Fortress-monasteries are the enormous citadels where Space Marine Chapters maintain their headquarters. Space Marine Chapters are highly monastic military organisations where the combatant members are all warrior-monks, and their fortress-monasteries are devoted both to battle and near-religious reverence for the Emperor of Mankind. Fortress-monasteries are usually based on Imperial worlds important to the Chapter for recruiting purposes, or on deserted moons and asteroids. In the case of fleet-based Chapters like the Blood Ravens or the Imperial Fists, the Chapter flagship, usually a Battle Barge but sometimes a larger vessel like a Chapter Barque or a Warp-capable Star Fortress, serves as a mobile fortress-monastery. The locations of some Chapter homeworlds are hidden, whilst others are quite well-known. The preferred location for a fortress-monastery is an Imperial world, where the Chapter Master also serves as the planetary governor. In other cases, the Chapter Master will make a deal with the existing planetary governor, paying a tithe in return for the land his Chapter occupies. Space Marine Chapters are usually welcomed by Imperial governors, as the presence of Space Marines deters invasion.

The Fang: Fortress-Monastery of the Space WolvesEdit

In the original Rogue Trader rulebook, the Space Wolves' fortress-monastery, known as The Fang, was given a detailed description, and presented as a typical fortress of the Adeptus Astartes. At the time, their fortress-monastery was based on a world called Lucan; however in later 1st Edition background this was changed to the Death World of Fenris. The Space Wolves' fortress-monastery contained the following sections:

Company Chapel: The most commonly used place of worship. Every company has its own chapel located within its company block. This worship is part of the Space Marine brethren's regime of discipline.

Penitorium: Space Marine Battle-Brothers guilty of any kind of transgression are held here as a form of remedial and penitent punishment.

Private Chambers: These are private offices and rooms used by the various officers and Masters of the Order, including the Master of the Fleet, the Master of the Forge and the Master of the Ordnance.

Communal Dormitories: These rooms contain the living and sleeping chambers of the Chapter's non-combatant staff, all normal humans, including servants, technicians and naval personnel. These people are considered the feudal bondsmen of the Chapter.

Guest Chambers: Relatively luxurious chambers reserved for important visitors such as members of the Imperial Administratum or the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Foundries: The foundries are where the Space Marines manufacture and repair their weapons and equipment. The skilled workers of the foundries are known as Brother Artisans. Equipment is evaluated at an adjacent testing and weapons ground.

Shuttle Silos: The bulk of the Space Wolves' fleet is located in orbit and the only vessels located within the fortress are those required to get to the fleet, mostly including couriers and transport vessels.

Teleportorium: These Warp teleporter rooms are spread throughout the base in four places and are the primary means of moving between the fortress and the fleet. Teleportorium One is used to receive guests. Those Chapters like the Black Templars who refuse to have any interaction with the Warp will use more mundane means like orbital shuttles to move between the planetary surface and the Chapter fleet.

Launcher Pads: Twenty-four aircraft are housed in underground hangers beneath the launcher pads, including four large transports and eight high speed scouts.

Armoury: A large but still-crowded underground complex used to store the Chapter's ammunition and weaponry. The security for the whole complex falls to the Master of Ordnance and each armoury may only be entered in his presence, the doors requiring his gene-print and coded signal. In an emergency, the Chapter Master may override this with a secret spoken code.

Apothecarion: An advanced medical facility, used as a hospital, a research laboratory and as a bio-lab. This is where normal human warriors are surgically transformed into superhuman Space Marines. The skilled medical staff have private quarters above the Apothecarion, while the servants and nurses share a dormitory on a lower level.

Assimularum: This is the largest room in the complex besides the Great Hall. It is a vast and high vaulted room, in which the entire Chapter can be gathered. It is used for mass meetings, ceremonies, religious festivals and special feasts.

Reclusiam: The Reclusiam is usually partitioned from the Assimularum by a screen, and is used only for Imperial Creed activities. It is looked after by a religious officer known as a Reclusiarch and the Chapter's holy relics and many of their most precious battle trophies are kept here. The Reclusiarch has an office off to one side, and there are three private chapels dedicated to the Space Wolves' Primarch Leman Russ, The Emperor Deified and The Emperor Oracular.

Refectory: This area is for the main dining procedures and includes kitchens, store-rooms, disposal units and purification vats. The strict and simple diet of the fighting warriors are augmented by a complex bio-chemical designed to maintain their superior bodies. Meals are eaten in silence following prayers of thanks by the most senior Brother present.

Oratorium: There are several Oratorium spread throughout the base and these are used for private meetings, lectures, briefings and small assemblies.

Librarium: The Librarium is more than a collection of books, as it also acts as the central repository of records and the main seat of the Chapter's communications. The Chapter's astropaths spend most of their time here, monitoring and broadcasting messages from the base. The Chief Librarian is in overall command of the written histories and communications within and without the base as well as the base defences. These defences are controlled from an armoured room in the Librarium. Based within this room are also the Communications Officers and a number of Librarians, astropaths and technical assistants.

Cells: A cell is given to a Battle-Brother to live in. They are arranged in blocks of ten, directly related to the members of a fighting squad with each of the ten blocks representing a company. Each block has a small administrative office and the private chambers of the company's captain.

Hydro-culture: This area contains a supply of local produce and exotic or seasonal vegetables collected and grown for the benefit of the Chapter. Other Chapters often maintain much larger facilities than the Space Wolves, however.

Terrarium: This space is dedicated to the maintenance and propagation of plants from throughout the galaxy. It provides both a restful area and a source for some of the drugs used in the Apothecarion.

Trophy Room: An area of the fortress-monastery where the Great Companies of the Space Wolves keep the greatest trophies, artifacts, and mementos of their countless battles across the galaxy.

Scriptory: There are several Scriptories spread around the base and they provide instant access to unclassified Librarium files. These are accessed through a cogitator (computer) terminal and allows users to select, consult and record new entries for the main library.

Solitorium: The Solitorium is a remote location (outside the fortress) designed to provide Brothers with a space for contemplation. It can be occupied for anything from a few days to years on end. Space Marines who seek promotion are expected to search their souls and go through self-deprivation for weeks on end to prove their worth.

Dungeon: The Dungeons lie deep beneath the Apothecarion and are home to the common prisoners, but not Battle-Brothers, who would be placed in the Penitorium. The walls are lined with reinforced diamantine although prisoners don't spend long in the dungeons before being taken to the Apothecarion for interrogation.

Generatorum: The power source for the fortress-monastery on Fenris is a group of four huge crystal-piles which penetrate the surface of the planet and convert geothermal heat into energy via a phased crystal interface (presumably there are many other ways of generating energy on this scale, this is but one example of the possibilities available to the Imperium, which more often relies upon fusion-based plasma generators).

Defence Laser: These lasers are mounted in armoured turrets and thirty-two of them remain permanently switched on. The other eighty-eight may be brought to bear within four days of activation.

Local Defences: The perimeter of the base is covered by 317 separate weapons turrets, including four laser cannons and a missile launcher in each.

Missile Silos: Over 400 Missile Silos are spread over Fenris and are the main force of the Space Wolves' ground-to-orbit weapons. They are each controlled from the armoured room within the Librarium.

Catacombs: The catacombs are the burial place for the Space Wolves and are home to many ancient heroes of the Chapter.

Great Hall: The Great Hall is the first room through which one enters the base. It is designed to awe the visiting guests and is the largest single room on the planet. It contains many of the battle trophies of the Space Wolves and paintings of famous battles are displayed on the walls. Ancient weaponry and armour from as far back as the Horus Heresy are on display behind plexi-glass. The spacecraft Medusa, flown by Leman Russ himself, hangs from the ceiling of the room and spans its entire length.

Barbican: The Barbican is the massive gatehouse that leads into the Great Hall. This has a permanent guard to receive guests from overland, air and orbit.

SourcesEdit

• Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1st Edition)