GM 47 Kapella – War‑Torn Hive World

Classification: War World / Hive World
Location: Kapella System, Drusus Marches, Calixis Sector, Segmentum Obscurus
Status: Under Imperial Pacification

Planetary Overview

Once a thriving hive world on the approaches of the Blackshine Nebula, 47 Kapella now lies in near-ruin. Its once-towering hive-spires are shattered into blackened carcasses, the surface a maze of shell-craters, trenches, and collapsed manufactoria.

The collapse began when a civilian insurrection swept away the regime of Lord Belin XVIII, sparking brutal campaigns of reconquest by the 21st Expeditionary Army and the Brontian 5th “Longknives”. Urban warfare, chemical bombardments, and mass starvation reduced the population from billions to a fraction of its former strength.

The Fall of Camp 109 & Nurgle Incursion

The most infamous episode in Kapella’s fall was the disaster of Camp 109:

  • A sprawling refugee settlement established after the hive collapses, it was infiltrated by Cryptos xenos scavengers and infected with the Sinner’s Plague.
  • Corpses rose in green miasma, the fallen mutating into shambling vectors of pestilence. Guardsmen who faltered in faith swelled the ranks of Nurgle cultists, their bodies breaking open into plaguebearers.
  • Inquisitor Lystug, aided by the Sisters Hospitaller, performed a ritual banishment that slew a Daemon Prince clawing its way into reality. The site was then reduced to rubble by orbital lance strikes.

Camp 109 remains a scorched scar upon Kapella’s surface, its name synonymous with contagion and heresy.

Current Situation

  • The Imperial Guard and Adepta Sororitas prosecute a slow cleansing of ruined hives and trench-works, torching plague-warrens and purging cult nests.
  • Survivors cling to existence in three sanctioned refugee camps:
    • Camp Phalanx – under Guard control; regimented, rationed, brutal.
    • Camp Seraphis – under Sororitas control; austere, creed-driven, purified daily.
    • Camp Governia – under the remnants of the planetary governor and PDF; rife with corruption, black markets, and hidden cults.
  • Only one percent of the population has survived. These haggard souls sift through the detritus of fallen hive-cities, haunted by plague-dreams and ceaseless hunger.

Environmental & Strategic Factors

  • Climate: A cold, dust-choked pall grips the world. Planetary bombardments hurled tons of ash into the upper atmosphere, dimming the sun and plunging the surface into a permanent overcast twilight. Crops wither, and water sources run thick with ash and corpse-runoff.
  • Taint: The world is classified as tainted; no Imperial resources or tithes are delivered until the Adepta Sororitas officially declare the purgation complete.
  • Strategic Role: 47 Kapella sits on the Drusus Marches frontier, forming part of the contested belt with 88 Tanstar and Archaos. Control of this devastated hive world is critical for blocking incursions from the Blackshine Nebula and safeguarding Imperial approaches from the Koronus Expanse.

Outlook

47 Kapella teeters between reclamation and abandonment. The Ecclesiarchy trumpets it as a proving ground of faith, while the Munitorum regards it as a sinkhole of resources. Refugees dream of liberation, but their hives are ruins and their air is poisoned ash.

Until the Sisters declare the Sinner’s Plague extinguished and the taint erased, 47 Kapella remains a grave-world masquerading as a war world, a battlefield where the Imperium fights not to conquer, but to purge.

The Governor’s Treasure Hunt – 47 Kapella

The ruins of 47 Kapella’s hive-cities still conceal vaults, treasuries, and relic-caches sealed before the insurrection and plague wars. The Planetary Governor, nominally in charge of the surviving PDF and the refugee camp known as Camp Governia, has begun quietly recruiting unofficial agents to enter the ruins and recover valuables, data-vaults, and archeotech.

He cannot employ the Imperial Guard or Adepta Sororitas openly, for such assets would be seized as evidence of corruption. Instead, he turns to mercenaries, scavenger bands, and Rogue Trader affiliates.

Possible Truths

  1. Legitimate Survival Effort – The Governor may genuinely seek resources to sustain his camp. Food reserves, promethium stores, and medicae supplies could exist in sealed warehouses below collapsed hab-blocks.
  2. Corrupt Opportunist – Whispers say the Governor uses chaos-tainted scavenged items to maintain power, trading with cult remnants — fragmented, corrupted data-looms once part of the Administratum archives, now whispering forbidden secrets.
  3. Cult Puppet – The Governor himself may already be enthralled, willingly or unwillingly, by the plague-cults of Nurgle, orchestrating scavenger missions to deliberately spread relics of corruption into Imperial lines.

Adventure Hooks

  • Treasure Hunt: Mercenaries must navigate collapsed hive vaults, fighting Cryptos xenos, plague-ghouls, and rival scavenger gangs.
  • Data Haul: A sealed Administratum archive-cube is said to contain tithing records, noble contracts, and forbidden sector maps. Who controls this data, controls the narrative of Kapella’s fall.
  • Double Deal: The Governor’s agents are hunted by Sororitas purgation squads, who suspect the scavengers of trafficking in plague-artifacts. The mercenaries must decide whether to side with purity or profit.
  • Warped Rewards: Some treasures radiate a subtle corruption — weapons with hungry machine-spirits, relics that whisper in the dark.

Strategic Stakes

If the scavenging operations succeed, the Governor may consolidate power, positioning himself as Kapella’s “savior.” If exposed, his downfall could shatter the fragile stability of Camp Governia and plunge the survivors into chaos.