Carteia

An icy world in the Centaurine provinces, devastated by the Cielcin in the war. One of the sites on Emperor William XXIII's tour of the frontier.

—Tor Paulos, Kingdoms of Death

Primarachate: Centaurus

Province: Unknown

Known Prefectures:

Urs: The southern tundras and steppelands of Carteia, inhabited by nomadic tribesmen known as the Urslic herdsmen. These rugged pastoralists are cattle and sheep drivers living beyond most census records, known for genetic polymorphs distinct from Imperial populations.

Locations of Interest:

Bennu: The planet Carteia's new capital city, constructed on open plains a few miles from the former capital city, Rothsmoor, which was destroyed in the Cielcin invasion around the year ISD 17041. Commissioned by the Emperor William XXIII, Bennu is delivered via airborne superfreighter, with towers, housing blocks, schools, and infrastructure lowered from orbit using repulsor fields and hydrogen balloons. Its name references a mythic phoenix-like bird, symbolizing rebirth, and the city's early foundations include a Chantry sanctum, government buildings, and a projected eighty-year construction timeline for the Baron's palace.

Emperor's Camp on Carteia: A vast, mobile city of grounded starships, centered around the ISV Radiant Dawn. The makeshift city hosts over one million people and features chain-link fences, trenchworks, and orderly military sections patrolled by Legionnaires, scholiasts, and naval officers. It serves as the Imperial command center during the planetary reconstruction of Carteia nd as a forward base of operations.

Rothsmoor: The planet Carteia's former capital city, destroyed by the Cielcin invasion around the year ISD 17041, which led the the death of nearly all seveneteen million inhabitants and exterminated the ruling House Bampasis. Located near Carteia's souther regions, its ruins remain a visible crater even from orbit, and reconstruction efforts now aim to replace it with the planned Imperial city of Bennu.

Colonized in the late thirteenth millennium, Carteia already possessed an atmosphere and native flora-culture conducive to human settlement, but no advanced life, and indeed little developed fauna. This made it a prime candidate for annexation, and the title was sold to House Bampasis, who held the planet as its demesne until it was besieged by the Cielcin in the early eighteenth millennium, during which House Bampasis was annihilated and the capital city of Rothsmoor burned. The title of baron passed to Sir Caedmon Brandt, previously a mere archon, and at the order of the Emperor in ISD 17125, the new capital city of Bennu was built not far from the desolation of the old. See also the Battle of Carteia.

Carteia is a planet with thirteen continents, once home to more than ninety million inhabitants before the Cielcin invasion. Following the destruction of its former capital city, Rothsmoor, its surface is covered with snow, blackened craters, and scorched earth. The days last twenty-nine hours, and the winters are long. Revolves around a white sun.