Aventine

The world of Aventine is said to have been colonised soon after humans arrived at Askellon, and certainly its history is a long one indeed. While it has never been counted amongst the great powers, Aventine has always been prosperous, yet never as influential as it would wish. This friction had led to many rivalries with nearby worlds in the Thule sub-sector.

The surface of Aventine is dominated by countless thousands of high-sided, flat-topped island-mesas, between which flows a shallow sea teeming with oceanic life. Atop the island-mesas are numerous settlements, each connected to the next via gracefully arching bridges decorated with statues depicting numerous saints and other worthies. Most of the islands are somewhat self-sufficient and able to feed themselves from the bountiful surrounding sea. The largest island is host to the palace of Sarawak Aventine, Aventine’s governor, as well as the barracks and parade ground of the Aventine Yeomanry, his personal household guard.

The Sarawak line stretches back into Askellon’s dim and distant history, but his ancestors were ever denied the status they thought rightfully theirs. They fought alongside armies, led assaults, and prosecuted sieges. Yet always, Aventine’s leaders needed more, and always bemoaned their lesser power compared to Desoleum or Cerix Magnus. Lord Sarawak is a man of great ability and a ruler much beloved by his people. He takes as sacred the oath he swore when he ascended to the throne of Aventine and regards himself as a true and loyal servant of the Emperor. What he does not regard himself as, however, is a loyal servant of Praefectrix Charlotta Anastasia XX. Having perceived the sector’s decay, and lack of proper responses to threats such as the rising Pandaemonium, he has come to believe that she, and the sector’s rulers on far Juno, are no longer able to properly govern and protect Askellon.

Having withdrawn much of his regular contact with Juno, Sarawak has effectively withdrawn his world from the Imperium. He has not formally seceded, for he knows that to do so would be an enormous gamble. Instead, Sarawak has determined that his world is to face whatever may come about alone, maintaining his own personal honour above all else. As far as the people of Aventine are concerned, their master’s virtual secession has gone largely unnoticed. Of late, he has been refocusing their devotion more to him, strengthening his hold on the world. As he readies his world for independence, he has abandoned many of his normal Imperial duties. One such area is that of the psyker cull.

"On Aventine, an entire island-mesa is set aside for any suspected Psykers, its high cliffs topped by a bleak prison feared across the entire world. Of late, the Black Ships have been less regular in arriving at Aventine, and Sarawak has essentially ignored the area. The prison has been left all but unattended. None can say what horrors fester within the storm-wracked walls, for almost subconsciously the populace has moved as far away from it as possible, creating a huge zone empty of natural life. Across the planet, the cull is ignored, a matter that his people hail and has increased their lord’s stance. While few dare report it, though, there are growing instances of seemingly trivial, but unexplained
phenomena, from unexpected hoarfrost to bloody clawmarks across walls."

All the while, Lord Sarawak broods in his palace surrounded by his loyal counsellors and bodyguards. "He has yet to realise that his pride and determination to avert the doom of the entire sector is in fact serving to hasten his own world’s death. How soon Aventine might have before the breaches burst open and the unstoppable tide of the Warp vomits forth remains to be seen, but it cannot be overlong."