Meridia

Map	Basic Data		Planetary Image
	Name:	Meridia
	Segmentum:	Tempestus
	Sector:	Eternum
	Subsector:	Confedus
	System:	Thaddeus
	Population:	~120,000,000,000
	Affiliation:	Imperial
	Class:	Hive World
	Tithe Grade:	Exactis Extremis

Overview

One of Confedus's many hive worlds, Meridia is a world constantly teetering on night, with little light reaching even the taller spires. Corruption runs deep on this Imperial world, and life is short and cheap.

Life on Meridia

It is only its thick smog that keeps the temperature livable, and even then occasional shock-blizzards (a weather phenomenon where the pollution sifts out of the air due to wind and rain, causing a frigid blizzard to form) force the population inside with the homeless freezing to death. Meridia has a poor reputation in Eternum, with very few people who willingly travel there, with threat of reassignment to Meridia being an effective motivator for underperforming Imperial adepts. This dark and gloomy world is a breeding ground for cults and troublemakers, and the arbites and Ordo Hereticus representatives or Interrogators are a common sight on the planet, only adding to the average citizen's misfortune. Meridian Guard regiments, part of its tithe, are similarly looked down on by regiments and commanders from more reputable worlds, and Meridian Guard are frequently charged with desertion, dereliction of duty, or even heresy, with several regiments of Meridians joining the archenemy. Efforts to root out the cults that fester on the world and corrupt both its citizens and guard tithes are frequent, though mostly unfruitful. A few Ordo Hereticus Interrogators and Inquisitors even believe there's some sort of archeotech or Empyrian anchor point deep in the lower levels of the hive, but any search for this (if it exists) has yet to bring results. There have been talks amongst the more hardline Inquisitors, Arbites, and Imperial government to carry out a general purge and repopulation effort, but Meridia's significant contribution to the sector's workforce, prisoners, and indentured slaves, combined with the skillful machinations of Meridia's governor Lord Lucius Dubote Nero prevent any such action from gaining too much traction. While the governor and the nobles of Meridia do not pursue the cult elements, and even in some cases directly support them, they all know if the cults grow too powerful the Imperium will retaliate in force, thus they, except for true believers in the heretical cults, cut out any cult that grows too wide, powerful, or recognizable, maintaining the razor thin line that keeps them away from close Imperial attention. Time will tell if they will keep this act up or if Meridia will finally be cleansed.