Setting:Cloudburst/Gorum's Folly

System
Galactic Position	Cloudburst Sector, Maskos Subsector
System Overlord	Lady Mirya Ahuja
Worlds in the system	Seventeen, one inhabitable
World Type, Name	Feudal World: Gorum's Folly
Tropospheric Composition	Gorum’s Folly has Nitrogen 75.5%, Oxygen 20.6%, Krypton 2.5%, Water 1.4%, Carbon Dioxide 0.01%
Religion	Imperial Cult
Government type	Local Peerage
Planetary Governor	No
Adept Presence	Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Adeptus Administratum, Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Astra Telepathica, Adeptus Ministorum
Climate	Broad and extensive hurricanes, lighter rainstorms, and miles-thick polar ice caps
Geography	Gorum’s Folly has several landlocked inner seas with low saline, and thirty-two landmasses connected by seasonal land-bridges, roughly the size of Terra
Gravity	Gorum’s Folly has 1.09 Terran Gravity
Day Length	25 Terran Hours Terran Hours
Economy	None
Principal Exports	Copper Ore, Platinum Ore, Unrefined Uranium, Salt
Principal Imports	Food, Solders, Clothing, Equipment, Climate Control Devices
Countries and Continents	Gorum’s Folly has ten continents, with extensive state borders
Military	Gorum’s Guards (low quality PDF), various Imperial Guard garrisons
Contact with other Systems	Weekly
Tithe Grade	Solutio Tertius
Population	198,187,000

Description

As with so many worlds in Cloudburst, this world was once the discovery of an ambitious Rogue Trader. Gorum Rowsdower found the planet during the Gold Rush Two, and named it after himself. After verifying his findings with his Fabique Clock, Rowsdower promptly sold the world, earning the planet its name. Gorum’s Folly is horrible.

Of all the worlds in the Sector and Circuit, Gorum’s Folly has by far the worst hurricane activity. Storm after storm wracks the surface, rips topsoil up from the ground, flattens scrubby trees and bushes, and rips rooftops from buildings. The coastlines of the planet’s many islands and small continents change constantly as the storms rearrange them. Even when it’s not stormy, the planet is usually still rainy. In some places, rainstorms last for as much as a month. The plant life of Gorum’s Folly has evolved deep roots and the ability to process water flow quickly to compensate for the constant rainfall and wind, which makes it at best hard to use in agriculture.

A local peerage system rules over much of the planet, save for a few islands under direct Imperial control. The peerage ultimately draws their authority from the right to rule bestowed on them by the System Overlord, whom the Subsector Overlord appoints. However, the System Overlord is not a member of the peers, and therefore the de facto rulership of the world often defaults to whichever noble has the most land when hurricane season ends. With each island far enough apart that huge investments in ship construction and maintenance are needed to establish trade and travel between them, this means that rulership of each island usually falls to the nobles wealthy enough to build ships. The scarcity of good timber on the planet exacerbates this situation.

Unlike some other Feudal Worlds, however, Gorum’s Folly can raise its own PDF: the Gorum’s Guards. The individual noble households are permitted by ancient decree to raise professional defenders for their estates, but wars between households come down to which can hire more mercenaries.

Culturally, Gorum’s Folly is a world of strict hierarchy, with no social movement outside the fringes of society. The landed peers of the world’s nobility sit at the top, with landless nobles and certain Ecclesiarchal figures standing below them. Next, come the Households, the collections of knights, baronets, and lesser lordlings who rule small estates on the islands shared by multiple families or monopolized by the Imperium. Next, come the artisans and patronates, the families who craft complex goods and teach the children of the nobles. Next, come the Swains, a unique feature of Gorum’s Folly that consist of those who crew the boats and ships owned by the nobles, who are solely responsible for inter-island trade. Next are the PDF, and finally the peasants, who labor in the millions to produce ores and salt for the tithe, and food for the markets.

The Imperium is able to collect a tithe from this world, despite its uncooperative weather and feuding rulers. It produces metallic ores and sodium salt, both of which are in high demand on Solstice. The world’s resource output is enough, when combined with that of the Septiim system, to fuel Solstice without any additional income for that world. Gorum’s Folly has an abundance of valuable ores, and can easily keep its own limited industry fueled with the leftovers from its tithe payments.

In exchange for its tithe payments, the world receives several key benefits from the Imperium. It is the only Feudal World in the Cloudburst Sector and Circuit to have a Schola Progenum, and the only one to have a Defense Laser of which the natives are aware. Furthermore, the world can theoretically tithe up a Guard regiment now that its population is large enough and well educated enough to fulfil its training requirements without depleting its workforce.

However, Gorum’s Folly is a world that is in dire need of Imperial order. If the world’s standards of living were higher, its residents would no doubt be less willing to live by the Imperium’s rules. As it stands, though, there are several cities near the tropics of the world that have had to rebuild so many times that any assistance from the Imperium is welcome. The nobles who rule these cities usually obey Imperial edicts without being told, if only to keep the peasantry in line. It is not a coincidence these are the islands that promptest pay their tithes. The planet does enjoy a few other benefits, like an active and philanthropically minded Ecclesiarchal presence and considerable orbital defenses for a world with M1.600s era technology. Several of the feudal cities openly ignore Imperial orders until either the military or Arbites force them to comply, which opportunistic peers exploit for all it’s worth.

The Gorum's Guards are understandably of lower quality than the average Imperial Guard or even PDF of the Cloudburst Sector, but the levels of readiness in their ranks must now increase dramatically if they want to have any hope of survival. At present, the world is in a panic. The Tarot has revealed that the Glasians have targeted the world in the next Migration, and there is no real chance that the defenses of the world can withstand them on their own. Lady Ahuja has been sending couriers and Astropathic messages to beg for aid from every Imperial institution and Rogue Trader she can think of, and the few mercenaries that Cardinal Drake has not recruited. Some Imperial Navy assets are on the way from Battlefleet Maskos, but the best news for her is that elements of the Second, Third, and Tenth companies of the Blue Daggers have responded to her calls, and are bringing approximately one hundred Marines to her defense. As to whether that will be enough, she is unsure, and so she is also pleading with the Rogue Traders who sometimes pass by her world to aid Gorum’s Folly. So far, none have acceded to her requests.