Welcome to Lexicanum! Log in and join the community.

Terra

From Lexicanum
Jump to: navigation, search

Beautiful on the surface, but rotten underneath. Don't ever, even for a second, doubt that this is the most dangerous world in the galaxy... Danger does not always come in the shape of orks with bolters, Ragnar. This world is where the elite of the Imperium have gathered. We are talking now of the most ruthless, ambitious, unscrupulous collection of rogues ever culled from a million planets. This is the place they have come to realise their ambitions, and on Terra they can, and will not let anything stand in their way. Not me, not you, not their own kin if need be.
Torin, Wolfblade to House Belisarius.[8a]


Terra, [15] is the homeworld of Mankind, it is the resting place of the Emperor, and the most holy and revered place in the Imperium. Pilgrims throughout the Imperium flock to Terra - even the barren soil that pilgrims tread upon is considered holy. It is effectively a temple the size of a planet.

As the capital world of the Imperium, Terra is also home to the main headquarters of many important Imperial organisations, including the Adeptus Terra, the Administratum, and the Departmento Munitorum[Needs Citation].

Planetary Summary

Map Basic Data Planetary Image
px Name: Terra Terra.JPG
Segmentum: Segmentum Solar
Sector: Sector Solar
Subsector: Sub-Sector Solar
System: Sol System
Population: Billions[3]
Affiliation: Imperium
Class: Hive World
Tithe Grade: Aptus Non

History

Old Earth

The Age of Terra is the name given to the period of human history dating from the dawn of mankind to the founding of the Imperium. Cities such as Atlantys and Nova Yoruk are cited as being the most legendary and ancient cities of Terra.[8b] Nations known as Jermani, Merica, Britania are said to have prospered and wilted during this time.[Needs Citation]

Unification Wars

During the Age of Strife, Terra fell into chaos and mayhem as Techno-barbarians, mutants, warlords, and Psykers rampaged throughout the planet. Becoming a wasteland, it was not until the arrival of the Emperor and his Thunder Warriors that the birthplace of mankind was again unified into a single polity.[11]

Before the completion of the Unification Wars, Terra was divided into several competing nations, including[13]:

  • Albia - ruled by warlord clans
  • Albyon - inspired by the real life British Isles.
  • Achaemenid Empire - One of the earlier geopolitical entities to swear allegiance to the Emperor, the Achaemenid Empire had therefore suffered little during the Wars of Unification, avoiding both atomic strike and invasion by Thunder Warriors. A monarchical empire, the population were separated into tribal factions and were apparently a culture of truth and discourse. As a result of the relative peaceful nature of the region and the protection enjoyed by early adoption of Imperial allegiance, the Achaeminians sported few of the genetic defects or abnormalities seen amongst humans during this time and were therefore selected as a recruiting source for the infant Legiones Astartes. The Achaeminians provided the initial Terran intake assigned to Legion XV. The Achaeminians appeared to posses a form of superstitious belief in the mystical power of their ancestors; emblems of Dhul-Qarnayn (their greatest King) were used as charms against harm.[9]
  • Boeotia - An area of Terra mentioned in Imperial records as holding out against full Unification for some considerable time; while tacitly recognizing the Emperor's dominance, the ruling monarchy of Boeotia used all manner of diplomacy in order to avoid losing power. In a show of great patience and benevolence, the Emperor allowed the ruling family of Boeotia - the Yeselti - to carry on like this for over 150 years, with the intention that they would integrate themselves into unified Imperial Terra at their own speed and with as much dignity as possible. Instead, the Yeselti clung onto their independence to the point where, firstly, the Imperial Army was forced to invade the province and finally, Legiones Astartes of the Thousand Sons were assigned to quash the trucculent little state. Boeotia was notable both for the presence of industry and at least one buried shrine to gods worshiped by humans in an earlier age.[10a]
  • Caucasus Wastes - Based on the real life Caucuses[Needs Citation]
  • Hy Brasil - Based on the real life South America[Needs Citation]
  • Panpacific Empire - Based on The real life Pacific Ocean[Needs Citation]
  • Ursh - Based on real life Central Asia[Needs Citation]
  • Ethnarchy - Ruled by eugenicist oligarchs in the Caucasus.[14]
  • Terrawatt Clan - Ruled from the Ural Mountains
  • Yndonesic Bloc[Needs Citation]
  • Saragorn Enclave

Age of the Imperium

Holy Terra

Proclaimed the capital of the newly-formed Imperium by the Emperor following the unification of the planet, Terra remained the center of humanity throughout the Great Crusade. During the Horus Heresy, it was the site of the dramatic final battle of the conflict that saw the Emperor crippled and the traitorous Warmaster Horus killed, the Battle of Terra.[12] Since the Heresy, Terra has stood as the untouched center of the Imperium, though it was the site of violence during the War of the Beast, The Beheading and the Age of Apostasy.[5]

In the ten thousand years since the Heresy, the populace of Terra has retained a terror of all Space Marines, loyalist and otherwise.[8b] For this reason, there are only a handful of Marines on Terra at any given time, including the Wolfblade, a small unit of Space Wolves assigned as bodyguards to House Belisarius of the Navis Nobilite.[8c]

Although Terra is nominally the homeworld of the Imperial Fists chapter, the chapter itself rarely visits Terra, if at all, and bases its operations from its gargantuan star fortress, the Phalanx.[Needs Citation]

Geography

Terra is a hive world; stripped long ago of all forms of resources; its soil is utterly barren and its atmosphere is a fog of pollution. Massive, labyrinthine edifices of state sprawl across the vast majority of the surface. Its oceans have long ago boiled away, though newer artificial ones were created by the Emperor after the Unification Wars[21]. Many mountain ranges have been leveled, perhaps all of them except the Himalayas, which seemingly remain all but untouched due to the laboratories said to be underneath and the chambers of the Astronomican that course throughout the whole mountain range.[Needs Citation]

Despite being devastated during the Horus Heresy and earlier than that during the long Age of Strife, Terra is probably the most vastly-populated and built-up hive world in the Imperium. Beneath countless layers and millennia of urban accretion, catacombs hold older cultures completely different from the surface ones.[Needs Citation]
Terra during the Horus Heresy, an orbital plate is visible in the background
One of Terra's hives.[Needs Citation]

Much of the population of Terra exists in the most terrible squalor, their greatest hope that one of their offspring might be accepted into the Adeptus Terra, the Priesthood of Terra, as a Menial, an adept of the lowliest sort.[6][7] A square metre of land on Terra costs more than a palace on any Hive World; only the most wealthy can even afford to own a small section of land[8a].

Terra is also home to Orbital Plates. These orbiting cities were old even by the time of the Unification Wars. In orbit with the plates are countless orbital defense platforms.[22]

Notable Locations

Terra is the heart of the Imperium, and the home of many of its most important organisations. Most importantly, it is the homeworld and resting place of the Emperor of Mankind. The most important places and organisations based on Terra include:

Terra's landscape
  • The Forbidden Fortress - Built throughout the mountain range of the Himalayas. A single peak is carved to form the Chamber of the Astronomican, where ten thousand psykers continuously power the Astronomican beacon with their own life energies. The "psychic light" of the beacon reaches thousands of light years across the Warp. The Astronomican is utilised by the mutant psykers known as Navigators to guide interstellar ships through otherwise trackless chaos of the Warp. Without it, long-distance Warp travel would be impossible and the Imperium would disintegrate[Needs Citation].
  • Fortress of the Inquisition - The Inquisition's headquarters on Terra is a sprawling complex built beneath the south polar ice caps.[6][7] The Fortress, deep underground, is heavily warded and equipped with psyker dampening devices and null-fields. Only members of the Inquisition and sparse numbers of doomed prisoners are permitted to enter the underground complex. The Fortress is overseen by a senior Inquisitor known as The Castellan, which changes every year to ensure no single man or woman can establish a powerbase over the facility.[20]
  • Assassinorum Temple - Although its agents operate throughout the Imperium, the Officio Assassinorum is based on Terra. Its School of Assassins and most of the temples that comprise the Officio are said to be located on Terra, although their actual locations are closely guarded secrets. The Assassinorum Temple serves as the headquarters of the Grand Master of Assassins.[17]
  • Ecclesiarchal Palace - The headquarters of the Ecclesiarchy, the Ecclesiarchal palace sprawls over almost the entirety of Terra's southern continent. It is also home to one of the two major convent-fortresses (the Sanctorum) of the Adepta Sororitas (The Sisterhood)[2][4].
  • The Cathedral of the Saviour Emperor - A large cathedral that is poular among pilgrims. It contains what is claimed to be pieces of the Emperor's armor and ashes from Roboute Guilliman's cloak. Pilgrims will take multi-year journeys to the Cathedral and endure massive lines, only to be granted a mere 3 seconds in the presence of the relics before moving on.[19]
  • Hive Karelia - Home to a library containing knowledge of the Dark Age of Technology. The library was bombed by Pro-Panpacifists and had been scheduled for demolition until Hawser succeeded in recovering over 7,000 texts from a data archive deemed worthless[10b].

See also

Sources
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Terra
wh40k.lexicanum.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2016-44
57749
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:UAI3PKRH2V6OK4MNVRHKROQNV2RJRELV
<urn:uuid:9225fe2a-5d5e-4539-931f-b629d5c6741d>
2016-10-28T23:28:10Z
199.195.199.36
sha1:XSEG4E7WKQLTTXXVPEPZGZE26J5O2KUQ
<urn:uuid:004d9b20-7980-466e-8c77-2b8824329462>
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Terra
length
response
<urn:uuid:e2f6b47a-6ce5-47e8-b0f4-938bfc43cbdb>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-142-188-19.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2016-44
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2016
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf