Pech
From Lexicanum
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Contents |
Planetary Summary
| Map | Basic Data | Planetary Image | |
| Name: | Pech | 
|
| Segmentum: | Ultima | ||
| System: | Pech | ||
| Population: | Unknown | ||
| Affiliation: | Tau Empire | ||
| Class: | Unknown | ||
Background
The Homeworld of the avian Kroot. Pech lies within the borders of the Tau Empire, large areas of the planet are wilderness and the Kroots industrial areas are small and well hidden. The wildlife is dominated by species related to the Kroot such as the Krootox which are the products of evolutionary deadends persued by some Kroot. The planet at one point was almost completely over run by Orks but was saved by the Tau forces.
Geography
Pech is located in the Ultima Segmentum, in the north west of the Tau Empire and some three thousand light years north of Ultramar. It is a planet similar to Terra, with a comparable oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, but slightly lower gravity. There are three main continental masses: a warm, temperate primary continent upon which life flourishes, a parched, desert continent which is largely uninhabited and, finally, a cold, temperate landmass that is continually wrecked by violent rain storms. Hardy evergreen forests of Jagga Trees that sprawl from the northern and western highlands to the Kamyon Mountains in the east cover the prime continent. Those few areas of land not forested are rocky and inhospitable. The Kroot live in family groups known as Kindreds and most dwell in arboreal homes in the trees constructed from hides bound together with regurgitated dead wood. Other kindreds live in the remains of what were once Kroot hives, now fallen into ruin and left for the forest and animals to reclaim.
History
Thousands of years ago, when an Ork asteroid fortress, known as an Ork Rok, crash landed on Pech, the survivors found themselves in the unenviable position of being outnumbered by a warrior race with a taste for flesh. The Orks were quickly destroyed and their bodies consumed by the Kroot. The Kroot laired in the Rok and, several generations later, they manifested the ability to mimic certain aspects of technology learned from the DNA of the dead Ork Meks. Around the remains of the shattered Ork Rok, the first Kroot city began to take shape as the inherited knowledge of technology became more commonplace.
Within the space of a few thousand years, Pech's prime continent was home to five Kroot hives, and factory farming and mining were commonplace, This became known as the Kroot Expansionist Phase and saw the Kroot construct warp‑capable warspheres to take them to the stars.
Here, the Kroot met the Orks once more, but this time the balance of power had changed. Untested leaders and untried ways of war failed the Kroot in the face of Ork brutality and they were pushed back on every front by the more aggressive Greenskins. However, each world the Orks took remained a thorn in their side as Kroot guerrillas continued to fight the invaders. Eventually, the Kroot were forced to take service as mercenaries with various alien races in order to survive. After twenty years of war, the Kroot (with Tau assistance) were able to reclaim their worlds with minimal resistance as the Orks had simply engaged in looting and destruction on a massive scale before moving on.
The Kroot now looked to rebuild their worlds as they had been before the Ork incursion, but those Kroot who had remained behind to fight the Orks had other ideas. They were not about to rebuild a society that had led them into war and then failed to defend them. Led by a visionary leader named Anghkor Prok, they advocated a return to the old ways, to the time before the coming of the Ork Rok. There would be no rebuilding and the Kroot would revert to the traditional ways that had served them perfectly well for thousands of years. A compromise was reached where each kindred would spend time as mercenaries and fight for other races, returning to their home world periodically to pass on any useful genetic material they had acquired following their victories. A number of Warspheres remained on Pech to guard against further invasions and the mercenary Kroot departed to ply their trade amongst the stars.
Today Pech is a wild and untamed world; the forests still cover most of the prime continent and the hives that were once home to millions of Kroot are now overgrown and provide shelter to many Kroot kindred. There are no cities on Pech, though there are places sacred to the Kroot, such as the enormous carved Jagga Tree on the slopes of Mount Kaikown that marks the final resting place of Anghkor Prok, the Oathstone on the Plain of Bones, where he first swore loyalty to the Tau empire, and the Grove of Ancestors in the Kamyon Mountains. There are also places that the Kroot avoid, cursed and haunted regions like the Ygothlac Forest wherein dwell terrifying monsters evolved from the Kroot genus thousands of years ago. Such places are shunned and are places of twisted, black trees and polluted ground, as though the land itself understands that what lives within is evil and a corruption against nature. Some kindreds use these dark woods as proving grounds for their warriors to display their courage and manhood, but such practices are few and far between, as only a fraction of those who venture within are ever heard from again.
Fauna
The dominant life-forms on Pech are all of the same avian stock that produced the Kroot themselves, many of which have been trained by the Kroot and exported to other planets. Listed here are the known Krootiforms.
Knarloc
A large carnivore similar to a theropod dinosaur, often trained as a riding beast.
Great Knarloc
Similar to the Common Knarloc, but much larger, and goaded into battle rather than ridden.
Kroothawk
A large vulture-like bird, held sacred by the Kroot, often used as a totem to boost the morale of Kroot warriors. It is often though to be a direct ancestor to the Kroot, theoretically due to Kroothawks absorbing the genes of a humanoid visitor to Pech sometime in the planet's distant past.
Kroot bird
A flightless and mostly featherless relative to the Kroothawk, Krootbirds are stocky creatures with a thick conical bill and a bony crest jutting out the back of their head, shielding a short row of quills.[1]
Krootworm
A legless krootiform about which little is known.
Kroot Hound
Descendants of a Kroot kindred, a foul-tempered canine creature with a thin low-built body and a long narrow snapping beak. Often trained as beast of war.
Krootox
Also descendants of a degenerate Kroot kindred, these Gorllia-like herbivores, typically used as beasts of burden, are often equipped with mounted guns and ridden into battle.
Krootbeast
A generic name for any of the bizarre and vicious semihumanoid Kroot derived monsters that lurk within the deepest jungles of Pech.
