Necromunda: The Origins & Early History (Warhammer 40K & Necromunda Lore)

there are worlds throughout the imperium which through a confluence of power privilege or sheer mythic impact have rendered themselves as archetypes in our cultural imagination holy terror the throne world stands unique amongst them it is true but others persist in our legends as the weight of their history exerts a gravitational pull upon the minds of the masses riza the forge catachan the death lost cadia the fortress we divide our galaxy spanning empire into neat brackets for the sake of our own understanding applying broad strokes of the brush to millions of worlds in an effort to make the sheer scale of the imperium bend to our mortal understandings this is of course the death of subtlety for who is to say one hive world is identical to another vergast is not armageddon just as krieg is not pythos yet both bear the same classifications hive world death world despite their incredibly diverse histories on occasion it is of deep worth to any historitor worth his starch allowance to delve deeper into the histories of individual planets describe the minutia to pick apart the clockwork of just one of his imperial majesties subject planets to discover the stories the heaving masses of humanity that dwell therein the subject of this record is one such world but one as with those listed above that has in its own right become archetypal an infamous and terrible sphere within the greater imperium by sheer dint of its complexity vitality and viciousness now then this is a record of the foundational millennia of the hive world of the development of an ecumenopolis as much unique as it is a template a record of the history of the planet necromunda the bones of necromanda are old even by imperial standards settled at some point during the 26th millennium the planet of arenas prime was part of a broader interplanetary regime known as the irenaeus continuity born of the dark age of technology and all the super science mankind so recklessly pursued during that age the world was rich beyond imaginings in mineral wealth which the continuity greedily exploited for the development of their thinking machines and wicked devices while closed in galactic terms to human core systems saul in particular irenaeus prime had a mighty boon in comparison to other worlds the presence of ancient warp gates of unknown provenance but superlative reliability through them safe and expedient travel to the human galactic hub was assured trade flourished as all wealth of the continuity flowed outwards and all the prizes of the human galaxy flowed in and for a time it was good then as any sterling student in history will know came the darker times first the machine wars when the men of iron tore asunder the realms of their creators then the xeno invasions as the hordes of the other sought to exploit a weakened humanity and then the night the old night known in chronicles as the age of strife warped storms the likes of which our species had never seen cast down the remaining human empires sundering thousands of years of progress in barely a century even the warp gates of irenaeus ceased to function but against terrific odds the continuity well continued the regime in overall control the tech nobility managed to retain a semblance of society during the darkest millennia of the age of strife persisting in the dark of a raging galaxy until thousands of years later the great crusade of the imperium of man would chance upon its existence a patrol picket squadron of imperial warships returning beyond campaign lines from the aftermath of the gehennial prosecution breached the warp within continuity space sometime during the earlier years of the crusade whose horror logs have unfortunately degraded to the point that we cannot tell with any precision while the irenaeus continuity had been spoken of in terran records recovered during the unification wars all astro cartographs with its location even ones that had not accounted for millennia of stellar drift were hopelessly corrupted a squadron's discovery of the continuity was completely by chance and while their captains may have been initially overjoyed to find a fully fledged space-faring human realm so close to terror their joy was to turn to dismay when the ships that rushed to meet them opened fire crippling the imperial vessels before boarding and overwhelming them with ease the cybernetically enhanced soldiery of the tech nobility easily overcame the navis imperialis armsmen but not before an astropathic distress call was hurled into the void the eyes of the crusade and of the division militarists now turned upon the continuity hungrily for an industrialized volume of space clearly advanced and so close to critical crusade lines was a boon incalculable as was standard contact practice during the years of the emperor's expanding empire envoys were initially dispatched yes the continuity had aborted imperial ships and killed imperial armed forces but the imperium was even by this point quite experienced in dealing with human systems traumatized by the age of strife and the horrors survival of old night had forced them to both endure and perpetrate besides the reports from the now slaughtered astropats indicated a technologically advanced society one best subsumed with diplomacy rather than battle lest the cost of the latter in both manpower and resources run too high and the process of doing so damage the eventual prize however imperial hopes of a peaceful reunification were dashed as the continuity not only rebuffed the emperor's offers but instead demanded that he the master of mankind himself submit to their rule as rightful inheritors of the legacy of old earth the carrot so to speak had been proffered and since it was rebuffed now would come the stick a detachment of the seventh legion imperial fists under hashin yonad commander of the 39th household was assembled to retake the continuity in the emperor's name a veteran of terror's unification wars and a titan of early crusade strategic thinking janad's appointment spoke to the division militaris concerns about the cost of the upcoming campaign that astartes elements would be needed was beyond doubt but to assign the stalin warriors of the seventh under the command of such a lauded captain well it clearly indicated that imperial command expected heavy resistance both in the void and planet side janaid's assembled host consisted of no less than twenty thousand seventh legion astartes alongside millions of exertus imperialis personnel and several tag mata of the mechanicum of mars requested specifically as there were many fears that the lack of intelligence surrounding the continuity's technological capabilities had created given the priority the assembly of an invasion force was stunningly fast and when the fleet eventually burst into the continuity's local volume the tech nobility were granted their first site of who they had actually been dealing with all along taken completely by surprise the regime had its holdings reduced to just the world of arenas prime within two solar months imperial forces led by imperial fists astartes struck and overwhelmed key locations throughout the system and mechanicum data gin sundered the poorly secured communications infrastructure and networks that the tech nobility relied upon for all their vaunted and well-guarded technological secrets the cyberized soldiers of the continuity were no match for the emperor's astartes armed with the bolt guns of terra surrounded and crippled the humble tech nobility surrendered utterly submitting to the rules of the aquila it should have entered there another world made compliant another recalcitrant regime crushed under the boot of astarte's power armor another lost human system delivered into the majesty of the imperium but fate as is its want had other plans as the imperial fists sought to consolidate their hold over the tech nobility's volume and begin the work of post-compliance reconstruction the systems of the continuity were assailed by a completely unknown xenos enemy the attack appears to have been as sudden as it was overwhelming as the foe was not even positively identified mechanicum auger screeds were hopelessly corrupted as censorium sweets across the invasion feet simply blew out blinding the imperials as the xenos host tore through their ranks captain janad nevertheless ordered a wholesale retreat from the outlying systems centering the imperial defense around irenaeus prime scattered reports of lightning in the void and chrome wreathed in flame are all that has persisted in the warp gates captain janae perceived a dire threat to the core worlds of humanity should these devices fall into enemy hands defunct though they were this unknown assailant could revive them granting them direct access to systems only recently rendered compliant presenting an almost existential threat to the nascent imperium itself he ordered their prompt destruction and as the charges went off as inexplicably as they arrived the enemy vanished whether the gates had been a prize or a threat none could say no communication was ever opened no parlay was ever given but the destruction that had been meted out in the name of these gates was apocalyptic all but one of the continuity's worlds irenaeus prime itself had been simply destroyed and this world rendered unrecognizable continental tracts of its surface had been scoured of cities with only the largest conurbation surviving xenos attacks their largest atmosphere scraping towers jutting out of an ashen wasteland like broken bones it is unclear whether this is either where or whence the new name for the world now emerged but apocryphally it is said that the imperial expedition looked out upon this new hellscape took stock of the billions of humans that had perished and named the planet in bitterly direct high gothic necromanda the world of the dead its warborn deliverance into the bosom of the imperium of man was not the only time in this era that the planet would feel the taint of the hated zenos striking towards the core from the empire of calverna a greenskin invasion breached imperial defense lines later during the crusade making full wake for necromunda once again called to the task the seventh legion imperial fists was again returned to the world shores at the head of a navis imperial alice interdiction fleet the defense was mounted in time to prevent a mass ground incursion as the fists caught the ramshackle but numerous xenos fleet in the void burning their filthy ships from the skies they were however unable to defend against the asteroid-based forces towed in system by the hated greenskins a common and crude method of orbital insertion for this hateable species these holy natural planetoids are packed full of orcs and hurled bodily planetside the green skin not being an alien especially blessed with any sense of self-preservation despite the weight of fire thrown in their path by all imperial ships within range the asteroids breached the defense cordon and made cataclysmic planet fall around the southernmost hive city cluster ordering a droppod counter assault the imperial fist legion engaged the invaders in a battle that was as vicious as it was destructive reducing the hive cluster to absolute ruins as the heated zenos gleefully indulged their appetite for carnage and slaughter civilian casualty records of the incident appear to have been redacted but ancient ancestral memory of modern necromundus ash waste clans speak of only a scanned few refugees escaping the calamity for the comparative safety of the planet's desolations eager to move to rebuilding but wishing that no longer should the planet be left unaided planetary administrators conducted a deal with the seventh legion for the astartes to permanently establish a hole fast in the spire of hive primus an invitation that while honorable of course was nevertheless a boon to both the planet's security and reputation and for imperial fist inductaria details necromanda was rich in many ways but crucial amongst them was its shared glut of manpower all ready to offer up to the churning engine that was the astartes recruitment process the advent of the horus heresy the betrayal of the war master ushered in a period of turmoil throughout the galaxy and for necromanda marked for it a beginning of a period that mirrored the experiences of how other planets had endured the age of strife while the actual details of how the heresy played out in the shadows of the planet's hives during that calamitous conflict appear to be lost to imperial history what is known is that widespread instability led to an essential breakdown of law and order the gubernatorial administrations of the heresy years gave way even during the resurgent years of the imperial scouring following the traitor's defeat at terra to a constant stream of weak and indefectual leaders who failed utterly to bring the imperial's rule to bear on the rest of population as is typical of any situation where centralized authority breaks down powerful figures emerged to carve out their own kingdoms amidst the confusion and to malt these same figures and their strong arm coteries resisted the return of the lex imperialis with gusto industrial quotas and looming larger the great tithe eventually forced the hands of planetary governors to engage in all-out warfare deploying planetary defense forces against warlord-held hives and manufacturer their attempts were at least valiant during the latter centuries of m-31 for instance the first post-heresy governors waged a war known to chronicles as the age of the iron lords terra's due as the great taxation of the imperium was often known has been the source of much conflict throughout the empire's history and the blood shed in the name of quotas to the throne stained the ash wastes bright red in these dark years resistance to the gubernatorial tithe campaigns was high with many awards swaying the common masses of the world to their side with the promise of better working conditions and better lives under their rule utilizing the governor's own oppressive and brutal military actions against them unwilling to simply let the dearth of taxes continue the adeptus administratum eventually grew weary of excuses and formally deployed exector regiments subcontracted from the astra militarum to the planet in a direct intervention known as the first great pacification better trained and better paid than the ill-disciplined gubernatorial troops the soldiery of the bureaucrats made bloody examples of many a warlord publicly torturing and executing them as well as taking retribution on populations deemed wayward several of the hive cities were subjected to formal decimation a tenth of their populations exiled permanently to live lives as ash waste tribes the demise of the iron lords did not however mark the end of necromundus troubles the years of the immediate aftermath of the purge and decimation were decidedly more stable it is true with the most notable event being the formalized establishment by the imperial fists of the spear of dorne the fortified holdfast building on the roots of the older seventh legion citadel marked what the planetary regime hoped was a renewal of the bonds between chapter and planet and they eagerly contributed to the recruitment efforts the fists exacted on necromund's populace having only just begun the recovery efforts to mitigate the staggering losses incurred during the war of the beast the imperial fists were eager to reap the benefits of necromanda's manpower despite the very public presence of astartes planetside once more the power vacuum left by the death of the iron lords and the dissolution of their petty holdings was only exacerbated by the departure of off-world administratum soldiery within a generation the lords had become martyrs in the great struggle between the haves and the have-nots focal points around which a new wave of gang kings could agitate the citizenry against the crimes of the governors the noble houses upon which the administration sought to rest the bulk of population repression initiatives came and went as they sparred amongst themselves and once again the imperial government seemed capable of not but being helpless bystanders as inter-nissan conflict consumed the planet's hives and crucially production quotas began to cave off hundreds of figures emerged all purporting to be the inheritors of the legacy of the iron lords either by blood or ideology only to have their hastily established territories and holdings stolen by usurpers or subsumed into the bulk of other larger ganger clans who would then themselves suffer the same fate all of these new houses attempted to supersede the governor's authority seeking to strike trade and tithe deals with oft-world imperial organizations directly vying to shock the yoke of planetary government chaos reigned anarchy was rearing its heads and the administratum would take no more unwilling to see the cycle continue for yet another iteration they invoked a precedent quite rare in civilian imperial life petitioning the imperial fists for their assistance the writ of terror was now meted out by none other than the emperor's own angels of death with bolt and blade they purged the entirety of the nobility sealing off whole hives to exterminate the populations therein cutting off heads both metaphorically and quite literally midhive clan lords were however allowed to persist now finding themselves nominally in charge following the purge but operating under the watchful eyes of a huge number of newly arrived adeptus arbites peacekeepers shipped in from offworld to ensure that the second great pacification would be the last one final bastion of resistance a last gasp of this old iron lord order formed around the gang king siberia claiming to resist the oppression of the administratum and the emperor siberia issued a plea to all necromundans to rise up on mass and overthrow the yoke of the oppressive imperial regime his agitation was short-lived but it was not an arbitrator or an astartes that ultimately affected his demise but a fellow low-hive ganger one martech helmiar 0-12 m34 is remembered in necromund's history as being the beginning of a period of change unprecedented since the first compliance efforts during the years of the great crusade martech helmiar was not merely another gang king but a figure of towering ambition matched only by his utter ruthlessness immediately seeking to build upon his very widely known defeats of siberia the gang king approached none other than the imperial fists themselves pledging to bring the pax imperialis to the entire planet within his lifetime impressed by if nothing else the sheer gumption of such gang trash the imperial fists agreed to support him withholding their own intervention but stipulating that helmiar had only 100 years to complete the task starting that very day the ensuing century saw helmiar fully deliver on his oath to the chapter and the imperium striking at rivals with unerring efficiency the gang king displayed a keen aptitude for all aspects of the cutthroat life he had led lethal force was affected just as often as political maneuvering targeted assassination or economic measures but all were applied exactingly and accurately minimizing collateral damage to both the world's infrastructure and society unless of course said damaged further to helmayar's crusade in microcosm having the full backing of the imperium was no doubt a game-changing boon but the world had seen three centuries of chaos in the hands of failed governors imported from off-world and was now seeing a total transformation at the hands of one of its own it appeared to all onlookers and was spoken quite frequently that the solution had clearly presented itself necromanda needed a necromundon a gang prince born of the hives and the sinks who had breathed recycled air and eaten recycled food since he could first walk romanticized obviously but this legend in particular was undeniably effective in helmiar's meteoric rised primacy he delivered and delivered in totality one by one the hives pledged to him each one that fell representing a massive force multiplier in both military and economic terms that the mercedes ganger immediately employed on his next target before the century had even turned the entire planet was willing to submit to the banner of the newly minted house helmer the gang king himself counting his oath fulfilled took upon his brow the mantle of planetary governor in the emperor's name now bearing the epiphat of the imperial house the lords of helmiar would continue their founders legacy throughout the centuries that followed consolidating their hold on necromanda with wicked efficiency all planetary spaceports outside of hive primus were forcibly dismantled granting the house a total monopoly on all off-world trade nothing would leave the planet nor enter it without the governor and the imperial households direct say-so and while a thriving smuggling industry soon arose to compensate for this shipping stranglehold helmiar ruthlessness rose to meet it with detachments of gun cutters and monitor sloops plying the skies of necromunda and destroying any unauthorized air or void traffic the house soon began to target what it deemed subversive bloodlines family clans with tithes to the iron lords of old or any rebellious figures of note from the world's past those deemed of seditious ancestry were simply executed in massive public displays of imperial law enforcement forcing thousands who were either confirmed of or suspected of carrying illegal genes to flee the hives for the wastes many with connections or wealth to their name took the even more dangerous route of attempting to book off-world travel under assumed identities but the scrying eyes of the imperial house were many and few if any who run this countless succeeded in finding freedom and safety elsewhere across the imperium reforms were not just limited to excising corruptive bloodlines but extended to the formal ratification of others consolidation over an entire hive world especially one as populous as necromunda could never be the sole purview of one house and in order to delegate the power of that house helmiar ruled that the six clans of hive primus would now effectively control the six cardinal aspects of hive industry and economy with all others officially subsumed into these or granted writs of authority beneath the six or simply declared superfluous to the emperor's needs and thus outlaw two millennia after his rise the last children of helmiar were now succeeding in cementing their sire's legacy as the final hives were brought fully into compliance with the new regime the last true genetic descendant of martech jar helmiar was a deformed and frail thing clinging to life in a nutrient vas his frame a product of centuries of noble inbreeding and medical treatments to stave off mutancy seeking a grand rejuvenation of the familial line to lead house hive and world into a grand new age the last scion of martech spent his short and painful existence contracting the age of geno splicers to harvest genetic material from the strongest clan lines planet-wide blending them in a wicked alchemy to provide new templates upon which the house would persist into the far future 216 m36 marked the death of jar and the original line now ruling necromanda with a fist strengthened by the authority of terror and the best gene science their wealth could afford was house helmore until such a time as i may continue the tale of this world ave imperator gloria in excelsis terra this video and this channel were made possible thanks to the very kind donations and support from my patreon subscribers if you'd like to help support the channel head on over to patreon.com oculus imperia if you'd like to receive more updates about the channel and any future videos you can contact me or follow me on twitter at oculus imperia otherwise please like subscribe comment let me know your feedback and as ever thank you very much for watching [Music] you

Channel: Oculus Imperia

Views: 80,763

Keywords: Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Lore, Warhammer 40k Lore, Warhammer 30k, Horus Heresy, Horus Heresy Lore, Forge World, Games Workshop, Astartes, Primarchs, Space Marines, Adeptus Astartes

Id: 3AgeRUJcEuE

Length: 29min 28sec (1768 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021