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| | '''Sub-Sector''' || Primus | | | '''Sub-Sector''' || Primus |
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| | '''Type''' || Shrine World | | | '''Type''' || Shrine World,<br>Disputed |
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| | '''Population''' || 3.5 billion | | | '''Population''' || 3.5 billion |
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| | '''Climate''' || Subarctic | | | '''Climate''' || Subarctic |
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| | '''Status''' || Non-Compliant,<br>Temple of the Saviour Emperor Control | | | '''Status''' || Non-Compliant,<br>Conflict |
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| ''“We arrived deep in local winter and stayed for nearly a week. C complained, of course – unpredictable ground, foul weather, all the usual Voidborn grumbles. Secretly I think he was as impressed as I was by the capital. The holy statues are too vast to comprehend, even for someone used to Navy ships. More like mountains than artefacts. Went hunting in hill forests – unsuccessful but hugely enjoyable; hired snow gear from native guide, wasted a lot of ammunition. Local wildlife faster than expected!” – Travel Diary of Lucius di Firro, 575.M41'' | | ''“We arrived deep in local winter and stayed for nearly a week. C complained, of course – unpredictable ground, foul weather, all the usual Voidborn grumbles. Secretly I think he was as impressed as I was by the capital. The holy statues are too vast to comprehend, even for someone used to Navy ships. More like mountains than artefacts. Went hunting in hill forests – unsuccessful but hugely enjoyable; hired snow gear from native guide, wasted a lot of ammunition. Local wildlife faster than expected!” – Travel Diary of Lucius di Firro, 575.M41'' |
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| | ''See Also'': |
| | * [[History of Nivalis]] |
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| === About Nivalis === | | === About Nivalis === |
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| Nivalis is an inhospitable but beautiful planet just far enough inside its sun’s orbit to avoid the designation of Ice World. The habitable zone on the planet is restricted to a mountainous strip a few hundred kilometres wide at the Equator, with the rest of the planet locked in permanent glacial cold. Settlement on Nivalis was well-established prior to the arrival of the Imperium - the mountainous regions were home to a hardy, hospitable breed of Ruwwad who greatly prize physical courage and cunning. Their favoured hobby is hunting, and anyone of birth or breeding on the planet is expected to prove their worth by tracking and killing one of the many dangerous mountain beasts. Native Nivalian Mountain Folk view the wearing of furs, or jewellery made from the teeth or claws of one’s kills, as a status symbol, and tend to look down on those who do not wear them. | | Nivalis is an inhospitable but beautiful planet just far enough inside its sun’s orbit to avoid the designation of Ice World. The habitable zone on the planet is restricted to a mountainous strip a few hundred kilometres wide at the Equator, with the rest of the planet locked in permanent glacial cold. Settlement on Nivalis was well-established prior to the arrival of the Imperium - the mountainous regions were home to a hardy, hospitable breed of [[Ruwwad]] called the Qawm'Aljibal who greatly prize physical courage and cunning. Their favoured hobby is hunting, and anyone of birth or breeding on the planet is expected to prove their worth by tracking and killing one of the many dangerous mountain beasts. Native Nivalian Mountain Folk view the wearing of furs, or jewellery made from the teeth or claws of one’s kills, as a status symbol, and tend to look down on those who do not wear them. They also revere the discipline of healing, and pilgrims have been known to visit their shrines seeking cures for all manner of injuries and maladies. |
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| But alongside this hunting culture the Nivalian Mountain Folk or Qawm’Aljibal also were a deeply spiritual culture even before the arrival of the Imperial Cult to their world. For millennia the Qawm’Aljibal maintained what some Ecclesiarchy scholars have suggested is some protoform of the Imperial Cult defending mountaintop shrines from Regency attempts to stamp out their beliefs. The Qawm’Aljibal religion venerates the healing of the body as an important part of their practices and as such many of the Temples in the mountains have maintained datastacks filled with millennia of accumulated Ruwwadi medicae lore. The Bayt Alshifa' (Houses of Healing) in the planets Western Hemisphere appear to be the center of this pre-Imperial Cult where the mountain meltwater filters though salt veins within a set of natural cave systems to form saltwater pools considered to useful for hydrotherapy on patients recovering from injuries.
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| When the Imperium arrived on Nivalis on the 300’s.M41 the Qawm’Aljibal were at first eager to accommodate the new arrivals. Initial integration of their Priesthood into the Ecclesiarchy by the Missionarius Galactica was not hard, like most of the Ruwwadi the Qawm’Aljibal religion claims to have been influenced by a non-binary Philosopher-Healer figure, carvings in some of the more venerated mountain shrines talk of lessons taught by this figure of a distant godlike beacon of hope and life on the birthworld of humanity, and that worship was easy enough to coopt towards Ecclesiastic integration.
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| Initial Imperial settlement of the world began in earnest towards the 350’s.M41 - the Qawm’Aljibal had for millennia relied on the integration of small mountainside, cave and cliffside townships to exist as settlement within the mountains as the lowland plains before the icy tundra had made those few who had attempted to establish settlements there vulnerable to Regency raids. With the drawing of the Imperial era for Nivalis, Imperial colonists began to establish settlements in these unsettled lowlands which rapidly, with the aid of Imperial industry, grew into sprawling settlements and the first cities on Nivalis in its history sprung up under Imperial rule.
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| As the Imperial presence on Nivalis became more prevalent, so too did its shrines attract more and more attention from pilgrims and the Ecclesiarchy. The influence of the more traditional Ecclesiarchy priesthood began to swell on the world during the century between 400-500.M41. Travellers and pilgrims said that every valley and secluded peak boasts its own shrine to the God-Emperor and His saints, and so the Ecclesiarchy began to make it so co-opting Qawm’Aljibal shrines to house sacred relics, recarving statues and in a few particular instances laser-carving entire peaks into likenesses of the God-Emperor and Heroes of the Imperium.
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| The constant presence of pilgrims travelling to and from the planet led to extensive development in the urban centres. The planetary capital and many secondary cities boast all the facilities that the discerning and pious citizen might need, and there is an extensive transport network connecting the most popular pilgrimage sites. In happier times, it was said that one could walk into a cathedral in the capital and find worshippers from every world in the Sector at prayer together.
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| Though it is easy to categorise the riots of 584.M41 as the events that changed the world, tensions on Nivalis had been growing for centuries before that, Qawm’Aljibal found themselves increasingly marginalised by intrusive pilgrims and off-world Priests who sought to alter their sacred places. The Ruwwadi are not known for being resistant to change, but what they objected to was the intrusive and disrespectful nature of this development, many of it designed to entice pilgrims to shrines that had stood for centuries without need of alteration. They viewed the practice as grubby, and based on economical and not spiritual concerns by the Priesthood in the lowlands. Pilgrims were often rude, and outright hostile towards the Qawm’Aljibal, and the balance of respect the Qawm’Aljibal held with the initial colonists began to slip towards tension - riots and violence had begun to pick up long before the events that would happen later.
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| Life on Nivalis prior to Ecclesiarchy, and later Temple of the Saviour Emperor, takeover was one of three lifestyles;
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| The Qawm’Aljibal living in the mountains were, where the Imperium did not intrude into their spaces, relatively content maintaining a culture described in detail above that had lasted millennia, hunting and trapping and existing between limited mountain settlement and some nomadic lifestyle following the movement of native fauna. But they experienced extreme inequality, the Imperium did little to enhance their lives, and where Qawm’Aljibal were enticed to move towards the lowland cities to look for work they found themselves treated as second class citizens and very little space for their culture alongside that of Imperial Colonists.
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| The majority of permanent Imperial Colonists on the other hand were relatively wealthy, their reliance on a pilgrim-driven economy and their success in encouraging Ecclesiarchy investment in their world drove a massive influx of wealth to the cities. Many Houses and Guilds of Nivalis were amongst the wealthiest minor nobles in the Sector, lifestyle in the Colonial districts was above-average for the Prosperitas Sector with even the most lowborn colonists enjoying a good standard of living and a relatively safe and stable environment. Historical cultural intermingling long with the Qawm’Aljibal meant that furs were prominent parts of Nivalian Colonial fashion and served often as a point of strong contact between those mindful of the mountain folk’s situation prior to the collapse of order on the world. Nivalian Colonists do have a reputation for hardiness against the icy temperatures of their home and a similar spirituality and tendency towards medicae arts due to initial relationships with the Qawm’Aljibal resulting in the sharing of medicare data, and indeed up until its destruction in the rioting of 584.M41 the Nivalian capitol held a very respected Medicae Schola. Perhaps most importantly they were graced with the formal planetary estate of [[Navis Nobilite Houses of the Prosperitas Sector|House De Sousa]] and a fairly substantial Navigator Enclave existed here.
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| Pilgrims on the other hand were a much more problematic influence for both societies that already existed on Nivalis, bringing with them their outside problems, prejudices, demands, and a willingness for violent confrontation with those who did not, in their eyes, hold their beliefs. For the Colonists these problems were contained to the Pilgrims Quarters of the city where most were lodged before they set out to the shrines of the mountains after spending their coin on the Colonial businesses created to enable their journeys. But the Qawm’Aljibal found them to be intrusive, the paths up to the Bayt Alshifa’ had long begun to suffer from erosion from heavy pilgrim traffic and tensions had already developed between the Priesthood there and their Ecclesiarchy superiors over accommodating guests not in need of medical care who simply wished to ‘experience’ the halls of their Temple.
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| === The Planetary Riots – 584.M41 ===
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| All sense of balance on Nivalis’ came to an abrupt end in 584.M41 though, as noted above, tensions with the Qawm’Aljibal had been growing for some time. Inquisitorial records confirm that [[Navigator Houses|House De Sousa]] had long housed members of the Navigator Diaspora amongst their guests on Nivalis and through inaction and innocence had given a festering Navigator Warp Cult sanctuary. During the traditional annual Candlemass celebrations this cult interrupted festivities, murdering the Arch-Confessor of Nivalis, Danic Vitalus, the Cultists attempted to bring about some form of warp disturbance, they were stopped at cost by the Inquisition. It is now believed by the Inquisition that a [[Forbidden Lore|heretical cabal]] was responsible for encouraging this situation to spiral out of control in order to lay the grounds for the arrival of the [[Temple of the Saviour Emperor]] as a result of the chaos that followed.
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| In the wake of Arch-Confessor Vitalus' murder and the warp disturbance on the planetary surface a wave of psychic disruption washed out into the sleeping minds of the planet setting many humours unbalanced. Exacerbated by the unsanctioned broadcast of violent scenes from the epicenter of the chaos, riots spread in an uncontrolled wave across the planet, taking the meagre [[Planetary Defence Force]] by surprise and shattering the once-peaceful planet into civil conflict. Prejudices magnified by psychic unease Pilgrims marched on the Navigator Quarter in the planetary capitol and raised it to the ground, before focusing their attention on the Qawm’Aljibal as the next sources of their paranoid fears. This was the final straw for many Qawm’Aljibal many of who outright declared secession from the Imperium in reaction to these unprovoked assaults.
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| Fearing the loss of such an important religious site and source of wealth and income in the frontier sector, the Ecclesiarchy formally requested the aid of the [[Adepta Sororitas]] to suppress and control the unrest, with the Convent Primary on Ophelia IV sending a detachment of Sorors from the Order of our Martyred Lady to engage in counterinsurgency operations.
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| While engaged in counterinsurgency and stabilisation, the Sisters reported a miracle whose echoes are still felt in the religious and political hierarchies of the Sector. Every statue of the [[God-Emperor]] on the planet, from tiny household icons to the kilometre-high colossus at the heart of the planetary capital, was witnessed to weep tears of blood. In the wake of this miracle, the Sisters engaged in offensive operations to return Nivalis to order with a bloodthirsty piety unlike anything seen before on the planet - this act would lead to their establishment of a permanent Covent-Garrison on Nivalis and the formation of the Minor [[Order of His Sanguine Tears]] to maintain the peace on the world.
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| But with this brutal suppression of the riots on Nivalis, came the final step in securing Ecclesiarchy influence over the planet transforming it into a [[Astronavigational_Information#Types_of_World|Shrine World]] fully under the heel of
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| Nivalis fell under the rule of [[Cardinal-Emissarius Grulge]]. The ongoing civil conflict was suppressed – often brutally – the insurgency kept to a quiet simmer by the security presence of the Sorors.
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| Despite this Nivalis was no longer the safe haven for pilgrims that it once was, with scattered groups of heretics and Ruwwad planetary nationalists – bitter at the long arm of the Ecclesiarchy “usurping” their government – still holding out in the rural mountain areas despite the Sorors’ best efforts.
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| === The Invasion of Nivalis – 592.M41 ===
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| In 592.M41 the Space Hulk [[Void Hazards|Durovera’s Pain]] appeared from the warp above Nivalis, bringing multiple Archenemy vessels in its wake, exiting close to planetary orbit. This foul fleet made short work of the Pilgrim and System Defence vessels, and soon the orbit of Nivalis burned with the hulls of ruined vessels, in a swift four-hour campaign, the Enemy established orbital control of Nivalis.
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| Recognising the danger, of orbital attack [[the Order of his Sanguine Tears]] evacuated their Fortress-Covent knowing it was vulnerable to orbital attack, letting [[Archenemy]] fire destroy it while the Order made its way to the the Cathedral-City of Nivalis and reinforced there beneath its protective void shields alongside the [[Fidelis Militia]]. Insurgent Nivalian forces, no friend to the [[Archenemy]] or the Cardinal and his Allies, realizing something significant was approaching, retreated from conflict zones.
| | For much of its history, Nivalis has been a Shrine World first and foremost, with piety driven into the very bones of the land. Travellers and pilgrims say that every valley and secluded peak boasts its own shrine to the [[God-Emperor]] and His [[saints]]. Some of the highest peaks have been carved into massive likenesses of the great Heroes of the Imperium, the greatest of these visible from distant orbit. The constant presence of pilgrims travelling to and from the planet has led to extensive development in the urban centres. In happier times, the capital and many secondary cities boasted all the facilities that the discerning and pious citizen might need, and there was an extensive transport network connecting the most popular pilgrimage sites. It was once said that one could walk into a cathedral in the capital and find worshippers from every world in the Sector at prayer together. |
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| The [[Archenemy]] hordes rained from the skies sparing no one, hordes of diseased barbaric scum charged against Imperial lines, advancing from their dropsites towards the many shrines and places of worship across the planet's surface. Rapid reaction forces of Sorors and [[Fidelis Militia]] swept into place swiftly, experienced veterans of the counter-insurgency efforts on the planet [[Ecclesiarchy]] forces slowed the [[Archenemy]] advance. The second wave of dropships did not hit Imperial lines however, but rather fell upon insurgent-held territories, rapidly wiping out what little resistance remained, and driving a flood of desperate refugees towards Imperial lines with fantastic tales of engaging heavily armoured barbaric warriors.
| | Despite a history of tensions between native and Colonist populations, many Nivalian colonist families have adopted local habits and dress. Colonists have a reputation for hardiness against the icy temperatures of their home, and a spirituality and tendency towards the medicae arts acquired from the Qawm'Aljibal. Until its destruction in the rioting of 584.M41 the Nivalian capitol held a very respected Medicae Schola, with data rumoured to be drawn from the ancient Ruwwad repositories in the mountains. Many Nivalians with no Ruwwad blood at all wear furs, claws or teeth, even discreetly, as a mark of family pride. |
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| [[The Order of His Sanguine Tears]] retreated from Nivalis in 593.M41 after Archenemy Forces broken their defensive lines at the Cathedral City and ransacked it, only for Cardinal-Emissarius Grulge to return to the system at the head of a host of fanatics and [[fidelis militia]] raised from the worlds of the [[Prosperitas Sector]] declaring a holy war to retake the world from the [[heretics]] that had fallen upon it.
| | Nivalis has been an unsettled planet since the mid 580s. In 584.M41, planet-wide riots broke out after an attack by heretics on the [[Navigator]] enclave in the planetary capital. An order of [[Adepta Sororitas]] were deployed to quell the riots and conduct counter-insurgency operations; it was during this deployment that the Sorors experienced the miracle leading to the founding of the [[Order of His Sanguine Tears]]. |
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| Since 593, Nivalis has been devastated by nearly a decade of constant conflict, it’s once-pristine shrines wrecked, it’s forested stripped barren by traitor and faithful bombardments, though there is a stable area around the ruined Cathedral City of Nivalis controlled by the [[Cardinal-Emissarius]] the frontlines of the fight shift back and forth between traitors and the faithful daily, and few pilgrims come here without anything more than the intent to join the fanatical faithful hosts on the planet to retake it from the [[Archenemy]].
| | === Recent History === |
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| === Recent History - Reign of the Heresiarch and the Temple ===
| | '' Main Article: [[History of Nivalis]]'' |
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| Since the unmasking of Ignatius Grulge as a heretic and member of the proscribed Temple of the Saviour Emperor, war-torn Nivalis as served as a center for Temple rule, fully unmasked the once 'Fidelis Militia' now calling themselves the 'FideliS Templar' have pushed back those Archenemy forces that remain on the world to the wildernesses away from the shrine-cities. This has been aided greatly by the sudden and unknowable translation of the space hulk above the world into the warp, vanishing off into the unknown. With the hulk many Archenemy vessels also departed leaving only those who failed to reach shuttles back to them to plague the Temple's dominance of the Shrine World. | | Since 592, Nivalis has been devastated by nearly a decade of constant conflict, its once-pristine shrines wrecked, its lowlands torn up by fighting with the Archenemy who have deployed onto the city from the Space Hulk [[Void Hazards|Durovera's Pain]] which still looms in orbit in the planet's skies. Nivalis fell under the rule of the excommunicate heretic Cardinal [[Grulge]] for most of this period, whose [[Fidelis Templar]] forces fought off Archenemy attacks while brutally repressing the local population. Several factions fought back against the Heresiarch's rule, including both local Qawm'Aljibal and local Ecclesiarchy faithful centring around groups of [[Gearwrights]] who had landed on the planet as refugees. |
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| Grulge's new era of rule, is marked by the granting of the derogatory title of Heresiarch to the apostate priest. Grulge, who styles himself with the title of Archimandrite, has only become more tyrannical as the Temple of the Saviour Emperor has moved to openly rule the Shrine World. The Heresiarch brooks no opposition to his rule and those priests and pilgrims who have not fallen in line with the Temple have been violent purged, in 594.m41 this led the martyring of a delegation of [[The Gearwrights|Gearwrights]] at the gates of the Cathedral City of Nivalis by Templar forces. | | While Ignatius Grulge was arrested and [[Sector_Report_X|officially executed]] by Imperial forces on Nivalis in 597.M41, the planet remains scarred and bloodied from its battles. Archenemy forces very nearly breached the Cathedral Precinct itself before being fought back by the valiant efforts of the [[Lions of Nemea]] and Crusade forces including the [[Famous_Regiments_of_the_Prosperitas_Crusade#Letiferan_First_Armoured|Letiferan]] First Armoured. Scores of leaderless [[Templar]] units remain stationed on the planet until the Crusade can find a home for them. |
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| The Heresiarch has all but contained Archenemy forces that have retreated to the wilder regions of the world and now focuses upon expanding his dominion to Subsector Secundus. | | The hereditary nobility of Nivalis has been substantially altered, with many of the powerful Houses which supported Grulge's ascendancy stripped of their lands and wealth. Much of this land has been returned to the Ruwwad communities and families it was originally seized from. Many Qawm'Aljibal, meanwhile, have found themselves co-opted into the [[Adeptus Arbites]] in an agreement which many see as resetting the balance of power across the planet. The [[Gearwrights]], meanwhile, have made themselves at home in the planet's slow recovery from violence; in the city’s defence and the wake of the fighting, the former Olethran refugees quickly emerge as a functioning logistical infrastructure, arranging mutual aid and sharing the words of their Saint with a population hungry for reassurance. |
| Name |
Nivalis
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| Sub-Sector |
Primus
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| Type |
Shrine World,
Disputed
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| Population |
3.5 billion
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| Climate |
Subarctic
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| Status |
Non-Compliant,
Conflict
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“We arrived deep in local winter and stayed for nearly a week. C complained, of course – unpredictable ground, foul weather, all the usual Voidborn grumbles. Secretly I think he was as impressed as I was by the capital. The holy statues are too vast to comprehend, even for someone used to Navy ships. More like mountains than artefacts. Went hunting in hill forests – unsuccessful but hugely enjoyable; hired snow gear from native guide, wasted a lot of ammunition. Local wildlife faster than expected!” – Travel Diary of Lucius di Firro, 575.M41
See Also:
About Nivalis
Nivalis is an inhospitable but beautiful planet just far enough inside its sun’s orbit to avoid the designation of Ice World. The habitable zone on the planet is restricted to a mountainous strip a few hundred kilometres wide at the Equator, with the rest of the planet locked in permanent glacial cold. Settlement on Nivalis was well-established prior to the arrival of the Imperium - the mountainous regions were home to a hardy, hospitable breed of Ruwwad called the Qawm'Aljibal who greatly prize physical courage and cunning. Their favoured hobby is hunting, and anyone of birth or breeding on the planet is expected to prove their worth by tracking and killing one of the many dangerous mountain beasts. Native Nivalian Mountain Folk view the wearing of furs, or jewellery made from the teeth or claws of one’s kills, as a status symbol, and tend to look down on those who do not wear them. They also revere the discipline of healing, and pilgrims have been known to visit their shrines seeking cures for all manner of injuries and maladies.
For much of its history, Nivalis has been a Shrine World first and foremost, with piety driven into the very bones of the land. Travellers and pilgrims say that every valley and secluded peak boasts its own shrine to the God-Emperor and His saints. Some of the highest peaks have been carved into massive likenesses of the great Heroes of the Imperium, the greatest of these visible from distant orbit. The constant presence of pilgrims travelling to and from the planet has led to extensive development in the urban centres. In happier times, the capital and many secondary cities boasted all the facilities that the discerning and pious citizen might need, and there was an extensive transport network connecting the most popular pilgrimage sites. It was once said that one could walk into a cathedral in the capital and find worshippers from every world in the Sector at prayer together.
Despite a history of tensions between native and Colonist populations, many Nivalian colonist families have adopted local habits and dress. Colonists have a reputation for hardiness against the icy temperatures of their home, and a spirituality and tendency towards the medicae arts acquired from the Qawm'Aljibal. Until its destruction in the rioting of 584.M41 the Nivalian capitol held a very respected Medicae Schola, with data rumoured to be drawn from the ancient Ruwwad repositories in the mountains. Many Nivalians with no Ruwwad blood at all wear furs, claws or teeth, even discreetly, as a mark of family pride.
Nivalis has been an unsettled planet since the mid 580s. In 584.M41, planet-wide riots broke out after an attack by heretics on the Navigator enclave in the planetary capital. An order of Adepta Sororitas were deployed to quell the riots and conduct counter-insurgency operations; it was during this deployment that the Sorors experienced the miracle leading to the founding of the Order of His Sanguine Tears.
Recent History
Main Article: History of Nivalis
Since 592, Nivalis has been devastated by nearly a decade of constant conflict, its once-pristine shrines wrecked, its lowlands torn up by fighting with the Archenemy who have deployed onto the city from the Space Hulk Durovera's Pain which still looms in orbit in the planet's skies. Nivalis fell under the rule of the excommunicate heretic Cardinal Grulge for most of this period, whose Fidelis Templar forces fought off Archenemy attacks while brutally repressing the local population. Several factions fought back against the Heresiarch's rule, including both local Qawm'Aljibal and local Ecclesiarchy faithful centring around groups of Gearwrights who had landed on the planet as refugees.
While Ignatius Grulge was arrested and officially executed by Imperial forces on Nivalis in 597.M41, the planet remains scarred and bloodied from its battles. Archenemy forces very nearly breached the Cathedral Precinct itself before being fought back by the valiant efforts of the Lions of Nemea and Crusade forces including the Letiferan First Armoured. Scores of leaderless Templar units remain stationed on the planet until the Crusade can find a home for them.
The hereditary nobility of Nivalis has been substantially altered, with many of the powerful Houses which supported Grulge's ascendancy stripped of their lands and wealth. Much of this land has been returned to the Ruwwad communities and families it was originally seized from. Many Qawm'Aljibal, meanwhile, have found themselves co-opted into the Adeptus Arbites in an agreement which many see as resetting the balance of power across the planet. The Gearwrights, meanwhile, have made themselves at home in the planet's slow recovery from violence; in the city’s defence and the wake of the fighting, the former Olethran refugees quickly emerge as a functioning logistical infrastructure, arranging mutual aid and sharing the words of their Saint with a population hungry for reassurance.
