Planets of Warhammer 40,000

This page presents an incomplete and select list of the more notable planets in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. No full list could ever be compiled because the Imperium of Man consists of over one million inhabited worlds, with many other habitable planets also populated by various intelligent xenos species like the Eldar, Tau and the Orks.

The Imperium of Man is spread impossibly thin across an estimated two-thirds of the entire Milky Way Galaxy. The volume of space claimed in the name of the Emperor of Mankind contains hundreds of millions of stars, many host to their own planetary systems, and yet there are only an estimated million or so Planetary Governors occupying the thrones of the Imperium’s worlds. While it is true that some governors rule not just a single planet but an entire star system, and that other worlds have no governor at all, the fact is that the Imperium is stretched so thinly across the void that an interstellar traveller could make his way from one edge to the other, traversing a hundred thousand light years of space, and not once cross paths with a human being.

Instead of being scattered at random, the worlds of the Imperium are clustered around areas settled during the lost age of Mankind’s first great wave of expansion into the galaxy during the Age of Technology. Worlds once colonised because of their location or some desirable natural resource have developed into the cores of sectors, many of which have swollen to include two hundred or more star systems. These sectors are connected to one another by relatively stable, if still hazardous, inter-sector Warp routes and the vast, uncharted reaches between each are referred to as Wilderness Space. These unexplored depths harbour all many of terrors, from ravening pirates to unknown alien empires, as well as untold riches, from long-lost human colonies to worlds strewn with the wealth of long-extinct xenos species.

Types of Planets
The Imperium of Man is home to over one million human-settled planets scattered across over 100,000 light years of space in the Milky Way Galaxy. Most of these worlds were settled by humans many millennia before the Great Crusade of the late 30th and early 31st Millenniums reunited the human colony planets of the galaxy beneath the rulership of the Emperor of Mankind, though thousands more have been settled in the ten millennia since by Imperial colonists. The Adeptus Administratum of the Imperium generally classifies all planets in the galaxy according to several different criteria to produce a standard classification system that makes it simple to assign the proper tithe grade for the amounts of economic resources or recruits for the Imperial Guard that will be drawn from the world for wider Imperial use, if any.

Abheilüng
Abheilüng is a former Imperial vassal world now controlled by the Dark Mechanicus and wholly dedicated to the Ruinous Powers. It was lost to the Imperium in 995.M41, when elements of the Dark Mechanicus that had long been hidden in the subterranean depths of this volcanic world caused every volcano on the planet to erupt simultaneously, killing millions. The servants of the Dark Gods then unleashed a horde of Daemon Engines to cleanse the planet of any survivors. Those few unfortunate souls who remained after the slaughter were taken as slaves to toil in the hellish forges of their new, dark masters.

Accatran
This Forge World is the homeworld of the Adeptus Mechanicus' Legio Destructor Titan Legion, also known as the Beasts of Steel. The planet is located in the Ultima Segmentum.

Adrantis V
Adrantis V was a human-settled, extremely technologically advanced planet which had been separated from the Imperium of Man for over five thousand standard years. It was conquered by Lord Commander Solar Macharius during the Macharian Crusade in the Segmentum Pacificus. The planet's population was technologically very advanced, and when Macharius arrived he said that they had "turned to the dark centuries of science, and created many new and wondrous machines." Macharius' conquest was held at bay for two Terran years until the planet finally succumbed to the assault of a redirected comet, obliterating its civilisation. "Of its secrets, nothing now remains," were the last words of Macharius on the subject.

Aerius
A Hive World of great importance to the Imperium, it suffered a devastating plague when the Balestar, a comet appearing every two thousand years, returned. The plague was connected with the enigmatic Black Pyramid, an impenetrable Eldar structure which was built, unknown to the local human population, to restrain a Greater Daemon of Nurgle called Botchulaz.

Aexe Cardinal
Aexe Cardinal is an Agri-World of the Imperium of Man located in the Sabbat Worlds Sector in the Segmentum Pacificus. The planet was home to a number of different nation-states that varied in culture, though each had a proud heritage of nobility and venerated the Emperor of Mankind with the reverence typical of any loyal Imperial world. Formerly a peaceful world, Aexe-Cardinal was riven by war as part of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade fought between the Imperium and the forces of Chaos.

Agripinaa
Agripinaa is an Imperial Hive World where virtually the entire surface of the planet is covered with industrialized infrastructure, piplines, factories, mines, refineries, processing plants, and manufactorum cathedrals. Like most other planets in its sector, this world primarily provides materials for the Cadian front and its industrial heartland is soley engaged in the production of ammunition. Its hives are sealed due to a toxic atmosphere from pollution. Agripinaa is located in the Agripinaa Sector of the Ultima Segmentum near the Eye of Terror and was involved in the fighting of the 13th Black Crusade. Agripinaa did not weather an assault by the Forces of Chaos during that campaign well and much of her industrial heartland was laid ruin.

Amontep II
Amontep II is an arid, crimson Imperial Forge World similar to Mars that Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl discovered contained deposits of the arcane, anti-psychic material known as blackstone in the wake of the birth of the Great Rift. Cawl ordered one of his chief agents, Magos Dominus Dentrex Ologostion, to determine if the world contained large quantities of blackstone. Ologostion was dispatched with a force of Skitarii and Knights Armiger to locate, sample and secure the largest deposits of blackstone available. The world was in fact also an ancient Necron Tomb World, however, and Ologostion would face off against Necron forces in his attempt to successfully recover a sample of the blackstone.

Anark Zeta
Anark Zeta is a feral world that is one source of the Abhuman troops known as Ogryn for the Imperial Guard. The world is very cold and has extremely high gravity, hence the development of the Ogryn population. The surface of Anark Zeta is barren with no known cities. The only inhabitants of this frigid world are the large Abhumans know as the Ogryn. The Ogryn live in nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes but when the Imperial Guard needs new Ogryn troops, Guard recruiters come to Anark Zeta to promise the dim-witted Ogryns all that they can eat if they will serve the Imperium as its powerful shock troopers.

Angelis
Angelis, also known to its Ork population as Gorkamorka, was being surveyed by the Imperial vessel Eternal Vigilance in 344–345.M35 when an Ork-inhabited Space Hulk crashed into it, creating a massive canyon dubbed "Da Skid" by the Orks, and irradiating the landscape of the surrounding area, including the base station of the Imperial survey team who had been investigating the planet's complex of pyramid structures, and attempting to determine the reason for the apparent lack of any living organisms on the world, right down to the cellular level. This lack of a biosphere suggested that the world's biosphere had been eradicated by artificial means. The surviving Orks set about building a new starship to leave the planet and rejoin their WAAAGH!. Unfortunately for the Orks, rivalries broke out over which Ork God the ship resembled, and the construction process slowed dramatically as the two different Greenskin religious factions fought for resources and territory. The vessel was eventually destroyed in the fighting. After the destruction of the great ship, both sides decided to band together and name the vessel Gorkamorka, meaning that it could look like either of the Ork Gods, Gork and Mork. As Orks have a limited vocabulary, this also became the new Greenskin name for the planet.

Arkhona
Arkhona is a Fortress World of the Kharon System, located in the galactic northern marches of Segmentum Obscurus, in the dead centre of a void of star systems right on the edge of Imperial settled space. Kharon is a trinary star system, consisting of three suns locked in orbit with one another. The fifth planet of the system, Arkhona, is a former Imperial Fortess World first settled tens of thousands of years ago before the birth of the Imperium of Man. Although the settlements of Mankind at one time stretched across all its continents, when representatives from the Inquisition's Ordo Xenos arrived recently they found that the entire human population of Arkhona had been destroyed, later determined to be the result of an unexpected incursion by the Tyranids. Shortly afterwards, the Inquisitors themselves were lost under terrible circumstances, thus setting the terrible events of the conflict on Arkhona to come into motion.

Armageddon
Armageddon is a Hive World of the Armageddon Sector in the Segmentum Solar that has been repeatedly invaded by the Orks, where the outdoors are nothing but huge wastelands so polluted and hostile they can kill a man in a day. Due to this, all infantry serving on the surface of Armageddon always wear gas masks, trench coats and rebreather units whenever outside. Additionally, this causes its famed Steel Legion regiments to field large numbers of mechanized infantry borne by Chimera IFVs, of which Armageddon is also famed for producing.

True to its name, Armageddon has been the site of three massive wars in the history of the Imperium during the 41st Millennium. The First War for Armageddon was an invasion by the Chaos forces of the Daemon Primarch Angron of the World Eaters and most recently a pair of invasions during the Second War for Armageddon and the Third War for Armageddon by the Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. As a result, the people of Armageddon are a tough lot, and its armies experienced in fighting the Orks. Armageddon is a Mecca of sorts to all Orks in the region, who refer to the planet as "Armour-get-em." As such, Orks are constantly pouring into the system to join the ongoing battle. Orks "native" to Armageddon are considerably tougher than normal Orks; Orks thrive in combat situations, becoming stronger, tougher and more aggressive with each generation to match and eventually best their opposition.

Artemis
Artemis was an Imperial world that came under heavy attack by the Forces of Chaos, including their own warped Traitor Titans. Artemis was also the site of a massive Warp Rift, which spawned a daemon so huge it was literally several dozen times larger than even an Imperator-class Titan.

Arthas-Moloch
A Dead World discovered by the Tau's Commander Farsight, where he found the Dawn Blade; the Tau call it an "Artefact World."

Astaramis
Astaramis is an Imperial Hive World that is the third planet of the Konor System in the Realm of Ultramar. The world came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle during the Plague Wars of the early 42nd Millennium, but the Imperial forces valiantly rallied to reclaim Astaramis for the Emperor.

Attila
Attila is a Feudal World of the Imperium of Man that maintains a late Iron Age civilisation and almost no advanced Imperial technology. This barbaric world is also the homeworld of the famed Rough Riders of Attila Mounted Regiments of the Imperial Guard.

Aurelia
Aurelia was an Imperial Hive World that served as the capital planet of Sub-sector Aurelia in the Korianis Sector, and was also the original Chapter Planet of the Blood Ravens Space Marine Chapter. The Blood Ravens maintained their fortress-monastery at Selenon, within view of the hive city of the same name. It was a technologically advanced and profitable world that served as the economic heart of the region, and the proud namesake of the entire sub-sector. In the late 40th Millennium, however, a Warp Storm engulfed the planet, summoned by the Great Unclean One Ulkair in his battle against the Blood Ravens. The Blood Ravens' Chapter Master Moriah and Librarian Azariah Kyras sealed the Greater Daemon within the heart of the planet, but the damage was done. Aurelia disappeared into the Warp, and remained there for almost a standard millenium, transformed into a perpetually-shifting Ice World devoid of all life save for daemons and other Warp entities. With the loss of Aurelia, the Blood Ravens were transformed into a fleet-based Chapter who recruited their Aspirants from the other worlds in the Aurelian Sub-sector. In the late 41st Millennium, Aurelia emerged back into realspace at the behest of the Forces of Chaos led by the Chaos Lord Araghast and the former Dark Apostle Eliphas of the Black Legion who wished to free Ulkair and wreak havoc on the Aurelia Sub-sector with the aid of the powerful daemon. Through the efforts of the Blood Ravens' 3rd and 5th Companies during the conflict later known to the Chapter as the Second Aurelian Crusade, Ulkair was banished back to his prison and the Black Legion was thwarted. From that time on, the Imperial Guard stationed a number of regiments to keep watch on the frigid planet, at least one of which later fell under the thrall of Ulkair.

Baal
Baal is the nominal homeworld of the Blood Angels Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Baal itself is a dry, dusty and largely uninhabitable desert world, but its two moons, Baal Prime and Baal Secundus support notable human settlements and were once "paradises for mortal men." Little is known about the past histories of these two settled moons, but at some time in the past (probably during the Age of Strife) a cataclysmic conflict arose and led to the widespread use of weapons of mass destruction, destroying the once verdant ecosystems of both satellites and contaminating their biospheres with radioactive fallout, chemical pollution and biological agents. The indigenous peoples of Baal Prime and Baal Secundus suffered greatly at this time and gradually became degenerate, mutated and sickly, the survivors banding together into semi-nomadic tribes of barbarians. These tribespeople appear to have maintained some technology as mention is made of rad-counters, rad-suits (self-evidently advanced technological equipment to protect from the effects of radiation), vehicular transport and advanced weaponry. Many tribes turned to cannibalism and became even further corrupted by the toxins endemic to their environment, but at least one tribe maintained a noble and enlightened outlook; known as the 'Ones of Pure Blood', often contracted simply to 'The Blood'. It was The Blood who encountered the infant Primarch Sanguinius when he came to rest on Baal Secundus, and they adopted him as one of their own. The tribespeople were astonished at the young Primarch's rate of growth, constitution and strength, and he soon became a hero among them, on at least one occasion defending The Blood against an attack by another, mutant tribe, and killing many of them. It was in this capacity that he was discovered by the Emperor during the Great Crusade. Sanguinius instantly recognised the master of mankind and swore fealty to him, taking command of the Blood Angels legion created from his own genes. The Legion made Baal Secundus its home and base of operations as it has been ever since. Baal Secundus is the site of the Blood Angels' fortress-monastery, about which little is known.

Badlanding
The arid and isolated world of Badlanding was discovered in the Loki Sector of the galaxy, to the galactic southeast of Terra in the Segmentum Tempestus. It was originally colonised during an unknown period, most likely before the Age of Strife. It was rediscovered by Rogue Trader Uzieth Pallandaro in 238.M34. Imperial colonial settlements were first established on the arid world shortly thereafter. Despite its harsh environment, Badlanding eventually became an Agri-World that exported water filtration and extraction mechanisms, respirators, anti-static footwear, machinery parts and sodium chloride throughout the sector. In mid-989.M41, the Ork Warlord Snagrod the Arch-Arsonist of Charadon united the warring Ork factions bordering the Loki Sector, and launched the largest WAAAGH! the Peryton 163 Cluster had seen in almost a millennium, attacking the isolated Imperial colony 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 Vox broadcasts, boasting that his next conquest would be Rynn's World, which lay only a few weeks Warp travel from Badlanding. Crimson Fists' Chapter Master Pedro Kantor responded immediately, despatching the 4th Company under Captain 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. Only a handful of Space Marines survived the battle, though those that escaped were able to bring invaluable intelligence back to Rynn`s World. Kantor ordered the immediate recall of those Crimson Fists companies fighting away from Rynn's World, mobilised the Planetary Defence Force, and prepared for the inevitable Greenskin invasion. In the ensuing conflict, the Crimson Fists would suffer the tragic loss of their fortress-monastery, and much of Rynn's World would take many decades to rebuild from the devastating Ork assault. The wider war would take many years to win, and many of the worlds of the Loki Sector captured by WAAAGH! Snagrod, including Badlanding, are still lost, remaining in Ork hands to this day.

Badab Primaris
Badab Primaris, officially listed within Imperial astrocartographic databases as Badab II, is a Dead World that was located in the Badab Sector of the Segmentum Ultima and that was once a thriving Hive World before the terrible conflict known as the Badab War scoured it of all life. In 718.M41, a failed coup attempt against Badab's ruling Dominar led to an abortive civil war, and the Astral Claws Space Marine Chapter stepped in and brutally crushed the conflict. Chapter Master Lufgt Huron personally took matters into his own hands and swiftly reimposed order. Assuming the mantle of Planetary Governor, Huron styled himself the "Tyrant of Badab," and laid claim to the inhabited worlds in proximity to the Badab System as his Chapter's feudal demesne. Huron then sent a request to the Adeptus Administratum that the Maelstrom Zone be allowed to stop providing its tithe of resources to the Imperium so that he could refocus those resources on the Maelstrom Warders' efforts to cleanse the Maelstrom of Renegades and Heretics. This request was denied and met instead with increased quota demands. Huron then unilaterally withheld Badab Primaris' planetary tithe to the Imperium and blocked the passage of Imperial trade through his realms. This was intended to protest the Imperium's failure to provide him and his Astartes allies with sufficient resources to police the Maelstrom. Refusing to carry out the Astral Claws' primary role as the defenders of the Imperial worlds within the Maelstrom Zone, the Tyrant diverted the industrial resources and manpower of the Badab Sector that he was no longer providing to the Imperium to directly supplement the Badab Sector's defences as well as to augment the Maelstrom Zone's fleet detachment and to better fortify the key worlds of the sector under his control. The Tyrant ordered the demolition of the ancient citadel of the ruling Dominars of Badab Primaris and instead erected the legendary "Palace of Thorns" to his own specifications and design.

The political conflict between the Administratum's right to claim the Imperial tithe and the ancient right of Adeptus Astartes Chapter Masters to defend the Imperium by any means necessary came to be known as the Badab Schism and would last for more than a century and a half. Ultimately, the schism would culminate in the internecine conflict known as the Badab War, a civil war fought between the Chapters of the Maelstrom Warders who sought to secede from the Imperium and those Loyalist Chapters that moved to maintain Imperial unity. After over a dozen years of brutal warfare in the Maelstrom Zone, the Loyalists' final assault on Badab Primaris commenced in early 913.M41 and resulted in the defeat of the Astral Claws. Lufgt Huron fell mortally wounded during the final assault on the Palace of Thorns when he and his elite bodyguard were attacked by a contingent of Star Phantoms Astartes, although his body was borne away by his closest followers and he would return to plague the Imperium once more as the piratical Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart. Taking matters into their own hands during the final assault, the savage Carcharodons Chapter sabotaged the ancient atomic and geo-thermal reactors which powered the hive cities of Badab Primaris and fed its planetary defence batteries with energy. The cascading destruction of the subterranean reactor cores deep beneath Badab's hives took its toll. Tectonic shocks and volcanic eruptions destroyed the surface of the planet, and the majority of the planet's population was exterminated by the blasts and the resulting radioactive fallout within only a few standard days.

Bakka
Bakka is an Imperial Mining World and Forge World made famous across the galaxy by its orbiting shipyards, which have been in use to build new starships for the Imperial Navy since the early years of the Great Crusade in the 30th Millennium. Bakka serves as the primary Segmentum Naval Base for Battlefleet Bakka, providing coordination for all Imperial Navy forces in the region and serving as the primary point of resupply and repair for all the Imperial battlefleets now operating in the Segmentum Tempestus.

Bakka Triumveron
Bakka Triumveron is a titanic gas giant far bigger than the Solar System's Jupiter. Bakka's outlying moons however are habitable, each one roughly the size of Terra and all of them heavily populated. These include Rogelin, Sanctuary, Half Hope and Grey Harbour. The Bakka System is one of the most populated in Segmentum Tempestus and the world of Bakka is the Fleet Headquarters for the Segmentum Tempestus.

Banish
Banish is an ancient Feral World and Chapter homeworld of the mysterious Exorcists Space Marine Chapter. This world lies within the borders of the Narasima Straits, a quarantined sector of space on the Eastern Fringes of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Ultima Segmentum. The planet serves as the Chapter's primary training facility and Armoury, with their Fortress-Monastery, the Basilica Malefex, housing their gene-seed stores and Apothecarion as well as vast archives of occult lore on the nature of Chaos and the daemonic and the Chapter's battle honours. Banish also houses several secret Ordo Malleus research facilities under the Exorcists' protection.

Barbarus
The Feral World of Barbarus was the homeworld of the Primarch Mortarion and the former Legion planet of the traitorous Death Guard Space Marine Legion. Barbarus orbited near a dim yellow sun in the Segmentum Tempestus, which created a thick, miasmic atmosphere of toxic chemicals. An atmosphere breathable by humans existed only in the lowest elevations, on flat moors and in the valley basins of the jagged, stony mountains which spined the world. Unknown alien beings immune to the toxic soup of the planet's upper atmosphere existed on Barbarus, building great keeps of grey stone in the mountain fastnesses. Like the homeworlds of all the Traitor Legions, it was subjected to an Exterminatus following the end of the Horus Heresy because of the sheer levels of Chaotic corruption that prevailed upon its surface. Barbarus is now a Dead World, its location struck from all Astropathic Cartigraphicae maps by an Edict of Obliteration.

Belis Corona
Belis Corona is an Imperial Dead World located near the Eye of Terror, serving as the Segmentum Obscurus' primary Imperial Naval base. It has a vast conglomeration of orbital dockyards orbiting it, where entire sector battlefleets can be serviced. Munitions stockpiles are stored in armoured bunkers buried many kilometres below the planet's surface. Belis Corona was heavily involved in the battles of the 13th Black Crusade.

Bellerophon's Fall
Bellerophon's Fall, known simply as "The Fall" by its inhabitants, is a Dead World that is located in the Badab Sector of the Segmentum Ultima. Bellerophon's Fall was formerly an industrial processing world and a sub-colony of the Hive World of Cygnax in the same star system. An uprising of Imperial helots in the middle centuries of the 41st Millennium released toxic industrial waste into the planet's atmosphere, killing off much of the population and transforming this once humming hive of manufactorums into a dead world picked over by mutant scavengers and the descendants of the former slaves, many of them Abhumans. Bellerophon's Fall became the site for a major battle of the Badab War in 906.M41 between the Secessionist Mantis Warriors and the Loyalist Marines Errant Space Marine Chapters.

Besarife
Besarife is a planet in the furthest outreaches of the Segmentum Tempestus. It is slightly smaller than Terra, it shares a near-identical atmosphere. The planet is best characterized by its deep forests of exotic trees not seen anywhere else in the Segmentum. Besarife is tilted on its axis by a mere 3.5 degrees and has some seasonal weather patterns such as light hurricanes and snow storms. The northern and southern poles are extremely arid and host a low survivability rate. The planet was first explored after the Horus Heresy ended by Space Marines of the surviving Legions. After the chapter of the Hymn Knights was born, it took residents on the sparsely populated planet and began building their defences.

Beta Anphelion IV
Beta Anphelion IV is the second moon of the fourth planet in the Anphelion System. It was the focus for Forge World's fourth major work, Imperial Armour Volume 4: The Anphelion Project which described the investigation by an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor of a secret project related to the Tyranids in the year 850.M41.

Betalis III
Betalis III, known as Bethalmae in the Eldar Lexicon, is designated as both an Ice World and a Mining World of the Imperium of Man. It is located in the binary Betalis System of the Talis Munus Sector of the Segmentum Solar, being one of the two inhabitable planets orbiting the twin Betalis stars. The primary star is a central massive Blue Giant, at least twenty times larger than Sol and a million times more luminous. This star expels enormous amounts of stellar matter into the void surrounding it, which renders all but the outermost worlds unsuitable for human settlement due to the high levels of ionising radiation they are afflicted with. This ejection of stellar matter is also the reason that a miniature local nebula is present in the star system.

Betalis III was the site of the Betalis III Campaign fought in 894.M41 between the forces of the Imperium defending the system and the Eldar of Craftworld Mymeara who sought to recover the armour of the ancient Phoenix Lord Iryllith, the founder of the Shadow Spectre Aspect Warriors. An alliance of Eldar forces from the Craftworlds of Mymeara and Alaitoc, as well as Eldar Corsairs from the Void Dragons, Sky Raiders, and Sunblitz Brotherhood, descended on the frigid world to recover their beloved Phoenix Lord's armour before it was discovered and defiled by the human miners present on Betalis III. In this way, the Mymearans hoped that Irillyth might be restored to fight once more for his people, since his spirit would have remained intact within his armour's Spirit Stone. Betalis III was reinforced by Imperial Guard regiments drawn from the Cadian Shock Troops and the Elysian Drop Troops as well as Titans from the Legio Gryphonicus and Space Wolves Space Marines. After the Imperial forces fought the Eldar to a bloody standstill, the mysterious xenos vanished as quickly as they had arrived, presumably after they had recovered Irillyth.

Black Reach
Black Reach is the Imperial Hive World in the Ultima Segmentum fought over by the Ultramarines 2nd Company under Captain Cato Sicarius and the Goff Clan Orks under the Warlord Zanzag following the invasion of Black Reach in 855.M41 by WAAAGH! Zanzag. As an Imperial Hive World, Black Reach's massive hive cities are home to billions of Imperial citizens. Much of the planet's population was slain during WAAAGH! Zanzag, and the northern continent of the world was completely ruined by the intensity of the fighting. After the defeat of Zanzag by the Imperial forces, Black Reach's inhabitants still had to take back the rest of their world from the pockets of surviving Greenskins.

Bodt
The world of Bodt was the former fief world and Legiones Astartes training ground of the savage World Eaters Traitor Legion during the Great Crusade and early years of the Horus Heresy during the 30thand early 31st Millennia. Only a few short years following the Dropsite Massacre of Istvaan V, in 008.M31, Bodt was attacked by an allied independent Loyalist force, led by the infamous Iron-Lord Autek Mor, leader of the Iron Hands Legion's notorious Morragul Clan Company, the so-called "Red Talons". After a savage battle, Mor was believed to have entered the subterranean macro-vaults of the city of Tredecimmia before scouring every trace of life form the surface. Bodt's supply line of initiates for the traitorous XIIth Legion was permanently severed as a result.

Brontissa
A planet that was invaded by the Tyranids. Imperius Dictatio had in its past joined the fray and participated in eight straight days of intense fighting. On the ninth, all Imperial forces were pulled out into space, and the planet virus bombed.

Cadia
Cadia is a Fortress World which guards the entrance to the Eye of Terror. Cadia has endured many attacks from the Forces of Chaos and the Chaos Traitor Legions and several Black Crusades. Cadia is highly militaristic; birth rate and recruitment rate are synonymous. During the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41 Cadia was attacked by a Blackstone Fortress controlled by the Chaos Warmaster Abaddon the Despoiler. Cadia is also very well known for its elite Cadian Shock Troop Regiments -- men and women raised from birth to defend the Cadian Gate.

Caliban
Caliban was an Imperial Death World located in the Segmentum Obscurus to the galactic north of the Eye of Terror that was once the homeworld of the Dark Angels Legion of Space Marines, which was destroyed during the conflict between Luther, his Chaos-corrupted Fallen Angels and their Primarch Lion El'Jonson and his Loyalist Dark Angels in a great conflagration immediately following the end of the Horus Heresy. What little remained of the planet was the territory surrounding the fortress-monastery of the Dark Angels, which was transformed into a mobile Star Fortress that serves as the primary fortress-monastery and base of operations of the Chapter at present and is known informally as The Rock.

Calth
Calth is an Imperial Civilised World in the Ultima Segmentum and is a part of the Realm of Ultramar that is ruled by the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter. As part of Ultramar, Calth provides recruits for the Ultramarines Chapter. The Aspirants compete in a series of contests between hopefuls to determine who is worthy of joining the Space Marines. Calth's inhabitants live in subterranean hive cities where the deadly ultraviolet light of Calth's blazing blue sun cannot reach them. The caverns of Calth are constructed on such a huge scale, and with such grandeur, that they are as light and airy as any city of Macragge. The world above is an arid wasteland devoid of air and covered in the ruins of shattered cities. The atmosphere of the world was stripped away during a nuclear bombardment of the planet's hive cities during the Battle of Calth, one of the major campaigns of the Horus Heresy. This was when the Ultramarines and their ancient rivals the Word Bearers Traitor Legion under the command of First Captain Kor Phaeron and Erebus the Dark Apostle came into conflict.

Although the inhabitants of Calth are perfectly capable of living on what is grown in their subterranean algal nutrient vats, they prefer to import fresh foodstuffs from the nearby world of Iax. The orbital shipyards of Calth also earn the world a good reputation as Calthian-made starships are used by the Ultramarines and by merchants, Rogue Traders and the armed forces of the Imperium at large. The Ultramarines' Captain Uriel Ventris was born upon Calth. The Tyranid "character" Old One Eye was discovered on Calth frozen in ice. At least one regiment of the Imperial Guard has been raised on Calth.

Carcharias
Carcharias is an ice-cold Imperial Hive World covered in vast glacier fields that is also the Chapter homeworld of the Crimson Consuls Space Marines, a Chapter destroyed by the machinations of the Alpha Legion.

Catachan
Catachan is a Death World almost entirely covered in dense jungle. Vegetation on Catachan reacts to attempts at colonization and rapidly grows back whenever it is cleared. This forces the population of the planet to live a semi-nomadic existence, moving on whenever the jungle violently reclaims their land. It is believed that all of Catachan's native fauna is carnivorous, as is much of the flora. Poisonous creatures are extremely common. The most well known of Catachan's native animals is the infamous Catachan Devil, a voracious predator somewhat similar in appearance to an enormous scorpion. Devils can grow over 40 paces long, but their bulk and lack of speed allow many creatures to simply avoid them. One of the most dangerous animals on the planet is the Catachan Barking Toad, a seemingly innocuous-looking creature which discourages predators by exploding and spraying a highly lethal acidic toxin on anything nearby. The largest of the species, the Greater Catachan Barking Toad, is rumoured to be capable of annihilating everything within a half-kilometer radius upon detonation. The dangers in Catachan's jungles are not limited to the fauna; in many cases the plant life can be just as deadly. The Spiker, for example, is a plant capable of firing extremely sharp spikes into the bodies of its victims, which then emit a mutative chemical which eventually turns the unfortunate recipient into another Spiker. The Brain Leaf is an example of the more insidious dangers to be found on Catachan. The brain leaf has long, smooth tendrils, at the end of each of which is a single leaf. The plant can attach these leaves to living creatures, taking control of their nervous systems and using them as protection and, eventually, compost. Insects and diseases are every bit as dangerous as the larger monsters. Blood-wasps are swarming, carnivorous insects that will swarm over a man and eat him down to a skeleton in a matter of hours. Another subtle threat are Heretic-ants, highly venomous ants so named because they attack their victims from the feet - going for your soles (souls, so to speak). Creatures native to Catachan are often found elsewhere in the Imperium (the brain leaf can also be found on Necromunda, for example). Sometimes they are exported deliberately, and sometimes they are simply unwitting stowaways on board transport vessels. Catachan only has one export for the greater Imperium: Its people. Those born on Catachan are, unsurprisingly, of hardy stock, and the regiments of Catachan Jungle Fighters raised from the planet are among the Imperium's best guerrilla fighters.

Cerix Magnus
Askellon Sector is host to many Forge Worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the greatest of which is Cerix Magnus. It exists in the Mechanicum's own empire that coexists within the sector. Despite this, Cerix, and to a lesser extent its sister Forge Worlds Selvanus Binary and Core Theta, are as reliant on the sector as it is on them, for without raw materials from elsewhere, the forges would sputter and grow cold.

Certus-Minor
Certus-Minor is an Adeptus Ministorum Cemetery World located in the Praga Sub-sector of the Segmentum Obscurus. It became a very popular place for the burial of the Imperium's great and good after the construction of the Umberto II Memorial Mausoleum, dedicated to a very famous and pious former Ecclesiarch of the Ministorum and High Lord of Terra, Umberto II. Certus-Minor's administrative capital, Obsequa City, was staffed only by the Ecclesiarchy priests, serfs, indentured servants and other personnel needed to maintain the funerary monuments and bury the newly-arrived dead within the vast necroplex which extended across the planet. This world of the dead was the site of a great battle between the 5th Company of the Excoriators Chapter of Space Marines and the Cholercaust Blood Crusade, a vast legion of Traitors, Heretics and daemons dedicated to the Blood God Khorne which emerged from the Eye of Terror following the path of the crimson Keeler Comet every 10,000 Terran years. The Cholercaust was on a direct route for the sacred soil of Terra until it was stopped by the Excoriators with the unexpected and nearly miraculous aid of the revenant Astartes of the Legion of the Damned.

Chaeronia
The planet featured in Dark Adeptus (Grey Knights 2) by Ben Counter. A former Forge World, it was taken into the Warp for over 1000 years warp-time, while only 100 years in real-time. It is ruled by the Dark Mechanicus, although there are still a few loyal Adeptus Mechanicus troops. It contained an STC Titan, which was destroyed by the Grey Knights. It is likely that the planet was destroyed by Exterminatus due to the extent of tech-heresy that encompassed the entire planet.

Charadon
Charadon is the captial world of an Ork pocket empire, situated in the Imperium's Segmentum Ultima. Charadon is one of many small, independent and mutually hostile Ork domains scattered across the galaxy. It is ruled by the tyrannical Ork Warlord Snagrod the Arch-Arsonist, a particularly vicious and sadistic leader of a race noted for its generally vicious and sadistic tendencies. Snagrod's vicious (and sadistic) wars of conquest have transformed Charadon into the most powerful state within the anarchic confines of Ork space. Charadon is located near the Imperial world of Badlanding and through Warp-travel is only a few weeks away from Rynn's World, which Snagrod's WAAAGH! assaulted in 989.M41.

Chemos
Chemos was once the homeworld of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion before their corruption by the Chaos God Slaanesh and betrayal of the Emperor of Mankind during the Horus Heresy. Located in the Ultima Segmentum, Chemos was the planet where the Emperor's Children's Primarch Fulgrim was discovered by the Emperor during the Great Crusade. In ancient days it was classified by the Imperium of Man as both a Civilised World and a Mining World, but following its scouring after the Horus Heresy by the Loyalist forces of the Imperium, it is now a Dead World, wiped clean of all life by Exterminatus, its location struck from all Astropathic Cartigraphicae charts by an Edict of Obliteration.

Chondax
Chondax was a barren Dead World with a breathable atmosphere that was located in the trinary Chondax System of six planets, officially designated Chondax Primus EX5, 776 NC-X-S by Imperial cartographers of the Great Crusade era in the late 30th Millennium. It was better known as the "White World" by the White Scars Astartes who deployed there because of the colour of the arid salt pans that made up much of the terrain. The salt-encrusted earth of Chondax slowly absorbed all moisture on the surface, leaving the world largely barren, though the terrain reminded some of the White Scars of their own Legion homeworld of Chogoris.

Cinchare
Cinchare is a vivid blue minerial-rich Imperial Mining World in the Segmentum Obscurus, with many clashing gravity wells, orbiting a rogue star, currently dueling with Pymbyle Minor, the system wanders between the Halo Stars on the far edge of the Imperium, suffering many devastating cosmological collisions. The only reason for any venture of man to this forsaken place is its wealth of ultra-rare metals such as ancylitum and phorydnum. The mining rights for the world officially belong to the Imperial corporation known as Allied Imperial, which supports a workforce of almost 3,000 men and women, but in such a desolate region of space there is very little to stop the infestation of rogue prospectors. Cinchare's mines were the site of a massive infestation by the alien Hrud during the late 41st Millennium, where the 1st Company of the Dark Hands Space Marines and the Imperial Guard's 39th Cadian "Xenobane" Regiment of the Cadian Shock Troops exterminated the dangerous colony of xenos.

Colchis
Colchis was the Imperial Feudal World that was the homeworld of the Primarch Lorgar and the homeworld of his Word Bearers Space Marine Legion before the Horus Heresy. Colchis was a world governed by a theocracy called the Covenant dedicated to the worship of a polytheistic religion centered on the Chaos Gods before the arrival of Lorgar. After the Horus Heresy, the planet was destroyed by an Exterminatus order carried out by the forces of the Imperium as the Loyalists sought to purge every source of Chaotic corruption from the Emperor's shattered realm, including the homeworlds of every one of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines. Its former location was struck from all Imperial Departmento Cartographicae charts by an Edict of Obliteration.

Costeau XI
The Great Malagantine Purge (770-791.M38) was an Imperial military operation carried out by 5 Space Marine Chapters collectively termed the Manus Irae who unleashed the Emperor of Mankind's wrath upon the heretical Malagant Sector in the Segmentum Tempestus. The Black Fragments of Cardinal Bloch the Reviled, one of the few remaining heretical sources which contain information concerning the Purge of Malagant, explains that the Manus Irae consisted of 5 Chapters, but listed only three by name, including the Fire Hawks, Silver Skulls and the Charnel Guard. The details of this operation have been kept secret from the Imperial Adepta, including the Inquisition, with the records of the campaign sealed deep within the Celarno Vaults on Terra. What is recorded in fragmentary Imperial records is that the Manus Irae were charged by the High Lords of Terra of that era to, "spare none and set a bloody, fearful example to the realm of Mankind." In recognition of their successful participation in this campaign, the Fire Hawks Space Marine Chapter was granted the Feudal World of Costeau XI as their demesne by the High Lords of Terra. However, due to their willingness to carry out such merciless exterminations of civilian populations whose guilt was not clear, the Fire Hawks would be shunned by many of their fellow Astartes Chapters. Sometime during the second century of the 40th Millennium, the Fire Hawks' second homeworld was rendered uninhabitable, and they soon found themselves once again relegated to the status of being a fleet-based Chapter. The Fire Hawks are one of the only known Space Marine Chapters to have lost two homeworlds.

Core Theta
Core Theta is one of several Imperial vassal Forge Worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus located within the Askellon Sector in the Segmentum Obscurus. This Forge World is notable for its Magos Biologis whom are devoted from an early age to the mysteries of the flesh. Many of the Tech-priests of this extreme Forge World work on the edge of tech-heresy. In some cases, it is concerning the limits of the organic and not the technological. Constant experimentation on the rigours of flesh and the limits of life have made many of Core Theta's Genetors excellent physicians as well, a practice some disdain, but that others have come to rely on.

Cretacia
The planet of Cretacia is the Chapter Homeworld of the Flesh Tearers Space Marines. The world is teeming with violent saurian life (dinosaurs) and the Flesh Tearers supposedly hunt these beasts unarmoured and weaponless as sport. The oversized world of Cretacia was the fourth planet in a star system of seven worlds, and at first approach it appeared to be uninhabitable. Finding Cretacia perpetually shrouded in dense clouds, the Flesh Tearers effected landings on the planet to discover what lay below. What the Space Marines discovered was a planet to rival any Death World known in the galaxy due to its lethality to human life.

Crucible-Omega
Crucible-Omega is a supposed Hell-Forge and domain of the Dark Mechanicus, wholly dedicated to the Ruinous Powers. Long thought to be a myth, many Imperial savants now believe that such a realm does indeed exist, and that it could hold a valuable STC system on its surface.

Cthonia
Located in the Segmentum Solar, Cthonia was the barren and impoverished Imperial Mining World on which the Primarch Horus was raised when his gestation pod crash-landed there after being stolen and transported through the Warp from the Emperor of Mankind's gene-laboratory deep beneath the Himalayan Mountains on Terra by the Ruinous Powers. It was also later the homeworld of the Luna Wolves Legion of Space Marines before the Horus Heresy, which became the Traitor Legion of Chaos Space Marines known as the Sons of Horus and later, the Black Legion. Cthonia was destroyed some time after the end of the Horus Heresy, either by the forces of the Imperium who sought to destroy any trace of Chaotic taint in the Emperor's shattered realm or because the world collapsed as a result of the geophysical instability caused by millennia of overmining within the planet's crust and mantle. Its former location was struck from all Astropathic Cartigraphicae charts by an Edict of Obliteration.

Cuyavale
Cuyavale is a Feral World of the Severan Dominate in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector and is embroiled in the conflict that is consuming the Spinward Front. Humanity first began to colonise the world of Cuyavale in the distant prehistory before the time of the Great Crusade. When remnants of the Angevin Crusade reached the distant world, they were surprised to discover the hallmarks of human life. Further exploration soon revealed two separate populations, which continued to thrive in spite of the world's deadly predators. After re-establishing contact, the Ecclesiarchy committed missionaries to the world, so that the surviving humans might learn the glory of the Immortal Emperor. While the Imperial Creed now flourishes upon the planet, their physical distance from the remainder of the Calixis Sector has limited the amount of interaction between Cuyavale and the agents of Terra.

Cypra Mundi
Cypra Mundi is an Imperial Forge World and Naval Base of Segmentum Obscurus, the sector including the Eye of Terror. Cypra Mundi is located on the Northern fringe of the galaxy. During the 13th Crusade, a massive fleet was dispatched from Cypra Mundi to reinforce the Imperial Navy, which had been fighting an ongoing battle against the seemingly endless waves of Chaos vessels. The fleet from Cypra Mundi staged at Belis Corona in preparation for a massive counter-push into the Cadian Gate, just outside the Eye of Terror. Cypra Mundi is also the traditional home of Naval officers in the Segmentum, which are chosen from the aristocracy of Cypra Mundi

Cyrene
Located in the Sub-sector Aurelia of the Korianis Sector, Cyrene was once an Imperial Civilised World visited extensively by the Blood Ravens Astartes to recruit new members. When the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company commander, Captain Gabriel Angelos, himself a native of Cyrene, returned to his homeworld in the late 41st Millennium to conduct the Blood Trials to induct new Aspirants, he found evidence of wide-spread heresy and mutation among the populace. He quickly sent a coded message to the Inquisition, who performed an Exterminatus action on the world. The world was sterilised of all life and is now an S-Class Dead World.

Damnos
Damnos, an Imperial mining world located in the Ultima Segmentum, was first populated by the humans of the Imperium of Man during the Great Crusade, though in fact it was actually a Necron Tomb World. The Necron presence was first discovered in the north after their awakening in 973.M41, whilst the city of Mandos Prime's geothermic fusion stations were under repair following severe seismic activity. The Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests rapidly claimed the right to the artefacts and extradited several specimens to the nearby Forge World of Goethe Majoris for closer study. Soon after, under waves of atmospheric interference that clouded the entire northern hemisphere of the planet, the Necrons emerged from their tombs. The planet went on alert, but the threat was incomprehensible, no warning had been received from the fallen hive cities, and any recon units deployed never returned. As more hive cities toppled, word of the assault finally got through to the Planetary Governor, who deployed every regiment under his command. Within six months almost all of Damnos' vast manufactorum hive cities were in ruins, and the planetary capital of Kellenport finally fell to the Necron forces in 974.M41. The 2nd Company of the Ultramarines answered the planet's distress call in 974.M41 and helped to evacuate the remaining Imperial survivors before the Imperial Navy unleashed an Exterminatus order upon the planet's surface at the request of the Adeptus Astartes that is currently believed to have eliminated the Necron threat.

Davin
Davin is the prime world of the star system of the same name, conquered during the Great Crusade by Warmaster Horus and his 63rd Expeditionary Fleet. Davin is one of two habitable worlds in its star system, the other is its moon. Both Davin and its moon were desert worlds discovered in the 140th year of the Great Crusade, where the Primarch Horus' 63rd Expeditionary Fleet linked up with a lost strand of humanity on the surface of the planet. It was the eighth world conquered by that fleet of the Great Crusade, and so for a time Davin had the designation Sixty-Three Eight. It is principally known for being the world on which Horus made his pact with the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and so began the Horus Heresy. This event took place in the Temple of the Serpent Lodge, an establishment secretly devoted to Chaos Undivided, where he was treated for injuries incurred while quashing a rebellious force on Davin's moon.

Deliverance
Deliverance, once called Lycaeum, is a moon that orbits the Hive World of Kiavahr and was the homeworld of the Primarch Corvus Corax who was discovered there by his father, the Emperor, during the Great Crusade. Located in the Segmentum Tempestus, this barren, airless moon is also the homeworld of the Raven Guard Space Marine Chapter and the location of its Fortress-Monastery, called the Ravenspire.

Desoleum
Desoleum is a Hive World in the Askellon Sector that is dominated by three enormous Hive Cities, into each of which a population of dozens of billions is crammed, though accurate counts are impossible to undertake and the true figure is likely to be several times greater. The planet’s pre-eminent hive city is the eponymous Desoleum, sometimes called Desoleum Primus or colloquially elsewhere as Prime. The triad of Hives Desoleum, Jarvin, and Suzzum, the latter two named for the nigh legendary figures said to have founded them, account for the bulk of the industry on the planet, while countless lesser hives and manufactorums are to be found throughout the wastes.

Diamat
Diamat is an Imperial Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus located in the Segmentum Ultima. It was also the former homeworld of the Legio Gladius Titan Legion, whose current status is unknown.

Dolumar IV
Dolumar IV is the Imperial Desert World fought over in the PC game Fire Warrior. The planet was a small, but growing world, until Imperial forces attacked a nearby Tau world, killing many Tau and kidnapping the Ethereal Ko'vash. Tracking the Imperials back to Dolumar IV, the Tau attacked in force. The battle on and over the planet would serve as the Trial by Fire of a young Fire Warrior named La'Kais, who would prove instrumental in stopping the machinations of the Greater Daemon Tarkh'ax, who had corrupted the Imperial Planetary Governor of Dolumar IV. To cleanse the taint of Chaos, the planet was subjected to an Exterminatus by the Astartes of the Ultramarines Chapter.

Donatos Primus
Located in the Ultima Segmentum, Donatos Primus is a Class Two Industrial World of the Imperium of Man. Heavily industrialised, the planet maintains close ties with the Adeptus Mechanicus and can be counted as a part of the Mechanicus' net of influence within the Imperium. As of 925.M41, Donatos' sizeable industrial output was reserved almost exclusively for the supply of the Mechanicus military forces defending the Forge World of Ryza, which was struggling to defeat two consecutive Ork WAAAGH!s. Donatos Primus came under assault by the forces of Chaos during the Donatos War, a bloody campaign of reconquest launched by the Imperium to prevent its fall to the servants of the Ruinous Powers. Donatos was only saved through the sacrifices made by the Imperial Knights of the Knight World of Adrastapol.

Drazak
The Tomb World of Drazak, known in ancient legends as the Bone Kingdom of Drazak, is the home of an ancient Necron kingdom that is now inhabited by a large population of the undying machine horrors known as Necron Flayed Ones, creatures so insane and savage that they are loathed even by their own kind. On worlds lit by the cold rays of dying suns, located in the extreme northeast of the known galaxy, lie the Ghoul Stars, a realm where creatures tread out of a primal nightmare. Within this loathsome part of the galaxy are creatures so alien they seem to be born out of the supernatural. Yet even here, one horror outpaces all others; the Bone Kingdom of the world of Drazak, the haunt of Necron Flayed Ones. These fiendish creatures stalk through Drazak's desolate streets, fighting over gobbets of rotting meat and shards of bone, desperate to sate their deluded senses. Only one amongst the planet's entire population has stood apart from the pervading madness of its denizens -- the Necron Lord Valgûl, called the Fallen Lord amongst his own kind. From his throne of splintered bone and tanned skin, Valgûl rules over this charnel kingdom, his one good eye ever fixed upon retaining what small measure of order he can. Valgûl seemingly remains untouched by the Flayer infection that has consumed his people, but what truly sane creature would willingly live amongst the gibbering Flayed Ones? It is not known if Valgûl remains out of a sense of duty, or maybe personal madness which has taken another, more subtle, form. Whatever his reasons, Valgûl's rule is not founded on reason, for the devolved nature of his subjects makes such notions laughable. He maintains their allegiance through his ability to provide the gory bounty in which his subjects delight. Every few solar months, when no more meat remains, whether because it has been torn into fragments too tiny to scrabble over or simply due to inexorable rot, Valgûl announces a new "Time of Bounty," and dispatches the Necron fleets of Drazak to raid nearby worlds. These reavers of Drazak seek not riches nor conventional plunder, only tithes of gore and congealing blood.

Drenthal
Drenthal is an Imperial Ocean World that is the fifth planet of the Konor System in the Realm of Ultramar. A seemingly endless ocean covers Drenthal, dotted by island archipelagos and vast floating habitations. It is home to a number of large Imperial Navy Aeronautica Imperialis training academies. Due to its stable atmospherics, Drenthal has long been used as a training center by the Aeronautica Imperialis. Oceans cover almost ninety-five per cent of the planet's surface, so the flight academies of the Imperial Navy are contained upon colossal carriers, each as large as a small city and covered with landing strips, hangars and barracks. The rest of the world's population exists upon floating metropolises known as seasteads, or else make their home upon scattered archipelagos of bleached shard-coral. The world came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle during the Plague Wars of the early 42nd Millennium, and the servants of the Plague God proved successful in claiming the planet. The oceans have turned blood-red as butchered corpses bob and float upon the surging tide and daemon-forged Heldrakes whirl and screech in the skies overhead.

Dynikas V
Dynikas V, a world that is part of a star system in the Ghoul Stars region, was an ocean world with few island land masses that was home to a small human colony. It was eventually overran by the remnants of a splinter Tyranid Hive Fleet and was considered a Dead World, with an extremely toxic aquatic environment. The Traitor Apothecary Fabius Bile used the world as the home of one of his facilities. Bile's base was attacked by a combined force of Blood Angels and Flesh Tearers Space Marines, and in the process, was also overrun by the Tyranids. The planet was subsequently subjected to Orbital Bombardment by the Space Marine Strike Cruisers Tycho and Gabriel and turned into a smouldering rock devoid of any life or use.

Eidolon
Eidolon is a Daemon World, originally part of the ancient Eldar empire. This former Maiden World was hidden deep within the heart of the Eye of Terror. During the Fall of the Eldar it was enveloped by the Warp explosion instigated by the birth of Slaanesh and Warp energy has twisted it beyond all recognition. Like the state of Chaos itself, the land mass of the Daemon World is in a constant state of flux and is divided into four separate empires, each one claimed by one of the Chaos Gods and ruled by a Daemon Prince. Each of these realms wage eternal wars against one another. Eidolon is also supposedly home to many valuable ancient Eldar artefacts dating back to the time of the Fall. Eidolon was the sight of fighting during the massive incursion of the Forces of Chaos into Imperial space during the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41.

Elysia
Elysia, the homeworld of the famed Elysian Drop Troops regiments of the Imperial Guard, is a verdant Imperial Civilised World in the Segmentum Solar, some 30 light years from the Hive World of Armageddon. The Elysian System and the surrounding space were notorious havens for human and Eldar pirates, as Elysia lay on a major trade route through its sector and its star system was characterised by numerous asteroid fields and dense gas clouds that served as highly effective camouflage for pirate vessels waiting to raid passing Imperial commerce. Because of this ever-present threat, the Elysian Planetary Defence Force (PDF) gained intensive experience in ship-to-ship combat and serving alongside naval support when assault isolated space-based pirate outposts. The Elysian Drop Troop Regiments raised by the Imperial Tithe for service in the Imperial Guard are elite, all-volunteer units whose troops are required to first serve at least one tour of combat duty in the Elysian PDF before they are allowed to join. After they are recruited the new Drop Troops are sent to a number of military training bases established across Elysia and the rest of the Elysian System to begin their training, which includes extensive practice handling Grav-Chutes, making high-orbit insertions, sharpshooter training and extreme environment survival skills. Elysian Drop Troops are expected to make every shot count as during their operations resupply can often be days or even weeks away and so no Trooper is allowed to enter combat duty wothout first having been rated as an expert marksman. This high-level of accuracy allows Elysian Drop Troops to be far more effective when wielding Lasguns or Autoguns than the equivalent standard regiments of the Imperial Guard.

Endymion Prime
Endymion Prime is a blighted industrial Hive World located in the Endymion Cluster within the Badab Sector of the Segmentum Ultima. During the Badab War the brutal and savage Carcharodons Chapter of Space Marines were unleashed upon the worlds of the Endymion Cluster in order to defeat the Secessionist Mantis Warriors Chapter and protect the flank of the Loyalists as they launched a full invasion of the Badab Sector. The Carcharodons systematically annihilated planets in the Cluster known to have harboured the Mantis Warriors and forced the Secessionist Chapter to stop using their hit-and-run tactics and concentrate their forces in defence of these worlds. This strategy spared the Carcharodons from having to pursue the Mantis Warriors across the Cluster to worlds where their foes held the advantage of support from the population and local knowledge. Each battle forced the Mantis Warriors to come to the aid of the beleaguered worlds, destroying their ability to affect the broader outcome of the war. Worn down and scattered, the Mantis Warriors ceased to exist as an effective fighting force, though the Carcharodons' victory came at a great price. Unfortunately for the ravaged people of the Endymion Cluster, this would not be the only time when calamity was visited upon their doomed worlds, for the Carcharodons would return in later years to enact a final act of savagery against them in the aftermath of the conflict.

Enkidu
Enkidu is a Feral World of the Askellon Sector.The world is impossibly dense, possess dark forests and endless swamps. An incredible array of fearsome beasts, most of them defying all categorisation and no two ever seeming to conform to even the broadest genus, roam its surface. So mindlessly hostile are the things of tooth, claw, and tentacle that dominate the benighted lands that the feral human populace must live high in the enormous, twisting, and distorted trees. Warriors daubed in bright paints defend villages made of wood and the metal debris from earlier efforts to subdue the world. Huts of crudely joined armour plating cling precariously to the sides of oversized trees, linked together with rope bridges upon which warrior-sentinels maintain ceaseless vigil against the ravening abominations below. The humans of Enkidu are hardy, for only the strongest survive in such an environment. Yet, despite the danger posed by the beast-things of the forest, these are not the primary cause of death. Rather, their own violent nature ensures that most deaths come from their fellow men in the ceaseless wars within the treetops, the fallen dead feeding the wild things of the forest and perhaps dissuading them from venturing upwards. No village, many thousands of which are scattered across the surface, is untouched by war, though it is rare for the winner to have time to enjoy the spoils of victory. Instead of taking control of the territory of the defeated, the victors take their choice of the vanquished themselves, who are dragged away into slavery. Thus, each of the tribes is divided into two, ever-shifting classes: the tribal rulers who are free and who have taken a prisoner, and those who are not free, having been enslaved. This rank as free or slave can change with the rising and setting of the sun, for while they fight vigorously to defend their villages and avoid enslavement, if defeated and captured they accept their new status with unusual quiescence, given their fierce essence. As part of the tribe, even slaves fight in the next battle; should they themselves take a prisoner they are elevated in the tribe as free. To flee or avoid battle is literally unthinkable; no Enkiduan can even put such concepts into words.

Espandor
Espandor is an Imperial Cardinal World and is a part of the Realm of Ultramar that is ruled by the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter and lies in the Ultima Segmentum. It played a key role during the Plague Wars of the 42nd Millennium.

Estaban III
Estaban III is a major Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus located in the Ultima Segmentum. It is also the home of the Legio Tempestus Titan Legion. This Forge World has had a troubled and turbulent history throughout its existence. In the early years of the 31st Millennium, Estaban III declared for the cause of the Warmaster Horus and sided with the Traitors, but at some point, the Forge World was later reclaimed by the Imperium and continues to remain a loyal and productive world.

Etiamnum III
This airless, barren planet was home to a small community of hermits who for millennia had lived out a simple life of contemplation and study in a reclusium. This was shattered when the Thousand Sons Sorcerer Mordant Hex attacked and vented some of the beguiled and strangely calm hermits into the airless atmosphere. The Thousand Sons then penetrated deep into the mountain fortress with little resistance on a hunt for something. The planet had held a deep secret, a long forgotten webway portal which Ahriman then used to gain entrance to the webway in Abaddon’s 13th Black Crusade. After the Campaign ended, Ahriman was ejected from the Webway and the webway gate permanently sealed.

Eustis Majorus
Eustis Majorus is a Hive World in the Anjellus Sub-sector that features in the Ravenor novels by Dan Abnett. Its capital is the Hive City of Petropolis, a dirty, polluted and overcrowded city that was in fact designed as a huge "Psychic Resonator" by the infamous heretical architect Theodor Cadizky with precisely nine hundred and ninety-nine temples. The central temple of the complex, called the Old Sacristy, was in the exact centre of the hive, with all of the others, the axial temples, forming lines from the Old Sacristy that give the entire hive an overall mathematical symmetry.

Fenris
Fenris is a cold, icy Death World in the Segmentum Solar that is the homeworld and primary recruiting ground of the Space Wolves. The planet's culture is made almost entirely of scattered tribes similar to Viking Age Scandinavia. The Space Wolves keep a close watch over the people of the world, recruiting fallen warriors who have proved their valour in battle much like the Valkyries of Norse legend. The Space Wolves' fortress-monastery is called The Fang, a massive citadel built atop the tallest mountain of the only stable continent on the world, Asaheim. The Fang is the home base of the Space Wolves and extends into the surrounding mountain range as well as into orbit, drawing energy from the geothermic source of the planet's core. The complex includes huge ground-based anti-ship orbital defence weapons concealed as nearby peaks, docks at the summit for the Space Wolves' battle barges and strike cruisers, numerous shrines to the Emperor of Mankind along the lower slopes, and massive fusion and geothermal reactors deep underground. Outside of Terra itself, The Fang is considered one of the most impregnable fortresses in the galaxy. It has never been conquered, although the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion did manage to briefly occupy the outer slopes of The Fang after luring the bulk of the Space Wolves' forces away.

Flint
Flint is a low-technology Agri-World in the Angelus Sub-sector of the Scarus Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus that is possessed of great rolling fertile plains where the primitive human tribes of the world drive vast herds of large mammalian creatures similar to elephants called demi-pachyderms, taking them each year to the great Beast-moots. Much of the stock is sold to off-worlders at these moots who come seeking a bargain. Apart from the meat industry, demi-pachyderm skins and fertilizers are both major exports of the planet as well as miscellaneous goods from the self-sufficient colony cities that were established on the warmer south continent of Flint by the Imperium of Man.

Footfall
Footfall is a massive, sprawling void port of gigantic stone asteroids bound together by ornate bridges, flexible tunnels, and chains the size of voidships, all centred around a macrostatue of the most holy God-Emperor of Mankind dozens of kilometres high. This statue, placed by Footfall's founder, the Rogue Trader Parsimus Derwin, looks out sadly over a morass of vice, degradation, perversion, sedition, mutation, and heresy. The floating agglomeration of Footfall is situated just rimward of The Maw, transfixed in the hellish glare of the star Furibundus. Footfall is typically the first stop for those entering the Koronus Expanse and the last stop for those leaving.

Fortis Binary
Fortis Binary is a primary Imperial Forge World in the Sabbat Worlds Sector of the Segmentum Pacificus, with a population of roughly 19 billion people in 767.M41. In that same year a Chaos uprising overthrew the ruling Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus and regiments of the Imperial Guard were sent to liberate the vital manufactorums of the world, which were too valuable to the sector's economic output to be subjected to an orbital bombardment. After the liberation there were major food shortages and the Departmento Munitorum began to take corpses from the morgues and process the flesh for rations, which resulted in the outbreak of a wide-spread epidemic. Although, by the late stages of 776.M41 the world's population had recovered enough to support 5 Imperial Guard regiments that joined the second front of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade under the command of Lord General Van Voytz.

Fourtheden
Fourtheden is an Agri-World controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. As an Agri-World, Fourtheden provides a substantial portion of the Severan Dominate's food supply. The vast majority of the Secessionists' strategic reserve came from tithes taken from this planet. If Duke Severan XIII lost his hold on the world, several others might fall in short order. Without its bounty, the Secessionists would be unable to provide the necessary supplies to a number of worlds that rely upon imported foods. Consequently, this system and its agricultural bounty represent a key holding to the rebel forces.

Galen VI
Galen VI is an Imperial Frontier World that was located in the Galen System within the Badab Sector of the Segmentum Ultima. During the Badab War, the isolated Galen System was a prize fought over repeatedly and between the Loyalist and Secessionist forces and which changed hands several times over a period of six years from 904.M41 to 910.M41. In 910.M41, under the direct command of Lord High Commander Carab Culln of the Red Scorpions Chapter, the Magister Militum or supreme commander of the Loyalist Space Marine forces, the Galen System was brought back under Imperial control and any hope of future resistance was crushed. This task was assigned to the ruthless and taciturn Sons of Medusa Chapter. Through the application of a brilliant strategy and the use of psychological warfare, the Sons of Medusa were able to bring the world of Galen VI back into the Emperor's fold in only a matter of days. Galen VI's population would ultimately be condemned to generations of indentured servitude by the Inquisition for their betrayal of the Emperor.

Galt
Technically Galt Three in the eponymous system, it has an elliptical orbit about a yellow sun and is characterised by three main continents and dense jungle growth. Their most common export to the Imperium is the bud of the red lotus used in many alchemical products. It houses a pre-Imperial structure known as the Temple of Xikar, home to a sect known as the Brothers of Perpetual Bliss. The Temple and planet were devastated in an Ork raid led by one Ork Warlord, Gurg, who possessed one-third of the Talisman of Lykos, which made him practically invulnerable.

Gardinaal
Gardinaal is a notable Industrial World of the Imperium of Man located near the Dominion of Storms in the Ultima Segmentum in the Eastern Fringe. Due to its people's arrogance and treachery during the Great Crusade, this world was subjected to a brutal Imperial Compliance campaign, known as the Fall of the Lords of Gardinaal, which was conducted by the Primarch Ferrus Manus and his uncompromising Iron Hands Space Marine Legion. Following the decimation of their military forces and the death of Gardinaal's intransigent lords, the people of this world suffered both famine and great hardship, but its resources were largely left intact for Imperial exploitation. Within a few short standard years, Gardinaal and its heavy industrial output proved to be a valuable addition to the Imperium.

Gath Rimmon
Gath Rimmon is a Dead World that was once the home of the ancient Eldar artefact called the Ayex Commoragh, also known as the Heart of Agony. The planet suffers from acidic floods, which can last for entire years. The only life on the planet are obsidian-skinned xenos that are hostile to any trespassers. The Ayex Commoragh was hidden on Gath Rimmon by the Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-priest and Logis Alsmo Charis. An Eldar Warlock by the name of Valiel and a squad of Striking Scorpions hunted Charis down to this world, but were destroyed by the Heart. In his last moments, Valiel left a psychic beacon on the roof of the cavern where the Heart was locked away. Years later, a squad of Space Wolves, led by the Rune Priest Ravenblade, were drawn to the world. Ravenblade and Baldr Svelok, a Wolf Guard, managed to destroy the Heart by flooding the chamber with acid at the end of one of the planet's flood cycles. Ravenblade died shortly after as a result of his injuries, leaving the now one-armed Svelok as the only survivor. The rest of the squad had been killed by the Heart.

Gerstahl
Gerstahl was an Imperial Shine World of the Adeptus Ministorum located in the Segmentum Obsurus near the Cadian Gate. Gerstahl had long been a place of peace and tranquility, its faithful offering their prayers daily to the God-Emperor. The planet was named for Saint Gerstahl, an Imperial Army officer who had fallen defending the Cadian Gate during the first centuries after the Horus Heresy. Entombed under the world's alabaster capital, the saint was prophesied to rise again when the "Eye of Darkness opened for the last time" and stem the tide of the treacherous. When Abaddon launched his 3rd Black Crusade he attacked the Fortress World of Cadia, to distract the Imperium from his desecration of the saint's tomb in an attempt to forestall the saint's possible contribution to preventing the Imperium's collapse in the far future as a Living Saint. With whispered lies and promises, Abaddon unleashed the Daemon Prince Tallomin, the so-called "Prince of Princes," against the Cadian Gate. Abaddon had convinced the creature that the blood of the loyal Adeptus Astartes could grant him unheard-of-strength and the power to crush his daemonic rivals within the Eye of Terror. In a gore-soaked assault, Tallomin and his minions slew many millions of Imperial soldiers and lured no less than a dozen Loyalist Space Marine Chapters to battle. In the end, the ferocious warriors of the Space Wolves finally drove the Daemon Prince screaming into the Immaterium, but Abaddon had already achieved his aim, destroying the remains of Saint Gerstahl and forestalling any chance of the prophecy's fulfillment.

Golgotha
A Squat homeworld. In 3rd edition, the Squat homeworlds were supposedly destroyed by the Tyranids. Golgotha was previously attacked by Ghazghkull Thraka and was the origin world of the Ordinatus Golgotha.

Graia
Graia, also known as "The Crown of Miracles," is an Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World in the Segmentum Tempestus of the Milky Way Galaxy. The planet is home to the Legio Astraman, a Loyalist Titan Legion. Graia was the site of an invasion by over 1 million Orks led by the Warboss Grimskull in the late 41st Millennium in an attempt to seize the Warlord-class Titans being constructed within the planet's famous Ajakis Manufactorum. The invasion was stopped in its tracks by the intervention of the 203rd Cadian Shock Troopers and the 2nd Company of the Ultramarines led by Captain Titus, and the world was ultimately reclaimed for the Imperium by a full liberation fleet. During the battle, Titus discovered that the Ork invasion had been a cover for the Chaos Sorcerer Nemeroth and his warband of Chaos Space Marines to seize experimental Imperial Warp technology that he intended to use to become a Daemon Prince and transform Graia into a new Daemon World under his rule. Titus successfully slew the Sorcerer but came under suspicion of heresy himself because of his unusual resistance to Chaos sorcery.

Gravalax
Mainly mentioned in the novel "Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium" the Imperium held colonies on this planet with the Tau and "Xeno-Lovers" a group of pro-tau humans who fight the PDF and the Valhallan 597th Guard regiment. Not much history is told about this "miserable mud-ball." The combined forces of the Valhallan 597th and Commissar Cain, and an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, Amberley Vail, were sorely tested on Gravalax. After political instability caused the fall of the Tau's peaceful diplomatic missions and the Order to eliminate the human planetary governor by Lord General Zyvan. This was all dwarfed by the invasion of one of the first Tyranid hive fleets in many a century.

Greyshroud
Greyshroud was an Imperial Hive World that suffered from a massive raid by the by the Dark Eldar's Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue in 944.M41 that succeeded in carrying off millions of men, women and children to serve the foul appetites of the denizens of Commorragh. This assault has been used by many Imperial savants as a classic example of how a Dark Eldar raid unfolds on Imperial territory in their never-ending search for more souls to assuage the pull of Slaanesh upon their shrunken souls.The planet was not known to maintain any Astra Militarum or other Imperial forces, and was defended solely by the Greyshroud Planetary Defence Forces and a visiting Imperial Navy warship of unknown class, the Hammer of Pride, at the time of the raid. Little else is known in Imperial records about this world.

Gryphonne III
Gryphone III was once a beautiful planet, though it was destroyed after the Great War. It was once the homeworld of the Avengers Chapter, and before the planetary destruction the Avengers acted quickly enough to move all their knowledge on to their spaceborne mobile fortress-monastery. The exact location of this planet is unknown, but it is rumoured that some lost knowledge or important artefact that belonged to the Imperium remains hidden on the world.

Gryphonne IV
Gryphonne IV is a Dead World that was once an Imperial Forge World located in the Shiola Sub-sector of the Segmentum Tempestus' Alduin Sector. Gryphonne IV was the homeworld of the Titan Legion Legio Gryphonicus and some of the fiercest and most skilled Skitarii Legions in the galaxy. Gryphonne IV was known to be one of the most well-defended worlds in the Segmentum Tempestus, which its destruction all the more shocking. Gryphonne IV was one of the few Adeptus Mechanicus Forge Worlds that produced in significant quantities the less common Leman Russ main battle tank variant known as the Leman Russ Conqueror for the Imperial Guard. The designs for this Leman Russ variant were originally discovered on Gryphonne V. Following the loss of the Forge World of Tigrus, Gryphonne IV was also (with Stygies VIII) one of two Forge Worlds capable of producing versions of the Leman Russ Vanquisher main battle tank. Its last Imperial Planetary Governor was Fabricator-General Darius Hugh. Gryphonne IV was attacked and consumed by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan soon after its emergence into the galaxy in 997.M41, severely disrupting Imperial industry and supply in that part of the galaxy.

Gudrun
Gudrun is the former capital world of the Helican Sub-sector of the Scarus Sector in the Segmentum Obscurus and had been a home to humanity for 3,500 standard years. Gudrun is ruled by a feudal system of noble patronage including such powerful noble houses as the Glaws, the Pariti and the the Froigre. Gudrun's influence extended even beyond its own star system into neighboring worlds. It is the recruiting ground for the Gudrunite Rifles Regiments of the Imperial Guard. The raising of a new regiment for the Guard is always a cause for a planet-wide celebration. Once the capital of the Helican Sector, in 241.M41 one of the preeminent noble houses on Gudrun -- House Glaw -- was found to be pervaded by a Chaos Cult. Once this came to be known to the Imperium at large, the noble house was destroyed. The damage caused to the reputation and prestige of Gudrun led to the relocation of the Helican Sub-sector capital to the world of Thracian Primaris. Boasting a human culture for three and a half thousand years, feudally governed by powerful noble houses, such as The Glaws, Pariti and Froigre. After a successful Imperial Crusade launched against the Heretics of the world by Battlefleet Scarus, Gudrun lost the honour of being the capital world of the sub-sector to Thracian Prime. Before its corruption, Gudrun was a relatively idyllic world with stately manors controlling vast estates of rolling green hills studded with small villages. Its culture was not dissimilar to ancient ideas of "Merry Olde England." For a time it was the home and headquarters of the Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn.

Hagia
Located in the Sabbat Worlds, Segmentum Pacificus. It is the birthplace of Saint Sabbat, and the location of her remains. During the Sabbat Worlds Crusade the forces of Chaos attacked the world and mocked the people of the world by calling themselves Infardi which was the local word for Pilgrim. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and his regiment the Tanith First and Only fought the Infardi in the capital city of the world, Holy Doctrinopolis, and drove them out but at a very heavy cost. To redeem himself and his regiment, Gaunt led an honour guard to the Shrinehold of Saint Sabbat to safeguard the relics there from the incoming Chaos Fleet.

Herodor
Herodor was a desolate world located in the Sabbat Worlds Sector, where the Imperial Saint Sabbat was believed to have been reincarnated, providing a major morale boost to the forces of the Imperial Sabbat Worlds Crusade who were fighting against the Forces of Chaos that had overrun much of that sector during the late 41st Millennium. Herodor was a world sacred to the Ecclesiarchy because during Saint Sabbat's original Crusade to conquer the Sabbat Worlds in the Emperor's name she had paused on the planet to cleanse her wounds in the River Civitas. As such, that same river remained a place of pilgrimage for many believers in the Imperial Cult. During the Sabbat Worlds Crusade Herodor was once more attacked by the Chaotic troops, mostly members of the Pact Blood but also with the aid of 9 Chaos Champions. Eventually, Imperial forces including the Tanith First and Only Imperial Guard Regiment of Gaunt's Ghosts fame aided in crushing the Chaotic invasion.

Honourum
Honourum is the Chapter homeworld of the Novamarines Space Marine Chapter, which can be found in the galactic north of the Ultima Segmentum, located in close proximity to the Halo Stars. The region is sparsely populated and its proximity to the Halo Stars means that the Chapter's sphere of influence and area of operations is great indeed. The Halo Stars, as well as the vast tracts of unexplored wilderness space around Honourum, are host to all manner of ancient threats, nascent alien empires and as-yet unnamed lost human worlds. Primarch Roboute Guilliman granted the Novamarines rule over the planet Honourum at the time of the Second Founding, where they constructed their great fortress-monastery, the Fortress Novum. Throughout their ten millennia of existence, the Chapter has guarded and exploited Honourum's resources responsibly. When they received the right of its fealty, the planet represented the northern border of the Segmentum Ultima. Since that time, the secured region has significantly expanded, but the Chapter's responsibility for maintaining security throughout the broader region has not changed. The world of Honourum is characterised by brutal storms, savage seas, and barren mountains. Most of its native life forms are primitive plants and lichens. Its fauna largely consists of ocean-dwelling invertebrates. Many of the more sophisticated organisms employ potent toxins that are as effective against humanity as they are against the planet’s native species. Heavy metal contamination is present in many of the world’s regions, leading to toxicity among much of its plants. It is as though the planet actively attempts to defend against the intrusion of any life. The feral human population consists of nomadic tribes of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. These savages migrate constantly to avoid the worst of the planet’s brutal climate and to constantly scavenge for any available food. They lack the resources or the ability to effectively establish mines or to refine and shape sophisticated metals. Those who can survive in this harsh environment have proven to be exceptional candidates to become Novamarines Astartes.

Hrax
Hrax is a Desert World which emerged from a receding Pandaemoniumfront a millennium ago, and whose feudal inhabitants dwell among the mazes of interconnected canyons and cave networks inscribed into its arid surface. These great chasms were carved from streams lowing towards the warm equatorial oceans, and the native lora and fauna are almost completely dependent on these waters for survival. Occasionally, these rivers form pools or small lakes that quickly become verdant oases of life; great herds of sparmadons, families of garnun, and packs of deadly vornae gather about their banks. This sprawling labyrinth of winding ravines, overhanging stone arches, and endless interconnected caverns are as difficult to navigate as the densest of hives, and most Hraxian wildlife relies on some form of echolocation to aid in navigation.

Hubris
Hubris was an Imperial world of unknown class in the Helican Sub-sector of the Scarus Sector whose name derived from the excessive pride of its human colonists, who founded a society there despite the harsh climate which sees the planet icebound for 11 of the 29 standard months it takes for the world to make one revolution around its sun. This period is known locally as Dormant and approximately 99% of the population enters cryogenic stasis in hibernation tombs during Dormant to escape the cold. This is followed by Thaw, a period of feasting and activity designed to help overcome the effects of cryosleep and then by Vital, the normal active time for the people of the world when life proceeded normally as on many other Imperial worlds. It was on this planet that Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn killed the Heretic Murdin Eyclone, who was attempting the bodily resurrection of the infamous Arch-Heretic Pontius Glaw with the mass murder of Hubris' cryosleepers during the Dormant period. It was this event that started the chain of events that marked Eisenhorn's slide into philosophical Radicalism.

Hyades
Hyades is a jungled Death World in the Segmentum Obscurus not far from the Death World of Fenris that is a holding of the Navigator House Belisarius and is protected by the Space Wolves Chapter of Space Marines because of the ancient alliance between those two Imperial factions. Hyades is unusually rich in naturally-occurring deposits of Promethium, which is why the wealthy House Belisarius invested heavily in the exploitation of the fuel on Hyades and sponsored the settlement of an Imperial colony on the planet. Hyades is a hostile planet with large predators and an indigenous reptilian xenos species called "Reptos" by the Imperial settlers. The jungles also grow at an exceptional rate, requiring that they be burnt or cut back at all times to avoid them encroaching on the human settlements. Even so, Hyades is not considered a death world by the Administratum. Hyades has its own Planetary Defence Forces (PDF), which were drawn, at least in part, from mercenaries or retired soldiers of the Imperial Guard, including some raised on the Death World of Catachan. As a result, the Hyades PDF was unusually professional. It was led by a mysterious man named Commander Cadmus who turned out to be one of the Fallen Angels of the Dark Angels Chapter of Space Marines, a ten-thousand-year-old Traitor to the Emperor from the time of the Horus Heresy. The Hyades PDF had access to several Imperial armoured vehicles including Chimeras, Catachan pattern Sentinels and a small number of Leman Russ Battle Tanks. The PDF took severe casualties during a battle between the Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines as well as tribes of a primitive, native xenos species of sentient, ape-like lizards known commonly as "Reptos" who were involved in collecting Space Marine gene-seed for the Thousand Sons. Though a disciplined force, the Hyades PDF proved to be no match for Space Marines, much less elements from three Chapters of them.

Hydra Cordatus
Hydra Cordatus was an Imperial Forge World and Desert World located in the Segmentum Obscurus near the Eye of Terror and one of the few locations in the galaxy where the Adeptus Mechanicus stored its tithes of Space Marine gene-seed, in this case of the genetic material drawn from the Imperial Fists Chapter. The planet consisted of only a space port and a single large citadel and manufactorum complex known as the Tor Christo. The Tor Christo was a large star-shaped fortress connected to a smaller half-star fortress built into the side of a nearby mountain. The citadel had a large garrison of Imperial Guard troops and even a small detachment of Titans of the Legio Ignatum to protect its precious contents. During the 13th Black Crusade a force of Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines supported by a Traitor Imperator-class Titan, the Dies Irae, succeeded in assaulting the world's Imperial defences and stealing the precious genetic materials stored within the Tor Christo.

Hydraphur
Hydraphur is an Imperial Hive World located in the Segmentum Pacificus. It is the location for the main Imperial Navy battlefleet headquarters in its sector. Hydraphur is a prime recruiting ground for the Imperial Navy, with many of the prominent families on Hydraphur being connected to the Imperial Navy and various Rogue Trader houses. As a result of the influence of the Rogue Traders, Hydraphur is a commercial and manufacturing hub for the Imperium of Mankind and a person's financial connections are as important as their familiar one. This has lead to the Hydraphuran convention of adopting both a clan name (the business you are affiliated with) and a family surname (for example Lord Kalfus-Medell is a Lord of the Medell family, affiliated with the Kalfus clan). In addition to the Imperial Navy, the Ecclesiarchy and the Adeptus Mechanicus have strong interests and ties to Hydraphur. Law is enforced (as on most Loyalist Imperial worlds) by the Adeptus Arbites.

Ichar IV
Ichar IV is an Imperial hive world located in the Ultima Segmentum, to the galactic north of the Realm of Ultramar. It is a vital industrial centre for the region, producing supplies for many armies. The planet's major exports include ore and mycoproteins. During the Second Tyrannic War, the planet was taken over by a Genestealer Cult that was ultimately defeated by the combined forces of the Inquisition, the Ultramarines, the Imperial Guard and Planetary Defence Forces.

Idumea
Idumea is a minor Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus located in the Segmentum Obscurus, located near the edge of the Warp rift known as the Hazeroth Abyss, in the Calixis Sector. A malevolent Xanthite splinter faction of the Inquisition known as the Phaenonites, who are reviled even by their fellow Radicals, have made inroads into the governance of Idumea. The Phaenonite infiltration of Idumea and its activities on nearby worlds have caused the Phaenonites to encounter an unforeseen foe in the form of the Amaranthine Syndicate.

Inwit
Inwit is the Ice World where Rogal Dorn, the Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion, spent a significant portion of his life before he was rediscovered by his father, the Emperor of Mankind, and joined the forces of the Imperium of Man during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. Dorn lived amongst the ice-tribes who called Inwit home and considered one of the chieftains of these tribes to be his adoptive grandfather and chief childhood mentor. The world's population was said to inhabit massive ice-hives and its actual level of technological advancement remains unclear. The people of Inwit were known to have divided themselves into different tribes and clans and to have a caste system in place known as ice-castes. Dorn claimed to have risen to have become the emperor and warlord of Inwit and its entire star system and to have either discovered or constructed the massive starship later used as a mobile fortress-monastery by the Imperial Fists known as Phalanx.

Inwit at present is one of only two known official recruiting worlds for the Imperial Fists Chapter of Space Marines, along with the Hive World of Necromunda. Very little is known about this world in current Imperial records.

Istvaan III
Istvaan III was an Imperial hive world whose inhabitants rebelled against the Imperium during the final days of the Great Crusade. When Warmaster Horus and elements of the Sons of Horus, the Emperor's Children (with their Primarch elsewhere the Emperor's Children were led by Lord Commander Eidolon), the Death Guard and the World Eaters Legions reached Istvaan III, there were no negotiations; instead, Horus sent an assault force against the planet's vital areas, where the leadership of the planet would most likely be hiding. This, however, was actually a trap for those Space Marines laid by Horus to purge the Traitor Legions of their remaining Loyalists, which had all but declared their loyalty to Horus in his mad bid to overthrow the Emperor of Mankind. The Warmaster ordered the planet virus-bombed in order to kill any remaining resistance, and then with the words "Let the galaxy burn", ignited the gases given off by the massive organic decomposition that resulted from the actions of the virus upon the bodies of the planet's 12 billion people. However, the Loyalists were belatedly warned of the virus-bombing by Captain Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children and several hundred managed to survive the castastrophe. These Space Marines put up a heroic defense against the Traitor Legions' attempt to destroy them for three months before finally succumbing to an orbital bombardment. However, the Battle of Istvaan III had caused major losses for the Traitor Legions and dramatically slowed down their timetable, ultimately contributing to their defeat during the Siege of the Imperial Palace on Terra. After the end of the battle, Horus next moved his forces to the nearby world of Istvaan V for a showdown with the Loyalist Legions.

Istvaan V
Istvaan V was where the first 4 Traitor Legions to follow the Warmaster Horus into rebellion against the Imperium redeployed following the virus-bombing and destruction of their Loyalist contingents during the Battle of Istvaan III. Upon learning of the terrible atrocity Horus had committed, the Emperor deployed seven Legions to bring Horus to account for his actions. The Iron Hands, Salamanders and Raven Guard made up the first wave of the attack, but were pushed back by the superior tactics of Horus' maddened followers. The reserves were called in, but the four Legions comprising the reinforcements -- the Iron Warriors, the Alpha Legion, the Word Bearers and the Night Lords -- had betrayed the Emperor and were prepared to follow Horus. The three loyalist Legions were almost annihilated in what becane known as the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V.

Ithaka
Ithaka, commonly referred to by its inhabitants as the "Cradle of Snakes", is an Imperial Ocean World and Feral World located in a sector of space known as the Reef Stars in the Segmentum Obscurus. This is a known recruiting world of the Iron Snakes Space Marine Chapter. It is from this tempestuous water world that the Iron Snakes draw most, if not all, of their Neophytes. Despite being designated an Ocean World by the Imperium, Ithaka does possess significant landmass, including tropical islands and viciously cold polar regions. The Iron Snakes are therefore able to train in a series of different environments, although the sea is most precious to them.

Jericho III
Located in the Spartus Sector of the Segmentum Tempestus. In 694.M39 Dark Eldar pirates attacked the world, destroying its capital city and killing 3,200 Planetary Defence Force (PDF) personnel, another 1,400 civilians, capturing 1,500 PDF personal and 16,800 civilians to use as slaves.

Juno
The world of Juno has stood as the capital of the Askellon Sector since time immemorial. It is commonly held as the first of the Founding Worlds to have been settled. The planet’s ruling classes regard themselves as the elite of the sector, claiming the colony vessel that seeded their civilisation was the one carrying the finest of the fleet. Whether this is truth or fantasy, the rulers of Juno have always comported themselves as aristocratic masters, and place enormous stock in preserving what they regard as the purity of their labyrinthine bloodlines. While the aristocracy live artificially-extended lives of unimaginable luxury, their world cracks apart and their claimed control over the sector becomes more precarious. Each year, more shards of the cyclopean edifice sheer away, eroding the aristocracy’s power, though they have yet to realise how badly. Their retainers dare not speak such truths to them, as the majority care little for such things and are concerned only that their existence should continue uninterrupted. An increasingly small number amongst them are still loyal to the greater Imperium and struggle to maintain Askellon, though most fear it is in vain.

Jupiter
The great gas giant of Jupiter is a major Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the fifth world of the Sol System in the Segmentum Solar. Jupiter is the site of the massive manufactoria and starship construction facilities of the Mechanicus' ancient orbital Jovian Shipyards, which date back at least to the time of Old Night.

Kaeriol
Kaeriol, was a Feral World of ice and fire, just as Fenris is, gifted to the Wolf Brothers Space Marine Chapter, the only known Second Founding Successor Chapter of the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter. Led by its first Chapter Master, Beor Arjac Grimmaesson, the Wolf Brothers were intended to be as numerous as their genetic forebears, and as powerful. They were given half of the Space Wolves' Legion fleet, half their armouries and half their Priests. They were to have been the first of many Successors, a whole line of descendant Fenrisian Chapters – the "Sons of Russ," capable of carving out a star empire the size of Ultramar. But something went terribly wrong and the Wolf Brothers were disbanded, scattered to the six points of the compass. They were disbanded for the same reason there could be no further Successors to the Space Wolves -- the existence of the Wolf within. The genetic code of the Space Wolves Astartes known as the Canis Helix was far too dangerous to be copied. The heritage that made the Space Wolves powerful also made their genomes unstable and prone to rapid mutation. The Wolf Brothers, located far from Fenris, fell quickly into the state of beasts. So it would be with any attempt to splice new sets of gene-seed from the genetic legacy of Leman Russ.

Kalto
Located along the Grand Processional, the most stable Warp route in the Askellon Sector, Kalto is a large Agri-World whose bountiful production has made it the breadbasket for the untold billions who dwell within the neighbouring sub-sectors. This high productivity is believed to be due in part to Kalto’s negligible axial tilt which, when combined with the planet’s stable orbit relative to its brilliant orange star, creates a near perpetual growing season ideally suited for agriculture. Kalto is particularly known for its production of padonus rice, a genetically-modiied crop developed by the Magi Biologis of Core Theta, as well as large quantities of local emdur grain. Such advantageous planetary qualities have led many scholars to believe Kalto is actually the result of ancient terraforming during the sector’s founding, or of some other nameless techno-sorcery from the Dark Age of Technology. Others interpret the world’s relative Warp route stability and remarkably earth-like gravitational pull as evidence of divine providence, while some within the Inquisition and elsewhere view the deadly boneweed, prolific xenosrelics, and other unexplained events during Kalto’s history as evidence of an as yet unidentified threat.

Karacallia
Karacallia is a heavily-populated star system controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. The Karacallia System contains an unusually high number of gas giants, many of which harbour resources of use to the Adeptus Mechanicus in the construction of Warp-Drives. Though logged, the system's resources have never been properly exploited, its location some distance from the nearest Forge World, making it a perilous undertaking and the war making it all but impossible. The population of the Karacallia System is scattered across three-dozen and more satellites of the various gas giants and represents the descendants of a first wave of Imperial colonists dispatched there five standard centuries ago to populate the system and thus provide the raw manpower needed to exploit its resources in future generations. But the scheme never reached fruition and, though the population has thrived numerically, it has suffered greatly from its isolation. Thus it was not difficult for Severus to stoke the fires of rebellion on Karacallia, and the densely populated worlds are ripe recruiting grounds for the Dominates. Of the dozens of populated worlds in the Karacallia System, not one is untouched by war. The Imperium has launched over thirty separate assaults since the beginning of the war and the Orks at least the same number. To date, none of these assaults has dislodged Duke Severus XIII's forces, which fight with almost unholy zeal. Numerous Imperial Guard regiments have been committed to the system and, while substantial gains have been made in the past, most have been at the expense of losses elsewhere. While one satellite might be taken, another will fall, and so war ebbs and flows across the war-torn moons and planetoids. The surfaces of the worlds are cratered, corpse- and debris-strewn wastelands, poisoned by the lethal gases Severus XIII's forces have unleashed and scoured lifeless by the weapons of the Imperium. The war there has been likened to an "island-hopping" campaign, with forces fighting for possession of the countless satellites and planetoids. It is rare for any single world to be held by one side for more than a few solar months before the enemy dislodges it, but still the war grinds ever on, the system's location along the Calixis-Scarus Warp conduit making its possession vital.

Kaurava System
The Kaurava System is the star system in the Eastern Fringes of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Ultima Segmentum where, because of the sudden appearance of a Warp Storm, nine separate armies from each of the Milky Way galaxy's most powerful intelligent species clashed with each other in the PC game Dawn of War - Soulstorm. There were four worlds within the system, all named Kaurava, and all of which were capable of sustaining life, making Kaurava a valuable strategic location.

Kerrack
Kerrack was an Imperial Agri-World that came under assault from the Forces of Chaos and the warband of Chaos Space Marines known as the Slaughterkin and that was eventually cleansed by the actions of the 5th Company of the Star Phantoms Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes during the campaign known as the Scourging of Kerrack in 932.M41.

Khur
Khur, designated Forty-Seven Ten by the Imperium of Man, was a Civilised World brought into Imperial Compliance during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium by the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion, approximately a Terran century before the events of the Istvaan III Atrocity at the outset of the Horus Heresy. The beautiful capital city of Khur, known as Monarchia, also called the "Perfect City" by the Word Bearers, was built by the people of Khur at the direction and exhortation of the XVII Legion to demonstrate their faith and devotion to the God-Emperor of Mankind, whose faith was brought to them by the Word Bearers' Primarch Lorgar. Six decades after being brought into Compliance and approximately 40 standard years before the start of the Horus Heresy, the XIII Legion, the Ultramarines, utterly destroyed Monarchia, forever after earning the bitter hatred of the Word Bearers. This action was done on the personal order of the Emperor as an example to both Lorgar and his Word Bearers that violations of the secular and atheistic Imperial Truth through the encouragement of the continued error of religious faith and the spread of idolatrous doctrine would not be tolerated. This action crushed the faith and spirit of Lorgar and his Space Marines in the Imperial project and led them to seek out new gods more worthy of their worship -- the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. Like all of the worlds tainted by the influence of the Traitor Legions, Khur was subjected to an Exterminatus during the Great Scouring of the early 31st Millennium by the Imperium. This was done to eliminate all remaining Chaotic corruption within the planet's population, as they had remained staunchly loyal forever after to the "angels" from the stars who had first taught them the potent power of faith. Khur today is a Dead World, though its location remains a highly classified secret of the Inquisition, to prevent any from searching out whatever Chaotic relics and artefacts might remain upon the planet.

Kiavahr
Kiavahr is the heavily industrialized world around which its natural satelitte, the former prison-moon of Lycaeus - better known today as the Raven Guard’s home world of Deliverance - orbits. Although no true domain of the Mechanicum, together Kiavahr and Deliverance easily rival a Forge World’s output in terms of quantities of goods, weapons and ammunition produced there. Much of Kiavahr’s output has benefitted the XIXth Legion and even today Kiavahr still produces almost all the equipement required by the Raven Guard Chapter. While officially under the jurisdiction of the Raven Guard, Kiavahr largely governs itself - toiling under the watchful eye of its masters from the Adeptus Astartes. A tumultous history ties Kiavahr to its moon, a history forever changed by the arrival of one of the Emperor’s Primarchs : Corvus Corax who would subjugate the powerful Techguilds and lead Kiavahr into the fold of theImperium.

Kokytos
Kokytos is an Ice World controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. A tragedy of epic proportions, there is little good that can come from the continued war on Kokytos. Both the Imperium and the Severan Dominate have spent countless lives on its brutally frigid surface in battles that are unlikely to affect anything beyond the planet’s boundaries. Since the Dominate's secession, leadership on both sides decided that this world could be a lynchpin in the war. Even though this belief is clearly false, all seem compelled by pride to honour that initial view and continuously escalate the engagement.

Konor
Konor is an Imperial Forge World and a former Research Station of the Adeptus Mechanicus in the Konor System and is a part of the Realm of Ultramar that is ruled by the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter and lies in the Ultima Segmentum. Its moon of Gantz is also a very powerful Forge World in its own right, and at various times in the history of the byzantine politics of the Mechanicus, Gantz has actually outranked its sibling world in the hierarchy of the Priesthood of Mars. Located at the heart of Ultramar, Konor has been one of the principal suppliers of munitions and war machines, to both the Ultramarines and the various regiments of the Astra Militarum raised within the borders of Ultramar. During the Great Crusade, Konor was one of the four ruling worlds of the Tetrarchy that governed Ultramar, a status it lost in the millennia after the Horus Heresy but which it reclaimed in the 42nd Millennium after the resurrection of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman and his reorganisation of Ultramar during the Plague Wars. The Ultramarines Chapter's First Captain Severus Agemman was appointed as the new Tetrarch of Konor by Guilliman, and tasked with expanding the territory of Ultramar to the galactic north. The world came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle during the Plague Wars of the early 42nd Millennium, but the Imperial forces valiantly rallied to reclaim Konor for the Emperor.

Knight Worlds
The Knight Worlds are technologically-advanced planets within the Imperium of Man that are allied with both the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus yet still maintain feudal cultures and social structures reminiscent of the Terran High Middle Ages during the 2nd Millennium AD. These planets are descended from venerable human colonies that date back to the Dark Age of Technology. Ancient oaths of fealty mean that the Knights are sworn to protect the citizens of these worlds, and also to fight against the Imperium's enemies when called to do so. These worlds are ruled by feudal noble houses called Knight Houses because their members are trained to pilot the massive humanoid war machines known as Imperial Knights. Most Knight Worlds are closely politically and economically linked with a nearby Mechanicus Forge World.

There are many hundreds of Knight Worlds scattered throughout the vast empire of Mankind. The bold explorers of Humanity's first interstellar expansion during the Age of Technology travelled far and wide into the galactic wilderness seeking habitable worlds or planets that could otherwise be terraformed to sustain human life. Many of these exploratory fleets were equipped with Knight Standard Template Construct (STC) technology, enabling them to protect the colonies they established. More than fifteen millennia after their ancient ancestors set out into the stars, the distant descendants of these human colonists dwell still on Knight Worlds scattered across the demesne of the Imperium. Though many knightly houses have risen and fallen over the ages, those that remain can trace their heritage back to a time before the birth of the Imperium, and are justifiably proud of their ancestry. Thus is every Knight World heavy with the weight of the past, regardless of its galactic location or level of technological advancement.

Kracis IV
Kracis IV was a Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus which served as the former Chapter homeworld of the Steel Confessors Space Marine Chapter. In 745.M41, the Imperium encountered the first Tyranid Hive Fleet, which was designated Hive Fleet Behemoth. Unfortunately for the Steel Confessors, their original Chapter homeworld stood in the path of the Great Devourer and was soon attacked by the ravenous swarms of these foul xenos. Though they fought valiantly, Kracsis IV soon fell to Behemoth, forcing the Confessors to make a hasty withdrawal, lest they suffer the complete annihilation of their Chapter. Their Chapter Master Protonus was killed during the defence of Kracsis IV, valiantly holding the line so the last of his Battle-Brothers could escape the doomed world. His body was recovered and would later be buried on their new Chapter homeworld alongside the remains of the Steel Confessors' first Chapter Master, Avonis. When the Tyranid menace was finally stopped and defeated at the Battle of Macragge in 745.M41 by the Ultramarines and the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Ultima, the Steel Confessors were granted a new homeworld by the Imperium (through the intervention of the Adeptus Mechanicus) upon the Forge World of Kalevala.

Krieg
The Imperial planet of Krieg is a toxic, radioactive Death World and the homeworld of the grim and fatalistic Imperial Guard regiments known collectively as the Death Korps of Krieg.

Kritias Secundus
Kritias Secundus is a Type IV semi-inhabitable satellite moon and Mining World of the gas giant Kritias (Pireaus VI) located in the Piraeus System in the Badab Sector of the Segmentum Ultima. During the lamentable internecine conflict known as the Badab War, Kritias Secundus was the site of a massive Loyalist offensive that almost ended in near-disaster as the Renegade Chapter Master Lufgt Huron of the Astral Claws Chapter sprung a cunning trap and counter-attacked the Loyalist assault forces. The Secessionists inflicted heavy casualties upon the Red Scorpions and Exorcists Chapters, and slaughtered tens of thousands of Imperial Guard and Inquisition forces in their transport ships as part of a mutually destructive space battle in the system that saw both sides ravaged. Lord High Commander Carab Culln of the Red Scorpions Chapter was terribly wounded in personal combat with the Tyrant of Badab and only survived thanks to the desperate intervention of the Exorcists' Battle Barge Redeemer. After the Loyalist assault was blunted, they were forced to settle for a blockade of the Badab System while they rebuilt their forces for the final invasion.

Krodha
Krodha is currently a Dead World which served as the former Chapter homeworld of the now defunct Tiger Claws Space Marine Chapter. The Tiger Claws were a former Loyalist Space Marine Chapter descended from the now-excommunicated Astral Claws Chapter. Declared destroyed over fourteen centuries earlier and effectively a dead Chapter, a lone Strike Cruiser reappeared after having been trapped in the Warp and subjected to severe time distortion. After making contact with the Storm Wings Space Marine strike force and aiding them in battle against Eldar slavers, the Tiger Claws were resupplied and made their way back to the location of their fortress-monastery on Krodha. There they found that in their long absence their ancient sun had expanded and rendered their world a lifeless, irradiated husk, and that their Chapter was nothing more than an all but forgotten legend. Captain Vetala of the Tiger Claws, now the de facto master of what was effectively a dead Chapter, travelled to Holy Terra to petition for the release of the Chapter's gene-seed and the right and title to rebuild the Tiger Claws. Captain Vetala disappeared without a trace while awaiting his petition's hearing and as a result his suit was summarily dismissed.

Kronus
Kronus is the Civilised World over which war is waged in the PC game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade. At the time of the Dark Crusade, Kronus was a former Imperial world that had been under the rule of the expanding Tau Empire for approximately 200 years. Seven of the most potent military powers in the galaxy clashed over the world, including the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwé, the Imperial Guard's 1st Kronus Liberators, the Space Marines of the Blood Ravens Chapter, the Orks of Warlord Gorgutz 'Ead 'Unter, the Tau Empire, the Word Bearers Traitor Legion of Chaos and a recently awakened force of Necrons. Each army refused to back down, beginning a terrible and unique conflict that would go down into Imperial records as the Dark Crusade. The Blood Raven Space Marines ultimately proved victorious, even following an unexpected conflict with the forces of the Imperial Guard stationed on the world, and returned the planet to the rule of the Imperium of Man. Kronus lies near the Tau Empire somewhere in the Ultima Segmentum, in the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy, boasting diverse conditions and terrain; the population is composed primarily of humans and Tau, with a small number of feral Orks in the fringe regions. The planet's human history runs a fairly long way back, as evidenced by its ancient STC technology, and has been fought over in both the Horus Heresy and the Damocles Gulf Crusade. In addition, Kronus also played host to major fighting during the Horus Heresy, and a few previous Ork WAAAGH! attempts. The planet however, hides a dark secret. It is a Necron Tomb World, which over the span of millions of years, developed its current life-supporting environment. Awoken by an ill-fated human archaeological team working for the planet's Tau rulers, their appearance was made worse by the rapid arrival of several armies on the planet when word got out that the Necrons had awakened on yet another world.

Kulth
Kulth is a War World and the former capital of the Calixis Sector's Periphery Sub-sector. It is currently the capital of the Secessionist Severan Dominate and the most important theatre of the Spinward Front. Kulth is the strategic lynchpin of the Spinward Front, for it occupies a unique position in relation to the numerous factions intent upon conquering the Periphery. Kulth bestrides the Calixis-Scarus Warp conduit and is the last Imperial planet within the borders of the Periphery Sub-sector before the route plunges into the lawless voids of inter-sector Wilderness Space. Its orbit is strewn with countless void-docks constructed to accommodate Warp vessels laying over on their way to or from the Scarus Sector. Yet with the coming of the war, most of these have fallen silent and cold, while others have become low-gravity, vacuum-haunted warzones in their own right.

Loebos
Loebos is an Imperial Death World that is the sixth planet of the Konor System in the Realm of Ultramar. Loebos was once an Aeldari Exodite World, until an Imperial invasion slaughtered the populace and rendered its World Spirit violently insane. The world came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle during the Plague Wars of the early 42nd Millennium, and the servants of the Plague God proved successful in claiming the planet. The oceans have turned blood-red as butchered corpses bob and float upon the surging tide and daemon-forged Heldrakes whirl and screech in the skies overhead. In a desperate, near-suicidal assault upon the onrushing planet of Loebos, the armies of the Imperium averted the obliteration of the Konor System, but at the cost of the destruction of Loebos.

Lorin Alpha
Lorin Alpha is a strategically important Hive World located in the western half of the Segmentum Solar, granted as a fief by the High Lords of Terra to the Fire Angels Space Marine Chapter when they were created during the 25th Founding.

Lorn V
Lorn V is the Ice World that is fought over in the Dawn of War expansion Winter Assault. The planet had already fallen to two separate forces of Orks and Chaos Space Marines of the World Eaters Legion who were servants of Khorne, who were fighting each other for control of the Ice World. In the game, the Imperial Guard's Cadian 412th Regiment was sent to the planet on a mission to salvage an Imperator-class Titan before the xenos and Traitors could find it. A force of Necrons were also buried deep underground, bringing the Eldar of Ulthwé Craftworld to the planet in an attempt to keep them from awakening. In the novel Dawn of War: Ascension, Lorn V is mentioned to have been a former Eldar Exodite world. However, the canonicity of this statement is debatable since other plot elements in the novel conflict with those in the game, for example Farseer Taldeer being from the Biel-Tan Craftworld instead of the Ulthwé Craftworld, and the Blood Ravens assisting the Cadian 412th Imperial Guard Regiment instead of the Ultramarines as seen in the game.

Lucius
Lucius is an Imperial Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus that is located in the Segmentum Obscurus of the Milky Way Galaxy. The planet is home to the Legio Astorum, a Loyalist Titan Legion, that is also known as the "Warp Runners." Lucius is a large Forge World that produces everything from Imperial Guard infantry weapons to Space Marine battle tanks and mighty Battle Titans of the Collegia Titanica. It is known that Lucius is a Production Grade III-Prima Forge World with a Tithe Grade of Aptus Non, meaning it pays no tithe to the Administratum, as its industrial output is considered of potent strategic valure for the Imperium in and of itself. The forges of Lucius are some of the mightiest in the Imperium, and Lucius Pattern weapons and vehicles are found on many worlds and in many armies. Lucius is most notable for having its own pattern of Warhound, Reaver, and Warlord-class Titans, as the only other known patterns of Titan all originate on Mars itself. Lucius is also known for being the Forge World responsible for the rediscovery of the Standard Template Construct (STC) designs for the Macharius Heavy Tank and the Cyclops demolition vehicle. Lucius also supplies the weaponry, vehicles, and other needed war materiel to the great Imperial Guard regiments known as the Death Korps of Krieg, supplying them with many of their vehicles and weapons such as their Medusa Siege Guns, Heavy Mortar Cannons, and Thudd Guns. The forges of Lucius are very capable of constructing many of the rarest and most powerful vehicles in the Imperium, such as the Baneblade, Shadowsword, Stormblade, and Stormlord, along with many more common vehicles such as the Imperial Guard's Manticore, Trojan, Destroyer Tank Hunter, Vulture, Salamander, and Valkyrie. The planet also produces Vindicators and Drop Pods for the Adeptus Astartes.

Lukius
Lukius is a War World controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. Lukius is a star system entirely devoured by war, for it represents the line in the sand across which Severus has vowed the Orks shall not advance. When it comes to the Dominate's war against WAAAGH! Grimtoof, the War World of Lukius is far and away the most vital battleground and the one to which Severus has committed the bulk of his forces. It is probable that the Imperium's Spinward Front High Command are not even aware of the world's fate, for it lies on a trunk of the Calixis-Scarus Warp conduit and is, in effect, currently beyond the reach of the Imperium's conventional forces. The native population of Lukius existed as primitive, tribal savages for many thousands of Terran years, but with the establishment of the Severan Dominate they have been dragged kicking and screaming into the 41st Millennium. Iron Age barbarians used to conducting war with little more than sharp spears have been drafted en masse into the armies of the Dominate, equipped with mass-produced Autoguns and clad in ill-wrought battle dress. Many have suffered a form of combat psychosis as a result of this drastic change, while others have taken to the war with apparent relish. These ramshackle armies go to war against the Orks of WAAAGH! Grimtoof and, from a distance, an observer might have difficulty determining which is which. Certainly, both sides are brutal and bloodthirsty, preferring to establish the victor in the anarchy of melee combat.

Luna
Luna is the traditional name for the Moon of Terra which the Imperium of Man classifies as both a Dead World and a Civilised World that is home to billions of people in hive cities built below the surface of the lunar regolith. Humans first landed on Luna in the year 969.M2, making it the first world ever explored by Mankind in the ancient past. In the subsequent centuries it was one of the first worlds colonised by humanity, who erected great domed cities above and below its airless surface. Luna became a center of scientific research and zero-gravity manufacturing during the Dark Age of Technology. The Emperor of Mankind conquered and united Old Earth during the Unification Wars following the Age of Strife in the 30th Millennium and then sent his forces to occupy the human colonies on Luna. It was in the lunar gene-laboratories that the Emperor began the Primarch Project, the massive genetic engineering research initiative necessary to create the Primarchs from his own genome, though their actual gestation was carried out in his secret gene-laboratories beneath the Himalayan Mountains to provide greater protection from the interference of the Dark Gods of Chaos. Unfortunately, these arcane protections ultimately proved inadequate and the Primarchs, still developing infants locked into their gestation capsules, were scattered across the galaxy after the Ruinous Powers opened a Warp Rift within the Imperial laboratories. Yet from the Primarchs' remaining genetic material the Emperor was able to create the first Space Marine Legions, using the organs cultured from the Primarchs' gene-seed to transform ordinary human men into superhuman warriors.

Luther McIntyre IX
Luther McIntyre IX, or simply Luther McIntyre, is a particularly infamous Death World that is a planetwide desert, raked by sandstorms known to have flayed the skin off those caught on the surface. It is also the homeworld of some extremely dangerous subterranean fauna, including burrowing Ambulls and the deadly and highly dangerous razor-toothed Mica Dragon, whose teeth formed the chainsaw edge of the infamous Khorne Berzerker Khârn the Betrayer's Chainaxe Gorechild.

Maccabeus Quintus
Maccabeus Quintus is an arid and bitterly cold world with a harsh, bright sun, that is prone to terrible famines and droughts which leave their mark even on its strongest inhabitants. Yet Maccabeus Quintus is a blessed world, blessed not because of the resources it possesses (which are few), or because of the climate (which is harsh), but because of the faith that grows there in abundance. Maccabeus Quintus is a Shrine World of the Adeptus Ministorum, a place where the great General Drusus fell and was raised up as an Imperial saint by the glory of the Emperor. A site of pilgrimage for the faithful across the Calixis Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus, this Shrine World has a significant military tradition all its own. Following after their great patron, these pilgrims form the core of the Maccabian militias, the finest of which are chosen to become Maccabian Janissaries of the Imperial Guard. Like Saint Drusus, they defend or expand the Imperium in battle, which is regarded as the most pious form of worship.

Macragge
Macragge is the homeworld of the Ultramarines Space Marine Chapter and the capital world of the Chapter's Realm of Ultramar in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy. In 745.M41, Hive Fleet Behemoth was destroyed in the Battle of Macragge at the expense of the Ultramarines' 1st Company. Macragge is an Imperial Civilised World located in the southern reaches of the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy in the Ultima Segmentum. It is also the Chapter homeworld of the Ultramarines Chapter of Space Marines and the capital of the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar. Macragge itself is mostly bleak and rocky, with more than three-quarters of its land mass formed from mountainous upland almost entirely devoid of life. The people of Macragge do not live in this inhospitable region, but the fortress-monastery of the Ultramarines is built here upon a craggy peak surrounded by impenetrable mountains. Within this mighty fortress, inside the vast Temple of Corrections, is the shrine of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman himself. This is where his body sits upon a huge throne of ornately-carved marble. He is preserved in death by a stasis field impervious to the decaying effects of time. This is one of the holiest places in the Imperium, and thousands come from all over the galaxy to look upon the face of the ancient Primarch. Macragge has fearsome defences, including two polar defence fortresses, that have been upgraded since the Battle of Macragge. It is the homeworld of the Ultramarines and the seat of the Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar. Macragge is famous as the site of the invasion of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth, which was repelled by the might of the Ultramarines at the Battle of Macragge. It remains the firm seat of the Realm of Ultramar, ruled by the Ultramarines Chapter Master who serves as the world's Planetary Governor under the title of Lord Macragge and the Lord of Ultramar.

Maeleum
Maeleum is a Daemon World located within the Warp-realspace interface known as the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus. For a time, Maeleum served as the first homeworld of the Sons of Horus Traitor Legion following the immediate end of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium, though the world was abandoned in the wake of the Eye of Terror Slave Wars.

Maesa
Maesa is a Frontier World controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. Maesa is a world in utter ruin. At one time it was classed by the Administratum as a Frontier World, its population existing in a subsistence state in a number of scattered cities. When WAAAGH! Grimtoof descended upon Maesa, its people fought valiantly to defend their world, but ultimately had no chance of repulsing the overwhelming invasion. Within six solar months, the world had fallen, the surviving populace rounded up by the Orks in slave pens holding thousands in the grimmest conditions imaginable. Though Imperial forces were too far distant to intervene, a small infiltration mission had been launched to observe the invasion, and it was this team who were the first to observe a change in the Orks' strategy. Instead of slaughtering the defeated natives as they so often did, the Orks rounded them up and set them to work in vast, ramshackle labour camps producing arms and armaments for the Warlord Grimtoof's vast armies. This event marked a turning point in the Ork invasion and its significance was so great that the team set off on the perilous return to the Spinward Front High Command immediately. Though only a few members of the infiltration team made it back, those that did carried such important intelligence that the Imperial Navy mustered a scratch task force of long-range Cruisers and Escort squadrons, and set out for Maesa without delay. When they reached the planet, almost three solar months after its fall, they found a world transformed. The cities had become huge, ramshackled manufacturing centres and countless Ork vessels teemed in orbit as they loaded hundreds of thousands of tonnes of materiel every day. The task force’s orders were clear and, with a prayer upon his lips, the admiral commanding ordered the cities razed to the ground by a massive orbital bombardment. The Ork slave labour camps were destroyed in a single night, their manufacturing capacity utterly ruined, along with hundreds of thousands of enslaved Maesans, whose souls were commended to the Emperor. Since this so-called "Scouring of Maesa," the world has been transformed into a warzone. The Imperium has launched several planetstrike operations there, but the bulk of the fight has been undertaken by the natives themselves. Those not slain in the Scouring rose up against their alien overlords and now fight the bitterest of wars through the ruins of their former homes. The cities are blackened shells while the land all about is cratered and dead, yet still the Maesans fight on against the Orks. Grimtoof was outraged by the Scouring, for he views the numbers of slaves in his service as a measure of his power and he has ordered them all recaptured or slain. Though distant from the Imperium's front lines, the battle for Maesa looks set to rage on until one side or the other is defeated.

M'Pandex
M'Pandex, also known in ancient sources as Mappandax or Zaphadak, is a Secundus II Grade Forge World of ancient provenance and tumultuous history. Founded during the dark years of the Age of Strife and isolated from the domains of the Mechanicum and humanity for much of its history, the Forge World's fortune waxed and waned until its later rediscovery by the forces of the Great Crusade in the 30th Millennium. Restored to its former glory by the efforts of the Martian Priesthood, M'Pandex would become an important Forge World for the whole Cyclops Cluster, although being overshadowed by the the might of its rival, the Forge World of Mezoa. Following in the footsteps of Mars, M'Pandex quickly sided with the Warmaster Horus during the Age of Heresy, willfully joining the Dark Mechanicus until its purge during the Great Scouring.

Mars
Mars is the twin planet of Terra, and one of many long-inhabited worlds near to the Cradle of Humanity. It is the home and power centre of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the ancient priesthood of the Machine God, and the heart of their galaxy-spanning monopoly on Imperial technology. Mars is peppered with towering hive cities, and there is very little of the planet's surface which remains untouched by the constructions of the Tech-priests. It is hinted that C'tan, the Void Dragon, may be dwelling under the surface of Mars. A piece of writing in the Necron codex, in which Abaddon the Despoiler is seen seeking information from a daemon, indicates the location of the C'Tan. The daemon hints that the Void Dragon is at Vaul's Moon. Vaul is the Eldar god of the forge. Since Mars is the greatest forgeworld in the galaxy, it can be assumed the Dragon may be there. There are also other pieces of backstory that provide similar evidence. This point is open to debate though and has not been confirmed by Games Workshop. It is also possible the Adeptus Mechanicus worship the ancient C'tan (although unknowingly) as they worship a figure called the Machine Spirit, which is possibly the Void Dragon, while the Omnissiah, the Machine Spirit made manifest, is the Emperor of Mankind himself. Therefore this leaves much debate in the topic, since in the same book from The Horus Heresy states that the Emperor in a past life defeated the dragon and imprisoned it, while it was recovering on Earth in the country of Libya. The planet is home to three Titan Legions, one of them the Legio Ignatum. The identity of the other two are classified.

Medusa
Medusa is the Chapter homeworld of the Iron Hands Space Marine Chapter. This is the world where the Iron Hands' Primarch Ferrus Manus was found by the Emperor during the Great Crusade. The world of Medusa is a harsh realm of perpetual gloom, situated precariously close to the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus. The sun almost never breaks through the dark and polluted sky, as it constantly churns over a land of frozen mountain ranges, interspersed with volcanoes and boiling hot geysers. The landscape is under constant flux, the shifting of tectonic plates forming new mountains and seas, and destroying them as quickly as they are created.

Medusa V
Medusa V was an Imperial mining world in the Medusa System of the Ultima Segmentum that was close to a Warp phenomena known as Van Grothe's Rapidity, better known as Hell's Slingshot for the way Imperial ships used it to drastically increase the speed of their transit through the Eastern Fringes of the galaxy. In the last years of the 41st Millennium, the Rapidity vastly increased in size and intensity, and moved to envelop the entire Medusa System. However, even though the fate of the planet was sealed, it became a major battlefield, as every major faction of the Eastern Fringe, from the Imperium and the Forces of Chaos to the Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tyranids and the Necrons, found a stake in the planet's approaching destruction. The Imperial forces, Guardsmen and Space Marines alike sent to defend the planet, were victorious in their efforts to evacuate the Loyalist civilian population of the world before it fell to the Warp. Sicarius, captain of the Second Company of the Ultramarines Chapter, fought there to stop the plans of the Chaos Sorcerer Ygethmor of the Black Legion to become a Daemon Prince, while a splinter fleet of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken sought to hunt down a special Lictor subspecies and absorb it into the Tyranid swarms. After heroic fighting on the planet, the Warp storm finally overcame it. Yet, by the heroic efforts and costly sacrifices of the Imperial Guard and the Space Marines for the Emperor the planet was saved from eternal damnation at the hands of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.

Menazoid Epsilon
This world and Menazoid Sigma were part of the theatre known as the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. Guard units from the Tanith First, Vitrian Dragoons, Oudinot Irregulars, Afghali Ravagers, Pragar, Modian, Cadian Armoured, Sarpoy Mechanised Cavalry, Borkellid Hellhounds, Samothrace 4th, 5th and 15th, Ketzok 17th, Lattarii Gundogs and Jantine Patricians converged on a target that turned out to be an intact STC for Iron Men. After an assault where the Jantine Patricians turned on the Tanith First and a series of monoliths trigged a trap that destroyed many Guardsmen, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt destroyed the template as it began to produce chaos tainted Iron Men.

Mezoa
Mezoa is the most important and preeminent Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus within the Cyclops Cluster, a zone of space located in the galactic north of the Gothic Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus. To this day, Mezoa upholds strong ties with its inceptor, the great Forge World of Lucius, from whom it originated. The Forge World's output (Tertius II Production Grade) is entirely dedicated to the production of first necessity war materiel such as arms and ammunition. In particular, Mezoa is responsible for the supply of macro-ordnance shells to the mustering point and headquarters of the Imperial Navy at Port Maw, located in the neighboring sub-sector. This specialisation, as well as the important and well-equipped Taghmata maintained by the Mezoan Forge, have sometimes led the Forge World to be dubbed a "War World" by local Imperial Commanders, a reputation from which it still benefits. Perhaps at odds with other domains of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Forge World of Mezoa is distinctively militant and a firm supporter of the Imperial cause, most famously siding with the Loyalists during the dark events of the Horus Heresy when, isolated, cut-off and blockaded, the Forge World nevertheless succeeded in resisting enemy invasion during the Mezoan Campaign. These dark times would see it prevail both against the forces of the Warmaster Horus and those of its long-time rival Forge World M'Pandex, and remain defiant until its subsequent liberation. More recently, in 139.M40, as an opening move during the 12th Black Crusade, more commonly known as the Gothic War, Mezoa came under attack by naval elements of Abaddon the Despoiler's forces, which seem to have been easily vanquished by the Forge World's defenders.

Midath
Midath is a "lost" Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus, supposedly located within the Calixis Sector in the Segmentum Obscurus. Unfortunately, it has been "missing" for as long as anyone can remember, to the point where some question whether it was ever real in the first place.

Minea
A Hive World in the Ultima Segmentum. It has a population of 154 billion. There are roughly 2 million Imperial troops gathered there. The closest Space Marine Chapter is Crimson Scions. It has a planetry draft of 1,249,000 per annum. Its chief exports are Banedax Ore and Phosgene Gas.

Moirae
Moirae is a former Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus located on the northwestern edge of the Segmentum Solar. During the Nova Terra Interregnum in the early 35th Millennium, the Imperium was fractured into a number of different warring factions. This included great swathes of the Adeptus Mechanicus and their closest allies, who were riven with internal rebellion due to the pernicious doctrine espoused by the Tech-priests of Moirae, which went against the orthodox teachings of the Cult Mechanicus. The resulting doctrinal conflict would come to be known as the Moirae Schism. Eventually, the world of Moirae suffered the ignominious fate of being blasted to ashes by a large fleet sent by Mars. Despite Moirae being rendered into an uninhabitable Dead World, the conflict between traditionalist and radical elements of the Adeptus Mechanicus would continue to flare up intermittently throughout the next standard millennium before the schism was finally ended.

Mordakka
A Forge World in the Scarus Sector. Almost completely destroyed during the aftermath of the Horus Heresy when it suffered heavy attack from Traitor forces escaping to the Eye of Terror including a large fleet fleeing from Mars. Known to have been defended successfully with the aid of a force of Iron Hands in M39 against enemies unknown. Suffered increasing attacks from elements of the Night Lords and Black Legion before and during the 13th Crusade culminating in a huge Ork Invasion. It was defended unsuccessfully by a combined Imperial Guard, Skitarii and Black Templar force. Adeptus Mechanicus artifacts were looted by Chaos forces under the cover of the Ork invasion, but they were severely hampered by the Ork forces who inevitably turned on their paymasters. The planet fell to the "Green Kroosade", and was quickly renamed Mordakka Prime by the Orks.

Mordian
Mordian is an Imperial Hive World in the Segmentum Obscurus that is the homeworld of the Imperial Guard's Mordian Iron Guard regiments. Mordian also once came under a great assault by the Forces of Chaos that was defeated only through the extraordinary discipline and valour of the Iron Guard in one of the Imperium's finest moments. Mordian is a Hive World with tidally locked rotation on its axis, leaving one side of the planet locked in eternal night while the other side is cooked by the Mordian sun. Ruled by a totalitarian regime that controls the planet's meager supplies, Mordian is defended by the elite Iron Guard - a highly disciplined army wearing ornate uniforms. Many of their enemies have underestimated these ranks of colorfully-uniformed troops, only to find out that they were tough and uncompromising soldiers.

The people of Mordian are often of a dour and grim temperament, living as they do in perpetual darkness. The suicide rate on the planet is reportedly now the highest in the Imperium, since the destruction of Nostramo.

Mundus Planus
Mundus Planus is the formal Imperial High Gothic name for the Feudal World its inhabitants call Chogoris, which is also the homeworld of the White Scars Space Marine Chapter, which lies in the Ultima Segmentum of the galaxy. This is the world where the White Scars Primarch Jaghatai Khan was found by his father, the Emperor, during the opening days of the Great Crusade. It is from the savage horse nomads of Mundus Planus that the White Scars raise their Neophytes, who are well-suited to the White Scars' highly mobile way of war.

Murder (One-Forty-Twenty)
The world of Urisarach, nicknamed "Murder" by the Space Marine Legions of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium, was a Death World discovered during the Great Crusade by the 140th Expeditionary Fleet under the command of a small Blood Angels Legion expeditionary force. Shortly after a combat drop, the planet was consumed by Warp Storms, which effectively prevented reinforcements from landing. As a result, the Blood Angels dropped into the planet were virtually wiped out to a man by the lethal and deadly xenos designated by the Legionaries as Megarachnids. A small Emperor's Children strike force were similarly destroyed when they attempted to relieve the beleaguered Blood Angels forces. Eventually, the Luna Wolves under the command of the Warmaster Horus launched a joint counterattack against the vicious xenos with the aid of Sanguinius and the rest of his Blood Angels Legion. The conflict ended abruptly when the Imperium made first contact with the advanced human civilisation known as the Interex.

Necromunda
Necormunda is a Hive World located in the Segmentum Solar and is a major producer of munitions for the Imperial Guard. Necromunda's great forges produce lasguns, autoguns, shotguns and boltguns, among other weapons. The planet also levies huge numbers of troops for the Imperial Guard (most notably the Necromundan Spiders), as well as other supplies. Necromunda is typical of most large Imperial hive worlds, in that the lower portions of its hive cites are rife with powerful gangs. The world is the setting for the Necromunda tabletop skirmish war game.

Nemesis Tessera
Nemesis Tessera is an Ice World in the Eye of Terror, and the site of a top secret Inquisition fortress that is the most forward established Imperial position in Chaos-held territory. The Nemesis System is relatively close to the Cadian Gate and includes at least one other barren planetoid as well as an inhospitable gas giant encircled by debris rings. Nemesis Tessera's slush-filled expanses are constantly churned by roving blizzards whose ice squalls obscure its distant star and prevent its faint light from reaching the surface.

The secret multi-level Inquisition facility located on the world is several kilometres underground. Additional kilometres below the base proper are numerous dungeons and reliquaries housing Chaotic artifacts and lore collected by Inquisition agents from throughout the Eye of Terror. The facility is under overall command of the Ordo Malleus and is protected by a well-hidden fleet of defence monitors, exotic Inquisition spacecraft, disguised civilian vessels and Space Marine (Grey Knights) Battle Barges. Perimeter security is provided by a full Regiment of Waspica Allegiance Imperial Guard Storm Troopers while squads of Grey Knights (including Terminators) are tasked with internal security and with repelling breaching actions. Due to its function and location, the whole facility is fortified with powerful psychic wards and maintains multiple hidden Purity Seals which serve as alarms of daemonic or Chaotic intrusion.

Nethamus
Nethamus is an Imperial Agri-World that is the first planet of the Konor System in the Realm of Ultramar. Long the breadbasket of the Konor System, Nethamus' vast crop oceans and synth-silo complexes feed countless trillions of loyal souls across the system. The world came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle during the Plague Wars of the early 42nd Millennium, but the Imperial forces valiantly rallied to reclaim Nethamus for the Emperor.

Neutra
Torva Minoris, called by its population Neutra, was the Relictors Space Marine Chapter's homeworld, and was situated in an area of the Segmentum Obscurus notorious for the intensity of the Warp Storms that afflicted it. It is believed the world was trapped within such a storm throughout the early years of the Chapter's founding. Neutra is a satellite of the massive, blood red gas giant Torva Prime, and is classified by the Administratum as a Feral World. The population are superstitious savages who worshipped the Relictors as emissaries of the God-Emperor when the Chapter visited them, once a generation, to carry off the most promising young warriors to its "sky fortress", a Ramilies-class Starfort that orbited the planet. The tribes were known to revere the artefacts carried by the Space Marines as divine weaponry that could only be wielded by true and worthy servants of the Emperor; an attitude that seemed to have been carried forward into the dogma of the Chapter. After the Inquisition censured the Relictors for the actions of Inquisitor De Marche, the Chapter lost its feudal rights to Neutra, which meant they could no longer recruit from amongst its feral tribes. The Relictors were forced to gather potential Acolytes from amongst the populations they encountered during their penitent Crusade. The Inquisition has ruled that no Adeptus Astartes Chapter may recruit from Neutra, and it is believed the Ordo Malleus keeps a close watch on the world to ensure its ruling is adhered to. The superstitious natives of Neutra now believe the God-Emperor has forsaken them, and every year their ceremonies of abasement grow more extreme in their attempts to atone for whatever fault has caused the emissaries of the Emperor to turn from them. It will not be long before the population of the planet has become outright Heretics in service to the Dark Gods unless something is done.

New Badab
New Badab is a Daemon World that lies at the heart of the infamous Warp Rift known as the Maelstrom in the Ultima Segmentum. This dark world is both the homeworld and primary base of operations for the vile Red Corsairs Renegade Chapter of Chaos Space Marines. Lorded over by the infamous Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart, the Tyrant of Badab, and Lord of the Red Corsairs, the Red Corsairs lead a vast fleet of pirates and raiders that threaten Imperial shipping and Imperial worlds near the Maelstrom. New Badab was also the site of the annual Skull Harvest, a contest hosted by Blackheart between Chaos warbands where Chaos Champions vied with one another for supreme dominance, until only one victor emerges. The reigning Champion than took total control of the losing Champions' warbands. The Skull Harvest took place within the Arena of Thorns, the large venue that hosted the murderous contest; the decapitated heads of the fallen were mounted and displayed upon spikes. The Tyrant's rule decreed that there could be only one champion left standing at its end. Whoever came out on top as the sole victor earned the patronage of Blackheart himself, who would gift the remaining champion with additional vessels, warriors and weapons to be used for the express purpose of dealing death to the hated forces of the Corpse Emperor.

Nikaea
Nikaea is a planet widely known in Imperial history as the site of the Council of Nikaea where the Emperor of Mankind and his Primarchs met during the Great Crusade to decide the fate of mutant human psykers and the use of particularly potent psychic powers or "sorcery" within the Imperium of Man. Ultimately the existence of psykers in the Imperium was allowed but tightly restricted under centralised Imperial control, while the potent and unrestricted use of psychic abilities that was defined as sorcery was officially banned. The world had been newly discovered by the Imperium at the time the Council was convened and the Emperor had ordered the Adeptus Mechanicus to terraform the planet and make it habitable for humanity so that it could host the great Imperial conclave and then be settled afterwards. The psychically powerful Primarch Magnus the Red and his Space Marine Legion the Thousand Sons would continue to study such powers in secret on their homeworld of Prospero. The term "Council of Nikaea" is a historical reference to the Christian Church's Council of Nicaea, which occurred in the year 325 AD in the Roman Empire's province of Asia (Asia Minor) and was hosted by the Emperor Constantine the Great. This Council of Nicaea determined the content of orthodox Christian belief as laid out in the Nicene Creed of the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Nimbosa
Nimbosa was a large Imperial Civilised World roughly the size of the Sol System's gas giant of Saturn in the Segmentum Ultima that was overrun by the Tau in the late 41st Millennium and retaken by the Imperium during the successful Nimbosa Crusade that was led by elements from several Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, including the Black Templars, Imperial Fists and the Ultramarines.

Nocturne
Nocturne is the homeworld of the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter located in the Segmentum Ultima of the Imperium of Man and it is usually classified by the Imperial Administratum as both a feudal world and a Death World. As a result of the tectonic stresses produced by the gravitational pull of its overlarge satellite Prometheus, there are vast chains of volcanoes scattered across the world's surface and frequent earthquakes, destroying what little the people have built above ground and forcing them to build their habitations in vast subterranean holds. The constant volcanic eruptions have swaddled the world in an ever-present cloak of dust and ash that obscures most sunlight. The Salamanders have built their fortress-monastery on Prometheus, Nocturne's massive moon. The Salamanders have a much closer relationship with their homeworld's people than is common among the Astartes, and they continue to interact quite closely with their own families and clans throughout their lives. As a result, the Salamanders have also developed a remarkable concern for protecting the lives of the Emperor's subjects and will make strenuous efforts to prevent civilian casualties on the battlefield.

Nostramo
Nostramo was the former homeworld of the Night Lords Chaos Space Marines Legion. The Hive World of Nostramo was shielded from its dying sun by an enormous moon as well as tremendous pollution. As a result, the planet was covered in almost perpetual darkness. Nostramo boasted five major cities, Nostramo Prime through Nostramo Quintus, from which the planet’s vast reserves of naturally occurring adamantium were processed and exported off-world. Nostraman society was dominated by a ruling oligarchy and its criminal thugs, and any who protested the status quo were trampled down or killed. Depression was widespread and overpopulation was prevented not through war, disease or legislation, but the suicide of despairing Nostramans. The Nostramans were superficially similar to normal humans, save for their lack of irises (the pupil having expanded for better night vision), and albinism, though a recessive genetic trait, was common. Then the Primarch Konrad Curze arrived after being kidnapped through the Warp from Terra by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos. The impact of the infant Primarch's gestation capsule upon Nostramo left a massive tunnel boring almost through to the planet’s core. Curze later adopted the name Night Haunter and decimated the hierarchy’s ranks until he was the sole ruler of the planet. Social equality was enforced through Curze’s horrific acts of retribution, until the Emperor arrived and Curze joined the Space Marine Legion that had been created from his genetic material. The arrival of Imperial rule had removed the last shield protecting Nostramo: ignorance. Aware of the existence of other worlds and light, and that these were ultimately unreachable, Nostramo descended back into chaos. After learning of his world's anarchy, Night Haunter arrived with his fleet and concentrated its fire upon the shaft left by his arrival decades earlier. The planet's volatile core did not hold out for long -- the world's unstable tectonics resulted in a massive explosion that wiped Nostramo and its unhappy people from existence. Following the conclusion of the Horus Heresy, the former location of Nostramo was struck from all Astropathic Cartographicae charts by an Edict of Obliteration.

Nuceria
Nuceria was the brutal and unloved homeworld of the World Eaters' Primarch Angron and also the planet where he was discovered by the Emperor of Mankind during the early days of the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium. In ancient days it was classified by the Imperium of Man as a highly technologically advanced Civilised World of the Ultima Segmentum, though current Imperial historical records do not generally state its name or its location, which were expunged from all official Imperial records following the events of the Horus Heresy. This is most likely the result of an Edict of Obliteration that was carried out to remove any trace of the world that spawned the fearful Daemon Primarch Angron. Following its scouring by the World Eaters Traitor Legion during the Horus Heresy, it is now a Dead World, wiped clean of all life.

Obsidia
Obsidia is the current Chapter homeworld of the Sable Swords Space Marine Chapter who were created following the valiant sacrifice of the entirety of the Astral Knights Chapter to stop the threat of a massive Necron World Engine on the outskirts of the Danorra System in 826.M41. In the wake of the World Engine's destruction, the Astral Knights were struck from the roster of active Space Marine Chapters. The Sable Swords filled the void and took up stewardship of Obsidia and the all-but abandoned Fortress-Monastery.

Ohmn-Mat
Ohmn-Mat is a former vassal Forge World of the ancient Mechanicum that was destroyed during the Horus Heresy, when the planet was consumed by civil war. Reduced to a cinder, the fires of Ohmn-Mat continue to rage to the present day.

Ohmsworld
Ohmsworld is a Death World controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. A dense and toxic atmosphere makes Ohmsworld inimical to human life. None visit the world or choose to live within its countless small hive spires because of the hideous environment and the dramatic weather. Instead, most residents are the descendants of human colonists who were compelled to live upon the planet due to its unusual mineral assets. This is because the atmospheric contaminants make Ohmsworld a valuable holding. Through careful atmosphere filtration, the inhabitants can obtain several chemicals and compounds key in the creation of Adamantium.

Olympia
Olympia was the original homeworld of the Primarch Perturabo and his Iron Warriors Traitor Legion before they turned to Chaos during the Horus Heresy. While on campaign during the Great Crusade, the Iron Warriors were informed by Warmaster Horus of the massive insurrection that had broken out on their homeworld. Perturabo was by this time tired of repeatedly having to prove his worth and now, after all his battles, the thought of being the only Legion unable to hold its own home world appalled him. Horus made the most of the opportunity. The Iron Warriors suppressed the rebellion on the streets of one city state after another. No one was spared. It was the principle of surrender or no quarter, and the Iron Warriors had grown accustomed to granting no quarter. Perturabo watched on as unmoved and cold as the fortifications in which he taken such pride were overcome. By the time the massacre was over, Olympia had been culled into slavery with almost 5 million civilians dead. As the pyres burned through the long Olympian night, the Iron Warriors slowly realised the extent of what they had done. With the cold realisation that they could never be forgiven by the Emperor for their actions, Perturabo willingly pledged his allegiance to Horus' cause. Following the conclusion of the Horus Heresy with the death of Horus at the hands of the Emperor, the majority of the Iron Warriors Legion fled into the Eye of Terror. A contingent of Iron Warriors defended their small empire based on Olympia, but there was no refuge from the retribution of the Loyalist Legions. The Imperial Fists supported the Ultramarines in a decade-long campaign to liberate the subjugated worlds. They discovered the Iron Warriors to be like a barbed hook that, once embedded into a victim, could only be removed with great risk of injuring the patient further. The Olympia garrison held out for two years, eventually triggering their missile stockpiles when defeat was unavoidable. They left a blasted wasteland that, like the other Traitor Legion home worlds, was declared Perdita.

Ophelia VII
Ophelia VII was an Imperial Cardinal World and the base for the secondary Adepta Sororitas convent, the Convent Prioris (According to Rick Priestley's Rogue Trader and second edition's Codex Imperialis the Prioris is located on Ophelia, while the Sanctorum is on Terra; Gav Thorpe's Sisters of Battle codex however reverses the locations). It is the base of the Ecclesiarchy's Synod Ministra.

Orask
At the very edge of the Iquathan Deeps in the northern Segmentum Ultima, near the border of the Ghoul Stars, sits the sentinel world of Orask. Orask is garrisoned not only by its own feudal, warlike people, a stoic breed who much like the peoples of Cadia or Mordian have long become accustomed to war, but also by many Imperial Guard regiments, and even special detachments of the Adeptus Astartes and Titan Legions rotated through deployment there on a rolling basis. Such a powerful garrison is needed to man its planet-wide network of defences, and along with forces from the Imperial Navy's Battlefleet Ultima, sally forth into the surrounding star systems should the need arise, for Orask is a world where conflict is never far away.

Orbiana
Orbiana is a Feral World controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. The Feral World of Orbiana lies at the spinward extent of the Severan Dominate, representing the last human-settled world along the Calixis-Scarus Warp conduit before that twisting route plunges into the benighted depths of inter-sector Wilderness Space. Orbiana itself is a wild, savage world of raging storms and unpredictable weather fronts, its native human population existing in a feral, nigh atavistic state. Orbiting the world is a massive defence platform, its plasma generators cold and its capital-scale weapons staring unblinking in the deep void. Though unconfirmed, it is thought that the platform must have been towed out past the Periphery in centuries gone by as a long forgotten plan to defend the Calixis Sector against some now extinct threat. Perhaps it was forgotten or deemed that towing it back was not worth the vast effort it would surely require, but whatever the truth, it has orbited Orbiana ever since. Recently, Duke Severus XIII has ordered the station restored, though those few Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-adepts that still serve him have yet to succeed in doing so.

Ornsworld
Ornsworld was one of the very few planets which are known to be home to the small Abhuman race called Ratlings. Ornsworld was attacked during the Gothic War by Abaddon the Despoiler, (as perhaps an attempt by Games Workshop to exterminate the small Abhuman subspecies of humanity which was based on the halflings of Warhammer Fantasy).

Pellenne
Pellenne is one of the Grand Worlds of the Askellon Sector. It is crucial to the sector’s economy, not only by virtue of its tremendous mineral resources, but also by dint of its vital strategic position. It sits squarely along the Grand Processional, the primary Warp tributary linking the sector’s Grand Worlds in relatively stable travel paths. The Processional permits access to the sector capital, Juno, with Warp journeys between the two worlds lasting only scant weeks. In addition, Pellenne sits at the centre of a local web of lesser Warp-routes to a number of Low Worlds within the Stygies Cluster, and acts as a jumping-of point for spinward-bound traffic exiting the wider sector.

Phaeton
Phaeton is a major Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus located in the Segmentum Solar, close to the island world of Tahnel, which is famous for their Astra Militarum regiments of Drop Troops. This vitally important Forge World is home to the Legio Osedax ("The Cockatrices") Titan Legion and is notable for being the originator of the common pattern of Leman Russ Tank.

Pindarus
Pindarus is the home of the Fortress-Monastery of the Emperor's Shadows Chapter of Space Marines. Pindarus is a moon that orbits a gas giant called Kagoshima Nineteen, in the Ultimatum Segmentum. It is a Death world and any human settlers are savage and feral-like.

Plague Planet
The Plague Planet is the Daemon World of the Daemon Prince Mortarion, and homeworld of the Death Guard Traitor Legion. Mortarion has shaped this world to resemble his former homeworld of Barbarus. It is located within the Eye of Terror and is a world where disease is the norm and the viridian miasmic clouds that shroud the world bring contagion and death. Its diseased inhabitants pray to Nurgle for relief from their constant agony. Some of them are favoured and become his Chaos Champions, and then fight among themselves for mastery and the chance to become Daemon Princes themselves. Beastmen make up a large part of the world's population; they are bloated with disease and flies swarm around them and breed upon their rotting flesh. The Beastmen are very proud of these signs of their patron God's favour, and openly boast of the number and severity of their diseases. The Plague Marines of the ruling Death Guard involve themselves in carrying out Mortarion's wishes and travelling to other worlds to spread Nurgle's plagues. All spacecraft which succumb to plague are eventually drawn, through the Warp, to the Plague Planet, where they become part of the planet's Plague Fleets. These Plague Fleets carry followers of Nurgle through the Warp to inhabited worlds where their destructive raids are inevitably followed by outbreaks of deathly contagion.

Planet of the Sorcerers
The Planet of the Sorcerers is the current homeworld of the Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marine Legion. The Planet of the Sorcerers is a daemon world located deep in the Eye of Terror. With the fall of his original homeworld of Prospero, Magnus the Red used his sorcerous powers to transfer his City of Light, Tizca, through the Warp to a new planet. This planet is now a daemon world of Tzeentch ruled by Magnus as a Daemon Prince; it is dark, rocky, highly volcanic suffers from constant climatic turmoil and change.

Posul
Posul is a bleak Feral World which is perpetually shrouded in darkness as a result of the distance its lies from its solar system's star. Its surface is craggy, frigid and mountainous. The Second Founding Mortifactors Space Marine Chapter are feral warriors shaped by the harsh environment of their savage world. The barbaric warrior tribes of Posul who form the primary recruitment stock for the Mortifactors know neither sunlight nor joy. These things do not exist on Posul, whose people endure a brutal life of darkness and constant intertribal bloodshed marked by cannibalistic rituals. Often times a Posulan youth will have taken hundreds of skulls before being chosen to become a Space Marine Neophyte and earning the opportunity to slay the enemies of the Emperor, who is worshipped as the great spirit of the universe known as the Ultimate Warrior by the Posulan tribes.

Praetoria
Praetoria is a heavily populated Hive World that lies in a system close to the Imperial naval base at Bakka in the Segmentum Tempestus. The overpopulated Hive-Cities of Praetoria are renowned for their squalor and degradation, and produce some of the toughest gangsters on any of the hive worlds in the Imperium. This vast population works as little more than slave-labour in the huge factory complexes of Praetoria, producing the goods that have made the planet (and its rulers) one of the richest in the Imperium, with a huge fleet of merchant craft that trade all over the Segmentum and beyond. Imperial Guard regiments raised on Praetoria, the Praetorian Guard, are renowned for their iron discipline and bravery, even in the face of the most overwhelming odds. Much of the Praetorians' fame comes from their infamous last stands and subsequent massacres, rather than more glorious victories. The planetary lords of Praetoria hold it is only through fearsome training and draconian punishments for the most minor infringements that the hive-toughened inhabitants of their planet can be made to follow orders and do as they are told in a military unit. Whatever one's views on the training methods used, they seem to work, producing troops that are as ferocious on the attack as they are determined in defence. Games Workshop did, at one time, produce a line of Praetorian Imperial Guard miniatures. They bore a close resemblance to Victorian-era British colonial soldiers who fought in the Zulu Wars of the 1870's.

Prospero
Prospero was the original homeworld of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion of Chaos Space Marines and their Primarch, Magnus the Red. Chosen by settlers for the planet's isolated position, although far closer to Terra than many colonies, Prospero had few redeeming qualities - no independent resources, little contact with any outsiders and few sources of nourishment. The only reason for setting a colony there was because it was a very good place to hide, and became such for a large community of psychically talented humans. During the Great Crusade Prospero had developed into a paradise world. Many of the vast buildings on the planet were massive gold and marble pyramids. It was a planet with blue skies and gleaming Egyptian-style architecture. The crown jewel of Prospero was the gleaming planetary capital of Tizca, the City of Light, where the Thousand Sons held out against the Space Wolves when they were mistakenly declared Traitors to the Imperium through the scheming of Horus. As a result of Magnus the Red's determination to not be used as a pawn of the Chaos Gods, the arrival of the Space Wolves' battle barges went uncontested, their orbit-to-surface ordnance barrages unanswered and their drop-pods unchallenged. Ironically, whilst the attack was underway, the Thousand Sons focus remained on the protection of their sorcerous lore – rushing to save what incalculably precious works they could whilst the righteous, if possibly misplaced retribution of Leman Russ' Chapter went unchallenged. Indeed had a defence of Prospero been attempted, more time might have been bought to evacuate the great libraries of their work. During the fight, Leman Russ finally brought Magnus the Red to combat. Leman Russ swiftly beat Magnus and broke his back over his knee. Laying on the ground unable to move, Magnus stared up at the burning towers of his beloved cityof Tizca. It is that Magnus knew that if he gave his soul to Tzeentch much could be salvaged. Even then he hesitated to damn himself but finally gave in. In this way all of the City of Light's pyramids, towers and libraries were saved and transported to the Planet of the Sorcerers. The planet eventually became a blasted ruin, picked clean by millennia of looters and rogue traders, declared Exterminatus by the Inquisition.

Pythos
The world of Pythos in the Pandorax System of the Demeter Sector was an Imperial Death World, also classified as a Hive World, that was the primary battleground of the Pandorax Campaign fought by the Imperium of Man and the Forces of Chaos led by Abaddon the Despoiler in 959-961.M41. The world became a target for the Forces of Chaos because it was home to an ancient subterranean portal to the Warp known as the Damnation Cache which dated back to the time of the Horus Heresy. The Imperial forces, which included elements of the Grey Knights and Dark Angels Chapters of Space Marines, ultimately triumphed and drove the Traitor Legions from the Pandorax System. However, the opening of the Damnation Cache led to the world being transformed into a nightmarish wasteland scoured by daemonic forces and the reality-altering effects of the Empyrean, with great loss of life.

Rahe's Paradise
Rahe's Paradise, known as Lsanthranil's Shield by the Eldar, was an Imperial Feral World and a recruitment world for the Blood Ravens Chapter of Space Marines, as well as an ancient Tomb World of the Necrons. Much of the world's surface was covered in inhospitable desert and rock, but human life was sustainable in the equatorial mountain ranges, where the climate was fairly temperate. This area recieved almost all of the sparse rainfaill that the planet received. The world's name was coined by one of the first Blood Ravens missionaries, the legendary Chaplain Elizur, who had commented that "this is a very harsh place to live." The tribal chieftain he'd spoken to, whose name was Rahe, had perhaps not fully understood what the Astartes Chaplain had said, and replied "No, this is my paradise", and so it was. Many subsequent visitors have noted the irony in the name. The world's population was destroyed in an Exterminatus carried out on the orders of Captain Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens after the Necrons began to awaken on the world because an Eldar artefact keeping them quiescent was unintentionally overriden.

Reth
Reth is a Pleasure World in the Calixis Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus.

Rogar III
Rogar III is a deathworld featured in the novel Deathworld by Steve Lyons. It resembles the other well-known deathworld Catachan greatly as it is a world almost entirely covered in dense jungle and also because the vegetation of the world grows back extremely rapidly, no matter what happens to it. A unit of Catachan Jungle Fighters landed on the world and discovered that the planet evolves with lightning quickness to all invaders. What would take the biospheres of other planets thousands of years to evolve, takes Rogar III's biosphere only a few days to produce. The planet becomes more dangerous as the violence of the fighting on its surface escalates, similar to an allergic reaction in the immune system of a biological organism.

Rynn's World
Rynn's World is an Imperial Agri-World that is also the homeworld of the Crimson Fists Space Marines Chapter. 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 has stood on Rynn's World for over a thousand years. Though serving as the Chapter's homeworld, Rynn's World is not owned as a 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. Rynn's World is located in the Loki Sector of the galaxy, to the galactic Southeast of Terra in the Ultima Segmentum. 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.

Ryza
The Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World of Ryza is famed for its manufacture of plasma-based technologies and the complex art required to produce the magnetic containment fields that are an integral part of any plasma-using device. The Leman Russ Executioner main battle tank armed with its plasma-based Destroyer Cannon is manufactured exclusively on Ryza. It is said that Ryza's own Skitarii regiments are almost completely equipped with these rare armoured vehicles. The Stormblade super-heavy tank is also produced on Ryza which was the first Forge World to begin to manufacture that pattern of tank for the Imperial Guard. Ryza is protected by the Legio Crucis ("The Warmongers") Titan Legion and was assaulted by the Ork WAAAGH! Grax but managed to repel the Greenskins' assault and remain a valuable manufacturing center for the Imperium of Man.

Sabatine
Sabatine is the Chapter homeworld of the White Consuls Space Marine Chapter, perhaps the most far-removed from Ultramar of all of the Primogenitor Chapters. This world lies in the Segmentum Pacificus, far to the galactic southwest of the Eye of Terror. As such, it is a rare thing indeed for the Chapter's brethren to appear in the court of Marneus Calgar, and when it does it is a great cause for celebration. Very little is known about Sabatine, due largely to the secretive and defensive nature of the White Consuls. Sabatine may have been terraformed during the creation of the Astartes Praeses, a group of twenty Loyalist Space Marine Chapters whose sole purpose is to guard against the depredations of the servants of Chaos -- in particular the Traitor Legions -- from the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus. This might have been to done specifically to provide the Consuls with a homeworld. The planet was named after Saint Sabbat, a Living Saint born around the year 500.M35 on the former Agri-World of Hagia, who later spearheaded a mighty Crusade against Chaos from her homeworld. In addition to its homeworld of Sabatine, the White Consuls also maintains sovereignty over several nearby systems.

Sabbat Worlds
The Sabbat Worlds is the name given to a group of star systems along the rimward edge of the Imperium's Segmentum Pacificus and is also the name of the Sector in which those systems reside. Made up of over 100 known star systems, the region is subdivided into several discrete territories, most notably the Newfound Trailing, the Khan Group, the Cabal Systems, the Carcaradon Cluster, and the Erinyes Group. Since 741.M41 a massive Imperial Crusade has been on-going in the Sabbat Worlds to retake the Sector from the control of the forces of Chaos.

Sacris
The world called Sacris by its inhabitants is classified as a Forbidden World by the Adeptus Terra and is located in the Drusus Marches sub-sector of the Calixis Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus of the Imperium of Man. It is the homeworld of the Storm Wardens Chapter of the Space Marines.

Sarosh
Sarosh was a temperate planet which was the site of resistance to the Imperium's attempts to bring Imperial Compliance in the early parts of the Great Crusade. Here elements of the Dark Angels fought a creature of the Warp. The creature had been summoned by the fanatical Chaos-worshipping local populace through the murder of millions of people.

Sarum
Sarum was an Imperial world that was home to an isolated Adeptus Mechanicus station. It was located in the Golgotha Sector of the Ultima Segmentum perilously close to the permanent Warp Storm known as the Maelstrom. Sarum was a barren planet that lacked an atmosphere but was still home to extensive manufacturing facilities controlled by the Mechanicum. During the Age of Strife, the world was settled by the Mechanicum and transformed into an outpost of the Priesthood of Mars, but the station's Tech-priests soon found themselves isolated and embattled by the inhabitants of the Maelstrom. On its own against raiders, xenos, and Abhumans and without aid from Mars, the Tech-priests of Sarum became isolationists and founded a deviant cult of the Machine God under the leadership of the Magos Redjak. Redjak solidified his so-called Crimson Priesthood's power over Sarum and used the technological prowess of the Mechanicum that he commanded to gain political control over much of the Golgothan Sector by the end of the 30th Millennium. However, when Sarum faced a massive invasion by the Abhuman Brotherhood of Ruin and their Ork allies, the Tech-priests of that world pleaded for aid from the Imperium of Man's Great Crusade and finally received it in the form of the 13th Expeditionary Fleet of the World Eaters Legion, led personally by the Primarch Angron. In the ensuing Imperial campaign that became known as the Golgothan Slaughter, the Brotherhood of Ruin and its Ork mercenaries were annihilated by the World Eaters. However, Angron next turned his wrath on the Crimson Priests of Sarum, scouring the planet and claiming it as his forward operating base for the next eleven years in a campaign against the Crimson Priests' remaining empire in the sector.

Selvanus Binary
The trailing side of the Cyclopian Sub-sector is a vast expanse of open space. On its inner edge sits the Forge World of Selvanus Binary, known throughout Askellon Sector for its high quality of products. One of the smallest of four planets in a dual-star system, it is the only one capable of handling life forms. Even so, the forges have irrevocably altered the planet to suit their needs, by covering the surface in all manner of refineries and manufacturing centres. It is now a highly polluted planet, toxic to any human without protective gear or heavy augmentations, and very inhospitable -- all as per the Omnissiah's wishes.

Sepheris Secundus
Sepheris Secundus is a Mining World located in the Golgenna Reach Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector in the Segmentum Obscurus. Sepheris Secundus is a world of immense mineral wealth, city-sized mines, billions-strong hordes of serfs and the sharpest divide between the elites and the masses in the Calixis Sector. It is a grim place of snow and twilight, feral mutants and lives spent in back-breaking labour deep beneath the ground. The Imperium’s eagerness to exploit Sepheris Secundus’ vast resources is such that the planet is at the same time the richest and poorest world in the sector. Sepheris Secundus’ climate is cold and stormy, its surface obscured by a mantle of cloud. It has no oceans save for the small polar seas, so the moisture in its atmosphere comes from below the crust, spewed out from failed mine workings or natural geysers that pockmark the planet like pustules. Its surface is split between the vast open mines like deep scars in the crust and the dense, snow-laden forests broken only by the ruins of failed kingdoms that tried to claim Sepheris Secundus in the past. With its endless blizzards, widespread ignorance and antiquated methods for doing everything, Sepheris Secundus would be a meaningless backwater were it not for the enormous mineral wealth beneath its surface.

Shaehol
Shaehol is a Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Located in the dreaded Mandrigora Sub-sector, Shaehol had been cut off by a pall of vicious Warp Storms for many Terran centuries, until they finally abated and the Imperium launched the Second Aegisine Crusade in 633.M39 to reclaim the worlds of this sector. The Red Scorpions Space Marine Chapter was granted the honour of leading the assault on the rebellious Forge World, which had been taken over by a sect of Heretek Magi. The Red Scorpions successfully reclaimed Shaehol and brought it back into the Imperial fold.

Shaprias
Shaprias is a Feral World located in the binary star system of Lamptan in the Badab Sector of the Segmentum Ultima. During the Badab War, in mid-910.M41, a joint Space Marine task force composed of Astartes from the Salamanders and Minotaurs Chapters, augmented by an Imperial Navy task force, attacked the Secessionist-held world in a bold planetary assault operation, destroying their bastions and training camps while the bulk of the enemy warships were away on some mission of plunder. Working in conjunction with one another, the resolute scions of Vulkan and the savage Minotaurs destroyed the Secessionists in a series of blood-soaked, close-quarter combats. Though the Secessionists counter-attacked with martial fury they could not stem the Loyalists' advance and one by one, the Secessionist bastions fell and victory was claimed in the Emperor's name.

Shenlong
Shenlong is a former Imperial Forge World located in the Ultima Segmentum that is now a Dead World. It had been a Forge World for time immemorial, having been settled since the Dark Age of Technology. The world was captured by the Chaos Space Marines of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion in the late 41st Millennium. Not long after the planet was captured and subjected to the horrors of Chaos, the Blood Angels Chapter of Space Marines launched an assault that liberated the world from the Word Bearers' grip. However, the Blood Angels in this assault force had been manipulated by the corrupt Inquisitor Ramius Stele to believe that their fellow Battle-Brother Arkio was a reincarnation of the Blood Angels' Primarch of Sanguinius in the hopes of turning them to the service of the Dark Gods like himself. When the population learned that Arkio might be the reincarnation of a sacred son of the God-Emperor and Omnissiah, they rallied to the side of Arkio and his cause. Arkio, increasingly under the influence of Chaos, intended to launch an Imperial Crusade against the Forces of Chaos and chose 1,000 Shenlongi citizens to serve as his "Warriors of the Reborn." When the other Blood Angels eventually defeated and slew both Arkio and Inquisitor Stele, the Loyalist Space Marines watched as the Shenlongi proved all too willing to revert to their loyalty to the Word Bearers and the Ruinous Powers. Deeming the world hopelessly tained by Chaos, the Blood Angels' Chief Librarian Mephiston ordered the world to be swept clean of all life by an Exterminatus assault from orbit. Today Shenlong is classified as a Dead World by the Imperium.

Sicarus
Sicarus is a Daemon World currently inhabited as the homeworld of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion deep in the hellish realm known as the Eye of Terror. Beneath churning clouds of pendulant fire and blood the surface of Sicarus is covered by massive temples, towering cathedrals and blasphemous monuments dedicated to the worship of the Chaos Gods. Millions of slaves toil endlessly in the construction and raising of new structures and monuments of dark devotion. New levels are built upon existing crumbling edifices which results in towering spires that reach kilometres into the foreboding sky. This results in the creation of the sprawling subterranean warren of labyrinthine passages that interconnect the various devotional structures. From this daemon planet, the Word Bearers Dark Council, a collection of the Word Bearers Legion's most powerful Dark Apostles, is the main ruling body that leads the XVII Legion in the absence of their Daemon Primarch Lorgar, who has isolated himself in meditation for millennia within the Templum Inficio. The seat of the Dark Council is located within the immense cathedral-fortress known as the Basilica of the Word. This structure is crowned with hundreds of five kilometre high barbed spires, each studded with jagged spikes, upon which are impaled countless living sacrifices.

Signus Prime
Signus Prime was the primary world of the Signus Cluster, a densely populated trinary star system comprised of seven Hive Worlds and fifteen inhabited, heavily industrialised moons. During the Horus Heresy, Signus Prime was the primary battlefield of the Signus Campaign fought by the Blood Angels Legion in 005-006.M31.

Snope's World
Snope's World is a Civilised World that was once one of the most prominent worlds within the Askellon Sector, and it is said that, at the height of its power, its influence stretched well past the distant spires of the Pellucid Tower. Now, however, it is little more than a poisonous swamp, its towering spires gradually falling into ruin as its rulers squabble over the last scraps of wealth like starving canids. Even more distressing is the evidence that the planet’s once lucrative trade routes are becoming weaker every year, and many now fear Snope’s World imminent isolation, its seething masses falling on each other as their last vital links are severed.

Sotha
Sotha was the original Chapter homeworld of the Scythes of the Emperor Space Marine Chapter, located near the region of space known as the Damocles Gulf in the Ultima Segmentum. When they were created in 25th Founding (Circa 500-600.M41) the Scythes took it upon themselves the duty of policing and safeguarding many of the nearby mining and manufactorum settlements. Sotha was eventually destroyed and the Emperor's Scythes virtually wiped out by the arrival of Hive Fleet Kraken, the second major Tyranid Hive Fleet to invade the galaxy. It was responsible for the outbreak of the Second Tyrannic War, which began officially in 992.M41 and ended in 992.M41.

Stalynthia
Stalynthia is a Mining World controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. The barren landscape of Stalynthia belies its tremendous wealth. In fact, this Mining World is arguably the Severan Dominate's most valuable asset. Though it is incapable of sustaining itself -- the world simply cannot produce adequate food for its population -- Stalynthia provides almost enough metallic raw materials to fulfil the needs of all of the manufactoria still controlled by the Secessionists. As long as they can harvest this planet's wealth and deliver the ores obtained to other star systems, the Severan Dominate is assured of at least some materials that they can commit to their war effort. Of course, such wealth makes the planet a target for almost all of the groups involved in the ongoing war effort in the Spinward Front.

Stygia-Aquilon (Binary-World)
The Executioners are an ancient and proud Space Marine Chapter, and a Third Founding Successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists created, according to Imperial records, in the first year of the 32nd Millennium. This Chapter is based on the Imperium's fringes along the desolate void wastes to the galactic south-south-west, between the borders of the Segmentum Tempestus and Segmentum Pacificus. Since the closing years of the 37th Millennium the Chapter has made its home on the twin worlds of Stygia and Aquilon; both infamous planets of fire and ice locked in a perpetual orbit ellipsing around a giant, slowly-dying sun. The Chapter's Fortress-Monastery is a huge armoured asteroid base known as the Darkenvault which is gravitationally trapped in the Lagrange point between these two worlds. It is from this bleak and foreboding bastion that the Executioners' skull-prowed warships sally forth into the galaxy in search of targets to destroy.

Stalinvast
Stalinvast was a hive world covered in coral-like city growths used in the manufacturing of weapons for the Imperium, between which grew vast blue-green jungles filled with teeming life and vicious predators. Stalinvast was subject to a genestealer infestation which was cleared out, at a vast expense of lives, by a purge led by Inquisitor Harq Obispal. He was given free rein in this by the Planetary Governor Lord Voronov-Vaux, who was suffering from a minor hereditary mutation, thus being in no position to argue with a member of the Inquisition. Stalinvast was soon after rendered lifeless by an exterminatus order given by Inquisitor Jaq Draco, executed by a life-eater virus bombing. It was subsequently re-classified as a Dead World.

Stygies VIII
Stygies VIII is an Imperial Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus that is located on the seventh and largest moon orbiting a massive gas giant on the outer fringes of the Vulcanis System in the Segmentum Pacificus of the Milky Way Galaxy. The planet is currently home to the Legio Honorum, a Loyalist Titan Legion also known as the "Deathbolts." The moon was previously home to both the Legio Vulcanum I and Legio Vulcanum II, but both of those Titan Legions turned Traitor during the Horus Heresy and Stygies VIII needed new Titan protectors. Even before the Heresy it was very rare for a Forge World to be home to more than one Titan Legion.

Stygies VIII is a large Forge World that produces everything from Imperial Guard infantry weapons and battle tanks to the mighty Battle Titans of the Collegia Titanica. It is known that Stygies VIII is a Production Grade II-Extremis Forge World with a Tithe Grade of Aptus Non, meaning it pays no tithe to the Administratum, as its industrial output is considered of potent strategic value for the Imperium of Man in and of itself. The forge-cities of Stygies VIII are known to be the homes of some of the best munitions artisans in the Imperium and they produce gun barrels, recoil dampeners, and propellent chemicals second only to Mars itself in quality. Stygies VIII was once one of only three known Forge Worlds capable of producing Vanquisher Cannons on a large scale. After the Forge World of Tigrus was overrun in the 35th Millennium by the Ork Warlord Arrgard the Defiler and the Forge World of Gryphonne IV was consumed by Hive Fleet Leviathan, Stygies VIII became the sole known producer of Vanquisher Cannons. The forges of Stygies VIII are also known for producing the most common pattern of Manticores used by the Imperial Guard.

Stryken Primus
Stryken Primus is a vital Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus as well as a Knight World located in the Segmentum Obscurus. Located near the Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror, this Forge World is responsible for the production of munitions for the Imperium's fighting forces standing sentinel over the Cadian Gate. Interestingly, Stryken Primus has no Titan Legion of its own, and is instead guarded by several Knight Houses that make up a standing guard of Imperial Knights known as the "Order of Iron."

Sycorax
Sycorax is a world riven with psychic storms. Any psykers on the planet's surface act as a literal lightning rod. The psyker has to wield their talents to bend the storm around themselves or die. An Adeptus Astra Telepathica training facility has been installed on this planet to take advantage of the extreme environment.

Tallarn
Tallarn is a harsh Desert World in Segmentum Tempestus, and the home of the Imperial Guard's Tallarn Desert Raiders regiments. When it was first discovered by human settlers in the 29th Millennium it was classified as a verdant agri-world. However, around the time of the Horus Heresy, the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion -- intending to destroy all potential resistance before landing -- virus-bombed the planet from space, rendering it an inhospitable desert. Only then did the Chaos Space Marines land. Tallarn's few survivors emerged from their underground bunkers to stop the Iron Warriors' invasion. Soon, reinforcements from both sides arrived. It became clear to the Imperial forces the futility of fighting over a destroyed planet but by then there was no turning back. Although it could not be guessed at the time, the Chaos legion were motivated beyond mere destruction. Since the poisoned environment made it impossible for infantry to operate outside of protective shelter, the only available option of battle was that of armored tank warfare. The largest tank battle in human history erupted on the surface of Tallarn. By the end of it, the Iron Warriors were defeated, and the wreckage of over a million tanks littered the sands. Approximately twenty years after this, the official Tallarn Desert Raiders regiments of the Imperial Guard were formed. These regiments specialised in desert fighting, and were highly adept at ambushing enemy forces in the desert.

The Tallarn Desert Raiders continued their attack on various worlds which had turned to Chaos until sometime around the 30th Millennium, when they were recalled. The Cursus, a Chaotic relic of black stone which had led the Iron Warriors to the world was discovered deep under the desert sands. Immediately after finding this relic both Eldar of the Biel-Tan Craftworld and Iron Warriors spilled from the sky once more, to attempt to claim this relic. After months of fighting, the Eldar and Tallarn Desert Raiders formed an alliance and destroyed the Chaotic forces. After their combined victory over the Chaos hordes, both races exchanged their promises of friendship, before the Eldar departed in peace. The Tallarn re-entombed the Chaos relic beneath the sulphur sands and turned their backs on it.

Talus IV
Talus IV was the homeworld of the Brazen Claws Space Marine Chapter. In the latter half of the 41st Millennium, Talus IV was destroyed by a bloodthirsty horde of daemons and the Brazen Claws Chapter was forced to flee the planet as it fell to Chaos.

Tanith
Tanith is a Dead World, the homeworld of the famed Tanith First and Only Imperial Guard Regiment whose population was exterminated by the orbital bombardment of a warfleet of Chaos. Tanith was formerly an Imperial Hive World and Agri-World covered in dense, mobile trees known as Nalwoods -- these creatures were actually a type of photosynthetic animal-plant hybrid while their wood was the world's primary export. The primary industry was the harvesting of seasoned Nalwood timbers and a large wood carving industry that created pieces of beautiful woodwork that were highly prized across the Imperium of Man. The hive cities of Tanith were great stone bastions, and the planet was ruled from the capital of Tanith Magna by an Imperial Planetary Governor known locally as the Elector. Tanith was a heavily forested world located in the Sabbat Worlds Sector, a cluster of planets in the Segmentum Pacificus that was under constant assault by the Forces of Chaos. The main export of Tanith was Nalwood, which becomes extremely rare and even more valuable after the planet's destruction. Nalwood trees are capable of uprooting and moving; entire forests migrating and making paths through the forests useless as the constant movement erases them.

Taros/T'ros
The present Tau Mining World of T'ros was originally an Imperial mining world called Taros. It became a Tau Third Expansion Sphere Colony following the Tau Empire's exploitation of the Imperium of Man's distraction with the onset 13th Black Crusade when large numbers of Imperial forces were diverted from the Eastern Fringes of the Segmentum Ultima to the defence of Cadia and the Imperial space surrounding the Eye of Terror from the Forces of Chaos. The Tau annexed the planet and successfully defended it from an Imperial counterattack led by an army of the Imperial Guard. The capital city of the arid planet is the city of Tarokeen. T'ros is today mainly inhabited by Gue'vesa (humans loyal to the Tau Empire) who were formerly citizens of the Imperium but became turncoats because the Tau seemed to offer a better life.

Tarsis Ultra
Tarsis Ultra is an Imperial Dead World that was originally a Civilised World that also possessed certain features of a classic Agri-World since Tarsis Ultra produced food for other Imperial worlds in the Ultima Segmentum. Despite its status as a major exporter of food, the planet suffered from long, harsh winters that gave it the appearance of an Ice World. The world was the site of a great battle between the Ultramarines Chapter of Space Marines and the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan in 999.M41. This conflict left a terrible mark upon the world, but Tarsis Ultra was finally transformed into an uninhabitable Dead World by the actions of the Iron Warriors Warsmith Honsou, who unleashed a terrible biological weapon known as the Heraclitus Virus into Tarsis Ultra's Tyranid-altered biosphere.

Tartarus
Tartarus was the planet fought over between several different factions during the plot of the PC game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. It was classified as an Imperial Civilised World that had frequent problems with raids by Orks. During a terrible Ork invasion, the Blood Ravens's 3rd Company, led by Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos, were called in to assist. But the situation turned out to be more than just a simple Ork incursion. Long before, the Eldar battled a powerful Greater Daemon of Khorne on the planet and finally, at terrible cost, managed to seal it inside a stone known as the Maledictum. Chaos Space Marines of the Alpha Legion had also come to the planet, seeking to gain power by releasing the Daemon of Khorne; the Ork WAAAGH! had in fact been instigated by the Traitors, for the purpose of distracting the Imperial forces from their true objective. The Blood Ravens battled the Orks, Eldar from the Craftworld of Biel-Tan, and the Alpha Legion, and were victorious, but ultimately failed to prevent the release of the Greater Daemon because of a terrible mistake made by Captain Gabriel Angelos who was the Blood Ravens' Force Commander on the world. The Blood Ravens evacuated the planet as a Warp Storm called by the Greater Daemon engulfed it, while Angelos swore to track down and destroy the daemon. It is highly likely that the planet is close to the Eye of Terror in Segmentum Obscuras, as Angelos noted: "Tartarus has endured several Black Crusades led by the terrible Chaos Champions."

T'au
T'au is the homeworld of a technologically-advanced humanoid alien species known as the Tau. It was discovered and categorised by the Adeptus Mechanicus' Explorator vessel Land's Vision several thousand Terran years before the emergence of the Tau as a space-faring race. Before the Imperium could cleanse the planet of the then-primitive Tau population, a freak warp storm occurred and effectively sealed the planet and the surrounding region off. In the few thousand years since, the Tau underwent very rapid technological evolution, emerging as a technologically advanced race as the warp storm dissipated. T'au is warm and desertlike. Preference for planets like T'au drives Tau colonization towards certain planets and away from others.

Terra
Terra (also called Holy Terra or Old Earth) is the throne world of the Imperium] of Man], the homeworld of the [[Emperor of Mankind and of the human race. Before the Great Crusade, Terra was plagued by a long age of war and anarchy known as the Age of Strife. Terra is perhaps the most massive Hive World within the Imperium, with a population of countless trillions. The bulk of Terra's population is divided into the Adepts (servants of the Emperor and his Imperium, including officials, scribes and workers) and non-Adepts (the far less privileged common citizens.) Terra's entire surface, with the exception of the Antarctic region, is covered in labyrinthine edifices of state, including the Imperial Palace, the Ecclesiarchal Palace and many departments of the Imperial government. The base of the Inquisition on Terra is beneath the ice caps of the south polar region.

Billions of pilgrims flock to the planet every day, eager for a glimpse of the Imperial Palace or one of the untold number of gargantuan Imperial Cathedrals. Such is the scale of the Imperium that many of these pilgrims' journeys were started by their ancestors and only generations later will a member of the family complete the pilgrimage. Many will set out hopeful and never come close to their goal. Terra is the resting place of the immortal Emperor of Mankind, where he has sat in stasis on the life-preserving Golden Throne, neither alive nor dead, for over ten thousand standard years. He and the Imperial Palace are guarded by the elite transhuman warriors of the Adeptus Custodes. Among them is a select inner corps of three hundred Custodians who never leave his side, known as the Companions.

Within the Imperial Palace complex is the Chamber of the Astronomican. The Astronomican is the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will - a beacon, beamed from Terra and powered by a "choir" of ten thousand specially-trained psykers, that provides a reliable reference point which Navigators can utilize within Warpspace. These psykers are chosen from among those brought from other parts of the Imperium to Terra aboard the Inquisition's Black Ships. Other psykers, if considered powerful enough, are recruited into the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, the department forming the network of interstellar communication for the Imperium.

Luna, (Terra's moon) has also been colonized and is home to immense planetary defense lasers charged with protecting Terra from invasion. These defenses inflicted savage losses on the invading rebel fleets of Warmaster Horus, during the latter stages of the Horus Heresy. Luna also gives its name to a class of Imperial Cruiser called the Lunar Class.

Thracian Primaris
For a time the capital of the Helican subsector in Segmentum Obscurus, Thracian Primaris is a hive world. Its decline followed an atrocity orchestrated by renegade Inquisitor Quixos in 337.M41 and its position of dominance was overtaken by Eustis Majoris.

Thrax
Thrax is a Frontier World controlled by the Severan Dominate and located in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. It is currently a front line in the conflict consuming the Spinward Front. Thrax is a Frontier World located on the Calixis-Scarus Warp route, its once tranquil, now war torn plains host to an array of weird fungus forests. Thrax has suffered greatly at the hands of Grimtoof Git-Slaver's forces, yet Duke Severus XIII has managed to cling tenuously to possession of the star system. The world of Thrax and several of its moons are densely populated, though technology is rarely more advanced than the black powder stage thanks to the system’s isolation. It is likely that Thrax was settled by human colonists long before the Age of the Imperium and never really integrated into the Emperor's domains, even over the course of the ten thousand years since the Great Crusade. Rather, Thrax's society has continued its lurching climb towards civilisation, the war on the Spinward Front setting it back millennia in one fell swoop.

Tigrus
Tigrus is an Ork World of the Segmentum Ultima that was once a vital Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus, responsible for the development of the mighty Vanquisher Cannon as well as the Fellblade's Accelerator Cannon. Tigrus was also known as the only Forge World that produced Hunter Shells for the Leman Russ Tank's Battle Cannons. In the 35th Millennium, Tigrus was overrun by the WAAAGH! of the Warlord Arrgard the Defiler and has been held under Ork dominion ever since, a stain to the honour of the Mechanicus, who refuse to let this important bastion of the Machine God remain in the Greenskins' vile hands.

Titan (Moon of Saturn)
Titan is the largest moon of the gas giant Saturn in the Sol System, and is the legendary homeworld of the elite and secret Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter, the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus of the Inquisition. A huge basalt fortress punches through the barren landscape of this harsh world, it is here newly selected recruits are brought, for an extensive program of combat training, memory-wiping and faith screening, before initiation into the famed Chapter's attack forces. Legend has it that the Grey Knights were Founded on the order of the Emperor Himself, in the early days of the Horus Heresy. Though the Chapter's origins are uncertain in many details, it is known that the Emperor ordered Malcador the Sigillite to oversee the creation of a force specifically mandated to fight Chaos after the onset of the Horus Heresy.

Tranquility III
Tranquility III was a Feral World located in the Endymion Cluster, a star cluster located within the Maelstrom Zone in the Ultima Segmentum, near the Warp Rift known as the Maelstrom. This planet served as the homeworld of the Mantis Warriors Space Marine Chapter, supposedly founded during the 8th Founding in the 34th Millennium. In 587.M41, by an edict of the High Lords of Terra, the Mantis Warriors and their charges within the Endymion Cluster were incorporated within the newly formed alliance of Space Marine Chapters known as the Maelstrom Warders. With this change in status came, for the first time, an alliance of long-standing with two powerful and very different Chapters in culture and outlook, the Astral Claws and the Lamenters. Unfortunately this was an alliance that would ultimately prove to be the foundation of the Mantis Warriors’ undoing. The Mantis Warriors eventually joined with the Astral Claws and the other Maelstrom Warders Chapters to defend what they saw as their rightful prerogatives and their Emperor-given duty to protect the peoples of their Maelstrom Zone region as best they could. The Mantis Warriors, like the other Maelstrom Warders Chapters, did not know that Chapter Master Lufgt Huron, in his hubris, had fallen to the desires for power and the temptations of Chaos, and when the civil war known as the Badab War concluded, the Mantis Warriors sought and received the Emperor's forgiveness after the Inquisition determined that there was no Chaotic taint upon them. It was determined that the Mantis Warriors' actions had been driven by an honest mistake and the deceits of the man now known only as Huron Blackheart, Traitor to the Emperor and servant of the Ruinous Powers. The Chapter was stripped of its guardianship of the Endymion Cluster, which was handed over to the Carcharodons Chapter, while the Mantis Warriors were charged with undertaking a Penitent Crusade for 100 standard years during which they could recruit no Neophytes to make up their losses.

Triplex Phall
Triplex Phall is a major Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus located in the Thramas Sector of the Ultima Segmentum. This Forge World is also home to the Legio Victorum ("Foe Slayers") Titan Legion. Recently, when the dire threat of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken threatened the Segmentum Ultima in 992.M41, Triplex Phall was one of the first worlds to fall under the Great Devourer's shadow. Though the Mechanicus forces of Triplex Phall bravely defended their world and ultimately survived the alien onslaught, the cost was high.

Turtolsky
Turtolsky is the single moon that orbits the Industrial World of Vostroya, located in the Halo Stars near the Segmentum Obscurus. Vodtroya is the homeworld of the famous Vostroyan Firstborn Imperial Guard regiments which have served the Emperor for countless centuries, though in truth they fight to absolve themselves of a terrible shame incurred by their ancestors over ten millennia ago when, during the dark days of the Horus Heresy, Vostroya refused to come to the aid of the Emperor's Loyalists or the Warmaster Horus' Traitor Legions, opting for the safety of neutrality in the galactic civil war. Like its parent world, Turtolsky is a centre of industry, providing raw materials and auxiliary manufacturing capacity for the great manufactoria of Vostroya. Vostroya's moon was referred to as Vostroya 0.1 until the middle centuries of the 37th Millennium. Adeptus Administratum Scrivener Adept Turtolsky was assigned the task of recalculating Vostroya's tithe to the Imperium in alignment with the Adeptus Tithe clarification call in 997.M36. Given a small research base and a motley assortment of Administratum cast-offs, it took Turtolsky nearly 190 standard years to resolve the calculations, by which time the call had been rescinded. Vostroya 0.1 was eventually renamed Turtolsky, in honour of the Scrivener Adept.

Typhon Primaris
Typhon Primaris is a jungle world found in the Aurelia sector, revealed in the video game Dawn of War II. It's population primarily consists of Imperial citizens and Feral Orks. During the events of Dawn of War II an Eldar Warp Spider Exarch was provoking the Orks to attack Imperial outposts and villages, and the Space Marines intervened. However, unknown to them was that the planet had a Genestealer infestation and some plants and animals became mutated, killing livestock. Soon after, a Tyranid Hive Fleet appeared over the planet, threatening to engulf the entire system.

Tsagualsa
Tsagualsa, also sometimes referred to as the Carrion World, was a planet located on the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy that the Primarch Konrad Curze of the Night Lords Traitor Legion chose as his base of operations following the destruction of his homeworld Nostramo. After the Night Haunter's assassination by the Callidus Assassin M'Shen, the world was abandoned by the Night Lords for a new home within the Eye of Terror sometime in the 32nd Millennium.

Ullanor Prime
Ullanor Prime was a world in the Ullanor System of the Ullanor Sector of the galaxy that was heavily settled by Orks, becoming the heart of not one, but two massive Ork Empires that faced the military forces of the Imperium of Man in the 30th and 32nd Millennia. The first of these Greenskin empires based on Ullanor Prime was approximately twelve star systems in size and was ruled by the Overlord Urrlak Urruk at the end of the 30th Millennium. It was defeated by a massive Imperial force led by the Primarch Horus Lupercal and his Luna Wolves Legion in ca. 000.M30 during what was known as the Ullanor Crusade and marked the greatest triumph of the wider Great Crusade. Following it, a great Imperial celebration known as the Triumph of Ullanor was held where the Emperor granted Horus the rank of Warmaster. The Master of Mankind also shocked the assembled Primarchs and their Astartes when He announced His own retirement from the campaigns of the Great Crusade so that He could return to Terra and began a secret project to open up the Webway for the use of humanity. This event marked both the high watermark of the Great Crusade and the beginning of the tensions between the Emperor and the Primarchs that would help to bring on the Horus Heresy.

The second great Ork Empire to arise on Ullanor Prime initiated what was known as the War of the Beast in the 32nd Millennium from 544-546.M32. Under the rule of The Beast, the Orks established the most technologically and culturally sophisticated civilization they had ever created on Ullanor Prime and sought vengeance against the Imperium of Man for their defeat during the Ullanor Crusade. In the course of the conflict, the Greenskin forces threatened Terra itself multiple times until following three separate Imperial invasions the Emperor's servants finally succeeded in cleansing the world of its Ork population for a final time.

In the wake of the War of the Beast, the Adeptus Mechanicus sought to scavenge the remains of the Orks' highly advanced technologies from the battered planet in violation of Imperial restrictions on the use of xenos technology. To do so, they used the Orks' "subspace" teleportation technology to teleport Ullanor Prime to a new star system on the edge of the Segmentum Solar and then reported that the world had actually been destroyed to the Senatorum Imperialis. The Mechanicus proceeded to strip the planet bare and then leave it open for later Imperial colonisation to further hide their subterfuge. Centuries later, Ullanor Prime was unwittingly colonised by humanity and given a new name, a name that would find its own place in history before long -- Armageddon.

Urdesh
Urdesh is an Imperial Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus, located in the Sabbat Worlds Sector in the rimward zones of the Khan Group within the Segmentum Pacificus. Urdesh was a principal supplier of materiel to Imperial forces fighting in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.

Ursulia
Ursulia was a Daemon World and a former Exodite Maiden World of the Eldar that had been placed under the protection of the Craftworld Biel-Tan, to which it was connected through the winding corridors of the Labyrinth Dimension of the Webway. This connection was exploited by the daemonic minions of Slaanesh and Khorne, who sought to use the planet to launch an invasion of Biel-Tan in an attempt to prevent Yvraine and her Ynarri from returning home to that Craftworld and beginning their quest to fully awaken Ynnead, the Eldar God of the Dead. In the closing days of the 41st Millennium, as Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade gathered its forces in earnest, the growing tumult in the Warp lead to a growing surge of Warp Storms throughout the galaxy, but particularly in the Ultima Segmentum. Ursulia was consumed by one of these Warp rifts, Warp Storm Balamet, which allowed the daemons of Khorne and Slaanesh, led by the Bloodthirster Skarbrand and the Daemonette known as the Masque of Slaanesh, to rally the forces of their respective Chaos Gods there. Ursulia was used as the base for the invasion of Biel-Tan in 999.M41, and its Webway portal becaame the unexpected point of egress for the servants of the Dark Gods. The portal, called the Obsidian Gate, was eventually sealed by an assault from Biel-Tan aided by Yvraine and her Ynarri allies.

Valhalla
Gaining its name from the Viking warrior-heaven of Norse legend, Valhalla, like Tallarn, was once a verdant and beautiful world. Also like Tallarn, Valhalla suffered a destructive catastrophe: sometime after its discovery by the Imperium, it was hit by a comet. The catastrophic effects of the impact sent the planet into a perpetual Ice Age which, ten thousand years later, is still in place, and the planet suffers from temperatures that freeze blood solid and winds that can shear flesh from bones. Valhallan Imperial Guard regiments are adept at surviving in these conditions. Valhalla was assaulted by an Ork WAAAGH! during the 32nd Millennium, and the Greenskin horde very nearly took over the planetary food supply; if that had fallen, Valhalla would have been doomed. But the tenacity of the Imperial defenders destroyed the WAAAGH! and saved the world -- and themselves -- from annihilation.

Vanaheim
Vanaheim is an Imperial Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus that is notable for the production of variant patterns of several common Imperial war machines including the Salamander Command Vehicle, Basilisk, Centaur, Griffon and Medusa.

Vanitor
Vanitor is an Imperial Frontier World and wilderness world that is the fourth planet of the Konor System in the Realm of Ultramar. Vanitor is a harsh and windswept world that houses the Konor System's astropathic relay. Without this key communications outpost, the system would be left completely isolated from the wider Imperium. The world came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle during the Plague Wars of the early 42nd Millennium, and the servants of the Plague God proved successful in claiming the planet. Vanitor now writhes with corruption, and the roiling Warp Storms that ravaged its surface brought vast hosts of daemons into reality. The Imperium's vital astropathic relay now acts as a beacon to the creatures of the Warp.

Varadon
Varadon was the former Chapter homeworld of the Shadow Wolves Space Marine Chapter who had been derived from Imperial Fists' gene-seed. Created during an unknown Founding, these Scions of Dorn were known to be a zealous and faithful Chapter by reputation, fighting for the honour of the Emperor of Mankind for thousands of Terran years, until they met their ultimate fate at the hands of a Tyranid splinter fleet in 987.M41, when their homeworld of Varadon was overrun by the xenos swarms. The Shadow Wolves attempted to defend their homeworld from the predations of the merciless Great Devourer. Astropathic distress beacons were transmitted through the Warp weeks before the attack, before their fortress-monastery finally fell to the enemy. The Black Templars swiftly answered their brother Chapter's summons, and attempted to penetrate the swarms of Tyranids besieging the ruins of the Shadow Wolves' fortress-monastery, but the unrelenting ferocity of the alien tide hampered their efforts. In the end, only a handful of the Shadow Wolves remained, their blades broken and their Bolters spent. They died in honourable battle as they made their defiant last stand, still intoning the litanies of hate against the alien, chanting their bitter fury at their foes even as they were annihilated. A lone Shadow Wolves Battle-Brother, though horrendously wounded and on his knees beneath the Chapter's standard, attempted to maintain his Chapter’s honour to the last, for the Shadow Wolves' War Banner could not be allowed to fall whilst one of the Astartes of the Chapter yet lived. The doomed Space Marine held it aloft defiantly, keeping the banner upright and proud even as the xenos creatures tore into him.

Varsavia
Varsavia is a Feral World iand Chapter homeworld of the Silver Skulls Space Marine Chapter, which lies on the edge of the region of the galaxy known as the Gildar Rift in the Ultima Segmentum, a thinly settled area haunted by numerous xenos species. Varsavia's barbaric human tribes form the primary source of Aspirants for the Silver Skulls. The fortress-monastery of the Silver Skulls is located deep in the heart of Varsavia's northern mountain range. It is a harsh, inhospitable place that only the most tenacious and hardy souls would brave. Most of the Chapter's young Aspirants and Novitiates saw their first view of the fortress-monastery from the window of a transport that had carried them there. A select few had climbed their way to the top of the mountains alone. This was an impressive feat even for an Astartes, let alone the handful of mortal children who have accomplished it. The Silver Skulls must regularly face all manner of threats, and in recent times has fought significant and costly battles against the Dark Eldar and the resurgent Necrons. In this far-flung, oft-neglected area of the Imperium, the Silver Skulls represent the closest Astartes response force. With increasing raids by the Renegade forces from the infamous Warp Rift known as the Maelstrom threatening the region, the current Lord Commander Argentius agreed to the region's need for semi-permanent protection provided by the Silver Skulls. Regular patrols are provided from the Chapter Fleet, a rotating duty for those Battle-Brothers who were not deployed on the field of battle elsewhere.

Vior'la
Vior'la is a planet and Sept of the Tau Empire, which was first conquered by the Tau during the First Sphere Expansion. Vior'la is well known among the Tau and their allies for the Fire Warriors drawn from the members of its population's Fire Caste, because they are more agressive than any other in the Tau military. Vior'la was also the home of O'Shovah, known o the Imperium as Commander Farsight, before he abandoned the Empire to found the Farsight Enclaves, Tau colonies that exist outside the authority of the Tau Empire and its ruling caste of Ethereals.

Verghast
Verghast is an Imperial hive world in the Sabbat Worlds Sector that became a crucial point of contention in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade in 761.M41 when Chaos corrupted the people of the hive city of Ferrozoica and these Chaos Cultists, numbering some 13,000,000 people, almost the entire population of the hive, in turn attacked their old rivals, the nearby loyal hive cities of Vanickhive and Vervunhive. Vervunhive, despite having a larger population, could field military forces numbering only about 500,000 troops to meet the Zoican forces, so its leaders sent out an astropathic plea to the Imperial Guard for forces to defend itself and to the Northern Collective hive cities of Verghast for Planetary Defence Forces (PDF) to hold the line against the vicious horde of Zoican Chaos Cultists, heavy armour and mutants. During the resulting battle, Vervunhive was all but destroyed by the Forces of Chaos' assault. The hive city was essentially abandoned in the wake of the attacks. The citizens of Vervunhive found refuge in the hive cities of the Northern Collective, established new, smaller settlements in the region where Vervunhive once stood or joined the regiments of the Imperial Guard engaged in the Crusade to retake the Sabbat Worlds Sector. Many former Vervunhive citizens who had defended the city as part of its irregular Scratch Companies later joined the famed Tanith First and Only Regiment of the Imperial Guard which had participated in the defense of the city as part of the Act of Consolation declared by Warmaster Macaroth of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, which allowed civilians to join Imperial Guard regiments if they wished without going through the normal recruitment process.

Vilamus
Vilamus was a world that served as gene-seed repository for the fleet-based Marines Errant Space Marine Chapter. The fortress the Chapter maintained on Vilamus bore massive Void Shields, anti-air defence lasers, and a small garrison for defence. The world was also chosen for its location, and was believed to be relatively stable from Warp incursions. During those occasions when a company of the Marines Errant needed to rebuild its strength due to an extended Crusade or substantial losses, it was usually added to the garrison on Vilamus, so that it could add another layer to the world's defences. But in 999.M41, disaster struck, as the infamous Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart led his Renegade warband, known as the Red Corsairs, in alliance with a large Night Lords warband led by the mighty Chaos Champion called The Exalted, in assaulting Vilamus in order to capture the Marines Errant Chapter's gene-seed repository. Luring the bulk of the Chapter away from the planet, the Red Corsairs managed to disable the fortress' Void Shields and launched a determined assault that neutralised the fortress-monastery's power network and its automated defences. This attack led to the loss of nearly all of the Marines Errant's stockpile of precious genetic material. The loss of virtually all of the Chapter’s gene-seed reserves represents an enormous catastrophe that may doom the Marines Errant to a gradual descent towards extinction, unless the gene-seed can somehow be recovered.

Volistad
Volistad was an Imperial Civilised World in the Segmentum Tempestus that was strategically important to its region of that Segmentum. Volistad came under assault in the final century of the 41st Millennium by the Ork Warboss Skroll and his WAAAGH!. An Imperial Guard commander and his second-in-command Commissar Holt led a massive Imperial assault upon Volistad with the aid of the Ultramarines to liberate the planet from the oppressive reign of the Greenskins. The Guardsmen and Astartes proved capable of getting the world's hidden force of Titans operational once more, which proved decisive in bringing an end to the Ork assault. Volistad was the setting for the personal computer game Warhammer Epic 40,000: Final Liberation, released in 1997.

Voss
Voss (not to be confused with the similarly named planet Voss Prime, see below) is an Imperial Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus that is located in the Segmentum Solar of the Milky Way Galaxy. It was discovered by the Imperium early in the Great Crusade, and played a vital role in the mass-production of highly advanced las weaponry for the military forces of the burgeoning Imperium. Regrettably, this vital Forge World, along with several others, including Mars itself, declared for the Traitors' cause during the Horus Heresy. Eventually, Voss was cleansed of the Dark Mechanicum's presence and it was brought back into the light of the Emperor's grace. Since that time, Voss has gone on to prove its worth as an industrious and vitally important Forge World of the Imperium.

Voss Prime
Voss Prime is an Imperial Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus that is located in the Segmentum Solar of the Milky Way Galaxy. Voss Prime is the closest Forge World to the Hive World of Armageddon, and supplies that startegic planet of the Segmentum Solar with much of their war-machines and war materiel.Voss Prime is also home to the Legio Invigilata, a Loyalist Titan Legion, that is also known as the "Emperor's Guard." Voss Prime is a large Forge World that produces everything from Imperial Guard infantry weapons to Imperial Navy aircraft and the mighty Battle Titans of the Collegia Titanica. It is known that Voss Prime is a Production Grade II-Extremis Forge World with a Tithe Grade of Aptus Non, meaning it pays no tithe to the Administratum, as its industrial output is considered of potent strategic value for the Imperium in and of itself. The forges of Voss Prime are some of the mightiest in the Imperium, and Voss Pattern weapons and vehicles are found on many worlds and in many armies. Voss Prime is known to have its own patterns of Missile Launcher Pods, Rocket Launcher Pods and Autocannons which are commonly found on Imperial Navy aircraft such as the Vulture. This Forge World is also known to make its own patterns of Autopistols, such as the Mark 10 and the Mark 11. The forge-cities of Voss Prime also produce their own pattern of Hunter-Killer Missile Launchers, many of which are found on Imperial Guard, Imperial Navy, and Adeptus Astartes vehicles. Much like many other Forge Worlds in the Imperium, Voss Prime's Magi lack a a detailed understanding of plasma technology, and much to the dismay of the planet's Forge Masters many say that manufactora of Voss Prime display less skill in replicating items dependant upon plasma technology than many other Forge Worlds of its same size and importance.

Vostroya
Vostroya is an Imperial Industrial World in the Halo Zone of the Segmentum Obscurus, located beyond the Eye of Terror. The planet is considered an "Industrial World" by the Imperium of Man, because it does not quite meet the legally defined requirements to be considered an Adeptus Mechanicus-ruled Forge World, but it is not quite like an independently-governed Imperial Hive World either. Like all Forge Worlds, Vostroya has deep ties with the Adeptus Mechanicus, but because it is not ruled entirely by the Priesthood of Mars, it is not classified as one of their worlds. The origins of this unusual arrangement can be found in the Age of Strife, when Vostroya was the rare independent world that swore allegiance to Mars, rather than be settled by a colony of Tech-priests as was the norm for almost all of the other Forge Worlds. After declaring its allegiance to the Mechanicus, Vostroya quickly developed into a heavily industrialised world with the influx of Mechanicus personnel and technological knowledge. Under Imperial rule, the output of the many Vostroyan manufactorums now provide war materiel for the Emperor of Mankind's massive war machine.

Vivaporius
Vivaporious was a world that was under threat by an invasion of the Tyranids, but was eventually saved from consumption by the forces of the Imperium. The flora and terrain features in some areas were so large that they posed maneuvering and orientation problems for even massive Titans. The Tyranids were not there to strip the planet bare of resources as they usually did, but rather to seize control of lured Eldar Titans and Imperial Titans, having found a way to forcibly overtake the nassive war machines' mental control links using the psychic power of the Hive Mind. All in all, Imperial casualties during the battle for Vivaporious included at least three million Imperial Guard, two squads of Ultramarines, and two Titan crews. The Tyranids eventually fled into deep space after their presence in the Titans' mental links was forcibly cut off.

Vraks
Vraks Prime was a Departmento Munitorum Armoury World that became the center of a rebellion against the Imperium started in 812.M41 by the Apostate Cardinal Xaphan who had been corrupted by Chaos. His forces consisted of the local Planetary Defence Forces and a militia raised from the planetary population supported by the Alpha Legion, World Eaters and Death Guard Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines. A siege was enacted by the Imperium by the Imperial Guard Regiments of the Death Korps of Krieg as part of the 88th Siege Army and members of the Dark Angels Chapter of Space Marines. The war was characterised by the many trenchworks thrown up by the Imperial troops as was customary when the Death Korps were deployed into combat.

Vyaniah
Vyaniah is a Hive World that is located in the Badab Sector of the Segmentum Ultima. In 902.M41, just before the outbreak of the internecine Imperial conflict known as the Badab War, Vyaniah was still a heavily industrialised Frontier World and was only in the early stages of being developed into a minor Hive World. Vyaniah became the site for a major battle of the Badab War in 906.M41 between the Badab Sector's human Auxilia troops who were collectively known as the Tyrant's Legion and Loyalist Space Marine forces from the Red Scorpions, Marines Errant and Novamarines Chapters. This battle represented the Tyrant's Legion's first deployment for a major campaign against Astartes forces.

Woe
Woe is a planet in the Josian Reach Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector which has been designated a Death World by the Imperium's Administratum due to its dangerous species and environment. Little is known of this planet, other than its reputation as the home of a collection of the most vile creatures fathomable. It is strongly regarded as a place where the Emperor of Mankind's light does not reach. Woe was visited by Inquisitor Felroth Gelt and his retinue of Acolytes in 770.M41 whilst pursuing survivors of the Brotherhood of Horned Darkness Chaos Cult controlled by the daemon Baphomael. After this encounter, during which the world itself seemed to be alive and hostile, the planet was determined to be a Death World and was declared off-limits to Imperial settlement or exploitation by the Inquisition.

World Engine (Borsis)
The World Engine was the name given by the Imperium of Man to a monstrous mobile artificial Tomb World of the Necrons known to those undying xenos as Borsis. It was discovered in the Vidar Sector of the Imperium in 926.M41 after the Necrons hibernating in stasis tombs beneath its metallic surface rose from the Great Sleep. This Necron planet-sized weapon was armed with an array of deadly Gauss Projectors capable of scorching away all life on the surface of an entire planet. Presenting a hideous threat to the security of the Imperium once its existence was discovered, the World Engine was attacked in the Vidar Sector by 15 Space Marine task forces supported by elements of the Imperial Navy. Despite their best efforts, the Imperial task force was unable to penetrate the World Engines' superior defences, attempting at least a dozen times to overwhelm the massive construct with sheer firepower. The Imperial forces were rewarded for their efforts with many destroyed and crippled starships and millions of casualties. Finally, in desperation, the Astral Knights Space Marine Chapter rammed their flagship into the World Engine in a suicidal charge, and then deployed its surviving Battle-Brothers onto the Necron vessel's surface. After fighting for over 100 solar hours, the surviving Astral Knights reached a Necron command node and planted Melta-charges that destroyed the vast Necron tomb complex that housed many of the World Engine's command arrays. This brought down the vessel's impenetrable Void Shields and also silenced the World Engine's advanced weaponry. The sacrifice of the Astral Knights allowed the Imperial Navy's starships to finally destroy the World Engine with Cyclonic Torpedoes.

Xana II
Xana II is a Hell-Forge of the Dark Mechanicum that was once a powerful and isolated Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus, whose capable forges and facilities were unmatched in its region of the galaxy. Xana II is particularly known for supplying the Hell Blade and Hell Talon Attack Craft to the Forces of Chaos.

This Primaris-grade Forge World was originally located in the Vicidax Thule Sector which lay on the very edge of the western galactic reach of the Segmentum Pacificus. Long the subject of sinister rumour concerning its finding and inclusion in the Imperium of Man during one of the darkest episodes of the Great Crusade's early history, Xana's masters were notoriously independent and politically long-estranged from Mars. Xana II's privilege was bought largely with the vast outpourings of its forges to fuel and arm the ongoing Great Crusade, and expediency was the mother of the pace which brought the Forge World into the Imperium by negotiation with the emissaries of the Emperor, rather than the full auspices of Mars. While the forges of distant Xana issued forth provender and munitions in vast quantities, it was largely left alone.

As the Horus Heresy suddenly and bloodily unfolded, Xana II's isolation only increased and it was a situation its ruling synod of Magi, known as the Vodian Consistory, did little to attempt to outwardly alleviate, choosing initially neither faction to favour, avowing, at least publicly, that the matter was an "internal matter of the Great Crusade's military" in which they had no direct involvement. As the civil war went on with no clear avenue of victory in sight, both sides looked to the increasingly bellicose and active Forge World of Xana II with renewed interest. In their years of isolation since the war's outbreak, the forges of Xana had not been idle and evidence began to amass that a vast and well-guarded stockpile of munitions and war machines had been built up in the system, and readied as if for shipment to a client, but to what end or to whom remained unclear. Eventually, Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion and Praetorian of Terra, made an open proclamation declaring the Forge World of Xana II Traitoris Perdita and under sentence of death. At the same time, covert entreaties were made via intermediaries of Malcador the Sigillite for the remission of this sentence in return for absolute allegiance and the deliverance of stockpiles of war materiel immediately to the Loyalists' defensive build-up in the Segmentum Solar. The Warmaster Horus, however, was to offer a more subtle and honeyed bargain, which would inevitably lead to Xana II's downfall, and ultimately, they would become the first of the so-called Hell-Forges of the Warpsmiths of Chaos.

Xenax
Xenax is a Chapter homeworld of the Subjugators Space Marine Chapter based in the Segmentum Solar. From this world, the Subjugators defend the eastern marches of the Segmentum, guarding against an enemy invasion towards Terra. In addition, the Chapter has significant obligations with regards to the defence of the Cadian Gate, and so most of its duties are split between operations in these two regions and it is rarely encountered further afield.

Xerxes Quintus
Xerxes Quintus is the fifth planet of a harsh white sun. It had lost contact with the Imperium thousands of years before and had no knowledge of the origins of human settlement there or of the Emperor of Mankind. It was an agricultural world harbouring a large percentage of mutants and psykers. This generated a tradition of neighbours raising each other's children so that their parents would not have to condemn their own offspring if they proved to be tainted. The language is a highly bastardized version of High Gothic punctuated by oaths. Of religious beliefs they are heretical, holding no saviour figure but rather a reviling of the God of Change, which is how they saw the actions of Chaos in causing mutation.

It is most notable as the birthplace of Inquisitor Jaq Draco, whose parents were adepts of genetics given a life assignment to helping reabsorb Xerxes Quintus into the Imperium. The planet had been recontacted by the Imperium approximately a century before Jaq's birth and plans were being made to utilise it as an agricultural export world, which would in turn allow exploitation of the mineral wealth of its sister world Quartus.

Yu'Kanesh
Yu'Kanesh is a Tau desert planet being attacked by the Imperium's forces in the beginning of the PC game Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior.

Zaebus Minoris
Zaebus Minoris is a Feral World located somewhere within the Ordon Rift located in the Segmentum Tempestus. During an extended campaign into the Ordon Rift, the world of Zaebus Minoris was seized by the formerly fleet-based Red Scorpions Space Marine Chapter in the 39th Millennium. They also constructed a battle station — Vigil — which remains in orbit around the planet and serves as the Chapter's fortress-monastery. Since that time, they have maintained the highest levels of secrecy about their holding. Of the few outsiders that are aware—mostly high ranking members of the Adeptus Administratum — none know the Warp routes to reach the world. Travel through the Ordon Rift is a treacherous undertaking. Without knowing the precise routes, a journey to the world entails substantial risk. the vast majority of its new Initiates have come from the native feral tribes. Only the most heroic and pure of potential candidates that they encounter elsewhere are even considered for initiation. The small, arid world of Zaebus Minoris is inhabited by a primitive, pre-industrial human culture of roughly the Bronze Age level of technological development. Missionaria Galaxia reports indicate that these tribes each have a central temple complex, at which each newborn male child is presented to the gods for their approval. On the first full moon of the newborn’s life it is presented to the High Priest and placed upon the temple’s stone altar. The tribesmen believe that the gods look down from the moon in judgement upon their children. In the night, those that are judged inadequate die (usually from exposure). Most are allowed to live, the infant being returned to its father at dawn to begin a normal life amongst the tribe. A few -- those judged to be the very best be the High Priest -- are taken by the gods. For a tribe this is the greatest honour and shows they have the gods’ blessing. All tribes hope that their children will be taken, to live amongst the gods as one of them. Of course those children that go missing are indeed taken, selected by the Red Scorpions Chapter's Apothecaries, (after vigorous genetic screening) to begin the process of becoming a Space Marine at the Red Scorpions' fortress-monastery, the orbiting battle-station Vigil.

Zhao-Arkhad
Zhao-Arkhad, also spelled Zhao-Arkkad, is a Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus as well as a Death World that sits at the heart of its own small stellar empire. The Sovereign Omnissian Domain of Zhao-Arkhad lies 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 ("Iron Vigil") which gained a dubious reputation during the Burning of Prospero. Long-suspected to delve into forbidden technologies and considered suspect 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 database for the Crassus Armoured Assault Transport, the Praetor Armoured Assault Launcher and the Dominus Heavy Siege Bombard which are now manufactured on many Imperial Forge Worlds.

Zhoros
Zhoros was the former Chapter homeworld of the zealous Fire Hawks Space Marine Chapter. During the Wars of Apostasy circa 378.M36, the Fire Hawks Chapter was still young. They bravely joined the stand made by the Imperial Fists, Black Templars and Soul Drinkers Chapters, along with the Martian Skitarii Tech Guard against the corruption and enormities of the megalomaniacal High Lord Goge Vandire. The Fire Hawks went on to fight valiantly in many major battles against the Apostate forces of the insane Vandire. Their defiance was paid for with the loss of their first homeworld, Zhoros, to mass thermal bombing by a Frateris Templar fleet loyal to Vandire. Refusing to relent in their opposition to the Apostates, the Fire Hawks helped play a key role in Vandire's overthrow, taking part in the attack on Terra which finally unseated the mad High Lord. Left in tatters, the Fire Hawks' diligence and valour was not in vain, as it is believed that it was at this time they received command of the mighty mobile fortress Raptorus Rex as a gift from the hand of the reforming Ecclesiarch Sebastian Thor himself.