Gantz is a Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the moon of the Forge World of Konor in the Konor System, located in the Realm of Ultramar in the Ultima Segmentum. 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.
Gantz was established within the fledgling Realm of Ultramar sometime during the Great Crusade in the mid-800s.M30, following the discovery of Primarch Roboute Guilliman on Macragge by the Emperor. At that time, there were as yet no Forge Worlds of the magnitude of ancient Accatran within the region. Only the reclusive Magi of the iron-bound moon of Gantz and Anuaris, still tied both in tribute and loyalty to distant Accatran as much as Macragge, ranked as true Forge Worlds within the boundaries of Guilliman's fiefdom.
During the dawning of the 31st Millennium, Gantz was gifted to the Legio Praesagius ("True Messengers") as their Legion's homeworld by Primarch Guilliman, in recognition of their valour and faithful service. The god-engines of the True Messengers were charged with the defence of the Forge World's great forges, a duty which they've continued to uphold for the last ten millennia.
Located at the heart of Ultramar, Gantz, alongside its sister world of 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. When the Plague Wars of the early 42nd Millennium consumed Ultramar, the Konor came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle, but the Imperial forces valiantly rallied to reclaim the world for the Emperor. The affect of the Chaos invasion of the Konor System on Gantz itself and its Titan Legion remains unknown.
History[]
The Forge World of Gantz orbiting its primary, the Forge World of Konor
The early history of the iron-bound moon known as Gantz is mostly unknown, but what is recorded is that at the time of the Great Crusade they already held the title of Forge World by ancient treaty with Mars and its allies on the Forge World of Tigrus. As the fledgling Realm of Ultramar expanded under the superlative leadership of the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman, only Gantz, distant Accatran and the newly established Forge of Anuaris ranked as true Forge Worlds within the Mechanicum hierarchy. Interestingly, Gantz chose to remain neutral in the ancient feud between its sibling Forge World of Konor and Anuaris.
The True Messengers[]
A Reaver-class Titan of the Legio Praesagius at the time of the Great Crusade
By the dawn of the 31st Millennium the Legio Praesagius Titan Legion had been crippled by the brutal pace of their deployment, reduced to a third of its original cohort by casualties. Many of the surviving Titans were unable to take to the field due to damage. The Legion could ill-afford to remain at the tip of the spear of men and machines that was the Great Crusade. In recognition of the Titan Legion's service and eager to add to the defences of his newly-established realm, Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, prevailed upon the Magi of the newly-founded Forge World of Gantz to offer a new home to the Legio Praesagius.
For seven Terran years the bulk of the Legio Praesagius was to remain on Gantz, both as a sentinel force to protect the growing forges and to rebuild and repair their damaged God-machines. By mid-006.M31, the Legio Praesagius was once again at full strength, now fully entrenched as wardens of the growing and prosperous forges of Gantz and renowned throughout Ultramar for their valour. The Magi of Gantz slowly rebuilt the Legion until, by the time of the call to arms at Calth in 007.M31, the True Messengers were ranked as a Titan Legion of the Secundus grade and were to pledge 112 Titans of various classes to the Ghaslakh Crusade.
Only a handful of god-engines remained at Gantz for the defence of the great forges that burned at the heart of that world, mainly those in dire need of repair or whose construction and dedication had yet to be fully completed. In the aftermath of Calth these few warriors, a mere dozen Titans, with only three of these being Battle Titans bestowed on the Titan Legion at its founding, would be all that remained of the once-proud Legio Praesagius.
The Calth Conjunction and the Battle of Calth[]
During the Calth Conjunction, when the call to arms for the Ghaslakh campaign reached the various Mechanicum enclaves of the Ultramar region, the Magi were quick to see the logical advantage of combining their forces. Alone they would be subsumed into one or other of the Imperium's other formations and likely employed with minimal efficiency; together, acting as one body, they would operate at optimum effectiveness and prove a valuable military tool for the coming Crusade and the advancement of their own enclaves.
These enclaves ranged from tiny collectives such as the Cult Logis enclave on Sotha which numbered less than a dozen Adepts, to the sprawling Mechanicum cantons of Konor, a world denied the status of a true Forge World only due to its extensive connections to the political hierarchy of Ultramar, which were considered unseemly by the envoys of Mars. At Calth, the amassed gathering of smaller individual taghma from around Ultramar, which as a whole numbered near 35,000 Mechanicum combatants of varying grades, were under the command of Archmagos Cronn Barbarel, and as appointed Magister Mechanicum for the campaign, Barbarel was also given overall lordship of all the Taghmata bound for the proposed war against the Orks under the seal and aegis of Roboute Guilliman. Only the Titan Legions assigned to the muster as well as the notoriously independent Ordo Reductor, represented by the Covenant of Mormoth-Null, remained outside this chain of command when the Battle of Calth began.
Notable Personnel[]
- Archmagos Cronn Barbarel - Barbarel was a well-regarded Archmagos who was held in high regard by the Mechanicum of the various Forges and enclaves of Ultramar. During the Calth Conjunction, when the call to arms went out amongst the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar for the impending Ghaslakh campaign against that large Ork Empire, the various enclaves saw the logical advantage of combining their forces. When the warriors of the Mechanicum arrived on Macragge, they conducted fraught negotiations, vehemently debating in the binary cant of the Machine Cult. Eventually they granted primacy within the Taghmata to Archmagos Cronn Barbarel, due both to his eminent seniority and his fealty to the lords of Gantz, who remained neutral in the ancient feud between Konor and Anuaris. Only by deft compromise were the contingents of both Konor and Anuaris kept within the ranks of the Taghmata.
Sources[]
- The Horus Heresy - Book Five: Tempest (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 116-119, 133-134
- Galaxy in Flames: Fate of Konor Website
- Week Two: Konor
- Imperial Victory on Konor!