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Calixis Sector - Dreah: The Agri-world of Dreah is noted the sector over for its grey skies, soil, plants and waters. Dreahans are notoriously dull, with pallid, greyish flesh and a sullen look to their faces. Merchants are able to make large sums selling exotic dyes to the Dreahans.More unsavoury merchants have found a ripe market for hallucinogenic drugs, as Dreahans are particularly fond of the bright colours such substances make them see. The planetary governor is attempting to crack down on this trade, with little success. |
Calixis Sector - Drusus Shrine World: The Drusus Shrine World, also known as Sentinel, stands at the rimward limits of the Calixis Sector and is dedicated as a holy Shrine World of the Adeptus Ministorum to Saint Drusus. A barren world, dominated by bleak dust bowls and salt-deserts, it supports, thanks to the voidships of the Chartist Captains, a population of pilgrims who maintain the shrine: a five-thousand-metre tall structure of ouslite and rockcrete located in the southern hemisphere. The shrine is the only significant artificial structure on the planet.There, high up in the draughty reaches of weathered stone, burns the eternal flame of Saint Drusus, ministered to by the flocks of pilgrims, most of whom come to Sentinel to die. The standard of living is low on this bleak world and there is no system of government or order apart from the rubrics of the Imperial Creed. Outside the shrine -- "beyond the shadow" as local slang has it -- life is a fringe existence, to say the least. Endless, waterless deserts of dust and calcification stretch out to the very edges of the planet. Jettison collectors and scavengers may be found in the vast salt-licks, but they are transient. A well-supplied man might last twenty solar days in the barrens of this harsh world.However, Sentinel is a world that draws visitors and explorers. Foremost are the pilgrims, those wishing to abase themselves at the foot of Saint Drusus' shrine. For many, this is an act of suicide. Voyaging to the Shrine World is vastly expensive and passage is hard to procure. Even if you get there, there is no guarantee of a return ticket. The licks beneath the shrine are littered with desiccated Human bones and mummified remains, sometimes in a thick carpet.It is said that in the outer bowls of Sentinel, one may find visions and answers. This rumour has undoubtedly arisen from the mind-altering effect of the emptiness and the heat. Even so, pilgrims come to the shrine and then head off, on foot, into the bleakness, in search of religious illumination. Any short ride by land car or flier from the shrine will reveal tortured bones lying in heaps at the end of long footprint trails that the wind has never erased. "Walking into silence" is what the shrine's Ecclesiarchy priests call this behaviour. Rumours suggest that, at the point of death, the silence speaks back to the true of heart.Other rumours make mention of a xenos race living on the Shrine World. Certainly there are several species of lustrous insectoids and beetles that thrive in the desert, drinking dew off their armoured carapaces every local dawn. The rumours talk of an ancient, insectoid race called "the Whisperers," which lives, shelters and breeds in deep tunnels under the dry earth. Far from being an animalistic species, the Whisperers -- if the insane rantings of a few, surviving silence walkers can be trusted -- are a complex and ancient culture, tunnelling under the crust of Sentinel and only occasionally crawling to the surface.The Whisperers -- so-named because of the brushing sounds their giant wing cases make -- are said to hold great truths and secrets about the cosmos, which may be learned by the aware and the capable. No relic or evidence of the Whisperers has ever been found. |
Calixis Sector - Dusk: The Feral World of Dusk is noted for the extreme hostility of its native creatures. "A walk on Dusk" has become a byword for horrible and painful death amongst certain Rogue Traders and Chartist Captains. |
Calixis Sector - Endrite: The degenerate medieval populace of the Feudal World of Endrite worship the ruined hulk of an Imperial battlecruiser. It is not clear when this vessel crashed upon the planet, or what technological level its people were at before the disaster. |
Calixis Sector - Fedrid: The thick forests of the Feral World of Fedrid are so dense and so teeming with dangerous carnivores that access is forbidden without a licence. Fedrid is a favourite of game hunters and those individuals procuring animals for the Imperial arenas. |
Calixis Sector - Fenksworld: Fenksworld is a small, grimy Hive World to the coreward of the sector and the location of a substation depot of the Navis Imperialis' Battlefleet Calixis. It is suggested that many Chaos Cults and other "secret parties" test their influence on the Fenksworld population before moving on to more dominant worlds in the sector like Scintilla and Malfi. Cults and cult activity certainly fester here.Fenksworld's most notable feature is its Library of Knowing, one of the sector's most comprehensive sources of data outside the Prol System. The Library of Knowing's most significant attribute is that it is run under the ordination of the planetary governor and exists outside general Imperial jurisdiction. The Calixian Conclave of the Inquisition has made several (subtle) attempts to close the Fenksworld library down, due to its esoteric contents. The library remains a "family-run" enterprise, overseen by the planetary governor's Highborn dynasty, the mercurial House Vaahkon. |
Calixis Sector - Ganf Magna: Despite many purge efforts, the wilderness of the Forest World and Frontier World of Ganf Magna retains several pockets of a Feral Ork infestation, left over from the last invasion. They exist as small, tribal units of monsters in the planet's dense forests. The Imperial settlers, mainly frontier farmers, wage a constant war with them. |
Calixis Sector - Grangold: Grangold is a Dead World on which stands -- or, more appropriately, survives -- a single temple dedicated to Saint Drusus, despite the ferocious elemental squall. The temple is staffed by two ancient Dreadnoughts of the Iron Hands Chapter.The hazardous planetary environment and volatile staff make this a dangerous shrine for pilgrims of the Imperial Cult to approach, although it is said that "on Grangold, the saint answers all questions." |
Calixis Sector - Heed: Heed is a Dead World and a battle site of the Angevin Crusade. The world is renowned for the noxious firestorms that pepper its surface. |
Calixis Sector - Klybo: Klybo is an extinct world, where the ruins of a lost Human colony poke from the shifting sands. Klybo's harsh environment spurned all efforts to settle it. The Navis Imperialis' sector fleet maintains a waystation on a moon in close orbit.The name Klybo has become proverbial over the years, indicating a worthless or doomed effort. "It all went like Klybo" or "I tried my best, but I had a day on Klybo" are common sector euphemisms. Klybo attracts prospectors and tech-archaeologists. It is rumoured that fabulous STC finds are hidden on Klybo, remnants of the ancient, pre-Imperial colonial attempts to settle the world.Several myths report "walking monsters," akin to Ambulon, still striding the wastelands. No form of conclusive data has yet been obtained. |
Calixis Sector - Landunder: The limp, untrustworthy planetary crust of Landunder floats freely on a deep chemical ocean. The Imperial colonies there are built to cling underneath the planetary crust in suspension. There are eight of these "hanging" undercities on the world, containing almost a billion inhabitants, with trade deriving from ocean-depth mining and chemical treatment (processing plants that exploit the curious mix of oceanic chemicals). |
Calixis Sector - The Lathes: A trio of quasi-worlds at the hem of the Malfian Sub-sector, The Lathes are the foremost Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds of the sector, rivalling Scintilla's Gunmetal City for weapons manufacture. The three planetoids, Het, Hesh and Hadd, enjoy an irregular orbit around their star, intersecting to produce events of hyper-gravity. At such times, industry goes into frantic production, as the commingled gravitational urges of the passing planetoids allow for the specialist smelting of rare metals and alloys.Lathe-world blades are famed throughout the Calixis Sector for their unbreakable character. Gravitational duress also accounts for the dense, armour-piercing quality of Lathe-world ammunition. These so-called "bodyblowers" are expensive and rare, and often purchased singly. The damage they can do to flesh is astonishing. Blades produced under gravitic circumstances on the Lathes are considered holy and special by the Tech-priests of the Mechanicus.Sector Lord Marius Hax owns a rapier of Lathe origin, presented to him by Magos Luol Rho, emissary of the Lathes at the sector court on Scintilla. It is rumoured that King Skull's sword is also an unbreakable tongue of Lathe manufacture.The workforce of the Lathes is surprisingly small but all those born and bred on those oddly tangling planetoids are meaty, squat and powerful in their demeanour, and built with heavy bones and mounds of flesh. The Lathes are held in the fealty of the Mechanicus of Mars, and are a secretive, closed environment. Visits require special permits and authority, and the Lathes are protected by a fraternity of warrior Tech-priests Dominus, who can call upon the power of Titans if the circumstances demand. |
Calixis Sector - Lehyde Ten: Lehyde Ten is a pleasant, potentially arable world, which is generally unpopulated. Lord Militant Golgenna Angevin's early annexation surveys identified Lehyde Ten as an Imperial colonial target, but all attempts to land terraformer mechanisms on the world have resulted in failure. The landscape is littered with the dug-in, dormant hulks of Imperial land-makers. No one can explain the planet’s resistance to development. A small Imperial observatory station survives here, recording data from the Adrantis Nebula. The crew turnover is alarming: a year or two on the world will, inexplicably, drive a man insane. |
Calixis Sector - Luggnum: Luggnum is a harsh and inhospitable Mining World with a small settlement called Lugg City which exports ores. Luggnum is the homeworld of the Astra Militarum regiments known as the Luggnum Sewer Rats. |
Calixis Sector - Malfi: Malfi is a Hive World, eight hundred days standard travel from Scintilla, and is the main population and manufacturing focal of the rimward territories of the sector. Malfi is a semitropical, gloomy world of overbuilt hive cities and habitation ledges. Its population approaches that of Scintilla and it subsists on its engineering and metalwork industries. The population of Malfi has a grudge: they believe that Malfi should be the sector capital world and venomously protest the supremacy of Scintilla.Certainly, with its super-continental hives and eradication of natural landscape, Malfi resembles a Segmentum Solar hiveworld far more than any of the other worlds in the sector, and its claim for capital eminence seems reasonable. However, politics and demographics are fickle mistresses. Scintilla is better placed to provide a centre of effective governance for the sector. Early Calixian regimes, following the Lord Militant Angevin’s campaign, made their headquarters on Malfi but the province has spread out since then. Despite its efforts, Malfi remains a border world, colossal in both its consumption and its production. It satisfies itself in commanding the Malfian Sub-sector, ruling the territories rimward and spinward of Scintilla. The Sub-sector Governor, Jendrous Kaffiq, answers only to Lord Sector Hax himself. Malfi is a seat of the Administratum and several chief banking houses. Its nominal ruler is the Eminence Glydus Matriarch.Malfi is -- and this may be the very reason that the sector rulers passed over it -- a place of the most infernal intrigue. It is impossible to count the courtly factions vying for power and the ear of the Matriarch. The central palace is a labyrinth of chambers and anterooms, a warren that, so proverbs say, many have entered and subsequently died trying to find a way out again. Guides may be procured to steer a visiting party through the warren of Malfi’s central palace: they cannot be trusted. Every act and motion of Malfian life is about dissemblance and intrigue. Hire the wrong guide and you may be damned to years of squabbling diplomacy and sudden duels. It is said of the Malfian palace that “life has a thousand separate doors” and this is no exaggeration. Entering Malfian society, one enters a world of complexity and deceit. Few emerge alive.The Calixian Conclave, which supports a district office on Malfi, regards the world as a particular hotbed of dissent and heresy. Apart from the many political factions and underground groups (many sponsored or run by Malfian noble houses) that support and promote Malfi’s usurpation of the capital world role (it is worth noting that three times in the last two centuries, Malfian dissenters have almost triggered open civil war with Scintilla), the excessively secretive and disingenuous society of the Malfian hive cities propagates many sects and cults. These groups find it ridiculously simple to conceal themselves within Malfi’s layered, elaborate culture of falsehood and deceit. They also find the hive citizenry to be a fertile source of amenable, pliable recruits. In recent years, the Calixian Conclave has become aware of a particularly active sect, whose reach is now spreading beyond Malfi. |
Calixis Sector - Orbel Quill: An oddly serene, pastoral world of shepherds, flocks and herding where, curiously, no one lives beyond the age of forty years standard. Often thought to be a rumour or a joke, the “death threshold” of Orbel Quill is quite real. Visitors and travellers must beware, as often they are far above the age of forty in sidereal terms. Anyone forty or over is stricken with a terminal decline and dies within thirty-six hours, even visitors who have amassed their years during ship-time. Many speculate that the planet is governed by some deep-seated system that combs out what it perceives to be the elderly. Certain facts are evident: no one has managed to identify what it is that kills the over-forties on Orbel Quill. Whatever it is, it certainly does kill them without exception. Also, xenos ruins in the southern hemisphere of the planet have never been properly explored. It seems likely that it is no coincidence that Eldar have been regularly sighted in the empty quarters of this planet. |
Calixis Sector - Prol IX: This crowded, reddish-brown world is the current seat of the scholastic order known as the Decatalogues of Prol. This ninth planet of the “Scrivener’s Star” is an ancient seat of the Administratum. Each of the nine planets is given over to record-keeping, collation, statistical analysis, archiving and the like. Space is running out on Prol IX leading to a vicious schism within the ranks of the Decatalogues. The Centurists wish to move to the forbidden tenth planet within the system, whilst the Pyratics wish to destroy the ancient files stored upon Prol I and raise new temples of information from the ashes of the old. Violent debate and long, impeccably researched discourses are being exchanged between the two factions. These written arguments -- some as many as one hundred and six volumes long -- are not helping the chronic shortage of space. |
Calixis Sector - Seedworld AFG:218: Believed to be an Eldar holding, whatever the truth, Seedworld AFG:218 is evidently a place of geo-genic experimentation on the part of a xenos species. It is interdicted by a cordon of the Battlefleet Calixis. |
Calixis Sector - Settlement 228: Settlement 228 is a new Imperial colony world (established four hundred standard years ago), seating eighteen thousand families on a dry, harsh settlement world. Though “cram beans” have proved a reasonably successful export crop, there is great unrest within Settlement 228’s plantation farms. The settlement families, all exported from Scintilla, believe they were sold their land rights fraudulently. They claim that the planet is nothing like as viable as they were led to believe from the surveys. There is a strong anti-Imperium groundswell here and a hard-bitten drive towards revolution. |
Calixis Sector - Sleef: This outworld, close to the Scarus Sector border, is unninhabited. However, it is famous for its sulphurous volcanic vents, through which, it is said, the voice of the Warp whispers. It is said the skin of reality is thin there and one might hear the vibration of the Immaterium, just out of reach. |
Calixis Sector - Spectoris: Spectoris is an Ocean World with a thriving Imperial habitat, constructed on top of a submarine peak. With two million population this is the sector’s largest exporter of fish and fish-meal product. The “Complete Ocean” of Spectoris is the subject of many legends, with some saying that there are sentient xeno forms of vast size inhabiting the unexplored depths of the world. Others claim that the world-ocean itself is sentient. |
Calixis Sector - Threnos: Despised by Chartist vessels and Navigators, a satellite relay surrounds this star system, blasting Imperial liturgy into the void of space upon all manner of frequencies. No one has travelled to the interior of Threnos’ thirteen planets for some millennia, though it is rumoured to be lifeless. |
Calixis Sector - Tranch: Tranch is a minor Hive World located in the Adrantis Nebula, home to a long-lasting and vicious civil war. |
Calixis Sector - Vaxanide: Situated at the edge of sector territory, Vaxanide is a poorly supplied, desperate world, struggling to enter the “inner circle” of sector planets. It has decent mineral output and considerable exports of meat and fish, but it fights to survive. Its three billion population answers to Lord Vaxanide, scion of House Vaxanide, which has holdings on Scintilla, Malfi and Regulus. The economic degeneracy of Vaxanide results in it being a generally lawless, dangerous Frontier World, especially beyond the precincts of the central hive city, Vaxanhive. The planet is especially famed for its porcelain, glass and fish products. It is also the site of a shrine to Saint Drusus, where miracles are said to occur. Base rumours say that a hidden city exists in the canyons of the dense equatorial jungles. The city is said to be a mirror of the Lucid Palace, populated by phantoms of the actual Lucid Palace’s denizens. All expeditions into the jungle areas have ended in failure, with few members returning alive. Those who survive are usually insane, raving of “grey death” stalking them, or simply ending their lives in a variety of messy ways. |
Calixis Sector - Woe: Woe is an extremely hazardous Death World. |
Calixis Sector - Zillman's Domain: Zillman's Domian is a low technology level Feudal World with a heavy Imperial Tithe burden. Existence on Zillman's Domain is agricultural and frugal. The king owns a Lasgun, which makes him the king. The Domain is famous for its brutality and medieval mindset and accidental visitors are often burned at the stake as witches for possessing such mundane items of Imperial technology as vox-links. The Domain was "visited" by the Spectral Sun in 807.M41. |
Calixis Sector - Sector Currency: The Imperial currency of the Calixis Sector and many of the surrounding regions in the Segmentum Obscurus such as the Koronus Expanse is known as the "Throne Gelt." There are also precious shell tokens or coins of rare, strategic metals that are accepted as legal tender on all of the civilised Imperial worlds of the sector. Thrones can also be dispersed in electronic form as payment, usually by using a data-slate.One of a number of sector and segmentum-based Imperial currencies whose value directly relates to the Administratum's audits of tithes in the region where the currency is used, the worth of Throne Gelt is secured against the massive riches generated by Imperial planetary tithes, and is locally issued in the form of coins known as "thrones."A currency consists of whatever objects are a common unit of exchange in a given locale -- government coinage, ephemeral digital ledger-data, ammunition, gold nuggets, or shells picked from a beach. The currencies of Mankind are as varied as the worlds of the galaxy they inhabit, and are only measured in thrones when it comes time to collect the Imperial Tithe.Human reavers and pirates across the frontiers of Imperial space are often refugees or descendants of settlers from the Imperium, and so understand Throne Gelt's value. Of course, to these Renegades, offering currency in trade without a display of force or at least a little bloodletting first is a sign of weakness. Yet some Renegades, dark corsairs and slavers among them, favour hacksilver, items of technology, ammunition, and slaves as currency -- or trapped souls and bottled vitality, if the darkest stories are to be believed.Xenos also have their currencies, though their interpretations of this concept may be remote and strange. The vile Orks, for example, counts wealth in "teef" -- literally the teeth of enemy Greenskins kept for noisy, threatening trade with "dem 'ard gits what got the bitz we needz." By comparison, the deceitful Aeldari kindreds do not appear to employ any form of monetary currency at all, and are said to find such Human concepts of valuation primitive or debased. Aeldari do value certain items -- particularly the lost artefacts of their species.However, attempting trade with Aeldari of any kindred is a harrowing experience, with the negotiations ever treacherous and shifting. Perhaps of all the xenos known to Mankind, the nomadic Stryxis have the most "Human" outlook on trade. Though strange to look on, Stryxis caravans offer an often bewildering variety of goods, many perilous and outright prohibited within Imperial space. However, their inscrutable masters drive a hard bargain, and are never to be underestimated. |
Calixis Sector - Power Groups: Several groups in the Calixis Sector hold power that is not restricted to one planet, but can be felt across the whole sector. These include the adepta of the Imperium, as well as the five Great Houses, which are as old as the Calixis Sector itself.Members of these groups can turn up on any of the sector's worlds, and they all possess enough resources to make themselves major players in the sector's complex tapestry of political power. |
Calixis Sector - Adeptus Terra: The Adeptus Terra is nominally the most important group in the Calixis Sector. As the "government" of the Imperium of Man, the Adeptus Terra's members are responsible for ensuring that the Calixis Sector fulfils its obligations to the Imperium: offering up the correct tithes of materials, manpower and psykers, obeying Imperial laws and never harbouring the Emperor's foes. Lord Sector Marius Hax is the Sector Governor and he appoints the sub-sector commanders who oversee the various areas of the Calixis Sector in Terra's name.Commander Hax himself answers to the commanders of the Segmentum Obscurus. Through this connection, Hax can request military aid from the Astra Militarum or Navis Imperialis, or even the mighty Space Marines. However, unless he has strong evidence that the Calixis Sector is in immediate peril, his requests will not be answered. On a smaller scale, Commander Hax could have considerable sway over many of the sector's adepts, such as members of the Adeptus Arbites or the Ecclesiarchy. Though Hax traditionally rules in a "hands-off" manner, this influence is not to be underestimated. |
Calixis Sector - Adeptus Ministorum: The Adeptus Ministorum is a powerful force in the Calixis Sector, as it is in most regions of the Imperium. The area is sacred to Saint Drusus and is a destination for pilgrims from many sectors around, with many of its most notable places being religious in nature. Arch-cardinal Ignato is energetic in keeping up the numbers of preachers and confessors active in the sector and these promulgators of the Imperial Creed's word are the most common adepts by far on most of the sector's worlds.Many planets have their own cardinal and these form the Sector Synod, headed by Arch-cardinal Ignato, which rules on all spiritual matters affecting the Calixis Sector. Pious, Emperor-fearing citizens abound and pronouncements by Ignato or the Sector Synod can be disseminated by the clergy and reach the ears of the average citizen far more effectively than through any other means.The majority of Calixian citizens perform some act of worship regularly, from trudging along to a dingy temple once a solar month to nightly prayers in a noble's private chapel. Most permanent places of worship are home to a member of the Ecclesiarchy, which means that the Ecclesiarchy's priests are numerous and strongly connected to the population in a way that no other adepts are. On worlds where priests are lacking (such as Sepheris Secundus) much of the day-to-day preaching is done by lay clergy, pious individuals trained and deployed by ordained Ecclesiarchy clergy to spread the word in places where even a devoted preacher baulks to tread.While there are few places in the Calixis Sector where the Emperor's word is not preached, the scattered nature of the priests and the use of lay clergy mean that strict dogma is not always observed. Sometimes the teaching of the Imperial Creed can drift away from the Ecclesiarchical line. On Sepheris Secundus, for example, the barons and the queen are sometimes portrayed as sacred beings imbued with the Emperor's power by lay preachers who grew up in the planet's rigid feudal system.On Iocanthos, mercenaries pay fealty to the Emperor as their paymaster, while in Scintilla's underhives, countless versions of the Emperor are worshipped, from a fearsome god of destruction appeased with murder to the spirit of the hives themselves. While the Imperial Creed reaches everywhere in the Calixis Sector, in truth Arch-cardinal Ignato and the other cardinals of the Sector Synod often have to strive hard to maintain orthodoxy there. |
Calixis Sector - Adeptus Arbites: The role of the arbitrators is to ensure that the Calixis Sector's worlds obey Imperial law. Most worlds have an Adeptus Arbites presence and the arbitrators tend to be based in grim, precinct-fortresses to remind the population of the unyielding nature of Imperial law and to insure that there will always be a defendable location for the Arbites to hold in case of widespread rebellion.In the Calixis Sector few worlds aside from Scintilla have a major arbitrator presence, and most worlds only have a single precinct-fortress along with a few regional stations. In spite of this, the arbitrators are a feared force because they are loyal to nothing save Imperial law. Even a planetary governor can be arrested by the Adeptus Arbites should they harbour the Emperor's enemies or seek to throw off the yoke of Imperial authority. While they are a formidable presence with great authority, the arbitrators can only act to defend Imperial law and have little influence beyond this.Lord Marshal Luthir Veremonn Goreman is the most senior arbitrator in the Calixis Sector. Goreman began his long career as a local planetary Enforcer, and his lack of sympathy for the desperate mass of Imperial citizens borders on disdain. He sees no greater crime than that of an Imperial citizen abandoning their duties to take up arms against a rightful authority, and he is known to personally lead riot suppression forces on Scintilla.The Lord Marshal demands regular reports from arbitrators on the sector's other planets, and is pessimistic in character, constantly issuing dire warnings about the Calixis Sector careering down a slippery slope towards lawlessness and terror. Goreman sees doom and anarchy in everything, including the activities of Scintilla's corps of Enforcers, the Magistratum. As far as he is concerned, the Magistratum are part of the problem and he actively despises them.Goreman has recently permitted the development of the Divisio Immoralis, a small taskforce of arbitrators whose purpose is to collect intelligence on cult activities across the Calixis Sector and explain a recent rise in unrest and acts of terrorism by fringe cults. The Divisio Immoralis numbers only a few arbitrators led by the veteran, and rather burned-out, Senior Arbitrator Kae Drusil, but they have considerable leeway for their investigations and may turn up anywhere in the sector.On Scintilla, the Adeptus Arbites is based at the Fortress of the Just, a massive rockcrete slab that sits in the relentless desert a short flight away from Hive Tarsus. It is here that Lord Marshal Goreman's headquarters can be found, along with the training facilities for the arbitrator cadets sent to the Calixis Sector, and the Sector Judicial archive. The Divisio Immoralis is based in a cramped set of offices in the Archive, while Scintilla's large pool of Enforcers trains regularly in the bullet-scarred mock town just outside the fortress.On Sepheris Secundus, the arbitrators are based at the Isolatorium and are mainly concerned with battling cults and mutant groups among the massive serf populations of the planet's mines. On Iocanthos, the Adeptus Arbites' presence is limited to a single squad of Enforcers and arbitrators stationed at Port Suffering, although they are almost always to be found out in the Wasteland following up some new allegation of cultists or rogue psykers. |
Calixis Sector - Cult of Redemption: The Adeptus Ministorum's preachers are in short supply in the very deepest, darkest parts of the Calixis Sector's cities. Instead, another religious force brings the fiery word of the Emperor to these forsaken places, one that operates well beyond the reach of the adepta: the Cult of Redemption. Many consider the Redemptionists to be the true terror of the underhives, rather than the bandits, mutants or criminals.Violent zealots who see sin everywhere, the tactics of the Redemptionists are simple: they roam the underhive putting sinners to the flame, holding impromptu stake-burnings, exhorting the fearful underhivers to give up their friends and relatives to the purifying fire, and preaching impassioned sermons about the intolerance of the God-Emperor and the wickedness of anyone who does not agree with the Redemption's point of view.The Redemption's masked foot soldiers are clad in red robes and are armed with anything that burns, from lit torches to flamers. The most "blessed" among them carry the Eviscerator, a massive two-handed chainsword, with which to mortify the flesh of sinners. Many Redemptionists are broken-minded souls who have lost everything to the violence of the underhive, and seek solace and vengeance in the religious hatred promised by the cult.The Cult of the Redemption is strong in many areas of the Imperium and was probably brought to the Calixis Sector by zealots making a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Illumination on Scintilla. It is active on several planets, but its spiritual home is Scintilla. The cult is organised into many "crusades," each led by a charismatic leader called a "deacon." Though the crusades operate independently, they all recognise the authority of one woman in the sector, the Archdeacon Ludmilla. |
Calixis Sector - Great Houses: The term "Great House," or "Sector House," refers to those civilian organisations that have a presence across the Calixis Sector. This sets them apart from "planetary" or "lesser" houses, which might wield enormous power on a particular planet but do not have any particular influence elsewhere.In the earliest days of the Calixis Sector, all the Great Houses, and most of the planetary houses, were based around Imperial noble families. The old Great Houses were enormous extended familial lines, with strict rules of heredity to maintain their monopoly on power.In the current days of the 41st Millennium, several of the Great Houses are actually corporations. They may act as if they were noble families but the truly hereditary Great Houses are quick to point out that their memberships are based on ambition and skill, rather than bloodline.The Great Houses play their own game of politics and wealth, and with their thousands of members and private troops, they have the potential to exercise enormous power in the Calixis Sector. Some dominate whole worlds and some harbour ambitions that will one day pit them against the interests of the adepta of the Imperium. |
Calixis Sector - House Krin: House Krin are "Drusus' Bankers," a very old and close-knit family whose immense fortune stems from offering banking and loans to the other noble houses. They are possibly the oldest of the Great Houses still to have a sector-wide presence and are sharp in their criticism of the "new money" that has so much power in the present-day sector. There are houses on almost every planet that rely on House Krin to help maintain their own finances. The conspicuous expenditure of Hive Sibellus, for example, would be impossible without House Krin loans, and the DeVayne Incorporation could not purchase the rights to generations of Sepheris Secundus' serfs without House Krin advancing them the funds to do so.House Krin keeps itself to itself but its estates can be found on a great many Calixian worlds. They are not as lavish as those of other houses, as their position is secure enough for them not to rely on such vulgarity to ensure their position. House Krin has a sizeable body of agents in the Goldenhand in Hive Tarsus on Scintilla and keeps smaller taskforces anywhere they can use their large amounts of accessible wealth to make more money.Many Calixian nobles are certain that House Krin must have a vault somewhere filled with unimaginable wealth, and even suggest that the house's senior members view this accumulation of gold with religious awe, but if any of this is true, the location of the House Krin vaults is a closely guarded secret. Similarly House Krin's most important members rarely deal with anyone outside the house, preferring to have lesser members deal with "outsiders" (a fact that does little to endear them to nobles from other houses). |
Calixis Sector - Cestelle Alliance: The origins of the Cestelle Alliance lie on the world of Regulus in the Hazeroth Abyss sub-sector. Regulus was an Agri-world run by the Administratum but when their adepts were all killed by a meteor impact, the small feudal kingdoms took over the management of their world. By the time contact with the Imperium was re-established, it was clear that the alliance of indigenous peoples was running the Agri-world more efficiently than the Administratum, and the natives of Regulus were left to their own devices as long as their tithe of food was met.From this string of events was born the Cestelle Alliance, the unified people of Regulus, who sent members to other, less promising worlds and transformed them over the following decades into fertile Agri-worlds in their own rights, passing on enormous tithes to Sector Governor Marius Hax's government. Slowly, almost without the other Great Houses knowing, the Cestelle Alliance amassed the wealth and power to make them the equal of the other sector noble houses.The Cestelle Alliance now controls many Agri-worlds in the Calixis Sector. It has not escaped the notice of Lord Sector Hax that the Alliance, if it wished, could cut off food supplies to the sector's most populated worlds and create a crisis of famine to hold the sector to ransom. To keep the Alliance firmly on the Imperial side, Hax has appointed Egoyan Cestelle as the Governor of the Adrantis Nebula sub-sector and continues to permit the Alliance rights to its Agri-worlds.The members of the Alliance must walk a curious tightrope between maintaining the traditions of their homeworlds and kingdoms, and acting like fully recognised nobles of the Calixis Sector. The traditions of Regulus include facial tattooing (with the higher-ranking nobles sporting extraordinarily intricate scrollwork), incinerating the house's dead on funeral pyres and praying to the Emperor in the raucous manner first taught to the people of Regulus by Imperial missionaries.The Alliance participates in the sector's games of politics and etiquette, even though it is considered little more than a gang of primitive yokels by most other Calixian nobles, but they are very reluctant to allow any interference on the planets they control, even resisting visits by Imperial adepts to their Agri-worlds.Those few who have gone to a Cestelle Alliance world have sometimes reported wide-eyed tales of abased rituals around giant burning effigies. The Alliance goes to great lengths to show a sophisticated, aristocratic face to the Calixis Sector but some say they are unable to completely hide their primitive side. The colours of the Cestelle Alliance are red and golden yellow, and their emblem is a sea of crops, gently bending in the wind. |
Calixis Sector - Devayne Incorporation: The DeVayne Incorporation is an unusual sector house that was originally a large and powerful religious order. The Sepulchral Brotherhood was a movement of the Imperial Creed that trained laymen in religious matters. Specifically, it sent out emissaries to the most downtrodden masses, to preach to them how they were blessed to have the opportunity to give their lives in service to their Emperor and how they should be grateful for the solar decades of backbreaking labour that made up their future.The Brotherhood grew in popularity and was originally a valued part of the Adeptus Ministorum, but a distance grew between the Ministorum and the Brotherhood's army of lay preachers who had become the only religious authority in many areas. Several standard centuries ago, following a declaration by the Synod Calixis, the Ministorum withdrew its adepts and demanded that the Brotherhood cease preaching. The Brotherhood abandoned its religious functions in the wake of the "Sepulchral Schism" but it did not disappear. Instead, it took advantage of the hold it had over the labourers of many worlds and its lay preachers became instead members of the newly founded DeVayne Incorporation.The DeVayne Incorporation bases its wealth and influence on the labour of those same hordes of menial workers (referred to by the Incorporation as "thralls"). It owns the rights to millions of lives in places such as the lower forges of Gunmetal City on Scintilla. The Incorporation is the single biggest purchaser of serf rights from the crown of Sepheris Secundus outside the local barons and on dozens of other worlds, the labour of DeVayne's thralls allows the Incorporation to amass wealth and influence.If another Great House needs raw materials, they often come from mines, fields or refineries managed by DeVayne thralls. The Incorporation is famous for the small army of clerks it employs to keep the records of its thralls. It is said that every single thrall is named in DeVayne's records and that the Incorporation has contracts with mercenaries and bounty hunters whose job is to bring back runaway thralls. DeVayne's household troops, veterans of serf uprisings on Sepheris Secundus, are famously brutal when they lend their strength to putting down rebellions and protests in which thralls are involved.Though the Sepulchral Brotherhood has been officially dead for centuries, the DeVayne Incorporation's members have a strong air of religiosity about them. It recruits new members from among the children of its thralls, a practice unique among the Great Houses and one which elicits great suspicion amongst noble families who do not understand how base peasants can rise to become members of a Great House. The Incorporation's members consider the thralls to have no value except in financial terms, which mystifies observers considering most of them were once thralls themselves. Cynics insist that the Incorporation must still have some religious purpose at its heart to command such devotion from the same people whose lives it made a misery.Certainly DeVayne's organisation, with its members divided into "orders" each responsible for an area of house business, resembles that of a religious body, and its members can be evangelical about the Incorporation's mission to help the people of the Imperium fulfil their duties to the Emperor and their fellow man. These impassioned outbursts are excellent for convincing thralls that they are working for the good of the Imperium but are less welcome among sector nobility.The low-born nature of the Incorporation's members means that they are treated like pariahs by most noble houses, but none can deny that the DeVayne Incorporation is one of the driving forces behind the economy of the Calixis Sector. The Adeptus Ministorum harbours a deep mistrust of the DeVayne Incorporation and many of its adepts believe that the Sepulchral Brotherhood is alive and thriving among the Incorporation's leadership, intent on spreading some form of religious corruption. The Incorporation's colours are dove grey and its symbol is an open hand. |
Calixis Sector - Machenko Dynasty: The Machenko Dynasty, an extended family organised along strictly hereditary lines in the manner of the old noble houses, is the most mysterious of the Great Houses. Seventy-five standard years ago the dynasty’s patriarch, Lord Scelestes Machenko, was accused of witchcraft, heresy and impiety, and burned at the stake. The dynasty fell with him, its estates invaded by rival families and its wealth confiscated by the Administratum. The dynasty spent the following solar decades rebuilding itself, and its members have kept its record scrupulously clean since the Machenkan Purge.Although a dark shadow hangs over the dynasty because of its past, no one has ever been able to find evidence of impiety during the dynasty's return to power. The source of the dynasty's wealth, with which it funded its return to Great House status and currently plays the great games of sector noble politics, is a complete mystery and the source of the darkest of rumours. Certainly the dynasty owns a great deal, from hive spire estates to tracts of land, but it does not seem to control any Agri-worlds or manufactoria with which to make the money it so clearly has. When questioned about the source of the dynasty's capital, Machenkan nobles reply (with impeccable politeness) that they keep their own counsel about such matters.The members of the Machenko Dynasty have turned etiquette into an art form and house scholars compile great volumes of etiquette, which Machenkan nobles carry around with them by means of a Lectern-servitor. So complex are the dynasty's ritualised greetings and forms of address that nobles from rival houses often claim they are some kind of secret code.In any case, the Machenkan nobles dismiss the great mysteries of their house with charm and politeness, and without exception make for gracious guests and accommodating hosts. As dark as the rumours about them may be, few nobles turn down an invitation from the dynasty. The Machenko Dynasty's symbol is a ringed planet and its house colours are a deep blue. |
Calixis Sector - Masqued: This "cult," which has strong connections to an alarming number of Calixian noble houses, is believed to have grown directly out of the Hive World of Malfi's culture of intrigue. Its original architects took the concepts of falsehood and subterfuge to their limits and arrived at the cult's guiding tenet: that nothing is what it seems. By extension, Human life and the Imperium is a deceit, and Chaos itself is the truth. The Masqued believe that the "civilised Imperium" wears a mask of refinement and devoted duty, beneath which lies man's natural affinity with the lurid machinations of the Warp. They believe that it is simply a matter of time before the mask falls away and Mankind's true nature as a Chaotic species is revealed.The Masqued revel in licentious, debauched behaviour and delight in extremes of falsehood and mendacity. All cult members are anonymous and wear, at their gatherings, grotesque and colourful masks derived from the styles worn at courtly masques and entertainments. The Masqued boasts, in its membership, a shockingly large number of nobles and highborn, for whom the cult is a mere extension of their courtly world; intrigue taken to its natural conclusion. It is likely that many of them have no real concept of the dark truth lurking at the centre of their compact.More a deviant secret society than an actual Chaos Cult, the Masqued have avoided censure for a number of reasons: they have connections and influence, they are almost impossible to identify and target; and they offer no palpable threat as yet. The Masqued do not seem to be striving to achieve anything: their activities are more a broad excuse for licentious, orgiastic behaviour. Attempts made by the Calixian Conclave of the Inquisition, in the most part abortive or unsuccessful, to infiltrate the order have revealed that the cult seems content to meet and worship, waiting for "the inevitable" to happen. They seem to show no desire or intent to bring about a Chaos revolution, as they regard it as a preordained fact.It is known that Lord Inquisitor Aegult Caidin himself regards the Masqued as a "dilettante order," a grouping of deviants rather than an active threat, and therefore not a priority target. However, given the potential membership of the cult, and the wealth, resource and influence that implies, if the order ever did decide to become more proactive, it would be the richest and most insidious cult in the Segmentum Obscurus. For this reason, several key figures in the Conclave believe that it should be dug out and sanctioned without delay.The range of the cult's activity is alarming: suborders and satellite lodges have been noted on Scintilla, Sepheris Secundus, Iocanthos and many other high population worlds in the sector. Traces of it have been found as far away as Cypra Mundi and Eustis Majoris in the Scarus Sector.It goes wherever the noble houses of the Imperium have influence. Some say it has links all the way back to Terra. It is also chilling to reflect that, in the last three solar decades alone, four high-level operatives, each of unimpeachable character, sent by the Inquisition to infiltrate the cult, have later turned up as bonded members. It is an alluring, seductive order. |
Calixis Sector - Skaelen-Har Hegemony: Skaelen-Har is a massive corporation founded on a set of comprehensive philosophical principles known as the "Concordium." The Skaelen-Har Hegemony is a very powerful and efficient heavy manufacturing corporation with concerns across the Calixis Sector, including hundreds of manufactoria in Hive Sibellus and Gunmetal City on Scintilla. One of its major products is voidship parts and the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Calixis in particular relies on Skaelen-Har to keep its warships in space. The connection between the Imperial Navy and the Hegemony is strong, since without the Hegemony the Battlefleet Calixis would be completely grounded.Every member of the Hegemony follows the Concordium, a set of strictures that emphasise the realisation of an individual's potential through the destruction of his personality. The Concordium describes an "ideal" personality as obedient but ambitious, amoral and unmoved by emotive arguments, decisive and unforgiving. People who display these traits, claim Skaelen-Har, are those most likely to succeed in the 41st Millennium.A member of Skaelen-Har is required to gradually put aside their own personality in favour of the precepts of the Concordium. Their original personality is only permitted to emerge in controlled environments at Skaelen-Har gatherings. Members of Skaelen-Har are recruited from all strata of Imperial society, as long as they have the potential to accept the Concordium. They then advance up the strict Hegemony hierarchy, with the higher circles being composed of those who have abandoned their personality completely.These higher circles form the leadership of Skaelen-Har and with their Concordium so in control there is little dissent or indecisiveness displayed in the Hegemony's activities. Skaelen-Har members make for excellent naval officers and there are many in the Battlefleet Calixis, but many in the officer class are suspicious of the Hegemony's motives in placing so many of its members on the sector's warships.Members of Skaelen-Har are all required to give up a part of themselves to the Concordium. To symbolise this, they all have a body part replaced, usually a hand or facial feature. The replacements range from simple prosthetics for lower-circle members to state-of-the art bionic augmentations for the most devoted followers of the Concordium. Skaelen-Har's members wear the Hegemony's colours of black and silver and bear the symbol of a silver starburst. |
Calixis Sector - Forces of Chaos: The Calixis Sector appears to those with the perspective to perceive such things to be seething with Chaos Cult activity, each of its worlds tainted with countless heretical and blasphemous bodies. Some point to the spectral haunting of the Tyrant Star as the cause of this endemic corruption, while others have come to believe that the star might represent some form of stellar executioner drawn to the concentration of sin and ready to enact the final judgement upon the guilty.Some suspect that the entire region has always been tainted, even before it was settled by Mankind. They hold that Lord Militant Golgenna Angevin fought long and bitter wars against an empire of debased, Chaos-worshipping aliens whose name has been struck from all records (now confirmed to be the Yu'vath) and that some taint of them remains to poison the souls of Humanity in the sector.Of late, those who tread the path to glory have begun to flock to the spinward marches of the sector, drawn there by the new war in the so-called Spinward Front of the Periphery that, if allowed to do so, might one day engulf the entire sub-sector. Warp-worshipping cults and Heretic warbands are mustering on the verges, and some even claim to have sighted the Tyrant Star, its ghostly black halo shimmering in the void.Most of those who tread the path to glory of Chaos are to be found operating within the existing structure of the Calixis Sector's institutions. They exist at every level, from the Inquisitor who has strayed too far into heretical doctrine to the data-loom operator who harbours a murderous hatred for the overseer who denies them a solar hour away from their workstation to attend a loved one's funeral.A lay-tech denied access to the inner workings of the machine they operate may turn to the Logicians, an outcast splinter of the Cult Mechanicus, for knowledge otherwise forbidden to them. Idle nobles the sector over collect illicit xenos curios, any one of which might harbour some taint that poisons the soul and leads to damnation. Those born bearing the mark of the mutant might not have been created inherently evil, but many experience such brutal Imperial oppression that the Ruinous Powers offer the only means of survival in a galaxy of bloodshed and hardship.Nowhere within the Calixis Sector is beyond the reach of the Ruinous Powers, from the sanctums of the Abbey of the Dawn on Iocanthos to the secret cloisters of the Daemon-hunting Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus. No planetary governor is immune to the whispers of Daemons that haunt them by night, promising undreamed-of power in return for just a few "favours."No Adeptus Arbites Judge enforcing the Emperor's laws on the cruel streets of the hive bottom is so zealous as to be able to ignore the desire to simply burn the entire hive city down, purging the guilty and the innocent at once. Chaos is everywhere, but a thought and a promise away, ever ready to consume the souls of the weak and empower those of the strong beyond mortal imagining. |
Calixis Sector - Calixian Conclave: The branch of the Inquisition that watches the Calixis Sector is known as the Calixian Conclave. Overseen by Lord Inquisitor Aegult Caidin, its High Council and Officio are based in the Tricorn Palace on Scintilla. It has many sub-officios and a grim fortified outpost can be found on or near most major or highly populated planets.Sub-officio administrators are known by the rank "Planetia Inquisitor" and control local conclavium councils that resemble the High Council in miniature. The Calixian Conclave has troops, spacecraft and Acolytes at its disposal, but its most valuable commodity is its Inquisitors themselves, who possess skills and authority beyond the imaginings of most Imperial citizens. The Calixian Conclave watches over the whole sector and there is no limit to its jurisdiction.It should be noted that, despite the governing hand of Caidin and the High Council, the Inquisitors of the Calixian Conclave are not all of the same mind. They are independent souls, set on individual missions and enterprises. Each one has very strong ideas about the way the Inquisition should conduct itself and the length to which they must go to preserve the Imperium. Some become outright enemies and no two have exactly the same agenda. Should they ever pull together they would form by far the greatest power block in the area, eclipsing even the great noble families of the sector in the resources they can muster.Until that happens, the Inquisitors of the Calixian Conclave are their own worst enemies, scheming against one another or pursuing their goals in secret, using their Acolytes as playing pieces in games of superiority. Some of the Calixian Inquisitors are noble and pious, exemplars of Imperial values, others are more free-thinking or, as a Puritan would put it, corrupt. Anyone of them could be the Calixis Sector's greatest saviour or its most notorious villain. Caidin and the High Council do their best to keep the scattered Inquisitors moving with a unified purpose, but sometimes they have to arbitrate disputes. |
Calixis Sector - Tyrantine Cabal: The Tyrantine Cabal was commissioned many years ago in response to the dread prophesy of the Tyrant Star. Its members are known as Tyrantites or Spectarians (or more dismissively as star gazers), for they are charged with investigating apparitions of the spectral sun and the influence of the baleful Tyrant Star. The Tyrantine Cabal is based at the Bastion Serpentis, a bleak fortress of age-polished black stone jutting from the surface of Scintilla’s moon Lachesis. The Bastion is typical of the Inquisition waystations and local fortresses peppered across the Calixis Sector. The Spectarians were granted sole discretionary use of the Bastion Serpentis at the inception of their cabal. Lord Sector Hax, Chief Astropath Xiao and a few others know of its existence, and those who do not are kept away from the moon by dire warnings about geological instability. Lord Inquisitor Anton Zerbe can normally be found at the Bastion and it is there in its grand audience chamber that he holds the semi-regular meetings with all the Cabal’s Inquisitors, at which they report on their activities and share information. These gatherings are as much a venue for making allies and enemies as they are a forum for exchanging intelligence on the sector’s various threats and power groups.As the threat of the Tyrant Star is felt across the Calixis Sector, the membership of the Cabal is not formally fixed. Some Inquisitors, those listed here, have stayed in the Calixis Sector for some time and accept Zerbe’s authority (although they do not all obey him by any means). Other Inquisitors might join on a temporary basis, especially if an investigation elsewhere brings them to the Calixis Sector in matters intersecting the Hereticus Tenebrae, while some simply come to lend their support while they tap the expertise of the Cabal’s most experienced Inquisitors. The individuals listed here are confirmed Spectarians, but Inquisitors join and leave all the time, with Zerbe’s blessing. |
Calixis Sector - Notable Inquisitors of the Tyrantine Cabal: Anton Zerbe, Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus - Anton Zerbe is the commissioned leader of the Tyrantine Cabal, a position he was granted by Lord Inquisitor Caidin himself. He does not take his duties lightly, as he believes the black doctrine of the Tyrant Star to be very real indeed. He rarely leaves the Bastion Serpentis, and chairs the frequent meetings of the cabal’s Inquisitors. Zerbe once roamed the Imperium seeking out corruption and incompetence amongst the Adepta but he is now dedicated to his role. Zerbe is never seen without his impassive golden mask and magnificent gilded armour, and he seems perfectly at home on the throne of the Bastion’s audience chamber. He is not an easily approachable man and always remains distant from those around him. Zerbe is even-handed to a fault, refusing in all cases to support one Inquisitor over another, no matter how grave an accusation might have been brought. His principal motivation is preventing strife within the Tyrantine Cabal, so that the group can do its holy work. He believes that if any one Inquisitorial faction within the Tyrantine Cabal was to prevail, the sector -- the Imperium itself even -- would be doomed. If the Recongregators got what they wanted, the cabal would devolve into anarchy. If the Xanthites prevailed, Chaos would corrupt the work. Even the Amalathians, if they succeeded in their aims, would drag the cabal into a miserable malaise. Zerbe’s objective is to prevent any one of these factions overcoming the others in the Calixis Sector, so that the Hereticus Tenebrae might be averted. Nothing else matters. He will even go as far as to recruit Acolytes of his own to foil one of his Inquisitors’ plans. In addition to his political skills, Zerbe is a powerful psyker, although this fact is not generally known within the cabal. Zerbe keeps his psychic talents in reserve should he be forced to vanquish a particularly dangerous foe personally.Rykehuss, Witch Finder of the Ordo Hereticus - Rykehuss is the terror of witches, a man for whom everyone is guilty of something and the only punishment is death. To him the Calixis Sector is a cesspit where witches breed like flies and the honest, pious Imperial citizens are besieged by sin on all sides. Rykehuss’ bouts of volcanic anger and impassioned sermonising are well known at the Bastion Serpentis, and he constantly exhorts his fellow Inquisitors to descend on all the sinners to purify them with righteous flame or condemn them to damnation. Rykehuss wears ornate, heavily customised armour gifted to him by the Adeptus Mechanicus after he sought out a witch cult on a forge world in a nearby sector, and he is an expert with a veritable armoury of weapons. The Witch Finder’s methods are simple. He descends on a particular city, sees depravity everywhere and immediately sets up a Court of Ordeals where pious citizens bring accused neighbours and family members to be tried. When Rykehuss hears of a particularly foul heresy being perpetrated somewhere nearby, he gathers all the torch-wielding backup he can and marches there, trusting in his martial skill to help him put the sinners to death personally. Some who witness Rykehuss’ terrors consider him a hero, others a butcher, and both are right. Many innocents have died at Rykehuss’ hands but so have many rogue psykers and cultists. Rykehuss, however, is not as crude a man as his methods would suggest. He knows that he cannot kill all the sinners, but his bombastic and terrifying style ensures that Imperial citizens are constantly reminded that there are threats in their midst and bigger threats waiting to punish them for their weaknesses. Innocent deaths, while regrettable, are a small price to pay for Rykehuss to spread the fear that helps suppress the activities of witches—and in any case, the Emperor sorts them all out in the end. Rykehuss is obsessed with the notion that it is the widespread activity of witches in the sector that is bringing on the doom of the Hereticus Tenebrae.Ahmazzi, Daemonhunter of the Ordo Malleus - Ahmazzi is the Spectarians' sole Ordo Malleus Inquisitor. He is a grizzled and ancient veteran, close on three hundred standard years old, whose career has taken him from Titan to the very edges of the Imperium, hunting down Daemons and the corrupt Humans who summon them. Now all but decrepit, he has come to the Calixis Sector to, as he puts it, “bask in the radiance of the Tyrant Star and learn its secrets”. A long career has left Ahmazzi intensely cynical and pessimistic. He has come to believe that the Emperor is dead, Chaos cannot be stopped and the human race is doomed. The Imperium, Ahmazzi believes, is a grotesque symptom of the fact that the human race is currently living through its inevitable and drawn-out extinction. He has dabbled with Radicalism in his career, even being declared Excommunicate by Puritan colleagues for seeking out daemonic knowledge but no one in the Tyrantine Cabal other than Zerbe knows this. Ahmazzi has no friends and does not particularly care what people think of him, angrily refusing to tell any stories of his astonishing daemonhunting career, although an Acolyte who displays great courage in the face of a daemonic foe might win Ahmazzi’s grudging respect. Ahmazzi was a martially-minded Inquisitor in his prime and secretly would love nothing better than to mount up on his mobile war pulpit, don his armour and take up his Daemonhammer to ride into battle once more against a horde of daemonic foes. He believes that the Tyrant Star maybe the harbinger of Man’s inevitable doom and he wants to be at ground zero to witness the great day when it happens.Astrid Skane, Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus - A formidable woman, Inquisitor Astrid Skane exudes the rough authority of a seasoned Arbitrator officer. Tough and resourceful, she is one of the most active of the Tyrantine Cabal’s Inquisitors, happy to get her hands dirty rooting out corruption. Skane is a striking woman with a stern, strong face who wears her hair regulation short. She habitually dresses much as she did when she served as an Arbitrator on Scintilla, in a black uniform and body armour, and is rarely seen without her Shock Maul and Shotgun. Skane respects those who respect her, treats her more skilled Acolytes as equals and has little time for pomp and appearances. Skane follows the Recongregators’ creed, which states that the Imperium must be reformed radically to reduce the suffering of its people and that the Inquisition is the only body with the authority and skill to reform it. Skane believes that the Imperium’s woes are caused by corruption among its ruling classes. She developed a particular hatred for corrupt nobles whilst serving as an Arbitrator and has carried that through to her work as an Inquisitor. Her operations, therefore, target corruption among the Imperial nobility and the Adepta, including the Adeptus Arbites she once served. She dreams of a future where the Imperium is turned upside-down and justice is the rule rather than the exception, but she realises that she will not live to see it. She fights for what justice she can and hopes that others will follow her to carry on the battle. Skane is convinced that the Tyrant Star can only be appearing due to some form of summons. She believes there is a powerful Chaos Cult at work in the sector, employing sorcery to call the Tyrant Star down on Mankind. That is a cult she would very much like to personally root out.Van Vuygens, Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos - Rarely seen at the Bastion Serpentis, Van Vuygens represents the Ordo Xenos in the Calixian Conclave. He is a quietly spoken man who is more of a scholar than a warrior and, though he can certainly look after himself if required, he sees more value in dissecting and studying xenos than exterminating them. Slender, bespectacled and dressed in an archivist’s robes, Van Vuygens does not cut as imposing a figure as some of the Tyrantine Cabal’s more dramatic characters, but he has the intellect and strength of will to delve into the mindset of the xenos and still retain his humanity. He leaves the human and daemonic threats to the other Inquisitors, focusing instead on helping provide the Imperium with its chief weapon against the alien: an understanding of what the aliens want and what they will do to get it. Though Van Vuygens seeks knowledge about aliens, he does not trust them and would never fraternise with them. He has not studied a single alien species that does not pose some threat towards the human race. A disciple of the legendary Inquisitor Kryptmann himself, Van Vuygens is in the Calixis Sector to watch for the signs of a Tyranid Hive Fleet invasion from beyond the edge of charted space. Kryptmann has theorised that the earlier Tyranid invasions of Imperial space have been testing the Imperium’s defences and that the next invasion will come from an unexpected quarter. Van Vuygens has seen nothing that proves that a Tyranid invasion is impending but there are certainly plenty of other signs of alien influence among the worlds of the Calixis Sector, from ancient cyclopean ruins to disturbing similarities between the mythological cycles of primitive worlds. Van Vuygens is currently piecing together a picture of the alien civilisation that once inhabited the very edge of the Calixis Sector’s space and he does not like what he sees. He, naturally, subscribes to the view that the Tyrant Star is a matter of xenos origin and has grave fears that it is linked with the dreaded Tyranids.Globus Vaarak, Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus - Severely wounded as an Interrogator while boarding a pirate ship, Globus Vaarak’s body is broken, scarred and bloated. Both his legs were amputated and he moves by means of a robust mechanical vehicle with mechanical legs and an in-built life-support system. His face is horribly burned and pockmarked, with tubes running from his nostrils and mouth to help him breathe. One arm was also lost and has been replaced with an obvious bionic limb. Vaarak’s clothing is a ribbed black bodyglove that barely holds in his enormous girth and which incorporates cooling and regulating devices to keep him alive. Vaarak is an Amalathian who believes that the Imperium, as grim a place as it is, must survive in its current state if the human race is to continue existing. He therefore seeks out sedition and rebellion in the Calixis Sector, trying to maintain the careful balance of its power groups. Given that he cannot operate in the guise of a normal citizen or Adept, Vaarak must conduct most investigations through his Acolytes, of whom he has several teams. His methods are subtle and moderate compared to some of the Tyrantine Cabal’s other Inquisitors, for he would prefer that the Inquisition's hand was not obvious, and encourages his acolytes to avoid open conflict and violence as much as possible. Vaarak has a bleak and self-deprecating sense of humour and is an excellent judge of character. Many of the conclave's next generation of Inquisitors will come from among Vaarak’s Interrogators if he remains in favour. He has joined the Spectarians because the Tyrant Star represents a truly destabilising threat to Imperial society.Lady Olianthe Rathbone - Olianthe Rathbone claims membership of none of the three great ordos majoris of the Inquisition. She originated among the Calixis Sector’s nobility and still favours magnificent ballgowns and elaborate wigs, which would not look out of place in the ballroom of some governor’s palace. Beneath the finery, her piercing, ice-cold grey eyes betray a keen and ruthless intelligence. Some say she was originally an Interrogator in the employ of Lord Inquisitor Zerbe but there is never any obvious familiarity shown between them. Lady Olianthe is very difficult to know and impossible to befriend, and manages to suggest that everyone around her is her inferior without actually stating it out loud. Secretly a deep-seated Radical, Lady Olianthe is an Istvaanian and believes that for the Imperium to become stronger, it must be exposed to war and catastrophe. The Calixis Sector, to her way of thinking, is bloated and irredeemable, and desperately needs a major cataclysm to weed out its weak and corrupt citizens. While she is not averse to combating particularly horrible threats like Chaos Cultists or the mutants she personally despises, Lady Olianthe is also constantly on the lookout for ways to manipulate the power structures of the Calixis Sector towards strife. She intends to do this by subtly coaxing the sector’s leading noble houses towards conflict or rebellion. She is willing to pursue this agenda personally, treating her Acolytes as little more than intelligence gatherers who have no idea of her destructive ambitions. The Tyrant Star would be a wonderful tool for her purposes.Soldevan, Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus - A handsome man with skin the colour of ebony and a taste in imposing military dress uniforms that only enhance his air of strength and authority, Soldevan was originally an Interrogator in the employ of Witch Finder Rykehuss but never believed in his master's extreme methods, and quickly broke with Rykehuss after attaining the Inquisitorial Seal. Soldevan believes that knowledge, not wanton destruction, is the key to protecting humanity from the threats it faces. Soldevan's beliefs run deeper than he would ever admit. He believes that the Warp is an immense source of power and that an Inquisitor is a man of sufficient intelligence and willpower to harness it. Soldevan wants to open up a pathway to the Warp and seek out the consciousnesses that dwell there hoping to bargain with them for the power he needs to combat the enemies of Mankind. Soldevan has got quite close to his goal and has several forbidden tomes in his possession that, with the right sacrifices and rituals, will summon forth powerful daemons for him to negotiate with. He is always seeking more knowledge or artefacts of the Warp, either captured during the Tyrantine Cabal’s operations or purchased at extortionate prices from unscrupulous dealers in forbidden relics. Somewhere during this process Soldevan has lost his sanity and replaced it with absolute conviction that the Warp holds the secrets of humanity’s survival. He believes that the Tyrant Star represents a vital conduit to secrets of the Warp.Vownus Kaede, Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus (Xenos) - Inquisitor Vownus Kaede is a noted scholar, philosopher and an optimist. He is also a skilled swordsman, irreverent scoundrel and a self-righteous reprobate. Named after the rogue hero of Catuldynus' epic verse allegory The Once-Pure Hive, Kaede has spent most of his life living up to his namesake's legacy. Originating somewhere, "East of Sol and west of Macragge," Kaede signed on with a Free Captain at a young age and has never looked back. The details of his elevation to Inquisitor status are hazy and change every time he tells the story. The only point that remains consistent is that he was once a member of the Ordo Xenos, before finding his true calling as a Witch Hunter. Regardless of his chequered past, Inquisitor Kaede has been a respected member of the Tyrantine Cabal for over a solar decade. Though he is nominally of Puritan leanings, Kaede is a skilled psyker who fanatically believes in the psychic future of the Human race and is willing to casually commit almost any atrocity in order to safeguard it. He and the martially inclined Acolyte bands he employs spend a great deal of time travelling between Calixis' sub-sectors chasing down rumours of hidden witches. Kaede absolutely detests Rykehuss' methods and takes a great deal of pleasure in spiriting promising young psykers out from under the Witch Finder's pogroms. Inquisitor Kaede appears exactly the way Imperial citizens picture a Witch Hunter. From his wide-brimmed hat, to his Inferno Pistol, to the ancient short-bladed Force Sword named Slight Jest that he bears at his side, there is no mistaking his appearance and what it implies, which is exactly what Kaede wishes. To Kaede, the Tyrant Star prophecy is a delicious mystery to be unlocked.Al-Subaai, Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos - Al-Subaai was recently elevated to Inquisitor status after serving as an Interrogator in the service of Inquisitor Van Vuygens. While Van Vuygens combs the very edge of Imperial space for alien civilisations, Al-Subaai's role is to search for alien influence in the populated worlds of the sector. Probably the youngest Inquisitor in the Tyrantine Cabal, Al-Subaai is deeply pious, and he looks it, usually attending gatherings in a monastic habit worn over sturdy, practical Carapace Armour. Al-Subaai believes that everything in the galaxy is connected and that the various intelligent alien species and their depredations are part of a larger web of hostility generated by the galaxy. The galaxy, Al-Subaai believes, is reacting to human occupation like a body reacting to a disease. To him, aliens (as well as all creatures of the Warp) are symptoms of the galaxy’s enmity towards Mankind. Al-Subaai therefore advocates the destruction of all aliens, especially those who influence humans. He considers his remit to cover not only alien-influenced cults and corruption, but also the trafficking in alien creatures and their technology. Anyone dealing with aliens or their artefacts is an enemy of humanity and nothing gives Al-Subaai greater satisfaction than to hunt them down and subject them to whatever punishment the Tyrantine Cabal decrees. To Al-Subaai, the Propheticum Hereticus Tenebrae is the handiwork of alien manipulation. |
Calixis Sector - Notable Calixians: Sector Lord Marius Hax - Sector Lord Marius Hax (whose formally correct title is "Lord Sector" or "Lord Calixis") is descended from an ancient family of Terran stock, a bloodline bred for leadership in the Imperial heartland of the Segmentum Solar. He was appointed governor of the sector by the High Lords of the Adeptus Terra more than one hundred and fifty standard years ago, and maintains a firm, unflinching grip on the planets under his control. The Lord Sector is a man of immense gravitas and solemnity, a glowering, intimidating presence at the heart of the Lucid Palace on Scintilla. Hax makes few public appearances, and personal audiences are rare. His devotion to the minutiae of leadership is legendary—it is said that he sleeps just four hours a night, and personally reviews the daily fiscal and economic reports in great detail. His reputation in the sector at large is therefore chilly and austere: he is popularly mocked as an unsmiling hardliner and administrative stickler, and also feared as a figure of unsympathetic authority. This widely accepted image, however, misses the essential truth. He is a painfully fair, even-handed man, devoted to the principles of ordered rule. In person, he is tall and granite-featured, and dresses in starkly simple dark robes, eschewing all aristocratic finery. He is over two hundred Scintillan years old, though modest juvenat treatments make him appear to be a robust fifty year old. Hax is not a man to be trifled with, nor underestimated.Chief Astropath Xiao - Xiao is an improbably tall and broad-shouldered man with a shaven head and large, grey-streaked beard who is the chief astropath of the inter-sector astropathic choir for the Calixis Sector based on the sector capital world of Scintilla. Xiao's blindness -- he wears an embroidered band around his head to cover his empty eye sockets -- is the only note of physical weakness about him, for even in his robes he is obviously a large and muscular man. Xiao does not permit anyone to send a message through his astropaths unless he deems it necessary. Lord Hax is rarely refused by Xiao, but anyone else must justify the use of his Astropaths’ rare talents. Though Xiao is unfailingly polite he is still a very intimidating man and calmly refuses to compromise once he has made his decision. Xiao is one of the most powerful psykers in the Calixis Sector but he never sends astropathic messages personally, even for Lord Sector Marius Hax, always having one of his astropaths do so instead, although it is rumoured that he has an arrangement with someone very powerful for whom he sends messages exclusively.Queen Lachryma III - The planetary governor and Queen of Sepheris Secundus is an elderly woman who has successfully led Sepheris Secundus through numerous revolts, baronial uprisings and increasingly spectacular tithe demands from the Administratum. Now, however, she is getting old. Though her mind is still sound, her body is infirm and, some of the more ambitious barons say, she is losing the ruthlessness and willpower that once served her so well. Queen Lachryma’s aged, underweight form is swamped by her royal regalia, with its voluminous gown made from thousands of panes of stained glass and its crown of white gold. Her voice is thin and shaky, and she no longer has the presence that once acted as an anchor for the feudal system of Sepheris Secundus. In her later years, the queen has sunk into the throes of a personal crisis and has begun to wonder why her serfs have to live such grim lives of toil and whether there is another way that Sepheris Secundus could be ruled. She has ordered her barons to investigate what actually goes on in the depths of the planet’s mines, but her barons have resisted this and a few of them have sensed weakness and doubt in their queen. Though she would never admit it to anyone, Queen Lachryma is afraid of how she will be remembered, and knows that she is running out of time before she can get to the root causes of Sepheris Secundus’s misery.Archdeacon Ludmilla - Ludmilla is a sturdily built, middle-aged woman who is the self-styled leader of the Cult of Redemption in the Calixis Sector. She believes that the Emperor is vengeful in the extreme and that it is her duty as a human being to punish every sin, from impure thoughts to excessive cursing, with excessive amounts of fire. Ludmilla believes in purifying fire as strongly as she believes in the Emperor, and loves to see sinners, places of ill repute and whole sections of the underhive consumed in flame. Ludmilla is devoted and not a little crazed. She is an impassioned hellfire preacher and a competent fighter, although she wields her sacred weapon, a pair of massive industrial shears, with more enthusiasm than skill. Ludmilla’s true skill is in encouraging her faithful to let the God-Emperor’s fury consume them, until there is nothing left of themselves: no compassion, not even any memory, just the burning hatred of the Emperor for all sinners. Her grandest project is to have the Redemption accepted as a part of the Imperial Creed, and she sends tributes to Cardinal Ignato in the hope that he will declare the Redemptionists to be valued members of the Adeptus Ministorum. These tributes mostly consist of cartloads of charred sinners left outside the Cathedral of Illumination on Scintilla. So far, Cardinal Ignato has not responded.Lord Marshal Luthir Veremonn Goreman - Luthir Veremonn Goreman is the Lord Marshal of the Calixian Great Precinct, which makes him the supreme commander of the Adeptus Arbites within the Calixis Sector. It was his idea to create the Divisio Immoralis, a new Arbitrator taskforce intended to deal with the myriad threats now confronting the sector. Goreman is known to have little respect for the vast majority of citizens who comprise the Calixis Sector's populace. Every time Goreman looks out upon the mass of Imperial citizenry he sees exactly the same thing he remembered from his homeworld of Sinophia: dissipated, lazy, disobedient wastrels slouching through aimless and worthless lives. To him, the Imperial Adeptus Terra is the only worthy creation of human society, to serve in it the one worthy ambition. The Adeptus, under the guidance of the Immortal Emperor, shows the rest of humanity what they could be had they the discipline, the faith, and the strength. Those outside the Adeptus are contemptible, and should think themselves lucky they are allowed to toil to support it; those who disobey or disrespect the Adeptus, or even court ambitions outside it, are beneath contempt. Luthir Goreman is of average height and lean of build, which surprises people who have seen the portraits and statues portraying him as a muscular giant. His complexion is pale, his eyes and hair grey, and his features broad, stern and handsome. He wears a black and gold Arbitrator dress uniform for most of his duties, with his rank pins and medals arranged on a separate banner that is carried to formal occasions by an adjutant. He always has a small purity seal pinned to his left lapel, copying a verse of Imperial scripture onto a new parchment each morning and having a garrison preacher bless and attach the seal at his private morning prayers.Arch-cardinal and Cardinal-astra Ignato - Ignato is the arch-cardinal and cardinal-astra of the Calixis Sector, the senior prelate of the Adeptus Ministorum in the sector. He leads the Calixian Sector Synod of the Ecclesiarchy from Scintilla's great Cathedral of Illumination complex, which is his sector seat and the headquarters of the state church in the sector.Lord Inquisitor Aegult Caidin - Caidin is the Lord Inquisitor who leads the Calixian Conclave of Inquisitors from all three ordos majoris. His headquarters is the Tricorn Palace on Scintilla, and every Inquisitor within the sector ultimately answers to his authority.Canoness Goneril - Canoness Goneril is the leader of all Adepta Sororitas personnel in the Calixis Sector. Goneril leads the Lesser Order Famulous of the Opening Eye. The Opening Eye’s purpose is to offer counsel to the Calixis Sector’s powerful noble families. Most novices at the abbey are trainees of the Opening Eye and are schooled in a variety of subjects from Imperial history to theology and sector economics. Most importantly they are trained in the strength of mind to resist the secular temptations that are a constant threat to the Sisters Famulous. A Sister Famulous must be disciplined and incorruptible as she is sent out to fend mostly for herself, and is surrounded by the sometimes morally questionable nobles to whose house she is attached. Canoness Goneril has her Novices undergo a strict regime of fasting, prayer, lectures and theological study. She stops short of outright cruelty, but life is far from easy for a Novice of the Opening Eye.Senior Arbitrator Kae Drusil, Marshal-in-Chief of the Divisio Immoralis - Kae Drusil is a Senior Arbitrator of the Adeptus Arbites and the Marshal-in-Chief of the Divisio Immoralis within the Calixis Sector. She was recruited into the Arbites following the assassination of her great-aunt and the rest of her noble household at the Universitariate she was attending at the age of fifteen. She remembered the Universitariate Enforcers and the interrogation by an unknown Arbites Judge. The Judge, whose name she never learned (and never sought), saw Kae's faith in the law, and her anger. He believed that these two traits would make her a fine recruit for the Arbites, and he was correct. As far as Kae Drusil could tell, the interrogation was her recruitment examination. Her belief in the incorruptibility of the Arbites and the inevitability of a future rule of perfect law had been demolished beyond repair by the things she was forced to do during a mission that was conducted under the auspices of the Inquisition. Approached by Lord Marshal Luthir Veremonn Goreman, Drusil agreed to command the Divisio Immoralis, the Lord Marshal's new experiment in Imperial law enforcement in the Calixis Sector. |
Calixis Sector - Calixian Sub-sectors: The following list contains all of the sub-sectors of the Calixis Sector and the worlds that can be found within them. |
Calixis Sector - Adrantis: Baraspine - Hive WorldMarioch - Frontier WorldKormisoshi Dockyards - Void Station - Located to the coreward of TranchCoseflame - Feudal World - Chasm city-states, famous for the high quality of its ore exportsGrangold - Dead World - Suffers from continual acid stormsHippocrasian - Agglomeration Void Station - Orbiting Morwen VILehyde Ten - Frontier World - All Imperial attempts at colonisation to date have failedMortressa - Death World - Home of renowned "Scythewind" Astra Militarum regimentsMorwen VI - Dead World - Used as a training ground by certain regiments of the Brontian Longknives of the Imperial GuardOmnicron 71-DX - Forge World - Near the Adrantis NebulaPerinetus - Forge World - Floating zero-gravity forges exist in orbit of Perinetus for spacecraft repairsPiety of Seth - Shrine World of the EcclesiarchyReth - Pleasure World - Part of the Tephaine SystemSiculi - Agri-world - Part of the Tephaine System, many of the world's lakes produce a crop of Protoalgia that is a popular basic foodstuff on Imperial Hive Worlds across the galaxySkorgulian - Forge WorldSoryth - Mining World - Frozen gas mining of methane, hydrogen, helium, argonTephaine - Hive World - Part of the Tephaine System, capital world of the systemTephaine Minor - Agri-world - Part of the Tephaine SystemTranch - Hive WorldVolonx - Feral World |
Calixis Sector - Drusus Marches: 47 Kapella - War World - Near Blackshine Nebula in the Drusus Marches, currently undergoing Imperial pacification and integration88 Tanstar - Frontier World - Imperial Navy supply depotArchaos - Hive World - Planet of philosophersAskelphion Secundus - Pleasure WorldCryptus - Cemetery World - "Trip to Cryptus" is a euphemism for death often used in the Calixis SectorDiogenes IV Research Station - Space Station - Anchored in the centre of the infamous Pulsars of the Drusus MarchesDrusus Shrine World - A Shrine World of the Ecclesiarchy, also called Sentinel in some Imperial recordsEndrite - Feral World - The population of Endrite reveres the ruined hulk of an Imperial battleship as a religious artefactFervious - Feudal World - Formerly known as VasenruleHaddrack - Death World - An Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator base of the Sollex Admech sectPort Wander - Space Station - Lies beyond the Drusus Marches proper, last stop before the Halo Stars and the largely unexplored Koronus Expanse, a popular destination for Rogue TradersLacusta - Feral World - Home of the Windriders Astra Militarum regimentLo - Hive World - Home of the Loi Metalworks ArmouryMaccabeus Quintus - Shrine World - Home of the Black Order of the Ecclesiarchy and the Maccabian Janissaries regiments of the Imperial GuardMonrass - Feral World - Lush and verdant backwater worldOpus Macharius - Forge World - Named after the Imperial hero Lord Solar MachariusPellucida IX - Mining World - Pellucida is part of the Adeptus Mechanicus' Demesne in the sectorPiety - Hive World - A world of scum and villainySacris - Forbidden World/Adeptus Astartes Chapter World - Imperial beacon satellites orbiting this planet broadcast a message that a virulent plague is raging on this otherwise normal Feral World, which is the homeworld of the Storm Wardens Space Marine Chapter; the plague warning is false and simply serves as a deception to keep travelers away since the world was forbidden intercourse with the rest of the Imperium by the Inquisition following the Nemesis Incident of 945.M36.Spectoris - Agri-world - Spectoris is a water world devoted to intensive aquacultureThical - Hive World - Planet of ancient laws and restrictive social customsThrenos Zone - Forbidden System - Star system of 13 planets avoided by ancient custom of the Calixis SectorTygress I - Frontier WorldTygress II - Frontier WorldTygress III - Feral WorldTygress IV - Dead WorldTygress V - Feral WorldVeneris - Shrine World of the Ecclesiarchy - Several mountains on this world resemble certain saints of the Imperial CultVigil - Dead World - Extensive alien ruins, the xenos population of Vigil was destroyed some 5000 years agoZel Primus - Unclassified WorldZel Secundus - Death WorldZel Tertius - Frontier World - Newly-settled planet, a model Imperial colony |
Calixis Sector - Josian Reach: Acreage - Feudal World - Civil war in the Grand Realm of Ascandia, a feudal kingdom of AcreageAbandoned Hope - Forbidden World - Access forbidden by Inquisitorial orderCanopus - Hive WorldFenksworld - Hive World - Battlefleet Calixis supply depotHredrin - Hive World - Psykers present in large numbers on this planet (Gaolist astropaths)Kao-li - Forbidden World/Xenos WorldKudrun - Frontier WorldMunsk - Feral WorldOrendal's Tomb - Shrine WorldPalinurus Rhys - Frontier WorldPrester Myra - Cemetery WorldReshia - Shrine WorldSigurd IV - Hive WorldSnowden's World - Frontier World - Home of the Slaughter-FamiliesTsade - Dead WorldTsade II - Agri-worldWoe - Death WorldZillman's Domain - Feudal World - Reported visit by the Tyrant Star in 807.M41Zumthor - Frontier World |
Calixis Sector - Malfian Sub-sector: Alactra - Hive WorldAryus One - Feudal World - Close to the Halo Stars, often serves as a jumping-off point for Rogue Traders seeking to explore them and the Koronus ExpanseCindar - Mining WorldDusk - Feral WorldFaldon Kise - Frontier WorldFarcast - War WorldFestus - Feudal WorldFydae Minos - Agri-world - Piracy is a constant problem in the Fydae SystemGallowglass - Agri-world - Gallowglass is that rare Agri-world that is a temperate, habitable moon of a gas giant rather than a planet in its own rightJunos - Mining World - Piracy is a constant problem in the Fydae SystemJXM A18Z - Forge World - A Civilised World placed under the Adeptus Mechanicus' controlPort Goston - Space Station - Main Headquarters for the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet CalixisKenov III - Death World - Home of the Ripper WhipsKessae - Frontier World - Piracy is a constant problem in the Fydae SystemKinog - Pleasure WorldKuluth - War WorldLandunder - Hive World - Inverted hive cities dangle from the planet's crustLind - Hive World - The Lindwyrm Armoury produces superior grenades for the ImperiumLoss - Feral WorldMalfi - Hive World - The rulers of Malfi believe it should be the Calixis Sector capital world and protest the supremacy of Scintilla in the sector's Imperial politicsMMX 215 - Forbidden WorldMundus - White Dwarf star - Orbited by Port Goston (see above)Nahme - Mining WorldOrbel Quill - Agri-world - No one on the world of Orbel Quill lives past the age of 40 standard yearsPenolpass - Feudal WorldProtasia - War World - This star system has declared independence from the Calixis Sector and the Imperium, Imperial Guard units are currently in-system to put down the rebellionSeedworld AFG:218 - Forbidden/Xenos World - Possible Eldar holding, cordoned off by elements of Battlefleet Calixis until the xenos' presence can be removedSynford II - Forge WorldVaxanide - Frontier World - Developing into a Hive World as the rapidly growing population has begun to concentrate into proto-arcologiesXeiros Prime - Forbidden World - Former Imperial Agri-world, under virus quarantineZweihan's World - Hive World - Famous as the homeworld of Saint Castor the Obviate |
Calixis Sector - Golgenna Reach: Pry - A gas giant that is orbited by space station 41 PryBront - Hive World - Home of the Brontian Longknives Astra Militarum regimentPort Gavinus - Space Station - Popular commercial shipping station in the Calixis SectorScintilla - Hive World - Calixis Sector CapitalThe Lathes (Hadd, Hesh, and Het) - Three Forge Worlds located in the same star system that serve as the Adeptus Mechanicus' primary centres of production and administration in the sector.Iocanthos - Agri-world - War-torn planet that is the source of Ghostfire PollenCyrus Vulpa - Agri-world - Savannah-covered, herds of grox roam freely and are raised and slaughtered so their meat can be exportedGranithor - Cemetery WorldLuggnum - Mining World - Luggnum is famous for its ore exports.Lycosidae - Dead World - A fortress of the Collegia Titanica's Legio Venator is located here.Merov - Hive World - Home of the Merovech CombineThe Misericord - Spacecraft - Chartist VesselND0/K4 - Mining World - Strategic gas mining operationsQuaddis - Pleasure World - Famous for its wines and private pleasure palaces for the wealthy of the sectorSephiris Secundus - Mining World - Site of the Gorgonid Mine, the most important source of ore in the sectorSettlement 228 - Frontier WorldSophano Prime - Mining WorldStrank - Feral World - Also a Swamp World, home of the infamous Stenchbeast of StrankValon Urr - Shrine World of the EcclesiarchyYsai Ydumee - Frontier World |
Calixis Sector - The Periphery: The Periphery is also known as the Periphery Sub-sector and is the location of the Imperial war zone called the Spinward Front, where a three-way war currently rages between the forces of the Imperium of Man, the Severan Dominate and the Ork WAAAGH! Grimtoof.Avitohol - Forbidden World/Xenos World - Ongoing war between the Orks who control this planet and the Imperium's forces who are trying to drive them from itCyclopea - Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World/Civilised WorldDrystan Construction Yards - Void Station - Located near the border with the Scarus Sector, this station is a centre of trade for commercial traffic heading from the Calixis Sector into the neighbouring Scarus Sector.Ganf Magna - Frontier World - Feral Orks roam at large on this planet, presenting a major threat to the Imperial colonists, whose primary export is PolygumKalf - Frontier World - Home of the vicious organism known as the Sand Devil by the local Imperial colonistsKulth - War World - Kulth suffered from an Ork invasion and the conflict is now currently in its 83rd yearSabriel - Void Station - Abandoned and forgotten Adeptus Mechanicus research outpostSinophia - Frontier World - Initially a launching site for Rogue Trader excursions into the Calyx Expanse prior to the Angevin Crusade, Sinophia has fallen over the centuries into a severe economic depression which is slowly leading to its complete depopulation. The ongoing wars in the Spinward Front may represent a chance for the revival of this world, however.Sisk - Feudal WorldSleef - Dead World - Uninhabited, unusual Warp vibrations detected |
Calixis Sector - Hazeroth: Belahaam - Forbidden World/Xenos WorldBloodfall System - Death WorldCloister - Frontier World - Once a bastion planet of the Black Templars Space Marines where that Chapter maintained a fortification and recruitment center; now abandoned by the Black TemplarsClove - Hive World - Main base of the Clovis Ministorum of the Ecclesiarchy, home to the Imperial Guard's 23rd Drusus Dragoons RegimentCyprian's Gate - Pleasure World/Cemetery WorldDalthus - Mining World - Dalthan Miners are noted across the sector for the gaudy trinkets and charms they often wear, own and sellDwimlicht - Feral WorldElros - Feudal World - An all-female Death Cult dedicated to the Emperor of Mankind dominates this planet's politics and society and is a fertile ground for recruitment by the Inquisition when its members are seeking new AcolytesGunpoint - Hive World - Now a byword for failure across the entire sectorGuytoga - Hive WorldHesiod's Wake - Agri-worldHeterodyne - Feudal World - Domain of the Adeptus Mechanicus, site of a feudal-tech experimentHilarion - Agri-worldIchovor - Feudal World - World of swamps and decaying forestsIdumea - Adeptus Mechanicus Forge WorldKommitzar - Penal World - Notorious Imperial prison planetMalice - War World - Frontline of the "Wrack War"Mara - Forbidden World - Ice world and former Imperial penal colony; Access forbidden by order of Segmentum CommandPercipre - Agri-world - World covered in extensive greenhouse complexesPhagir - Dead World - Once a fertile Agri-world, Phagir was ravaged by a genetic virus that destroyed all flora and fauna on its surfacePhyrr - Death World - Home to the beautiful but deadly Phyrr CatPilgrim's Pause - Cemetery WorldPurgatory of Soubirous - Mining WorldSt. Astrid's Fall - Frontier World - Habitable moon orbiting gas giant known as SekmetSamson IV - Hive WorldScarric XXII - Unclassified World - Actually a dump planet for the system's waste; used as a hideout by smugglers and Human piratesSheol XVII - Asteroid - Imperial penal colony and Adeptus Mechanicus biological research outpostRegulus - Agri-world - Controlled by the Celestine AllianceSoprony - Forbidden/Xenos WorldStygian Prime - Agri-world - Cold world with subterranean fungi farmsSynford - Forge World - Baneblades are produced by the Adeptus Mechanicus forges on Synford for the Astra MilitarumThrenos - Dead World - Sometimes confused with the Threnos Zone in the Drusus Marches sub-sectorValos Krin - Feral World - World of ash storms and volcanic fire |
Calixis Sector - Markayn Marches: Balecaster - Feudal WorldBelacane - Forge World - Famed for the production of Stasis Field technologyCalistra - Frontier WorldCantus - Hive WorldDreah - Agri-worldFedrid - Feral World - Fedrid is a forest world that is inhabited by a wide variety of unusually deadly animal and plant speciesGelmiro Primus - War World - Spinward of Markayn MarchesGelmiro Secundus - War World - Spinward of Markayn MarchesGelmiro Tertius - War World - Spinward of Markayn MarchesGrove's Fall - Hive World - This world's most important product are Sentinel walkers for the Imperial GuardHeed - Dead World - Heed was a battle site of the Imperial Angevin Crusade that brought the Calixis Sector into the Imperium of Man in the 40th Millennium and it is characterised by sometimes raging firestormsKarrik - Death World - Orbited by the Pearl MoonKlybo - Dead World - Rumour has it that Klybo's ruins hide a priceless Standard Template Construct (STC) data cacheMosul - Frontier WorldProl IX - Hive World - Home of the Decalogues of ProlRyboth - Forge WorldSiren's Den - Pleasure WorldSolomon - Hive World - Departmento Munitorum fiefdom; location of largest chemical refineries in the sectorSozomen's Last Stand - Agri-worldTuranshush - Forge World |
Calixis Sector - Uncategorised Locations: Hereticus Tenebrae - Special Astronomical Body - Composition unknown, likely an Aetheric anomaly; moves about the Calixis Sector at will, also known as the "Tyrant Star"; is believed to be the prophetic herald of some unknown doom for the Calixis Sector and possibly for the Imperium of Man itself.Stilicho - Void Station - Mostly deserted former Imperial void station, now a centre for pirate activity in the Calixis Sector |
Call of the Lion (Anthology Short Story) - Call of the Lion (Anthology Short Story): Call of the Lion is an anthology short story published in The Horus Heresy series that was originally part of an anthology novel. Call of the Lion was first published as part of the Tales of Heresy main series anthology in April 2009. The cover image used is that of the unabridged audiobook version Call of the Lion which was released in November 2015. |
Call of the Lion (Anthology Short Story) - Synopsis: The Dark Angels Legion is couched in layers of mystery and secrecy, harkening back to the days of the knightly orders of Caliban that helped to raise their infant Primarch. But Lion El'Jonson's greatest strength often proves to be one of the most divisive issues amongst his sons -- rarely can any two commanders agree upon one single course of action from the start. As they seek to bring the world of Byzanthis to Imperial Compliance, Chapter Masters Astelan and Belath are among those with very different notions of what victory might require. |
Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh - Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh: Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh is a skilled member of the Adeptus Custodes and a Custodian Guard who has been chosen to take part in the Blood Games intended to test the defences of the Imperial Palace multiple times, due to her flair for grandiose and unexpected stratagems, making her an excellent foil for those of her comrades seeking to hone their protective skills. |
Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh - History: In her last Blood Game during the Era Indomitus, Kesh attempted to win by teleporting a compact cyclonic warhead next to the Emperor's Golden Throne. She was going to accomplish this by using the teleporter aboard the Navis Imperialis Cobra-class Destroyer Vigilant Flame of Battlefleet Solar, which she had commandeered.As a member of the Adeptus Custodes, the Vigilant Flame's crew innocently followed her orders to travel to Terra with her secret cargo, ostensibly so she could complete an important mission. Having been sworn to secrecy by the Custodian, the crew of the Vigilant Flame even repeated her fictional cover story to the Terran defence forces that they were transporting an attache from the Hive World of Necromunda.Though they became increasingly doubtful of Kesh's purpose, the destroyer's crew continued to obey her -- except for the Vigilant Flame's Vox Officer Ewa Bhattoor. Increasingly suspicious of the Custodian's motives, she secretly transmitted a distress signal over the ship's vox system, which was received by the Adeptus Custodes officers charged with guarding Terra.In response, Shield-Captain Nicodaemius teleported aboard the destroyer with a squad of his fellow Custodians and confronted his old friend Kesh, putting an end to the Blood Game eight-hundred and seventy three solar days, sixteen solar hours and nine solar minutes after it began. |
Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh - Canon Conflict: The Legio Custodes and the Adeptus Custodes were originally described as an all-male force, similar to the Space Marines. With the release of the 10th Edition Codex: Adeptus Custodes in April 2024, an in-universe fictional piece on pages 14-15 described events as seen by a viewpoint character named Calladayce Taurovalia Kesh who was noted to be female. Fans at first believed this to be a reference to a Sister of Silence, as the women of that all-female order of anti-psyker Blanks often worked alongside the Custodians.However, on April 14, 2024, the official Warhammer account operated by Games Workshop on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, indicated that, "Since the first of the Ten Thousand were created, there have always been female Custodians." The company's representatives later claimed that this was not, in fact, a ret-con of the previous lore; however, as all prior references and models had referred to or depicted only male Custodians, the change was clearly one made retroactively to alter the nature of one of the Warhammer 40,000 universe's major factions. |
Callidus Temple - Callidus Temple: The all-female Assassins of the Officio Assassinorum's Callidus Temple are the most subtle of the Imperium of Man's secret operatives, specialising in deceit and the use of artful deception to accomplish their objectives, usually assisted in their bloody tasks by the shape-changing Polymorphine drug.The Callidus Temple's devotion to cunning and subtlety is often used on those missions where overt interference by the Imperium in a situation would upset the intricate balance of power maintained by the High Lords of Terra.A Callidus Assassin is the ultimate weapon against those over-ambitious Imperial officials that would make a mockery of the Emperor of Mankind's justice whilst appearing to do no wrong. Those Imperial or planetary officials that use diplomacy, bribes and corruption to further their positions play a dangerous game within the corridors of powers. |
Callidus Temple - History: Like all of the other temples of the Officio Assassinorum, the Callidus Temple was originally founded on Terra in the late 30th Millennium as the Callidus Clade during the Great Crusade at the direction of the first Grand Master of Assassins, Malcador the Sigillite. Malcador and the six men and women who would serve as the first Directors Primus of the Officio Assassinorum's founding clades had all sworn an oath at Mount Vengeance to eliminate the enemies of the Emperor of Mankind by any means necessary.One of these Directors Primus, whose identities were all kept hidden, even from each other, was known as Sire Callidus and she was the founder of what became the Callidus Temple. The headquarters or temple of the Callidus Clade was established somewhere on Terra, where it is still located today.Later, during the Horus Heresy, the Callidus Clade joined with the other five clades to assemble an unprecedented Execution Force of Officio Assassins intended to slay the renegade Warmaster Horus and bring an early end to the terrible civil war of the Heresy. This effort failed, though the Callidus Temple went on to prove a powerful instrument of Imperial policy in later millennia. |
Callidus Temple - Operations: The vast majority of missions undertaken by Callidus Assassins involve infiltrating a Chaos Cult or other heretical organisation in order to kill its leader along with the other key members of the cult. Once the leadership of such a group has been removed, it is easier for the Imperium's regular armed forces to eliminate the cultists, without having to resort to extreme measures such as an Exterminatus order.However, on less frequent occasions Callidus Assassins are called upon to undertake more exotic assassinations, requiring the use of both Polymorphine and surgical cybernetic implants to allow them to assume the form of a wider range of humanoids.Although they are not typically fielded with a larger army on the field of battle, Callidus Assassins can be deployed behind enemy lines in order to infiltrate facilities such as bases or encampments and take out enemy leaders or key personnel. This is usually achieved by the assassin killing an isolated patrol or enemy unit and then assuming the form of one of those slain through the use of Polymorphine (also acquiring the armour and wargear of the deceased to complete the disguise).Callidus Assassins are the most secretive and least understood of the Officio Assassins, as their usefulness would greatly diminish if their capabilities were more widely known. They are usually tasked with their missions on the order of the High Lords of Terra at the request of the Inquisition, especially the Ordo Hereticus, although as stated above, less frequent missions from the other Ordos are also undertaken.To achieve the exacting tasks assigned to it, the Callidus Temple specialises in the use and development of the shape-altering drug Polymorphine to enable its Assassins to undergo dramatic physical changes, altering their appearance to assume the features of any humanoid (of whatever gender). This then enables the Assassin to infiltrate organisations or enemy bases and eliminate their assigned target with little opposition. The Callidus Temple is highly skilled in such deceptions, and often its work is not detected until the Assassin has already made a clean getaway.The Callidus Assassins usually impersonate someone in a close position to, or holding influence with, the target. For example, a trusted advisor to a Chaos Lord, or the nursemaid to a child prophecised to cause much pain to the Imperium.All of the Assassins of the Callidus Temple are trained in the use of Polymorphine. With this specialised drug alone a Callidus Assassin may masquerade as any human being she may choose, from a beautiful young woman to a crippled old man. However, in addition, the Medicus Adepts of the Imperium have developed a range of surgical implants to allow Callidus Assassins to mimic members of alien races, like the Orks and Aeldari.These implants consist of flex-cartilage and hardened synthskin, similar to that used in the Black Carapace gene-seed organ of the Space Marines. When the Assassin is in their normal form these implants lie dormant under their flesh and within their bones. It is only when Polymorphine is injected that these implants react to the stimulants within the drug and transform into genetically encoded shapes that allow the Assassin to restructure their body into the grotesque and hunched form of an Ork, or the lithe and graceful form of an Aeldari.Callidus Assassins can impersonate members of humanoid alien species, including the Kroot, Orks and, in at least one legendary case, a Genestealer Hybrid. The implants are often permanent, and restrict the Assassin solely to impersonations of that species. It should be noted that more humanoid species like the Eldar, Dark Eldar, and by inference most likely the Tau can be mimicked without implants through the sole use of Polymorphine.Over the centuries, the Directors Primus of the Callidus Temple have learnt that the female body and psyche is better able to implement these changes, and by and large female Callidus novitiates make better chameleons than men. As such, almost all Callidus Assassins are actually women, regardless of who they are trying to impersonate. |
Callidus Temple - Combat Abilities: Callidus Assassins undergo many Terran years of rigorous training to use Polymorphine and become one of the living weapons of the Callidus Temple. As part of its Assassins' training, the Callidus Temple practises innumerable ancient and secret martial arts. These arts train the Assassin in many deadly forms of armed and unarmed combat, against which even a battle-trained foe would be hard-pressed to find a suitable defence.A Callidus Assassin must move among the enemy as one of them, so the choice of weaponry is always limited and in some cases the Assassin may be forced to fight with their bare hands. Even so, a Callidus Assassin is just as deadly unarmed as when carrying the lethal but easily concealed weaponry preferred by their Temple. |
Callidus Temple - Combat Deployment: On the battlefield, Callidus Assassins are dropped behind enemy lines, where they use their cunning and skill at deception and stealth to infiltrate the enemy army. Usually this is done by eliminating certain individuals and taking their place.By disguising themselves with the recently deceased's armour and wargear and using Polymorphine to change the shape of their body and face, the Callidus Assassin can assume the identity of almost anyone in the enemy force. Using this technique, the Callidus Assassin can get close to enemy commanders or powerful psykers, influencing their strategy and finally killing them when the opportunity arises. |
Callidus Temple - Wargear: The weapons of Callidus Assassins are predominantly close combat or melee weapons, as their deception and infiltration skills and the use of Polymorphine enables them to get very close to their targets before they need to strike. This is assisted by weapons that are small and easily concealed and Digital Weapons are often preferred by these Assassins. Every Callidus Assassin is also a master of multiple forms of unarmed combat and many can kill with a single strike. The following are the most common weapons utilised by the Callidus Temple:C'tan Phase Sword - If the Callidus Assassins have a signature weapon, then it is the C'tan Phase Sword, a "living metal" weapon made of the material known as necrodermis that was first created by the Necrons and which can be concealed easily. The blade of the Phase Sword is unusual in its ability to phase in and out of realspace by molecular realignment. It is capable of bypassing any protection, even energy shielding. This weapon is the product of excavations conducted millennia ago by the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars which uncovered numerous artefacts of extremely advanced alien technology, but of their makers, the enigmatic C'tan and their Necron servants, there was no evidence. Each Callidus' phase sword is optimised to reflect their favoured combat stance and personal strengths, but they all take the form of an elongated punch-dagger. This weapon was used by the famed Callidus Assassin Jaramshaela in the attempted assassination of the heretical Imperial Planetary Governor Takis. This attempt failed because the governor was actually the C'tan known as the Deceiver in one of its myriad disguises.Poison Blades - In sealed pockets across their synskin bodygloves, many Callidus Operatives keep an array of envenomed needles, each several inches long and wickedly sharp. The toxins on these miniature blades are enough to drop a full-grown Ogryn in seconds, and a Callidus is an expert at slamming them point-first through eye-slits, armour joints and other weak spots to ensure their victim's swift demise.Neural Shredder - A Neural Shredder is a vicious and shockingly effective weapon against living targets. Though short ranged, the weapon projects a cone of psionic disruption that tears apart a victims' neural pathways. Armour is no protection against his hideous attack, even the mightiest foes dropping to their knees, spasming violently as liquidish brain-matter froths from their eyes, ears and mouths. This strange weapon's origin is unknown, although some speculate that it is but one of a range of psychic weapons developed by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.Synskin Bodyglove - Most Callidus Assassins enter combat wearing special stealth suits that enhance their abilities to avoid detection by most forms of passive sensors. These synskin bodygloves have several sealed pockets across it, where an array of concealed weapons and other items are stored.Death Card - The death card is a flourish peculiar to some Callidus assassins, a surprisingly effective tool of terror. They will often place these psychoplas wafers on the corpses of those they have slain, slipped between the stiff dead fingers or gritted teeth of their victims. When touched by living flesh, the cards flicker to life. They project a hololith of the victim's face in their moment of death, complete with a looped recording of their agonised screams. |
Callidus Temple - Notable Callidus Assassins: Siress Callidus - The founder and first Director Primus of her clade, Siress Callidus was the namesake and founder of the Callidus Temple. She, along with the other founders of the various Assassin clades that would eventually evolve into the current Assassin Temples, was present on Mount Vengeance. She and her fellows swore a pact in the shadow of the Great Crusade, an oath that breathed life into the creation of the Officio Assassinorum. The newly created clades hunted down the enemies of the Emperor through stealth and subterfuge, establishing the fact that there was no safe place in the galaxy to hide from the Emperor's justice.Koyne - Koyne was a Callidus Assassin during the Great Crusade and opening days of the Horus Heresy. Koyne was a Shade of Clade Callidus ranked as an Epsilon-dan, the senior-most rank of the order. Having been a shape-changer for most of his/her life, Koyne often stayed in the form necessary for the completion of the mission and eventually had forgotten his/her original gender. Koyne was dispatched with the first ever Imperial Execution Force composed of Imperial Assassins from every clade, who were attempting to assassinate the Traitor Primarch Horus upon the world of Dagonet. Ultimately, their assassination attempt failed and all the Assassins were slain by the Traitors.M'Shen - M'Shen was the infamous Callidus Assassin who successfully assassinated Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, the murderous and unstable Primarch of the Night Lords Traitor Legion on the "Carrion World" of Tsagualsa. Despite Night Haunter's formidable powers of psychic foresight which forewarned him of the assassination attempt, he took no precautions to defend himself. It is believed M'Shen was allowed to infiltrate the Primarch's palace, as the Assassin encountered no guards between herself and the Night Haunter's throne room. When confronted by the Callidus Assassin's presence, the Primarch allowed himself to be killed to vindicate his decisions to destroy his homeworld of Nostramo and to rebel against the Emperor and because while he believed his actions had been right, he knew they also damned him. She is known as the only mortal who successfully killed a Primarch. M'Shen's death had been foreseen by Night Haunter's precognitive visions. He knew that although his Legion would allow her to escape, his heir apparent as the leader of the VIII Legion, Talos Valcoran (known as the Soul Hunter) and then the entirety of the Legion, would disobey his final orders to leave his killer alone and pursue the Assassin in the name of vengeance. As he had foreseen, M'Shen was pursued relentlessly by Talos across the galaxy. She eventually met a grisly fate at the hands of the former Night Lords Apothecary, who disemboweled her and tore her body to pieces. Despite her death, the video-recorder built into her vambraces somehow managed to reach Terra, containing the recorded enigmatic final words and imagery of the assassination of the Night Haunter.Meh'Lindi - Meh'Lindi was a Callidus Assassin who was active in the late 38th and early 39th Millennium. Though the Callidus Temple has record of an Assassin with that name, they will not or cannot corroborate any more specific details. She was recruited from an unnamed Feral World and was particularly susceptible to Polymorphine, the shape-shifting drug used by the temple's Assassins. She was also known for her intelligence and fierceness. She was the subject of a unique experiment in the Temple's history, as she was implanted with genetically engineered organs and glands that allowed her to rapidly assume the identity and appearance of a Tyranid Genestealer hybrid which allowed her to infiltrate Genestealer cults and destroy them from within. This experiment, however, made it unable for her to assume any other transformation that that of the genestealer form. She later found herself serving in the retinue of the Inquisitor Jaq Draco. Meh'Lindi was known to make use of Jokaero-built Digital Weapons. Much later, Meh'Lindi and Jaq Draco's retinue, would make their way to the desert world of Darvash III, to track down the former Callidus Director Secundus, Tarik Ziz, and force him to reverse her surgery so that once again, Meh'Lindi would be able to assume any form with the use of polymorphine. Meh'lindi was ultimately killed in the Eldar Webway by a female Phoenix Lord. Meh'lindi was the Inquisitor Jaq Draco's lover, and he became obsessed with her "resurrection" which he thought possible thanks to the peculiar temporal properties of the Webway, specifically the existence of the Crossroads of No Time.Mother Gullet - Legends tell of a daring and hideous crime perpetrated by a Callidus Assasin against a Planetary Governor who though himself strong enough to defy Imperial rule. The governor doted on his infant son, and had him guarded night and day to prevent his kidnapping to be used against him as a hostage. According to the tale, a Callidus Assassin disguised herself as the child's nanny, and so gained access to the princeling. Employing the shape-changing powers of polymorphine, the resourceful Assassin swallowed the child like a python, and carried it away past the guards in her belly. The Planetary Governor soon capitulated to Imperial authority.Militzia Scarvelli - Militzia Scarvelli was a petite but fearsome Callidus Assissin, who in in the guise of a Gretchin slave-creature. Just as Oilguzla launches his Deff Dread horde at the Space Marines protecting Hive Imperator, Scarvelli recovers her phase sword from its hiding place in a nearby stack of scrap metal and attacks. Though it takes her almost a full minute to do so, she hacks the Big Mek into fist-sized chunks before overloading his force-field generator and bringing the stomping advance of the Deff Dread mobs to a grinding halt.Syndalla - Syndalla is a fanatically devoted servant of the Emperor and the Inquisition. The sole survivor of Kalistradi’s retinue, Syndalla is a skilled Throne Agent and Assassin of the Callidus Temple. When the Genestealer uprising on the world of Avalos began, the rebels assassinated most of the PDF officers, leaving the guardsmen in chaos. Syndalla was present on this world during this time in the company of Inquisitor Kalistradi. Before the Inquisitor left to deal with the Genestealer nest, she told Syndalla to use her polymorphine to assume the guise of a PDF officer and hold the regiment together until she could return. Through Syndalla's efforts, she was able to keep the soldiers in ordered and maintain discipline while fighting against the rioters, while still waiting for word from her lord. When no word came, she kept up her guise hoping the Inquisitor's call for help was received. Syndalla would later aid a Deathwatch Kill-team that landed on Avalos in response to the Inquisitor's request for aid.Tziz Jarek - Tziz Jarek was an infamous rogue Callidus Assassin who was active during the Wars of Vindication, which took place shortly after the death of the Renegade High Lord Goge Vandire during the Age of Apostasy's Reign of Blood in the early 36th Millennium. Vandire had managed to corrupt many within the Officio Assassinorum, just as he had bribed and blackmailed his way through the other Imperial Adepta. Foremost amongst Vandire's agents was Tziz Jarek. Using polymorphine, Jarek had assassinated the true Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum and assumed his identity. However, unbeknownst to Jarek, the Grand Master had expected such a plot and had a decoy Assassin take his place in his chambers. As such, Jarek had not killed the true Grand Master, who secretly mustered those still loyal to him and the Emperor to fight against this usurper. A heinous battle raged within the Imperial Palace itself amongst the various factions of Assassins as they brought their terrible skills to the war. Ancient arsenals of the Officio Assassinorum were opened and terrifying weapons, long banned by the Senatorum Imperialis, were brought to bear by the Assassins on both sides against one another. In the end, the true Grand Master assassinated Jarek and disappeared into a self-imposed exile. After the conclusion of the Wars of Vindication, the hidden order of the Inquisition known as the Ordo Sicarius was set up to police the activities of the Officio Assassinoruum. The various Temples were split up and scattered to separate locations throughout the galaxy to ensure that if one should fall to xenos influence, daemonancy or heresy, others would remain untainted. Other rules were also put into place to ensure that no single individual could abuse wielding the power of the Officio Assassinorum for their own ambitions.U'var - U'var was a Callidus Assassin who played an instrumental role in ending the Siege of Tullok in 872.M40. For fifty years the renegade Planetary Governor Urlos Grador had defied the lmperium from behind the fractal encergy shield of his grand palace, the shifting force walls seemingly impervious to attack. Finally, the Callidus Assassin U'var managed to infiltrate Tullok's sub-strata generatorium and interrupt power to the shields for a few short seconds. In this briefest moment, a single squad of Archangels Terminator' of the Blood Angels Chapter's elite 1st Company teleported into Grador's palace and brought the siege to an end in an hour of brutal Imperial vengeance.Asaid Virenus - An infamous rogue Callidus Assassin, Asaid Virenus grew up in the Underhive of Perseus Hive on Olympas. Found by an Inquisitor at the age of twelve, she was given over to the Officio Assassinorum for testing to see if she was a suitable candidate for the Callidus Temple. She passed the physical tests easily, and her intelligence was clearly superior to most of the Imperium's inhabitants. There were doubts over her loyalty, but the masters of the Temple believed that through years of arduous training this could be overcome. Asaid continued to be rebellious and selfish, and at the age of seventeen it was likely that she would be quietly killed, considered unsuitable for further training. Though she had perfected many of the skills required of the Callidus, and had even begun to successfully use the shape-altering drug Polymorphine, her dubious motives had become too much of a worry for the leader of the Callidus Temple. Her tale would have ended there had she not fallen under the care of the Thorian Inquisitor Dahwrin who intended to use Asaid in a secret experiment involving the development of a new drug known as Hyperpolymorphine that was intended to artificially create a vessel for the rebirth of the Emperor-Incarnate. Surviving the experimental sessions, her own ruthless determination allowed her to master the side effects of the Hyperpolymorphine. Using the powers granted to her by the effects of the experimental drug, Asaid managed to escape. She now survives as a freelance Assassin, working for Imperial Commanders with political ambitions and has even worked alongside xenos and subversive Chaos Cults if the pay is right. Her dependence on certain stabilising elixirs has forced Asaid to raid Adeptus Mechanicus facilities in order to acquire sufficient drugs to preserve her life. These raids have provided a trail to her whereabouts for her main adversary, the Inquisitor Lord Antigonus Balorodin, to track her whereabouts. Balorodin's concern is not only for the acts of murder and mayhem that Asaid commits, but also the tacit threat her existence poses to the Imperium at large. While Asaid lives, anti-Imperial forces could capture her and learn many of the secrets of the Callidus Temple and the Inquisition. Should knowledge of how to manufacture and use Polymorphine be learned by the Emperor's enemies, it could cause untold damage, while the location of any Assassin Temple's outposts is a closely guarded secret. |
Callidus Temple - Sources: Assassinorum Executioner Force: Rulebook (7th Edition), pp. 26-27Blood Angels Painting Guide - Sons of Sanguinius, pg. 6Codex: Assassins (3rd Edition), pp. 3, 6Codex: Assassins (2nd Edition), pp. 12-14Dataslate: Officio Assassinorum (6th Edition)Deathwatch: Final Sanction (RPG), pg. 27Index Astartes II, "Bringers of Darkness - The Night Lords Space Marine Legion"Inquisitor: The Thorians (Background Book) by Gav Thorpe, pp. 16-17Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1st Edition), pg. 170Nemesis (Novel) by James Swallow |
Calligos Winterscale - Calligos Winterscale: Calligos Winterscale is the current head of House Winterscale, one of the three most powerful Rogue Trader dynasties operating in the Koronus Expanse of the Segmentum Obscurus. Calligos Winterscale comes from a storied line of powerful Rogue Traders that has waged wars, conquered planets, and written its name across the Koronus Expanse's very stars. The friends and resources of House Winterscale are legion, but so are its foes -- for if there is one thing a Winterscale loves more than profit, it is a worthy enemy.Ever since the Rogue Trader Purity Lathimon charted safe passage through the Maw and the stars beyond in the Koronus Expanse opened to Imperial exploration, there has been a Winterscale in the Koronus Expanse. Centuries later, Calligos Winterscale is the latest of his dynasty to inherit the now famous Winterscale Warrant of Trade. In the years since his ancestor, Sebastian Winterscale, died, the power of the Winterscales has only expanded, and Calligos Winterscale has proven unwilling to rest on his family's laurels. In the last half-century, he has proven himself as capable as his ancestor Sebastian, and now the name Calligos Winterscale is spoken with fear and awe throughout the Koronus Expanse. |
Calligos Winterscale - History: Calligos Winterscale rose from complete anonymity and emerged from out of nowhere to claim to be the rightful heir of House Winterscale when there was a vacancy in recent years. In a single solar week, the regents that controlled House Winterscale's Warrant of Trade while they searched out new heirs to its legacy either bowed to his will or simply vanished. Various rumours attest that Calligos Winterscale either is or is not the legitimate heir to Arturos Winterscale's dynasty or that he grew up as a pit-fighter in the lowest decks of Footfall.What is known for sure about Calligos are deeds that seem the stuff of legend: he rammed the Kroozer of the dread Ork Freebooter Kaptin Snagrash Da Burna, led the boarding parties, and hewed Snagrash's head from its shoulders; he walked the surface of Somnium even as his crew went mad and attacked each other while the spirits shirked from his wrath; he has hunted beasts on Burnscour; he drove the Aeldari Corsair vessel Silence of Eternity from the Koronus Expanse and he has journeyed to the cursed star systems on the edge of the Rifts of Hecaton. In personal combat, Winterscale wields a power axe named Breaker, a Storm Bolter called Hostile Argument, and a mono-knife named Fair Point, all of the best craftsmanship in the Imperium.Calligos Winterscale's interests span the Koronus Expanse, centred on Winterscale's Realm. His fleet contains voidships of every description but numbers more ships of the line than other Rogue Traders, as befits his martial nature. The flagship of his fleet is the grand cruiser Emperor's Vow. His endeavours include arms-dealing, participation in the xenos Cold Trade, smuggling, piracy, exploration of the Koronus Expanse, and even legitimate trade ventures. If there is a way to make money, one of Winterscale's agents is doing it right now.The focus of Calligos's current effort is on Lucin's Breath, where he is embroiled in a stalemate against rival Rogue Trader Aspyce Chorda, a rival whom he can neither cow nor crush, over the planet's immeasurable wealth of nephium. |
Calligos Winterscale - Appearance: Calligos Winterscale is a tall, broad man with terrifying physical strength, and is a man ruled by his passions. He is known to go from good-natured joviality to towering fury at a single word and will tear into a man at the slightest provocation. He commands the respect and obedience of scum and hardened crew while at the same time treating them as friends or equals. |
Calligos Winterscale - Wargear: Breaker (Power Axe)Hostile Argument (Storm Bolter)Fair Point (Mono-knife) |
Calth - Calth: CalthImperialCivilised WorldDeath WorldVeridia SystemRealm of UltramarUltramarinesSpace MarineChapterUltima SegmentumCalth's inhabitants live in subterranean hive cities where the deadly ultraviolet light of Calth's blazing blue sun cannot reach them due to the planet's lack of an atmosphere. The caverns of Calth are constructed on such a huge scale, and with such grandeur, that they are as light and airy as any city of Macragge.The world above is an arid wasteland devoid of air and covered in the ruins of shattered cities. The atmosphere of the world was stripped away during a nuclear bombardment of the planet's hive cities during the terrible Battle of Calth that raged over 10,000 Terran years ago in the Horus Heresy. This was when the Ultramarines and the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, under the command of First Captain Kor Phaeron and the Dark Apostle, Erebus, came into conflict.As part of Ultramar, Calth provides recruits for the Ultramarines Chapter. The Aspirants compete in a series of contests between hopefuls to determine who is worthy of joining the Space Marines.Although the inhabitants of Calth are perfectly capable of living on what is grown in their subterranean algal nutrient vats, they prefer to import fresh foodstuffs from the nearby Agri-World of Iax. The orbital shipyards of Calth also earn the world a good reputation as Calthian-made starships are used by the Ultramarines and by merchants, Rogue Traders and the armed forces of the Imperium at large. The Ultramarines' Captain Uriel Ventris was born upon Calth.The Tyranid remembered as Old One Eye was discovered on Calth frozen in ice. At least one regiment of the Imperial Guard has been raised on Calth and the world is protected by the Ultramar Auxilia, the regiments of the well-trained Planetary Defence Forces of the Realm of Ultramar. |
Calth - History: Calth was originally a verdant Agri-World whose manufacturing output at the time of the Great Crusade would have rivalled that of Macragge in only two to three more solar decades if the Horus Heresy had not intervened to push the planet down a radically different developmental path. There was even talk of constructing a superorbital ring like that which encircled Terra and was intended to get cargo to and from orbit as quickly and inexpensively as possible. The most important and heavily populated worlds of the Imperium had all constructed similar rings at the time, which were marvels of human technology and engineering and symbols of the new Golden Age that the Emperor intended to create for Mankind.On the eve of the Calth Conjunction before the start of the Battle of Calth, Calth was held by many as an as-yet uncut jewel in the crown of Ultramar, a glittering example of the future. It was long planned that Calth would take its place amongst the greatest of the Five Hundred Worlds and that its name would be known not just within Ultramar, but across the entire Imperium of Mankind.To that end, since its settlement just a few short generations before the outbreak of the galactic civil war, Calth's infrastructure was rapidly expanded in expectation of future growth. Many of its cities were built as mighty arcologies -- self-sustained centres of habitation and production. Many of these arcologies were built within the extensive network of subterranean chambers and tunnels for which the world had become renowned and many housed millions of workers. These centres of population were naturally protected from the extra-seasonal solar storms which assailed the world approximately every fifteen years, and hosted additional shelters to accommodate surface dwellers forced below during especially heavy periods of coronal massed ejection.In orbit above Calth was one of the most extensive orbital docking, repair and resupply facilities in the entire Five Hundred Worlds and beyond. This facility was built in expectation of future expansion far beyond the extent of Ultramar, and was due to see its most auspicious use to date with the Calth Conjunction -- the mustering of the combine fleets of the Legiones Astartes Word Bearers and Ultramarines in preparation for a joint attack against the Orks of Ghaslaskh xeno-hold. Being a strategically vital node in the infrastructure of the Five Hundred Worlds, Calth was heavily protected by a planetary defence network far in excess of most Imperial planets. This grid integrated over nine hundred orbital defence platforms and thousands of ground cities, from defence laser silos to interceptor launch pads, into one of the most potent defensive networks in the entire Segmentum.The true value of Calth to the Five Hundred Worlds, and the reason for the massive investment in resources committed to it; was as a potent symbol of Mankind's future. As the Great Crusade drew to a close, the Primarch Horus taking the mantle of Warmaster while the Emperor of Mankind returned to Terra to oversee the next stage in the expansion of the Imperium, great leaders such as Lord Guilliman looked to their own role in that future. The people of Ultramar were immeasurably proud of the realm they had built and looked to a bright future in which Ultramar and the greater Imperium watched benevolently over a galaxy re-shaped by the sacrifice and toil of two centuries of conquest. Calth intended to join Macragge, Saramanth, Konor, Occluda and Iax as the most important worlds of the Ultramar Sector, whose influence already extended across a vast swathe of the Imperium's Segmentum Ultima. It stands as one tragedy among countless others that this future would never be realised, due to the perfidy of Warmaster Horus and the Traitor Legiones Astartes. |
Calth - Battle of Calth: It is unlikely that the true architect of the Calth atrocities will ever be known however, and weighed against the innumerable sins committed by both Lorgar and Horus, the attribution of this one offence is inconsequential. What is known is that the earliest stages of the assault on Ultramar were laid down long before Horus arrived at the fateful worlds of Istvvan, in the year 005.M31, with a series of orders issued under the seal of the Warmaster dispatching a number of Legions to campaigns in the furthest reaches of the Imperium. Of these, the Blood Angels were sent forth in their entirety to Signus, the Dark Angels to Tsagualsa and Ultramarines would muster alongside the Word Bearers at Calth. Horus told Lorgar that he had fed Guilliman false intelligence in regard to a possible threat within the Veridian System in the Segmentum Tempestus, far to the galactic south of Terra. This supposed threat stemmed from the Orks of the Ghaslakh Empire. Horus had ordered the XIIIth and the XVIIth Legions to muster and meet at the world of Calth in the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar, in order to conduct a massive joint campaign of extermination against the Ghaslakh xenohold, a common mission for the Astartes during the final days of the Great Crusade.It would be at Calth that Lorgar would launch a surprise attack on the Ultramarines whilst they were gathered for the campaign against the Orks of Ghaslakh. The XIIIth Legion would be caught completely unaware while the Word Bearers would use the advantage of surprise to completely annihilate their hated rivals. The assault at Calth would also allow the Word Bearers to reveal that they, too, now served Ruinous Powers. Calth was not chosen as the site of the confrontation between the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines by chance, for the Word Bearers intended to destroy one of the jewels in the Ultramarines' realm of Ultramar (then known as the Ultramar Coalition), just as the XIIIth Legion had destroyed one of the Word Bearers' greatest achievements, the sacred city of Monarchia, four decades earlier.Command of the main assault force was given to Kor Phaeron, the First Captain of the XVIIth Legion and one of Lorgar's most favoured champions. Calth was to be Kor Phaeron's operation to execute, far more than it was Lorgar’s. Kor Phaeron had planned the assault of Calth for his Primarch meticulously, and executed it with the aid of the Dark Apostle Erebus. The punishment and annihilation of the XIIIth Legion was the campaign's principal aim; the humiliation and execution of Lorgar's hated rival Roboute Guilliman was a secondary objective. But for Lorgar, the assault would also mark his first opportunity to gain true favour in the eyes of the Dark Gods he now served; to prove to them that he had earned his place as their Chosen One.Though initially caught off guard by the treacherous surprise assault, the Ultramarines successfully broke the Word Bearers' attack after a viciously-fought siege action, though at the cost of terrible casualties and the complete destruction of Calth's atmosphere and once-verdant biosphere. As a result of the devastation wrought by the Word Bearers during the Calth Atrocity, future generations of Calth's people were required to live deep underground in massive subterranean arcologies to escape their world's radiation-scorched, airless surface. While both the Ultramarines and their Primarch Roboute Guilliman survived the Word Bearers' assault, the campaign successfully prevented the Ultramarines from participating in the Battle of Terra as Horus had planned. |
Calth - Hive Fleet Behemoth: The hearty subterranean folk of Calth also survived attacks from the Tyranid Hive Fleets Behemoth and Kraken in the late 41st Millennium |
Calth - Old One Eye: Hive Fleet Behemoth's invasion of Calth had been led by a unique and extremely powerful Carnifex bioform nicknamed "Old One Eye" by the Imperial defenders that had the power to continually regenerate its cells, even from seemingly mortal wounds. The Carnifex was defeated by an anonymous Imperial hero who shot it through the eye with a Plasma Pistol. Decades later, a band of smugglers discovered Old One Eye's body frozen in a glacier in Calth's arctic region. They thawed the body out hoping to earn a reward for discovering the famous Tyranid and selling it to the highest bidder, but Old One Eye's regenerative powers had remained active, if slowed by the cold, and it awakened and butchered its rescuers.As soon as it returned to activity, scores of Tyranid creatures who still existed as feral beasts in the Calthian wilderness, including Genestealers and Termagants, were psychically drawn to Old One Eye's presence and the beast began to direct a series of Tyranid raids against Calthian convoys and hab-domes, killing thousands of people. As the people of Calth called out for deliverance to the Ultramarines, the Chapter sent Scout Sergeant Torias Telion and his squad of Scout Marines to handle the matter and prove themselves worthy of becoming full Initiates. Telion's squad tracked down Old One Eye, but the beast and its Tyranids began to slaughter Telion's squad. In a moment of desperation, Telion fired an aimed shot from his Bolter that struck the beast's already ruined eye-socket where it had been killed the first time.The creature wandered off in pain and disappeared into a ravine where its body was never found. With Old One Eye's second death, its Tyranid swarm was quickly destroyed by the Ultramarines since they were now leaderless. But reports later emerged of a powerful Carnifex fitting Old One Eye's description leading assaults on other worlds across the Ultramar Sector and beyond, indicating that the creature not only survived but somehow managed to escape off of Calth. |
Calth That Was (Novella) - Calth That Was (Novella): Calth That Was is a novella published in The Horus Heresy series that was originally part of an anthology. Calth That Was was first published as part of the Mark of Calth main series anthology in April 2013. The cover image used is that of Mark of Calth, as Calth That Was has yet to be published separately. |
Calth That Was (Novella) - Synopsis: Captain Remus Ventanus has a fateful encounter that will alter his destiny and shape the face of the Ultramarines Chapter for ten thousand years to come. |
Calverna - Calverna: Calverna is an Ork World.The Deathwatch kill-teams of the watch fortress Null Breach in the Segmentum Solar have assaulted Calverna several times. During one of these incursions in the Era Indomitus, Watch Captain Daxis was killed when he was crushed by a rampaging Squiggoth. He was avenged when the Intercessor Lyone, seconded from the Novamarines, single-handily killed the massive creature with pinpoint fire.Lyone had made quite the reputation for himself while fighting the Orks, and avenging Daxis' death earned the Primaris Marine his predecessor's rank of watch captain. Even before his ascent, Lyone had become fearfully known to the Orks of Calverna as "Da Black Butcha," while his own battle-brothers began to call him "Orksbane." Lyone has excelled in the role of watch captain since earning the rank as one of the first Primaris brethren to do so. |
Camarth - Camarth: Camarth is a Jungle World and Death World of the Imperium located in the Imperium Nihilus region of the Ultima Segmentum. It was long a heavily forested world whose flora and fauna made it inimical to its Human settlers. It was in many ways similar geographically and culturally to the Dark Angels Legion's ancient homeworld of Caliban. It was long protected by a garrison of Space Marines drawn from the Ruby Crescents Chapter, who were based at the fortress known as Redmoon Keep.Camarth was assaulted during the Era Indomitus by the Chaos Space Marines of the Ten Thousand Eyes warhost under the command of the Fallen Angel Sorcerer Lord Seraphax who overthrew the Ruby Crescents' garrison. However, the world was eventually freed by the actions of its people under the leadership of the awakened Primarch Lion El'Jonson and Zabriel, another Fallen who the Lion had redeemed and forgiven for his actions on lost Caliban and who became one of the first of The Risen.After its liberation, Camarth joined the Lion's Protectorate, the name given to those worlds of the Imperium Nihilus under the Lion's direct protection. |
Camarth - History: The Ruby Crescents Chapter, genetic successors of the Blood Angels, had long maintained a fortified outpost known as Redmoon Keep on the Jungle World of Camarth. The garrison of the keep was left there to watch over the people of that world, who greatly respected and honored the Adeptus Astartes who walked among them. But when the Great Rift was born in the Era Indomitus, the Ruby Crescents of Carmath found themselves cut off from the rest of their Chapter as Carmath was located in the Imperium Nihilus. During the Era Indomitus, Camarth was assaulted by the Ten Thousand Eyes, a warhost of Heretic Astartes commanded by the Fallen Angel and Sorcerer Lord Seraphax. The Chaos forces overwhelmed the now-isolated garrison at Redmoon Keep and claimed the world for their own.In truth, Seraphax had deliberately targetted the Ruby Crescents because they were so isolated and easily overcome. Seraphax wished to use Space Marines of the Blood Angels' genetic lineage as fodder for a research endeavour he termed the "Bloodrage Project." This was an attempt to turn the Flaw in the gene-seed of all the sons of Sanguinius against them so that the mindless ferocity of the Black Rage and the Red Thirst would become all-consuming, transforming all the Astartes of the Sanguinary Brotherhood into weapons to be used against the Imperium.The Ten Thousand Eyes took control of Redmoon Keep and imprisoned nine of the surviving Ruby Crescents who had been captured at high cost to the warband in one of the fortress' cells. The Captives' blood was drained from them into a giant vat placed before them, where it was transformed by Seraphax's Chaos sorcery into a glowing liquid that he hoped could be used to initiate the Flaw in any of Sanguinius' scions.The imprisoned Ruby Crescents were later discovered by the Dark Angels Primarch Lion El'Jonson, who had found his way to Camarth through the Immaterium's sub-realm of Mirror-Caliban after his awakening beneath The Rock, and the redeemed Fallen Zabriel, now one of The Risen who had been forgiven by their primarch after being encountered on Camarth. The two sought to redeem Camarth for the Imperium, and had sought to expel the Ten Thousand Eyes from Redmoon Keep when they discovered the secret research being conducted in its dungeons.The Lion and Zabriel tried to free the Ruby Crescents, but each of the Space Marines had fallen to the Red Thirst and tried to attack their rescuers. Unaware of the nature of the Red Thirst which afflicted his brother Sanguinius' gene-sons, the Lion simply assumed they had already been corrupted by Chaos and granted them the Emperor's Peace.Then the Lion and Zabriel sabotaged the generatorium of the Redmoon Keep and destroyed it in a great explosion, which brought to an end the Bloodrage Project.Later, the Lion and Zabriel helped unite and lead the people of Camarth against the remaining Chaos forces to reclaim their world. Afterwards, its people joined the Lion's Protectorate in the Imperium Nihilus and provided contingents of the mortal paramilitary militia under the primarch's command known as the Lion Guard. |
Cameleoline - Cameleoline: Cameleoline is a refractive chemical substance that morphically blends its colouration into the surrounding area. It is often woven into cloaks and smocks, or more rarely, as a coating over armour plate. Its properties aid with concealment during covert assaults.This archaic material is most likely a holdover from the Age of Technology and has been in continuous use since at least the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras during the late 30th and early 31st Millennia.Specially-fabricated Cameleoline Cloaks were primarily used by Legion Reconnaissance Squads, comprised of experienced Space Marines who were expert in operating independently and often deep behind enemy lines.These specialised troops were the eyes and ears of their Space Marine Legion in the field. For this task, they were armed and equipped with a variety of specialised wargear, including long-range weaponry, sensory auspex and cameleoline stealth gear.In the late 41st Millennium, cameleoline is still utilised by the Scout Marines and Vanguard Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes, to aid them in the stealthy infiltration of enemy positions or to fight as lightly armed skirmishers ahead of the rest of their Chapter.Wearing Cameleoline Cloaks, these Scouts are able to operate behind enemy lines, set ambushes for their foes, determine the enemy's movements, and gather what information they can about their opponent's plans.A notable mortal Imperial military formation that also makes use of cameleoline technology is the Astra Militarum's Tanith First-and-Only Regiment.Cameleoline is also utilised by other Imperial armed forces as well, in the form of tarpaulins to help conceal large pieces of military equipment.These thin, resilient tarpaulins are made of sheets of photosensitive, colour-shifting fabric that can take on the appearance of their surroundings.Issued in five metre-by-five metre sheets, cameleoline tarps can be hooked together to hide anything from a Land Speeder to a Rhino armoured personnel carrier, to an entire encampment. |
Camouflage - Camouflage: Camouflage is the art of hiding an individual or object from plain sight by utilising technological or natural means. This is done through the use of any combination of materials, colouration or illumination for concealment, either by making a person or object difficult to see (crypsis), or by disguising them as something else (mimesis). A third approach (motion dazzle) confuses the observer with a conspicuous pattern, making the visible object momentarily harder to locate. It is often used by the military forces of the various intelligent species of the Milky Way Galaxy. |
Camouflage - Types of Camouflage: Camouflage was first practiced on Terra in simple form in the middle of the eighteenth century A.D. (ca. 750.M2) by rifle units. Their tasks required them to be inconspicuous, and they were issued green and later other drab colour uniforms. With the advent of longer range and more accurate weapons, especially the repeating rifle in the middle of the nineteenth century A.D. (ca. 850.M2), camouflage was adopted for the uniforms of all armies, spreading to most forms of military equipment including ships and aircraft. Many present-day camouflage textiles address visibility not only to visible light but also near-infrared, for concealment from night vision devices. Camouflage is not only visual; heat, sound, magnetism and even smell can be used to target weapons, and may be intentionally concealed. Digital camouflage applies patterns made of pixels, often designed to disrupt outlines at different distances, providing a degree of scale invariance. |
Camouflage - Physical Camouflage: The majority of camouflage methods aim for crypsis, often through a general resemblance to the background environment, high contrast disruptive colouration, eliminating shadow, and countershading. This physical camouflage helps to conceal or break up the easily recognisable outlines of enemy forces. |
Camouflage - Imperium of Man: The camouflage utilised by the armed forces of the Imperium of Man is based on physical paint schemes, many of which are Codex Astartes approved schemes that will be utilised by Imperial Guard regiments and Space Marine Chapters. Both Departmento Munitorum manuals and the Codex Astartes details thousands of approved camouflage schemes in use throughout the Imperium. Every time an Imperial Guard regiment is raised, they are allocated a camouflage scheme, often one that is unique to them. This results in an endless variety of camouflage schemes suitable for any environment. Camouflage schemes often depend on the environment in which they will be fighting, as some planets have very different ecologies, geology and enviroments, some of which would seem quite garish to modern eyes. Some Chapters of the Space Marines adopt a "no camouflage" rule, instead adopting an attitude that they hope will intimidate their opposition through their refusal to make use of such tricks.Listed below are only a small sample of the endless variety of camouflage schemes used by the military forces of the Imperium:Ice World/Winter Environment Camouflage Schemes - The troops of the Imperial Guard must fight in the harshest conditions, including the arctic wastes of Ice Worlds. Under these circumstances, winter camouflage becomes essential.Death World/Jungle Environment Camouflage Schemes - The vastness of the Imperium contains many jungle planets, most often classified as Death Worlds, which harbour a bewildering array of planet species, often with bizarre colouration. The Departmento Munitorum details camouflage schemes for even the strangest surroundings. The most famous of all Imperial jungle warfare regiments are those from the Death World of Catachan, the Catachan Jungle Fighters, with their distinctive red head bands and fearsome reputation.Desert World/Desert Environment Camouflage Schemes - The bleak wastes of the Desert World of Tallarn are not the only deserts encompassed by the Imperium. There are many arid worlds where the standard camouflage schemes are useless. There are, however, many camouflage schemes specially adapted to these conditions. It is not unusual for a regiment's vehicles to be painted in the same camouflage scheme as its troopers. |
Camouflage - Scout Marine Camouflage: Space Marines rarely use any form of camouflage, for their entire combat doctrine states that they are best deployed as shock troops, their very presence filling the enemy with terror. There are instances when a Chapter may utilise patterns approved by the Codex Astartes, and in most cases this is in relation to the role of the Scouts. As ever, a Scout must be conversant in every aspect of war, and so an understanding of concealment and the use of camouflage are essential. The Codex contains a staggering array of camouflage patterns, many used in a wide range of environments. Others are intended for use in individual surroundings, and their use is extremely rare. |
Camouflage - Orks: The Orks tend not to use camouflage, with two notable exceptions: the first is that of the Blood Axes clan who imitate the culture of the Imperium but do not understand the theory of camouflage and instead use combinations of colours and patterns with little relation to the environment in which they will be fighting, although it can sometimes prove effective. The second exception is that of Ork Kommandoz, those Ork Boyz who are "kunning az Mork", and are adept infiltrators and saboteurs, and use camouflage, misdirection and discreet movement with an aptitude baffling for such brutish creatures. |
Camouflage - Tau: The Tau's approach to battlefield camouflage and identification largely remains a mystery to the Imperium's forces. To the casual observer, Tau vehicle camouflage utilises the same principles of concealment, confusion and recognition as the Imperium, but the Fire Caste have refined these principles to suit the Tau's method of waging war.Tau patterns try to combine concealment and confusion aspects into one colour scheme. On the desert Mining World of Taros during the Taros Campaign, the vast majority of Tau Hunter Cadres used subtle diffused patterns with long blending distances. Given the distances that vehicles would be visible over open desert, this made perfect sense; providing the most effective camouflage at long range. Notably, most Tau vehicles and aircraft use a two-tone scheme, in which camouflage is added as another tone of the base colour, drawing on natural patterns which are often symmetrical. For example, a Devilfish transport in a blue night-time concealment and disruption pattern might be dark blue with lighter blue stripes. In this way, the Fire Caste has developed a system of camouflage that does not use contrasting colours.Some Hunter Cadres, most likely those assigned to different battlefield roles, use variations of basic patterns. Tau Commanders are often given leeway to use their own personalised colour schemes if they wish. Tau Hunter Cadres also use a trim colour. This colour, used sparingly on all of a Hunter Cadre's vehicles, may be to aid recognition on the battlefield. Alternatively, there may be some traditional or ritualistic reason behind the choice of colour; the true reason often remains unknown to the Imperium.Recognition of Tau vehicles does not seem to be an important issue. This may be due to their advanced communication and tracking technology, making visual recognition less of a factor for Tau forces, but this is little more than speculation. Vehicle markings and numbers are used, but are less intrusive than those found on Imperial Guard tanks and vehicles. The disciplined Fire Caste also does not allow the addition of slogans, vehicle names or kill markings (all common to the Imperial Guard) on their vehicles. On Taros during the Taros Campaign, no Tau vehicles were seen with such "unofficial" crew additions. There was also no instance of Tau forces being seen to employ campaign badges.The principles of Tau vehicle numbering and lettering are unknown to the Imperium at this time. Notably, regardless of the Tau Sept from which a Hunter Cadre is drawn, all Fire Caste vehicles bear the badge of their caste, which is also the symbol of the race's homeworld Sept. Tau aircraft bear the badge of the Air Caste who serve exclusively as their pilots.All Tau forces bear the colour of their Sept, usually in the form of a series of stripes applied to their weapons and/or armour. Whilst many Septs also have a preferred primary colouration for their forces, it is the Sept colour, and not the colour of their armour, that denotes which Sept the Tau warrior or vehicle hails from. However, whilst all members of a Sept bear the same Sept colour, the markings themselves may differ to distinguish between different teams and/or ranks. For example, white is the Sept colour of the T'au Sept, and this is shown on all Battlesuit and infantry armour as a series of stripes. Infantry squad leaders of the rank of Shas'ui are normally identified by the Sept colour also being applied to their sensor vane and/or shoulder plate. Tau Battlesuit pilots of the rank of Shas'ui, on the other hand, bear a single white sensor vane to denote their rank, whilst a Shas'vre Battlesuit team leader will bear a full white helmet. In turn, Tau Commanders piloting Battlesuits will often bear inverted primary and Sept colours on their helmet.However, by no means are these colour schemes and patterns universal. The Tau are renowned for their adaptability in the theatre of war, and are willing to use alternate armour camouflage schemes to better suit their environments, such as lighter colours for snowbound worlds, darker colours during urban campaigns, or natural colours for jungle environments, as well as change their visual leadership identification markings to confuse the enemy. No matter what camouflage is displayed, however, the Sept colour will remain the same throughout. |
Camouflage - Necrons: The Necrons are not known to utilise camouflage patterns. |
Camouflage - Holographic Camouflage: Some races use holographic technology to either completely conceal or generate disruptive patterns that dazzle or confuse the viewer:Cameleoline Cloaks - Cameleoline Cloaks are used by a number of races to provide camouflage for their elite infantry. Cameleoline is a refractive chemical substance that morphically blends its colouration into the surrounding area. It is often woven into cloaks and smocks, or more rarely, as a coating over armour plate. Its properties aid with concealment during covert assaults.Holo-Fields - Typically the Eldar and Dark Eldar use holographic technology on their vehicles and starships. A Holo-Field, called Dathedi in the Eldar Lexicon, is an integral part of the defensive military technology employed by the starships and vehicles of the Eldar. Unlike the Imperium of Man, which makes use of powerful gravitic shielding known as Void Shields to protect its warships and large vehicles like Titans, the Eldar have chosen to maximise their advantages in speed, stealth and deception when protecting their vehicles and warships. A Holo-field is a three-dimensional photonic projection created by a computer-controlled network of special laser projectors that create a field of visual distortion around a vehicle or starship. This distortion makes it extremely difficult to target the vehicle or vessel so protected either by using computer-assisted targeting or by eye, since the projection distorts both electronic and physical perception of the actual location of the object generating the Holo-field.Holo-Suits - Warriors such as the mysterious Harlequins utilise sophisticated Holo-Suits, which employ individual forms of the Eldar Dathedi technology to fragment their image and baffle incoming fire.Stealth Field Generators - Tau XV15 Stealthsuits and XV25 Stealthsuits also possess the capability of camouflaging its wearer through the use of their stealth technologies. The suit's integrated holographic disruption field achieves its effects through a number of disruptor emitter nodes arrayed all over the Battlesuit's armour. This holographic disruption field can operate in two modes. The default, passive mode utilises a range of technologies to dampen the suit’s electromagnetic signature so that enemy scanners are far less likely to detect it. This mode is called "passive" because its use cannot be detected, as rather than attempting to interfere with enemy sensor systems, it simply masks the suit itself. In active mode, however, the suit's stealth field generator comes online. The suit's matte finish ripples and blurs, resolving itself into a nigh-perfect representation of the terrain that lies behind it; making the suit and its wearer all but transparent -- even to visual identification. In this way, the Stealthsuit's form is blended into the background as if its wearer was a Terran chameleon. In addition, when operating in active mode, the Stealthsuit's systems are actively interfering with and jamming enemy sensor devices. In so doing, the jamming itself may give away the fact that a Stealthsuit is present somewhere on the battlefield, but it will make the detection of its actual location nearly impossible, thus allowing the Stealthsuit-clad warriors to move untracked, blending in with their surrounding environment before they strike. Because it is hard to focus on their location, a Stealth Team can hide to at least some degree even when standing in open territory. In areas of cover, such as forests or the rubble of an embattled city, they can effectively fade into the background, making themselves extremely difficult targets for enemies to mark out or lock on to effectively. |
Camouflage - Natural Camouflage: Some factions have specific troop types that are able to physically alter their forms (eg. the Imperial Officio Assassinorum's Callidus Temple Assassins), or their natural colouration (eg. Tyranid Lictors) to better blend in with their surroundings. |
Camouflage - Sources: Apocalypse (6th Edition), pp. 180-181Apocalypse (4th Edition), pg. 161Apocalypse Reload, pg. 47Codex: Assassins (3rd Edition), pp. 3, 6Codex: Assassins (2nd Edition), pp. 12-14Codex: Astra Militarum (6th Edition), pp. 222, 288Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, 2nd Codex), pg. 31Codex: Imperial Guard (2nd Edition), pp. 48-51Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pg. 65Codex: Militarum Tempestus (6th Edition), pp. 54, 56-57Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition), pp. 43, 68-71, 79, 87, 100Codex: Tau Empire (4th Edition), pp. 27, 35Codex: Tau (3rd Edition), pp. 16, 25, 35, 60Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), pg. 41Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 366-367Deathwatch: The Achilus Assault (RPG), pg. 16How To Paint Space Marines (2004), pg. 40Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard & Imperial NavyImperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign, pp. 78, 282, 284, 314-315Inquisitor: The Thorians (Background Book) by Gav Thorpe, pp. 16-17Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1st Edition), pg. 170White Dwarf Magazine 321 (UK), "The Kappa Mortis Incident", pp. 76-81White Dwarf Magazine 312 (UK), "Silent Menace - Space Marine Scouts," by Andy Hoare, pg. 47White Dwarf Magazine 246 (UK), "A Rough Guide To Painting The Land Raider" by Nick Davis & Mark Jones, pg. 27White Dwarf Magazine 143 (UK), "Armies of the Imperium: Imperial Guard Colour Schemes," by Rick Priestley, pp. 63-69White Dwarf Magazine 105 (UK), "Chapter Approved: Land Raider", pg. 3White Dwarf Magazine 103 (UK), "Rampaging Rhinos" by Rick Priestley, pp. 64-65 |
Camouflage Netting - Camouflage Netting: Camouflage Netting, also commonly called Camo Netting, is a common upgrade used on many Imperial Guard vehicles, including those deployed by the Ordo Tempestus and even the Lost and the Damned. Camouflage Netting is a rather crude and simple technology, consisting only of fabric webbing coloured to match the local environment and usually woven with local flora. A rarer version is composed of sheets of cloth covered in Cameleoline, a refractive chemical substance that can blend its colouration into the surrounding area.Whether the netting is made with rare Cameleoline or cruder materials, Camo Netting helps conceal a vehicle from prying eyes.The netting is often rolled up when the vehicle is not in use, and upon arriving at a combat zone the netting is put into use. If a vehicle is expected to stay in a single location for a prolonged period of time, such as during a siege or waiting to ambush an enemy, the Camouflage Netting might instead be draped over the entire vehicle, using nearby trees, rocks or other environmental cues to conceal the vehicle. Camouflage Netting is especially efficient at providing concealment from enemy aircraft. Netting can also be draped over structures, such as Turret Emplacements or bunkers. |
Camouflage Netting - Non-Human Equivalents: The following are known xenos technologies that mimic the most superior forms of Imperial Camouflage Netting:Tau Disruption PodsEldar Holo-Fields |
Camouflage Netting - Sources: Codex: Astra Militarum (6th Edition) - GlosseryCodex: Militarum Tempestus (6th Edition), pg. 71Codex: Imperial Guard (3rd Edition, Second Codex), pg. 36 |
Canis Helix - Canis Helix: The Canis Helix, also known as the Spirit of the Wolf, is the term applied to the altered gene-seed which gives the Astartes of the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter their distinctive nature and endows them with their unusual feral traits.Its mutations from the standard Astartes genetic pattern offer the scions of the VI Legion vastly enhanced sensory acuity and reaction time, as well as inducing certain physical characteristics such as extended and hardened canine teeth and an otherwise animalistic appearance.The presence of the Canis Helix, it has been argued, is also linked to the Chapter's almost uncontrollable aggression, bordering on frenzy in combat possibly due to violent overstimulation of their enhanced senses.The effects of the Canis Helix only became apparent over time as the early generations of the VI Legion's intake aged, with the psychological effects appearing earliest in those who had survived the troubled implantation process. Longer term, the instability of these mutations would lead in some cases to mental and physical breakdown of the most extreme kind, the man truly devolving into a monster.Thankfully, this instability was greatly ameliorated after the Legion's re-unification with its Primarch Leman Russ, though some cases of the gene-breakdown crisis, known now in the Legion as the "Curse of the Wulfen," persisted but were relatively rare. This was the case at least until the psychic cataclysm which marked the final deadly act of the Battle of Prospero.At that time, the curse was visited upon the VI Legion in numbers and to a degree never before seen, particularly in the case of the warriors of the all-but-lost 13th Great Company, whose Astartes fell by the hundreds to the curse's terrible effects.In the present era of the late 41st Millennium, the Canis Helix is derived from a unique segment of the genome of the Chapter's Primarch and is actually a genetic catalyst imbibed by the Chapter's Aspirants to begin their physical transformation into superhuman Astartes.However, the Canis Helix is still unstable and can reduce a Space Wolves Astartes into a feral, lupine mutant known as a Wulfen at nearly any point during his service to the Emperor of Mankind. It is keeping control of himself and refusing to give in to the savage demands of the Curse of the Wulfen which defines what it means to be a Space Wolves Astartes. |
Canis Helix - History: The massive scientific effort to create the primarchs during the Unification Wars in the 30th Millennium was known as the Primarch Project. The means by which the Emperor crafted 20 individual superhuman genomes using His own arcane genetic code as the base without resorting to the use of cloning is unknown to present Imperial science.There was a 2-stage process involved: first, the Emperor extracted a subset of His own DNA to act as the foundation for a pure, undifferentiated primarch gene-stock. The pure primarch gene-stock was then further differentiated into the 20 strands that would serve as the individual primarchs' genomes.The data concerning the original engineering of the individual primarch strands was later analysed by a Raven Guard Apothecary and a Magos Genetor of the Mechanicum during the Horus Heresy. They discovered that certain samples had gene sequences deliberately deleted from the base primarch genome, while other samples showed the addition of clearly non-Human DNA.Intriguingly, the genome of the primarch listed as "Subject VI" had added canine-like DNA. Although it is not clear whether the sample numbers corresponded to the actual primarchs of the numbered Space Marine Legions, this could explain the wolf-like affinity of Leman Russ and the unexpected feral mutation of many Space Wolves Astartes into the Wulfen.By their second solar decade of existence, the ancient VI Legion's reputation amongst the wider forces of the Great Crusade was something of a mixed one. They had an unarguable track record of success and had won numerous battle honours, but accusations and stories of unneeded collateral damage and casualties among human civilian populations where they fought were widespread.It was said, long before the influence of Fenris and its culture worked upon the VI Legion, that there was something of the bestial to the Legion's warriors, something readily apparent in the first foreshadowings of a mark of what was to become later known as the Canis Helix upon them, though insufficient time had yet passed for this to become very pronounced.Following their reunification with their primarch on the frozen Death World of Fenris, the stabilising effects of Leman Russ' own gene-helix pattern over the existing VI Legion's gene-seed seemed to have all but reversed the prior difficulties of candidate survival.This, combined with the Fenrisians themselves who proved to be extraordinarily resilient genetic stock -- attributed to long-term Human survival on such an inhospitable world -- ensured the successful transformation from baseline Human male into a transhuman Astartes. |
Canis Helix - Creation of a Space Wolf: When a Space Wolves aspirant is deemed worthy to join the Chapter, he partakes in a sacred ceremony where he imbibes the Canis Helix, the Spirit of the Wolf. In actuality, this is a genetic cocktail drawn from the genome of Leman Russ and used as a catalyst to activate the genetically-engineered viral machinery of the aspirant's gene-seed implants, similar to Blood Angels aspirants who drink the sacred blood of their Primarch Sanguinius from the Red Grail to begin their transformation into Space Marines. This mixture is drunk from an ancient relic of the Space Wolves known as the Cup of Wulfen.Millennia-old legends speak of the coming of the Emperor of Mankind to the world of Fenris during the Great Crusade, seeking His long-lost genetic progeny. Many of those that were to become the first Space Wolves were all old men by the standards of the Astartes, having been reavers and sword-brothers to Leman, King of the Rus, for many Terran years before the Allfather had come to Fenris.When the truth of Leman's heritage was finally revealed, every warrior in the Wolf King's mead-hall had drawn their iron blades and clamoured to fight at his side, as sword-brothers ought.But they were all too old, the Allfather told them; not a man among them was younger than twenty Terran years. The trials they would have to endure would very likely kill them, no matter how courageous and strong-willed they were.Yet the men of Leman's mead-hall were mighty warriors, each man a hero in his own right, and they would not be dissuaded by thoughts of suffering or death. Leman, the king, was moved by their devotion, and could not find it in his heart to refuse them.An apocryphal tale proclaims that the Wolf King possessed the Cup of Wulfen, giving this vessel to his original followers, the first men from Fenris to join the ranks of the VI Legion, and told them to drink from the Cup. Amongst the chosen was a Jarl named Wulfen. He was a mighty man, fell and strong, proud in his power. He was a man gifted beyond all others in the art of war and he was bested only once in his life, and that was by Russ, who humbled him before all his people but seeing a worthy warrior had spared him, and offered him a place amongst his warriors.Russ spoke to the assembled men of Fenris and told them of his plan. He offered them power and a vast span of years if they followed him to make war among the stars. They roared their acceptance, and hailed Russ as their chief. He told them that they must drink a potent brew from the great cup and thus would their transformation begin. Wulfen was the first to step forward and he swigged the glorious mead of Russ from the chalice.But evil lurked still in Wulfen. He was consumed by a secret, gnawing hatred of Russ and he planned to take treacherous revenge upon the man-god. The guardian spirit within the cup saw this the moment Wulfen put it to his lips, and it worked a spell on him, making his outer self match his inner evil.To the horror of those who looked on, the great chieftain changed. He turned into a dreadful thing, half-man, half-wolf and he sprang on Russ with a howl of hatred. But Russ was not dismayed. With one blow, he crushed Wulfen's skull and slew the beast that had been revealed.He looked upon his followers and told them that Wulfen was unworthy, and that this would be the fate of all those who drank from the chalice with evil in their hearts. He told them that those who wished could now depart without drinking. To the Space Wolves' ancestors' credit, no man departed, and all drank and all gained the power that Russ had made their due.And thus began the true Founding of the VI Legion. Those men strode forth to write their names in the history of all the worlds of men, becoming the first Space Wolves to be recruited from Fenris.Out of the hundreds that imbibed from the Cup of Wulfen, almost two score survived, a number that amazed even the Allfather Himself. In honour of their courage, Leman -- no longer king now, but primarch of the VI Legion -- formed a new company around the survivors.Ever after, the other warriors of the Legion referred to the 13th Company as the "Greybeards." The members of the company, however, called themselves the Wolf Brothers. |
Canis Helix - The Tempering: The Canis Helix is at once the source of the Space Wolves' great strength and their fatal flaw; because the Space Wolves' gene-seed is inherently unstable and can lead to degeneration into a Wulfen, the Space Wolves' first (and possibly last) attempt to create Successor Chapters proved to be a complete disaster.When the Legion was divided during the Second Founding after the Horus Heresy, a new Chapter, the Wolf Brothers, was created. The Wolf Brothers were intended to be the first of many Successor Chapters to use the gene-seed of Leman Russ, but quickly succumbed to the Curse of the Wulfen and scattered. Thereafter, the Space Wolves all but abandoned their hopes of creating new successors until the Ultima Founding of the Primaris Space Marines.In the 32nd Millennium, Thar Ariak Hraldir, the High Wolf Priest of the Space Wolves, was conducting experiments which he named "The Tempering" intended to control the instability of the Canis Helix. Hraldir believed at the time that he was close to succeeding, and thus eliminating the Curse of the Wulfen from the Space Wolves' genetic line forever.However, his laboratory was destroyed by Magnus the Red during the Battle of the Fang. Magnus, afraid that the Space Wolves might succeed in eventually creating many new Successor Chapters, made a point of destroying the lab and killing Hraldir before moving on to assault the heart of The Fang.The Tempering was a controversial project within the Chapter, and was thus a closely guarded secret. It had the approval of Wolf Lord Vaer Greyloc and the Great Wolf of that time, Harek Ironhelm, but the venerable Bjorn the Fell-Handed, himself a former Great Wolf, learned of the project and was outraged. He called it a betrayal of their primarch, Leman Russ. Had Magnus not succeeded in destroying it, Bjorn claimed he would have done so himself.Even a mortal kaerl of the Space Wolves, a member of Fenris' Planetary Defence Forces, Morek Karekborn, thought the prototype Space Marines he saw in Hraldir's lab looked terribly unnatural and lacking in the feral potency he was used to sensing from the Space Wolves.Hraldir also admitted before his death that he had not yet been able to stabilise his test subjects to the point where they could survive on their own, though he believed he was getting close. It is thus uncertain whether The Tempering would have succeeded even if Hraldir had completed his work. |
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