Setting:Cloudburst/Cognomen

System
Galactic Position	Cloudburst Sector, Cognomen Subsector
System Overlord	Lord Fabricator Lister Beraxos
Worlds in the system	Nine, one inhabited
World Type, Name	Forge World, Cognomen
Tropospheric Composition	Nitrogen 76%, Oxygen 21%, Argon 1%, Water 1%, Carbon Dioxide 1%
Religion	Cult Mechanicus, Imperial Cult
Government type	Adeptus Mechanicus
Planetary Governor	Yes
Adept Presence	Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Adeptus Administratum (in orbit)
Climate	Temperate, formerly savanna, now becoming hot wasteland
Geography	Tectonically stable, wide blocks of land, with steep, cold oceans; small, shrinking polar ice caps, extensive resource deposits, now largely depleted; roughly Earth-sized
Gravity	0.97 Terran Gravity (with evidence of lower gravity prior to Terraforming)
Day Length	30 Terran Hours
Economy	Gelt Thrones and Silver Thrones
Principal Exports	All manner of technology and finished goods
Principal Imports	All raw resources possible, Food, Textiles, Convicts
Countries and Continents	No national divisions, extensive canyons around one enormous cleft canyon down center of largest continent, seven continents
Military	Cognomen Shields (small PDF), Cognomen Legions (Skitarii), Legio Congelatio (Titan Legion), Cognomen War Cults
Contact with other Systems	As the largest Forge world between Drumnos and the edge of the Imperium, with over two hundred worlds as trading partners, Cognomen has extensive and daily contact with other worlds
Tithe Grade	Exactis Particular
Population	39,000,000,000 (human), servitor count constantly changing

Description

The vast forges of Cognomen are the pride of the sector Mechanicus, and for good reason. They are among the largest, the most productive, and the most technoarcanely blessed in the far north of the Segmentum, and Cognomen's vast data banks contain most of the blueprints of the far-off Martian forges. Lacking some of the most advanced, they make do with high production of as many templates as they can manage. The vast shipyards in orbit have seven 10-kilometer yards, which can connect beams to expand their cradle length. They are theoretically capable of building any vessel of equal or lesser size, including the mighty Universe-class mass conveyor vehicle or Imperial Navy battleships. As of M41.999, six yards are occupied with building ships of nine-kilometer beam or greater: two Universes, three battleships, and a Grand Cruiser. The seventh yard is undergoing retrofits to accommodate even larger hulls, up to the massive Gloriana battleship, without merging beams. Dozens of smaller yards manufacture lesser ships, of all designs, including the all-important Galaxy and Constellation troopships and Marketeer livestock barges. Cognomen had enormous resource deposits, but these have been nearly depleted through colossal strip-mines that have rendered much of the planet a barren wasteland. Although there is still extensive construction on the surface and below, the usable amount of open agriculture land on the planet is all but gone. As a result, other planets export nearly all of Cognomen’s fresh food. Cognomen's heavily saline oceans are rapidly drying out. Total loss of all non-terraform-active outdoor habitability is anticipated within eighty years. Cognomen's senior Magos Biologis have completed gene-sequencing all of Cognomen's native life, and have written it off. Once, Cognomen was a world of grasslands and silty seas.

The Forge of the Borderlands

Cognomen defends itself. Unlike certain Forge Worlds, which rely on the constant movement of Imperial Guard forces through their Worlds to defend them from invasion, Cognomen fields a vast variety of forces in its defense, and occasional offensives. Although established after the end of the Scouring, and therefore without the ancient strength of an archaic Titan Legion, nor a network of Knight Worlds in its fealty, it has the means to build both. Modeled after the ancient forces of Mars, which has its own domestic House of Knights, Taranis, Cognomen is slowly building up Titan and Knight forces from its own population. Even other Forge Worlds that do not know of this accuse Cognomen of executing a power grab, which may be fair. Cognomen's Explorator fleets are always on the lookout for other Forge or Knight Worlds that may be within the greater Cloudburst area, which it could add to its holdings. The possibility that any Forge World so long removed from Mars may be either disloyal or far more advanced than Cognomen itself seems not to have occurred to Lord Fabricator Beraxos.

The Explorator forces also seek to find or make a Knight World of its own, out in the lightly exploited Cloudburst Circuit. The fact that this is not traditionally permitted in the highly tradition-bound Mechanicus is something that Lord Fabricator Beraxos has chosen to disregard, respectfully. Rather many of the lower-ranked Techpriests of Cognomen have debated reporting this to Mars; this has been a subject of ongoing discussion for many decades with no sign of letting up. When pressed by his nervous subordinates, Beraxos insists that building an unauthorized Knight World is a crime, not a heresy, a distinction about which he cares more than most others would. ABX202020 is a planet of infinite potential, in his mind, and a chance to show that even a world born in isolation and schism can be loyal, productive, reliable, defensible, and proper in the eyes of His Most Blessed Circuitry.

The establishment of a Titan Legion is far less controversial, and the Cognomen military has embraced it wholeheartedly. So far, Cognomen has established the formal structure of Legio Congelatio (or Frostbite Army in Low Gothic) and the transports needed for twice their number. The Legion is recruiting Principes and Moderatii from any population that can produce them and building smaller models before moving on to the more complex ones. They have made remarkably little progress given the centuries of hard work that have gone into the process, but it is also a determined effort – Congelatio would be larger, but the first six Titans of the Legio were lost in a catastrophic battle against the forces of the Dark Eldar and Chaos. The three-way war in the Corumbino Nebula, two hundred years prior in the Naxos Sector, cost Cognomen all of its progress; the capture of the Nebula seemed small consolation to the ruined Cognomen army. Frantic rebuilding is now underway.

Of course, Cognomen is first and a foremost a Forge World. The extensive military preparations and exploration they undertake are secondary to the manufacturing they perform on behalf of the Cloudburst Sector. Appliances, vehicles, farming equipment, mining gear, and ship components alike churn out from the massive Cognomen factories by the gigaton. The factory blocks of the main Fabrication Centers are new, and purpose-built. Though they lack the ancient honors of the more established Forges of other worlds, the Cognomen Forges are expanding rapidly, and produce new products every year. The ultimate goal of the sector’s Tech-clergy is to make Cloudburst import-neutral, and perhaps even export-positive. Of course, Cognomen has been working for thousands of years to achieve this, but the sector’s population is also growing, and the fresh colonies that the Administratum and Rogue Traders have established in the last two hundred years have eaten heavily into Cognomen’s manufacturing balance. However, Cognomen has been able to dispatch some of its Tech-Priests and Enginseers to Civilized Worlds in the Cloudburst Sector with orders to set up satellite trading posts and manufacturing centers there, both to ease their own burden and show Mars their commitment to spreading the Omnissiah’s Word and Works. The success of this program on Celeste, Thimble, Maskos, and other Subsector Capital Worlds, but most of all Septiim Primus, has led Cognomen to plan for greater efforts in this regard. Their hope is that this will allow worlds in the Sector to pay their tithe with processed minerals instead of raw ores, which are both harder to ship and time-consuming to process. This, in turn, will allow Cognomen to shift vast percentages of their workforce towards the kind of precision manufacturing that Forge Worlds hold as their pride and holy joy.

A History of Schism

In high orbit over the rotting globe, there is a large but unpainted space station. Inside this station, the Cloudburst Inquisitorial Ordos maintain a vigil. The Ordos make use of their own Astropathic choir aboard the orbiting platform, as well as a hangar. This is not the principal Inquisitorial Palace for the sector, however, and never holds the convention of the entire Conclave Cloudburst. Instead, the Inquisition uses this platform for the disposal of relics, whether Chaotic or xeno, which are not safe to dispose of otherwise. They make use of unmanned, servitor-controlled kinetic rockets, which can’t unseal once shut, and launch the items into the system's star. These rockets are made to order, of the sizes the Inquisition requires, on Cognomen itself. They are delivered by a member of the Cognomen Electro-Priesthood only after undergoing extensive background clearance. The consequences of launching a variety of bizarre and possibly Warp-infused artifacts into a star that lights a system with thirty-nine billion residents have not been fully explored.

Cognomen maintains a token force of Arbites and PDF, solely to uphold its commitment to the Cloudburst Administratum, but does not tithe up Imperial Guard regiments as a matter of course. Instead, it meets its tithe requirements by supplying its own knockoff Vanquisher and Eradicator cannons to systems that can't make their own, as well as a variety of other military weapons such as Hellhammer cannons. Their knockoff weapons tend to be larger and less effective than the weapons they clone, although they are still lethal. As Cognomen’s wealth and power grow, it may come to pass that it will pay a tithe no longer. A higher percentage of its output goes to other worlds in the sector every year; the formality of a tithe may eventually become unneeded. As the Cloudburst Sector expands as well, the needs of its industries and consumers rises, and Cognomen is struggling to meet the demand despite its own growth.

Though Cognomen is perfectly capable of supplying Rogue Traders and other non-military assets that explore the Circuit, it prefers not to, instead leaving that responsibility to other Forge World vassals and Great House merchants in Cloudburst. The heavily expansion-weighted preferences of the Cloudburst government ensure that the Explorators of the Cognomen fleet take high priority in their own ports. Of course, on the rare occurrence that the Rogue Traders of the region do find anything of value, this means that Cognomen is the third world to benefit from it, after the Rogue Trader's port of call and Mars.

In ancient times, Cognomen was a lonely beacon in the depths of uncharted space. The location of the planet was known to pre-Imperial Mars, as established by the stellar coordinates found scribed on the headstone of the Explorator who located it deep in the Martian Mausoleum Tunnels. For thousands of years, Cognomen sat in the deepest depths of the Oldlight Proximate Circuit, untroubled by neighbors or politics. Loyal to but untrusting of Mars, Cognomen drifted through space, its leaders content to labor in obscurity. That changed with the sudden successes of famed Explorator Justin MacDonald, who found several habitable worlds close to Cognomen itself. Faced with the knowledge that the rest of the Imperium would surely come to occupy their region of space, Cognomen reluctantly opened its doors to further trade and work with the greater Imperium. This even resulted in the Forge World becoming a Subsector Capital, to their surprise. A mighty Navy Anchorage station, fully eighteen kilometers in width and twenty in length, hangs over the equator of Cognomen. Connected to the ground with the planet’s only working Orbital Spire, the anchorage serves as the regional command station for the Navy, and can build vessels of up to Oberon displacement. This is in addition to the other shipyards the system already has. The Anchorage is currently building an Exorcist for the Navy. The station also houses the Master of the Administratum Cognomen, the highest-ranking member of the Adeptus Terra in the Subsector. The Castle of the Forges commands Cognomen itself and the sector-wide Techpriesthood. It is a massive factory-temple near the equator, at one end of Dolomblen Canyon. Seven more Orbital Spires of far smaller size are either under construction or repair equidistant around the equator.

Cognomen is the result of a schismatic philosophical discussion in the upper ranks of the Mechanicum, after their reforging as the Adeptus Mechanicus following the Great Scouring. Given the number of cultural and military shifts in the Mechanicus that followed the Heresy, the old ways of the Mechanicum had to change, that much was clear. The feudal Taghmata system was dead, so too was about a third of the Martian Priesthood and over half of the Basilikon Astra. When the call came, once the Great Reforging Era began, to reclaim lost Forge Worlds and build new ones besides, the losing side of the schism saw their chance to preserve their freedom without having to resort to Tech-Heresy. Taking to ship, the schismatics, specifically those who thought that tech-augmentation should be used as an actual augmentation and not a surrogacy for human tissue, settled on Cognomen. This world of vast wealth and great isolation was perfect for the schismatics to build their society, preserving what they thought to be the best parts of Martian theology and culture, without the fetishizing of self-mutilation.

They were unsuccessful in stamping out the germ of the idea, of course, because worship of the machine is easier if machines are a visible part of the body. Tech-augmentation is as much a part of Cognomen culture as it is Martian, by now, but some aspects of the schismatics' beliefs still linger. Core to this belief, as reflected in the world’s own description, is the power of names.

The Power of Names

Names are crucial to Cognomen culture and lifestyle, and theology also. Individuals may have as many as four or as few as one name, and may choose new names for their selves upon reaching adulthood at sixteen. Each and every building in the great hive-forges has a name; individual cogitators have names stenciled on the side in indelible ink. Every starship, Titan, Skitarii, and illegal Knight has its name emblazoned on its armored carapace in a place of honor and visibility, even compromising camouflage for some. Names are power in a galaxy in which the Warp exists, and the Mechanicus knows it. Cognomen takes these names as a point of pride, however, and woe betide a visitor to Cognomen who forgets the name of the Priest to whom they are speaking. Cognomen Skitarii and Titan crews commit the names of their enemies to memory before battle, and gouge the names of the worlds on which they fight into the hulks of wrecked enemy vehicles after a victory or their own after a loss. No fewer than fifteen star systems in the Cloudburst Sector and Circuit are named after the forenames of specific Rogue Traders or Explorators, simply because their names became infamous in some other capacity shortly after making their discoveries, or because they wanted to stake a claim forever.

This belief extends to knowledge, too. Cognomen is obsessed with learning the blueprints of the lost STCs, of course, as all Forge Worlds are, but they take their obsession to a less practical extent. Cognomen doesn’t just seek out lost blueprints, but also the ancillary information of the STC files themselves. The names of inventors who contributed to the great STC Datalibraries, the locations of the laboratories and workshops and Universities where those inventions were made, and the names of the materials from which the templates may best be built – all of these things are sacred to Cognomen.

The great Data Chapels of Cognomen have the titles and names of inventors and engineers, designers and scholars of the Dark Age and Golden Age scribed by hand onto great sheets of canvas, with abstract depictions of their lives’ works all around them, and frozen in expensive stasis fields. Statues of Mechanicus and Terran inventors of the past decorate public squares alongside Fabricators of Mars and Primarchs. Across the Great Canyon of Dolomblen, the yawning ravine that splits the main continent down the middle, vast train bridges stretch from Forge-Hive to Forge-Hive, and each bridge has a name emblazoned on the side in solid iron letters the size of Warhounds. They are allowed to rust, staining them red, the color of the priesthood, and drip down into Dolomblen, like the blood the Mechanicus has shed for Mankind.

Given the Cognomen obsession with names and history, it is perhaps somewhat surprising to Martian observers that Cognomen is not equally fixated on the crime of Innovation. This is especially surprising given the Cognomen preference for unobtrusive and functional augments, and their history of schism from Mars. Cognomen, of course, has its sects and factions, like all large Forge Worlds, but by and large, they are obedient to Mars.

Exports

When time comes, as it often does, for Cognomen to export weapons to the rest of the Segmentum, it does have a few foci for its manufacturing. Although it is just as capable of building basic human and Astartes wargear as any other Forge World of its age, the world’s Fabricator Magos Council has elected to pursue excellence in specific forms of weapons rather than try to master them all without the absolute support of Mars like mighty Anvilus or Lucius. The focus of most Cognomen arms trading for now is infantry weaponry, specifically high quality autorifles, stubbers, lasguns, and grenade launchers. Though this is a far cry from the diverse and technologically bizarre weapons of the Dark Age and Age of Strife, that’s the point, in Cognomen’s way of thinking. Laser technology is one of the few fields of technology in which present-day humanity is unambiguously superior to Dark Age technology, so why not focus on what they do best? Cognomen lasrifles and autorifles are cheap, quiet, easy to repair, easy to maintain, waterproof, and light – perfect for a Guard or PDF force without much money. For the forces with more money, like Septiim and Celeste troops, there are all manner of options: plasma, melta, bolter, shotgun, missile, and flamer weapons of the usual variety. By necessity, the Cognomen Forgemasters have also grown accustomed to making the various vehicle upgrade kits the Blue Daggers and Septiim Guard love so much, like sponson and pintle bolter packages.

Sniper weapons are the natural progression of Cognomen’s infantry rifle focus. Cognomen manufactures a line of projectile rifles dubbed the Razor series by its testers. Based loosely on the ancient Martian and Terran hunting rifles from which it takes its name, the Razors are mechanical simplicity itself. Using the expanding gas from the primer and powder of its discharged slugs to both propel the slug and clear the chamber, they come in automatic, semi-automatic, and bolt-action variants. Long-barrel variants and variants with integrated sound suppressors are especially popular with counter-sniper and counter-terrorist specialists, while shorter ones with integrated forward grips and compensators or flash hiders pop up often in Imperial Guard infantry units. Cognomen Lasweapons are based on Martian designs, with few technological deviations.

Cognomen combat vehicles are a different story. Septiim provides the template for vehicle equipping, in the post-Glasian worlds of Cloudburst. With Septiim’s love of vehicle upgrade kits and Forge World-quality guns, this means that Cognomen must produce a massive variety of vehicular weapons and do so to the highest standards it can. This is wholly compatible with the Cult of the Machine, of course, but logistically, this takes a toll on Cognomen’s expanding infrastructure.

To get around this cost bottleneck, the Cognomen Council of Magos has established three satellite worlds of their own Forge World, with the intent of eventually making them Forge Satraps of Cognomen. The first is the planet Foraldshold, originally discovered by the Rogue Trader Forald Drenweiss during the First Gold Rush. The world was earmarked early for colonization by the Administratum, but the Mechanicus’s subsequent tests revealed significant geological instability in its two continents and deep seabeds, and recommended that the world be subjected to limited Terraforming before a colony be built. The Administratum acceded to this. Thousands of years later, the planet is tectonically stable and ready for inhabitation, and the Mechanicus has already erected a massive city of colonists and Tech-adepts, ready to begin turning the planet into a Forge Satrap. The second is the Forge Moon of Solstice, in the Septiim system, which is already manufacturing advanced weapons for the Blue Daggers. Solstice is more independent, but recognizes Cognomen’s undeniably higher placement in the Mechanicus hierarchy. Eventually, Solstice will manufacture all forms of Space Marine hardware and take over doing so on the behalf of the Blue Daggers. The third is the cluster of proto-Agri-worlds of Forender, which are now producing food for Cognomen, since it can barely produce any now.

What few vehicles Cognomen does not build, it would very much like to. The planet has, after two thousand years of careful negotiating – the Martians would say ‘wheedling’ – finally gained access to the -hammer and Bane- hull tanks, including the mighty Baneblade itself. Although its components and cannons are somewhat larger than the glorious Martian master design thanks to Cognomen’s less advanced (and less numerous) forges, they are no less deadly for it. Next, Cognomen seeks the rights to build the Storm- and Shadow- series tanks, and perhaps even the Leviathan and Capitol Imperialis. The Macharius tanks are hardly a mainstay of Cognomen forges, but they do build them for the regiments that ask for them.

Leadership

As a Subsector Capital, Cognomen is granted an honor and a responsibility that few other Forge Worlds are, although ironically their nearest Forge neighbor, Fabique, also has. Cognomen bears the burden of leadership for the Subsector, which contains five other inhabited systems and several systems only good for mining. This requires that Cognomen take a role in the greater Imperium for which it was unprepared. In this, however, the Cognomen leadership does have the help of Fabique, which has had the same responsibility for far longer. The establishment of a well-appointed Astropathic and Administrative orbital platform over Cognomen allows for the staff of the Subsector Governor to work without having to visit the dying planet below. Any desire the people of the platform may have to visit their host vanishes at the sight of billions of acres of dying grasslands on the world below as the planet succumbs to industrial overbuild.

The Subsector Governor coordinates the logistical and political needs of the Subsector from the platform, which possesses a suite of luxury apartments for himself and more spartan accommodations for his staff and less-liked family members. The platform has only a few small point defense weapons, and is wholly reliant on the Cognomen fleet for protection.

The work of the Administratum here is made easier by the fact that the current Lord Fabricator, Beraxos, couldn’t give a damn about the rest of the Subsector, and has no desire to challenge the Administratum for leadership. This, given that Cognomen could steamroll the whole Subsector if they chose, is a great relief. If anything, this lack of concern for their neighbors is convenient for the Overlord, who can simply foist responsibility for any unpopular decisions on his indifferent counterpart. Should Beraxos ever complain too vocally, the Governor can simply inform Beraxos that he is fully aware of the little secrets of ABX202020, while the Sector Overlord is not. This also means that Cognomen is in the odd position of the Planetary and System Commander being the same person, not being the Subsector Overlord, and the System Commander not technically answering to the Subsector Overlord. This makes interactions between the two men perilous at times.

The Basilikon Astra employs Cognomen as a potent reserve of strength on the Quest for Knowledge. The fleets of the Martian Priesthood scour worlds that the Rogue Traders of the Cloudburst Circuit and Oldlight Exo-zone discover, looking for any sign of lost human habitats or shipwrecks. Because Cognomen’s theoretical shipbuilding cradle size is larger than all but a dozen Space Hulks to have ever been sighted, any Space Hulks the Explorators are able to transport intact winds up at Cognomen. Any components removed from said Hulks that are not immediately usable are sold to the Grand Anchor. However, the relatively young colonies of the Cloudburst Sector have produced few Hulks, and most of those encountered have already been boarded by Orks, Genestealers, or worse.

Cognomen does have its own fleet, including both Explorator vessels and Basilikon Astra warships. The shipyards that orbit the world have built ships for the Inquisition, but the ancient and more precise yards at Fabique and Accatran usually bear that responsibility instead. The current command ship of its fleet is the Oberon Battleship Lucubrate, commanded by Magos Dominus Prannan duPree.

Cognomen Military

First and foremost in the armies of Cognomen are the vast Titans of its Legion, Legio Congelatio. The mighty Engines of War number twenty-five intact Titans, with another partially assembled, and the resources allocated for another. The core of the Legion are four Warlord Battle Titans and a single Reaver Battle Titan. These five engines traditionally mount as much in the way of directed energy weapons as possible, like Volcano cannons and other lasers. Cognomen is justly proud of its extraordinarily accurate and powerful laser weapons, and its Titans keep up that function. Of course, the Titans are able to swap out their weapons as needed, but their preference is for extreme range and accuracy. Congelatio Warlords are more akin to tank destroyers than tanks, and never fight singly if they can partner up.

The Cognomen combat forces do not yet field a Legio Cybernetica unit, though they theoretically could. Their Skitarii are loyal to Mars first and Cognomen second, but the Cognomen insistence on exploration and heavy military expansion means that they feel well treated and respected by the Cognomen bureau-clergy. They augment their forces with extensive combat servitor units, and typically avoid mercenaries or the use of militia; this is academic given the sparse population of Cloudburst anyway. The Skitarii stationed on this world are Martian in origin, but their ranks are filled by the humans of Cognomen. Their paint scheme uses russet camouflage, with black and grey trim. At any given time, the Skitarii legions of Cognomen have approximately two million active troops, a five hundred-thousand-man PDF, and another million Skitarii out among the stars, aiding other Mechanicus forces or on the Quest for Knowledge. This is, proportionately, a tiny Skitarii formation for a world of such a high population, and thus the Council of Magi is expanding it as quickly as they can.

As go the War God-Engines, so go the Secutarii. The Corpus Secutarii Congelatio are the most elite (non-Astartes) foot units in the entire Subsector, far above the meager Guard and PDF forces of other Cognomen Subsector worlds. As with all Secutarii, the Cognomen Secutarii – who have named themselves the Titanshields – are the logistical corps and rear guard of Titan battle formations, and use cybernetic legs and other mobility-enhancing technology to allow themselves to keep up with Titans on the move. Their default uniform scheme is black and blood-red, with grey trim, highlights, and uniform badges. Their template is the Martian Corpus Secutarii formation that accompanies the Taranis Knights and Legio Ignatum into war. As such, their Axiarchs adorn themselves with armor made from components of dead war machines, usually their own, as a sign for each other that they will never again forget their duty.

The Titanshields are dour and miserable folk, except in battle. They see the Sector itself as striving to keep the Legion down, going all the way back to the loss of their engines in the disastrous Pyrrhic victory of the Corumbino Nebular War in the nearby Naxos Sector. In battle, they unleash their rage, and use all variety of potent and technoarcane weapons, some that have lasting damaging effects on the battlefield itself. They also outright refuse to use vehicles of any kind except as back-line transports. Unlike Skitarii, however, they do allow themselves to be shuttled around a warzone if there is a real danger of being left behind by their mighty war engines. Secutarii Titanshields also defend and secure caches and dumps of Titan munitions, to prevent their theft or sabotage. In this, they occasionally make use of the same CATs and Fire Wasps that the Techmarines of the Blue Daggers use, to serve as a light perimeter early warning system.

The Cognomen PDF isn’t much of a PDF. It has at most a half million soldiers, most of them the youngest children of laborer families that ran out of money to raise offspring. Given how small the PDF is, and how they are based on a Forge World, at least their equipment is superb. They use a variety of aircraft in their defense of the world, but prefer the Lightning and Avenger aircraft. The Techpriests also vat-grow servitors to augment the PDF and Skitarii in battle.

Faith of Cognomen

The religious beliefs of the planet are not at all far from the balance of the greater Cloudburst Sector. In fact, Lord Beraxos and Cardinal Drake agree that it would be best for the population of over twenty billion menials of the world to be given the choice of the Faiths Imperial to choose from, and worship their preference. This wouldn’t be orthodox on most Forge Worlds, but given both the Cloudburst Sector’s disgusting lack of Cardinals and the Cognomen-specific historical pariah status, anything else would surely invite too much scrutiny from Terra and Mars.