Editing Nobledark Imperium Notable Planets (section)

== Cthonia ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">''''' Heart of the Great and Bountiful Human Dominion: '''''

Cthonia. The ring. Last and greatest remnant of the Bountiful and Benevolent Terrestrial Dominion. Symbol of humanity's incomprehensible height... and of how very, very far it has fallen.

Cthonia is located a mere 79 light-years from Old Earth, encircling one of the suns in the four-star Regulus system, one of the brightest lights visible from the Sol system. Exactly why humanity decided to build a ringworld in a four-star solar system, which would by all means be perhaps the worst place to try and build such a structure, is unknown, beyond perhaps that humanity and the Iron Minds tried to do it for the sole reason of seeing whether or not it could be done. Perhaps the Old Eldar Empire were not the only Dark Age power with a case of hubris. The fact that the other three stars in the system provided raw material and energy for fusion reactions and molecular forges certainly helped smooth out any initial efficiencies. Eventually Cthonia became the heart of the Great and Bountiful Human Dominion, eventually even eclipsing the homeworld of Earth itself.

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What was it like, in its heyday? Nobody alive knows. The Mechanicus has some idea; vast telescope arrays staggered light-years apart in deep space, drinking in fossil light from its construction, taking decades to assemble a single picture from stray photons. Vague blurred shapes and impressionist insinuations; of the vast machines siphoning matter and energy from the sun to build it, of the swirling blue-green-white of a million continents, of the golden glow of cities stretching from one edge to the other. Enough to inspire questions and fire imaginations, but not provide answers. 

What is it like now? Scoured clean. The Iron War was at its most ferocious here. Towards the end, even the primary star was used as a weapons, induced to go nova. The system still bears the scars, shells of cold gas cast off from that massive conflagration surrounding Cthonia. Everything on the inward face was annihilated, leaving only an endless expanse of bare, gleaming neutronium. Only systems contained within the exotic matter band itself or mounted on the outward face survived the nova... and very few of those survived all of the other ordnance being thrown around. 

The Imperium dreams of one day recreating the Ring. But at this point, it would only be somewhat less of an undertaking than creating one anew. The neutronium base, most difficult to create, still exists, but everything else is gone. Hundreds of thousands of living worlds would need to be stripped bare to provide air and water and soil. Every forge world in the galaxy would need to devote themselves entirely to the effort for a thousand years. Perhaps, if the galaxy was at peace, the Imperium victorious without qualification, it could be done.

Until then, they settle for sending more expeditions into tunnels and ruins already picked over a hundred times before. And they create art. 

The Cthonian Ring, past, present, and hopeful future is a common subject of painting, statuary, literature, and other arts. In painting, the 'Ring Triptych' is almost a genre unto itself, combining past, present, and future into a single image. Mechanicus facilities often have a sculpture of the Cthonian Ring prominently displayed; a skilled connoisseur can often identify faction and ideological leanings by the details of the sculpture. Portraits of the Emperor occasionally depict the Ring circling his brow like a crown, a symbol of office and the once and future might of Mankind. 

(The most famous of these portraits is Callimant d'Argan's 'Image of Man and Emperor', which shows Oscar almost swallowed up entirely by a massive Ring/crown, the man lost in the weight of history and of the office. The original hangs in Oscar's private quarters on the Traveling Court. This is well known, so duplicates are prominently displayed by ambitious nobility the galaxy over, most of whom miss the symbolism entirely.)

Cthonia, now, is a symbol. A symbol of what precisely varies from speaker to speaker, planet to planet, year to year. But nobody denies that it is a symbol; a unifying factor, one which that the teeming trillions of humanity need. Billions of pilgrims travel to the Ring, second only to Sol in drawing people from across the Imperium.

Ironically, one of the galaxy's greatest graveyards has become a major hub of culture and trade. Port stations stud the outside surface, sheltered by the vast bulk of the ring from the radiation flares of the still-unstable star. Although the warp currents have shifted since Cthonia was the capital of the Terrestrial Dominion, several trade routes still run through or near the system. A permanent population in the billions has slowly grown, serving the pilgrims and trade fleets passing through, along with the permanent Mechanicus presence. Even though a true restoration lies tens of thousands of years in the future... the first step has already been taken.

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