Rynn's World

Rynn's World is an Imperial Agri-World that is also the homeworld of the Crimson Fists Space Marines Chapter. It and the Rynnstar System were both named for the Imperial Reclamator Saldano Malverro Rynn who first led Imperial colonists to the system and reclaimed Rynnsworld for Mankind. The planet is sparsely populated, mountainous, and devoted to intensive agriculture. Due to its distance from other Imperial worlds and its proximity to Ork-controlled space, it is somewhat isolated from the rest of Imperium, with the closest neighbouring human planet being Badlanding. The Crimson Fists' Fortress-Monastery Arx Tyrannus has stood on Rynn's World for over a thousand years since their great Battle-Barge Rutilus Tyrannus was dismantled to build it after the Crimson Fists were granted Rynn's World as their fief and ceased being a Fleet-based Chapter in 740.M40. Though serving as the Chapter's homeworld, Rynn's World is not owned as a Chapter fief by the Crimson Fists, and has its own Planetary Governor. Before a devastating invasion by Orks, the planet was protected by a formidable missile defence system, designed to deter invaders and a relatively skilled Planetary Defence Force called the Rynnsguard.

Rynn's World is the third planet of the Rynnstar System, a solar system that circles the binary stars Rynnstar and Eloix, in the Loki Sector of the galaxy, to the galactic Southeast of Terra in the Ultima Segmentum. It is circled by 2 moons, Dantienne and Eloix. It is an Agri-World whose capital is New Rynn City, home to nearly 16 million of the planet's 200 million people. The next largest city on the world has only 3 million people at most and the majority of the world's population served as indentured servants working on the tens of thousands of agricultural communes that worked the arable land of three continents. These communes were owned by the Rynnite noble class and the planetary administration was divided into nine provinces, each of which was controlled by a single noble clan, ultimately reporting to the most powerful noble family, House Cagliestra. The Cagliestras had been granted the right by the Crimson Fists to administer the fief in their Chapter Master's place and serve as Rynn's World's Planetary Governors through a hereditary succession. The Astartes had granted this right to the native Rynnite nobility that had ruled the world in the days before the Crimson Fists had been granted the fief so that they could concentrate all of their energies upon preparing for war and prosecuting campaigns against the Emperor's foes.

Unfortunately, Rynn's World is not so far from the Ork Empire of Charadon. As the Ork empire grew, Rynn's World began to present a tempting target to Charadon's ruler, Snagrod the Arch-Arsonist. The planet was finally invaded in 989.M41 by Charadonian Orks under the orders of Snagrod. In a freak accident, the Crimson Fists' fortress-monastery was destroyed in the initial invasion by one of the Chapter's own defence missiles that went rogue and the Chapter was all but wiped out. Without the protection of the Crimson Fists, the humans of Rynn's World were quickly slain, and their settlements, with the exception of New Rynn City, the planet's capital, were completely overrun. Rynn's World was eventually liberated by the Imperium, although it took years of fighting to reconquer the worlds in Loki Sector under Ork domination.

Founding
Upon termination of the Vortigern Crusade in 745.M40, Rynn's World, in the Loki Sector of Segmentum Tempestus, was granted to the Crimson Fists Space Marine Chapter as their homeworld where they soon constructed their fortress-monastery, the Arx Tyrannus, from the remains of the great vessel that had long served as their mobile headquarters while they were a Fleet-based Chapter, the Rutilus Tyrannus.

Location
The proximity of Rynn's World to one of the Crimson Fists' primary recruiting worlds was ideal, and the Chapter constructed their fortress-monastery, Arx Tyrannus, from the remains of their ancient battle-barge Rutilus Tyrannus in the middle of the inhospitable and frigid Hellblade Mountains of the planet's southern continent. Rynn's World, situated in the Rynnstar System, is a remote settlement. There is a considerable Warpspace distance between the Rynnstar System and its nearest human neighbours. Rynn's World is lightly populated, and for the most part given over to intensive agriculture. Unfortunately for Rynn's World, it was not far through Warpspace from the borders of the Orkish Empire of Charadon.

Battle of Rynn's World
In mid-989.M41, the Ork Warlord Snagrod, the Arch-Arsonist of Charadon, united the warring Greenskin factions bordering the Loki Sector and launched the largest WAAAGH! the Peryton 163 Cluster had seen since the Great Crusade, attacking the isolated Imperial agri-world of Badlanding. The Imperial defenders of Badlanding were utterly unprepared for the invasion, and within days the only major strongpoint of resistance was the capital city of Krugerport, where the remnants of the 18th Mordian, 24th Lammas and 49th Boros Imperial Guard Regiments, commanded by Commissar Alhaus Baldur, put up a bold, but ultimately doomed, defence. Confident that he had the world in his grasp, Snagrod put out incessant, ranting broadcasts, boasting that his next conquest would be Rynn's World, which lay only a few weeks Warp travel from Badlanding. Chapter Master Pedro Kantor responded immediately, despatching the 3rd Company under Captain Ashor Drakken to Badlanding to stall the Ork WAAAGH! and determine its strength. The Battle of Krugerport was a tragic defeat for the Crimson Fists who found WAAAGH! Snagrod to be far larger and more aggressive than any could have predicted. In the resulting defeat, the Crimson Fists suffered a loss of 56 Space Marines out of a detachment of 84; Captain Drakken was among the fallen. The handful of Space Marines that survived the battle were able to escape to bring valuable intelligence back to Rynn's World. Upon hearing of the size and strength of the Ork war host, Chapter Master Kantor ordered the immediate recall of all Chapter companies fighting away from Rynn's World, mobilized the Planetary Defense Force, and prepared for the inevitable invasion.

WAAAGH! Snagrod
When the WAAAGH! Snagrod hit Rynn's World, it was with a force unparalleled by any other Ork invasion since those for the hive world of Armageddon. As the Ork dropships and “Roks” fell through the night sky, the Chapter’s defense systems responded, and all was well until a malfunctioning plasma missile from the Space Marines’ surface-to-space defense system, in a trillion to one malfunction, impacted the Crimson Fists’ fortress-monastery. The errant missile scored an impressively accurate, if altogether unintentional, hit on the fortress-monastery's main Armoury. The arsenal, the fortress-monastery of the Crimson Fists, the mountain, and an area half a mile wide were instantly atomized. The Chapter was almost obliterated in the ensuing holocaust. Only 16 Crimson Fists garrisoned in the fortress-monastery survived, including Chapter Master Pedro Kantor and Captain Alessio Cortez. The surviving Crimson Fists stayed in New Rynn City and held out against the Orkish siege of the city. The Siege of New Rynn City was to grind on for eighteen months, but the Crimson Fists were able to maintain their defences until an Imperial Navy liberation fleet, including elements from 6 other Space Marine Chapters, finally arrived in 990.M41, 18 months after the invasion began and drove the Orks from the world.

Battle for Traitor's Gorge
One tale of the reclamation of Rynn's World from the Orks of WAAAGH! Snagrod is not so widely told, and known only to the Crimson Fists' Chapter Master Pedro Kantor and his closest Battle-Brothers. The tale begins a half-year after the completion of the reclamation of Rynn's World from WAAAGH! Snagrod. Although the planet was officially designated by the Imperium as secure once more, Orks are always a difficult species to truly eradicate once they have made planetfall. Several Greenskin warbands were known to be lurking in the planet's Jaden Mountains, conducting raids that the surviving weary and war torn populace of Rynn's World could ill-afford.

As the Crimson Fists' few surviving Techmarines salvaged and repaired what little had survived the WAAAGH!'s assault, Chapter Master Kantor dedicated himself to cleansing the Jaden Mountains of the remaining Orks that lurked within their confines. It was a difficult campaign, for the Orks defended every crag and cavern, and Kantor had neither the men nor the equipment he would have wished for such a task. Nonetheless, the Crimson Fists forged on, slaying Greenskins wherever they could be found. Under such a threat, it was perhaps only a matter of time before the Orks of the Jaden Mountains united. So it was that when Kantor's force came under attack in Traitor's Gorge, they found themselves assailed not only by the warband that they had been hunting, but by every Ork for leagues around in every direction.

Though but two dozen in number, Kantor and his Crimson Fists fought as heroes of legend, taking a grievous toll on an Ork horde that numbered hundreds. With Kantor at the forefront, the Space Marines battled their way clear of the ravine's treacherous confines and sought the high ground. There they planted their feet and fought shoulder to shoulder against the horde, but still the Orks kept coming. With all the Crimson Fists' Thunderhawk Gunships lost in battle or under heavy repair, Kantor knew that both evacuation and reinforcement were impossible, and the Orks showed no sign of giving up the battle. Three of Kantor's Battle-Brothers had been slain in the escape from the ravine, and only the Chapter Master remained unwounded. In return, the Crimson Fists made Traitor's Gorge run red with the blood of slain Greenskins, and fought from behind barricades of the bulky Orkish dead, but Kantor knew that the odds were stacked against him.

Without warning, the Greenskin tide began to slacken. Seeking the reason, Kantor's keen eye saw ghostly figures on Widow's Spire to the west and Darkridge to the east, high above and behind the encircling Orks. Graceful were these newcomers, darting from cover to cover and paying no heed to the treacherous footing as their longrifles brought precise death to the Ork horde. Who his fresh allies were, Kantor could not immediately tell, for their forms shimmered as insubstantial as mist in the morning sunlight, but nor did he care. All that mattered was that this intervention gave his Battle-Brothers the chance that they needed to counterattack and turn the battle's tide.

Giving a mighty shout, the Crimson Fists charged over their rampart of dead greenskins and set upon the Orks with new vigour. Caught between the re-doubled rage of the Crimson Fists and fresh attackers on the slopes, the Orks were thrust back. The Greenskins fled down Traitor's Gorge, leaving more than ten score dead and twice as many wounded behind them. As Kantor's men walked amongst the carnage, ending the lives of those Orks too foolhardy or injured to flee, a robed figure detached itself from the shadows clustered on Widow's Spire and strode swiftly to Kantor's side. Coldly contemptuous of any threat posed by the watchful Space Marines, it cut through the Chapter Master's wary greeting.

"The surviving beasts cower in the shadows below, ensnared in a web of our devising. Pursue them into the darkness and a great victory shall be yours."

"And should I choose not to do so?" Kantor asked, for he could not bring himself to place his trust in the elaborately helmed alien, now revealed as a warrior of the Eldar race, that stood before him.

"Then they will escape and grow ever stronger in the darkness. In fifty years a shadow of their making will arise to envelop this area of space which, unopposed, shall be the doom of your people and mine. Catastrophe will reign, and you shall lament your inaction this day."

"Will you aid us in the gorge as you did here?" Kantor demanded, but the figure shook its head.

"Be not so swift to embrace us as allies. Auspicious fate dictated that we should fight side-by-side this day but, fate is a fickle creature. At our next encounter, it will be my fists that bear the stain of your blood."

And with that, the alien turned and was gone, and the shadows that lurked amongst the scree of Widow's Spire and Darkridge were gone also. Kantor weighed the words and actions he had borne witness to and led his men into Traitor's Gorge. There in the darkness a great victory was indeed his, forever ending the Ork threat in the Jaden Mountains. Returning to the lowlands, Kantor continued the rebuilding of his Chapter, and in time raised the Crimson Fists out of ruin to once more stand alongside the greatest champions of Mankind. But in all the years of triumph that followed, the robed figure's words would dwell heavily on Kantor until, at the last, they met again...

Aftermath
The Ork invasion of Rynn's World proved costly. All of the planet's major cities were destroyed with the exception of New Rynn City, the capital and seat of the world's government, before the planet was brought back under Imperial control years later. Millions of the Agri-world's people had been killed, most likely a majority of the population. it would take decades for the planet to recover its lost infrastructure and agricultural productivity. Many of the worlds of the Loki Sector captured by WAAAGH! Snagrod, including Badlanding, are lost, remaining in Ork hands to this day.

Locations
Rynn's World has three continents, Magalan, Calliona, and Sorocco. Each continent is administratively divided up into several different provinces, each of which is in turn administered from a provincial capital city. The majority of the fighting during the Battle of Rynn's World ocurred on the largest and most heavily populated of the continents, Sorocco. Only the planetary capital of New Rynn City survived the Ork assault intact.

Calliona

 * Casserva Province - Capital: Verisseport
 * Deoz Province - Capital: Blackreef City
 * Ijua Province - Capital: Redonda
 * Minessa Province - Capital: Orostino

Magalan

 * Dorado Province - Capital: Santoris
 * Macarro Province - Capital: Port Calina
 * Telenna Province - Capital: Ventura City

Sorocco

 * East Sariba Province - Capital: Nycario
 * '''Hellestro Province - Capital: Caltara (The Arx Tyrannis, fortress-monastery of the Crimson Fists, was also located in this province)
 * Inpharis Province - Capital: Sagarro
 * Rynnland Province - Planetary Capital: New Rynn City
 * '''West Sariba Province - Capital: Davaris