Hua Yuan

The homeworld of the Hua Yuan Regiments, a /tg/ created Imperial Guard project based upon a fusion of Cyberpunk and Hong Kong.

Overview

Hua Yuan is an Earth-sized Hive world, on the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy. It boasts an atmosphere comprised mostly of Neon and Kaihonium, a valuable gaseous element useful for several industrial processes. One of several moons of a large Gas Giant, Hua Yuan is geologically dead, and generally without remarkable features on it's surface, aside from a massive equatorial canyon seemingly torn into it's surface. However, despite this, the moon boasts rich deposits of several different elements, including adamantine. The atmosphere of the planet is extremely turbulent, with lighting storms giving the planet's entire surface an ominous glow as the skies are split by orange lightning, and make human habitation of the planet's surface all but impossible. As a result the majority of the planet's surface remains untouched by the hand of man, but in the depths of the equatorial canyon a sprawling hive reaches deep beneath the surface, marked only by the towering spires of the superstructure of a long-wrecked spacecraft.

The Hive

The core of the Hua Yuan Hive is built around the remnants of a wrecked Universe-class colonization/mining vessel. Trapped within the damaged hulk – and initially unable or unwilling to explore in the world’s neon-saturated atmosphere – the survivors expanded their living space downwards. After rich mineral deposits were discovered, a thriving mining industry developed. The mining expanded to include neon harvesting, and the world's population grew exponentially as off-worlders came to exploit these resources. The hive city expanded until the world was threatened in 899.M41 by the infiltration of a Genestealer Cult, which marked the beginning of the hive's long economic and social decline.

Hua Yuan's atmospheric neon abundance has resulted in the near-universal adoption of neon lighting throughout the hive; even the lower levels have access to at least some of this technology, resulting in the hive being bathed at all hours by a variety of unnatural and bright colors. The lower hive is notable for being extremely cramped, even by the standard of hive cities. Above the narrow confines of the mining areas (many of which have been converted into tightly packed ad-hoc living quarters themselves as they ran dry,) the midhive is also cramped. What's left of the mining industry, and the more recent neon extraction, have kept the planet's economy thriving now that contact has been reestablished with the greater Imperium. As a consequence, the midhive is a very active place.

Government

Former mining officials and deck officers have developed into the noble houses of the world, and they squabble for power and influence in the upper hive, especially now that the economy is on the rise again. Whoever takes control of Hua Yuan has a modest but stable fortune to rest their laurels on. Or that's the general view. The top tier of the nobility, the patriarchs and matriarchs of the corporations who hobnob with the Mechanicus surveyors and have access to the product data and tithe rolls, know that the mines are slowly running dry. The only thing they can do is push quotas harder so they can embezzle enough under the Imperium's nose that they can escape once the planet runs dry, all the while giving the impression that there's nothing wrong.