SR: Nova Cerkes

Technology
Nova Cerkes has a relatively high level of technology for an Imperial world, and is especially known for its clean energy. Agriculture is the world's main commodity, so unneccessary pollution must be avoided at all costs. Since Nova Cerkes already had rather advanced technology when the Adeptus Mechanicus first found this world, the tech priests have a very small role in society and are mostly concerned with education and testing.

Trade and tithes:
As a Knight world, Nova Cerkes sends all export to Proteus, where the great amounts of food and other agricultural goods are either consumed or sold. Nova Cerkes does not tithe to the Imperium and cannot engage in considerable trade with other worlds without the permission of Proteus. Still, there are certain groups on Nova Cerkes that would defy their masters and do trade in the outer regions of the Juktas system, usually near the system's large asteroid field where the Adeptus Mechanicus has difficulties keeping surveillance. To free traders and pirates, this is an excellent opportunity to get their hands on cheap goods from Nova Cerkes and even technology that has come from Proteus.

The most important products from Nova Cerkes are edible plants, animals, fish and insects, lumber and plants needed for medicine. In addition to this, the planet has countless other exports, such as flowers used for perfume, animals used as pets and other luxury goods.

Physiology:
Nova Cerkes is a low gravity world, so its people are tall and thin. Their bones are somewhat fragile because of the gravity, and they will often have difficulties moving about on worlds with normal or high gravity. While the people from Nova Cerkes are graceful creatures in their home element, they often appear weak and fragile on other worlds, at first.

Soldiers are an exception to this rule, as they often train hard to prepare for offworld combat, increasing their muscle mass and doing exercises in facilities with gravity-plates.

Psychology:
Obviously, the elitism of Nova Cerkes has a profound effect on the personality of its people. While some people are raised with the knowledge that they are inferior and have little value, others are raised thinking that they are better than everyone else and deserve more than anyone else. Lowly workers on Nova Cerkes often grow up with low self-esteem, greatly dependent on friends and co-workers to make decisions. On the plus side, they become extremely social and sympathetic. Those on Nova Cerkes with important jobs within the government, the world's intellectual elite, often have problems with unrealistic expectations of their own abilities, a deep loneliness and an unquencheable thirst for glory. Fortunately, they typically have great confidence and are very independent people. That the elitism of Nova Cerkes has an extremely negative psychological impact on special groups in the population is beyond doubt, and eventhough the world seems very successful on the surface, the number of suicides per year is alarming.

Language and dialect:
Though the local dialect is quite similar to Low Gothic, people from Nova Cerkes tend to speak a lot more slow than normal. Offworlders find this either fantastically amusing or extremely annoying, and the feeling is often mutual, since people from Nova Cerkes can have difficulties keeping up with the offworlders.

Planetary defence forces:
The Cerkesan PDF can be divided into three different independent organisations; The Cerkesan Militia, the Knight Cohorts and the Royal Guard. The Cerkesan Militia is responsible for training and equipping over ten percent of the Cerkesan population, though less than one percent of the population is normally active. The militia has rather cheap and simple equipment and are trained in guerilla warfare.

The Knight Cohorts are a vital part of the Cerkesan PDF, with the best training and equipment the world has to offer. There are over a hundred Cohorts on Nova Cerkes, each with up to a hundred Knight walkers and supporting elements such as mechanised infantry, sanitation, logistics, communication and combat engineers. All together, a Cohort normally has around three thousand soldiers. Each Cohort is a totally independent fighting unit, prepared to fight off invaders on Nova Cerkes or join the Adeptus Mechanicus on Proteus. The Cohorts strive to uphold their identity, tradition and combat doctrine, and this has led to occassional rivalry between Cohorts, sometimes resulting in ritualised mortal combat. Similar to some Adeptus Astartes Chapters, the Cohorts are given names and heraldry to match their purpose and combat doctrine. For example, the Black Wolf Cohort specializes in hit-and-run attacks, preying on vulnerable points in the enemy's lines. The Ghost Lynx Cohort specializes in stealth, attacking behind enemy lines and operating in small units for long periods of time. The Thunder Bull Cohort specializes in full frontal assault, spearheading attacks for the Royal Guard and Cerkesan Militia.

In the Knight Cohorts, the noble Knights are the leaders. The supporting soldiers in mechanised infantry and other branches are typically recruited from the same region as the Knights themselves.

The Royal Guard is a multi-task organisation, providing orbital defence as well as fighting on land, at sea and in the air. The Royal Guard maintains a force consisting of roughly 0.5 % of the global population, and these are mostly professional soldiers. The Royal Guard is well equipped, though not to the standards of the Knight Cohorts. Training is quite hard however, and the people of Nova Cerkes often boast that their members of the Royal Guard are on a par with soldiers in the Imperial Guard, though this is not completely accurate.

History:
Nova Cerkes was originally colonised in the Age of Technology in year 418 of the 24th millennium. Presumably, the name comes from the colonists' original homeworld, but the Imperium has no further record of this world called Cerkes. Whatever their origins, the colonists came with advanced technology and succesfully terraformed Nova Cerkes to develop a balanced terran ecosystem, adapted to the low gravity of this world and the little light from the red star of the Juktas system.

Only two hundred years after Nova Cerkes had been colonised, disaster struck. A splinter fleet of the Spirian empire, broken off after a failed attack in the Anargo subsector, arrived in the Juktas system to repair. The aliens quickly found the newly colonised human world and immediately attacked in their thirst for revenge against humans. After almost a year of war, the Spirians were defeated, but Nova Cerkes had suffered great casualties and was left vulnerable for new attacks. The process of terraforming had been set back by several decades, and for many years, the Cerkesans lived in fear.

In 709.M24, the Cult Mechanicus arrived in the Juktas system, seeking allies. The Protean tech-priests offered protection, much new technology and help with terraforming and Nova Cerkes was soon made a Knight world of the Cult Mechanicus and sovereign of Proteus. For millennia to come, Nova Cerkes would live in relative peace under the protection of the Proteus and her great fleets.

When the Horus Heresy reached the Anargo sector, the Cerkesans were quickly woken from their peaceful dream as Chaos forces spread like a plague. Proteus was brought to its knees by the Alpha Legion and its followers, and Nova Cerkes was only given minimal help. As Chaos armies fell upon the vulnerable Knight World, Nova Cerkes sent a plea to the Imperium. Their prayers were answered by the Ultramarines, who dispatched several companies to stop the Chaos invasion. With the help of the Space Marines, Nova Cerkes was able to destroy the Chaos armies, and this opened the eyes of the Cerkesans to the loyalty of the Imperial armies. There were some that even suggested that Nova Cerkes should distance itself from Proteus and tithe to the Imperium as a fully Imperial world.

The Cerkesans' faith in the Adeptus Mechanicus was restored during the Age of Apostasy, when the powers of Anargo suddenly made unreasonable demands from Nova Cerkes, ordering them to pay high tithes to Anargo and Lord Vandire. The tech priests of Proteus were quick to refuse these demands and as the armies of Anargo came to punish the rebels, the Adeptus Mechanicus defended Nova Cerkes with fantastic zeal. For centuries, the Adeptus Mechanicus defended Nova Cerkes and other worlds in the Archaios subsectors, and even other subsectors, with the help of the Adeptus Astartes Frost Bringers. When the Age of Apostasy ended with the death of Lord Vandire, the people of Nova Cerkes were left with feelings of bitterness and distrust towards the rest of the Imperium and the Imperial church, finding renewed loyalty towards Proteus.

The faith in the Imperium would be renewed in what is known as the second Chaos War in the Archaios subsector. As the Alpha Legion rose again in the Anargo sector in 533.M38, the situation in the Archaios sector was frighteningly similar to that of the Horus Heresy. Once again, Proteus was unable to give full assistance to Nova Cerkes, and once again, Chaos forces invaded the Knight world. This time, the Imperium was able to offer swift response, and a battlegroup of the Imperial Guard supported by the Adeptas Sororitas supported the Cerkesan defence. As the war reached its climax, these Daughters of the Emperor reintroduced the Imperial creed to the Cerkesan people, announcing that this war could only be won if the Cerkesans had faith in the Emperor. Inspired by the fanatical speeches of the Sororitas and the great sacrifices of the Sisters of Battle, millions converted overnight to the Imperial creed. The Cerkesans were successful in defending their planet, and when the war was over, the Ecclessiarchy had a strong hold on Nova Cerkes, thanks to the Adeptas Sororitas.