Footfall..

[The Hive Mind]

History

The settlement that was once Dewain’s Footfall, and now simply Footfall, is a tethered network of hundreds of stone structures floating in Furibundus’s voids. It is a mass of buttressed temples and plasma-pitted fanes whose towers jut out at all angles into the void. Most are linked by enclosed stonework tunnels and arch-bridges, in addition to huge steel chains. At the very center is tethered a huge macro-statue of the God-Emperor, larger than many warships.Many of Footfall’s buildings would not look out of place upon a planetary surface, while other spiral mazes and winding tunnels of unsupported stone would fall apart under the tug of gravity. Sections of Footfall have no gravity, and many have fluctuating levels of generated gravity. The few structures that have their own stable grav generators are highly desired prizes and are fought over by the most powerful factions, changing hands over the corpses and regrets of their prior occupants with alarming regularity.
Over the centuries since its establishment, Footfall has become a lair of villainy and intrigue, the descendants of its original population of stoneworkers and Rogue Trader vassals now far outnumbered by less-reputable newcomers. Here, religious fanatics rub shoulders with assassins, spies,fugitives from Imperial justice, narco-tribesmen, rowdy crew on furlough, and a wide range of disreputable merchants. Beneath this tumult of lawlessness can be found and an even more shadowy world: hereteks, cultists, unrestrained criminals, unsanctioned psykers, and worse. Here a thousand forms of deadly intrigue can be found, and anything from a starship to a human soul can be bartered in Footfall—for a price. It is for precisely these reasons that many great powers and factions from the Calixis Sector maintain secretive agents in Footfall: the Administratum, Battlefleet Calixis, the Great Houses of the Imperial Nobility, the disciples of the Dark Gods, the Ministorum… and perhaps even the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition as well.
For the Rogue Traders and their agents, Footfall has many uses beyond those of a simple port. These individuals come to learn about competing interests, find an array of illegal services unavailable on Imperial worlds, send forth trusted crew to carouse, gather new recruits to replace those lost to the void, and participate in deadly intrigues to gain an edge in the exploration of the Koronus Expanse. It is also a place where a vessel can shelter to refit and repair damage in relative safety, provided a Rogue Trader can abide the thousand assorted scum who might flock about, or the dubious strangers who will swarm their injured vessel and toil upon its hull for a few thrones apiece—or the hereteks whose price is far higher but whose “no questions asked” expertise makes them worth the daemon’s bargain to hire.
Size and Population

Size: Foot fall is massive in scale. It was not a planned station or even self contained. It is a haphazard collection of buildings,chained asteroids,salvaged vessels, cargo holds and components, ship docks and even salvage yards, sprawling over an area some fifty kilometers in diameter.
Population: While no one ever does a population census upon footfall it is estimated that as many as thirty million live with in footfall and the surrounding area.

Layout

Footfall is an irregular growth of towers,domes and docking ports that hangs in the void like a long forsaken sentential.Footfall is an unplanned accumulation of structures built by the various groups and cults that have made it their home. As new structures are grafted on, the previous structures may be partially rebuilt or re-purposed and so the internal and external layout of Footfall shifts and changes with the decades. Some structures have endured long enough that they remain firm features that define it,even as Footfall grows and changes. This adds a means by which irregular visitors may gain some sense of permanence between visits. Below is a list of the most long endured and "iconic" structures in footfall.
The Pit of Voices: This building looks more like a collapsed dome then anything else. Claimed by outcast Astropaths this buildings interior is a steep tiered arena and maze of cells. Gravity plated at an unsettling angle, and set with gargoyles pillaged from the frozen exterior stonework. Incense burns constantly and a litter of occult devices are strewn about the floors.
The Boneyard: This frozen midden of waste, junk and more then a few unlucky bodies, floats in the void beyond the structures. Bonepickers, clad in improvised voidsuits,pick through the debris and corpses in search of what little value remains.
The Chapel of the third Congreants: This is an imposing void pitted structure of spreading bastions and leering Gargoyles. it floats in the void, unconnected to the rest of footfall. Within, every surf ace is crowded with statues,sepulchres,and saints’ shrines. Worshippers come and go in a procession of gigs,cramped passenger craft that are little more than a seal-gate and gas expeller for propulsion.
Hab-Fanes: The largest structures in footfall all look like ornate temples.Their crenelated exteriors encrusted with crystal mosaics of Imperial saints and grimacing gargoyles. Open spaces within are divided haphazardly by cloth and metalwork, uncounted masses packed close in an ever-changing three-dimensional maze. Here are the poor,the menials and the lesser outcast factions.
The Liege's Court: One of the Oldest structures in footfall, it is here that the liege receives those of sufficient importance to warrant a formal welcome.The Liege’s throne is beauteous alabaster an ancient masterwork engraved with a hundred scenes of the God-Emperor’s victories, said to have been looted from the wreck of a warship during a long-ago war, and equipped with embedded field generators to shield its delicate surface.
Macrostatue of the God_Emperor: This vast statue floats at the very center of the community allowing the The stern visage of the God-Emperor watches over Footfall. Close to the size or even larger then a grand cruiser it is linked to footfall by twenty massive voidsteel chains. While the statue is hollow and chamber filled, no one dares dwell with-in.It is however a point of Pilgrimage for the faithful who yearn to see the God_Emperor star out into the unclaimed spaces, that will one day be his.
The Red Schola: This Monolithic slab of featurless stone is the Red Schola, a slavehold of the tutors. Within this sealed edifice, the Tutors create slave servants using a variety of cruel and esoteric methods: noetic induction, the breaking of self,torture, ritual branding and hypno-conditioning. Few know what horrors lay behind the pitted Void-steel portals, however no one who can afford such slaves ever questions the quality of the slaves produced by the Red Schola.Whether one requires a delicate courtesan of unparalleled skill,an assassin sculpted in the image of an Imperial Saint or a cohort of mute,slab-muscled stranglers. The Red Schola can provide.
The Shield Shrines: Footfalls void shields are projected from three shield shrines. Each is a cubic metal Machine temple, Marked with the raised cog of the Mechanicus upon each face. Each is linked to footfall by a coiling of umbilical passages and are well defended inside and out by servotor-crewed weapon systems.
The Spire of Intoxicants: This is the only location in footfall where all the narco-tribes are willing to trade drugs and allow outsiders to participate in their rituals. This trade-space is filled with chemical fumes and strange artefacts.
The Xenosium: Looked upon as accursed by most, this Thick walled, psy-warded prison-fortress was built to be the dwelling place of the alien.Void-weathered sratues with stren faces look inward at each corner. It is said no human has set foot with in for centuries and may be currently empty.
The palace of Indolus: Located on the spinward liege side docks ,jutting from the asteroid like a crooked finger of some skeletal god stretching out into the void. The massive transport sized building is constructed from stone and salvage Statues of all types seem to stare out from it and light from massive windows spill light into the void.The inside is home to area's,gambling halls and suits to fit all walks of life. It is a safe haven for both pirates and legitment captains to meet and talk, a neural ground.
Well known power groups

The Black Brotherhood: A disparate, but truly massive organization of hired thugs and violent thieves. Its members are identified by crude black tattoos.
The Kasballica Mission: Is a great shadow-conclave of Drusus Marches crime barons with ties to the cold trade.
The Obsidian Emporial: Is a bidding house that provides a select few with a place to sell items of information to rare of valuable for normal trade.
The Tutors: Slave traders and probable heretics.
The Astral Knives: Void -born assassins for hire and seemly a death cult.
The Drusians: Sanctioned if extreme members of the Drudsian cult.
The True Path: Xeno-worshiping heretics.
The Spinward Guild: Professional guides and middle men working footfalls spinward side. They seem to have many connections.

Known Peoples

Liege Tanthus Moross: Current "ruler" of Footfall. A former Recidivist, Liege Moross claimed the title in 808.M41 after the former Lieges death during fraction warfare. Moross has lasted longer then most who have held the title. He seems to have little interest in trying to control the port, it is said he has a far greater regard for bribes from those who wish footfall to stay as it is. He is a large man covered in silks, ornate augmentations and surround by both extravagance and Red Schola trained Concubines and Bodyguards.
Calcus Calinnicus : The closest thing to a leader the Black brotherhood have. Calcus is a massively over muscled hulk of a man, the product of vat grown alterations. He is a sadistic thug with a well known taste for drugs. For all that he is , his word is considered unbreakable and those who break their word to him pray for death.
The Provider: Is the most well known Intermediary for the master of the Red Schola. The Provider is a Grey and red robe covered man of truly ancient age, his features distorted by tubing plunging though his skin.He is said to be calculating,scrupulous to a fault in business dealings and utterly ruthless when the opportunity arises to exploit the oversights of others. Careful planning is strongly advised or potential slave owners may find themselves "guest" of the Red Schola.