Argiast

Argiast resides in the Hild system in Hex #0610 and is one of several planets overseen by the Confederation of the Upright Vagrant. Originally the site of an expansive research colony began by House Serpens, later enlisting the aid of House Lyra, with a focus on pharmaceuticals and the study of rare MES complications, until the Scream event ripped through the sector. Isolated on a hostile world without any means to expand the specialized infrastructure capable of withstanding the highly corrosive atmosphere, the culture of the surviving populace became increasingly insular and esoteric. Over the centuries, the societal structure of Argiast has warped into a sort of psychic dictatorship, facilitated by a brutal system of cult worship directed towards the “Blessed Families,” who ruthlessly exercise control over the non-psychic peoples of their homeworld.

## An Ochre World

Much like its neighbor in the Hild system, Argiast’s distance from the Imperial Core and inhospitable surface has left the planet largely overlooked by the powers that be and allowed the cult of the Blessed Families to exert control over their subjects virtually unchallenged. The malfunctioning remnants of a satellite-based planetary security grid provided a vector both to prey upon the fears of Argiast’s serfs, and a deterrent that made most outsiders view the planet as an investment that would be far too much trouble than it was worth bringing to heel, with few exceptions.

However, one-time indifferent neighbors on Shān, now home to the Confederation of the Upright Vagrant, have recently decided that the unification of the Hild system is a necessary precaution to secure their Fleets and their full hulls of rimworld treasures, to the detriment of the Blessed Families. For the first time in centuries, the psychic overlords of Argiast are pitted against a force that outmatches them and so are in the midst of a losing battle to maintain control in the face of external pressure and influence.

## Planetary Information

### Volatility

On a cosmic scale, Argiast is a dangerously unstable world, its tectonics locked in constant upheaval. Bone-shaking earthquakes are not an uncommon occurrence, and plumes of volcanic fire light the horizon like distant beacons. A near constant level of unrelenting volcanic activity keeps a constant stream of greenhouse gases flowing into the upper atmosphere, even as molten rock scars the planetary surface, raising temperatures on the equatorial belt to uninhabitable without specific technologies seen on Maja and Diomikato. Combined with the volcanic activity and frequent earthquakes, only a relatively small portion of the planet is fit for human habitation.

This instability has left the terrain of Argiast rock-studded and mountainous, with her rugged archipelagos clawing their way from beneath the waves due to a proliferation of undersea submarine volcanoes. The upper layers of these heated oceans meld imperceptibly with the atmosphere, to such a degree where one might experience difficulty in ascertaining where the air ends and the water begins. The waters reach a more temperate equilibrium further below the surface, as organisms unknown and unseen dart about in the depths, uncaring of the hostile world above.

### Atmosphere

The atmosphere of Argiast is a hellish concoction composed mainly of H2SO4, wreaking havoc on the tissues of carbon-based organisms and corroding even the finest protective equipment postech craftsmen have to offer. Breathing in the planet’s open air without any preventative measures whatsoever is an invitation for a rapid death as the corrosive elements in the air break down the mucosal linings in the lungs rapidly, suffocating the victim before the acids can break down flesh and cause the person to bleed out.

Unpredictable weather patterns further reinforce the forbidding nature of this world - ochre storm fronts drown alien tropics in sheets of brackish rain while lightning flashes above. Those who live under such omnipresent squalls have labeled them as Quetzra’s Fury, due to the highly disturbing and damaging effects even the slightest exposure can have upon human flesh. Only pretech artifacts can hope to nullify the cloying winds of Argiast - postech creations can only hope to withstand the acidic tempests through rigorous maintenance via application of natural lubricants with specific enzymes to combat the corrosion and near-constant repairs.

## In Orbit

### Aleda

As far as lunar bodies go, Aleda is decidedly plain, startling in its lack of startling features and unusual in its relative conformance to the expected structure of a moon. Such unabashed mundanity has been subjected to several batteries of tests that confirm Aleda is, indeed, an ordinary, dust-covered lump of rock spinning around its larger, far more interesting celestial cousin known as Argiast. This simplicity has led passing pirates to refer to it as the Serf's Moon, a jest deriding the boredom and drudgery of their lives before taking to the stars. Sentimental mariners have even taken to burying their old keepsakes and mementos in the loose silicates of Aleda's surface, seeking to put their pasts behind them with finality.

### Trouvelot 9

Wedged beneath the surface of Aleda is a complex of angular tunnels bored out of the lunar regolith, their walls matted with cables and wires reminiscent of veins and arteries. These warrens house Xibalba v1.0.3, the central administrative computer system of Argiast, housed offworld as an additional line of security against the psychics trapped in the planetary facilities. No expense was spared in the furnishing of Xibalba’s armory, as networked kill satellites spin in stable orbits around the planet below, their ancient ammunition just as deadly as in centuries past. Armed automatons hibernate in gravitic launch pods, courses charted to seed lethal sentry systems across the planetary surface, their frames made of little more than ammunition supplies, excessive amounts of weaponry, and basic locomotion equipment. Pillars of computronium hold a nuclear arsenal’s worth of attack programs, fire/forget failsafe protocols, and several other engineered tools to give the Xibalba system a full repertoire of responses to facility complications even in the result of a total usurpation crisis of the planetside mainframe by the contained test subjects. In the absolute bedlam caused in the research installation following the Scream, the defense mainframe was placed under extreme computational duress and entered a low-power maintenance cycle to preserve its functions.

As of late, something has disturbed the tar-black silence of Xibalba’s veins, eager explorers looking for something, anything in what they could only assume to be ancient ruins. The silent signals sent by their trespassing woke sleeping systems and roused a digital leviathan, as subroutines once again identify that living, breathing creatures have entered the Hild system. As questing sensors ventured out to the facilities of Argiast below, Xibalba has registered what it considers to be a total failure of containment - laboratories breached, airlocks overridden, and ‘test subjects’ proliferating the surface. The first line of automated warfare has been deployed in response, as total-facility-failure malware strains are let loose upon the digital infrastructure of the Argian populace, and ancient war-bots, their drop patterns corrupted over centuries of data degradation, thunder down into the jungles and deserts, their sights still set on pacification through elimination.

With immediate realization of the danger Xibalba poses to their newest acquisition, Vagrant forces have rapidly arranged themselves to combat the emotionless rampage of an iron giant. Hunter-killer teams track battle armatures to the surface and dispatch them with armor-piercing rifles from the doors of passing gunships, while hacker collectives aligned with piratical interests have been brought into the Hild system as a stopgap measure. Labeled under "Operation: Fire Road*"*, these operatives are desperate for further outside assistance, as the building capabilities of Xibalba’s reawakening mainframe can only be combated conventionally for so long before drastic measures are required.

### Arrhenius 9

Arrhenius 9 is the salvaged control module of a space elevator for Argiast, though the caustic atmosphere quickly halted the construction process beyond a rudimentary line. The elevator, based in the remains of the Ixchel facility, serves as a transit point between the Blessed Families and offworlders. Among the many follies of man is that of greed, and the Blessed Families exemplified this, purchasing expensive foreign alcohols and luxuries from unscrupulous traders seeking to turn a profit. In the halls of the Arrhenius Forum, Argian caste-warriors escort visitors through silent halls, the entire station shaped like the spokes of some grand wheel. Arranged about the outer circumference of this heavenly circle are chambers for dignitaries from each of the Blessed Families, reclining on cushioned furniture in expectation of courtiers. The haughty scions of the Families are sent to this distant orbital, so they might indulge in their hedonism without slighting their forebears.

In the haze of idolatry and excess, armored figures descended, their coats swaying in artificial wind like capes and their long rifles cracking out in the opulent silence. The soft reds of lavish pleasures were replaced with the bright crimson of blood, as the negligent guardians of the station, proud as they were, were unprepared for an assault from the stars. The scions were dragged from their lairs with gloved hands, and dashed upon bulkheads with stun batons and the stocks of rifles. While the Blessed Families were somewhat relieved to be rid of their troublesome spawn, they received anonymous messages but a few hours after the incident. Images of their relations, hanging upside-down from the support beams of Arrhenius or trussed up at the feet of smiling pirates, like some exotic game hunt brought to its inevitable conclusion. The message was simple and vivid - surrender, or meet the fate of your progeny. Since then, the station has remained under purview of Vagrant marines, with infrequent visitors met in the docking bays with hard glares and loaded weapons.

### Satellite Defense Grid

In the distant annals of history, when the inhabitants of Argiast tested on psychics instead of worshipping them, a final failsafe was concocted in the unlikely chance that the Ixchel Initiative experienced a total-failure scenario, leaving test subjects able to escape offworld. Hovering in high orbit are hundreds of 'dead man guns,' automated kill-satellites circling the planet in trajectories calculated centuries past. The initial waves of prisoners seeking to flee the planet following the Scream were speared through from heaven, directed plasma charges and kinetic payloads annihilating what few ships they had commandeered with calculated precision. The determined 'flight ceiling' of the kill-sats cut a line at the stratosphere of Argiast, and anything that ventured further into the stars was executed. Sufficiently cowed, the planetside survivors huddled in their decaying facilities and made for themselves a life amidst dirt and stone, never daring to strike once more for the void beyond their net of steel.

However, unbeknownst to those trapped below, the kill-satellite network was only meant to operate until assistance from the core worlds arrived - more than a few months of sustained operations in a critical-readiness stance quickly depleted these orbital slayers. Some expended their ammo blasting holes in errant meteorites, creating beautiful pyrotechnic displays in the sky for the Argians to behold. Others simply suffered basic malfunctions, miniscule errors that, left unattended for a few decades, reduced them into worthless pieces of scrap. Vast holes have appeared in what was once a flawless planet-wide net, and while several of the defense satellites remain operational, the damage has been done. The cage of the Argians is largely imaginary, but hundreds of years of warnings against attempting to flee the planet has made the very thought of flight taboo to their culture.

When the first voidcraft in centuries set down on Argian soil, a raid from neighboring Shān, the Blessed Families were dumbfounded. They considered the visit to be a fluke of fate, a chance avoidance of their silent, mechanical wardens, and fully expected to never see any hint of civilization beyond their own for the rest of time. Yet as more offworlders began to seep into the planet's gravity well, bearing news of a distant Empire and exotic goods, the Families were forced to concede that their imprisonment was not as stringent as previously believed. However, the lower folk never learned the truth that they were free to leave the home of their fathers and grandfathers, to see what rested beyond their world of ochre. This was among the most cunning of the deceptions wrought by the Families - that no life existed beyond their world, an island of light in an eternal sea of darkness. Believing that it was their holy task to slave away under psionic masters in order to re-establish humanity, the lower folk never questioned this grievous falsehood - even those few cast out into the wilds didn't stop to question if there might be other survivors of an apocalypse long past, clinging to life in the stars above.

As with most illusions of tyranny, a firm strike was all that was required to shatter this lie. When Vagrant vessels thundered down from the heavens bedecked in bristling weaponry and vivid iconography, punching holes in the shining webs of kill-satellites, the Families were no longer able to control the narrative they had wrought over the centuries. The lower folk were exposed to a startling array of foreign cultures and customs even as magnetic rounds still flew in the streets, from liberators who ultimately did not trouble themselves with the niceties of peaceful integration or cultural adaptation. Though the invasion began and ended as fast as the flame of a candle in a gale, the wounds left behind in the psyche of the planet are slow to heal. The lower folk are now witness to the psychics they worship confined to their regal manors, and rare corsairs gifted with psionic ability even wander the streets. Old stigmas of flight remain, though a brave few have left on passing pirate vessels to see the sector with their own eyes.

## Flora & Fauna

### Immiscible Life

The biosphere of Argiast is a flourishing array of flora and fauna, remarkable for their ability to prosper in hellish conditions. Having evolved without human interference for untold eons, such enriched environs are ultimately as useful for consumption as the dirt beneath one's boot. Argiast is composed mostly of silica-based lifeforms, inert to the acids in the atmosphere, but extremely poisonous to humans. Fauna not silica-based instead perspire an enzyme that causes severe allergenic reactions in unmodified humans.

This enzyme - gained by eating flora coated in a thick mucus layer containing it - protects the creatures and plants from the corrosive elements naturally. Were a Argian soul on the surface brave enough to hazard Quetzra’s Fury desperate enough to eat of the poisoned fruit of Argiast, naught would be gained but agony.  These same complications have given rise to a truly unique, essentially untouched alien ecosystem, as no terraforming expert would bother wasting their time with a planet inimical to 'standard' ecological specimens.

### Flora

#### Brackish Lily

The brackish lily, known more commonly as the *Lily of Clear Waters*, is a rather interesting floral specimen found amidst rock outcroppings and between geological formations, somewhat shielded from the force of passing gale-speed winds. It is not a lily at all, but rather a fractally blossoming plant that incorporates silica into a protective outer layer, reminiscent of a sea urchin. This species is only known in any capacity due to the fact that it exists as a naturally occurring medicinal for MES treatments.

Records of its creation are lost - as much was lost in the Scream - though it is certain that it is not native to the Argian hellscape and likely another construct of House Cygnus, as it is not immediately immiscible to humans. Consuming the petals of the lily results in short-term benefits, but the process has been refined to extract the drug from the spines of the plant in a careful procedure, resulting in a much more potent pharmaceutical. Those who question as to why the lily has not been incorporated into wider MES production - to date, it has been unable to be cultivated offworld, as the plant requires a strict environment only found on Argiast.

#### Ichor Vine

Draped amidst jungles tinted in the colors of rust are ichor vines, hanging from branches in tendrils black as pitch. The ichor vine is as thick as cabling and resistant to blades and brute force, making it a struggle to clear a path through the primeval foliage. Instead of leaves or other such benevolent structures, the ichor vine forms sharpened edges around its length, fully capable of wounding any beast that traverses its territory. The vines sustain themselves on the lifeblood of passing creatures, while slicing into the flesh of their host arbors in search of nutrients.

Traipsing into a colony of ichor vines can be likened to prancing in a field of razor wire. The slicing and cutting effects of the vine only become more troublesome when vacuum suits are involved, as the lacerations imparted can expose unprotected skin to the Argian elements. These dangers are then amplified in the wild storms of the surface, as whipping winds turn a dormant danger into an active threat. Entire limbs can be severed by lashing vines as wide as a human forearm, capable of bludgeoning and cutting in equal measure.

#### Apple of Ixtili

A product of Cygnus biological engineering, the 'apple of Ixtili' is an otherwise unnamed fruit designed to provide a source of food for the facilities of Argiast if their supplies were to ever run low. Now grown in hydroponic facilities scattered across the surface, these apples are a high-efficiency foodstuff, laden with nutrients in their shining juices. While other ingredients are present in Argian meals, the centerpiece of most dining is the prepared flesh of the apple of Ixtili, as it is the only comestible which all castes of Argian society can easily obtain. The actual plant is more akin to a plum with a coloration of dull gold, yet its prevalence in the society of Argiast has led to occlusion of all other fruits from the general lexicon, leading to any foreign products of flora being identified as 'apples' of varying sizes, textures, and colors.

However, the varied benefits of the apple of Ixtili have caused it to meet and exceed its expected capabilities, to the detriment of those who grow it. Unless raised in relative isolation from other specimens in a hydroponic setup, these fruits can out-compete and eclipse any competitors, as their seeds spread about on the clothes of passerby and are carried on faint winds. Several sequential failures in proper hydroponic procedures soon after the Scream have left Argiast with barely any forms of human-miscible vegetation beyond the apple, as it had overrun its neighboring plants, its growing facilities, and even the hallways of abandoned agricultural facilities.

### Fauna

#### Xipè

The xipè is the premiere predator of Argiast - with a physiology caught somewhere between that of a crab and a lizard, its three-meter length resembling an armored theropod crawling about between boulders and through the verdure of primordial tropics. The shell of the xipè is made of hardened chitinous segments, capable of turning aside small-arms fire, and glistening with secreted oils that seem to act as a natural neutralizer of airborne acids. This gives the creature's outer layer the appearance of a starfield, as pinpricks of light in oils stand out on chitin tinted in jet-black. The xipè is a pack hunter, travelling in formation with at least two other members of its kin to assault prey with jagged teeth and elongated talons, both of which are strong enough to punch holes in postech combat armor.

The natural inclination of the xipè to bond with pack members makes it an ideal beast to tame for human use directly after its hatching. Deprived of orbital transportation, caste-warriors can be seen straddling the dorsal spines of these reptilian mounts, winds whipping about their protective armor as they ride between the isolated cities of Argiast. This method of transport is terrifying to the common Argian due to the cruel and vicious nature of the xipè, but also seen as a mark of prestige. To the common drudge of Argiast, bereft of an alternative to brave the outside wilds, the xipè represents freedom to go where one wishes, and power over those beneath.

#### Tatua Wyrm

The tatua wyrm is a rather benevolent beast for its grandiose size, its coils large enough to wrap around a frigate-class voidcraft several times over. Burrowing through silicates and soil, the tatua is rarely ever seen on the surface, their approach heralded by the slow fissuring of the earth. When it needs to reveal itself to the open sky, the slime coating the wyrm’s rubbery skin shields it from acidic exposure before it once more meanders its way back into the depths. These grand beasts drag nutrients from the soil around themselves, slowly grinding apart the roots of trees far above and the decomposing, skeletal remains of creatures partially sunk into the soil.

Despite their lethargic lifestyles, tatua wyrms are ferociously territorial when they encounter others of their kind. Most of the battles between these beasts go unseen by human eyes, as the opponents constrict and crush one another in the depths like a seething Gordian knot. In a few select instances, these serpentine giants are driven to the surface in their combat, their movements churning up the earth and sending seismic tremors that carry for miles in every direction. Tatua wyrms also pose an accidental threat to the infrastructure of Argiast’s human populations, as their passing breaks apart rock and causes subterranean passages to buckle and give under the sheer pressure.

#### Coatizyte

If one were to gaze up at the seething clouds and looming thunderheads of Argiast, it would be a sensible guess on their part to assume that no life could survive in such intense conditions. Unfortunately, alien life doesn’t care for the sensibilities of man. Enter the coatizytes, more commonly referred to as ‘tempest dragons,’ serpents that scour the skies and ride at the vanguard of storm fronts. Endowed with internal reservoirs of buoyant gases and light frames, these creatures are carried about on squalls and roaring winds, fins stretching taut between spines as they maneuver through the unseen labyrinths of amber skies.

What little of these airborne sovereigns that is known has been gained through study of corpses plummeting to earth, wounded or suffering from unknown maladies. It is far more common for the coatizytes to descend from the cloud layer like the tendrils of an ancient god, taking up copses of trees, screeching xipès, or even slaying a rare and unfortunate tatua wyrm and taking chunks of its flesh into the skies. Note: not targeted by the satellite defense grid encompassing the planet, giving rise to the belief among the masses that the coatizyte is favored by the Gods.

By the reckoning of what few xenobiologists Argiast can boast, not one coatizyte encountered by humans thus far has died of old age. Careful study of shimmering kaleidoscopic scales pulled from the corpses of these draconian creatures yields organic material that has existed for centuries, even millennia. The enduring and terrifying nature of the coatizyte has led to its adoption as an informal standard by the Blessed Families, a declaration of their power and strength, even as the creatures they pay homage to wind silently through the open air above, their massive frames briefly illuminated by flashes of lightning.

## Timeline

### Pre-Scream

#### 2586 CE

Imperial planetary surveyors discover Argiast in the isolated Hild system. Though dissuaded by the harsh atmosphere and distance from the core worlds, those studying the planet make careful notation of the habitable planet, a resource in short supply within the sector.

#### 2590 CE

A research colony is established by the House Serpens as a safe space for conducting research into the nature of MES, and rare afflictions presenting in carriers.

#### 2599 CE

The continued cost of importing psychics for on-site testing of medicinal treatments becomes a prohibitive expense. Concurrently, despite lucrative prospects, research plateaus without steady human trials. With the securing of increased funding, House Lyra is approached with an offer of partnership pertaining to MES research efforts on Argiast. This leads to the formation of the Ixchel Initiative, with the express goal of the integration of Argiast into the Empire and the sustaining of an MES positive population, containing a large subset of afflicted individuals suffering from rare complications or advanced symptoms.

### Post-Scream

#### 2665 CE

The apocalyptic anomaly known as the Scream tears through known space. As a facility housing a large MES afflicted population and devoted to the study thereof, Argiast is thrown into an end-of-days scenario. Contact with the rest of Acheron Rho is lost. A supermajority of the population planetside dies immediately, with further psychics among the staff and test subjects alike torching due to unknown energies. The supporting infrastructure designed to neutralize the corrosive atmosphere of Argiast fails, placing the survivors under an even greater deal of duress.

#### 2667 CE

The Ixchel Initiative is officially disbanded as research staff and surviving test subjects formally unite in order to survive on their new and unexpectedly permanent residence. The facility chief warden, still vehemently disagreeing with such integration due to ingrained social norms, is bound and placed in an outer airlock to die.

#### 2701 CE

The non-psychics among the survivors begin to be oppressed by their MES afflicted brethren. Formal stratification is instituted with the stated purpose of ‘preserving the legacy’ of the late Ixchel Initiative. Those who disagree with these stratifying measures disappear - among such a small population, it is evident that the absentees have been extrajudicially slain.

#### 2795 CE

An unusual spate of psychic births on Argiast is utilized by the psychics as a sign of their right to command. This marks the beginning of the institutions known as the Blessed Families. Those ‘lower folk’ who give birth to gifted children either have their memories changed to fit the public narrative or suffer from untimely accidents in their daily maintenance routines.

#### 2825 CE

An A.C.R.E. mining mission arrives in the Hild system to begin exploitation of the planet of Shān. The workers either don’t notice the people of Argiast or don’t care enough about them to brave the scorching atmosphere to contact a seemingly minuscule outpost with no spacefaring capabilities. The arrival of a massive and sophisticated fleet from out of system strikes fear into many of the Blessed Families and sends them into a state of panic. Many members of the Families begin the construction of ancillary fortresses and holdings that they could retreat to in case of a hostile offworlder landing. This facilitates a period of emigration from the primary facility of Ixchel into the surrounding wilds.

#### 2863 CE

Huemac the Reflective, an immensely powerful telepath, institutes the Temple Doctrine, a set of reforms and measures designed to increase the leverage the Blessed Families possess over their subjects. It is at this time that members of the Families begin to wear mirrored masks in public as a sign of power and regality. Education controls are put in place so as to eliminate any further teachings of the Ixchel Initiative and Argiast’s past as a research facility. Postech devices are also prohibited from circulation among the general populace, and only doled out on the basis of favor among the Blessed Families or for the purpose of keeping the surrounding technological equipment necessary for survival in working order.

#### 2949 CE

The Rusiyyah crewed Salum successfully batter a hole in the defense grid, by brute force ramming one satellite and sustaining the blows of three others - one having already been non-functioning. While damage was abundant, it was mostly cosmetic surface damage along with small hull punctures in ablative cargo sections that were easily sealed off and repaired with only light loss of life. The damage at the site of the ramming was more extensive and required real repair work, at a later date.

The raid itself was less successful. One thousand raiders descended in cargo lighters to hammer  the burgeoning temple-kingdom of Epan, cutting through the caste-warriors aligned against them. Heavy resistance was found when the raiders crashed against the Blessed Families' line of retreat to safety, guarded by vicious xipè riders - the Dragoons.

The Dragoons had begun to be routed when vac-suits of the invaders, unrated and untested against the harsh corrosion in the atmosphere, began to fail. The Dragoons were able to rally and push back the Rusiyahh forces.only half of the raiders made it back to retreat with the bullion already attained - mostly complete hydroponics bays, and reams of medical equipment and drugs. One cargo lighter was full of captured xipè, though this lighter never made it to orbit and it is theorized one of the wounded xipè escaped capture and killed all crew.

#### 3009 CE

Conflict breaks out between separate ideological fronts of the Blessed Families. The Old Lineages wish to ensure Argian isolation in order to maintain a vice grip on the populace through ignorance, while the New Lineages desire contact with offworlders for the benefit of the Blessed Families and continued technological superiority over their subjects. Caste-warriors cut one another to ribbons while many of the 'lower folk' are slain. Many members of the Families are assassinated, by poison, bullet, and blade alike. The Families never war between one another directly, though their mental powers are almost assuredly at play behind the scenes. The Old Lineages ultimately secure victory, though they leave their opponents standing, as a decimation among the Families would surely damage the social hierarchy of Argiast. The New Lineages lick their wounds and accept the status quo, though they never quite forget their loss.

In the end, this causes the final fracture of the Families as a united front. Different groups of Blessed Families separate and make formal moves to their fortresses away from Ixchel, and the one-time medical facility is finally abandoned in full, becoming neutral territory for formal meetings between the Families.

### Post Vagrant

#### 3197 CE

A band of salvagers lured to the Hild system by the rise of the Vagrant fleets find the central command bunker housing Xibalba v1.0.3 under the regolith of Aleda. Their trespass rouses the automated system from its maintenance cycles, though its waking is silent enough that the salvagers are none the wiser, even after they leave the moon and declare it worthless. Upon observing the facilities of Argiast below, Xibalba's subroutines recognize that the Ixchel Initiative has entered into a state of 'total catastrophe,' and the ancient system begins to ready its weapons of war, to restore a world that has long since moved on from the relics of the past.

#### 3201 CE

Vagrant vessels enter the gravity well of Argiast, seizing the Arrhenius Forum in a few short hours. Under strength of arms, the Blessed Families cede to the offworlders, and the planetary ports become host to a legion's worth of mismatched and battle-hardened pirate-marines. Caste-warriors are forcibly disarmed as negotiations get underway between Vagrant negotiators and the diplomats of the Families, who try their best to maintain a stake in the civilization they created for their benefit. The end result is the Treaty of Tepeyo, which essentially places the Blessed Families under house arrest and relieves them of all their power, while allowing them to keep the material trappings and wealth they have accrued. As marines patrol the streets where caste-warriors once tread, the citizenry of Argiast are slow to adjust to their newfound freedoms.

#### Serpens Involvement

Several months after the Treaty of Tepeyo, House Serpens reached out to the Confederation of the Upright Vagrant about the state of Argiast. In secret, Serpens and the Confederation forged an agreement to completely and systematically strip the Blessed Families of all remaining power and influence. Serpens exploited the desperation of the blessed families to gain what little territory the Blessed Families still possessed, and to cast themselves as messianic restorative figures among the general Argian population. Not through yet, Serpens secured the progeny of the Blessed Families with assurances of proper psionic training and to place them in positions of high office and governance in the future. In all actuality Serpens had effectively stolen what land the Blessed Families still possessed, dissolved their popular support, and kidnapped their children, all under the guise of prophecies to restore Argiast to its rightful state of being. House Serpens maintains a presence on the planet, assuring stability for their partners in the Confederation, while attempting to advance their own private interests.

## The Argian People

### Blessed Families

The Blessed Families were the tyrannical rulers of Argiast, intimidating their subjects with psychic prowess. Over the centuries, the Families managed to grind down education and general technological knowledge among the commoners of the populace, to a point where non-psychics, commonly referred to as the lower folk, only possessed a bare minimum of vocational knowledge and training with which to function in society. To these oppressed peoples, postech is magic and pretech may as well be a miracle directly from the heavens.

In public, members of the Blessed Families wear ornate, mirrored masks that reflect back the faces of those who gaze upon the psychic despots, as a reminder of who 'benefits' from the rulership of the Families. Each mask is endowed with a specific honorific, bestowed upon subsequent wearers as they inherit from their predecessors. The exact numbers of the Blessed Families are subsequently hard to gauge, as members wear the trappings of those who came before them, and many members of the Families don't even appear in the public eye.

Children born amongst the lower folk who test positive for MES are uplifted into the Families as soon as their powers publicly manifest. Both the children and their parents are brought to the ancient capital of Ixchel, from which all began, for a supposed initiation ritual. Yet only the prospective psychic emerges afterwards, the traces of their old self gone and replaced with the personality of a perfect sovereign and a devoted inductee of the Families. All those who knew this transformed potentate in their past life are either scared into silence, disappear themselves, or have the knowledge in question excised from their minds by telepaths. For all intents and purposes, the majority of Argiast's population believe that psychics can only be born from the Blessed Families, thus heightening their reverence of psionic power.

#### Thunder-Blooded

The caste-warriors are the strong right hand to the Blessed Families,intimidating warriors made up of the firstborn children from a small number of families chosen for their strength and prowess in combat. Wrapped in cloths and combat armor, designed to emulate the chitin of the ferocious xipè, these slayers silenced anyone troubling the Families, and intimidated everyone else into silence. The caste-warriors also functioned as assassins, couriers, bodyguards, and even advisors to the Blessed Families, all alongside functioning as a planetary force of law. Many have theorized that if it weren't for sheer devotion to their psychic lieges, these fighters would've seized control of Argiast many centuries ago.

#### Quetzra's Chosen

Of particular note are the Dragoons of Ixchel, an elite force of caste-warriors who have mastered the art of xipè riding. The tenacity required to tame the reptilian predators is beyond most of the caste, so those few who don't die in the attempt are looked up to by their peers. As a buffer to prevent commoners from attaining political clout, these mounted fighters are selected from the non-psychic children of the Blessed Families, still endowed with privilege and status but never allowed into the highest echelons due to their mundanity. The Dragoons serve as retainers and majordomos of the Families, handling simple administrative affairs that the planetary rulers deem to be below their regard.

When Vagrant marines landed on the planet, the Dragoons were the only regiment of caste-warriors to refuse surrender, instead garrisoning the royal manors of the Families room by room. The battle ultimately saw the ranks of the Dragoons decimated, but they fought the invaders to a standstill and attest that they gave the space necessary for the Treaty to be drafted and signed. Without their heroic stand, the Dragoons suggest that the Families all would have been destroyed. The few survivors - in ill odor with their new overlords - have since fled into the wilderness, borne away by agile mounts to a place and purpose that is as of yet unknown.

#### The Lodges

A policy of restricting technological artifice to only a select few commoners has left the society of Argiast stratified not only socially, but also intellectually. For instance, one familial line might be proficient with mining equipment while absolutely ignorant as to the faintest knowledge of building, and the inverse would be true for the familial lines of builders. Generational practice and refinement of technique has led to an accidental imbalance, in that the commoners endowed with technology are often more knowledgeable of their specific tools than their masters. The Blessed Families recognized the potential for social destabilization if the tech-proficient grew too plentiful, and thus enacted a number of countermeasures to prevent such a future. Different fields of learning were absolutely quarantined from one another, with contact between the learned commoners all filtered through the Blessed Families and their goons. Miners, engineers, and mathematicians would never see one another in the flesh, as they were also separated physically and geographically. Two, the written word was restricted to these positions of higher learning, to further control the masses.  Ultimately, the system was a tenuous machination at best, only enabled by the devotion of the subjects to their psionic masters.

These chosen citizens were informally divided into the Lodges of Thought, living, breeding, and dying amongst one another’s company in isolation from the menial laborers of the planet. One Lodge handled matters of coin, dealing with transactions of goods and finance between the divided Blessed Families, as well as overseeing trade with the rare offworlder who visited in years past, though the dignitaries of the Families performed all the diplomatic work. Other Lodges handled the matters of education and history, tasked with rewriting the past and molding the future to best benefit the plans of their revered despots. Even doctors and physicians belonged to a Lodge of their own, their offices made from sterile materials and their pens replaced with scalpels.

It is very rare for commoners to receive any postech medical attention, as such luxuries were reserved for caste-warriors and the rare malady amongst the Families that wasn’t worth the trouble of biopsionics. The Lodges of Thought essentially replaced the core world equivalent of a bureaucracy, fulfilling the roles of functionaries under the watchful gaze of uncaring masters.

#### The Pit of Flesh

The supermajority of the Argian population is made up of menial laborers and uneducated workers - the perfect foundation upon which to construct an autocracy. In comparison to the Argian worker, the core world serf is rather well endowed, as they have access to the full range of technology their homeworld has to offer, if not the luxuries. The Mundane, as they are known by the Blessed Families, are relegated to squalor, their living conditions barely illuminated by rudimentary electricity and filled with the sounds of wracking coughs. If asked, it is unlikely that such a laborer could describe or even understand rudimentary technological concepts, separated as they are from any knowledge that would allow them to progress societally.

This metaphorical pit of expendable flesh is the fully realized tyranny of Argiast, a people so absolutely oppressed that they believe they are among the fortunate, who worship their leaders with true zeal. When a member of the Families passes by in the street, the lower folk prostrate themselves with their foreheads to stone, muttering prayers to those who wield the power of the mind. It is unlikely for Argians who do not hold a position in government to ever see an offworlder, or even be told that there exist other civilization among the stars.

#### The Cast Out

Lowest of the low in the dredges of the caste system are the outcasts, those sent into the wilds with a single vacuum suit and no supplies for their affronts against the powers that be. This is meant to be a surefire death sentence, a handy means of disposing malcontents. A select few have survived their ordeal, anchoring themselves in homes of bleak stone among the hills and mountains, barely fending off the poisonous air just beyond their walls. These holdfasts are sustained on a meager trickle of passionate souls, awaiting some grand revolution to cast off the Blessed Families and their horrid methods of control. In the meanwhile, they have harassed caste-warrior patrols in the untamed regions of the planet using primitive ballistic weapons and rudimentary blades, their vacuum suits painted with emblems of leering skulls and similarly crude iconography.

When the revolution finally arrived on Argiast, it came not from a groundswell movement, as the outcasts suspected - it instead descended from the stars in sheaths of burning plasma. The fortified bands of pariahs were all too quick to align themselves with Vagrant forces, and launched small assaults upon the outer defenses of Argian settlements while offworlder marines wrested control of the streets. The chaos of the Vagrant seizure has left the ingrained society in flux - postech now flows into the hands of the lower folk while the caste-warriors are disarmed and the Families are locked within their own homes. Outcasts tentatively return to the families they were forced to abandon, as the entirety of the planet looks forward towards an opaque and uncertain future, their skies now opened to a sector that is far larger than they could’ve ever believed.

## Argian Culture

### Art

Art, being regarded as a dangerous outlet for self-expression, is a forbidden luxury on Argiast. Tokens, charms, and amulets fashioned by the lower castes that do not explicitly exalt the Blessed Families in their design are cast into flame or crushed under the boots of stern caste-warriors. Such oppression of personal craftsmanship has left the planetary commoners in spartan homes, furnished only with the bare essentials, such as simple cots and rudimentary electric lighting.

This destitute majority, layered within these rowhouses, often eat their meals from plates resting on hard stone floors, as thin walls do little to conceal the cacophony of their many, many neighbors. These structures are simplistically brutal, carved of plascrete and stone in tight geometric formations kept as far away as is possible from main thoroughfares and streets. Until very recently, an offworlder would have only seen faux-homes purposefully placed in the urban centers, empty shells meant to suggest lives of satisfaction among the lowest rungs of Argian society.

#### Architechture

The only places in which one might find 'beauty' is in the palatial manors of the Blessed Families, grand constructions built by the bleeding and bandaged hands of the masses. These estates are more palace than home, opulent in the extreme and constructed of imported materials and bedecked with finery brought all the way from the core worlds. Large xenobotanical gardens surround each manor, patrolled by zealous faithful and ringed with monofilament fences; the common people can only dream of catching a stray glimpse of these fantastical paradises, forbidden as they are from ever sullying the sanctity of these grounds with their unclean aura.

The streets, in a similar fashion, are flanked by legions of basalt columns, statues wrought in regal imitation of long-dead psychics gazing downwards at those who drag their feet on the cobbles below. Many of these creations and hedonisms have been marred in the recent landings of Confederation forces - small pockets of brief but fierce combat around the Family estates have left the cultivated gardens scorched and slashed, while the masked statues are left pockmarked with laser burns and scars of shrapnel, their ruined and unbalanced forms looking out over a shaken and shifting world.

### Language

The language of Argiast is a hybrid tongue, one borne not only of the Orphean and Hroan cultures of its research staff, but also adopting various terms and phrases from the varied test subjects that inhabited the facility. Communication with an Argian in Imperial tongues is a messy affair, wherein only a few words can be partially understood without grasping the context behind the few phrases that slip through the language barrier. In times past, however, a rare offworlder visiting would never have to speak with the common folk - their ship would dock on Arrhenius 9 in secret, and they would be ferried directly to representatives of the Families, well versed and eloquent in speaking the Imperial language. This served as a facade, displaying Argiast as a sophisticated realm, opposed to its true nature as a culturally-backwards land of despotic hedonism.

Without the written word, the tradition of storytelling and oration of the histories has become well respected among the lower caste especially.

### Psychic Eugenics

In an attempt to maintain control of the psychics among the population, the Blessed Families have devoted countless hours devising a program of selected lineages and genetics for production of metaphysically-gifted children exclusively among the elite. However, in this way the Families have fallen prey to their own propaganda, for they operate on the basic premise that psionic power can be bred for. To this date, any scientific evidence suggesting the Great Program is working is inconclusive at best, and fabricated at worst.

Despite the lurking unknowns present in the calculations of their eugenics, such programs were still effective as tools for repressing the lower folk, as selection of partners helped keep communities disparate and separated, preventing the rise of popular movements from the lowest tiers among planetary society. Originally borne of warped interpretations of Imperial culture, such attempts at genetic enhancement programs have further destabilized the lowest castes, to which the concepts of free love and personal choice have become increasingly foreign concepts.

## Temple Kingdoms

### Hueximche

Among the deep vaults of Hueximche, ancient weapons of dread purpose lay dormant, their radioactive cores slowly collapsing upon themselves in the dark, accompanied only by the sonorous whine of Geiger counters. After the Scream and the resulting chaos upon Argiast, those research staff who would eventually flee the facilities of Ixchel deemed their situation desperate enough to bring atomic fire once more into the world. Though the break-off colony of Hueximche was founded before the reordering of society under the Blessed Families, it too fell under the sway, given time. The primary power of the lineages now controlling this remote and somewhat minute kingdom is the trove of doomsday weapons that rest in the warrens beneath them, ensuring destruction for political rivals that seek to conquer the aptly-named Temple of Fire. On the interstellar scale, these weapons are worthless, their effectiveness confined to their own gravity well, yet the societies of Argiast live in fear of harsh and blinding light on the horizon.

### Yaulhua

Known as the ‘Land of Venoms,’ the temple-kingdom of Yaulhua rests deep within foetid tropics, armored in ivy and foliage. The lineages of Yaulhua are weak in the psionic arts, though what they lack in power they make up for in ruthless cunning, their plots formulated over silent decades. In fact, the very memory of Yaulhua’s existence has passed in and out of the Argian consciousness, to the point where Vagrant marines landing on the planet considered tales of the secret jungle palaces to be mere folklore. Such views were quickly ratified when the **VFS** *Lessons of a Blind Elder*, a Vagrant battlecruiser, caught glimpses of stonework and geometric designs amidst the raging storms and thick foliage of the planet. The vaults of hidden Yaulhua were cracked open as marines dropped into the jungles from orbit, and gunfire echoed through the shadowed halls as masked invaders stormed through the halls. Though concealed for many a lifetime, Yaulhua eventually fell to the same fate as its sister kingdoms - capitulation through martial might.

### Epan

Epan is the weakest of the temple-kingdoms, beset by resistance and tumult. In the year 3150, the ruling lineages of Epan cast a thousand-strong band of commoners out into the wilds on supposed crimes of high treason. Those banished did not die in the harsh climates - instead, they have remained a constant thorn in the heel of their once-kingdom, brigands and desperadoes who make examples of the dead and ruthlessly assault their former masters. Caste-warriors caught on patrols have been left bloodied and headless, their skulls placed on pikes throughout the xenofloral jungles surrounding Epan’s retaining walls. A disproportionate number of royal psychics have been slain by these malcontents over the decades, shot dead on the street with crude ballistics or ran through with poisoned blades. With the arrival of Vagrant vessels, many of these outlaws have left the planet, ready to be rid of their terrestrial prison, yet Epan is still left bleeding and weak, susceptible to the machinations of its neighbors.

### Mestepec

Mestepec, the eldest of the temple-kingdoms, is lodged in the maw of an ancient volcano, brought up from the depths by the tectonic upheaval of Argiast. The lineages of the city are masters of telekinesis, able to shape stone with but a thought and mold the mountain ramparts to their desire. Regarded as the most powerful of the temple-kingdoms in terms of conventional strength, Mestepec crawls up and over the walls of its caldera fastness, its shining pyramids and ziggurats a clear display of prosperity. Mastering the arts of forge-fire and blasting heat, the engineers of Mestepec have established the Red Yards, arrays of massive foundries fed with geothermal power drawn from the blazing heart of the planetary mantle. The caste-warriors of the city, bedecked in ochre cloths and armed with multifarious weaponry, ceded control of the Yards to Vagrant marauders, and the manufactories have turned to the dread purpose of the wrecking yard, as the voidcraft corsairs send plunging to the planet below are dragged to the gargantuan metalworks and melted down into slag.

### Ik'k'oux

Ik'k'oux, the Hall of Slumbering Secrets, is by no means a hidden place, yet few would travel to its gates of their own free will. Resting in an expansive mountainous grotto, like a blade lodged in earthen flesh, the city’s angular architectures are sharp enough to part skin and draw blood. The streets and surrounding valleys are bedecked with massive statues of presumably ancient figures, the geometry of their faces aligned in subtle patterns so as to irritate the eye and befuddle the mind. The lineages of the Blessed Family who rule over Ik'k'oux began as descendants of the old wardens of Ixchel, recalling times of distant memory in which they ruled over all others, their histories deformed into a mandate of ancient primacy over all their psychic peers.

Despite such claims, the lineages do not embark from the gates of their grotto kingdom - their lands seem prosperous enough, the faces of the lower folk bent in grins reminiscent of sharpened blades. Further within the wending paths of the grottoes, it is said that masked worshipers cavort and supplicate themselves before idols of deities they might claim were old when God was young, if they were to ever openly speak of such things. Their supposed saviors are ‘angels’ borne of superheated hydrogen and clad in wings of dark matter, fearsome avatars of that which should-not-be, which they hope will come to Argiast and purge it of all the lineages that dare to challenge the primeval claims of Ik’k’oux. Or at least, the rumors say as much.

#### Operation: BLACK TEMPLE

In 3201, a number of Vagrant marines descended upon Ik’k’oux as one more battle in their blitzkrieg of Argiast. Masked troopers descended from idling drop-craft and quickly breached the outer airlocks of the city, slaying what few caste-warriors they came across. From on high, the **VFS** *Fury of Glass* served as a remote command center for the combined forces sweeping through the streets of the city below. The assault was deemed to be a complete success within an hour of initial contact, and most of the marines on site were already preparing to exfiltrate from the city when they caught wind of Blessed Family scions fleeing into the mountain grottoes deep within the city. Pursuing their quarry, a small marine contingent lost communication contact with their orbital counterparts - this was, initially, deemed as little cause for concern, blamed upon interfering metals in the tonnes of rock resting above the marines in their subterranean chase.

Only seven of the thirty marines who descended into those warrens returned to the surface. The images their armor cameras had captured during their underground expedition were transmitted to the *Fury of Glass*, and the seemingly nonsensical imagery was met with confusion by the support crews working the terminals. Within minutes, confusion turned to inexplicable fury, and the vessel descended into a veritable bloodbath, as crew members brutalized one another with whatever implements they could get their hands on. Boarding teams from fellow vessels, unaware of what had fallen upon the *Fury of Glass*, landed upon the voidcraft in biohazard protection gear and terminated the remainder of the crew, all of whom were psychopathic in their anger. All of the ship’s databases were seized, the corpses of the crew sealed in plasteel coffins, and the vessel itself blown to smithereens with concentrated laser fire.

As of now, all seized material, be it mechanical or biological, rests in cold storage aboard an unmarked freighter in orbit, while hunter-killer teams desperately scour the surface for the survivors of the ill-fated expedition.