The Lathes

The planetary triplets. Gotta catch'em all!

"Like three glowing jewels within the crown of the Mechanicus are the Lathes. Their power is manifest, their importance is paramount, and their logical attraction beyond compare. Without these worlds the Calixis Sector would not exist, and without them it could not continue to exist today."

– Fabricator-General Castellar at the Convocation of the 2431st Conclave of the Lathe-Covenant, totally not patting himself on the back for being in charge of such a cool place

The Lathes are a set of three Forge Worlds locked in a highly irregular orbit around a star in the Golgenna Reach of the Calixis Sector. Together, these three planets--Het, Hesh, and Hadd--are the most productive and powerful Forge Worlds in Calixis, and Lathe-pattern weapons are among the most prized in the sector.

Overview and History

The Lathes' home system was conquered by the forces of Lord Militant Golgenna Angevin during the Angevin Crusade in the 39th Millennium with the aid of a Mechanicus explorator fleet led by Magos Aleph Xenon. Xenon requested stewardship of the system as a reward for his fleet's efforts, which was duly granted. He landed his Lathe-class fabricator ships (also named Het, Hesh, and Hadd) on the planets' surfaces, intending them to remain there permanently. All three worlds were strip-mined to hell and back to produce more resources for the crusade, until the soldiers and supply convoys that came to pick up the resulting weapons and munitions said that it looked like all three worlds had been turned on a lathe. Magos Xenon initially adopted the name of "The System Where the Lathes Dwell" in order to honor the machine-spirits of the three ships that now made up the heart of the nascent Forge Worlds. Everyone who wasn't him got sick of calling them that pretty quickly, and the name was shortened a few times until it became just "The Lathes".

In the two millennia since, the Mechanicus have turned the entire system into their own little corner of Omnissiah Heaven. Everything in the Lathe system is now controlled by the Mechanicus, and outsiders require a mountain of paperwork just to enter the system, let alone visit the Lathes themselves. Their irregular orbits produce unusual gravitic events that allow for the forging of rare alloys that can be turned into super-dense armor-piercing ammunition and unbreakable blades. These gravity anomalies also mean that the Lathes' native population have developed into sort of proto-Squats. While still recognizably human, they are shorter, denser, and tougher than the average person, though a rare few go in the other direction and grow to be bigger than Ogryns. The tech-priests from the world share these characteristics, making them easily identifiable. While from the outside the system looks like an orderly, harmonious machine, in reality it is a snake-pit of competing factions, cults, and hereteks.

The Worlds

Het

Het, or Lathe-Het, is the primus inter pares of the Lathes. It was the first planet to be settled in the system after the Mechanicus laid claim to the place and was also the first to be developed into a Forge World, giving it a preeminent status that it has maintained ever since. It is not truly a "Forge World" in the classic sense anymore, as most of its manufactorums and other industrial facilities have been moved into orbital stations or elsewhere in the system. It is home to the ruling council of the Mechanicus in Calixis and also plays host to countless ancient data-vaults and scriptoriums, containing knowledge that the Mechanicus have hoarded over the millennia.

Notable features include the Nidus Omega, the central governing complex built deep below the hull of the Het itself. Within the Nidus is contained the Covenant Elogium, a data-vault housing priceless primary records from the time of the Angevin Crusade, and the Grand Atrium of the Lathes, an immense assembly hall with enough seating to accommodate every tech-priest with the rank of magos or higher in the entire system.

Hesh

Hesh is the production powerhouse of the Lathes, with countless factories, assembly lines, and assembly yards devoted to churning out arms and armor for the Imperial war machine. It specializes in the production of the Valdor Tank Hunter, having claimed the production facilities for the vehicle when they were moved off Het, and Ordinatus-class war engines. It is the most conservative and orthodox of the three worlds, and the tech-priests of Hesh tend to regard their counterparts on Het as devious politicians and those on Hadd as lazy do-nothings. As a result, the planet is covered in fanes and shrines to the Omnissiah.

The grandest of these places of worship is the Curia Mechanicum, a massive temple/factory/administration complex that is Hesh's beating heart. The Curia contains the hull of the original fabricator ship that landed on Hesh during the Angevin Crusade, but also contains the administrative offices of the planet and the factories under the Fabricator's direct supervision. Also of note is the Ordinatus Yards, a continent-sized factory complex devoted to the repair and refurbishment of Ordinatus war engines. The Yards are a place of pilgrimage for Mechanicus adepts from across the sector, though they are only needed perhaps once or twice in a generation.

Hadd

Hadd is the least of the three Forge Worlds, a circumstance which is of its own doing. When it was founded, Hadd was home to the data-vaults that kept all three worlds running, and it was tasked with making ammunition and ordnance for the Angevin Crusade. As the years went by, however, the data-vaults were slowly emptied, decreasing Hadd's importance to the Lathes. Moreover, Hadd's tech-priests somehow came to construe their assigned job as an insult and got increasingly salty and bitter as a result. Many of them petitioned to have these factories moved off-world to make room for more "prestigious" projects. This came to a head with in the sixth century M41, when Archmagos Villem Warik Wahh maneuvered himself into the position of Forge Master by playing on the discontent and anger of the various factions on Hadd. He demanded that the ammunition and ordnance factories be moved off-planet to make room for more important projects, and the rest of Hadd united behind him. The adepts on Het eventually got sick of listening to Wahh's bitching and stripped the planet down to the studs to get him to shut up, leaving the empty data-vaults clustered around the forlorn hull of the fabricator ship. The stage was set for Hadd to find a new path forward, but unfortunately for the planet Wahh had done his work a little too well. None of the competing factions on Hadd could agree on anything, and so anytime anyone suggested a new idea it was immediately shot down, leaving the planet paralyzed and without an identity. Hadd is now known as the Silent Forge; though many smaller forges and workshops still exist, the planet no longer churns and thunders with the industry of a true Forge World. The adepts and magi of Hadd have grown desperate to regain their prominence, and factionalism, petty squabbles, and constant arguments are the order of the day.

Notable locations on Hadd include the Halls of Ignavus, an administrative complex built around the hull of the fabricator ship Hadd, and the Baltean Maze. The latter is the result of necessity. Hadd's surface is in fact an artificial crust of platforms built over the planet's mantle and kept afloat by ancient gravitic generators. The Maze is the network of support structures, power conduits, and energy transfer systems that keeps these platforms from collapsing into the boiling depths of Hadd's mantle. It has been suggested that the Maze conceals ancient infotombs that contain forbidden or faulty data, sealed away to protect the Mechanicus. The truth of this rumor remains unknown, at least until some Dark Heresy GM somewhere decides to build a campaign around it. The planet is also said to be home to "schismaticals", evil data-spirits that can possess any kind of technology and turn it to dark ends. These rumors are viciously stamped out wherever they appear, since the adepts of the Lathes either don't believe in them or don't want to admit they exist.