Editing Nobledark Imperium Member States (section)

== Colchis ==

The planet of Colchis was virtually a feudal world by the end of the Age of Strife. Its population had regressed into a society reminiscent of the Stone Age, due to the rebellion of the Men of Iron, and it had taken nearly nine millennia to reach even that level of technology again — an effort not helped by the sporadic Chaos uprisings and the brutal semi-arid climate of the planet. It this pitiful state that greeted the Eldar of the minor Craftworld Bel-Shammon when they arrived. 
 
The people of Bel-Shammon were desperate; the solar sails and propulsion mechanisms of their Craftworld had been damaged beyond repair, and they knew the birth of Slaanesh was soon at hand. Colchis was only a stone’s throw away from the homeworlds of the old Eldar Empire, and the people of Bel-Shammon knew that without the ability to move their Craftworld away from the psychic eruption they would need to either seek shelter or die. As a result, the people of Bel-Shammon were forced to take unconventional action, and asked the people of the nearby world of Colchis for sanctuary. Tears of desperation turned to tears of joy as the Colchians welcomed them into their homes. In gratitude, the Eldar repaid the people of Colchis by teaching them how to build a global and peaceful civilization.
 
By the time the Imperium first reached Colchis during the Great Crusade, Colchis resembled a planetside Eldar Craftworld governed in a manner not unlike a relatively calm and peaceful version of the ancient Holy Roman Empire. The planet was a patchwork of nominally independent nation-states, with a politically independent papacy acting as both a mediator in international disputes and a representative for the planet as a whole. Craftworld Bel-Shammon itself had been dismantled, its wraithbone structures turned into housing and architecture and its Infinity Circuit incorporated into the planet.
 
When Imperial ships first arrived in the Colchian system, they were greeted by elegant system defense ships. The Colchians had no Warp technology, but only because they never felt the need to go anywhere. There was a Webway gate in the center of the papal palace, having been moved planetside from the old Craftworld, but the planet had little contact with the greater galaxy and had not had a visitor from off-world in decades. The language they were greeted in was similarly unconventional; it seemed to be the hybridization of a language descended from the tongues of Old Earth and the High Speech of the Craftworlds. The Imperial ambassadors were later to learn that this was the global language of legal documents and trade — a practice mirrored in the Imperium with High Gothic.
 
The Imperium had initially expected Colchis to be controlled by an Eldar aristocracy ruling over a human underclass. To their surprise, no Eldar on the planet held any position of power above the level of provincial assistant administrator or some equivalent title. The refugees of Bel-Shammon had never wanted to rule, they only wanted a place to settle. Colchis was brought into the Imperium as a unique and civilized world, reminiscent of an idealized version of some pre-fall Eldar haven — albeit one with only 8% of the global population actually being Eldar.

Colchis has remained relatively peaceful, despite the general tumult in the galaxy since joining the Imperium. Colchis may not be armed to the teeth like Cadia or Krieg, but it has still fought off its fair share of invasions. Among the people of the Imperium, humans from Colchis tend to get along better with the Craftworlds than the average human, due to their similar cultures. Craftworlds like Alaitoc see Colchis as proof that mankind are not completely hopeless and can eventually learn to be civilized — perhaps in a few million years or so. Human and Eldar supremacist groups, like Craftworld Dorhai, see the harmonious and relatively non-militarized world of Colchis as the embodiment of everything wrong with the Imperium.

"''See, this is the cultural suicide of both the Eldar and human of this world. What my sights lay upon is the abominable fusion of both and the advancement of none. This is the destruction of Eldar culture and their human partners follow suit, for there is the strength of none while holding the weakness of both.''"<br>
— Unknown Dorhai writer

"''See that fool? That one right there? There lies the true suicide of both Eldar and humanity. I look upon them and I would be moved to pity were it not for my disgust at their stagnation and wretchedness. They scream and cry about strength and culture, yet their society crusts over in bones of wraith and dies starved of love or sunlight. They prattle on about purity, romanticizing a time that never was when they lived in some unseen Eden — all the while carefully omitting their decadence and depravities. Let them turn inwards and look no more upon the outside world. We will pick their corpses clean, we will outlive them, our beautiful hybrid society will remain ever young, ever vigorous. If they cannot change, they shall rot.''"<br>
— Her Ecumenical Excellence Mother Dwynwen XXIII of Colchis