Into the Spider's Web
The Hollowvein
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATIONIntent: To establish a significant industrial asset under Darth Virelia's control on Morrigal—The Hollowvein Steel Mine—providing essential materials for war production at Fort Avarice and reinforcing her grip over the planet during the Velgrath campaign.
Image Credit: Midjourney
Canon: N/A
Permissions: N/A
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SETTING INFOMATION:
Structure Name: The Hollowvein
Classification: Industrial Mining Complex
Location: Morrigal
Affiliation: Darth Virelia
Accessibility:
The Hollowvein is hidden deep in the ash-drenched ravines northeast of Fort Avarice, surrounded by jagged cliffs and corrosive steam vents. While not completely isolated, it is shielded from most orbital scans due to magnetic ore fields. Entry is strictly controlled. A subterranean tram connects it to Fort Avarice via reinforced tunnel. No civilian personnel are permitted. Surface approach is limited to designated drop-pads guarded by heavy anti-aircraft guns.
Description:
The Hollowvein is more than a mine—it is a wound carved into the crust of Morrigal and kept open by Sith will. Beneath a web of black gantries and steel scaffolds, great gouges in the earth descend in concentric spirals, where workers, machines, and enforcers labor under a haze of black smoke and industrial floodlights. The complex extracts and refines high-tensile volcanic steel alloy, uniquely resilient due to its trace mineral content and naturally alchemic impurities. The complex operates 24/7 under harsh conditions. Overseen by Sith-appointed supervisors, enforced by cybernetic taskmasters, and staffed by conscripts, debt-slaves, and political prisoners, the Hollowvein does not produce prosperity—it manufactures inevitability. Its steel feeds the forges of Fort Avarice, and through it, the war machine of the Fourth Legion.
POINTS OF INTEREST
The Maw Gate:
The yawning surface entrance to the Hollowvein is shaped like a hexagonal maul, with reinforced durasteel jaws and collapsible mag-shields. Above the gate is an engraved commandment in Sith: Yield or be yielded. The Maw Gate is lined with impaled trespassers—left as both warning and ritual.
Spiral Descent:
A circular mining shaft descending nearly two kilometers into Morrigal's crust. The descent is ringed with rail-mounted drills, conveyor belts, and smelters venting sulfuric smoke. Platforms spiral downward, enabling constant extraction of molten ore. Massive lifts transport shipments to the surface while deep-bore machinery operates under Force-bound pressure seals.
The Crucible Core:
Located at the lowest functional level of the mine, the Crucible Core houses the on-site refinery and alloy-forging crucibles. Fed by volcanic channels rerouted through Sith geomantic manipulation, the Core's intense heat allows immediate transmutation of raw ore into refined combat-grade alloys. Red-robed metallurgists chant formulae while adjusting chemical balances to ensure stability and usefulness.
The Overseer's Spine:
A tower of blackened glass and ferrocrete protruding from the mine's rim, the Spine is both command post and punishment chamber. From here, Sith enforcers and taskmasters monitor operations. It contains barracks for elite guards, a communications relay, and execution chambers with alchemical feedback coils—used for both discipline and experimentation.
The Breach-Sanctum:
An accidental discovery—a collapsed side tunnel revealed a strange natural fissure lined with phosphorescent stone and whispering echoes. Virelia has sealed the chamber with a hexlock gate and stationed an acolyte to study the area's latent Force disturbance. Some believe this breach is a dormant Dark Side nexus, stirred by the mine's presence. The mine's productivity increased markedly after its discovery.
SECURITY
Security Rating: Heavy
Security Assets Include:
- Automated laser turrets along all major corridors and platforms
- Sith Acolytes assigned as internal enforcers and ritual supervisors
- Cybernetic overseers wired into mine operations for real-time control
- Surface-mounted anti-air emplacements and perimeter mines
- Secure tramline to Fort Avarice (with lockdown failsafe)
- Reinforced mag-seals on all critical access points
- Internal security drones with electroshock and stun weaponry
- Psychological compliance indoctrination via subliminal tannoys
The Hollowvein was founded shortly after the establishment of Fort Avarice, during the early consolidation of Darth Virelia's authority over Morrigal. The site was initially a ruinous outpost, long-abandoned by local cults due to unstable geology. Virelia, sensing both mineral wealth and Force disruption, ordered a full excavation. Her acolytes reshaped the stone, and her engineers carved the mine with brutal speed.
Rather than automate the mine entirely, Virelia insisted on using labor as both resource and symbol. The toil of the unwilling, the transformation of flesh into product—this, she believed, mirrored the Sith truth. Through pain, purpose is forged. Through industry, dominion becomes tangible.
Today, the Hollowvein supplies not only steel for Virelia's armies, but fear for her enemies. Every blade cast from its depths is a reminder that Morrigal does not simply resist—it reshapes.