Hua Yuan
Home of the Hua Yuan regiments, a series of /tg/-created IG regiments and the surrounding fluff.
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.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of Hua Yuan is made of all Noble Gases, plus Chlorine and Nitrogen. Pockets of Oxygen can be found at certain altitudes, but they usually are ignited by storms. Kaihonium makes up 57.3% of the atmosphere
Flora and Fauna
Mutated pets/plants from the cargo ship- While the planet has no native fauna of its own, the vermin and hydroponics crop brought by the mining ship have since undergone a number of changes since the crash due to the unique environment and through the ingenuity of the Yuanese. The plants prefer artificial lighting, growing around the streetlights and neon signs of the city, in the absence of soil they can take root in anything that was once biological, be it waste or a creature's corpse, they also tend to be carnivorous, the large sweet smelling flowers attract vermin to the small berries within. Upon biting them, they're paralyzed and slowly suffocate, allowing the plant to take root in their corpse.
The vermin are mostly blind, hairless things, vicious and hardy, resembling rats.. The Yuanese have created pedigree breeds of these things in the imitation of cats, dogs, ferrets and other traditional creatures. While still hairless and vicious, from a distance the resemblance is quite good.
Centipedes
Prevalent on the cargo freighter that crashed here, these pest survived with crew, freed from the confines of the ship these pests infest the hive while providing a cheap food source. In the underhive industrial waste has muted a myriad of breeds of centipede, from those large enough to fight and eat Tyranids to small super rare breeds prized for their hallucinogenic venom.
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. And the Imperium sent a Praetorian Regiment to provide order. 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.
Hive Society
Underhivers are generally considered to be criminals or worse among their peers above, while the underhivers view those above them with anywhere from bitter contempt or childlike awe. Underhivers are very communal, if territorial, with familial units taking priority. These units may consist of literal blood relatives but more often extend to neighboring families and local merchants. This isn't necessarily due to a natural empathy for neighbors, however, as an individual frequently finds it within their best interests to work with the oft dozens of people they directly cohabitate with.
As you travel upwards, however, these familial units begin to transition solely to blood ties. Name and familial standing become much more important among mid-hivers as they find themselves true gainful employment as merchants in the countless upper-hive stalls or working in facilities that require more skilled labor.
The mid-hivers are mostly a transitional culture consisting of those nobles who find themselves unable or unwilling compete for planetary governance, as well as underhivers who have managed to acquire enough resources to begin (somewhat) legitimate business. In this transition, they find themselves much more desperately craving the relative opulence of upper-hive than underhivers. Due to this, competition for jobs and prestige is fierce and inter-familial conflict is common. The upper-hivers regard this burgeoning new class of citizen as either a convenient new type of underhiver to exploit, or as an oncoming threat to their own positions of power. Underhivers often consider the life of a mid-hiver to be either hopelessly inaccessible or as an ideal to one day reach through pillage and guile.
Almost at the very bottom of hive Hua Yuan, is place that connects to almost the entire hive a place where no neon lights shine, that location is, the underground landfill. Here mutants, vermin and other types of outcast reside. But there is a small group that sticks out from among the vile masses and that is "the scrappers". No one but themselves know what they are called. So others have given that name due to their habit of looking through the garbage that is thrown down. They do this in order to find useful parts for various things. But mainly in order to build simple auto weapons that they sell to minor clans and gangs in the underhive. The scrappers often vary in appearance, and behaviour, but they can always be idenetified as to having pale skin and some type of welding goggles fused to their eyes. How they got here or who they are is a mystery.
Hive culture
Natives of Hua Yuan are infamous for their insatiable desire (some would say habit) to gamble. They bet on anything and everything and this broadly manifests itself in lower hive entertainment. They bet on fights (arranged or otherwise), on local board games or even on the lifespans of neighbors. This last practice is often referred to as "bei da dao", roughly "hit the deck" or "hit the dirt" and is especially popular among gangers and those especially poor.
The black market is so utterly prolific and the local government is so loose that it's basically indistinguishable from any regular market on-planet.
On every level, in every hab you'll find an endless supply of merchants, hawkers, dealers and an equal number of nooks and crannies for them to operate from. Most commonly, these merchants will refer to their clientele by the local slang term "qīn", translating roughly to "dear" in Low Gothic. It very rapidly becomes clear to those dealing with natives of Hua Yuan that whenever this term is heard, someone is about to be either solicited or swindled (most commonly both).
Hua Yuan is a veritable storm of wheeling, dealing, smuggling and gambling between the different levels of the hive and even off-world at all hours. One could oftentimes have an easier time buying drugs or gambling on a deathmatch than acquiring food.
Notable Locations
The Forlorn Stork 孤獨之鸛
The Forlorn Stork is bar on the top of the underhive close to the exterminator outposts near in the underhive, Owned by retired Praetorian Guardsman, The Forlorn Stork has become a hub of Exterminators, Bounty Hunters, Razorgirls, Jade monks, and badasses of every stripe loyal to the Imperium or not. All combat is strictly banned in 10 block radius. It's a bar where, out of respect and tradition, you just don't fucking fight. Only newfags and off worlders make that mistake, only once. That being said, exactly ten blocks from the bar are several pits, trenches, and circuits where folks can sort out differences It's a great place find a "man for the job" or simply relax in the only crime free block on Hua Yuan, getting in requires a reputation or a very good friend in very high place.
Space is at Premium and The Forlorn Stork has six rooms. Back room where Shang cooks up the grub. Up stairs is where you can crash, sectioned by paper/cardboard screens which are often adorned with graffiti and tags. The floor is lined with mattresses and hammocks stretch from wall to wall. Lad's Latrine. Ladies Latrine. Basement and cellar. Storing for drinks, grub, weapons, etc The Main Bar. Juke box, bar top, tables, a specially reinforced dart board, electronic mahjong games because the last real-piece mahjong game happened, a guy was found out to have five of the same tile (it sparked the ten block rule), unusually competitive darts with a carefully maintained complicated betting board, and arm wrestling table (Do NOT wrestle Chromes, mutes, or abbies. Heretics, Gangers, and Imperials are fair game. The occasional Xeno that hasn't been dusted already...well normally the bar gets really quiet and we just let 'em be in their way. For ten blocks at least).
Owned and operated by Ole Hester himself, patron saint of alcoholics and the weary traveler. Handlebar mustache, bionic eye, chromed arm, hard gut, worn beret, and bar apron, Ole Hester is the very picture of retired ex-pat, speaks the district-cant in an unmistakably Praetorian accent. All he does is gruffly remind folks of Rule Zero of the Forlorn Stork, a rule that's been in place at the watering hole for over two centuries, and please don't play that new trash on the jukebox keep it Praetorian or at least classic, it's all he's got left of home.
While the Stork is etched in stone most clubs are transient. Be it a locked down Hab block, an emptied out Exterminator or Enforcer FOB, or even a dry sewer drain. Party starts, word spreads, venue fills up. Inevitably the place gets shut down, either because of Xenos, gang/cult/Sect wars, or enough bad shit has finally accumulated the the Enforcers or Arbites come to shut down the party. Then the rockers and the jockeys just find another spot, set up, and invite their friends, or spray paint tags in code letting folks know where to go.
Exports
Legal
Guardsman- While at first only elite units of Exterminators, increased demand due to the approach of the hive fleet has lead the production of typical if low quality line conscripts as well a number of Penal Regiments. Penal Regiments of Hua Yuan are so notorious a minor Schola Progenium has been founded to keep them supplied with specialized commissars.
Gases- Gases of all stripes are mined from the atmosphere of Hua Yuan, most are collected on the orders of the Administratum for purposes too arcane to imagine, but the Neon collected provides local manufactorums with material to make light bulbs giving Hua Yuan its distinctive blend of light and color.
Minerals- Hua Yuan started as a mining colony and a portion of its tithes still reflects that, while mining has become more dangerous as the tunnels get deeper, mining is a major sources of gainful employment on Hua Yuan as gas harvesting is mostly automated.
Illegal
Drugs- Everything from uppers to keep sweatshop workers going, downers to stop the uppers, party drugs (Taste the colours, see the sounds), "spiritual experience" drugs and a whole lot of fakes that are toxic.
Fireworks- Novelty munitions for auto weapons and bouncing poppers, as well as variations on the blinker grenades. It's hard to tell a Yuanese firefight from a Yuanese party.
Paint- Spray paints, glow paints, and Mutated pets/plantsiopaints that slowly spread themselves. The paints also have structural properties with enough layers, much of Yuan is said to be held together by the paint. Counterfeits- Manufacturing isn't strictly done in the manufactorums, there are many sweatshops and craftsman pumping out whatever people are willing to pay for, a number of better craftsman are producing knock-offs of the Imperium's less common luxury items and other pieces of equipment. Even in the regiments it's not uncommon to see a Lassygun or a suit of Keflar.
Music- At the time of the fateful voyage of the Hua Yuan, there was a peculiar music trend within some of the more isolated Imperium worlds. This genre of music has long since died out in the rest of the Imperium, but due to Hua Yuan's period of isolation and tendency for conservation, this music has found a prolonged lifespan within the Hive's walls. Typically consisting of loud, fast synthesized music, it is exported in very limited quantities to the rest of the Imperium, considered esotaric and quant by those wealthy enough to have time to waste on such matters. While not outlawed persey, it is highly frowned upon and not legally exported
Religion
Imperial Creed
The Emperor, of course, is the primary object of worship on Hua Yuan though, due to their long period of cultural isolation, the forms this worship can take is often quite exotic. In the mid and lower sections of the hive, natural light is a non-existent commodity and a concept that inspires awe. Spending their entire lives solely under bright and artificial illumination, the concept of soft or natural light became a religious ideal. For this reason, shrines of the Emperor and his "true light" are frequently built in places without artificial light, either remaining dark and solemn or being lit only by candle light.
Every pious underhiver dreams of someday making a pilgrimage to a rare shrine that finds itself high enough to be exposed to natural light, that they may for a moment glimpse a bit of the Emperor's own divinity for themselves.
Government
The Praetorians keep the peace and represent the Imperium from orbit and a small embassy allowing the planet's Government to do as it will as it meets its tithes. 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.
Law and Order
Like many hive worlds in the Imperium, crime is a constant background presence on Hua Yuan. From the well-appointed hab clusters of the nobility to the festering darkness of hive bottom, countless millions of gangs and gangsters have been identified and punished by planetary law enforcement groups and the Adeptus Arbites, to scarcely any observable effect.
Although Hua Yuan is technically a military dictatorship under the leadership of the Praetorian garrison force, the noble houses of the planet are given a large amount of autonomy. So long as they keep order, ensure the swift payment of the Imperial Tithe and can be seen to operate within the bounds of the Lex Imperialis, they are free to rule their fiefdoms as they wish. To this end, many sponsor their own private armies of Enforcers to impose compliance. Though these enforcers are often superficially modelled on the officers of the Adeptus Arbites, in many places they are simply mercenary gangs given uniforms and a licence to terrorise the indentured worker population.
The Arbitrators themselves are, like many other Imperial institutions on Hua Yuan, massively overstretched. Though the officers of many of the precinct houses are diligent and extremely hard-working, the sheer scale of the task before them can seem overwhelming, even when they limit their remit solely to investigating capital crimes against the Imperium. Judge Commanders must forge strong links with other Imperial institutions out of sheer necessity, and it is not uncommon for precincts to be sited near Cathedrals, Abbeys, Imperial Guard bases and even Mechanicus forges.
Firearms and las weaponry are strictly proscribed, the Enforcers confiscate them when possible. The middle hive has less guns, being more manageable, but most citizens with any cash will have atleast an autogun, albeit a crude revolver, a one shot wonder or a "Boomstick". The poorer citizens just carry knives, they see little distinction between the enforcers and the gangers, they carry weapons to discourage both.
Among the most commonly reported crimes on Hua Yuan are smuggling, trafficking in stolen goods, defacement of Imperial property and the production and distribution of illegal drugs. The black market is so utterly entrenched that it is said that one could have an easier time buying contraband than acquiring food. On every level, in every hab, an endless supply of merchants, hawkers and dealers can be found operating out of whatever space they can find. These merchants will commonly refer to their clientele by the local slang term "qīn", translating roughly to "dear" in Low Gothic. It very rapidly becomes clear to those dealing with natives of Hua Yuan that whenever this term is heard, someone is about to be either solicited or swindled (most commonly both).
Violence too is extremely common, as the oppressive demands of the ruling elite and the stress of living in constant, overcrowded squalor inevitably leads to conflict. Narcotics, pit fights, enlistment in the Imperial Guard and the forms of meditation taught by many native religious sects provide some outlets for aggression, but eruptions of ferocious fighting are still all too frequent. Efforts to contain mass violence often lead to combatants being given a simple choice: summary execution, or enlistment in one of the many penal brigades.
Unlike some worlds in the Imperium like Necromunda, where criminal gangs have distinct, easily observable tribal cultures common to vast swathes of the underworld population, Hua Yuan’s lawless element defy categorisation beyond mere generalities. Some groups form around specific locations or communities, such as a particular hab block or industrial concern. Although they are typically observed to focus on administering protection rackets and “defending” their domains from outsiders, many also develop a profitable side-line in drug manufacture and distribution.
Some gangs seem associated with large crime syndicates, particularly those which profit from grey and black market businesses. Others are driven to criminal acts by their ideologies or by their devotion to charismatic leaders. Typically these gangs are associated with the foulest of heresies, but a growing number have been identified with Puritan Monodominant and Redemptionist beliefs (whether this represents the spread of offworld beliefs or a home-grown reformation is unclear at this time). Common to both the syndicates and the cults is a desire to spread their influence as far as possible while remaining hidden.
A mixture of the different types of gangs can be found among the highest echelons of society. Some nobles employ well-equipped thugs to wage vendetta against their rivals. Others use their influence to profit from the sale illegal goods or sponsor offworld smuggling rings. Among the most dangerous are simply bored youths with too much money and too little responsibility. A particularly gruesome series of murders has even led some Arbitrators to believe that the infamous Spyrer Hunting Rigs have begun to appear on Hua Yuan, though this has yet to be proven beyond all doubt.
Outcasts like mutants, unsightly abhumans, unsanctioned psykers and other undesirables almost inevitably filter down to hive bottom, away from prying eyes and Imperial judgement. Some, perhaps most, lead solitary lives of quiet isolation. Others, however, band together for mutual protection, companionship or perhaps out of a shared need for vengeance against those who shunned them. The latter are certainly among the most dangerous.
Gang Creation Table
| Gang Society (1d100) Background | |
|---|---|
| 1-25 | Communal: Naturally occuring gangs that come from a sense of community, desire for prosperity, or simply as a way of life. |
| 26-45 | Criminal: The scum of the hive band together for various nefarious reasons. |
| 46-60 | Noble: Highborn of the upperhive using their connections to become a force in the criminal world. |
| 61-80 | Religious: The unique faiths of Hua Yuan lend itself to some more militant and legally dubious sects. |
| 81-90 | Outcast: Life for the unwanted and scorned is unbelievably hard in the Hive. They must band together to survive and possibly thrive. |
| 91-100 | Enforcer: Working under the guise of legal private security companies, these are no more than gangers with fancy equipment and very loose contracts. |
| Gang Size (1d100) | |
|---|---|
| 1-10 | Miniscule: (1d10) |
| 11-25 | Tiny: (10d10) |
| 26-40 | Small: (10d10x10) |
| 41-60 | Medium: (10d10X100) |
| 61-75 | Large: (10d10x1000) |
| 76-90 | Huge: (10d10x10,000) |
| 91-100 | Massive: (10d10x100,000) |
| Territory (1d130) | |
|---|---|
| 1-40 | 1 Hab Block |
| 41-55 | 1d6 Hab Blocks |
| 56-70 | 1d10 Hab Blocks |
| 71-95 | 2d10 Hab Blocks |
| 96-110 | 4d10 Hab Block |
| 111-125 | 10d10 Hab Block |
| 126-130 | An Entire Floor |
| Illegality (1D100) | |
|---|---|
| 1-20 | Law Abiding |
| 21-40 | Neutral |
| 41-60 | Local Pest |
| 61-80 | Has Enforcers attention. |
| 81-100 | Has Arbites attention. |
| Secrecy (1D100) | |
|---|---|
| 1-20 | Loud/Public Figure |
| 21-40 | Obvious |
| 41-60 | Quiet |
| 61-80 | Secretive |
| 81-100 | Mysterious/Unkown |
| Dedication (1D100) | |
|---|---|
| 1-15 | Transient Membership |
| 16-30 | Loose Association |
| 31-50 | Part Time Job |
| 51-70 | Full Time Commitment |
| 71-85 | The Gang is their Life |
| 86-100 | Ganger to the Grave |
| Gang Leadership Type (1D100) | |
|---|---|
| 1-15 | Central Figure |
| 16-30 | Chain of Command |
| 31-45 | Diumvirate/Triumvirate/Concil |
| 46-60 | Gang Code |
| 61-85 | Cell Structure |
| 86-100 | Anarchic |