GRAND AVARIA
Command Briefing
Bluth was once a far-flung outpost of the Imperium, a staging world that allowed Imperial forces to marshal their strength before pushing further into the Eastern Fringe. Since the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum and the galaxy torn asunder, it has found itself at the centre of one of the few stable corridors of reality that lead through the Great Rift. The planet’s strategic importance has increased far beyond its martial ability. Pirates, and worse, have battered like Bluth’s storms against the walls and shields of its single city, Grand Avaria.
WARZONE STATUS
*Momentum: Combatants lack the strength for major strategic offensives. Faction win rates determine momentum or relative strength when full narrative campaign is activated.
THE BLUTH SYSTEM
History
The scant records that do exist indicate that prior to colonisation, orbital surveyors located the largest islet from space and divined the presence of ores, and fuel. An outpost was established, with intent to continue exploration and exploitation of further landmass, but no additional survey ever took place.
Colonists, brought in under the stewardship of the Imanev family developed the mining outpost further. Tattered fragments of scrolls indicate that very early in its history, Avaria supplied fuel and ore to support a major punitive action against a long forgotten xenos species, and storied Space Marine Chapters swore oaths to the Imanevs and the people under their protection. The Tower of Martyrs, at the centre of Grand Avaria records the names and deeds of those lost in that war and every war in the sector since.
Grand Avaria has developed from the small mining outpost it was millennia ago. Under the shrewd leadership of the Imanevs, Mechanicum and Ecclesiarchy elements were drawn to the world, raising its profile in the sector. However, colonists have been unable to penetrate the storm to explore their world. No seaborne or airborne voyage has returned, and the storm masks all but the largest landmasses from orbital scans.
Climate
Bluth is classified as a Deathworld, the conditions on the surface inimical to human life. The world is covered almost entirely in water, small islets of dark rock continually battered by the waves. The Permastorm of hail, wind and waves mean that unprotected civilians cannot survive outside the walls of Avaria.
Religion
Denizens of Avaria worship the God Emperor in his aspect of the Storm Lord, a deity of thunder and lightning. They are taught the permastorm is a manifestation of his will and power, protecting them from evil.
The Great Rift
Following the galactic sundering, Bluth received increased void traffic as captains sought a safe haven from the storm. The increased strategic import and isolation (nearby worlds have been lost to the rift, and Imperial forces were stretched across the fringe) did not go unnoticed and human pirates made several failed attempts to wrest the world from the Imanevs.
Bluth’s leadership was relieved when the Imperial Cruiser Trōas made orbit to refuel, broadcasting the appropriate codes. Renewed Imperial prescence would surely bring a return to normalcy. Surface to orbit transports delivered fuel and supplies in exchange for the correct imperial scrip. When the transports returned, however, their holds teeming with plague cultists.
Caught unawares, the already strained PDF mobilized to contain the threat. City blocks burned as the cultists wrought havoc and plagues ravaged the citizenry. Eventually, with almost every able citizen conscripted to the PDF, the cultists and their zombies were contained and broken at incredible cost.
When a chaos fleet was detected in system, the demoralised dregs of the PDF lit the void shields, manned the walls and muttered fervent prayers to the Storm Lord. Astropaths cried into the sea of souls, invoking ancient oaths and imploring for any assistance.
