Footfall
| Map | Basic Data | Planetary Image | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Name: | Footfall | 
|
| Segmentum: | Segmentum Obscurus[1] | ||
| Sector: | Halo Stars | ||
| Subsector: | Koronus Expanse | ||
| System: | Furibundus | ||
| Population: | Unknown | ||
| Affiliation: | Imperium[1] | ||
| Class: | Unknown | ||
| Tithe Grade: | Unknown | ||
Footfall is an Imperial void port and wealthy waystation in the Koronus Expanse. It is seen as a island of relative stability for explorers passing into the area[1b].
Contents
History
The cluster of asteroids that would become Footfall was settled by the Rogue Trader Parsimus Dewain in 410.M41. He sought to build a grand palace on Footfall, but some of Dewain's followers questioned the sanity of such an order. For doing so, some are put to death by being sealed alive within the walls of the world's rapidly expanding void settlement[1a]. Dewain would then become the Liege of Footfall and in time it would become a wealthy waystation. However after Dewain's death in 498.M41, the world immediately became submerged in a struggle for its political and economic control.[1b]
The Recidivist Tarn Marvolus took part in this and rose to become Footfall's next Liege in 499.M41, through a campaign of assassination and the use of dark sorcery. With the world under his tyrannical control, Footfall entered an era known as the Reign of Blades. Any who questioned Marvolus, was later found sliced into quarters—one in each of the four most distant points of Footfall. Despite this, his rule lasted for over a year, due to Marvolous' brutal alliance of criminals, witches and narco-tribesmen. In truth, though, his reign was owed mostly to the indifference of passing Rogue Traders, who cared little as to who ruled Footfall, as long as it served their needs. Marvolous grew to become too bold and arrogant, however. This caused his reign to come to an end in 500.M41, after he demanded that the Rogue Trader Cassilus pay him personal tribute for docking at Footfall. Afterwards, the four quarters of Marvolous' body were later found in the four farthest points of Footfall.[1c]
The last known Liege of Footfall is Tanthus Moross in 808.M41, who did so through the right of murder. He is quickly proved to be a highly effective and diligently ruthless leader, which earns Moross wide public acclaim.[1d]
Known Locations
- The Boneyard
- A midden, open to space, where Footfall's waste is dumped. Scavengers known as Bonepickers, in improvised voidsuits, scavenge the bodies of murder victims who find their way here for any valuables.[2a]
- The Chapel of the Third Congregants
- Disconnected from the rest of Footfall, this chapel of the Ecclesiarchy floats free in the void. Worshipers travel to and from the building on cramped skiffs.[2a]
- Hab-fanes
- The largest of Footfall's habs resemble temples replete with ornate architecture and crystal mosaics. Despite their external beauty, they house Footfall's poorest residents in a maze-like sprawl inside.[2a]
- Liege's Court
- Footfall's Liege receives important guests in this impressive hall, greeting them from a masterwork alabaster throne engraved with a hundred scenes of the Emperor's victories.[2a]
- Macrostatue of the God-Emperor
- A massive statue of the Emperor of Mankind situated right in the middle of Footfall. It is both the lynchpin of Footfall itself - chaining twenty of Footfall's core buildings to it - and a site of pilgrimage.[2a]
- The Pit of Voices
- A tiered arena, gravity plated at an odd angle, covered in burning incense, purloined gargoyles, and occult devices. A refuge for outcast astropaths.[2a]
- The Red Schola
- The headquarters of the Tutors, where they create their bespoke slave servants via a wide variety of often-cruel methods.[2a]
- Shield Shrines
- Three cubic metal buildings that are all, at the same time, both temples of the Machine Cult, but also the void shield projectors that protect Footfall from the vacuum of space. Well-guarded externally and internally by weapon systems crewed by servitors.[2a]
- The Spire of Intoxicants
- A trade space and the only site where the narco-tribes are willing to sell their drugs and allow outsiders to join in with their rituals. It stinks of chemicals and contains several strange artefacts.[2a]
- The Xenosium
- A controversial building. Constructed like a prison-fortess and warded from psychic abilities, it is used to house Footfall's sapient xenos visitors.[2a]
Known Major Factions
- The Astral Knives
- A death cult from the Calixis Sector that arrived on Footfall in 795.M41 fleeing the Inquisition. They believe that in performing their ritual killings on those that the Emperor's Tarot declares to be corrupted, they protect others from the dangers of the Immaterium. They also work quietly as assassins-for-hire, and have gained a great deal of power in Footfall from both those who have a lot of enemies, and those who wish to spare themselves from being sacrificed to the Emperor.[2b]
- The Black Brotherhood
- Information brokers and hired thugs identifiable by their crude black tattoos. Without effective leadership, they often find themselves being used as tools by smarter criminals.[2b]
- The Drusians
- Unsanctioned cultists of Saint Drusus who believe that the cessation of the Angevin Crusade was an unforgivable heresy - that the Imperium should be conquering and colonising the entirety of the Halo Stars, starting with the Koronus Expanse.[2b]
- The Kasballica Mission
- An arm of the Kasballica crime barons of the Drusus Marches, the Mission brokers (or steals) xenos artifacts from Koronus traders and arranges quiet transport into, out of, and within the Expanse.[2b]
- The Narco-tribes
- A fractious collection of heathen tribesmen, differentiated from each other by the specific scarring they inflict upon their own faces with hot brands. Few tribesmen have any idea of what's really going on around them at any given time due to the perception-altering drugs that they take, making them unpredictable at the best of times, though they do engage in ritualistic traditions, contests of fighting prowess, and bloody internecine feuds between the different tribes.[2b]
- Obsidian Emporial
- A prestigious auction house catering to exclusive sales of extreme value, or ones that require complete anonymity. Nobody is willing to cross the Intercessors of the Obsidian Emporial and everyone who has ever defaulted on a debt to them has disappeared.[2b]
- The Seven Witches
- A mysterious group of psykers, rarely heard from and even more rarely seen, yet even the most disreputable degenerates of Footfall fear them. Their ability to divine the future and alter the fates of men are treated with great reverence by everyone, as doom will befall all those who do not.[2b]
- The True Path
- The True Path is a heretical cult who worship xenos as messengers of the God-Emperor. Their beliefs are far from unified however, and the group is frequently persecuted against due to those selfsame beliefs.[2b]
- The Tutors
- A cabal of slavers who came to Footfall fleeing some unknown threat and then immediately went back to doing, presumably, exactly what caused them to have to flee in the first place. Nobody can doubt their ability to immaculately train slaves who can look like whatever their clients wish, but their methods are certainly cruel, and there are whispers that they are heretics.[2b]
See also
Related Articles
Sources
