or two across. I have traversed the entire thing. Still I dare not look up less I vomit in my suit, the sky here gives me a vertigo I have never felt before. I have a limited knowledge of stellar cartography and no cogitator to calculate my position in the expanse. For all I know I am the only humn for a hundred light years just one step away from oblivion. We will be meeting with a second clan soon here to conduct trade. I know not how long I will be with the xenos. But right now I am their guest and at their mercy."

The xonographer claims to have travelled in this manner several times over the course of the 4 or 5 years he spent in the accursed demense before returning to a human system where he could get on a footfall bound ship. He encountered many of their holy sites which he claimed were carved out of void-kraken bone. The wurgh posses deep space colonies if he is to be believed set far from any star. These stations are fueled by thier own small artificial sun in the form of fusion reactors used to grow food and sustain life. These are not premenant home, the wurgh are nomads. But these places are needed stopping point for the wurgh where they can repelish their stores and rest before going out to trade and hunt void-kraken. According to the xenographer ethanol has a much stronger effect on the wurgh than in humans, and can even induce halucinations at higher doses. It is one of the main reasons they trade with humans they do not appear to know how to distil it themselves, or at least have no yeast to grow it with. Wurgh treat psychoactive stubstances in a manner similar to that of a human tribal society, using them to bind the community in ritual halucinatory experiances froma young age. Most of these substances the xenographer claims to have tried to little or no effect on his own mind.

Wurgh can be found at geistzieg, foot fall and in the breaking yards where they are willing to trade or serve as guides into the deeper portions of the expanse. They are not known to construct star ships and their psykers have been observed, both these facts appear to substantiate the xenographers claims of the spirit walks through the warp. They also have no known homeworld, a fact which points to a darker past. Did they destroy it themselves or was it destroyed as a result of some natural stellar phenomenon? It is known the wurgh hate chaos which they refer to as the blight. In the wurgh worldview there are either those who are "noble" such as themselves and aparently the imperium. And those who are blighted and desreve only death. Such hatred has been theorized to be a result of a warpstorm which consumed their home world. It is likely the wurgh themselves dont even know. Whatever happend has left a strong mark on the wurgh, strong enough to stop them from setting foot on another world. They wander the void and will do so until such time as mankind sees fit to turn His holy warmachine to them.

I'm going to do this entry a little differently. The setting will be explained by a narrative if you don't want to read this little preface the actual setting will be described in the next post so you can just skip the story here.

The Temple of the Eternal Flame

Eurasmus raised his hand as the servitor's gaze drifted over his table. The machination wandered over and poured him his order then took his coin. The tavern was empty now save for Eurasmus and his companion who in truth was not all there. The man beside Eurasmus was many things only one of which mattered to Eurasmus. A self styled Grand Trade Admiral, owner of a dozen star-ships, lord over perhaps as many as half a million souls and a heretic. Soon he would be ash but not before he spilled his guts.

"You will die soon. Do you know that?"

The mans puffy eyes let out more tears but he did not wail as he had earlier when Eurasmus had first acquired the man. Good. He has learned.

Eurasmus liked it when his targets had finally come to realize what was in store for them he had always enjoyed the feeling of power. Ever since Eurasmus had been small and only had his true name. Eurasmus' first taste of power had been over his younger brother, when his parents were gone Eurasmus had played little games with him. Nothing to serious. That would have gotten Eurasmus in trouble. But his brother bled and kept quite about it when their parents asked what had happened. Eurasmus was to smart to get in trouble so he had satisfied his urges on the hive-rats preferably the mutated ones. Even then he had known to punish the mutant. Eurasmus had always been devout.

Purge the mutant and the heretic. Only in death can they be clean.

Back then Eurasmus had thought the little swelling in his chest that he got from inflicting pain and humiliation had been what drove him. He had always known he was different from others. Eurasmus didn't like to play with other children unless he was winning at something. But Eurasmus always won even if it made others hate him. By the time he was in his teens Eurasmus had learned to play his peers like he played his parents and his younger sibling. Eurasmus became good at lying and knowing just what to say to people. The right words made other boys respect him and girls want to sleep with him. He realized that most people were predictable, and boring. So Eurasmus punished them for their failings This was when he had learned what the little fire inside him was. Through others suffering Eurasmus held power over them. Pain wasn't what compelled Eurasmus it was power. But it was not for some time that Eurasmus had learned that there were other kinds of power. And even though the sobbing man beside him didn't realise this but although Eurasmus had broken and beaten him the heretic still had something that Eurasmus needed.

Knowledge is power. Guard it well.

Tears dripped past the man's mouth and landed on the floor. It was pathetic. Any sliver of remorse Eurasmus might have felt left him at that point. In his mind the heretic was the focus of a hatred so intense and burning few can truly understand it. Only a true zealot would could possibly feel such single minded righteousness. It was this feeling that Eurasmus told himself he craved above all others it made him feel at one with Him on Terra. In truth it made Eurasmus feel as though he was the Emperor.

Eurasmus wanted to twist the mans eyes out of his socket and cut him and hurt him. Humiliate him in front of thousand of jeering people. Burn him at the stake and bathe in the warmth of the glow.

Soon, but not yet. This thing still has power over me and that I cannot allow.

"It will not be a quick death, to become clean you must first be cleansed in flame. You know this yes?"

The man beside Eurasmus nodded. Eurasmus saw a glimmer in the heretic's eyes he didn't like.

He wants to die. He wants an escape from the things he saw in the black and the things I've done to break him.

Eurasmus reached into his pocket and pulled out a chrono. He twisted the dial backwards and the screen flashed indicating that its machine-spirit was listening and would remember the sounds it heard in order to recount them to Eurasmus later. Eurasmus gently placed it on the table between himself and the heretic. Eurasmus had already pieced together most of the heretics story but he had to hear it from the captain himself. Eurasmus was diligent. One of the reasons why his master had raised him from the masses those many years ago. Before capturing Kendrick he had learned everything about the man.

"You still wont talk will you?" The look in the man eyes still held some amount of defiance. "Your not afraid of death, truly. You've faced worse a thousand times. I know Kendrick, I understand. But you are a man, a man with a son who I think you would very much like to see live."

The man opened his mouth, "How did you know…"

The defiance vanished. "My dear Captain I know everything about you. The Inquisition has had its eyes on you for sometime. Even in the expanse the emperors left-hand is strong."

That was a lie, the inquisition held very little power in the expanse. Nothing like it did in a true sector of imperial space. The expanse still crawled with far to much freedom and the inquisition had to pick and choose where to spend its time quite carefully. That was part of why Eurasmus enjoyed this placement. The work was much more challenging than one would find on another imperial world with an Arbites spire to monitor every word and face on the planet. Here you had to rely on your wits and your own eyes. Footfall might be a less that desirable place to live but it did not lack excitement or work.

It had taken months of toil and a lot of greased hands but Eurasmus had dug up just about every detail about Kendrick Mercant and his interests. There was one particularly useful fact that a ciphered astropathic communique Eurasmus' astropath had managed to intercept. Captain Kendrick had spawned a little pup from some whoring ***** on Malfi. Thinking that his heir would be safer from rivals if Kendrick left him alone the youth had grown up spoiled. He knew nothing of his father save that he was a rich man who wanted him to very much go into a naval career. It was a smart move both for the sake of the dynasty and the safety of Kendrick's loved ones. The House Mercant had many rivals after all.

Kendrick had though himself clever, he covered his tracks well and his son would grow and learn to be a competent commander when he came of age he would finally learn his true destiny and manage the warrant as his father had done. Well had his father not tainted the warrant and shown the treachery that ran in his blood. Eurasmus had no intention of allowing the son to live nor the woman who had birthed him. In fact Eurasmus did not intend for much of House Mercant to survive the coming years. There were a few candidates who Eurasmus had determined were sufficiently righteous enough that they could be allowed to inherit the warrant and redeem the dynasty he would settle that later.

The heretic panicked, Eurasmus knew he had him.

"He had no part in my actions or my heresy! He was light years away he doesn't even know my name! He's innocent!"

That last word exploded in Eurasmus's head like a gunshot. In an unintentional instant of weakness Eurasmus' subconcious flashed a memory he thought he had put to rest along time ago. He was enraged. The flash of anger on Eurasmus' face cut Kendrick off.

Through bared teeth Eurasmus replied, "Innocence proves nothing."

For a second Eurasmus sympathized with Kendrick. The boy Eurasmus was going to kill was innocent and his death would be unjust. Eurasmus did not revel in the deaths of the innocent it had always left a bad taste in his mouth during sleepless nights. Foolishly Eurasmus allowed himself to reflect on his own family and for a moment. His mind was drawn back to the hive-hab with it's small shrine to the older sister in the guard Eurasmus had never known. The room had been covered in cots and was rank of the seven unwashed bodies which inhabited it when Eurasmus was in his adolescence. Eurasmus had excelled as an adept he had a keen mind. He hadn't even know he was working for the inquisition when he had first begun his career but one thing led to another and before he knew it Eurasmus was orchestrating the poisoning of thousands in order to dispose of a dangerous hive gang with heretical ties. Having proved his worth Eurasmuses master had come to him in person and offered Eurasmus an escape from what he had thought would be his fate.

Instead of endless toil for the administratum confined to his birth world Eurasmus was going to give up his name, face and identity. He would travel from place to place across the stars and serve the throne to the best of his abilities. If he served well Eurasmus could live centuries in luxury. It would be dangerous but he would be getting what Eurasmus coveted more than anything, power. He would bring heretics and traitors to their knees and watch them die screaming and learn secrets perhaps one in a billion knew. Power would be his, at a cost.

The price was steep. Steeper than Eurasmus could have ever guessed. He had argued, screamed, reasoned and finally begged with his master.

"But they haven't done anything! Your not even accusing them of anything, you fabricated the accusations in front of me and then expect me to put a bullet in their heads!"

"Why should they be spared? Your master demand their deaths and names them heretics what more do you need?" His masters voice had been calm and slow.

"But their innocent!"

"Innocence proves nothing."

Kendricks thought is was his wits that made him strong. Eurasmus knew this was not the case, Kendrick was a bright man. Considerably smarter than Eurasmus but he lacked zeal and devotion. Eurasmus knew that true strength came from ruthlessness. It was a trait few had. And it was this that his master had taught to him. For that Eurasmus both loved and hated her. He never realized just how much he had loved his family until he had to put a bullet through their heads. He loaded the guns himself with them watching and listened to him name them traitors. The hardest part was choosing who to kill first or whether to put a bullet in his own head. In the end Eurasmus had answered the higher call. They had all whimpered the same objection, that they were innocent. Eurasmus was left with only one thing to tell them.

Innocence proves nothing.

Eurasmus closed his eyes for a second and murmured a calming hypnotically implanted suggestion that cut the memory off. In an instant it was gone but the adrenaline from the shock of remembering still pumped though his veins and it needed some where to go. Eurasmus slapped the heretic with a back hand. And nearly smashed his drinking glass into the mans face.

That was stupid. Control yourself Agent Requiem, don't let him get under your skin. This thing infront of you is not Captain Kendrick Mercant the third stop thinking of him as a man who speaks words. He is a heretic who speaks only evil. He is a traitor, treat him as such.

Kendrick began to talk "To this day I still don't know if half of what I saw was even real. There are things in the void no man was never meant to see."

"Start from the beginning." Eruasmus asked as he leaned back in his chair.

"The path that brought me to the Temple and it's Spirit is long, we will be here for sometime."

"I know, it is fortunate for you that it is such a long tale. I will kill you once your done."

Kendrick nodded and then shivered. Behind him in the taverns window the glow of starship engines could bee seen as they lazily drifted in and out of port. A ship was making its journey ouf port its engines glow suddenly burned brighter than Furibundus and the ship became a streak of fire as it launched itself towards the distant stars. The glow lit Kendrick's face for a moment. Finally captain Kendrick broke and relinquished the last little bit of power he had. Eurasmus could feel the same fire in his gut that compelled him to do what he does, and he listened. It was moments like these where he became god. It will hurt him more to tell this tale than anything I could have done to him in my workshop. I think I'm going to enjoy this.

Eurasmus sipped his drink and Kendrick began.

"I don't remember his face but I will never forget the light that lit it. The ember resting on the table hurt to look at not because it was bright more so because it was unnatural. The light it gave off was the color of a rainbow, and the smoke it emitted smelled of a thousand fragrances. The dim glow never rested still it seemed unable to choose a single color to burn so every second it would change…"