Editing Avalonus (section)

===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.