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The Callidonean Play
The Magus promised a world, but gave instead a box
of hive-metal, within which was only sand.
- Silencean linear contemplation fragment 1 527
Saint Willard o' the Spear, Live'd yet three hundred
year, And watcheth o'er all ye here.
- Anglish commoner's rhyme
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4. A Rite of Passage
Contents
6. Handouts: Declaration, Request, and Materials
1 0. Brythan
1 3. Fragments of History
1 5. The Hive Foundations
1 8. Blessings of the Machine Cult
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Summaris
It is the commencement of 81 6.M41 , and remnant
detritus and pilgrim masses of the long All-Saints-
Festival are but slowly vanishing from the grand hives
of the Ministorum world of Rhame, golden yet corroded
center of the Yeuros cluster. Within Hive Templum
Primus, a newly ascended Inquisitor and his retinue of
Throne agents prepare for a long and uncertain journey,
the festival distant from their thoughts. Their destination
is Brythan, a world at the trailing edge of the cluster,
farthest from the hives of Rhame, last light of the
Imperium before the impassable warp storms of the
Lantac Abyss, and last of the Yeuros worlds to be
brought to the God-Emperor by the Rhamean Crusade
so many centuries ago.
A Rite of Passage
But to Brythan it is. Three decades past, the
withdrawn and aged Inquisitor Willard Quassus, long
the sole representative of the Yeuros Conclave of the
Holy Inquisition upon that world, ceased to respond to
ciphered messages sent from Rhame. Long periods of
quiet and Inquisitors who operate alone for decades are
not unusual in the sparse Ordos of the cluster, but an
assessment is now overdue. This is the task placed upon
the Inquisitor Minor and his followers by the powers of
the Conclave—though in truth it is less a task and more
a trial, a test of uncertain difficulty set by uncaring
elders of the Ordos.
Upon their arrival in the Brythanic voids, the
Throne agents and their new master will face hard
choices, drawn into intrigue and corruption upon a world
whose inhabitants fear the Inquisition all too little.
The Threefold Path
The Inquisitors of the Yeuros worlds form a sparse
Conclave by the standards of greater sectors, but their
presence suffices—for Ministorum-dominated Rhame
remains synonymous with Imperial glory even millennia
after all who fought in the Rhamean Crusade are gone to
dust, and the God-Emperor is yet acclaimed the Lord of
Man upon every Imperial world of the cluster's many
suns. But Inquisitors die, and new blood must flow,
albeit slowly and carefully. Thus the ossified elders of
the Yeuros Conclave, their fortress vaults hidden within
the hives of Rhame, induct newly ascended Inquisitors
Minor by what has come to be known as the Threefold
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Path, represented by the Forest, the Beast, and the
Temple in Inquisition heraldry.
A promising interrogator or savant-militant first
toils within the Forest, seeing comparatively little,
knowing comparatively little. With experience and rare
excellence, one such may be raised by formal carta to the
rank of Inquisitor Minor. This is a matter of sponsorship
and influence, usually orchestrated by a former master,
an Inquisitor of standing in the Ordos.
But an Inquisitor Minor has not seen the Beast:
he is only an Inquisitor by virtue of a seal upon
parchment, and all that he might have achieved until that
point is made worthless by the magnitude of that gift of
power. Granted the Rosette and able to command and
terrify all who recognize the dread sigils of the Ordos, a
Parchment Inquisitor is nonetheless neither
acknowledged nor supported by the Conclave, and will
be hunted ruthlessly should he give the first sign of
corruption. This, at least, is the case until after the
Inquisitor Minor has initiated and led an Inquisitorial
action against the Beast—the dark and hidden foes of the
Imperium. Only when he shows himself worthy by his
deeds and choices, and until the records of that action are
presented to the Conclave libraria upon Rhame, may he
move forward upon the Threefold Path.
There remains the return to the Temple: the
Inquisitor Minor must stand before the elders of the
Yeuros Conclave, within their darkened inner vaults, and
there demonstrate a continued purity of gene and soul.
Her must prove to them beyond doubt that the Beast's
corruption has left no taint, no seed. Many are those who
fall—or who are made to fall, so it is whispered—at this
final hurdle.
Declaratio Caecorum
Deep beneath the baroque, spire-strewn slopes of
Templum Primus, a hive devoted to the inner workings
of the Rhamean Ministorum, the Inquisitor Minor and
his retinue face the Declaration of the Blind in a
darkened hall. Emerged from their hidden strongholds
for this one small scene in the larger play of Ordos
tradition, three ancient, hunched Inquisitors stand upon
pulpits in the shadows, their faces hidden by featureless
white masks. A stab-light shines brightly upon the
Inquisitor Minor and his followers in the centre of the
hall, circling them in white amidst the blackness.

The three masked elders speak the few
ceremonial words of the Declaration, a matter of a
handful of heartbearts. The stab-light is extinguished,
plunging the hall into silence and darkness. Doors then
swing open upon grinding gears, and the dim light
beyond the sign for the Inquisitor Minor and his retinue
to depart. The ceremony is complete, brief as it is.
Beyond this point, as he leaves the Templum Primus
upon Rhame, the Inquisitor will speak only with lesser
servants of the Conclave. All doors to the Inquisition
and its resources are officially sealed: even his mentor
and former masters will not speak with the Inquisitor, or
at least not where others might overhear or learn of it.
The Lord-Inquisitor's Request
Immediately following the Declaration of the Blind
comes the Lord-Inquisitor's Request, a step that long ago
moved from a subversion of the Threefold Path to an
age-honoured tradition. The normal form of the Request
is a masked and anonymous missive-bearer, who may or
may not be recognizable as a part of another Inquisitor's
retinue, a dataslate, and the seal of an obviously fictional
figure high in the Conclave's hierarchy. The true origins
of the Request might be the Inquisitor Minor's mentor, a
coven of the mentor's peers, or result from some deeper
machinations, the original Request stolen and replaced
en route.
Regardless, it is foolish in the extreme to refuse
or ignore the Lord-Inquisitor's Request, despite the very
short litany of Inquisitors Minor who did just that and
then went on to ascend to the Conclave on the backs of
mighty and resounding victories, their names living on
for centuries past their deaths. Few Parchment
Inquisitors command the strength or pre-existing level of
support to make the Threefold Path an assured formality
regardless of their initial choices. Further, in addition to
most likely originating from those who will later judge
the Inquisitor Minor on his return to Rhame, and thus
reflecting their will, the Request arrives with an
unspoken one-time connection to vast
resources—resources that will all too soon be beyond
the Inquisitor Minor's reach.
Acceptance of the Lord-Inquisitor's
Request earns the right to make an oblique, formal
demand for specific resources. The resources will
be provided, more or less as requested—up to and
including a dedicated Battlefleet voidship for
transport to a specific location, regiments of Guard
troops, or an equivalent draw upon the coffers of
trade guilds beholden to the Ministorum. There is a
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fine line for the Inquisitor Minor to walk, however:
between boastful relinquishment, the appearance of
incapacity, the appearance of aimless greed, and the
degree to which he is sure of the support of his mentor in
the Conclave. There are tales of the malign judgements
that fell upon Parchment Inquisitors who reached either
too far or not far enough. Resources provided may be
poisoned, either obviously or in some clever and hidden
way, or simply far removed from what was requested. It
is left to the Inquisitor Minor and his retinue to
determine whether he is being steered, rebuked, or subtly
attacked.
The Request delivered to the Inquisitor Minor in
this case is short, to the point, and threatening in its lack
of clarity, as the traditional form demands. He is directed
to find Inquisitor Willard Quassus, and thereafter carry
out those actions most fitting in the eyes of the God-
Emperor. Accompanying the Request are a minimum of
summary materials on Quassus and the world of
Brythan, and at that point the Inquisitor Minor is truly
set upon the path to seek the Beast.
A Theatre of the Known
The form of the Threefold Path and the Lord-Inquisitor's
Request is well known within the Yeuros Conclave.
Thus few Inquisitors Minor pass the rituals without
possessing foreknowledge, an opportunity to set aside
resources, and a grasp of the degree to which mentors
and sponsors will in fact withdraw their support. The
wise mentor lets the Inquisitor Minor rise or fall by his
own merits, for his influence alone is rarely enough to
sway the judgement in the Temple. Conversely, the wise
Inquisitor Minor does his best to ensure that lines of
communication remain open, unofficially, for use in
extremis.

+++ First Inquisitor:
He who stands is known.
+++ Second Inquisitor:
We see him not.
+++ Third Inquisitors:
+++ All:
It matters not. For he has not seen the Beast.
And thus he is nothing.
+++ First Inquisitor:
Yet something may come of nothing.
+++ Second Inquisitor:
So we offer this one chance to nothing.
+++ Third Inquisitor:
+++ All:
Go from us. Seek the Beast.
And until your return we are blind to you.
6

+++ By command of the Lord-Inquisitor, His Eminence in Red.
+++ Seek out and find Inquisitor Quassus of Hive Rhame.
+++ Thence do as the God-Emperor sees most fitting.
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+++ Inquisitor Willard Quassus
Age is estimated as 360, and birthplace is alleged to be Hive Rhame upon the world of the same name.
Raised to Inquisitor in 488.M41 , under the aegis of Inquisitor Habitasis, and into Ordo Hereticus.
Pure of gene and untouched by psyker taint. No visible augmetics as of 644.M41 . Known to employ juvenat
treatments, but age places him at the outer limits of their effectiveness. Submitted few materials or action
reports to Conclave libraria, and none are recorded after 539.M41 .
+++ Historia Brevis
495.M41 . Inquisitor Quassus exposes and eradicates a blood-sacrifice cult upon Hyaspan.
51 7.M41 . Defeat of a tainted raider fleet and its invasion of Brythan. Inquisitor Quassus destroys the enemy
war-chief and leads Brythanic forces to victory.
532.M41 . Inquisitor Habitasis and his retinue presumed lost to the warp in banishing the necrotic space hulk
Ember of Ruin.
543.M41 . Inquisitor Quassus recorded to have moved his residence to Brythan, though this may have
occurred years earlier.
552-570.M41 . Astropathic queries made to the Ordos upon Rhame suggest Inquisitor Quassus is concerned
by the warpcraft of prophecy as employed by witches in mockery of sanctioned Imperial seers.
582.M41 . The Thirteenth Grand Conclave upon Rhame. Inquisitor Quassus in attendance.
590.M41 . Inquisitor Quassus' presence upon Brythan is designated Missio Minoris and granted a stipend
from Conclave coffers. No later record exists of the stipend being paid or otherwise drawn upon.
620.M41 . Interrogator Valian, formerly of Inquisitor Quassus' retinue, raised to the rank of Inquisitor.
Records indicate that Inquisitor Quassus is the sponsor, but not in attendance.
644.M41 . Last confirmed appearance of Inquisitor Quassus, validated by pict-capture within the Imperial
Governor's residence of Brythan.
667.M41 . Adeptus Arbites report that Inquisitor Quassus destroyed a previously unknown sect upon Gahul.
His presence on that world in 667.M41 remains unconfirmed.
71 7.M41 . Inquisitor Valian and his retinue confirmed dead upon Hyaspan in a purge of the Blade of
Sorrows cult. No close peers to Inquisitor Quassus remain within the Rhamean Conclave.
780.M41 . Last known official communication crypt-sealed by Inquisitor Quassus is received from Brythan.
It is a simple protocol acknowledgement, similar to the prior eleven missives.
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+++ Brythan
Designated as a Hiveworld (Lesser, Category Delta, sub-designation War). Outermost Imperial world facing
the Lantean Abyss. Temperate to cold, breathable atmosphere, possesses seas, and is mountainous. One
inhabited moon. Brought into the Lux Imperia in 294.M40, during the later Rhamean Crusade. At that time,
the world was designated Feral. Present governance categorized as tribal monarchism with internecine
internal warfare.
+++ Imperial Governor
High Ecclesiarch Mathus Ager of the Church of Brythan. Raised from the local populace.
+++ Imperial Presence
Administratum records immediately accessible to the Conclave declare an Adeptus Arbites garrison of four
regiments and minor Adeptus Astra Telepathica shrinehold (Category Delta). There are no records of
stationed Imperial Guard, Battlefleet, or Departmento Munitorium forces. No Administratum bureau majoris
exists and nor is any Administratum adept of primaris rank present.
+++ Adeptus Ministorum
The High Ecclesiarchy of Brythan underwent schism from the Rhamean Temple in 699.M41 to form the
Church of Brythan. Sanctioned as an accepted sect in 752.M41 , but relations between hierarchs remain
strained. The sanctioned sect of Destinism is present upon Brythan, but the nature of relations between
Destinist and Church of Brythan Ecclesiarchs is unclear.
+++ Imperial Tithe
Brythan has not failed in its tithe since the Rhamean Crusade. The tithe has been conducted through agency
of the Ministorum since at least 400.M41 , coinciding with appointment of Ecclesiarchs to the post of
Imperial Governor.
+++ Brythanic Guard
The last Founding of Imperial Guard took place between 764-772.M41 . Fifty full infantry regiments were
raised and consigned to the God-Emperor's forces.
+++ Void-traffic
Three guild-fleets are granted hereditary charters to the Rhame-Gahul-Brythan warp routes. The Battlefleet
flotilla designated Steadfast Glint traversed Brythan in 801 .M41 , exchanged envoys with the Imperial
Governor, and confirmed the system secure.
+++ Ordos Presence
Missio Minoris under Inquisitor Willard Quassus, established 590.M41 .
+++ Ordos Actions
None recorded since 51 7.M41 .
9

Brythan of the Yeuros cluster is a chill planet of deep
winters and short, rain-swept summers. The seas
surrounding its single continental land mass are stormy,
waves crashing against eroding cliffs. Rolling hills and
looming mountains are the dominant landscape. This
was a forest-green and storm-grey world of scattered
feral tribes when first brought into the Imperium by
Rhamean legions, but changed profoundly across the
fifteen centuries since. Under the blessings of the
Machine God and other Imperial technologies, the
populace and their structures grew unchecked into a
nascent hiveworld of billions—albeit not yet as
populous or as scarred by manufactory toxins as the core
Yeuros worlds. Brythanic hives are more spread and less
developed than the truly ancient hives of Rhame;
towering spires and piled base structures are few in
number, and where they do exist they are separated from
one another by league upon league of charred war-
wastes, industrialized farmholds, beast-tracts,
manufactory reaches, and commoner hab-block towns.
Nor is Brythan truly united under one rule: the
descendants of the ancient tribes and their conquerors all
worship the God-Emperor and count themselves
Imperial citizens, but they stand opposed in three
distinct regions, waging war with one another
frequently.
The Anglish Court
The Anglish are proud descendants of Rhameans and
conquered tribes, fierce in their Imperial faith. The
commoner Anglish masses have long been ruled by
Kings, Queens, and an ever-changing Court of Lords, a
nobility of extended houses descended from forbearers
who were raised up to nobility through wealth, war, or
great deeds. The Lord or Lady at the head of each noble
house maintains a standing army, an intricate heraldry,
and holds sway over a single spire fortress or hive
foundation and the surrounding structures and lands.
Commoners within a lord's domain must pledge loyalty,
service, and often harsh tithes, or face the Lord's bailiffs.
In turn a Lord pledges fealty to the Anglish queen and
imposes the queen's order and justice within his lands.
The power of the Anglish Court is made
manifest in the majesty of Hive Londus, oldest of
Brythan's hives and the location of the Court itself—a
large part of the palatial hivetop fortresses inhabited by
Brythan
1 0
the queen's ruling house. Of all the hive structures of
Brythan, only Londus is great enough in stature and
population to sprawl unbroken and piled high across
hundreds of leagues. Amongst the fanes of its many
greater levels stand ancient temples of the Imperial
Creed, schools of learning, pillars to support grand upper
landing zones, and strongholds owned by the most
powerful Anglish noble families. In every direction from
the outer slopes of Hive Londus stretch the populous
fiefdoms of Anglish Lords, the greatest of them marked
by the distant shadows of lesser hive foundations, like
gray clouds above the manufactory-covered hills.
Wealthy houses and fractious alliances amongst
Anglish nobility compete ruthlessly for advantage, both
within and beyond the civilized, treacherous confines of
the Court in Hive Londus, and all raise their own forces
of armsmen and militia. Were the Anglish not faced with
raids and the threat of war from the clans of Callidon
and Hybernea, they would surely be at one another's
throats to press claims upon land, commoner allegiance,
and vengeance for past slights. As matters stand, not a
decade passes without a feud between houses heating
near to war, giving cause for the Queen's house to
intervene.
Clans of Callidon and Hybernea
The moon of Hybernea and highlands of Callidon upon
Brythan are chill, mountainous, and harsh, resting under
deep snows for much of the year. Raised roadways cross
the vales and tunnel through mountains to link widely
separated foundational hive structures and industrial
regions, and between them deep manufactory-poisoned
lakes and ruin-wastes where outlaw bands and the last
beasts roam. Even the greatest fortresses of Callidon
cannot compare with the spires of Anglish lands,
however, and the combined Callidonean and Hybernean
populace is barely half that of the Anglish commoner
masses.
For all that commoners, nobles, and savants
alike amongst the Anglish speak of Callidonean and
Hybernean clansmen as painted savages, these peoples
are just as much civilized hive-dwellers. Many of the
everyday customs of the clans are broadly similar to
those of the Anglish, lacking only the pervasive
Rhamean influence on justice, ideals of noble conduct,
and religious matters.

The spires of clan hive foundations and city-
fortresses are neither as great nor as gilded as those of
Hive Londus, but it is telling that Anglish Lords and
their armies have never succeeded in conquering any
reach of the moon Hybernea or the highlands of
Brythan. The clans are fierce in defence of their
independence and their lands, the peoples diverse and
fractious. Each clan is centred about a lesser hivebase
structure or spire-fortress, proud in its own traditions
and histories. The clansmen's extended families are
linked by a shared legacy of vows and lineages, of tales
both told in song and recorded in clan records.
The clansmen of Hybernea and Callidon have in
some generations bowed to Kings and Queens, in others
not, but they boast no strong tradition of obedience and
absolute fealty in the manner of the Anglish Court—and
nor is the position of monarch usually inherited, as is the
case for the Anglish. When a monarch does arise, that
King must rule from his own clanhold spire by the fickle
acclaim of the clan Lords, shifting from year to year,
and only grudgingly acknowledged by his peers as first
amongst equals. Across the ages since the Rhamean
conquest, the clans have fought one another just as often
as they united to drive off the Anglish or pagan raiders
emerged from the warp storms of the Lantean Abyss.
For all that, the Callidonean clans have acknowledged a
monarch amongst the clan Lords more often than not
across past two centuries, these Kings and Queens
chosen to lead the allied clans against their foes, or
raised up to hear great disputes between clans that can
have no other resolution.
Imperial Institutions
Signs of the Imperial Adepta upon Brythan are sparse in
comparison to other hiveworlds of the Yeuros cluster.
There are no Imperial Guard regiments stationed upon
Brythan, no Departmeno Munitorum infrastructure, and
no permanently assigned Battlefleet vessels—though
roving sub-fleets traverse the system every few decades.
Administratum presence is anaemic, a bare few
thousand sages and archivists of Imperial records buried
deep within Hive Londus. Collection of the Imperial
Tithe is managed instead by Ministorum priests and
clerks, coordinated through shrines and cathedrals across
Brythan.
Those Imperial institutions that are present are
at their strongest within the spires of Hive Londus,
where adepts and emissaries from other Yeuros worlds
pay court to the Anglish Queen. Beyond the hive's edge-
walls and outer slopes are found only lesser
1 1
Imperial servants and outposts—and of all the Adepta,
only the omnipresent Ministorum wields any meaningful
influence in Callidon and upon Hybernea.
Imperial Governor
The Imperial Governor of Brythan is not appointed by a
distant Lord-Sector, but rather raised up from the local
populace, drawn from amongst the scions of Anglish
noble houses risen to prominent positions in the
Ecclesiarchy. Youngest sons and daughters of the
greatest lineages, otherwise destined to be excluded from
power, have long been encouraged to enter the Imperial
Cult. There they are elevated to positions within the
Anglish Court, such as confessor to an appointed office-
holder or messenger to the Queen for the Church of
Brythan. Those who find their way to greater influence
in the Court typically also rise in the ranks of the
Ecclesiarchy, and vice versa. Ultimately, the highest
rung upon this ladder is comprised of the favour of the
Queen, the acclaim of the more powerful Anglish lords,
and the deep red robe of a High Ecclesiarch. From
amongst this select circle is the next Governor chosen,
appointed by Queen and Court to orchestrate the
workings of the Imperial Tithe—an opportunity for the
appointed Ecclesiarch to gain great personal wealth and
power, beyond even that offered by the highest positions
in the Church of Brythan. The Governor is powerful
indeed in Hive Londus, but remains vulnerable to the
whims of the Queen and the intrigues of the Court.
There is an implicit bargain in this appointment: the
Governor's position rests upon supporting the dominant
factions within the Court, as well as ensuring that the
Ministorum publicly bestows the blessings of the God-
Emperor and Ministorum upon the Queen's reign and
actions.
Adeptus Ministorum
The Ministorum touches every aspect of life upon
Brythan; faith in the God-Emperor is tangible and
important. Preachers and lay-tutors are present in
every hab-fane, shrines and temples stand in every
hive foundation level. Neither noble nor commoner
can rise far without proclaiming their faith in word
and deed, obtaining the counsel of a priest, and
gaining his blessings upon their acts. Leaders of
men at all levels of Brythanic society are expected
to be trusted members of the laity, favoured by their
confessors, spoken of well by preachers who have
knowledge of them. Those who are not are regarded

with suspicion.
The Brythanic Ministorum is split into two
principle sects, Destinism and the Church of Brythan,
each consisting of varied theological factions and
orthodoxies. The priesthood—and thus control over the
considerable resources of the Ecclesiarchy—is uneasily
divided between the adherents of the two major sects, a
small minority of hermit priests of lesser sanctioned
creeds, and the few iconoclasts in the hierarchy brave
enough declare themselves beholden to no sect.
To the eyes of the commoner masses, the great
sects are divided over the veneration of Imperial saints
and whether places of worship are gilded in splendour,
in the manner of the grand cathedrals of the Church of
Brythan, or build of bare, unadorned stone after the
fashion of Destinist shrineholds. These are trivial
matters for scholars and theosophists, however: the
schism between Destinism and the Church of Brythan is
in fact a dispute over the Greater Questions of
predestination, the omnipotence of the God-Emperor,
and the nature of choice.
While the Church of Brythan is dominant
throughout Anglish lands, Destinists hold sway and
manage Ministorum coffers in Callidon and upon
Hybernea. There, Imperial shrines are unheated stone
vaults, rank amongst the ordained is largely informal,
and Ecclesiarchs teach that the God-Emperor steers
every choice. All that happens is foreordained, and
prophecies are God-Emperor-given glimpses of what is
to come. In stark contrast, Anglish cathedrals are
baroque and splendid, every alcove set with gilded
relics, statues of Imperial saints, and engraved scenes
from Imperial history. Anglish priests and lay-tutors
teach lessons based upon the scripture of the Rhamean
Temple, copied wholesale and made distinct in name
only as the creed of the Church of Brythan. The most
fervent Ecclesiarchs to follow these once-Rhamean
teachings reject outright all Destinist theology: men and
women must choose anew each day to serve the God-
Emperor, the future is unknown, and every choice has
consequences.
In past centuries, bloody purges of Destinism
took place in Anglish domains and when Anglish
legions raided Callidon and Hybernea. Some scholars
call the purges a rightful echo of the end of pagan Ald
Brythan, that time long past when priest-seers gathered
in sacred groves and made bloody sacrifice to dark and
nameless gods in order to see the future. The seers were
annihilated in the Rhamean Crusade, and there are
always some amongst the High Ecclesiarchs who
believe that Destinism must go the same way,
1 2
regardless of its status as a sanctioned sect in the greater
Yeuros Ministorum.
Relations between sects have become far less
hostile in recent generations, however, the heated
persecutions of the past replaced with a focus upon
collection of the Imperial tithe and bringing to heel
unruly elements amongst the commoner masses. Some
claim the rifts in the Brythanic Ecclesiarchy have
become comparatively gentile schisms over orthodoxy
and scripture, argued rather than fought, but occasionally
inflamed by other disagreements between the Anglish,
Callidonean, and Hybernean peoples.
Yet memories are long, and the differences
between sects remain sufficiently great to spark
intrigues, vitriol, riots, and rivalry between priestly
factions and their followers. The nature of the
Ministorum hierarchy only compounds this state of
affairs, as it is crosses both sects and regions:
Callidonean preachers often bow before Anglish
superiors, for example, but some have risen to high posts
in the cathedrals of Hive Londus itself. Anglish
Destinists exist at all levels of the Ecclesiarchy, albeit as
a minority, as do Callidonean adherents of the Church of
Brythan—and also charismatic priests who rebuke both
sides, or follow lesser sanctioned sects. A Destinist may
be given orders by a devotee of the Church of Brythan,
or vice versa, and the crucible of Ministorum politics
creates strange bedfellows: Destinist and Church of
Brythan priests allied as often as they are opposed.
Holy Inquisition
The Inquisition has been represented for centuries by
Inquisitor Willard Quassus, known widely upon Brythan
as Willard of the Spear. He and what little remains of his
immediate retinue reside in Hive Londus, and have long
been much withdrawn from the Holy Ordos. Past actions
have made the Inquisitor a legend upon Brythan; as he
grows ever older and closer to death, sainthood is much
discussed amongst Ecclesiarchs—and has long been
assumed as a fact by commoners.
Adeptus Arbites
Eight regiments of Arbites troops and light armour are
based in a network of fortress-barracks at the core of
Hive Londus—a not insignificant military force, but one
that pales beside than the combined household armies
and militia of the Lords of Londus and the surrounding
domains. While the Adeptus Arbites are supposedly
independent, protecting Imperial interests at their own

discretion, assignment of commanders by the Imperial
Governor and use of Ministorum funds has long ensured
that the first loyalty of Arbites troops is to the
Ministorum. In effect, the Adeptus Arbites are used as a
militant arm by the High Ecclesiarchy when the need
arises. More commonly, Arbites are dispatched to
protect Ministorum resources from the depredations of
raging hive-mobs and rebellious uprisings. More than
half of the Arbites force is scattered across Brythan at
any given time, squads and companies assigned to
protect the hated tithe-assessors, or guarding the relics
and finery of Anglish cathedrals from the venal urges of
a roused mob.
Adeptus Astra Telepathica
Whilst officially independent, in practice the few
astropaths of Brythan act as an arm of the Ministorum
through the offices of the Imperial Governor. The
astropathic enclave is set atop a thin, tall spire of Hive
Londus, and the Astropath Primaris is a favoured
presence in the Anglish Court.
Adeptus Mechanicus
The Silencius is the dominant Mechanicus faction of the
Yeuros worlds, a grouping of numerous contemplative
orders whose members focus upon binary prayer and
labours that lead to meditative unity with the will of the
Omnissiah. The painstaking maintenance of tech-
devices is one such path to communion with the divine;
to the true Silencean it matters not whether a
promethium engine, cogitator, archaeotech wonder, or
simple mechanical lever is the object of such work. All
technologies are equal in the Omnissiah's eyes, and the
eternal function of every machine is a holy goal.
Upon Brythan, all Mechanicus barring a few
emissaries from Rhame and Gahul belong to the
Silencean Orders. These tech-adepts, tech-priests, and
magi are little interested in politics, power, or expanding
the range of tech-devices available to the Brythanic
peoples. Monkish in aspect, quiet and inscrutable, they
diligently maintain hive machinery, void-ships, and
other advanced devices, and rarely engage in meaningful
dialog with the uninitiated. The inner society and secrets
of the Silenceans remain well hidden behind the walls of
their manufactory enclaves and hive-core machine
temples.
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Fragments of History
As is true of every Imperial world in the Yeuros cluster,
thousands of years of history flow beneath Brythan's
present, much of it lost—either to the mists of pagan Ald
Brythan, or simply buried beneath the weight of
diligently chronicled uprisings, schisms, wars, noble
lineages, myths, legends, and the countless details of
billions of lives. But some of that history remains
known, and a fraction of it remains important to the
Brythanic peoples, tales of the past retold and kept alive
by commoner and noble alike.
The End of Ald Brythan
The Yeuros stars were conquered in the Emperor's name
in the early centuries of M40, added to the Imperium in a
crusade whose cost ultimately ruined the originating
world of Rhame. But for generation after generation
Rhamean Lords stood tall and gilded, and Guard legions
marched to victory upon every world of the Yeuros
cluster, their bronzed ranks strong and unbroken beneath
the Aquila.
Brythan was the most distant and last of worlds
conquered by the Imperial forces of Rhame, far out upon
the edge of the Lantean Abyss. It was wild and forested,
a primitive, tribal era of chanting priest-seers and horn-
beast hunts, known now to scholars as the age of Ald
Brythan. The ferals massed for battle with the Rhamean
legions, but were broken by artillery, lasfire, and orbital
bombardment. Within a generation, they and their
children were brought into the Imperial light, their pagan
ways of worship crushed and purged.
Fall of Rhame
Guild-fleets came across the voids to Brythan In the
wake of Battlefleet support vessels and Crusade victory.
Structures raised by the legions were taken over by
sanctioned guilders, by Administratum adepts come to
count the populace and minister the Imperial Tithe, by
quiet tech-adepts of the Silencean Orders, and by
Missionaria who taught the Imperial Creed. Habs, cities,
temples of the Rhamean Ministorum, manufactories, and
ultimately the first struts of hive foundations were raised
up from nothing, and wealth ran from the heart of the
Yeuros cluster to Brythan in the generations before
Rhame fell into decline.
But Rhame fell in the end, exhausted and
corrupted by the staggering expense of Imperial crusade,
its final Imperial rulers cruel and ineffectual

tyrants who dishonoured the God-Emperor and trampled
the Ministorum. Many of the greatest hive-structures
burned, the mobs rioted for years on end, and it would
be centuries before the first glimmers of Rhamean glory
returned. Commerce across the voids dwindled, and
much that was once gilded fell into poverty and ruin.
While the might of Rhame collapsed and
mouldered, Bythan grew—and even prospered. Taught
the civilized ways of Rhame and the Imperial Creed, the
descendants of feral tribes praised the God-Emperor and
grew vast in number. In their masses they completed and
populated the hive foundation structures, Rhamean
patterns first planned by the Silencean tech-engineers
who accompanied the Crusade legions. The forests were
felled, mountains carved into mine-pits, and the wilds
where horn-beasts once ran overtaken by industrial
farm-tracts and hab-towns.
Passage of Centuries
Generations of Brythanic peoples were born, praised the
God-Emperor as the Lord of Mankind, and went into the
darkness to their reward. Administratum rule gave way
to a nobility of quarrelling Lords and monarchs, lineages
whose greatest figures warred over domains established
amidst manufactory sprawls, growing pollution-wastes,
and towering hive-structures.
In time the most faithful and prosperous
servants of the God-Emperor upon Brythan became
known as the Anglish—many domains of commoners
and Lords united under the rule of a single monarch, all
descended from the mixed blood of feral tribes and long-
dead Rhamean administrators. Their customs were those
of Rhame, their faith that of the Rhamean Temple, even
after the light of Rhame itself had long faded. The
Anglish Ministorum grew to might and influence, and
built its cathedrals to echo the glories of the Rhamean
Temple of old. When Rhame departed its age of ruin, set
upon the path to become a powerful Ministorum world,
ties with the Rhamean Temple were reforged anew, and
the High Ecclesiarchs of Brythan pledged themselves in
humble servitude to the ascendent Pontifs of Rhame.
For more than a millennium the Anglish
squabbled and warred with descendants of the ferals
who once most fiercely resisted Rhame: fiery,
independent Hyberneans of the moon and red-haired
Callidoneans of the snow-bound highlands. In their
defeat before the might of the Rhamean legions, those
tribes of Ald Brythan were reduced to little more than
scattered households, but which then grew once more
across the centuries into mighty clans led by bold Lords,
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their blood undiluted by that of Rhame, and their faith in
the God-Emperor more austere and practical than the
Rhamean creed. They rejected the Pontifs of Rhame in
word and deed.
Across these long years, some generations
brought only war and fleeting conquest, others a flood of
trade and Anglish missionaries to preach the scriptures
of the Rhamean Temple. At times there were even
uneasy alliances forged against pagan war-fleets,
despoilers come from warp-scourged worlds in the
Lantean Abyss. Even in times of comparative peace,
however, the three peoples of Brythan have stood
opposed to one another, scornful and wary, ever just a
few paces from war.
The �yorde Invasion
Three hundred years ago, after the present Anglish
Queen Elyzia's grandfather became King and established
House Teuda, a vast fleet of raiders emerged from the
warp to invade Brythan. These were the pagan,
bloodthirsty Nyorde of frigid worlds in the Lantean
Abyss, known and feared but never before come in such
numbers. The Nyorde laid waste to hive-tracts and
enslaved and slew millions, offering up bloody entrails
to their false gods. The invaders were ultimately
defeated by the allied armies of Anglish and Callidonean
Lords, but that victory might never have been achieved
but for the intercession of Inquisitor Willard Quassus. So
the tale is told, Quassus slew the Nyorde war-chief in
single combat and broke the sacred spear of the
pagans—an act which gave them to fear and disarray.
The Inquisitor was feted by King and clan Lords, and his
name proclaimed in every vault and way of Bythan's
hives.
Founding of the Church of Brythan
A little more than a century past, early in the turbulent
reign of the present Queen Elyzia's father, the Imperial
Governor Thomar of House Crommell broke with the
star-spanning hierarchy of the Rhamean Temple to forge
a more independent Brythanic Ministorum. He rebuked
the Pontifs, declared himself Grand Ecclesiarch of the
new Church of Brythan, and set about a reformation of
past traditions and hierarchies.
That generation was a time of great upheaval
and political conflict within the greater Yeuros
Ministorum, marked by bloody rebellion and uprisings
of outraged, fervent mobs upon many worlds. One such
took place upon Brythan in the Anglish territories

near Callidon, only to be brutally put down by those
Anglish Lords who sided with the Court and House
Crommell. Many lesser priests were thrown from the
ranks of the Brythanic Ministorum for their part in the
uprisings, and the High Ecclesiarchs severed all ties with
the High Pontifs of Rhame—while nonetheless keeping
intact most of the ancient Rhamean traditions and
scriptures.
All but the most zealous of Destinists welcomed
the birth of the Church of Brythan, as there had come to
be a widespread loathing of the influence of Rhame
amongst the priests of Callidon and Hybernea. In the
years since, Destinists from the clans have become more
influential in the Brythanic Ministorum, and the older
sectarian divisions, while still very much present, have
begun to blur at the edges.
Present Times
Anglish monarchs have fought many ultimately futile
wars against the clans of Callidon and Hybernea since
the age of Rhame, but two centuries have passed since
last the Anglish Lords marched to conquer. Memories
are long, however. While busy tradeways cross from
Anglish border dominions into the mountainous
highlands, and orbital lift scows carry bulk cargo to and
from Hybernea, there is little friendship between these
peoples of Brythan. It is rare for more than a decade to
elapse between disputes and raids—some of which
might be called small wars upon another, more peaceful
world.
Even as militants of the border domains stand in
readiness year after year, the Anglish Lords have looked
more to their own affairs and conflicts since the
ascension of Queen Elyzia to the throne. The Queen has
been headstrong, popular, and powerful throughout her
life, the centre of a Court that is ordered according to her
vision. Lords vie for the Queen's favour, and duels are
fought between noble scions over slights real or
imagined. Rebellious heads have rolled in past years,
and Lords who pay too little heed to the Queen's wishes
are soon called to account. Rarely has an Anglish
monarch wielded such power over her unruly
nobles—and attempting yet another conquest of
Callidon or Hybernea is not her desire.
Relative peace with the Anglish has not caused
the clan Lords to lack for war, however. A conflict of
raids and massive void-landings waged between
Callidon and Hybernea has lasted the past decade, only
recently concluded by Callidonean victory. The
Hybereans used long-abandoned Nyorde raider
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vessels to carry a vast horde of clan-guard down from
the moon for the final battle—and to hear the
Callidonean bards tell the tale, the Hyberneans carried
the taint of defeat with them, their chosen tools fated to
failure. The clan Lords of Callidon, united beneath the
heraldry of King Dunsean, defeated the Hybernean
King's guard and forced their ignominious retreat from
war-vales littered with the burning wreckage of
Hybernean light armour.
The Hive Foundations
Rhamean standard template patterns dominate the
architecture of Brythanic hives, their characteristic lines
and angles, pillars and squared portals found everywhere
in the looming spirebase foundations and upper works.
The core hive structure is formed of weighty decks of
hive-metal set above one another in layers, supported by
vast fluted pillars. These decks fill over time as
structures both great and small are piled and layered to
extend from deck below to under-deck above: grand
fanes, cathedrals, fortress estates, close-packed habs, and
maze-like districts of alleys, stairs, and lesser buildings.
A hundred spans separate each deck from the foundation
vaults of the level immediately above, and there are
narrow, dizzying rifts between district edges and the
walls of great structures.
Hive decks are enclosed by thick outer-walls,
sealed away from any view of the skies and mountains.
An outer-wall is a massively armoured bulk of hive-
metal, many spans broad, riddled by passages and
hidden chambers, pierced by massive gatehouses and
portal tunnels. New outer-walls are forged as hive decks
expand across the centuries, the previous outer-walls left
to as borders between lordly domains. Vast statues and
ceramic tile mosaics bearing the heraldry of noble
houses and Ministorum iconography are set into the
outer-walls, those on the exterior weather-worn and
crumbling.
The decks themselves, the outer-walls, and the
largest interior structures of Brythan's hives are forged of
materials whose true nature is known only to the
Silencean Orders: adamantine, cerasteel, silverplas, and
others. All of these are simply "hive-metal" to the
masses. Hive-metal supports immense weight, shrugs off
flame and impact, and corrodes but slowly, building up a
thick, dull patina of reactants over time rather than
rotting or weakening. Columns, sheets, and joists of
hive-metal are produced as needed within sealed
alchemical manufactories far from the hives, entirely
controlled by the Machine Cult.

Still young by Imperial measures, the hive
structures of Brythan have suffered few collapses and
crushed sub-levels, and there is little to rival the
corruptions and horrors of the underhive found upon
more populous Yeuros worlds. Low decks and hive
cores swarm with the poor and the outcast, but even
amidst squalor and unrest the poverty districts remain
near to civilization. Bailiffs, militia, and other lord's men
walk the low ways, the poorest appoint their own
watchmen and torch-carriers, and punishment falls upon
those who fail to pledge fealty and pay their paltry tithes
to the assessors.
Roadways
Broad ceracrete roadways permit transport of goods
across and between hive decks. Lined with sigil-posts
and statues, the roadways run alongside outer-walls and
turn in at marshalling junctions to cut through each deck
like chasms. Steep roadway ramps and spiralling stair-
pillars large enough to pass an army link each deck to
those above and below. Lumbering, belching
promethium transports crowd the roadways night and
day, occasionally shunted aside in disarray to pass the
armoured caravan of a noble or wealthy guilder. A
millennium of promethium fumes have stained black the
metals and statues of the roadways, and corroded a
glistening patina upon the facing structures.
Fanes and Hab-Mazes
The fanes of Brythan's hives resemble the temple
patterns of Rhame: tall and foreboding, fronted by broad
steps, crouching gargoyles, and hive-metal colonnades
that rise almost to the deck ceiling. The heraldry of lords
and guilds surrounds these grand hive-halls: painted
upon entry portals, embossed upon steps, and woven
into banners hanging between fluted columns, swaying
in the airflow from ventilation ducts. Within the fanes
are echoing vaults set with statues, sweeping stairways
and curved balconies, and level upon level of corridor
grids and narrow cells, fit for scribes and monks.
The oldest and largest fanes face open courts or
roadways, but most are surrounded on all sides by
crowded districts of stacked hab-blocks and guild
warrens, lesser buildings and hive-metal supports piled
atop one another until no space remains between the
deck floor and the vaults above. Some of these
commoner structures are built of hive-metal themselves,
others of stone, metals, plasteen, even chem-treated
wood, but all are typically narrow and tall. They look as
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though they reach upward, each seemingly crammed into
a narrow gap overlooked by earlier architects.
Hab-district sublevels are linked in countless
places by thin, precipitous stairways and narrow ladders.
These warrens are further riddled by alley-tunnels that
wind and twist between walls—each a maze that opens
out into narrow chasms where the district ends at
roadways or looming hive-metal walls. Even markets are
piled vertically, taller than they are broad, the commoner
crowds climbing as much as walking to view cavorting
entertainers and goods laid out by merchant guilders.
Meeting squares, muster avenues, and other
comparatively open spaces are hidden within these
districts, but only those who dwell there know all of the
secret ways and places: hive maps are notoriously
unreliable.
Bridgeworks, Fortresses, and Cathedrals
Hive decks are not simply flat layers of hive-metal
bulkhead material, foundations for districts and great
halls. They are broken by numerous enormous
structures: sealed river-ducts a hundred spans broad;
domed cistern-lake vaulting; old outer-wall sections;
bridges over the upper works of generator temples;
empty sink-pit foundations around major support pillars;
the baroque upper works of cathedrals, rich with
gargoyles; the walls of fortresses, palaces, and noble
estates.
The boundaries of a hive-fortress, often the
estate of a noble house, are marked by curving bulkhead
walls many spans thick, hung with fine banners and
painted with noble heraldry. Estate walls bisect decks
and roadways, the only official points of entry their
imposing armoured gatehouses. Within these enclaves
the structure of the hive is much the same as without: a
mix of warren-districts for servants and household
militants, open squares and long avenues, and great
Rhamean fanes where the nobility hold court. Inside
these halls of influence and power, the corridors are
panelled in old, polished wood, grown in plantations
beyond the hives—or perhaps cut long ago from the last
of the true forests. Hidden passages run between hive-
metal bulkheads and wooden interior walls, used by
servants and conspirators.
Noble houses are only rivalled in their power by
the High Ecclesiarchs of the Church of Brythan, and it is
thus fitting that Anglish cathedrals and their domains are
as large as the fortress estates of Hive Londus. Each
spans several decks, surrounded by districts housing
monks, clergy, and other religious orders, its flanks and

upper works boasting lofty bell-towers and massive bells
of iron, brass, and bronze. Outlying shrines are similarly
set with towers and bells, even in the poor and filth-
strewn lower decks where priests are sent to do duty as a
penance. The bells toll dolorously at allotted hours,
marking sermons and masses, each place of worship
with its own distinctive pattern. Upon high holy days,
such as the Feast of the Emperor's Ascension, the bells
of Brythan's hives ring constantly from dawn to dusk.
Light
Light filters into the enclosed, tight-packed hive decks
through arrays of mirrored slits and vents in the high
outer-walls, or is provided by vast lumen-devices that
hang suspended upon corroded chains from the deck
foundations above. Some greater fanes are set with stab-
lights to illuminate the heraldry of their facing, that light
spilling into surrounding districts, but piled hab-districts
usually bear their own lesser mirror-vents and lumen
devices powered by charge packs, better maintained in
some reaches than in others—every deck has its dark
alley-tunnels where the disreputable lurk.
While commoner and noble alike have light in
the upper decks, the low poverty-warrens are either
buried in darkness year-round or left dark through
winter when deep snows block the mirror-vents. These
districts are lit only by the few meagre tech-devices that
the wretched and the poor win for their own use,
alongside the flames of combustibles distributed as alms
by compassionate sisterhoods. Beast-fat candles and
torches are as common as battered, inherited
promethium fuel-lamps, and for these least amongst
commoners even a partially functioning lumen is a rare
prize indeed.
Heat and Air
Ventilation tunnels and ducts sheathed in hive-metal run
through hive outer-walls, within support pillars, and
alongside bulkheads, branching mazes of circulating air.
Thrumming fan stations run constantly to draw in
exterior air, circulate it between decks, and force it
through stained purity filters. The filters at least
somewhat curtail the omnipresent promethium fumes,
stench of poor districts, and alchemical pollutants that
flow from hive manufactories—but only somewhat. The
servants of noble and guilder houses maintain further
layers of filtration engines and scent-devices in order to
keep the halls of their masters pure, and even these
measures are not always successful in the brief summers
1 7
when a warm, terrible miasma rises from low decks and
roadways.
Besides air, the ventilation channels serve as a
path heat in winter: as the rains turn to snow, plasma
torches and electro-element grills burn white-hot within
the largest fan stations in the hive depths. This is rarely
enough to render the halls and hab-warrens comfortable,
however. Nobles and guilders warm their estates with
promethium-torches, electro-ovens, and other heating
devices—a luxury that many commoners can also afford
for their smaller hab-spaces. But when snow lies crusted
many spans deep atop the outer-walls and a profound
chill seeps through the hive-metals, the poor and the
outcast have little recourse but to gather in unruly
crowds at the vent-ducts, swaddled in rags and layered
cloaks, to seek what little warmth is provided.
Provision of Power
Hive gates and other large moving structures such as
drawbridges and pumps typically employ oil-hydraulic
machinery, massive pistons and wheel-locks sheathed by
hive-metal guards. Power for these imposing engines, as
well as for the vast lumens that light some decks,
ventilation fans, manufactory machine-lines, and more is
provided by plasma generators sealed deep within the
hive core. These generators, hidden within Silencean
enclaves, serve more than just the hives: raised conduits
and lines of skeletal transmission towers carry much of
their output far beyond the outer-walls. Outlying
manufactories, mines, and hab-regions all depend upon
the nearest hive foundation in this way. Despite this
great breadth of the power networks that extend from
hive core generators, shielded power conduits within the
hives themselves only lead to the largest interior
structures: fanes, cathedrals, fortress estates, guild
manufactories, and installations of the Imperial Adepta.
At the outskirts of these privileged regions there are
power-wells and conduit-taps, where servants and
commoners crowd each morning to fill the charge packs
that power lumens, element-heaters, and other lesser
tech-devices. Power is for the privileged, and the
Machine Cult of Brythan is just as reluctant to provide
for the unfettered use of plasma generators as it is for all
other technologies.
Wastes and Waters
Waste and water flow through the hives side by side
within gargantuan pipes and echoing, vaulted pump
stations, to and from reprocessing vats in the hive-core

Silencean enclaves, walled off and watched over by
tech-priests. The churning of powerful pump
machineries can be felt through the hive-metal support
pillars on lower decks, as somewhere below arcane
mechanisms separate and purge the worst of the waste,
sending it into buried, poisoned rivers or corroded
pipelines that lead to the grey, polluted seas. Reclaimed
and purified waters are pumped upward through
branching channels to fill sealed cistern-lakes higher in
the hive foundation structure.
From the cistern-lakes water flows directly to
the largest structures of a hive, where lesser arrays of
internal piping and pressure tanks direct it as
needed—taps and water-rooms are the sign of nobility
or guilder wealth. Elsewhere, few structures are
provided with any easy way to tap the flow from the
cistern-lakes. Most commoners draw their water as they
draw their power, from meeting square pipe-wells, from
fonts projecting from outer-walls and support pillars, or
from tanker transports crews when they pause for a
while at hab-warren edges. Nonetheless, shared bath
houses and small, ad-hoc piping networks are
commonplace outside the poorest districts, served by
their own crude cisterns and pumps, corroding and
leaking where maintenance is lax.
Sewer vents are also communal for the
commoner masses, but webs of piping and pump-
engines exist in wealthier professional districts so as to
at least allow dwellings to boast water-closets in the
same style as those of noble estates. For most
commoners, however, wastes must be carried each day
in bedpans and seal-buckets from hab to gaping sewer
pit. A pervasive industry of waste portage exists
amongst the poor to serve this need, and these near-
outcasts walk the alley-tunnels of the hives each
morning to cry for night-soil to fill their noisome sacks
and chugging promethium-engine carts. In the darkened
poverty districts where they dwell, there are as many
alleys turned to open sewers as there are waste-vents,
however, and filth crusts every surface.
Blessings of the Machine Cult
Brythan is technology-poor in comparison to more
populous hiveworlds of the Yeuros cluster. While the
tech-priests of Brythan maintain at least a few ancient
examples of almost every Imperial technology within
their hive-core enclaves, the vast majority of those
devices are rarely if ever used in earnest—few outside
the Machine Cult even know of their existence.
Manufactories operating under the guidance
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of Silencean tech-magi produce only lesser tech-patterns
for the masses and their Lords, such as promethium
engines, electro-heaters, charge-packs, and stubguns.
More potent tech-devices nonetheless circulate upon
Brythan, infrequently and in small numbers, brought
across the voids from by chartered guild-fleets, and often
accompanied by tech-adepts pledged to support these
unusual devices. The tech-magi of Brythan
disapprove—and are notoriously reluctant to indulge
even the most powerful noble houses with compacts of
support for tech-devices from other worlds—but do not
interfere in guild trade. Thus most Lords and influential
guilders possess a few curios, weapons, and other
esoteric tech-devices that were not forged upon Brythan.
Wargear is favoured: potent devices such as
powerblades, powered armour, and plasmaguns are
considered house treasures and handed down across
generations.
Vehicles and Vessels
People and goods most often travel by promethium
engine ground transport—the dominant tech-patterns are
loud, heavy vehicles with six or more wheels and hard-
shelled cargo containments. Fleets of these transports are
owned by guilds and Lords, running under arcane and
often hereditary compacts of support struck with the
Machine Cult. Metalled and raised ceracrete roadways
link the spirebases and fortress structures with outlying
regions, and cut through districts within the larger hive
foundations, crowded with vehicle caravans. There is
space for walking travellers beside the roadways, but
few are seen outside the hives and hab-sprawls: only the
occasional hardy pilgrim bands, starving outlaws, and
farm-tract poor forced from their habs by ill luck or
harsh treatment.
Upon the seas, corrosion-streaked barges and
stinking fish-processor vessels churn slowly between
coastal hivewalls, each home to its own insular
community, and almost a town in and of itself. Despite
the size of the sea-barges, land routes still carry the
greater portion of goods for trade and travelling workers,
however. The grey oceans of Brythan are empty save for
the barges and processors: coastal waters long ago
ceased to be a haven for the traditional small sails,
wooden hulls, and fisher boats. The last visible remnants
of the old fleets are rotting ribs and keels left upon
mudflats and in effluent-choked estuaries, shadowed by
manufactory towers and waste-discharge stations.
Aircraft are comparatively rare, and not
produced by any of Brythan's manufactories. The

Anglish Queen holds a few robust, ancient Imperial
Guard flyers, while noble houses and clan lords between
them possess a handful of flyers, ranging from ugly bulk
transports to ornate and gilded pleasure craft. These air-
vessels are maintained largely for prestige rather than
utility, and are put to little meaningful use. More
commonly seen are drogue transports employed by
wealthy guilds for sedate long distance flight and heavy
lifting, although there are still only a few score such
vessels in all Brythan.
Voidships
There are no true Imperial voidships based upon
Brythan: no Battlefleet detachment, no vast defence
vessels, and nor any guild charter-fleets. The landing
fields of Hive Londus and the greater clan-holds of
Callidon and Hybernea are instead served by slow-lift
scows that thunder upward on plasma flames, each
capable of bearing the contents of a dozen warehouses
or a thousand crowded pilgrims into orbit in a single
flight. The scows ferry cargo between Brythan,
Hybernea, and the meagre, skeletal orbital docks that
service trade vessels arrived from distant Yeuros worlds.
A handful of the largest orbital lifters are crudely refitted
as war-vessels, set with paired macrocannon and thick
hive-metal plating in place of holds. These are owned by
disparate noble houses and clan Lords, potent signs of
status and wealth that are rarely sent forth to fight in
earnest—but which have nonetheless served well
enough in Brythan's wars. Even heavily armoured scows
are small, fragile, and ill-equipped in comparison to a
warp-capable frigate, however.
Planetary Defence Installations
Beyond the absence of Battlefleet-scale vessels, Brythan
also lacks the extensive unified planetary defences
characteristic of a greater hiveworld. The orbital
docking structures are sparse and unarmed, but Hive
Londus and the largest spirebase structures in Callidon
are guarded by orbital-reach macrocannon, enormous
weapons sunk deep into shielded pits. There are scores
of these installations, some of which are melted ruins,
lanced by the Nyorde centuries ago and never rebuilt.
Others are simply abandoned, their tech-devices failed
or corroded to uselessness—a consequence of the
history and character of the controlling noble house or
clan. Nonetheless, enough defence macrocannon remain
active to threaten lesser voidships with destruction,
should the varied Lords of the domains containing these
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weapons put their differences aside and act in unison.
Arms and Armour
The manufactories of Brythan turn out simple, robust
wargear such as stubbers, shotguns, a range of
promethium flamers, fragmentation grenades, and light
flak armour. Light armoured vehicles, cannon, and
standard template tanks are also constructed, though not
in the numbers appropriate to the size of Brythanic
armies: battles are slow and bloody, decided as much by
men on foot as by weight of cannon or speed of mounted
deployment.
The bulk of an army marching to earnest war is
made up of militia, conscripted from the commoner
masses for the duration of hostilities and released
thereafter. As many of the able-bodied as can be found
within an Anglish domain are called by marshals to the
practice squares every tenth day—and later mustered to
fight in the Lord's wars or march to suppress riot and
rebellion. In some domains the practice is proud and
crowded, in others reluctant and poor—but regardless,
militia are typically ill-led and poorly equipped in
comparison to professional soldiers, trained to use little
more than breach-load rifles and shotguns. When militia
must travel far to battle, they ride packed into the same
pattern of transport that carries meat from the beast pens,
given little or no protection.
Effective wargear, such as automatic stubbers,
body armour, heavy cannon, and armoured vehicles, are
restricted to the standing militant forces maintained by
the nobility: household guards in peace and heart of a
larger army in war. A Lord's estate-guard will typically
include a few tanks and scout amour alongside a larger
number of Chimera-pattern transports. Large
cannon—murder-tanks and artillery—are towed behind
promethium engine tenders or crudely mounted on
standard template tank hulls. More potent Imperial
weaponry exists, brought across the voids by guild
traders, but only the trusted elite bear such rare wargear.
A Lord's close-guard might be equipped with a score of
hellguns, carapace armour, and a scattering of bolter,
rocket, and melta weapons, for example, while the Lord
himself goes to war in powered armour embossed with
house heraldry, bearing a scarred powerblade from the
forges of Gahul, wielded by his father and father's father
before him.
Beyond the nobility, the wealthiest guilds
maintain guard forces that approach the size of a Lord's
standing army, although these militants are typically
scattered throughout mercantile holdings in many

different regions rather than being centrally barracked.
Some are armed as poorly militia, whilst others are
given heraldry, uniforms, and more sophisticated
weaponry—but this depends on the guilder's influence
and noble indulgence. A Lord typically only permits the
privilege of raising a personal guard in his domain in
return for a pledge of military support in times of war
and tithes or favours in times of peace.
The Adeptus Arbites barracked in Hive Londus
possess extensive armouries of light wargear, a equal
mix of ancient tech-patterns from the age of Rhame and
weapons manufactured upon Brythan. Enforcers are
typically equipped with Rhamean-pattern carapace
armour and Brythanic shotguns, but can muster a
smaller number of heavier man-portable weapons if
needed. The barracks in Hive Londus support more
armoured vehicles than are found in any one Lord's
forces, both tanks and Chimera-pattern transports, and
all Arbites deployments within the hive are fully
mechanized—more than enough to intimidate even the
most bloody-minded mobs.
Cogitators and Data Vaults
Cogitation devices of all varieties are rare on Brythan,
even in the hives. The lesser cogitators and data vaults
commonplace on other Yeuros hiveworlds, heavy
devices slaved to key-slates and flickering pict screens,
are little seen beyond Machine Cult enclaves and the oft-
neglected Administratum vaults set deep within Hive
Londus. But there, hidden away, are rank upon rank of
cogitation cells suited for scribe-labour, as well as huge
data looms capable of intricate psalm-algorithms, such
as ciphering and sifting tasks. Elsewhere, however,
cogitators are conspicuous by their absence; a few
battle-cogitators and savant's data vaults are held by
sophisticated guild elders and Lords, but rarely used
well. Orbital scows and a few arcane tech-installations
such as the planetary defense cannons and massive psy-
damper generators of the Astropathic Enclave are guided
by dedicated, slaved cogitators, but these are exceptions
to the general rule: vehicles, devices, and installations,
ranging from sea-barges to electo-heaters to hive-gates
are controlled manually, or through simple mechanical
linkages.
Lexical Tools
The common scribes of Brythan have little or no access
to sophisticated Imperial lexmachinery, such as auto-
quills, memory augmetics, and librarium servitors. They
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work with tools that are little more advanced than those
of their ancestors: parchment, ink, and rattling type-
machinery that presses heated sigil-blocks upon sheets
of silversheaf. The educated Lord's private librarium is
thus a mix of folios copied and illuminated by hand,
type-printed and metal-bound silversheaf manuscripts,
and a few rare and prized dataslates.
Servitors
Upon Brythan, the dominant Silencean scriptures declare
that a labour servitor exists in a state of grace, closer to
the Omnissiah's Will than any mere man.
Transformation into a servitor is the rightful and fitting
reward for a long life dedicated to sacred duties.
Servitors work alongside red-robed Silenceans in the
hives, and many more toil hidden within Machine Cult
manufactories and mines, but all were once tech-adepts.
To the Silencean eye, a servitor is a machine shrine in
and of itself, honouring both the Omnissiah and the aged
tech-adept whose flesh and augmetics it incorporates,
and thus any ownership of servitors beyond the Machine
Cult is unthinkable and impermissible.
Augmetics
Machine augmentation of the body and mind are rare
beyond the ranks of the Machine Cult, only provided by
monkish Silencean tech-priests under exceptional
circumstances. A few Lords, High Ecclesiarchs and
other powerful figures bear augmetics to evade the
consequences of crippling injury, but even these signs of
favour are given reluctantly.
Communication
Portable vox devices are constructed in Brythan's
manufactories, but vox communication itself is poor and
fragmented: the hidden installations and Machine Cult
mysteries that allow for distant communication are either
ill-kept or deliberately limited. Few commoners are
granted the opportunity to use a vox device for its
intended purpose, and few nobles would stoop to
perform a task clearly fit for servants. Thus most devices
are stored, forgotten and dust-covered, and most vox-
rooms were long ago left to corrosion and darkness. The
few forms of vox device that function well are only
usable within a particular hive spirebase, or only able to
communicate with other devices of the same issuance.
These include Adeptus Arbites vox-beads, heavy
voxcaster packs used by the trusted elite of a Lord's

household guard, and the vox-augmetics of tech-adepts
toiling in the darkness of hive foundation vent networks.
Other devices exist, and some can even be found in the
hive markets, but they typically hear only static and
unidentified fragments of speech at best.
Both the Machine Cult and Ministorum
maintain potent voxcaster emplacements within Hive
Londus and other important hive foundations, but the
control seals are only broken to send messages of great
import, or in times of war and uprising. These
voxcasters are capable of exchanging pict sequences and
voice missives across the breadth of Brythan and
Hybernea, but only between emplacements. Lesser
shrines and outlying regions must make do with
messengers and delay in the relay of vital information.
Thus despite prevalent vox-tech, most
communications are delivered by means of parchment
missives and trusted messengers. Upon the war-fields,
runners and signal-banners are much used, while vox-
traffic is restricted to a Lord's elite and little trusted for
strategy in any case. For the masses, news of war and
current events travels alongside rumours and tales,
carried between regions by pilgrims and transport crews,
spreading rapidly through each new hive foundation by
word of mouth. All that is heard upon the hive-ways and
in the taverns is unreliable, changing from day to day,
but the mob is still easily roused by exciting falsehoods.
In contrast, proclamations issued by Lords and High
Ecclesiarchs are type-printed upon silversheaf, posted
upon every wall, and their contents declaimed in public
spaces by a legion of criers and paid demagogues.
Auspex
Auspex devices beyond the Machine Cult are
rudimentary at best, while Silencean tech-adepts make
little use of the more potent auspex tech-patterns within
their enclaves. Hand-held auspex devices are extremely
rare, and most reside within the vaults of noble
houses—treasures rather than tools. Nonetheless, crude
auspex installations and control rooms are built into
orbital scows and seagoing barges, allowing for a vision
of vessels and terrain at great distances. Ground vehicle
patterns lack such capabilities, however, and battles
upon Brythan are shaped by lines of sight: in place of
auspex, Lords and commanders learn to make good use
of scouts and spies.
Psykana Devices
Very few devices capable of detecting or interfering
with the psyker curse exist upon Brythan, and most
consist of large and strange machine-halls, served by
arrays of generators. These installations include the
heavy psy-dampers that shield the Imperial Governor's
palace—where witches are brought to be
imprisoned—and the Astropathic Enclave of Hive
Londus. The psy-dampers are humming, crackling
mysteries of the Machine Cult, arcane engines
maintained across long centuries of silence and tradition,
barely understood even by their Silencean keepers.
Medicine
The medicae of Brythan are an uneven mix of faith-
healers, mercenary surgeons, travelling bands of quick-
tongued rogues, and esteemed scholars of Rhamean
Physik—some pretending to more than one of these
roles, and each class divided into many rival guilds and
brotherhoods. The poor must rely upon prayer to the
God-Emperor, folk-remedies, and dubious tinctures
purchased in the hive foundation markets. The wealthy,
in contrast, are attended by respectful scholars who
debate one another on the finer interpretations of the
folios of their trade: an array of treatises handed down
from ancient Rhame and other, farther worlds, written in
the dim Imperial past, and translated and mistranslated
many times over in the millennia since. The most
revered medicae have gained the rare favour of
Silencean tech-priests and so possess effective medicines
and medical devices, including even limited juvenat
treatments, but only the most powerful can command
their attention. Thus whilst the poor die young, suffering
the progressive burden of alchemical pollutions, fluxes,
and poxes, the Kings and Queens of Brythan can live for
near two centuries—if not cut down by war or treachery.
Despite these disparities, surgeons competent in
matters of cleaning wounds, setting bones, and quick
amputations can be found in even the poorest districts.
Equally, although widespread, most lesser agues are
survivable for an adult, even one suffering the added
burden of toxic potions mixed by rogues dressed as
medicae. All too many unfortunates are left ravaged and
crippled by disease, however: amidst the stench of
poverty districts are the eye-scarred blind, the mad, the
cancerous, and the withered. Far worse is the fate of
those who fall prey to plague: little can be done for the
commoner masses save prayer and quarantine when a
district is touched by wasting sickness or the black
cough. Times of fast-spreading plague arise every few
decades, attended by great unrest, and are terrifying for
commoner and noble alike.

Like plague, madness is a dread fear, for
medicae are seemingly helpless in the face of it.
Rhamean Physik has little to say on the subject of
insanity, and faith-healers much, but there is little real
hope for the mad or those who must tend to them.
Madness is thought to be a curse as often as not, the
God-Emperor's hand striking down the wicked—and in
consequence the broken-minded are treated harshly by
the commoner masses. To be mad is to be cast out into
the snows to die in the highlands, or banished to the
filth-strewn ways of the poverty districts in Anglish
domains, or at best confined behind locked doors.
Respected elders who lose their minds to dementia are
sealed in small rooms, hidden away in shame or
judgement, and for an outsider to speak of their plight
openly is a great breach of manners and decency.
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