Rahe's Paradise

Rahe's Paradise
Type	Feral World / Tomb World
Orbital Radius	Unknown
Gravity	Unknown
Temperature / Climate	Temperate near the equator
Population	Low (Originally) / None (since Exterminatus)
Planetary Governor	None
System	Unknown
Sub-sector	Unknown
Sector	Unknown
Segmentum	Unknown

Rahe's Paradise, known as Lsanthranil's Shield by the Eldar, was an Imperial Feral World and a recruitment planet for the Blood Ravens Chapter of Space Marines, as well as an ancient Tomb World of the Necrons. Much of the world's surface was covered in inhospitable desert and rock, but human life was sustainable in the equatorial mountain ranges, where the climate was fairly temperate. This area recieved almost all of the sparse rainfaill that the planet received. The world's name was coined by one of the first Blood Ravens to visit the planet, the legendary Chaplain Elizur, who had commented that "this is a very harsh place to live." The tribal chieftain he'd spoken to, whose name was Rahe, had perhaps not fully understood what the Astartes Chaplain had said, and replied "No, this is my paradise", and so it was. Many subsequent visitors have noted the irony in the name. The world's population was destroyed in an Exterminatus carried out on the orders of Captain Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens after the Necrons began to awaken on the world because an Eldar artefact keeping them quiescent was unintentionally overridden.

Population

A world as harsh as Rahe's Paradise produces hard, brutal people. Food on the surface was scarce, and competion for it was fierce. Tribes warred not only with each other, but also with the vicious animals who also competed for food. As a result, the natives of Rahe's Paradise were extremely xenophobic, distrusting anyone outside their tribe. A tribe's most important structure was it's storehouse, where the food was kept. Children were raised with weapons in their hands, always prepared to defend their home from attack by other tribes and hungry animals. The Blood Ravens encouraged this vicious tribal behaviour, as it produced strong and able recruits for the Chapter. The population of Rahe's Paradise possessed an unsual number of psykers, and like all Blood Ravens recruits, if they were not already psychic they often developed psychic abilities after being implanted with the Blood Ravens' gene-seed organs.

Necrons

Unbeknownst to the Blood Ravens, and to the natives, a deadly force slept just beneath the surface. This threat took the form of the Necrons who had made Rahe's Paradise their Tomb World 65 million years before. In the caves, tunnels, and catacombs that ran beneath the desert's surface, thousands of Necrons lay slumbering, along with their spacecraft and machines of war, waiting for new Red Harvests to begin in the galaxy.

Lsanthranil's Shield

Lsanthranil's Shield was an ancient device constructed by the Eldar thousands of years ago, to make certain the Necrons of Rahe's Paradise would never rise. Lsanthranil's Shield was designed, essentially, to cast a psychic shield around the planet. This shield would perpetually fool the Necron Lord into thinking that the galaxy was not yet ripe for harvesting, thus ensuring he would never awaken and the Necrons would sleep indefinetely. Once the Eldar had constructed the device, they entrusted its maintenance and safe-keeping to an unknown Chapter of Space Marines, with whom they had been working in unison against the Necron threat. However, this Chapter mysteriously abandoned their post, leaving behind little trace of themselves. In the 41st Millenium, the unchecked number of psykers on Rahe's Paradise was beginning to weaken Lsanthranil's Shield, and threatened to wake the Necrons.

Battle of Rahe's Paradise

In the late 41st Millenium, Eldar from the Biel-Tan Craftworld and the Blood Ravens clashed on the surface of Rahe's Paradise. The Eldar, including Dark Reapers Aspect Warriors and Rangers led by the Farseer Macha, were determined to ensure that Lsanthranil's Shield continued to function. Once on the surface, they targetted human psykers, seeking to thin their numbers and stop their undisciplined minds from weakening the shield. The Blood Ravens' 3rd Company, commanded by Captain Gabriel Angelos, had come to Rahe's Paradise to conduct their Blood Trials, and immediately engaged the xenos. After several intense battles, however, both sides realised the threat posed by the weakened Lsanthranil's Shield, and the Farseer was allowed to restore the device to full working order.

Destruction

In orbit, however, the situation was an entirely different matter. The Dark Reapers' vessel Reaper's Blade, beset by two Space Marine Strike Cruisers, was destroyed. This released the contents of the Dark Reapers Spirit Pool into the atmosphere of Rahe's Paradise. The resulting psychic feedback shattered the effects of Lsanthranil's Shield once and for all. With unnatural speed, the Necrons beneath Rahe's Paradise roused, and began to harvest all living beings on the surface, human and Eldar alike. Both sides quickly evacuated the planet, as the Space Marine Strike Cruisers and the remaining Eldar Wraithship in orbit struggled to contain the growing numbers of Necron spacecraft trying to leave Rahe's Paradise. This became a futile effort, however, when a Shroud-class Cruiser lifted off and fled for the system's star. While the Eldar Wraithship Eternal Star, and the Strike Cruiser Ravenous Spirit pursued the Necron Cruiser, the second Strike Cruiser Rage of Erudition stayed behind and performed an Exterminatus upon Rahe's Paradise using cyclonic torpedoes to crack the world's crust. This destroyed the planet, and all the Necrons remaining on it preventing them from spreading to more Imperial worlds.

Sources

• Dawn of War - Ascension (Novel) by C.S. Goto