Olethros Secunda

Name	Olethros Secunda
Sub-Sector	Secundus
Type	Civilised World
Population	2 billion
Climate	Temperate
Status	Archenemy Controlled

“We arrived just in time for the Games, and struggled to find any room at all in Backshore. A and the retinue ended up sleeping in the shuttle – it was that or the floor! The views from orbit are stunning – the islands, still green despite the rise of heavy industry, like emeralds set in a gunmetal sea. The victors’ parade was a sight to behold; they all seemed so young and so proud – I wonder if they have any idea what truly awaits them?” Travel Diary of Lucius di Firro, 578.M41

About Olethros Secunda

Olethros Secunda is a balmy, temperate world in a stable orbit around a main sequence G-type yellow dwarf. Violent tectonic activity in its early development led to the formation of no major continents above the sea level; instead, the planet’s habitable southern hemisphere is a vast archipelago of islands, the largest no more than fifty miles in diameter, resting in a shallow, fruitful and mildly alkaline ocean. These islands experience a warm, mild littoral climate, with vegetation rarely growing above large bushes or small trees analogous to cypress, laurel and juniper. The northern hemisphere is almost entirely bereft of land masses, and the oceans are much deeper. Aerial augur surveys report biomass signals consistent with large – very large – organisms in the bathypelagic zones, but no recorded sightings have yet been confirmed. The northern polar cap is host to a small variety of native mammals and birdlife, some of which are hunted for their skins.

The colony of Olethros Secunda was founded in the early 400s.M41. The leader of the original colonisation effort, Brigadier-General (later Governor-General) Akwesi zu Septimian, was granted an Administratum Writ and permission to raise colonist forces from across the local worlds following her loyal service under Warmaster Fassir. However, with no independent wealth and no desire to suborn herself to any of the Sector noble houses, zu Septimian turned to an unusual source for assistance in setting up the equipment and transportation necessary to enable the huge effort of colonising a new world: the newly recontacted Adeptus Mechanicus of Naximus Prime.

Following zu Septimian’s entreaty, the Mechanicum provided the Olethros colonists with all the shipping and logistical support they needed to commence the long process of civilising their wet and empty world. Thousands of sacred machines and their red-robed keepers accompanied the colonists, shortening the work of subduing the oceans to Humankind’s will from generations to months. The inhabited islands of the Southern archipelago are now linked by a network of delicate sky-spanning plasteel bridges, their pilings and foundations maintained by a horde of amphibious Mechanicus servitors who eternally sing watery praises to the Omnissiah as they go about their squamous business.

The population of Olethros survived on a subsistence economy founded on fishing, mineral extraction from the rich oceans, and substantial olive-groves planted on the larger islands. The planet exported dehydrated and processed fish and seafood popular as a compact and nutritious protein source in military rations, and there was a substantial submarine Mechanicus facility on the ocean floor near the equator – though what precisely it mined, processed and shiped to Naximus and the orbital stations nearby was a mystery the red-robed Priests did not share.

The assistance given to Olethros’ founding was not without a cost. Every five years since the Founding, the sector-famous Olethran Games were held. These Games used to gather every able youth between the ages of fifteen and thirty, and pitted them against each other in trials of strength, song, speed and logic. The winners of the Trials from each Island were brought together on the planetary capital of Backshore, a vast artificial platform which has far outgrown its original island and extends several miles over the open ocean. From these, the finalists competde against each other under the watchful eyes of Mechanicus priests who traveled all the way from Naximus for the occasion, and observed the Games from the height of great three-legged silt-walkers. The finalists who succeeded most convincingly in the eyes of the Priests were given the great honour of being taken up into the void and carried in state back to Naximus Prime, where they serve their new masters as vassals into eternity. These youths were known colloquially as the “Glorious Ten Thousand”, though for religious reasons, the actual number is eight thousand, one hundred and ninety-two – a number more pleasing in the eyes of the Omnissiah.

This arrangement was known as the Righteous Tithe, and its enshrinement in planetary law was responsible for the Olethran Governor’s conviction that the planet is not subject to Imperial taxation. The Sector Administratum ferociously disagreed, and the matter is the subject of a savage disagreements between the world and the tithe-fleets of the Imperium. The Mechanicum of Naximus certainly considered Olethros Secunda part of their domain, and regularly provide it with diplomatic support in its efforts to resist Imperium census-takers and tax-collectors making planetfall.

The Coming of Saint Gearwright - 592.M41

Although it is not the only location where the non-canon 'Saint' Callum Gearwright is worshipped, Oltheros has the honour of being the birthplace of the so-called Saint and one of the places they visited prior to their martyrdom on Polarnus Station in 593.M41, It is said in 592.M41 that the Saint made planetfall on Oltheros with a group of missionaries of the Imperial Cult, there they found their people suffering being poisoned by the runoff of Mechanicus mining operations. A healer by nature the Saint tended to the ordinary people of Olethros.

Seen as a sign of the God Emperor and fuelled by the acts of the Missionaries that accompanied the Saint, civil disobedience against Mechanicus Overseers began to spread across the planet - as people began to assert their newfound faith in their new 'Saint'. This brought the so-called Gearwrights into conflict with the Naximan overseers of the world, and their planetary Government who attempted to suppress the movement as not to upset the Mechanicus.

Recent History - Regency Occupation

In 594.M41 Olethros became the target of the newly resurgent Regency forces, the first spearhead fleet of vessels emerging from the Rimward Marches. Thanks to the heroic martyrdom of Lady-Captain Khadija Majid as well as many Gearwrights and Skitarii who converted to the Gearwrights during the final days of the world, much of the colonies population were able to evacuate before the forces of the Archenemy could capture them.

But the invasion has been successful regardless, Oltheros Secundal has fallen under the control of the Archenemy who have begun to build (or reconstruct some seem to believe) foul temples to their dark gods on the once-paradise world.

It is not know exactly how many colonists were unlucky enough to have been claimed by the Archenemy but the dying screams of Governor Kojo zu Septimian have been broadcast to many vessels requested to surrender by the Archenemy forces of the Regency.