The grim industrial wasteland of the planet of Gravis bespeaks a time of might and industry, long since fallen into decay and neglect. Amongst the shattered shells of ruined manufactora, grim warrior tribes fight and scavenge over the polluted wasteland.
Over the long centuries this benighted civilisation spent outside the Emperor’s light, the inhabitants of the world regressed into a brutish form, a stable mutation gradually becoming dominant, as only the fiercest and hardiest were able to prosper in the unforgiving environment. Now, the inhabitants of Gravis are Homo Sapiens Variatus. They are Beastmen.
H. Variatus are prone to wildness and unpredictability, savage in aspect and difficult to control. In the absence of Imperial officials, such a population might be expected to descend into anarchy. And so it was on Gravis, savage warrior bands engaging in open conflict in the ruins of a once-great civilisation.
Various warlords rose to prominence, but from amongst the tumult, one figure managed to unite several tribes not through force or arms, but through the strength of his message. Ghreth remembered the teachings of the Imperial Cult. They had been passed down through his family for generations, inevitably becoming bastardised and changed, but the veneration of the Emperor at their core burned fiercely in Ghreth, and he preached his message to all who would hear it.
Lacking focus and direction for their inherent rage, many flocked to Ghreth’s banner. His followers fought with the fervour of the devout, and they gradually became the dominant faction on the planet’s surface. When Imperial forces came to reclaim Gravis, they were welcomed by a vast army of Homo Variatus eager to spill blood and take heads in the Emperor’s name.
Now, Gravis is mined for mineral resources, and Adeptus Mechanicus expeditions scour the surface for STCs and other lost technologies. The people of Gravis toil in mines and workshops, content to serve the Emperor.
As they produce many ferocious warriors, regiments are regularly recruited from Gravis. They are rarely deployed as such, instead being assigned in smaller groups to serving Imperial armies, where they excel alongside more regular troops as infiltrators and close assault specialists, although their presence is not always welcomed by those they fight alongside. Currently, several squads have been attached to the 29th Microzaden Dragoons fighting in the Seriphos sector, under the command of Captain Kasyanoi. They have already served with distinction in the Tharis campaign, although their presence on the front lines of the thickest fighting has seen them suffer heavy casualties.
Although passionately committed to the Imperial Cult, the Gravis Irregulars have a somewhat simplistic, even barbaric approach to implementing their beliefs. At the heart of the debased culture on Gravis has always been the belief that the inhabitants of the benighted world are being punished, for ill-defined past sins, and that is why their once-perfect society fell from grace. They have adopted this credo into their worship of the Emperor, and now believe that they have been born Beastmen for their sins, and seek to atone in the only way they know how; presenting the Emperor with tributes of the blood and heads of his enemies. Perhaps one day, the blood will wash away their sins, and they shall be welcomed back into the Emperor’s light.
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