Hopes Fall

Hopes Fall is an agrarian Knight World, lying in some relatively unoccupied chunk of space within the Eastern Fringe. At some long forgotten point in history an ancient Rogue Trader ship, simply named the Hope was trapped in a warp storm in an unexplored section of space. When it was finally released from the maelstrom it had sustained heavy damage and was forced to crash land on a previously undiscovered world. Over the next several millennia the thousands of people who had survived the crash landing onto the planet managed to build a flourishing society on what turned out to be a verdant and bountiful Agri-world.

History

When the Hope first crashed onto the planet, the survivors found themselves on a promising looking world, with vast green fields ripe for turning into farm land and pastures, and many valuable minerals and ores running deep into the ground. However they were not alone on their new home.

Long before Imperium of man was made whole, the planet that was to become Hope's Fall was occupied by human colonists, who, over many thousands of years, had devolved into degenerate, feral savages, living in the planets dark forests and worshiping chaotic gods.

The Hope was under the ownership of a Rogue Trader dynasty by the name of Carthagga, who were devout believers of the Imperial Creed, and had close ties to both the Ecclesiarchy, and the Ordo Hereticus. Needless to say, when they set foot on a planet that would provide bountiful tithe to the Imperium and found it to be harboring savage heretics, the Carthaggan's were none to happy, and decided to remove them in the manner they felt most appropriate.

After dealing with these undesirables, under the leadership of House Carthagga, the survivors set out exploring their new home. Their ship had crashed in what they discovered to be the northern hemisphere of the planet, as was right on the edge of what came to be known as the White Mantle, and massive granite plateau that occupied almost the entirety of the nothern hemisphere. Around their crashed ship they built their first city, simply named Carthagga, and from here they set out, settling the surrounding lands.

Soon, a feudal society began to establish itself, with serfs working the vast fields in the south, giving all their earnings to the nobility, who in turn gave it over to the Carthaggans and the Ecclesiarchy, and when the Imperium was able to once again make contact, over to the greater imperium. In exchange, they were given homes in which to live, land to call their own, and protection from the beasts and feral people that lived in shadowy outer lands. Alternatively, some of the settlers resided in the northern hemisphere, working the planet's mines, pulling up marble and other valuable minerals for the Imperial nobility to decorate their homes with.

While the planet was more or less left alone by the greater galaxy, there were a few incidents that had affected the planet. The most notable of these was toward the end of the Damocles Gulf Crusade. Due to the planets location in the Eastern Fringe, and it's proximity to the Gulf, when Hive Fleet Behemoth passed through the system and splinter hive that fell off of the greater fleet happened by random chance to land on the planet. The ensuing conflict was one that caused many casualties and untold destruction for the humans, but after several long years of brutal and horrific warfare, against all odds, they managed to completely purge the xeno invaders.

Military Culture

"We stand together, we lie together; we fight together, we die together." ~ Creed of the Carthaggan 5th Army Group

Similar to most other Imperial worlds, the culture of Hope's Fall is one that is built upon a rigid caste system, with thick societal lines dividing every group of people.

Most importantly, at the top are the patriarchs of House Carthagga, descendants of the original dynasty of Rogue Traders that owned the trading ship that crashed upon the world in the beginning. The Carthaggans have great economic and political power on their world, and in the surrounding system. The head of the Ecclesiarchy on the planet, as well as the Inquisition are both blood members of the upper Carthaggan nobility, and the planets military leadership answers solely to the throne of House Carthagga. On top of this, due to the vast wealth and ancient STC templates recorded in the data banks of the families libraries, they have a number of Imperial Knight titans at their disposal, whose loyalties are sworn strictly to the House, and whose pilots are all members of the Carthaggan nobility.

Members of the House who are to become Knight pilots are known as The Highborn. While not fully Carthaggan in blood, they come from mixed families of noble stock, who at some level are distant blood relatives of the Carthaggans. These Highborn are the only people on the planet trusted to wield the awesome power of these ancient suits, and historically, many of them also saw service as military commanders of the revered Carthaggan Guard.

Alongside the Highborn are the Highborn Storm Troopers. Originally bred of the same stock as the Knight Pilots, the need for more and more soldiers resulted in open recruiting into the House's Storm Trooper regiment. While few in number, their training and experience rivals that of the Militarum Tempestus. In combat they make use of asymmetric tactics and guerrilla style warfare, ignoring battle lines and bringing the fight to the heart of the enemy's formations. They spend years training in the harsh climate of the White Mantle, in an unending night and an unforgiving blizzard. Because of this, they don bone white carapace armor, forever connecting them to that frozen hell. They also wear berets of a dark blue, the colors of the House to whom they have sworn their allegiance.

While the Storm Troopers can technically be recruited from any level of society, the only candidates that ever succeed in making it through the rigorous training are drawn from the elite ranks of the revered Carthaggan Guard, the force that makes up the bulk of Hope's Fall active military. Officially, the Guard are openly recruited from all of the planets citizens but in practice their numbers are heavily drawn from the so called Low Guard, often at the encouragement of the officer cadre. The Carthaggan Guard are sworn to protect and uphold the laws and authority of House Carthagga, much like the Storm Troopers. Their training takes place in the White Mantle, over the period of a year, after which they are immediately sent off world to campaign for the Emperor. During their training they are forced to survive on their own, in harsh unrelenting conditions, with little direction from their superiors. At this time, each squad is watched over by a junior commissar, who instructs them in combat, drill maneuvers and the Imperial Creed. Each Carthaggan Guard that leaves the White Mantle is as much a missionary as they are a soldier. Their combat doctrine mimics and rivals that of the Vostroyans and the Mordians; They are line infantry, and make limited use of armor or heavy weapons, preferring to march on their enemies under an unrelenting volley of lasgun fire, as ministorum priests and commissars follow behind them, spouting rhetoric into the fray.

Their dress is similar to that of the Vostroyans, both in quality and style, as it serves them well in the cold environs of the icy hells where they campaign. They main difference is that their great coats are the same dark blue as the berets of the Storm Troopers, showing their loyalty to the House. While all members of the Carthaggan Guard wear this uniform both as combat and ceremonial dress, those who serve as mechanized troops use lighter flak armor and great coats in the field, as it serves them better as highly mobile close quarters units than the heavier carapace armor of the regular uniform.

At the bottom of the social hierarchy is the Low Guard. The numbers of the Low Guard fluctuate and vary widely from fiefdom to fiefdom, often swelling in times of strife, and shrinking, sometimes outright disappearing in times of peace. The Low Guard officially serve as Hope's Fall's PDF, but the planetary government maintains a minimum of two Carthaggan Army Groups on reserve duty on planet at all times in case of emergency. Despite the fact that the Low Guard are officially a volunteer force to act as local militia units, Carthaggan Army groups often requisition entire regiments to aid them during an offworld campaign, regardless if they want to come along or not. Due to their numbers being largely made up of peasants who hold no social standing, no one really gives a damn.

The Low Guard is usually undertrained and inexperienced, if not completely clueless, and as such is often used to support the elite line infantry tactics of the Carthaggans by overwhelming the enemy in a mass of expendable bodies.

However, those that show ability, bravery, or tactical ingenuity are often recommended for service within the Carthaggan Guard. Though this is entirely up to the individual in question, it often will marginally increase both the lifespan and the social standing that particular soldier. Ranks within the Low Guard are fairly non existent outside of the leadership, which is recruited from experienced veterans who have lived long enough to retire out of the Carthaggan guard, but wish to continue their service to the House.

For the most part, the Low Guard are either fighting small wars between fiefdoms, a legal right allowed by House Carthagga, provided it does not affect the House or greater Imperium. Occasionally however, they will be made to suppress a Redemptionist or Heretic cult. Very rarely, and often without any forewarning whatsoever, they will be swept up off world by either the Guard or the local Inquisition to soak up enemy bullets elsewhere.

Because of their peasant stock, the Low Guard are generally unaware of the greater horrors that the galaxy has to offer, with those that experience them first hand seldom surviving to tell the tale, and any knowledge of them being taken as little more than whispered myths passed down through the ranks.

They are equipped with simple autoguns or lasrifles, and mostly ineffective flak armor. They are supported by heavy stubber or autocannon teams, and have no access to armor or transport whatsoever.

Basically, the Low Guard can be thought of as a medieval peasant militia, going to war in donkey drawn carts, but individually equipped to the same level as a 21st century Ethiopian bandit.

However, those that are inducted into the inquisition are often given slightly better equipment, often specific to the mission in question, but those that prove themselves are usually given fairly unrestricted access to the armory to better serve their combat styles.

Civilian Culture

Not unlike other worlds, but extremely unlike certain worlds, life on Hope's Fall is not dominated entirely by the military. While the planet is a considered a Cardinal world, and is officially governed by the Ecclesiarchy, the day to day life of the simple peasant is relatively easy, and without Imperial involvement.

House Carthagga has ruled the planet since it's ship made planetfall, but it has allowed a number of lower noble houses to govern their own fiefdoms independently, provided they pay tariffs to House Carthagga, and adhere to their supreme governance without question.

Each House is generally from a specific background, (farmers, merchants, miners, the majority being military), and as such each fiefdom is usually dominated by one type of industry. All houses admit noble born to be either officers within the Guard, or to serve as a knight for the House, but for most this is an unwritten expectation, as opposed to an outright law.

The noble houses of each fiefdom often have some leadership or political sway within the Carthaggan guard, some more than others, and all of them have members with connections to the Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition and the Administratum who answer directly to the appropriate organs within House Carthagga.

Some noble houses of note are;

House CarVoss

House CarVoss comes from a mercantile background, and is seated in the resplendent city of CarVoss. The city sits at the center of vast farmlands, and the House is fairly Noblebright in comparison to some of the others, avoiding slave labor, and allowing a relatively free market for their people to trade on. Their serfs are all free people (save for a number of convicts serving out their sentence through penal servitude), and they try to avoid conflict with other fiefdoms.

House CarVoss is notable in that one of their Highborn young named Alexi, after having completed his training and service as a Knight, requested to serve as an officer in the Carthaggan Guard as opposed to returning to the life of a politician. He was granted this privilege, and was very quickly promoted through the ranks until he was put in command of the Carthaggan Guard's 5th Army Group, becoming one of the most successful leaders of the Guard's history.

House Tekknekov

House Tekknekov rules one of the planets only manufactorum cities, supplying the massive numbers of the Guard with all of their weapons, tanks, ammunition and other equipment. They are also responsible for the production of a large number of the equipment and machinery used on a daily basis in the civilian life within the other fiefdoms.

Undoubtedly one of the most powerful, and important houses within the government of Hope's Fall, they were also at the center of the one of the planets most important conflicts. Three of the House's highborn young, brothers, were seduced by Chaos, and in an attempt to quench their thirst for power they were merged with their forges, and came out a daemon prince. Many of their servants followed suit, and soon an army of mechanical abominations emerged out of the flames of a collapsing city. The Carthaggan Guard's 5th Army Group was called in to deal with the heretical insurrection. The battle only lasted several months, and though the Carthaggan's stood victorious, they suffered heavy casualties, and the enemy managed to escape off world through a warp-gate.

House Stieburg

House Stieburg is one of several houses that control a vast number of salt mines and marble quarries in the White Mantle. They are basically the opposite of House CarVoss, preferring to use mass amounts of slaves and prison labor to fulfill their quotas and maximize profits. The House attempts to maintain political importance, and as such often sends many of their young to serve in the Guard. One of their Highborn was eventually put in charge of the 7th Army Group, but often delegates most of his duties to his subordinate officers, preferring to stay far from battle whenever possible. When he does take charge, he often forces his men to rush headlong into battle, and suffers significant losses, with most of his victories being pyrrhic at best. As a result of this House Carthagga issued a decree severely limiting the number of Carthaggan Regiments allowed under his command, and demanding that all Highborn Storm Trooper regiments in the 7th Guard be placed under the total command of another officer, answerable only to House Carthagga.

The true value of the 7th Army for the House Stieburg is their service during their reserve rotation on planet. The House uses them to guard their many prison mines, a simple, but often degrading duty for the soldiers subjected to it.

House Ronov

House Ronov is one of the smallest Houses, both in terms of members, and in terms of land and property ownership, however they are one of the most powerful and influential of the houses, for one simple reason; House Ronov is entrusted with the building, maintaining, and keeping of all of House Carthagga's Knight suits. Their House is different from the rest in that it maintains an extremely close relationship with the Mechanicus, and virtually no one else. As such, it's leadership is made up of Techtriarchs, and all of it's numbers are tech-priests, enginseers, or Secristians. The small populationof people sworn to the House but who are not part of it's blood-line are lowly serfs, acting as either forge workers or tech-scribes. A small number of them also serve the Ecclesiarchy, to fill the House's religious needs.

Because of House Ronov's extremely important but singular function, they have no tithes or production quotas placed upon them by House Carthagga. Similarly, they have little interest in the greater political or martial goings on between the other Houses, and as such are one of the only Houses to not have any influence or leadership within the Carthaggan Guard.

Day to Day Life

Because of the varied structure and relative independence of the various fiefdoms, civilian life can vary widely depending on which house you live under.

Those that live under House CarVoss for instance live relatively peaceful and simple lives, often with enough personal wealth to buy mechanized farm equipment, and little fear of oppression or violence from the upper nobility. Those that are found guilty of a crime are more often than not sentenced to simple fines or servitude to the house, however those found guilty of a serious offense are sent to serve in a penal regiment in the White Mantle.

However, those serving under House Steiburg are often forced to struggle every day for survival, living in a harsh and unrelenting wasteland in the planet's northern pole. The vast majority of the population is incarcerated in one of the many prison mines, due to the House's strict laws and tyrannical rule. Personal freedom is a luxury, and individual enterprise is seen as theft from the House.

Those under the rule of House Tekknekov live similarly to the denizens of Hive Worlds, living day in and day out in servitude in a smelter or factory, performing one endless menial task, their minds and emotions dulled to the point of their entire existence being little more than that of a simple drone.

The people living under the rule of House Ronov lead extremely religious lives, spending each day performing singular, ritualistic tasks that serve the greater purpose of ensuring that the Knight suits of the various Houses continue to function over the centuries. The Highborn members of the House are generally Techtriarchs, or high ranking Techpriests, while the lower nobility are enginseers, techpriests and ecclesiarchs. The serf and peasant classes are mostly laborors and scribes, ensuring that the House is able to function day to day.

Important Events

ce.740.M41 - Damocles Gulf Crusade

Hope's Fall is located on the outer fringe of the Tau's sphere of influence in the Gulf, and as such had some involvement during the Crusade. While the vast majority of the planet's population is completely ignorant of the greater galaxy, and the myriad wars constantly being fought, a small number of Carthaggan Army Groups were mobilized and deployed into the Gulf to fight alongside the Imperium's other armies.

ce.745.M41 - Tyranid Invasion

At the end of the Gulf Crusade, when Tyranid Hive fleets were descending on the sector, a splinter fragment of one of the fleets happened to break off of it's parent, and crash on Hope's Fall. While the actual size of the Tyranid force was small, relatively speaking, it proved more than disastrous for the planet's people. Most of the humans on Hope's Fall had no knowledge of the existence of xenos, let alone ever seen one, and now millions of them were tearing through their land, eating everything and everyone they came across. The fighting lasted roughly more than a decade, and the losses were impossible to count, but the Humans ultimately stood victorious, able to push the xenos back, and cull their numbers so that the people were able to retake their land. Despite this, after the conflict officially ended, small numbers of Tyranid swarms managed to evade death, and still occasionally emerge from the planets forests and caves to harass peasant villages, only to be pushed back by Low Guard Militias.

c.e.760.M41 - Trouble over Peril

Around 760.M41 the Carthaggan Guard's 5th Army Group received a distress message from a small shrine moon named Peril's Watch, overtop of a planet named Peril. Renegade coursiers had attacked Peril, a promethium rich mining world. Despite the planets massive industry, it had a small population and an inexperienced and under numbered PDF, who were quickly overwhelmed. When they had finished pillaging the planet they turned to the wealthier Hives on the planets moon, a shrine world built to fulfill Peril's religious needs.

Out of desperation the Ecclesiarchs on Peril's Watch raised a militia from the local population to aid the PDF until reinforcements could arrive. When the 5th Army Group arrived, alongside a Space Marine battlebarge they were able to quickly purge the piratical invaders off world. However, at the time the 5th Army Group was under the command of a particularly puritan member of the Ordo-Hereticus, who had decided the actions taken by the Ecclesiarchs on the moon were in violation of the Decree Passive, and declared war on the local government and it's militia. The ensuing conflict was violent and brutal, the the Space Marine chapter that had arrived alongside the Carthaggan's disagreed with the Inquisitors views, and helped defend the local populace. There were those among the Carthaggan forces that also disagreed, including a young Alexi CarVoss, a colonel at the time, as well as the sororitas Order of the White Mantle's leadership.

They cautiosly organised a resistance against the bloodthirsty inquisitor, and managed to kill him, and have the the leadership of the 5th Army temporarily placed in the hands of Cannoness Rosia, ending the conflict.

After returning home, out of guilt Rosia confessed to the murder of the Inquisitor, and was punished with internment in a Penitent Engine.

The 5th Army was then placed under the supreme command of Alexi CarVoss, now a General.

763.M41 - Colonization of Atruanda

At the outer most edge of the Tau's third sphere of influence lay a world named Atruanda, a feral world, made up of dark jungles and marshy grasslands.

The planet, though outside of Tau space, was being occupied by an expeditionary force, around the time that the 5th Army group under the newly appointed leadership of Alexi CarVoss, landed on the planet to take it under the Imperium's wing.

They briefly fought against the Tau forces, as well as human Gue've'sa, and after a year of seemingly ineffectual combat, both sides agreed to a ceasefire order, with the Tau leaving the planet with any humans that wished to go with them, and in exchange the Imperial forces would not continue to attack the Tau, nor would they enter the local Tau Occupied zones.

The 5th Army left a number of guard regiments and inquisitorial militias, as well as a small number of sisters from the Order of the White Mantle, to combat any further insurrection, as well as chaotic cults that were believed to have sprung up throughout the planet.

c.e.813.M41 - Siege of Vraks

The Carthaggan's 5th Army was deployed to Vraks, in the last years of the conflict. Their forces were few in number, and their deeds went unremembered by all who would speak of Vraks, but the small few who returned home held a special sense of pride, knowing that they had quietly been there, during one of the Imperiums darkest chapters.

The engagements they were involved in were largely insignificant, and almost wholly unnoticed by the forces of the Astartes or the Death Korps, but this mattered not to the Carthaggans; they were content to quietly busy themselves with venturing out into the lesser traveled places in between the trenches, and kill any heretic they could find, or lend what little assistance they could to any beleaguered forces that needed it.

In the end, they arrived with a little more than 100,000 combat ready soldiers, and a few thousand tanks. In less than 2 years, as the war drew to a bloody close, the Carthaggan's wearily returned to their ship, and headed back for their home, with just under a thousand tired and broken men still clinging on to what some would call life.