Warhammer 40k | Terra

"Beautiful on the surface, but rotten underneath. Don't ever, even for a second, doubt that this is the most dangerous world in the galaxy..."

Terra, or, in the most ancient records, "Earth," is the Throneworld of the Imperium of Man and the original homeworld of Mankind and of the God-Emperor. It is the most sacred and revered place in all the million worlds that comprise the Imperium. Billions of Human pilgrims from across the galaxy flock to Terra -- even the barren and contaminated soil that these pious folk now tread upon when they reach Humanity's homeworld is considered sacred by the faithful of the Imperial Creed.

Terra is effectively a globe-straddling temple dedicated to the worship of the Emperor of Mankind. The planet is home to the primary headquarters of many important adepta of the Imperium since it serves as the capital world of the Emperor's realm. There is a great fear of Space Marines amongst the people who dwell there, due to events dating back to the Horus Heresy, when much of the planet was levelled and terrorised by the actions of the Traitor Legions.

None now remember Earth as it was in the ancient days. What scant records exist speak of a planet whose natural resources and beauty were quickly sacrificed upon the altar of progress. In the last days before the Age of Strife it seems likely that Old Earth hosted sprawling cities from pole to pole, polluted monuments to power and Human hubris.

Then came war unlike anything Humanity had ever known. What 41st Millennium historitors know of these conflicts they have gleaned from nightmarish legends and gruesome myth, but it seems certain that weapons and armies were unleashed of such horrific power that they toppled the great cities of Mankind.

By the time the Emperor arose and began the process of reunifying the world that would be reborn and renamed as Terra, its people were little more than techno-barbarian savages warring for survival amidst the ruins of their former glories.

The end of the Unification Wars changed everything. The devastation of the old was torn down and replaced with the magnificence of the nascent Imperium of Man. The Imperial Palace alone employed an entire mountain range -- the Himalazias -- as its foundation. Vast cityscapes covered continental landmasses, rich with statuary, parkland, soaring architecture and spaceports that stretched up into the outer atmosphere.

Then came the Horus Heresy, and with it the brutish fortification of everything once beauteous about Imperial Terra. Devastation followed anew as the Warmaster Horus' hordes bombarded the Throneworld from space, and though they were at last driven off during the Siege of Terra, much that could never be replaced was lost and destroyed.

Since that time Terra has been rebuilt again over the course of the ten thousand standard years of the Age of the Imperium, yet its magnificence becomes ever more faded, macabre and gothic; it is almost as though the Throneworld itself is bound to the Emperor who rules it, and as His vitality fades so too does that of proud and ancient Terra.

Today, in the 41st Millennium, Terra is the slow-beating heart of the Imperium, a sacred world of power and majesty that has become legend for most of the people of the galaxy. It is the site of the Golden Throne; the demesne of the divine Emperor of Mankind. The breathtaking architecture of its soaring buildings strike awe into the hearts of the millions of supplicants below.

Forbidding statues of angels and primarchs loom down from their eyries, their sightless stare driving out all thoughts of heresy. It is considered such a blessing to set foot upon Holy Terra that most of the pilgrims who manage to reach its polluted surface never leave.

Terra is perhaps the most massive Hive World within the Imperium, with an uncounted population that numbers several hundred billion Human beings. The bulk of Terra's massive population is divided between the upper class that includes the Imperial nobility and Adepts of the Adeptus Terra and the masses of the lower classes who serve as basic labourers.

The upper class is comprised of the official servants of the Emperor and His Imperium, including Imperial officials, Ecclesiarchy clergy, the aristocratic families of the Navis Nobilite, military officers, scribes, and bureaucrats.

The teeming masses who comprise the Terran lower classes are far less-privileged, and many of them are nothing more than serfs or thralls who toil in the Throneworld's countless manufactoria, providing the infrastructure that keeps the heart of the Imperium's byzantine bureaucracy functioning.

Source: https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/...

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Music by Caden L Welborn:    • SC:AUS - Opening & Main Theme