Geography: The planet is a Hive World, devastated by millennia of mining and industry. The surface is composed of polluted wastes and vast plains of hardened silicate flows, scattered with bizarre, ancient alien structures. The enormous population is crammed into three massive hive cities (Desoleum, Jarvin, Suzzum).
Population: 300 Billion +
Tithe Grade: Exactus Prima
Government Type: The Consortium (a council of mercantile houses maintaining a rigid network of oaths and obligations).
Planetary Governor: Lady Aud Killian
Adept Presence: High, generally restricted to areas specifically set aside for offworld interests.
Military: Desoleum Involute Cadres and the Desoleum Oathsmen Grenadiers Imperial Guard regiment.
Trade: Major exporter of silicate derivatives, such as lasweapon-focusing lenses
Desoleum is a planet dominated by three enormous hive cities, into each of which a population of dozens of billions is crammed, though accurate counts are impossible to undertake and the true figure is likely to be several times greater. The planet’s pre-eminent hive city is the eponymous Desoleum, sometimes called Desoleum Primus or colloquially elsewhere as Prime. The triad of Hives Desoleum, Jarvin, and Suzzum, the latter two named for the nigh-legendary figures said to have founded them, account for the bulk of the industry on the planet, while countless lesser hives and manufactorums are to be found throughout the wastes.
The planet’s surface is barren in the extreme and apparently once hosted a xenos species. Savants disagree over details about the race, but look to the blasted landscapes of liquefied sand and hundreds of bizarre cyclopean structures seemingly sculpted from the kernels of long-vanished mountains as evidence it destroyed itself with terrifyingly potent weaponry, and is safely long extinct. The destruction dates back many millions of years, when large expanses of the world’s outer crust were subject to such terrific heat that the mountains themselves ran liquid before cooling in glass-like plains of exceptional, if mildly radioactive, purity. Much of the glass now exists as a subterranean layer beneath drifting silicate deserts. When the first settlers made planetfall and discovered this rich resource, they recognised its value instantly and established what is generally held to be the second of the Founding Worlds. For many thousands of years, the glass of Desoleum has driven an industry that produces a wide range of derivatives, especially the sector-renowned lasweapon-focusing lenses.
As its population soared and the hives grew, a secondary industry processing ration supplements has developed over the millennia. Bulk organics harvested from the seas of other worlds are imported, and rendered into thick, protein-rich gruel that is used to feed the larvae of the Irokian bile-fly. Having reached the optimal stage in their life cycle, the larvae are pulped, compressed, and shaped into notoriously greasy (and universally loathed) ration biscuits used to feed worker-serfs and military forces across the sector. The processing plants where these ration bars are manufactured consist of gigantic air-sealed breeding pens thick with countless trillions of larvae. Each of the planet’s hives has its own facility, usually located at the very lowest habitable level of its structure. Needless to say, only the very poorest and most downtrodden of serfs are willing to work or live near to these facilities, for the levels all about are steeped in the vilest of stenches and vibrate with the constant drone of the creatures bred within.
Desoleum is served by four major void stations. Kappex Orbital is in geostationary anchor above Desoleum Primus, and serves as the system’s main spaceport, as well the as location of much underhanded deal-making and smuggling. Two others in low orbits are defence stations manned by the Desoleum Involute Cadres, the world’s native defence force. The fourth is in a high, elliptical polar orbit, and is actually a natural body that somehow attained this unnatural orbit. It has a large luxury facility for those with wealth and means, and services a clientele that ranges from the nobility from below to visitors from afar, both legitimate and criminal. The truths of what happens here are far worse than any of the gossip told by the envious.
Out in the shifting sands beyond the walls of Desoleum is Port Gyre, the world’s primary transportation field. Vacuum transit-tubes and bulk roadways connect the sizeable port with Primus and the other great hives. A ragged circle of ramshackle settlements here caters to a nomadic population of workers, traders, and down-and-outs. There are also lesser starports near the other hives, but their operations are limited to serving bulk lifters; these import gigatonnes of raw materials, such as organics to produce the hated ration packs, so there is always much traffic both in and out of the system.
The lands around the hives consist of desert and acidic seas. Further afield, dune seas cover glassy plains; the colossal ruins here are often radioactive and infested with foul creatures. Littering the wastes are city-sized slagheaps, mined for exotic metals and ancient technologies, where groups battle for riches. Great toxic oceans connect the continents, filled with mutated life; the depths are rumoured to contain creatures larger than battleships.
Legend holds that the most populous hive was founded during the Great Crusade, attracting industry to produce lasguns for the war effort. It contributes significantly to the Desoleum Involute Cadres, with at least one division permanently stationed nearby for defence.
The Consortium rules Primus through a rigid system of fealty. Strict bonds of obedience are enforced by a network of oaths regulating everything from manners to life expectancy. All hivers carry a cogwork device indicating their station and oath. Lady Desoleum’s oath-cog is a massive, ancient mechanism; legend says if it freezes, the hive collapses.
For the worker-serf, life is an endless ritual where every gesture is dictated by code. Oath-Factors record every variation, and outsiders often require translators to avoid shattering a ritual through a misplaced tone. Enforcement falls to the Sanctionary Bondsmen of the Oaths Involute. These Sanctionaries are vigilant for lapses in ritual; offenders are summarily censured. Sanctionaries wear large, ornate oath-cogs that serve as both badges of office and brutal melee weapons.
Outsiders flock to Desoleum for profit, mingling in the "stranger’s quarters." Legitimate ventures mix with the Faceless Trade in illicit xenos relics found in the crystalline tunnels beneath the wastes. Others arrive as pilgrims, believing the wastelands were the site of a mighty battle during the Great Heresy. Thousands traverse the plains seeking passage to Thaur; the Anzaforr Rogue Trader flagship, Oath Unspoken, frequently services this route as penance.
Desoleum Primus is a plasteel mountain, its Apex piercing the atmosphere. A metal Spine runs from the void, through the hive, and into the crust.
The Upper Hive (The Pinions): Below the Apex, the great houses operate in luxury, though ancient systems are failing.
The Main Hive (Desoleum City): The bulk of the population and industry. Massive refrigeration systems combat manufactorum heat, creating dangerous exterior icicles.
The Underhive: Stale and humid. Defined by the limit of Sanctionary patrols, this area belongs to gangs and outcasts.
The Dark: Below ground level. Huge toxic lakes form in the depths, home to monsters and potential archaeotech treasures revealed by hivequakes.
The midhive bustles with labourers maintaining massive manufactorum plants.
Ignaius Arms: Produces sector-renowned lasweapon lenses. Precise manufacture is rumoured to rely on hidden machines of inhuman origin.
The Jade Foundry: Under Adeptus Mechanicus supervision, this plant uses advanced auto-fabricators to assemble voidship sensorium arrays.
The Grand Shrine of the Oath: The oldest cathedral for workers. Countless are turned away during festivals, occasionally sparking riots.
The Worker's House: A rare respectable leisure venue offering food and gambling. Debts are paid via indentured labour.
The Shattered Foundry: A manufactorum closed due to malfunctions and deaths, shrouded in superstitious dread.
Work Brotherhoods Legalised gangs like the Sworn Collectors of the Tithe Immutable and the Minders of the Shift enforce noble will. Collectors intimidate rival workers, while Minders hunt truant labourers, often turning to bounty hunting for profit.
In the Underhive, countless bands of fighters rule. They may find patronage with the Consortium for assassinations or smuggling, or be pressed into the Oathsmen Grenadiers. Most belong to dominant affiliations:
Fleshcutters: Eschewing guns for knives, they value agility and inflicting memorable wounds. Members often undergo ritual scarring filled with bone dust. A splinter faction, the Fleshmaulers, utilises chain weapons.
Death Masks: Necro-cultists who worship death. Each ganger wears a mask made from the skinned face of their first victim. They are known to become bewitched watching the light fade from a dying enemy's eyes.
Cloudboys: Cruel, disgraced nobility exiled from the upper reaches. They retain high-quality gear and affect genteel manners while committing sadistic violence. Known for elaborate fashion and arrogance.
Tech-Gangs: Machine worshippers with crude, self-installed bionics. They revere energy weapons and often act as repairmen. Some utilise captured or lobotomised servitors.
Painted Throngs: An offshoot of the Fleshcutters favouring elaborate tattoos over scars. They use explosives in combat, viewing mangled flesh as an insult to their art. Disgraced members are flayed before execution.