vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Penal Legion - Becoming a Penal Legionnaire: In the war-torn universe of the 41st Millennium, law and order is difficult to maintain. Across a million worlds it is barely held by the very fingers of those who uphold the Emperor's law.The Adeptus Arbites are the pillars of justice across the galaxy and patrol the far-flung planets of the Imperium, where rebellion and defiance are crimes against humanity and the Arbitrators hunt down and capture rebels who would bring suffering and chaos to all Mankind.The toughest criminals captured by the Arbitrators are inducted into the ranks of the Astra Militarum's Penal Legions. The Penal Legion is made up from the scum and undevout men of the galaxy -- mass murderers, rebellious Planetary Defence Force troopers, thieves, hijackers and all other manner of criminals are made part of the Penal Legion for their sins. These lawbreakers are saved from sentences such as termination or slavery and instead taken to battle against the Emperor's foes.There are a few in the Emperor's own army, the Astra Militarum, who do not respect the Emperor, who are disloyal and rebellious. These soldiers are the criminals of war, troops who would sooner run in the face of an adversary than defeat it and those who would disobey their commanders to save themselves while leaving others to pay for their folly.Becoming a Penal Legionnaire for a member of the Imperial Guard requires being condemned for a crime that is punishable by death and taking the choice to meet that death by serving in a Penal Legion. It means a decision to meet death at the hands of the enemies of Mankind rather than at the hands of the firing squad or the end of a Commissar's Bolt Pistol.Sometimes a Penal Legionnaire is a rare individual plucked from the ranks of the condemned to serve the Inquisition.
Penal Legion - Praecentors of Penance: Priests of the Adeptus Ministorum serve many vital roles in the Spinward Front, and some might say the most important is shepherding the spiritual health of the men and women involved in that conflict.There are many who crave spiritual leadership, who thrive only when shown the way through the example of the Imperial Creed -- and within the Spinward Front, the preachers that answer that call are sometimes named Praecentors of Penance.Praecentors are not just leaders and spiritual guides; they are agitators, able to stir the hearts and minds of Imperial citizens and Guardsmen alike. The charismatic magnetism of these priests draws those burdened with guilt and unease like moths to a flame.Praecentors in the Spinward Front often gather many troubled men and women to their side, including habitual troublemakers and shirkers from the ranks of the Imperial Guard. It should be of no surprise that the regiments that most frequently make use of Praecentors of Penance are the Penal Legions.Amongst the prisoner-soldiers of the Penal Legions, a Praecentor of Penance offers the only salvation from an ignominious death by giving them the chance to redeem themselves through their actions. Of course, the one thing a Praecentor cannot offer them is redemption from their crimes. But while their lives are forfeit, their souls are not.
Penal Legion - Spinward Front: Condemned battle groups of colourful and desperate characters have been used to great effect on the Spinward Front of the Calixis Sector. Certain commanders find them valuable for fighting the Severan Dominate, who are more vulnerable to their terror tactics than the Orks or Drukhari. Others prefer to send them against the xenos, thinking it best to kill such beasts with monsters of their own.One instance of a group of disgraced soldiers winning back their honour (if not their lives) involved a squad of Brontian Longknives condemned for suffering the disgrace of scars on their backs. As penance, the squad was sent across the ashwastes of Hervara to assassinate a Severan Dominate Ducal Legate -- a suicide mission.Within solar hours, they fast-marched across the volcanic wastes, destroyed the legate's camp by diverting a lava flow, slaughtered their foes in an ambush, and returned to their regiment with the legate's head. All members of the squad perished in battle or from exposure after returning.A monument made of hundreds of knives to the "Heartrippers" still stands in the Hervaran ash wastes south of Cobhan.
Penal World - Penal World: A Penal World is a class of Imperial world that functions as a military prison planet. A single such world's population consists entirely of criminals drawn from hundreds of different worlds.This type of world tends to be a barren, barely-habitable planet that has few other uses and has little, if any, indigenous population. Military formations are often raised from amongst the prison population as necessary, to serve as Penal Legion troops within Astra Militarum regiments. There, they might earn redemption in the eyes of the Emperor through their term of service, which is for life.In the Imperium, crime is widespread enough that entire worlds are given over to incarcerating the refuse of society. On these Penal Worlds live the criminals of the Imperium, the guards that keep them there, and any luckless denizen unfortunate enough to have been born there.Here, the criminals labour and toil at various menial tasks while serving out their sentences; and only a few parole out. On some worlds, the worst criminals (those whose crimes aren't severe enough to warrant death) might be segregated from the rest, but this practice varies from world to world.Thus, murderers and rapists might mix with petty thieves and con-men. From this melting pot comes a brutal society, where survival comes only when one forgets morality and is willing to do whatever is necessary to make it to the next day.Where most world classifications stem from the types of terrain or lifeforms found there, penal colonies are defined by strict Imperial Law. In every expansion, there are recidivists, looters, murderers, and thieves who appear in its wake. The most violent or persistent offenders, if not granted summary execution at the time of apprehension, may be shipped off-world to facilities designed to house them permanently.These purgatories made real are often ruined worlds left forgotten due to their lack of strategic importance or natural resources. Buildings are repurposed and retrofitted to accommodate massive numbers of inmates, and automated defences are brought in to keep the new residents in line. It is here that the lawbreakers are left to wither and die -- though some survive to escape their sentence, and fight for the Emperor on other fronts.
Penal World - Notable Penal Worlds: Planet NameSegmentumSectorSub-SectorSystemPopulationFerroxianUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownJubilusSegmentum ObscurusAskellon SectorAsphodel DepthsUnknownUnknownKataraUnknownUnknownUnknownSevasmos SystemUnknownKomarg IIUnknownUnknownUnknownKormarg SystemUnknownMalezielUnknownKoronus ExpanseWinterscale's RealmUnknown10,000Morros LachrymalSegmentum TempestusOrpheus SectorCapitoline Sub-SectorUnknownUnknownSavlarUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownUnknownSt. Josmane's HopeSegmentum ObscurusCadian SectorCadian Sub-SectorUnknownN/A (Destroyed)XyanSegmentum UltimaJericho ReachUnknownUnknownUnknown, a few millionZartakSegmentum PacificusUnknownEthika Sub-SectorUnknownN/A (Inquisitorial quarantine lifted in 876.M40, repopulation in progress)
Penitent Blades - Penitent Blades: The Penitent Blades are a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and a successor of the Dark Angels, created during an unknown Founding.
Penitent Blades - Chapter History: The Penitent Blades hail from a world with a landmass made up of thousands of small landmasses suspended kilometres in the air above acidic oceans. How this phenomenon occurs is a mystery, but it has ensured the Penitent Blades are aerial combat experts.The Penitent Blades' 2nd Company has four oversized squads providing gunship pilots, rather than the two in most other Unforgiven Chapters.
Penitent Blades - Chapter Colours: The Penitent Blades primarily wear orange and blue power armour in a quartered livery scheme. The colour of the Aquila or Imperialis worn on the chestplate indicates company assignment in accordance to the dictates of the Codex Astartes.The black squad tactical specialty symbol -- battleline, fire support, close support, Veteran or command -- is indicated on the right shoulder pauldron. A white High Gothic numeral prominently displayed upon it indicates a battle-brother's assigned squad.The left shoulder pauldron displays the Chapter's iconography.It is unknown how the Chapter indicates a battle-brother's company assignment.
Penitent Blades - Chapter Badge: The Penitent Blades' Chapter badge consists of three downwards pointing swords centred upon a field of orange.
Penitent Engine - Penitent Engine: A Penitent Engine is a large, bipedal combat walker used by the Ecclesiarchy as a form of punishment for those Heretics who have repented their sins against the God-Emperor. Penitent Engines are also used by the Orders Militant of the Adepta Sororitas as heavy infantry fire support in the same way that the Space Marine Chapters use their Dreadnoughts.To be a pilot of a Penitent Engine is to have committed a terrible crime, one so heinous that punishment such as imprisonment, exile, Arco-flagellation or even execution is deemed too lenient. The repentant Heretic is hard-wired into the front of the war engine, and unlike Space Marine Dreadnoughts, which are fully enclosed, the penitent sinner is fully exposed to enemy attack, relying only upon the Emperor's judgement to keep them safe or take their life.Many of the souls that are punished in this way may have once been members of the Ecclesiarchy; Imperial Priests who have fallen from the Emperor's grace, or even Battle-Sisters who have failed in their faith or through their mistakes have caused the death of others.The penitent is hard-wired to the front of the combat walker with a multitude of fibre optic neural connectors, and chemical injectors are implanted into the pilot's brain and spine. The war engine is driven by the pilot's frantic need for forgiveness, and will charge towards the enemy heedless of the danger, as only in a heroic death against the Emperor's enemies does the penitent believe that true forgiveness can be earned.The pilot is filled with numerous stimulants and other drugs that ensure that he or she is able to survive multiple injuries while still feeling the pain of everything that the enemy unleashes upon them. These stimulants are usually powerful enough to keep the penitent alive long enough for them to atone for their sins by frantically killing many foes.Penitent Engines will often charge into battle alongside the ranks of the Orders Militant, as the Sisters of Battle consider it their sacred duty to witness these machines in the flames of battle, watching the actions of the fallen as they atone for their sins against Mankind and the God-Emperor.
Penitent Engine - Armament: Penitent Engines are armed with only devastatingly effective close-combat weapons, as the pilot is in too frantic a mental state to take his or her time to aim long-range weaponry effectively.All Penitent Engines are armed with Dreadnought-class close-combat weapons, which usually include large, circulating power saws, Chainfists, or other Power Blades on each of the walker's arms.The Penitent Engine's arms are also equipped with either Flamers or Heavy Flamers, which can be fired together or separately. The Penitent Engine can also use its legs to kick or stomp on enemy infantry.
Penitent Engine - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: The Adeptus Mechanicus has not made the technical specifications for the Penitent Engine publicly available.
Penitent Engine - Sources: Codex: Witch Hunters (3rd Edition), pp. 12, 37Codex: Adepta Sororita (6th Edition), pg. 24Dark Heresy: Enemies Within (2nd Edition) (RPG), pg. 41White Dwarf 379 (US), "Codex: Sisters of Battle" (5th Edition), pg. 97White Dwarf 380 (US), "Codex: Sisters of Battle" (5th Edition), pg. 91Dawn of War - Soulstorm (PC Game)
Penitents - Penitents: The Penitents is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter of unknown Founding and origin. Almost nothing is known about this Chapter in Imperial records, except that they were created some time after the Second Founding.
Penitents - Chapter Colours: The Penitents primarily wear black Power Armour. Parts of their battle-plate is white, including the Aquila or Imperialis on the chest guard, the helm and gauntlets. The shoulder plates are orange-red with black trim. The Chapter's badge is placed on both shoulder plates while the white squad speciality symbol -- Tactical, Devastator, Assault or Veteran -- is located on the right knee guard. A white Roman numeral stencilled on the left knee guard indicates company number.
Penitents - Chapter Badge: The Penitents' Chapter badge is a white penitent Angel of Death, whose head is bowed in supplication, holding a longsword in both hands -- the tip pointed downwards -- centred on a field of orange-red.
Peregrim's World - Peregrim's World: Peregrim's WorldAgri-worldImperiumgroxInnerwyrmGenestealer Cult
Peregrim's World - History: After the formation of the Great Rift, the Cult of the Innerwyrm spread far and wide across the Affluix Sector by using the grox-meat export network of Peregrim's World. The steroid-enhanced beasts grown by Ethod Peregrim's famous meat dynasty reached truly massive sizes, altered by the dictates of the industry's selective breeding to have vast torsos and abdomens -- large enough to contain Purestrain Genestealers sewn into their guts by Innerwyrm abattoir workers.By sending the massive grox carcasses to a dozen different worlds in the famously paranoid Fort Adere star system, the Innerwyrm agents bypass the complex bio-scanner protocols that would otherwise have picked up on the biological tissue of the Genestealers smuggled within the meat. A new ecosystem is born on each of the infested planets, though it is not just grox meat that forms its sustenance.
Perfidian Gap - Perfidian Gap: The Perfidian Gap is an area of space where a permanent Warp Storm currently rages across the region of the Ultima Segmentum, bleeding the Warp into reality. Sometime during the 41st Millenium, the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter fought against a large force of Chaos Daemons upon the forbidden world of Locrus, located near the edge of the Perfidian Gap.
Periclitor - Periclitor: Periclitor, also known as "Periclitor the Foresworn," is a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided who was once a Chaos Lord of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion.Periclitor first began his quest for ascension to Daemonhood by leading the Castile V Massacre in 832.M33. He followed up this accomplishment with other triumphs in the name of the Dark Gods, including the martydom of the Imperial Saint Jerome, who was known as Jerome the Pure to the adherents of the Imperial Cult but "Jerome the Fool" to Periclitor's warband; the destruction of the 5th Terran Armoured Praefects Regiment in 739.M35; victory over the Grey Knights in the Sentry Vault; and the massacre of the Howling Griffons Chapter Master Orlando Furioso and much of his 1st Company on the 5,000th anniversary of the Chapter's Founding in 220.M38 at Arios Quintus in the Arios Point System.Periclitor's murder of the cardinal of Bray was the incident which touched off an assault by Periclitor's mixed warband of Word Bearers and Night Lords forces on the Trans-Kurani Sub-sector. These assaults had the unintended side effect of causing the sub-sector to explode in rebellion against the Imperium over the issue of increased taxation intended to enhance the defence of the sub-sector's worlds.The outbreak of this conflict, later designated the Braun IV Tithe Wars, necessitated a major Imperial military response. Following this last triumph, Periclitor was rewarded by the Ruinous Powers with ascension to Daemonhood.The Howling Griffons finally reaped their vengeance against the Daemon Prince in the 41st Millennium, when they tracked Periclitor down to his Daemon World in the Eye of Terror and slew him, incurring many casualties in the process. However, as a Daemon Prince, Periclitor was simply banished to the Warp for a period of time, and will eventually be able to return to plague realspace once more on behalf of the Dark Gods.
Periclitor - Arios Point Massacre: Periclitor's most infamous act was the Arios Point Massacre he unleashed against the Howling Griffons Chapter in 220.M38. It was this massacre that finally pushed the Howling Griffons far beyond the tipping point in their lust for vengeance against the Word Bearers.The Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons at that time was Orlando Furioso. He was travelling aboard one of the Chapter's battle barges, along with the 8th Company and much of the Veteran 1st Company. They were en route to the Chapter's homeworld of Mancora, to celebrate the 5,000th anniversary of the Chapter's Founding. When the battle barge stopped in the Arios Point System to resupply, Periclitor, then still a Chaos Lord, led a combined force of Word Bearers and Night Lords Chaos Space Marines in ambush against the Loyalists.The Howling Griffons were caught tragically unprepared for battle against so overwhelming an enemy force. In short order, their ancient vessel was destroyed after a brutal boarding action. The surviving Space Marines made landfall aboard their Thunderhawks on the surface of the nearby world of Arios Quintus.The barren world offered little protection for the outnumbered members of the Howling Griffons. In short order, those who survived the destruction of their battle barge were overwhelmed by the coordinated assault of the Traitor Legionaries. None were left alive, and the Chaos forces seized much of the Chapter's wargear, including precious and virtually irreplaceable equipment that had been the province of the 1st Company and the Chapter Master's honour guard. The bodies of those slain were desecrated and their gene-seed either destroyed or stolen.The only body recovered by the Chapter was that of Chapter Master Furioso. The Traitors mounted it upon his Thunderhawk and left it in orbit of Arios Quintus, as a sign to any who might see it. Solar months later, other members of the Howling Griffons tracked down the missing starship and company, and recovered the Chapter Master's body and gene-seed.After this tragedy, all members of the Howling Griffons Chapter swore oaths of vengeance against Periclitor, who eventually ascended to become a Daemon Prince, and the Word Bearers. As each new member is recruited, the oath is recited once more. The two forces engaged in countless skirmishes and even several major conflicts following the massacre.
Periclitor - Ascension and the Tithe Wars of Braun IV: After a series of further atrocities, including corrupting the Sanctity IX Pedagogue to the worship of Chaos in 237.M38, Periclitor was gifted with a great vision on Candlemass Eve in 789.M38. The Chaos Gods spoke to him directly, promising him that if he continued to serve them so well, ascension to Daemonhood as a Daemon Prince was close at hand.Periclitor immediately launched an assault on the world of Bray in the Segmentum Obscurus, teleporting into the cathedral to murder the world's cardinal as he delivered his Candlemass Day sermon. This demonstration of the ease with which the world's defences could be breached prompted its leaders to build extensive orbital defences, paid for by a new tax lewvied on the population. Each time a new tithe was proposed and rejected by Bray planetary government, Periclitor and his warband would strike again, forcing them to accept ever-higher costs to protect against the Chaos raids.It time, the populace could pay no more. First Bray, then the entire Trans-Kurani Sub-sector of which it was a part erupted in civil war. By 187.M39, the entire sector was in open rebellion against Imperium, with regiments of the Astra Militarum, companies of Space Marines and fleets of the Navis Imperialis mobilised to quell the so-called "tithe wars" of Braun IV. These conflicts raged for Terran centuries, with some lasting well into the 41st Millennium.For the chaos and violence he had spread in Imperial space, Periclitor was rewarded by Chaos Undivided with ascension to a Daemon Prince over the ruins of the Cathedral of Bray, the sight of his great triumph. He lifted to the sky in a nimbus of black light before emerging solar minutes later with arms the size of cannon barrels, a bestial face, and bat-like wings with a five-metre span.
Periclitor - Death: When the Daemon Prince Periclitor emerged from the Eye of Terror in the 41st Millennium with his warband of Word Bearers, the Howling Griffons hunted him across the region to settle their ancient honour debt.They discovered the Throne Temple of Periclitor on a nameless Daemon World in the Eye of Terror, carved into a mountain range rising from a sea of Daemons that stretched across the world's surface. To their horror, one of the dozens of eyes in Periclitor's hideous Daemonic face was that of  Orlando Furioso himself, the Chapter Master of the Howling Griffons Periclitor had slain on Arios Quintus, forever rolling in pain.Many of the Chapter fell to the assault of the Daemon Prince, including the captain of the Howling Griffons' 4th Company, before Chief Librarian Mercaeno was able to slay Periclitor and banish him back to the Warp after battling for a solar night and a day atop the mountain peak.In the wake of their victory, the Howling Griffons do not allow Periclitor's name to even be spoken in their presence by outsiders.
Periphery Sub-sector - Periphery Sub-sector: The Periphery Sub-sector, also known simply as the Periphery, is an outlying frontier sub-sector of the Calixis Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus. It lies between the Calixis Sector and the nearby Scarus Sector and is currently embroiled in a three-way conflict between the forces of the Imperium of Man, the Secessionist Severan Dominate and the Ork hordes of WAAAGH! Grimtoof. The Departmento Munitorum has named the region of conflict within the sub-sector the Spinward Front, and the three-way war of attrition being fought there is rapidly becoming a major strain on the military forces and resources of the Calixis Sector.The Periphery is aptly named, and not simply because of its position on the edges of the Calixis Sector. Its worlds have been slowly decaying for almost as long as the sector has been in existence, side-lined by those regions with more valuable natural resources, better developed infrastructure, and more prosperous mercantile concerns. In many ways, the sub-sector has always served as a buffer against any enemy that might emerge from the vast gulfs of Wilderness Space separating the Calixis and Scarus Sectors, and with the arrival of WAAAGH! Grimtoof, that is exactly what has happened.For most of those Astra Militarum troops assigned to the Spinward Front, it is clear that the Imperium is fighting not to defend some valuable resource or strategically vital location, but to prosecute a bitterly hated enemy. Of those worlds considered part of the Periphery Sub-sector proper, Kulth is entirely consumed by war, while several others lie close enough to hostilities that they too may soon be plunged into the bloodshed. The Imperium is fighting a war on two fronts though, simultaneously seeking to repel WAAAGH! Grimtoof and suppressing the Severan Dominate. The current front line has largely stabilised at the spinward border of the Periphery, and standard Imperial military doctrine calls for the fortification and reinforcement of its core worlds in order to conduct a “defence in depth” against the invading Orks. No such reinforcement or fortification has yet been instigated, the ongoing Achilus Crusade in the Jericho Reach drawing away any Imperial forces that might be employed to do so.
Periphery Sub-sector - The Green Tide: None can tell what might have come of Severus’ fiefdom had events continued unchecked. Perhaps he would have grown so bold as to risk openly declaring secession, or perhaps his shadowy allies would have turned upon him in his hubris.Instead, it was another xenos species that decided the matter. An Ork invasion under the Warlord Ghenghiz Grimtoof, the self-titled “Git-Slaver,” came crashing out of the darkness and fell upon the outermost fringes of Severus’ pocket empire, slaying millions in a few short months. The Planetary Defence Forces of these worlds were geared largely towards the suppression of their own populations, or else for blustering parades honouring their master in House Severus, and few were able to mount anything like a capable resistance. World after world slipped from Severus’ grasp as the Git-Slaver’s Orks rampaged all but unchecked through his realm. There was nothing either he or his sinister allies could do to halt them.Severus XIII brooded upon his granite throne as millions perished. His closest advisors counselled him to beseech the Imperium for aid, yet all were silenced by the executioner’s blow. At the last, his counsellors all dead or fled, Severus was left alone and his empire all but fallen. In a moment of grim revelation he saw they had all been correct. He dispatched his own kin to the court of the Calixian Lord Sector Marius Hax on Scintilla to beg for aid against the Ork invasion.Though most of the messengers were intercepted by unknown assassins or fell prey to other, equally deadly fates, one got through. Severus’ own granddaughter went before Sector Lord Hax and delivered the plea for aid. Hax simply laughed at her.The patrician Calixian Sector Governor had been watching the Periphery from afar for years and knew well the treachery of Severus XIII, though how much he was aware of its origins, he did not reveal. Later hearsay implied that some link between Severus and Hax, some dark tie, perhaps even a blood tie, stayed his hand as Severus built his own private realm. Yet, when the Orks attacked, it was to Hax’s own benefit, for it humbled Severus and forced him out of the wilderness in a very public manner. At length, Hax agreed that the Orks must be checked and the Calixis Sector’s military reserves were mobilised.Kulth, the capital of the Periphery Sub-sector, was relieved, though in truth the Imperium never committed sufficient force to truly turn the tide against the Orks. The worlds beyond the Periphery descended into a churning cauldron of total war, yet so many Calixian troops were being committed to the secret war in the Jericho Reach that to many in the highest Imperial circles of the sector the endeavour in the Periphery seemed to have little hope of success. Some whispered that those who prosecuted the distant Achilus Crusade had need of a war closer to home to mask the huge drain on resources, and so a deadlock in the Periphery was at best convenient, and at worst deliberately maintained.
Periphery Sub-sector - Only War: While the situation on Kulth was stabilised, the war beyond the Periphery was going badly for Severus XIII. While the Orks plundered the worlds of Deluge, KW-9, Pertinax, and a score of lesser star systems, a myriad of other threats rose up. Despite the pacts Severus believed he had secured with the DarkEldar, the pernicious children of Commorragh launched ever more audacious raids against those worlds of the Periphery on the verges of the war zone. Drawn by the near total collapse of the Imperium’s power in the region, the servants of Chaos, in particular the warband of Chaos Space Marines led by Sektoth the False Whisperer, launched a series of brutal assaults, pursuing their own blasphemous missions.Beset upon all quarters, Severus XIII announced his personal annexation of the chaotic zone of space beyond the Periphery into what he termed the “Severan Dominate” until the crisis had passed. Lord Sector Hax was incensed, declaring Severus a Secessionist and a Traitor, and the war escalated to a previously unseen pitch. The servants of Chaos now walk openly upon the war-torn worlds, doing theunknowable bidding of their masters, while the Dark Eldar raid where they will, their pact with Severus XIII all but torn up. The Orks have now entered the second phase of their WAAAGH!, the focus shifting from slaughter to enslavement. The OrkWarlord has established his own bastion world at Avitohol and enslaved its populace so that countless millions of tons of ramshackle war materiel are being churned out to feed the greenskinned species’ incessant hunger for weapons and munitions. The lines are drawn and the pressure on the front is increasing, and it is only the far more pressing needs of the Jericho Reach fronts that keep the Imperium from flooding the Spinward Front with so many regiments of the Imperial Guard that all resistance is crushed. Each year that the Severan Dominate is not brought to heel is another year it spends reinforcing its core worlds, and another year the Orks’ strength becomes ever more established. And all the while,the Forces of Chaos move unchecked through the region, and mad prophets whisper of an imminent manifestation of Komus, the dreaded Tyrant Star that has long afflicted the Calixis Sector.
Periphery Sub-sector - Worlds of the Periphery: Confronted with the combined crisis of xenos invasion, traitorous secession, Dark Eldar raids, Chaos assaults, and religious-inspired anarchy, the Imperium has now declared the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector and its spinward marches a formal war zone. The entire area is designated as the Spinward Front by the Departmento Munitorum and it falls into three broadly defined partitions.The first is the Periphery Sub-sector itself, a region that has been crumbling from within for many generations and is likely to be sent into terminal decline with the recent upheavals. Most of the planets in the Periphery are Frontier Worlds, existing on the lawless fringes of Imperial space where life is especiallybrutal and short. The laws the Adeptus Arbites enforce across the Calixis Sector appear distant and irrelevant codes to those who fight just to survive on the decrepit frontiers.The second part of the Spinward Front is that area invaded by WAAAGH! Grimtoof. Most of the worlds captured by Warlord Git-Slaver’s invasion previously fell under the rule of Severus XIII, but now look well and truly lost to the Imperium.The third part of the Spinward Front is the Severan Dominate, a cluster of worlds beyond the spinward border of the Calixis Sector that Duke Severus XIII has declared under his direct rule, effectively seceding from the rule of the Emperor of Mankind. The planets of the Severan Dominate are in the main barren wastes, but their position along the Calixis-Scarus Warp conduit renders them strategically essential to the security of the entire Segmentum Obscurus. The majority of the area is fast becoming a cauldron of war, as ever greater numbers of Imperial troops are committed there.
Periphery Sub-sector - Sabriel: Spinward of the region claimed by the Severan Dominate, bestriding the Calixis-Scarus Warp route, lies a star system once claimed by the Adeptus Mechanicusbut long thought abandoned by the followers of the Cult Mechanicus. Orbiting the unclassified world of Sabriel is a vast artificial body, its original purpose long forgotten. The Spinward Front High Command is currently drafting plans to reconnoitre Sabriel in the hope that an Imperial Guard presence could be established there and a new front opened up against the Orks as well as the Secessionists. Such a mission would be highly perilous, however, for reinforcing and supplying it in the face of counterattack would be all but impossible. Nonetheless, several ambitious regimental commanders have already volunteered their units to take the artificial planet of Sabriel, ignorant of what perils may lurk there...
Periphery Sub-sector - Sinophia: Of all the worlds of the Periphery, Sinophia came the closest to carving its place in the annals of the Calixis Sector. Long ago, the unclassified world of Sinophia was a distant outpost of the Ixaniad Sector, but with the coming of the Angevin Crusade in the early 39th Millennium, it suddenly became the jumping off point in the conquest of the Calyx Expanse. For a generation, Sinophia was the staging world and the mustering ground for vast armies and fleets of the faithful, who came from light years in all directions to cast the horrors of the Expanse back into the darkness of the Halo Stars and conquer the region for the God-Emperor of Mankind.But Sinophia’s glory was brief and the rot soon set in. Now, its once mighty cities are crumbling piles of decay, its population a mere fraction of its former density. As if to rub salt into the wounds, the world has been afflicted by Tech-heresy, its numerous Cult Mechanicus shrines bolting their portals as if to deny the horrible truths stalking the thoroughfares without. Many are those who dream of service in the Imperial Guard, seeing it as a means of escaping their misery, yet Sinophia’s Planetary Defence Forces are rated sub-par and no such tithing is likely to occur.Despite its condition, Sinophia is still of some strategic importance to the Periphery Sub-sector, for it bestrides the Calixis- Scarus Warp conduit. Imperial fleets destined for Kulth and the contested worlds of the Severan Dominate beyondit have been staging at Sinophia with increasing frequency. Perhaps the world might resurrect its all-but forgotten role of mustering ground for forces of conquest, reprising its former glories at the dawn of the Angevin Crusade.
Periphery Sub-sector - Cyclopea: The eponymous capital of the Cyclopea System is a world of ruin, decay, and bitter curses, sharing something of the cruel malaise, yet nothing of the former glory, of its neighbour Sinophia. The Forge World of Cyclopea is a place of dust and debris, its barren surface strewn with the faded remnants of some long extinct civilisation. These relics take the form of megalithic monuments raised by unknown masons in ages long past, and no one can tell whether the builders were even human,though no taint of the xenos is known to linger. Many of Cyclopea’s settlements are built using the ruined megaliths as foundations or pilings, while others cling to the sheer sides of the very largest. The tallest soar so high into the dismal skies that they pierce the very clouds, human habitations clinging precariously to their crumbling surfaces in search of some hint of untainted sunlight.The people of Cyclopea are known to be every bit as morbid as the world of their birth, as if touched by some aeons-old soul-curse. They are grim and dour and they shun even those few pleasures others might cleave to in a universe of oppression and war. As with Sinophia, numerous Tech-heresies have sprung into being, nurturedby the tinker-witches who skulk in the deep shadows of the towering megaliths.Few regimental tithings have ever been raised from Cyclopea, its dues rendered by other means such as base manufacturing and the processing of a variety of bulk ores.With the recent upheavals in the Spinward Front, however, the Departmento Munitorum has dispatched several Imperial Guard regiments to Cyclopea to prepare it for a full-scale, enforced regimental tithe. Very soon, hundreds of thousands are to be offered the choice of service in the Imperial Guard or death.
Periphery Sub-sector - Sleef: Classified as a Dead World, Sleef has long been forbidden space to the void farers of the Calixis Sector. With the Ork invasion of the nearby worlds of Letum and Pertinax, however, there are those amongst the Spinward Front High Command who are calling for Sleef to be opened up for fortification lest the xenos utilise it as a means of striking further into the Calixis Sector. To date, such proposals have been overruled on the advice of various highly ranked members of the Inquisition's Ordos Calixis. What secrets might await any Imperial Guard regiment dispatched to reinforce Sleef remains to be seen, for thus far the Inquisition’s counsel has been heeded.
Periphery Sub-sector - Kalf: A Frontier World spinward of Sinophia, Kalf is host to a planetwide desert of shifting sand seas that harbour a number of highly aggressive autochthonic life forms, including the notorious Kalfian Sand Devil. Of late, Kalf has served as a staging ground for Imperial Guard regiments deploying to Kulth, yet the activities of another enemy has caused several to remain there to guard against a new threat. A Dark Eldar force identified as the retinue of the Haemonculus Tevriel Vektesh has launched numerous realspace raids into the system, and in particular into the deeps of the Kalfian sand seas, to unknown ends. Imperial Guard units tasked with engaging the Dark Eldar have found the environment and its native life forms every bit as deadly an enemy as the Haemonculous and her cruel followers, and several entire companies have failed to return from search and engage missions.
Periphery Sub-sector - Cthulgha Nebula: Beyond the spinward marches of the Periphery Sub-sector, the void seethes with the nucleonic fires of dozens of slain stars. What processes led to the creation of thisburning nebula are unknown, and the region is the subject of cautionary tales told by those few void farers who have traversed its outer fringes. At the heart of theregion lies a zone of relative calm sometimes referred to as the Heart of Cthulgha, about which countless superstitious stories are uttered. Something is said tolie deep in the heart of the Cthulgha Nebula. A silent, tomblike structure is said to drift through the raging fires, protected by the most potent of Void Shields and the most holy of wards. Some claim it is some manner of sentinel and that it watches over the infernal nebula, ever vigilant for the return of some ancient nightmare that even the Orks, who hold no fear of death, flee from in abject horror.
Periphery Sub-sector - Under Greenskin Occupation: Those worlds that have suffered the presence of the Git-Slaver’s invasion fall into three types types. Those that fell in the opening phase of the invasion are now largely desolate wastes reduced to ashes by the unleashing of total war. Several of these have now spawned populations of Feral Orks, which are likely to be unaware that they were “seeded” by the passage of a mighty WAAAGH! Even now they are struggling to gain power and momentum of their own, so that the greatest of their leaders might launch their own migration.The second type is where the forces of humanity, whether the Imperium, Severan Dominate, or native, are holding on and all-consuming war now rages. Such planetary war zones are the scenes of epic battles of attrition consuming thousands of warriors of all sides each day. There are at least a dozen primary worlds of this type in the Spinward Front, and countless more planets and systems where war waxes and wanes as the embittered foes launch massive salients or counter-attacks.The last type is relatively new and its appearance heralds a new phase in Grimtoof Git-Slaver’s invasion. Several of those worlds the Warlord’s forces have captured have not been razed to ashes, nor their populations slaughtered for food or for sport. Rather, they have been taken largely intact and their populations have been enslaved in sprawling, forced labour camps and slave-foundries, forced at gunpoint to manufacture the crude arms and ammunition used by the barbarous Orks. This turn of events signals a failure on the part of the Imperium, for it means the Orks have been allowed to consolidate their gains to such an extent that their migration is becoming an occupation. Previous experience teaches that if the Orks are allowed to establish a new stellar empire, their inexorable pattern of strife and migration will make a new invasion inevitable. With the source just beyond the Calixis Sector’s borders it will prove a hundred times more challenging to halt. Some whisper that the Spinward Front High Command has been negligent in allowing this state of affairs to develop, for with a full commitment of forces, the Orks could have been defeated decades ago and the Severan Dominate would never have come into being. With the drain on resources by the Jericho Reach and the upheavals caused by the recent appearance of the Dei-Phage,however, it is hard to see how events could have proceeded differently. The situation is a perfect example of the perils that beset the Imperium at every turn, with entire star systems falling, or being ceded, as forces are deployed in other, more important regions despite the potential loss of millions of the Emperor’s loyal subjects.
Periphery Sub-sector - Ghenghiz Grimtoof the Git-Slayer's Iron Mountain: Several years after his invasion of Avitohol and the enslavement of its native peoples, Grimtoof Git-Slaver has constructed for himself a formidable Ork stellar empire. That empire has as its capital a structure now rivalling the average Imperial hive city in size, a teetering spire so tall its peak skewers the clouds and constructed from the scrap of an entire sub-sector at war. At the very summit of this grim, rusted edifice, which Grimtoof has dubbed Iron Mountain, is the lair of the Git-Slaver, a huge throne room with one face open to the skies, the walls bedecked with trophies from a hundred battlefields and more. Opposite the openwall is Grimtoof’s throne, a massive seat constructed from the weapons and armour of the greatest of his foes.Seated upon his throne, the Git-Slaver glowers out across the ashen steppes of Avitohol, brooding sullenly on the next stage of his conquest. By his side are his most trusted Nobz, those with more to gain in protecting his life than betrayinghim. About the dais are chained numerous captives, for Grimtoof delights in laying low the champions of his enemies in such a way. It is said that Imperial Guard Marshals have suffered such treatment, as well as aliens, including a Succubusof a Dark Eldar Wych Cult, though she escaped within days of her capture, leaving a trail of dead Nobz behind her. By day, the vast expanse of the chamber floor is filled with Orks of all stations, some receiving their orders to conquer distant worlds, others seeking some favour from their dread overlord. Several hundred of the diminutive Gretchin slave race scamper to and fro, running errands and attending to their master’s every need. On occasion, Grimtoof has even ordered the largest of his Gargants to attend his throne by crossing the steppes far below to stand before the Iron Mountain. From his throne, the Git-Slaver looks down at even the mightiest of his race’s creations, and with a grunt orders the destruction of countless foes.Yet, even though his nascent empire is by far the most powerful of its type in the region, perhaps even in the entire Segmentum Obscurus, Grimtoof the Git-Slaver is entirely unsatisfied. Like all successful Ork Warlords, he is prone to fits of violent rage, but of late, Grimtoof has been known to enter protracted periods of dour brooding. With no warning, he dismisses his entire court and sits alone upon his throne, his brow furrowed and his red eyes glowering out across the blasted steppes of Avitohol. What thoughts of doom and bloodshed cross his blunt consciousness none can say. Perhaps with his WAAAGH! entering its new stage, Grimtoof expects a challenger greater than any he has faced before to appear before him. Or perhaps he ponders the next stage of his endeavour, when his great work is complete and the entire Calixis Sector will tremble before him, his armies fuelled by the toil of scores of enslaved worlds. The Orkish mind is a tiny thing, capableof little more than thoughts of violence, yet the scope of that violence in the mind of one such as Ghenghiz Grimtoof the Git-Slaver must be limitless.
Periphery Sub-sector - Severan Dominate: As a political entity, the Severan Dominate exists only in the head of its titular figurehead Severus XIII, and in the hearts of those of his followers who fight to maintain its tenuous borders. As far as the Imperium is concerned, it is nothingmore than a collection of rebel worlds dominated by an arrogant Secessionist, its peoples having betrayed their very humanity. Despite the Imperium’s refusal to acknowledge the entity’s existence, its troops on the ground have come to refer to the rebels they fight as “Dominates,” investing them with an identity and a cause, against which the Guardsmen can rally.The core worlds of the Severan Dominate lie along the Calixis-Scarus Warp conduit, while a number of subsidiary worlds are located on lesser spurs of this great route. None of the core worlds are untouched by war. At various times, they are being attacked by the forces of the Imperium or those of Grimtoof Git-Slaver, while numerous other foes take advantage of the general anarchy that has gripped the region. The Dark Eldar launch massive realspace raids wherever they will, their agreements with Severus XIII only barely holding, while the followers of various Chaos Lords operate openly and according to their own unknowable agendas.The nature of Warp travel is such that war can, and frequently does, ignite almost anywhere within the Severan Dominate. Imperial vessels can drop out of Warpspace atany point along the Calixis-Scarus conduit, making defence against such assaults all but impossible to coordinate in any meaningful way. As disruptive as these attacks are, they are difficult to maintain over extended periods, and so they tendto be prosecuted by the elite of the Imperium’s forces such as veteran Imperial Guard forces, Storm Trooper detachments or even the superhuman Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes. The bulk of long term operations on the Spinward Front are concentrated on those worlds nearer to the Calixis Sector’s borders, where countless thousands of troops are fed into the meat grinder of total war each day.The Severan Dominate faces enemies at all quarters, yet somehow, it continues to withstand them all, if only tenuously. Its populations still rally to the cause of their despotic master and willingly renounce the rule of the Imperium. Severus and his agents have been able to separate the rule of the High Lords of Terra from religious devotion to the Emperor of Mankind in the hearts and minds of the people of the Dominate, supplanting the High Lords with Severus XIII while maintaining worship of the God-Emperor of Mankind. Thus, Severus’ agents preachthat the High Lords are the true Traitors to the Emperor and to Mankind, while Severus is the rightful leader of the Dominate. The Imperium’s brutal suppression of this notion is held up as evidence of Severus’ creed, evidence that can scarcely be denied.