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Hydraphur is an Imperial Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus located in the Segmentum Pacificus in the galactic west. It is the location for the main Navis Imperialis battlefleet headquarters and the Segmentum Fortress in its segmentum. Hydraphur is a prime recruiting ground for the Imperial Navy, with many of the prominent families on Hydraphur being connected to the Imperial Navy and various Rogue Trader houses.

As a result of the influence of the Rogue Trader dynasties, Hydraphur is a commercial and manufacturing hub for the Imperium and a person's financial connections are as important as their familiar ones. This has led to the Hydraphuran convention of adopting both a clan name (the business you are affiliated with) and a family surname (for example Lord Kalfus-Medell is a nobleman of House Medell, affiliated with the Kalfus commercial clan).

In addition to the Imperial Navy, the Ecclesiarchy and the governing Adeptus Mechanicus have strong interests and ties to Hydraphur. Imperial law is enforced (as on most advanced Imperial worlds) by the Adeptus Arbites.

Hydraphur's political landscape is complex. The planet is nominally ruled by an Imperial planetary governor, however due to the number and influence of aristocratic "great families" drawn from the most powerful commercial clans, this is mostly a ceremonial post with little real power. The space above Hydraphur and the rest of the star system is controlled by the Imperial Navy, who are, however, due to the Imperial Navy's complicity in the heresies of the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium, barred from having any influence upon the governance of the planet itself.

Also as a result of the Age of Apostasy, the Ecclesiarchy is charged with ensuring the continued piety and loyalty to the God-Emperor of the population and it has a serious degree of political influence, which extends only as far as the upper atmosphere on Hydraphur itself. However, the Adeptus Ministorum is looked down upon as meddlesome and intrusive by the officers of the Imperial Navy. Inversely, the Navy is considered untrustworthy in the eyes of the Ecclesiarchy because of its involvement in the Age of Apostasy and its cliquish nature and blood ties to Hydraphur's Rogue Trader dynasties and other commercial concerns.

History

During the Plague of Unbelief in the 36th Millennium, Hydraphur surrendered to the rebel forces of Cardinal Bucharis, to its lasting shame in subsequent generations. After Hydraphur's return to the fold of the Imperium, Ecclesiarch Chye Balronas instituted on the world an annual religious festival characterised by fasting and penitent observance.

Another legacy of Hydraphur's complicity in the Plague of Unbelief was the Adeptus Administratum's attempt to curtail the power of the Imperial Navy in the system. Although the Hydraphur System was already a centre for Battlefleet Pacificus' operations, the administrative presence of the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition were increased, while the landholding naval families on Hydraphur were gradually relieved of their hereditary possessions.

However, the success of this partition proved mixed: although the primary authorities on Hydraphur itself are the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Administratum and the Ecclesiarchy, the Imperial Navy responded by tightening its political control of the rest of the star system and the surrounding sub-sector, to the point where the Ecclesiarchy on Hydraphur found it necessary to use covert couriers to communicate with its outposts in other star systems. The Imperial Navy also formed close ties with the mercantile families and Rogue Traders based on Hydraphur, to the point that their syndicate ties were actually regarded as blood family associations.

Sometime after the Great Rift's birth in the Era Indomitus, Hydraphur was invaded by the Heretic Astartes of the Black Legion and the Imperium sent a variety of military forces to defend the important world, including a contingent of the Adeptus Custodes. However, the Black Legion and its mortal allied troops advanced in unusully great numbers, which forced the Imperial defenders to retreat -- save for the Custodians. No matter how many times the Chaos Space Marines of the Black Legion charged the Custodes tasked with defending Hydraphur, they stood firm and broke the Traitors' advance against their golden wall of auramite Custodian Armour.

In the early days of the Indomitus Crusade Hydraphur was assailed three separate times by the forces of Chaos.

Sources

  • Avenging Son (Novel) by Guy Haley
  • Codex: Adeptus Custodes (8th Edition), pg. 7
  • Crossfire (Novel) in Enforcer: The Shira Calpurnia Omnibus by Matthew Farrer, Chs. 2, 5, 7
  • Legacy (Novel) by Mathew Farner
  • White Dwarf 139 (UK), "Interstellar Travel" by Jervis Johnson, Andy Jones, Simon Forrest and Rick Priestley
  • White Dwarf 140 (UK) "Interstellar Travel" by Jervis Johnson, Andy Jones, Simon Forrest and Rick Priestley
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