Fortis Luminus

Pict-file of Fortis Luminus, fortress-monastery of the Lightning Sons Chapter.

The **Fortis Luminus** (Low Gothic: *Fortress of Light*), originally known as **Ordinance/Regional Depot D-4657/725**, is the Fortress-Monastery of the Lightning Sons Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, located in temperate northern pole of their desert homeworld of Navaern.

Ancient even when the Lightning Sons took it as their headquarters in the early 38th Millennium, the Fortis Luminus has stood watch over the wind-swept grasslands of Navaern's northern hemisphere since time immemorial. Built in the ancient style of Gothic Architecture emblematic of the Great Crusade, it has thus long been theorised to have been constructed during His great endeavour to unite humanity across the stars.

Built during such venerable ages past, and expanded upon in the millennia since, the Fortis Luminus is one of the greatest fortresses in the Orelian Sub-sector, if not the entirety of the Uridian Isola. Stretching a considerable distance, the Fortis Luminus can be split into two distinct administrative zones; the inner and outer 'wards'.

Though once perhaps a much smaller instillation, over the prevailing millennia since the Lightning Sons' stewardship of the fortress, it has grown into a veritable polity in its own right. The outer fortress sits as a comparatively newer section of the fortress compared to the much older inner fortress, built to house the serf-clans of the Chapter. Only the anointed warriors and serfs of the Chapter are permitted to walk the causeways and ancient chambers of the inner fortress, backed against the monumental bulk of Mount Adoniah.

If dark rumour is to be believed, deep in the catacombs of the Fortis Luminus, secrets stretching as far back as the War of the False Primarchs, and further still, dwell in the abandoned armouriums and long unused munitions cathedra; kept hidden to all save the Chapter's own inner circle.

During the Noctis Aeterna, the Fortis Luminus became a rallying point for the fragmented Planetary Defence Forces of Navaern's northern pole, and the fleeing refugees of its vast urban centres. The Fortress-Monastery was the site of one of the last, bloody battles of the War of Sighs, the six year conflict that preceded the Imperium's return to the Uridian Isola, following the opening of the Great Rift.

## **History**

Though an exact date of construction is almost impossible to ascertain, it is generally agreed upon by Imperial Scholars that the Fortis Luminus was constructed some time prior to the Great Heresy. It was established as a Legiones Astartes supply depot for units of the IIIrd Legion *'Emperor's Children'* active in the regions ongoing Compliance campaigns, originally designated Ordinance/Regional Depot D-4657/725.

According to legend, following the Dropsite Massacre of Istvaan V, the Fortis Luminus became a minor battlefield between Loyalist elements of the IIIrd Legion, and traitorous XVIIth Legion *'Word Bearers'* who sought to pillage the supply depots of the fortress to fuel the Warmasters warmachine. When word reached these far flung sons of the Phonecian of his betrayal, they denounced their Primarch and their Legion, pledging sole loyalty to the Golden Throne and rebranding themselves the Preatoria Penitent.

The accounts of Paetoria Penitent vary drastically and dramatically from local legend to Imperial historical documentation, but what is a certainty, is that the Fortis Luminus and its amply supply of deadly weaponry enabled the Blackshield warband to carry out offensive and defensive actions across the Uridian Isola during the Horus Heresy. Differing accounts depict the Praetoria Penitent in two varying lights, though whatever the truth of the matter, the Praetoria Penitent were branded *Damnatio Memoriae,* after being declared *Traitoris Perdita* by the High Lords of Terra following the conclusion of the Heresy.

They are said to have been slaughtered to a man in the fires of the Great Scouring, in a great battle for possession of the Fortis Luminus. Any trace of their existence has long since been erased from the walls of the Fortis Luminus and the Imperium at large; their deeds, history and the fated battle in which they met their end becoming naught but ill-remembered legend.

Unverifiable evidence exists in the form of stories told within the Navaenite mythic tract, that a second coming of the Astartes occurred on Navaern some time between the 31st and 34th Millennium. Whichever Chapter took up residence there however, and whatever fate inevitably befell them, has since remained a mystery, and likely one that shell never be solved.

### **Under the Sons of Lightning**

   Any mention of the 'Ordinance/Regional Depot D-4657/725' in Imperial records ceased after 143.M31, and would not resurface until 998.M37, over six thousand years later, where it is mentioned in *Historica Orelia Invicta,* as being under the stewardship of the Lightning Sons Chapter, given over to them by the High Twelve following their service in the First Aephidic War a decade prior, and given the new name *Fortis Luminus*.

Since then, the Lightning Sons have vehemently defend it, and the Eagle's Gate, from both Xenos and Heretical incursion from the dark depths of the Whispering Deeps. Under their stewardship, numerous refectories for lore keeping have been erected within the confines of the inner fortress, while the outer fortress has been expanded and built upon to house their army of serf-clans, levied from the planets Imperial population.

Though the Lightning Sons have remained loyal and steadfast defenders of the Emperor's far flung realms, it has not stopped the cultivation and spread of dark rumour concerning not only their Chapter, but their fortress as well. From the serf-clans of the fortress itself, to the Archon's of Navaern's elite, tales are told of foul spirits that roam the deep and unused crypt-silo's beneath the ancient inner fortress, or stalk its ancient walls at night.

With the opening of the Great Rift in 999.M41, the flickering beacon of the *Pharus Astropathica* became a guiding light for not only many Imperial starships beleaguered within the Warp, but vast numbers of lost starships, harbouring hordes of malignant mutants, traitors and worse. The Pharus Astropthica, and in turn Navaern, was a light against the darkness the powers of the Archenemy would not suffer kindly.

From the fastness of the Fortis Luminus, the ailing Valerius Scaevola organised and committed his Chapter to the defence of their charge, and it was at the Fortis Luminus that the Lightning Sons suffered one of their greatest defeats. Out numbered and besieged, the defenders of the Fortis Luminus were unmade by one of their own; a turn coat who in the dead of night opened the way for the forces of the Archenemy to pour through the fortress' outer defences.

Ordered to abandon the fortress, the remnants of its Lightning Sons defenders, with its mortal survivors in tow, retreated from the fortress, leaving behind a token rear guard commanded by non other than Valerius Scaevola himself. The fortress, though lost, was of little use to the enemy; unable to breach the seals placed upon its refectories by the Chapter's retreating Consulate, and its master, Veraf Eradaen.

Eventually reclaimed and restored by the end of 006.M42, the Fortis Luminus once again acts as the fastness of the Lightning Sons, and the training grounds for its rapidly increasing numbers, with recruits from across the Orelian Sub-Sector arriving in the wake of Battle Group Saint Mallaeus' advance.

### **Exterior**

##### **Arch Macharius**

Constructed in ca. 399.M41 following the return of the Lightning Sons from the Macharian Crusade, the Arch Macharius was erected along the Avenue of Triumph, to mark one of the greatest campaigns the Chapter had embarked upon in centuries, and to commemorate the height of their glory in that venerated campaign. Carvings upon the surface of the arch depict in excruciating detail the warriors of the Lightning Sons embattled with xenos and heretics alike.

##### **Librarius Magna**

The Librarius Magna, or the Great Library, is a vast and ancient building in the heart of the Fortis Luminus' Outer Fortress. It is a fastness of knowledge and learning upon Navaern, training some of the greatest scholars in the Orelian Salient, if not within the Uridian Isola itself. Though the building predates the arrival of the Lightning Sons in the late 37th Millennium, the building had suffered catastrophic damage at some point in its history; its archivums burnt and whatever knowledge it held turned to ash.

##### **Colovan Estates**

Segregated from the greater part of the metropolitan Outer Wards, the Colovan Estates are the personal households of those clan-families privileged enough to hold particularly influential or important roles within the Chapter's fortress-monastery, such as Admiral of the Chapter Fleet, commander of the city's mortal defenders, and so on. Though largely meritocratic in the selection of serfs to important positions, more often than not their positions are inherited, passed from parent to child when the former can no longer perform their duty, thus a families position within the Colovan Estates can last centuries, sometimes even millennia.

#### **Inner Wards**

Segregated from the mortal serf clans and mortal masses that make their home in the fortress' outer wards by the Fortis Luminus' second and much older inner curtain wall, the Inner Wards are reserved for the needs of the Chapter, and the Chapter alone; housing much of the infrastructure the cannot fit within the confines of the greater Palatine Citadel. It is within the Inner Wards, that the age of the Fortis Luminus truly shows itself.

Before the Fall of the Fortis Luminus in 006.M42, the Inner Wards were replete with parade grounds, training pits and causeways that echoed the ancient glories of Mankind's unfinished Crusade. Small scale manufactoria produce arms and armaments for the Chapter in small scale, overseen by the Chapter's cadre of Tech-marines, and ruled over by the Chapter's Lord Praevian.

### **Lathyrene Citadel**

The Lathyrene Citadel, also known as the Citadel of Lathyrus, is the monumental beating heart of the Fortis Luminus. Sat at the heart of the fortress, abreast it's inner Bastion Wall, the Lathyrene Citadel acts as the nexus of the Lightning Sons Chapter, housing the Chapter's barracks, refectories and other key locations. It is from the Lathyrene Citadel that the next generations of Lightning Sons Astartes are schooled in the ways of their Chapter, and trained in their martial arts.

The Citadel of Lathyrus has been likened to a façade by those few observers given permission to tread beyond the Bastion Wall; an ornate remnant of a dead age that hides the darkness that lies beneath it, its roots stretching deep into very mantle of Navaern itself. For all its splendor, the remnants of the Fortis Luminus' darker, sequestered history is plain to see, for those who know where to look. The scratched and chipped remnants of unremembered Chapter iconography, or the craters of ballistic rounds. Named for the nearly forgotten Tribune Palatine of the IIIrd Legion 'Emperor's Children', Lathyrus Diomor, it's checkered and mysterious past haunts it, giving rise to all manner of rumour and dark myth.

#### **Tower of the Oricon**

The Tower of the Oricon is the esoteric abode of the Chapter's psychically gifted Consuls, and the domain of the Lord Consul. Said to have been erected by its near mythic namesake in millennia past, the Tower of the Oricon holds the vast swaths of the Chapters accumulated knowledge over millennia of service, from the Hall of Whispers at the towers heart, to the secret Vault Tenebrae been beneath the towers roots in the bowls of the Labyrinth.

#### **Curion**

Located at the rear of the Lathyrene Citadel, overlooking the great swaths of the Outer Wards, and onwards to distant Eochaid and the Pharus Astropathica, the Curion is the meeting place of the Chapter's War Council. With its vaulted chamber live the oldest relics and trophies possessed by the Lightning Sons. Banners dedicated to some of their earliest victories, and armaments vested with nigh mythic qualities. It is a hall that resonates the very essence of the Lightning Sons; of their passion to duty and to Emperor, and of the thinly veiled pride to which they hold themselves.

### **Labyrinth**

The Labyrinth is a network of ancient tunnels built deep beneath the Fortis Luminus, originally used to ferry the large amount of ammunition, vehicles and other equipment when the Fortis Luminus performed its original function as a munitions depot during the days of the Great Crusade. Though the upper levels of the Labyrinth are still in use, at least to some capacity, the lower levels have been seldom tread by the Lightning Sons or the members of their serf-clans. No one knows how deep or how far the labyrinthine tunnels stretch, and it is doubtful anyone ever will, for stories of spirits, daemons and rampant machine spirits keep all but the foolhardy away.

#### **Gate of Enyar**

The Gate of Enyar, or the Enyine Gate, is a giant threshold discovered in the deepest known depths of the Labyrinth. Vast in scale and unimaginably thick, it's been said by the tech-adepts of Khyet Sakaar that even if Navaern were to shatter, the Enyine Gate would hold fast. Expeditions have been launched beyond the Gate of Enyar over the past four thousand years, yet each have been met with failure. Something, or somethings, lurk in the deeper darkness of the Labyrinth.

#### **Halls of Silence**

The Halls of Silence are a series of ancient, monolithic store rooms that have been converted by the Lightning Sons over time to house prisoners and other, fouler things. It is here, some say, that they once performed the bloody, barbaric Decimations upon their mutated kinsmen in the dark centuries of the early 41st Millennium, and some say that still, even now, those bloody rituals are carried out by brothers forced to murder their own kinsmen, and sworn to sacred silence.

#### **Vault Tenebrae**

Largely unknown beyond those of the Chapter's War Council, the Vault Tenebrae is the secret vault located miles beneath the Fortis Luminus, within which are held the original copies of Borther-Astartes lost of the Moritats Malady, as well as the compiled accounts of the Kindeath. Sealed and largely hidden from those beyond the War Council, the contents of the Vault Tenebrae remain so, lest the Chapter find itself undone and unmade by the very powers it serves.

## Satellite Stations

* **Tower of the Zilarch** - The Tower of the Zilarch is the quasi-Chapter Keep of the Lightning Sons that sits near the heart of the Planetary Capital of Elioch. Residence of the Chapter's appointed Zilarch, the tower acts as a beacon from which the Chapter can array a level of soft power over the Navaernite Council of Sovereigns. Housing at least ten Neophytes, and in times of duress just as many Auxilia Marines, the Tower of the Zilarch acts as a constant reminder to the planets elite as to who controls power on Navaern, and to watch over the Pharus Astropathica.

## Residents

A veritable polity in its own right, thousands call the Fortis Luminus home, each one bound to the fortress' stewards by ancient oath, inhabiting the fortress' Lower Wards. Over the prevailing millennia, and under the auspice of their transhuman masters, the menial serfs of the Chapter have congregated and formed a social structure of their own, forming a clan-cast system based upon the area of work one has been tasked with, or born into. It is believed that many of the Serf-clans of the Fortis Luminus predate the Lightning Sons arrival in the early 38th Millennium, with some local myths claiming that they have always been there, since the first stones of that ancient fortress were laid many thousands of years before.