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Nova Blades
The Nova Blades, were a Second Founding Successor Legion of the resolute White Scars Legion. At some point during the early 33rd Millennium, the Nova Blades were created in the wake of the dark times of the Nova Terra Interregnum.

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Al Erdene


On the vast steppe-lands of the fertile Feudal World of Al Erdene, the Blades of Khan Space Marine Legion make their home. It lies in the Viridis Sector of the galaxy in the Nova Terra Regency.

The inhabitants refer to the name of their world by their native tongue as Al Erdene, (Crimson Jewel), rather than by its official High Gothic name,Tyros Stella. The tribes of Al Erdene have managed to struggle back from the terrible destruction of the Age of Strife to a pre-industrial level of technology. The Blades of Khan raise their Neophytes from the savage horse nomads. Due to extreme conditions that the people of Al Erdene live make these Neophytes well-suited to the Blades of Khans' highly mobile way of war.

History & Life on Al Erdene
Al Erdene is a Feudal World that is smaller in size to Terra. Humans colonised Al Erdene many thousands of years ago during the Dark Age of Technology and adopted a nomadic lifestyle almost immediately. The original landing site of the colony, the capital of Khadagan, has grown into the only city on the whole world. This bustling metropolis is a gathering place for the nomadic tribes of Al Erdene and the centre of its government.

The bulk of the population are nomads who keep their herds across the vast steppe-lands. The animals' rich flesh and dark blood form the basic subsistence diet of the steppe tribes. During the summer months, the tribes drive their herds towards the heart of the continent, following the spring thaw in search of new grown pasture. In winter time, they retreat towards the outer grasslands abutting the coasts, and there their animals find enough grazing to keep them alive until the year turns.

This world possesses a single continent that covers almost half of its surface. The centre of this massive landmass is prone to such extremes of temperature that it remains uninhabited, a baking desert in the summer which becomes a sub-zero sea of sand and snow over the winter. Between these deadly lands of the continental centre and the more habitable coasts is a belt of rich savannah lands thousands of miles deep, punctuated by mountain chains, mighty inland lakes, and vast rivers. Only towards the continent's coasts does the grassland give way to verdant forests, encircling the entire continent with a thin arboreal fringe.

Al Erdenes' society was once composed of fractured, scattered nomadic tribes who spent their lives herding their animals and warring with one another for food, land, horses, and dominance. For centuries they existed like this, perfecting both their ways of war and the breeding of their unique horses, until the Imperium rediscovered them and began bringing them back into the Emperor's fold. Al Erdene is a rugged and striking world, slightly smaller than Terra, dominated by broad, arid steppes. Its single continent spans nearly half of the planet, with the rest being deep, impenetrable seas. At the centre of Al Erdene's single continent is a vast desert. Brutally extreme in its temperature variations and weather patterns, it is a baking desert during the summer season and a howling, icy expanse of sand, snow, and wind in the winter. The steppes and savannah for which the planet is known ring this central desert, and are home to nearly all of the planet's population.

This scant habitable area is defined by a stunning array of rolling plains, soaring mountain ranges, deep inland seas, and powerful, rushing rivers. At the very extremes of the continent, all along its long coastline, are dense forests of tall evergreens. There is only one city on Attila, the bustling metropolis of Khadagan. It is here that the Al Erdene have their government, their main trading centres, and the small, barely tolerated Imperial and Ecclesiarchy missions. The tribes themselves are a hardy, passionate, small-framed people with nut-coloured skin, black hair and eyes, and striking, weather-beaten features. Some Al Erdene sport long braids or tangles of hair, and many of the tribes' men sport impressive moustaches that fall across their craggy faces. Tribes of both genders tend to be bandy-legged and long armed, with broad shoulders and piercing eyes. They move with the loping, bow-legged gait of lifetime riders, and are graceful and elegant in the saddle. Some undergo ritual scarification as a part of their coming of age ceremony -- long, deep, vertical cuts are made in their cheeks, into which ashes are rubbed to encourage scars that mar the Al Erdenes' faces.

As with most Feudal Worlders, few people of the tribes take the time to learn to read and write, consumed as their lives are by warfare. Written language is largely the domain of scribes, and even many of the elite see little reason to concern themselves with this specialised task. While the Al Erdenes possess the understanding of technology required to wield their weapons and sufficient knowledge of august tech-rites to maintain their own equipment, life on Al Erdene does not prepare them for many of the arcane machines and devices that they encounter in the service of the God-Emperor.

The tribes of Al Erdene respect only power and a tribal chieftain or king must be prepared to demonstrate his might to doubting rivals. When a lord of the Al Erdenes' tribes defeats an enemy he decapitates the beaten man's head and has his artificers turn the skull into a drinking cup as a permanent symbol of his victory. The tribes have little respect for medals awarded after a battle's conclusion and feel that the only symbols of merit worth owning are those won in the heat of battle, whilst their warriors' blood is still hot in their veins. As such, the most valued trophies of war amongst the Al Erdenes' are the scars earned from cheating death and the skull of a worthy foe.

Al Erdene life is innately tied to various animals. Two species are of particular importance to them: the Ovigor, a herd animal that provides critical sustenance and, of course, the mighty horses of Terran descent that the tribes ride into battle. Horses serve as the faithful companions and mounts, and Ovigors make up the core of the Al Erdenes' staple diet on their homeworld. The tribe's native variant of the Imperial Creed uses iconography of the horse and rider to represent many aspects of the holy. Work, play, and the passage of seasons all centre on herding the Ovigor, as the Al Erdene's move them to the centre of the continent during the summer for the good grazing into the temperate lands near the forests for the winter.

The tribes of Al Erdene have lived alongside their mounts for millennia. Their entire cultural identity is centred around these tough, compact, and reliable horses, and the creatures are used not only as mounts and work animals, but for food, materials, and in the tribes of Al Erdene's various religious rites. The tribe's people and their horses share a deep bond of culture, tradition, service, and affection. When in the field, far away from Imperial Logistics, tribesmen of Al Erdene can even drink small portions of the blood of their mounts to sustain them, draining off small amounts of blood at a time and mixing it with foraged plants to create a nourishing slurry that they heat over a fire.

Environmental Conditions
A dry climate with short, mild summers and long, severe winters. In the depths of winter, temperatures can remain below zero degrees for several weeks to months. Cold snaps can bring the temperature to minus 86°F. Spring brings unsettled weather, strong winds and wild fluctuations in temperature. Summers are warm across the world of Al Erdene, particularly in the desert where temperatures can reach 125°F. Thunderstorms are common in late summer. The fall are cool in the north but quite pleasant in south areas.

Flora
From north to south, the world of Al Erdene can be divided into four areas: mountain-forest steppe, mountain steppe, and in the extreme south, semi-desert and desert. The majority of the world of Al Erdene has a high elevation, with the principal mountains concentrated in the west.