Eleusis (Shrine World, Orpheus Salient)

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Eleusis was a former Imperial Shrine World located along the path of the Orpheus Salient of the Achilus Crusade. Most of the surface of Eleusis was covered with great seas, and on its few landmasses, ten thousand temples and glass-blazoned shrines to the God-Emperor were built, forming the great "shrine cities." These wonders basked in serene holiness for five thousand standard years, becoming a place of pilgrimage for aspirants from as far afield as Macragge and Salem.

With the coming of the lost Jericho Sector's "Age of Shadow," the devotions of the shrine priests, priestesses, and attendants were twisted to the worship of the Dark Gods of the Warp as death stalked the temples and the profane overcame the pious. When the forces of the Achilus Crusade retook the planet in the late 41st Millennium, every inhabitant was ordered to be burned and the heretical shrines cleansed by fire and rebuilt.

Only a fraction of the planet's former population and glory had been restored when a new threat emerged: that of Hive Fleet Dagon. Crusade Command considered the defense of the world 'impractical' and evacuation 'counterproductive'. Instead, they deployed a device from the Dark Age of Technology that sealed away most of the planet's surface water, making it dead and unappealing to the encroaching swarm.

When Barotta of the SoX arrived here with Inquisitor Krawl, they found Genesteales among the population. Could this Stealer infestation have called the entire Hive Fleet? Had it come along with Calixian refugees used to resettle the planet, or did it have another origin? Ultimately they never found out, but perhaps it doesn't really matter.

Archmagos Hextrix was able to release the waters of Eleusis after years of research and experimentation. It is again a brightly blue ocean world of a million islands and a thousand temples, a place of worship and pilgrimage. It is from here Tanith-Baal directs Bartta's Daughters as they work to protect the fledgling sector and bring the light of the Word to the people.