Setting:Cloudburst/Triplicate

System
Galactic Position	Cloudburst Sector, Celeste Subsector
System Overlord	None
Worlds in the system	eight, one habitable
World Type, Name	Feral World: Triune
Tropospheric Composition	Nitrogen 75%, Oxygen 22%, Argon .8%, Water 1.19%, Carbon gasses .01%
Religion	Various
Government type	Primitive
Planetary Governor	No
Adept Presence	Adeptus Administratum, Adeptus Ministorum, Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Astra Telepathica
Climate	Triune has widely varying climates across its many landmasses and annual polar storms
Geography	.89 times the size of Terra, with nineteen continents and three large landmasses with hundreds of small islands
Gravity	.87 Terran Gravity
Day Length	22 Terran Hours
Economy	Local currencies, barter
Principal Exports	None
Principal Imports	None
Countries and Continents	Three primary local governing bodies ruling three continents, unaware of each other
Military	Celestial Guard barracks
Contact with other Systems	Almost none
Tithe Grade	Aptus Non
Population	280,000,000

Description

Triune holds the distinction of being the first human-populated world discovered by the great Justin MacDonald after leaving Cognomen. This world of contrast and ignorance sits on the fastest Warp route between Celeste and Fabique, and so sees significant flyby traffic despite having nothing to offer the Imperium yet.

MacDonald saw the world for what it was: riven. The planet’s human population is split into three groups, spread over three continents, and apparently unaware of each other. The most northerly continent is a wasteland of failed industry and rampant chemical pollution, and the people there have collapsed into poverty and cave-dwelling barbarism. The equatorial continent is not scarred by pollution, but it hosts a complex and hostile empire of feudal religious nobles under a local Emperor. The southern continent has less pollution than the north but more than the equator, and interests the Imperium the most. The people here have settled into an intricate monarchy based around the trade of salt, stone, gold, and other natural resources, and despite being more technologically primitive than the equatorial continent, enjoys far higher standards of living.

Triune has so far had a rocky relationship with the Imperium at best. There is no governing caste at all on the northern continent, and the mutant birthrate is barely below what the Imperium considers acceptable thanks to prolific lead poisoning in the water table. The equatorial Empire violently resists efforts from Imperial Missionaries, and while the southern Kingdom is interested in trade with the Imperium, they have no interest in adopting Imperial customs and faiths. However, the planet also hosts significant natural resources and even a few archaeotech caches on the northern continent and some of the smaller islands, and the presence of hundreds of millions of native humans is encouraging to Imperial Missionaries in search of souls to save.

The planet has a diverse and unpredictable weather system. Conmen and charlatans have made a mint over the millennia by pretending to predict or even influence the weather on all three continents. The weather is as unstable as it is because of the tens of thousands of tiny sandbars and islands that dot the tropical waters of the equator, which accelerate the sudden growth of hurricanes.

Interestingly to Administratum historians, the populations on Triune are completely unaware of each other. The continents are separated from each other by hundreds of miles of choppy oceans and noxious seaweed islands, and whatever political binds joined the initial Terran colonists together long ago are gone now. The wreck of the original colony ship sits buried on the northern continent, stripped of anything valuable by scavengers. The world’s original STC is also on the northern continent, the Mechanicus was interested to learn, but destroyed over nine thousand years ago.

Triune is another example of a world that would have benefitted the Imperium, had they known of it during the Crusade, akin to Maskos and Thimble. The world had a near-Terran level of technology and political unity as recently as the end of the Great Scouring, and may have even had a working STC at the time, but its technological collapse thanks to several local psykers losing control of their abilities at once destroyed any hope of keeping its advanced tech online. The world’s original colony must have been one of the very last ones made by Terra before the Age of Strife cut it off from the galaxy, judging from how advanced and durable the materials in its ancient buildings are. Some of the buildings made by first-wave colonists on the equatorial continent are still intact, even after thousands of years of exposure to pollution.

The trade kingdom of the south continent operates a complex economic model, wherein the commodity prices of things like salt, sugar, and timber balance against the value of the land on which they are harvested, and this is used to determine the standing of the noble that owns it. The King’s family controls the entire region on which the capital sits. The continent does not enjoy a cohesive defense strategy; every noble fends for themselves. The polluted hell of the northern continent would not be terribly difficult for the Mechanicus to clean up, though it would be time-consuming in the extreme, and the total lack of government would not aid matters. The central continent overflows with natural resources, but the signs of past overharvesting are everywhere: the populace has very little knowledge of mining techniques, and much of the metal they use is recycled from elsewhere.

The rise of scavenger lords and nobles who draw their power from the collection of ancient relics instead of personal skill or connections occasionally rocks the status quo on the central continent. When this happens, the Imperium is quick to ask, through its Ministorum intermediaries, if the rising scavenger lords would be willing to pledge themselves to the Imperium in exchange for legitimacy if they win. The result rarely matters, though, as these scrap chiefs rarely manage to do much upset to the well-entrenched emperor and his large army.

The continent of cavemen is a write-off as far as the Imperium is concerned. Some of the primitives of the world have agreed to adopt the Imperial mindset and religion simply because it is better than the horror and depression of living as they have been. These people, however, have strong trends towards mutantcy, and they have no knowledge or resources to offer the Imperium. The equatorial Empire is simply too violent and isolationist to add to the Imperium without significant cultural revision, and they have so far publicly executed five Imperial Missionaries who have dared suggest a shift in the status quo.

The southern continent’s kingdom, however, may be more amenable to proselytizing by the Ministorum. While their leadership is uninterested in becoming part of the Imperium, the common citizens are not, and some few hundred thousand have already converted. The kingdom is on the verge of suppressing these heretics against their pantheon, which may necessitate the intervention of the Adeptus Sororitas.

The obvious question in the minds of most new observers of the world is how this all could have happened. The Imperium learned of Triune nearly three thousand years ago. How has the Imperium never taken steps to colonize the world? How has the Ministorum failed to annex the planet or convert its people to the worship of the God-Emperor?

The answer lies in jurisdictional battles. The world is technically a part of the Celeste Subsector, and the diocese of Celeste, but the credit for finding the world goes to the Mechanicus, the responsibility for preparing three different cultures for adoption of Imperial ways of life falls to the Ministorum, the Administratum controls all local space and other worlds nearby, and the tiny garrison of Celestial Guards on one island belongs to the Munitorum. As such, no faction is willing to admit to the others that they concede leadership of the conversion effort. The Inquisition is aware of the delay and is not concerned, as the squabbling keeps the people involved from being too ambitious, though as ever they do keep an eye on the primitive religions of the world in case they prove to be a veil that conceals the Dark Gods.

However, with the Glasian Migrations growing worse, the reality that this world can’t defend itself from the Glasians is becoming more obvious. Triune is simply not powerful enough or advanced enough to fend off the Glasians, even with the relatively large population they have. The Ministorum under Cardinal Drake has so far adopted a hands-off stance about more aggressive annexation of the planet, but his ailing health means it may not be his decision any longer. Where the Ministorum and Administratum expect to find the firepower to annex a world in order to harden it against alien invasion, nobody knows, given that Cardinal Lamarr is snapping up every mercenary he can find, and other worlds in the Sector rate as higher priorities for Astra Militarum assets. Perhaps, after the Seventh Glasian Migration is over and Oglith is back in Imperial hands, forces could divert to Triune to bring it to heel, but that is tomorrow’s problem.