Scintilla is the capital of the Calixis Sector, a hive world with a population of billions.

Hive
Sibellus is where Governor Hax rules the sector from the Lucid Palace, while the Inquisition is
headquartered in the infamous Tricorn Palace. The city of Ambulon is a feat of technology from
an age long past, walking across the world’s deserts on great, unceasing metal legs. Gunmetal
City is famed for its firearm exports, with the manufacturing clades and vicious gangs alike
fighting for power.

And then there is Hive Tarsus.

Most Scintillans shun it for the prosperity of other cities, referring to it obliquely as “The Other
Place.” It is built in the midst of Scintilla’s sweltering equatorial desert, blasted by unrelenting
sunlight and frequent sandstorms. The great hive is vertical, with wealth focused centrally and
downward; the higher one goes up or the further one goes out, the closer one gets to sand and
sun, and so the poor are forced out. Great spires form the foundation of the city, with buildings
built along and between them; elevators, ladders, immense stairways, and precarious rope
rigging make the paths. The city connects directly to Scintilla’s orbital docks, making it the focal
point for trade on the planet.

Hive Tarsus: DISTRICTS

● The ​Hiveskin​ refers informally to the areas of the hive the highest up and the furthest
out; exposed to sunlight that can kill in minutes and sandstorms that flay skin and launch
people clear of the hive superstructure, only the destitute, the mad, and the mutant try to
live out here. Flocks of vicious scaldbats and swarms of toxic fingerburner beetles are
constant threats here, before factoring in the vicious scav-gangs that kill over territory
and the rare expeditions of nobles hunting the unfortunate for sport.
Possible threads: ​Redemptionist mobs are swelling to absurd sizes and threatening to
spill their holy purges out from the mutant poor and into respectable society, and the
church is reluctant to rein them in. The mutant scav-gangs are building something in
secret and growing nolder in their expeditions beyond the slums. A noble house or death
cult is openly hunting and killing the people of the Hiveskin, not caring who sees their
bloodshed.
● The ​Goldenhand​ is kept secure and comfortable in the hive’s heart, a trade district
constantly thronged with business. Tarsus produces little itself, but hosts Scintilla’s dock
in orbit above; exports (fuel and minerals from Ambulon, quality firearms from Gunmetal
City) and imports (food and water that Scintilla simply can no longer produce) flow freely
here under the watchful eye of the authorities.
Possible threads: Illegal xenos relics have been smuggled in from off-world and is being
sold in a secret auction. Someone is trying to sell (possibly legitimate) holy relics that
belong in the Cathedral to private clients. A Rogue Trader with a dubious history is
briefly on Scintilla to do business, with a small timeframe for capture or execution.
● The ​Illuminated District​ hosts the Cathedral of Illumination, the sprawling official seat
on the Ministorum in the sector, but is also home to a number of smaller shrines,
temples, famous statues and religious colleges. Millions of pilgrims travel across the void
 for years to reach here, while secret intrigues between religious sects and church
authorities play out in the shadows.
Possible threads:​ One of the private chantries is accused of espousing heretical beliefs
to its students. A number of local Ministorum priests are killed in the same brutal way.
One of the Ministorum’s exorcists goes missing without a trace.
● The ​Protectorate Barracks​ host Scintilla’s planetary defense force, endless rows of
uniform living spaces for soldiers, warehouses for their supplies, and landing areas for
transports to ferry troops and materiel between orbit and the surface. The Protectorate
share space here temporarily with Scintilla’s much-vaunted Guard regiments before they
deploy for distant worlds, and stage training drills both within the district and out into the
wastes beyond Tarsus’ walls.
Possible threads: S ​ omeone is raiding the barracks to steal military-grade weapons, and
are seemingly impossible to catch. An officer with ties to a noble house is found dead,
with the suspicion placed among their peers and subordinates. Members of a gang
suspected of heretical beliefs or harboring mutants have been recruited and are due to
deploy soon.
● The ​Noble District​ is, unusually for a hive city, at the bottom of Tarsus, kept in perpetual
shade and artificially cooled to fatally low temperatures at immense expense. Here the
private holdings of Tarsus’ families lurk, guarded by private security staff and
technological defenses alike, the aristocrats secure in their enjoyment of fabulous (and
sometimes illegal) indulgences, as well as frequently trading cruel gossip and murderous
killers alike.
Possible threads:​ One house is unable to pay its tithes of wealth and manpower despite
an apparent upswing in their fortunes. One is suspected of political or blood ties to
House Sinderfell, hunted and destroyed by the Inquisition years ago. One is enjoying
forbidden pleasures, perhaps sorcerous or alien in origin.

Hive Tarsus: FACTIONS

● House Krin is a wealthy noble house known across the sector as a provider of loans...
and infamously vicious in collecting on them. Their holdings are directly below the
commerce district of Goldenhand, and their private vaults are well-guarded by staff
guards and rare technology both.
● House Verence​ is ascendant, with Lord Verence a known confidant of Sector Governor
Hax. Many Verence scions hold prestigious positions in the Adeptus across the sector,
especially within the Ministorum.
● The ​Administratum Consular Task-Force​ are an ever-present sight in Tarsus’ hubs of
trade, collecting proper Imperial tithes in their stark grey uniforms. They are universally
loathed, but the support of the axes of the ​Mortressan Scythewinds ​(a Guard regiment
from the death world Mortressa) endures few prevent them from their duties.
● The ​Goldenhand Auctioneers​ act as facilitators of trade, sworn to neutrality (a virtue
largely but not wholly upheld), speaking a unique dialect known as Goldentongue.
Auctioneers favor clothing and jewelry of brown and brass, and paint their faces deep
gold.
 ● The Cult of the Red Redemption (or “​Redemptionists​” for short) are a radical Imperial
sect who are unrecognized, but conspicuously not punished by church authorities. They
are fanatics who believe in violently purging with chain and flame the witch, the mutant,
and the heretic, and will find the enemies of mankind whether they exist or not. Adept at
stirring up the masses into bloody mobs.
● Scoriaen Chantry ​is one of many religious colleges operating in the shadow of the
Cathedral of Illumination, the Ministorum headquarters in the sector, with a reputation for
producing militant zealots. No small number of Scoriaen graduates go on to be Witch
Finders for the Inquisition.
● Vulpine Chantry​ is another religious college, ill-regarded as a place to send unwanted
and unpromising noble scions to study liturgy far away from their family holdings.
● The ​Kasaballica​ is a crime syndicate that spans the sector, largely focused on conning
nobility by pretending to be them; their “Low Dukes” are viewed with scorn on dozens of
worlds. Recently broken into the trade of selling fake saintly relics, catering to Tarsines’
love of bone.
● The Adeptus Arbites (or “​Enforcers​,” named for their violent street agents) are the
official lawkeepers on Scintilla and across the Imperium at large. Their sector
headquarters is the Fortress of the Just, located in the desert beyond the city. Hated by
local criminals for their use of grapplehawks, ferocious avian servitors.
● The ​Army of the Scintillan Protectorate​ are Scintilla’s planetary defense force,
well-supplied and well-trained; many go on to serve in the Guard with distinction. Many
Protectorate soldiers are drawn from the bloodlines and staff of the noble houses,
leading to no small amount of secret loyalties among the ranks, while others come from
Gunmetal City’s notoriously bloody gangs.
● Hiveskin Scavengers ​eke out a living in the hive’s blasted exterior levels, battering by
blistering sun, powerful sandstorms, and horrid pollution. Most favor hand-made
iridescent armor that reflects the cruel light, making them resembles great beetles; many
are mutated by the conditions they endure.

CALIXIS SECTOR ORIGINS

(Nothing is stopping Acolytes from being from Scintilla, though assumed familiarity and local ties
can complicate play. It is suggested that none of the Acolytes are native, and if they are then not
being from Hive Tarsus is ideal. Hive Sibellus is the wealthy and favored capital city, Gunmetal
City produces famous firearms and infamous gang gunslingers, and Ambulon is an incredible
mobile city that harvests minerals and fuel from the wastelands.)

Feral:
Iocanthos​ is perpetually fought over by nomadic warlords chasing the blooms of the ghostfire
plant, whose pollen is refined off-world into combat drugs for the Guard. ​Dusk​ is a world of
mist-shrouded swamps, infamous for witches and the touch of the Warp.

Forge:
Lathe-Het ​lost almost all manufacturing capability centuries ago, and has now been converted
into a planet-wide archive of silent data vaults barred to outsiders. ​Cyclopea​ was ruled by an
apostate alone for ages and only recently reclaimed; mindless servitors still greatly outnumber
the living.

Noble:
House Belasco​, from the world of Malfi is (like most nobles of that planet) suspected of having
cruelty and heretical leanings in their very blood. The sisters of the ​Order Famulous​ are not
nobles themselves, but engineer favorable unions and tutor scions in literacy, etiquette, combat,
and loyalty to the Imperium.

Hive:
Fenksworld​ is infamously polluted even for a hive world, with sodden Hive Volg rife with
dangerous mutants. ​Sinophia​ was once the base of the crusade that founded this sector, but
has fallen into destitute, depopulated irrelevance in the centuries since, visited only by
smugglers.

Shrine:
Maccabeus Quintus ​is where General Drusus, who conquered and founded the sector, was
assassinated and return to life, a miracle that made him a saint and turned the planet into a
pilgrimage site.

Void:
The ​Bountiful Beast​ collects, breeds, and slaughters animals for meat sold across the sector,
notorious for its bloody holds and ill-reputation. The ​Chalice of Fire​ is a proud Navy
battlecruiser, allegedly recovered after its crew all vanished and supposedly haunted to this day.