Knight Houses (Hektor Heresy)

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe.

Imperial Knights are the inheritors of an ancient warrior tradition. They fight in heavily armed combat walkers nine to twelve metres tall.

Knight Households are feudal organisations of these warriors, dominated by the ideals of fealty, honour, and duty. Many are associated with Forge Worlds and owe their fealty to the Adeptus Mechanicus, though there are others sworn directly to the Golden Throne of Terra - or to the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.

Imperial Knights

House Accolon

Although not the largest of the Knight Households of the Imperium, House Accolon are one of the most famous. Their legend is entwined with that of two of the greatest heroes of the Heresy, the king Arturia Eld and the freeblade Abdul Al-Sherar.

House Kazak

The Suzerian Mechanicum House of Kazak
Household Grade	Secundus
Patent	Sidon Protocols sworn with the Kyuw Mechanicum in early M29, Pre-Imperial
Warden Domain	Nyeper III, Rosskar
Allied Legions/Forge Worlds	Oathbound to the XXIII Legion, Sworn Warriors of Forgeworld Kyuw
Allegiance	Fidelitas Constantus

Proud warriors whose actions burned bright, as if to spite the cold world they hailed from, the Knights of Kazak were one of the most unusual Knight Households ever to wear the Opus Machina. Relocated from their original homeworld to that of their sworn Legion, the Knights of Kazak would be at the forefront of the war which would all but destroy both them and their new domain.

Kazak were unusual in many ways, staring with their original homeworld. Nyeper was a world dominated by large stretches of freezing plains, only broken up by the occasional glacier or hut. It was a cold, empty world where no mega-Xenos-fauna challenged the Knights, nor did invaders from beyond the stars threaten their skies in the early centuries. The Knights of this house were without challenge or rival upon Nyeper, which created stagnation for centuries. The warrior’s spirit that all Knight Households shared, while remaining strong, was blunted due to the endless inactivity and tensions slowly grew within the Household between different noble families jostling over power and status. Had not the Mechanicum come when they did, it is theorized that fratricidal bloodshed would have consumed the House.

However things changed when the recently founded Forgeworld of Kyuw, which had been standing for barely a few hundred years stumbled upon Nyepar and swiftly moved to bind the Knights to their Forge, a process that was never entirely successful. Kyuw was militarily too weak at the time to force the Knights to their knees and the Sidon Protocols sworn by the Household overall favoured the Knights much to the distaste of the Kyuw Mechanicum, though they could take comfort in how the Knights swiftly adopted the beliefs of the Mechanicum and soon became highly zealous in their veneration of the Machine God of Mars.

The union of Nyepar and Kyuw coincided with a massive upsurge in violence at a time when the Warpstorms in the region temporarily dissipated and various Xeno Foes including Eldar, Ork and other beings that took advantage of the lull to move, hunt and war with each other. And the new Forgeworld with its client Knight Household was a tempting target. For a short time the Knights found War aplenty, defending the slowly growing domains of Kyuw from xenos raiders, human pirates and other forces and then bringing war to the strongholds of those foes, extinguishing them one by one. The Household grew thanks to Kyuw’s manufactorums and became more powerful than it had ever been in the past and covered itself in glory the likes of which had been denied to them in the past, but as Kyuw’s own Titan legion was founded it swiftly took over those roles and the Knights of Kazak were relegated to a reserve force. This act only angered the Knights of Kazak further. Their martial pride and honour demanded constant challenge and change, which Kyuw had given but too little of. But they could not stand against the Titans of Kyuw and both their Nobles and their Sacristans were fully fledged members of the Martian Cult who would not brook any challenging of the new order. So the Knights chafed, but did not raise protest. The Machine God would provide.

When the Imperium came upon Kyuw and it willingly joined with Mars, so Nyepar was also brought into the fold. It was now that the benefits of the Sidon Protocols became clear. The Knights of Kazak had won for themselves many concessions in the past, most notably the right to field Ordo Questoris forces, which many swiftly did, joining the hundreds of other Knight Households fighting for the Emperor in the stars.

It was during this time that several Knight Households found themselves fighting alongside the XXIII Legion, at this time still without their Primarch and they were present when Rosskar was found and brought into the Imperial fold. It is reported that the Primarch Alexandri was highly impressed by the Knights of Kazak and requested that they remain a part of his forces. Furthermore he extended an invitation for the Knights to establish a Holdfast on his Homeworld. Alexandri also met with the representatives of Kyuw who were travelling with their bonded Knights, and contracted them to help grow the foundries on Rosskar to arm and fuel his Legion, establishing a vassal domain of Kyuw upon Rosskar Itself beneath the Urachen Mountains. In exchange Kyuw would become the main supply forge for the Legion and would gain the protection of Alexandri and his Legion.

Upon landing on The Regent's homeworld, the Knights of Kazak found themselves taken with it. To them it was filled with all that which their world lacked, mighty beasts to challenge, the promise of war and glory beyond the stars, and yet though more habitable it was the same basic climate and weather as Nyeper. The link with the Legion also further weakened the bond between the Knights of Kazak and the Kyuw Mechanicum, though that bond was never fully severed by either side and the badge of the Kyuw Mechanicum was still worn proudly by the Knights of Kazak alongside their new emblem, the ancient Rosskan symbol for 'Great Hunter' bestowed upon them by Primarch Alexandri augmented with the Cog of Mars.

The Holdfast of the Knights of Kazak on Rosskar soon grew until it rivalled the stronghold on Nyeper, and then surpassed it. By the time of the Heresy, Nyeper was only sparsely garrisoned with the bulk of Kazak’s strength either deployed on Rosskar or else spread among the dozens of Questoris forces and Kyuw Taghmatas fighting across the Imperium. It was those deployed on Rosskar who would soon face the full might of the Traitor forces as Hektor’s baleful gaze fell upon the homeworld of the Silver Cataphracts and the Knights of Kazak faced their greatest challenge.

Matériel Strength

The Knights of Kazak were never poor on Knight Armours, and at the time of their incorporation into the Imperium could boast nearly two hundred fully equipped Knights thanks to the output of Kyuw along with plentiful retainer troops of the Household. By the time of the Heresy that number would swell to near on three hundred. Of those over half were attached to various Silver Cataphract forces including the Primarch’s own Expeditionary Fleet. A further quarter were supporting various Mechanicum Taghmata forces from their sworn Forgeworld of Kyuw, leaving just over seventy Knights on both Rosskar and Nyepar to face the coming storm.

House Kazak universally favoured Knights specialised in close quarters combat like the Knight Lancer and the Knight Errant, both of which were optimised for rapid assaults, getting involved in and out of combat quickly, efficiently, and swiftly. Other knights were present, but rarer. Kazak, as a Mechanicum Household had stockpiles of the Maegaera and Stryx, used by veteran linebreaker Knights to follow up the Lancers and Errants and complete the destruction of the foe.

House Goda

The planet of Goda in the Al-Sherar Sector is home to hundreds of clans, but only the most powerful of them possess Knights. The seven great clans collectively form House Goda, a host of vicious combatants equipped with close-range weapons and marked by scars from ancient battles. The Knights of Goda are well-known for their independence, stubbornness, and violent fighting style, although also for their isolationism and constant in-fighting. Their favored suits are Cerastus-patterns, although Questoris suits are preferred by the commanding types.

House Goda is notable for having eight knightly fortresses, situates across six continents, each occupied by a different great clan (except the Bakatsu Clan, which possesses two fortresses on opposite sides of a canyon).

House Walkur

House Walkur is a distinct house, and not only because it is comprised entirely of women. House Walkur's specialty is air-drop, deploying directly from transports onto enemies using specialized knight suits with built-in rockets.

Order of Bahri

The Order of Bahri were enslaved by the Forge World Al-Sherar long before the Great Crusade. Servo-bound to their masters, they fought in the Alim's campaigns of conquest under the two-headed eagle of the Imperium.

Freeblades

Some Knights walk a lonely road, either due to disgrace or personal disposition. Some are ruthless lone wolves, while others cling to their honour. Among the Freeblades, a very few became legends of their day.

• Lord of Bones. Although he was born a slave, Abdul al-Sherar rose to become the greatest Knight of the Heresy era.

Chaos Knights

House Drăcul

The Knight Household of Drăcul
Household Grade	Secundus (Primus prior to the coming of the Imperium)
Patent	Warrant of Imperial Immediacy re-instated by the Imperial Court under probation, 899.M30
Warden Domain	Olt-Argeş
Cognomen	The Lords of the Olt-Argean Empire, the Dread Impalers, 'Warp Dragons' (Post-Rebellion)
Allied Legions/Forge Worlds	ties with the Forgeworld of Anvilus, later supplanted by ties to the Warmaster
Allegiance	Traitoris Perdita

Even before the Heresy the Knights of House Drăcul were feared for their utter ruthlessness and lust for power. They had been brought into the Imperium by force, the small stellar Empire they once ruled shorn away from them by the hand of the Emperor. Bitterly the Knights served the Imperium, though they never forgot the insult and when Warmaster Hektor offered to help them regain their power and status and their lost Empire, the Household willingly marched with them into treachery.

History

The Knights of Drăcul were one of many Knight Households seeded across the stars, though early on they distinguished themselves and showed the ambition they had. All Knight Households had ambitions, but most of those were internal, the struggle for supremacy within the Household. Drăcul however externalized that, making it into a struggle of the Household against the galaxy around them. The Knights of Drăcul were highly unified behind their Voivodes and Boyars and presented a united front against any foe, making them a dangerous enemy to face. From the Fortress Keep of Uhorsko on the mountainous planet of Olt-Argeş the Knights of Drăcul looked out enviously at the systems around them and harboured dreams of conquest. While that may have been as far as it would have gone, events soon fed that hunger and gave it life.

As the Age of Strife began to descend and planets began to fall out of communication with one another due to the rising tides of the Warp, the Knight Household seized the chance now offered to it. The nearby systems were shorn away from any defence and helpless before the Knights. Drăcul deliberately landed companies of Knights upon the neighbouring two systems of Debriesen and Molda under the pretence of ensuring they didn’t fall into anarchy. The power of the Knight Armours ensured that the worlds swiftly surrendered and let the representatives of Drăcul dictate terms to subsume those worlds to the rule of Olt-Argeş.

However though the conquests were almost entirely bloodless, the aftermath was far from it. The Knights did not make effective rulers, their neo-feudal system at odds with the political and cultural level of those newly annexed worlds and resistance soon developed, which drew ever increasing reprisals. Eventually the Knights of Drăcul began to impale those who resisted and displayed their bodies along the roadside of the roads leading into the capital cities as a warning. This finally broke resistance and Debriesen and Molda folded into the fray.

Thanks to the STC Machines the Knights had preserved and the influx of raw materials from the subjugated worlds, the Household expanded far beyond that of most Households existing at the time. Additional Holdfasts were established on each of the worlds ruled by Drăcul and Knights were drawn from the planetary nobles. This expansion fuelled the drive for conquest, and soon an entire army of Knights led by Voivode Radu assaulted the mining world of Bzura, routing the Planetary Militia and occupying the planet. This would be repeated multiple times as a cycle of conquest, consolidation and expansion overtook the Knight Household. The problems with Warp Navigation limited how far or fast the Household could move, but soon all the planets nearby feared the drop ships from beyond the stars and the armored engines of war they carried.

By the time of the Great Crusade the Empire of Olt-Argeş directly ruled nine planetary systems and indirectly a further five as tributaries, and House Drăcul could boast over six hundred line Knights, making it one of the largest Knight Households in the Galaxy. That empire was stable but subjugated, and harshly ruled. Death was the only penalty for any crime, regardless of class or station if a crime was committed the perpetrator was publically impaled for all to see. Resistance was crushed without mercy and entire towns would be razed if even a single member spoke out against the Knights.

Eventually the forces of the Great Crusade came into contact with this Empire and after discovering how the Knights ruled their worlds their continued dominance could not be tolerated, However the Household’s size and obvious martial prowess made it an attractive addition to the Imperium’s armed forces. So an envoy was dispatched to convince the Knights to join the Imperium, loosen the shackles of their Empire and join in the Great Crusade. However the ruling Voivode of Drăcul at the time, Voivode Laiotă would not countenance this. He would not see the Empire his ancestors had built be weakened or removed and he would not bow down before any warlord from the stars. He had the Imperial Envoy impaled and her body displayed on the highest peak of the Knight Fortress on Olt-Argeş. Retribution was swift as the Imperium dispatched an entire Legion Battlegroup to deal with the Knight Empire. Primarch Arelex of the War Scribes and over 40,000 of his Legion along with two dozen Titans of the Legios Osedax and Unceliga descended upon the realm of the Knights of Drăcul. Over half the Household, three hundred and seventy Knights were destroyed in battles on Bzura, Molda and Gardynia as the Empire was shorn away, the worlds freed from the rule of the Knights and incorporated into the Imperium. In the climactic battle on Debriesen Voivode Laiotă was killed by Arelex personally and the remaining Knights capitulated.

The Knights of Drăcul who once ruled an Empire of their own now found themselves subjugated to the Imperium. As penitence for their war with the Imperium, the entire Household was dispatched out to the Great Crusade to earn the Imperium's forgiveness with the blood of its enemies. The STC Machines that had once allowed the Household to grow so large were removed and sent to Mars and their empire was stripped from them and made into free and independent worlds of the Imperium no longer subject to the harsh rule of Drăcul, though many of them still traded with Olt-Argeş for raw materials.

In the Crusade the Knights of Drăcul swiftly gained a reputation for coordinated assaults, unified teamwork and measured savagery. They were not as fractious as many other Knight Households, willing to work closely with allied forces and capable of executing highly complex battle plans with near perfect timing. However their methods were brutal. Many times on human worlds that resisted compliance Knights of Drăcul would impale enemy combatants onto the hulls of their Knights when they rode into battle to show the foe what the cost of defiance was. This brutality and their cold disdain for allies off the battlefield gave them a dread reputation, though few were ever willing to spurn the aid of the warriors of Drăcul and Warmaster Hektor in particular valued them and had an entire household detachment permanently seconded to his command.

However the Knights never gave up the dreams of their forefathers, of reclaiming their empire and gaining revenge for the wrongs the Imperium had heaped upon them. Most believed that they would regain their position with service to the Imperium and fought all the harder for it. But as the Crusade reached its finishing stages that dream began to fade. The worlds once claimed by Drăcul were now prosperous worlds of the Imperium and none would willingly subject themselves to the renewed rule of Olt-Argeş. At this time Voivode Vintilă was killed in action on Ullanor and his son Petru became Voivode. Petru had served alongside the Heralds of Hektor and was a known figure within the Legion, having been decorated by the Primarch Himself on several occasions. With Hektor recently made Warmaster, Petru planned to use his influence to raise the status of the Household and help regain much of what it had lost. Petru and a Household detachment of two dozen Knights rejoined the Heralds just before their visit to Cadia and when the Warmaster fell to the poison of Aubrey he offered the lords of Drăcul their empire back and the chance to regain their former glory if they joined him in rebelling against the Emperor. So the lords of Drăcul were the first Knights to fall, and time would give them a dark reputation unmatched among all the traitor Knight Households.

Matériel Strength

By the time Hektor became Warmaster, the Household was believed to be able to field three hundred line Knights, a sizeable amount but still barely half of what the Household had before the coming of the Imperium. Most of those were Paladin and Errant suits, with very few of the Cerastus Chassis and even fewer of the Mechanicum variants such as the Magaera and Stryx. It is known that the Warmaster’s Mechanicum allies supplied hundreds of Knight Armours to the Household throughout the Heresy so that by the time of the Siege of Terra it came close to rivalling even the massive Knight Household of House Raven. The Knights of Drăcul had a unique system of rankings, based on the old titles of their homeworld. The head of the Household was the Voivode, a direct descendent of the Lord Drăcul, mythic founder of the Household. Beneath him was the Boyars, who acted as both seneschals and governors of the local districts each Knight Detachment was assigned to. The line Knights were known as Druzhina, and were the sons and in some cases daughters of both the many minor nobles who served Drăcul and - in some cases on many of the subjugated worlds - local nobles who had proven themselves to the Household and had shown the ability to command a Knight. They were among those who most keenly felt the loss of the Drăcul Empire and who were the most willing to fight for it and in the end, accept damnation for it.

Noted Knights of Drăcul

• Voivode Petru "t͡sepe": Known in later years as 'Drakwlya', or 'The Demon's Son', Petru was the eldest son and heir of Voivode Vintilă, head of the Household following the subjugation of the Knight Household. Petru was only a boy when he saw the Knights of the Household and his own father kneel before Primarch Arelex in submission, a humiliating act which left a deep scar upon him. Soon afterwards he took one of the repentant Questoris Households into the stars to fight for the Emperor's great Crusade. It was luck that brought his household to the planet of Hlamayalia, where the Warriors of the First Legion, The Warriors of Dawn were fighting. The Knights battle record was so great that Hektor requested the Household be permanently attached to his Legion for the duration, which Petru eagerly accepted. For decades he and his Knights fought alongside the Wolves of Dawn, becoming an integral part of many of their battle plans. Many honours and accolades were granted to them from the Legion, with Petru himself being inducted into Lord Hektor's war council, the Hetairoi, one of the few non-Astartes given such an honour. Despite this, his name and fame never spread far, while other great Knights such as the King of Cattegirn and the Lord of Bones became names known across the expanding Imperium. The never-ending shame of the submission of the Household endlessly ate at Petru, every one of his triumphs rendered hollow and every victory nothing but a worthless name. He fought for an uncaring Imperium, winning their empire while still mourning the loss of his own. However as the Crusade drew to a close two great events conspired to change everything. On Ullanor, over fifty Knights of Drăcul lead by Petru's own father, Voivode Vintilă spearheaded the assault on the Megabosses Fortress. However Vintilă was killed in action by an Ork Stompa, and Petru rallied the Knights and led them to victory. In the aftermath, Petru was acclaimed as Voivode, Lord of the Knights of Drăcul. He remained with Hektor's fleet however as the newly Crowned Warmaster set course for Cadia. When Hektor fell, Petru immiedietly swore fealty to him and led his Knights to the Warmaster's banner. Hektor promised the return of the Empire that Drăcul had lost, and the return of honour to the Household. As the Heresy went on, Petru fell more and more under the sway of the new teachings of Aubrey the Grey, the Knights of Drăcul fusing their own brutality with the new ways. By the time the Household reached Terra, they were monsters fuelled by the Power of the Warp, with Petru's own Knight an unholy fusion of Metal and Warpcraft resembling a mighty Dragon and re-named 'Drakwlya'. When Hektor fell the Household fought the long and bloody retreat to the Eye, their dreams of avarice and empire lost. The Daemon Knight Drakwlya was believed destroyed by the Lord of Bones during the Scouring, but sightings since have led to rumours that the Lord of Drăcul still rules his Household even today.

House Machellus

The Knights of Machellus were a rich, powerful and highly political Knight Household that were just as effective in defeating their foes off the battlefield as on it. Their Homeworld of Zeclevis was one of the very few worlds where adamantium could be found in abundance, making it almost beyond value. Machellus was forced to share its homeworld with a dozen other Knight Households, all vying for supremacy and mastery of the great adamanium deposits.

Endlessly locked in conflict with the other Knight Households including Vynchi, Napoli and Sforsa who they shared the planet with, Borgius were able to finally overcome them with the aid of the Lions Rampant who first came into contact with Zeclevis, manipulating the Legion into aiding them with overthrowing their rivals once and for all. This bound the Household forever with the Legion, which would see the Knights serve on a hundred battlefields under Cromwalds banner. However this would also see the knights fall to the lord of pleasure and excess and become the howling fury of Slaanesh.

The Four

Main article: The Four

These four legendary knights have become beings of legend in the millennia following the Heresy. Much of their past has been lost, but their mere presence inspires the faithful of chaos to new heights of achievement.

House Castus

KHORNE KNIGHTS RULE!

Knights of the /tg/ Heresy
Imperial Knights
Households	House Accolon - Order of Bahri - House Goda - House Walkur
Characters	Arturia Eld - Lord of Bones
Chaos Knights
Households	House Castus
Characters	The Four