Editing Vostroya

[[File:Vostroya.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Space Crimea to the Valhallan's Space Moscow.]]
''Were you looking for [[Valhalla]], the other Russian-inspired planet?''

'''Vostroya''' is an Imperial world located on the fringes of the Segmentum Obscurus, and is the home of the [[Vostroyan Firstborn]] regiments of the Imperial Guard. Vostroya occupies an unusual place in the catalogue of Imperial planets. During the Age of Strife, Vostroya swore allegiance to [[Mars]], but did not accept direct rule by the cogboys. It also has few hive cities, despite being heavily populated. As a result, though it still has deep ties with the Adeptus Mechanicus, the production capacity of a Forge World, and the population of a Hive World, it is technically considered an Industrial World. Its government is equally unusual; it is ruled by a council of Vostroyan nobles and senior archmagi of the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], underneath which exists the vast bureaucracy typical of Imperial government.

==Overview==

Vostroya was originally settled by Terran colonists sometime during or prior to the Age of Strife. After the collapse of humanity's first galactic civilization, Vostroya pledged allegiance to the tech-priests of Mars and managed to survive the millennia of upheaval thereafter. It was rediscovered during the [[Great Crusade]] and incorporated into the Imperium; its prodigious manufacturing capacity was immediately turned to producing arms and ammunition for the Imperial Army. During the [[Horus Heresy]], Vostroya was one of the few planets to successfully declare and maintain neutrality for the entirety of the conflict, refusing to supply either Imperial or traitor forces so that its population and manufacturing base would not be destroyed by the other side. In the aftermath of the Heresy and the [[Siege of Terra]], however, the Vostroyan people were stricken with bitter guilt by their refusal to fight for the Imperium. To expiate their sin, they pledged that every firstborn child of Vostroya would be sworn to the Imperium's service. Thus were founded the Vostroyan Firstborn. The truth of the Firstborn's creation has long since been lost to history, but the Vostroyans still understand that their forebears failed the Imperium in some way and that their service repays that debt.

Vostroya is a cold, heavily polluted planet, most of its soil rendered sterile or toxic by generations of heavy industry. The only habitable portion of the planet is a broad strip around its equatorial region, which is subdivided into seven administrative zones wherein the majority of the planet's population is located. The planet has a strictly regimented caste system: "high-born" nobles get to sit around and be lazy, while the "low-born" poor can expect to work 12-hour shifts in a factory before going home to a crowded, frozen hovel to eat, sleep, and make a few more future workers. Being the firstborn child of a low-born family is actually regarded as something of a blessing, since it means an escape from the ceaseless cold and grinding toil. It is unknown whether their opinion changes after encountering [[Tyranid|some]] [[Dark Eldar|of]] [[Chaos Space Marines|the]] [[Necron|many]], ''[[Ork|many]]'' [[Genestealer Cult|threats]] the Imperium faces on a daily basis. Vostroyans are by and large deeply religious, adhering closely to the dictates of the Imperial Cult. The local patron saint is Saint Nadalya, the Grey Lady, whose sacred text is kept in every Vostroyan home and serves as a common source of inspiration and wisdom.

Vostroyan Guardsmen are known for their extremely manly mustaches and dressing like Russian cossacks, which sometimes gets them confused for the other [[Valhallan Ice Warriors|Russian-inspired Guard regiments]]. Most Vostroyans believe that a man without an excellent mustache is weak and unmanly. Reports of commissars and female Vostroyan soldiers wearing fake mustaches to blend in remain unconfirmed. Officers in the Firstborn regiments are from noble families almost without exception; low-born Vostroyans rarely rise above the non-commissioned officer ranks.

{{40k-Planets}}

[[Category:Imperial]]