Mycenae

The Crimson Lions' homeworld is the feral world of Mycenae. Located in the galactic north west, Mycenae is a world of vast forests and towering mountains, indespersed with small patches of grassland or mangrove swamps. In this environement, the people of Mycenae eke out a living as hunter gatherers, moving their encampments depending on the season. However, these people are not the only inhabitants of the world. The vast forests are home to many unwholsome creatures such as shadow hounds or winter wolves. If humans stray into the mangrove swamps they are often never seen again, either drowning in the deeper waters or being dragged to their deaths by the swamp lizards known as Hrokni. Even the mountains and plains are not safe, being home as they are to Stone Lions, similar to the sabre tooth cats of ancient Terra. The humans of Mycenae are constantly locked in a life or death struggle with these creatures and with each other. This life produces tough and skilled young warriors, perfectly suited to becoming astartes. Those who are not killed as children or dragged screaming into the darkness are those from whom the Crimson Lions draw their recruits.

Legacies of Mycenae
As with many legions, the home world of the Crimson Lions is their primarch’s home world of Mycenae. Around 23% larger than Terra and orbited by its twin moons, Feri and Hasti, Mycenae is a feral world whose technology is similar to that of ancient Terrans in the early Iron Age.

The terrain of Mycenae is similar to how many believe north Europa used to appear as it is largely covered in grassland and dense forest of trees that can rise up to a hundred metres in height interspersed with towering mountains. While warm in the summer months, in the winter as the snows fall the temperature drops rapidly and the grasslands are wracked by snow storms which are so fierce that they rip off the skin of any who are exposed to them and upon Mycenae’s oceans, these storms raise up enormous waves that swallow entire ships never to be seen again and winds blow so strong that ships are capsized by them.

This hard climate also breeds tough predators against which the Mycenaeans are constantly locked in a game of cat and mouse with. The two most famous of these predators are undoubtedly the stone lions and drakfaraigge. The stone lions are enormous beasts who are without a doubt the apex predators on the land of Mycenae, often coming to 12 metres in length and having pelts so tough that they withstand axe blows. Combined with their sheer size and the fact that they often hunt in packs, this makes stone lions tough beasts to hunt and it is a point of immense pride for a Mycenaean warrior have hunted and killed a stone lion, even among the gene enhanced Crimson Lions. Next to these apex predators on the land are the drakfairagge, who indisputably rule Mycenae’s oceans. Resembling serpents but with thick scales and thick bone crests on their heads, none know how large the drakfaraigge are for any who have seen the whole body of one vanish beneath the waves, taking their knowledge with them. The most that many see of them are their scaled necks and heads, which still rises 10 to 15 metres out of the waves. With a bite powerful enough to snap a ship in half, drakfaraigge are only very rarely defeated by Mycenaean warriors and in the vast majority of cases they will devour their prey and vanish beneath the oceans. Because of this, it is the drakfaraigge that the warriors of Mycenae fear above all else that inhabits their world’s oceans, despite the various Magos Biologis theorizing that those found on the surface are only juveniles.

These dangers that they need to battle on a daily basis, from the unforgiving climate of their home to its deadly predators, have forged the people of Mycenae into a hardy and warlike people. Living on Mycenae’s grasslands in summer and migrating to the mountains or forests in the winter to escape the snow storms and waist deep snows, the tribes are often at war with one another. Mainly these wars take the form of raids to steal another tribe’s cattle or take members of other tribes as slaves or battles over the best grazing land or the most sheltered patches of land as winter sets in. Even in the depths of winter the tribes fight each other and launch their warriors out over the oceans of Mycenae, this time over the basic necessities of life such as food so that they might survive the winter.

With every day being a battle for survival, the people of Mycenae grow strong or they die. Indeed, as winter closes in, often the tribe’s eldest warriors will announce that they are going hunting. Come summer, they are sometimes found with their fingers blackened from frostbite and tears of agony frozen upon their cheeks. More often, they disappear into the wilderness never to be seen again. Yet, despite its brutality, this warlike life forges them into ideal recruits for the legions and it is from these savage and warlike tribes that the Crimson Lions often hail.

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