"Right you lot, I'm to brief you on war zone etiquette—so listen up! It's real simple...Do what you're told, keep your weapon clean and your head down. Oh, and don't touch nothing."
- — Sergeant "Brassneck" Hobbs, Scintillian 23rd
A War World
A War World is an Imperial planet that is part of an active war zone. The Imperium of Man is constantly at war and during those conflicts whole planets can burn.
Massive Imperial military campaigns and Imperial Crusades can envelop dozens of star systems and hundreds of worlds, many of which are utterly devastated by orbital bombardments and artillery in planet-spanning battles that last for entire solar decades.
Long-term war zones are hellish places where death comes quickly. The Imperium can field truly immense armies of millions of men and women, grinding their way across a devastated planet and reducing its cities to rubble.
Mercenaries flock to such places, hoping to leave soon after with their voidships loaded with pay and loot. Deserters and escaped prisoners form bands of pirates, preying on any starships unable to defend themselves. Planetbound, these reavers roam the war-torn worlds in feral packs, stealing anything not nailed down and killing anyone who gets in their way.
The Administratum sends colonists from more overcrowded worlds (sometimes willingly, sometimes not) to re-populate such war-torn worlds after the fighting has ended. But the bureaucratic wheels of the Imperium grind slowly and a world can lie devastated for Terran centuries before any effort is made to resettle it.
These places can be some of the most ghastly in the Imperium, with ravaged environments, cracked planetary crusts, burnt-out cities, and plains covered in the rotting flesh of the fallen.
Notable War Worlds[]
| Planet Name | Segmentum | Sector | Sub-Sector | System | Population | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 Kapella | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Drusus Marches | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Acheron IV | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Imperium fought on this world against the Orks of WAAAGH! Uggrot |
| Armatura | Segmentum Ultima | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Towards the beginning of the Horus Heresy, Primarchs Lorgar and Angron of the Word Bearers and World Eaters Traitor Legions, conducted a joint campaign, known as the Shadow Crusade, into the heart of the Realm of Ultramar. Armatura was one of the first worlds to feel the wrath of the Forces of Chaos, falling to the Warmaster's forces. |
| Baraban | Segmentum Ultima | Jericho Reach | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Contested by the Imperium and T'au Empire. |
| Bleakfrost | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | During fierce fighting on Bleakfrost, an Ork horde overruns the last Imperial defence line. Dropping from orbit, the Novamarines Chapter deploy a thin line of Devastators and Sternguard into the mile-wide breach. Through tenacity and firepower, the Novamarines hold the line for six hours until Titans arrive to throw the Orks back. |
| Farcast | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Malfian Sub-sector | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Gelmiro Primus | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Spinward of Markayn Marches | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Gelmiro Secundus | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Spinward of Markayn Marches | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Gelmiro Tertius | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Spinward of Markayn Marches | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Ghinga | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Ghinga is currently fighting an uprising instigated by Chaos Cultists, with the aid of Daemonic. The timely arrival of a squadron of Grey Knights Space Marines helped to save the planet from a dark fate. |
| Khazant | Segmentum Ultima | Jericho Reach | Unknown | Khazant System | Unknown | Contested between Chaos and Imperial forces. |
| Kulth | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | The Periphery | Unknown | Unknown | Has been continuously fought over for eighty-three years since it was first invaded by Orks. |
| Kuluth | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Malfian | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Malice | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Hazeroth Abyss | Unknown | Unknown | Currently on the front lines of the Wrack War. |
| Maxima Moran | Segmentum Ultima | Unknown | Unknown | Moran System | Unknown | An Imperial world currently being invaded by Hive Fleet Kraken. |
| Protasias | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Drusus Marches | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Purgatory | Segmentum Obscurus | Calixis Sector | Drusus Marches | Unknown | Unknown | Imperial Guard fought here against an invading Night Lords Chaos Warband. |
| Torhaven | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Responding to reports of Genestealer cult activity on Torhaven, the Ordo Xenos despatch a Deathwatch Kill Team to exterminate the threat. Unbeknownst even to the Inquisition, Torhaven's equatorial fortress conceals a secret cache of Ultramarines gene-seed, an incalculably precious asset that cannot be allowed to fall into alien hands. Thus, the Kill Team is joined by Chaplain Ortan Cassius himself, the Ultramarines hero leading his brothers in a series of desperate battles to purge the xenos from Torhaven. |
| Ravacene | Segmentum Ultima | Jericho Reach | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Imperial Guard fight Kroot. |
| Vigilus | Segmentum Ultima | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Vigilus is an Imperial Hive World that represents the terminus of a key route through the Great Rift into the Imperium Nihilus. As a result, Vigilus has become a heavily contested strategic location and the source of conflict between several of the different starfaring species and factions of the Milky Way Galaxy in the early 42nd Millennium. The campaign to claim Vigilus became known as the War of Beasts. |
| Xandros | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | The site of an ongoing battle between the Ultramarines Chapter and the Necrons. |
Sources[]
- Codex: Space Marines (7th Edition) (Ebook), pp. 23, 78, 82
- Dark Heresy: Core Rulebook (RPG), pg. 250
- Dark Heresy: Inquisitor's Handbook (RPG), pg. 170
- Index Chaotica - Noise Marines
- The Citadel Journal 50, pg. 38
- The Horus Heresy - Book Five: Tempest by Alan Bligh, pp. 21, 81-82, 112
- Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (5th Edition)
- White Dwarf Magazine 381 (UK), "The Desecration of Angel Spire," pp. 84-85
- Betrayer (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
- Fantasy Flight Games - The Calixis Sector (Dead Link)
- Warhammer Community - Vigilus Lore 101: The Story So Far
- Warhammer Community - War Zone Vigilus - A New Theater of War