40K Lore: Sanguinius’ Home – Baal
Today Loremasters we talk of Baal – the cursed and blighted homeworld of the most noble of Astartes – the Blood Angels
Baal is the homeworld of the Blood Angels and the base of the Chapter‘s fortress-monastery – Arx Angelicum.
Planet Overview
- Orbital Distance: 3.4 AU
- 1.27G/Temp 12°C
- Aestimare: D0
- Population: 122,000
- Segmentum: Ultima
Millennia before the founding of the Imperium, Baal and its two moons were all but destroyed in a terrible war. Ancient viral and nuclear weapons had turned the once idyllic worlds into toxic wastelands. The survivors became scavengers, constantly moving from place to place, and warring to preserve the spoils they gathered. By the time of the coming of Sanguinius, Baal and its moons were a wasteland dominated by a tribe known as The Blood and foul Mutant hordes. Thanks to the effort of Sanguinius, the mutants were defeated and the people of The Blood came to ascendancy. Later during the Horus Heresy, Baal became a central loyalist hub under the control of WardenArkhad. Many members of the Shattered Legions took refuge on Baal.
Baal would come under threat from the Ork Warboss Big Skorcha in 798.M41, though the Blood Angels defeated the attempted invasion. However in 999.M41, Baal again would become threatened by Hive Fleet Leviathan. Following the Thirteenth Black Crusade and the formation of the Great Rift, Baal became stranded from the greater Imperium and was known as one of the key worlds of the newly dubbed Imperial Nihilus. Worse still for the Blood Angels, the Tyranids continued their advance towards the world.
The Tyranid assault on Baal culminated in a Great Battle that nearly saw the planet and its two moons consumed by the xenos. However the Blood Angels were saved thanks to the newly arrived Indomitus Crusade. Roboute Guilliman immediately set to work on rebuilding Baal and the Blood Angels.
Baal’s Moons
Baal’s two moons are called Baal Primus and Baal Secundus, from which the Blood Angels take their new recruits from all three worlds. The Blood Angels Primarch, Sanguinius, fell upon Baal Secundus after he and his brother Primarchs were scattered across the galaxy by the machinations of the Gods of Chaos.
In ancient days Baal and its moons had earth-like atmospheres. Baal itself was always a world of red rust deserts, but its moons were close to paradises. As the Dark Age of Technology ended in the Age of Strife, civil war erupted between the world and its colonised moons, leading to the nuclear devastation of the planets.
Baal Secundus has since been a nuclear-blasted desert world with deadly levels of radiation. This forced the world’s human tribes to build cumbersome radiation suits in order to survive. Mutants were once rife upon the world, frequently at war with the remaining pure humans for dominance of the planet.
Following the Devastation of Baal in the Third Tyrannic War, Baal Secundus was badly damaged while Baal Prime has been rendered completely barren. After the battle the skulls of the dead Tyranids were found on Baal Prime arranged into the symbol of Ka’Bandha
~ Soon we discover the fate of proud Baal in the aftermath of the Indominus Crusade.
