Kilobo Lore!
On the 17th day of the 17th month of the Kilobian year an ork mob rampaged across Kurow Dunwɔtwe. The war effort around the Damocles had taken competent PdF soldiers abroad, with only thuggish Whitehats being sequestered for maintaining a stable Tramale presence on Kurow Dunwɔtwe. The token resistance offered by the other members of the PdF was swept aside by the green skins, and quite infamously the Whitehats simply barricaded themselves in the central police hub and saved their own skins. (Centuries later kids on Kurow Dunwɔtwe refer to them as the “White flags” in reference to this incident - though, of course, not if they know one is within earshot.) The orks delighted in their victory, going on an orgy of destruction and violence around the now undefended planetoid that took uncountable lives while doing massive amounts of damage.
Popular mythology is not all doom and gloom however. For legend speaks of a brave volunteer force rallying out in the hills at Bán-Kwaeɛ, and there taking in refugees while providing shelter and defence. They were selfless in their efforts to seek out and and rescue those under threat from the rampaging xenos. So irritating were their daring-dos to the orkish pirates that eventually the ork boss himself personally led an assault on Bán-Kwaeɛ just to shut those pesky resistance heroes up. However, a sympathetic mechanicus vessel happened to be in the area at the time, and risking their own lives and careers they smuggled advanced weaponry down to the defenders which allowed them to see off the assault. And so it was the ork boss slunk off with his tail between his legs, claiming victory but knowing in his heart that it was only Tramale’s weak failures that had been bested. Faced by the real heirs of Kilobo backed by their mechanicus allies he had been powerless.
Example of scholcky art style popular
in Kurow Dunwɔtwe ale houses.
Example of scholcky art style popular
in Kurow Dunwɔtwe ale houses.
When some years later word of this got back to Tramale some effort was made to investigate the stories - Mechanicus ships arming people on Kurow Dunwɔtwe was a nightmare scenario to them after all. Fortunately, however, their agents soon concluded that this was simply face saving local legend. They had died in droves, and (it was scarcely bothered to whisper) perhaps the orks even did us a favour by culling the population while the lads were away fighting a righteous crusade.
The truth, in this case, is somewhere in between. Most of the tales of daring do were simply flights of fancy or massive exaggerations of the odd lucky pot shot a refugee had got off against some pursuer. There had never been any massive compound at Bán-Kwaeɛ taking in refugees and organising counter-attacks and rescue missions during the raid. Nick-it-all had never been anywhere near the site; and if he had then without any doubt everyone therein would have been dead. And while the Mechanicus would certainly not be above providing arms to any group that might destabilise and delegitimise Tramale should the opportunity present itself, they certainly did not care enough about so minor a prize to risk life and tech during an ork raid in the manner the story suggests. Much, therefore, is simply the mythology that time and wishful thinking co-create.
But not all! Something had indeed happened at Bán-Kwaeɛ. In the desperate hours between word coming of the ork landings and the greenskins actually reaching the nearby settlements, some of the residents had taken a desperate gamble on their own childhood stories. It was told that soon after the establishment of Kurow Dunwɔtwe as the glorified prison camp it had now become, remnants of the old psycher aristocracy and those guards still loyal to them had hidden a cache of arms out in the hills in preparation for the day that they shall rise again. Nobody had ever taken these myths seriously - but with the orks fast approaching it was felt that heading for the forested hills was probably not such a bad idea anyway, and in any case it could hardly make things worse to check for the stash once they were there. In what seemed like a miracle the desperate scrabbling around uncovered a bolt hole with a small chamber built into a mountainside. Turns out they hit the jackpot.
Not just arms, but the sort of high quality arms and armour characteristic of humanity’s more advanced past were available there. Even some advanced armoured vehicles! These legends and myths had been kept alive by (though they knew it not) the Lord of Change, forever weaving his secrets, whispering in the ears of children nurses rhymes that seemed harmless enough but which turned out to lead up to this very moment. His exact scheme is as ever far from clear - all that seems consistent in his behaviour down the millennia is exacerbating the conflict between the loyal subjects of Kilobo and the forces of Slaanesh. In any case, unbeknownst to their bearers, those who hold these weapons to this day are forever under his watchful eye, and the rituals which they think bless their weapons by the Omnissiah in fact empower through his dark arts.
These weapons were indeed then used to see off a few curious orks who wandered into the forest, mainly killing Gretchen and only a very few full size green skins. In fact those who had survived had not thought these resistors any more interesting than any of the myriad other humans on the planet who might be krumped, and the forest didn’t seem to have anything worth looting, so word had got back to the rest of the boys that there was no point heading up to Bán-Kwaeɛ. This was interpreted as a military victory by those refugees on the hill, and when later generations remembered the sudden appearance of advanced tech they concluded it must have been a delivery from their mechanicus friends who they always knew would look out for them as the Imperium never did. Thus was the myth of a heroic resistance armed by Mechanicus allies born.
In the aftermath of the ork raid there was mass civil unrest on Kurow Dunwɔtwe. While the more riotous expressions of discontent were put down by the Viscerators with their usual subtle diplomacy, there were those who took a longer view of the cause. Even with the weapons stored at Bán-Kwaeɛ they were still not able to seriously challenge Tramale’s rule of the planet. But it did make options available. For here was what might be thought of as the solid core of an assault force. And an assault force on a planetoid as small as Kurow Dunwɔtwe could plausibly seize the void port, and maybe hold it long enough to stage an evacuation. They would not need interstellar ships to reach safe haven either — these they would have no idea how to operate in any case. No, they could asteroid hop around the Halo until they reached the sanctuary of Aillte Dubha. The Mechanicus would surely accept them as taking sanctuary on a shrine to the omnissiah (as they maintained all of Aillte Dubha constitutes) and Tramale would not dare openly attack a Mechanicus shrine. The degree of organisation it would take to have the population drilled to rise up as one, seize the port, and participate in a rapid orderly evacuation would take generations to achieve. But it was achievable.
So it was the Children of the 17th was formed. Ostensibly they were a self-defence organisation, mandated by Tramale to be unarmed so only maintaining drills in shelter and evacuation procedures should the orks raid again. While the Whitehats hated the implicit criticism of their capacity the existence of this organisation represented, it had mass popular appeal and was felt by moderates in Tramale to be an acceptable way of letting off steam and allowing the populous of Kurow Dunwɔtwe to sleep easier thinking they might be safe next time. But the leadership always knew it to be more than that, and under the cover of their drills and meetings, across the generations a solid core of warriors able to wield the weapons of Bán-Kwaeɛ was maintained.
Of course for the Great Escape to work they needed not just an assault force but three other factors. First, they needed assurances from the Mechanicus that they would be allowed in at Aillte Dubha as worshipers of the Omnissiah seeking sanctuary. Second, they needed to chart a course from Kurow Dunwɔtwe to Aillte Dubha which went round the halo rather than risking direct travel across the Kilobo system. And third they needed a well organised population who could evacuate en masse.
The first two of these turned out to be relatively easily achieved. People from Kurow Dunwɔtwe were granted work permits to work in the mining stations around the Halo as a reward for good behaviour. The Children of the 17th thus cultivated assets with no apparent connection to their organisation who would gain such permits. Through this they made contact with the Boppers. The Magos’ gang were operating in the system to try and find a route of infiltrating well-policed Ultramar. An organised resistance movement who might be friendly to their operation if given a foothold was hence of great interest to them. (Reporting this back to the Magos was how he heard about the Kilobo system in the first place, and thus indirectly the Children brought the Syndicate to Kilobo. )So they began their fruitful collaboration. Together they soon had the 17th with a large enough network for mass evacuation to be viable.
What is more, these very same means made it easy to establish contact with representatives of j-0-n3s. The Technoarcheologist was only too happy to help. The prospect of getting his hand on the archeo-tech they would bring was enticing enough. But doing so In a way that exposed the government of Tramale as incompetent and unable to maintain order in its own backyard? *And* which seemed to provide evidence of loyal worshipers of the Omnissiah oppressed by heretics who would not recognise the unity of their faith with that of the Imperial cult? And none of it actually involved any expenditure of effort and resources on his part. All he would have to do is not reject some void ships showing up with an arms delivery one day! It was a political dream come true. As hastily as decency permitted j-0-n3s signalled his approval to the Children of the 17th’s leadership.
That left only the third problem. Given the popularity of their organisation and a clear eyed view that they could work on the timescale of generations, with eventually children trained from birth to know exactly what to do when the moment came, the Children were not worried about this point. The loathing of the government on Tramale was hardly likely to diminish across the generations - every time the Inquisitorial black ships stopped by and, backed by grinning Whitehats, tore some screaming children away from their parents, the blood hatred would surely be renewed. An iron discipline within the population was easy to maintain, and they could play the long game to wait until the moment was perfect. There was no rush - they only had to win once.
This was, alas, to be their undoing. As mentioned they are already dangerously close to the taint of chaos, but since Tzeentch has not felt the need to show his hand this has remained relatively subtle and never actively endorsed by the movement’s core leadership. However,. Slaanesh never forgot the world of psychically potent perfectionist hedonists, and the Children of the 17th unwittingly drew his eye once more. For in an effort to maintain camaraderie and keep up spirits they organised cultural pride events wherein a counter-history was told of the glorious civilisational achievements of their ancestors the Psycher Elite, and the martial glory of not just the Resistance at Bán-Kwaeɛ but also the Guard Cadre that served the Old Regime. Such tales of glory led some more idealistic youth to affect the decadent practices and philosophies of their ancestors. Slaanesh had her hooks in.
These secret cultural affinity groups became the basis of mass organisation, and gradually their leadership became functionally distinct from that of the more military arm of the Children. The military arm, referred to as Bán-Kwaeɛ from where they did their main organising, were self-consciously loyal to the Mechanicus and the Emperor via the figure of the Omnissiah, and organised simply to get the people of to a place where they could live their faith in freedom. But given the dangers of being discovered in either wing (the Cultural Affinity Wing being viewed as heretics on Tramale) a cell structure keeping the military and cultural organisation largely separate from one another developed. So the Cultural Affinity Wing developed their own hierarchical organisation.
However, given their numbers and sentimental appeal the Cultural Affinity Wing became the de facto leaders of the 17th. They have overall strategic command, leaving Bán-Kwaeɛ to see to the details. In essence the old relationship between a Psycher Aristocracy and a Guard Cadre has been reestablished. Where Bán-Kwaeɛ are Omnissiah worshiping loyalists, CAW believe Slaanesh worship was the true religion of their ancestors (quite falsely, but she who thirsts can as well deceive). They seek to conquer Kilobo in Her name and reinstate her ruinous decadence for all. To this end they conspire with the Syndicate via the Boppers. The 17th hence walk a darker path than Bán-Kwaeɛ would have them tread; despite their idealism, they have essentially become an auxiliary force for Pymp-D’ahdee and his chaotic criminality. Such is the fate of all who turn from the Emperor’s light.
