Tranch

Tranch is a minor Hive World in the Calixis Sector, whose ruling elite, the Oligarchs of Tranch, maintained the output of the their furnace hives by the use of a massive, enslaved mutant population and a downtrodden worker underclass kept in check by brutal controls and oppression. So harsh were their methods that the Oligarchs became a byword for tyranny. Such was the arrogance of the Oligarchs, and their confidence in their bloody-handed rule, that they did not dream the mutants and the worker underclass could mount more than the weakest challenge to their enslavement. Nor did they consider it foolish to leave the mutant population largely alone, contained in the lawless deeps of the Soot Warrens that descended into the bowels of Tranch’s hives. After all, their reasoning went, they would always need a large population to meet their production demands, and the huge level of fatalities inherent in their industrial process required a steady stream of replacement workers.

History
For centuries, matters in the furnace-hot darkness beneath Tranch’s hives worsened, and murmurs of discontent started to echo among the vast masses whose lives of brutality, poverty, and misery left them little to lose. Meanwhile, hidden in the deeps, an increasing number of the Tranch–born mutants displayed a tendency towards witchery and wild psyker talents.

Unknown to the Oligarchs, a group who called themselves the Shroud Masters sprang up amongst the mutant population. It remains unknown whether they were newborn in the sweltering blackness of the Soot Warrens or if they slipped in unnoticed from elsewhere, but swiftly their power grew and they began to make preparations to bring down Imperial rule on Tranch and bathe the Oligarchs’ realm in blood. Those the “Shrouds” recruited to their cause they called the “Pale Throng”—an apt description for the numberless ranks of those that toiled in the sunless depths of Tranch’s hives. The rebellion began with a sudden ferocity, as if a lit fuse had reached a powder keg, and the forces of order were beaten back, surrounded, and slaughtered. Hordes of twisted freaks, including powerful witches and horrors, rose up to overwhelm and butcher the hive’s population, carving a bloody path through the upper hives. Within weeks, a Hive World of billions spun out of the Imperium’s control and saw millions dead. A full scale counter-insurgency operation was launched by forces drawn from across the sector, ultimately crushing the Pale Throng’s rebellion in a conflict that would become renowned for its savagery and cost in lives. The progress of the war on Tranch and the Imperium’s largely pyrrhic victory is a matter of recent history, as are the ongoing policing actions trying to bring the now largely ruined hive world back fully into the fold of Imperial rule. As for the Oligarchs and their tyranny, they have been consigned to bitter history, as those that did not fall in the rebellion were purged by the Imperium for their evident dereliction of rule.

These facts of the Pale Throng’s existence and the Tranch War’s horrors are widely known. What has remained secret is the extent to which these shifts in the tide of violence on Tranch were the product of the great intellect, skill, and sickening use of warp power wielded by the Shroud Masters that allowed them to control their forces as if they were part of a single body, as well as divine their enemies’ purposes and so bring the Imperial forces to near collapse. Were it not for the implosion of the Shroud Council and the subsequent fragmentation of the rebel forces, Tranch may well have fallen before the Imperium could respond fully. Ultimately the loss of their overlords crippled but did not destroy the mutant forces, and the years of horror and bloodshed ground on, leaving Tranch the scarred and violated place it is to this day.

Departmento Cartographicae Planetary Database

 * Galactic Position: 16/17/CS/W
 * Equatorial circumference:   11,500 Miles.
 * Population:  7,712,000,000 approx.
 * Society: The Haal-Lorden are a trade guild from Tranch.
 * Contact with Other Worlds: There is a stable Warp tunnel between Tranch and the sector capital of Scintilla. There are also warp tunnels connecting Tranch to Spectoris and 88 Tanstar.