The world of Warhammer 40,000 loves to exaggerate with its extremes. However, one planet stands out from everything else in the galaxy: Catachan. The Death World lives up to its name and is the benchmark against which all other Death Worlds are measured.
The term “Death World” describes a world in Warhammer 40,000 within the Imperium of Mankind that possesses an extremely hostile and deadly flora and/or fauna. They are typically only inhabited by small outposts to exploit possible resources.
Nevertheless, some Death Worlds in the Imperium are indeed inhabited, with the number of people rarely exceeding 10 or 15 million. For comparison: Tokyo, the most populous city on Earth, alone houses 37 million inhabitants, the Imperium itself has several trillion people.
Some Death Worlds have only become such through human (or other) intervention, such as when deadly creatures escape from zoos. However, most planets of this classification are deadly by nature.
However, Catachan stands out from all Death Worlds and is the world against which all others must measure themselves, as a user on Reddit explains. The special thing about it: there are still humans living there, and they are pretty much the toughest individuals you can imagine.
A planet so dangerous that it needs no defense
The Death World is almost completely covered by a dense jungle and is home to about 12 million inhabitants who have lived there longer than imperial records can trace back. For the nerds among you, some data about the planet:
- Name: Catachan
- Segmentum: Ultima
- Sektor: Unknown
- Klasse: Death World/Jungle World
- Zehnt: Solutio Primus
The primordial forests of the planet itself are deadly. Plants there are either toxic by themselves, exuding corrosive or toxic spores or slime, or poisoning the soil around them. Even air filters for respiratory protection are simply corroded.
In the air itself, there are bacteria that can invade a small scratch and cause a wound to fester. The wild growth makes it virtually impossible to build on the planet, and buildings must be constantly rebuilt.
Catachan itself is so deadly that it does not rely on a planetary defense. There are reports that a Chaos army has attacked the world. Before Roboute Guilliman, who now leads the Imperium, could rush to help, however, all cultists and demons had already disappeared. The people of Catachan simply say: “It was taken care of.”
Fauna used as weapons
The animals and other living beings of the planet are so deadly that they are sometimes captured and released on other planets to eliminate their populations or attackers.
There is even a creature on Catachan that is said to be a mutated, wild form of the gluttonous Tyranids: the Catachan Devil. Imagine it as a centipede that can grow as large as a train with a scorpion tail and sickle-like claws.
However, the most dangerous animal on the planet is the Catachan Bullfrog, which merely looks like a large bullfrog. If the frog feels threatened, it explodes in a cloud of poison.
Within a kilometer radius, this poison cloud melts everything biological into a slimy soup (including the frog itself), and no known armor can withstand the poison. In this area, not even plants can grow anymore.
The people of Catachan are the toughest that Astra Militarum has to offer
So why do humans still live on such a planet? Probably out of stubbornness. The first expedition considered the planet a green paradise and never left after landing. Since then, humans have lived on Catachan.
The Death World makes the people there the toughest fighters of the Imperium. Nothing they will see in the galaxy could be worse than the world they grew up on – that is their mindset.
The Catachan Jungle Fighters are an elite unit of the Imperial army that is even tougher than the soldiers from Cadia, the famous fortress world of the Imperium. Imagine them as Rambo, but in thousands.
Catachans are larger, stronger, and more muscular than normal humans and have a higher, natural resistance to dangers and injuries, similar to Space Marines. Others often refer to them as “Baby Ogryns,” but only behind their backs.
Through people like the fighters from Catachan, the Imperium and humanity in general have earned a reputation for being so tough and stubborn. Stubbornness like that of the Catachans is certainly a reason why the Imperium is one of the strongest forces in the galaxy: All major factions of Warhammer 40,000 in the power ranking – Who could dominate the galaxy?
