Greetings Admiral.
You've been given a Royal Charter to begin colonization efforts upon a peaceful, uninteresting, and most importantly unspoiled part of space. For some reason the ancient colonies and fresh verdant worlds in these areas haven't been properly colonized or contact established with the long lost colonies in these sectors but you are going to rectify this problem. Space Imperialism is a growth industry and the Empire requires colonies to be self reliant, stable and growing in as little time as possible so we can begin to properly tax and tithe them for resources, troops, and other things and the like.
The Scouts Have Established a Starting List of Exotic Locations that Just seem Ripe for Liberation and Colonization with one caveat if any pernicious issues do come up in regards to the local inhabitants. Normally we'd just solve issues with orbital bombardment down to the bedrock but sadly we got a bunch of Neo-Gaians in office who are protesting about harming biodiversity so that's out of the picture as well as a solution. Also, this isn't like the Imperium of Man, if we can co-opt and civilize the filthy unwashed Xenos and make proper citizens out of them, go for it!
Potential Planet Listing:
Skull Planet: When we finally got probes through the near constant squalls and storms that rock the oceans of this world, we found several large island chains of tropical and volcanic islands. There's some primitive human settlements on a few of the islands but for some reason there is a lot of megafauna located both in the land... and under the sea topping out with Kaiju sized underwater and overland monsters. While rare, they aren't exactly uncommon and would require strategic level ordinance to bring down. More pernicious are the smaller megafauna. Giant dinosaur like lizards, horrifying invertebrates, underground reptiles with skulls for faces and also tribes of giantmonkeys Apes. The planet is rich in general resources however and if the wilderness can be tamed, the islands seem suitable for settlement (based on critters found in both the Monsterverse films and the 2005 King Kong film/game).
Shear: Apparently there was a failed colonization effort here recently and they've come begging us for help. It's one of those planets plagued by Monstrous Predators that happen to sit on highly valuabe deposits of *looks it up* Bohrium which... unfortuantely for the native constantly evolving wildlife, is highly valuable and thus must be extracted with extreme prejudice.
Dayglow: Industrialized planet which suffered a Nuclear War. Unfortunately most of the population seemed to of died with most urban centers destroyed. Due to the introduction of a genetic virus into the atmosphere, a wide variety of irradiated mutations occurred resulting in hostile mutations of both the Human and Animal wildlife. Since their Great War, which was caused by the depletion of natural resources, the survivors have been engaged primarily with survival as well as ongoing internecine conflict. War never changes apparently. In spite of resource depletion, there's potential for lost technology to be recovered, as well as co-opting more organized survivors into the expanding Empire (combining the uncivilized/undeveloped bits of Fallout like 'The Divide', The Pitt, the Capitol Wasteland, the Glowing Sea etc while excluding pesky things like FO4 Eastern Brotherhoods and New California Republic as the old Interplay Gods demanded).
Pandora: No not that Pandora sadly though that might come later... Technically a Moon. Verdant jungle planet with large oceans, flying rock mountains and volcanic activity. Populated by a hostile native alien race. The atmosphere is also mildly toxic. Scouts reported remains of previous ancient colonization efforts and apparently now the planets inhabitants are strongly averse to outsider colonization efforts. Some evidence that there is a planetary consciousness which exerts some control over the Moons major fauna that treats outsiders as an infection though the local humanoid species is capable of communication. The planet is undeniably resource rich both in unobtainium which we require a great deal of and its believed the local flora and fauna can also be harvested for all manners of pharmaceutical drugs and therapies.
Lustria: Seems to be a largely tropical planet. We have evidence that an ancient precursor race might've seeded this planet with its current indigenous life. Seem to be four major continents. The two Northern ones are frozen blasted wastelands defined as Naggarond and Norsca by local dialects and inhabited by Chaos corrupted Beastmen, some indigenous verminous rat-folks and a degeneration of Human colonists who seem prone to Chaos corruption and other unsavory behaviors. The tropical and desert climes of the Southern continents are inhabited by some sort of Draconic or Reptilian Humanoid civilization who seem to be in perpetual War with the more Warmblooded Chaos folk. The ability of the Natives to channel Warp Energy into magical effects is certainly novel, though the Chaos taint isn't.
Beyond the inhabitants, the planet is believed to be quite a repository of rare earth metals, potential Precursor artifacts and knowledge, Warp Magic users, and a potential agricultural world or even a Garden world if the locals can be tamed.
Tiber: Once a highly developed planet with 21st era technology, a meteor of unknown origin impacted the surface and caused this extraterrestrial meteorite to rapidly contaminate the surface. Apparently known as Tiberium, it is an alien crystalline substance likely spread intentionally by an as of yet unidentified but likely hostile alien race. It is highly unstable, pervasive in its spread, toxic to most terrestrial environments, and extremely hazardous to most forms of life. Despite the extinction level threat to most ecosystems, this tiberium possesses almost limitless applications for energy generation and technological advancement. Sadly the impacting of the planet by tiberium has caused the local planetary government to collapse into a prolonged, decades long civil conflict between two highly capable, technologically advanced adversaries. Securing the planet would have to be established before proper harvesting and stabilization efforts can be started (based off Command & Conquer obviously).
Sera: This long lost Human colony recently came out of a devastating Civil War only a short time later to suffer a worldwide catastrophe as a previously undiscovered indigenous alien species known as the Locust emerged from the depths, apparently triggered by questionable new power generation efforts. The vast majority of Humanity upon this planet has been overrun by these Locusts in the ten years since their Emergence with survivors located on a single large plateau, a few islands and scattered in hidden settlements throughout the largely Human depopulated planetary surface.
Outworld: A vast planet occupied by a diversity of indigenous species, the population is spread across the surface and for the most part, seems largely primitive technologically though many are practioners of a potent form of local sorcery. Others are extremely superhuman in capabilities, some as a species, but more often exhibited individually. The planet would've been likely conquered and occupied by now if not for the ability of surface teleportation that many of the magical practitioners can engage in. While not exceptional in resources, it is likely underdeveloped in resource extraction, plus the planets indigenous life could provide value to the Empire as well.
Chernybble: Smaller planet which suffered some sort of radiological disaster. Most of the scattered population survives via scavenging and living within scattered and sheltered communities. It possesses a varied ecology but the biome has suffered extensive damage which will require significant terraforming. Much of the local native flora and fauna which hasn't been rendered extinct has been mutated and is often hostile. The most signigicant survivor communities and remnants of civilization reside in underground areas located upon the planets urban areas though a wide variety of settlements exist. The planet is still resource rich plus has plenty of infrastructure, technology and other resources for reconstruction if the local situation can be stabilized (planet combines Metro and Stalker bits).
Hoxxes IV: Located in the Hoxxes System, Hoxxes IV is a tidally locked planet with a scorched surface plagued by gravitational anomalies, drastically shifting plate tectonics, deadly radiation, electromagnetic storms and seas of sulfuric acid. It is also home to a near limitless amount of extraordinarily valuable mineral veins. Unfortunately underground isn't much better as the tunnels and subterranean biomes are populated by extremely hostile indigenous flora and fauna.
Catachan: The planet's entire ecosystem seems consciously hostile to all foreign life. Each and every element of the native flora and fauna of the planet represents a real danger to any human, even Space Marines are said to avoid this hellish place. Catachan has no need for the Planetary Defense Forces utilized by other worlds, its flora and fauna being sufficiently deadly to thwart attackers without the need for human intervention. The planet is known to house the single deadliest creature in the galaxy, with some of its native wildlife even being released on other worlds to dissuade invasion. Catachan's only valuable resource is its people, who by virtue of being born on the harshest world in the Imperium, are invariably tough and cunning. It is the homeworld of the hulking and fearsome Catachan Jungle Fighters.
Hesperus: Not a single biome world, it has a high atmospheric pressure but it is tolerable at mountain ridges on north and south fringes, where a couple hundred thousand people live and strategically important mech factory is situated. Jungle lowlands are unexplored, all attempts of exploration failed with heavy loss of life.
Pyrrus (Submitted by Brother Bear Ribs): Due to being in a cluster that's been hit by multiple simultaneous supernovas, every planet nearby including Pyrrus is intensely rich in rare super-heavy elements. Pyrrus is actually the most inhabitable planet in the cluster. Every life form on Pyrrus is lethal. Every single microorganism can chew through unprotected human tissue as quickly as acid, every single plant and small creature possesses deadly venoms and neurotoxins, and every large creature can casually rip apart tanks. Further, every single life-form is telepathic and they coordinate their efforts to kill humans, with both predators and prey putting aside their differences and cooperating to wipe out invaders. Conditions are also supremely harsh, it has twice earth's gravity, an immense moon that produces tides 90 meters high, extremely frequent severe earthquakes and volcanoes everywhere, the planet has severe weather events on a cataclysmic scale regularly, and the supernova bombardment produced patches of high-radiation areas. Planet is also relatively safe as long as you know what you're doing. Grubbers, individual humans who live in the jungle and don't destroy the environment, can survive just fine and the wildlife surrounding them is relatively harmless*, and Grubbers tend to develop telepathy or precognition. The planet's biosphere automatically evolves into its superlethal form whhere people are trying to strip-mine the crust.
Henders Island (Submitted by Brother Bassoe): Henders Island from Fragment by Warren Fahy. Lost world ecosystem on an isolated south pacific island where evolution has been taking an entirely different course from the mainland since essentially the cambrian period. Major deathworldy aspects, there aren't actually that many species, rather, the same species have multiple different stages in their lifecycles capable of independently reproducing. So for example, the 'trees' can spawn carnivorous radially symmetrical army ant-knockoffs, the rodent-sized vermin can grow into apex predators larger than polar bears, and so forth and so on.
Europa (Submitted by Brother Bassoe): Europa from Har Deshur by T.K. Sivgin. It's all one creature. There's a 'biosphere' in the subsurface ocean but it's all the same thing, just free-swimming macroscopic organelles. And sending an ROV to drill under the ice and take samples triggered an immune system response.
Spatterjay (Submitted by Brother Bassoe): An oceanic world where axolotl-style regeneration is as common in the biosphere as, say, eyes are on earth. Consequentially an evolutionary arms race between predators and prey over being increasingly indestructible/inflicting increasing damage has gone way too far. Also there's a retrovirus which gives outside life the same regenerative abilities, at the cost of body horror mutations if they're ever starving after infection.
Marrow (Submitted by Brother Bassoe): It's a terrestrial planet at the core of a spacecraft the size of a gas giant, so every time the ship moves, it gets hit with the tidal effects of the ship's vastly greater gravity. Consequentially, it's basically Io with the planetary crust getting turned inside-out by volcanism every century, but with a biosphere on top of that. Lots of flying animals and seedpods and armored, heat-resistant larval stages.
The Silent World (Submitted by Praetor PsihoKekec): There are few uninfected enclaves (largest being Iceland) with unevenly devolved tech, but everywhere else the non-immune mammals turned into body-horror monstrosities that will rip you apart for food and if you are not immune and escape wounded, you will turn into one as well, possibly with some of your mind intact. There is also spiritual element to infection, so some of the monsters can invade your mind as well.
Remember this is a list in progress. We are looking at several factors here starting off (ranked on a simple 1-10 scale with 1 being basically idyllic with some spit and polish and 10 being the biosphere ranked as a living disaster of basic death, why are we even bothering). Keeping in mind, the Deathworld has to exhibit some reason for colonization. We're not launching colony ships at Black Holes or into Volcanos and hoping for the best. Has to be some expectation of viability.
Hospitality: How quickly the local indigenous population can be co-opted into becoming productive subjects of the Empire or conversely, how quickly new colonists will be able to establish themselves.
Sustainability: The long term cost ratio of permanent settling upon the planet. This'll factor in how much a return on investment the planet will bring in terms of taxes, talent and skill of the local population, as well as resources able to be extracted for the benefit of the Empire.
Inconvenience: Just how actively the planet is trying to kill everyone.
You've been given a Royal Charter to begin colonization efforts upon a peaceful, uninteresting, and most importantly unspoiled part of space. For some reason the ancient colonies and fresh verdant worlds in these areas haven't been properly colonized or contact established with the long lost colonies in these sectors but you are going to rectify this problem. Space Imperialism is a growth industry and the Empire requires colonies to be self reliant, stable and growing in as little time as possible so we can begin to properly tax and tithe them for resources, troops, and other things and the like.
The Scouts Have Established a Starting List of Exotic Locations that Just seem Ripe for Liberation and Colonization with one caveat if any pernicious issues do come up in regards to the local inhabitants. Normally we'd just solve issues with orbital bombardment down to the bedrock but sadly we got a bunch of Neo-Gaians in office who are protesting about harming biodiversity so that's out of the picture as well as a solution. Also, this isn't like the Imperium of Man, if we can co-opt and civilize the filthy unwashed Xenos and make proper citizens out of them, go for it!
Potential Planet Listing:
Skull Planet: When we finally got probes through the near constant squalls and storms that rock the oceans of this world, we found several large island chains of tropical and volcanic islands. There's some primitive human settlements on a few of the islands but for some reason there is a lot of megafauna located both in the land... and under the sea topping out with Kaiju sized underwater and overland monsters. While rare, they aren't exactly uncommon and would require strategic level ordinance to bring down. More pernicious are the smaller megafauna. Giant dinosaur like lizards, horrifying invertebrates, underground reptiles with skulls for faces and also tribes of giant
Shear: Apparently there was a failed colonization effort here recently and they've come begging us for help. It's one of those planets plagued by Monstrous Predators that happen to sit on highly valuabe deposits of *looks it up* Bohrium which... unfortuantely for the native constantly evolving wildlife, is highly valuable and thus must be extracted with extreme prejudice.
Dayglow: Industrialized planet which suffered a Nuclear War. Unfortunately most of the population seemed to of died with most urban centers destroyed. Due to the introduction of a genetic virus into the atmosphere, a wide variety of irradiated mutations occurred resulting in hostile mutations of both the Human and Animal wildlife. Since their Great War, which was caused by the depletion of natural resources, the survivors have been engaged primarily with survival as well as ongoing internecine conflict. War never changes apparently. In spite of resource depletion, there's potential for lost technology to be recovered, as well as co-opting more organized survivors into the expanding Empire (combining the uncivilized/undeveloped bits of Fallout like 'The Divide', The Pitt, the Capitol Wasteland, the Glowing Sea etc while excluding pesky things like FO4 Eastern Brotherhoods and New California Republic as the old Interplay Gods demanded).
Pandora: No not that Pandora sadly though that might come later... Technically a Moon. Verdant jungle planet with large oceans, flying rock mountains and volcanic activity. Populated by a hostile native alien race. The atmosphere is also mildly toxic. Scouts reported remains of previous ancient colonization efforts and apparently now the planets inhabitants are strongly averse to outsider colonization efforts. Some evidence that there is a planetary consciousness which exerts some control over the Moons major fauna that treats outsiders as an infection though the local humanoid species is capable of communication. The planet is undeniably resource rich both in unobtainium which we require a great deal of and its believed the local flora and fauna can also be harvested for all manners of pharmaceutical drugs and therapies.
Lustria: Seems to be a largely tropical planet. We have evidence that an ancient precursor race might've seeded this planet with its current indigenous life. Seem to be four major continents. The two Northern ones are frozen blasted wastelands defined as Naggarond and Norsca by local dialects and inhabited by Chaos corrupted Beastmen, some indigenous verminous rat-folks and a degeneration of Human colonists who seem prone to Chaos corruption and other unsavory behaviors. The tropical and desert climes of the Southern continents are inhabited by some sort of Draconic or Reptilian Humanoid civilization who seem to be in perpetual War with the more Warmblooded Chaos folk. The ability of the Natives to channel Warp Energy into magical effects is certainly novel, though the Chaos taint isn't.
Beyond the inhabitants, the planet is believed to be quite a repository of rare earth metals, potential Precursor artifacts and knowledge, Warp Magic users, and a potential agricultural world or even a Garden world if the locals can be tamed.
Tiber: Once a highly developed planet with 21st era technology, a meteor of unknown origin impacted the surface and caused this extraterrestrial meteorite to rapidly contaminate the surface. Apparently known as Tiberium, it is an alien crystalline substance likely spread intentionally by an as of yet unidentified but likely hostile alien race. It is highly unstable, pervasive in its spread, toxic to most terrestrial environments, and extremely hazardous to most forms of life. Despite the extinction level threat to most ecosystems, this tiberium possesses almost limitless applications for energy generation and technological advancement. Sadly the impacting of the planet by tiberium has caused the local planetary government to collapse into a prolonged, decades long civil conflict between two highly capable, technologically advanced adversaries. Securing the planet would have to be established before proper harvesting and stabilization efforts can be started (based off Command & Conquer obviously).
Sera: This long lost Human colony recently came out of a devastating Civil War only a short time later to suffer a worldwide catastrophe as a previously undiscovered indigenous alien species known as the Locust emerged from the depths, apparently triggered by questionable new power generation efforts. The vast majority of Humanity upon this planet has been overrun by these Locusts in the ten years since their Emergence with survivors located on a single large plateau, a few islands and scattered in hidden settlements throughout the largely Human depopulated planetary surface.
Outworld: A vast planet occupied by a diversity of indigenous species, the population is spread across the surface and for the most part, seems largely primitive technologically though many are practioners of a potent form of local sorcery. Others are extremely superhuman in capabilities, some as a species, but more often exhibited individually. The planet would've been likely conquered and occupied by now if not for the ability of surface teleportation that many of the magical practitioners can engage in. While not exceptional in resources, it is likely underdeveloped in resource extraction, plus the planets indigenous life could provide value to the Empire as well.
Chernybble: Smaller planet which suffered some sort of radiological disaster. Most of the scattered population survives via scavenging and living within scattered and sheltered communities. It possesses a varied ecology but the biome has suffered extensive damage which will require significant terraforming. Much of the local native flora and fauna which hasn't been rendered extinct has been mutated and is often hostile. The most signigicant survivor communities and remnants of civilization reside in underground areas located upon the planets urban areas though a wide variety of settlements exist. The planet is still resource rich plus has plenty of infrastructure, technology and other resources for reconstruction if the local situation can be stabilized (planet combines Metro and Stalker bits).
Hoxxes IV: Located in the Hoxxes System, Hoxxes IV is a tidally locked planet with a scorched surface plagued by gravitational anomalies, drastically shifting plate tectonics, deadly radiation, electromagnetic storms and seas of sulfuric acid. It is also home to a near limitless amount of extraordinarily valuable mineral veins. Unfortunately underground isn't much better as the tunnels and subterranean biomes are populated by extremely hostile indigenous flora and fauna.
Catachan: The planet's entire ecosystem seems consciously hostile to all foreign life. Each and every element of the native flora and fauna of the planet represents a real danger to any human, even Space Marines are said to avoid this hellish place. Catachan has no need for the Planetary Defense Forces utilized by other worlds, its flora and fauna being sufficiently deadly to thwart attackers without the need for human intervention. The planet is known to house the single deadliest creature in the galaxy, with some of its native wildlife even being released on other worlds to dissuade invasion. Catachan's only valuable resource is its people, who by virtue of being born on the harshest world in the Imperium, are invariably tough and cunning. It is the homeworld of the hulking and fearsome Catachan Jungle Fighters.
Hesperus: Not a single biome world, it has a high atmospheric pressure but it is tolerable at mountain ridges on north and south fringes, where a couple hundred thousand people live and strategically important mech factory is situated. Jungle lowlands are unexplored, all attempts of exploration failed with heavy loss of life.
Pyrrus (Submitted by Brother Bear Ribs): Due to being in a cluster that's been hit by multiple simultaneous supernovas, every planet nearby including Pyrrus is intensely rich in rare super-heavy elements. Pyrrus is actually the most inhabitable planet in the cluster. Every life form on Pyrrus is lethal. Every single microorganism can chew through unprotected human tissue as quickly as acid, every single plant and small creature possesses deadly venoms and neurotoxins, and every large creature can casually rip apart tanks. Further, every single life-form is telepathic and they coordinate their efforts to kill humans, with both predators and prey putting aside their differences and cooperating to wipe out invaders. Conditions are also supremely harsh, it has twice earth's gravity, an immense moon that produces tides 90 meters high, extremely frequent severe earthquakes and volcanoes everywhere, the planet has severe weather events on a cataclysmic scale regularly, and the supernova bombardment produced patches of high-radiation areas. Planet is also relatively safe as long as you know what you're doing. Grubbers, individual humans who live in the jungle and don't destroy the environment, can survive just fine and the wildlife surrounding them is relatively harmless*, and Grubbers tend to develop telepathy or precognition. The planet's biosphere automatically evolves into its superlethal form whhere people are trying to strip-mine the crust.
Henders Island (Submitted by Brother Bassoe): Henders Island from Fragment by Warren Fahy. Lost world ecosystem on an isolated south pacific island where evolution has been taking an entirely different course from the mainland since essentially the cambrian period. Major deathworldy aspects, there aren't actually that many species, rather, the same species have multiple different stages in their lifecycles capable of independently reproducing. So for example, the 'trees' can spawn carnivorous radially symmetrical army ant-knockoffs, the rodent-sized vermin can grow into apex predators larger than polar bears, and so forth and so on.
Europa (Submitted by Brother Bassoe): Europa from Har Deshur by T.K. Sivgin. It's all one creature. There's a 'biosphere' in the subsurface ocean but it's all the same thing, just free-swimming macroscopic organelles. And sending an ROV to drill under the ice and take samples triggered an immune system response.
Spatterjay (Submitted by Brother Bassoe): An oceanic world where axolotl-style regeneration is as common in the biosphere as, say, eyes are on earth. Consequentially an evolutionary arms race between predators and prey over being increasingly indestructible/inflicting increasing damage has gone way too far. Also there's a retrovirus which gives outside life the same regenerative abilities, at the cost of body horror mutations if they're ever starving after infection.
Marrow (Submitted by Brother Bassoe): It's a terrestrial planet at the core of a spacecraft the size of a gas giant, so every time the ship moves, it gets hit with the tidal effects of the ship's vastly greater gravity. Consequentially, it's basically Io with the planetary crust getting turned inside-out by volcanism every century, but with a biosphere on top of that. Lots of flying animals and seedpods and armored, heat-resistant larval stages.
The Silent World (Submitted by Praetor PsihoKekec): There are few uninfected enclaves (largest being Iceland) with unevenly devolved tech, but everywhere else the non-immune mammals turned into body-horror monstrosities that will rip you apart for food and if you are not immune and escape wounded, you will turn into one as well, possibly with some of your mind intact. There is also spiritual element to infection, so some of the monsters can invade your mind as well.
Remember this is a list in progress. We are looking at several factors here starting off (ranked on a simple 1-10 scale with 1 being basically idyllic with some spit and polish and 10 being the biosphere ranked as a living disaster of basic death, why are we even bothering). Keeping in mind, the Deathworld has to exhibit some reason for colonization. We're not launching colony ships at Black Holes or into Volcanos and hoping for the best. Has to be some expectation of viability.
Hospitality: How quickly the local indigenous population can be co-opted into becoming productive subjects of the Empire or conversely, how quickly new colonists will be able to establish themselves.
Sustainability: The long term cost ratio of permanent settling upon the planet. This'll factor in how much a return on investment the planet will bring in terms of taxes, talent and skill of the local population, as well as resources able to be extracted for the benefit of the Empire.
Inconvenience: Just how actively the planet is trying to kill everyone.
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