Zhao-Arkhad

"Beware, for the Antipath doth engender the workings of the idle and the isolated to corruption and falsity; as the prey-beast that becomes seperated from the herd becomes meat for the predators, so does the wayward artificer become the vessel of hereteknica."

- Stanza 7433-XV of the Castigations of the Logistica Corpus

Zhao-Arkhad or Zhao-Akkad is a blighted world, a Death World as well as a Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus, it sits at the heart and the head of its own small empire, the Sovereign Omnissian Domain of Zhao-Arkhad which lays on the borders of the Segmentum Tempestus and the Segmentum Obscurus. Remote and isolated for much of its troubled history, the planet is perhaps best known for being the home of the Titan Legion known as the Legio Xestobiax which gained a dubious reputation in the Burning of Prospero. Long suspected to delve into forbidden technologies and suspicious for their close ties with one of the most notable Traitor Legions of the Legiones Astartes, the Arkhadian forge-fanes were excommunicated by Fabricator-General Zagreus Kane during the dark years of the Horus Heresy. Brought back into the light of the Imperium of Mankind during the Great Scouring, both Zhao-Arkhad and the Legio Xestobiax have since been declared only guilty by association and purged of the heretek practices they used in the past. It was during this reconsecration that Mechanicum Assay Teams from the great Forge World of Metalica would rediscover the Standard Template Construct to the Crassus Armoured Assault Transport, the Praetor Armoured Assault Launcher and the Dominus Heavy Siege Bombard which are now manufactured on many Forge Worlds.

History
Much of our knowledge on Zhao-Arkhad is based on the data recovered by the Metallican Mechanicum during the Age of Scouring and even these records are cursory and fragmentary at best. Hence, the specifics of the Forge World's curious history, especially as it beginnings remain unknown. What is certain is that Zhao-Arkhad was initially founded by a Mechanicum Ark expedition heralding from sacred Mars itself. The timeframe of its inception is still debated amongst scholars but is generally agreed upon as falling in the latter years of the Dark Age of Technology. To reach their final destination, the Mechanicum Ark must have been flung widely off course from their intended target. What lore remains indicates that powerful Warp Storms were responsible for wrecking the Ark's Warp Drives as well as damaging its more conventionnal engines, thus prompting an emergency translation back into realspace. When the Mechanicum Ark re-entered reality, be it by the hand of fate or blind luck, it was amid the uncharted and unknown stars of the deep galactic south. Orbiting a white star, the system they had emerged in counted numerous minor volcanically active planets, gas giants and thck webs of asteroid belts, but only one verdant green world capable of harbouring life. That any world within range of the stricken Ark was serviceable was viewed as a miracle by many colonists. Calculating that this world offered their only chance at survival, the Mechanicum Ark limped towards its destination, gathering more information as it closed with the planet: it's atmosphere harboured oxygen and the three moon orbiting it registered heavy mineral concentration making it suitable for settlement and offering the opportunity for potential expansion. Full of confidence, the colonists named this new system Zhao and landed their craft on this new world.

It was only after the landing that the colonists realised that their new haven was a blighted one. Fate had delivered them onto a Death World. The tropical world boasted an atmospheric oxygen level far above the Terran norm, while local flora quickly proved highly toxic for any unaugmented human. The prevailing climate was that of a tropical rainforest with wildly fluctuating temperatures and ceaseless rainfall which brought humidity to severe levels. These harsh atmospheric conditions left the colonists with little choice but to remain in those section of their force-landed ark and its cargo-holds that could be fully air-locked and able to shield them from Zhao-Arkhad's weather. The first parties able to venture outside the downed vessel soon testified of their new homeworld's ability to sustain life: grossly enlarged fauna that grew at speed seldom seen and an extensive population of monstrously large arthropods and ophidian beast soon gave them a measure of the planet's ecosystem. From the outset, the aggression level of these beasts threatened the very existence of the colony and if it had not been for the handful of Titans that had survived in the Ark's holds, the colonists' survival would not have been possible. Thus began the Titans' unceasing "iron vigil" which would later become the cognomen of the Legio Xestobiax, the Forge World's most powerful protectors.