Inikar

"I've searched the Galaxy to prove my worth to Vulkan and the Emperor above, but nowhere did I found a sun as loving as Inikar's."

- Anonymous Ashen Drakes Battle-Brother

Inikar is the former Adeptus Astartes Homeworld of the now-extinct Ashen Drakes Space Marine Chapter. It is unknown when this temperate Feral World was first settled by mankind, but it's proximity on the northern border of the Segmentum Tempestus near the Segmentum Solar indicates that it was most likely settled early on during the Dark Age of Technology. Following their creation during the ill-fated 21st 'Cursed' Founding on the cusp of M36, the newly created Ashen Drakes Chapter settled upon Inikar and claimed it as their own. During the closing years of M41, with the formation of the Great Rift across the width of the galaxy, the world of Inikar was cut off by severe warp storm activity and subjected to a large-scale invasion by swarming armies of daemons and Heretic Astartes. Isolated and cut off, the Ashen Drakes fought until the last, but it was all for naught as the world's entire population was massacred and the Ashen Drakes' fortress-monastery was left in ruins.

Background
Following the creation of the Ashen Drakes during the ill-fortuned 21st Founding, the so-called 'Cursed' Founding, they settled upon the savannah-like world of Inikar and claimed the planet and the surrounding system as their demesne. The Adeptus Mechanicus, perhaps out of of some remorse for the creation of so many flawed Astartes, had erected the Ashenhold, the mighty Fortress-Monastery used by the Chapter. Sadly for the Ashen Drakes, the day their base was completed was also the day the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath was formed, consuming the hosts of Goge Vandire sent against Sebastian Thor, unleashing scores of demons on the nearest inhabited worlds, including Inikar, in an event known by the Ashen Drakes as 'The Daemon's Descent'. The Ashen Drakes successfully defended their newly claimed world. Since that time, the Ashen Drakes stood sentinel over their homeworld and the surrounding system.

Inikar was a telluric planet larger than Terra and with a heavier gravity (1.35G). With the exception of great mountain chains barring the continents, Inikar is a hot world, with an average temperature of 25°C all year round. Vast oceans covered roughly 63% of the globe, and eight continents shared the rest of the planet's surface. Each of those continents was comprised of savanna and deep equatorial jungles, but also of ash deserts known as the Ashlands. The latter were the result of constant volcanic activity at some hot point of the planet. The Fortress-Monastery of the Chapter had been built near one of those hotspots.

Inikar was a Feral World, with scores of great herbivores roaming the savanna and the canopy of the jungles, but also deadly predators roaming the lands. In the open plains, the apex predator was without a doubt the Sand Manticora. As tall as the now extinct white rhinoceros of ancient Terra, the Sand Manticora appeared to be a strain of mutated animals whose transformation as stabilized thousands of years before the Age of Strife. Their massive head looked like that of a feline but their eyes were clearly reptilian and its body shared the attribute of both groups: a fauve fur cover sturdy scales, and it posses several venom glands, situated below its mouth, which the beast use to paralyze its prey.

In the jungle, the greatest hunter was without a doubt the Lava's scale, which earns its name from his dark and orange scales. This massive serpent (which could reach up to twenty meters long) possessed sturdy jaws, able to leave a mark on Astartes armor and extremely resilient scales. Yet, its greatest weapon wasn't it's size, it's strength or the power of its jaws, but the acid it spit when it felt threatened. Extremely potent, this acid could melt an unprotected human in mere minutes.

Finally, in the Ashlands, was the namesake of the Chapter, the mighty Ashen Drake, which ruled over the land and sky. Massive creatures, the size of pterodactyls of prehistoric Terra, the beasts looked like depictions of Wyverns commonly found on Knight-Worlds and other primitive worlds. Those creatures lived in massive brood of two to three hundred individuals, usually near the seas, where they plunged to gorge on fish, sea reptiles and mammals. Only the old and sick left the Ashlands to fly over savanna and jungles, but even those creatures could prove quite a threat for the locals.

Despite all those dangers and then some, Inikar was populated since before the Age of Strife. Nothing was known about the early colonist, neither their ethnic origins, their beliefs or why they chose this world to settle. What is certain, however, is that during the Long Night, they regressed to Bronze Age technology levels. Until the recent events of the Great Rift and Indomitus Crusade saw its destruction, Inikar was covered by city-states, petty kingdoms and nomad tribes roaming in the savanna or delving into the jungles. Life was harsh for the humans and only constant solidarity between the kin and kith ensured that Mankind could survive on this world. It was hardly a surprise than that supposed scions of Vulkan would thrive on such a world.

The Inikari weren't as war-like as many natives of Astartes Worlds, but they did conduct brutal war. In fact, no mercy was given to the enemy's warriors during a battle to acquire resources, shelter or a sacred place. However, once the battle was over, the defeated were incorporated into the winner's society and treated as equals, earning the same rights as any born into the City-State or tribe. The contrast between the absolute approach to warfare that the Inikar held and the treatment of their defeated foes was incorporated into the Ashen Drakes, something which kept surprising or incensing the rest of the Imperium, depending on one's opinion about the treatment of enemies.

On Inikar, martial supremacy was marked out by the possession of a spear, for it was reminiscent of Sky-Fire, their version of the Emperor's, and His Children (while the Imperial Creed tried originally to reduce the number of female divinities present into the Inikar's Pantheon, they had since three thousand years taken to depict them as an Imperial Saint of great renown), who wielded mighty spears to search out evil and vanquish it for good. Because of their close relationship with the Astartes of the Ashen Drake Chapter, the Inikar Cult also permeated the natives.

During the dawning of M42, Inikar faced it's most dire hour. With the destruction of the Fortress World of Cadia and the last barrier holding back the Immaterium from reality, the massive warp breach, known as the Cicatrix Maledictum or Great Rift, formed across the entire width of the galaxy. Worlds were cut off by massive warp storms and travel and communication became all but impossible. It would be over a century before the Indomitus Crusade finally reached the world of Inikar. There, they discovered a ruined planet, its entire population gutted by the swarming armies of demons which had finally broke down the world's formidable defences. In the orbit, the full fleet of the Cursed Chapter of the Ashen Drake laid resting, their hulls corrupted by the influence of Chaos, yet still surrounded by an armada of destroyed vessels bearing Chaotic markings of several pirate fleets and traitorous fleets.

When returning on Terra, the Inquisitors ensured that the Bell of Lost Souls rang for the fallen Chapter, which had remained pure of heart, body and soul until its very destruction. Most of the Ashen Drakes' archives were added to the Inquisition's libraries even if some of them were granted to the Administratum. Currently, no other Chapter bears the name and heraldry of the fallen Astartes of Inikar, but some High Lords of Terra are already thinking about using this now lauded legacy.