The Cthonian Imperium

The Cthonian Imperium is a human empire that suddenly first appeared in the year 2253 ( 053, M03 ) from a time that only the oldest inhabitants of Cthonian society know.  The Cthonian Imperium is a heavily militarized faction whos military comprises almost solely of vast swathes of devoted men and women of the Imperial Army reinforced by the great transhuman warriors known as the Legiones Astartes, more commonly known as the Space Marines who were once led by their founder and in some cases gene-father Horus Lupercal, who is currently being kept in stasis in a death-like state within the depths of Mt Iskandola Palace within the center of the grandest Hive city of Cthonia, Jutigran.  It is said that in the time of reckoning, Horus would rise from his throne that now entombs him and once again take charge of the Cthonian Imperium in its darkest times.  In his stead stands both the marines of the Mournival Council, each a veteran of wars long past and Horus’ own Primarchs, his gene-crafted sons who like his own father were forged to be his greatest generals and as his heirs to the title of Warmaster.

The standard human population of the Cthonian Imperium is mostly situated in massive mountains made of  buildings, hablocks and manufactorums called Hive cities. These giant mounds of skyscrapers can be found on many worlds under the Cthonian Imperium’s control.  Each world is allowed to retain its original culture for the purposes of increasing the chance of recruiting more capable warriors for the Adeptus Astartes and to make relations between said worlds and the wider Imperium much smoother.

The system where the Cthonian Imperium currently has laid claim to what was once documented by Arskodian and Montergian historians and astrologists as the Luhman System (now renamed the Cthonian System/Segmentum) situated 6.5 lightyears away from the Sol System.  There are many minor worlds colonised by the Imperium that still have no official name, the major worlds of the Cthonian Imperium all reside in the Cthonian System, these worlds being Kaeriol (an ice covered death-world used as a source of aspirants for the Sons of Horus legion), Belacane (Mechanicus forge-world that is currently home to the remnants of the Martian Mechanicum), Valgeuro (a lush yet deadly Death-World that is home to wildlife similar to the mammal-like reptiles that once existed upon Old Terra during the Permian period, this world is also a recruiting world for both the Luna Wolves and the Gorgon High-Riders regiments of the Imperial Army) and Cthonia itself.

## **Origins:**

The Cthonian Imperium, a faction with origins that perplex many of the other galactic powers, first appearing in the Arskodian year of 2253 from multiple holes in time and space of unknown creation over the lush yet deadly world of what would later be a mining/feral world christened Cthonia located in the Chthonic System, a system that is in close proximity to the Sol System.

The legion first appeared as a broken force split into three subfactions and fleets, each fleet comprising hundreds, if not thousands of escorts and cruisers, dozens of battleships and battle-barges and one Gloriana-Class Battle Barge.

The first to exit from the anomaly was a vast fleet comprised of vessels bearing the symbols of a great wolf head holding a crescent moon within its jagged maw, The Luna Wolves Legion, initially the Luna Wolves were perplexed as to where they were for they had set course for the Segmentum Pacificus to aid the 4th and 10th Legions in bringing the Humbrol System into compliance.

The Luna Wolves’ flagship, the Magna Tyrannis had it’s onboard navigators scan for any sign of nearby activity, instead the Head-Navigator Jibril Amictus found that the Warp was unnervingly calm and tranquil in comparison to how chaotic and violent it regularly was, they also made the discovery that the world that they were currently in orbit around was in fact Cthonia due to the planet having being located at the exact same coordinates in the Cthonian System.

This new information was relayed to the commanding figure of the legionary fleet who was located within the Magna Tyrannis’s command bridge, the Primarch and gene-father of the Luna Wolves legion, the favored son of the Emperor, Horus Lupercal who at this new information immediately began to question the ludicrous claims made by the Head-Navigator until he himself looked upon the screens and data-slates that proved the navigator’s claim to be true. He quickly proceeded to command his fleet’s astropaths to make contact with any nearby Imperial fleets via Astropathic Vox-links.

Before any message could be relayed a second anomaly burst forth and spat forth another massive cluster of ships that was similar if not larger than the fleet of the Luna Wolves, this new fleet was unnervingly familiar to the legionaries of the 16th Legion though what confused them even more was that they were being hailed by the second fleet's flagship, The Vengeful Spirit and the one who contacted them was Serghar Targost, 13th Company Captain of the Sons of Horus.

Almost immediately the Primarch began to question Serghar as to who he was and what legion he hailed from, confused Captain Serghar stated that he was of the 13th company of the Sons of Horus legion and when asked further as to why he was not currently with the rest of the Luna Wolves fleet the captain replied that he had ordered his company  along with the 5th, 7th and 10th Company to aid the Emperor’s Children, World Eaters and the Death Guard in bringing the system back under compliance. Perplexed by the question Horus replied “Istvaan? Captain I do not recall garrisoning my legionaries or legion fleets within the Istvaan System, that duty is for the Iron Warriors of Perturabo to fufil. In fact we recently brought it under compliance approximately two Terran years ago.” The Primarch continues further states that he had no recollection of renaming his legion or altering that legionary standards or colour schemes and further questions the legitimacy behind Serghar’s title as Captain.

Before the 13th Captain could word a proper and concise reply with a valid explanation another anomaly tears itself open and spits out another large fleet, this time it looks nothing like a standard legionary fleet, the ships that comprised this new flotilla looked decrepit and worn and gave of an aura of dread as they aimlessly floated in the void, these vessels bared an insignia similar to the Sons of Horus fleet but it was melded and mixed with an eight-pointed star.  Upon learning of the new arrivals Horus ordered his Astropathes to hail this new fleet.

Almost immediately when they began to hail the new arrivals, the new fleet began to fire upon the  fleets of the Luna Wolves and the Sons of Horus taking both Horus and the 13th Captain by surprise, Horus hastedly attempts to hail the opposing fleet once more and after a long 45 seconds of waiting for a response he receives a hail from the commanding figure of this bizarre fleet, what answered the Primarchs hail was something that Horus would have much difficulty trying to forget.  What he saw was an astarte who wore what looked like a bastardised version of the Cataphracti-Terminator armor worn by the recently introduced 13th Captain and his armor was covered in flayed human skin, cleaved skulls and a golden eight pointed star amulet along with other horrid trophies.

What met the genetically enhanced ears of the Primarch was a voice that sounded like someone had consumed volcanic pebbles and washed them down with acid, the face of this astarte at first looked at the Primarch with contempt and fury but upon seeing the face of the Primarch his face contorted into a face of shock and began to shout and chant “By the Dark Gods, hold fire! We are firing upon our own Primogenitor, The Warmaster!  The true Warmaster of the Gods has returned to us, his Legion!” And as soon as the assault began it was over, leaving two thirds of the participants in a state of shock and confusion and the other third psychotically overjoyed.

Horus was greatly unnerved and perplexed at the behaviour of this marine as he did not remember any of his sons acting so chaotic and psychotic nor did he remember any of his brother's gene-sons making quilts out of human skin.  He began to question the astarte of his identity and almost immediately the marine shouted “Threxos Hellbreed, Warband Champion of the Black Legion my lord, anything you ask of me and my fleet and we will see it fulfilled my Warmaster!”
It was at this point that Horus began to question what the Black Legion was and at that question Threxos’ already bizarre mannerisms suddenly came to a halt with his face contorting into a face that seemed to convey a shred of confusion “My Lord, do you not remember the Long War? The purge of our loyalist brothers on the world of Istvaan 3? The Siege of Terra?  Your deat...defeat at the hands of the Corpse Emperor? Anything?”
Horus simply replied “No, everything you just spoke of makes little to no sense, and what in the name of the sands of Cthonia is this Long War what does this have to do with this ‘Corpse Emperor’ you speak of?”

 It was at that moment something in Threxos’ warped and tainted mind clicked, The Warp was a realm where time could go backwards, forwards, up and down, left and right at random intervals, The Warp must have caused all three fleets to appear at the same place during the same time period, but that left one large question left to answer, what time period are they in?

“My Lord?”  Threxos spoke over the VoxLink. “Are you…familiar with how time is affected by the Warp?”  At this question Horus replies “I am not a psyker nor am I an Astropath but I am indeed knowledgeable of how the Immaterium warps our perspective of time and reality.”  Threxos began to explain his assumption as to why all three fleets were where they were, they were all from different time periods.  Horus and his currently largest sized fleet hailed from the age of the Emperor’s Great Crusade, 13th Company Captain Serghar and his equally-sized fleet hailed from what Threxos had called the Age of the Heresy and the Threxos and his warband hailed from the Age of the Modern day Imperium. It was during this time that Threxos began to explain in heavily censored detail the events that led up to the modern-era imperium, Horus grew ever more horrified at what his legion would become, he was almost tempted to destroy the Warbands fleet outright but he was quickly calmed by Serghar and his own Honour Guard.

After approximately three standard days Horus ordered an mandatory summons for all the commanding officers and commanders of each fleet to hold a gathering on the surface of the planet to discuss how to progress forward in their predicament, Serghar was horrified at the appearance of Threxos’ face over the Vox but still reluctantly complied with the order whereas Threxos gladly obeyed the commands of his Primarch.

Three standard hours laters hundreds of officers and other representatives of each legion gathered in a clearing in one of Cthonia’s ancient grasslands and setup an encampment and a temporary Headquarters for the highest ranking members, it was here where most of the officers, commanders and the Primarch himself reconvened face to face, the marines of the Luna Wolves and the Sons of Horus fleets stood at attention in the presence of their gene-father whereas some of the more sane Black Legionaries chant out “Warmaster!” or “Lupercal!” while the more unhinged Black Legionaries were kept out of the Primarchs sight in fear that if he were to see them they along with the rest of the Black Legion Warband would be destroyed by the combined forces of the Luna Wolves and the Sons of Horus.

Once proper negotiations were handled all present commanders and captains knelt before the Primarch, these astartes hailed from various times but still recognised each other as Battle-Brothers, be they from the very founding of the Imperium, the Age of Heresy or the “Modern Day” Imperium.  It was at that moment where tens of dozens of his own sons knelt before him and swore fealty to their Primarch, their Warmaster and their Gene-Father, and Horus stood high above his sons and spoke on an open Vox-Link for all his sons to hear, he announced the founding of a new Legion structure where all the present fleets and companies merged to form one secular faction that could one day rival the Imperium they had all reluctantly or willingly left behind.  Horus Lupercal, the favoured son of the Emperor, raised his mace, World-Breaker, high above his head and toward the sky and proclaimed that his sons were now the forefathers of The Reborn Empire, the Cthonian Imperium.

After this declaration he ordered that portions of the mortal human crew of each ship of his combined fleet to be brought to the planets surface and have them create a grand settlement for them to reside upon and be the home for many future Cthonians, this task was made easier with the aid of the Astartes and Tech-Adepts of what remained of the onboard Mechanicum.

This new city was gifted the name Jutigran and in a short amount of time the city’s population went from a few ten thousand to well over a million, it was from these mortal humans that the culture of Cthonian people was birthed from, a culture that was conceptually similar to the ancient and balanced culture of Ancient Terra, with the world being segmented into states, the largest of which being the state of Volantis which is where the capital of Jutigran is situated.

## **History:**

253,M03 (2253): After the sudden arrival of the Astartes fleets and negotiations between each of them which in itself last over one Terran month, the highest ranking members of all the Astarte fleets form the Cthonian Mournival, the main council and governing body of the Cthonian Imperium along with acting as the Primarch’s main advisers and emissaries.  The warband fleet of the Black Legion had swiftly cleansed itself of any form of warp-corruption in their ranks to ensure that they aren't immediately seen as hostile and to ensure that they would never again fall under the sway of the daemons that they once worshipped, but this attempt to thwart future treachery within their ranks was but a temporary solution to a permanent problem, one that in time would return with a vengeance.

254,M03 (2254): The ground and upper levels Hive City of Jutigran are completed along with many other smaller settlements and Hive-Cities outside its borders.  Over the course of many months the Legion’s mortal Army, Auxiliary and Navy personnel are reformed into the Imperial Army, Cthonian Auxiliary and Imperial Navy respectfully, the Martian Mechanicum personnel and tech-priests are reorganised into the Imperial Mechanicum under the leadership of newly appointed Fabricator-General To’khal Volt and the Astarte Psykers of the Sons of Horus legion and the Sorcerers of the Black Legion are reorganised into the Imperial Astropathica and Cartographologis-Chimertactica.

256,M03 (2256): After two years of preparations and reorganisation, Horus Lupercal taking the role of his father as both the de-facto Emperor of the Imperium, announces to his reformed legions and Cthonian Auxiliary that the time of unification has begun once more and orders the present legionaries to mount the Gastornis-Class Gunships (A modernised and upscaled variant of the Thunderhawk developed by the reformed Mechanicum) and rejoin their respective fleets in orbit and continue his father’s Great Crusade, to retake the lost worlds of humanity and purge the galaxy of all Xenos races or other factions that pose a threat to humanity. Due to Horus seeking to lead the crusade personally he calls upon the highest ranking members of his Mournival the authority and orders them to maintain and control the governing body of the Imperium in his stead.