Port Maw (planet)
| Map | Basic Data | Planetary Image | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Name: | Port Maw | 
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| Segmentum: | Segmentum Obscurus[1d] | ||
| Sector: | Gothic Sector[1d] | ||
| Subsector: | Port Maw Subsector[1d] | ||
| System: | Port Maw System[1d] | ||
| Population: | Over 200 Billion[1e] | ||
| Affiliation: | Imperium[1e] | ||
| Class: | Hive World[1e] | ||
| Tithe Grade: | |||
Port Maw refers both to the Imperial hive world, its three large Naval Stations (one of which is the Nexus System - Fleet Command for Battlefleet Gothic and the Gothic Sector's largest shipyard and repair station), and its significant support network of orbital stations and installations.[1e] Located within what is now the Port Maw Subsector, it is currently the sector capital of the Gothic Sector of Segmentum Obscurus.[2] During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, it served as a major naval installation for what was then the Coronid Deeps.[3b]
An artificial planetoid[Conflicting sources], Port Maw distantly orbits around a larger and (at least during the Great Crusade) more habitable planet called Æstellica.[3a]
History
The Great Crusade
An artificial planetoid, port maw was discovered by the 60th Expeditionary Fleet in a region of space then known as the Coronid Deeps. Observing the 500 kilometre wide aperture in the planet's surface, giving it the appearance of a vast fanged mouth, the members of the fleet would give it its eponymous name: Port Maw.[3a]
In 001.M31, in the final years of the Great Crusade, an Imperialis Armada facility would begin construction at the direct behest of the Officio Astra, as part of a strategic plan to consolidate fleet assets and operational structures in the region following the triumph of the Ullanor Crusade and the appointment of Horus Lupercal as Warmaster. It was intended for Port Maw to become one of the most powerful naval facilities in the entire northern Imperium. The hollow artificial planetoid offered unparalleled defence against assault to developments and facilities inside its core, while construction began on vast trans-orbital dockyards, battlestations and provender belts in the surrounding star system.[3a]
War Fleet of the Port Maw Armada
Port Maw's fleet anchorage would be one of a handful of massive fleet bases situated on the borders of the Imperium. Though still dwarfed by Battlefleet Solar, they were built by an Imperium that had largely conquered the galaxy, rather than one which set out to conquer it. At least one of these was built in each Segmentum Majoris, with more planned, to hold and defend a galaxy so hard fought over. As such, they functioned as ports of supply and muster, command-and-control, and as home bases for a permanent armada of warships with their own armies of Auxilia troops. They would serve as a source of deep range patrols and rapid-reaction forces to respond to sudden threats such as civil-disturbances, rebellion, or attacks from within or without the Imperium's new borders.[3e]
The Port Maw armada outnumbered and likely out-gunned any single Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade, at least on paper. Made up of several hundred first and second rate ships of the line, various cruisers and assault vessels intended to dominate 'small wars' and conduct long patrols, as well as frigates and destroyers meant for escort duty, destroy marauders, and hunt those who would disturb the Emperor's Peace. Such fleets possessed fewer large capital class ships than the conquest forces of the Great Crusade, but those they did possess were often powerful examples of the type, such as Goliath- and Legatus-class battleships - strong support-intensive designs that had been replaced in frontline service by Gloriana and Victory patterns.[3e]
Unlike the fleets of the Legiones Astartes, Explorator Fleets, and Rogue Traders, these fleets were defensive in nature, able to be piecemealed into smaller commands as needed and were manned by Solar Auxilia almost exclusively, without any transhuman (i.e. Astartes) components, and outside the typical command structure of the great crusade. Their Grand Admirals and Lord Marshalls operated under orders directly from the Council of Terra, and were equal or greater in authority to the Lord Commanders of individual planets their ships protected. Of course, in practice, it was a foolish Grand Admiral that did not defer to a Primarch or an emissary of the Terran Court or Mars, but this represented a growing distance between the nascent Imperium's forces of conquest and those of defence. As such, the Traitors influence on these forces in the opening of the Horus Heresy were lessened. This would be demonstrated during the Horus Heresy where those traitor elements of Port Maw's Warfleet that turned were conducted by a minority mutiny or by cadre's of traitor officers, rather than wholesale forces swearing to the Warmaster.[3e]
By the time of the Manachean War, Port Maw's War Fleet included a score of battleships, dozens of squadrons of cruisers, countless hundreds of escort craft, and thousands of servitor-drone tenders, provision ships, troop transports and orbital lighters.[3d]
Horus Heresy
In the early stages of the Horus Heresy, where much of the Imperium was kept in the dark regarding the attrocity at Isstvan and word of Horus' betrayal reaching Terra itself, Port Maw was used as a layover and resupply station for the fleets which would be deployed to the ill-fated punitive mission to Isstvan V.[3b]
The great construction works project surrounding Port Maw was far from complete by the start of Lupercal's war on the Imperium. Nevertheless, Port Maw was already operational in some limited capacity as a naval supply base and muster station, even as the very first drops of blood were being shed at Isstvan. Hundreds of millions of workers as well as planet-side administration and support staff were already firmly established on the habitable planet of Æstellica which Port Maw orbited around.[3a] Most importantly, it alongside the rest of the Coronid deeps could call upon regiments kept to the standards of the Solar Auxilia pattern, thanks to the high technological and industrial basis of the Manachean Commonwealth allowing for such troops to be supplied and maintained.[3b]
Horus had not left Port Maw outside of his schemes for rebellion. Traitor Agents were already embedded throughout the Coronid Deeps.[3b] By the time of the Isstvan III attrocity, Horus had already used his influence as Warmaster to have elements of Port Maw's armada scattered on deep patrols in space or chasing rumours of threats. By 006.M31 efforts by Port Maw to recall their fleet were greatly disrupted by the warp turbulence so infamously associated with the Horus Heresay, and their fleets found the shadowy threats they chased now very much real.[3c]
When the war finally arrived to Port Maw, Archmagos-Astral Leit Mercuric, secretly aligned to Horus, would use Port Maw's powerful Control Panopticon to devastating the assembling Coronids Deep fleet at Port Maw, until was at last disabled by the 905th Lethe Cohort and then destroyed by the Kurga under the orders of Grand Admiral Ospheus LaBray.[3d]
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Post Heresy
Port Maw now functions as the Gothic Sector's main naval base, acting as the headquarters for Battlefleet Gothic. The planet is encircled by hundreds of defensive systems, including monitor ships, minefields and defence satellites, which rendered it impregnable during the 12th Black Crusade, otherwise known as the Gothic War. However, the forces of Chaos were able to blockade the planet for almost the whole length of the war.[2] Port Maw also maintains defence space stations throughout the sector, such as those orbiting Verstap and Luxor, which are rare exceptions to the usual hegemony of the Imperial Navy and Adeptus Mechanicus in controlling such structures.[1b]
Images
Port Maw Imperial Space Station and Star Fort[5]
A ship docking at Port Maw[3]
Miniatures
Port Maw Imperial Space Station and Star Fort
Trivia
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- Port Maw as portrayed in the Battlefleet Gothic: Armada (Video Game) appears to be visually inspired by the depiction of Port Wander in the Fantasy Flight Games Rogue Trader RPG.
Conflicting sources
- The image on the Battlefleet Gothic Rulebook and Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition Rulebook both depict a typical planet,[1d][2] making no reference to any sort of hollow world as the later The Horus Heresy (Game) would.[13]
- It is not impossible the pictured image may instead be Æstellica, its name during the Great Crusade having given way to the much more famed Port Maw by the Gothic War.[3a]
Port Maw as depicted in the Battlefleet Gothic Rulebook[1d]
Port Maw as depicted in the 40k 4th edition rulebook.[2]
See also
Sources
- 1: Battlefleet Gothic Rulebook
- 2: Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition Rulebook, pg. 119
- 3: The Horus Heresy Book Four - Conquest
- 4: Battlefleet Gothic: Invasion pg. 10-11
- Same image also in White Dwarf 283 (UK), pgs. 86-87 – Battlefleet Gothic: Port Maw - New Battlefleet Gothic scenario and superb terrain piece
- 5: Battlefleet Gothic: Armada (Video Game)
- 6: The Horus Heresy Book Six - Retribution