Necromunda (planet)
From Lexicanum
| Map | Basic Data | Planetary Image | |
| Name: | Necromunda |
|
| Segmentum: | Segmentum Solar | ||
| Sector: | Unknown | ||
| Subsector: | Unknown | ||
| System: | Unknown | ||
| Population: | Unknown | ||
| Affiliation: | Imperium | ||
| Class: | Hive World | ||
| Tithe Grade: | Unknown | ||
Necromunda is a hive world in the Segmentum Solar, and a major producer of munitions for the Imperial Guard. Necromunda's forges produce lasguns, autoguns, shotguns and boltguns, among other weapons. The planet also levies huge numbers of troops for the Imperial Guard (most notably the Necromundan Spiders), as well as other supplies. Necromunda is typical of most hive worlds, its hive cites rife with powerful gangs.
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Background
Necromunda was founded 15,000 years ago as a mining and manufacturing colony. The ensuing millennia have not changed its basic purpose very much; Necromunda is still a world of mines, factories, refineries and processing plants. The planet is a vast powerhouse of industry, making thousands and thousands of different items for use throughout nearby planetary systems.
Nothing which can contribute to the planet's output has been left untouched. From the tops of the highest mountains to the depths of the oceans, the wealth of Necromunda has been ripped out. Mountains have been reduced to rubble for the ore they contain; oceans have been turned into little more than chemical sludge ponds. The once fertile plains have disappeared under huge urban developments of great housing and factory blocks, forming new ranges of man-made mountains every bit as tall as the long since flattened natural land features. These huge towering urban complexes are known as city hives, or simply as hives, and their individual peaks or towers are called city spires or spires. A close group of hives is known as a hive cluster. Between the hives deserts of industrial ash cover the surface of the planet with a mobile, corrosive skin. Over this desert lies a cloud layer of airborne pollution, so that the great spires of the city hives rise from a drifting mist of tainted vapour like islands out of the sea.
Despite being reduced to such a hellish state, Necromunda is still a valuable world to the Imperium. Although little of Necromunda's original resources remain, the waste-heaps of previous generations have become a new source of riches. Necromunda lives on the accumulated wastes of its past: its people have learned to scavenge, reclaim and recycle everything in order to squeeze a living from their exhausted world.
Necromunda's population has increased well beyond the planet's capacity to support it. As a consequence it is wholly reliant on synthetic and imported food. Each hive has its recycling plants which convert used organic matter into synthetic food. Real food is imported from off-planet, but is an expensive luxury which only the most wealthy and prestigious Necromundans can afford.
There are probably more people on Necromunda than have ever lived in the entire history of Terra up until the end of the twentieth century. An attempted census of Trazior Hive four thousand years ago revealed an estimated population of a billion in the upper habitation levels alone - no further attempt has been made to count Necromunda's population in Trazior or any other of the several thousand hives on the planet.
The planet's capital is Hive Primus, one of Necromunda's many hive cities. The hive is enormous in size, reaching from the surface to some 10 miles into the air, and from surface level to roughly 2.8 miles into the ground (although only the first 1.3 miles are habitable by humans), and possesses a population greater than some worlds.
Hive Primus, and the planet as a whole, is ruled over by Lord Gerontius Helmawr of House Helmawr. The Hive's Houses are in a constant struggle to gain power and control of the Hive.
Necromundan Society
The society of Necromunda is reasonably typical of larger Hive Worlds. No attempt is made to enforce central administration upon the entire population; indeed such a thing would prove impossible on a world where most people remain unrecorded by any authority. Instead, a kind of feudal system has evolved by which individual people owe loyalty to others, who in their turn owe their loyalty to other increasingly more powerful members of the hierarchy. Among the more stable elements of the population these loyalties are owed on a family basis, and closely related families all support each other under the hegemony of the most powerful member of their family group.
This form of urban feudalism tends to be self-regulating. Weaker clans naturally seek the protection of more powerful neighbors whose powerbase then expands until it reaches the limit whereby its numbers and resources are simply too few to allow it to expand further. Where rival clans meet it is inevitable that their power will be tested in combat; the ability of a clan to exert its power being the only true measure of its influence. The endless feuds between the warrior gangs of these clans are a fundamental part of the workings of Necromunda.
The Hives
The hive cities of Necromunda retain the ancient names of the cities and settlements from which they grew. Each hive spire is also known by a local name. There are approximately a thousand hive clusters on Necromunda; each cluster a group of up to a dozen or so individual hive cities, all linked by a network of overground travel tubes and subterranean passages.
Hive Primus
Necromunda's capital is Hive Primus, its spire forming the hive's upper layer, penetrating the cloud and pollution cover. It is the domain of the Noble Houses and of Lord Gerontius of the Imperial House Helmawr.
- The Noble Houses consist of
- Greim
- Ulanti
- Ty
- Ran Lo
- Catallus
- Ko'Iron.
- Hive City
Separated from the Spire by "the Wall", a large adamantium barrier, is the Hive City. The Hive City is five miles in height and home to billions of people. The city is controlled by six Houses of manufacturers that control their own section.
Houses:
- Cawdor
- Delaque - a mysterious House whose motives never seem clear. It is rumoured that some members of other Houses (even Noble Houses) are secretly in their employ. They make significant use of spies and prefer to hunt down their foes silently and with the minimum of fuss. Customarily dressed in long coats that conceal plenty of weapons, Delaques affect shorn heads and whispering voices, a presentation that only aids their reputation for espionage.1-p.10
- Escher
- Goliath - Seen as barbarians by the other houses, the Goliath's are the most physically imposing of the houses. They are fierce enemies of the matriarchal Escher.
- Orlock - House Orlock is responsible for producing ninety percent of all the iron ore in Hive Primus, earning the house the moniker "House of Iron". House Orlock and Delaque have been at each others throats for the last five years, following the assassination of Lord Hagan Orlock by members of the Delaque.
- Van Saar - a House that deals primarily in mechanical goods, House Van Saar is known for the fine quality of their items, ensuring a good reputation and a high asking price for their work. As a result, they are the richest House in the Hive City. Wealth brings with it certain benefits, and so any Van Saar seen abroad is likely to be wearing the finest in armoured bodygloves and equipped with potent weaponry.1-p.14
- Underhive
Below the Hive City is the more polluted, violent and lawless underhive. There is no constant or definite border separating the Underhive from the main hive city.
- Hive Bottom
The very bottom of the Hive is a dangerous area that is structurally unsound and only mutants or similar dangerous creatures can live there.
