Space Wolves - Chapter Homeworld: Fenris is the Imperial Death World in the Segmentum Obscurus that is the homeworld and recruiting ground for the Vlka Fenryka, as the Space Wolves are known in their native tongue. It was also the homeworld of the Space Wolves' Primarch Leman Russ. Fenris is the location of The Fang, the Space Wolves' massive fortress-monastery, considered by many Imperial savants the greatest bastion of the Imperium of Man outside of the Imperial Palace on Terra itself. Fenris takes its name from the mythical Norse wolf fathered by the god of tricksters Loki that would assault the Norse gods during the Final Battle of Raganarok. Most of the names of locations on Fenris are also drawn from Norse mythology and the lost languages of Old Earth.Fenris is situated in the galactic south of the Segmentum Obscurus, at the end of the Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror, from which come the Forces of Chaos to raid and pillage. Fenris thus lies at the forefront of the Imperium's defence against Chaos. The Space Wolves maintain the vigil that began many millennia ago at the close of the Horus Heresy and watch over a hundred other worlds besides. Their demesne stretches far and wide across the scattered stars that girdle the Fenrisian star system, but it is the bitterly cold Death World at its heart that the Space Wolves proudly call home. A planet of fire and ice, dominated by extremes of climate, Fenris is listed in the Apocrypha of Skaros as one of the three most deadly and turbulent worlds inhabited by humanity in the Milky Way Galaxy. Its surface is mostly covered by water and its tiny land masses are no more than islands scattered sparsely upon the ever-churning sea. The single sizable continent, Asaheim, lies at the world's northern polar region. Fenris follows a highly elliptical orbit around its pale K-class sun, called the Wolf's Eye, that takes approximately 2 Terran standard years to complete. This period of time is known as a "Great Year" to the people of Fenris.For much of each long year the world is remote from even this feeble star and its surface remains deeply frigid. The oceans, known as the Worldsea, freeze over as Fenris draws away from its sun and at its farthest point even the equatorial seas are covered with ice, making the planet appear to be a frozen snowball from orbit. The volcanic activity of the bleak mountains that punctuate the waters are stilled so that at the height of the Fenrisian winter a man can walk between the many isles upon which the Fenrisians dwell. Towards the end of the year, as the planet sweeps close to its sun once more, the Wolf's Eye swells in the sky and the brief spring warms the surface. During this period, the ice retreats to the world's poles and the gargantuan dwellers of the deep waters emerge to enjoy the bounty of sun-spawned plankton, bladefish and other short-lived aquatic fauna. As Fenris reaches the point at which it is closest to its sun, the passage of the planet near the star produces tidal forces that break and twists the sub-oceanic crust, exposing Fenris' molten mantle to the frigid waters. It is then that the time of fire and water has arrived.With explosive violence the world is torn asunder. Blazing islands rise from the steaming sea spewing flames, with lava pouring down their slopes. Below the surface the waters boil into steam that engulfs Fenris with its sulphurous fumes. Great tidal waves scour the coastlines of Asaheim and the islands. Islands created in the upheavals of preceding years are cast into turmoil by this global transformation. Some endure, but many are broken apart or swallowed by the seas, engulfed in the churning waters and casting their unlucky inhabitants into the deeps. But the great lump of solid granite the Fenrisian tribesmen know as Asaheim always stands fast, a single, changeless continent on a world of fire, ice, ruin and torment. This extreme geography has resulted in the human population of Fenris becoming one composed largely of primitive, nomadic barbarian tribes. The tribes constantly seek secure territory, and as a result skirmishes and feuds over land between rival tribes are common. The people are hardened to the changes in temperature and environmental extremes, and so is the fauna.Of the resources available on Fenris the most valuable is the land itself. No man knows how much the land will change with the turning of the Great Year. Sometimes old islands survive the changing seasons and good fortune may preserve a tribe's territory intact for many Great Years, but it is more likely that the archipelagos will be broken and destroyed, submerged beneath the oceans by the vast upheavals of Fenris' crust. When this happens there will be vicious wars between the tribes and only those who succeed in finding new land and establishing themselves on it will survive. Once the time of fire and water has passed, the Fenrisians must settle the newly formed lands quickly, for soon their supplies will run out. If they can find no new land they must resume their wars for the territories of other tribes. So it is that the life of a Fenrisian is one of constant seaborne migration and warfare. The people of Fenris speak their own distinct dialect of Low Gothic called Juvjk which is very similar to the ancient Scandinavian languages of Terra and represents the culture of the world's original colonists.