Dusk
Gods of the warp strike me down if I ever return to that place. Oh we landed hard and well armed; a score of us—killjacks and pirates every one. We took the cutter down to where the tip-off said the deal was happening...empty, nothing but rotten shacks...nothing! Then that devil fog rolled in and all hell broke loose. I made it out running blind—the screams and the laugher and the awful mocking things all around me! Could have been days, could have been hours, I don’t know...it was the old hag that dragged me out of the fog, and my left eye she took in payment, but at least I was gone from that haunted place!
| Map | Basic Data | Planetary Image | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Name: | Dusk[1b] | 
|
| Segmentum: | Segmentum Obscurus | ||
| Sector: | Calixis Sector[1b] | ||
| Subsector: | Malfian Sub-Sector[1b] | ||
| System: | Dusk System | ||
| Population: | Unknown[2a] | ||
| Affiliation: | Imperium[1b] | ||
| Class: | Feral World[1b] | ||
| Tithe Grade: | |||
Dusk is an Imperial Feral World,[1b] on the very edge of the Halo Stars.[2a] It is seen as accursed[1a] and is known for the extreme hostility of its native creatures. Amongst certain Rogue Traders and Chartist captains “A walk on Dusk” has become a byword for horrible and painful death.[1c]
Contents
Overview
Dusk is a place of trackless fens, mist-drenched forests, and moss-shrouded wooded swamps. Theoretically a prime candidate for conversion to mass agriculture, but each attempt (going as far back as the days of Angevin’s crusade) has met with disaster, suffering and death, making the world’s very name synonymous with ill-omen, sinister mystery and folly.[2a]
Dusk was visited by Elana the Unshaken, an Imperial Missionary who made it her lifelong goal to bring the word of the Emperor to the dark places of the Imperium. It is said that she bore a scar for each world she visited, and that upon Dusk she was savaged by predators whilst travelling in the wilderness.[1][2h]
Confirmed incidents of the Mara Strain Psychneuein have occurred on Dusk.[1f]
While Inquisitor Erya Nephthys was on Dusk she suffered terrible events and had to spend a full year convalescing after that.[2g]
The Dusk Hag
The Dusk Hag is a local Warp-entity that people can make Dark Pacts with. The legend say that if you should risk the journey into the deepest, most trackless swamps with hatred and desire burning in your heart, you might come to the black hollow where she dwells. It is said that her price is paid in flesh, sinew and bone, but her curses can strike death and terror worlds away, and all the secrets that men whisper in the night are hers. Just a legend perhaps, on a world shrouded in countless dark fables, but still petitioners seek her out and some return, maimed and mutilated, but filled with dark purpose.[1a]
The Rogue Trader, Erasmus Haarlock, would seek out the Dusk Hag to find an answer to how he could return his murdered family from death. After paying an unknown price to the Dusk Hag, she would reveal that only by travelling to the heart of Komus the Tyrant Star via his Blind Tesseract's portals could he put an end to his desires, but warned that he would be utterly destroyed.[4]
Known Flora and Fauna
- Dusk Stalker[1d]
- Glo-Slug of Dusk - The glo-slugs can be found in the swamps that cover the world of Dusk. In the water they are quite unremarkable, looking like a giant brown or black slug. Like much of Dusk's native fauna, the slugs are carnivorous and spend their lives searching for dead creatures to slime over and digest. When removed from the water the slug's skin immediately gives off a phosphorous white glow.[1][2c]
- Nightwing[1e] - a predator that produce a potent narcotic dust that they use to subdue their prey, lulling them into a nightmarish stupor, while the haemovoric animal quickly sucks them dry. Captured or slain nightwings are harvested of this substance and then concentrated into a powerful and prohibited drug known as night dust.[2d]
- Duskan Mist Drake: A creature that can attack humans and whose jaws lock until either they or their prey are dead.[3b]
- Boraxis: A bio-toxin; a controlled Xenos substance that is not allowed off-world.[3a]
Known Exports
Dusk sends hard-bitten feral warriors to the Imperial Guard as part of its tithe.[2b]
Planetary Data
- Galactic Position: 144269/CS/SW.[1g]
Contact With Other Worlds
There are no stable warp routes between Dusk and other planets of the Calixis Sector, though Malfi is the nearest major planet.[1g]
See also
Sources
- 1: Dark Heresy Core Rulebook:
- 2: Dark Heresy: The Inquisitor's Handbook:
- 2a: pg. 22 - Chapter I - Advanced Character Creation - Unique Worlds of the Calixis Sector
- 2b: pg. 62
- 2c: pg. 103 - Chapter III – Feral & Feudal Worlds : Gear
- 2d: pg. 129 - Chapter IV – Hive & Forge Worlds : Drugs
- 2e: pg. 150
- 2f: pg. 155
- 2g: pg. 190
- 2h: pg. 208 - Chapter VIII - Religion & Superstition : The Holy
- 2i: pg. 226
- 3: Dark Heresy: Purge the Unclean:
- 4: Dark Heresy: Dead Stars, pg. 8
Uncited
 |
- Black Industries' Calixis Sector: Dusk (saved archive page, dated 3 February 2008, last accessed 9 July 2024)
