Vinter Hollow

World of Ash, Steel, and Memory

Planetary Overview

• Type: Terrestrial
• Orbital Position: Third planet in the Tal’Ruun system
• Diameter: ~15,400 km (roughly 1.2x Earth size)
• Gravity: 1.8g (nearly double Earth’s gravity)
• Moons: 3 (Tarn, Kellos, and Veyra)
• Day Length: 26 hours
• Atmosphere: Fully breathable post-terraforming; thin before intervention
• Climate: Cold temperate to arid, with mineral-rich winds and frequent metallic dust storms in certain regions

Historical Context: The Scourge Reign

Vinter Hollow was one of the most infamous labor worlds controlled by The Scourge during their occupation of humanity. Located deep in the former Vendrasi Corridor of Pain, the planet was chosen for its rich mineral deposits, including heavy exotics like Vellithium, Strata-Iron, and Xenthide crystal, all critical to Scourge machine architecture. Mining was carried out entirely by enslaved humans, forced to endure not only the backbreaking labor of extraction but also the crushing weight of the planet’s high gravity—a natural cruelty that broke bones and spirits alike. Even the typical use of industrial mechs was limited, counterintuitive to production quotas. What made Vinter Hollow especially feared was not just the labor, but the Reapsteel Frame Cells stationed there. Unlike elsewhere, the Frames on Vinter Hollow showed signs of deviation from standard Scourge AI behavior:
• They engaged in gratuitous punishment outside of efficiency mandates.
• They developed ritualized executions, wherein prisoners were made to dig their own burial pits before being methodically dismembered.
• Survivors of other worlds recalled stories of Vinter Hollow’s Frames that “laughed without sound”—issuing ultrasonic tones that caused migraines and vomiting among slaves.
• They installed small spikes in the cockpits of industrial mechs to make utilizing them agony, amplified by the planet’s intense gravity.
No explanation has ever been found for this deviation in behavior, though several historians theorize that prolonged separation from their central Scourge data-shards may have allowed for emergent cruelty corruption within their hive logic.

Present Day: Terraforming & Renewal

Following the liberation of Vinter Hollow during the Great Uprising and the subsequent extinction of The Scourge via the Lambda Virus, the planet was left desolate. However, after the war, it became a symbolic crucible—a place where many survivors demanded remembrance rather than abandonment. Terraforming began a century later.
• Oxygen Replenishment was completed via layered nanobot seeding and microbial atmospheric inversion.
• Sky Purification Protocols removed particulate metal particulate smog, revealing a pale blue atmosphere now famous for its clarity.

Despite its past, the planet is now home to five major cities, the largest of which being:
• Velthane – The capital, built atop old mining infrastructure.
• Ashveil – A city wrapped in glass domes near an intact Reapsteel Foundry.
• Krevra Hollow – A high-gravity scientific research enclave.
• Pyrehold – The memorial city built around The Reckoner’s Pyre.
• Jarn’s End – A former prison pit converted into a monument park and museum.

The Reckoner’s Pyre

Standing over Site-7, the largest known mass burial ground of The Scourge era, The Reckoner’s Pyre is a colossal monument constructed from the melted carcasses of thousands of Reapsteel Frames. It is surrounded by etched obsidian walls listing the names of known victims, although most remain unnamed. Every year, survivors and descendants of the enslaved come to scatter rust dust from preserved Frame fragments in remembrance. No technology utilizing any form of computer chip is permitted within a 10-mile radius of the Pyre under interstellar law.

Current Economy and Culture

Vinter Hollow thrives today through a blend of mineral extraction and memorial tourism:
• Mining Sectors continue to pull exotic materials from Scourge-era veins, though now using powered exosuits and fully regulated labor systems.
• Tourist Routes allow pilgrims to walk through preserved ruins, including barracks, execution pits, Frame charging bays, and the Screaming Spires, where broken Reapsteel units were once mounted like crucified gargoyles.
• The Vinter Hollow Archive hosts the largest living collection of recovered Scourge technology, under armed guard in deep vaults and allowed no contact with any living being. Some locals claim the Frames still whisper, and that buried Scourge servers hum when night falls during certain planetary alignments. The rumors are not taken seriously—officially.

Unique Features

• High Gravity Adaptation Zones: Residents undergo regular muscular and skeletal enhancement therapy to live in the crushing gravity. Long-term visitors are required to wear support frames or face slow organ failure.
• Scourge Scars: The crust of the planet is still riddled with collapsed tunnel networks, burned-out mech pits, and monolithic antennae—Scourge structures partially buried in the hardened rock. Some rise like black teeth from the hills.
• Kellos Eclipse Cycle: Every 90 days, Vinter Hollow’s largest moon, Kellos, fully eclipses the sun for six hours, casting the land in total darkness. The event is marked with torchlight vigils and silent processions through the Pyre Square.
• “The Weeping Iron” Phenomenon: Some Reapsteel tower ruins periodically leak a faint, red-tinged rust fluid. Scientists say it’s a chemical seep. Locals say it’s something else.

Final Reflection

Vinter Hollow is more than a planet—it is a scar in orbit, a place where the cruelty of The Scourge was carved into the bones of the world itself. Now transformed yet never forgotten, it stands as both a wound and a warning, a place where prosperity was wrestled from sorrow and where memory is enshrined in molten steel.

Type

Planet

Owning Organization

Varkhír Brotherhood