Only a fraction of the stars have habitable planetary systems, and only a tiny fraction of these have been investigated by humanity or any other spacefaring race. The initial human colonisation of the galaxy lies in the distant past, separated from the present by twenty thousand years of regression and rebuilding. Human worlds are' scattered throughout the galaxy but their distribution is not even. The greatest density of human worlds is in the galactic west, close to Earth. In the galactic east, in the area known as the Eastern Fringe, human worlds are few and often far apart.
Many human worlds benefit from mutual contact and a comparable level of technology.
Others have become primitive and barbarous, often as a result of periods of isolation. One of the millions of planets that are a part of the galaxy spanning Imperium is Necromunda. It was a planet rich in resources that have been mined, harvested and stripped from the planet since. Its metals and minerals are now exhausted. Its flora and fauna have had their genomes mapped and filed and have since died in the toxic waste left by the encroachment of humanity upon the planet.