Aeriava

Departmento Cartigraphicae pict-file of Aeriava, Chapter Homeworld of the Liberators of Night Space Marine Chapter.

## Planet

### Affiliation

Imperium
 Liberators of Night Chapter

## Location

### System

Codran System

**Aeriava** is an Imperial Ice World, Death World, Feral World, and the homeworld of the Liberators of Night Space Marines Chapter. The planet currently possesses a population of approximately 400 thousand, not including the unreached tribes of the world. Somewhat isolated, it serves as the perfect breeding ground for recruitment for the Liberators of Night. It is also ideal for training recruits and as a staging ground for troops responding to xeno or chaos incursions within the sector as a whole.

The Liberators of Night were established on Aeriava during the 4th Founding as part of the accelerated gene-seed research done by the Primarch Corvus Corax. They were made in response to the War of the Beast, and the increased invasions of Orks and the xenos that followed the hordes. They continue to serve as guardians and warriors of the Coptis Sector, though willing to go wherever the Emperor calls them. This world also houses their Fortress-Monastery the *Talon*.

## History

### Pre-Imperium

#### Settlement

Aeriava is believed to have been settled by a Tyrranid Hive Fleet millennia ago in a terraforming process that left the world filled with life. The monsters and beasts of legend spoken about by the human natives are believed by the Imperium to be leftover experiments of a bygone era. The first Imperial troops to make contact were settlers from the Dark Age of Technology. These settlers were faced with the brutal hostility of Aeriava, but managed to survive, and even thrive in their own sense. Settling, they secured the world for the Imperium, taking advantage of the numerous jungles to establish a woodcutting camp, that quickly grew into towns.

#### Regression

During the Age of Strife, the increasing number of Warp-Storms, and chaos on Terra caused contact with Aeriava to go silent. Over the next millennia's, the planet regressed as the influence of the Warp, and the lack of support, caused the very planet itself, to become hostile. Mass flooding covered many of the smaller landmasses and left the continents completely isolated. Scattered across the island-continents, the settler of Aeriava became nomadic and hostile tribes of hunter-gatherers whose only permanent settlements are their holy cities. Any relics of their past, have become artifacts of the gods, revered by the Aeriavan people.

### Age of the Imperium

#### The Great Crusade

During the Great Crusade, Aeriava was re-discovered. The first landing was lead by the Imperial Army who were met fierce resistance from the natives, and the planet itself, with it's harsh weather and unforgiving flora, proving too much. Of this original group, only 200 of the 10,000 survived the expedition. The next wave was led by the Raven Guard, at that time still a Legion. They were quick to establish a base on the world and secure it from the Imperium, finishing what the Imperial Army started and clearing the system of Xenos and Orks. The planet was designated as a Feral World, and as such, the peoples of Aeriava were left relatively untouched, now revering the Astartes as "Winged Warriors" and Corvus as the "Soul Keeper".

#### Horus Heresy

During the Horus Heresy, Aeriava was used as a bastion of the Raven Guard, used to store relics, weaponry, and machinery from the forces of Chaos. Officially, the world was just another Feral World, but on the surface, the beginnings of what would become the fortress-monastery of the Liberators appeared. Tunneling into the Northern Cliffs, an unknown Raven Guard regiment bunkered down, and waited out the conflict, unaware of the massacre of their brothers.

Eventually contact would be made, and they would be forced to face the fact, that while they waited in peace, their brothers were brutally murdered and their Primarch was pushed to desperation. Racked with guilt, they swore to continue on and secure the System for the Imperium, with death as their only alternative.

During the 4th Founding, the High Lords approved of another Raven Guard Chapter, and the Liberators of Night were formed, choosing from the natives of Aeravia and turning their bastion into a mighty fortress-monastery.