Medigeminus System

The Medigeminus System is the border and gateway to the Oestalan Sector. In the deeps of space, there exists a star, ancient in its dying years. Swollen and red, it casts a dull firelight hue over a panoply of worlds forged from the death of its distant companion, now a dead stellar remnant. The titanic destruction of the companion star scattered a nebula of dense gas, dust, and valuable heavy elements through space, which condensed to form dozens of planetary bodies. As the remaining star aged, the more erratic orbits smoothed out, and collisions tapered off. Now, there are only 14 worlds, each rich in valuable materials and many are suitable for life to inhabit. Asteroids and comets roam the system in three major belts, one for the star, one for the neutron remnant, and one massive one orbiting far beyond both, at the very inner edge of the planetary nebula.

This star is called Medigeminus, a Red Giant, and these are its worlds

Planets

Arminia

Molten world

Arminia was, millions of years ago, a Venus-like pressure-cooker world. However, when Medigeminus expanded into a Red Giant, its atmosphere was blasted away and its surface heated to the melting point. Arminia is generally useless for practical purposes. It is named after Saint Arminia Calderon, one of the original founders of the Order of The Holy Rose.

Alconeus

Aqua world/Forge world

Alconeus is a primarily aquatic planet; a worldwide ocean covered with islands, Alconeus is rich in heavy and rare earth metals. This richness was what originally attracted the Mechanicus. However, they found that rather than being bound in traditional mineral deposits, the Heavy Metals of Alconeus are integral to the local ecosystem. Strontium is the basic building block of the organism's bones, rather than Calcium, and nearly every other metal is bound in one living thing or another.

Thus, the easiest way to extract these metals is to kill the native life forms, and using the arcane arts of technology, extract the metals from their bodies before consuming them. This act has acquired a major ritual significance among the Mechanicus, for whom it is an act of reclaiming the Omnissiah's divine metals from the unholy life forms which seek to hoard it in their bodies. Alconeus' islands are almost entirely given over to Manufactoriums. Among those who live on the oceans, spending their whole lives touching nothing more solid than a boat or a coral reef, the leading cause of death is heavy metal poisoning.

ADDENDUM; information is out of date as of 662.M41 and must be updated as soon as contact with the planet can be reestablished.

Arkturi Alpha/Beta

Hive world (Alpha)/Death world (Beta) - Dual Planet System

Having a population in the tens of billions, Arkturi Alpha was capable of providing many regiments of Imperial troops to serve in various battlefields and had a local Mechanicus Forge to pump out a steady, if small, stream of weapons, vehicles, equipment and other supplies.

However, it's sister planet Beta, was a world filled with nightmarish creatures in its various biomes. Creatures that could hunt tanks and slaughter entire battalions. The worst of these monsters usually came out in the long nights and frequent eclipses that plagued the world, the infamous Hellhunter. In ages past, the native tribes people would achieve the status of warrior by hunting the hellbeast. Only the most cunning, courageous, and sneaky of tribesmen could hope to slay the Hellhunter and serve it as a sacrifice to the Emperor.

In recent times, the planetary governor of Arkturi Alpha authorized the Death World Initiative, sending many unwanted youth and street urchins to Beta in order to both alleviate the the burgeoning population and to produce stellar quality Guardsmen. Trained by the same tribes of old, these unwanted children would become warriors of unparalleled skills in stealth and ambush.

Stellar Remnant Belt

A belt of dense, incandescent gas circling the star, roughly twenty million kilometers wide and deep.

Mandragora

Jungle world

Primordial jungles, plains, oceans and mountains dot the landscape of this uninhabited world- visually a paradise planet. But when a person steps foot on the planet, a deep, terrible sense of fear and foreboding fills them, never to leave until they do. The only large fauna of note on the planet is the Oogyap, a large quadruped creature about the side of a Terran horse with what resembles a Terran 'ant-eater-like' head. They appear to be vegetarian, and in addition appear to have have a herd mentality, as large herds of these have been tracked by observatory teams. Ultimately, little is known about them save that they travel from plains to jungle on a seasonal basis.

More interesting, however, is that in small pockets scattered across the planet surface can be found strange remnants of a long vanished culture. All attempts to investigate these ruins have ended prematurely, due to the ongoing nature of the Crusade.

Lhimeraia

Jungle world

Lhimeraia is a primordial world of megafauna and deep, wet forests. Threaded with rivers and lakes rather than a single body of water, it is the native homeland of a warrior-people, the Himerai.

The main predator of Lhimeraia is the giant Cannock Bird, a flightless monster that stands as tall as two men standing atop one another. Unlike most predators it seems to actually favour hunting humans from amongst the native population. The Cannock Bird was named after the member of the Imperial observation team that first rediscovered this world.

Poor, poor Cannock.

The Himerai compose thousands of tribes scattered across the world. Based out of entrenched hill-forts, they fight one another fearlessly. Their long years of isolation has regressed their technology to an almost stone age level, but they have managed to maintain a core elite that go into battle wielding las-weaponry with surprising effectiveness. These warriors compose of a powerful warrior caste, the bodyguards and candidates for chieftain positions. They are noted not just for the weaponry they carry but for the deep etchings they carve into their faces.

Every Himerai adult has some form of facial carving that designates their social status. The artists who engrave these markings compose of a separate but sacred order, the Moko-ai. Many attribute magic abilities to these artists, but all Imperial investigations have shown no evidence of their being truth to these myths.

The Himerai originally resisted Imperial authority in the first contact. They made war with the first landing team, believing them to be invaders from another system, and despite their primitive weaponry managed to hold them off for some time.

When they realised the Imperial authority was not part of the people their myths called the 'pake-ai' - the ghost people - they were quickly drawn to the negotiation table and submitted to Imperial authority, their greatest chief being given the title of Imperial Governor of the planet.

Recognising the natural soldierly ability of the Himerai, the Lord-General of the Crusade ordered that a new Imperial Guard regiment should be drawn from amongst their population.

The Lhimeraia Long-rifles were formed, a fierce light infantry regiment that specialised in raiding actions.

Though the Himerai have some habits found disgusting by the great Imperial institution (their practice of cannibalism in particular) they are considered loyal citizens since their reintegration into the Imperium of Man. Their fanciful facial markings are growing popular amongst the non-native troops, who imitate it in tatto designs. This has caused some friction however, as the Himerai consider the practice close to a sacrilege and more than one brawl and even death has occurred as a result.

Sigma-Noblesse

Fortress world/Paradise world

A well defended planet holding the last few openly Imperial-aligned humans in the system. Long standing bloodlines dating back to former planetary governors, inquisitors, rogue traders, and various others of wealth and power led to large ruling families, each very proud of their heritage. The leadership of the planet's Imperial Guardsmen largely stems from the families. They are well equipped and extremely resilient as a result of constant attacks from the Ork warbands of the nearby Green Traverse, as well as the strong traditional ties between the Guard and the ruling class. The Imperial Osetalan Crusade obtains soldiers and equipment from Sigma-Noblesse, begrudgingly provided by the elite who fear they could lose their safeguard against the Orks and their political power.

Grant's Landing

Agri-world

A world undergoing a process of re-settlement and expansion. Imperial estimates predict that the planet will be able to be classified as a civilized Shrine world within one to three decades, though this is dependent on the success of the Crusade force and the rate of immigration to the planet.

The vast majority of the Crusade's ground and space forces are currently located here as preparations are being made by Lord General Julius Hector Grant IV for the Crusade's second sphere of expansion, into the asteroid belt and the outer system.

Monotone

Dead world

A barren world without an atmosphere, yet very rich in minerals (particularly promethium). Imperial records suggest the world suffered some sort of cataclysm before the system was lost to the warp storms. The beginnings of extensive resource exploitation have begun due to the presence of Crusade forces in-system, and the need for fuel for its many mechanised vehicles. The curious name for the planet comes from the fact that it is an almost universal brown when looked at from orbit.

Asteroid Belt / the Green Traverse

The Green Traverse is the nickname given to the large asteroid belt in the middle of the Medigeminus System by the men and women of the recently arrived Osetalan Crusade due to the large amount of Orks inhabiting the belt. A combination of Xenos and renegade human forces are preventing the Crusade from quickly retaking the rest of the system.

Krolon

Former agri-world

As a result of the crusade there has not been much exploration of this planet. However, preliminary reports suggest that the former human population has regressed to stone-age technology and is in constant war with orks that are like-wise at stone-age technology. Other than this, the planet is standard for a potential agri-world, though has larger-than-standard ice caps at its two poles, due to its distance from the star, but little in the way of mountains or tectonic activity. Almost 85 percent of landmass is plains.

Of particular interest to Crusade High Command is that scans have caught glimpses of Dark Eldar ships visiting the planet, suggesting that the population is being harvested by xenos. Despite this, due to the importance of other worlds in the system, the recapture of the planet is considered low priority.

Twei

Dead world

A lifeless ice world, low on minerals and incapable of sustaining any sort of life. Written off as unimportant by Crusade Command, though the Mechanicus is taking an interest in Twei as a potential testing ground and underground base complex.

Twar

Dead world

A barren world of blue sand, its only remarkable feature. The fleet has noticed the occasional strange transmission from Twar, vaguely consistent with Eldar signals. However, the crusade is too busy fighting through the main fleets and armies in the system to investigate.

Cometary Belt

Solely Dark Eldar territory, any scout ships that have attempted to pass through the belt have been lost. There is thought to be a Dark Eldar base somewhere in the cometary belt.

Ulcisor

Gas giant

It is very cold and dark as far as giants go, though massive enough it has not been classed as an Ice Ball. Ulcisor is also technically a proto-star, similar to Jupiter, as it emits more energy than it absorbs from its parent star, though nearly any Gas Giant would receive this designation were it moved to Ulcisor's far out orbit. Ulcisor has an orbital period of 219 years.

Ulcisor is, unusually, host to an ecosystem of Ammonia based life forms which ride on the winds of its upper atmosphere. These range from tiny photosynthetic plants and follow an ocean model all the way up to gigantic predatory gas fish the size of small cities, preying on other organisms for food and the buoyant gases needed to ascend in the atmosphere.

This ecosystem makes the planet particularly difficult for use in scoop-mining. Thus, Ulcisor's riches come primarily from its massive system of moons. Ulcisor's proximity to the cometary belt has allowed it to capture a massive number of rocks, comets, and asteroids. Ulcisor has 519 identified moons of at least 30m in diameter, many of which are rich with water ice or nickel-iron. The largest is Hostiae, large enough to class as a dwarf planet and thought to be rich in fissionable ores.

Originally, an Imperial mining facility was established on Hositiae. However, its crew were slaughtered by the Kabal of the Widow's Bite, and telescopic observation has confirmed that the Dark Eldar are now mining the moons extensively. Ulcisor's entire orbital system must thus be considered extremely dangerous.

Mesolethe

Death world

Mesolethe is nearly a typical Death World. A band of jungles ring the equator, and frigid ice caps cover the poles down to nearly the edge of the tropics. The sparse area between the tropics and the ice caps is continually ringed by storms driven by temperature differences, giving the planet two circular white belts. The existence of such a tropical area this far from the system's star should be impossible, Mechanicus reports, while sparse given the Sector's recent reappearance, theorize that the extreme temperature difference could be the result of some active yet buried ancient technology - yet they clearly state that this is only a theory and that a manned exploratory mission is required as soon as possible.

Its namesake and only unique feature is the Mind Widow, a spider roughly the size of a bear, with long, sharp talons and a naturally strong warp presence. Their psychic powers do not manifest like those of a sentient being; they seem to universally have the ability to communicate telepathically. They hunt humans using this method, first by locating the minds of the humans, and then by sharing its thoughts with the human in question. The human mind cannot comprehend the thoughts of such a thoroughly inhuman creature; in suddenly attempting to control eight legs and see with eight eyes, most humans will have a seizure, making them wonderfully easy prey for the Mind Widows.

A small Dark Eldar Kabal, whose Archon was so taken with these spiders as to name the Kabal after them, has recently been ousted from Comorragh for bringing in too many of these spiders(they violate Vect's ban on psykers in Comorragh) and have since created a base for themselves inside a hollowed out asteroid-moon of the planet.

Silence

Dead world/Ice world

Classed as a dwarf planet in Imperial archives, and utterly devoid of life. But is it? For within its sheath of ice and beneath the rocky surface, metal is entombed. This dead world is on an eccentric thousand-year orbit. By sheer chance, as the main Imperial crusade force reaches Medigeminus, Silence is on the part of its orbit where it passes close to the red giant, visible in the night sky as a slow-moving, massive comet. Can the Necrons sense the meagre warmth of the sun? Or are they already awake, struggling against their icy prison to be free, determined to scour the system of organic life? Only time will tell.

Factions

The Osetalan Crusade

The Osetalan Crusade is an ongoing Crusade by the Imperium, begun in [DATE] to reclaim the Oestalan Sector in the galaxy's West from Xenos and Heretics. Overall command of the Crusade force has been given to Lord General Julius Hector Grant IV by order of the High Lords of Terra, while General Marta Wu Fei and High Admiral Lucius Errando Amadeus the Third were appointed as the Lord General's sub-commanders. The Crusade force is predominantly made up of Imperial Guard and Navy units, with a token presence from the Adeptus Astartes, Adepta Sororitas and the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The Kabal of the Widow's Bite

The Archon of the Kabal is a young lordling named Pyralist Praxeter, a young noble who discovered the Mind Widow after a hunting trip went wrong and he was left stranded on Mesolethe for several decades. In this time he learned the ways of the spiders, how to hunt and kill, surviving on human and other creatures for sustenance and he would hunt and eat the spiders as well when he mastered their ways.

His family had given him up for dead, his brothers gleefully so, and when he returned he had to fight them to regain his position as heir and eventual head of House Praxeter. He took his remaining sisters for his brides, sold his only remaining youngest brother to a Haemonculus to experiment on, and began importing his beloved 'real family' into Commoragh. During this time he played a game with his enemies, capturing them and putting them in a labyrinth with his pets. If they could master the sensory overload and survive, he would spare them and permit them to join his Kabal. If not, well, he would join the spiders for their feast.

Vect caught wind of this and had the young Archon cast out. Outraged by his exile, the young lord returned to the spider-lands that had nourished him in his youth seeking to make a personal fiefdom out of it. He now raids from out of the shadow of its moon, slowly gathering a large and grotesque army of mutated humans with which he plans to retake his birth right in Commoragh.

Ork Warbands of the Green Traverse

None of these Warbands are set in stone, feel free to create your own should you desire when using the setting.

The Blood 'Ounds: A blood axe kommando group who specialise as bounty hunters. Their boss is an old one-eyed former Snakebite-turned-kommando named Ol' Sladder. He breeds 'scent-squigs'.

Da Bigges Krew: Flash gitz who operate out of Da Bigges Fing, a neutral ground for all ork parties in the Traverse. Led by a fat, fancy power-klaw wielding Warboss named Flashrak.

Evil Sharkz: A band of flyer boys well known for their blue painted Dakkajets, flying about the Asteroid Belt with surprising skill, very few of them ever end up crashing. The boss Sharktoof supposedly has never been shot down.

Da Great Ork Navy: Taking a queue from the Imperium, the warboss Admrill Radzrazz focuses all his might on large kroozers and "Ork Naval Kombat"

Mazkaz's Badboyz: Lead by warboss Mazkaz Kazzaraz "Da Bad Bommer" the Badboyz are infamous amongst the Green Traverse for extensive use of explosives, rockets and missiles of all kinds. Many of the larger asteroids floating about the Expanse are no longer so large thanks to Mazkaz

Twitchum's Warband: A rare kind of warband as it is lead by a Weirdboy. Weirdboss Twitchum has somehow survived the many years of being a Weirdboy and retains some kind of sanity to lead his Boyz against the other warbands. Or his Boyz are just as nuts as him.