An Elysian Drop Trooper of the Imperial Guard armed with a Lascarbine
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 Elysia 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 without 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 Autogun than the equivalent standard regiments of the Imperial Guard.
Sometime after the formation of the Great Rift, Elysia was invaded by a large force of Heretic Astartes. In order to prevent the invaders from becoming a threat to Terra, the Adeptus Custodes Captain-General Trajann Valoris led the Fury of Terra Shield Host of Custodians to battle against the Traitors.
Sources
- Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pg. 21
- Codex: Adeptus Custodes (8th Edition), pg. 54
- Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy
- Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign
- Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara