Talax
Talax is a star system located in the Screaming Vortex warp storm in the Calixis Sector. It is known colloquially as 'the War Moons of Talax' because the remaining three planetary bodies that orbit the system's star were, a long time ago, moons orbiting a superplanet and their inhabitants have a long, bloody history.
Overview
The worlds of Talax orbit a magenta dwarf star but are unique in that they do not derive any heat from their star. Rather, the worlds appear to be heated entirely by some kind of little understood geothermal-like energy radiating out from each world's core. The inhabitants of Talax call themselves 'the Talax' and they speak a language called Talaxi. They are a people strong in faith, worshiping an aspect of Khorne they call Gorgeth. These worlds are named:
- Cho'unda - A forge world populated largely by shaman-smiths. They have little in the way of resources after millennia of mining, and use most of what they do have to build daemon engines.
- Ni'iktu - A death world of dense forest and jungle that produces some of the deadliest and most aggressive fauna in the Screaming Vortex.
- Ju'ukto - The most heavily populated world in the system, this dusty world is home to tribal traders and hunters where wars are frequently fought over new resources and borders.
History
The Screaming Vortex is said to have appeared upon the birth of Slaanesh. At this point, Talax was a binary system with eight planets. Three of those planets were caught in the supernova caused by Talax's stars colliding with each other in reaction to the warp storm's appearance. Another world was pulled completely out of it's orbit and was torn apart by gravitational forces. The remaining four planets were squeezed by the Warp into one planetary body and three orbiting moons. All four were bathed in Warp energy, creating the state that the system is in today.
Talax was one of the early settled systems after the creation of the Screaming Vortex as it was relatively free of Warp-spawned horrors. Various warlords would then descend on the system looking to plunder it's wealth of resources, but there is no record of any of those warlords ever actually managing to subjugate anybody - the Talax apparently killed or enslaved all comers.
By M41, the resources of Talax had become a lot more sparse, but visitors still came to the Moons to trade in armour, weapons, and daemon engines. Sorcerers from Q'Sal also come to the system, searching for ways to replicate the energies that keep the Moons warm, but the Talax hate witchcraft and all such expeditions have thus far failed.
Culture
Few of the Talax are aware that their god Gorgeth is an aspect of Khorne. They depict him as a man, bare-chested and regal, wearing an animal skull helmet and wielding both axe and hammer. Most of the Talax worship him at portable shrines rather than temples since the majority of the Talax are nomadic. As soon as one of the Talax can hold a blade, they are taught how to fight with one. Before their first hunt, an individual has their head forced into a pool of lizard blood, and they must fight out of the hold if they wish to continue breathing. Indeed, blood is significant in all of the rites of the Talax - it is a sacred liquid, once spilled, it is offered up to Gorgeth before it has the chance to congeal.
The Encarminata
Once the Moons have completed eight orbits around the system, a Warp phenomenon occurs that the Talax call The Encarminata. The Encarminata has a duration of roughly two weeks. During this time, the skies of all three worlds, and all of the fresh water on them, turns red, and the surface temperature of all of the worlds increases. People's tempers are more likely to be lost during this period, and all wildlife, even the insects, become more aggressive. The youths of Ju'ukto participate in ritual scarification, bloodletting, and combat, coming of age if successful, or dying or being banished if not. Adult clan members compete for leadership roles in life-threatening encounters with the animals on Ni'iktu. All the while, the shaman-smiths of Cho'unda test their daemon engines against each other under the gaze of the Skull Reaper, whom the Talax consider to be the avatar of Gorgeth.
The Battle Clans
The vast majority of the Talax belong to one of the Battle Clans. Every member of the Clans is a trained warrior, hunter, and a religious devotee of Gorgeth. The Talax believe that Gorgeth will come for their blood if they cannot take the blood of others, so when a Clan member is too injured, ill, or old, they have to become Root Elders. Root Elders give up the Clan's nomadic lifestyle to go live in a settlement where they learn and re-tell the oral histories of the Clan, though most Root Elders do not survive past their first Encarminata after settling down. Particularly skilled members of the Battle Clans can become Reavers. They can join the ranks of the Reavers by undergoing an initiation rite involving splitting their tongues with a red hot shard of metal and using the resulting blood to temper those shards into bond-knives. These elite warriors act as bodyguards to Clan chieftains, and protect the sole settlement on Ni'iktu from the planet's dangers, though they are also in high demand as mercenaries by local warlords.
The shaman-smiths
Standing above even the clan chiefs are the shaman-smiths. These men and women have uncanny abilities to detect daemons in the Warp, and have developed a method of binding them without the use of sorcery. They also have the ability to mix their blood with that of a captive to bind the blood of the captive, which renders the captive susceptible to suggestions and makes them more obedient. Although if that still fails, the shaman-smiths have also developed many horrific methods of torture.
Source
- 1: Black Crusade: The Tome of Blood, III: Masters of Destruction, The War Moons of Talax, pgs. 110-113
