Werkerde

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Werkerde
Segmentum	Ultima
Population	4,000,000,000
Class	Forge World
Planetary Governor	Baron Luft Loehr
Orbital radius	.409AU
Gravity	1.2G

The Forge World Werkerde was a powerful manufacturing hub and home to the crusading Titan Legion, Legio Picus (the Woodpeckers).

History

Like its brother Forge Worlds, Werkerde was settled during the Age of Strife. The colonists who set out to bring the Machine Cult to this world were dispatched from Mars during a brief calm period in the Warp. They found a lush world, full of biological diversity but lacking in surface minerals. Extracting the mineral wealth of Werkerde required drilling deep into the planet's crust.

The Machine War

Digging so deep disturbed a force of malevolent mechanical entities that had been lying dormant. The records of this period are imperfect and it remains unclear whether the creatures were remnants of the legendary Men of Iron, Necrons, or some other species of machine life. Regardless of the precise nature of the threat, the tech priests of Werkerde faced an enemy that was relentless, pitiless, and highly intelligent. In a long and often desperate struggle, every luxury - from the great extravagances of the Archmagoi to the meanest comforts of the ordinary people - was sacrificed in pursuit of victory. And after long centuries of war, victory was achieved.

In the wake of the Machine War, Werkerde's Kriegsrat barely relaxed. Rationing remained in force, but rations were made more generous to ensure the health of the workforce. Similarly, demobilisation of auxiliary forces took place in order to allocate more labour to the expansion of Legio Picus and other front-line forces. Heavily-armed explorator teams were dispatched from Werkerde to scout neighbouring systems, and the Kriegsrat followed up these scouting missions by establishing military-industrial bases for the dual purpose of protecting the perimeter of Werkerde's space and harvesting raw materials for the homeworld.

The Great Crusade

Werkerde was brought into compliance in 847.M30. Following reports of a sophisticated Martian-style civilisation, Primarch Roman Albrecht and his honour guard made contact with the tech priests. The Lord of the Steel Marshals made quite an impression on the Kriegsrat, who readily believed that the crusading primarch was one of the hands of the Omnissiah and duly pledged themselves to further the works of the Emperor. Later negotiations with the Martian Parliament were less sanguine. Controversy over the existence of the Automodeus as a source of primal technological malevolence was hotly denied by the orthodox Martian Machine Cultists, while Werkerde's faithful furiously declared that to deny a source of evil technology was tantamount to the claim that the Machine God had no special plan for humanity. The furor caused by such a seemingly minor theological dispute reached a fever pitch in 851.M30, causing the Emperor himself (accompanied by the neophyte primarchs, Johannes Vrach and Gaspard Lumey) to address a special meeting of the Martian Parliament and call for calm. An unhappy compromise was established through the Emperor's mediation. Werkerde was stripped of its independence and assigned a governor, but rather than a Martian provost, Roman Albrecht was named the nominal ruler of Werkerde. Albrecht quickly dispensed of any practical role in governing the planet and granted his trusted lieutenant Luft Loehr the title of Baron Werkerde.

Loehr had been inducted into the mysteries of Mars, but he was a practical man at heart. Rather than attempting to enforce orthodoxy, the Iron Baron put his new dominion into harness and set Werkerde to the task of moving forward the Great Crusade.

Organisation

Usually, it was said that each Forge World was home to or had an attached Titan Legion. The reverse was true on Werkerde: it was a Titan Legion with a Forge World attached. Legio Picus was the focal point of the Forge World's activity. Every scrap of production beyond that necessary to maintain Werkerde's industrial machine went to producing new Titans, supplies and parts for the Legion in being, arms and armaments for auxiliary forces, or - in something of a last resort - trade goods for winning allies or bartering for materials unavailable on Werkerde.

Doctrine and Faith

The Magoi of Werkerde diverged from their Martian ancestors on the nature of machine spirits. Unlike the Martian Orthodoxy, they held that the Machine God had a malign counterpart, the Automodeus. This vile entity was was believed to be the source of tek heresy, xenos technology, and abominable intelligence. The tech priests of Werkerde saw combating these evils in the world of the flesh as their calling.

Military

Some Forge Worlds were grander and had a greater industrial output, but none had Werkerde's single-minded devotion to war. The training of Princeps and Moderati for Legio Picus was second-to-none, while their god-machines were praised and feared for their fierce machine spirits and devastating firepower. The forge world's auxiliary detachments - Werkwehr - were also well-trained and many of these formations were permanently mobilised even before Werkerde joined the Great Crusade.

Domain

Beyond their homeworld, the techpriests of Werkerde held a number of industrial worlds in thrall. They also established temporary commanderies on pacified worlds during the Great Crusade to protect the Legion's supply lines.