GM Death World Mirelanx 3

“Life is sacred. Humanity is optional.”
— Magos Biologis Vorj Anthen, Overseer of Rootspire Station

Imperial Classification:

  • Designation: Mirelanx-9
  • Type: Death World
  • Role: Botanical research zone / servitor harvesting site
  • Tithe Status: Excused (xeno-ecological exemption)
  • Location: Uncharted sector fringe, far from stable Mandeville routes
  • Controlling Entity: Adeptus Mechanicus – Explorator Sub-Faction: Corpus Florentum

Planetary Conditions

  • Environment: Dense, hyperactive jungle-forest (terrestrial + fungal hybrid), acidic rainfall, erratic magnetic fields
  • Climate: Tropical-chaotic; vast wet seasons and bioluminescent “less wet” periods
  • Flora: Extremely aggressive plant life with accelerated growth, carnivorous tendencies, and symbiotic camouflage
  • Fauna: Complex food webs, rapid mutation, large insects

Hostility Rating: EXTREME

  • Unprotected survival time: 20–30 minutes
  • Known hazards:
    • Spore clouds that dissolve soft tissue
    • Root-maws that mimic shelter
    • Plant colonies that induce paralysis via pheromones
    • Mobile fungal hives that use hallucinating spores to lure prey

Human Population: The Mirebound

The human inhabitants of Mirelanx-9 are descendants of a lost colony or a crash-landed star vessel, now reduced to stone-age tribal ferality. Naked or clothed in woven moss and bark, they:

  • Hunt with bone knives, spore-hardened thorns, and trap plants
  • Fear light and worship the jungle as a living god
  • View the Mechanicus as demons or sky-burners
  • Live in tree-canopy hives, fleeing from both flora and metal men

No written language remains—only gesture-cant, painted bark, and scent trails.

Mechanicus Presence: Rootspire Station

Built atop a volcanic basalt column surrounded by toxic wetlands, Rootspire Station is a fully isolated Adeptus Mechanicus research enclave, operated by Magos Biologis Vorj Anthen and her cohort of data-harvesters.

The Mechanicus is interested only in the planet’s botanical systems—specifically its:

  • Unnatural growth acceleration (1.6x biomass generation per solar cycle)
  • Symbiotic and adaptive mutation networks
  • Mycelial memory transmission across forest regions
  • Potential for self-replicating biomass servitor casings

The Mirebound humans are seen as a source of grey matter and muscle, harvested as raw material. They are hunted, tranquilized, lobotomized, and converted into biologically compliant servitors.

The Mechanicus deliberately avoids exterminating the Mirebound population, as new specimens must grow wild to maintain availability and cerebral freshness.

Mechanicus Objectives

  • Map and sequence the planet’s adaptive biome-data
  • Extract samples for Imperial agriculture, gene-weapons, and hive purification protocols
  • Develop plant-based anointments capable of regenerating wounds or absorbing radiation

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Lex-Record: Biologis Protocol Briefing 0041-A: “Proto-servitor Harvest Methodology”

Magos Biologis Ankar Vex instructing Initiate-Cog Thal of Rootspire Station

Ankar Vex:
Initiate. You will now witness the standard procedure for the containment and conversion of native human stock—the so-called Mirebound. Their biological mass remains compliant with base templates, though grossly unsanitary and cognitively inferior.

Step One: The Lure

We isolate a suitable target—typically an adult female or brood-carrier. Using distress sounds—recordings of infant mewling or pained female vocalizations—we draw in a herd responder, most often a caretaker male or young female. They are instinctively reactive to reproductive cries.

Note: Sound layering must maintain organic irregularity; too perfect a cry will alert them to deception.

Step Two: Constructing the Guide

The captured specimen is implanted with a directional inhibitor node and partial memory retention, then operated into a Guide Servitor. We allow it to retain only two instincts: return to the nest and fear of isolation. Its scent and pathing behavior will lead us directly.

Step Three: The Netting Strike

The Guide Servitor is released and tracked by hunter drones equipped with dissonance emitters—aural disruptions calibrated to induce panic and spatial confusion in feral groups. Meanwhile, Skitarii Shock Teams move in under passive camouflage, armed with high-energy throw nets.

Step Four: Felling the Nest-Tree

Once the Guide re-enters the nest canopy, the entire structure is felled via surgical strike at the root collar. The collapse renders the tribe stunned, disoriented, and largely immobilized in the resulting canopy debris.

Scitarii engages to collect writhing bodies with shock-nets. Drones neutralize escapees.

Step Five: Transportation Management

Allowing the herd to retain juvenile offspring during transport reduces aggression and neural activity. This improves containment and lowers limb breakage during restraint by 32,7%.

You may observe that even the most aggressive specimens will pacify when their offspring chirp or cling. Exploit this.

Step Six: Processing & Separation

Once returned to Rootspire, subjects are passed through triage sorters:

  • Type-Alpha: Viable cognitive tissue → servitorization
  • Type-Beta: Partial viability → servitor nutrient gel conversion
  • Type-Gamma: Infected stock → liquefaction → fertilizer tanks

Observe extreme disinfection protocol at all phases. The Mirebound are riddled with fungal spores, dermal parasites, and un-classified diseases.

Step Seven: Production Yields

A single bountiful nest-tree—typically 18 to 24 bodies—yields enough grey matter and musculature for one full servitor production cycle (six to ten units).

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“THE RITUAL OF INOCULATION”

Overview:

Due to the extreme pathogenic density and hostile flora/fauna interactions native to Mirelanx-9, the feral human population—referred to as the Mirebound—have developed a primitive but remarkably effective biological hardening rite known as the Ritual of Inoculation.

This ritual is not symbolic. It is essential to survival.

The Inoculation Process:

Shortly after birth—within the first 16 solar cycles—the infant is subjected to gradual and escalating exposure to localized spores, venom compounds, and symbiotic parasites. The ritual is often performed by Mirebound elder-mothers, who use hand-pressed salves, plant-smoke fumigation, and controlled bloodletting with spore-laced thorns.

The mortality rate is high—estimated at 1 in 4. Those who survive, however, undergo broad-spectrum physiological adaptations, including:

  • Thicker skin and mucosal linings
  • Elevated immune aggression against necrotic pathogens and spores
  • Natural tolerance to common neural toxins
  • Symbiotic parasites that emit endogenous antibodies

Linguistic Degeneration & Sign-Cant Evolution:

One notable side effect of the inoculation process is vocal atrophy. Repeated internal infections and subglottal scarring result in stunted vocal development in a majority of survivors.

Thus, the Mirebound communicate primarily through:

  • Low grunts, hoots, and keening wails
  • Rhythmic chest thumps or foot stomps for warning signs
  • A fully evolved Sign-Cant language, composed of:
    • Hand gestures
    • Jaw and neck flexion patterns
    • Finger-ink glyphs made with plant dye or blood

Sign-Cant is remarkably complex—used for hunting, kinship identification, threat marking, and even storytelling.

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“Scent trail of survival” — The Elder’s Teaching

The youngling sits motionless on a branch-shelf of knotted root, lips pressed tight. Around them, the jungle thrums—wet and breathing. The elder kneels across from him, his skin etched with the scars of near-death, his eyes scanning the air for what any danger.

He raises a leaf-darkened hand and signs in urgent, deliberate Sign-Cant.

[Gesture: two fingers to neck, fist to chest, eyes wide]
“Scent is life. Scent is death. They follow it more than sound.”

He crushes a waxy bulb of black-amber stemmilk, spreading the sap across the boy’s shoulders.

[Gesture: swirl-palm, nose-tap, point downward sharply]
“Your base scent will betray you. Your sweat, your breath, your fear. All of it sings to the predators.”

From his satchel he draws three bundles of dried plants and scraped resin:

  • Veilfungus shavings – to confuse trail-hunters
  • Ash-root smear – masks heat and blood vapor
  • Narrowleaf oil – burns with body scent to create false paths

He shows the child how to rub each in the right place: under the jaw, between the toes, across the ribs.

[Gesture: sharp line across chest, sweeping arc behind back]
“Layered wrong, they’ll know. Too strong, and the bloom-hives will wake. Too weak, and the burrow-wasps will drink from your eyes.”

He grabs a stone and tosses it—a vine hanging nearby tightens around nothing, then snaps back into stillness.

[Gesture: slow spiral, jab to ear, cross-shaped mark to mouth]
“Some flowers listen. Some vines taste. You mark your trail to lie to them—not guide them. Loop your scent. Break it with water. Leave pieces of others, if you must.”

Then he steps closer, his fingers forming the oldest sign of all: two spirals parting, then colliding violently.

[Gesture: intertwining trails broken by slash]
“A poor trail brings death to more than you. If you lead the scent to the nest tree, your kin will rot in it with you.”

At last, he produces a sealed wax-bud: a trailcore, rich with spore pigments and fermented flower-oils. He holds it, then crushes it, scattering it into the wind.

[Gesture: spiral to chest, spiral to chest, then spiral joined—growing brighter]
“When her scent meets your own, it does not weaken—it grows stronger.”

[Gesture: fist to ribs, thumb behind ear, trail drawn with both hands]
“We scent for a partner whose trail strengthens our own. Together, you live longer. Together, your path is harder to follow.”

The lesson ends. The youngling nods. There is no smile, no words—only the distant hiss of vines turning in their preying.