Zeon's World
Zeon's World, named after the Imperial Saint Zeon, is the formal capital world of the Umbra-Sector. As most hive worlds, this planet is a mostly barren and toxic wasteland. Its oceans evaporated and blown away by solar winds long ago, leaving behind only corrosive swamplands at the bottom of the oceanic basins. Nevertheless the countless major and minor hive cities on this planet overflow with human life, either working to supply the endless war machine that is the Imperium or ready to be drafted into more frontline adjacent service. The planet is also considered a minor pilgrimage site, especially the Tomb of Zeon, although mostly frequented by pilgrims hailing from this or the adjacent sectors.
Owing to its industrious past, its hives harbour innumerous manufactorums and supplied a significant amount of the sector's recipients of industrial goods. Due to this circumstance, sections of the Planetary Defence Force fulfilled the role of Enforcers in local matters of unruliness. The continued operation of the planets industry and the sector command was too important a task to leave it to just some local gangs. This turned out to be a decision from which the Imperium would benefit greatly.
Geography
Vast swathes of this planet's surface are unusually flat, often only exhibiting hills where plate tectonics would dictate mountain ranges and shallow dustpans instead of oceans. This results in the planet only having one major landmass, divided by the Slag Lakes which lie between the Northern Dustbowl and the southern Caustic Seas.
Northern Dustbowl
This former ocean mostly vanished, with no major water bodies remaining. The region is infamous for its vicious dust storms which make permanent settlements an extremely difficult undertaking. The constantly shifting dunes can make navigation quite difficult. Slag Lakes
The Slag Lakes are the result of millennia of ore refinement and associated heavy industries directing their waste and residue into the lakes. This has prevented them from completely drying up, instead the lowest parts form the actual highly toxic Slag Lakes. Surrounding them are miles of sedimented industrial waste. Caustic Seas
Possessing the largest water catchment area, the Caustic Seas are the biggest bodies of water on the entire planet. They are fluid enough to be navigable by ships and although they are acidic, many species have adapted to this environment. The edges of the seas consist of expansive swamps and sparse wet forests.
This former ocean mostly vanished, with no major water bodies remaining. The region is infamous for its vicious dust storms which make permanent settlements an extremely difficult undertaking. The constantly shifting dunes can make navigation quite difficult. Slag Lakes
The Slag Lakes are the result of millennia of ore refinement and associated heavy industries directing their waste and residue into the lakes. This has prevented them from completely drying up, instead the lowest parts form the actual highly toxic Slag Lakes. Surrounding them are miles of sedimented industrial waste. Caustic Seas
Possessing the largest water catchment area, the Caustic Seas are the biggest bodies of water on the entire planet. They are fluid enough to be navigable by ships and although they are acidic, many species have adapted to this environment. The edges of the seas consist of expansive swamps and sparse wet forests.
Fauna & Flora
Flora
The most diverse plant life can, counter-intuitively, be found in the basins around the Caustic Seas and not on the continental wastelands. The fairly steppe-like wastelands only permits shrubs and grasses to sprout; the dank and misty swamplands on the other hand are overgrown with gnarly trees and all kinds of smaller vegetation, despite their acidity.
The most diverse plant life can, counter-intuitively, be found in the basins around the Caustic Seas and not on the continental wastelands. The fairly steppe-like wastelands only permits shrubs and grasses to sprout; the dank and misty swamplands on the other hand are overgrown with gnarly trees and all kinds of smaller vegetation, despite their acidity.
Natural Resources
Zeon's World doesn't possess much natural resources in the traditional sense anymore, but the surface of the planet is littered with ruins ready to be scavenged and industrial waste waiting to get recycled. The bulk of the iron used in the manufactories of the hives originates from the various dismantling operations all over the planet.
The few earthbound resource deposits that still exist are often exploited through open-cast mining, ripping huge wounds into the planet's crust. To fuel the construction of the ever-expanding hivesprawls, the overburden is processed to become rockcrete.
History
According to imperial records, the first settlers arrived on this planet during the later days of the Great Crusade. Oddly enough gigantic settlements and expansive infrastructure, although heavily damaged, were already existent on the surface, but human life was nowhere to be found. Scouts were sent out to explore the ruins of civilisation and whatever they woke up turned out to be hostile and attacked the settlers. Sadly the records are too inaccurate, corrupted or redacted to know what exactly happened. The only readable sources are religious manuscripts detailing the rise of the planet's namesake Zeon to the protector of her fellow settlers. She is said to have slain mountainous, hellfire-spewing golems that roamed the planet and seemingly died while doing so. Despite centuries of archeological effort, no trace of those golems (other than the damage on the pre-imperial ruins) could be found. Zeon on the other hand is revered as a saint to this day.
After the events following the Noctis Aeterna the functionality of both the industrial and governmental forces were severely impaired, culminating in the complete lockdown of Hive Infernum. The following planetwide violent uprisings of Chaos cults and even daemonic forces splintered the remaining loyalists and reduced the operational area of each imperial stronghold to half a tank filling. However, the PDF being experienced and equipped in regards to hive warfare meant that, while planetwide communications were down, independent loyalist footholds ensured that the rebels were unable to break orbit and prevented a spreading of the heretics and traitors into the system.
Weeks and months came and went, and finally psykers all over the system felt the arrival of something from the warp. The Iconoclasts arrived. Their appearance ushered in another wave of heresy and betrayal amongst the loyalist forces and a loss of imperial void superiority. Starting with this catastrophic turn of fate, a chain of battles was started, which resulted in the destruction of Hive Infernum and ended with the Excubitor-Chapter arriving and definitively lifting the orbital blockade of the Iconoclasts.
Maps
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Zeon's World
Alternative Name(s)
Sebos Tertius
Type
Planet
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