Geography: A forge world on the trailing side of the Cyclopian Sub-Sector, it is one of four planets in a dual-star system. The surface is heavily polluted, toxic, and inhospitable, covered in refineries and manufacturing centers as per the Omnissiah’s wishes. It maintains standard defense platforms and twenty massive space stations for external interface.
Population: Several Billion (Likely highly populated, comparable to other forge worlds).
Tithe Grade: Exactus Prima/Extremis (A high rating due to its high-quality production, necessary for a key Mechanicum world).
Government Type: Theocratic Quorum (Though governed locally by the Selvanian Priesthood, it is ultimately subject to the greater Mechanicum Quorum Primus).
Planetary Governor: High Fabricator Dinuum (The leader of the Selvanian Priesthood).
Adept Presence: Absolute (The Adeptus Mechanicus maintains total sovereignty over the world and strictly enforces quarantine).
Military: Ebon Sentinels, Subdual Servitors, and local defence platforms (Used for internal security and defense of the Vaults).
Trade: Superior quality materials (Known for high-quality products refined from common STC patterns, prioritizing quality over quantity).
“Halt! The Fabricator insisted a purity of .000002%, else the pouring is invalid. Your result of .00003% is unacceptable. Expel the tonnage and prepare to re-pour the smelting.”
–Smelt-Adept Baric Orelow-Zeta
The trailing side of the Cyclopian Sub-Sector is a vast expanse of open space. On its inner edge sits the forge world of Selvanus Binary, known throughout Askellon for the exceptional quality of its products. One of the smallest of four planets in a dual-star system, it is the only one capable of handling life forms. Even so, the forges have irrevocably altered the planet to suit their needs, covering the surface in all manner of refineries and manufacturing centres. It is now a strongly polluted planet, toxic to any human without protective gear or heavy augmentations, and very inhospitable-all as per the Omnissiah’s wishes.
Though not the seat of power for the Askellian Mechanicum, Selvanus Binary holds itself as the true bastion of the Omnissiah’s Will. Their strict adherence to the Universal Laws has enabled them to refine the production of the most common STC patterns into wholly superior products. Their obsessive attention to detail, however, significantly reduces their capacity to produce the quantities other worlds demand-one of the reasons the forges of Askellon are ruled instead from Cerix Magnus. The relationship between Selvanus and the other forge worlds is a tenuous one, for it is isolationist even by the measures of the Tech-Priesthood. Surrounding the planet is a series of twenty very large space stations designed as its interface with the rest of the sector; no one outside the Adeptus Mechanicus has been closer to the surface than these stations for many centuries.
The forges are run by High Fabricator Dinuum, a longtime protégé of the Quorum Primus and ostensibly the third in line to govern the Askellian forges, after his mentor and Arch-Magos Vas-Rhia of Rhodin IV. He is a true devotee of the Omnissiah who believes that only by being as precise as possible can his followers create holy works. His overzealous interpretations of the Universal Laws have carried down through the ranks, unchallenged. Given the command of Selvanus at a fairly young age, Dinuum has been in control for over 250 years, largely due to his heavily augmented body and the aid of his own personal staff of Magi Biologis who perpetually keep his few remaining organics healthy.
This drive makes him dependent on a swarm of mysterious servo-skulls that appeared shortly following his ordination and first visit to the Lower Vaults. They never leave his side and never stop providing data, a nonstop flow of information that is slowly crushing even his incredible processing abilities. The constant stream of production data occasionally drives him into a fugue state where he is immobilised for hours on end, only to emerge re-engaging with his previous activity. Many senior Artisans have attempted to decipher the data coming from the skulls, but it is in a code that only the High Fabricator is able to understand.
Selvanus is home to the Vaults, an artificial moon that remains in geosynchronous orbit above the High Fabricator’s forge complex. Many believe that items of incredible technology from aeons ago lie housed on that satellite, waiting to be studied. Only the revered members of the Quorum Primus and the most revered of the Selvanian Priesthood are allowed inside. Dinuum believes with utter certainty in the aeons-old dangers sealed within. He has seen the horrors of knowledge gone too far, and the terrors it unleashed upon Askellon many millennia ago. As the Keeper of the Vaults, he has made the inner core inaccessible to anyone other than himself, the Lord Fabricator of the Quorum Primus, and Arch-Magos Vas-Rhia.
The working doctrine of Selvanus Binary is that the Omnissiah’s Will can only be seen in the works of his chosen ones. To that end, the Tech-Priests slavishly devote themselves to purifying and consecrating every step of the manufacturing process. From adding sacred oil into vats of liquefying metal to the recitations of each of the Universal Laws between strikes of pneumatic hammers, devotion is heard and seen in every stage of development. The Quorum Primus has tried for years to convince the Logi of Selvanus to balance quality with quantity, but has always failed because they agree on one simple belief: a decrease in quality is considered failure in the eyes of the Omnissiah.
This obsession has driven the Selvanian Priesthood to scrutinise every single detail to degrees most other forges would not even fathom. Materials are routinely cast away as being impure should any substance not part of the consecrated pattern accidentally find its way into them. Stories of immense cauldrons of molten metal being poured directly into crust-drains due to a thread from a Tech-Priest’s robe falling into them, or sacred unguents deemed unfit because they were stored on the incorrect shelf, have been told for ages. There is considerable waste in these actions, but the craftsmanship from the Selvanus forges is the pinnacle of the Adeptus Mechanicus’ capabilities, and there is never a shortage of buyers willing to pay the price.
Following his installation as High Fabricator and Keeper of the Vaults, Dinuum made a radically different interpretation of the 6th and 7th Laws. The standard interpretation states that Understanding leads to Comprehension and Comprehension is the Key to All Things. Dinuum, after experiencing the full extent of the Vaults’ contents, decreed that the sum of all sacred knowledge is already known and therefore cannot and should not be deepened-to go further is to blaspheme the Omnissiah’s perfection. This has led to an unwillingness to explore information brought back by Explorator Fleets; Dinuum insists such technology has been exposed to unknown influences and is therefore impure.
Not everyone on Selvanus Binary adheres to the code as strictly as Dinuum would like. Soon after his ordination, Artisan-Magos Karpathos questioned the new High Fabricator about the Vaults. Dinuum rebuffed him with a furious burst of binaric chatter, and Karpathos was never seen again.
Karpathos’ protégés began to ask about the Vaults and their missing mentor. Calling themselves the Forged, they believed that perpetual growth tempers and makes them stronger. What started as an ideological break evolved into something entirely different. Dinuum purged those with dissenting views, stripping the most senior members of the Forged of all augmentation and spraying their fleshy remains with molten impure metals-a monument which still stands outside his personal forge.
Most who now claim to be part of the Forged have only a rudimentary knowledge of its origins, but they still know what they want: the knowledge of the Vaults. The vast majority of membership comes from lower-level Tech-Priests and novitiates. They understand Dinuum's dictates but believe the Omnissiah created all technology for humanity’s benefit, and therefore it must be studied.
The Forged have taken a more aggressive stance in recent times, creating situations that test Dinuum’s ultra-purist views. From adding trace amounts of fluorescent dyes into cooling moulds to slightly diluting sacred unguents for the gears of purity scanners, they tread the line of sabotage carefully. Many find evidence of the work of other cells, such as brass shavings that reflect colours beyond the visible spectrum, iridescent feathers littering exhaust vents, or eruptions of screeching harmonics that cause servitors to stumble.
Those members proven sufficiently worthy now have a new tech-rune encoded into their cranial implants-the sigil of the First Questioner, Karpathos. Woven into it is a link to new data, generating thoughts beyond those permitted by Dinuum’s dictates. There are even rumours that the Felstaf Complex, the enormous forge responsible for making the majority of local implants, has created circuitry incorporating this elaborate rune, but thus far none have been detected. Dinuum has struggled to keep this schism contained, and caught between the demands of Cerix Magnus and the agitation of his own people, he is stalling. Given the escalation in tactics by the Forged, he may not maintain power for much longer.