Background: The Desolation of Clevelandador Futuris
Clevelandador is a three planet system that was discovered in m.36 by the exploration fleet of Clevelandador Patel IV. One planet is resource-rich but uninhabitable, while another is a dry waste with thin atmosphere unsuitable for much. However, the third planet was the perfect spot for colonization to exploit the resources of the system. It was settled, and named Futuris, for the dream of a better future it might bring.
The primary city on the planet is formally designated “The Royal Arch-Dominastae of Prelate Xadu”, and has been named that for eight years. The curious method of rule of the planet involves the noble families having the right to have each city on the planet, or “dominastae” named after their familial liege, with the capital city having the formal name of the current majority elected aristocratic leader. The constantly switching names has led to the peoples of the system simply calling the cities by slang for their surroundings: “Metaltowne” for the small hamlet near the mines, “Mountainview” for the cliffside city, and “Future Cleveland” as the low gothic version of the planet’s name for the capital city.
War has come to Future Cleveland. The planet, positioned with some residual resources in the system but nothing spectacular, has long escaped the most dutiful eye of the Imperium of Man. The populace has long been left to their own devices by an increasingly competitive nobility structure that seeks merely manipulate the commoners for their own electoral power and wealth. The decadence of the nobility has led to a gross public acceptance of mutation that would shock most Imperial citizens. Even the current Mayor of Future Cleveland has a most horrific mutation–yet it was simply cause for a laugh among most of the populace.
This laxity has led to debased demagogues proliferating across the city, willing to exploit troubling ideas of the most base kind, to generate multiple cults of Chaos amongst the outlying settlements of the great city. Cults of Nurgle have been literally and figuratively festering on the fringes of the great basin (where much of the settlements exist). Cults of Khorne meet in secret dueling societies and conduct murder rituals under the smog-choked skies. Other, nameless cults proliferate as well, seeking the deeper contacts with the powers of Chaos in all their might.
What triggered the War for Future Cleveland was the death of Prelate Xadu. The rival Chaos bands made independent play for complete control of the city–and thus the planet. Because of the street warfare between cultists, order broke down and an urgent dispatch was released before the astropath was destroyed. The city fell into ruin, rubble, and disorder as the economy died and battles raged between rival cults and fringe noble houses. As the battle raged, the different cults recruited darker and more horrible powers from beyond reality: strange oozing daemons seeking to further debase to populace and power armored Chaos Space Marines who see control of the industrial center as a way to bolster their continued efforts to win the long war against the Emperor.
Strife breeds response, in ways both helpful and harmful. The dispatches claiming that the city, and perhaps the system, were going to be lost to the ruinous powers were heard. The Fourth Company of Ultramarines was dispatched en masse to root out the powers of Chaos, as chancing the corruption of the Imperial Guard with such blasphemy was seen as a danger. In case the entire city warranted destruction, Lapinius Rex, Warlord Titan of the Legio Immortalis, is slated to arrive on-planet to support the Ultramarines.
Lapinius Rex, Warlord Titan of the Legio Immortalis, Pride of Forge World Konor
But the Imperium of Man were not the only ones who heard requests for help. A nearby Tau sept had been monitoring the planet. While they were blissfully unaware of the grim warnings of Chaos corruption in the astropathic communications, the Tau noticed the unrest in other ways–merchant ships that traded with them reported the increase in strife that led to closure of the space docks. Thinking it a perfect time to arrive and spread a message of conciliation and union with the Tau Empire, the Tau sent forth a delegation ready to entreat with the citizens.
The third complication revealed itself as one of the noble houses suddenly ceased all communication. Runners from the various warring factions in the area went to spy on what was happening, only to marvel as a huge force assembled for war streaking thru the sky on jet-powered vehicles. Unknown to the humans of the planet, nor the powers they worked for, a powerful Eldar Farseer had decreed that this situation of unrest was part of a broad machination that needed to be pacified. Her runes of fate determined a single image–the Avatar’s shape, standing in the center square of the main city of the planet called “Crios Meirge” in the Eldar star charts, burning with the fire of thousands of suns and striking the first blow for the resurgence of their race. She called upon the war hosts to assemble, and anointed commanders to bring the prophecy to fruition.
Like moths to a flame, a fourth external entity made planetfall at the same time. A mighty Kill Kroozer, loaded with ork warriors but limping from a recent larger engagement with the Imperial Navy, was forced to crash-land on Futuris. With the planet’s defenses in disarray and the sudden arrival of other war hosts, response to the crash was delayed too long. The Orks had quickly cannibalized the remains of their ship into the machinery of war, and began growing stronger from the initial clashes with outlying cult factions. With a city full of industrial scrap on the horizon, a new Waaagh was born.
With all forces assembled in different outlying areas of the great basin, the race was on to see which force would be able to wrest control of “Future Cleveland”.
Forces of Future Cleveland
[Forthcoming]
The Dark Muse 