Editing Isstvan III (section)

==Overview==

Isstvan and its system were originally brought into compliance by [[Corvus Corax]] and the [[Raven Guard]] during the later stages of the [[Great Crusade]], around 994.M30. The Isstvanian military, supplemented by trained psykers known as Warsingers, had stoutly resisted the XIX Legion until being crushed at the Redarth Valley, but instead of a campaign of annihilation, Corax opted to offer the Isstvanians terms of surrender. The planet and its people were placed under the rule of Major Vardus Praal, a reliable and solid veteran who could be trusted to finish the process of compliance. Praal established his seat in the Choral City, Isstvan's capital, and the planet was swiftly integrated into the Imperium, becoming a model of compliance and cooperation. At first, anyway. Isstvan's location on the fringes of Imperial space meant that it was isolated from the rest of the Imperium from the start, a condition exacerbated by a local warp storm that made astropathic communications increasingly unreliable. Praal's efforts to subdue the remaining Warsingers and erase the planet's [[Slaanesh|native religion]] were complicated by savage resistance from the native populace, and the last transmissions received indicated that riots and outbreaks of mass hysteria were on the rise, along with the murders of Imperial officials. Six years after the last official communique from the planet, the Death Guard picked up an astropathic distress signal with dire news: Governor Praal had turned his coat, resurrected the indigenous religion and its Warsingers, and his forces were now butchering any Imperial loyalists left on the planet. Upon learning of this, Horus Lupercal decided that Isstvan III would be the perfect place to begin his revolt against the Imperium. He ordered his fleet, along with those of the Emperor's Children, Death Guard, and World Eaters, to muster in the Isstvan system, ostensibly to return the planet to the Imperial fold.