Hive World

A Hive World is an Imperial planet covered in towering cities called Hives. These consist of millions of homes, ranging from small gang patrolled areas at the bottom to the highest of quality and comfort at the top, furthest from the polluted ground.

Often these are self sufficient, with their own food and water facilities along with several factories producing goods. Billions of people can live in a hive, and the total destruction of one is quite rare, so massive and solid is their construction. They are centres of resistance when a world is invaded, although they also tend to be fire magnets due to their size.

There are hundreds of Hive Worlds in the Imperium, including Armageddon. This was the site of three massive battles, and several of the Hives were destroyed in the fighting. During the second war, Commissar Yarrick took charge of the defence of Hades Hive after the disaster that Von Strab, the commander of Armageddon, had allowed to occur. Eventually Hades Hive was destroyed but not without the Orks taking huge losses.

The sheer numbers of workers in a Hive makes them hard to control. Gangs grow up and control sections, fighting among themselves and millions subsists on scraps. Further up power reaches the ancient lighting system, while even further up, air circulation systems clean the air for those rich enough to afford it. It is a hierarchical system, and a ruthless one, but given sufficient forces to keep the populace down, it is a very efficient way of housing billions of people. If each person had a house on the ground, the entire planet would be overrun with living quarters and no room for production facilities.

Hive Worlds are important due to their output. They don't reach anywhere near the production of a Forge World, but the number of workers give out a huge quantity of materials.