Mining World Ihor

Ihor, seen from the bridge of the Godwinne's Bounty circa 13VCM M.41

Ihor is an igneous mining planet located in the Rykore system, itself part of the Fell Stars region of the Ketamo Deep. Founded in the year 700.M39 by the rogue trader Godwinne Bruder, Ihor was named for the trader's cherished cyber-mastiff.

## Discovery

At the time of its discovery, Ihor was nothing more than a barren wasteland, apparently devoid of indigenous life. Upon scratching the surface of planet, Godwinne and his crew found a treasure trove of valuable mineral wealth to be exploited. As they began to mine the planet, an Imperial fleet appeared in orbit, claiming they had a stake in the planet since they were in the system first. Godwinne assured them that he and his men had laid first claims to the planet, as writ in his trade dynasty's warrant of trade. Nevertheless, the bickering between the two rival powers escalated to an arms race.

## The Zarphacian Extermination

As tensions grew between the Bruder dynasty and the Imperial fleet, led by Inquisitor Elizabeth Rykore, they were met by the planet's true populace: the Zarphac. The Zarphac rose from the planet's crust and set about slaughtering the divided factions. Using the porous mountains and plains to their advantage, the Zarphac were able to attack at will, at any location around the globe. As the two factions of humanity not only fought each other, but now a foul, murderous xenoform, the two leaders, Godwinne and Inquisitor Elizabeth, came to terms and made a truce; for they had several options laid before them. Blow up the planet with a few well placed macro cannon blasts, but then all the resources they coveted on the planet would go to waste or be lost forever. The other option was to fight together and defeat the Zarphac, but the losses would be devastating leaving very little to no one to mine the planet.

Eventually, a compromise was reached: virus bomb the planet. In order to succeed, they cracked the planet with a preliminary bombardment, rending vents beneath the surface so that the virus could reach deep into the Zarphacian warrens. By the modern day, Zarphac xenoforms only exist as mummified corpses on display in the system's zoological museums.

As the virus bomb took hold, the warring factions also managed to unify a trade argreement that would entwine Godwinne's dynasty and Elizabeth for eons to come: if the Imperium could occupy Ihor, the Bruder Dynasty would have exclusive, first-hand rights to interstellar travel to other systems, and sell the ore with a 50% cut of anything mined on Ihor. With the deal struck, Inquisitor Elizabeth began to make settlement on Ihor with the help of the Godwinne's colonization contacts.

## The Benedictine Folly

As time passed, Inquisitor Elizabeth couldn’t oversee everything in the system which bore her name, and she decided to deploy some of her Inquisitorial acolytes to be her eyes on the planet while they watched the planetary Governor at work.  One such acolyte was Yen Benedict--a seemingly competent man, but one who proved utterly incapable of handling the responsibilities of a planet. Stationed in Ihor's capital city, Crown Ore, as an ersatz "inquisitor", Benedict's rule was short and filled with strife.

In early 11 post RCM.M41, the Delta-II mining outpost in Ihor's northern mountain range discovered a heretofore unknown mineral form. Soon dubbed Blood Stone, the mineral was capable of conducting a raw electrical charge, and showed promise as a conductive material in weapons manufacturing.

By mid-12 post RCM.M41, the planet was in crisis. A festering cult to the Ruinous Powers had worked its way into Ihorean society, launching raids against the Delta-II outpost. A public revolution, led by an arms dealer, threatened to turn the streets of Crown Ore into a slaughterhouse, and off-world xenos mercenaries had become commonplace in the planet's underworld. This confluence of events led Benedict to panic. Seemingly incapable of leveraging what Inquisitorial firepower he had on hand, Benedict turned to outside aid in the form of a rogue trader's ship, recently in-system.

During the intrigue that followed, Crown Ore was engulfed in the flames of outright revolution, Benedict was put to death by Interrogator Kathrine Erisa, and an Imperial strike force, aided by a tactical squad of the Executioners chapter of the Adeptus Astartes and led, nominally, by the rogue trader Xanatov Alessio-Bruder ser Kire, routed the Chaos cult from its lair beneath Mosura Mountain.

This conflict stopped the cult's plan to unleash a planet-ending plague, and led to the reunification of the ancient trade compact between the Inquisition and the Bruders, and opened a new avenue for the trade of Blood Stone beyond the Rykore system. The cult's connection to outside forces, however, remained obscure for some time.