Thaur is a planetary mausoleum, a shrine world dedicated not only to the veneration of the living Emperor of Man, but of the countless nobility and saints who have passed away over the long millennia. Much of the world’s surface is dominated by endless leagues of low, rolling hills swathed in dense woodlands. It is within the dark shadows beneath the endless canopy that the elite of the aristocracy of Askellon rests its dead. Only the very wealthiest are buried here in the conventional sense, the bones of the less highly ranked used to adorn or even comprise the opulent tombs of their betters—the fate to which many pilgrims aspire. The shrouded forest floor is in effect one single necropolis formed by many millions of crypts, graves, and shrines, all connected via kilometres of wide walkways filled with shuffling pilgrims. Some edifices are so old that the writing carved into the stone is unreadable, the faces of the mourning statues blank and expressionless following centuries of weathering. Many structures are cracked open or sinking into the ground and covered by a dense layer of moss and ivy. The tombs vary in size from individual grave stones to enormous, cathedral-like structures that burst upwards through the canopy to tower above the forests. Entire avenues are formed by kilometre after kilometre of tall statues depicting weeping saints and angelic guardians, some so new the marble gleams in the sunlight filtered down through the trees, others missing limbs or having merged with the trunks of trees.
The dead are not the only occupants of Thaur, for the graves, tombs, and shrines must be tended lest they waste away entirely, and new ones must be constructed to accommodate the endless supply of remains. These and similar tasks are carried out by a population known as the Eulogus Askelline, an entire society living in the midst of the dead and entirely devoted to their care. The Eulogus is divided into a bewildering array of classes—at the very bottom are those tasked with scouring the moss and ivy from the oldest of graves, while at the very top are the Vestals, who maintain vigil over the tombs of the senior dead, weeping constantly in quiet devotion as they spend their entire lives in this sacred task. There are also shrine-masons who construct everything from the smallest grave marker to the tallest bell tower, adorning their works with the bones of those not entitled to a full burial. Others tend to the countless eternal flames mounted upon many of the tombs, while more still are responsible for controlling the hordes of vermin inevitably attracted by the presence of so many preserved human bodies. Servitors, however, are not used on Thaur to care for the dead or their remains, even for the most mundane tasks, for such creatures are entirely unable to shed tears.
While on the surface, the population of Thaur might appear to rank amongst the most dedicated adherents of the Imperial Creed, this is far from the truth. The Eulogus Askelline is riven by factionalism, and its leader, the impossibly ancient Jeronius Pyre, only maintains his position by adding numerous rivals to the graves they formerly attended. These groups also maintain competing beliefs. Some hold that when a senior member of the nobility dies, selected members of his family and household should be put to death as well in order to attend him at the side of the Emperor. Others hold that life is fleeting and largely meaningless, encouraging entire bloodlines to march into the crypts and sacrifice themselves in the hope of a better afterlife.
A small number seek to delve further into the soil than human graves descend, led by tall, cloaked figures and seeking out older things said to slumber deep in the clammy soil. It is said they sometimes recover some dread, nameless relic of the things long dead, which they venerate as if it were the holiest of icons in stark disregard for the Imperial Creed. Equally chilling are shadowed cults that have desecrated the graves in worship of decay and the Ruinous Power that embodies it. How long these cults have been operating amongst the Eulogus is unknown, as is the true extent of their influence. Whatever the truth, it seems likely that the forces stirring them on are growing stronger as the Pandaemonium rises across the sector.