Adygh

"*If you are righteous, you are strong.*"
—Adygh honour code, Khabze
**Adygh**, or *Homo Sapiens Adygus*, is an ancient Human subspecies which its origins date back 19.000 years before the beginning of the Age of Terra, native to the Maiden World of Adyghan Prime of the Adyghan solar system. The reason behind their classification as another human subspecies is that they have been disconnected from the rest of the humanity for 27.000 years, and they went through 20.000 years of it in hibernation, and almost never made genetic contact with the outsider humans since Imperial assimilation began, for 12.000 years. Thus making them the purest and the least mutated human subspecies in existence.

## Physiology

Their skeletons, muscles and faces are noticeably shapely and chiselled. Resembling caucasian characteristics, their body is slender but built and tall, they have wide shoulders and ribcages, not pointy but narrow eyes; due to their regional origins back on Terra, highlands. They mostly possess black, brown, ginger and auburn hair, with blonde hair being a rarity. Green and blue coloured irises are also as common as brown. Most of them live to be centenarians, living up to one and a half century. They age the same rate as other humans until their late teens, then their ageing rate slows down by half. Psykers are rare among them, there were almost no psykers among them before the Imperial assimilation began, and the existing psykers are either outsiders or have an outsider ancestor.

## Culture & Society

   Adygan society is divided into two, as Rural and Urban. While Rurals have a pastoral and feudal lifestyle, Urbans resemble a consept more like a Civilized World of the Imperium, but indeed, far more lawful.

### Rural

Society governs itself according to the ancient **Adygh** honour code of Khabze. Khabze is built upon following crucial things: Respect, thoughtfulness, discipline and self-control. Many imperials who visit Adyghan Prime think that it is more effective to discipline kids in this society, rather than raising them in Schola Progenium. This code regulates every single part of social life, every single action that an individual can possibly do. Relations between men and women, elders and children, brothers and sisters.

The council of Khase gathers once in 50 years to regulate Khabze, disfuncitoning rules are removed and newer, required regulations are added to the code, keeping it practical and updated.

Most of the time, someone says Khabze, they refer to the rules of Adygh society, rules that provide social order. But Khabze is a far more complex notion. First, let's take a look at how Khabze was developed.

This ancient nation, Adygh, has suffered many invasions and wars throughout their history. They fought never-ending wars against countless armies which are non-existent in the current Terran records, another appearing as one is defeated. And even if their homeland was one of the most abundant lands on Terra, its nature and geography was challenging for human life. Khabze was developed in such atmosphere. The thing that restores order within all those blood, destruction and chaos. The thing that enforces each individual to do their duty, no matter what kind of situation they are in. Khabze is not just some list of rules. It's the perspective of Adygh, it is the world view of Adygh, it is the mentality of Adygh.

Khabze is an ideology.

Khabze is the supreme ideology. It is not just some book written by some row of pens. Throughout tens of thousands of years, it was developed by such folk who seeked for order, harmony and peace despite the chaos. It neither enslaves people by making them all equal as Totalieranism does, nor it feeds an elite minority and chains the majority to money and makes them starve as the Capitalism does. Khabze is both Collectivist and Individualist. The honour of the individual is more important than his life, and so he does sacrifice himself to save the honour of his

society. Khabze sharpens the good traits of the individual. It exalts the honesty, courage, wit, generosity and justice. No state authority is required to have it applied. It keeps the individual free in the most legitimate way possible.

Things such as riches, gold, wealth is only viewed as a burden, and considered as things that might cost the loss of more valuable things, such as friendship, love and honour.

**Adygh** is the only folk among humans which enjoys growing old. Because the respect that the community pays to the individual increases as he or she grows older. They don't get looked down to because of their weakness and slowness, they are always expected to give council. *"Good young people cannot exist where no good elders exists"* they say.

The community protects each other's life and honour, the children are everyone's children. For instance, during a flood disaster, an **Adygh** takes a child out of the water and realizes that he is his own son. His eyes meet with his friend who stands few meters away from him, and then he drops his son to the water and moves on to take an another child out of the water, who is in further danger. Because he knows that his friend would save his son no matter what, ane only folk to not have prisons, hence there has been no need for them. If someone commits great dishonour, his or her community expels them, announcing their name along with the dishonour that he committed, thus forcing them to travel and life so far away, that no one would recognize their name or face. Forcing them to live the rest of their lives as strangers, castaways, the dishonoured. Else, they sign up for the permanent military service, seeking to gain their back with the unfortunate bombshell, bullet or blade to pierce their flesh, taking their life away. Some become Abrecs, the rogue ones. They live in wilderness, away from the society, hunting down bandits, criminals, enemies of the community. Or they end up becoming one of the bandits.

Once there was an **Adygh** family which worried deeply about their daughter, who was expected to elope with a man who wanted to marry her. So she was forbidden to leave her village until a suitable candidate appeared. But a situation came at hand, that their daughter had to go to a meeting which was going occur in a different village.

Her parents came with such solution: They had the man who wanted to abduct their daughter to escort her to the meeting. So that the young man would protect such burden even if it costs his life, and as he has to take the girl to the same house which he took her from, he was not able to abduct her.

As it is in this example, honour comes before everything for an **Adygh**. Honour before life, honour before love. And needless to say, Khabze is a far more motivating notion than the beliefs of the Imperial Cult, for an **Adygh**.

### Urban

In the urban areas of Adyghan Prime, code of Khabze is worth less in the eyes of people. And it is getting even more worthless as the Cities expand. Morality and honour becoming more and more insignificant. Things such as jails, gamble and prostitution entered the world's urban areas when Imperial assimilation began. It took them several centuries to earn their place on Adyghan Prime's underground life, but it surely will be more costly to remove it from the face of Adyghan Prime.

Bribery is one of the key things in the urban areas, one sometimes might have to bribe an official to get any actual official business done. There are many things in common with urban Adygh and rural Adygh, but many of the customs are not applied which rurals are very sensitive of. Clothings are mostly inappropriate compared to rurals. What the urban Adygh care about is mostly the looks, rather than consistency, you might see an urban Adygh well dressed, getting around with the most expensive of vehicles, but he or she might riding it with an empty belly. Anyone who views urban areas from the outside eyes might think that there is not a big difference between urbans and rurals, but in reality, urban Adygh mostly cares about looking moral rather than being moral, and most live in quite the opposite way that they give the outlook of.

## History

Adygh History has two major divisions, Ancient and Modern. The reason of such division is the difference between the research methods of these two. While modern history relies on witnesses, landmarks and archives, ancient history relies on ancient artifacts, handwritings, relics and predictions.

### Ancient History

The nation of Adygh are accepted to be appeared approximately 19.000 years before the beginning of Age of Terra according to linguistic researches, thus they claim to be the oldest nation surviving to this day. They claim to originate from the civilisation of Atlantis, of the legend in the archives of Terra; when the isle sank, the survivors fled to a mountainous but abundant region, and lived there until the day that they departed form Terra. They have been called many names since then; Maykop Culture, Sinds, Meots, Zygii, Cimmerians, Siraces, Kasogi, Cherkesy, Circassians, Adygh. The reason behind their departation is debated, but probably due to the aftermath effects of a disasterous war against a greater nation of that era. Most of these information is assumed to be lost during the Horus Heresy, yet their archives are accepted to be the most resourceful of the early Age of Terra.

### Modern History

#### Pre-Imperial History

##### Early Colony

The modern history of Adygh begins with the colonization of Adyghan Prime, their new home. It has been colonized in **M23**, by a colony ship which departed from Terra in **M3**. The ship traveled for 20.000 years in sub-light speed, captained by an AI, while the colonists were in hibernation.

According to their records, they departed from Terra as a whole nation. As they were departing from Terra, they brought the tombs, catacombs, and graves of their deceased ones with them, later to place them on their new home world. As they are a folk which is very loyal to their past and traditions, they could not leave them behind.

They also took most of their horses with them, which they adored and treated almost equal to humans. Claiming to be the oldest horse breeders, they bred their horses to be even faster, stronger, more durable and smarter. Upon their arrival, due to technical incapabilities, they weren't efficiently able to produce vessels to get around, so their horses made even more use than they have thought they would. Even after industrialization, use of horses did not cease. Cavalry regiments have been formed in the military, and nearly half of the population embraced a pastoral way of life, very similar to their ancestors' lifestyle, during M2. Though they did not abandon medical and weapon technology, and made even more advanced versions of them. Later on, they embraced the feudal lifestyle of their ancestors too.

The rest of the population built average-size, environment-friendly cities, to ensure the unity, safety, and sustainability of Adyghan Prime, provide industrial needs, while the others provide the food and other natural resources.

But one should not be fooled by the stunning beauty of the Maiden World, it has seen hundreds of invasions, yet why it is not war-torn and inhabitable at this point remains a mystery.

##### Plague of Eden

By the end of the first half of the millennia of their colonization, an unknown plague had wiped out the half of the planet's population, a plague that is alien to the human biology. Martial law had been declared, mass graves were used for the first time in their history. It was for the Guashenay Neghuey's effort which saved them, a public icon for the doctors and healers of **Adygh** society of the present day. She found the cure for the plague and saved their kind from a highly probable extinction.

##### First Orkish Contact

By the end of **M24**, an Orkish invasion rained down upon Adyghan Prime, warbands coming from Charadon Sector. Orks defiled abundant fields, burned down virgin forests, slaughtered millions of civilians. The war against Orks lasted half a millennia, and with costly efforts, former Adyghan Guard managed to stop the Orkish invasion and cut almost the entirety of them, but the surviving Orks fled to the forests, which still trouble Adyghan Prime in the present day.

But the airborne Orks never ceased their raids around Adyghan solar system, they performed hundreds, if not thousands of minor raids, and tens of other greater invasions, in the following millennias.

##### The Zul'gann

In **M26**, They have been invaded by a barbaric Xeno race those who called themselves "The Zul'gann", anthropoid creatures which possess a short tail and two antlers which glow in red. Their size is close to an Ork's, but they did not have the reproductive advantage that the Orks had, they were mammalians. Even though the Zul'gann launched a full-scale invasion upon Adyghan Prime, they were easily defeated, with the help of high weaponization rate of civilians throughout Adyghan Prime.

In the following decades, it has been found out that they have originated from a nearby star system, Khase decided on a counter-invasion, and Adyghan Prime sieged the homeworld and reduced their technology to post-industrial level, to make sure that they won't try to take revenge very soon.

##### Alsanta Invaders

Just three hundred years after the Zul'gann invasion, Orks launched a second one, with a larger party. These were the Orks of Alsanta system, a considerably nearby solar system to Adyghan. Luckily, a large portion of the incoming invasion fleet had been halted and destroyed by the Adyghan Navy, but the remaining ones were enough to rain fire upon the planet. After eighty years of constant fight in the frontiers, Adyghan Guard won an another costly victory, which its laments are still singing in the modern day. One of these laments belong to the famed Adyghan Rider named Sawser Sshnakho, who turned the tide of the war as he rode into the Orkish lines, hacking and slashing without halt through the greenskins for twenty minutes, almost seemingly dancing on horseback against the slugga and shoota fire like wind against trees, and ultimately severing the head of the Orkish Warlord.

#### Imperial History

They have been introduced to the Imperium in **M31**, during the Great Crusade, but they were first to spot Imperials. They managed to capture an Imperial trade ship and found out about the current state of the galaxy, which forced them to hide their technological advantages and historical records away, which some of them even dated back to **M0**.

During Horus Heresy, the world suffered from two major invasions. First one was the invasion of Word Bearers, which carved wounds upon the world so deep, that its effects are to remain even to this day. They have destroyed many important landmarks, catacombs, tombs, and libraries, that some parts of the bloodline's history has been presumably lost forever. Millions of civilian lives lost, hundreds of settlements have been burned to ash. Khase called help from Ultramarines and Blood Ravens, but the help did not arrive. With costly efforts, Adyghan Guard managed to wipe the Word Bearers off the surface of their home world.

Shortly after, the World Eaters invaded the planet, but the help that Khase had requested during the previous invasion arrived, and together, they fought off the traitors and saved Adyghan Prime.

##### Zul'gann Finale

In **M34**, another the Zul'gann invasion took place, but this time they were not on Adyghan Prime for conquest, but genocide. They have been away from the Khase's interest for too long, due to the loss of information in the archives about their previous invasion and Adyghan Guard's counter-invasion. They had more advanced vessels and weaponry this time, and only to kill in masses. They succeeded to destroy a large portion of the planet's population, and they would complete their campaign of genocide, only if the Adyghan Navy Admiral Aytech Qoble, who sacrificed himself to save his kin. In a blink of a moment, he saw a chance, ordered all personnel to abandon the ship he commandeered, and piloted all by himself, to nothing but to ram it into Zul'gann mothership and detonate it in contact. Now there is a statue of him located in the Hall of Valor, in the capital of the planet.

After a short period of time, Ultramarines spotted the Zul'gann homeworld and purged once and for all.

##### Age of Apostasy

Age of Apostasy brought nothing but ruin to Adyghan prime, which took place in **M36**, but relatively less than most Imperial Worlds. The church never had a strong presence on Adyghan Prime, and their effort to tax the population by dispatching troops to the planet resulted in them getting slaughtered by locals in few days. But soon after when Goge Vandire took over the Imperium, a larger quantity of troops have been dispatched to Adyghan Prime, waging war against every single individual on the planet. They burned down settlements, killed without sparing women nor children, tearing embryos out of women's wombs. Khase responded quickly, and so violently for the first time in their history.

Upon the marches of Vandire's forces, they rained down the limbs of the troops upon them from the high-altitude stealth aircrafts, which they have killed, collected and stored for similar purposes. This terrifies them as the limbs are seeming coming from nowhere but the empty sky, making them think that it is a punishment upon them from the heavens. Sometimes the fear that Vandire's forces are so intense, that they are reports telling about Commissars who flee into the forests in panic along with other troops, instead of disciplining them, to avoid the constant rain of limbs upon their heads. They have either been slaughtered by feral Orks who roam the forests, or the Adyghan Guardsmen who have prepared ambushes for them. Sometimes they would launch EMP mortars upon them, disabling their weapons, and crushing the Vandire's forces under the stampede of Adyghan Riders like they were dead leaves and dry splints. But after such battles, the bodies of the dead have been collected and contained quickly, and the battlegrounds have been sanitized to prevent the spread of deadly plagues in Adyghan Prime. As Sebastian Thor's rebellion gained fame and progressed, Adyghan Guard also dispatched forces to aid them.

##### Damocles Gulf Crusade

In **M41**, Millions of troops departed Adyghan Prime to take part in Damocles Gulf Crusade, unfortunately, two out of five of the enlisted warriors did not return home. This is considered to be the first active use of Adyghan Prime by the order of the High Lords of Terra and the first encounter of **Adygh** culture and Tau Empire, attracted the interest of the Ethereals and Emperor's Holy Inquisition.

Ethereals have noticed the difference between Adyghan Guard and other Imperial forces that they have fought against. They were noticeably different in terms of physiology and mentality. They had more shapely skeletons, muscles, and faces. They were more liberal in terms of religion, had other things motivating them, something similiar to the Tau ideology of the Greater Good.

In the other hand, Emperor's Holy Inquisition was also interested in this culture too, but not in a good way. Hundreds of Inquisitors have been sent to Adyghan Prime to investige possible heresies such as use of Xeno tech, unauthorized consortion with Xenos and Chaos corruption, which seems like the least plausible.

From then to this day, the natives of the world have been suffering of the oppression of Inquisitors, the population is so fed up, that their urge to gut the Inquisitors is almost irresistible. An era of conflict seems to be on the way.