Dorado

"*It's a lovely place full of wonderful places that want to kill you and wonderful people who all want you dead. Someone like you could make a decent fortune lookin' around at things you aren't supposed to if you're brave enough. Or stupid enough.*"
—Unnamed veteran scavenger, Hive Dorado
**Dorado**, formerly known as **Relmorant III**, is an Imperial Hive World located in Segmentum Ultima. Once a lush and mysterious world, dotted with strange alien ruins, it is now a teeming Hive World of relentless industry, ruthless trade and massive overpopulation. Its continent-spanning hives and manufactorums work tireless at all hours to produce the weapons, vehicles and mass produced goods in the millions the Imperium always demands more of while its star ports and space elevators dock a hundred ships at any given moment.

As is common with Hive Worlds, many of its inhabitants toil in squalid conditions that make poverty seem like luxury. The upper hive spires are dominated by noble, aristocratic families who scheme and plot among each other while the lower hives are lawless, ruled over only by criminals, gangs and cults while some brave, foolish souls try to plumb its depth for lost archeotech or xenos relicts to try and strike it rich.

It is currently the setting for the WIP **"Call of Dorado"** collab project. If you wish to join and make a gang, send Clocktower\_Echos a message on Discord.

## History

When humanity first found the world of Relmorant III, they discovered a world abundant in natural resources, a hospitable ecosystem and mysterious alien ruins all over its surface. Rumors spoke of a world rich in both valuable metals and exotic alien ruins, earning it a nickname based on legends of Old Earth that would overtake its official name in the centuries to come: Dorado. It was quickly colonized, becoming a powerful and prosperous world who dominated the local sector in trade and politics. Records of it during the Long Night are spotty and unclear but what known is that it seemed to be able to stave off the worse effects of the collapse of the interstellar human empire before being rediscovered by the Imperium.

During the Great Crusade an Iron Warriors expeditionary fleet found a world that was if not prosperous since the collapse, at leas surprisingly stable. Compliance was done quickly and without bloodshed as the planet's ruling government were eager to return to a larger human empire in the hopes of reclaiming the trade wealth it once had. But as with many worlds, Dorado burned during the Great Heresy, declaring loyalty to the Emperor and suffering a brutal siege under the now-traitor Iron Warriors before being liberated by the Ultramarines. The Siege of Dorado left untold millions if not billions dead with entire continents being scoured of life. But the world endured and rebuilt over the coming millennia.

Since then, Dorado has seen its fair share of wars, from Chaos and Dark Eldar raiding fleets hoping to make a name for themselves to an entire Ork WAAAGGH, the largest the sector had seen in several thousand years, the wrecks and remains of many thousands of battles litter its polluted surface. All of this to say nothing of the ancient xenos ruins that some say still sit at the very bottom of the hives, waiting for someone or something to activate them once more.

## Geography

Once upon a time, Dorado was covered in dense jungles, high mountains and running clear rivers. Those days are long since behind it as now it very much resembles every other hive world: dirty, polluted and irrevocably damaged. Still some traces of its past self remain. The equatorial jungle stretches across the entire planet, as twisted and mutated as it is, and some hives have been built up so much they now stick into the chem-sludge oceans. There is a constant (and well founded) fear of Hives suddenly being flooded by the toxic slurry should their exterior walls break.

There are seven major hives on the world: Sibola, Paitity, Kaserian, Hanoa, Anitllia, Quivera and Dorado.

### Hive Dorado

Hive Dorado is the largest and most important hive on the planet, acting as planetary capital and primary port of entry for void ships coming in. It boasts the tallest and most beautiful Spires, hundreds of levels and uncounted layers beneath the earth. Billions go about their squalid lives without ever realizing the depths of the hive, the labarynthine network of tunnels underneath that connect it to other hives and lost bunkers, or the alien ruins and archeotech hidden below.

## Culture

If there is one thing that Doradans value above all else, it is ambition and loyalty. An individual's personal glory means little if it is not for a larger group and to be complacent is to be lazy. Such values are reinforced by cultural practices and Imperial propaganda alike, stressing submission and obedience for a greater collective and become a valuable member within said group. Such an arrangement works well as Dorado follows an urban-feudalism of other hive worlds were individual give their loyalty to others who form ever larger groups of smaller groups swearing loyalty to each other or a higher power. Such an arrangement is self governing but also inevitably leads to conflict. In most cases, such conflicts are head before the court of the Lord or Lady Governor but the further one goes down the hive, the more likely such conflicts will turn into open war.

### The Call of Dorado

Even to the modern Imperium, the legends and rumors of Dorado have persists and even grown. Tales of xenos, ancient and even archeotech draw many adventurers and bounty hunters to try and dive deep into the underhive or out into the wasteland for lost valuables of a bygone age. Rarely do these brave souls return and those who come back alive are lucky, yet the blessed few who have unearthed even tiny fractions of lost treasure have been rewarded beyond measure. More than one noble house across the sector have been founded by the wealth obtained by some ancestor who found something important deep in Dorado. Such a story is rarely more than fantasy for most, but still draws many to attempt their own hunts. Such a draw is locally known as the Call of Dorado and when something deep in the underhive stirs, everyone hears it.

## Politics

The Sanhps has ruled over Dorado for untold centuries, their rule passing between the eldest heir as is common in the neo-feudal structure of the Imperium. Below them are the many Great Houses, guilds and corporations who all compete with one another for power, influence and wealth in games of politics that can take generations to fulfill. While the massed violent crime and gang warfare is common on the planet, open war and violent hostilities between the power players are not and strictly banned as every time it the nobles have brought to bear their private armies to bear, Imperial intervention is never far behind to keep the peace on the planet. The last time such open hostilities between the families and guilds happened, two dozen Imperial Guard regiments were sent into to quell the violence and executed many of the upper nobility and business leaders.

To this end, the great noble houses and business interests engage in proxy wars by sponsoring any number of gangs-houses in the underhive. To them, every scrap of territory gained or lost, every ganger recruited or killed and every shot fired is a manifestation of their power, even if the gangers themselves remain completely oblivious to the wider politics their daily, grueling struggle represents to those in the Spires. Sometimes these Sponsors might even back multiple, competing gangs and promise support and riches to the greatest among them. Such an arrangement rarely lasts long and always ends in violence which only sometimes results in the promised gains. On more than one occasion has a well respected house fallen out of favor due to the failures of their sponsored gangs, only for a lesser upstart company to fill their spot after the ascension of a particularly cunning sponsored gang leader.

### Major Gangs

The follow is a list of some of the most prominent gangs on Dorado

* **House Volavat, "House of Storm"** - Sponsored by the Theron Power Corporation. They control many power waystations and generator plants in the underhive as well as producing large amounts of the drug Skag. They are known for their homemade "Tonitrius" power weapons, electrified armors and well defended bases.