Fenris - Environmental Conditions: There are many Death Worlds in the Imperium, whose wildlife, native flora or esoteric nature make them inimical to human life. Even in such baleful company, Fenris is amongst the very worst. It is a world of fire and ice, of wolves and dragons. It is one of the most inhospitable planets in the universe, yet the folk of Fenris not only endure, but thrive.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. This Death World is the Chapter Planet of the mighty Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter. Fenris follows a highly eccentric elliptical orbit around its pale red K-class sun, called the Wolf's Eye, that takes approximately two 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 local year the world is remote from even this feeble star, and its surface remains incredibly cold. The oceans freeze over as Fenris draws away from its sun, and at its farthest point even the equatorial seas are covered with ice.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. Indeed, it is said that Sigurd the Tall climbed from the girdle of the world to the peaks of the stable polar continent of Asaheim in the far north, and that this mighty deed earned him a place in the halls of the gods.Towards the end of the Fenrisian Great 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 kryll (a type of 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 so near the star produces tidal forces that break and twist the sub-oceanic crust, exposing Fenris' molten mantle to the frigid waters. It is then that the time of fire and water, the "Season of Fire," 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 the polar continent of 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 who barely approximate an Iron Age level of development. The tribes constantly seek secure territory, and as a result skirmishes and feuds over land between rival tribes are common. The Fenrisian people are hardened to the changes in temperature and environmental extremes, and so is the native fauna.