Setting:Cloudburst/Septiim
| System | ||
|---|---|---|
| Galactic Position | Cloudburst Sector, Delving Subsector | |
| System Overlord | System Lord Jonas Neverember | |
| Worlds in the system | Six, three inhabited | |
The Septiim System is one of the breadbaskets and warehouses of the Imperial Frontier.
There was, at the time of the establishment of the Subsectors that eventually defined the politics of the region, a push to make the Septiim system a Subsector Capital World. This motion did not make it far in the Naxos and Drumnos peerage, since the obvious possibility of a Pasture Gate system putting its own priorities above all others and neglecting the rest of the region was impossible to ignore. More to the point, the systems near Septiim are largely useless beyond bare-bones mining, and cannot support life. It would be a Subsector Capital with no nearby worlds to administrate, whereas Delving is both a bustling economic hub and at the middle of a large cluster of habitable worlds. Thus, the Septiim Economic Zone, over which the system does rule, is awkwardly crammed into a corner of the Delving Subsector, despite having a larger economy and a vastly more numerous military than Delving.
As a whole, the system has a well-deserved reputation as a navigational hazard. The Warp currents leading to the system are weak and thready, while the currents leading away are shockingly fast. While this has obvious benefits for exporting goods and sending the Blue Daggers on missions to other systems, it does make imports time-consuming. The system also has an asteroid belt and many thin belts of comets, which occasionally knock loose and fall towards Septiim itself. Finally, the dual moons of Septiim Tertius make approaching that planet a chore for inexperienced helmsmen.
Also of note is that the system’s culture leads them to discount Servitors from their population totals, thanks to peculiar interpretations of Ecclesiarchal doctrine about the value of human worth. Thus, there is no official record of servitors in the system anywhere, including in the Gargantuan. This is not unique to Septiim, either, and many of the worlds in the Sector with Septiimi colonists share this quirk.
| System | ||
|---|---|---|
| World Type, Name | Garden World Septiim Primus | |
| Tropospheric Composition | Nitrogen 72%, Oxygen 25.5%, Argon 1%, Water 1%, Carbon Dioxide 0.05% | |
| Religion | Imperial Cult | |
| Government type | Adeptus Terra | |
| Planetary Governor | Yes | |
| Adept Presence | Adeptus Administratum, Adeptus Ministorum, Adeptus Astra Telepathica (Astropathic Choir on orbital platform Choral Reef), Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus | |
| Climate | Temperate, with small polar ice caps, and global forest | |
| Geography | Small, shallow oceans, large polar ice caps. The entirety of the land mass of the planet is covered in thick forests, with low-quality soil and rapid, thin rivers. Its few oceans are highly saline. There are large deposits of manganese, zinc, and iron in its crust | |
| Gravity | Primus has 1.08 Terran Gravity | |
| Day Length | 20 Terran Hours | |
| Economy | Gelt Thrones and Silver Thrones | |
| Principal Exports | Timber, Zinc, Manganese, Petrochemicals, Paper, Soldiers | |
| Principal Imports | Copper, Diamond, Finished Goods, Adamantium, Ceramite Components, Fish, Aircraft/hovercraft Parts | |
| Countries and Continents | No national divisions, eight continents | |
| Military | Septiim Defenders (high quality PDF), Septiim Sharks (medium quality Scions) | |
| Contact with other Systems | Primus has extensive contact with the other worlds in the system, and serves as the focal point for military operations in the Economic Zone and beyond. Most of the adjacent systems to the Zone are beneficiaries of Septiim’s economic output, and some contribute finished goods to its economy | |
| Tithe Grade | Decuma Particular (theoretically, the planet could exempt itself from paying the tithe as an Astartes homeworld, but elects not to) | |
| Population | 7,000,000 | |
Septiim Primus is a world of trees and cities, with enormous forests of mighty, vertical plants dominating all land. Here and there, fast rivers cut deep canyons and ravines through the clay-heavy soil, making their way to the saline, silt-filled seas. The people of Septiim Primus are of a mixed, ancient Terran stock, with gradually homogenizing features.
The capital city of Anholme is tucked between two mountain ranges in the southern hemisphere, ensuring frequent rainfall. The lack of mutational factors and the Terra-like air make the planet endure a low rate of abhuman and mutantcy births, to the relief of the Arbites. The vast cities on Primus tend to be both dense and heavily populated. As a natural consequence, upswings in crime, disease, or major fires can have immediate and wide impact. Some argue that it’s worth it for the view. Anholme enjoys abundant geothermal and solar power, in addition to the usual plasmic reactor output of the Mechanicus’ power plants. Deep zinc and manganese deposits nearby provide industrial trade, while Promethium and petrochemical wells across the globe allow for manufacturing of abundant fuels for the world, with enough left over for export.
Primus culture has been more affected by the Glasians than any other world’s has, in the system or outside it. Glasians have assaulted the world in fully five invasions so far, and the scars of crashing Glasian ships (or Imperial ships) can be seen from space, as brown marring on the green of its forests. Primus cities each had large train depots, long before the arrival of the Glasians, as they are the most efficient means of transporting goods and people between the distant cities, but now, they are built underground as a matter of course. Cloudburst’s oxygen tunnels and Primus’ new habit of building whole transportation systems underground were the first major examples of subterranean construction in the sector. The sector-wide love of tunnels can be fairly said to stem from those two worlds, though Maskos could also stake a reasonable claim.
Septiim Primus serves as the de facto system capital. The System Overlord has a platform in orbit, which also contains the system’s Astropathic Choir, and maintains an estate on the ground. The Planetary Governor has their own estate in Anholme. The local Ecclesiarchy headquarters in Anholme as well, and practices largely the same system of exultation of the nobility of wealth, and vice versa, as Cloudburst, to a slightly lesser extent. The local Ecclesiarchy, after all, must also deal with the fact that Glasians routinely attack Septiim. In the run-up to the Migrations, preachers turn their sermons to raging against the alien, praising the brave defenders of the system, begging mercy and aid from the God-Emperor, and emphasizing the superiority of the human form over the xeno. The Ecclesiarchy of the Septiim is generally not aware of the inherent Chaos taint of the Glasians, but its senior members are. Often, the clerics of larger Septiim cities will raise Frateris Militia from retired PDF and Guard, but the Inquisition and Administratum discourage that. Instead, any residents of the three Septiim worlds who wish to volunteer temporarily for the defense of their worlds are encouraged to join Planetary Defense Volunteer outfits.
The military, timber, and ore mining fuel Primus’ economy. Larger cities glow at night with the lights of industry, as lumber mills and military factories churn around the clock. Septiim Primus provides nearly all the arms and simple vehicles of the local Guard, while the PDF is instead supplied by Solstice, and the Daggers by their own forges and Solstice’s more advanced manufactorae. Primus does not have a surface navy, though its PDF has extensive riverine and arboreal training. As the policy of the Septiim Economic Zone is to divert all military recruits through basic training on Secundus before being diverted to specific branches and specializations, Primus recruits and conscripts do not get any special training before leaving. Commerce on a world of so few cities, but so many people, is not simple. Although enormous starports, rail yards, and transit hubs for Primus’ subterranean constructions and subways are not so hard to find, the storage space needed for the goods of billions of people is. Warehouse space is ever at a premium in the Primus markets. Combined residence buildings are common throughout Primus, especially in larger cities. These take the form of a store or other building on the ground floor, with a cargo elevator, stairwell, and passenger lift in the back. Below, these conveyances lead down to the underground tunnel networks, while they lead to residences above, usually with a layer of soundproofing between the business and the residences. The government of Primus doesn’t have a rule against citizens cutting the trees of their world down, per se, but the trees are the primary source of food and air filtration for Primus. Being as close to the system’s star as it is, the planet would most likely be uninhabitable if it were not for the water caching and atmospheric regulation effect of the trees. As such, cutting one down when it is not needed is a highly socially objectionable thing to do.
The planet has extensive defenses. Primus sports a huge orbital battle platform, nearly the size of a Xerxes IV anchorage. Several dozen smaller satellites, a dedicated Navy orbital dock, four orbital watch bases with cogitator-controlled sensor packages and synchronized laser batteries, and nineteen civilian docks surround the world. The civilian docks can be commandeered for military purposes if needed. At closer range, the planet enjoys the protection of seven Defense Lasers, as well as forty defensive missile silos, firing a mixture of plasma and conventional warheads. These missiles could be outfitted with other, more exotic payloads, should the need arise.
Relatively few of the great Mercantile and Noble houses of the Imperium have a presence in Septiim, but there are some. The great Warp-traders and Chartered Captains house of Herrera headquarter here, in fact, and have a vast manor outside the capital, complete with outbuildings and a small private militia garrison. Their freighters often haul the goods of Septiim to other worlds in the Sector and beyond, and bring offworld trinkets and rare metals in for Septiim industry. As the Septiim system is poor in Ceramite ingredients and Adamantium ores, they must be imported for military and civil construction, and are often brought in by Herrera freighters. Naturally enough, the majority goes to the Blue Daggers, for the use of their forges.
The Scholae Progenum that dot the system divert all worthy psykers they can find to the Blue Daggers, for the Daggers are somewhat disadvantaged by the low psyker birthrates of the Cloudburst Sector. Indeed, they have only the number of Librarians most would expect from a Chapter two hundred eighty Marines smaller; the potential recruitment of a Librarian is too rare a chance to pass up. The largest Schola is on Primus itself, sequestered high in the mountains on the planet’s largest continent. The mountain chain is one of the few places in the world that does not have total tree coverage. The Mechanicus flattened several peaks for the purpose of the Schola. As this leaves the place a rather obvious target, the Schola maintains its own small tunnels, leading deep into the heart of the nearby mountains. In the buildings themselves, resembling nothing more than a military base with a few sports fields, thousands of orphans from the Adepta and the Officio Munitorum across the Zone train for their future with the Imperium. Here is the largest Schola in the Subsector, and not coincidentally, a large Imperial Navy officer’s school. The Techpriesthood of Solstice recruits from the most mechanically apt students of the Schola as well, to the irritation of the Ecclesiarchy.
The enormous military forces of Septiim Primus stage from the bases that sit amongst the trees. In a few places, the civilian spaceports themselves doubled in size after military facilities were built adjacent to them.
Decani is an airless rock, with little but a few solar power plants, a tiny long-range vox relay, and a metallurgic factory that exploits the high temperature and low gravity of the moon. There is an emergency dry-dock there for ships of eight or fewer kilometers in length, but no other significant construction. The Mechanicus plans to create sub-surface mines at some point in the future.
| System | ||
|---|---|---|
| World Type, Name | Garden Planet Septiim Secundus | |
| Tropospheric Composition | Nitrogen 74%, Oxygen 24%, Argon .5%, Water .8%, Carbon Dioxide 0.7% | |
| Religion | Imperial Cult | |
| Government type | Adeptus Terra | |
| Planetary Governor | No | |
| Adept Presence | Adeptus Administratum, Adeptus Ministorum, Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Astartes, Adeptus Mechanicus, Templar Psychologis | |
| Climate | Climate is temperate, with many low lands split by rivers, equatorial mountain ranges, thick polar ice | |
| Geography | Enormous oceans, fed by long rivers through the low lands of the continents. Thick, wide polar ice caps and slow ocean currents | |
| Gravity | Secundus has .98 Terran Gravity | |
| Day Length | 21 Terran Hours | |
| Economy | Gelt Thrones and Silver Thrones | |
| Principal Exports | Blubber, Salt, Concrete Mix, Gravel, Manganese, Copper, Zinc, Tin, Textiles | |
| Principal Imports | Industrial slag, Food, Machine parts | |
| Countries and Continents | Secundus has no country borders, and seven major continents | |
| Military | Septiim Guard (high quality Guard), Septiim Defenders (high quality PDF) | |
| Contact with other Systems | Septiim Secundus is a major military training area, and has routine and frequent contact with other worlds. Most of the adjacent systems to the Zone are beneficiaries of Septiim’s economic output, and some contribute finished goods to its economy. | |
| Tithe Grade | Decuma Particular (theoretically, system could exempt itself from paying the tithe as an Astartes homeworld, but elects not to) | |
| Population | 3,000,000 | |
Secundus is a buzzing hive of industry, travel, and military expenditure. Though possessing of a relatively small population for a modernized Garden World, Secundus is the primary military training ground for the system’s various surface fleets, riverine forces, and limited paratroop forces. The planet also hosts the main Navy anchorage for the Zone, the large orbital platform called Waterscale. The supreme commander of local SDF and Navy assets resides here as a matter of course. Elsewhere in the planet’s orbit, Secundus also hosts the local Black Ship and Imperial Tithe infrastructure, though Secundus doesn’t pay the lion’s share of the Tithe.
The planet plays host to the only Adeptus Sororitas convent in the Zone, or indeed in the Subsector, and one of only four in the Sector. A tiny convent, possessing of only 40 Battle Sisters and a few hundred Hospitallers and Famulous Sisters, this small offshoot of the Sacred Rose Majoris is the star and darling of the system Ecclesiarchy, who hold the convent up as an icon of the ideal lifestyle. The Sisters there are objects of veneration for the people of the Septiim system. Their relationship with the Blue Daggers is cordial to their faces and acrimonious behind their backs. Economically, the planet is dependent on its textile production, which flies straight to Thimble. It also collects massive amounts of scrap and slag from other industrial bodies in the system, to harvest for its precious materials, though Solstice surely is going to shut down that industry for itself eventually.
Most cities on Secundus sit on plateaus that jut from the massive equatorial mountain range. The Mechanicus, when tasked with building the planet’s infrastructure, elected to drop massive pre-fabricated cities from orbit, using the barges normally employed for tithe collection. As a result, many of the buildings in these pre-built cities are identical to each other and those in other cities. Not all homes and workplaces are pre-made, of course, and many are the product of organic growth on the continents farther from the equatorial mountains. Secundus’s orbits hold dozens of satellites and platforms, like most Imperial Garden Worlds, and also serve as convenient anchorage slots for the system’s Navy. Waterscale is large enough to handle all routine Navy traffic, but Solstice and Decani handle most general repairs. The planet also enjoys an orbital spire. The orbital spire anchors to Waterscale, which is built into a nickel-silicon asteroid monitor, and houses roughly two thousand crew. Expansion plans for Waterscale include an Aquila shuttle factory, a Defense Laser, and a Mechanicus sensor suite to detect incoming Glasian Cylinders, though that is far in the future.
The planet also plays host to the manufactorae wherein the pre-fabricated military structures used in the Septiim system’s defense are built. These buildings can be dropped from orbit in ablative heat shells, the slam into the ground and begin assembling themselves. The process can be expedited by Servitor construction teams or members of the Adeptus Mechanicus, working onsite with their enginseering tools. These buildings range from simple bundles of computers, antennae, and metal plating to full-service garages and orbital communication dishes, and can be neatly broken down and disassembled after use. The Imperial Guard makes common use of them to create local command posts to repel Glasian landing sites, but their cost of transport prevents them from being common outside the Sector.
Because of the constant threat of pirates and Glasians, the orbital defenses of Secundus have to be robust. The world has fourteen small docks for governmental use, outfitted with some residence suites and cargo storage chambers. They serve as a convenient place to relay psykers and tithe goods to wherever in the system those are being picked up. They also serve as staging areas for government travels between worlds, a long and boring affair in Cloudburst. A much larger cargo well, nearly four kilometers long, accumulates non-perishable goods in lots, and loads them into bulk freighters bound for Thimble directly, dutifully itemized by the Administratum. Defensively, these platforms are of little value. However, three massive laser platforms also orbit the world farther out, along with another, far larger one. The larger one orbits opposite the Waterscale platform, and sports a cruiser-weight torpedo array and two Defense Lasers. The Navy and SDF would both very much like more defenses, and jockeying for precedence has already begun.