Gnosis Prime

Gnosis Prime system is a star that shines with life-bringing benevolence . Its light is unusually low in DNA-damaging ultra-violet rays and solar flares are rare and minor compared with the solarstorms that wrack its celestial neighbours. 

Gnosis Prime is home to Forgeworld Janus which, possibly due to xenos artifice, is situated right in the middle of what the ancients of Terra called the "Goldiloks Zow". Janus, despite being a former Maiden World of the Eldar is firmly in the grasp of the Prater Ferrum, the planet's ruling class and Arch-Magi of the Adeptus Mechanicus. At their command is the might of Legio Kerberos, Imperial Knight House Nestis and the countless serried ranks of the Janusian Skitarii.

To Janus' benefit, a nearby asteroid field in-system is home to gigatonnes of admantium and transuranic elements, while a 0.6 solar mass gas-giant, Gnosis II, is a seemingly inexhaustible supply of promethium, methane and other hydrocarbons. These are continually extracted from the planet's upper atmosphere by giant automated processing plants, the operation of which is left to those who have committed minor acts of tech-heresy. To ensure compliance, neural goads automatically excruiate the entire workforce should production drop below quota. 

The system's incredible mineral wealth does not extend to the noble metals or gases and this has led to considerable trade with the Yig Confederacy, which has to be careful least it become a mere satellite-client to Janus' growing glory. 

Forgeworld Janus
Half-dead, half-paradise, the Forgeworld of Janus is riddled with contradictions. Like the near-forgotten God of ancient Terra, it presents two faces to those who look upon it from high orbit. The northern hemisphere is a polluted wasteland, the equal of Mars or Baal in its barren, ruined glory. The other half of the world is a paradise that lifts the spirits of all who see it, the air, the light, the lush greenery all combine to form a half-world of such beauty that it rivals even long lost Prandium in its verdant splendour.

Located in the Invictus sub-sector, Janus — so the legends say — was originally settled by one of the last explorator fleets to leave Mars, in the 29th millennium. While the strong similarities in heraldry between Janus' Skitarii, the Legio Kerberos, and the Braun II Skitarii, suggest a common origin, this has never been verified and the topic is considered in bad taste, to the extent that all three parties are known to exload pre-scripted binaric barbs at any with the effrontery to broach the subject.

While wounded and scarred, Janus remains a maiden world. Those residing in the southern hemisphere and sufficiently far away for the lush vegetation to purge the plumes of pollution coming from the forges in the north, grow tall, strong and free of disease. Lifespans in the several hundreds of years are not unknown even in the absence of rejuvenat treatments.The south’s capital city, Persphone, is home to the Sito Sisterhood, an all-female order of Genetors, who are rumoured to preside over a eugenics programme of such scale, that every birth on Janus furthers their goals. What these are unknown, but there is something about this world that draws Thorian Inquisitors to it, like moths to a flame. The Sito Sisterhood also concerns itself with refining the surgical procedures required to allow knight pilots and titan crews to interface with their god-machines’ manifolds. A more recent area of study for the Sisterhood are the plagues that manifest during the first stages of a Tyranid invasion. Uniquely, this work takes place at a research station at the north pole, the extreme toxicity of the environment making the consequences of a containment breach almost negligible. 

The dual nature of Janus combined with some of its more esoteric traditions have led to strange and exaggerated notions of sexuality. Masculinity is identified with iron and fire, femininity with wood and water. The Prater Ferrum have been known to sport long beards of writhing mechanadentrites and some slowly turn themselves into cybernetic caricatures of male perfection. The Sito Sisterhood and their daughters are renowned throughout the subsector for their voluptuousness and bed-craft, yet when Demeter, Janus’ only moon, turns its face from Janus and the nights are dark, wise men know not travel abroad between the hours of darkness within their domain.