Info about disposition of Sol system before reconquest

[b1soul]

So Mars was Mars obviously...and Jupiter had Jovian void clans and Luna had the Selenites

 

Do we have info about the cultures and capabilities of other planets within Sol or how each planet was reconquered by the Emperor?

 

i.e. Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (if we count as a planet)...and all the moons like Titan, Europa, etc.

Edited October 11, 2020 by b1soul

[Gorgoff]

Hehe "uranus" he says.

[Laughingman]

They hinted at the state of Mercury before the Emperors conquest in malevolence. Stating one of the IX legionaries had been involved in *32nd Mercian Rift Gene-cull* (presumably there were 31 Gene culls before it,) There must have been something as a civilization there at one point because the dark angels recovered a number of technologies (An Aegis shield and Gravition weaponry)  from long lost city of Cytheron on Mercury, which they noted in Crusade.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Laughingman

[Karhedron]

IIRC the Moon was one of the early proving grounds for the XVI Legion and it was that campaign that earned them the title of Lunar Wolves.

[Indefragable]

I think either Uranus or Neptune had a xenos* enclave that one of the Legions** purged. Other than the <whispers> Void Dragon buried on Mars <stops whispering> and some Khrave outposts on Terra, it was the only “major” xenos presence in the Sol system.

 

*one of those delightedly mysterious-yet-scary unnamed kinds wiped out in the GC

**it was not the DA, but one of the “2nd wave” ones since the first waves of Legionaries went extra-solar to start getting a move-on while follow on forces mopped up the Sol system.

[WrathOfTheLion]

Was it people on the moons of Saturn or Jupiter that were enslaved by some Xenos? My memory is not strong there.

[Laughingman]

Was it people on the moons of Saturn or Jupiter that were enslaved by some Xenos? My memory is not strong there.

The early XIX^thLegion  fought a genocidal campaign on Lysithea (a Jovian moon) to rid of some half forgotten alien horrors (Probably Khrave)

[b1soul]

The Sol campaign gives me some cool post-apocalyptic Destiny vibes

[sarabando]

NGL I'd love a black book on nothing but the sol campaign. I know that's probably not a popular idea as most of it should be left to the imagination

[b1soul]

That Black Book could easily be framed as a compilation of fragmented records with certain portions being just reasoned speculation by the in-universe authour

 

Black Books could also explore other framing devices. Like the works of a Remembrancer attached to an expeditionary fleet or the journal of a senior Imperial Army officer leading major elements of that fleet.

[Gamiel]

I don't remember where but I read it recently that there was a artificial, xeno-made, 10th planet in the Sol system that was destroyed before the Emperor's Great Crusade was launched outside of the Sol-system

[Spagunk]

Book 8 mentions the 9th legion being deployed to neptune and it's artificial moons. So there was at least a sizeable settlement either before or during Xenos occupation.

This was done prior to conquest of Saturn and the pact with Mars in order to prepare for eventual conquest of the outer planets, according to the black book.

[Arendious]

The Sol campaign gives me some cool post-apocalyptic Destiny vibes

I've gotten that feeling too. I may have to give my XXth Legion Breachers "butt towels" now.

 

 

 

I seem to recall there are multiple inhabited mega-structures throughout the system as well.

[MegaVolt87]

That HH novel about the furious abyss has the ship captains from Sol and one of the planets that had its own large independent fleet(s) before they joined the Imperium, there was a bit of lore in there about that was interesting despite the rest of the book. 

[b1soul]

Just throwing the Saturnine Ordo as well:

 

The Saturnyne Ordo was a Human regime during the Age of Strife.[1]

 

The ordo came to dominate Saturn and operated a highly disciplined military arm known as the Saturnine Fleet which was famed for its armored void hoplites. During the early Great Crusade they signed a treaty with the Emperor to join the Imperium.

[Ryltar Thamior]

I think either Uranus or Neptune had a xenos* enclave that one of the Legions** purged. Other than the <whispers> Void Dragon buried on Mars <stops whispering> and some Khrave outposts on Terra, it was the only “major” xenos presence in the Sol system.

 

*one of those delightedly mysterious-yet-scary unnamed kinds wiped out in the GC

**it was not the DA, but one of the “2nd wave” ones since the first waves of Legionaries went extra-solar to start getting a move-on while follow on forces mopped up the Sol system.

What was the source on Khrave on Terra ? 

 

As applies the OP's question, I may go and do a trawl for material at some point [and provide a bit of commentary - for example, the apparent Zoroastrian / Persian characterization of something on Venus]; there's a reasonable amount available through the various Black Books and such. 

 

I also keep meaning to do a small group of either late Unification, or Heresy era asteroid/station inhabitants for the Sol system, built probably from van saars [for the void-suits] , and utilizing the astronomical / astrological sigils of various planetoids for heraldry .

 

Out towards the edges of the Sol System, if memory serves, there's quite a wasteland of marauders and pirates jumping from rock to rock etc. ... which also describes what happens in much of the rest of the further Sol System - hence the Imperial commitment of the IXth Legion to Neptune in order to keep pirates at bay while the reconquesta of more inner parts of the sphere were carried out. [and some of these pirates have ... rather nasty capabilities - like the Screaming Plague deployed against one of the orbital civilizations of Uranus]

 

There's also at least two Dark Age of Technology warp-gates or technologically enabled translation points out in that area as well - one over Uranus , one over Pluto. 

 

 

[WrathOfTheLion]

Book 9: Crusade mentions that the Khrave were encountered and purged by the 1st Legion on Terra, in the lore section for the Dark Angels Legion.

[b1soul]

I recall it's mentioned in Crusade that the Ist Legion scours the Oort Cloud of xenos infestations?

[Sandlemad]

I don't remember where but I read it recently that there was a artificial, xeno-made, 10th planet in the Sol system that was destroyed before the Emperor's Great Crusade was launched outside of the Sol-system

 

This was Sedna, the real life 90377 Sedna, a dwarf planet or trans-Neptunian object. FW makes it out to be a "baleful false-world". It apparently took eight legions to destroy, though Crusade add further detail in a line about "the battle of Karnakon amid the cryo-volcanic mountains of Sedna". The whole planet seems to have been completely destroyed, "boiled away to vapour under the guns of the new-forged Imperial war fleet".

 

I think there was more in the way of alien colonisation of the solar system than we might expect. The Khrave seem to have been all over; Jupiter's moons and Terra have been brought up but Crusade also mentions them on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. So both Saturn and Jupiter seem to have had some significant xenos presence.

 

In addition the background for the Saturnyne Ordos mentions the only things that could get the feuding cities/kingdoms/polities/colonies/asteroid enclaves of Saturn to band together were raids from Mars, or from mutant or xenos raiders. Also the Raven Guard campaign laughingman mentions, the Lysithea scouring, was apparently bad enough that despite the casualties and the loss of the moon's human population, the veterans never spoke of it, the records were hushed up, and a large number of Raven Guard were mysteriously retired. AK marks this as one of the only times this happened to astartes (shades of lost legions?) so, y'know, that sounds bad.

 

RE: Neptune, it seems to have had some abhumans or mutants or something, Betrayal mentions "the once-human creatures of the Neptunian Deeps" being exterminated.

 

There's also mention made in Massacre of features of the solar system which are harder to puzzle out. The Iron Hands' first honours were "recorded in the wider Sol System against the mutant "Scythers" of the deep-orbiting Mican Aggregation and in the extermination of the xenos Lyasx enclave hidden beneath the ice of Oberath". I don't recognise Oberath or the Mican Aggregation, though the latter sounds like a fairly generic descriptor for some sort of asteroid field or similar.

[b1soul]

I think it's in Forge World's interests to add layer upon layer of complexity. I'm loving the deepening mysteries.

 

The idea of a relatively "clean" and sparsely populated Sol system but a wartorn Terra brimming with warlords, psykers and teeming masses seems off...and is likely a heavily simplified and sanitised version of history.

 

We know short-distance interstellar travel was still possible during the Age of Strife. Interplanetary travel should be well within Terran ability (maybe with paid-for Jovian services) and even without such travel on a more regular basis, the Sol system of all places was likely colonised heavily during the DAoT.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if some Terran warlords were able to leverage alliances with Mercurian, Venusian, Martian, Jovian, or Saturnine etc. elements in their wars with each other and the early Imperium.

 

The Sol system was likely teeming with diverse civilisations (perhaps as interesting as the Interex) before the early First Legion and their brethren brought the entire system to heel.

 

It's a fascinating setting within a setting.

 

EDIT: Oberath could be a mutation of Oberon, a moon of Uranus IIRC

[StrangerOrders]

Well, Venus is mentioned to have been home to some sort of witches with 'litho-golems'.

 

We know that apparently something really funky was up with alot of the Pirates in the asteroid belts given the psychic weapons they are mentioned as having in Extermination, and its worth noting that they destroyed a fairly large and armed civ that had already joined the Imperium willingly (i.e. didnt seem to have lost defenses or war material) with just one.

 

The weap iirc was basically a severely mutilated psyker that unleashed some sort of meme-virus that killed everyone who heard it or drove them mad. 

Edited October 13, 2020 by StrangerOrders

[Scribe]

Man, I wish we had novels on that stuff.

[bluntblade]

There's also the Azurite culture of void-dwellers, brought to compliance by the VIIn Legion but massacred by void pirates in the last instance of the psychic Screaming.

[Ryltar Thamior]

It is certainly worth scouring, also, various HH novels that take place in the Sol System - Praetorian of Dorn, for instance, has much of a page about iirc the Saturnyne houses , their fleets and such. 

[bluntblade]

 

There's also mention made in Massacre of features of the solar system which are harder to puzzle out. The Iron Hands' first honours were "recorded in the wider Sol System against the mutant "Scythers" of the deep-orbiting Mican Aggregation and in the extermination of the xenos Lyasx enclave hidden beneath the ice of Oberath". I don't recognise Oberath or the Mican Aggregation, though the latter sounds like a fairly generic descriptor for some sort of asteroid field or similar.

Oberath might also be Oberon, one of the Jovian(?) moons.