Vrykul

Vrykul is the w:c:warhammer40k:Adeptus Astartes Homeworld of the foreboding Death Templars Space Marine Chapter. Classified as a feral death world, Vrykul is located beyond the northernmost borders of the Segmentum Obscurus near the Halo Stars.

Background
When first discovered, the Death Templars claimed the Feral World of Vrykul by right of conquest. Located somewhere on the edge of the Eye of Terror, the exact location of Vrykul is a closely guarded secret and the entire system is heavily defended. This domain serves as a bulwark against Chaos incursion. All that is known is that the Death Templars operate from a world located deep within the dense stellar drifts of the Mors Pallida Nebula somewhere on the northern border of the Segmentum Obscurus. Although which world locked within its coruscating depths is Vrykul, is a matter they have kept deliberately obscure, to avoid being attacked by the many enemies they have made during their long and glorious service to the Emperor.

When this savage world was first discovered by the Death Templars crusade fleet nine millennia ago, they discovered that it was home to a population of feral humans. These primordial humans had somehow managed to not only adapt to living in the most hostile of environments, but to actually thrive in it. They proved to be incredibly strong and had developed superior reflexes compared to baseline humans. The Death Templars promptly rounded up hundreds of the ferocious humans and the Chaplains and Apothecaries of the Chapter set to work, testing their minds and bodies in soul-destroying trials to determine if there was any evidence of corruption caused by their long isolation from the rest of humanity. Though extremely backward and primitive, the Death Templars ultimately deemed them free of genetic or spiritual deviancy. Lord Marshal Malik saw the value of Vrykul. The inhospitable terrain and deadly fauna proved an ideal testing ground for his warriors, whilst the primitive humans already inhabiting the world could easily be moulded into potential Battle-Brothers.

The Death Templars are warriors shaped by the harsh environment of their savage world. The barbaric warrior tribes of Vrykul form the primary recruitment stock for the Death Templars. Today, Vrykul's people continue to endure a brutal life of constant inter-tribal bloodshed marked by elaborate mortuary rituals. Often times a Vrykulan youth will have taken hundreds of skulls before being chosen to become a Death Templars Neophyte and earning the opportunity to slay the enemies of the Emperor, who is worshiped as the great judge of the souls of the dead by the Vrykulan tribes. Vrykul tribal beliefs holds that life is transient and the manner of a warrior's death is all that matters. This world's hardy and brutal native population reside primarily across the equatorial regions' cave warrens found throughout the numerous mountain ranges across the planet.

Vrykul System
The Vrykul System consists of three inhabitable planets, one gas giant and an outer ring of asteroids, mobile defenses and star-fortresses. Notable planets include the following:


 * Vrykul - The Chapter homeworld of the Death Templars is a savage feral world of rocky windswept plains and endless deserts. The people of Vrykul are of hardy stock and dauntless spirit, having experienced many hardships in their history and surviving the harshest of environments. Nestled amongst the Valcan Mountains is the formidable Castellum Mortem (the "Fortress of Death") the mighty fortress-monastery of the Death Templars. Here, the Chapter spends their lives within the massive complex when not out on crusade -- the ceramite-rich mountains providing a natural layer of defense against conventional attacks.
 * Mesar - This forgotten outpost of the Adeptus Mechanicus was from its inception in the early 30th Millennium, created to be a war-world -- a fane of weapons and armaments solely intended to serve the needs of the ever-advancing frontline forces of the Great Crusade. But following the events of the Horus Heresy, contact was lost with Mesar, due to the vagaries of war and every increasing warp turbulence that made interstellar travel and communication precarious, at best. Rediscovered by the Death Templars in the 34th Millennium, they found the Tech-Priests of Mesar's Cult-Mechanicus still loyal to the Emperor and His Imperium of Man. The Mesaran Priesthood swore their allegiance to the Space Marine Chapter when they helped to turn back a large full-scale invasion by the Forces of Chaos. The Warpsmiths of the Traitor Legions, long denied the technological wonders unearthed since the Horus Heresy, had led raids beyond counting to Mesar. Were it not for the stout defence of the Death Templars, Mesar would have fallen to the powers of Chaos. This forge world primarily provides war material for the Death Templars and its industrial heartland is also engaged in the production of arms and ammunition for other regional Imperial military forces. Mesar is ringed with concentric layers of orbital docking platforms, habitation modules and transit tethers, and beyond those rings lay outer boundaries of autonomous planetary defence batteries, kill-satellites and spatial mine fields guarding the world's approaches. These formidable protections are far greater than those possessed by other individual Forge Worlds. This world of science and technology is rarely contacted by the Death Templars, save for the Techmarines of their Chapter. Due to their isolation, the Masaran Tech-Priests have had free reign to create and build non-sanctioned patterns of weapons and vehicles, as they see fit.
 * Crysemel - Originally a feudal world, Crysemel entered into operation as a fully managed agri-world by the time of the latter years of the Great Crusade. It is notable for being one of a relative handful of such worlds in the region, and therefore retains strategic significance because of this. The planet's principal product is high-yield fruits and grain as well as herds of grox. Crysemel knows little strife, with most of its inhabitants toiling endlessly in ignorance, unaware of the horrors the galaxy contains. Crysemel's orbiting moon, Dimalas, is a harsh volcanic orb the Death Templars utilise as training grounds for their Space Marine Neophytes.