Port Cassian

Since the close of M39, Port Cassian has become the most stable exit for the Hyperion Warp Corridor, and as a result, has become a prosperous trade route. Understandably, security, exploitation and danger have increased exponentially, and the system remains a critical strategic location for the Imperium; allowing them to ferry forces back and forth between the systems bordering the Corridor and the various warfronts.

The system has suffered numerous assaults over the years, from within and without. Most recently, a determined assault by the Brightsword Protectorate was warded off; but the system has tangled with orks and other pirates on numerous occasions, as well as the infamous Warmaster Kaur.

Fourteen planets surround the yellow star Cailon, along with numerous orbitals and shipping stations. The principal planets all have formidable orbital defences including the densest number of Ramillies-class Star Forts in the sector.

Port Cassian itself is a massive naval base, which bristles with defences ranging from orbital macrocannon and defence laser emplacements to mobile Naval stormtrooper detachments. The planet is an important refitting locale and safe harbour for Imperial shipping. The Inquisition maintain the Unkind Palace here; a visible symbol of the planet's import and unofficial meeting place for Inquisitorial operatives.

Dorin Antrum is a Feral class world, whose population live amongst the craggy cliff-faces in tunnels etched through hundreds of generations. Under Inquisitorial monitoring, the north-western mountains are home to abhuman stock. The planet pays its tithe through service, with both true humans and the Dorin beastmen providing staunch service.

Exercitus is the site of the Soduko Hive, a massive Administratum block whose workers deftly record every (legal) transaction that takes place in the system with a unique coded approach of intersecting grids. The slums that surround the block house billions of dispossessed refugees and those awaiting asylum from hundreds of locations along the Hyperion warp corridor. Crime and civil disturbance is rife here, though the men and women of the Exercitine Expeditionaries regiments are well-loved through the sector for the good manners and considerate deportment of the troops. Rumours of hypnoregression and chemical dullers dog the regiments.

The Aldebaran Wastes ae the remnants of the populous planet of Aldebaran, destroyed in toto by the actions of Warmaster Kaur; whose forces are believed to have deployed a fabled Black Cube late in the 41st Millennium. The area is under Inquisitorial sanction, though the mineral wealth easily available makes the area all too tempting for many merchants, Rogue Traders and pirate groups. Until its destruction, the planet produced many notable diplomats and was regarded as an exceptionally cosmopolitan world. Numeous Aldebaran Guard regiments and trade deleagates remain active in the sector; the last embers of the planet's culture.

Bellatrix gleams from space, a result of the dense acid rain clouds. The surface sizzles at a temerature hot enough to melt lead – but this is insufficient to dissuade the Adeptus Mechanicus, who regard the planet as a holy site. It is a designated Forge World, and the homeworld of the Titans of the Legio Nimbus.

Cepheus is a cold feral world, remarkable for little except the unusual devotional artworks of the populace worked on sheets of shaved ivory from Cephean sea-leviathans. The Book of Kills is a beautifully illuminated book on parchement, produced by the Waymen of Czame, a group of monks native to the planet. The Book is known and admired throughout the sector, and many well-to-do aristocrats marvel at the intricacies the unenhanced monks were able to achieve. The Adeptus Ministorum regard this as a place of pilgrimage and penitence, and the Sororitas Order of the Enclosure maintains a disproportionally large standing vigil force on the moon of Abraxas.