Mundus Planus

Mundus Planus is the formal Imperial High Gothic name for the Feudal World its inhabitants call Chogoris, the homeworld of the White Scars Space Marine Chapter, which lies in the Ultima Segmentum of the galaxy.

Birthworld of the Khan
The ancient text known as the Liber Historica Vangelia records that Jaghatai Khan arrived at a world in the Segmentum Pacificus designated by Imperial cartographers as Mundus Planus, but known to its inhabitants as Chogoris. It was, and still is, a fertile world with lush greenery, soaring mountains and azure seas, which, at the time of the Great Crusade, had achieved a level of technology commensurate with the Late Medieval or early Renaissance periods during Old Earth's Age of Progress in which black powder weapons had only recently been introduced. A Census Imperialis of the day records that the dominant Chogorian empire at this time was an organized aristocracy which had conquered most of the planet with well-equipped and highly disciplined armies. Armoured horsemen and densely packed blocks of infantry had won every campaign their ruler, the Palatine, had fought.

To the west of Palatine`s empire was a vast, wind-blown steppe, known as the Empty Quarter, home to nomadic tribes of savage horsemen who for centuries had roamed the vast grasslands. The tribes of the steppes lived in tents and followed a cycle of seasonal migration from summer pastures to protected winter valleys in the Khum Karta Mountains. Consummate horsemen and archers, these disparate tribes frequently fought one another for control of ancestral pastureland or - as Ogedei`s Opus would have it - the sheer joy of battle. Chogorian armies had never invaded the Empty Quarter as the dry and desolate lands were of no value to the Palatine. However, Chogorian nobles would often lead hunting bands into the steppes and take whole tribes east as slaves or capture a lone tribesmen to hunt through the mountains for sport. Many passages in the White Scars text, The Great Khan, are devoted to detailing the full extent of Chogorian atrocities. The blood rituals and sacrifices described within these passages have led many Imperial scholars to postulate that the Palatine`s empire may have been dedicated to worship of the Dark Gods.

The Legend of Jaghatai Khan
Jaghatai Khan`s legend began near the Quonon river when Ong Khan, the leader of a small tribe known as the Talskars, encountered the Primarch. He believed that the glowing child was a gift from the gods and took him into his family and named him Jaghatai. It was said of Jaghatai that since his early childhood he had a `fire in his eyes`, a Talaskar term for a great warrior. It was also said about him that rival tribes hated the child because he had the wisdom to see beyond the constant warfare of the steppes.

Jaghatai eventually rose to bocame Khan of the Talaskars and fought many battles against Chogorian hunting bands and other tribes of the steppes. Each defeated tribe was brought within the Talaskars and became part of his army. His military talents and the sheer force of his personality won him many followers and soon his warriors numbered like the stars, the army becoming known as the Mathuli, a Talaskar word meaning `irresistible force`. He made military service mandatory and combined warriors of different tribes into the same units to break up tribal associations, fostering a fierce loyalty to the army and ultimately to himself. He promoted men purely on the basis of ability and brought a feeling of shared purpose to everyone he came into contact with.

Jaghatai Khan eventually raised a large enough army that he began the invasion of the Palatine`s realm. In the years that followed, Jaghatai`s army overran Chogorian lands, defeating their best armies, storming their walled cities, and slaying its nobles. Cities that lay in Jaghatai Khan`s path had two choices: surrender or face total destruction. The Khan`s power eventually stretched from ocean to ocean, the largest empire the planet had ever known, conquered by a single man in less than twenty years. Though Jaghatai Khan dominated a vast area, he knew that his people had no desire to rule such a realm. His new empire had grown from his urge to unite the tribes and exact vengeance upon his enemies, not from any hunger to occupy their lands. Ultimate power rested with the Khan and his generals and although they were well organized militarily, the tribes had no developed concept for ruling settled populations.

The Emperor and the Khan
The noted Imperial historian Carpinus, who compiled a detailed history of the Great Crusade (the so-called Speculum Historiale), notes that Jaghatai`s armies finished the destruction of the Palatine`s realm a mere six months before the Emperor reached Chogoris. When the two men met, it is said that the Khan knew he had met someone who embodied the ultimate ideal he had striven for, a man who could unite all the stars in the sky. At his palace in the city of Quan Zhou, in front of all his generals, he dropped to one knee and swore eternal fealty to the Emperor. The Primarch was given command of the V Legion, warriors created from his genetic genome. The Khan's Terran-borne 'sons' adopted the long facial scars of the Talaskr tribesmen that ran from forehead to chin, and renamed themselves the White Scars in their honour. The Great Khan ascended to the heavens with the Emperor, passing the Khanship to his general Ogedei. Many of Jaghatai`s followers elected to join their Khan and became Space Marines within the Legion.

Chogoris Today
Chogoris is a fertile world that still exists in a semi-feudal state. With the departure of the Great Khan, Ogedei became the new leader of the tribes and, while he was a great warrior, he was no Jaghatai Khan. Without the Primarch, the tribes soon returned to their warring ways and within the space of a few years, the unified nation created by Jaghatai had ceased to exist. The tribes went back to the homelands and life carried on much as it had before the arrival of the Great Khan. Some of the Primarch`s biographers claim that Jaghatai Khan must have known that this would happen and yet left anyway. They suggest that perhaps he desired it in order to keep his people strong to provide future recruits for his new Legion. Indeed, in the millennia that followed, many men would rise to unite the tribes, but none as spectacularly as Jaghatai Khan.

To this day the leader of the White Scars is known as the Great Khan and dwells in Jaghatai`s palace of Quan Zhou, atop the highest, most inaccessible peak in the Khum Karta mountains. The marbled fortress monastery is a magnificent sight, but few outsiders have ever been allowed withtin. The city and its savage beauty is famed throughout the Segmentum and its walls are said to contain rivers and forests running with game, which the Khan hunts for sport.

The Stormseers of the White Scars venture down into the steppes every ten summers to observe the tribes and their battles, picking the best and bravest warriors and returning them to Quan Zhou to become Space Marines. The pyre-tombs of fallen White Scars in the Khum Karta (which means `The Mountains that Scrap the Stars`) are places of great pilgrimage for young tribal warriors, and those that survive a journey through one of these dangerous valleys are considered especially courageous.