New Badab is the fortress world Huron Blackheart built after the Badab War cost him his original home. It’s a renegade Space Marine base in the Maelstrom, and it’s where the Red Corsairs rebuilt their strength.
What New Badab is
New Badab is a planet in the Maelstrom, inside Ultima Segmentum, and it serves as the homeworld of the Red Corsairs. It sits in the Tyrant’s Crown subsector and holds a population in the billions, most of them slaves.
Its whole purpose is replacement. When Badab itself was lost, Huron Blackheart and his surviving Astral Claws needed somewhere new to rule from, and this world fit the bill.
How the Red Corsairs took it
The planet already had inhabitants, hundreds of thousands of mutants and other humans the Imperium would’ve called foul. Huron arrived with roughly 300 surviving Astral Claws and took the world from them quickly.
Those Astral Claws are the core of what became the Red Corsairs, so New Badab is effectively the chapter’s second founding site, just without anyone’s blessing.
The Palace of Thorns and the planet’s defences
Huron’s seat of power is the Palace of Thorns, a massive fortress at the planet’s southern pole. It’s ringed by an enormous battery of guns, and it’s where the Blood Reaver himself resides.
The rest of the world is a labyrinth: endless mazes of fortifications, cities, and forges. Hundreds of ships guard its orbit, and the dockyards and orbital defence platforms are deadly enough to wreck an attacker from half a system away.
- Billions of slaves and hundreds of thousands of troops live and work here.
- The orbital defences and dockyards make a direct assault costly.
- Alien visitors turn up too, including the loxatl and warbands of the Lost and the Damned.
The Skull Harvest
New Badab hosts the Skull Harvest, a tournament where warlords fight each other to recruit followers and grow their forces. It’s part blood sport, part recruiting drive.
Warsmith Honsou came here for one of these events, building up his army before his invasion of Ultramar. That visit shows what the planet is for: a place where renegades and traitors come to trade violence for manpower.
Key facts
- New Badab is a planet in the Maelstrom, Ultima Segmentum, in the Tyrant’s Crown subsector.
- It became the Red Corsairs’ homeworld after Badab was destroyed.
- Huron Blackheart and about 300 surviving Astral Claws seized it from its mutant inhabitants.
- The Palace of Thorns, Huron’s fortress, sits at the southern pole.
- The world is a maze of fortifications, cities, and forges, defended by hundreds of ships and heavy orbital guns.
- It hosts the Skull Harvest, a tournament used to recruit forces.
FAQ
What is New Badab?
It’s the Red Corsairs’ homeworld in the Maelstrom, a fortress planet Huron Blackheart claimed after the Badab War destroyed his original domain.
Why did the Red Corsairs move to New Badab?
Their old homeworld, Badab, was lost. Huron and about 300 surviving Astral Claws took New Badab from its mutant population and made it their new base.
What is the Skull Harvest?
A tournament held on New Badab where leaders battle to recruit more troops. Warsmith Honsou attended one before invading Ultramar.