Long Walk

Previously the Fortress World of Long Walk, part of the Hesiod Wall, Lon'war fell to the invading Tau Empire within a decade of the Brightsword Protectorate being established. Proving a thorn in their side, the planet was the site of Sustained Atomic Deployment – the closest to Imperial Exterminatus protocols that the Tau's coda bello allows.

More limited than virus bombing, SAD allows for eventual colonisation once the sites have been radscrubbed. Eventual is the key here. Despite their seemingly inherent genetic stability (clearly a mark of a primitive, cowardly genepool) and widespread and effective medical care that allows them to resist radiation poisoning and survive many associated illnesses, the Tau only deploy specially-equipped Fire Caste forces to such worlds; believing that colonising the dustblown wastelands is crueal and inhumane.

With colonisation at least a century away, the Tau have re-structured the Fortress World; avoiding the rad-haunted Imperial bastions and redoubts in favour of fleet-supporting positions near the equator and poles. Fire Warriors from Lon'war specialise in atomic, biological and chemical warfare, and are marked by the dark, purplish hue of their skin and weathered appearance. Bionics and augmetics are common amongst the Lon'war Tau, owing as much to their hostile homeworld as their veteran nature.

The planet itself, never hospitable, is now a rad-desert. Those few surviving animals and plants tend to be sickened and prone to tumorous growth; though recent Earth Caste research is geared towards rehabiliation and restocking the native flora and fauna. Split almost evenly between mountainous regions and salt-deserts, the land that covers four-fifths of this small planet is haunted by duststorms.

[Transappend note:] Known as Lon'war to the Tau