Avachrus

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Map Basic Data Planetary Image
px Name: Avachrus Avachrus.jpg
Segmentum: Segmentum Obscurus
Sector: Gothic Sector
Subsector:
System: Gilead System[1]
Population: ≈Ten Billion[3]
Affiliation: Imperium[1]
Class: Forge World, Mining World[1]
Tithe Grade: Aptus Nihil (no longer capable of paying)[3]

Avachrus is a small Imperial Forge World that is rich in valuable metals and is located close to the Gilead System's sun.[1]

Description

It is tidally locked in its orbit around Convenire. It is also the closest planet to that star, making the sun side of the world uninhabitable without heavy shielding from solar radiation. The dark side of the planet is a wasteland scarred with strip-mines, but containing great numbers of xenofauna. Though there is a relatively temperate equatorial zone, most human activity takes place underground in massive, heavily polluted caverns filled with cities, factories, and rivers of magma. These rivers fuel the world's forges, which belt out smog and acid rain as well as industry. Combined, the rivers and manufactorums make it uncomfortably hot for habitation, but still not to the level of the sun side of the surface. This is largely because of Dark Age of Technology relics known as the Eternal Engines. These impressive machines, located on the planet surface, provide ventilation, as well as power, to every underground forge city, but such is the pollution that these settlements produce, that it is almost considered taboo to be seen in public without a rebreather, such has it become the norm among permanent residents.[2a]

As the main manufactorum for the entire Gilead System, Avachrus is a vital resource for its survival. The forges create practically all technology in the system that is more complex than a lasgun.[2b] Tens of thousands of Tech-Priests and millions of Tech-adepts toil on the Forge World and across the system.[5]

History

The Archdominus of Explorator Fleet Tsuruoka quickly made the decision to colonize Avachrus once the Gilead System was rediscovered in 92.M32, despite the harsh climate and dangerous xenofauna to be found there. The Explorator fleet's records of this initial colonization effort have been heavily redacted, which means most of the motivations for doing so and results of trying are lost to history. So too have the records regarding its moons, which additionally have had their surfaces ruined by thousands of years of uninterrupted resource extraction and industry (particularly Uru), thereby ruining any chance at successful archeological studies.[2b]

A century or so after the Mechanicus rediscovered the system, their forces in Gilead (then known as Halcyon) signaled the Imperium that it had been infested by the forces of The Enemy and a crusade was raised to cleanse the system's worlds of taint.[2c]

Some time after the Gilead System had been freed from Chaos, one of the Eternal Engines failed, effectively killing the city of Illiarch. A new sect of Tech-Priests arose, calling themselves the Suspire, whose lives are entirely dedicated to the maintenance of the remaining Eternal Engines. Despite their efforts, the Engines have become less and less efficient over the millennia.[2d]

Around a century prior to the formation of the Cicatrix Maledictum, Avachrus' governor, Princeps Ultima Gol Bessor, took the titan legion stationed on Avachrus, Legio Kaurthos, on a crusade to an unknown location with an unknown objective, and never returned. He did not leave an heir, which created a power vacuum that took a while to fill. Though Gol Bessor is still nominally in charge, an ambitious techpriest named Aexekra Vakuul, managed to seize power and declared herself regent in Bessor's absence.[3]

Since the opening of the Great Rift, Avachrus has seen an uptick in Xenos, heretic, and pirate raids, as well as an increase in priests turning to tech heresy as a means to re-establish contact with the Imperium. A war has broken out inside the caverns beneath the surface of Uru between a group of Hereteks called the Unshackled Fane and a pirate gang claiming to be led by a Man of Iron. The Ordo Malleus has started working with the Suspire to search Illiarch for artefacts, which are then being taken offworld to the Malleus fortress, and rumours are spreading that scrap-code has started to infect systems across the planet.[3] Avachrus' priesthood is also having to deal with the political impact of an influx of foreign tech-priests from the Blepharaoh, the Mechanicus factory ship that accompanied the Varonius Flotilla.[4]

Culture

Toil is life on Avachrus - it is considered a religious act as much as tithing to the Emperor is. Logical, unemotional thinking is encouraged in all from birth, as is religious zeal. Everyone on Avachrus is part of the machine, and to make sure the machine is working is not only good and necessary, it is an act of devotion.[2a]

Most food created on Avachrus is flavourless nutrient paste, polluted fungi, and corpse-starch. The people of the planet are raised to not care about the low culinary quality of their food sources.[2f]

The Fabricator General of Belaxia, Archdomina Aexekra Vakuul, rules Avachrus as regent,[2h] but her reign is far from absolute. The Suspire, by ancient tradition, are not beholden to the orders of the Fabricator General, and can demand resources for the maintenance of the Eternal Engines from the local Administratum independently of the entirety of the rest of the planet.[2d]

While most citizens of Avachrus are ignorant of the fact, the Tech-priesthood of Avachrus is incredibly divided. Mostly, the sources of that division are the lines that determine what is a cogitator, and what is Abominable Intelligence (this particular argument has cost around a million lives in internal conflict alone); what is the pursuit of knowledge, and what is tech-heresy. The Fabricator General herself is perpetuating one of these conflicts, having allied herself with the Varonius Flotilla in an attempt to find the freedom to research Aeldari weaponry without provoking a rebellion from the puritanical sects within the priesthood. Though it is notable that this internal strife pales in comparison to events in the rest of the system.[2f]

Known Locations

Anacite
Forge-city. Location of a secured Slaaneshi artefact called the Mask of Unity.[2g]
Belaxia
The capital city of Avachrus where Archdominus Belaxia, the current Fabricator General, holds her seat of power.[2g] It is otherwise known for its production of plasma weapons.[2c] Notable buildings include the Church of Iron Sighs.[2e]
Illiarch
Former forge-city.[2d]
Kauradar
Surface Titanworks.[2e]
Llurgica
Forge-city known for its production of medical supplies.[2g]
Mercur
Forge-city known for its production of cogitators. Notable buildings include the Abbey of the Immortal Mind.[2d]
Versh
Forge-city known for its use of Kastelan Robots for civil security.[2e]

Satellites

Avachrus has two moons - roughly equal-sized rocks named Odo and Uru.[2d] Odo is comprised of a silvery mineral, while Uru is made of black rock. Also orbiting the planet is a ring of space docks and shipyards, connected to the surface by space elevators.[3]

See also

Sources

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