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This article, The Humanist Axis, was written by Dbrown405. Please do not edit or 'acquire' this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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This article, The Humanist Axis, is currently under active construction. The author, Dbrown405, apologizes for the inconvenience. |
A Note: This homebrew is the ongoing story of a campaign being currently played. Altering the content will result in confusing a group of players fun and would generally be appreciated if prior consultation was observed.
Introduction[]
The story begins under the back drop of the terrible warp storms leading to the creation of the Galactic Rift and the blocking of the guiding light of the Astronomicon. Despotic planetary governors politically dependent on the authority of the heavy arms of centralised Imperial Government on Terra suddenly found themselves surrounded by hostile local human elites in many systems, without the ability to call for assistance from the Astartes, Inquisition or other loyal world armed forces. For these Governors, the threat of Chaotic influence or Xenos invaision were secondary to the immediate risk of being stabbed in the back by a local official with ambitions of carving out his own local empire.
The Naniwa system was one such example. Its Planetary Governor Cravius a sycophant in his days serving as an assistant (the position itself he received through hereditary connections) to a well known minister in the Adeptus Ministorum, was given his first off-Terra post on Naniwa Prime as Planetary Governor.
It should have been a safe post. Over 10,000 years under the loving rule of the Emperor of Man. There was no history of Chaos taint, and despite the rumoured presence of an Eldar Craftworld believed to be slowly making its way to the galactic south somewhere off the system over the past millenium, there had never been any significant conflicts and the situation was considered peaceful without need of Terran intervention.
The Machine Purges and Famine Proclamation[]
Once being installed as Planetary Governor, with a particularly zealous streak Cravius had had farms burnt where their owners refused to make way for habitation spire developments. These habitation developments had been unknown previously on the world as it had grown organically from a small population and had a balanced infrastructure. The Adeptus Ministorum had however decreed that in order to avoid battles for independence on such worlds, the creation of economies dependent on Terra and each other were desirable.
Any normal governor would pay lip service to the decree. A crafty politician would realise that a balanced economy would provide better support to the Imperium in wartime, when it would be needed most and that the politician would then be rewarded most handsomely.
However Cravius was not such a statesman, eager to earn the esteem of his superiors from the outset of his first post he called for excess population to be trans-populated from surrounding systems. These foreigners would live in the new spire cities to be built on hefty borrowing from his mentor the well known minister on Terra.
Further, through the use of such connections a portion of a Standard Template Construct was brought to the planet's first moon. The Moon, Miyakojima, was a already a heavily industrialized stellar body. It had no connection with the Adeptus Mechanicus and had instead grown on domestic technology with in the guidelines of the Imperial canon on machines. However the arrival of an STC meant a considerable contingent (numbering 10,000) of engineers from the Mechanicus came and with the the lackey Cravius' rubber stamp they began appropriating businesses without reimbursement and destroying factories that did not rely on Mars for equipment and parts to create a monopoly in the system in the name of "Machine God" dogma.
The result of this importation of technology, hefty debt burden and depletion in agricultural capacity was to create a system dependent on Terra and the so-called Imperial Truth. After 10,000 years of peaceful obedience in spite of economic independence this gutting couldn't have been worse timed.
When the rift opened, Naniwa Prime's relatively close proximity to the warp storm epicentre caused all the psykers on the planet to die or go insane. The trans-population that a heavy debt to the Cravius' mentor was to pay for never arrived. The migrants were lost in warp space on their colonisation ships never to be seen again while half built cities sat empty and the surrounding former farmland decayed.
The loss of galactic communication meant that not only was the hope of messaging out for military assistance now gone but the most basic communication tool of trade was now out of order too. Naniwa Prime had been a planet of relative self sufficiency but Cravius' pursuit of pro-centralist policy had created a trade gap in agricultural good, meaning the planet was short on food...
Many local officials had watched in secret horror the "Famine Proclamation" and "Machine Purges" (as they would come to be known). However few dared speak out against the Terra-sent sycophant's actions. That was until the opening of the rift.
The Humanist Revolution[]
When the rift opened it was like all the enemies of the sycophant were gratified at once. Over night it was like it was every aristocrat’s dining room was the den of a new plot to overthrow Cravius.
Stirring below amongst the slums were “saviours” talking of new truths that could be seen in other parts of the galaxy at the time. Some of which the kind that would draw the unwanted eye of the Inquisition.
It finally started in earnest when Cravius was inspecting a factorum on Miyakojima. The assassins took out not only Cravius but most of the appointees closest to him. Naniwa was was without a governor.
The assassins were said to be renegade Techpriests. Labeled and shamed by the head of the Imperial Guard Spokesman for Reconnaissance Dietrich Brunner. Brunner’s family had lost land during the famine Proclamation and was not sad to see the governor go.
The possibility that the renegade tech priests had come from Mars was flimsy at best but it was all that was needed to motivate a ruling class resentful of a generation of interference in their affairs. Brunner claimed to find the terrorists' leadership on Miyakojima and subsequently put down the threat. After which he claimed that the “perils of Chaos have been brought to us by men who did not know the 'Emperor's Truth'”. Brunner was hailed a hero and a movement began to install him as the acting-Planetary Governor of Naniwa until contact with the astronomicon could be restored.
This movement turned to revolution when what remained of the ”loyalist” leadership turned the local Imperial Guard on its members. The reaction was immediate, a garrison composed largely of domestic recruits turned on the officers who would dare issue the order to put down supporters of one of their own. in the local court and in the cities it was like lightening. Powerful families pledged support for the "loyalists" or Brunner.
Brunner sensed without an ideology that would show the Emperor of Man was on their side the movement would falter. He proclaimed three “Truths”:
- The Emperor loves Humanity
- Your strength is the Emperor’s strength
- The Emperor wants not your piety, but your dedication
The first was to allay thoughts on where Brunner’s loyalties lay, but would later fuel debate at just what is Humanity? The second was to move the populace. A generation encouraged to depend on Terra must now be ready to be called upon to save it. Strength would come from expansion, approved of by the Adeptus Ministorum or otherwise. The third was a call to slay the sycophants and hypocrites who had come to reign.
Taking it’s name from the first Truth a revolution began, the Humanist Revolution.
The loyalists were quickly driven from Naniwa prime to outer worlds like Kobegrad. There the forces were not only composed of disgraced career officials from Terra but a small group of local elites who had been wrong done in Brunner's ascent. Amongst them the controlling family of an Imperial Knight "Danny Invictus", The Dannius family had invested heavily in Cravius' leadership. Outside of the pledge of security assistance in what was at the time considered a safe system to govern, they had invested in the long term lease of the STC from Mars. A deal which was supposed to reap benefits in the form of improvements to the ancient knight with arcane technology. However before these benefits would materialise, Brunner had left them high and dry.
No doubt the fragmented reports of what was happening in Naniwa would alarm the Adeptus Ministorum.
Expansion[]
After the rounding up of suspected rogue tech-priests and the exiling of "loyalist" officials the Planetary Government, now headed by Brunner, turned to the issue of how to solve the issue of the expected famine. Food supplies laid aside in years passed were short and any disruption in the supply chain now would easily cause counter revolution. Former agricultural land, seized and excavated during the "Famine Proclamation", was so damaged that it would be years until it would be fertile again. This left the only answer in expansion.
Expansion had long been held back to stop the population from reaching too far for the governorship to control. But now the revolution was in full swing “Strength” would be required to fuel it. Brunner's government decreed that "No Xenos or 'loyalist' shall stand in the way of Naniwa in its pursuit of strength. Your strength is the Emperor's strength!". Reconnaissance patrols were sent to the lesser human populated planets to first appropriate information on the numbers of Xenos in the system.
The patrols first ran into hostilities in the quadrant of the moon Miyakojima known as "Kitahama". Here the issue was not Xenos, but a group of Death Guard plaque marines. It was believed their presence had come about since the revolution. It was also believed that they were in the midst of creating a safe house to run operations of a plaque operation on Naniwa Prime. The tainted marines were first met by guardsmen loyal to the assassinated Cravius' successor government and repelled. Later however an unsuspecting patrol of elite "Storm Troopers" pledged to Brunner would not succeed in driving them from the moon.
Trouble in the Outer Planets[]
On the outer planets of the system such as Tamatsukuri or Toyonaka, There was rumoured to be a presence of Aeldari Exodites and a Necron Tomb respectively. The Necrons were known only in legend to the humans on Naniwa as "men of iron", but recently rumours were abound of a great stirring and sightings from observation stations of the Toyonaka's surface activity that could only put down to armed conflict. Had the men of iron awakened?
Contact Established[]
When Brunner's control was well under way a rare visitor made it through the warp storms to his court. The inquisitor xxxx, had sent an envoy to request help from Naniwa for guardsmen to help put down the menace of a Tzeentch and Ork unholy alliance in the neigbouring system of Shizuoka. It was unbeknown to the envoy of the events of the revolution.
When the envoy arrived, they didn't find the people they were sent to find, but the needs of the Emperor are shifting and pragmatic so they asked Brunner for his support in return for recognition on Terra of his governorship. As far as they were concerned as long as support came from human hands it did not matter who was running Naniwa. Brunner agreed and a force was sent to Shizuoka.
In Shizuoka Naniwa's force would support similarly raised forces from other surrounding system's including Toro and Naganuma, to repel the unholy Ork Tzeentch alliance. The warboss "Jimbob McGruffin" was believed to be under the hyponotic spell of the greater Demon "Anubekh the Undying". Forced into a battle with the imperial forces McGruffin's boyz for some reason held back despite the heavy fire from imperial tanks. This was believed to be a result of the chaotic influence of the demon. When the demon would move to the front the boyz did at last follow.
The battle took place on the moon of Fuji in the Shizuoka system. The result; a stalemate that had relived the imperium of the immediate threat of McGruffin, but allowed a once slayed in-battle demon to come back to haunt the system.
Brunner's government had gained acceptance but at the same time laid bare how easily a shift of government would be accepted in these turbulent times. As before help from the Terra was no option. On Kobegrad "loyalist" forces remained and a restoration of appointees would make no difference to the officials on Terra.
Disclaimer[]
This is an article to explain the origins of my Astra Militarum, the armed forces (or AstraMacht) of The Humanist Axis. Please note that the term "humanist" has no connection with the philosophical/ legal movements of the 18th to 19th centuries.