Enoch

**Classification: Shrine World (sub-reference:
Ocean World)
Population: One billion, officially recorded. Ad hoc
census estimates more than twice that.
Geography: Largely oceanic, equatorial regions are
habitable desert, polar regions are ice-covered tundra
Planetary Governance: Archdeacon Merramar
Clade of the Enochian Synod
Tithe Grade: Aptus Nihil (no longer capable of
paying Terra’s due)**

The fourth planet from the Gilead star was once filled with wealth and songs of joy. An oceanic world, its tremendous fathoms-deep reefs teemed with edible flora. Small landmasses dotted its equatorial span, with archipelagos and a few continents of significant scale. Its polar regions were swathes of snow-covered tundra. Life on Enoch was spent dedicated to the Imperial Creed; the bones of Gilead’s saints and heroes rest in sanctity in the cathedrals and monasteries of Enoch. Natives lived across the coast lands, drawing in the bounty of the reefs in great harvests to feed the Ministorum Adepts and pilgrims alike.

When the Cicatrix Maledictum ripped the galaxy in half and the Noctis Aeterna obscured the Emperor’s Light from Gilead, Enoch, once known as a sacred bastion of faith, was plunged into turmoil. With travel through the Warp impossible, millions of pilgrims sought safe harbour amongst Enoch’s trapped populace, causing unprecedented overpopulation. The crowded civilian ships seeking refuge at Enoch became easy prey for xenos raiders, and the skies above the world burned. Food rapidly became scarce and violence soon erupted amongst the starving millions of stranded pilgrims. The former culture of Enoch crumbled into a cycle of deprivation and growing madness. Enoch’s wealthy nobles and high-ranked priests of the Adeptus Ministorum secure themselves in fortified bastions while the populace riot and starve outside their walls.

Astra Militarum regiments, Enforcers and Sisters of Battle are deployed en masse to defend the millions of faithful pilgrims. The shrines dedicated to Saint Julyanna Gilead, the Emperor’s Archangel Tygranus Dalir, and King Farlin III have thus far remained shielded from the alien, the heretic, and the looter. But despite these measures, starvation breeds sinister cults of cannibals who stalk the deserts and streets alike. Wicked bargains are struck with xenos and renegade smuggler bands, while the whispers of unholy prayers echo up from the countless dissolute tent cities.

Though the Emperor’s Light dims on Enoch, all is not lost. Enoch has resources not available to the rest of the Gilead System. Despite the recent strife, faith remains strong that ‘the Emperor Protects’. A convent of the Adeptus Sororitas, the Order of the Sanctified Shield, stands defiant against the heretic. The mysterious Absolvers chapter of Adeptus Astartes maintain an honour guard at the shrine of their first chapter master, Tygranus Dalir. Similarly, the Ordo Xenos Chamber Militant, the Deathwatch, maintain a station in the northern polar region, also housing the isolated agents of that Ordo. Spread desperately thin, each of these forces operates in kill teams or as solo warriors rather than full battle formations; but such heroes of the Imperium could turn the tide of a war.