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Hello, first post as you can see
Im taking up the hobby I dropped so long ago by creating a new brotherhood of GK.
I am writing their fluff now and I need only a reason AGAINST an exterminatus order. Standard procedure in these matters


X, a very resource rich planet, was colonised in YEAR to become a Mining World. As the Planetary Govenor realised the X's, and it's 15 neighbouring planets potential, he called upon more workforce from the Adeptus Arbites.

His demand was approved and 500 million slaves and workers was shipped to the world to work in the complex underground stripmines. As the population grew over the following 900 years, it was finally recognised a Hiveworld housing over 60 billion humans.

While idyllic life thrives in the top levels of a hive; poverty, disease and despair is routine in the bottom of the massive buildings. People in the bottom levels are living a life in constant fear of tomorrow and any chance to escape their economical and cultural prison whoud be called a blessing. No matter whom gave them their promises.


The first alarmclocks were not sound until it was far to late. Only when bloated bodies started piling up in the top levels of Hive Idessus the planetary goverment reacted.
A quarantine was estabilshed; none may exit the under or lower hive.


Far from finished but to the point: how come the inqusition, instead of ordering exterminatus, sends down my GK's to save the day?!
(Fyi it's a nurgle pleague spreading)

Suggestions:

The reason the world was conquered and made usable so quickly was the discovery or use of some STC artefact - its loss can not be allowed.

The world is part of a chain of prophercy that should it fall to Chaos - "bad things happen"

The Grey Knights have come to deal with a specific Daemon /Portal etc

Its a error :0

You could also make it a plot point that within the narrative people quesiton why this has not happened but no one knows why - so you are showing that you understand the issue in your story

Thank you for your quick reply!
You gave me some ideas! Check in in awhile and I will post my updated version!

The Inquisition can do pretty well whatever they want, so whichever justification you go with works.

What about a store of SM geneseed from a destroyed chapter that had nobody left to come back and claim it? The stuff's pretty invaluable, and could help the GKs with their initiate programs - from the perspective of raw genetic material, anyway.

Please don't forget that it's not *just* Grey Knights, it is also the Iron Hands... I think...
They killed half a hive-worlds population...
And then came back and killed 1 person in each family...
The worship of chaos then surprisingly came to a stop

Must of what the Imperium does is motivated by the bureaucracy. Maybe the paperwork for the Exterminatus got lost, or some bureaucrat is blocking it due to political reasons.

That wouldn't make the best story, but you could pull it off. You could use it to show that hundreds of Grey Knights are dying on this miserable mission, and it could all be avoided if one petty official half the galaxy away stamped a piece of parchment, but he refuses to. In true grimdark fashion, the Grey Knights would fail their mission and are killed to a man, and meanwhile back on Terra the official gets a raise.

LoneLictor - I like your style.

LL's idea's really good.

On a more mundane note, maybe the world is just too valuable to wipe clean with Exterminatus? Maybe its resources are crucial to the success of a campaign close by, with warp storms or whatever precluding resupply of materiel from other sources?