GM Cryptus -Cemetary world-

Classification: Cemetery World
Sub-sector: Drusus Marches, Calixis Sector, Segmentum Obscurus
Tithe Grade: Minimal (Ritual/Clerical Service, Funeral Tithes)

Overview & Role

Cryptus is one of the primary cemetery worlds of the Calixis Sector, consecrated during the Crusade of Saint Drusus. It was designated as a final resting place for the countless soldiers who fell in his wars of unification. While few bodies ever reached its soil, their regimental tokens and memorial seals were interred here.

Over time Cryptus has become the hallowed stage for the funerals of the Imperium’s greatest dead in the Drusus Marches. Generals, admirals, governors, heroes, and saints are escorted here in massive funeral processions organized by their families, retinues, vassals, and even their homeworlds. Some of the most famous burials in Calixian history have drawn hundreds of thousands of attendants, forming planetary-scale rites of mourning.

Funeral services for such grand processions now provide Cryptus with its principal source of income, supplemented by the steady regimental and fleet tithes deposited in its archives and mausolea.

Notable Features

  • Endless Mausolea
    Necropolises and tomb-cities stretch across the surface, each devoted to entire regiments, dynasties, or individual heroes. Eternal flames burn before every mausoleum, never allowed to gutter out.
  • Sanctified Glass Cathedral
    The ruined Templum of the Sacred Lights, once built entirely of warp-resistant glass, stands as a scar of 702.M39, when the Light-burners’ cult unleashed daemonic fire upon the necropolis.
  • Cryptus Shotgun Shells
    Relic munitions created from shards of sanctified glass; said to scourge daemons when fired by the faithful.
  • Funeral Processional Routes
    Wide causeways and plazas are engineered specifically for massive funeral corteges, where entire regiments, naval crews, and planetary vassals march to accompany their lord’s final interment.

History & Legacy

  • Drusian Crusade Origins: Founded as a shrine for crusade veterans, with tokens (dogtags, standards, seals) deposited when bodies could not be recovered.
  • Imperial Records: The Administratum has preserved nearly a millennium of epilogies, genealogies, and inheritance lineages tied to the fallen, ensuring legacies endure.
  • Great Burials: Cryptus is remembered not just for its archives but for its spectacular funerals—ceremonies where entire homeworlds send contingents to honor the passing of their heroes.

Population & Orders

  • Administratum
    Records every funeral, epilogue, and inheritance, making Cryptus a key archive for regimental and dynastic lineages of Calixis sector.
  • Adeptus Sororitas
    A minor Order (the Order of the Unshaken) maintains the eternal flames before the mausolea and safeguards the sanctity of processions.
  • Servitors & Penitents
    Maintain the tomb-cities, inscribe epitaphs, and prepare catacombs for incoming burials.
  • Funeral Attendants
    When a great leader in Calixis Sector or Koronus Expanse dies, the planet fills with attendants: family, retainers, vassals, honor-guards, and entire cohorts from the deceased’s homeworld, creating solemn spectacles of loyalty and devotion.

Environment & Ecosystem

  • Climate: Thin, arid atmosphere supporting only lichen growth on mausoleum stone.
  • Animal Life: A feral ecosystem of rats and albino pigeons thrives in catacombs, feeding on offerings left for the dead.
  • Atmosphere: Perpetual haze of dust, incense, and smoke from thousands of eternal flames.

Summary:
Cryptus is the cemetery world of the Drusus Marches, sanctified in the age of Saint Drusus. Its endless necropolises are not only archives of regimental tokens and Sororitas flames, but also the stage for the Imperium’s grandest funerals. Generals, admirals, governors, and warlords are brought here by family, retainers, and vassals; some burials draw hundreds of thousands. Maintaining these immense funeral processions is the planet’s chief livelihood, binding together remembrance, record, and ritual into a planetary economy of the dead.

Campaign notes

  • Victor Von Ulm could arrange funerals to his absent father Karfa von Ulm and increase his legitimazy in claim of inheritance and Rogue Trader warrant.
  • Family tomb of House Krinn is located to the planet and as their gene line is recorded the house can be connected to Horrold The Three Fingers, infamous pirate king slain by Elera Von Ulm.