Located as it is on the far side of the Adrantis Nebula the small hive world of Barsapine is a dismal ball of rock of little importance in the grand scheme of the Calixis Sector, save for the cogitator parts its large isolationist cities produce. Its people are pious*, modest and fatalistic, rarely claiming any ambition, and tend to go about masked and cloaked so they can hide themselves from the Emperor’s sight and not commit the prideful sin of seeking out His attention**. Their true selves are revealed in private and among the planet’s countless secret societies***.

* Baraspine does have an above-average number of cathedrals/temples/shrines/other holy sites, but most are old and ill-reparied. There is also no substantial proff that the locals are more pious than any other Imperial citizens.

** Inquisition files note that the masking/cloaking practice is driven not solely by piety, but by two other, more pragmatical reasons. Firstly Baraspine's climate makes heavy clothing and a mask/rebreather essential for all but the idle rich. Secondly there seems to be a higher-than-average number of minor physical mutations and environmentally induced disfigurations among the locals; reason enough for them to cover themselves.

*** The locals are surly and fatalistic even in private. There IS, however, an unusual preponderance of secret and not-so-secret societies on Baraspine. It is very unusual for any adult NOT to be part of a variety of clubs, teams, bands, leagues, guilds, entourages, etc.

+++PLANETARY DATA+++

CLASS: Hive World

POPULATION: 1,500,000,000.

TITHE GRADE: Exactus Median

SUBSECTOR: Adrantis.

SYSTEM: Baraspine system; Praxys F7V primary, six failed rocky cores in highly eccentric outer system orbits (no listed settlements).

SATELLITES: No major natural satelites, numerous smaller rocky objects in stable high orbits.

GOVERNMENTAL TYPE: Divinatory Thaumocracy. Regional leaders and governorship decided by divination.

PLANETARY GOVERNOR: Her Magnificence, the Governess-Excellency Tamzin Turin, Chosen of the Soothsayers’ College.

GEOGRAPHY: Temperate desert climate. Seven continents, three populated. Baraspine has very little free-standing water, it's oceans having boiled away during some great cataclysm in the distant past. It is therefore possible to move by land between the continents - but it's highly impractical given the terrain, weather and distances involved.

Baraspine is plagued by extreme weather patterns, in particular very high winds. The winds carry with them fragments of razor-sharp ceramite that will kill unprotected humans. Sudden and violent storms aggravate the problem - during such storms anyone or anything caught outside will be ripped apart.

DEMOGRAPHY: Kephistron Altis, Kephistron Inferior (northern polar), Skaltine (planetary capital), Descrayne (southern polar). Numerous smaller isolated communities make up approximately half of the total population. The northern and southern polar regions typically communicate little and the planet’s history has included periods of war between the two. The outlying cities are largely self-governed.

ECONOMY: A significant part of Baraspine's population (serfs in the main) is engaged in 'picking' the great wasteland areas (one fiefs claimed by this noble or that) clean of any archaotech that can be found. It is believed that during the Dark Age of Technology Baraspine was home to numerous large hive cities that were destroyed in a cataclysm. The high winds of Baraspine continually reveal and redistribute these valuable pieces of the past.

The majority of the tither consists of such finds, plus locally produced cogitator parts (a craft handed down through the generations by guilds controlled by nobles houses). The rest of the tithe consists of raw materials (much of it high-quality ceramite that can be recycled and reused) and manpower (only rarely; Baraspine is listed only as a Tertiary mustering ground given the low quality of recruits).

Barsapine pottery is considered among the sector’s finest and can command high prices from collectors - there is something about the pottery that makes it unique.

PRINCIPLE EXPORTS: Salvaged ceramite and other high-durability achaotech items, locally produced cogitator parts.

PRINCIPLE IMPORTS: Luxury goods, low-grade bulk food.

Baraspine cannot feed it's population, even in an emergency, but relies on imports of food nearby systems. The relatively poor noble class is an importer of exotics and luxuries from across the sub-sector.

ADEPTUS PRESENCE: Low. Adeptus Arbites (Skaltine and Kephistron Inferior), Administratum tithing mission (Skaltine). Mechanicus monitoring station (Kephiston Altis).

MILITARY FORCES: Weak PDF. Northern Arctic Bonded Guard (low quality standing army based in Kephistron), Divinatory Guard (medium quality guard units and low quality militia based at Skaltine). Considerable rivalry between the two forces reduces their effectiveness as a planetary defence force. Orbital monitoring and defense platforms. Planet-based aerospace fighter squadrons (based at Descrayne).

CONTACT WITH OTHER WORLDS: Major warp route to Tranch; the war-torn world of Tranch is the primary transit point for Imperial ships making the journey along the Adrantis nebula to Baraspine. Minor routes lead rimward to the Drusus Marches and coreward to the Markayn Marshes (treading between the equally ill-omened Nebula and the Hazeroth Abyss).

Local trading partners include the worlds of the Tephaine system (Siculi algae keep the poor of Baraspine alive, while the wealthiest Baraspine nobles maintain estates on the pleasure-world of Reth). There is some import of rare ores and gases from Coseflame/Soryth (for the cogitator production).