Protasia

Protasia is a war world within the Drusus Marches of the Calixis Sector. An ongoing Imperial military campaign is trying to reclaim
the world from separatist forces. The situation on Protasia and the inability of the Ministorum to bring the light of the God-Emperor back to the world has proven to be a continuous embarrassment on the part of Cardinal Kregory Hestor, cardinal of the Drusian Diocese and member of the Sector Synod. 
Once a devout planet, the
Ministorum enjoyed a strong presence on Protasia and holy
wonders such as the Thirty-Two Hallowed Steps and the
Golden Army of Var drew pilgrims from across the sector.
However in the wake of the Foulmind Heresy and the
nightmare of the Hundredfold Host, the church on Protasia
changed. While records remain unclear, it is believed that the
leader of the Protasian Synod, Arch-Bishop Galarphan, or at
least something wearing his skin, was responsible for this first
great schism and the first seeds of the separatist movement
which would grow and thrive under his watchful eye. At first
the Sector Synod was not overly concerned with the rise of
new cults and the disappearance of a few pilgrims and clerics;
it was only later when human sacrifices and dark rituals were
uncovered did it discover just how rotten the core of the
Protasian Synod had become. Confessor Elye the Traitor is a known heretic who turned from the church and sided with the
Golden Army of Var during the opening days of the conflict.
Now Ignato sees the strife engulfing this world as the
personal business of the church and has caused both Cardinal
Kregory and Sector Lord Marius Hax great pains as he
meddles in their efforts to pacify the world. Ignato believes
that somewhere on Protasia the Arch-Bishop Galarphan still
lives, directing his splinter faith and fuelling the moral and
determination of the separatists, and the Arch-Cardinal would
like nothing more than to bring him back to Scintilla in chains
to meet the just and righteous retribution of the God-Emperor. The holy war here and the one brewing on nearby 47 Kapella has drawn much attention, especially from the Adepta Sororitas.
It was here that Seraph, Moritat assassin and acolyte of the Oblationist Inquisitor Antonia Mesmeron, was possessed by the daemon Spayr during the Inquisitor’s involvement in the Foulmind conspiracy.
==The Protasian Breach==
Not all of the servants of the Ruinous Powers lurk mindlessly
in the Warp waiting to be summoned---some have the means
and will to bring about cataclysms through subtle and far
reaching manipulation. Five hundred years ago, the war-torn
world of Protasia was almost subsumed beneath a wave of
Warp-spawned doom the likes of which has seldom been
seen even within the Calixis Sector.
Protasia’s doom began when the planet’s Imperial
Governor---Lord Malkun Grund the Fifty-First---took it
upon himself to plot secession from the Imperium. Not
a stupid man, Grund kept his own counsel on this matter,
concocting all manner of ways in which he might cast off the
hated yoke and free himself entirely of any obligations to the
wider galaxy. Yet, though Grund never told another soul of
his slow-burning ambitions, someone, or rather something,
heard his thoughts and whispered to him within his mind.
An envoy of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of sorcery and
guile, had heard his plotting, and spoke to him of the power
he could gain if he just declared Protasia’s secession. Grund
listened closely, for the envoy flattered him with promises of
all he might become once he followed his own path and not
that of the Adeptus Terra. Although Grund never needed to
say a single incriminating word to any of his subordinates,
Tzeentch caused his plots to take root in their minds as well.
Step by step, the ties that bound Protasia to the Imperium
were cut. Trade missions on favorable terms were declined,
Ecclesiarchy tithes were slowly, subtly reduced until they were
scarcely worth collecting. Reliance on nearby worlds was
reduced, and senior Administratum adepts quietly killed off.
At the last, at the insistence of the envoy, Grund declined
to undertake a crucial obligation of an Imperial Governor: he
cancelled the annual psyker cull.
It was several years before the cancellation of the cull took
effect, but when finally it did, doom came to Protasia. In a
single day, a dozen rogue psykers came into their powers
and ravaged the land, killing thousands in an orgy of psychic
murder. The very skies above Protasia seethed with witch-lights
and arcs of raw psychic power stitched across the
boiling clouds. Grund raged---imploring the envoy to deliver
him and his world from the chaos that had overtaken it. But
for the first time in a decade, the envoy was silent. Grund was
abandoned to his fate.
At the height of the psychic storm, each of the rogue
psykers was transfigured into a grotesque gateway of pulsing
flesh, through which spewed hundreds of vile Enslavers.
These utterly alien creatures were native to the Warp, but fed
upon the stuff of reality. They entered the material universe
through the unprotected minds of rogue psykers, and on
Protasia they went forth across the land, turning day to night
and taking over the minds of countless millions of Grund’s
subjects. Hordes of drooling, mind-slaved drones stumbled
across the surface of Protasia, and more and more portals
were opened as the Enslavers harnessed the power of the
entire population to breach the Warp and draw forth more
of their kind.
And then, as Grund sank to his knees upon the last intact
tower of his palace, a bright light appeared in the seething
skies. The light descended upon a pillar of flame, coming to
rest before the uncounted horde. A group of warriors, each
armored in polished silver, emerged from the drop ship, and
without pause dove into the heart of the enemy. Fire rained
from the skies, and Grund knew that a fleet of vessels must
be in orbit, unleashing a fearsome orbital barrage that was
tearing the mind-slaved horde apart before his eyes.
Grund uttered the laugh of the madmen, for he knew that
he was delivered, but that he would soon pay the ultimate
price for his treachery. For he knew that had brought about
the ruin of his world, and had caused the deaths of millions.
But then the barrage abruptly ceased. The Black Ships,
battle barges of the Grey Knights Chapter of Space Marines,
and cruisers of Battlefleet Calixis were set upon by another
fleet belonging to the servants of the Ruinous Powers---the
Alpha Legion. The envoy appeared once more at Grund’s back,
whispered its thanks for his service, and was gone forever.
The two fleets engaged even as the battle continued on the
surface below. Millions of tons of ordnance were exchanged
in the opening salvoes, and within an hour, dozens of ships
were aflame. While the two fleets tore one another apart, the
massively outnumbered Grey Knights on the ground fought
their way through the horde to reach the quivering gristle-gates
that the psykers had become, and one by one, destroyed
them. When at last the final gate was closed and the last of the
Enslavers slain, the horde fell apart, millions of mind-slaves
collapsing to the ground in an instant.
In orbit, the Alpha Legion war fleet disengaged, but the
Imperials were too weak to pursue. Instead, they turned their
attentions upon the ruins of Protasia, which in the course
of mere days had been reduced to nigh-complete ruin. Lord
Malkun Grund the Fifty-First was the only human being left
alive in his palace, and he was soon brought before the Ordo
Malleus and their Grey Knight allies. Grund was pronounced
guilty of the very worst crimes an Imperial Commander can
commit, and executed on the spot.
Protasia was left a charnel house, its surviving populace
reduced to mere shells of their former selves as they wandered
an apocalyptic wasteland scattered with uncounted dead.
The Inquisition debated scouring the surface with cyclonic
torpedoes, in order to remove any trace of xenos or Warp
taint. The world received a stay of execution when it was
found that the Grey Knights’ intervention had averted a total
Warp breach, and all of those enslaved by the xenos were
dead. Protasia would rise from the ashes, but only after many
decades of rebuilding and constant vigilance for any taint.
Years later, the taint of secessionism reappeared, and
Protasia announced itself beyond the power of the Adeptus
Terra. Perhaps the envoy of Tzeentch whispers from
the shadows still, manipulating the weak and bringing
about death and destruction in the pursuit of its master’s
unfathomable schemes...
Category:Calixis Sector
Category:War Worlds
Category:Planets
Category:Drusus Marches