Volcanum

The harsh and arid world of Volcanum is the Adeptus Astartes homeworld of the Ash Scorpions Space Marine Chapter. The Ash Scorpions are an old and proud Chapter created during the 8th Founding from the lineage of the stoic Imperial Fists. Their homeworld was found on the outskirts of the Sigma Cluster in the Ultima Segmentum. The Cluster is home to many xenos including: Orks, Hrud and even Aeldari Exodite Worlds located on the Northern Frontier of the Cluster. This close proximity to enemy forces have given the Chapter a long and storied history and their battle-brothers have fought in hundreds of campaigns not just against the various xenos forces in the Sigma Cluster. But the Chapter has faced all foes of the Emperor down the long millennia. It is almost certain that they were created in order to watch over the Cluster and the choice of Imperial Fist gene-seed adds credence to this, as those of Rogal Dorn's blood are known to be almost fanatical in defence and were therefore, the obvious choice to defend this volatile region of space.

Background
The Ash Scorpions Chapter homeworld of Volcanum is officially designated as a hive world due to the five hives that dot it's surface, but is more akin to a Death World due to the fact that the lands outside the hives are a barren and toxic desert world riddled with volcanoes and home to numerous mutants and huge scorpions that are more than capable of killing a man, and which are hunted for their lethal venom. The Ash Scorpions fortress-monastery, the ' Scorpions Claw ', is actually based on the planet's largest moon, and the Ash Scorpions only descend to the world to take recruits.

Volcanum is, like other other Hive Worlds, comprised of several separate hives that vary in size - from the relatively small Hive Gamma, to the Massive Hive Alpha that holds several million people. The five hives are named for the ancient Grecian alphabet and descend in importance from Alpha, which is the de-facto capital and home to the Planetary Governor, to Epsilon, which is the newest hive built to hold the growing population and is just 400 years old. Each of the planet's hives officially answer to the Planetary Governor and Hive Alpha, but have on occasion gone to war with each other for overall control of the world, and therefore, have their own standing armed forces. Whichever hive is in the ascendant, their forces are considered the planet's Planetary Defence Force and have control over the Planet's Orbital Defences and the system's Defence Fleet. Volcanum's main export is Promethium that is extracted from massive wells in the southern hemisphere of the world.