Agripinaa, known as the "Orb of a Million Scars," is an Imperial Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World located in the Agripinaa System of the Agripinaa Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus of the Milky Way Galaxy. Virtually the entire surface of this world is covered with industrialised infrastructure, pipelines, factories, mines, refineries, processing plants, and manufactorum cathedrals.
Like most other planets in the Agripinaa Sector, this world primarily provides materials for the Cadian front and its industrial heartland is solely engaged in the production of ammunition. Its hive cities are sealed due to the world's highly toxic atmosphere, a result of the extreme industrial pollution. Located near the Eye of Terror and assaulted by the Chaos forces of Abaddon the Despoiler during the 13th Black Crusade, Agripinaa did not weather the attacks of the forces of Chaos well and much of its industrial heartland was laid to waste.
As Agripinaa exists upon the threshold of the Eye of Terror, it was long protected by the Fortress World of Cadia and its bastion system of well-garrisoned planets. With the Fall of Cadia, however, those days are gone. Since Chaos forces stormed into the sector following the opening of the Great Rift in the Era Indomitus, Agripinaa has been besieged dozens of times.
The Forge World and its technological marvels have long been coveted by Warpsmiths of the Traitor Legions, and its surface bears the wounds of untold clashes with Obliterator Cults, Daemon Engines, even the grotesque Chaos Titans. Although the entropic forces of Chaos have always been the enemy of the Imperium, the defenders of Agripinaa reserve a special hatred for the twisted minions of the Dark Gods.
Despite its Tech-priests having become experts in defensive warfare, the Forge World has only managed to fend off the relentless invasions thanks to a massive expansion in its ranks of Skitarii and Battle Servitors and the heroic aid of its native Titan Legion, the Legio Praesidium Vortex. Most of these reinforcements are recruited from those fleeing the destruction of the Chaos attacks. Cut off by rampant Warp Storms, entire fleets of escape craft often arrive in Agripinaa's orbit.
Of course, many choose starvation over the cruel machine fusions of the Cult Mechanicus, but still millions of new troops are being recruited -- fresh legions to stave off the assaults and to join the battles that continue to rage throughout the system.
History[]
Adeptus Mechanicus stellar cartographic map depicting the Forge Worlds of the Segmentum Obscurus, including the Forge World of Agripinaa
The early history of Agripinaa is not well known to Imperial scholars, but it was likely discovered and colonised like most other Forge Worlds by early Mechanicum Explorators some time during the Age of Strife and not rediscovered by the Imperium until the Great Crusade era.
Agripinaa has always been at the forefront of the Imperium's wars against the encroaching darkness of Chaos. Agripinaa exists upon the threshold of the Eye of Terror, located in the Agripinaa Sector, one of the closest Imperial sectors to the once vitally important Fortress World of Cadia before its fall in ca. 999.M41 and the Cadian Gate, the only stable Warp route that led out of the Eye of Terror and into the realm of the Imperium.
Whenever a Black Crusade surged forth from the Eye of Terror, Agripinaa met it with all the tremendous firepower at its disposal. Despite having committed a large portion of its strength to the war for the Cadian Gate, Agripinaa's duties were not purely those of a shield for the wider Imperium. The Forge World's Tech-priests have plunged the spear of their fleets deep into the Eye of Terror, seeking to undermine Abaddon's power by razing the soul forges -- the worlds of the Dark Mechanicum that stand in stark mockery of the Omnissiah's creed.
Departmento Cartographicae Map of the Agripinaa System
Within the Eye, upon the mind-bending cog plateaus of the Dark Mechanicum world of Temporia, Agripinaa's Cohorts Cybernetica and conclaves of Electro-priests trade blasts of lightning with the mechadaemons of Warpsmith Valadrak. The size of Temporia's blasphemous monstrosities beggars belief, but the war machines of Agripinaa are many in number and indomitable in faith. For every wave of terrors the twisted planet heaves into the path of Agripinaa's faithful, another cohort makes planetfall to repel it. Here the might of the Adeptus Mechanicus is tested against a bleak reflection of its own manias and obsessions.
Were it not for the stout defences of the Cadian System, Agripinaa would have fallen to the powers of Chaos more than once. The Warpsmiths of the Traitor Legions, long denied the technological wonders unearthed since the Horus Heresy, have led raids beyond counting to Agripinaa -- including several full-scale invasions. The world's once-golden surface bears the wounds of war with Obliterator Cults, Daemon Engines, and even the grotesque Chaos Titans. The aegis of Cadia was not a one-way shield, of course. Agripinaa not only provided arms and armour enough to equip the entire Cadian System, but also committed one of the largest Skitarii Legions in the galaxy to the war effort.
13th Black Crusade[]
In ca. 999.M41, war came without warning to the Agripinaa Sector during Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade, and the opening moves by the forces of Chaos saw large numbers of plague-ridden space hulks entering Imperial space. Though many were intercepted by the Space Marines and destroyed, some managed to escape the Astartes' attention.
Some of these foul vessels of contagion found their way into the Agripinaa Sector, spreading their disease and pestilence amongst the masses throughout the sector. Along with the adjacent Belis Corona Sector, they were some of the first to bear witness to the rise of hordes of infectious, undead zombies that threatened billions of people on many of the Imperial worlds within the sector. This plague was later named the "Plague of Unbelief."
Rumour has it that the recent upswell of numbers in Agripinaa's Skitarii and Battle-Servitors is directly connected to a large-scale evacuation from the prison planet of St. Josmane's Hope. Officially, the planet's subsequent Exterminatus expunged every trace of its heresy once and for all.
However, there are those who believe Agripinaa's famed Ironstrider Cavalier hordes boast many convicts and rebels, each given one final chance to serve the Omnissiah with their glorious death.
Battle of Agripinaa[]
Four companies of Blood Angels answered the call to defend the Cadian Gate, arriving towards the middle of the conflict. A significant force of Blood Angels immediately fell upon the Chaos hordes assaulting the world of Agripinaa, and they sought out the leader of the attacking forces, the notorious Chaos Champion of Khorne Kossolax the Foresworn and his World Eaters warband, the Foresworn.
In an epic confrontation likened to the mythic conflict between the Blood Angels' Primarch Sanguinius and the mighty Bloodthirster Ka'bandha at the closing of the Ultimate Gate of the Imperial Palace during the height of the Horus Heresy at the Siege of Terra, the Blood Angels took the fight directly to the enemy.
Kossolax, fully aware that his bodyguard was no match for the frenzied sons of Sanguinius, called upon the slavering Daemons of Khorne for aid. The summoning rite was an act of wanton, traitorous carnage, as the warlord ordered his World Eaters to sacrifice the lives of their Chaos Cultist allies in order to gain the favour of the Blood God.
Uncounted thousands were slaughtered in mere solar hours, their blood flowing in rivers through the corridors of Agripinaa's primary hive city, and cascading from ventilation grills as waterfalls of gore. The sacrifice had the desired result, and as the first of the Blood Angels' Veteran Assault Squads screamed into battle, a blasphemous avatar of the Blood God, a Bloodthirster, ripped its way through the skein of reality to confront the sons of Sanguinius.
The first Blood Angels to meet the Greater Daemon were torn limb from limb, the beast devouring their sundered bodies as a taunt to their battle-brothers. The remaining Space Marines were sent into paroxysms of rage at such desecration, and threw themselves at the Daemon with no thought for their own safety. At the height of the battle, the Sanguinary High Priest Numitor confronted the Daemon, and dealt it a blow that stunned it for a brief moment. Seizing the advantage, the brothers of the Death Company leapt upon its back, but the Daemon recovered, and severed the high priest's arm with a crack of its long whip.
The priest was holding one of the sacred Chapter relics known as a Blood Chalice, which bore an infinitesimal amount of the blood of the Chapter's primarch, and the blessed liquid was spilled across the tarnished paving.
The Blood Angels during the brutal fighting in the Agripinaa System.
At that moment, a deathly still overcame the scene, as the Blood Angels were momentarily shocked beyond action at the sight of their primarch's sacred blood seeping into the ground. Then, the silence was broken, as Numitor staggered to his feet and bellowed the words of the Rite of Exsanguination.
The assembled brethren of the Death Company were overcome with visions of the last time their primarch's blood had been spilt by a servant of Chaos, when Sanguinius had fallen at the hands of the Arch-Traitor Horus.
The Death Company went berserk. They hacked down the Bloodthirster in a savage, rage-fuelled frenzy, oblivious to the fact that it dragged half their number down with it, before turning their hatred upon the warband of Kossolax the Foresworn.
The World Eaters were expelled from Agripinaa at great cost to the Blood Angels, though the annals of the Chapter's history celebrate the casting out of the Greater Daemon. The Chaos Champion Kossolax was not found among the remains of the Heretic Astartes who fell at the hive city, and the Sanguinary High Priest Numitor vowed to hunt him down, no matter the cost.
Fleshlings of Sensoria[]
The Sensorians, a newly formed warband of Slaanesh-worshipping Chaos Space Marines, treated with the Dark Mechanicum in an attempt to pioneer Daemon Engines equipped with suites of Sonic Weapons. In doing so they learned of the sombre Skitarii of the Forge World of Agripinaa, ancestral enemies of the Eye of Terror's Hereteks.
Appalled by the notion that the Skitarii voluntarily exchange their flesh for cybernetic replacements, the Emperor's Children staged a grand raid upon the planet under the cover of a Dark Mechanicum invasion. They captured several maniples of Skitarii, overloading their circuits with barrages of intense noise and deafening scrapcode, before bearing them back to the Eye of Terror.
There they cut out the Skitarii's bionics and replaced them with fleshy equivalents taken from mutants, from corpses, even from fallen Chaos Spawn, until barely an ounce of metal was left. These so-called "Fleshlings of Sensoria," though driven mad by the process, proved a potent asset in the Long War.
Era Indomitus[]
Agripinaa, the industrial heartland of the Cadian Gate region, lay in ruins by late ca. 999.M41. Though the Imperial Navy controlled its space, many worlds of the surrounding Agripinaa Sector had been lost to anarchy and destruction. By the end of the 13th Black Crusade, the planets Albitern, Amistel, Lelithar, Malm's Reach, Ulthor and Yavor lay in ruins, and a number of other key star systems hung in the balance.
Though Agripinaa itself still stands, without the Agri-worlds of Yayor, Ulthor and Dentor, its populace may yet starve to death, and without the vital materials provided by the Hive Worlds of Albitern, Amistel and Tabor, its mighty forges may yet fall silent.
Many refugees from the numerous campaigns find temporary safety on the Forge Worlds of Agripinaa and Stygies VIII, where their numbers help repel the Chaos attacks that soon follow. The loss of dozens of Titans, fleets, robots, and entire armies is a devastating and irreplaceable blow. In the wake of the disaster, the High Lords of Terra themselves decreed that all Imperial Forge Worlds were to increase production by any means necessary.
The so-called "Herald of Nurgle," Typhus of the Death Guard Traitor Legion, claimed the now-blasted world of Ulthor as his own realm, and the nightmare visions of a thousand astropaths told of the birth of a new Daemon World within the realm of Mankind.
Further unconfirmed reports state that one of the Blackstone Fortresses was destroyed by Necron raiders off the shoulder of the Lustitia Belt. Senior members of the Ordo Xenos are en route to the area, and Deathwatch strike cruisers are already engaged in ensuring no vessels other than their own enter the region.
Following the Fall of Cadia in the 13th Black Crusade, the forces of Chaos launched a second assault on Agripinaa. Daemon Engines led by many Warpsmiths invaded the Forge World, diseases and maladies ravaged its population, released on the surface from the space hulks that continued to emerge out of the Eye of Terror and then later from the Great Rift after its formation.
Hordes of shambling undead crawled from the vents and cog clusters of the world's forge cities. Later the battle was joined by Chaos warfleets of the World Eaters, Night Lords, Black Legion, Thousand Sons and Death Guard Traitor Legions under the command of the World Eaters Chaos Lord Kossolax the Foresworn once more aboard the ancient World Eaters flagship the Conqueror. Even Daemons were now able to manifest at will on the planet due to the proximity of the Cicatrix Maledictum.
However, despite all this, the Cadians who had survived the destruction of their world, many of whom dispersed to star systems surrounding the Cadian System like Agripinaa, proved to be the decisive force in once again keeping the Forge World out of the hands of the Ruinous Powers, beginning with a victory in the Battle of Faith's Anchorage.
Forge World Dogma[]
Staunch Defenders[]
Battle-hardened by constant clashes with the horrors that issue out of the Eye of Terror, those from Forge World Agripinaa have learned the lessons of defensive warfare well.
Agripinaa Forces Appearance[]
Agripinaa Iconography[]
The official Imperial stamp of the Forge World of Agripinaa used on all of its manufactures
The iconography of Agripinaa shows the sacred Cog Mechanicum bracketing a hermetic symbol, which some Tech-Priests believed to be a representation of the Cadian Gate in supremacy over the Eye of Terror being trammelled by Order itself. Since the fall of Cadia, however, doubt has been cast on this interpretation.
Agripinaa Forge World Colours[]
"Let burnish'd ranks of steel crush the serpent 'neath their heel."
- — Excerpt from default Agripinaa Battle Hymn
Like other Forge Worlds, Agripinaa maintains its own Skitarii forces to protect its interests, annihilate the enemies of the Tech-priests, and fight at the vanguard of the Quest for Knowledge. Within the ranks of Agripinaa's soldiery, the sacred red and black heraldry of Mars is reversed, although some of the crimson of the Cult Mechanicus is always in evidence. The white toothed iconography which rings the hoods, sleeves and hems of their robes is reminiscent of the teeth of a cog, a symbol of sacred significance to the Tech-priests of the Cult Mechanicus.
Agripinaa's Sicarian Ruststalker Princeps, Sicarian Princeps and Skitarii Alpha alike wear battle robes in the sombre black of their Forge World. Their artefacts, wargear and armour is inlaid with ancient and precious metals, each metal distilled from those strata of Agripinaa's surface unscarred by war that have never felt the unclean light of the Eye of Terror. Agripinaa's cohorts often fight across the war-blackened hellscapes of the lightless worlds of the Eye of Terror, where their dark colouration can be the difference between life and death.
Manufactoria Capabilities[]
Agripinaa is know for producing its own pattern of Autogun. The Leman Russ Eradicators manufactured on Agripinaa are particularly prized for the accuracy and reliability of their Nova Cannons.
Sources[]
- Cadia Stands (Novel) by Justin D. Hill, Part 4, Chs. 1-8
- Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus (8th Edition), pp. 12, 17, 35, 95, 98-99, 101
- Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus - Cult Mechanicus (7th Edition), pp. 25, 75-78, 80, 82
- Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus - Skitarii (7th Edition), pp. 30, 72-77
- Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition), pg. 25
- Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), "Pinnacles and Nadirs - Flesh Meets Steel," pg. 48
- Imperial Armour Volume One - Imperial Navy and Imperial Army, pg. 8
- Imperial Armour Volume One: Second Edition - Imperial Guard, pg. 18
- Imperial Armour Volume Five - The Siege of Vraks, Part One, pp. 42-43
- Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks, Part Two, pg. 148
- Loyal to the End (Short Story) by Thomas Parrott
- Servants of the Machine-God (Anthology), "Hunting Ground" by Ian St. Martin
- The Lords of Silence (Novel) by Chris Wraight, Chs. 13-14
- The Thirteenth Black Crusade (Background Book) by Andy Hoare
- Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (8th Edition), pg. 50
- White Dwarf 286 (UK), "Index Astartes: The Eye of the Storm - Space Marine Chapters fighting in the Eye of Terror," by Andy Hoare, pp. 64-66, 68-69
- 13th Black Crusade Worldwide Campaign - Eye of Terror Newsletter, "Death By a Thousand Cuts"
Gallery[]
