Hi all,
For a homemade campaign I recently wrote a few planetary descriptions for my group's PCs. These are actually planets they are about to visit throughout the campaign. Maybe they are of use for other GMs as well.
Cheers
PLANETARY DATAFAX: ARYUS ONE
Population: Estimated 1.6 Billion
Tithe Grade: Solutio Extremis
Special Notation: Malfian Sub-Sector, Calixis Sector, Segmentum Obscuros
Geography/Demography: Hot; abiding planetary climate is subtropical. The heat is greatest within the summer period, with daily highs well above 40°C for months at a time. The nights are not much cooler. Precipitation is erratic and negligible, little more than an inch a year. In the wider desert, 'khamsin' (dust storms) occur frequently and are hostile to human life.
Oriac is the greatest city on Aryus One. With a population of about 850 Million (one in ten of whom are off-worlders), it is identified as one of the oldest continuously human inhabited worlds of the Calixis Sector. Much of the human architecture is more than 5000 years old with some xenos ruins in the deserts dating even back up to about 5 Million years.
Most of Aryus One's natives are poor with abundant parasitic infestations and viral sicknesses abroad. Most of the natives, especially of the upper and middle classes speak Low Gothic as well as a certain tribal dialect.
Governmental Type: An Imperial protectorate for about 400 years, Aryus One regained most of its internal independence, with the exception of four areas of discretionary powers in the hands of the Adeptus Terra concerning Imperial communication, the Nadus region, defence of Aryus One and the wider system and the protection of Adeptus interest.
Planetary Governor: Currently the Khedive Tawfiq Hilmi III. is the nominal Aryus One Planetary Governor, while Over-Consul Urwick Trevelyan of the Adeptus Administratum is the de facto Imperial Commander of the Aryus System and its accompanying planets.
Adept Presence: Strong; about all major Adeptus Terra are represented. Notable inclusions feature a large Administratum presence and a Battlefleet Calixis orbital station as the last stop before Port Wander and the Koronous Expanse.
Military: Imperial Guard presence remains at the Nadus region. Armed Imperial intervention on Aryus One is a normal occurrence. The Sirdar Legion (local PDF, low/poor) whose nominal commander is Over-Consul Urwick Trevelyan in his function as High-Commissar.
Trade/Economy/Addendum: Aryus One is a Feudal World being on the brink of becoming a fully fledged Imperial World. Its tithe grade, the number of its inhabitants as well as its stage of development is higher than one would expect of an average Feudal World. Aryus One has the oldest identifiable human culture in the Malfian Sub-Sector and stretches back to the M36, millennia before the Angevin Crusade reached the Calyx Expanse.
The tithe and economy depends mainly on agriculture, promethium exports, exports of natural gas, and metals. The oldest manufacturing activities are the processing of cotton, a diversity of monosaccharides and other agricultural products. Rockrete, fertilizer, iron, steel and aluminium production, promethium and machinery were added later.
PLANETARY DATAFAX: DUSK
Population: Roughly estimated 4 Million
Tithe Grade: Solutio Tertius
Special Notation: Malfian Sub-Sector, Calixis Sector, Segmentum Obscuros
Geography/Demography: Wet; abiding planetary climate is mostly tropical and semi-tropical. The planet is constantly basked in a very low light. The climate means there are large varieties of fungus and even the native wildlife has evolved from fungal strands.
Pre-Imperial traders built the metropolis Asabmom as a merchant city and trading center before the Angevin Crusade entered the Calyx Expanse. About 3 Million people live here around the initial space port that lies well defended on a rock surrounded by huge chasms, though there has never been an accurate census on Dusk. The planet is home to a mixture of surviving colonists, outcasts and wanderers, scattered over isolated villages and plantations. Beyond the cities and the Imperial-owned plantations, life of the natives continues much as it has for millennia. The tribal cultures are stable and well adapted to the hostile planet.
Striking is the high birth rate of psykers. Natives of Dusk are narrow-minded and highly superstitious. Sudden madness, trauma, feuds, strange phenomena, morbid obsessions and disappearances are simply accepted facts of daily life on Dusk. The people of Dusk act withdrawn and threatening, and their sense of humour is often macabre.
In Asabmom, Low Gothic is generally spoken, outside of Asabmom and the few other towns, most natives know little or no Low Gothic. The common language on Dusk is a tribal dialect with a strong Low Gothic vocabulary. The planet has a great tradition of storytelling - grim, cautionary tales are told when storm and fog at the campfires, and contain some dark truth.
Governmental Type: Dusk is mostly self administered, though it owes full allegiance to the Imperium, which oversees most foreign and Adeptus matters. Power remains concentrated in the Imperial Governor's hands; weak legislative and executive councils made up of official appointees were created about 200 years ago. The Imperial settlers were allowed to elect representatives to a legislative council and gained representation for themselves and minimized representation on the council for Dusk natives. The government appointed an Administratum Adept to represent interests of the natives on the Council.
Planetary Governor: Currently the High Commissioner Thorne Coryndon of the Administratum is considered Planetary Governor of Dusk
Adept Presence: Low; low Adeptus Administratum and Adeptus Ministorum and very low Adeptus Arbites presence. Almost exclusively based in Asabmom and the few larger towns on Dusk.
Military: Two under-strength regiments of Imperial Guard garrison Dusk. There also exist over ten-thousand paramilitary enforcers, usually natives or early settlers led by Imperial officers.
Trade/Economy/Addendum: Dusk is one of the most infamous Feral Worlds within the Calixis Sector and has a sinister reputation. The fertile planet was always viewed as an ideal starting point for further development of the remote region of space in which it is located, and was the target of repeated efforts to establish mass agriculture. Unfortunately all attempts for colonization since the days of the founding of the Calixis Sector failed catastrophically.
PLANETARY DATAFAX: FYDAE SYTEM
Population: Estimated 60 Million
Tithe Grade: Fydae Minos: Exactis Secundus; Junos: Exactis Tertius; Kessae: Solutio Prima
Special Notation: Malfian Sub-Sector, Calixis Sector, Segmentum Obscuros
Geography/Demography: The Fydae System at the late 41 st millennium is home to a trio of rugged planets. Though the Fydae System is vast, nearly all of the people live in the fertile bands on Fydae Minos and to a lesser degree on Junos. The greater part of all three planets is semi-arid or desert where scattered native clans wander traditional ranges. Sector nobility and the like are rare. About three quarters of all three planetscapes taken together are scrub plains and grassland that seem to sweep forever. Daytime temperatures in the habitable regions can climb as well over 40°C, and nighttime temperatures can fall to well below freezing on all three planets.
Fydae Minos features a wild mountain backbone along the length of the planet, the Great Dividing Range. In the north, near the equator, dripping rain forest covers the eastern slopes of these mountains. Further south the climate is more temperate and even more to the south are mountains, where snow and ice is common throughout the year. To the west, streams flow out to the endless plains, eventually vanishing into desert or salt lakes. Immediately west of the mountains the land is arable. West of these farms, the inland is drier yet, and less settled. Here exist huge Grox cattle and Woolon stations. The stock is watered by generator driven wells with bore holes from fifty to five thousand meter deep.
Junos and Kessae are ancient and stable planets, notable for strikingly-eroded terrain; including single rocks the size of mountains. Along the northern half of Kessae, monsoon rains occur and the land becomes tropical. Beyond the few agri-stations shimmers the arid heart of Kessae, where few of the original settlers roam. This area is colourful and forbidding landscape of red sand, plains of gibber stones, rock ranges, and tracts of spinifex and mulga scrub.
Governmental Type: Constitutional Monarchy with the Governor-General appointed directly by the current Lord Sector Calixis. The Fydae System is an independent dominion within the Imperium. Internally it is a federation. There is no central tithe grade.
Planetary Governor: Currently the Planetary and System Governor seated on Fydae Minos is Governor-General Gowrie Hore-Ruthven as appointed by Lord-Sector Hax personally and with authority over all the systems worlds.
Adept Presence: Mediocre; the Adeptus, and especially Administratum, presence decreased sharply from the 4 th century M41 onwards. The Ministorum presence is comparably high in some places compared to the number of inhabitants, while the Arbites presence is kept at a minimum. Due to pirate activity, Battlefleet Calixis patrols occur regularly throughout the Fydae System.
Military: About 500 years ago the last garrison of Imperial Guard left the Fydae System. Until the Fydae Sytem became a true Federation in 606.M41 each of the three colonial governments were responsible for the defence of their own planet. From 488.M40 until 307.M41 this was done by the Imperial Guard. In all, 24 Imperial Guard infantry regiments served in the Fydae System colonies. Each of the planets gained responsible government between 243.M41 and 595.M41, and while the Administratum on Malfi retained control of some affairs, the Governors of the Fydae System planets were required to raise their own colonial militia. To do this, the Planetary Governors had the authority from the Imperium to raise military and fleet forces. Initially these were militias in support of the Imperial Guard, but Imperial Guard support for the colonies ended in 307.M41, and the colonies assumed their own defence. The separate planets maintained control over their respective militia forces and system fleets until 606.M41, when the planetary forces were all amalgamated into the Fydae System Forces following the creation of the Federation of the Fydae System. Some planetary defence forces were even raised as Imperial Guard units and saw action in the Margin Crusade.
Despite an undeserved reputation of PDF inferiority, many of the locally raised units were highly organised, disciplined, professional, and well trained. For most of the time from settlement until Federation, military defences in the Fydae System revolved around static defence by combined infantry and artillery, based on garrisoned forts; however, in the early 7 th century of M41 improved system-wide communications between all of the planets, led Major General Bevan Ewars, who had recently completed a survey of the PDF, to state his belief that the planets could be defended by the rapid mobilisation of standard brigades. He called for a restructure of planetary defences, and defensive agreements to be made between the planets. He also called for professional units to replace all of the militia forces.
During the economic depression of the mid 41 st millenium, large-scale strikes on various planets were met with the government mobilising and/or threatening to use militia against strikers. This was not very successful and led to the formation of standing, regular PDF. The "two armies" system was established whereby the only infantry units would be militia, although permanent artillery and other support units remained.
Trade/Economy/Addendum: While wool-growing remained at the centre of economic activity, a variety of new goods such as wheat, dairy and other agriculturally based produce became a part of the tithe repertoire of Fydae Minos. It was in recent times that the latter started contributing more to economic output than wool production. Part of this emergence of other sources of economic expansion came from technological progress, such as disease-resistant wheat and refrigerated shipping. It was also the development of this technology that renewed large-scale investment by big trading cartels.
The establishment of a mining industry continued the high level of economic output of Junos. The opportunities for large profits in pastoralism and mining attracted considerable amounts of capital by sector-wide acting trading houses, while expansion generally was supported by enormous Imperial outlays for transport, communication and urban infrastructures, which also depended heavily on Imperial influence. As the economy expanded, large-scale immigration became necessary to satisfy the growing demand for workers, especially after the end of convict transportation to Fydae Minos in late M40. Mining operations on Junos secured continued economic and tithe growth and Junos itself has benefited strongly from mining iron-ore and gold, which fuelled the rise of suburbanisation in the capital and most populous city of Junos as well as other regional centres.
In the past 300 years, major gold strikes on Kessae have opened portions of the wider planetscape and stockmen on behalf of the Sub-Sector Administratum searching for new Grox pasturages have traversed much more. Still, large areas of Kessae and even partly Junos are little known to the day.
PLANETARY DATAFAX: ZWEIHANS WORLD
Population: Estimated 4.5 Billion
Tithe Grade: Solutio Particular
Special Notation: Malfian Sub-Sector, Calixis Sector, Segmentum Obscuros
Geography/Demography: From the midst of the 41st millennium onwards Zweihans World developed into a hive world. A few decades ago its largest hive city officially reached the mark of one billion inhabitants, but Zweihans World is also a world marked by internal revolution. The Rogue Trader Aldous Hux said he never in any hive city had such an impression of a dense morass of richly intertwined life like here. It became a synonymous with sin, adventurism and wealth.
The weakening of the planetary regime around the very beginning of the 41 st millennium and the apparent humiliation of the strict treaties and tithe grades by the Imperium in the eyes of the local people, led to increasing domestic disorder. In the first century of M41, the southern regions of the planet erupted in rebellion, a violent civil war which lasted about 140 years. Although the loyalist forces were eventually victorious, the civil war was one of the bloodiest in Sub-Sector history, costing at least 200 million lives, with some estimates of up to 400 million.
Other costly rebellions followed, such as the Hakka Clan Wars, the Pantha Rebellion and the Dungan revolt. These rebellions each resulted in an estimated loss of several tens of millions lives, and had a devastating impact on the fragile tithe flow. Emigration rates were strengthened by domestic catastrophes such as the Northern Famine of the 4 th century in M41, which claimed between 90 and 130 million lives in the northern part of Zweihans World. Following this series of defeats, a reform plan for the planet to become a modern constitutional monarchy was drafted by the Gax Emperor in 565.M41, but was opposed and stopped by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who placed Emperor Gax under house arrest in a coup d'état.
The ill-fated Ox Rebellion of 605.M41, in which members of the Adeptus Terra were targeted en masse, resulted in more than 1.5 Million deaths, after the Imperium retaliated with repercussions in the form of heavy Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard intervention.
By the early 8th century of M41, mass civil disorder had begun, and calls for reform and revolution were heard across the planet. The 380-year-old Emperor Gax died under house arrest. With the throne of Planetary Governor empty, he was succeeded by, his two-year-old great-nephew Puyi, who became Emperor and Planetary Governor.
Governmental Type: Nowadays Zweihans World is politically fragmented, with an Imperial recognized but virtually powerless planetary government seated in the second biggest hive city. Regional warlords exercise actual control over their respective territories.
The current Planetary Governor reorganized the provincial governments. Each province is now supported by a Military Governor as well as a civil authority, giving each governor control of their own army. Although granting the Planetary Governor and provincial authorities a decentralised administration, it helped lay the foundations for the warlordism that cripples Zweihans World today.
Planetary Governor: Yua Shika was elected Provisional President of Zweihans World by the Provisional Senate, before an assembly unanimously elected him as Emperor. Yua ceremonially declined, but "relented" and immediately agreed when the Planetary Assembly petitioned again that month. The Parliament was formally dissolved. To give his government a semblance of legitimacy, Yua convened a body of 660 men from his cabinet who produced a "constitutional compact" that effectively replaced Zweihans World's provisional constitution. The new legal status quo gave Yua, as president, practically unlimited powers over Zweihans World's military, finances, off-world policy, and the rights of Zweihans World's citizens. Yua justified these reforms by stating that representative democracy had been proven inefficient by political infighting.
Adept Presence: Moderate; about all major Adeptus Terra are represented. Notable inclusions feature a large Administratum enclave and increased Arbites presence.
Military: In the 9 th century of M41, planetary central authority, never very strong, has long broken down. Innumerable regional and local rulers exist – cliques of men committed to maintaining their power by force. In the largest hive city alone, there are more than one thousand powerful cliques, factions, and movements with pretenses to power, and it is unclear which will be the victor. Regional warlords exercise actual control over their respective territories.
Trade/Economy/Addendum: The economy of Zweihans World is in such ruins that off-worlders of even moderate wealth can afford opulent possessions and princely living conditions. Tens of millions work in indentured servitude and even the lowliest off-worlder has servants and wealthy off-worlders live like kings.