Azuran Sector

Departmento Cartographicae stellar map of the Azuran Sector.

The **Azuran Sector** is a relatively small, Imperial sector located in the Segmentum Pacificus, lying somewhat higher above the Z-axis of the Galactic Plane than its nearby sister sectors (quite notably so compared to Macharia) It is named after the first Imperial world to be settled in the Sector, established as the home of the Ordinators Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes to integrate the overlooked human inhabitants across worlds in the then-sparsely populated sector into the Imperium of Man, and provide a relatively isolated bastion of Imperial presence in the midst of a threatened hinterland region of the Imperium. Since then, a full Imperial presence has developed with most of the major institutions of the Greater Imperium finding a permanent world or voidstation to conduct their aspect of the Imperial government of the sector.

## Sector History

The first human settlers in the system appeared to have arrived independently on Tharan V and Yamanato at some point in the distant Dark Age of Technology sometime before the 25th millennium from Terran Pan-European and East Asian hive city populations, respectively. After a series of catastrophic wars on both worlds - including a nuclear one on Yamanato - the two worlds regressed technologically. While a degree of it was regained on Tharan V under the strong leadership of the Knightly Houses that ruled it, Yamanato took centuries to re-establish consolidated regional governments, although their technology level remains at what the Administratum considers a techno-barbaric level.

The first Imperial contact with the sector occurred in early M38 when the Conclave Ordinatus sought to establish a homeworld for their newly-ordained, specialized daemon-killing chapter, the Ordinators. Seeing two nearby human-inhabited worlds, the Ordinators and Inquisition quickly conquered each almost bloodlessly with the help of a small Imperial Naval fleet and the preachings of the Adeptus Ministorum. Within two decades of the creation of the Ordinators’ undersea fortress-monastery, the colossal conical pyramid-redoubt, Arx Numinex, an Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet was invited by the Inquisition to terraform both the large, low temperature desert world of Ferunus, and a moon - Aroth - which became increasingly settled by refugees from the populations free of the taint of Chaos left homeless by the Ordinators’ campaigns. The lush, verdant arboreal rainforest and plains world of Verus was colonized as an agri-world to serve as the sector’s breadbasket thereafter by 788.M41. An Imperial Navy Battlefleet was built, Guard Regiments raised on Aroth from the populous hive clusters, and the Azuran sector soon began meeting its optimal Administratum tithe goals on every world within a century. The sector possesses the ability to support itself through its own production capabilities while still producing enough excess outside of the tithe to trade with nearby sectors. Several additional worlds are currently being terraformed and settled as mining worlds by the newly-arrived Rogue Trader House of Serres.

## Sector Politics

As of 120.M42, the means of governance vary wildly from planet to planet within the sector, though executive command falls to the Azuran Sector Council of Lords. It consists of a triumvirate of delegates from each of the most three most-important worlds in sector in the eyes of the Imperial Administratum; Azuran, Ferunus, and Tharan V. While Ferunus' power as a major supplier of niche equipment for the Segmentums Pacificus, Solar, Obscurus, and parts of Northwestern Ultima - as well as recent influence vacuums it has filled - have raised it to become the unprecedented hard power of the sector, the arrival of a delegation of Custodes of the Shield-Host of the Wardens of the Gate and infusion of Inquisitorial might supporting the Ordinators of Azuran and Imperial Admiralty of the sector have maintained the balance firmly between the three.

   Azuran, the primary planet after which the sector is named - an Adeptus Astartes chapter homeworld - is itself ruled over by an executive council of the chapter - the Council of Lords - who delegate most of the day-to-day business to the Ordinators' First Company Captain, the Centurio-Praetor Ferox Marius, Warden of Azuran. Ferunus is ruled by a triumvirate of Arch Magi Fabricators who rule the planet as autocrats, each in charge of a separate set of functions fulfilled on and by the forgeworld, with the Fabricator-General acting as the senior member of the body. Together, Azuran and Ferunus' leadership effectively dominate the Sector, with the Naval Lord Admiral also possessing considerable influence as well.

 The High King of the Quaestoris House Tiberian is the third most influential military and political force in the sector, and the Knightly Houses that pay fealty to him often serve the Emperor by joining Ordinator and Arothi Storm Guard regiments in battle. Despite this, the Inquisition - in particular, the Conclave Ordinatum (a primarily Ordo Malleus conclave with several Ordo Hereticus members) effectively functions as the "power behind the throne", as they effectively run the large-scale strategic operations of the Ordinators, Imperial Guard, and Imperial Navy in the sector. Several Ordo Mechanicum Inquisitors also have permanent residence on Forgeworld Ferunus, and closely cooperate with the Conclave (though they themselves are not actual members).

Tharan V and Verus - both part of the **Valdorius sub-sector** - far from the adjacent **Azuran** and **Ferunus sub-sectors** which contain Azuran and Ferunus/Aroth (and thus acts as the nucleus of power in the sector), each have a unique system of government compared to the rest of the sector. Tharan V is ruled by a group of dynastic, monarchical Knightly Houses (though all, de jure, pay homage to the High King of House Baeranon), each of which treats it vassal peasantry differently - ranging from nations fill with indentured servants to benevolent kingdoms in which people's lives and rights are greatly valued. Verus, an agri-world recently settled by Imperial Guard veterans as a reward for decades spent in brutal campaigns during the Macharian Crusade, elects an autocratic executive Consul every two years with term limits limiting any one man to no more than a decade spent in power - effectively making it one of the most democratic worlds in the entire segmentum. The only attempt by a Consul to extend the term limits on Verus' sole executive authority lead to the trial and executor of the would-be perpetual dictator.

Yamanto has a centralized government wherein various hereditary clans pay tribute and recognize the authority of the leading clan family head, the Zoshiru - the victors of an ancient war for control of the world after its descent into a low-tech world sometime in the Dark Age of Technology. The holder of this office is referred to as the Dainyobaega. The government is called the *baku* by the warlord clans which pay homage to its overall leader, the young Zoshiru Yoshitsune. Its wealthiest warlords often trade directly with various Merchant Charter Captains, Rogue Traders, and military exchange ambassadors from the sector Battlefleet. They assist certain warlords by providing certain small arms (such as lasguns and disruptor fields to be installed on the warrior-class' ubiquitous *katona* sword) while providing the warlords themselves with cybernetics and rejuvenant treatments. The current *Shoganon* has an army equipped with regiments of antiquated laslocks, disruptor field generators to turn their beautiful but technologically crude melee weaponry into power weapons, and several Battle-Cannon turrets, in addition to crude autoguns and grenades, making his clan the undisputed military superpower on the feudal world.

The mining colony world of Sarin's World, named after the Rogue Trader House that founded it, has exploded in population in the first century of M42. Unfortunately, a shuttle working for the House carrying itinerant workers recently brought along Orkoid fungal spores which developed into a number of Feral Ork tribes in the hostile badlands surrounding the mountains and the mining cities emerging from them every few decades. By 79.M42, it was discovered the largest of the tribes, the Urgiruki Waaagh!, had - after years of raiding smaller settlements and stealing equipment and mined metals, developed into a more advanced clan and began a large air-land offensive against House Sarin's forces which the latter could not withstand on its own, requiring the intervention of Battlefleet Azuran's atmospheric fleet and several regiments of the Arothi Storm Guard to grind the growing Waaagh! to a standstill. The conflict persists in a bloody trench war to the current day.

## Sector Culture

The culture of each individual world in the Azuran sector varies wildly - from the Conclave Ordinatus Inquisition and the closely-aligned chapter it created, the Ordinators rule over an extremely isolated and well defended planet that is host to a colossal fortress-monastery containing countless amounts of daemonic and divine lore as well as being a core training facility for elite military forces. Contrasted to the unique mobile hive-city fortresses of Aroth that provides most of the sector's Imperial Guardsmen (the various classes stratified by elevation in the hive structure), to a highly productive but atypical Adeptus Mechanicus forgeworld - all the way to a pseudo-democratic hiveworld settled by the descendants of Astra Militarum veterans and the feudal technobarbaric world of Yamanato - the sector is not densely populated, but it possesses an unusually sturdy amount of might and resources to the wider Imperium. The cultures of the worlds of the sector vary wildly as well - Monarchy and nobility play a core role in the government of Knightworld Tharan V, in stark opposition to Verus' constantly rotating, elected autocrat, and Aroth's mercatile houses which sponsor the Ecclesiarchy and Mechanicus to varying degrees - with all committed to serving both.

The Ordinators themselves are by far the most mobile and active military force in the sector, and has several allies within the Segmentum sworn to its defence. It constantly patrols the primary inhabited sub-sectors and keeps a fleet in constant orbit over its own world as a quick-reaction force. Ferunus, by contrast, keeps most its military forces primarily to itself - though it is dedicated to constantly churning out everything from Imperial Guard equipment and war machines to specialized Ordinator arms, equipment, and machine parts as well as the tech used everywhere from Aroth to Tharan. The Inquisition is an overwhelming political force with its tremendous influence in the sector, and the mainline Imperial Cult is universal in all of the sector but Azuran and Yamanato's religion - though the God-Emperor is seen as the divine father of mankind by all but the members of the Cult Mechanicus (who view him as the Omnissiah in addition to their worship of the Machine God and the Motive Force).

Diet and medical care vary wildly from planet to planet, which some utilizing rice and fish as dietary staples while wheat and grox dominate the dietary habits of others. Trade of surplus of all foodstuffs is common between the worlds to expand dietary variance. Wheat and animal protein are farmed en masse on Verus and Tharan V. Mining production on Ferunus makes it one of the Segmentum's more productive worlds. Seraphine, acetylsalicylin, gigaphazepam, omnicillin, and other medications are additionally produced in mass by Ferunus. Trade with outside sectors is a regular occurrence, though the greatest extra-sectoral mercantile faction has become the outsider Rogue Trader House of Sarin, sometimes viewed with suspicion after the establishment of tens of lucrative mining colonies on minor worlds and celestial dwarfs - often causing them to be resented by wealthy, well-established residents of various worlds in the sector who feel as if their right to the sector's resources have been stolen by outsiders and certain members of the regular populace who have survived a contract on the brutal mining colonies belonging to the house that have begun cropping up in increasing numbers. They, nevertheless, are causing a large increase in the amount of raw material exports from the sector and attracting more colonists to it every decade as opportunities arise for Imperial citizens in more overpopulated and minerally-exploited parts of the Imperium.

## Sector Military Forces

The sector is protected primarily by a combination of the Ordinators chapter, the Imperial Navy Battlefleet Azuran, and the Imperial Guard of Aroth, known as the Arothi Storm Guard. and to a lesser extent, the Knightly Houses of Tharan V and the Skitarii and Titan legions of Ferunus - though the latter heavily prefer not to send off the vast majority of their military forces anywhere unless as part of an Explorator Fleet. The Titans they possess almost exclusively stay on the Forgeworld itself. Ferunus is the primary production world for the sector's various military forces, maintaining an orbital forge for basic supplies over Azuran itself to keep the Ordinators well-stocked with small arms, ammunition, and spare parts, etc. Forgeworld Ferunus also maintains and helps administrate the sector Imperial Naval drydocks and production facility within the **Ores sub-sector** at the center of the sector proper.

Azuran, in addition to being the chapter-homeworld of the Ordinators also hosts a major Ordo Malleus and a separate Ordo Sepultrum facility on the isolated world, each with an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper regiment often sent along with Inquisitors for missions around the Segmentums Pacificus and Solar.

## **Notable** **Inhabited Planets**

### **Azuran**

**-** Adeptus Astartes Chapter Homeworld/Fortress Monastery (Fully Oceanic global biome/Fortress world).

Tithe grade: *Aptus Non*

Population: ~176,000+

- - - - -

### **Ferunus**

**-** Adeptus Mechanicus Forgeworld (Mountain tundra global biome/Industrial/Fortress world).

Tithe grade: *Aptus Non*

Population : ~3,550,000,000

- - - - -

### **Aroth**

 **-**  Imperial Guard Recruiting World **[***Moon of Ferunus***]**- (Global mountain and gas vent biome/Industrial Mining/Hive world).

Tithe grade: *Exactis Tertius* (Manpower, prometheum, adamantium, diamantine, coal, petroleum, fissile materials)

Population: ~394,750,000+

- - - - -

### **Tharan V**

**-** (Arboreal Rainforest/Death World global biome/Feudal Knight world).

Tithe grade: *Decuma Particular* [minerals, rockcrete, and lumber]

Population: ~145,000,000+

- - - - -

### **Encendion**

 **-**  Ecclesiarchial Shrine/Hospital World (Arboreal rainforest and tundra biome)

Tithe grade:

* *Solutio Tertius* [Wheat, grox, marble, medical services]

Population: ~13,898 (permanent residents)

- - - - -

### **Yamanato**

**-** (Feudal Techno-Barbaric Oceanic Agri World)

Tithe grade: *Solutio Particular* [Rice, fish, & gold]

Population: ~~19,000,000+

- - - - -

### **Verus**

 **-**  Agriworld (Global mountain and foothills/plains with moderately large oceans and a minor equatorial desert).

Tithe grade:

* *Solutio Extremis* [foodstuffs, water, timber, rockcrete]

Population: ~47,275,000+

- - - - -

### **Sarin's World**

 **-**  Rogue Trader Mining Colony (Global gas-vent rock flats w/ extreme numbers of volcanoes and ammonia oceans and mercury river canyons biome, uninhabitable atmosphere).

Tithe grade:

* *Decuma Prima* [adamantium, clay, diamonds, methane, sulfur, prometheum, gold, fissionable elements, rockcrete]

Population: ~412,600

###

## Major Voidstations and Exoplanetary Facilities

### **Azuran Orbital Naval Redoubt Network**

Planetary Defense Array Nexus/Dry Docks/Inquisitorial Waystation (65,000 crew, 2 Astartes)

### **Azuran Orbital Adeptus Mechanicus Demi-Manufactorum Station, *Chalybeium***

Ordinator-Forgeworld Ferunus Joint-Manufactorum (94,500+ crew, 12 Tech Priests, 2 Tech Magos Domini)

### **Imperial Navy Sector Battlefleet Starfortress, *Redoubt of the Righteous***

Starfort/Drydocks/Training Station (255,000 crew, Sector Admiralty Staff)

### **Encendion Hospital Station, *The Holy Hospice of Saint Dominica the Merciful***

Ordo Hospitaller Orbital Quarantine Station/Hospital (20,000 crew/population/240,000+ Patients)

### **Tharan V Orbital Waystation**

Commercial Hub/Ecclesiarchial Shrine (40,000 crew/population)

### **Tharan V Orbital Star Fortress-Cathedral Station, *Ecclesia-Praetorio***

Ecclesiarchal Cathedral Orbital Redoubt Station, Convent-Preceptory of the Lesser Order Militant of Saint Dolan the Redeemed. (7,450,000+ Adeptus Ministorum clergy/4,000 Adepta Sororitas)

### **Verus Orbital Hub**

Distribution/Commercial Hub (35,000 crew)

### **Ferunus Adeptus Mechanicus Orbital Redoubt, *Fist of the Omnissiah***

Planetary Defense Array Nexus/Dry Docks (195,000 crew)

### **Asylos Orbital Adeptus Arbites Prison Redoubt, *Precidium Redemptio***

Fortified Asteroid Prison Station(75,000 Arbites/35,000 prisoners)