GM Laskin -Hive world-

Classification: Hive World (Reclaimed)
Sector: Calixis (Provisional Entry)
Subsector: Drusus Marches
Tithe Grade: Exactis Tertius
Climate: Sub-Arctic / Tundric / Glacial
Planetary Cycle: 30 Terran years (elliptical orbit)
Governor: Archducal Line of Ulm, under Imperial Charter
Population: ~9.4 billion (clustered in hive zones)
Primary Exports: Salvage alloys, promethium sludge, cold-weather biomass, conscripts
Status: Reclaimed Hive World under Adeptus Terra oversight

Overview

Laskin is a reclaimed frontier hive world defined by its colossal ice fields, wind-scoured tundras, and a harsh, millennia-old legacy of abandonment. Originally colonized during the Dark Age of Technology, the planet once thrived under vast environmental control systems. At some point—lost to time and record—those systems catastrophically failed. Temperatures dropped planetwide, and glaciers surged across continents, entombing entire hive cities and Laskin was abandoned.

Now, it lives again—scarred, colder, but stubbornly alive.

Orbit and Climate Cycle

Laskin follows a slow, elliptical orbit around its dim star, completing a full revolution every 30 Terran years. This elongated cycle divides the planetary year into two prolonged “less-cold seasons”, during which surface operations and limited agriculture are possible, and two short but devastating freeze periods, known collectively as “Killwinters.”

Even during the mildest orbital phases, much of the planet remains hostile. In the Killwinter, temperatures plummet far below survivability, reaching lethal lows even in equatorial zones. Hive cities seal their outer sectors, surface transit ceases, and survival depends on stockpiled reserves and the integrity of ancient heat infrastructure.

To the people of Laskin, the passing of seasons is not measured in months, but in decades. They do not prepare for winter—they prepare for Killwinter.

Reclamation and the Von Ulm Charter

In 103.M41, the noble Sepedeus von Ulm, a chartered Rogue Trader, led a fleet of refugees and war survivors to rediscover Laskin. There, amid wind-shattered ruins and glacier-choked valleys, his people populated dormant but intact hive infrastructure. Plasma cores were re-lit. Heat lines were reconnected. Humanity returned.

With Munitorum aid and Ecclesiarchal oversight, several hives were reactivated and adapted to sub-zero habitation. Today, these cities survive through thermal pipe networks and faith forged in flame.

Geography and Ecosystem

  • Equator: A band of bogged tundra and swamplands, partially thawed during the mild decades. Dominated by low-light algae, methane-bloated fauna, and hostile native scavengers.
  • Poles: Entirely glaciated, entombing unexcavated pre-Imperial hive cities.
  • Water: Locked in ice masses. Extracted through deep-core melt rigs and thermic drills.

Notable Sites

  • Hive Volgost – Planetary capital and stronghold of House Ulm. Surrounded by thermal flare towers, its black-steel hive walls remains perpetually rimed with ice.
  • Glacier Vault Primus – A hive preserved within the polar ice for over 10,000 years. Its silhouette haunts the horizon, a ghost city of black spires and frozen causeways.
  • The Wyrmtrack – A long, exposed pipe of super-heated steam linking two hives through hostile tundra.
  • Echo Spires – An ancient vox-cathedral repurposed to project Emperor-worship across the plains through massive hymn-repeater towers.

Culture and Faith

Laskinites are stoic, communal, and spiritually bonded to warmth. Fire is not a tool—it is doctrine. Every flame lit is accompanied by a prayer. Every heater is a shrine. Hearths are sacred. Plasma conduits are blessed daily. In the great ice-prayers, entire congregations kneel before lit braziers, whispering praises for every preserved calorie of heat.

Military Contributions

Laskin provides hardened regiments to the Imperial Guard known as the Laskinite Ice-Wardens, trained in:

  • Deep freeze combat
  • Trench siege warfare
  • Long-term glacial deployment
  • Arctic attrition logistics

Their signature weapon is the bayonet-flamer, used to burn through ice and flesh alike. Many regiments carry portable relic furnaces, both for warmth and spiritual cohesion.

Summary

Laskin is a world of cold remembrance, surviving in the ruins of a warmer age. It does not bloom. It endures. It teaches that fire is not comfort, but a test—that warmth is holy, and that even death must freeze before faith does.

It turns slowly around a dim star, through long seasons of hardship and short flashes of despair, but its people do not bend. They burn in the dark, one decade at a time.