Krypteia IV

Krypteia IV is the fourth planet of the Krypteia System, located within the Maelstrom. It is the homeworld and fortress of the Shadow Reavers and Sons of Malady warbands of Chaos Space Marines, as well as the Porphyr Elixis pirates and the Krypteian Techarchy. A desert world, beneath its surface lie hidden forges from where Krypteia IV's hereteks produce weaponry for the forces of Chaos.

Geography
Under its twin suns, the red sands of Krypteia IV stretch far and wide as far as the eye can see. The choked and angry crimson sky of the Maelstrom illuminates the sparse spires of its single hub of life: the massive hive continent of Quiesca, located on the planet’s South pole. Flat, desolate, and barren, Krypteia IV’s deserts surround the massive hive, the stark landscape, featureless on almost all sides an ever depressing and discouraging sight.

Here and there across the planet, colossal chimney stacks dot the desert, polluting the angry skies with long columns of toxic smoke. Regularly, industrial spills will surface, creating oases of diluted waste. The wretched desert inhabitants fight over these oases, filtering out the water to sustain themselves and the promethium to keep their vehicles going. Without a vehicle, the open desert is assured death.

Most of the desert’s dwellers know not of its secret: beneath the surface vast caverns, tunnels and chasms merge in a planetwide network known as the Foundation. And each of these caverns and tunnels is home to a dark factory ruled over by uncaring masters. Its denizens, most often slaves, mutated beyond reason, many born in the dark caverns and not knowing the caress of the suns’ light, toil endlessly to escape the lashes of their half-machine, half-man masters. The desert’s only other defining feature are its toxic lakes of sulfur and tar. The largest among these is the Tar Pit, a vast ocean of asphalt that flanks Quiesca to its East.

Outside the hive city walls, in the endless salt expanses of the Krypteian Outback roam the Waste Raiders, nomadic speed cults of maniacs and cutthroats. Driving tech-heretical vehicles of ancient design, salvage and junk brought together in new life, the incredibly diverse and ramshackle motorized machines of the Waste Raiders ride forever across the landscape, waging war upon one another, fighting for any emerging oases of water-oil that have surfaced from the black forges below. When the pirate fleets of Krypteia leave their docking bays and landing pads the Waste Raiders follow in tow, giant heavy landers bringing the motorized lunatics atop the pirates’ vessels. When finally they are unleashed upon a planet, they will ride across its width and berth unstoppable, kidnapping slaves and stealing treasure, loot and machine to bring back to their barren homeland.

Quiesca
From the very banks of the Tar Pit begin to rise the edifices of Quiesca - a lawless land of anarchy, where violent gangs of Chaos worshipers, mostly of Slaanesh or Nurgle, kill each other in waves of endemic violence for territory and spoils. The law in the Hive is created by the gangs themselves. The smaller ones are usually vassals of larger gangs, and those of even larger, those of entire mafias and cartels, all of which are directly controlled by the affluent few: the pirate captains that bring their bounty to Krypteia IV’s markets.

Highest among these is the Autocrator, a lord picked by the Shadow Reavers to serve their interests. The Autocrator acts as planetary governor, and is the grand marshall of Krypteia’s vast and disparate fleets. In truth, the Autocrator’s power is limited, as the fleets and gangs of Krypteia are almost impossible to control.

In the very centre of the continent-city lie the highest spires. Upon these is Lucre Fete, the plaza and marketplace where the pirates of Krypteia’s sizeable fleets, together called the Porphyr Elixis, congregate and sell their loot, after paying tributes of slaves and treasure to the Shadow Reavers of course. From Lucre Fete, the treasure trickles down into the dark edifices below. The plaza also serves as gathering place and parliament for the quasidemocratic, but mostly just violent, politics of the pirate fleets.

Flanking Lucre Fete are the taller buildings of the Chrysopalateion to the North, the Silent Court to the East and Maladia to the West, the real seats of power. The Chrysopalateion serves as home to the Autocrator and the archidukes, the most prominent pirate captains of the fleet. In the Silent Court and Maladia sit ever vigilant the real masters of the world, the Shadow Reavers and the Sons of Malady respectivelly. Thousands of kilometers below lies the Bottomless Gate - the lowest part of the hive, and key entrance to the Mechanicum’s hidden factories below. Here no one enters without the Krypteian Techarchy’s consent, the coalition of hereteks ever paranoid and untrusting. Driven by the factories’ constant hunger, the hereteks, lead by their Archmagister, make regular forays to the surface where they exchange treasure, raw material and slaves for the bounties of their hidden and sleepless forges.