Krieg

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Targetdrone.gif This article is about the planet; for the novel by Steve Lyons, see Krieg (Novel).
Map Basic Data Planetary Image
Galaxy-Rift-Tempestus.jpg
Small cross.pngKrieg
 Name: Krieg Krieg (planet).jpg
Segmentum: Segmentum Tempestus[3]
Sector: Uhulis Sector[1]
System:
Population:
Affiliation: Imperium[2]
Class: Death World,[9b] former Hive World[9a]

Krieg is the homeworld of the Death Korps of Krieg regiments of the Imperial Guard, notorious throughout the galaxy as grim and fatalistic warriors.[3][4] The planet is directly controlled by the Departmento Munitorum, who gear it entirely towards war.[6]

History

Krieg's earliest history is unknown and shrouded in mystery and rumour. Much of its historical records have been lost to time or deliberately purged.[6] What is known is that Krieg was previously a prosperous Hive World of billions located in Segmentum Tempestus, specialising in manufacture and trade and led by a council of Autocrats. However, as time passed, the debauched and decadent Autocrats began to become paranoid that an outside threat would take their power away from them, and thus began to increasingly fortify the world from outside threats. Eventually, the Autocrats also began to resent the influence of the Administratum on a planet that they considered to be their own.[2]

Finally, in 433.M40, the High Autocrat declared himself independent from the Imperium and renounced the Emperor as his divine master. Civil war broke out on Krieg and much of the planet quickly fell to the rebels except for Hive Ferrograd, which was under the command of the now-infamous Colonel Jurten of the Krieg 83rd Imperial Guard regiment. Under strict orders to not let Krieg fall, but in the knowledge that no fleet on the scale needed to relieve them was available, Jurten decided that Krieg would either belong to the Emperor or to no one. On the day of the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, Jurten unleashed a counter-attack of atomic cleansing in what became known as "the Purging." For days Krieg was engulfed in a sea of nuclear fire, resulting in a total collapse of its ecosystem and subsequent nuclear winter, but the civil war dragged on. The survivors from the Purging would fight on but were forced to exist in underground bunkers or deep in the radioactive chem-wastes, as their descendants do to this day. From the self-annihilation of their homeworld, loyalist troops slowly retook their world inch by inch over the course of 500 years until finally returning to Imperial rule in 949.M40. It would be from this cataclysmic event that the Death Korps of Krieg were born.[2]

In the aftermath of the war, the Departmento Munitorum took direct control of Krieg and directed it entirely towards supporting the perpetual Imperial war effort, raising its Tithe grade to the maximum. Immediately after the conflict, they demanded twenty full Regiments from the devastated world to deploy for campaign. Krieg paid these without hesitation, and the Munitorum was pleased to find at how well they proved themselves in combat. Krieg's debt was not yet over, and since the end of their shame they have ceaselessly provided Guardsmen and war material. Those unable to serve are consigned to work in the industrial forges below Krieg's surface.[6]

Overview

There’s a planet in the Segmentum Tempestus. Nothing grows there. Nobody lives there who can choose otherwise. They don’t make art, or goods, or weapons. What they make there are monsters. Monsters who worship death.


As a result of its cataclysmic civil war, Krieg itself remains a barren death world, wracked by radiation storms and uninhabitable toxicity levels. Much of the population growth on Krieg is undertaken by the Vitae Womb system.[1][2] Krieg produces next to no psykers, though wether this is due to the conditions on Krieg or due to systemetic culling of the 'genelost' remains unknown.[8a]

With its surface an uninhabitable ruin, the population of Krieg now lives entirely underground in subterranean cities which support forges to churn out war material for the Imperial Guard.[8a] Life on Krieg is exceptionally grim, even for the standards of the Imperium. Its grim but stoic population subsists only on nutrient slime and vat-grown gruel, and even these are carefully rationed and in short supply. Exhaustion, malnutrition, and industrial accidents keep the life expectancy for a civilian only scarcely higher than for a Krieg soldier on the front. However such is the stoic, repentant, and self-sacrificial nature of the people of Krieg that few complain about the misery of their existence. Most toil with a religious fervor and any who show a hint of discontent are viewed as social pariahs. This has made Krieg a place where rebellion is all but unheard of, despite its miserable conditions.[2]

Culture

The people of Krieg have felt an eternal shame ever since their civil war, and this manifests into a stoicism and acceptance to expend their own lives in order to regain their honour in the eyes of the Emperor. All citizens of Krieg are expected to further the Imperium's endless wars, with even the infirm, wounded, or too weak to serve in the army contributing to the war effort through taking part in production. Those capable of fighting are drilled in warfare from early childhood and heavily indoctrinated so that their identity is subsumed by this culture.

Names

Names are rarely used with Kriegsmen usually only referred to by an identifying number,[7] either given at birth[7][Conflicting sources], or upon induction into the Astra Militarum.[8b][Conflicting sources] There are a few ways in which a Kriegsman can obtain (or re-earn) a name; they can be promoted to an officer[7], be martyred, or conduct an act of bravery.[8b]

The Krieg believe that these names are how the Emperor will recognise them upon their death. It is not certain, but believed by outsiders, that the Krieg choose their names to match one of the loyalists of Colonel Jurten. The Krieg see having a name as great honour that almost no award or commendation could equal.[8b]

Trivia

TriviaScrollTrans.png

The following information is not to be regarded as officially sanctioned and/ or is not written from an in-universe point of view. A detailed explanation of the term "Trivia" as used in the Lexicanum can be found here.

  • Krieg is the German word for "war."

Conflicting sources

See also

Sources

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