Welcome back to our multi-part series where we delve into the grim and relentless universe of Eternal War. Today, we direct our attention to a character both mysterious and tragic, Conrad Kurze, the darkest of The Emperor’s sons. A heroic figure whose life was marked by noble actions, self-sacrifice, and a destiny that seemed forever shrouded in shadow.
Our tale begins with Kurze's first memory, an unforgettable descent into the heart of darkness - the world of Nostro. In an incubation capsule, the young Primarch pierced through countless levels of hive city Quintus, layers of discarded refuse, and even the Earth's crust. His odyssey ended deep within the planet's bowels, near its molten core. The theories surrounding his survival range from swimming through molten magma to an escape via a volcanic mouth. The crater left by the fallen capsule became a symbol of fear for the locals, ultimately sealed with a special shield to contain its ominous aura.
The world of Nostro is a somber one, a Hive World draped in a smog so dense that midday shares the same obscurity as the stroke of midnight. Its five main cities, named simply as Prime to Quintus, operate as autonomous industrial points along the habitable node. The world's eternal night is a result of not only atmospheric pollution but also the intervention of a satellite named Tenore. Tenore's synchronous orbit between Nostro and the system's weak star effectively shrouds the central hive cities from sunlight.
The inhabitants of Nostro are human, albeit with a striking feature - their eyes entirely covered in huge black pupils; an evolutionary adaptation to their life in perpetual darkness. The world is a vast expanse of dirty slums, punctuated by the occasional magnificence of mansions and cathedrals, glowing dimly with strips of blue light. The air is thick with the sharp smell of smoke and chemicals from kilometer-long black pipes, and toxic dust blankets the city rooftops and countless stone gargoyles.
Yet beneath this barren and somber surface, Nostro is rich, brimming with deposits of adamantium. This strategically vital metal forms the backbone of the world's mining and processing industry. It supports the economy of the major hive cities and enriches a small number of wealthy families at the expense of the common workers. These workers are exploited to their last breath, mining and processing the metal, only for it to be sold to neighboring worlds and resold to the Imperium at a significant markup.
Life on Nostro is harsh, with violence, murder, theft, and extortion being the norm rather than the exception. The law enforcement, hardly distinguishable from the criminals they're supposed to police, care little for the plight of the common citizens. Their sole purpose is to quash any dissent against the aristocracy, allowing crime to flourish unchecked.
Amidst this grim reality, a glimmer of hope appears in the form of a light piercing the omnipresent darkness - the arrival of a Primarch. However, Conrad Kurze, unlike many of his brethren, was not adopted by a local family. Instead, he chose to remain hidden, living in solitude among the alleyways of the lowest levels of Hive Quintus. As he grew, he was plagued by troubling dreams, visions of a future filled with pain, further darkening his joyless existence.
Leave a Reply