Editing Nobledark Imperium Notable Planets

There are many worlds across the galaxy, but not all of them reach the same level of fame.

== Necromunda ==

Necromunda is not a jewel in the crown of the Imperium and suffers huge pandemics due to the planetary government being unable to set up an effective garbage disposal system. Mines all over the planet are getting dangerously low but the scrap metal wouldn't cover the entire planet just most of it. Local efforts by the hive-cities have been made to try to clean up the toxic sludge in the water and poisonous gas in the atmosphere. 

The planet is infamous across the sector for the Hive gangs. The Underhives of the planet are some of the worst places to live in the Imperium. Although not as lethal compared to a Death world, the standard of living is so degraded most would question the point of life after growing up in them. The most common life of Necromundans is to die in the mines, slave away in manufactorums, collect metal junk, or become criminals. Those that wish to break away from mundane life or get rich quick become criminals. Shadow Traders sell illegal goods like hallucinogens, las-weapons, and Xenos lifeforms. The Hive gangs threaten the Shadow Traders for protection money as these gangs can outnumber and outgun whatever bodyguards the trader can hire. The gangs work to make the traders under them be the most profitable so they can squeeze more money out of their traders. This also means a gang will attack other gangs' territory to vesselize more traders or prevent rivals from gaining power

When one of many on-going gang wars starts the scale of killing is comparable to a poor Imperial world with a small rebellion. In all likely hood, hundreds of thousands of people will die including civilians as the hive gangs fight like small scale wars. Autoguns, autocannons, and las-weapons are used to perform raids, assassinations or urban assaults
But the world is not quite as horrible as it could be in large part thanks to the efforts of the Adeptus Biologicus. In an attempt to lower the amount of food that needed importing some long forgotten governor commissioned a brotherhood to scour the Imperium for shit that would grow in the toxic ash and sludge that they had for soil.

Many such plants were found and other single celled extremophiles of all manner of categorization were discovered on far off worlds. Some of them even with genetic markers that showed that they might have had ancestor stock on old Earth and come to the stars in the Golden Age in the early colonies of man.

The planet’s surface became covered in life. A thriving bustling chimera of an ecosystem constructed from species of a double dozen worlds, usually the sort of life generally found near volcanoes or on the "cold Venus" type of worlds. Sadly they couldn't find anything people could eat which was kind of the point that they were hired for.

It was nearly 200 years of tampering and splicing and selectively breeding before the first fruits of their labours were tasted. And it was another three seconds before those fruits were spat back out. Although they had created a Terran/Xeno splice apple that could survive and even thrive in the temperate latitudes in the smog and the toxic muck it was not something that anyone with any choice would willingly eat.

The governor, grandson of the one who commissioned the endeavour, did not care. They could be boiled down into a nutritious slurry with almost all the taste removed. The Adepts were kept on to continue their works.

After a few thousand years there are great swathes of farmed land where none should be with harvests of things that by nature should not exist. They still haven't created anything that tastes lake actual food.

== Molech ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">''''' The Unnatural Jungle '''''

Molech was just originally just a planet really rich in biodiversity that the precursor orders of the AdBio had sizable detachments studying because holy shit so many new things. Also the locals were friendly and had been waiting for Earth to come and bring them back to the stars. The planet was “discovered” and brought back into the fold by Horus who already knew where it was because the Void Born who traveled that patch of space let him have a copy of their maps.

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All was well until The Beast and Molech gets brought to ruin. The glorious biodiversity was mostly lost and the friendly locals almost exterminated bar about 1,000 maybe 1,500

Not long after the WotB the AdMech goes through reforms. During that time the Dark Mechanicus came out of the woodwork and there was at least a little fighting on every forgeworld, even Mars nearly fell. And whats worse the Dragon nearly got out of it's box. Reforms were put in place to make another mass rebellion in the future far more unlikely to succeed.

It is decided, by mutual consent, that the splice-hippies, genesmiths, bloodcutters and the gene-wrights (among others) will be folded into the Reformed Mechanicum. They are all integrated into cohesive and more importantly accountable orders. In return the biological tinkerers get decent funding, better equipment and lab space.

Once they are folded into the Mechanicus is when the problems start to arise. On theological and cultural levels there is a much bigger gap between the Adeptus Biologicus brotherhoods and the AdMech brotherhoods than there are between the different AdMech Brotherhoods. And that's saying something considering how bad tempered and fractious AdMech factions can be.

It is quickly decided that it's time for the AdBio to get a HQ of their own. Preferably not in Sol.

Molech was just a few short light years from Old Earth, close enough that the AdBio could rapidly get to the Imperial Palace if the Steward needed them but far enough away that they weren't in Sol.

AdBio return to Molech and begin the work of rebuilding it as their home.

By 999M41 Molech has the largest number of "indigenous" Earth/Xeno, Xeno/Totally unrelated Xeno and generally fucked up batshit genetic chimera hybrid organisms found anywhere in the galaxy. It is the AdBio showcase. It's main exports are drugs (medicinal and recreational), vaccines, bio-weapons, tailored organisms and strange genetically and surgically modified adepts of various biological disciplines.

The AdBio do worship the Omnissiah, in their way. Although with them he is less likely to be depicted as something mechanical and more as the Tree of Knowledge with a small god-fruit on every branch and humanity sheltered under the branches.

They are as active and busy as their Mars siblings, despite the Mars adepts calling them a bunch of hippies that need to get a real job and stop being dirty heretics.

At some unrecorded point in history they adopted green robes to differentiate themselves from the Martian Priesthoods.

Molech after the WotB is a miracle of bio-engineering. The ecosystem of the planet is completely artificial, though you wouldn't know it at first glance. Many of the old beasties that inhabited Molech were restored through cloning and/or careful breeding programs (a point of pride for the AdBio), though the native wildlife is restricted to a much smaller area to make room for the AdMech's new pets.

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== Ganymede ==

According to the Adeptus Administratum, this moon of Jupiter is quarantined due to a warp contamination accident that occurred early in the Great Crusade. This is, in fact, a lie. In reality, Ganymede is a big containment and storage facility for all the weird stuff the Inquisition recovers and cannot destroy for various reasons or items that would otherwise destabilize the Imperium. Technically it's overseen by the Administratum, but in practice it's joint run with the Inquisition because someone has to give the drones training.

Among the weird stuff housed in Ganymede is

 - The only surviving copy of Lorgar's "Black Manuscript" (probably, if it's just not plain lost)
 - Blade of the Laer (Lucius' long-term goal is taking the sword)
 - The only Daemon Prince of Malal.

== Prospero ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">''''' The Lost Crown Jewel of the Imperium '''''

Prospero was first settled by mankind in M23, shortly before the Age of Strife. Its original colonists were primarily composed of psyker refugees, fleeing from the persecution and witch-hunts of psykers that had gripped the rest of the galaxy. Prospero was chosen because of its isolated location. Although it was relatively close to Old Earth in terms of realspace, Prospero was an arid planet with little water or arable land that was relatively off the beaten path in terms of warp currents, making it ideal for people that did not wish to be noticed. The psykers of Prospero pooled together what little knowledge they had and were soon progressing in psychic technology by leaps and bounds, inventing such things as psychic-assisted medicine and crystals that dampened psychic powers allowing psyker children to learn how to control their abilities without the threat of daemonic possession. For a scant few centuries, Prospero was a paradise for psykers.

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Unfortunately, along with the Age of Strife came Warp Storms and psychic predators. Prospero became host to one particularly nasty form of psychic predator called the Psychneuein, who were attracted to the planet by its large population of psykers. The Psychneuein were an insectoid species which reproduced by laying their eggs inside a psyker’s brain, which would later burst out of the psyker’s head to produce more Psychneuein. On a planet full of psykers, one Psychneuein could rapidly turn into a plague, and many times the inhabitants of Prospero were nearly wiped out. Only the fortress-city of Tizca, situated on a central plateau between the three highest mountains on the planet, was naturally well-defended enough to reliably fend off attacks from the Psychneuein. Over time, the depredations of the Psychneuein would wax and wane and the people of Prospero would try to recolonize the wastes once more, but were always beaten back to the walls of Tizca by the Psychneuein.

To the inhabitants of Prospero, the appearance of the nascent Imperium in their skies in 935.M30 must have seemed like a godsend. At this point in time the inhabitants of Prospero had once more been forced back to the safety of the walls of Tizca by the Psychneuein, and this time its inhabitants were not sure the walls would hold. Although the Imperium was unable to completely destroy the Psychneuein, as seen by their presence on planets like Mara later in Imperial history, they were able to eradicate the threat of the Psychneuein to the people of Prospero.

The discovery of Prospero was a boon for the Imperium as well. Here was a society possessing all sorts of psychic technology and knowledge the Imperium desperately needed, either saved from what little was known of psykers during the Dark Age of Technology or created de novo on Prospero itself. What's more, this knowledge was specifically tailored to human psykers, as opposed to the advice the Imperium had previously only recieved from the Eldar who had to figure out what aspects of Eldar psychic abilities did or did not apply to human psykers. Prospero was of special interest to the Thousand Sons, who as a legion of psykers were interested in any way to better hone and control their gifts. In particular Ahzek Ahriman, although Terran-born on Achaemenidia, rapidly rose to prominence in Prosperan society as a teacher and eventually came to consider the planet a second home.

With the help of the Imperium, Prospero was rebuilt as never before. With the destruction of the Psychneuein, cities once again spread across the planet’s surface, reflective plated obelisks and hive-pyramids gleaming in the sunlight. Tizca itself particularly prospered, with the greater reaches of the city expanding off the plateau of the city center all the way to the sea. The sheer size of the city and extent of gleaming hive-pyramids on Tizca eventually led to the city being referred to as the City of Life. Psychic research also continued on Prospero, its inhabitants always interested in ways to refine their powers, only this time with the resources of the Imperium at its back. The Great Library of Lexandra was said to be the greatest repository of psychic knowledge in the entire Materium, second only to the Eldar Black Library hidden in the Webway. At its peak, Prospero was the prime center for the psychic arts and biggest exporter of psykers in the galaxy, eclipsing even Old Earth. The planet had gone from pariah to one of the crown jewels of the Imperium.

Unfortunately, this wealth of psychic knowledge made Prospero an ideal target for the Fourth Black Crusade (late M33). If the Black Crusade could reach Prospero, it would cripple the Imperium's ability to train new psykers, possibly even interfering with the maintenance of the Astronomican itself. The people of Prospero and the Imperium fought valiantly, but the forces of Chaos steadily gained ground, until eventually the two factions were fighting in orbit around Prospero itself, nuclear weapons bombarding the planet’s surface.

It was at this point, in an act of desperation, that a small cabal of sorcerers led by Ahzek Ahriman cast what would later be known as the Rubric of Ahriman. Ahriman’s intention was to seal the populace of Prospero away in a pocket dimension, keeping them safe until such time as the Black Crusade could be beaten back. Although the forces of Chaos might be able to claim the soil of Prospero, they would be unable to harm its people. However, something went horribly wrong. Instead of neatly transporting Prospero and its inhabitants into a pocket dimension, the planet’s inhabitants were violently torn between dimensions, disappearing in a torrent of ash and smoke.

Worse yet, the counterspell to the ritual did not seem to work. Although Ahriman and his cabal had created the ritual, they only had a limited idea of how it actually worked, having created it in haste from incomplete, limited sorcerous knowledge in the Great Library due to the impending threat of the Black Crusade. Like much of the rest of the Imperium, Prosperans looked down on sorcery as extremely dangerous (doubly so since the planet was full of psykers), and it was only desperation that led Ahriman to resort to using it in the first place. Ahriman was devastated by the loss of his adopted home, and vowed to undo the effects of the Rubric, even if it cost him his own life. Those few who survived the burning of Prospero, mostly aboard refugee ships, primarily emigrated to Old Earth. Old Earth was the biggest cultivator of the psychic arts in the Imperium now that Prospero was gone, and the remaining Prosperans wanted to be amongst their own kind.

Today, Prospero is a quiet world, the only movement on its surface being the fall of crumbling masonry, its only sound being that of the wind blowing through the canyons. However, Prospero might not be as dead as people think. Some visitors to Prospero claim they can sometimes still see the city of Tizca, the glory of the City of Light glowing on the horizon like a mirage. Many in the Imperium say that the blasted surface of Prospero is cursed, that the ghosts of the dead still haunt the half-destroyed ruins. However, others point out that these rumors are almost always started by looters and grave robbers, and that many have visited Prospero to pay their respects and have returned unmolested.

The people of Prospero may be gone, but their ghosts might not rest easy.

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Additional Note: Legion of the Damned in this timeline are supposed to be quantum space ghosts of the Space Marines and Imperial Guardsmen on Prospero during the Rubric, who have become trapped between the Materium and Immaterium.

== Vostroya ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">''''' Blood on the Ice '''''

In days of the War of the Beast they refused to honour their oaths to the Empty Throne of Earth and instead focused on the defense of their own world under the delusion that they would have had any chance of ever holding out on their lonesome if The Beast ever turned his attention upon them.

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Afterwards when they saw what horrors Primarch Curze was inflicting when given the order to fetch back the worlds whose loyalty was found wanting they couldn't surrender fast enough.

Being an industrial world that the Imperium needed to help with it's recovery the task of bringing the errant world back into the fold was given to Zso Sahaal.

This was during the days when Curze was planning his own trial and execution and was grooming his successor. More importantly he was grooming him to be an acceptable monster rather than just a useful one like he had been.

Curze spent the entire negotiations drugged into almost unconsciousness at First Captain Sahaal's orders and placed in a welded shut crate as a safety precaution.

Eventually a deal was reached between Vostroya and the Imperium, through it's Night Lords intermediaries. Those nobles responsible for the decision of not coming to the Imperium's aid would be executed cleanly and quickly, Vostroya would be put under Administratum rule for the next 30 years whilst a new batch of aristocrats came to the surface, one of the new fangled Adeptus Arbiters stations would be built in the capital and so long as the Imperium lasts the tithe would be the industrial produce of the world plus the first born son of any family with more than one son.

This was a steep price but gratefully accepted even by those who were going to be executed when First Captain Sahaal offered to stop drugging the Primarch and turn negotiations over to him.

Zso Sahaal's name is spoken with both hate and love on Vostroya.

Rumour has it that Underhive gangs have proven fruitful recruitment grounds for the Night Lords and splinter groups in the millenniums since, but with all things concerning those sanctioned monsters nothing is easy to pin down with certainty.

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== Krieg ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">'''''The Broken World ''''' - or ''The Wretched:''

Krieg, of the Segmentum Tempestum, Uhulis Sector, at the start of 433.M40 was an entirely different world than what we know in the modern day. Back then, it was a hiveworld with a middling population of 97 billion souls, and a restless aristocracy. A manufacture and trade hub with a surprising knack for technology outside of the Adeptus Mechanicus, interstellar market trends and the subtle shifts of the warp's currents had, over the millenia reduced its prestige and market value- and the attack of Hive Fleet Leviathan led the Administratum to introduce a price ceiling on the products of Krieg to help the war effort. The ruling councils of Autokrats, already impoverished by misfortune (And, truth be told, some serious missteps of their own) were outraged. For them, bound as they were to Krieg itself, the threat of alien invasion was distant, and they saw themselves made slaves to the whole of the sector for the sake of lazy foreigners that couldn't even pay a fair price for their orbital defenses. For that was the specialty of Krieg, big guns. Guns that could be mounted on the planet, and give orbital invaders a beating, and hopefully ward them off. This also made the planet Krieg extraordinarily dangerous to attack. Any attack from above would be costly indeed. 

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So, when a grand conclave of Autokrats were called, the attendees freely ruminated and conspired against the Imperium, secure in the shadows of their defenses. The Autokrats agreed that a formal complaint should be lodged to the Imperium. And that if they weren't met properly, that the councils would meet again, and elect a High Autokrat, an office only called for in times of crisis, when the whole of the planet had to act together. On paper at least, the Autokrats were united in their cause; respect, or war.

However, the Autokrats were a minority in the grand scheme of things. For the vast majority of the planet that labored, lived, and died in the hives, "For Throne and Man," was their byword, and even as the Autokrats fumed in their spires, the factory workers set their shoulders, shook their heads, and redoubled their labors. It was possible that this upset would have remained just that- a grumbling, that would be addressed when the Administratum representatives arrived to hear complaints. An agreement might have been reached, or a display of force on the truculent Autokrats, and Krieg would have returned to normalcy, minus a few belligerent aristocrats.

However, the representatives of the Administratum never arrived, and Krieg suffered a further two separate blows. 

The fate of the Administratum mission has yet to be revealed. The only clue recovered was a letter from Administrative Senioris Sandos to his wife, noting with pleasure that he might return in time for Sanguinalia celebrations, that he'd secured passage through the webway "With a trustworthy sort." All Eldar guides within the sector capable of granting access to the webway deny ever offering that to a human, much less a lowly bureaucrat. There is a sizable reward still on offer for the missing Administrative, and the Administratum further cautions all citizens that the webway is restricted to a select few- anyone offering them a 'shortcut' should be considered a criminal, and treated as such.

As the year passed on, and the Administratum's delegation failed to appear, the Autokrats convinced themselves that this was a calculated slight from the Administratum. For the Autokrats of Krieg, it was obvious that the Imperium had no care for them, and didn't even care to tell them to their face. Krieg is a relatively ancient world, and has had a fiercely xenophobic streak in their culture- and for those Kriegers that believed in the Imperium, and the vision of the Throne, the silence shook them.

The issue was further deepened due to the astropathic messaging system- due to Krieg's growing insignificance, they had few astropaths, and those few were held privately by Autokrats. They may well have kept the news of the disappeared delegation quiet. Or assumed that, like any other words from beyond Krieg, any assurances that the delegation had been lost could only be treated as lies.

Then there was the Segmentum Tempestum Famine. The Ulthran Cartel had elected to invest in agri-futures- and with that investment came a stampede of Rogue Traders, Demiurge Trade Clans, and savvy planetary governors following the trend. Most notably was the influence of at least one Necron lord. Though indirectly involved in the market, for reasons unknown, a spate of necron attacks were aimed solely at agriworlds in the segmentum for a period of seven years, further aggravating food supplies. The market dried up, and shiftless and dishonest grain haulers meant for hive and forge worlds dependent on their products skimmed from the top to sell to this feeding frenzy. In the chaos of the Hive Fleet Leviathan's invasion, and the subsequent shadow cast by the hive mind blocking out psker communications, the administratum failed to notice until it was too late for the Uhulis Sector. Worlds starved. 

Krieg was not among them. They wouldn't have the chance.

The precise Autokrats immediately detected they were being short changed on loads from their grain haulers. Outraged, they turned their guns on the hauler, and demanded the full load. The grain hauler in question (Records indicate a shiftless layabout "Regnal Ersten" with a forged Writ of Trade as the unfortunate) made excuses. The Kriegers fired a volley upon the orbiting vessel to make clear their dissatisfaction. The Rogue Trader, apparently, then babbled out a series of excuses, culminating in the claim that the Segmentum Command had seized most of the food intended for Krieg.

The Autokrats were satisfied with their suspicions confirmed. After finishing off the grain hauler with another volley (Surprisingly, Regnal survived this, and would meet his own gruesome fate far later- but that's another story) the Autokrats met once more, and elected a High Autokrat among their number- as far as they were concerned, they were in a state of war.

We have no record of the identity of the High Autokrat. Their position, history, statements, gender, and fate are unknown. The Death Korps of Krieg were thorough in erasing this hated figure from memory. All we know was that there was a High Autokrat, and that this figure would openly declare secession from the Imperium of Man.

At this time, seven Astra Militarum regiments of Kriegers had been raised, and were posted on the world. They had been staying garrisoned in case of tyranid attack, and awaiting orders that would have presumably accompanied the Administratum delegation. 

As part of their duties, they were to gather supplies. This included food for campaign, begrudgingly supplied by the planet.

The hivers of Krieg had never been strangers to hunger. It is the same on all hives- due to corruption, inadequate transport capacity, or the simple structure of billions contained in such a small space, malnutrition is rampant. There are always too many mouths, and never enough meals. 

The hivers of Krieg had known the shock of having the Imperium fail them, and now faced famine. The Death Korps of Krieg stated simply that the population rose in rebellion against the Imperium, and by extension those Imperial Regiments as well, but I feel that this misses a step. To editorialize, I imagine that the High Autokrat (Being a cunning sort) let this stew a few days. Let the rations dwindle, let the people wonder what's going on- perhaps even attempted to rather publicly deny the Imperial Regiments their supplies, and suffered equally public rebuke.

The people would hunger, see what happened, and wonder. Wonder why their children cried from hunger, as the soldiers marched and drilled and menaced with bayonet, taking scraps meant for them. The High Autokrat would let that stew, then speak. 

I know not the High Autokrat's charisma, but I can't imagine the starving need much convincing to seize food. 

Or perhaps it's just as the Death Korps describe it. The population en masse blindly rejected Imperial Law in madness, and set upon the regiments like savage dogs.

There were seven Imperial Regiments arranged at that time, and seven hive cities. There's a fascinating account of the fall of six of these hive cities embedded in the training manuals of the Kriegers. Each city lost held a lesson to them, and each pre-Death Korps regiment that fought and fell had a deadly sin associated with them as reason to how they fell. From each fall, they took a lesson, until one hive remained, Hive Ferrograd, under the command of one Colonel Jurten. If the Kriegers can recognize a hero, they might think of Jurten as one.

Ferrograd was the center for manufacture of ammunition- which kept the final of the loyalist Kriegers well surprised. There was an offer of surrender, but the war was bitterly fought already. The only thing you would earn in surrender was a quick death. Colonel Jurten knew that the Imperium was still months out. His forces would starve before the Imperium could arrive. Following that, the Imperium invasion would be costly, if it succeeded- if, and at this, Colonel Jurten feared the most, if the Imperium would even bother coming.

By this time, what was once a strangely anthropomorphized civic philosophy had become almost a religious mania. He believed in the Throne, even as the rebels around him ranted and raved about making a new Throne, a proper one on Krieg. Jurten knew that was heresy. And he knew the origin of it. The hubris of thinking the Throne would care. The present armageddon and sorrows sown by all of this was a consequence of that central arrogance- that the Kriegers would get something for loving the Throne. The Throne was to be served. The Throne was not there to serve them.

And if Krieg would not serve the Throne, Krieg did not deserve to be. 

Krieg is a world that has its fair share of technological wonders and secrets. Among the ammunition that Hive Ferrograd produced for the orbital guns were atomics. A terrible amount of them. On the day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, Colonel Jurgen gave the people of Krieg a feast that would never be forgotten. For sixteen hours straight, his collection of guns roared, blanketing the whole of Krieg in nuclear fire. Estimates lodge the amount of nuclear weapons launched in the thousands. An event in the future known as "The Purging." A kill count was kept. As point of pride, the warriors of Krieg estimated that brave Colonel Jurten with sixteen hours, reduced the population from 97 billion down to little more than 780 mlilion.

The world had never been a garden world, but I found a portrait of old Krieg once. Sold for a pretty penny. Though dated to the right era, I am not unconvinced it's a forgery, but perhaps that is due to my own horror at the sight of it. It was a poorly painted water color, perhaps by a student, showing the feet of a titanic steel hive towering into the clouds, standing atop harsh and jagged moss stained stone, wind and rain lashing the cliff side, and in the grey and dim light that peeked through the clouds, an animal soaring through the air. At least, I think it is. Might be a smudge on the canvas.

Krieg has no towering hives now, just ruins and subterranean warrens. The once proud stones have been reduced to rubble and sand. There is no water on Krieg, save for what's found in canteens and barrack reserves. The clouds are far lower to the ground now, laden with poison and chemical. The only life upon Krieg now are Kriegers. Kriegers, and the horses they grow in vats beneath the surface to ride into battle.

Though the Purging was the single greatest use of nuclear weapons in a short span of time upon the surface of Krieg, nuclear weapons would continue to be used. Both sides entrenched, and fought to the bitter, genocidal end in a war that would continue on for a further 500 years. The rebel survivors had gained a psychopathic hatred for the madmen that had reduced their world to ashes, and the loyalists grimly fought in the name of the Throne, knowing that no quarter would be given. They both practiced total war. They innovated, adapted, took on the gas mask, supplemented their meager diets with corpse starch (It's exactly as it sounds), introduced large scale usage of the mysterious "Vitae Womb" technology, and reduced all their beliefs to a fanatic, fatalistic, all encompassing devotion to the Imperium. The only thing for a Krieger is the fight. The duty. The war. Nothing else. For five hundred years, all other Krieger culture was erased. Art, music, literature, all the trappings of a civilian life was crushed by the demand for total war. 

As Colonel Jurten had feared, the Imperium had more important matters to deal with than just another hive world descending into madness and blood shed. Two expeditions were undertaken to Krieg during this time. The first, a curious rogue trader, was fired upon by automated orbital guns and they beat a hasty retreat. The second, a mechanicus survey fleet, came within range, and did not report being fired upon, but instead reported what seemed to be a complete, genocidal civil war being fought by a population of perhaps a few million, upon a worthless death world. They moved on.

In 949.M40, Krieg sent a missive to the Imperium at large stating that the rebellion had quashed, and the Death Korps of Krieg were waiting for orders.

Krieg has no governor. Krieg has a Grand Marshal, in charge of recruitment and training of Kriegers. All Kriegers are considered qualifying soldiers. Logic would lead one to expect there has to be some administrative center upon Krieg aside from this Grand Marshal, but the Death Korps of Krieg seem content to hand off most logistics responsibilities to the Departmento Munitorium.

Departmento Munitorium officers assigned to coordinate and keep Kriegers in armor and weapons upon Krieg have a very high turnover rate. Few deaths, but from my understanding, psychological burn out is the primary cause. 

Kriegers are immune to boredom. There are no diversions. There is only labor, training, war, and waiting. Any diversion from these four activities is looked upon with contempt, if not hostility. Kriegers are also remarkably xenophobic. And I mean that in the broadest term possible- fellow guardsmen often find Kriegers uncommunicative, and at times laden with barely disguised disgust. It seems any with a survival instinct are considered lesser men. 

For aliens, it is worse. Philosophically, the Kriegers came from a point with extreme deprivation. To them, every breath an alien draws is theft. Every acre of space they occupy is one less acre for proper humans to utilize. Every mouthful of food, another mouthful denied to those that better deserve it. In their eyes, the proper place of an alien is at the end of a bayonet. The fact that the Imperium tolerates these is a matter barely tolerated.

Yet, for all their lack of social graces, the Departmento Munitorium has embraced the Kriegers. They win wars. Any order given is fulfilled without hesitation, doubt, or regret, even in the face of death. And there are a great deal of them.

The Departmento Munitorium has long had a debate between two, rough, major schools of military study- the Reformers and the Macharians. It is no secret that, as the years have gone on, more and more regiments are drilled and equipped in the Cadian style. In the eyes of the Reformer generals, the advantages are obvious- Cadian soldiers are considered the standard by which all others of the Imperium are measured, and standardization and centralization of equipment would only help with logistics in the Astra Militarum. Something as simple as ordering a replacement lasrifle powerpack can lead to tragedy due to different manufacturing standards and usage across the endless worlds. Let there be one set of kit, training, and organization instead of the confusing hodge podge that blunders on through luck and sheer bloody mindedness. 

The Macharians take their name from Lord Solar Macharius, who famously forged an army from a mass of diverse elements and worlds, making a flexible legion ready for every element. In their minds, trying to force guardsmen to march and act the same is an act of folly, that denies useful specialization and experience. Any attempted reform would take hundreds of years, untold fortunes, and would cause the war machine to grind to a halt even as they are besieged on all sides. Catachans are expert jungle fighters, Valhallans ice worlders, Chem Dogs tunnel fighters, and so on and so forth. Why break what isn't broken?

But now, there is a third regiment that is gaining acclaim, one that even the Reformers balk at modeling after. The Death Korps of Krieg.

Those that favor the Kriegers, see a model of the future. A guardsman that doesn't hesitate. Doesn't doubt. Doesn't question. Fears nothing, and fulfills every order to the letter. And better yet, there is no end to them. Generals at the strategic level find the Death Korps of Krieg refreshing. Far too often, regiments have generals that don't understand their place, and seek to ask questions or meddle in affairs above them. Refusing orders, 'misinterpreting' commands, engaging in cowardly routs: such are the sins of the common general. Oh yes, on occasion there's one that rises above, heroes that make for stirring propaganda- but let's be honest. Heroes are not what victory is made of. Victory is made of attrition, of materiel, of being willing to fight longer than the other guy. Victory is the stuff Kriegers are made of. They don't need commissars. Their loyalty is beyond question. And they seemingly spring out of the dirt with their wondrous Vitae Wombs. They're practically a new breed of human, and should be welcomed.

Though the other factions are uneasy at this new model of guardsman, those in the Departmento Munitorium see the future in the Death Korps. Limitless guardsmen that will not break, grinding down all that oppose the Imperium. The anvil, to the maneuverable hammer of the Astartes. One day, these generals dream, all the guard will be like the Death Korps. Fearless. Unquestioning. Replaceable.

The Death Korps of Krieg for their part do not care. They can be found on every front, on every battlefield, wherever a soldier is called to die, a Krieger will march there to take his place. They do not question. They serve.

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== Valhalla ==

== Solemnace ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">''''' Trazyn the Infinite's Personal Playground '''''

Along the borders of the Necron Empire and the Imperium is the rather backwater Tomb World of Solemnace. Solemnace is a rather dreary if temperate world with abundant cloud cover and precipitation and high rates of tectonic uplift causing the land surface to be covered in a number of steep cliffs and craggy peaks. Solemnace is rather odd for a tomb world, if for nothing else than its large population of living subjects, with the Necrons making up a sizeable minority (40%) of the population as a military and aristocratic class. Part of this is due to the fact that Solemnace is one of the oldest awoken Tomb Worlds known to the Imperium. The Imperium first discovered Solemnace early in the Great Crusade, before the Eldar had truly become part of the Imperium. At first, it was thought that Solemnace represented the homeworld of yet another xenos race that were not fond of humanity, yet not a true threat to the Imperium. As such, the planet was noted and the Imperium as a whole moved on. By the time the Eldar had realized what Solemnace was and had brought their warning to the wider attention of the Imperium, it was too late. The Necrons of Solemnace had regained their senses, and Phaeron Trazyn the Infinite resumed the throne once more. However, the Necrons of Solemnace seemed content to remain isolationists on their own little world, and even in their diminished state the technology of the Necrons would have made the costs of conquering Solemnace too great to justify for a single planet. The Imperium breathed a sigh of relief, believing the Necrons of Solemnace to be the last remnants of an otherwise long-extinct race. The existence of Solemnace in the first place, as well as the devastating attack of the World Engine from the other side of the Eastern Fringe in M34, should have been enough to suggest otherwise.

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Over the years, generations of refugees have fled to Solemnace, either from planets destroyed by war or by people dissatisfied with the policies of the Imperium, and those people and their descendants have formed a generalized underclass beneath the necrocracy. Trazyn keeps his subjects cared for, but helpless, such that none may challenge the authority of the ruler of Solemnace. Notably absent among the underclass are Eldar, who would never allow themselves to live under Necron rule and instead tend to flee to craftworlds if they become refugees. Life on Solemnace isn’t that bad, except occasionally one of the “pets” from Trazyn’s menagerie gets out and ends up rampaging around killing the peasants until the Necron military step in and put it down.

Although the policies of Solemnace are highly isolationist, its ruler is decidedly not. Indeed, Phaeron Trazyn the Infinite can almost be described as a xenophile of sorts. Trazyn the Infinite is a collector of all things strange in the universe, from a variety of races. Indeed, Solemnace is less a kingdom and more Trazyn’s private collection gallery and playground, with the presence of an actual government being a byproduct. When he is not ruling directly, Trazyn travels the galaxy from the shadows, looking for exotic novelties to add to his collection. “Acquiring” these novelties often requires discrete acts which many Imperial worlds would describe as “illegal” or “immoral”, but never audacious or impudent enough that the Imperium could justify declaring war against Solemnace. Indeed, if anything, Trazyn’s acts have increased in brazenness since the Necrons have begun waking en masse, now that the Imperium knows that Solemnace is not just some isolated backwater world they could crush and no one would notice.

Why has the Imperium basically grumbled and (officially) done nothing while Trazyn pilfers their territory for collectables? It basically comes down to politics. Solemnace is also notable among Tomb Worlds for its independence. When the Emperor offered the more independent and “eccentric” Necron Lords sanctuary within the Imperium, Trazyn turned him down. And at the same time, Solemnace does not obey the Silent King. Trazyn the Infinite bows his head to no one. As much as the Imperium would like to be able to turn Solemnace into a pile of space rubble, it is still one of the most powerful Tomb Worlds not under the command of the Silent King. Additionally, unlike most Necron Phaerons, Trazyn actually understands how his technology works, though he is not as brilliant as the most accomplished Crypteks, which would give the Imperium valuable insight into Necron technology. As a result, Solemnace would be a powerful asset, and the Imperium believes that given his habits if Trazyn was forced to choose between Imperium and the Necron Empire Trazyn would probably side with the Imperium (they’d probably be right). The issue is that Trazyn has never been put in a situation where he would be forced to show his hand.

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== Fenris ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">''''' The Den of the Great Wolf '''''

Contrary to popular belief, Fenris isn’t populated by barbarians. The people of Fenris may be grizzled, bad tempered tribals, but they aren’t savages.

According to the Adeptus Administratum, Fenris is officially classified as an Agri/Death World with a single fortified hive city. The Fang (or Aett in native Fenrisian) is, or really was, the name of the mountain that the fortress was originally built on because Leman Russ had a limited imagination. Fang Mountain no longer really exists in a conventional sense as it has been built on, under and hollowed out to the point that it can no longer be considered a natural formation so much as a fortified Hive that kind of looks like a mountain. It was not, despite many claims to the contrary, one of Perturabo's designs although it may have been influenced in the later stages of its formation.

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The Fang is sparsely populated for a hive as its main job is to serve the Chapter as a storage house, habitation between missions, training ground, hospital and general headquarters. In times when Fenris itself comes under direct assault the empty space can be used to house most if not all of the native population.

The population of Fenris is primarily one of farmer-soldiers. Only married full citizen men are allowed to own land and you aren't allowed citizenship or the right to marriage until you do a tour in the Imperial Army or do at least ten years serving the Chapter or the PDF. Women are given full citizen status on either ten years’ service to the Chapter or upon marriage, which ever happens first. That's how it was supposed to happen according to the laws laid down by Russ. But Russ has been gone a long time and out in the further reaches it gets a bit lax.

The land of Fenris is pretty inhospitable and dangerous by any civilized standards. The only part of Fenris that is geologically stable is the relatively small continent of Asaheim, most of which is a cold icy wasteland with a mile thick ice sheet covering it all year round. Further from the pole there is a belt of tundra that is slightly less useless, but not massively so, and beyond that there is enough direct sunlight for conifer and fir trees to grow. This is the land of snow trolls, giant bears, and mastodons, not to mention the descendants of Leman Russ’ failed experiments back when Fenris was a top-secret black site. The Vlka Fenryka don’t mind it too much as it gives them a ready-made training ground right next to the Fang, though the land is still too dangerous for someone to try to live on. Further still is a thin layer of slightly more arable land around the coast that it is possible to grow more than enough for mere survival on. The surplus is taken by the Fang for the War Effort.

Far from Asaheim are the island nations where the climate is nicer, ranging to tropical at the equator, but the tectonic activity is more active. Some of the island arcs can last for generations, but most have a lifespan of less than two years. Life is less terrible than on Asaheim, right up till the island volcanically explodes or sinks. Such is life on Fenris. These islands with the fertile volcanic soil do provide substantially more food but are less reliable and there is always the problem of transporting it. The inhabitants of the islands are always ready to pick up and go at a moment’s notice, and island cities on Fenris look more like a flotilla of moored boats than an actual city.

The seas of Fenris are where the real good food is found. The underwater tectonic activity keeps churning up nutrients that keep the food chain going in the long elliptical orbit winters, and causes an explosion of life during the brief growing seasons. If you don't like seafood, you will either be profoundly unhappy or you can starve. Kraken is the largest thing in the oceans and is edible. It tastes oddly avian.

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=== Wolves of Fenris ===

Leman Russ’ initial experiments with the Canis Helix on Fenris were, to put it bluntly, a complete disaster. Although the idea behind the Canis Helix was to augment the abilities of human soldiers with genes from other animals on Old Earth, the first trials went way too far and ended up producing creatures more beast than man. Russ was horrified by these first experiments, and tried to put the aspirants out of their misery. However, some of these experiments managed to escape and life in general has a funny way of surviving in places it’s not supposed to. Within a few generations, the harsh native ecosystem of Fenris was being dominated by a new, invasive predator. The people of Fenris may not be splice descendants, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any around.

Most people who know the origin of the Wolves of Fenris often expect them to look like merely hairy humans, or at least something that can reasonably be described as humanoid. This is not the case. Your average Fenris Wolf weighs somewhere between 500 and 600 kilograms (over 1000 pounds), and has a skull nearly a meter in length. Fenris wolves will actually grow in size throughout their entire lives, which is thought to be an indicator of their super-soldier ancestry, artificial genes used to promote muscle and bone development being re-purposed for continuous growth. Their canine teeth have distinct knife-like edges, resembling a monkey more than a wolf, and their front limbs are disturbingly human-like with dexterous opposable thumbs despite primarily walking on all fours. The overall body shape of a Fenrisian wolf is more like a cross between a wolf, bear, and a lion rather than a straight wolf, allowing them to grapple with enemies or climb low branches in search of prey. There are some human traits remaining, such as their eerily human eyes with white sclera, but one would be hard-pressed to see them.

It’s not clear how intelligent the Fenrisian wolves really are. It is clear they are clever, moreso than any non-human organism on Old Earth, but the question is are they only intelligent as, say, Primeval Beastmen or are they really more intelligent than they appear and merely limited by their lack of ability to communicate. At the very least, the fact that Fenrisian Wolves are easily tamed and are capable of performing complex behaviors that an animal like a dog isn’t capable of suggests there is something going on in their brains. The Adeptus Biologicus would love to try to uplift the Fenris wolves back to sapience like the Beastmen and the Ogryn, but they’re worried any attempt to do so would blow back on the people of Fenris because of how genetically close the two are.

The people of Fenris venerate the Fenrisian wolf above all other creatures because out of all the animals on Fenris it alone represents all the virtues of man. Like humans, the Fenris wolf is clever, strong, brave, loyal, and stubborn, all at the same time. The fact that they behave this way because they are actually abhumans rather than actual animals is something that is either not well known among the people of Fenris or glossed over, especially since Leman Russ made sure that wasn’t common knowledge in the first place.

=== Fenrisian Colonies ===

Following the War of the Beast, the primarch Leman Russ ran into a problem. Although he had managed to stabilize the Canis Helix augmentation into a viable form for military use, he had only managed to do so for people with specific genetic markers from the planet of Fenris. Fenris was an ideal place to conduct secret black site military experiments, but it was a terrible place to try to build a civilization. There was very little arable land on the planet, meaning that most of the food on the planet had to come from the rather dangerous sea. What's more, the only place that infrastructure could be reliably built on the geologically unstably Fenris was on the relatively small continent of Asaheim, which housed both the Vlka Fenryka's main base of operations as well as the majority of the population of Fenris. As a result, if any enemy were to attack Fenris, they could easily cripple the Vlka Fenryka's ability to fight and recruit new troops in a single swoop.

If the fate of the Vlka Fenryka was to be tied to the people of Fenris, the solution, therefore, was make more Fenrises. If the galaxy could not come to Fenris, Russ would bring Fenris to the galaxy. Leman Russ broached this idea of creating Fenrisian colonies to the Steward, who despite his reluctance nevertheless agreed to the idea. The people of Fenris, for their part, were more than enthusiastic about spreading to new locales, if for no other reason than to get away from their Death World of a home. Initially there were but eight Fenris colonies, though that number has since grown to over twenty-three. For the most part, the Fenrisians chose cold, polar worlds, reminiscent of their former home. Most human and Eldar colonists had steered clear of these worlds due to their short growing season and unforgiving climate, but to the Fenrisians they were a veritable paradise. The growing season may have been short, but at least it was possible to grow food on these worlds, rather than relying on the unpredictable sea like on Fenris.

The population of the Fenrisian Colonies has since outstripped that of its parent world by several orders of magnitude, in part because none of the colony worlds are as hostile to human life as Fenris itself. Overall, New World Fenrisians are less wild and more ordered than Old World Fenrisians, though in a one-on-one fight a New Worlder will still lose to an Old Worlder nine times out of ten. Nevertheless, the people of the Fenrisian colonies still hold Fenris in high regard, both as a matter of cultural pride and to show how far they have come. Although the Fenrisian Colonies will bicker like brothers, all still follow the Old Ways, and although they may not listen to the King of Fenris they will listen to High Priest Ulfrik the Slayer, who in turn listens to the King of Fenris.




[[Category:Nobledark_Imperium]]