Yanth
| Map | Basic Data | Planetary Image | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Name: | Yanth | 
|
| Segmentum: | Segmentum Obscurus[1] | ||
| Sector: | Askellon Sector[1] | ||
| Subsector: | Stygies Cluster[1] | ||
| System: | |||
| Population: | |||
| Affiliation: | Imperium of Man,[1] Adeptus Mechanicus,[1] Kroot[1] | ||
| Class: | Death World,[1] Jungle World[1] | ||
| Tithe Grade: | |||
Yanth is a heavily vegetated Death World in the Askellon Sector, which is home to predatory plants, deadly insects, and a population of Kroot.[1]
Overview
Despite the planet's extremely hostile natural conditions, permanent settlements have been established on its surface in order to harvest its native plant life, as several local species were discovered by a team of Magos Biologis to possess powerful healing properties. The Adeptus Mechanicus maintains several outposts to harvest these plants, which is done through automated servitors that experience a high attrition rate to the planet's flora and fauna. In addition to the tech-priests, at least seven organisations of Rogue Traders and two distinct smuggling rings have established themselves on Yanth to gain access to its resources. These groups have mostly avoided one another, but escalations in competition are expected as the price of the medicinal plants rises. Retrieval of these plants is often complicated by the fact that they tend to grow in remote locations and close to dense populations of dangerous insects.[1]
In addition to the Imperials, Yanth is home to a population of Kroot led by a Shaper named Ennuk. The Kroots' means of arrival to the planet is not known, although they may have arrived from a crashed Warsphere since claimed by the jungle. The Kroot make their homes in the canopies of Deondel trees, some of the planet's only non-carnivorous flora, in villages decorated with the remains of Yanth's deadly predators. Ennuk has come to view Yanth and its dangerous, constantly adapting fauna as an endless source of adaptations for his tribe, and does not plan to leave the world anytime soon. The Kroot have come in contact with both Imperial and alien agents since their establishment on Yanth, to whom they have sold their services both as guides in the world's jungles and as mercenaries elsewhere in the sector, although they always return to their tribe and Ennuk eventually to share their acquired genetic traits.[1]
Environment and fauna
Yanth is a tropical planet whose land is entirely covered by dense jungles inhabited by predatory plants and insects. These forests contain an extremely diverse ecosystem, within which is a greater variety of plants than anywhere else in the Askellon Sector. While some mammalian and reptilian creatures are present, the majority of Yanth's native animals are arthropods.[1]
Most of the plants on Yanth are actively carnivorous, and feed primarily on the planet's insectoid fauna. The world's diversity of carnivorous plants includes trees that use tendrils to ensnare prey and pull it into their maws, bushes that utilize poisonous barbs to stun and subdue prey that they digest with microbes that corrode the carapaces of their insect prey, and vines that grow in latticeworks above rivers and dangle nets to grab animals that come to the water to drink.[1]
Many of Yanth's native plants have valuable medical properties. The roots of the Absolla tree, a carnivorous plant that grows mainly in northern areas of the planet's main continent, can be ground into a paste that helps to rapidly regenerate flesh. Windreth vines are bright purple plants that grow in geometric patterns across the cliff faces of Windreth Falls, and contain fluids that can be used to create an elixir that mends ruined flesh. The Hypoletta bush, which grows near toxic lakes on the southern continent, produces seeds that, if ground and mixed with salt water, release a potent anaesthetic gas. Dusk leaf is a purple weed that, if dried and ground, can be smoked or injected to create an intensely pleasurable and addictive sensory effect.[1]
The insects of Yanth, in turn, feed off of its plants, creating a constant cycle of competition where neither side can establish itself as dominant for long before the other develops new traits to attack it. The planet's insects range in size from ones smaller than a bolter shell to species much larger than a Chimera tank; many of these reach sizes that are significantly in excess of what would be expected from its environmental conditions, such as its oxygen levels. In addition to terrestrial and flying species, many insects have adapted to aquatic life, either swimming in deep waters or moving along their surfaces.[1]
The most feared insectoid predator on Yanth is the render, a creature that dwarfs tanks in size and that is protected by an exoskeleton that can deflect lascannon shots. Renders are burrowing predators that move rapidly through the earth using their hundreds of rows of teeth, which can grind through rock. On the surface, they move rapidly using two rows of razor-sharp claws. Many render colonies can be found on the planet's northern continent, close to the growing area of the Absolla tree. Envelopers, also known as stickyflies, are flying insects that can spit a strong glue from openings behind their mandibles, which require heavy-duty solvents and acids to dissolve. Large numbers of envelopers nest at Windreth Falls, in rocky hollows covered by the area's dense vines. Razorclaw beetles, another flying species, have talons sharp enough to sever heads and limbs without slowing the creature's flight.[1]
See also
Sources
- 1: Dark Heresy Second Edition: Enemies Without, pgs. 98-101
