Imperial Worlds

Different Worlds colonized by the Terran Imperium are designated as different Types of Worlds.

**Hive Worlds**

The Imperium’s most populous worlds are its Hive Worlds, of which there are approximately 32,380 in the Imperium. The populations of these planets are so great that the people live in huge urban arcologies called hive cities, truly immense, self-contained, many-layered structures that reach high into the sky, each housing billions of individuals. Hive Worlds often provide much-needed industrial labour, their manufactoria producing mountains of war materiel and other goods to meet the Imperial tithe's demands. Most Hive Worlds started out as relatively hospitable places to live but have become severely polluted, the areas outside the hives reduced to ash wastes or radioactive desert by the never-ceasing industry of the great cities. Equally dangerous can be the hives themselves. The crime-ridden, poverty-stricken areas, almost always found in the most polluted and decrepit lower levels of the under-hive, are home to violent gangs, criminals and assorted scum as well as mutants and heretical cults who hide there from the authorities. It has been said that the sacrifice of over a million Imperial soldiers is worth "one day's Hive World production" in weapons and armour.

Perhaps even more valuable is what at first glance seems to be a byproduct of the monolithic hive city's design. The population of any given world approximately doubles every 100 years. With each hive housing between 10 to 100 billion people and 5 to 20 hives per planet, the sheer number of Imperial citizens on a Hive World is staggering. And each of those citizens is a potential soldier for the Emperor's already uncountably vast armies. Hives manufacture far more than mere steel and silica; they are vast factories for the most useful possible resource, people. Almost every recruit into the Imperial Guard from a Hive World will already know how to handle a weapon. Hive Worlds also serve to populate newly discovered planets. Imperial citizens are gathered from various Hive Worlds (willingly or unwillingly) by the Administratum and shipped off to distant colonies first discovered by the Adeptus Mechanicus' Explorator fleets.

In common with most other Imperial worlds, Hive Worlds are often based on a very obvious class system, with a ruling noble class and a bureaucratic middle class, although with populations so tightly packed there always develops a lower working class that often fuels violent street gangs. As can be expected, the upper classes are situated in the affluent upper areas of the hive cities, whilst the middle classes are situated in the middle areas, and the working classes are packed together in the lower areas. The very bottom sections of a hive city, the Underhive, are often areas where the underclasses and criminals are sent to be forgotten about and anarchy rules.

Some extensively developed Hive Worlds do not even consist of various enclosed arcologies surrounded by wasteland, jungle, ice, or plains. These Hive Worlds are completely urbanised and stacked with hundreds of layers of arcologies, covering the entirety of the planet, effectively becoming an ecumenopolis. Terra is an example of this type of "Super Hive World".

**Industrial Worlds**

Industrial Worlds are planets of the Terran Imperium whose surfaces are devoted wholly to manufacturing or heavy mining and refining activities. These worlds have surprisingly sparse populations in relation to Hive Worlds or Forge Worlds, as most of the labour is done using machines and other forms of advanced automation. Those Industrial Worlds whose primary function is mining and refining are usually blessed with an unusually abundant reserve of highly strategic minerals in order to justify the expense of the investments in technology, labour and other resources.

Forge and Mining Worlds are specialized subtypes of an Industrial World.

**Forge World**

A Forge World is an Imperial term for worlds completely dedicated to the manufacture of the various machines and devices of the Imperium and the pursuit, preserving and gathering of scientific and technical knowledge.

The Forge Worlds are the Imperium's primary source of all kinds of hardware: from farming equipment to war machines such as starships, tanks, aerospace fighters, or even Titans. The Tithe system of the Imperium obliges the various Forge Worlds to supply other worlds and the various military arms of the Imperium with the products of their manufactoria while the Forge Worlds are supplied with food from Agri Worlds and resources from Mining Worlds, among other things. This system effectively increases efficiency by distributing assets where they can be used best and allowing worlds and systems to specialize.

Much of the surface of a Forge World is like an immense factory, with massive industrial factory complexes soaring into the sky, stretching across the horizon and mine workings burrowing deep into the planetary crust. Its ecosystem, if there ever was one, has often been completely destroyed. The air is saturated with toxic gases and rivers flow with toxic runoff from the multitude of manufactoria. In many cases, even seas and oceans have been purposefully evaporated to make room for more manufactoria. However, the sheer amount of industrial output greatly benefits the Imperium as a whole. All of the items produced by a Forge World are constructed according to a very specific design formula that varies from Forge World to Forge World, even for otherwise identical pieces of the same equipment and these variant designs are known as that Forge World's "pattern".

**Mining Worlds**

Mining Worlds are rich in one or more of the raw strategic materials required by the Imperium's manufactoria and Forge Worlds. The people of Mining Worlds are likely to be slaves or penal workers who live out their lives mining and transporting massive quantities of metallic ore, rock, minerals, frozen gases or some other useful, strategic or precious substance. Mining Worlds tend to be rather inhospitable places, and many do not even possess a breathable atmosphere, though a few may support a greater variety of life, developed cities and even hive cities.

**Paradise Worlds**

Otherwise known as Paradise Worlds and sometimes as Garden Worlds, Pleasure Worlds are the playgrounds of the Imperial nobility. They tend to be of outstanding natural beauty and the population of such worlds are dedicated to pampering the important Imperial visitors they often receive, such as members of major noble houses, members of the Navis Nobilite, Planetary Governors, important Ecclesiarchy officials like Confessors and Cardinals, Imperial Commanders, Rogue Traders and wealthy Chartist Captains. Pleasure Worlds are often very cultured places, and many have huge proportions of their populace dedicated solely to producing works of art, music or other forms of entertainment. Casino complexes, opulent restaurants and huge ballrooms are often found on such worlds. There is a darker side to Pleasure Worlds, particularly those who cater to the tastes of the more depraved guests they receive and Pleasure Worlds often host one or more Chaos Cults dedicated to Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure. Some Pleasure Worlds contain large developing cities and other major settlements. All Pleasure Worlds are considered a sub-set of the class of planets known as Civilised Worlds.

**Agri Worlds**

Many planets in the Imperium, such as Forge Worlds and Hive Worlds, are completely incapable of sustaining the sheer number of people who live and work on them. To feed these people, as well as the vast armies of the Imperial Guard, many planets have been completely transformed into giant farms known as Agri-Worlds. Most of these planets have populations of less than 100 million people and possess only a few major cities. These farming planets, in their own way, are as vital to the Imperium as its hives. These planets are given over entirely to the production of food, which Hive Worlds cannot produce in sufficient quantities to keep their huge populations from starving. Many a world has whole continents given over to livestock or fields of crops. Some Agri-Worlds are covered in oceans teeming with fish and a few are far stranger -- worlds covered in edible fungus, scoured by swarms of nutritious insects or are gas giants whose upper atmospheric layers are home to flocks of edible or egg-producing flying creatures. A few planets are used solely to provide clean, potable water to nearby Hive Worlds. Agri-Worlds are sometimes ruled directly by the Adeptus Administratum rather than by their own local government, to help ensure that their produce is grown and harvested with maximum efficiency.