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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 In researching the his tory of Cadavus, I was forced to rely primarily on private collections of historical documents, incomplete and poorly maintained by local minor gentry.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
-house its workers. Toward the end of the Republic, the planet
-became known for violent worker revolts and savage re-
-pression as working conditions suffered from neglect and
-corporate sabotage. As the Republic collapsed, an organiza-
-tion of egalitarian workers and low-level managers defeated
-the corporate security forces and seized control of the planet’s
-administrative centers, declaring a new, communist govern-
-ment. This was also the period of the fading of Cadavus’s
-sun, which reduced the amount of heat the planet received.
-The rest of the universe did not react well to the news
-of the Cadavan Revolution. House al-Malik’s attempts to
-retake the planet were near constant, and neighboring House
-Decados arrived and occupied the planet to administer its
-industries and protect them from al-Malik retaliation. Un-
-fortunately, some recalcitrant rebels saw the Decados as in-
-vaders no better than their former masters, and cowardly
-bombed the baronial manse at Thebes, killing dozens of in-
-nocent courtiers and servants and nearly killing Baroness
-Ivana Decados herself. Enraged, Baroness Ivana vowed to
-crush the world with the entire weight of the Decados mili-
-tary from Severus. In desperation, the rebels seized some
-few ships, broke the blockade to reach the jumpgate and
-shut it down before Decados reinforcements arrived. Cadavus
-became a Lost World.
-Cadavus reappeared to the Known Worlds some 70 years
-later, when a Charioteer exploratory vessel from Criticorum
-discovered the reactivation of the jumproute. The minor
-House Aviz purchased the route for an exorbitant amount,
-and found a planet long-suffering from neglect. Republican
-terraforming engines were ruined beyond repair, the mines
-were depleted, industry was in shambles, agriculture was
-nearly non-existent, and entire ecosystems had been ruined
-by the sun’s change. Humanity was reduced to a fearful
-existence in the polar regions and the valleys along the Agwe
-coast, and the Aviz found that at last the Cadavan people
-were willing to accept noble rule. House Aviz began a pro-
-gram to rebuild the shattered infrastructure, only to be cut
-short by an invasion from House Trusnikron. The ancient
-pattern of conquest and reconquest reasserted itself and
-Cadavus once again fell into the misery of war.
-It was the Church that brought a lasting peace to
-Cadavus. By 4272 successive warfare, colonization and in-
-dustrialization had maimed the planet to the brink of total
-devastation, so that the Patriarch declared the noble class
-unfit to govern so fragile a world as Cadavus. Church fleets
-arrived and the resident Hazat were forced to remove them-
-selves from the planet. Cadavus came under direct Church
-control. To steady the precarious balance of life, the entire
-polar regions of Locko and the Aziyan were declared fallow,
-so that they might begin the healing process free of the
-threats of a chaotic humanity. The Ayizan’s protected status
-was only withdrawn in the 50th century to allow the refugee
-House Masseri to settle there.
-The Church governed Cadavus well for nearly 200 years,
-returning the populace to a simpler way of life, free from the
-demands of industry. Unfortunately, this created a great deal
-of unrest, as so much of the populace had lived off the mines
-or in the polar regions. The result was continuing social prob-
-lems, sporadic revolts, widespread crime, and poverty above
-all. In the end, desperate, the Church turned the planet over
-to the newly converted Li Halan, who enforced the peace
-with an iron fist within a velvet glove, until Halvor Li Halan’s
-disastrous seizure of the Imperial Throne.
-Part of the Li Halan’s peace settlement after Halvor’s
-death was the cession of Cadavus to the regency. Like Stig-
-mata, Cadavus was ruled by governors appointed by the re-
-gent, to be replaced whenever political winds changed. Ev-
-ery Royal House, as well as several minor houses, adminis-
-tered Cadavus at some point during this regency period. Due
-to the temporary nature of their presence, most houses took
-this opportunity for quick, short-term resource extraction
-operations rather than the long-term development currently
-being advanced by my family. Fragile forests were harvested
-to destruction. The few stable fertile farmlands were culti-
-vated until desertified. Entire species were poached to ex-
-tinction, a holocaust from which the Cadavan ecosystem has
-yet to recover. Only the protected polar regions survived.
-The modern Decados administration of Cadavus began
-in 4969, when my house invaded the Cadavus system seek-
-ing a cell of Hawkwood-backed terrorists responsible for the
-firebombing of the Transvaalite Palace on Severus. Initially,
-there was a short war between House Decados and the
-League over possession of the Cadavus system, but the
-League withdrew its claim quickly, as its regency grant was
-not proving as profitable as it had expected. Since then,
-House Decados has introduced pilgrimages to Cadavus, as
-the monasteries are of considerable spiritual value to many.
-The planet’s people are left largely undisturbed, busy with
-the concerns of survival on a difficult world. The Decados
-rulers only reveal themselves to collect a moderate taxation
-and to repress those levels of violence that exceed the people’s
-tolerance.
-Despite the light hand of Decados rule, unrest is again
-rampant as elements of the population attempt to advance
-their own agendas with terrorism, usually by battling other
-terrorist factions. The Mechanique Agro Organization de-
-sires the reintroduction of terraforming technologies to cre-
-ate a viable agricultural base for the planet. The Collectivist
-Honor Elite seeks the expulsion of all off-world domination
-in favor of a self-governing egalitarian society. The Move-
-ment of Anti-Royalist Xenocrats is a quasi-mystical order
-entirely opposed to the rights of high birth. Duke Franz and
-Duchess Ursula, rulers of Cadavus, bear the grave responsi-
-bility of protecting the planet from itself.
-===== Solar System =====