Maurya

Departmento Cartographicae pict-file of Maurya, taken from its lowest orbital colony.

## Planet

### Population

1 Trillion including the Orbital Colonies and binary Moons

### Military Forces

26 Warships supported by around 100 Million PDF soldiers

## Location

### System

Onkar System

**Maurya** is a large verdant jungle/hive world with binary moons located in the Segmentum Tempestus. It is the home world of the elite Astra Militarum regiments, the Mauryan Guard. The bigger of its moons, Mehanat, is an industrial ecumenopolis, it is used as a forge moon so that Maurya can retain some of its natural beauty. The smaller moon, Garha, has been converted for use as a orbital fortress to keep out the xenos raiders that are often seen in the systems outskirts.

Besides its moons Maurya also has a handful of orbital colonies to offset their overcrowded surface. Maurya is also in control of the rest of its system and several locations outside of it like the Kazamer system, these holdings are mostly mining and other resource interests but they are all dotted with defense batteries and sensor stations.

## **History**

When the original colonists landed on Maurya, according to unverified records possibly as early as M19, they discovered a hostile jungle full of dangerous flora & fauna. Despite this they built their capital of Ik-Magadrha and set to taming the jungles of their new home. They found untold amounts of resources of all types from minerals to food. For millennia Maurya had a violent history full of animal attacks, extensive warfare between the various hives and tribes, plagues of all types, & xenos assaults, as they spread out on the surface. By the time of the Great Crusade the planet was much more tame than would be expected of anything ever classified as a death world

### **Unity into Space**

Eventually in M25 they united under a single Sultan, his first order was to create a small navy of frigates & cruisers to protect the fledgling orbital empire. This brought on the first real war against the local Ork empire, a costly campaign that almost destroyed the planet in the in the ensuing counterattack of ork invasions. though the ork were eventually beaten back the surface battles had fractured the newborn unity of the hives, but within a decade the Sultan was able to regain his power and lead the planet to slowly prosper.

### **Praetorian Occupation**

In early M27 the rulers of Maurya's most powerful neighbor, the hive world of Praetoria, was able to gain vast connections in the weak Mauryan government of the time and force it to become a subject of Praetoria. For hundreds of years they ruled over the Mauryan & brutally exploited them for their planets abundant resources and labor as well as for pleasure hunting in their expansive jungles, since their is no real natural area left on their own world. This eventually ended hundreds of years later when the Mauryan revolted and were able to beat the praetorian regiments sent to end the uprising. ​To this day regiments form these planets HATE each other and often it ends up with bloodshed if they are near each other.

For a time the newly created government did its best to fix the damage done to them but by M30 much of the exploitative actions were repeated to make more money and power for the Sultans and nobles that made up the top tiers of the Castes in the political landscape of Maurya.

### **Great Crusade & Horus Heresy**

During the crusade millions of mauryans fought with honor and their famous fearlessness for the Emperor of Mankind...as well as the warmaster. When pyskers belonging to the Thuggi heard rumors of possible chaos within the warmaster's ranks they had their highest ranking spy within the forces under his direct control conduct a meeting where they came to an alliance, the Thuggi would disrupt Maurya so that it could not bring its regiments to bear in the coming siege of Holy Terra. Thuggi assassins struck around the same time the Istvaan V massacre was happening, killing senior officers loyal to the emperor and anyone else they could find that was a loyalist.

Though they did disrupt the Mauryan's ability to fully commit to its defense the venerable *Shivea's Wrath,* a Retribution-class battleship, along with a few escort frigates was able to reach Terra and deployed its Contingent before a titan legion was able to hit the weakest flank of the palace defenses. This valiant action cost the mauryans dearly with the loss of most the ground forces, but also destroyed the chaos titans bearing down on the besieged palace. the *Shivea's Wrath* and its escort frigates provided orbital weapon support to the ground forces as well as squaring off against the chaos armada ending with the destruction of its escorts and dozens of traitor ships. it then participated in the Great Scouring where the battleship harassed chaos warships all the way up to the Eye of Terror in an effort to kill every chaos twisted traitor. Mauryan legend has it that the captain only turned around because he was ordered to preserve his warship for the coming wars by a ranking member of the newly founded Inquisition. This ship is still the flagship for the Mauryan PDF fleet & is still used to put down the myriad of raiders in the nearby systems.

### **Current Threats**

A more recently made and less violent rivalry is with Tallarn. It is over control of the Kazamer system and its main planetoid called Kazamer VI, it is a small alpine moon of a resource rich gas giant that is currently held by Maurya though Tallarn descended locals in the area constantly harass the Mauryan guardsman.

The biggest current local threat to Maurya is its close proximity to Ork-held space and the raids that come from it to hit the asteroid mines and outlying systems. After an ork WAAAGH long before joining the Imperium hit the planet it destroyed one of the southern hives and outlying jungle before being stopped, this was the biggest WAAAGH to hit the planet in its known history until the War of the Beast riled up every ork in the galaxy to invade.

On a lesser note is eldar raiders from both variants have also been sighted trying to establish covert bases in the planets jungle. Unknown to the human colonists millions of years ago the planet was a garden world used to hide relics in sealed temples hidden within the undergrowth of the jungle, before being left to over terraform as a way to further hide the temples. The power within the relics could be used to rip open reality to the warp or blast apart a webway branch.

## **Climate & Geography**

The Mauryan climate is mostly typical of a jungle world with hot muggy weather though the hives have produced several barren wastelands, industrial slag pits, and mining quarries outside their walls. The forge moon has saved most of the natural environment unlike most hive worlds, this is because of the closeness with nature that many Mauryan have regardless if they are rajjut or not. Their is at least one monsoon going one somewhere on the planet if not several all over in the wetter seasons. These powerful storms can cut off most kinds of communications to a hive for weeks at a time & cause huge flooding that drowns countless underhivers all of the time.

### **The Hives & Moons**

The planets main hive & administrative capital is Ik-Magadrha, or just Magadrha as Ik is the local word for Hive or megacity, from here the Sultan and various imperial organisations carry out their normal functions. It is the original capital from the days of the colonists, marking their landing zone when they came to Maurya. it has stood against every ork WAAAGH and raider attack, not once ever failing its defense no matter the cost.

Several other Hives have been created to house the additional laborers in other work zones around the planet. each has a population in the billions but not on the scale of Magadrha which hover around 200 billion & is the biggest population center on the surface. The planets leaders have tried to keep as much of the planets jungle unspoiled from hive industry as possible since the luxuries the jungle offered were a large part of the wealthy visitors to the planet.

* **Ik-Vedic** is the religious center of the planet and the closest hive to the capital, the road between is considered a holy road with millions of pilgrims taking the various roads & trails crisscrossing the jungle. the road is prowled by bandits & jungle predators, forcing local rajjut militias and the PDF to constantly monitor the paths and clear them of dangers. Vedic has the smallest population, estimated at around 9 billion residents.
* **Ik-Bumbai** is the fourth biggest in terms of population. it houses most of the training grounds for new regiments and storage for the PDFs armor and munitions. Because of this it is on par with the hives of a fortress world, able to last a decade on its own if need be for it knows that the Sultan and generals would defend the capital as the highest priority. Estimated at around 47 billion residents.
* **Ik-Tamil** is built on the planets biggest mining area, not counting orbital interests, with quarries surrounding it and deep tunnels far into the planets crust. its workforce is the poorest on the planet with only Mehanat being considered worse off. Estimated at around 98 billion residents.
* **Ik-Darawer** is the farthest from Magadrha and was meant to be the most self sufficient Hive with it being a jack of trades to the rest. it has the second biggest population numbering around 160 bllion, with the third biggest industrial output and has jungle on all sides. It is suspected that the main Thuggi base is hidden somewhere near this hive &/or getting direct support from the hives nobility.

The binary moons as well as the Lankah class Orbital stations are a totally different living situation from the planet dwelling Mauryan. The various stations, named from Lankah.prime to Lankah.9 or LP to L9 to make it easier for the traffic controllers, together with the moons hold over 500 billion humans in cramped & unsafe living conditions. These poor people are mostly centered on the moons, or as part of the many long distance resource conglomerates that hit the asteroid belts & locations like the Kazamer system, or the orbital PDF though some join a Voidborn regiment or Aero Wing but more commonly the Navy if they go a military route.

* **Mehanat** is a Forge moon where most of the orbital workforce lives. It is 100% covered in industrial cityscape where they create all kinds of ships and mundane heavy equipment. the workers that live full time on the planet are considered the poorest people of all the Mauryan. Estimated at around 300 billion residents, over a quarter of the overall Mauryan population and the biggest singe concentration of Mauryan.
* **Garha** is a small Fortress moon covered in heavily walled cities and defense turrets with enough firepower in any one hemisphere to wipe out a normal raiding flotilla within 30 minutes of arriving in the system, if all goes according to the defenders plans. Estimated at around 100 billion residents with all military age residents required to be part of a militia if not in the PDF or priority support role, swelling the actual fighting strength of the moon well beyond the PDF numbers.
* **Lankah.prime** is the biggest orbital station & home to most of the voidborn regiments & orbital administration staff, otherwise its population toils as laborers making void specific industrial products. It also has the main dockyards for transports carrying resources from outside the system going to the orbital stations. It is the first of the Lankah class stations and is built to three times the size as the other eight Lankah class stations, each of these being massive habitation cylinders covered in shipyards and the top of hundreds of industrial plants, to test other technologies like an advanced self sustaining life support for larger populations & multi reactor power systems to keep the thousands of weapon batteries working at once if needed. Estimated at around 30 billion residents with each other Lankah class holding around 10 billion residents.

### Kazamer System

The Kazamer system is a contested region of space between the Mauryan & Tallarn colonists, the Mauryan claiming overall control for the time being. Both sides claim to have settled the resource rich system first but record have yet to definitively prove anything, instead they wage a cold war of political subterfuge & covert violence alongside heavy Tallarn Militia & Mauryan PDF build up for a coming war if needed.

## **Flora & Fauna**

Like most jungle worlds the very environment is a constant threat to human life. The most prominent threat is the numerous jungle beats, dozens of deadly serpent species ranging from the small Addar to the massive Naja, Man eating plants with variants common on many jungle worlds, & several poisonous plants that are common across the surface. Many of these are from specimens brought by the colonists and mixed with the native species, creating hybrid monsters like the Sheerkan. Besides the dangers their are also some benign spices and domesticated animals considered vital to Maurya.

**Flora**

* **Voidshade**- A plant as black as the void of space that in small doses can be used as a pain reliever but to high of a dose, a small amount overall, shuts down the respiratory system within minutes. It is commonly used as a poison for weapons by assassins.
* **Razor Vines**- Like the Mantrap plants also found on Maurya and most other jungle worlds these thorn covered vines can secrete a digestive juice after its wrapped its prey up and into the thick undergrowth where its core hides, it then absorbs the organic fluid created. each core can have a dozen or more vines that whip at any movement sensed by tiny hairs all along the vines, the roots can go for metres into the ground so that larger prey cant just uproot the core and kill it. the juices it secretes is used as an acid for multiple uses by the Mauryan.
* **Sporeshroom**- Fungi that releases spores when disturbed bu weather or predator, the spores are extremely toxic and if it gets into a body can grow within and slowly spread a necrosis until the afflicted dies and quickly decays into a patch of more sporeshrooms.
* **Cadranom**- Plant based spice only found on Maurya that is used in the making of teas and many different food stuff all over the planet. It is the most exported spice from the planet as its use is popular among rich imperials all over the galaxy. Small amounts of it are issued to Mauryan guardsman as a way to flavor bland local food or more commonly trade for other items.
* **Glory Root-** One of the more powerful psychoactive agents found in the galaxy when treated right, it has been used for Sekh rituals and ceremonies for thousands of years. The plant itself is dangerous as the leaves are razor sharp as well as coated in the same toxins found in the root but at a higher concentration. Small shavings of the root can be mixed into Iho sticks to produce a mild high though if used on duty is a serious infraction punishable by time in the brig or 10 lashes by a commissar. An overdose can break the mind and render the user catatonic for days, easy prey for the jungle predators and insects that devour the body alive.

**Fauna**

* **Sheerkan-** Their are many jungle cats on Maurya that are dangerous: the black scaled Panthar that hunts in the dead of night, the dark spotted Jaugar that leaps from the trees onto its prey, & the striped Bengal that hunt in packs like wolves to name just a few. But of all the jungle cats that prowl Maurya the biggest and most dangerous is the Sheerkan, a solitary predator the size of a very large horse it weighs over a ton and measures about 13 feet from nose to tail. its yellow & black stripes help it hide in the bands of shadow that come from the jungle canopy and its powerful claws are sharp enough to shred most personal armor, even astartes power armor and light armored vehicles can be ripped open. They are considered semi-sentient from their behavior and ability to learn a hunters tricks and develop tactics against them. Elite jungle regiments use them as a kind of war beast & mount if their a rough rider regiment also.
* **Naja-** Largest snake on Maurya that can grow anywhere from 5 meters long & a half meter thick as the average adult size with some records indicating sightings of these snakes reaching upward of 20 meters and a meter thick. It is strong enough to crush power armor, can flare its neck out like a hood to appear even bigger to its prey, and can even spit its venom out twice its body length to blind prey & predator alike. Legend states that a nest of massive Naja existed on the planet when the colonists arrived that was over 100 meters in length and over 5 meters across, purged by the Rajjut ancestors.
* **Rot Wasp-** These large insects are the size of a small bird & will swarm their prey with their stingers until it cant fight their poisons anymore, then they converge and devour their prey alive. They are drawn to rotting flesh like a dead body or animal carcass. Their poison is commonly used as a weapon coating for assassins both Imperial and Thuggi as it is painful and slows down the reflexes. The tyrant sultan Dhaan Nanda used these wasps as a form of execution, a practice said to still be done by the Thuggi.
* **Olaphant-** massive pachyderm about the size of a baneblade used as a beast of burden or less commonly as a war beast. its thick hide can shrug off lasguns and stubber fire, its powerful legs can trample a vehicle flat in a single charge, or it can gore an astartes with its strong tusks. As a social animal it lives with a herd of about 20 including their young & will team up to trample anything that threatens them. Domesticated ones are used during hunting expeditions for the wealthy clients to ride upon.
* **Wooly Grox**- Subspecies of the galaxy spanning grox, it is adapted to cold climates like the mountains of Maurya where the guraka have raised them since before the heresy. They have a fattier more flavorful meat compared to normal grox and is one of the many exotic foods exported to the rest of the Imperium though it is not eaten by the Rajjut who see it as a sacred animal.

## **Society**

The main cultural grouping on Maurya are the Sekh who are the majority overall and are mostly found in the hives. Guraka is a catch all term for the various hardy mountain people that tend to keep to themselves. The Rajjut are the jungle dwelling people who live in walled palace compounds in the jungles as multi family clans and are the main explorers and traders for the multitude of ingredients & reagents found there. One trait common among the Mauryan people is a tendency to be a bit of a hedonist, ancient Mauryan even wrote books and almost every Mauryan noble house has a harem of some kind. This has been seen as off putting by regiments pulled from more prudish worlds or outright Slaanesh corruption by the most zealot of cultures, though every Mauryan holds little if any care for the oppressed ideals of these kinds of cultures.

The Planetary Governor is called a Sultan and he is treated as a king from the capital hive of Magadrha. He rules over a rigid caste system with little if any room for personal advancement or bettering of life, this pushes many poor to join the guard or Navy as a way out. Officers are recruited from the noble elite though they are expected to perform without fail and without fear or face punishment just like the soldiers under them.

Their obsession with being fearless stems from the colonists growing up on what had been a jungle death world, constantly being attacked by the fierce jungle cats & stung by poisonous plants, until they were able to gain some control over their environment. Many of the more warlike tribes in those days hunted the animals as a part of their warrior trials, some jungle regiments still wear the exotic animal skins as a cloak &/or sash with their guards uniforms. The various tribes also waged war on each other until they eventually united a few generations before the Praetorians found them.

### **Appearance & Clothing**

For the most part all Mauryan are dark skinned with black hair and dark almond shaped eyes due to the original colonists being from the Indian subcontinent and the surrounding countries. It is very common for them to have thick & well groomed facial hair styled with curled mustaches and beards reaching well past their chin. Normal clothing is a mix of older style robes and tunics with modern fashion. Often they will dress ornately when possible with jewelry, tattoos & body painting, hair beads, and gilded augments when needed. The most telling thing about Mauryan clothing is the different head dresses used by the various tribes. Sekh as well as most Mauryan in general wear a tightly bound turban, guraka wear a brimmed hat that is usually worn slightly askew, & rajjut wear a finned turban that mimics one of the jungle birds commonly seen as a pet by rajjut families.

### **Religion**

the colonists that settled Maurya mixed their original religions of gods & philosophical mysticism into a single religion with a few offshoots. Later they mixed it with that of the imperial creed to create their sanctioned offshoot called Sekhism. this offshoot has strong saint worship as well as the addition of another dozen saints from their history, also they believe that worthy followers can be reincarnated to continue serving the emperor and find true enlightenment. Sekh's also partake in religious rituals that can involve the use of Glory Root. Though most Mauryan believe in Sekhism the other groupings have their own spin on it that keeps them separate. Guraka tribes have a prominent ancestor worship instead of most of the saints & the Rajjut have prominent nature worship along with the saints. One of the common saints across all of them is Shivea, the Sekh saint of war & destruction that is said to have reincarnated herself repeatably to wage war against the native daemons & ork in the early days of the planets violent history. Another is Banjaara, the Sekh saint of cunning & Knowledge that is said to have given the Mauryan their technological prowess.

Overall the Mauryan are a pious people in their own way but the dark secret of the culture is that they have long battled a cult of chaos fanatics called the Thuggi, they used to have their own walled jungle cities prior to the Horus Heresy but these have been destroyed. Now they operate and recruit from the underhives and a various network of fronts all over the planet as a secret society bent on world domination in service to chaos undivided. Thuggi are often found as a root cause for many violent acts aimed at Imperial officials & destruction of various industrial plants all over the planet.

### **Tolerance for Abhumans & Pyskers**

Maurya is generally tolerant of outsiders and differing ideologies. Part of this is their acceptance of Abhumans like Ogryn & Ratlings, both of which are seen to have small populations on the planet and in orbit for menial labor as well as recruitment into the Mauryan Guard for support roles. They are left overs from voidships that stayed docked long enough for some of the lowly abhuman crew to leave and strike out in the planets hives. Ratling cooks are common as the abundant resources of the planet has allowed them to make entirely new cuisines when mixed with their own influences.

The planet also seems to have double the average amount of pyskers born there, some of the old ways influence is the acceptance of pyskers as a type of shaman or guru that helps both the civilian population as well as almost every regiments commander. There are even old schools to teach them how to control their powers & a council of the most powerful and intelligent pyskers that advises the Sultan as well as many other more secretive things. This has caused friction with the Inquisition but in the end they always give their share to the Black ships as well as already trained sanctioned pyskers for the imperial guard so they are allowed to practice these ideals.

## Notable Mauryan's

* ***Sultan Rhajan Guptara VI***: The current Sultan of Maurya, he is known as a hedonist even among a people that are known to have hedonistic tendencies. His harem is rumored to have several of his assassins hidden within as a safeguard against actual assassins. His family has held the throne for many generations and he is named after a heroic sultan that personally went to the frontlines & helped fight off a massive dark eldar raid on the capital.
* ***Dhaan Nanda (Deceased)***: Tyrant sultan that turned to chaos and recruited the Thuggi as his personal secret police. ruled in M34 for several decades before he was eventually stopped by the Guraka 1st who stormed his personal palace and ended a chaos ritual in the basement. Afterwards they put down the violence he had allowed to fester in the hives. To this day the Guraka 1st is the sultans personal bodyguards as well as watchers in case of chaos corruption or any ties to the Thuggi.

## Notable Quotes About Maurya

"*Maurya, the planet of big cats & fancy hats.*"
—Rogue Trader Reza Aslan, noble of the Pueblo Confederation's high born elite turned galactic explorer while addressing the bridge crew of his flagship, the Voidway