A kasr was one of the mighty fortress-cities of the lost Imperial Fortress World of Cadia.
History
Cadia's earliest kasrs were built in the High Terra style, with the wide streets laid out on a grid system. In the early 32nd Millennium, a Chaos invasion made wretchedly short work of three of them. The broad, ordered avenues proved impossible to defend or hold.
Since then, the kasrs were planned in elaborate geometric patterns, the streets jinking back and forth like the teeth of a key. From the air, they looked like intricate, angular puzzles. Given the Cadians' mettle and their skills at urban warfare, a kasr could be held, street by street, metre by metre, for solar months if not Terran years.
Each kasr is also protected by rings of massive earthworks studded with gun emplacements and weapons batteries and separated by an inner moat. Passage over the moat is controlled by hydraulic bascule bridges, each one guarded by a heavily armed barbican, and defended by the many armoured fortifications overlooking it.
At the centre of every kasr was a garrison, a great fortress in its own right. Here, squads of dedicated Kasrkin were stationed, ready to defend their city from any and all threats.
For the most part, kasrs resembled military camps more than cosmopolitan cities. Even the civilian fashion was for camouflaged clothing. It was thus easy to pick out the locals from visitors.
Each kasr had its own form of camouflage for its citizens. For example, the jag-white and grey of tundra dress or the panelled green and beige of moor fatigues marked out newcomers and off-duty soldiery within Kasr Dreth, while the native population wore grey and brown checkered urban camouflage.
Notable Kasrs
- Kasr Myrak - Besieged during the 13th Black Crusade.
- Kasr Soliq - Besieged during the 13th Black Crusade.
- Kasr Rantik - Besieged during the 13th Black Crusade.
- Kasr Vasan - Besieged during the 13th Black Crusade.
- Kasr Trunch - Besieged during the 13th Black Crusade.
- Kasr Tyrok - Site of the Battle of Tyrok Fields.
- Kasr Gehr
- Kasr Gesh
- Kasr Grem
- Kasr Derth - The largest kasr on Cadia as of 241.M41.
- Kasr Vallock - Traditionally seconds its Kasrkin to the 88th Mechanised Infantry Regiment of the Cadian Shock Troops.
- Kasr Viklas
- Kasr Feros
- Kasr Kraf - The final kasr to hold out from the invasion of the forces of Chaos during the 13th Black Crusade.
Sources
- Malleus (Novel) by Dan Abnett, Ch. 14
- White Dwarf 286, pg. 71
- Codex: Eye of Terror (3rd Edition), pg. 12
- Gunheads (Novel) by Steve Parker, Chs. 2, 7, 14
- The Gathering Storm - Book One - Fall of Cadia (7th Edition), pp. 12-13, 16, 20, 22-23, 26-33, 35-37, 40-42, 44, 48-49,52-53, 58-60, 62-65, 68-69, 72-78, 80-86, 88
- Cadian Blood (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden