Gereon

The world of Gereon is an Agri-World located within the Khan Group of the Sabbat Worlds Sector. A small world and mainly out of the way, Gereon became a focal point of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and was eventually liberated by the crusade armies of the Imperium of Man.

Geography
The planet, being an Agri-World, was mainly covered in a variety of forests and large fields that were used in order to grow a variety of staple crops. Bocage was also a type of terrain that was visible, and the planet also possessed oceans. The first settlers of Gereon made use of every available bit of farmland that it could, except for one area of the world, known as the Untill.

The Untill was a massive swamp that was all but uinhabited but for various isolated tribes of partisans who called themselves the "Nihtgane" or "Nightwalkers", rebellious people who were driven into the swamp during an early civil war and banished there. Filled with a large variety of hazardous creatures such as highly poisonous moths, massive predators, and aquatic beasts, the Untill was named for being untillable, unfarmable land that had very little solid ground. Vents of promethium jetted out from the ground, and were used by the Nihtgane to light their lanterns.

Society on Gereon was mainly composed of a number of various towns divided into provinces. Each province had one larger town or city as its seat, with smaller towns, villages, and farms scattered across it.

Background
Gereon is an Agri-World in the Khan Group of the Sabbat Worlds that was conquered by the forces of the Archenemy and held for multiple years. During this period, Gereon's native inhabitants referred to the Chaos occupation of the planet as the "Days of Pain". While the Gereon Planetary Defence Force fought valiantly, the world was conquered, with millions dying and with a large occupation force being installed on the planet. Under the rule of Chaos, the planet was ruled by an official known as the Plenipotentiary, who ruled the world in the name of Anakwanar Sek, known as the Anarch.

The occupation force was divided into two separate bodies of troops. The excubitors, who wore greatcoats and carried ornate las-locks, were bionically modified, with their eyes and nose cut out and replaced with a bionic mask and collar. The second group were the Occupation troopers, better-trained and equipped soldiers who guarded more important areas of the planet such as bastions or large cities. Officers of the occupation force were known as sirdars.

The excubitors and Occupation troopers were supported by a number of other Chaos creations to help control the populace. Excubitors used fetch-hounds to scent out fugitives. Daemon Engines known as Wirewolves were also used, being tangled jumbles of metal animated by warp energy. While they would eventually run out of power, they would refuse to give up the hunt while they were powered. Connected to the Wirewolves were glyfs, Warp creatures that took the shape of constantly changing sigils and would sound alarms if they sensed treachery. Also included were creatures called imagos that were given to each citizen, consenting them to be out at a certain time of day and which could be scanned by the Excubitors. Any citizen who did not have an imago or who was caught outside beyond their consented time was put to death on the spot.

After the conquest of Gereon the planet's population was violently oppressed in the name of the Chaos Gods, with the occupation forces forcing droves of downtrodden citizens to convert to the worship of Chaos. Those who refused were either killed or fed to the "meat factories", large factories that would butcher humans for meat to feed the rest of the populace. Other workers were sent to the Iconoclave, also known as the Breaking House, dedicated to the destruction and defacement of Imperial symbols and statuary. Various Chaos ordinals were also used to assist in the administration of the planet, all serving the Plenipotentiary.

However, remnants of the PDF and a number of former civilians instead began to form resistance cells, spread throughout the various towns and villages and dedicated to resisting the occupation any way they could. The resistance used a variety of codes related to Gereon to communicate. Stopping at a resistance safehouse would draw the challenge "How is Gereon?" to which the seeker would respond "Gereon lives". The return had two variations. If the house was safe, "Despite their efforts" would be used. If the house had been compromised, "even though it dies" would come back.

History
Nearly three years after Gereon was conquered by the Archenemy, a small squad of the Tanith First-and-Only, known as Gaunt's Ghosts, was sent on a top-secret and highly dangerous mission to assassinate the former Imperial Lord General Militant Noches Sturm, formerly of the Volpone Bluebloods, who had previously shown inexcusable cowardice at Vervunhive and had previously been scheduled for a court martial. Sturm had been captured when his prisoner transport was ambushed and been brought to Gereon in order to break the mind-lock on his brain, which prevented him from remembering classified military intelligence.

Through an arduous journey and the costly assistance of the planet's resistance cells, the Ghosts managed to make it to Lecticia Bastion, where Sturm, known to enemy forces as the "pheguth", meaning "traitor", was being held in order to break the mindlock through a process known as "transcoding". At the same time, the Ghosts discovered that the planet was being used in order to train a rival force to the Blood Pact known as the Sons of Sek, in order to assist the Anarch in overthrowing the Archon of the Sabbat Worlds, Urlock Gaur to be able to better prosecute the war.

The Ghosts eventually were able to infiltrate the Bastion and succeed in their assassination of Sturm, but were unable to initially exfiltrate from the planet due to its position behind enemy lines. However, eventually the Imperium returned to Gereon and liberated it from th

e taint of Chaos.

Appearances
Traitor General (Novel)

The Armour of Contempt (Novel)