The Kroot homeworld of Pech lies within the Ultima Segmentum, not far from T'au, the capital world of the T'au Empire.
On this world, massive evergreen forests of the hardy jagga tree cover most of the prime continent. The other regions of Pech that are not covered by forest are mainly inhospitable ranges of rock cliffs and jagged mountains.
Pech has three main continental masses; the largest of these is warm, humid and temperate, covered in evergreen jagga trees. It is a place of steaming jungles, enormous forests, towering mountains and abundant wildlife. Unforested areas are rocky, parched, or affected by violent storms, and generally inhospitable.
It is from Pech's deep forests that the Kroot originated, and there they live within arboreal colonies in family groups known as "kindreds," led by wise and ancient Kroot called Shapers. Most native species of Pech have been rendered extinct due to Kroot activity. Most fauna consists entirely of Kroot and their subspecies, such as Krootox, Kroot Hounds, and what may be the original Kroot genus, the Kroothawk.
Most Kroot make their homes, which are nestled amongst the higher branches of the jagga trees, from animal hides and regurgitated dead wood pulp.
As the homeworld of the Kroot, Pech has an instinctive hold over their species. Most Kroot, even those born on other planets in the T'au Empire or elesewhere in the galaxy, feel called to migrate to Pech at some point in their lives.
History[]
Rapid Technological Advancement[]
At some unknown time before 844.M38 according to the Imperial Calendar, an Ork Rok crashed on Pech. The Greenskin survivors were defeated and eaten by the Kroot, who soon began to manifest the technical abilities of the consumed Ork Mekboyz. This led to a period of rapid technological development and expansion as the Kroot developed spacefaring technology and expanded beyond Pech in their Warsphere voidships and settled other nearby habitable worlds. During this time Pech became heavily urbanised, with at least five primary Kroot hive cities.
War in the Place of Union[]
However, several Terran millennia later, Pech and its surrounding Kroot-settled worlds were overrun and occupied by Orks once more. Eventually, the T'au Empire agreed to liberate Pech from Ork control at the behest of the Kroot leader Anghkor Prok.
After ten Terran years of hard fighting which began with the War in the Place of Union, Pech and the other core Kroot colony worlds were finally freed from Ork control. After the war ended, Anghkor Prok advocated that the Kroot return to the old ways before the coming of the Ork Rok, and thus the devastated Kroot hive cities were never rebuilt and Pech has over the itervening centuries become reforested.
Drukhari Pech Raid[]
In 991.M41, after capturing not only countless T'au upon the world of Vigos but also the Kroot mercenaries with which they bolstered their cadres, the Drukhari Haemonculi coven known as the Prophets of Flesh discovered that the Kroot were able to learn and even evolve purely by selectively devouring the fallen and metabolically accessing their DNA. To appropriate such an extraordinary ability was considered a biomedical coup even amongst fleshcrafters as skilled as the Haemonculi.
Before long, the Prophets of Flesh opened a Webway gate on Pech from Commorragh. Hovering through the mists upon their Raiders lined with barbed rails, the Haemonculi and their troops began a lengthy scouring of the planet's Kroot tribal centres. The Kroot responded in force to the assault, loosing packs of Kroot Hounds that leaped from the bough and bole of the jagga trees to bear Covenites into the leafy mulch below.
Krootox-borne gunners blasted apart Venoms and Ravagers in the gloom, though in truth the anti-grav skimmers in the jungle canopy of Pech were little more than distractions. The true prize was seized by the Engines of Pain of the Haemonculi, each unit rendering down as many Kroot Shapers as they can catch. The T'au, fiercely protective of their empire's mercenary allies, counter-invaded in force by mobilising twelve Hunter Cadres to scour the jungle clean of the Drukhari filth.
The unfolding battle ended abruptly when the Prophets of Flesh withdraw, their Raiders straining to the point of collapse under the weight of the Kroot corpses they had stolen. Though the T'au Water Caste propaganda machine celebrated a great victory at Pech, the Drukhari had claimed what they had come to Pech to seize. They left a message behind, spelled out in the bloody corpses of their victims. It was loosely translated by the Water Caste as the phrase "Welcome to the Feast."
Hive Fleet Gorgon[]
In 919.999.M41, a lone Tyranid bio-ship of Hive Fleet Gorgon disgorged its vile swarms upon Pech. Though the Kroot are able to kill the smaller Tyranids, multiple tribes are killed by the giant Bio-Titans attacking their world. It is only when the T'au Empire deployed its Fire Warriors to Pech, to save their long-time allies, that the tide of battle turned against the swarm. Working together, the Kroot and T'au eventually hunted down and killed every Tyranid bioform infesting Pech.
Second Tyrannic War[]
Pech was invaded again by the Tyranids when a tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken reached the Kroot worlds during the Second Tyrannic War, but the invasion was repelled. Afterwards, the Kroot's Murabla Kindred vowed vengeance for the lives of their kin that were lost, and left to pursue the Great Devourer as mercenaries.
Their quest eventually led them to the world of Ichar IV, where they entered the service of the Inquisitor Angmar as part of his retinue after he witnessed the xenos' effectiveness against the Tyranid bioforms in combat.
Notable Locations[]
There are many places of great cultural significance to the Kroot on the world of Pech, such as the enormous carved jagga tree on Mount Kaikown where their great leader Anghkor Prok is buried, the Grove of Ancestors in the Kamyon Mountains, and the Oathstone on the Plain of Bones where Prok first pledged the Kroot's allegiance to the T'au Empire and the Greater Good in return for their help in defeating the Orks who had ravaged Pech and the Kroot colony worlds during the War in the Place of Union.
There are also places the Kroot avoid, such as the Ygothlac Forest where the trees are black and twisted and terrifying monsters distantly related to the Kroot dwell.
Sources[]
- Codex: Tau (3rd Edition), pp. 10-12
- Codex: T'au Empire (10th Edition), pg. 31
- Dataslate: Tau Firebase Support Cadre (6th Edition), pg. 10
- Rogue Trader: Into the Storm (RPG), pg. 47
- Haemonculus Covens - A Codex: Dark Eldar Supplement (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), "The Chronicle of Endless Woe"
- The Inquisition (Background Book), pp. 94-95
- White Dwarf 264 (UK), "Index Xenos: Savage Evolution," pp. 94-98