Editing Avalonus (section)

==Other Hives==
===Exewain===
Rising from the blasted glass plains of Argonesse, '''Hive Exewain''' has the singular honour to be the first and oldest hive on Avalonus. Raised from the vast landing fields and barrack-fortresses of Saint Castor's armies, Exewain has grown to become a vast, hungry hive that exchanges pieties for Thrones as it struggles to maintain a glory that was old when the Imperium was young.

Built on the ruins of the second-greatest city of the Conurbation, which was scoured by fire and plasma and electromagnets during the Saint's Crusade, Exewain has never been self-productive or sustaining. Aside from plundering war-blasted ruins and harvesting shards of glass fused by the energies of creation, there was nothing left for the hive to sustain itself after the liberation of the planet. This, more than any other reason, is why Exewain was denied the privilege of planetary governorship, and why its nobles are so widely regarded as pretenders by the rest of their world. 

In order to survive, the hive's leaders exploited its sacred history, becoming a site of pilgrimage second only to Babylum itself within the Sector. Innumerable relics, shrines, temples, cathedrals, religious orders, and more were collected, created, and put on display for the Imperial masses to see. With the pilgrim traffic came ever-increasing fleets of merchants seeking to fill their empty holds on return flights, and a growing population of Frateris Militia inspired to crusade, needs easily met by the hive's ancient landing fields. By the 34th Millenium, Exewain could claim to have eclipsed nearly all other hives on Avalonus in its fame and wealth, and it was only natural that it became the base of power for Goge Vandire's loyalists.

The Seventh Battle of Avalonus was Exewain's downfall, and though the hive has recovered some of its ancient glory it will never again challenge the triumphant trio of '''The Great Conurbation''' for the crown of Avalonus. Today Exewain is a shrinking hive, its holy sites and hydrogoria towers becoming ever-smaller islands of gleaming bronze blades amidst a sea of copper-green dilapidation. The great spaceport-cum-holy site of '''Castor Fields''' sees vast shiploads of freight pass through its underground warehouses, barely breaking bulk before being transshipped to other hives where such goods are in greater demand. Huge shrine-shuttles also ferry an unending horde of pilgrims to the hive, but few will stay; Exewain is only the start of the Avalonian pilgrimage, and it is all the inhabitants of the hive can do to leech what little they can from their transient guests before they flee to cooler and less desperate climes.

*'''Cathedral of Saint Thor Triumphant''': Built over the ruins of the far-more ancient Temple of the Salvator, this cathedral is a celebration of the glory of the reformed Ecclesiarchy. Its walls and windows are monuments to the sacrifices of mankind, particularly those who gave their lives in the Seventh Battle of Avalonus to overthrow the tyranny of the Vandiran loyalists. The clergy of this cathedral continue to practice a strongly ascetic form of the Imperial Creed, one strongly approved of by the many [[Adeptus Sororitas|Sisters of Battle]] contingents which rotate through its grounds.

===Gergenir===
This vast hive sprawls out in the desert like a beached cetacean, following the path of ancient ruins long-since picked clean by the scavenging Explorators of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Still dominated by the Machine-God's influence, '''Hive Gergenir''' is a bastion of technological lore and arcane science, where human life is little more than fuel for the fires of production. Such a regime is unremarkable when compared to hiveworlds like Necromunda or Armageddon, but here the submission of what would have been a paragon of the Machine-God to secular authorities has added an additional layer of religious complexity and feudal obligation.

The labyrinthine warrens of Hive Gergenir are covered in a stark, bone-white plaster that reflects the rays of the desert sun and reduce the strain on cooling units. Unsuitable for etching or carving, the hive blades of Gergenir feature compact and complex chrome murals along their central axis, reducing the essentials of a given blazon to a single shining band along the height of a blade. The white plaster is also the source of the ubiquitous dust found in Hive Gergenir, created through millennia of weathering by the same powerful winds that drive the hive's numerous windmills and provide it nigh-limitless power. As a result, Gergenirians endure daily dust storms depending on the conditions of the microenvironment about a particular blade or manufactory complex, and eschew the exterior environment in favor of sealed forms of mass transit or a bewildering variety of individual transport vehicles. Due to this, native Gergenirians are universally pale-skinned and pale-haired.

The influence of the Adeptus Mechanicus remains strong on the hive, though it is a far cry from the rigid order and technological supremacy of a true forgeworld. The sprawling manufactories of other hives are here concentrated into monolithic forge-fanes, each walled off from the outside world and dominated by Mechanicus factotums serving the Great Houses of Gergenir. Within, imported hive workers labor under a strict timekeeping regime that follows them throughout their life in the Imperial hive. All aspects of daily life are regulated by the production demands of the factory districts, from when trans-tubes run to when cafeterias start serving food. As a result, every adult Gergenirian carriers a watch, clock, or other timekeeping device with them at all times, and a child's first gift is a timepiece. 

*'''The Saint's Procession:''' This transitway precisely bisects Hive Gergenir, splitting it into a north- and south-hive culture that shapes all relations within the hive. Built upon the ancient route of Saint Castor's first march from the landing fields of Exewain, it is both a vital economic artery and the primary means for pilgrims to reach Hive Exewain. At its eastern terminus lies the great port of Dagon's Landing, where pilgrims alight and depart in vaster numbers than anywhere else on the planet. Partly this is due to the high cost of flying to Exewain directly, but Dagon's Landing also affords a wonderful opportunity for travelers to access the rest of Avalonus. The Saint's Procession is also the primary parade ground of Avalonus proper; it is only fitting that triumphant warriors honor the holy Saint by walking in her footsteps, and despite the jealousy of the nobility of Gildwynn, the tradition has never been challenged.

===Verethkyn===
The sole hive and heart of Imperial culture on the sweltering, tropical continent of Dagonesse, '''Hive Verethkyn''' is a small, grease-covered hive of great importance. The vast tree plantations which dominate Dagonesse's lowlands and the great rail mulchers which traverse them are responsible for the production of more than 40% of Avalonus' multi-fuel supplies. Without the constant stream of Verethkyn's low-quality fuel, life on Avalonus would grind to a halt within a few days. It is for this reason that Verethkyn has more guns per square kilometer than any other hive on the planet, for such wealth raises a never-ending stream of would-be magnates from the hard-drinking, hard fighting workforce. Such money as they make is quickly spent on weapons, armor, and gifts to expand the influence of their screeching rail-rigs and supply contracts with distant hivelords.

Established by Avalonus' first planetary governor and Sector Overlord, and ruled by his descendants, Verethkyn is commonly considered the spiritual heart of the ''Illuminated Blades of Imperial Majesty'', one of two active PDF forces on the planet. The remit of the Illuminated Blades covers the landmasses of Avalonus, from frigid and forbidden Mordessant in the south to the tiny, rocky Icecrown Isles in the frozen north. On Verethkyn, enough of the natural landscape has been preserved so that the Illuminated Blades may train green regiments to an acceptable standard before setting them loose. Here, more than any other place on the planet, Avalonians of different hives forge common bonds and cross cultural boundaries, forging the common planetary identity.

Verethkyn proper is a macroscale hive blade dominating a great river valley at the northernmost point of Dagonesse. Satellite spires, linked by rail and based around the harvesting and refining of non-native, rapid-growth trees for the production of multi-fuel dot the interior of the continent. Moistened by the oil vapors which constantly drift through its air, Verethkyn shimmers with all the colors of the spectrum as the tropical sun strikes its chrome buildings and pipelines.

*'''Fort Dagon:''' Named for a famed Ogryn bodyguard of Saint Castor, '''Fort Dagon''' is the primary mustering ground of the Avalonian Crusaders. It is here that newly-raised regiments and veterans of the long war come to train, learn, and reinforce the camaraderie of the regiment. While its regimental headquarters is located in Gildwynn, Fort Dagon provides the regiment a place to bring its freshest recruits up to Guard standard and impart the lessons learned in the Imperium's unceasing wars. The fort proper is a walled complex of barracks, landing pads, and sealed enviro-domes sprawling over a lush plateau south of Hive Verethkyn.

===Aronlot===
This vast subsurface hive is built upon a cluster of seamounts, former mountains of a sunken continent dubbed Drustainland. For centuries, '''Hive Aronlot''' has been dying a slow death as the hive's population has shrunk and its out-lying spires have grown empty and derelict. Though it continues to produce and ship vast quantities of power cells thanks to an abundance of geothermal power, diminishing mining and sea trade has forced its populace to seek their fortunes elsewhere. 

Five great hive-docks, named for ancient starships, crown the seamounts and thousands of lesser, submersible towers either rise from the seafloor or sink through the placid waves of the sheltered sea between them. This interior sea, known as the '''Firepool''', is the heart of Aronlot's economy and produces untold trillions of power cells, plasma containers, promethium by-products, and other sundry goods made with the subterranean resources of Avalonus. In ancient times, the hive-docks were also the heart of an extensive aquaculture industry, one that has withered as the pollution of millennia of industry has taken hold. This failure illustrates a key aspect of the Aronloti personality: invariably short-sighted, or more charitably, rationally self-interested, they are also stubborn and headstrong. When something works for them, they'll keep doing it until it stops being useful, then scramble in creative and open-minded ways to find the next thing that works. Thus have the people of Aronlot staved off, avoided, and defied the disintegration of their hive for millennia. 

Much of Aronlot remains habitable and well-maintained, thanks to ancient and long-standing contracts with the Adepta and Rogue Traders of the Imperium, and there is no single underhive where the poor and mutated may be driven. The middle hive is a blur of well-off merchants, poor preachers, scurrying mutants, and doughty knights, all quietly disdainful of one another. Rather than a powder keg of resentments, however, the martial and chivalrous culture of Avalonus (and the quiet desperation of the populace) keeps the hive quiescent. The city's arenas are constantly expanding, and gladiators and champions of Aronlot are famed throughout Avalonus, even those of less-than-pure descent.

*'''Port Fanel:''' Named for the overlords of the Knight World of Fanelia, who were crucial to the defeat of the Gladocracy's own undersea war-engines, this vast offshore complex is the home port of the ''Reflected Blades of the Imperial Glory'', the small but well-equipped naval and air component of Avalonus' PDF. '''Port Fanel''' is a tangible sign of the hive's continuing importance to the rest of the planet, one that the people of Aronlot cling to ever more desperately as their hive sinks ever deeper into irrelevance.