Nocturne - Sanctuary Cities: Upon the blackened, volcanic world of Nocturne there are seven great settlements known as the "Sanctuary Cities" of Nocturne. The foundations of these mighty cities bored deep into the earth and each was rooted in the hardest bedrock of the planet. The Sanctuary Cities were established in the location of the seven original settlements of Nocturne's ancient tribal kings.Each of these cities was home to one of seven Salamander Chapter bastions that were located on Nocturne. Each was devoted to and inhabited by the Astartes of one of the Chapter's seven companies. Each Chapter bastion was an austere and hollow place. During the Time of Trial, the Sanctuary Cities threw open their gates and offered shelter to the people of Nocturne.As the Nocturneans were primarily a nomadic people, much of the planet's populace dwelt in disparate villages or even transient encampments ill-suited to resist the devastation wrought by the constant earthquakes and eruptions of volcanoes that plagued the world. Vast pilgrimages were often undertaken that trailed the length and breadth of the planet, as Nocturneans travelled great distances seeking succour during the Time of Trial.Stout walls and robust gates wrought to be strong and resilient by Nocturne's master artisans were the Sanctuary Cities' bulwark of defence during the earliest years of the world's ancient colonisation. Tribal shamans who were latent psykers -- before such genetic mutations were demystified and regulated under the Imperium -- had been the first to establish where the safest locations on Nocturne were for these permanent settlements to be founded.They had done so through their psychic communion with the earth, a sacred bond that the people of Nocturne still recognised and respected. Later, there had come the geological pioneers who advised on the construction and development of the nascent townships that would eventually become the Sanctuary Cities. But as the ages passed these cities had evolved. Technologies brought by the Emperor after the Great Crusade encountered Nocturne provided new ways with which to withstand the violent rigour of Nocturnean geology.Void Shields stood in the path of lava flows or pyroclastic clouds; adamantium and reinforced ceramite repelled the seismic tremors or sweeping floods of fire. These havens and their defences were all that stood between the people of Nocturne and their eradication by the elements.Within each Chapter bastion in the Sanctuary Cities, gymnasia provided for the rigours of the Astartes' daily training regimen, and a Reclusiam, presided over by the company's Chaplain, saw to their spiritual needs. In the lower levels of each bastion were the solitoriums, little more than stark oubliettes used for battle-mediation and honour-scarring. Dormitories were sparse and mainly inhabited by Chapter serfs.Armouries held weapons and other war materiel, though these were mainly for the Chapter's neophytes -- seasoned battle-brothers often maintained their own arsenals, situated at private domiciles amongst the populace of Nocturne where they could better act as their custodians and protectors. Refectories provided repast, and in the great halls rare gatherings could be held. An Apothecarion saw to the wounded. Oratoriums and Librariums were maintained as seats of knowledge and learning in each Salamanders bastion, though the culture of Nocturne stressed greater importance on the experience and tempering fire of the battlefield.Catacombs ran through a vast undercroft in each bastion where the emanating swelter of the forges could be felt, the soot of foundries and the hard metal stench of smelteries absorbed by every pore. The great forges of the bastions were temples of iron and steel, where an anvil rather than an altar was the pillar of worship. The solar hours of devotion spent in the cloying heat, through the lathered sweat and thickening smoke, were as crucial to a Salamander Space Marine as any battle-rite.The Seven Sanctuary Cites of Nocturne included:EpimethusHesiodThemisHeliosaSkarokkClymene