Erika's Retreat

Erika's Retreat is a distant and isolated arid frontier world located in the Vigilius sector, south of the fortress world Cerbera and eastwards from Novoss system. It was found around 605.M36 and was colonised in 640.M36. The world holds little importance and has been governed by an elected member of the local parliament formed of local politicians.

Overview
Erika's Retreat is the fourth planet of five in its system. The system has a large dust cloud of solar material behind the sixth planet which emits static background noise that interferes most of the Imperial scanners and communication devices. Indeed, the planet is completely invisible beyond the boundaries of the system itself, how Rogue Trader Erika Stormruler ever came to find it is left unanswered.

Erika's Retreat has three natural moons and a loose grid of orbital defense platforms stationed above the main settlements on world. World itself is cold and arid world, half of its surface is salt-water oceans while other half is either cold deserts or rocky steppes. Population is centered around the Great Lakes but shepherds do travel great lengths when herding the collob flocks. World is not inhospitable in any special way nor is its flora and fauna substantially harmful for humans. However, the lack of sweet water in large areas and a freezing cold weather in summer and hellish blizzards in winter make Erika's Retreat a hard place to live.

Tithed as Solutio Extremis, Erika's Retreat has very little to offer for Imperium and its main tithe is formed of conscripts for the Imperial Navy that visits the world occasionally during its long distance patrols.

Locations
Capitol of Erika's Retreat is Mongolow City which lies on the shores of lake Mongolow, one of the Great Lakes.

Government
Erika's Retreat is a plutarchy and quite anarchic one too. One leader is elected by the instructions given by the local Arbites who number in no more than a dozen agents in any given time on world. This one leader irregularly summons a gathering of the aristocracy and burghers on world who all have right to speak and right to vote in the gathering. There are no agreed formalities or hierarchy in the gatherings and the only way to get your voice to be heard is to get prestige and fame in the society. This kind of ramshackle government favors the rich and wealthy persons.

The Mongolow Parliament, as this system is known by locals, is very inefficient and a lot of opinions and voters can be bought. This is even more alarming as the world has no formal juridical branch of government but the local militia which upholds the laws hands criminals over to the Mongolow Parliament that also judges them according to the wishes of the locals. Traditions have been formed during the millennia and certain crimes usually lead to certain punishments but whenever a more prestigious person is trialed, he might be executed for stealing a penny.

From time to time, Adeptus Arbites call the Mongolow Parliament to gather and announce about the coming military drafts. These are usually resisted to a degree that people flee into the wilds or are executed on spot by the ruthless Imperial agents. Lower class citizens are usually forced into service by their landowners that can effectively buy their way out of conscription by offering citizens in their place.

Militia
Planetary Defence Forces and police at the same time. Militia is a form of mafia given right to exploit the anarchic state of Erika's Retreat by its government. Militia members rarely get conscripted into the Mongolow Irregulars but have a spiteful habit of enslaving people from rural areas and offering them in their place.

Mongolow Irregulars
Small, ill-equipped and bad-mannered infantry regiments raised from Erika's Retreat are known as the Mongolow Irregulars. They are most often used as nothing more than cannon fodder but some Imperial commanders have found their use in long range patrols and reconnaissance missions, utilising the Irregulars as light infantry regiments. These are however rare occasions and many commanders simply scatter the troops of these regiments into other regiments or designate them as auxiliary and labor forces.