From Lexicanum

Cadia is a terrestrial Fortress World on the edge of the nebula known as the Eye of Terror. Cadia's dangerous proximity to the Eye of Terror has made it necessary for the people of Cadia to fortify the planet. It is Cadia that is the first target of Abaddon the Despoilers assaults and Black Crusades, launched from the Eye of Terror.

Map	Basic Data		Planetary Image
	Name:	Cadia
	Segmentum:	Segmentum Obscurus
	Sector:	Cadian Sector
	Subsector:	Cadian Subsector
	System:	Cadian System
	Population:	250,000,000
	Affiliation:	Imperium
	Class:	Fortress World
	Tithe Grade:	Adeptus Non

Contents 1 Location 2 Geography 3 Military 3.1 Cadian Shock Troops 3.2 Strategic Value 4 Society 4.1 Reading of the Names 4.2 Cities 4.3 Economy 5 State after the Thirteenth Black Crusade 6 Sources

Location

Cadia has a special and honoured place in the history of Mankind. Cadia stands upon the edge of the Eye of Terror within a narrow corridor of stable space called the Cadian Gate. This forms the one and only predictable passage between the Chaos infested daemon worlds of the Eye of Terror and Terra. No battle fleet of any size can rely upon other unstable passages and must pass through the Cadian Gate. Cadia is therefore one of the most strategically important planets of the galaxy.

Geography

Cadia's natural environment is similar to that of pre-Hive World Terra, with a large ocean covering 70 percent of the planet. The land mass that does exist is divided between incredibly thick pine forests and vast glaciers. The planet is slightly cooler than most but not to the point that it adversely effects growing conditions.

Military

Cadian Shock Troops

Cadia's planetary defense forces are known as the Interior Guard. It is from this guard that the Imperium draws the famed Cadian Shock Troopers regiments, widely regarded as the best soldiers in the Imperium short of the superhuman Space Marines. Their leader is the indomitable Ursarkar E. Creed, the saviour of Cadia and hero of the Battle for Cadia.

Strategic Value

Since Cadia is the capital of a sector raided by, and the Imperium's bastion against, the Chaos forces who raid directly from the Eye, it is one of the most militarized and fortified of Imperial planets. Massive Kasrs dot the landscape. All citizens of the planet must serve at least a four year term in the military, and the amount of military presence has lead to the population becoming focused on weapons production. 71.75% of the population is under arms ¹.

On several occasions the forces of Chaos have moved against Cadia and raging battles have been fought in the depths of space. Such huge battles are rare, but the constant intrusion of Chaos raiding craft is commonplace. Chaos Space Marines make frequent forays onto the surface of Cadia and must be hunted down. The bulk of the Cadian army is made up of the Shocktroops, with the remainder made up of the Whiteshields (conscript soldiers recruited at the age of 14 and trained to take place in Shocktroop regiments) and the Elite Kasrkin soldiers.

Notable regiments:

• 7th Cadian "The Lucky Sevens"
• 8th Cadian "The Lord Castellan's Own", led personally by Ursarkar E. Creed during the Thirteenth Black Crusade
• 39th Cadian "Xenobane"
• 110th Cadian "Shadow Corps"
• 122nd Cadian Distinguished themselves in the Vogen Campaign, and featured in Codex: Cityfight (Chambers, 2001)
• 412th Cadian Featured in the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War expansion Winter Assault
• 417th Cadian "Hellbringers"

Society

Cadia was settled sometime in the early 32nd millennium by Humans, who quickly became the dominant species. The Cadian people are naturally tall, fair-skinned, with blonde hair and blue or purple eyes.

Cadian society is more martial than civilian, mostly due to the disproportionate ratio of soldiers to citizens in its population. Most Cadian children learn to field-strip a lasgun by the age of ten years, and many young Cadians serve in youth armies as Whiteshields. Cadian society is so martial, in fact, that camouflage patterns have made their way into everyday fashion.

Reading of the Names

Being an embattled world, Cadia suffers constant casualties in the defense of Cadia and the Imperium. Cemetery space on the planet is at a premium so the local priests routinely check the tombstones of the honored dead for legibility. When a section of the cemetery is deemed illegible those graves are exhumed and the bones are added to a communal pit. The theory is that once the names are illegible, the honors are forgotten.³

Cities

After the first Chaos invasion, soon after the planet was settled, Cadian cities changed from a plan of broad avenues to one where the streets of its cities arranged in zig-zag patterns meant to make any intruding enemies fight for every block. At the heart of each Cadian city is a fortress called a Kasr in the local dialect. The largest Kasr in 241.M41 was Kasr Derth.

Economy

Although heavily militarized, Cadia is largely self-sufficient, and exports huge amounts of weapons to its neighboring planets, while importing very little. Many other worlds use Cadian materials to equip their own regiments, including the Brimlock Dragoons.

State after the Thirteenth Black Crusade

During the worldwide campaign of Abaddon the Despoiler's Thirteenth Black Crusade, the forces of Chaos managed to establish a major foothold on Cadia, though they lost the battle in space. The result of this is that most of Cadia is now under control of Chaos forces, although they have no way currently of being reinforced.

Sources

• ¹Codex: Eye of Terror p.24
• ²Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett
• ³Malleus by Dan Abnett
• ⁴White Dwarf 182, Cadian Shock Troops: Imperial Guard, by Rick Priestley
• ⁵Codex: Chaos Space Marines (3rd Edition), 2002