Dark Haven

Dark Haven
Dark Haven is an imperial Knight World of the Segmentum Obscurus, mostly famed for being the ancestral home of House Orhlacc.

Orbiting a pale blue-white star at the very edge of its habitable zone, it constitutes an exception amongst the otherwise lifeless regions of the Cyclops Cluster which quickly made it a priority target for human colonization which was implemented as early as the 25th Millenium. Teeming with life which probably emerged millenia before mankind ventured amongst the stars, Dark Haven is covered in vast world-spanning forest of fungal growths and mountainchains made of pseudo-coral organisms which feed on the distant light of its star, hungrily absorbing every iota of light that reachs them. As a result the grey earth beneath as never been touched by light since time immemorial and even its cold seas and oceans are perpetually shrouded in shadows.

Unknown to its first human colonists Dark Haven's ecosystem is entirely toxic to unaugmented humans, an obstacle which was only to be overcome after its introduction into the Imperium of Mankind during the Great Crusade in M.30. Considered a Death World by some, Dark Haven indeed is a dangerous place to live, its vegetation itself being both fast-growing and aggressive. Its native ecosystem is dominated by super-predators, hulking ambulatory mycolidae whose poison is acidic enough to eat through plasteel and even sear ceramite, as well as less well-understood creatures that lurk in the shadows of the world-forest. In this Dark Haven strives after Caliban, the home world of the Dark Angels Space Marine Legion. It is said that when the leader of the 7th Expeditionary Fleet, Lord Commander Suleiman Grimm of the 1st Legion first set foot on Dark Haven in 833.M30, he found himself strangely reminded of his home-world; which perhaps ensured the benevolence of the Dark Angels towards House Orhlacc, their similar upcoming encouraging a mutual understanding. By then the scions of House Orhlacc had effectively become an independent strand of humanity, having been forced by circumstances to adopt to their planet's toxicity which now left them a breed apart. ( See The Blood of Orhlaac )

Once the world was restituted to the Imperium, House Orhlacc's dominion of the planet and it's system was duly recorded and ratified. With the technology and support of the Imperium at it's disposal, Dark Haven's toxicity issues were resolved and it's organic wealth could now be harvested. Entire portions of the planet were now dedicated to the production of nutritional materiel and exotic chemical compounds, both being tended to by legions of arachnid servitor-engines. These exports greatly benefitted House Orhlacc whose wealth and subsequent power has greatly increased since, thus safeguarding Orhlacc's and Dark Haven's independence.

As the Horus Heresy unfoulded, House Orhlacc reluctantly abandonned it's domains due to it's untennable strategic position, leaving but an untraceable skeleton crew behind to take care of their ancestral home. The mighty fire pits and trenches with until now had kept the ever-creeping vegetation at bay were doused and soon the mighty keeps and fortresses of House Orhlacc disappaered under the fungal canopy. Leaving their homeworld behind, House Orhlacc would fight on valiantly throughout the Age of Heresy and even secure itself a secondary home-world in the Agathean Domain: the grim world of Wychval. However, it appears that for in the collective minds of House Orhlacc's Knights, this would only serve as a temporary base, their return to their original home-world only postponed until Horus eventual defeat, It is unclear if Dark Haven ever came under assault by traitorous forces affiliated to the Warmaster or the Dark Mechanicum after House Orhlacc's departure and its overwhelming victory against the flotilla of Rogue Trader Charid Undine at the opening of the civil war.