Askellon Sector

"We are at war with forces too terrible to comprehend. We cannot afford mercy. Mercy destroys us, it weakens us and saps our resolve. Put aside all such thoughts. They are not worthy of Inquisitors in the service of our Emperor. In our resolve we reflect His will."

- The Verses of Inquisitor Enoch, canto XLVII

The Askellon Sector is a sector of the Milky Way Galaxy; an ancient region, pre-dating the founding of the Imperium of Man itself, and its history is filled with secrets and lies that have stained every generation. As if to compound its woes, the sector is cursed with a seemingly unending Warp Storm known as the Pandaemonium that waxes and wanes across the millennia. With each passing century it grows ever more intense and dangerous, raging like a hungry beast that seeks to devour the entire sector. Within Askellon, it is the prophesied Time of Ending, close to the culmination of the 41st millennium. On its many worlds, from lordly Juno to the lawless asteroids of Port Aquila, from devout Thaur to the red forges of Cerix Magnus, all watch in fear as the Pandaemonium's rising ferocity heralds the sector’s fall. It will take the mightiest deeds of the Acolytes to forestall this terrible doom, if only for one day.

Highborn Worlds

 * Juno - An Imperial world that is the political seat and capital of the sector. It has such notable Hive Cities as Vesuna Regis situated upon it.
 * Snope's World - A Highborn World, far atop the main hab-city on Snope's World lies the glittering Platinal Palace. Formed of fractalised sheets of iridescent metals, it shines like a beacon above the solemn clouds and polluted swamps that cover much of the planet. It is said that the palace's surface holds a million million angles, each one unique across its conical form. Within are the hive's ruling families, each as superficially gleaming and beautiful as their dwelling. Here they plot endlessly against each other.

Hive Worlds

 * Desoleum - A notorious Hive World, its massive Hive Cities are home to deadly Fleshcutter gangs.
 * Hulee V - A notable Hive World, its massive Hive City, known as Hive Krakex, is a huge edifice that pierces the polluted skies of this industrialised world. Hive Krakex appears more mountain than building. Generations continually build new outer layers that roll off the surface layers like lava dripping down a volcano. Each new layer stretches its bulk across the surrounding wastelands and devours kilometres away from the ragged millions teeming outside its circumference. Billions more exist inside, transforming bulk-imported raw ores into the sheet plasteel that protects many of the tanks and fortresses across the sector.

Shrine Worlds

 * Ossuar - A Shrine World located in the Pollom System, a gargantuan mausoleum covers much of the main continent, where several of the blessed saints who helped establish the sector are laid to rest in archeotech stasis chambers. Flocks of attendants work constantly to maintain the chronically entombed state, the idea of the saints becoming exposed to time too horrible to contemplate.
 * Thaur - The Shrine World/Cemetery World of Thaur is the resting place of billions, overflowing with the remains of the powerful and the saintly. Millions more of the humble and poor strive that their remains also find a place on this holy world, arranging in life that their dead forms be shipped there. It is at the Blessed Charnaven that their untold tonnes of flesh arrive for final rest. The Osseiates of the Charnaven inscribe into each bone a unique prayer before it is used to fortify a basilica or pave one of the kilometre-wide walkways that encircle the world. No bone is unused, and each becomes an eternal offering to the Emperor.

Forge Worlds

 * Cerix Magnus - Cerix Magnus is perhaps the greatest of the many Forge Worlds within the sector, and is strict in following only the most sanctified of technology patterns. The Tech-Priests of the Regimen Affirmator work there to ensure no forge strays from the correct dictates of the Omnissiah, and that all proper obsequiences are made.
 * Core Theta - An extreme Forge World, the Tech-Priests of the Magos Biologis of this world continuously work on the edge of tech-heresy; in many cases, concerning the limits of the organic and not the technological. Their primary focus is the constant experimentation upon the rigours of the flesh and limits of life.
 * Rhodin IV - Another notable Forge World, the Cult of the Machine God has occupied this world for several thousand years, ever since it was awarded to the Adeptus Mechanicus for its aid in repelling a nearby Ork uprising. Rich in promethium and other useful ores, this once verdant world has since become layered with plasteel and pollutants. Factories many kilometres tall churn out a wide variety of armaments and munitions. Deep mines weave through the planet’s crust, so invasive that networks of cyclopean support beams are needed to buttress the immense weight of the manufactorums that cover the surface.

Feral Worlds

 * Gregorn - A Feral World, Gregorn is a world of violence, where primitives fight each other while struggling to survive against tectonic upheavals and predatory megafauna.
 * Rund - Another notable Feral World of the sector, it has only recently been visited by the Missionary Galaxia, who have begun spreading the Imperial Creed of the Emperor's holy words in a concentrated effort to rekindle the belief of those humans long separated from the True Faith.

Agri-Worlds

 * Novabella Gazetteer - A relatively unsophisticated Agri-World, Novabella is an isolated but loyal provider for a significant portion of the local sub-sector's foodstuffs. This world has become a Ministorum bastion devoted to tending crops and faith alike. From its start, it had been designated to support the Imperial war machine through food, not men, given the relatively low population

Notable Places

 * Echonis Augury - An ancient void station originally served as a major Adeptus Mechanicus research site, Echonis Augury drifts along the sector's rim and away from regular void traffic. Hundreds of Tech-Priests and Servitors worked here to info-scour the surrounding parsecs in a secretive quest. Several centuries ago, a supply vessel arrived to find the station empty and barren. Since then it has become a popular trading post for Rogue Traders and common merchants alike. Hundreds live on it, with extended generations working to maintain and expand the site, all with occasionally concerns over the fate of the previous occupants.
 * Port Aquila - A region of asteroids that make up the port, it is primarily controlled by the Greater Askellon Trade Combine which continually works a stranglehold over commerce across the belt. Its chief rival, the Pale League, operates across the belt as one of the premier smuggling operations in the region. Made up of failed merchants and sometimes even Rogue Traders who saw their fortunes fall from catastrophic expeditions or piratical raids, it is a relatively recent formation but is growing in power.

Trivia
The Askellon Sector is the primary setting for the Dark Heresy Second Edition roleplaying game by Fantasy Flight Games. Askellon is a major part of this new edition, as it lets players explore entire new cultures and peoples, and also introduce new adversaries.