Gryphonne IV

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Map Basic Data Planetary Image
Galaxy-Rift-Tempestus.jpg
Small cross.pngGryphonne IV[7]
 Name: Gryphonne IV Gryphonne IV.jpg
Segmentum: Segmentum Tempestus[1a]
Sector:
System: Gryphonne System[8a]
Population: 8,520,000,000/0
Affiliation: None
Class: Dead World[2], former Forge World[1a]
Production Grade: II-Extremis[1a]/None
Tithe Grade: Aptus Non[1a]

Gryphonne IV was a major Forge World of the Imperium[1a][2] and the fourth planet of the Gryphonne System.[8] Gryphonne IV was threatened and eventually turned into a Dead World by Hive Fleet Leviathan.[1a][2]

Overview

Gryphonne IV symbol

Before its destruction Gryphonne IV was the home of the Legio Gryphonicus,[1a] fearsomely disciplined Skitarii legions, and could boast the finest defences of any world in the galactic south of the Galaxy.[2] Gryphonne IV was also responsible for designing many of the Imperial Guard's vehicles, for example a Chimera variant armed with an Autocannon[4] or with a twin-linked Heavy Bolters,[1g] and a pattern of the Leman Russ Vanquisher.[1b]

The planetary tithe of the agriworld Tygra once supplied its processed foodstuffs to the Gryphonnen Empire, supplying half the Octad with sustenance.[8h]

The world of Orymous is a world govern by the Officio Logisticarum and is used as a mustering point for Imperial armies and battlefleets. Orymous was once a destination for a sizable portion of Gryphonne IV's output prior to the Octad's destruction.[8h]

The forge-synod of Gryphon IV is ruled by a tribune led by Fabricator General Trantus Kiaron. The other two members of the tribune include Arch-Dominus Arcophili Zane and Supreme Lector Katrovax. All of whom escaped their world's destruction and continue to rule the remnants of the Gryphonnen empire's diaspora. They chose to eventually led the Gryphonnen diaspora fleet to the minor Forge World of Tolkhan to reestablish themselves. In the Era Indomitus and 6 terran years after the Fall of Gryphonne IV, their diaspora fleet still currently occupies the minor Forge World's dockyards with their numerous Gryphonnen refugee packed ships.[8g]

Gryphonnens are known to augment themselves with volucrine bionics, such as foot-claws, clawed hands, pneumatic talons, and reverse-jointed legs. These are formed from artificial musculatures composed of servo-bundles, and offer enhanced mobility for Gryphonnens.[8i][8j][8k]

Known Vassal Worlds

  • Tolkhan[8h]
  • Anquaris - No longer a subservient vassal world after the Octad's destruction by Hive Fleet Leviathan.[8h]

History

Gryphonne IV was founded during the Dark Age of Technology and was able to endure the Age of Strife. By the time the Great Crusade arrived, Gryphonne IV had a small interstellar empire based around the Gryphonne Octad which consisted of eight mineral-rich Systems. Over the millennia, the formidable defences of Gryphonne IV were built up until they rivalled those of Holy Mars itself.[5]

Prior to the Tyranid invasion of Gryphonne IV, Inquisitor Kryptman approached the forge-synod during his apocalyptic rampage virus bombing dozens of worlds and bade Gryphonne IV join the cordon by pre-emptively obliterating their world. The synod refused, trusting the might of their defences.[8e]

Destruction

Main article: Hive Fleet Leviathan

The Tyranid assault on Gryphonne IV began in 066998.M41.[3]

The precursors to Tyranid invasion were identified months before the Hive Fleet's arrival to the Gryphonne System. The primary indicator was the geological instability caused by the xenos' strange form of interstellar travel, which drew upon the gravity of the Gryphonne star itself to pull them towards their goal. The more subtle but no less disruptive actions of Genestealer Cultists were also readily evident. Waves of sabotage, assassination, and ambush erupted within every forge-city and population centre. Genomic perversion among the serf class and running battles with xenos-worshipping sects had burst from the slums and gripped the world in war prior to Hive Fleet Leviathan's arrival.[8a]

The dominars of the forge-synod knew of the Hive Fleet's approach well before its arrival and were not idle in preparation. A call for reinforcements went out to their allies and vassals, tributary worlds, and far-flung fleets to aid in the Forge World's defence.[8a]

Once Hive Fleet Leviathan arrived, the 8 systems of the Gryphonne Octad were simultaneously and similarly assailed by splinter fleets of the greater Hive Fleet. The tributary worlds of the Octad were already stripped of defenders to bolster their capital, Gryphonne IV, and died swiftly.[8b]

In the void of space, the Gryphonnen armada was lead by the Ark Mechanicus vessel Logos and was under the command of Arch-Dominus Arcophili Zane of the forge synod's triumvirate. The Logos served as the flagship of the armada and, encircled by its guardian battlefleet, eviscerated any bio-ships within its range. Despite this wall of death, the endless stream of bio-ships would inevitably flow around it. Thousands of bio-ships would hang in the planet's thermosphere and spill forth millions of Macro-Cannon sized Mycetic Spores, releasing a multitude of bio-forms planetside.[8b]

When the Tyranids made planetfall, a battle of truly epic scales erupted between the alien swarms and Adeptus Mechanicus defenders from the Legio Gryphonicus and Skitarii Legions. The towers and battlements on which the skitarii stood would break and crumble under the sheer weight of tyranid bioforms before the skitarii atop would show any signs of faltering. The heavy weapons and Titans of the Mechanicum took a heavy toll on the invaders, but for each Bio-Titan that fell, one Imperial titan was lost. Despite the resolve of the Tech-priests and the toll their machines reaped on the Tyranids, the Tyranid invasion gathered pace. Slowly but surely, the Imperial defenders were overwhelmed and the mighty titans of the War Gryphons brought down one by one through sheer attrition. Within days, the world was scoured.[3]

Evacuation

Despite the world's fall, not all of Gryphonne IV's defenders were destroyed in the invasion. When it was determined the Forge World could not stop the Tyranids, a handful of Tech-Priests extracted vital blueprints, that would allow them to remake their lost Skitarii Legions, and then fought their way clear of Gryphonne IV, with a few battered cohorts. They have since vowed to continue the Omnissiah's work and scour the Imperium looking for a suitable place to build a new Forge World. Some of Legio Gryphonicus' Titans also managed to escape and later took part in the effort to defend Cadia during the Thirteenth Black Crusade. The Fortress World was destroyed in that conflict though and the final fate of the Legio's Titans is unknown.[5]

In the latter portion of the invasion, the forge-synod judged the xenos threat unable to be defeated and evacuation orders would be given. At this point, the furious battles against the tyranids raged across planet's main continent. The 8.5 billion serfs and workers were the first thing to be abandoned, as they were the most easily replaced resource. Instead, evacuation priority was given to the vast amounts of valuable data, knowledge, and machinery of the world that had been gathered over it's 10,000 years of prosperity. Only those of high rank and sufficient status were permitted to evacuate from the Forge World.[8b]

Explorator Fleet Rhi-Alpha-2 arrived in system during the latter portion of the Tyranid invasion to aid in their homeworld's defence. As the Explorator Fleet passed the planetary orbit of Gryphonne V, still awaiting orders from the forge-synod as how they can assist in the world's defence, their flagship Kurzgesagt instead received orders to assist in the evacuation efforts of Gryphonne IV. Although reluctant to abandon their homeworld, the ductors and ductrixes of the fleet would comply.[8a] Blasting and ramming their way through the veil of bioforms in low orbit, the Explorator fleet entered the thermosphere for only a few minutes, allowing as many vessels as could make it into their hangars as possible. The ships could only stay in this close to the world for a brief window before the gravity of the world and the tyranids would tear their voidships apart. Three of the fleet's ships, including the Kurzgesagt, would either be destroyed or fatally wounded when departing.[8b]

In the wake of the world's evacuation, the Logos and its surviving guardian vessels would serve as the vanguard of the diaspora fleet, leading a caravan of ships thousands of miles long towards the Gryphonne System's secondary Mandeville Point. Although, the assembled armada's power could easily conquer a subsector and rebuild it to the Machine God's design, it was only the paltry remnants of their fallen empire.[8c]

Exodus

In the years following the fall, the refugees of Gryphonne IV had idled, snared by indecision and competing egotism during the most critical period in their history. The venerable magi of the Gryphonnen forge-synod had sought to assign blame for the disaster and fought to set the course of their drifting diaspora. In the first year after the disaster, as the Gryphonnen armada crept from star system to star system hazarding only brief forays into the roiling immaterium, lest they lose what little they had left.[8f]

The diaspora fleet of Gryphonne IV would eventually come to rest in orbit of the Tolkhan, a Gryphonnen vassal and minor forge world. The Logos would become to de facto flagship of Gryphonne IV's diaspora fleet and linchpin for all astropathic communications outside of the flotilla.[8h]

Following the planet's destruction, the forge-synod of the world's Mechanicus re-established itself on the Forge World of Tolkhan.[6b]

Known Reinforcements

  • The Vostroyan 103rd Firstborn regiment, known as the Blackbloods, would answer the Mechanicus call for reinforcements. Of the 4,000 deployed, only 1/3 survived the planet's fall. The majority of the survivors evacuated aboard the coffin ship of the Reaver Titan Atranis, huddling beneath the god-machine’s hunched, broken form as it escaped the hellscape that the forge world had become.[8b]
  • The entirety of House Cadmus' knights would be deployed to Gryphonne IV's defence. During this, 76 Knights were lost and only 27 escaped the world's fall.[6a][10] During the Leviathan's invasion, packs of House Cadmus knights would hunt many Tyranids planetside, lances and chainblades couched and dripping with gore.[8c] One of the fallen Knight Castigator's pilots, Edgar Lorristan, was rescued by the retreating Vostroyan 103rd and dragged to safety aboard a coffin ship.
  • The military forces of Tesla Prime, a Mechanicus weapons testing facility, were evacuated from their world in the face of the oncoming Leviathan invasion. They would bolster the defences of Gryphonne IV, before it too was invaded by Leviathan.[9]

Locations

Sevarista

Sevarista was a foundry-city located on the main continent of Gryphonne IV. Being made up of ancient vaults and towering obelisks, its archives were respected throughout the sector for their assembled wisdom as well as its forges for their metallurgy. It had a population of 700 million prior to the Tyranid invasion.[8c]

Not long after the Forge Synod's order for evacuation, a string of atomic detonations along the great ridge of Sevarista would occur as the foundry-city's generatoria ran wild with unchained radiation and nuclear fire.[8c]

Simurghal

The Basilica Gryphonicus had been a masterpiece of fabrication, as befitted the once-great heart of the Gryphonnen Octad. It had stood at the epicentre of Simurghal, a forge-city purpose-built to be a seat of government, a site untainted by dynastic dispute and rivalry after the bitter strife of the Hermeticon’s War. Its cornerstone had been laid over eight thousand years ago, a solid cube of adamantine whose dimensions precisely conformed to the Prime Unitary System. Its walls and columns had been formed of red-veined Martian granite, each massive block the work of decades to cut, transport, and lay in its place. The oculus of its dome had been inscribed with the Hexamantic Constant around its entire circumference, a labour of devotion that had ensured the inscribing magos’ name survived through the millennia.[8g]

It was the locus of Gryphonne IV and, like everything else on the world, it had been rendered to dust and ash by the tyranids’ devastation.[8g]

The above the circular conclave chamber was the great curve of Nheren's Dome. The tiered levels, sufficient to accommodate ten thousand adherents of the Cult Mechanicus, curved around and about attendees. The rich perfume of promethium and sacred unguents drifted in heavy streamers. Chill air caressed the augmetics of attendees as deftly crafted currents drew excess heat up and away from the assembled magi. The rostrum rose before attendees, encircled at its base by the plinths for the hundred-strong Shirdal Choir. Servo-skulls, cherubim, and familiars of all description moved in flocks above attendees, carrying messages too precious or incendiary to be trusted to anything other than physical transfer.[8g]

The Gyptian Gate of the conclave chamber had doors tall enough to admit the entry of a Questor Mechanicus Knight. From which the forge-synod's ruling tribune would enter and make their way down the processional to take their place at the chamber's rostrum.[8g]

Another portion of Simurghal was the Attaxic Quarter.[8g]

Satellites

The Dioscuri are the twin fortress-moons of Gryphonne IV.[8b]

On the third day of Leviathan's invasion, both would be consumed by the tyranid fleet and later reemerge amidst the invasion swept clean of life. One of the moons, Dioscuri-Alpha was scared by radiological detonations all across its surface and hundreds of bio-ship corpses were left adrift in the planetoid's wake.[8b]

Military

Gryphonne IV Skitarii

The skitarii of Gryphonnen IV were coloured in Gryphonnen cream marked with Mechanicus red and indigo rank-stripes.[8i]

Gryphonne IV patterns

Tanks

See also

Sources

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