Scelus
"It was beautiful once, Scelus. ... Terrible animals, if such horrors could be called that, stalked their prey in these perfect conditions. We were that prey, the descendants of humans who colonized this world thousands of years ago. Then the Imperium found our world and everything we knew for generations changed at the whim of one man. A new purpose was decreed for us, to be tested by the conditions of our homeworld, our bodies honed to provide the Imperium with recruits for a new chapter of inhuman Space Marines. That was before we were betrayed, that was before we found our true path, and that was before the terrible beauty of Scelus was burned by the fires of war. Though we are now outcasts from the Imperium we have kept our chapter's name to both remind us where we came from and what we are now. As it was written in the Index Astartes over three thousand years ago we are, now and forever, the Sons of Malice..."
- – Kathal, Anarch of the Sons of Malice
Scelus is a planet at the Cadian sector of Segmentum Obscurus, a Feral World that was the capital planet of the Sub-sector, formerly the Chapter homeworld of the Sons of Malice. The Sons of Malice carried over the barbarous, cannibalistic rituals they practiced as feral tribesmen. Considering the Chapter Cult of other Chapters are downright just as savage, this probably would have been ignored if not for the proximity of the Eye of Terror being cause for concern, which caused a misunderstanding with the Inquisition.
The result was the Sons being excommunicated and Scelus being declared "Perdita." The Perdita designation isn't exactly well-defined for the 40K fanbase, but it probably has something to do with the Sisters of Battle and the Cadian 331st almost entirely eradicating the native tribes in a planet-wide campaign of genocide. The Imperium (probably) resettled the planet with an offworld population, and the remaining tribes now worship the god of Malice (a.k.a Malal).
Scelus also contained a Schola Progenium that was subject to a raid by the Iron Warriors. But that's another story.
Early Years of Scelus[edit | edit source]
The original inhabitants of Scelus were a xenos species of reptilian humanoids with human slaves for thousands of years. The humans never even spoke directly to their masters until the "Grimnath uprising". The "Grimnath uprising" was led by a group of warriors who acted like meat shields for the reptilians to hide behind, while at war. The uprising was crushed within weeks but had already done more damage than what the reptilian captors could ever perceive, as the humans started to think of freedom and they were determined to have it or die trying. It took some years for the humans to start co-coordinating, when the captors started suspecting a rebellion but could not prove it. Slaves went missing overnight and decomposing corpses were found days or weeks later. The reptiles didn't know that the corpses were from their own dumping grounds where they simply threw dead humans.
Two months after the worlds capital was depleted of live slaves, the former masters were now stretched thin and exhausted from having to take over jobs formerly held by their servants. Without warning, thousands of slaves came out of hiding armed with makeshift weapons. The reptilians, spent from months of hard labour were unable to resist the rebels, who showed no mercy to their former captors and killed every last member of the Xeno race within the city. Not even hatchlings or unborn eggs were spared the wrath of the freed masses of humanity. The rebels then secured the city, putting the technology of the reptilians to work creating weapons and engines of war. Taking advantage of the fact that the previous inhabitants of the city did not have time to send out a warning, they used their newfound power to raid every city within 500 miles. As word spread across the planet, the slaves of hundreds of other municipalities revolted, breaking the chains of oppression and struggling against their captors. This planet wide civil war took 12 long years to conclude, ending in a decisive victory for the human rebels. All surviving reptilian holdouts were obliterated, with every trace of their former culture wiped out. After the common threat of their Xeno overmasters was removed, the humans began to fight amongst themselves, and split into five distinct factions.
Factions[edit | edit source]
"The First" Chose their name from being the first to fight back against their captors. They have the most land and the biggest military and population. Everyone learns how to fight as soon as they can stand.
"The Barbaignas" are really 2 different factions who have allied themselves and become one. They are the second largest faction and are the sworn enemy of "The First", hating them because they are the strongest faction around. It’s likely that if they were to have won the war against "The First" they would have turned on themselves.
"The Rekram" were the smallest of all the factions and the only ones to move out of the lizard’s cities. They moved to the northern pole of the planet and built a city there and began a life of research. When the Rekram were attacked by the Baraignas, the "Rekram" had impenetrable shields and power to keep them on forever. Refusing to give up and break the shields the Bargainas kept attacking, two months passed before the Rekram got tired and then a pole rose up from the ground to the top of the shield turning the shield black then the ground began to rumble, 3 hours later the shield went down but over 1 million turrets could be seen and opened fire destroying all their enemies. After that the Bargainas never attacked them.
"The Qujap" were the second biggest single faction who were deemed unworthy opponents by the Bargainas as they chose not to fight back and they were the link between the other Factions but besides trying to bring peace they did nothing exceptionally important in the human race on the planet of Scelus.
The factions were historically important to Scelus, but they became irrelevant once the Imperium purged the old tribes.