“It is the Ecclesiarchy’s purview, and theirs alone, to interpret the word of the God-Emperor. Any teachings other than those sanctioned by the Ecclesiarchy are to be considered heresy.”
–Excerpt from Ecclesiarchy Memorandum DCLXVII
Overview
This blasphemous world is a small, arid moon orbiting a gas giant in the far coreward reaches of
The Ragged Worlds, well within sight of the seething warp storms that hem the Expanse. Recently declared off-limits by the Ecclesiarchy,
Redemption was once the cemetery world for a long-lost cult dedicated to a heretical version of the teachings of the God-Emperor. What these teachings were and what befell their adherents is unknown, whether lost to time or suppressed by the Imperium, but the Inquisition has branded them heresy so heresy they must be. The moon is covered with ornate cyclopean tombs engraved with heretical bas reliefs, grand necropolises, and countless obscure monuments. Gigantic cathedrals decorated with frescoes and stained glass proclaiming the glory of the God-Emperor and His saints stand shoulder to shoulder with humble monasteries and vast, silent crematoria. Every square meter of
Redemption is covered in a strange luminescent marble veined with silver that throws back the baleful, flickering light from the nearby warp storms and makes everything the color of a day old bruise.
Beneath the broad marble avenues and numerous funerary buildings is a warren of thousands of kilometers of tunnels augured deep into the heart of the moon. These seemingly endless tunnels link colossal, city-sized ossuaries and great underground temples. Inside, the bones of countless billions lie stacked in these catacombs, marked with what appear to be purity seals and covered in painted tapestries. Where there are not bones or the statues of saints, huge stone vaults with doors as strong and thick as a voidship’s armor are bored into the living stone. These vaults are locked with arcane locks of blasphemous technology and sealed with more of the cult’s purity seals. What they hide is anyone’s guess, and the Ecclesiarchy refuses to disclose any of its findings.
As is the case with most dead worlds, the allure of
Redemption lies mainly in the money-making potential of its artifacts. Every Rogue Trader worth his warrant has at least a passing interest in the underground trade of heretical artefacts from man’s distant past. With
Redemption, the potential is increased tenfold by the nature of its ancient and heretical artefacts. There are more than a few organizations and individuals in the Imperium that would pay vast amounts of gelt to posses such knowledge as
Redemption hides, or see it suppressed. What is actually on the moon and in its vast catacombs is unknown to the Expanse, as the threat of the Ecclesiarchy’s censure and the power of Godwinne’s blockade keeps curiosity seekers at bay. The oldest crypts of
Redemption date back to the earliest days of the Imperium and perhaps even before, to the time when the Emperor led His Great Crusade to re-conquer the galaxy. Some of the tombs may even have been raised to house great heroes of that time of legends. They could contain powerful relics and valuable treasures from the Imperium’s hallowed past, but such things would pale besides the wealth of knowledge of those times. Information about the first days of the Imperium, secrets discovered about
The Halo Stars then lost forever, or even knowledge of the Emperor Himself and His designs for the galaxy, all may wait behind the sealed doors of
Redemption.
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