Rosskar

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Rosskar
Segmentum	Segmentum Pacificus
Sector	Kuzgeta Sector
Sub Sector	Rosskan Principality
System	Rosskar Solar Duality
Population	5 Billion
Class	Death-Hive World
Temperature	Subarctic

Rosskar is a pale, depressing world in a largely empty subsector of space. Once it was beheld as a jewel of the Imperial Truth, home to one of the largest Legions in the Emperor's realm, and the birthplace of the famous Rosskan Strelky. Now it sits as a sad reminder of the trials the Imperium has faced over the countless years, burned, decrepit, and superstitious. Rosskar produces an unusual amount of Psykers compared to most other worlds, making it a repeated stop by the Inquisition. The Silver Cataphracts chapter holds little control over it, but efforts by Chapter Master Kharikov may change this.

History

Rosskar was held as a beacon of hope for countless colonists. A far-flung world offering rich bounty in both vegetation and beasts. Before proper studies could be done, millions swarmed the world to colonize it. The forests were beaten back, technology kept the balance in check, all was well. But not for the colonists. They had been interested by a planet with gleaming crystal ice lakes, beautiful majestic tree covered mountains. Animals of all types and shapes in the fields in the rays of blue sunlight. What they found instead was a hostile planet with infrequent yet devastating snowstorms. The forests of the world were teeming with deadly, stealthy creatures. The thistles on the branches looked less magnificent and more menacing, constantly growing out ahead even after you've trimmed them twenty times in a day. Trying to claim you and your family as subjects to the will of the sinister wood.

But the Rosskans had little to worry. The best in robotic servants kept the hyper-aggressive foliage from pressing on too hard, with automated facilities that kept the inside of the cities warm and cozy. That is, until the Men of Iron rebelled. Fierce was the fighting with them, but human kind prevailed over the mechanical monstrosities. Unfortunately much of the infrastructure and technology had been lost, with nearly ninety-percent of the Rosskan colonists killed in the fighting.

In the chaos, the few million that still lived were paralyzed by the Techno-Lords that arose from the ashes. Having selfishly hoarded all the remaining knowledge for themselves, they forced all others to be subordinate to them. This ushered in an era of fear and ignorance which even now has not been seen since on Rosskar. The main populace had no access to learning of any kind, relying on oral accounts that became horrendously corrupted with the following generations. The Techno-Lords branded themselves as the Royal Family, crowing their patriarch as King of all Rosskar. The most loyal servants among them became exalted, rebranded under the name Vityaz. Small gifts of technology were parceled out to them by the Royal Family to aid in the execution of their duties.

The horrors of Rosskar breed a fierce warrior spirit.

The Vityaz formed an aristocracy of privilege, hoarding their private resources while leaving all others in the squalor of the cold. They brought order to a chaotic time, and without them, the forests would have overtaken the settlements in those perilous times. As peace came, prosperity followed, carefully held in a death grip by the ruling classes of the Royals and Vityaz which worked in perfect harmony. But it did not last for long. The Covens sprouted from the wilderness, organizations of wicked women with malicious intent for the whole of the planet. With a high rate of Psykers appearing in the population, the witches swelled in a remarkably short amount of time. The icy world could not anticipate the lenghts of their cruelty or relentless will. Swathes of people died from their assaults, but at last the main Coven was eliminated and the rest cast out into the darkness of the woods.

Years later, the Vityaz began taking more autonomy from the Royal Family. Soon cities appeared all over Rosskar, with Vityaz ruling them in the name of the King. Villages spread, towns grew out from those and new hamlets formed. The woods were forced back by the Frontiersmen, experienced hunters and lumberjacks given equipment by the Vityaz to preform their tasks despite being from humble birth. Generations passed, with more resentment fermenting among the people of all castes. The Vityaz wanted total freedom from the Royals, the peasants desire to be given more privileges. War and rebellion were soon commonplace, with the Royals struggling with each civil war and the Vityaz fighting hard to keep the masses broken down.

Great Crusade

When one of the famous Immaterium-infused solar flares beat out from Rosskar's waning sun on 098-855.M30, a Navigator of the 444th Expedition Fleet saw it. Like a moth to the flame, the Navigator insisted on investigating it immediately. From astrological charts, there should have been nothing here. The Expedition Fleet had just made contact with Forgeworld Kyuw, and its sworn Knight World of Kazak. They needed to return with news of the discovery. But the Fleet commander chose to press on ahead. After making contact with the surface, and sending a welcoming party to the planet below, it became clear the leader was one of the fabled lost Primarchs.

To the Rosskans, not much changed immediately. In a month or so, suddenly however, thousands of incredibly strong and tall people were cast out onto the streets. The effect on the Rosskan people was instant. Some Astartes rose to prominence through diplomacy, wise words and a silver tongue. Others used brute force to climb their way up. Most however had little ambition, choosing to instead live out their lives as Rosskans as they had been told. This was the first time the barriers of Post-Human Dread would be shattered, and it would not be the last.

In little to no time Alexandri began work on forging a small fiefdom, the Rosskan Principality, with Rosskar as its crown jewel. Even with the depopulating effects of the Strelky, the planet boasted a massive population. In the following decades, with the help of adepts from Forgeworld Kyuw, whole sections of cities were turned over to full time dedication of production. The Central Plain, with its seven cities that had so stubbornly fought Alexandri in the past, was rebuilt fully. This time with the best in Imperial technology being added onto the defenses.

An odd sense of pride emerged in the people at this time. The Imperial Truth was being accepted not just as an ideology, but a way of life. The last traces of superstition from the dark days of the Vityaz Houses were disappearing from the populace. People strove to learn, to educate themselves. Literacy rates skyrocketed from fifty-eight percent to ninety-six percent in a single generation. It was not just an industrial revolution that took place, but a cultural one. For the first time ever, Rosskans didn't absolutely hate everything about their world.

Recovering in Reformation

Somehow, the planet had become more hostile. The radiation not only twisted men, but beasts as well. The mega-fauna now had become horribly altered, growing even more deadly. Those from the Strelky began forming a militia to fight off the beasts using their old equipment. A council was established, a long time coming as it took decades to build up. It brought a democratically elected leadership to replace the old rulership of Alexandri. The pride of the Principality and the Silver Cataphracts was gone from the people. Illiteracy began to increase steadily due to the loss of faith in the Truth.

Not much else happened in these times. Rosskar went unnoticed, being largely unimportant to the rest of the Imperium at large now. The millions became billions once more, but this time limited to five thriving cities. Councilors from each of the five would convene to talk about laws and business. Terms were limited to two years, but there was no limit to how many terms one could serve. So long as one held the popularity of the people, they could stay in charge perpetually.

In the Forty First Millennium

What little glory remained of Alexandri's rule and of the Rosskan Principality died with the Second Holocaust. The next thousand years had a far slower development than the previous millennium. The Imperial Faith spread like wild fire on the planet, reaching in the hearts of countless foolish souls. The Councilors, who had ruled even during the crisis of the Second Holocaust, were replaced by a dual-dictatorial rule of an Arch-Confessor and Arch-Deacon. Mutants are a part of every day life on Rosskar, but the religious fervor forced many out of the cities. The loss of knowledge during this time led to the eventual overtaking of the remaining cities by the ever spreading forests. Those soldiers from a long lineage of monster-hunters took over the walls. Keeping those beasts at bay for the populace.

Religion is an easy solution to the fact that life is horrid on Rosskar, especially now. The two Ecclesiarchal Priests ruling the world concern themselves more with eradicating those few who follow the Imperial Truth, or stirring up the righteous fervor of their followers to commit genocide on mutants than with dealing with mundane Rosskan issues. Many of those manning the wall warn of the time when walls won't protect them anymore. When the canopy of thistles well rise above their cities, and snuff out the sunlight. When that happens, it will be a constant battle for survival as every creature that fears the light will readily attack them. Many try to flee the planet, and head towards Lucky Ciban, with familial traditions of the Imperial Truth guiding their way.

General Information

Geography

There are three continents on Rosskar, which are known locally as the 'provinces'. Each of these places carry their own distinct culture and history, but share a common language and heritage. In ages past, rulership of the provinces was held by the King of Rosskar and his appointed Governors. The territory encompassing these regions was truly vast. Technological regression made administrating these gigantic swathes of land even more cumbersome to the point that a highly decentralized nature of government had to be adopted in order for there to be any functionality. Over the generations since however, communication advancements have made it possible to keep these large territories more connected than ever before destroying the hundred of individual identities to create only handful.

The Takaut Province

---

The most historically significant province on Rosskar, Takaut was home to the first settlement to emerge during the Long Night on the planet. Itar was a couple of bunkers and shacks huddled together, but out of all other places they had been able to scrape together some of the lost knowledge from the previous age. These people would brand themselves the Royals, marrying and intermarrying to cement their relationship between one another. Wanderers seeking shelter arrived at the ramshackle town immediately being pressed and prodded with incredulous scrutiny. The most agreeable among these lost souls became the Royals first servants, the Vityaz. The rest as they say, is history.

Itar grew to magnificent size, taking control over the settlements all over Takaut. But it wasn't enough. Soon a handful of Royals set out with Vityaz towards the east and west, across plains of ice. The peasants that accompanied them died by the hundreds, but it did not matter to their lords. They had more thousands to send. The provinces of Xivan and Crazkahn were established setting up supply lines to send a constant stream of goods and material home. Takaut flourished, the funds going immediately to building opulent structures of great grandeur to the Royals. New cities began to pop up all over the province, soon becoming the most populated province on Rosskar.

The growth was unprecedented, and unsustainable. Hardly any steps had been taken by the Royals to prepare the hungry mouths that were being born every minute of the day. In hardly ten years since the trade between provinces opened did a famine strike just as food stocks rain dry. The greatest peasant revolt ever occurred then, forcing the Vityaz to conscript peasants to fight for them in order to avoid being overwhelmed. Takaut would be the site of other such great uprisings, culminating in the War of the Three Kings when the infamous figure Joh'Cal was assassinated by the Royal Family. This sparked the second greatest ever peasant revolt in history, with a deathtoll of one billion lives.

After the tragedy of the revolts came the iron rule of Alexandri. Itar was converted into the Central Plain Economic Grid, later turned into the Central Plain Defense Grid after the arrival of the Emperor. The six nearby cities to Itar were all connected, defenses arrayed within and without to deny any attacker easy victory. It was the thriving heart of new Rosskan culture with improved housing, unparalleled education opportunities, and the finest military training centers on the planet. Industry was also key here, with much of the raw materials from Xivan being either converted into goods there or at the nearby Urachen Mountain Complex.

After the first holocaust, nothing remained by ruins of the Central Plain. What little was left was abandoned, parts of the city too irradiated to live. It was left as a hollow monument to failed ambitions. The second holocaust saw it used as the place of the Silver Cataphracts last stand as the survivors fled to it. Afterwards it became one of the last settlements on Takaut as all else had been taken by the forests. It is here where the Ecclesiarchy holds its grasp on the planet, training up Rosskans to kill the beasts that lurk in the darkness and fell their virulent tree life.

Xivan Province

---

Crazkahn Province

---

Flora and Fauna

Rosskan Dog

---

Verestok

---