Prospero

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Map Basic Data Planetary Image
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Prospero
 Name: Prospero ProsperoPic.jpg
Segmentum: Ultima Segmentum
Sector: Prospero Sector[1]
Subsector: Prospero Subsector
System: Forzare System[4]
Population: Unclear, currently being repopulated[7]
Affiliation: Thousand Sons (Chaos)[7]
Class: Former Dead World and Adeptus Astartes Homeworld
Tithe Grade: N/A

Prospero was the Homeworld of Magnus the Red and his Space Marine Legion, the Thousand Sons. Devastated and depopulated during the Horus Heresy in M31, Prospero remained a Dead World until M42, when the Thousand Sons returned to rebuild it.[7]

History

The Silver Spires of Prospero[11]

In the time of the Great Crusade, the world of Prospero appeared to be a lush, verdant paradise. Its landscape featured vast forests, wide open plains, crystal-clear rivers which flowed through its mountains, and the Prosperine oceans teemed with biological life.[2d] The surface of Prospero was almost entirely abandoned by civilization, however, dotted with the remains of a long-dead culture. Empty cities, made up of hundreds of skeletal frames of iron and stone, were overgrown with forests and vines and former palaces were overrun with wild beasts.[2e]

The Thousand Sons theorized that, thousands of years prior to the Great Crusade, a warp-event triggered an explosion of uncontrolled psychic potential within Prospero's population, which in turn drove the psychneuein, an indigenous species on Prospero, into a feeding frenzy that would ultimately destroy almost all sentient life on Prospero. The only survivors fled to, and fortified, what was then-called “The Tizcan commune,” the last outpost of the planet's civilization, which would become its capital and sole city, Tizca.[2d]

Tizca, a gleaming city of white marble and glass, with spires reaching into the sky, continued to thrive thanks to its citizens ability to harness telekinesis shields that kept the psychneuein at bay.[2d] The world remained unsafe for sentient life beyond the confines of the psychically-protected Tizca.[2e][2c] Thus, the world outside Tizca's walls became known as The Desolation of Prospero.[2a][2e]

Tizca's natural environment was warm, nestled amongst mountains and an ocean bay, and featured a river running through Old Tizca, suggesting a Mediterranean climate. Techno-psychic arrays built into the mountains of Tizca were used to reliably predict and control the weather's climate.[2f] Beneath Tizca's ventral mountain ranges, the psychics of Tizca built massive hydroponic gardens[2d] while techno-psychic collectible arrays provided sustainable energy.[13]

Under the orders of Leman Russ, the Censure Host began the Battle of Prospero by orbitally bombarding the planet in an attempt at exterminatus. The entirety of the Desolation of Prospero was turned into a wasteland in minutes: forests were burned to ash, wild grasslands blazed, mountain ranges vanished, valleys filled with rubble,[2c] and its oceans boiled until no life remained. However, Raptora telekines protected Tizca from all orbital damage, thus requiring the Censure Host to land on the ruined Prospero and commence a ground invasion of Tizca. A grueling battle ensued between the forces of Prospero and the Space Wolves, the Custodian Guard, and their allies, which killed virtually all sentient life in the city. At the climax of the battle, Magnus and Russ would engage in a one-on-one duel. After a fateful blind strike from Russ landed, Magnus was defeated. Before he could be killed, he bargained with Tzeentch to transport himself, his nearby sons who survived, and a duplicate of the now-ruined Tizca to a new Homeworld: the Planet of Sorcerers.[2b]

Later in the Heresy, the White Scars under Jaghatai Khan arrived to investigate what had transpired. They found no survivors from either side and the vengeful ghosts of slain Thousand Sons wandering the ruins of Tizca. The Khan was confronted by a shade of Magnus, who discussed both of their successes and failures and may have been tempting his brother to join the forces of Chaos. After refusing Magnus, Jaghatai then refused the newly arrived Mortarion and the two Primarch's battled as their fleets clashed in space. After a brief but intense battle between Astartes warships, the Death Guard disengaged.[3]

Galactic map during the 12th Black Crusade, with the Prospero Sector and Prospero present[14]

Prospero remained a dead world from that time.[7] Its location marked on at least one Galactic map during the 12th Black Crusade.[14]

By the time of the 13th Black Crusade and the Indomitus Era Prospero had become a hotbed of Warp activity ever since the Planet of the Sorcerers had emerged close to it following the Siege of the Fenris System. Upon the soil of Prospero the Space Wolves and Thousand Sons again came to blows as Njal Stormcaller attempted to rescue a force of Space Wolves 13th Great Company from Magnus the Red[6]. Soritarius was again assaulted shortly after, this time by the Dark Angels and Grey Knights who sought to foil a ritual of the Thousand Sons.[8]

Currently the world is part of Magnus' New Kingdom and the Daemon Primarch has ordered the rebuilding of his devastated home. However, he does not want Prospero rebuilt to its former glory, lost in the Horus Heresy, but instead as an anvil, designed to hammer out the tools of war.[7]

Ecology

Tizca, capital city of Prospero before its destruction.[12]

The psychneuein reproduced by implanting eggs into a host's brain psychically. An infected host would have no idea they'd been implanted until the eggs began to grow, causing severe pain and ultimately, death as the eggs hatched. On only one known occasion has a victim been successfully cured of the implanted psychic eggs. An archaeologist, living in Tizca, had been implanted while outside the city on a day trip. She later collapsed and was taken to a hospital where a team of highly skilled Thousand Sons Astartes were able to use their powers to remove the eggs from her brain in a form of psychic surgery.[2]

Prosperine Lynxes, another native species of fauna, were driven extinct by the Burning of Prospero. More akin to a saber-toothed cat than a Terran lynx in appearance, these large felines were speckle-striped, hugely muscular, and stood chest-high to an Astartes.[9]

Notable Locations

Known military forces

In addition to the Thousand Sons Legion, Prospero was the homeworld for the Prospero Spireguard Solar Auxilia Regiments.[10]

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.

Prospero is the name of a sorcerer in Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

Conflicting Sources

Old lore described Prospero as a desolate, dark planet, where the only good thing about it was its remoteness. Mutants and Psykers were stated to have lived in reclusion and study.[13] This interpretation of Great Crusade-era Prospero is no longer supported by more modern canon sources, such as A Thousand Sons and Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero, which make clear the planet was a verdant world and that Tizca had an active social society, including cafes and restaurants, and was not merely a world of reclusive academics.[2]

Similarly, this old lore described Tizca as being situated on the most central of the many mountains of the planet,[13] though current lore places Tizca alongside an ocean bay,[2] which obviously could not be true if it was located atop a mountain that was surrounded by other mountains.

See also

Sources

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