Editing Nobledark Imperium Notable Planets (section)

== Medusa ==

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">''''' Walking in the Footprints of Giants '''''

Medusa is a world wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an enigma. During the Dark Age of Technology, the planet was a beacon of mining and industry, the source of raw material for so many technological wonders and a key manufacturing world for the Men of Iron. As a result, Medusa became one of the most famous worlds in the Golden Age human empire. During the Age of Strife, even as the knowledge of other planets faded in the minds of man, the memory of Medusa persisted, especially among the Mechanicum of Mars.
 
When the Steward announced the beginnings of the Great Crusade and sent the remaining legions forth from Sol, the planet of Medusa was high on the priority list of primarch Ferrus Manus. Indeed, it would fair to say he almost beelined for it. However, when Iron Hands had arrived at Medusa, they were thoroughly disappointed by what they had found. The legendary Telstarax that had been built around Medusa during the Dark Age of Technology to bring its mineral riches to the stars was still there, but the planet itself was almost unrecognizable, its surface primarily having the appearance of cracked pavement and colored a dull, ashen grey.
 
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Perhaps the most salient feature of Medusa are the miles-high, hive-sized machines that dot its surface. These machines stand on a multitude of legs several thousand feet above the ground, looking like thunderclouds in the distance when viewed at ground level. These machines are described by locals as The Terraformers, and modern terraforming methods are to them what a stick of dynamite is to a cyclonic torpedo. The Imperium is capable of terraforming a planet, but this usually involves methods that are subtle and slow. The introduction of pioneer species by the Biologicus, the tweaking of the atmosphere by the Mechanicus, perhaps the diversion of the orbit of a comet by a farseer at the most spectacular. These machines, on the other hand, are something else entirely. Entire mountain ranges are thrust up or ground to dust seemingly at random, seas drained and refilled. In their wake the terraforming machines leave fast-growing grasses or alga, the source of the atmosphere on Medusa as well as its inhabitants primary source of food. And then, once the landscape is completely sculpted, the walking mountains turn around and do it again, as if unsatisfied with their previous work.
 
For obvious reasons, the Mechanicus has become obsessed with understanding the secrets of these great machines. Although there little remains permanent on the surface of Medusa, the great machines certainly are, and the Mechanicus has repeatedly funded expeditions to explore the interiors of these machines for ancient technology. These expeditions have met with mixed success. Although a few have escaped with amazing technological discoveries, more have unleashed technological monstrosities upon the surface of Medusa, or, more often, simply not come out at all. The machines seem to be violently opposed to anyone trying to interfere with their singular task, regardless of the intent. All attempts at communicating with these machines have failed. There is no intellect there, either human or Iron Mind. These machines are no more intelligent than the dimmest of servitors, running on the simplest of code to continually reshape the world at the whims of a master at least ten thousand years dead.
 
Because of the presence of these great terraformers, sedentary life in most parts of Medusa is hazardous as best. What may be a mountain range one year can be at the bottom of the ocean the next, and vice versa. As a result, most of the population of Medusa live a nomadic lifestyle aboard giant land-crawlers in the trackless wastes, constantly following in the wake of the great machines like pilot fish following a shark. And yet, there are some parts of Medusa that remain untouched, despite 25,000 years of terraforming. It is unknown why these locations in particular are avoided by the terraformers. Some have suggested that these places were intentionally set aside by the programmers of the machines, to serve as the later sites of cities, but no completely satisfying answer has been found. Some of these locations, upon further inspection, have turned out to be underground facilities dating to the Dark Age of technology, whereas others appear to simply be empty space. Chief among these are the Seven Cities of Sanctuary, the only place in which civilized life as traditionally envisioned is possible on Medusa. These places are centers of trade and commerce, where nomads exchange mineral deposits and ancient pieces of technology tilled up by the terraformers with offworlders.
 
If there is any positive aspect about Medusa it is that the planet does not take well to invaders. In the past, when the planet was invaded and the great machines came under attack by the forces of Chaos, the behavior of the terraformers suddenly changed, devoting their internal manufactorums to producing technological horrors that were unleashed screaming upon the invaders, volkite beams firing into the sky. However, the Medusans are not under the delusion that these machines are there to protect them. Although the machines ignore the native Medusans, if one so much as touches one of these drones the machines turn on them, ancient defensive programming classifying attempts at tactile communication as a threat. However, machines that fall in the defense of Medusa are highly valuable, as the giant terraformers seem to ignore their dead creations where they fall and these machines are often manufactured with lost Dark Age technology. Dark Age technology, whether from the surface or from the Telstarax, is the primary export of Medusa, and the currency to which it pays its tithe to the Imperium.
 
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