GM Askelphion Secundus -Pleasure world-

Classification: Paradise World
Subsector: Drusus Marches
Sector: Calixis
Tithe Grade: Solutio Tertius (Recreational, Cultural)
Governor: Marchioness de Ichabarrian
Population: ~300 million (leisure-class, bonded servants, military personnel, and offworld guests)
Primary Roles: Highborn recreation, military indoctrination, morale reinforcement
Notable Locations: Drususport, Pater Gloria Palace, Falls of Askelphion, Chapels of the Crusader Host

Overview

In a sector smothered by war, ruin, and ecclesiarchal fervor, Askelphion Secundus glows like a rare jewel of serenity and civilization. Officially sanctioned by the Adeptus Terra and administered under the Ecclesiarchy’s watchful eye, it serves a dual purpose:

A paradise of earned respite for Imperial nobility and favored functionaries.
A carefully engineered facade to reinforce morale among Imperial Guard regiments destined for doomed campaigns.

Here, Rogue Traders rest beside retired admirals, while battle-scarred guardsmen are conditioned for the horrors yet to come. Beneath its flawless surface, Askelphion Secundus is a psychological engine—a vision of the Imperium’s promised paradise, built to bind loyalty with beauty and devotion.

Environment and Culture

The world’s environment is idyllic and precisely maintained: sun-warmed plains, cascading waterfalls, sculpted highlands, and crystalline shores. Every orchard is tended by servitors, and every vista is sanctified with incense and hymnal resonance. The famed Falls of Askelphion thunder in perpetual splendor—a sacred backdrop for both pilgrimage and spectacle.

The civilian population—minor nobles, artisans, and loyal bond-servants—live in strict hierarchy, performing rituals of beauty and faith with fervor. Many ceremonies still echo pre-Imperial traditions of the Ichabarr dynasty, now thoroughly subsumed into the Ecclesiarchy’s calendar.

Governance

Marchioness de Ichabarrian, a noble of ancient Calixian lineage, rules from the sunlit halls of Pater Gloria Palace. She is both hostess and steward of the planet’s sacred dual purpose. From ritual hunts to dueling ceremonies, she oversees every facet of indulgence—while also ensuring that the pageantry of Imperial perfection is visible to every offworld guest.

Her retainers—body-masked servants and song-servitors—enforce a harmony of aesthetics and obedience. The palace is both court and theatre, where diplomacy, romance, and subtle indoctrination mingle beneath marble colonnades.

Dual Purpose: Paradise and Propaganda

While noble guests are pampered with the arts, luxuries, and leisures of High Life, Askelphion Secundus plays a far more calculated role in Imperial war-making:

Clandestine regiments of the Imperial Guard—those destined for campaigns of moral or psychological extremity—are routed through the planet for mental reinforcement.
Entire wings of the world are dedicated to massive Crusader Chapels, where troops undergo liturgical conditioning, psychic shielding rituals, and purging indoctrination before their deployment into madness.
Through controlled exposure to the world’s beauty, regiments are told this is what awaits all once final victory is achieved.

For countless conscripts, Askelphion Secundus offers their first taste of clean air, sunlight, and the sea—a glimpse of what they are told the Imperium could become. It is a fabricated hope, weaponized to ensure loyalty even unto death.

Strategic Role

Rest and Recuperation: High-ranking officers, Imperial Navy crews, and inquisitorial agents find shelter in the luxurious precincts of Aurum Vitae and Durasin’s Hollow, which offer everything from stim-purge spas to soul-cleansing hymn therapy.
Imperial Propaganda Tool: Askelphion serves as a living monument to Imperial perfection—broadcast in pict-feeds and servitor-encoded dreams to inspire loyalty in the most desperate frontlines.
Subtle Diplomacy: Treaties, pacts, and black-edged negotiations often take place beneath its golden balconies and among its incense-filled salons. Many Inquisitorial and Rogue Trader alliances trace their origin to moments shared under Askelphion’s sky.

The Hidden Rot: The Ecstasy That Hollows Out

In the Imperium, where artistic expression is tightly regulated and beauty is often synonymous with heresy, there exists a forbidden phenomenon whispered about by Inquisitors and Ecclesiarchs: a condition of aesthetic psychosis known in esoteric circles as “Stendahl Syndrome.”

Officially dismissed as a rare emotional reaction to sacred imagery, in reality it is a psychic breach—an ecstatic vulnerability in which the soul may become entangled with the emanations of the Warp, particularly the seductive whispers of Slaanesh.

Origins and Symptoms

Stendahl Syndrome manifests in those exposed to overwhelming aesthetic perfection—particularly if that beauty is saturated with psychic residue, warp essence or unwittingly influenced by warp-born ideas.

Common triggers:

Exquisite art, sculptures or music recovered from pre-Imperial or xenos sources
Perfectly rendered frescoes in ancient cathedrums
Forbidden operas from Malfi
Rogue Trader salons displaying “archeotech art installations”
Warp-touched stained glass that sings

Symptoms:

Sudden dizziness, tears, emotional breakdown
Ecstatic euphoria followed by hallucinations
Whispers, unseen caresses, compulsive longing
Obsession with reproducing or experiencing the art again
Nightmares of masked revels, singing thrones, and a golden-limbed god-thing with mirrored eyes

“It was only a statue. I knew it was stone, but I loved it. And then it turned and whispered a song only I could hear…”
—Interrogation transcript, Hereticus Subfile 2387.D “Askelphion Incident”

The Path to Damnation

While initially indistinguishable from spiritual rapture, prolonged or repeated exposure to the syndrome opens the soul to Slaanesh. Beauty becomes obsession. Obsession becomes need. And in need, the Prince of Excess finds purchase.

Progression of Corruption:

Aesthetic Fixation
The subject becomes consumed by a singular piece or concept of beauty. They abandon duties, social bonds, and nutrition in pursuit of recreating or reliving the experience.
Sensory Expansion
Desires shift toward forbidden or artificial sources: xenos spices, sensation-altering drugs, ritual scarring, synaesthetic overlays. The subject often seeks new forms of input at the edge of human perception.
Mental Disassociation
The victim begins receiving visions or voices from “muses” or “divine inspiration.” They may refer to “The Maestro,” “The Mirror Queen,” or “She Who Paints With Flesh.” The boundaries between real and imagined collapse.
Manifestation
In extreme obsession, the warp responds. Murals begin whispering. Statues bleed. Architecture reshapes subtly in response to desire. A minor daemonic echo or warp breach may occur in the surrounding area.
Possession (Final Stage)
When the soul is fully opened and attuned to ecstatic frequencies, it becomes a beacon to the Warp. A lesser daemon of Slaanesh—typically a Fiend, Daemonette, or even a Muse-Wyrm—may possess the victim.

“She touched my eyes and I finally saw the truth of beauty—writhing and perfect. I am hers now.”
—Final entry, recovered from flayed skin scroll, Pleasure-Crypt of Vignax

Imperium’s Response

The Ecclesiarchy classifies such experiences as Aesthetic Heresy or Pleasure-Vision Contagion, punishable by penal sentence or execution. The Ordo Hereticus considers any report of uncontrolled weeping or hallucinations in the presence of art to be a potential Slaaneshi breach.

Severin Vael – The Apostle of the Brush

“Each stroke brings me closer to her whisper…”

Profile Summary

Trait	Detail
Name	Severin Vael
Origin	Malfi Hive-Plex Nivalis (exiled)
Occupation	Imperial artist, heretical visionary
Current Location	Askelphion Secundus
Allegiance	Slaanesh (unknowingly or willingly, uncertain)
Cover Identity	Adeptus-approved painter of Ecclesiarchal themes
True Purpose	Spiritual seduction through art, warp incursion

Public Persona

Severin Vael presents himself as a renowned Ecclesiarchal artist, specializing in grand oil paintings meant to glorify saints, martyrs, and the divine order of the Imperium. His work has been exhibited in cathedrals across the Calixis Sector and even gifted to a Rogue Trader of House Saul.

He speaks softly, often in poetic aphorisms, and dresses in layered silks and void-dyed leather. Despite his soft demeanor, there is a magnetic weight to his gaze—and a disquieting calm in his presence.

The Exhibition: “Visions of Ascension”

Vael has recently arrived at Askelphion Secundus to debut a major exhibition housed in the Sanctum Aesthetica, a domed salon once reserved for Ecclesiarchal pilgrimages. The exhibition includes:

12 massive oil paintings, each depicting surreal “Imperial visions” that become more distorted and suggestive the longer one looks.
A triptych titled “The Choir of Flesh,” rumored to induce synaesthesia and stigmata-like symptoms in viewers.
A concealed final piece titled “The Bride Beyond the Veil,” covered in silk and only unveiled for “those who are ready.”

Hidden Truths

The Warp-Touched Brushwork

Unbeknownst to most, Vael paints with pigments infused with warp-tainted ichor collected from ruins on a lost xenos moon. Some of his brushes are made from the hair of executed psykers. His compositions function as psychic sigils—subtle glyphs woven into ecclesiastical imagery that sow obsession, lust, and mental unraveling.

The Whispers Behind the Canvas

Vael does not merely create—he communes. During his long painting sessions, he hears the sibilant voice of a Daemonette muse, known only as Velascira. Whether he resists or collaborates is unclear—even to him.

“She does not command—she suggests. She purrs with possibility.”

The Plan

Vael’s exhibition is a ritual in stages. As each painting is unveiled and more guests succumb to Stendahl-like ecstasies, the warp tears grow more tangible. His final piece, “The Bride Beyond the Veil,” is designed to serve as a locus—an anchor point for a minor Slaaneshi daemon to cross into realspace.

Inquisition Assessment (Confidential)

Threat Level: Moderate–Severe
Psychic Hazard: High (Indirect Contact Risk)
Recommended Action: Observe. Allow spread to identify compromised elites. Terminate artist, sycophants and destroy artworks upon manifestation threshold.