Gertlysh

"Some may find it a strange world, but Gertlysh is our home, and we would do anything to protect it."

- Morin Brahman, Ruby Company Techmarine, Blue Flames Chapter.

Gertlysh is a feral world that serves as the Adeptus Astartes Chapter Home World of the Blue Flames Chapter. This planet is located in the Segmentum Ultima within the Devotio Sector, specifically within the Heredea Sub-Sector. This world was claimed by the Blue Flames Chapter shortly after their inception during the [[:w:c:warhammer40k:10th Founding|10th Founding, which occurred sometime in the mid-35th Millennium.

Background
A tough world that breeds tough recruits, for most of its history Gertlysh is a feral world like any other, its rolling hills and level plains being home to a great many tribes, among the most notable being the Cidar and Glaysto tribes. Now though, thanks to the influence of the Nerva Dynasty, a notable Rogue Trader Dynasty, it is something entirely different. The tribes of old are gone, replaced with civilized towns and outposts, even a city or two, mostly dedicated to the upkeep of the Nerva Dynasty's headquarters or the Domus Caeli, which flies above the surface of the world.

Early History
This backwater world was most likely discovered during the Dark Age of Technology by human settlers, but with the onset of the Age of Strife, this planet was cut off from their fellow human-inhabited worlds, and its inhabitants devolved into feral tribes that fought over the meagre resources that still existed. And so, Gertlysh remained a feral world of constant inter-tribal warfare and neverending conflict, until the coming of the Blue Flames Space Marine Chapter. Created during the 10th Founding, these Space Marines helped stem the constant raids by xenos raiders and eventually claimed the planet as a part of their demesne.

Later on, the Chapter formed an alliance with the Nerva Dynasty, a notable Rogue Trader dynasty that had been given the seemingly impossible task: clear Sub-Sector Heradea of an infestation of an unknown xenos menace. Despite extensive preparations, the Rogue Trader and his forces seemed to face imminent destruction at the hands of these mysterious xenos, until the fateful arrival of the Blue Flames Chapter, which easily wiped out the xenos raiders. Forming an alliance, the Blue Flames fought alongside the Rogue Trader's forces and finally cleansed the sub-sector of its foul xenos taint.

Once the Imperial forces successfully wiped out the remaining xenos, they eventually set down upon a world named Gertlysh and the Chapter proceeded to build their fortress-monastery - the Domus Caeli - a massive floating home for the chapter. Nowadays the Nerva Dynasty is headed by the eccentric yet reliable Tadia Nerva, and they remain extremely close allies with the Blue Flames in gratitude for both eradicating the xenos threat and the later Silenimore attacks.

Despite appearances, Gertlysh was far from empty. On further inspection, a collection of primitive human tribes were discovered, having been hiding in underground shelters for the duration of the war and only emerging a year after The Domus Caeli ' s construction. After careful influence the human tribes embraced the Imperial Creed aside from one, which was discovered to have fallen to the worship of Chaos Undivided thanks to prior visits by an unknown Chaos warband and subsequently wiped out by the chapter; after this display of force the tribals were awestruck by the Angels of Death, believing them be the spirits of those who died in the tribal wars reincarnated, something the Blue Flames subtly encouraged with their recruiting practices.