95
edits
Changes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
m
Linking, grammar changes, further sourcing
{{QuoteBox
|quote = ''''' You’ve come to a water world and found a grey-green hell like no other. The oceans of Phaedra are choked with islands and in turn the islands are overrun with a wildfire cancer of vegetation – a morass of stinking kelp, strangling vines and towering fungal cathedrals. Worse still, the islands themselves are alive. Just look beneath the waterline and you’ll see them breathing and pulsing.''
|source=-[[Commissar|Veteran Commissar ]] [[Holt Iverson]]'''{{Fn|1b}}
|align = center
}}
|Planetary Image=Unknown.jpg
|Name={{PAGENAME}}
|Segmentum= [[Ultima Segmentum]]{{Fn|1c}}|Sector=Unknown|Subsector=Unknown|System=Unknown|Population=Unknown|Affiliation=Contested[[Imperium of Man]]{{Fn|1j}}
|Class=[[Feral World]], [[Ocean World]]{{Fn|1b}}
|Tithe Grade=Unknown
}}
'''Phaedra''' ('''Fi’draah''' to the [[T’au|t'au]]{{Fn|2}}) is an inhospitable [[Ocean World|ocean world]] noted for its exceptionally difficult biosphere, with only its lack of macropredators or extreme geological events preventing it from being classified as a true [[Death World|death world]].{{Fn|1b}} It is home to the [[Abhuman|abhuman]] [[Saathlaa]] strain and may itself be [[List of sentient species|sentient]].{{Fn|1e}}{{Fn|1b}}
{{Spoiler|source=Fire Caste (Novel)}}''
==Overview==
Located in the [[Eastern Fringe]]{{Fn|1c}} of the Imperium’s [[Ultima Segmentum]], Phaedra is described as a “grey-green hell” and “too lazy to be a death world, too bitter to be anything else”.{{Fn|1b}} Its surface is over eighty-percent water,{{Fn|2}} which takes on a yellow, blotchy, curdled appearance and smells of sewage thanks to glutinous algae blooms,{{Fn|1d}} divided into oceans and typhoon-wracked seas such as the '''Sargaatha'''.{{Fn|1b}}{{Fn|1f}} Ancient coral growths form landmasses, some considered continents, the largest of which is '''[[Dolorosa''']].{{Fn|1b}}{{Fn|2}} This archipelago comprises many islands, notably those designated by the Imperium as '''Topaz''', '''Vermillion''', '''Magenta''', and '''Azure'''.{{Fn|1b}}{{Fn|1c}}{{Fn|1e}}{{Fn|1h}} At least one is large enough to contain an inland sea, named '''Lake Amrythaa''', meaning “Wellspring of Life” in the [[Saathlaa|local tongue]].{{Fn|1j}}
Dense jungles of fleshy trees with bladder-like fronds, caustic '''spidervines''', enormous, omnipresent, bioluminescent fungi, and stinging, anemone-like '''wyrmtrees''' known collectively as the '''Mire''' grow in the grey mud produced by the slow breakdown of dead mega-corals and the constant sticky rain.{{Fn|1b}}{{Fn|1d}}{{Fn|2}} Spores are shed in such numbers from these jungles that both off-worlders and engines often require sophisticated filters to function, particularly in the high-altitude band dubbed the “'''Strangle Zone'''”.{{Fn|1e}}{{Fn|1j}}{{Fn|2}} Narcotics can be rendered from certain spore strains, including the [[Stimm|stimm]] '''Glory'''.{{Fn|1b}} Despite the atmospheric canopy global temperatures never drop low enough for “winter” conditions.{{Fn|1b}}
Snaking its way across Dolorosa is the '''Qalaqexi River''', fed by a tangle of inland tributaries at the heart of the continent. This, the darkest, dense-ist, and most dangerous land on the planet, is called '''Sector 0-31''' by the T’au and the '''Dolorosa Coil''' by the Imperium.
Phaedra is home to a variety of fauna, like the aquatic '''mirewyrm''' and the poisonous '''skrab'''.{{Fn|1b}}{{Fn|1f}} The planet is also a breeding ground for invasive diseases and fungal pathogens, including '''foot rot''', '''gutrot''', '''mire fever''', '''swamp burn''', '''greyscale rash''', and '''splinterskin'''.{{Fn|1j}} Humans, T’aut’au, [[Kroot|kroot]] of various strains, and [[Tyranid|Tyranidstyranids]] have all been infected by various local diseases.{{Fn|1b}}{{Fn|1j}}{{Fn|1k}}{{Fn|2}} One of the rarest- and most extreme- of these found on Phaedra is '''fungal leprosy'''. Only one in a thousand humans have the correct blood type to foster its growth, but once such a person is infested there is no cure.{{Fn|1d}}
===Planetary Sentience===
==History==
Likely found and settled by humans during the [[Dark Age of Technology]], when the [[Imperium of Man]] rediscovered and pacified Phaedra roughly 1,000 years prior to the T’au’s t’au’s arrival, its inhabitants had [[Abhuman|significantly degenerated]] from baseline mankind.{{Fn|1c}} Without access to any stone deposits the population first learned to shape coral, creating cities of globular, organic buildings both above and tunneled deep beneath the surface.{{Fn|1b}} Temples dedicated to now-forgotten gods dominated their districts and outposts, and no jungle plants will grow in a wide radius around them. Eventually these cities were abandoned and their now-tribal inhabitants, calling themselves the [[Saathlaa]], reduced to squatting in villages of igloos built from sticks, stretched animal hides, and fungus, centered around chieftain’s halls.{{Fn|1f}}{{Fn|1g}}{{Fn|1k}}{{Fn|2}}
Limited industrial infrastructure began to be installed by the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] shortly after pacification, including the sizable offshore [[Promethium]] rig-city later known as the '''Diadem'''.{{Fn|1j}} At some point an [[Inquisition]] research base was built in the '''Dolorosa Coil''' and garrisoned by the [[Deathwatch]] of the [[Ordo Xenos]]. Applications for the planet’s infectious fungi were studied there, primarily as weapons and poisons, but the program was abandoned and the station sealed decades before the conflict with the T’au, following disastrous fungus-[[Genestealer]] hybridization and containment breach.{{Fn|2}}
===Conflict with the T’au===
T’au forces lead by the [[Ethereal]] '''Aun’o Hamaan''' engaged the Imperium at Phaedra.{{Fn|1m}}{{Fn|1o}} Through extensive diplomatic work by the [[Water Caste]] diplomats under Por’o Dal’yth Seishin much of the indigenous population and even local Adeptus Mechanicus under '''Magos Kaul''' embraced the [[Greater Good]], forming a pro-[[T’au Empire]] rebellion called the '''[[Wintertide Concordance''']]. This movement, taking its name from legendary [[Fire Warrior]] '''Commander Wintertide''',{{Fn|1b}}{{Fn|1e}}{{Fn|1i}}{{Fn|1j}} was backed by a few thousand Fire Warriors, battlesuits, armor, drones, and [[Cuttlefish transport|Cuttlefish transports]].{{Fn|1j}}{{Fn|1l}} Additionally, contingents of [[Vespid|vespids]], [[Kroot|kroot]], mercenary [[Loxatl|loxatl]], and great numbers of [[Gue%27vesa Auxiliaries|gue’vesa auxiliaries]] provided support, including suicide bombers.{{Fn|1b}}{{Fn|1f}}{{Fn|1g}}
Imperial authorities tasked Imperial Commander '''Zebasteyn Kircher''', self-styled as the “Sky Marshall”, with Phaedra’s second pacification, which he oversees from the crippled [[Imperial Navy]] ship '''Requiem of Virtue''' in orbit.{{Fn|1c}} Over the course of the conflict many [[Astra Militarum]] elements have been deployed, including the 19th [[Arkan Confederates]],{{Fn|1a}} 6th [[Verzante]] [[Verzante Tempest|Tempest]],{{Fn|1b}} [[Iwuijii Jungle Sharks]],{{Fn|1d}} 12th [[Galantai Ghurkas]],{{Fn|1e}} and 77th [[Oberai Redeemers]],{{Fn|1g}} totaling at times one hundred thousand men, most operating out of '''Seabase Antigone''' or the small camp '''Dolorosa Breach'''.{{Fn|1e}}{{Fn|1f}}{{Fn|1l}}
