Editing Nobledark Imperium Forces of Chaos (section)

= Crone Worlds =

Of the Crone worlds, many including the great domain of the Eldar, the shellworld capital Shaa-Dome, are the domain of the Slaaneshi cult, and at some unreachable heart of the capital the Brazen Palace meets reality. The writhing heart of this semi-real kingdom is Slaanesh's access point to its personal princedom in the Eldar Empire, an asset unmatched by the older gods where its loyal cenobites can freely wander from eye to true warp. However, throughout the eye and beyond it the prince's rivals have ensconced their own favored. Mighty orders of killers dedicated to Khorne, made up of undying eldar warriors, empowered orks, and blackguard Astartes of the Imperium dominate the un-settled daemon wolds in the wilds of the eye, and even carve out their own domains in the warp itself. Tzeench's sorcerers have taken mostly to the winding fortresses and redoubts of the ruins of the Webway within the Eye, well suited for seers that cannot be tricked but by themselves and must read their own mind to know what they're thinking. The schemer's faithful magi and tinkers are indispensable in the courts of Shaa-Dome and Commorragh, but their wicked, plotting conclaves and colleges are distinctly unwelcome in the seats of power. The few followers of Nurgle abroad among the eldar spread the love of their grandfather in the slums, gutters, and servant quarters of the great cities of darkness, but most remain with him in his garden in the deeps of the warp. Of the few active beyond his noxious hedges, the most prominent are attendants of Isha.

== The Cursed Moons of Shaa-Dome ==

The eldar homeworld of Shaa-Dome has three moons, one white, one red, and one green. Originally, the white moon was dedicated to Lileath, the green moon was dedicated to Kurnous, and the red moon was dedicated to Eldanesh (it was originally dedicated to Khaine, then dedicated to Eldanesh after Khaine [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_People#Khaine|fell out of favor for his little incident]]). However, since the Fall of the Eldar, the moons have been rededicated to different, darker gods, specifically the three that don't have as much of a presence as Slaanesh on Shaa-Dome proper.

The white moon of Lileath was rededicated to Tzeentch, and is one of the largest single holdings of Tzeentchian Chaos Eldar outside of the academies of the tainted Webway. The moon's surface is covered in twisted geoglyphs that form runes when viewed at astronomical distances, which work like ley lines to funnel the raw power of the Warp to the temple complexes located at their nexi.

The red moon of Eldanesh was rededicated to Khorne, though in practice it is Arrotyr's, and he doesn't use it as much as his officers do. The Old Helm's main presence on Shaa-Dome is in the form of the marshal's massive fleet in orbit and moored at this moon, and upon the portions of Shaa-Dome's outer surface that Arrotyr claims as his conquests at any given moment.  His manse on the mid-levels of Shaa-Dome which he rarely uses was the estate of his house prior to the Fall/Ascension. The moon itself is more of a giant shipyard/fortress/armory to supply his constant squabbles with the Slaaneshis of Shaa-Dome's interior.

The green moon of Kurnous was rededicated to Nurgle. As one might expect from anything Nurglite, it went from "not bad" to "festering fungal fleshscape" real quick. The air has a mild anasthetic quality to it so the longer you are there the less things hurt. It isn't healing you as such but you could be mistaken for thinking it is. Every surface is variations on sticky, slimy or damp and if you have any open cut on you it will soon be infected. Even if you don't it will get in via any orifice soon enough.

Assuming you die you get absorbed into the living walls or floor. Or if you fall asleep for more than a few days due to fever. If you get absorbed whilst still alive you will die at some point. Sort of. Loose cohesion and coherent function would probably be a more accurate way of describing it as your bits and pieces are broken down and moved around and digested. Brain is usually the first thing to start to be broken down, the moon doesn't need additional thinking time. Sometimes one is preserved and put to use. There is some evidence that consciousness is regrettably preserved.

Those that don't die, or at least live a longer time, are gradually subsumed by fungal and parasitic infections. They replace you one bit at a time like a rather sad ship of Theseus until nothing remains. By that point you probably don't look like you anymore but in some cases the semi-conductive algae (or something else) mirrors the old brain activity so completely that you could probably pass for you over the phone. Assuming you can still use a phone.

The resident native population are only theorized to have once been eldar. There were eldar living there before The Fall. These things are there now. They don't appear to be daemonic in origin but good luck trying to find a definitive answer. Some of them can be spoken to but they are all quite mad.

It is claimed that the original stain of Nurgles Rot came from here.

Nimina Demthring likes to use the moon to imprison those that won't accept the glory of Nurgle/Isha and aren't powerful enough to fight her off. Let them get digested and stew as moss men for a few millennia until they finally accept Nurgle's gift.

== Geography of the Eye of Terror ==

Although it may seem surprising to those outsiders who see them as masters of the Eye, the Crone Eldar do not have a firm idea of everything that exists in the Eye of Terror. The Eye of Terror covers nearly 3.5% of the entire galaxy, with tens of thousands of planets previously located in its radius prior to the Fall. While it is true that the area now occupied by the Eye was well mapped by the Old Eldar Empire prior to the Fall, things have changed since then. If one were to assume these ancient maps were gospel and set out in search of contacting all the lost Crone Worlds, they would find the maps to be horrendously inaccurate. Numerous planets would be found to be missing, whereas others would be entirely new, baubles taken by the Chaos Gods as gifts from their most ardent worshippers. There are entire Crone Worlds which should still exist and be home to thriving eldar populations, but no one in the Eye has heard from them in thousands of years and it is generally assumed they were all wiped out. Many Crone Worlds have been completely depopulated, whereas on others so few survived that the remaining survivors simply decided to migrate to Shaa-Dome. There are also more abstract phenomena to consider in the Eye, corridors linking the Eye of Terror to the Maelstrom and the Screaming Vortex and the Hadex Anomaly and other major warp storms through the depths of the Warp itself. The Crone Eldar know what once existed in different parts of the Eye, but the space now occupied by the dimensional anomaly has changed so much since the Fall that such information is effectively useless.

Other species, if placed in a similar situation, would have explored every nook and cranny of their new domain in order to understand their new territory (and in humanity’s case probably claimed them, divided them up, and sold off the land rights). But these are eldar, and Crone Eldar at that. They preferred to spend most of their time post-Fall fornicating and coming up with new hedonistic atrocities to inflict one another, only halfheartedly supporting any attempts to map the Eye of Terror and regarding any such information is a passing curiosity. Therefore, large parts of the Eye are simply regio incognita, with space being best mapped around the major Crone Worlds and knowledge becoming patchier the further one gets away from the major population centers. The only entities that probably know the full extent of where everything is in the Eye are the Chaos Gods, their respective daemons, and Be’lakor.

Within Crone society, there are always a few individuals interested in reestablishing the Old Empire’s borders, braving the fickle currents of the Warp looking to stake their claim and make their fortune on worlds not their own. These individuals have always existed in Crone Society, but have become more common following the Raid as the Crone Eldar were once again reminded that there was a galaxy existing outside their borders. Many do follow the ancient maps of the Old Eldar Empire, hoping to find and establish trade with long lost Crone Worlds and plunder the forgotten riches of the Old Empire. To make such a journey is take an odyssey with sights never before imagined in your wildest dreams, as well as your worst nightmares. Well, at least if you are a Chaos worshipper.


Some worlds are more easily located than others. Shaa-Dome, Elsinore, [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Altansar|Altansar]], Arach-Cyn, Belial IV, and other major Crone Worlds are suspiciously easy to get to. The cause and effect of this phenomenon is the opposite of what one would expect, these worlds are not important hubs because they are easy to travel to or located in relatively tame regions of space, they are easy to travel to because they are important, with travel becoming easier the more important and renounced of a hub it becomes. Like the collapse of a quantum wave function, the more who know of the location of a planet (or, quite possibly, believe a planet is located there) the more “fixed” the planet seems to become. This is not the case of all worlds in the Eye. Other worlds jump around randomly in space, whereas others are impossible to navigate to unless you have somebody who has already been there as a guide. These are the worlds in which lesser warbands of Fallen, colonies of the Lost and Damned, and splinter groups of Crone Eldar make their home, many times being the only sapient, material inhabitants on their surface. 

Shaa-Dome, that mighty shell world orbiting the supermassive black hole that was once the eldar’s home star, has a particularly insidious effect. The currents of the Eye seem to center on Shaa-Dome as if it were the center of a great vortex, it is easy to get to Shaa-Dome from anywhere in the Eye and ships that do so get there faster than if they were trying to travel anywhere else. This means that Shaa-Dome plays an important role when navigating the Eye, as it is often quicker and easier to make a rally point at Shaa-Dome than fly directly across the Eye, something that keeps Shaa-Dome at the forefront of gossip and the latest trends as travelers are forced to pass through the system. It also plays a role in the Black Crusades, as while the Cadian gate is one of the only ways for a massive Crone Fleet to leave the Eye without the battleships arriving in realspace centuries apart, when retreating it is possible to leave Imperial space from anywhere in the Eye, confident that the warp currents will spirit them back to Shaa-Dome.

Although the idea of washing downstream in a known location in the event one gets lost in the non-Euclidean space of the Eye of Terror might seem comforting, it is a false hope. The Mandeville point of Shaa-Dome is constantly awash with floatsam from other parts of the Eye, and the systems fey inhabitants are constantly scavenging through the debris for usable parts. A shipwreck survivor washing up on the material shores of Shaa-Dome is likely to be taken, enslaved, and subjected to a thousand other unspeakable horrors, with whatever is left over dumped in a vat for the fleshsculptors to play with.

The inhabitants of Shaa-Dome and the Eye have certainly noticed this effect. The phrase “All courses have their end at Shaa-Dome” is a common saying in the Eye, and the fact that the world seems to occupy a central location in the immaterial maelstrom has only made its preening inhabitants all the more arrogant. Croneworlders tend to flock to Shaa-Dome in general, but this is much for cultural reasons as it is any eldritch current of the Warp. As the most populous Crone World, Shaa-Dome is seen as the centerpiece and shining jewel of the Old Eldar Empire. If you can make it big in Shaa-Dome, you can make it big anywhere.


Although the strange warp currents of the Eye are generally attributed to the supermassive black hole at the system of Shaa-Dome’s heart, others have dark suspicions that other forces are at work. These individuals posit the currents are not related to any material phenomenon but are related to the connection between Shaa-Dome and the Brass Palace of She Who Thirsts at the planet’ core, a theory seemly supported by the fact that the currents seem to be centered on the shellworld rather than the nearby black hole.