Hive World

A Hive World

A Hive City

Another view of a Hive City

A Hive World is the most populous type of Imperial planet, of which there are approximately 32,380 in the Imperium. The populations of these planets are so great that the people live in huge urban arcologies called hive cities, truly immense, self-contained, many-layered structures that reach high into the sky, each housing billions of individuals. Hive Worlds often provide much-needed industrial labour, their manufactoria producing mountains of war materiel and other goods to meet the Imperial tithe's demands. Most Hive Worlds started out as relatively hospitable places to live but have become severely polluted, the areas outside the hives reduced to ash wastes or radioactive desert by the never-ceasing industry of the great cities. Equally dangerous can be the hives themselves. The crime-ridden, poverty-stricken areas, almost always found in the most polluted and decrepit lower levels of the under-hive, are home to violent gangs, criminals and assorted scum as well as mutants and heretical cults who hide there from the authorities. It has been said that the sacrifice of over a million Imperial soldiers is worth "one day's Hive World production" in weapons and armour.

Perhaps even more valuable is what at first glance seems to be a byproduct of the monolithic hive city's design. The population of any given world approximately doubles every 100 years. With each hive housing between 10 to 100 billion people and 5 to 20 hives per planet, the sheer number of Imperial citizens on a Hive World is staggering. And each of those citizens is a potential soldier for the Emperor's already uncountably vast armies. Hives manufacture far more than mere steel and silica; they are vast factories for the most useful possible resource, people. Almost every recruit into the Imperial Guard from a Hive World will already know how to handle a weapon. Hive Worlds also serve to populate newly discovered planets. Imperial citizens are gathered from various Hive Worlds (willingly or unwillingly) by the Administratum and shipped off to distant colonies first discovered by the Adeptus Mechanicus' Explorator fleets.

In common with most other Imperial worlds, Hive Worlds are often based on a very obvious class system, with a ruling noble class and a bureaucratic middle class, although with populations so tightly packed there always develops a lower working class that often fuels violent street gangs. As can be expected, the upper classes are situated in the affluent upper areas of the hive cities, whilst the middle classes are situated in the middle areas,and the working classes are packed together in the lower areas. The very bottom sections of a hive city, the Underhive, are often areas where the underclasses and criminals are sent to be forgotten about and anarchy rules.

Some extensively developed Hive Worlds do not even consist of various enclosed arcologies surrounded by wasteland, jungle, ice, or plains. These Hive Worlds are completely urbanised and stacked with hundreds of layers of arcologies, covering the entirety of the planet, effectively becoming an ecumenopolis. Terra is an example of this type of "Super Hive World".

Notable Hive Worlds

Planet Name	Segmentum	Sector	Subsector	System	Population
Arcadia	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Armageddon	Segmentum Solar	Armageddon Sector	Armageddon Sub-sector	Armageddon System	Unknown
Avellorn	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Drachus	Segmentum Tempestus	Loki Sector	Unknown	Barnardi Prime System	Unknown
Coronis Agathon	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	120,000,000,000
Gehenna Prime	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Gehenna System	Unknown
Ichar IV	Ultima Segmentum	Unknown	Unknown	Ichar System	500,000,000,000
Kado	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Lastrati	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Medusa V	Ultima Segmentum	Unknown	Unknown	Medusa System	None
Meridian	Ultima Segmentum	Korianis Sector	Aurelia Sub-sector	Unknown	32 billion
Minea	Ultima Segmentum	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	154,000,000,000
Mordian	Segmentum Obscurus	Unknown	Unknown	Mordian System	Unknown
Necromunda	Segmentum Solar	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Scintilla	Segmentum Obscurus	Calixis Sector	Golgenna Reach	Unknown	25,000,000,000
Targis VIII	Segmentum Tempestus	Amerikon Sector	Unknown	Barnardi Prime System	15,000,000,000
Terra	Segmentum Solar	Sector Solar	Sol Sub-sector	Sol System	Unknown
Temperis	Segmentum Pacificus	Unknown	Unknown	Cabulis System	Unknown
Vanaheim	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
Verghast	Segmentum Pacificus	Sabbat Worlds	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown

Sources

• Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook (5th Edition)
• Dark Heresy Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 249
• Necropolis (Novel) by Dan Abnett
• Helsreach (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden