Cornubit

Even at a time when the Imperium was young, and Sector Gondwana had just been reached by the Great Crusade, Cornubit was not truly a world on the frontier. Hidden from the uncharted regions by the Azure Nebula, the green star and its wandering worlds had gone untouched for millennia all throughout the age of strife. And the Emerald Veil surrounding the Cornubit and its sun, in turn, hid all the stars and wonders of the galaxy from the Sylvan Garden World. Blessed by ignorance from without and within, there was a rare peace in this region.

## Astrography

Sidus Cornubit is a bright-burning star, old and yet not past the zenith of its life. Surrounded by a deep corona of evergreen, even the heart of the system is calm. It illuminates the worlds within the Emerald veil in a constant, vibrant hue. Beyond the veil, its light is almost entirely insignificant, as though the mysterious nebula tries to hide its mother star from all the universe.

### Planets

#### Kan Ariel

Closest to the star lies the hot world Kan Ariel, said to have been named after an ancient princess who ever aspired to touch the sun.

Of all worlds in the Cornubit system, this planet bears the only semblance of human industry. Its barren surface of hollow mountains and dead lava fields is covered in solar farms and the halls of a large fabricatorum. Here, legions of automata manufacture simple products of utility for the system and beyond, guided by the few technomagi of a reclusive priesthood residing in armored domes.

#### Old Glade

The Old Glade is a large and rocky world, its surface swept by solar wind and devoid of any life. This planet bears no atmosphere nor significant riches and would be utterly unremarkable if not curious formations found in the rock of its surface-layers. They appear as giant obelisks of natural stone, formed by some geological activity which ceased eons ago.

To the first humans to tread the surface of this world, they looked like gravestones in the dust. Over many millennia since, this first impression has been made true by generation after generation carving the names of their dead in this rock.

The bodies of noted individuals who resided upon Cornubit itself are brought into vast mausoleum structures on the Old Glade for their final rest. Millions more are cremated, for their ashes to be added to the gray dust covering all of this world. To the countless others who cannot afford such honors, a single, massive temple has been erected on the northern pole, and from its tower, a single monk shouts into the void the name of every new dead soul to be bound to this world.

#### Ater

To the inhabitants of Cornubit, Ater has ever been the dark companion of their world. It was no wandering light on the firmament, but instead visible only as a black shadow blocking out the shimmer of the Emerald Veil.

Veterans residing on the Sylvan Garden world saw in its shadow the darkness of the foe they fought. Retired Governors and nobles in exile saw the entropy consuming the order they sought to impose on the world. To all, it was a reminder of the cost they had paid to find their peace at last.

Perhaps because of this, Ater is nonetheless spoken of without resentment by those who witness it in the sky. It is the single point of darkness to make all truly appreciate the light of their existence.

#### Cornubit

The emerald jewel of the Cornubit System is an old world inhabited by devout servants of the Emperor. Its eroded mountains are overgrown with dark forests, which are said to harbor life brought here in ancient times from Holy Terra. Preserving these riches with the utmost care, the inhabitants of this world play host to many accomplished servants of the emperor, veterans and nobles alike, who earned their secretive estates on this word, for all the glory they brought to the Emperor.

And yet, despite the serene nature of this world, the Priesthood of Gondwana has taken a special interest in this world and guards it with permanent battlegroups of its precious fleet. Many strange tales exist as to why the priests of the Omnissiah would care to remain so close to a world brimming with organic life, but the truth remains buried deep within the encrypted datastreams the cruisers of the guardian fleet send steadily back to their port of call.

#### Fester

At one point, the world now known as Fester was a thriving planet surpassing even the Sylvan Garden Cornubit in its natural beauty. Lush forests covered its entire surface for millions of years under the blanket of a thick atmosphere capturing the sparse heat of the system's sun. All of this was known to the Imperium only through the organic traces left behind in the rock and soil of this world.

How this forest planet was turned into a world of bare stone is obvious to see. Huge chunks of its surface were methodically ripped away, the balance of its gravity disrupted by the sheer mass of matter being removed. In the process, much of the atmosphere disappeared.

The question of why, however, remains an unsolved mystery. The only hint might be Fester's precise position, right in the orbital sphere of the Emerald Veil.

#### Glacies Tama

Much like the unfortunate world Fester, Glacies Tama has undergone a profound transformation sometime in the past. Most likely, this change was brought about by the first appearance of the Emerald Veil, which swallows much heat and light radiated by Sidus Cornubit. Consequently, the entire atmosphere of Glacies Tama froze into ice and covered the world in a shield several kilometers thick.

To the Imperium, the world just outside the Emerald Veil presented itself as an ideal position for an anchorage. The navy's small repair- and construction station takes full advantage of pockets of rare elements and gas encapsulated by the ice, to be easily harvested.

#### Radix Trunn

A world lost almost entirely in the shadows between stars, Radix Trunn is a barren, frozen waste. Its surface is covered in dark and ancient ice, through which the keen eye can see white lines glowing from below. These are the white roots of an older world, residing closer to the planetary core. The explorators of the Mechanicus believed this world to be a captured rogue captured by Sidus Cornubit some million years ago. Where-ever the origin of Radix Trunn lay, it was likely much closer to its sun and hosted the form of life now frozen in its depths.

In another age, it might have been considered to move this world through the Emerald Veil and let it melt, so that the life from the depth may be studied more closely. The Imperium, however, has had little interest in making such discoveries over the past ten millennia.

### Phenomena

Surrounding the inner worlds of Cornubit is the mysterious Emerald Veil, a nebula of almost certainly artificial origin. Although it poses no hazard of ships in the material realm, it has been known to have strange effects on all manner of energies, including psychic waves and the light of its parent star. Sidus Cornubit appears nigh invisible from the outside of the veil, making its worlds a hidden secret.

## Routes

Those coming to be laid to rest in the Old Glade or have received the honor to live out their lives in the Sylvan Gardens of Cornubit, travel to the system via the Pilgrim's Path. Via Cruzfradan and Trimanthal, this well-charted route links the system with the rest of Subsector Cambria. It is only sparsely used, as little regular travel exists between this system and other worlds. Nonetheless, the route is regarded as one of the safest in the entire sector.

Because of this, it is especially strange for the ships of Forge World Cambria to take the direct, yet volatile route through the Nebula. This Azure Passage is rarely officially named and not designated on most star charts at all.

## History

Cornubit was among the first systems to be re-discovered when the Imperium embarked from its bastions on the Elder Frontier to conquer the Subsector during the Great Crusade. It was not found by chance, however, but through visions imparted on the Mechanicus Explorators from age-old archives on the Forge World Cambria. To the old civilizations of the Ringworld, the Sylvan Garden Cornubit was somehow known, though the purpose of this knowledge had been long forgotten.

In the long millennia since, the Garden World has led an unremarkable existence in the eyes of most of the Imperium. Its most unusual feature might, in fact, be the oversight of the Adeptus Mechanicus due to the proximity of the hallowed Forge World Cambria. Only on rare occasions has the Adeptus Mechanicus been known to concern itself with such organic living things as a forest world. But for some reason, the old pines of Cornubit appear to be of special importance to the priesthood of Cambria.