Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Just wondering what the history (around the unification period) and current status is of the planets in the Terran System?

Mercury - I've heard nothing of in the lore.
Venus - Likewise.
Earth - We all know about.
The Moon - Huge defence installation, previously home to insane gene-wrights during the Unification Wars?
Mars - AdMech home.
Asteroid Belt - I don't know. I'd assume it'd be entirely mined out of existence by now.
Jupiter - No idea.
Saturn - Home to the Grey Knights and Terran shipyards? Previously home to the Saturnine Fleet during the Unification period?
Uranus - No idea.
Neptune - No idea.
Pluto - Rogal Dorn killed Alpharius here. That's about my knowledge. I don't know what the significance of Pluto was in that regard,

Isn't Jupiter also home to shipyards as well?

Basically there are industrial facilities for the imperial war machine all over the Sol System

Mercury and Venus are unlikely to be of much interest. They're quite inhospitable. Only reason there might be any installations there would be for mining purposes, and they were likely totally drained long before the Heresy.

The more further out planets probably have tons of habitations, mining facilities, research labs, etc... Many of which would likely be abandoned. Their original purposes lost to the march of time.

Venus was a lot like Terra during the Age of Strife, I assume the Wars of Unification transformed it into an irradiated hellhole covered in military infrastructure.

It would stand to reason that the moons of the gas giants would be used for all sorts of things like shipyards/military bases/manufactorums/mining installations etc.

One correction. Grey knights are titan..
They base off moon not the planet itself.

I also recall one other moon has alot of inquisition stuff on it.

Venus was ruled by "war witches who fielded armies of Litho-gholems". It was apparently conquered by the Iron Warriors early in their history. Its orbital platforms were apparently bastions of luxury.

Earth is ... well, we know about that. The Moon is the main base for Batrlefleet Solar. Mars is the domain of the Mechanicus. One of its moons, Phobos, was a defence platform during the Heresy, while Deimos was a major manufactorum in its own right wad was transported to the orbit of Titan to act as the armoury for the Grey Knights

Jupiter is the main shipyard for the Segmentum Solar. Several of its moons were populated during the Crusade era.
Ganymede was the site of Adeptus Mechanicus research into warp field technology, attempting to replicate devices used by the Squats. This led to the disastrous Contagion of Ganymede, and a moratorium in further research into this area. Interestingly, the Ganymede 101st Imperial Guard regiment deployed to Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade.

Saturn and its moons are the domain of the Grey Knights and Ordo Malleus, and are off-limits.

Neptune was colonised by humans, although by the Great Crusade they'd devolved into subhuman mutantgs and were purged. Its moons were subsequently colonised during the Crusade.

Uranus had several orbital colonies in the crusade era.

Pluto acts as an early-warning station for the Solar system.

I cribbed most of that from Lexicanum, which cites various Horus Heresy novels and Forge World sourcebooks for most of that. Jupiter as a shipyard dates back to the publication of Space Fleet in the early 90s, and the Contagion of Ganymede was a throwaway reference in the 2nd edition 40k background.

Thule has a massive secret shipyard which built the Furious Abyss (and possibly 2 other massive ships)

It was destroyed by the Furious Abyss during the Heresy.

Don't forget Sedna which has had a few references to it being a domain of some sort of Xenos species

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Venus was ruled by "war witches who fielded armies of Litho-gholems". It was apparently conquered by the Iron Warriors early in their history. Its orbital platforms were apparently bastions of luxury.

Earth is ... well, we know about that. The Moon is the main base for Batrlefleet Solar. Mars is the domain of the Mechanicus. One of its moons, Phobos, was a defence platform during the Heresy, while Deimos was a major manufactorum in its own right wad was transported to the orbit of Titan to act as the armoury for the Grey Knights

Jupiter is the main shipyard for the Segmentum Solar. Several of its moons were populated during the Crusade era.
Ganymede was the site of Adeptus Mechanicus research into warp field technology, attempting to replicate devices used by the Squats. This led to the disastrous Contagion of Ganymede, and a moratorium in further research into this area. Interestingly, the Ganymede 101st Imperial Guard regiment deployed to Cadia during the 13th Black Crusade.

Saturn and its moons are the domain of the Grey Knights and Ordo Malleus, and are off-limits.

Neptune was colonised by humans, although by the Great Crusade they'd devolved into subhuman mutantgs and were purged. Its moons were subsequently colonised during the Crusade.

Uranus had several orbital colonies in the crusade era.

Pluto acts as an early-warning station for the Solar system.

I cribbed most of that from Lexicanum, which cites various Horus Heresy novels and Forge World sourcebooks for most of that. Jupiter as a shipyard dates back to the publication of Space Fleet in the early 90s, and the Contagion of Ganymede was a throwaway reference in the 2nd edition 40k background.

Saturn is one of those oddities.
No one knows what goes on there. But they do know that you stick very very clear of the planet and moon.
Definitely invitation only.

The forge moon of deimos is also now there. Apparently it was moved from mars orbit to saturn because nefarious grey knight reasons, as is a ramiles starfort called broadsword station.

locarno24 wrote:
The forge moon of deimos is also now there. Apparently it was moved from mars orbit to saturn because nefarious grey knight reasons, as is a ramiles starfort called broadsword station.

Moving Deimos to Saturn is so stupid. I wish GW would educate it's writers. Saturn has over 20 moons the size of Demios, yes you could technically move it but WHY?

 Exergy wrote:

locarno24 wrote:
The forge moon of deimos is also now there. Apparently it was moved from mars orbit to saturn because nefarious grey knight reasons, as is a ramiles starfort called broadsword station.

Moving Deimos to Saturn is so stupid. I wish GW would educate it's writers. Saturn has over 20 moons the size of Demios, yes you could technically move it but WHY?

Because its a Forge Moon. Not as big or independent as a Forge World but like a smaller version completely given over to the construction and maintenance of machinery and wargear. The GK needed a dedicated, secret facility to build their stuff that wasn't under control of the Mechanicum, and fast. Deimos was a large, ready made factory to be put into service, quickly and secretely, instead of everyone and their dog being involved in a new FW construction and wondering why they had to inscribe the 666 runes of somethingorother into each wall perfectly and precisely 1 inch deep. Not 1.1, not 0.9, 1 inch. And they would also wonder by the have to use ancient bones and blood to do it.

Probably an attempt at the rule of cool. Moving massive resources the size of moons to portray the Imperium''s technological might while at the same time bombarding the reader with lines like technical stagnation, lost knowledge and religious obfuscation which itself becomes an informed trait trope.

 Exergy wrote:

locarno24 wrote:
The forge moon of deimos is also now there. Apparently it was moved from mars orbit to saturn because nefarious grey knight reasons, as is a ramiles starfort called broadsword station.

Moving Deimos to Saturn is so stupid. I wish GW would educate it's writers. Saturn has over 20 moons the size of Demios, yes you could technically move it but WHY?

No. Its not because they needed a particular sized celestial object. Its because they needed a small forge-moon dedicated specifically to the needs of the Grey Knights. Deimos was a forge-moon, so it fit the bill by virtue of already existing.

They didn't want to build a new forge-moon from scratch. It was easier to just move Deimos over.

A better question is why they didn't upgrade the ones that were there. The saturnine fleet was based out of Saturn's orbit (clue is in the name) and apparently had massive dockyard and forge capabilities, which is why it retained its own identity through thecrusade rather than just being rolled up into the 'regular' navy.

locarno24 wrote:
A better question is why they didn't upgrade the ones that were there. The saturnine fleet was based out of Saturn's orbit (clue is in the name) and apparently had massive dockyard and forge capabilities, which is why it retained its own identity through thecrusade rather than just being rolled up into the 'regular' navy.

Because it is a forge made for ship building.. Not for mass weapons and amour manufacture..


Well technically they both are.. but the scales are completely different

and you would be down a ship forge

I think the question answers itself- tonfedicaye the entire Saturnine fleet forge to the Grey Knights/ Inquisition would pretty much destroy all secrecy. Transporting an extremely small moon? Much more feasible as it probably better matches the production amount the grey knights really need, along with a smaller and more easily isolated workforce to keep tabs on.

It's kinda like having small, remote military bases to test new weapons at, as opposed to creating and testing them at bases closer to large cities.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think the question answers itself- tonfedicaye the entire Saturnine fleet forge to the Grey Knights/ Inquisition would pretty much destroy all secrecy. Transporting an extremely small moon? Much more feasible as it probably better matches the production amount the grey knights really need, along with a smaller and more easily isolated workforce to keep tabs on.

It's kinda like having small, remote military bases to test new weapons at, as opposed to creating and testing them at bases closer to large cities.

locarno24 wrote:
A better question is why they didn't upgrade the ones that were there. The saturnine fleet was based out of Saturn's orbit (clue is in the name) and apparently had massive dockyard and forge capabilities, which is why it retained its own identity through thecrusade rather than just being rolled up into the 'regular' navy.

taking a guess, Demios was likely "lost" somehow.

GodDamUser wrote:

locarno24 wrote:
A better question is why they didn't upgrade the ones that were there. The saturnine fleet was based out of Saturn's orbit (clue is in the name) and apparently had massive dockyard and forge capabilities, which is why it retained its own identity through thecrusade rather than just being rolled up into the 'regular' navy.

Because it is a forge made for ship building.. Not for mass weapons and amour manufacture..


Well technically they both are.. but the scales are completely different

and you would be down a ship forge

Indeed. The Grey Knights needed a dedicated forge to produce their specialized equipment. While at the same time, I imagine the Saturnian shipyards were working overtime to produce new ships given the situation, this was right as the Heresy was in full swing remember. You're not going to want to strip down and repurpose a shipyard when you can simply move a small moon that is better suited to the task.