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-====== Cadavus ======
-One of the poorest worlds in all the Empire, Cadavus is a tragic planet, a tangible reminder of the sins of humanity. Cadavus has been the site of ongoing rebellions for centuries now — few planets can claim such a long history of bloodshed and pain. From space, Cadavus appears much as its inhabitants see it: a cold, barren and dusty ball of dirt, with the only lush vegetation located in the polar regions. Otherwise, most of the plant life exists only in some of the deep valleys, shielded from the frigid windstorms. Drinkable water is scarce, as much of the oceans are corrupted by heavy radioactive contamination. Cadavus is a world that House Decados has come to care for like a crippled child: desperate and in pain, but reassured by the presence of a loving parent.
-===== World in Pain =====
-Cadavus’s history is a litany of chaos, but much of it is sadly lost to posterity. Over the centuries records have been destroyed, hidden, lost and dubiously “discovered” to the point that undisputable facts are rare. Reliable archives are uncommon, and those that exist are in private noble collections, often of questionable worth. In researching the his tory of Cadavus, I was forced to rely primarily on private collections of historical documents, incomplete and poorly maintained by local minor gentry. Bear in mind that I am no trained scholar in this field, and my knowledge is little better than that of a layman.
-Humanity’s first arrival on what is now Cadavus was sometime in the 24th century by Sathraist pilots seeking refuge from Urth’s central authorities. They named it Sonatath, at that time a lush world, thriving with life — in sharp contrast to the barrenness of today. Unfortunately for the Sathraists, zaibatsu scouts from Urth discovered the new
-jumproute only 20 years later and their forces arrived to claim the new world. There was a brief war over Sonatath,
-which forced the Sathraists to flee and disappear into the jumpgate, never to be heard from again. Modern historians suspect that these first Cadavans may be the ancestors of House Masseri, which would make their recent settlement all the more ironic.
-Sonatath was purchased by a zaibatsu corporation called Ramses Solid Ventures. The planet was far more than it
-could have hoped for. In addition to its new lifeforms, the planet also bore significant mineral wealth. Under direct corporate control, mining colonies and plantations peppered the surface of the planet. Ramses was a family business, small but extremely wealthy, and willing to take great risks for a profit. As new noble families across human space began claiming entire worlds for their own, the Ramses attempted to do the same, but were instead betrayed and destroyed by their corporate partners and subsidiaries. The circumstances of the destruction of House Ramses are unclear, but they led to decades of political chaos. At least one other corporate family here attempted to claim noble status but failed to hold power. Sonatath was finally won in a savage guerilla conflict by partisans funded by a commercial coalition on Criticorum.
-For the next thousand years, the planet changed hands dozens of times, either through invasions from the stars or
-by revolutions from the planetary populace. No regime lasted long enough to secure itself, and each such conflict took its toll on the fragile world. The worst of these was in 3293, when a desperate House O’Niell resorted to heavy nuclear bombardment to defend itself against Li Halan invaders, creating a winter of nearly 10 years and wiping out almost all natural life on the planet. Only the life in the polar re-
-gions survived, already accustomed to long winters. This
-was how the planet reached its present state and earned its
-present name — Cadavus, the dead world.
-It was during this period that the Universal Church newly
-established itself across the jumpweb. Cadavus had gained
-early note for the Prophet’s confrontation against the
-antinomist Durargo in Chroniculae III, 6:12-18. The tale of
-the epic battle later attracted missionaries, holy warriors and
-disreputable fanatics from a hundred faiths to Cadavus to
-seek any unholy threat that might still infest the wounded
-planet. Instead, they found each other, and the world ex-
-ploded into religious conflict. House Koprul, rulers at the
-time, abandoned the planet for safer worlds. Eventually, most
-of the religious fervor on Cadavus died down, but the casu-
-alties from the violence were horrendous. Many of the sur-
-vivors fled to the wastelands, eking out a meager living and
-eventually forming the myriad monasteries that still dot the
-landscape to this day.
-During the Second Republic Cadavus came under the
-control of the Criticorum-based Bashshar Corporation, bring-
-ing the planet into the al-Malik sphere of influence. Some of
-the present al-Malik estates on Cadavus date back to this
-time and maintain continuous records which, though often
-biased, make research into the planet’s history far less diffi-
-cult. The Bashshar Corporation strove to repair much of the
-ecological damage that Cadavus had suffered during its cen-
-turies of warfare. It also introduced a massive level of min-
-ing and industrialization, creating vast company towns to