Before the war

Telos

The planet Telos is located on the border of a wild space region between Segmentum Solar and Segmentum Pacificus. Although technically part of sub sector Naultalus, Telos is quite far from the other planets in the sector. Telos itself has undergone terraforming at some point in its past carried out an unknown species and appears to still be going on. Without this terraforming Telos would be a frozen snowball with gravity less than half that of Terra, however, due to the terraforming a wide equatorial band of the planet instead forms a large tropical jungle and the gravity in this area is slightly more than Terra standard. These conditions are believed to be maintained by a number of alien artefacts found on the border of the habitable area’s which are currently being studied by the Adeptus Mechanicus. The planet is home to a field which interacts badly with imperial antigravity technology and even reduces the effectiveness of other flying technologies forcing most of the travel over the planet’s surface to be via land. The planet is rich is various metallic ore’s including some which are not found on any of the other local planets.

As well as a number of local species which seem to be evolved from Terra standard organisms suggesting the planet may have first been colonised during the dark age of technology the planet is also home to both humans and a population of wild orks. The majority of the human population lives in one of eight hive cities founded by imperial colonists, see below. A sizable majority of ‘native’ humans live outside of the hives in their own mobile settlements. Small Ork settlements dot the planet but are destroyed whenever imperial or native forces find them.

The imperial presence on the planet is relatively new, the planet was rediscovered by the imperium just over 300 years ago. A troop convoy sent to join the newly forming Invicticus crusade were caught in a warp storm and forced into real space. The convoy consisting of 4 troop ships and 2 escort destroyers appeared at the edge of the Telos system. As it was unknown how long the storm would continue the commanding officer decided to investigate the system and soon discovered a planet overrun by Orks but harbouring small tribes of humans who had not yet seen the emperors light. The leader of the guard contingent Lord General Odin Sarsgaard of Valhalla decided to mount an invasion to drive back the Orks and bring the planet into the Imperium. Over 10 years of hard fighting the Ork forces were decimated and the surviving guard forces had founded a number of cities on the planet. A few years later the storm abated and contact was re-established with the rest of the imperium.

Telos is classed as an imperial world although predictions are that it will become a true hive world in a little under a millennia. The major industry of Telos is mining and military vehicle construction which makes up the vast majority of its tithe to the Imperium. The metallic ore found beneath Telos’s crust produces particularly strong armour and over 10% of all tanks used in the sub sector are produced in Telos. The surface of Telos is particularly dense making conventional mining difficult and most of Telos’s hives are formed around a weakness or breach that allows access to the ore beneath. Telos has also been subject to 3 imperial guard founding’s to date which have served with honour.

The capital of Telos is New Valhalla the city formed by Lord General Odin Sarsgaard and the remainder of his Valhalla regiments once the planet had been secured. Odin was made the first lord governor of the planet and the other cities scattered about the planet were formed by the survivors of the other regiments.

Cities

At the start of the insurrection Telos contained a total of eight major hive cities as well as a number of smaller plantations and native habitations spread throughout its surface. The majority of the major cities were built on top of mines which delved into the planets crust and harvested the many precious metals which make up the planet which were used to produce fighting vehicles which were supplied to a number of worlds throughout the sector. The major cities were: -

Katham

Katham is the third largest city on the planet and was founded by an imperial guard regiment from the planet Hephaestus near the galactic centre. Hephaestus is a rocky world and its people formed some of the planet’s most productive mines below the city. Unlike the other hive cities rather than being a single structure Katham is formed of dozens of small cities each housed in a separate mountain and linked below ground via a network of tunnels. Each sub city has its own population and cultural differences between each city can be significant, some cities are only open to the nobility while others may house the common workers who produce the wealth of the city and others ruled by the machanicus.

New Valhalla

New Valhalla is the largest city and the planetary capital being the home of the Odinson family, the current planetary governors. The city was originally built to the peak of a tall mountain but has since spread down to ground level and hollowed out the entire peak. The top of the city houses a space elevator linked to a space station in orbit. This allows cargo to be quickly and efficiently taken out of the gravity well-meaning most of the planets exports are taken to the city for embarkation. The headquarters of most of the organs of imperial society can be found in this city with the exception of the ecclesiarchy who have their home in the city of Vaga. Gotham – Gotham is the second smallest of the hive cities but the only one to contain a space port although it is small in comparison to those on other imperial worlds. Given the dangerous effects of the Telos environment on imperial flight technology the spaceport is only used by the desperate and often illegal traders leading to the city having a large black market and is home to many smuggling operations. In response the Adaptus Arbitus have a large precinct in the city.

Aquatica

Unlike many of the other hive cities Aquatica’s many product is not weapons but food. The city was originally set up on a small island in an inland sea and has since grown beyond the shoreline and is partially submerged. The city contains many large algae forms and also docks for a massive shipping fleet. It is linked to the rest of the planet via a large bridge where food is exported to many of the other cities.

Vaga

Vaga was founded on the site of the last battle between the imperial guard forces and the native ork population of Telos. The orks had arrived hundreds or thousands of years earlier in a crashed space hulk. So violent was its arrival that it cracked the crust of the planet and allowed access to the Ore below. Telos started life as a shrine to those who fell defeating the ork and then had added living space and mines added leading to the current city. This has left the city very religious in nature with the Ecclisarchy having set up their planetary headquarters in the city and having significant influence on the population and rulers of the city.

Shogun

Shogun in the second largest city on the planet and has traditionally had a rivalry with New Valhalla as it was the original planetary capital although it was soon replaced by New Valhalla when the space elevator was built. Originally settled by the survivors of two Cadian regiments Shogun has remained many of its population’s traditions including total conscription. Every member of the city’s population is required to serve in the PDF for a minimum of 3 years. The city is also a manufacturing hub its production is second to New Valhalla but is greater per capita; it also produces heavier equipment and vehicles than most of the other cities.

Narnia

Like Shogun Narnia was settled by a regiment from Cadia and have a strong alliance with that city although it retains a less martial culture. Unlike the majority of the other hive cities Narnia does relatively little weapon production. Instead its population process plant materials from the jungles in the south into promethium, at any time several billion litres of fuel are stored in the tanks below the hive ready to be transported to the other hives.

Babel

Babel is the smallest of the hive cities and unlike the rest was founded by several small regiments leading to a more cosmopolitan feel. Unlike many other cities it is not founded in a mountainous area instead it is built into a volcano allowing access to the riches below the planet’s surface.