GM VENMARTH SECUNDUS — Fifty Years After Annexation

“We gave them Islesong. They gave us drillsong.”
— Unknown Barber-Monk, before exile

⚙️ Imperial Classification:

  • Current Tier: Feudal-Industrial World (Exploit Grade: High)
  • Imperial Role: Plasma-mineral extraction, oceanic biomass harvesting, conscription world
  • Tithe Class: Exactis Secondus
  • Governor: Lord-Auxiliary Af Thurnskarn, appointed by decree of the High Lords (nominated by von Ulm)

Systemic Transformation: The Era of Harvest

In the five decades since formal annexation, Venmarth Secundus has undergone violent metamorphosis. What was once a rugged, spiritually rich world of fjords and totemic clans is now a network of excavation fields, oceanic refineries, and fortified landing zones, humming under the weight of machine and mandate.

Massive plasma-core rigs choke the coastlines. Atmospheric scrubbers pump fog-thick exhaust into already wind-battered skies. Isles that once resonated with walrus chorus are now mined hollow, their sacred stones shattered, their choirs silenced beneath ferrocrete runways and cogitator towers.

Extraction & Eradication: The Fate of the Clans

The native population, once anchored to the sacred rhythms of sea and song, has been broken, scattered, and commodified. In the early years, clan leaders were co-opted, granted minor titles and placed in charge of “local compliance” zones. Resistance was met with orbital suppression in three major archipelagos. Sacred Isles were bombarded, their stone choir-monuments reduced to crushed reef.

Traditional customs—moustache rites, Islesong chants, walrus wrestling—were banned or absorbed into rituals of Imperial creed. Grooming salons were replaced with work-assignments. Islesong was recorded, dissected, subliminal hypnodoctrination added and broadcasted back as entertainment. The Church of the Emperor’s Tusks was folded into a mechanized Ministorum branch and now functions as a bureaucratic loyalty cult.

The Barber-Monks, once revered, have been outlawed or enslaved, their tools confiscated and reliquaries looted. A few were shipped off-world as curiosities—“follicular savants” performing sacred beard readings for Hive nobility.

The Detergent Plague & the Ash-Lhos

Amid the industrial runoff and worker fatigue, chemical dependence has spread like mold. Venmarth’s population—especially among the urbanized ex-clans—suffers rampant addiction to “Detergent,” a chemically synthesized industrial solvent re-marketed as a euphoric inhalant. Combined with harsh ash-lho sticks, it produces a haze of docile lethargy and surreal hallucination.

The shantytowns surrounding extraction zones, particularly in the former noble isles, are filled with detergent-huffers, their tongues stained and their once-proud moustaches balding by shame. Entire generations no longer remember complete Islesong—only the sound of servitors grinding and the static lullaby of Vox-Wardens piping worker schedules into the fog.

Preserved in Fog: The Kharlaine Archipelago

And yet—one archipelago remains untouched.

The Kharlaine Reach, a cluster of storm-wracked, logistically inaccessible isles in the far Southern Hemisphere, has—so far—escaped heavy industrialization. Plagued by dense magnetic fogs, geothermal instability, and unpredictable tidal flows, it was deemed too resource-inefficient to occupy during the initial harvest.

Here, the last embers of old Venmarth burn.

Three surviving clans—Clan Durrholm, Clan Senvik, and Clan Kharlaine—live in isolation, raising their young in whisper-chant and salt-wind. Barber-Monks still tend to the dying, grooming in silence. Islesong still echoes faintly among the cliffs. The tusk-daggers are not ceremonial—they are sharpened and ready.

The Resistance Brews

Within the Kharlaine Reach, a movement stirs: The Order of the Final Grooming.

  • Led by a surviving Tuskmantle and a war-scared noblewoman of Clan Durrholm, the Order trains youths in ancient rites and modern sabotage.
  • Relics stolen from Imperial convoys—las-carbines, promethium charges, vox-jammers—are fused with ancestral tactics.
  • Whisper networks across shantytowns – carry illegal Islesong fragments encoded into lho-paper wrappings.

The goal is clear: assassinate Governor Af Thurnskarn, destroy the command node at Fort-Canticle Bay, and awaken the sleeping voice of the Emperor Walrus, long believed to dwell beneath the deepest trench off the Kharlaine coast.

STORY HOOK: “Songs Beneath the Smoke”

Campaign Role:

An ongoing personal arc for one of a player characters (PC), used to reveal the brutal transformation of their homeworld and highlight the unintended consequences of Imperial contact. The journey offers opportunities for shock, horror, introspection, betrayal, and rebellion—or reluctant acceptance of power.

Character Seed: The Native of Venmarth

One of the PCs hails from Venmarth Secundus, specifically from one of the pristine archipelagos spared during early annexation due to difficult logistics and low priority. Their youth was filled with islesong, the scent of salt and smoke, and the sacred rites of moustache grooming and walrus worship. They were taught by Barber-Monks, fought in walrus wrestling duels, and dreamed of stars seen through coastal mists.

When the Imperium called, the PC was taken off-world as a youth.

Campaign Structure: Two Visits, One Tragedy

Venmarth is visited twice during the campaign:

  1. Early Visit:
    The PCs arrive on Venmarth while it’s still largely untouched. The group experiences its strange customs and meets the PC’s kin. It is peaceful, spiritual, and culturally rich—a rare moment of stillness.
  2. Return Visit (Late Campaign):
    The party returns years later to find Venmarth transformed into an industrialized Imperial hellscape.
    • Mines scar the coasts
    • Islesong is silent
    • Barber-Monks are gone
    • The PC’s father is now Governor Thurnskarn, presiding over oppression and decay

The PC must confront what the Imperium has done—and what they’ve become part of.

The Return: Decades Later

In the late stages of the campaign, character returns back to Venmarth Secundus.

But the world is unrecognizable.

  • The fjords are choked with smoke.
  • Choirs of walruses are silent, their habitats replaced with hauling rigs.
  • Moustache rituals have become parodied worker oaths.
  • Shantytowns reek of detergent fumes, lho ash, and hopelessness.

And the PC’s father, once a minor chieftain, is now Planetary Governor Thurnskarn—elevated by the Ecclesiarchy and Mechanicus for his early compliance and role in facilitating planetary exploitation.

Moral and Emotional Tensions

The character must now confront:

  • A father who betrayed the old ways for survival and now governs with Imperial ruthlessness.
  • The destruction of their ancestral homeland, now seen as “progress.”
  • Former family members addicted or dead, sacred relics sold or abandoned.
  • Resistance fighters in the hills who still speak their clan name—and beg them to fight.
  • Imperial allies who see Venmarth only as a useful node in a war machine.

Player Choices:

  • Side with the Resistance: Aid the Kharlaine insurgency and spark planetary uprising, risking death and Imperium’s wrath.
  • Confront the Father: Challenge or kill the Governor—or forgive him.
  • Preserve a Fragment: Smuggle out a Barber-Monk relic, an unadultered Islesong recording, or a surviving clans to keep tradition alive.
  • Succumb to Pragmatism: Accept Imperial progress, abandon the past, and rise within the system.

Optional Variations:

  • The PC’s father may be genuinely conflicted, a puppet in over his head—or secretly supporting the Resistance.
  • The PC’s old lover may now lead the rebel faction.
  • A misinterpreted Islesong could become a prophecy tied to the PC’s fate, suggesting they are the “Rawhide Barber” reborn.