Editing Avalonus (section)

==Gildwynn==
The oldest, most expansive hive on Avalonus, '''Hive Gildwynn''' is the heart of the Victorum Sector’s administration. Its cyclopean, blade-like towers covers the western half the northenmost continent and spill out over the polluted remnants of the Sea of Tiran to merge with the proletarian sprawl of Hive Jaranoct. The hive competes with Hive Exewain for dominance of the orbital trade, but neither hive alone would be able to cope with the sheer volume of traffic that Avalonus attracts.

Gildwynn can be divided into two regions: ''''' 'The Gold'''''' and ''''' 'The Steel.'''''' Named for the gold and electrum-clad hive towers (called "blades") clustered around the '''First Sword''', ''The Gold'' is the home of greater noble houses, Rogue Trader dynasties, and the high organs of Imperial governance. In contrast, gray-clad towers of ''The Steel'' are home to the “pretender” noble houses raised by the true nobles of the upper hive, as well as less successful merchant cartels and prosperous knight orders. Every spire is blazoned the history of its denizens, a practice that began with the First Sword. In either brilliant gold statuary or simple steel engravings, noble families and merchant cartels emblazon their triumphs and trials upon the spires of Gildwynn. 

Travel between these upper regions can be done through the graceful roadways built by the skilled architects of the hive, but this is normally left to the liveried servants and other lesser beings who are granted residence in the upper hive. Instead, fleets of private aircraft and skimmers fly in a chaotic tangle of aerial flight paths determined by the Administratum for maximum efficiency and minimal risk. 

The middle hive is a warren of tithe-houses, manufactories and shuttleports amidst dense blocks of tenements and blood arenas. Large portions of the maze are pierced by wide arterial transitways which feed the hive’s engines of production. Even here, the practice of blazoning continues; arenas celebrate the greatest honor jousts and bloodiest performances upon their armored domes, merchants brand their seals or logos into the doors of their storefronts, dwellers carve their names into the crumbling brick of their new tenement. The middle hive is also home to the hive’s seaward docks, which open onto the Sea of Tiran.

In the darkness of the underhive, one can find pools of industrial waste, abandoned mining tunnels or excavations, and even, it is whispered, structures dating back to the time of the Gladocracy. These hazards constitute the only way most underhive denizens have of surviving, either by cultivating the mutated life-forms that spring up from these dismal places or scavenging them for anything they can sell to up-hive expeditions.

===Notable Locations===
*'''The First Sword''' serves as the heart of Imperial rule, with Sector Governess Rosella Khassom-Ownevere holding court from within its glass-topped apex. Rising nearly 15 kilometres into the air, it towers over lesser blades. At its peak is the '''Imperial Curia''', where the Lady Victorum meets with representatives of the Imperial Adepta and her vassal worlds. Beneath stained glass renditions of Saint Castor’s victories, the powerbrokers of the Imperium negotiate tithes and plot the course of the sector. Serving them, and influencing them, is the Majordomo of the Imperial Curia and their coterie of gilt-uniformed Esquires. These ostensibly neutral functionaries are a conduit and source of myriad facts and rumors, gleaned in their duties serving the governance of the planet.

*'''The Grand Court of the Perilous Round''': Located just beneath the Imperial Curia, this is where the Arch-Council of Avalonus meets to discuss matters of planetary import. While not as grand as the Curia, its soaring walls are covered with adamantium shields, each emblazoned with the coat of arms of Avalonus’ greatest noble houses. At the center of the Court are the eleven Seats Superior, where the representatives of the six other hives sit around a round table with the Lord-Generals of the two PDF armies, the Inquisitorial Agent, the Mechanicus Envoy and the Saint’s Voice. At the nominal head of the table is the ''"Throne Perilous"'', which only the ruler of Hive Gildwynn or their chosen representative may take. 

*'''Under the Grand Court''': There are thousands of chambers and rooms that host emissaries and agents of the nobles, cartels and governments of the Victorum Sector, as well as representatives of the Imperial Adepta and dignitaries from beyond the sector’s borders. This is the heart of the Administratum, which creeps over a dozen square kilometres of records rooms and clerical quarters. Millions of clerks and servitors collate the output and consumption of Avalonus’ manufactories and people, ensuring that the people of Avalonus fulfill the demands of the Imperial Tithe. 

*'''Tower of Sight''': This electrum-plated spire, thin and sharp like a needle, it is home to the two dozen astropaths that maintain the Victorum Sector’s links to the greater Imperium. It also hosts the vast support mechanisms of the sector's Adeptus Astra Telepathica, which collects and dispatches psykers to the myriad worlds of the Victorum Sector. Unknown to all but the highest levels of the Imperial adepta, the Tower maintains a battalion of sanctioned battle-psykers within its silvery depths, ready to be deployed against daemonic incursions and rogue psykers. Here the skillful touch of High Choirmaster Ibrahim Thure ensures the various demands of the Imperium do not lightly tug on the psychic weights of hundreds of bound psykers, a duty which brings him in frequent contact and conflict with Rogue Traders, Lord Militants, and Inquisitors alike.

*'''Iudex Antagonistes''':  In the midst of the gleaming blades of 'The Gold' sits a squat black fortress built in the shape of the Imperial Aquila. This is the '''Iudex Antagonistes''', the heart of the Adeptus Arbites operations in the sub-sector. Visible from all the blades of the high and mighty, it is a grim reminder of Imperial Justice and the cost of failing your Emperor-given duties. Such is the scale of the demands placed upon the Arbites that only a single 'pinion' of the fortress can be spared for duties upon Avalonus itself; the rest are devoted to the functions and responsibilities of the Precinct Terentilius Astra, which spans the subsector. Marshal of the Court Lex Fischig is literally bound, mind and body, to the precinct-fortress; such is the flood of data, judgments, and Arbites operations he must deal with. Lesser High Marshals and Judges, such as the infamous High Marshal Tekeny, are marginally more accessible to the great and worthy of the Imperium, and more frequently found enforcing the Law afield.

*'''Varranus Spaceport''': Sprawling over the great docks of the Sea of Tiran,  Varranus is the official spaceport of Avalonus, where any Imperial presence will first land and disembark. As such, it combines both Avalonian traditions and Imperial design, to impress upon guests both the unique character of the capital world and its loyalty to the Imperium. A constant stream of lighters, shuttles, and aerial transports feeds the Conurbation hives from its blast-scarred surface, and carries the products of the great northern continent to the great fleets in orbit.

===Inquisitorial Holdings===
Though Hive Gildwynn’s towers and hab-blocks are usually packed close together, one stands alone, surrounded by a circle of courtyards made of white Terran marble that rest upon the middle hive. This spire is far larger than the average blade, cylindrical rather than flat and nearly reaching the heights of the First Sword. It is the '''Court of Last Remembrance''', the fortress-palace of the '''''[[Conclave Victorum|Fidelis Vigil Ex Victorum]]'''''. Its impressive bulk is carved with images of Inquisitors, Saints and other heroes of the Imperium, each graven statue concealing deadly defences. The Court is the subject of intense rumor and myth among the people of Avalonus. Beyond the usual horror stories that accompany an Inquisitorial fortress, the history of its construction is shrouded in mystery. It is said that it appeared suddenly one night, rising from the black depths of the Sea of Tiran, or falling from the sky on fiery rockets, or being lifted from a massive land-train that stretched twenty kilometres into the continent. The Inquisition has never responded to rumors that, in times of dire need, the entire hive spire could be either sunk into the Sea or lifted back into space.

The Court of Last Remembrance is home to roughly ten thousand agents, clerks and Inquisitorial troopers, in addition to passing bands of Acolytes and Inquisitors. In the bowels of the spire, sealed off from the rest of the middle hive, are banks of cogitators and vast echoing vaults of arms and equipment. Deeper still, descending into the pollution of the Sea of Tiran, are the forbidden vaults, where arch-heretics are questioned and potentially heretical, and certainly dangerous, artifacts are sealed. In the time of Lord Qatasoum, their contents have remained untouched for fear of arousing his ire, and those artifacts recovered have tended to disappear into the fusion fires of nearby stars instead.

The Conclave has been led (some say ruled) by Lord Inquisitor Shandolh Qatasoum for the last thirty-two years. Answerable only to the High Lords of the Inquisition, Lord Qatasoum’s first act upon assuming lordship of the Sector Inquisition was to plunge it into a bloody Inquisition War. This pogrom, which claimed more than a dozen Inquisitors and their retinues, has led to a growing movement of Radical and unaligned Inquisitors to either distance themselves from the High Council or otherwise remove the influence of the Lord Inquisitor.

===Culture===
Hive Gildwynn’s glittering spires are inhabited by a peculiar class of Imperial noble, one that proudly upholds archaic notions of honor and chivalry within a viper’s nest of intrigue, blood feuds, and secret heresies. This attitude, of respecting a sworn oath, of giving a personal trophy to a chosen champion, of spilling blood in the name of slighted honor contrasts sharply or dovetails neatly, depending on the viewer, with the Avalonian capacity for malicious betrayal, cold-hearted manipulation, and brutal extermination. To an outsider, the combination of nearly blind honor and loyalty and vicious intrigue are hard to reconcile, but these attitudes can be seen through all levels of Avalonian society, and most prevalently amongst the nobles of Hive Gildwynn, who claim direct descent from the first colonists to repopulate this world. 

Middle hivers are oath-bound to a noble house or merchant cartel, who are themselves bound themselves to a higher noble house in a complex web of blood and shared history. A similar web governs the relations between the families and merchants of the middle hive, leading to a world in constant tension as citizens attempt to keep the latest updates to the pattern of ancient blood-feuds and friendships in mind. Through these connections, the regions of Hive Gildwynn are split into pocket empires for the greatest of the noble houses of Avalonus, which are expanded either through outright conquest, the raising of a middle hive family to “noble” status, and the claiming of wagers. 

Those in the underhive are frequently written off as unproductive and bane on the hive, but any action against them is forestalled by more worldly up-hive nobles. The greatest knights and bodyguards have risen from the denizens of the underhive, and a significant portion of Avalonus’ Imperial Tithe is paid by the presence of conscripted underhivers. The final resource of the underhive are the rare discoveries of archeotech, which fuel a continuous train of Rogue Trader and Mechanicus expeditions into the hive’s depths.