Event · M30

Liberation of Necromunda

The Liberation of Necromunda was a Great Crusade campaign in which the Imperial Fists under their primarch, Rogal Dorn, drove an Ork occupation from the hive world later known as Necromunda. The planet, once part of the Araneus Continuity and renamed after earlier xenos devastation had left only the capital hive standing, lay in the Segmentum Solar and offered both industrial capacity and a hardy population. In M30 Dorn led his Legion against the Orks who held it, establishing a lasting bond between Necromunda and the Imperial Fists that later made the world one of the Chapter’s principal recruiting grounds alongside Inwit. Local tradition commemorates the liberation each year as Imperial Fistmas, a holiday of goodwill that legend links to Dorn’s compassion for a populace ruined by the Orks and to a charge laid upon a defeated foe to aid the rebuilding. Imperial scholars dispute the legendary embellishments, but the presence of the primarch and the Legion’s victory are not in doubt. The Imperial Fists afterwards maintained a fortress presence on the world, later known as the Spear of Dorn Fortress, and continued to draw aspirants from its hives. The campaign belongs to the early decades of Dorn’s command of the VII Legion, after his discovery on Inwit and before the Legion’s recall to Terra in the aftermath of the Triumph at Ullanor. It stands as one of the better-attested named compliances in which Dorn took the field in person, rather than a fortification or garrison action directed from afar.

See where Liberation of Necromunda occurred on the galactic map during the Horus Heresy.

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