Dark Heresy: A Life in Seven Parts

This page is for the PbP game, "A life in seven parts", run by me and played by XXX. It is currently under construction.

Gunpoint

Gunpoint is a hive world in the Calixis Sector, in the Hazeroth sub. It is a small world of unstable rocky geology that nontheless houses rare and valuable minerals, and with two hives: Hive Vanguard, an Imperial hive; and Hive Sanctus Obscuro MCCVIX, a hive founded by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

History

According to the tech-priests stationed on Gunpoint, the planet is rightfully a forge world under the sole jurisdiction of the Mechanicus. According to the Planetary Governor Lucien Wrestus, the world belongs to him as an Imperial world proper. He claims that records show that the world was settled by the Hive Vanguard builders before the Mechanicus assembled their outpost; the Adeptus state the opposite, that they had claimed the planet before the Imperial citizen settlers arrived.

The Administratum, perhaps wisely, has yet to return a ruling.

It is thought that the contention of ownership is a result, in part, of the fact that the two authorities settled the planet and the sprawls grew with little to no interaction for thousands of years, into the hives they are now, until they ran out of space on the planet to claim for themselves and competition for natural resources made conflict inevitable.

Settlements

Because the majority of Gunpoint's surface is unstable and even fragile rock formations, there are only two major settlements, each placed on the only known stable points on the planet's crust: the two hives, Vanguard and Sanctus Obscuro, on points at opposite poles. Hive Sanctus Obscuro dominates the southern hemisphere, while the Imperial spires of Hive Vanguard lay claim to the northern hemisphere. Each hive is supported by a number of radial subhives, each in a position to make maximum use of the natural resources in the area - or at least, the natural resources that used to be in the area before they were exhausted: promethium pumps, metal mines, and harvest processors are the usual purpose of these radial spires.

There are no other settlements that are not built for industrial purpose; the nature of the unstable landscape makes them unwise. There are outposts, placed to oversee resource extraction or for military purposes, but these are small factory-like places built to withstand the frequent rock-quakes and spore-storms, whether through flexible, stilt-like legs upon which they stand or complete use of grav-repulsors or airbags to keep the settlement afloat.

There are rumours of exile settlements, people who have fled or escaped the hives to make their own way in the caverns that riddle the planet. The chance of such collections of people surviving any length of time is considered to be nil.

Hive Vanguard

To come!

Hive Sanctus Obscuro MCCVIX

Often simply referred to by Vanguardians as "Hive Obscuro" or just "Obscuro", or even "Twelve-fourteen" after the numerals. More to come!

Politics

The two governing authorities on Gunpoint - the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Imperial Palace - are at a very uneasy standoff. Despite numerous attempts, neither can conclusively prove their right to rule the planet. However, they have both reached the limits of expansion: Gunpoint is small, and though it is seemingly endlessly rich in the rare minerals and ores which are the main export the two hemispheres are wholly under one or another authority's claim.

The tech-priests, as usual, are aloof and difficult to approach; while Governor Wrestus displays all the tenacity of a true servant of the Emperor. Neither side will budge.

And yet the competition goes on. A cold war often simmers over into internicine conflict along the equatorial borders, and sometimes raids are conducted deeper into foreign territory, or even insurgencies in the great hives themselves - whether by infiltrated agents, or carefully-manipulated elements of the native populace.

Elements of technology seep over from Obscuro, just as - it is rumoured - the Mechanicus occasionally gain insight into production methods from the industrious Vanguardians.

Geography

The whole of Gunpoint is a rocky mass, pitted and completely riddled with caverns both natural and the result of abandoned or completed mining operations. The unusual geology forms into bleak landscapes peppered with such excavations.

Mined ores and compounds are the primary export of both hives, and these naturally-ocurring strange minerals also give rise to the dominant flora and fauna of the planet: a multitude of different lichen and mosses, some useful, some instantly lethal, and the lifeforms that have evolved symbiotically with them.

Huge fields of nutri-lichen grow over geothermic hotspots, tended and farmed by gigantic crawler-harvesters. These fields feed the people of Gunpoint after they are collected and refined and, if you are rich enough, flavoured.

Links

Offical Dark Heresy Page - The Calixis Sector http://app.fantasyflightgames.com/dark-heresy/calixis.shtml