Campaign background:
The Imperium of Mankind stretches across the galaxy, encompassing over a million habitable worlds and untold trillions of Emperor’s subjects. Among those inhabited planets in the Imperium, there thousands of hive worlds, industrial and overpopulated. In these hive worlds, the ruling class utilise vast towering metal cities, which height often reach the lower atmosphere, to contain the population with the smallest space possible, hence to maximise the exploitation of both natural resources and manpower so to meet the unquenchable demand of the Imperial war effort. These practice, however, would inevitably turn the surface of these hive worlds into wastelands, ashen plains and toxic dumping grounds.
Necromunda is one of these hive worlds, and our story begins in one of the many hive cities on the ashen surface of the planet, its name is Hive Mortis.
Hive Mortis was once a successful industrial hive, with its prime location on the equator, it was populated by millions of workers who were born, work and died to fulfil the endless Imperial tithe, while the Great houses fought over the fruit of their labour. Until one day, the shadow of sickness struck.
In the beginning, it was a mere fraction of the low-lives in the underhive who perished, the nobles and elites uphive dismissed the report as routine losses and continue their lavish hedonism. The low-lives do not have the privilege to live long after all. But then the sickness started to spread uphive, the masters of the Hive soon found that the sound of coughing dominated the rhyme of their decadent balls, black phlegm or even pieces of lung were coughed out during social occasions. People, no matter of their statues, succumbed to this mysterious sickness in days, sometimes even in hours, when their lung was liquefied. They coughed and choked to their death by the black goo which once was their lung, or simply killed themselves by various spectacular manners when all hope was loss. Medicines, local or off-world, has no affect whatsoever on this curious sickness. Plague had come to Hive Mortis.
The members of the Great Houses in Hive Mortis wants to contain the sickness by sealing off part of the infected hive, but when even the air they were breathing were recycled, they do not stand a chance. Tried to stop the news as they might, words of the plague reached Hive Primus in mere days and the reaction of Lord Helmawr was swift and brutal, but expected. Hive Mortis was sealed off by Imperial order.
For years the plague ravaged the hive, and soon the dead outnumbered the living. Corpses piled up everywhere, sealing off tunnels, factorums, hab blocks and corridors. Hive Mortis became a Necropolis. Amid the plague, there were a small number of inhabitants who somehow simply didn’t die, maybe they were blessed by the Light, maybe they were cursed and condemned to live in such a nightmarish world.
When the plague eventually burnt itself out and the hive reopened to the outside world again. Death became the main industry of survivors, with more than two millions of bodies stacked from floor to ceiling, piled up and flooded in the whole hive, bodies were the one thing that is abundant. And hence the hive habitants started working again.
By another Imperial order from Lord Helmawr, Hive Mortis needed to rise again and was designated to become the main food production hive of Necromunda and the surrounding system. Mortuary cults were created, Corpse Grinders worked joyfully and endlessly in old factorums for the harvesting of corpse starch, which in turn export to other hives through the Ash Waste. House Escher extracting and fermenting drugs from bodies, House Goliath and their ogryns rebuilding and forging the hab blocks and machineries needed for the production effort, House Orlock reopening lost blocks and corridors and remapping the whole hive, House Van Saar, with their obsession of the Archeotech and their knowledge of Standard Template Construct imprints armed with unlimited supply of corpse, are experimenting cutting edge ways to exploit the death to their secret agenda. Members of House Cawdor fall into a crazed ecstasy when such a vast act of recycling human protein was carried out while yelling the signs of dooms to everyone who would listen. House Delaque was hiding in the shadow as always, observing and recording, whispering words back to their master in Hive Primus. Even squats were called upon by the order Lord Helmawr to help recovering Hive Mortis. There are even rumour of Ash Waste nomads present in the hive to carry out actions for their own end.
Every house and clans were cooperating and working for the same end, so it seems. But even within the almighty Light of Emperor, wherever there are begins, human or otherwise, there will be endless plotting, scheming and war.
The Imperium of Mankind stretches across the galaxy, encompassing over a million habitable worlds and untold trillions of Emperor’s subjects. Among those inhabited planets in the Imperium, there thousands of hive worlds, industrial and overpopulated. In these hive worlds, the ruling class utilise vast towering metal cities, which height often reach the lower atmosphere, to contain the population with the smallest space possible, hence to maximise the exploitation of both natural resources and manpower so to meet the unquenchable demand of the Imperial war effort. These practice, however, would inevitably turn the surface of these hive worlds into wastelands, ashen plains and toxic dumping grounds.
Necromunda is one of these hive worlds, and our story begins in one of the many hive cities on the ashen surface of the planet, its name is Hive Mortis.
Hive Mortis was once a successful industrial hive, with its prime location on the equator, it was populated by millions of workers who were born, work and died to fulfil the endless Imperial tithe, while the Great houses fought over the fruit of their labour. Until one day, the shadow of sickness struck.
In the beginning, it was a mere fraction of the low-lives in the underhive who perished, the nobles and elites uphive dismissed the report as routine losses and continue their lavish hedonism. The low-lives do not have the privilege to live long after all. But then the sickness started to spread uphive, the masters of the Hive soon found that the sound of coughing dominated the rhyme of their decadent balls, black phlegm or even pieces of lung were coughed out during social occasions. People, no matter of their statues, succumbed to this mysterious sickness in days, sometimes even in hours, when their lung was liquefied. They coughed and choked to their death by the black goo which once was their lung, or simply killed themselves by various spectacular manners when all hope was loss. Medicines, local or off-world, has no affect whatsoever on this curious sickness. Plague had come to Hive Mortis.
The members of the Great Houses in Hive Mortis wants to contain the sickness by sealing off part of the infected hive, but when even the air they were breathing were recycled, they do not stand a chance. Tried to stop the news as they might, words of the plague reached Hive Primus in mere days and the reaction of Lord Helmawr was swift and brutal, but expected. Hive Mortis was sealed off by Imperial order.
For years the plague ravaged the hive, and soon the dead outnumbered the living. Corpses piled up everywhere, sealing off tunnels, factorums, hab blocks and corridors. Hive Mortis became a Necropolis. Amid the plague, there were a small number of inhabitants who somehow simply didn’t die, maybe they were blessed by the Light, maybe they were cursed and condemned to live in such a nightmarish world.
When the plague eventually burnt itself out and the hive reopened to the outside world again. Death became the main industry of survivors, with more than two millions of bodies stacked from floor to ceiling, piled up and flooded in the whole hive, bodies were the one thing that is abundant. And hence the hive habitants started working again.
By another Imperial order from Lord Helmawr, Hive Mortis needed to rise again and was designated to become the main food production hive of Necromunda and the surrounding system. Mortuary cults were created, Corpse Grinders worked joyfully and endlessly in old factorums for the harvesting of corpse starch, which in turn export to other hives through the Ash Waste. House Escher extracting and fermenting drugs from bodies, House Goliath and their ogryns rebuilding and forging the hab blocks and machineries needed for the production effort, House Orlock reopening lost blocks and corridors and remapping the whole hive, House Van Saar, with their obsession of the Archeotech and their knowledge of Standard Template Construct imprints armed with unlimited supply of corpse, are experimenting cutting edge ways to exploit the death to their secret agenda. Members of House Cawdor fall into a crazed ecstasy when such a vast act of recycling human protein was carried out while yelling the signs of dooms to everyone who would listen. House Delaque was hiding in the shadow as always, observing and recording, whispering words back to their master in Hive Primus. Even squats were called upon by the order Lord Helmawr to help recovering Hive Mortis. There are even rumour of Ash Waste nomads present in the hive to carry out actions for their own end.
Every house and clans were cooperating and working for the same end, so it seems. But even within the almighty Light of Emperor, wherever there are begins, human or otherwise, there will be endless plotting, scheming and war.
