Magna Grecia

Positioned in the Rimwards Reaches, Varan's World is a strongpoint of the Imperial Navy. The Anton Subsector fleet is based here, and the Sectorial fleet also maintains an important reserve base. Both launch patrols across the Reaches and beyond. While the system seems isolated from the rest of the sector in realspace, the planet is safe from reprisals and enjoys easy access both to shipping lanes and wilderness space through the immaterium. This makes it ideal for training the many millions of Naval armsmen and starsailors that form the lifeblood of the Navy.

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Varan's World Armoured Brigades

Varan's World is a highly-militarised world. The vast majority of its military are drafted into the Imperial Navy, where they provide effective and courageous officers and staff. Teeming millions volunteer, and virtually all become indentured starsailors – freemen with skills that mean they do not suffer the deprivations of becoming ratings. It is the traditional boast of the Varan's Worlders that 'there are plenty of less well-bred men in the subsector for those duties'. This superior attitude is partly warranted, owing to the planet's harsh but effective military schooling in their 'Akademion'. It is an attitude that permeates every aspect of their society, and even the lowliest factotum is regarded as inherently more important than an off-worlder. 

Most Varan's Worlders are agoraphobic, preferring to be enclosed in tight-built hab-dwellings, the corridors of the akademia, or in service on space vessels. Varan's World has an unpleasant atmosphere that is mildly toxic to unaugmented humans, and the populace rarely ventures out of the hive cities that dot its surface. The tight workings of the hive-dwellings in part explain why the populace is well-suited to service on starships, and the principle extends to its land forces. Almost all are armoured regiments, with the men trained to regard their fighting vehicles in naval terms. The huge Brigades mirror Imperial Naval organisation, with the immense Capitol Imperialis war engines representing the Carriers and Cruisers, and the accompanying tanks as escorts.

The planet produces few armoured vehicles of its own; instead importing huge quantities of common military vehicles – such as Leman Russ battle tanks, Chimera armoured fighting vehicles and Taurox carriers – from the manufacturing worlds of the Smelts in the Spinther subsector. The few tanks it does produce are of excellent quality; and tend to be used as command tanks; often with imported turrets to serve as Vanquisher-class battle tanks. The Varan's World Armoured Brigades make substantial use of super-heavy vehicles, bought at ruinous cost from the forgeworld Gargamas, in the Thesian Terminal system. 
 

Varan's World Armoured, pictures on the black plains of Grogoff, during the Grogskag War; part of the Grovsenor Front of the Fourth Great Purges.