Death World
Not to be confused with Deathworld, a homebrew alternate universe setting inspired by a picture of Barack Obama looking badass in a Soviet uniform.
A Death World (Mundus in Articulo Mortis, which is Latin High Gothic for "world at the moment of demise") is a classification of world used by the Imperium of Man to describe various worlds where everything on the planet is trying to kill its human population, much like the good ol' Ice Age. You know the old saying if you can't adapt to an environment, make it adapt to you? Doesn't apply on Death Worlds. You have predators the size of Land Speeders, environments so extremely hot or cold most don't make it into their teens (let alone out of them) and resources are so scarce that every human settlement has adopted a philosophy of "kill or be killed" toward outsiders.
One must ask why the Imperium allows such worlds to exist, and there's only one reason: if you can survive all of that, then you're badass enough to become an Aspirant into the Space Marines. The leftovers? They become the most badass of the Imperial Guard.
Noted Death Worlds
- Baal and its moons, homeworld of the Blood Angels.
- Barbarus, homeworld of the Death Guard (subjected to Exterminatus during the Great Scouring)
- Caliban, homeworld of the Dark Angels (destroyed). Though they were determined to civilize it, consequences be damned.
- Catachan, homeworld of the Catachan Jungle Fighters.
- Fenris, homeworld of the Space Wolves.
- Medusa, homeworld of the Iron Hands
- Nocturne, homeworld of the Salamanders.
- Cretacia, homeworld of the Flesh Tearers, AKA a planet with MUTHERFUKIN DINOSAURS!
- Krieg, homeworld of the Death Korps of Krieg, nuked by loyalists so Emprah could rule another bare rock.
- Phyrr of the Calixis Sector. Yeah the air and waters are clean, and the whole place looks normal, but the spores and animals are lethal there as they have have some bizarre gene-toxin that kills grown-up people in an instant. So deadly that there is no cure for it, as Mechanicus Members tried for years with no effects. Thus it's both a Death World and Penal World, as well as a Adeptus Mechanicus Harvest World where the Biologis Branch sees the unique compounds as extremely valuable. If riots occur inside one of the filtered domes, then the Techpriests simply turn off the filtration. Home to the beautiful, yet deadly Phyrr Cat.