Helghan

Helghan is a planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri A of the Alpha Centauri system, and is home to the Helghast. The Helghast homeworld is a hostile, harsh world dominated by ferocious storms and electrifying skylines. Over the years, the Helghast have proudly embraced their formidable planet and have adapted to the dangerously toxic environment.

Helghan Corporation
The Helghan Corporation's colonization fleet first reached Helghan when they entered Alpha Centauri in 2128, and named it after their company. The planet was deemed uninhabitable due to hazardous dust and lightning storms, so the Helghan Corporation chose to deploy a prefabricated space station in its orbit to manage automated facilities on the surface.

Orbital facilities began to grow around Helghan in the following years, and the Helghan Corporation made good profits from the production of energy on Helghan, which was sold to ships which passed through the system. Shipbuilding also becomes an industry of Helghan, and becomes the largest of its kind outside of Earth.

First Extrasolar War
In 2200, the First Extrasolar War breaks out in Alpha Centauri between the Helghan Administration and the United Colonial Nations. The Helghan fleet meets the UCN Navy over Helghan, but are no match for the superior UCA Navy ships. During the battle many of the orbital facilities surrounding Helghan were destroyed, including the main hub which was home to the shipbuilding and management of the Helghan industries.

Following the war, the Helghan Administration is dissolved and the system is put under direct ISA administration. The planet of Helghan becomes the destination of many Helghan loyalists who leave Vekta to escape ISA occupation beginning in 2204 and ending by 2210.

Helghan Resurgent
Settlements are set up on Helghan's surface during 2215-2220, and by 2305 the settlers manage to eke out a brutal living on the planet. Due to the environment of the planet, the bodies of the inhabitants eventually adapt to the harsh conditions, becoming the now-mutated Helghast.However, due to ongoing sanctions placed on the planet by the UCN and enforced by the ISA, Helghan went through an economic depression, causing mass starvation and industrial collapse. This made its inhabitants more bitter towards the ISA and their collaborators, and allowed for Scolar Visari's rise to power in 2347.

Visari attempts to spread Helghan's power and starts the Second Extrasolar War in 2357 by invading nearby Vekta. Following the failure of the invasion, the ISA invades Helghan in 2359. Casualties are high on both sides, Visari is killed, and most of Pyrrhus is destroyed by a nuclear device that was detonated by the Helghast.

After Visari's death, a political conflict over who will assume the role of Autarch is waged between Admiral Orlock of the Helghast Military and Jorhan Stahl, the very influential chairman of the private weapons manufacturer, Stahl Arms. As the remnants of the ISA fought to survive, Stahl developed weapons using irradiated petrusite gathered from the Pyrrhus nuclear blast zone, such as a new Arc Cannon or irradiated petrusite-based perimeter defenses and energy shielding. In particular, an experimental flagship built by Stahl carried hundreds of missiles whose warheads were filled with irradiated petrusite and, alongside a massive Helghast invasion fleet, planned to eradicate all life on Earth by saturating the entire planet with the new petrusite missiles.

However, the political struggle between now-Autarch Orlock and Jorhan Stahl came to a climax, resulting in the death of Autarch Orlock and the Helghast race being plunged into civil war. This allowed the remaining ISA forces to destroy Stahl's cruiser with hijacked Helghast strike fighters, causing it to plummet to, then explode in low orbit over Helghan. The cruiser's destructive payload of irradiated petrusite missiles then detonated due to secondary explosions, with the resulting wave of energized radiation destroying the entire Helghast invasion fleet, a large space station, and violently irradiating most life on Helghan.As of now, Helghan is an irradiated, near-lifeless planet. Though a small portion of the population had survived, presumably by fleeing to protected and fortified shelter or wearing protective gear, the entire planet has been irrevocably devastated. Not too long after this the Vektan government offered the remaining Helghast people to leave their devastated planet and live on Vekta. During the course of 30 years after the events of Killzone 3, the Helghast people live on Vekta separated from the Vektan people by large security walls in Vekta City.

During the events of Killzone: Shadow fall it is revealed that only a part of Helghan population escaped to Vekta. Others have dug deep underground, creating fortified military bases, and under the leadership of Jorhan Stahl rebuilt the Helghan military and space armada, preparing for a final invasion against Vektans.

Geography, Economy, and Cities
Helghan is a hellish world, only recently made remotely habitable. Much of the planet is covered by rocky terrain and dominating canyons with some arctic-like areas; there are even oases of sorts, in the form of hostile jungles teeming with dangerous predators. Helghan is rich in natural resources and minerals, mainly petrusite. Most settlements are centered around mining operations, and the largest city was Pyrrhus, though it bore more resemblance to a very large slum as opposed to a sprawling city. During Visari's reign, most of the planet's economy and resources were centered into building and maintaining Helghan's large armies and a fleet for interstellar conquest, leaving little funds for the improvement of the general population's well-being, hence the slums, dismal civilian infrastructure, and a visible lack of luxuries on Helghan.

Government
Before Scolar Visari's rise to power, Helghan was ruled by the remains of the corporate Helghan Administration, which had once ruled over Alpha Centauri before the First Extrasolar War. Visari seized total power in the government after a popular coup in 2347, and was elected Autarch. With total control over all of Helghan, he reshaped the Helghan Administration into the Helghan Empire, a militaristic totalitarian regime along fascist lines.

The Autarch was the supreme leader of the Empire with the power to create any law or pass any choice with no opposition to their will. The Autarch was advised by the Helghast Senate, a council of supposedly ten individuals with ties to the Helghast military and other powerful organizations in the Empire's society. Admiral Orlock, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and second Autarch of the Empire served as a member of the Senate and was a close friend of Autarch Visari. Other forms of management beyond the Senate are currently unknown, and unlikely to be seen.

With the recent death of Visari, control of the Empire fell to the Senate and charged them with appointing a new Autarch. Admiral Orlock was later appointed to this position, but ruled for less than a single day before his death alongside his rival for the position, Jorhan Stahl. With the irradiation of Helghan and the relocation of the Helghast, the planet is largely uninhabited and lawless.

Fauna and Flora
Although a harsh planet, Helghan does have several basic forms of wildlife as befits a natural ecosystem. Insects seem to be the primary form of indigenous life, though most seem to be somewhat larger than their average Terran counterparts.

Included are many harmless electric beetles that seem to fill the lower half of a natural food chain, serving as common scavengers that help to keep the planet free of organic refuse. Likewise,there are also aggressive predators in the form of the common petrusite spider, which can grow to be as large or larger than any large Terran rodents (i.e. rats, beavers, capybaras, etc.). It is normally found in the subterranean areas & wastelands of Helghan; based on observations, it seems to hunt prey by stunning them with an electric shock/bite, upon which it hunts as any standard spider would, via the dissolving of prey into a liquid and immediate ingestion of said liquid. In-game, the Petrusite Spider will attack the player with an electric bite.

Helghan's plant life is also larger than standard Terran flora, as several plants are seen bearing resemblance to standard weeds, but are much larger. In its more tropical regions, Helghan is host to plants that can only be classified as bizarre. Some are almost animal-like in appearance, such as large fungi that appear to have hyphae structured like crab legs, and carnivorous plants resembling spider legs that attempt to skewer prey as it passes. Some plants share some similarity to Earth plants, to a small degree venus fly traps specifcally. The Burster, which slightly resembles a cacti, but glows orange and whose needles burst out of it when shot. Also seen in the tropical regions are strange avian creatures flying above the jungle canopy.