House
Cenwulf History v6.0
Homeworld: Andlang, Vanyr System, Vanyr Sub-Sector
Military Patent:
Pre-Imperial
Military Grade: Secundus
From the earliest days of the Imperium
the nobles of House Cenwulf have upheld their vows of loyalty to the
Emperor with blood and iron. Grim and dour of spirit, merciless and
unflinching in battle, the nobles of Andlang are fearsome warriors
who stride to war within the armored shells of mighty Imperial Knight
Titans, dealing death to the enemies of mankind with blazing cannon
and roaring blades.
Origins
"Andlang was dead to begin with,"
-Opening statement by High King Halfdan to the Remembrancer Kujiro when asked to recount the history of House Cenwulf.
Like all Imperial Knight Households
the nobles of House Cenwulf and their mighty Knight Titans are
descended from the first human colonists who landed on inhospitable
worlds during the golden age of mankind. In the lost era of mankind's
first great expansion across the stars a colony ship of settlers
stumbled upon an unusual planet that would come to be known as the
Knight World of Andlang.
Situated in the Segmentum Obscurus,
roughly between Armageddon and Fenris lays the Vanyr system. The
colony ship that first entered the star-system discovered a number of
worlds that must have once teemed with life that had been rendered
dead and barren in some ancient catastrophe. Only a handful of hardy
plant and animal specimens remained on otherwise uninhabitable rocks
blasted with radiation, polluted with toxic chemical storms and seas
of caustic sludge. Only the foolish or truly desperate would have
chosen the Vanyr system as a home, indeed the human colonists nearly
passed the system by to seek better prospects elsewhere. Only the
discovery of rich mineral deposits by long-range probes motivated the
colonists to investigate further. The colonists found the second
world of the system to be particularly intriguing for the world was
littered with expansive ruins half-buried beneath irradiated sand,
sprawling battlefields of broken war-machines and the empty shells of
mountain fortresses jutting like grasping skeletal hands above toxic
clouds. Whatever alien race had once called the Vanyr system home it
had been wiped out in a devastating conflict that left behind little
but wasteland and ruin. Despite the terrible conditions of this
devastated world the xeno-archaeotech salvage could not be passed up.
Determined to make this world their new home the colonists set down
their ship in the mountains, as far from the radiation and poisoned
air of the lowlands as possible. Engines burnt out in the effort and
keel broken against the rocks the ship would never fly again, but it
would never need to, the human settlers had made their choice. They
named their new home after the vessel that had borne them there:
Andlang.
Those early colonists struggled to
survive against the hostile environment of their new home. Vicious
predators hardened to the extreme conditions preyed upon the settlers
even as radiation sickness, chemical burns and viral contagions
ravaged the population. Only the precious salvage of the ruins
offered the wealth necessary to import food and medicines sufficient
to survive. To recover that vital resource the colonists forged their
first Knight Titans. These early industrial walkers were the only
things capable of mounting the heavy weapons and powerful tools
necessary to fight off the predatory beasts, survive the terrible
storms and bring back the metal harvest which the people of Andlang
would rely on to survive for thousands of years. Over time the
warrior-heroes who piloted the knight suits became a ruling class who
marched out from mountaintop citadels to scour the lowlands for
salvage, cull dangerous beasts and fight off xenos invaders.
Alongside the emergence of the noble class the rest of Andlang's
society stratified into a feudal, ritualistic existence inspired by
the Trans-Nordyc cultures of Terra from which the colonists hailed.
Considered barbaric by the standards
of the Golden-age of Mankind the lords of Andlang rejected many of
the technological innovations of the age; advanced genetic
manipulation, artificial intelligence, warp-powered weapons, the
nobles of House Cenwulf would have none of it. So it was that when
the Iron Men turned on their masters and waged war against the
domains of man House Cenwulf survived for Andlang had no Iron Men.
When genetic manipulation ran rampant and hordes of bloodthirsty
mutants ravaged whole worlds Andlang endured. When the psykers
emerged among the ranks of mankind, devastating worlds with eruptions
of uncontrollable powers or drowning systems in nightmare the Vanyr
system remained intact. With each disaster contact and trade with the
wider galaxy dwindled until Andlang found itself almost completely
alone.
Cut-off from the wider galaxy the
people of Andlang were forced to fend for themselves. Food and
medicine became strictly rationed, weapons and munitions were
stockpiled, and soldiers manned the walls day and night, ever
watching for any sign of attack. In time enemies did come, pirates
and marauders, xenos and degenerate humans threw themselves against
the fortress walls and crossed blades with the warriors of the house.
Time and again enemies were thrown back but each time House Cenwulf's
capacity to endure the next assault decreased. Unable to sufficiently
feed or supply its subjects and warriors House Cenwulf had to make a
difficult decision, to hold out and hope to survive long enough for
the storm to break, or risk everything by going on the offensive.
After much debate the nobles of the house almost unanimously decided
to attack. What few void-worthy craft remained to the house were
mobilized and the bulk of the knights took to the stars, undertaking
nearly suicidal blind jumps into the warp to attack their enemies in
neighboring systems. Though these raiding operations were costly they
ultimately proved immensely successful. Outposts of pirates, mutants
and xenos were exterminated, ships were recovered and towed back to
Andlang, holds full of captured food, weapons and technology.
Besieged enclaves of human survivors were liberated and protected and
the domains of House Cenwulf grew to encompass around a dozen
inhabited worlds in eight systems. In exchange for military
protection these worlds provided a tithe of resources to House
Cenwulf, filling the larders and storehouses of Andlang with the
wealth of their newly acquired protectorate domain. Though many
knights fell during this time the limited industrial and
manufacturing capacity of Andlang was enough to forge small numbers
of new suits and the ranks of the house remained relatively stable.
The security and stability provided by
House Cenwulf drew survivors and refugees to the Vanyr system in
shocking numbers. Hundreds of junker ships barely void-worthy
struggled into the system, cast out from the brutal tides of the
warp. Some of these ships died before making it into the system,
others had to be purged for their crews had gone mad, become
possessed or carried dire illnesses. Many others however made it into
the system largely intact and suddenly House Cenwulf found itself
with many thousands of new mouths to feed. At first these arrivals
put a dire strain on resources but in time the Sacristans of the
house marshaled the arrivals and began to set up settlements and
colony outposts elsewhere in the system for them. Most of these
settlements were focused on resource extraction, mining precious
metals and rare minerals from the asteroids and dead rocks of the
system. In exchange for these resources House Cenwulf provided food
and security. One colony was established on the fourth planet, a
largely barren rock with a barely breathable atmosphere. With the
assistance of the Sacristans of the house efforts were made to
Terraform the planet and establish agri-complexes there. At first
this settlement proved barely worth the effort but in time the crude
attempts to stabilize the environment and work the ashen soil began
to bear greater fruit. In time the world earned the name Folkvangr
and grew into a functioning and productive Agri-World, supplying much
of the food for the Vanyr system and other worlds within House
Cenwulf's protectorate domain.
Increased trade and traffic through
the system grew the orbital infrastructure of Andlang considerably.
Accreted over centuries from the welded-together hulks of dead ships
a network of void-docks, warehouses and shipyards gathered in orbit
to service the needs of trade through the region. The system defense
fleet also grew considerably, ultimately numbering dozens of monitor
and escort craft and a handful of larger cruisers capable of carrying
the strike-forces of the house. Though losses to the tides of the
warp were regular the short blind-jumps to reach neighboring systems
became relatively reliable and safe, though time-consuming. Often
ships would have to sail for weeks to reach the boundaries of their
destination system after having translated from the warp thousands of
kilometers off-target. Such difficulties were ultimately a small
price to pay to maintain the burgeoning fiefdom of House Cenwulf.
Despite the best efforts of House
Cenwulf's nobles xenos invasions and pirate raids against their
domains remained a constant threat. During this time the most
devastating and frequent attacks to the Vanyr system came from Ork
pirates whose ramshackle fleets would regularly be washed up in the
system by the erratic tides of the warp. The rich material resources
of the system and the presence of a formidable enemy to fight made
Andlang a promising target for the orks to attack and attack they did
regularly and with great enthusiasm. At first the lethal radiation,
toxic and corrosive nature of the lowlands of Andlang all but wiped
out the greenskin invasions before they could gain much ground. In
time however the orks demonstrated their race's considerable
capability for adaptation and became increasingly able to overcome
the natural hazards of Andlang in their quest to meet the knights of
House Cenwulf in battle. Over the centuries of warfare between the
nobles of Andlang and the frequent ork invasions the xenos became
increasingly wont to deploy heavily cybernetically augmented
foot-soldiers supported by vast cadres of walkers of all shapes and
sizes from the small clunking forms of Killa Kan's to the mighty
Stompas and occasional Gargant. To the horror of House Cenwulf's
scions and sacristans the orks began to exhibit a perverse mockery of
the culture and traditions of the Imperial Knights themselves. The
pilots of the xenos walkers and the mek's who made them began to
enjoy an elevated status over their peers and started to display
crude personalized heraldry and to deploy and fight in the imitation
of the knightly banners and lances of the house. No matter how
thoroughly House Cenwulf tried to eradicate this affront to their
honor inevitably some small number of greenskins would escape the
system to spread their perversion further among their kind. To this
day attacks from the orks and their twisted mockery of the knights
remains a regular threat to the system.
For many long
centuries House Cenwulf continued to grow and prosper even in a time
of general chaos and bloodshed throughout the galaxy. The number of
knight armors and nobles to pilot them grew slowly while the
resources and defenses of the Vanyr system and her neighboring
domains swelled. In 873.M30 the sudden arrival of a small fleet of
ships at the boundary of the Vanyr system brought pickets and patrols
scrambling to intercept. Even as the first elements of the 113th
Expeditionary Fleet entered the system they were faced with a small
but heavily armed defense fleet demanding they stand down or turn
back. Unknown to the nobles of House Cenwulf the Imperium had arrived
and things would never be the same again.
The
Great Crusade
After a few tense moments of standoff
the small fleet of ships that entered the Vanyr system in 873.M30
announced over the vox that they were the vanguard of the 113th
Expeditionary Fleet of the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade to unit
the scattered worlds of humanity under a single unified empire. The
officers of the defense fleet were shocked at this news and passed
word swiftly to their lords back on Andlang. After several days of
long-delayed messaging back and forth the picket was ordered to wait
for the arrival of the rest of the 113th Expeditionary
Fleet before escorting the representatives of the Emperor to Andlang
for a formal welcome. Within the week much of the rest of the fleet
had arrived and was taken in system with great formality and fanfare.
The city of Jotunheim turned out in mass to greet the new arrivals,
watching in awe as massive and powerful gunships in gold, gray and
red dropped down from orbit and landed at the sky-docks. A parade
conveyed the visitors from the docks through the inner-district to
the household keep itself. When the doors of the great hall of
Jotunheim's household spire were thrown open and Leman Russ, Primarch
of the VI Legiones Astartes strode through the nobles of Andlang were
struck with awe. Massive, powerful and charismatic Leman Russ quickly
won the nobles to the Emperor's cause and with much feasting and
spirited competition Andlang, the Vanyr system and the whole of House
Cenwulf's protectorate domains were brought into formal compliance.
The similarities in the cultures of the Fenrisians and the people of
Andlang were striking and obvious, even their respective languages
clearly shared a common root. Various representatives from different
factions of the Martian Mechanicum made a number impressive bids
attempting to purchase the fealty of House Cenwulf, however the
material strength and stability of the house meant that Jarl Halfdan
Cenwulf was well positioned to reject these offers and chose to swear
fealty to the Emperor of Mankind, not the priesthood of Mars. From
that day onwards the armor and hulls of House Cenwulf's knights would
bear the Aquila of the Imperium.
Despite rejecting the Sidon
Protocols of the Mechanicum the High King did strike several pacts of
trade and technological exchange with the Mechanicum, and in
particular with the Forge World of Lokabrenna whose own cultural
roots also shared similarities with those of House Cenwulf. In
exchange for new knight armors, advanced training for the Sacristans
of the house and access to various technologies the Magos of
Lokabrenna were granted the rights to establish a Mechanicum outpost
and forge complex on the barren but mineral rich fifth planet of the
system. In time this world, dubbed Ydalir, would grow into a proper
Forge World Minoris under the aegis of Lokabrenna and would even
become home to a garrison of God-Machines of the Legio Sirius. Of
particular interest to Jarl Halfdan during the negotiation of this
arrangement was the technology of the Mechanicum Skitarii. For many
centuries the Huscarls of the house had been necessarily few in
number, forced to wear bulky and cumbersome environment suits and
suffer radiation sickness and other illnesses whenever called upon to
fight alongside their knight lieges on the surface of Andlang. With
the assistance of the Mechanicum the house could transform their
professional troops into cybernetic warriors like the Skitarii,
protected and hardened against the hazardous environment of their
homeworld and better equipped to fight alongside and assist their
knight lords in battle. Though the adepts of the Mechanicum were
loath to share their secrets the significant material wealth of the
Vanyr system and the archaeotech lore held in the archives of House
Cenwulf were sufficient to close the bargain. To this day the
Huscarls of House Cenwulf bear many similarities to the Skitarii of
the Mechanicus, often replacing upwards of fifty-percent of their
bodies with cybernetics, shrouded in rad-resistant storm-coats and
armed with esoteric weaponry the professional troops of House Cenwulf
prowl the polluted wastes of Andlang, ever-ready to defend their
homeworld and their lieges against all threats.
The coming of the Imperium also
transformed the wider domains of House Cenwulf. Folkvangr and the
other worlds under the aegis of the house gained their own Imperial
governors and established offices of various Imperial agencies and
bureaucracies including the Arbites, Administratum and Telepathica,
they began to provide tithes to the Imperium and raise regiments for
the Imperial Army. Millions of soldiers newly raised from the worlds
of the Vanyr sector scattered to the stars, joining distant
expeditionary fleets and earning glory in battle. House Cenwulf
itself committed over seventy knights, the bulk of the existing
strength of the house to the 113
th Expeditionary Fleet
alone. As new knight armors arrived from the Mechanicum of Lokabrenna
yet more nobles would take ship and join the Great Crusade, serving
with more than two dozen Expeditionary Fleets, fighting alongside
seven different space marine legions and several different Titan
Legios and Imperial Knigth households. For the next century House
Cenwulf's nobles would earn great glory and renown across scores of
battlefields.
Many of those who fought alongside
House Cenwulf prized the nobles of Andlang for their discipline and
coordination, much appreciating their willingness to forego personal
glory to achieve wider battlefield objectives and follow orders
thoroughly and precisely. In particular the Iron Warriors and Iron
Hands legions both approved of and sought the continued support of
House Cenwulf after serving alongside its nobles, however the scions
of Andlang did not share this sentiment, viewing the cold and
ruthless calculus of both legions with great disapproval. After one
particularly disastrous campaign House Cenwulf nearly came into
direct conflict with several companies of World Eaters. Only the
intervention of the Expeditionary Fleet command and the immediate
reassignment of House Cenwulf's forces prevented a brutal civil
conflict from occurring. Jarl Halfdan Cenwulf would eventually take to
the stars himself and led his warriors in glorious campaigns for
several decades before receiving unexpected orders from the Warmaster
Horus in early 005.M41, ordering the house to return to Andlang and
muster in strength for a deployment to another campaign. Though the
orders were strange the High King of House Cenwulf had little reason
to doubt or suspect the word of the Emperor's favored son and so the
orders were followed. Within a matter of months much of House
Cenwulf's strength had returned to Andlang, mustering at Jotunheim in
preparation for receiving their new orders.
The
Horus Heresy
As the unofficial capitol of the Vanyr
sector the world of Andlang was used to musters of forces. Jotunheim
in particular was one of the few places on the planet where large
forces could be gathered without exposure to the toxic lowlands. The
convergence of the spur on which Jotunheim was built with the
northern and southern expanses of the eastern mountain range provided
a stretch of relatively flat plateau several kilometers across. This
area had only grown over the years as House Cenwulf expanded and
flattened the surrounding area to create an open field for
tournaments, musters and demonstrations. Following Warmaster Horus'
orders the bulk of House Cenwulf gathered for review before
Jotunheim. Nearly two hundred knights, four hundred and sixty
armigers, sixty-thousand Huscarls, forty-thousand Thrall militia and
hundreds of Ironstrider, Onager and Sentinel walkers made up the
forces of House Cenwulf. In addition to these forces five thousand
Skitarii, battle-servitors and Cybernetica automata had been
committed to the muster by the Mechanicum of Ydalir and a further
thirty-thousand freshly raised Imperial Army soldiers from Folkvangr,
as well as some eight-thousand from other worlds in the protectorate.
In total the better part of a hundred and fifty-thousand soldiers and
war-machines gathered in and around Jotunheim in preparation to
embark on this new campaign Horus had promised.
Even as the muster was making final
preparations for departure a new fleet entered the Vanyr system and
began to approach Andlang. The fleet was from the Mechanicum of Sarum
and claimed to have been ordered to join the muster by the Warmaster
Horus. Sarum promised to commit several maniples of Titans of the
Legio Audax plus banners of vassal knights, as well as fifty-thousand
Skitarii, Secutarii, Cybernetica and battle-servitors to the muster.
High King Halfdan, though grown old and tired, nevertheless remained
every bit as cunning and cautious as he always had been. Something
about the approach vectors of the Sarum fleet and the tone of the
Mechanicum communications put the High King on guard, like a wolf
sensing the approach of a more dangerous predator Halfdan felt that
something was amiss. The great gathering of the house was a stirring
sight of strength but also an enormous target, gathered for parade
outside the fortress of Jotunheim the great bulk of the house could
be wiped out by orbital bombardment in moments. Tacitly giving the
Sarum fleet permission to approach Halfdan began to order lances back
into the fortress while putting the hearth-fleet on high alert. The
priests of Sarum must have detected the lighting of the
hearth-fleet's shields for moments later all pretense was dropped and
the Mechanicum fleet opened fire on their erstwhile allies. Had the
traitor fleet been in close formation with the unshielded loyalists
and had the household forces remained gathered in the open the
ensuing destruction would likely have been total, the scions of
Andlang and their fleet wiped out in a single brutal strike. Out of
position and facing prepared opponents the Sarum fleet failed to
achieve the devastating alpha-strike they needed and battle was
joined in earnest. Outnumbered and outgunned the hearth fleet kept
close formation and retreated to the far side of the planet, covered
by anti-orbital weapons from the surface.
Denied a swift victory the traitors
were forced to engage in a grueling and lengthy campaign of conquest
and suppression that would drag on for four long years. At first,
aided by maniples of Battle-Titans of the Legio Audax and several
companies of World Eaters the armies of the traitors proved brutally
effective, tearing down several fortresses, scattering the warriors
of House Cenwulf and savaging the loyalist domains. Folkvangr burned,
Ydalir was besieged and many outposts and settlements throughout the
system were slaughtered and destroyed. In time though, reinforcements
to the enemy dried up, whatever wider campaigns were going on denied
the enemy fresh troops. The hundreds of thousands of conscripted
cultists died at a brutally swift pace, many succumbing to the harsh
environments or native predators of the worlds of the Vanyr system,
even without the help of the guns and blades of House Cenwulf. The
Titans and Knights of the Legio Audax were outnumbered by the banners
of House Cenwulf and unfamiliar with the local terrain or conditions. The corrosive
rains and toxic fogs of the lowlands played havoc on the systems and
senses of the traitors while the warriors of Andlang were in their
element. Eventually, and at great cost, the traitors were driven from
Andlang, then Folkvangr and finally Ydalir, the last few enemy ships
escaping into the warp, hounded all the way by the vengeful survivors
of the household Hearth fleet. Though victorious the forces of House
Cenwulf were battered and much depleted. Around seventy-five knight
armors and a little over a hundred armigers still functioned. Tens of
thousands of Huscarls had died in addition to several hundred
thousand Thrall militia and millions of civilians. The forces of Folkvangr and Ydalir had fared
even worse, both worlds savaged almost to ruin by the traitors. The
World Eaters in particular had taken great delight carving their way
through the agri-communities of Folkvangr, leaving nothing larger
than a worm living. Millions had perished and with much of the crops
of Folkvangr burned, food supplies were dwindling quickly. It would
take years for House Cenwulf and its domains to regain their strength. For the time being House Cenwulf would bar the
gates and nurse its wounds, preparing for the next enemy to arrive.
For the next five years though nothing of consequence
happened. No further enemies arrived, only the occasional refugee
ship fleeing distant massacres. As before House Cenwulf took in those
they could and continued to rebuild and repair, watching the stars
for signs of danger. Eventually, in 014.M31 ships of the Ultramarines
Legion translated into the system, prepared to reconquer the worlds
of the sector in the name of the Emperor. Instead they found
themselves confronted by the ramshackle fleet of House Cenwulf
demanding to know their allegiance and intentions. The Ultramarines
quickly realized the enemy was long gone but that House Cenwulf had
not learned of what had happened to the Emperor. It was with heavy
heart that the envoys of the thirteenth legion relayed the news that
Horus had fallen but that the Emperor had been grievously wounded and
interned permanently into the life-sustaining mechanisms of the
Golden Throne. Horrified the nobles of House Cenwulf, already
possessed of a dour and grim demeanor, grew even more horribly
withdrawn and fatalistic. To the shock of the Ultramarines the nobles
struck the proud aquila's from their armor and repainted them as
skeletal birds of death. Though the sons of Guilliman thought this
act distasteful they were wise enough not to make a point of it.
Instead they welcomed the aid of Andlang's grim warriors and departed
the Vanyr system with ships of House Cenwulf in tow, packed with
lances of knights and regiments of vengeful soldiers.
Jarl Halfdan Cenwulf had died early in
the campaign against the Dark Mechanicum invaders but his son Beirand
had risen to take command and led the warriors of House Cenwulf in
the campaigns of the Scouring for over a century before he finally
fell fighting the traitors of the Iron Warriors on a barren and
unnamed rock not far from the Cadian Gate. His younger brother Baldur
succeeded him as Jarl and led the surviving knights of House Cenwulf
back to their home and focused instead on rebuilding, leaving the
remaining campaigns of the scouring to others. Even with fresh knight
armors coming out of the forges as quickly as possible the numbers of
House Cenwulf's knights has rarely significantly surpassed one
hundred in the last ten thousand years, never again has the house
achieved the strength it possessed at the height of the Great
Crusade.
Organization
House Cenwulf stands out
among the ranks of the Imperial aligned knightly houses in the size
and organization of it's combat support element. Mechanicus aligned
houses commonly deploy alongside integrated support elements of the
Adeptus Mechanicus and Skitarii, and even the Adeptus Titanicus.
Imperial aligned houses however rarely serve with other military
forces ordered into a single integrated chain-of-command. Thus House
Cenwulf is unusual in that the house raises and deploys its own
support troops and auxiliaries under the sole aegis of the house
without recourse to external allied Imperial military divisions. Like
all households the core strength of the house are the Knight Titans
themselves, some ninety-four functioning armors and nearly two
hundred armigers as of 997.M41. Following the opening of the great rift and the resurgence of Hive Fleet Leviathan the current High King of the house, Jarl Sigurd Cenwulf, ordered the vaults to be thrown open and the household reserves brought into active service. This decision has roughly doubled the ranks of House Cenwulf's knights but means that should disaster strike the house in battle there will be precious few reserve armors or young nobles to replace those battlefield losses. In addition to this strength are the
ranks of the Huscarls, elite, heavily armed and highly augmented
troops similar in form and function to the Skitarii of the
Mechanicus, or the Secutarii of the Titanicus, and sharing many
technologies with their martian counterparts.
The military strength of
House Cenwulf mirrors some of the ancient militant orders of Terra
that served as the basis of the culture of many Imperial Knight
Houses, though modified through the particular Nordyc influences of
Andlang's own warrior society. The Knight Titans of the house are the
mounted and armored knight lords, the smaller Armigers serve as the
squires to the knights. The ranks of the Thralls are bonded militia,
the Huscarls serve as semi-professional men-at-arms, and the Huscarl
Lancers act as mounted sergeants or yeomen. In this way the military
strength of House Cenwulf incorporates a variety of supporting
elements capable of backing up the mobile knights with infantry,
outriders and rapid-reaction forces all equipped and deployed to
complement the fighting style and capabilities of the nobility.
The Nobility
The greatest military
strength of the house are of course it's precious knight suits.
Numbering ninety-four functional Knight Titans and twice as many
Armigers as of this writing. The strength of House Cenwulf stands
around the average for an individual Knight House of the Tertius
grade but on the low end for the strength of a Knight World, many of
which feature several houses of similar size. This relatively limited
number of Knight suits compared to some houses is one of the reasons
for House Cenwulf's tradition of employing supplementary household
forces that augment and enhance it's fighting strength to something
capable of matching the strength-at-arms of of a much larger knight
house. While the barbaric appearance and culture of House Cenwulf
would suggest an obsession with close combat similar to their allies
in the Space Wolves Chapter this could not be further from the truth.
In reality the nobles of House Cenwulf favor victory through superior
firepower. It is little surprise then that the house deploys a
considerable number of Crusader-pattern Questoris Knights
supplementing the standard core of Paladin and Errant pattern
machines. Likewise relatively few Gallant-pattern knight armors serve
the house, a mere five at last count. The rest of the Knight armors
of the house are an eclectic mix of patterns and chassis including a
single example each of the Atropos, Styrix and Mageara patterns,
relics of the Great Crusade one and all, as well as a handful of rare
Cerastus and one precious Acastus pattern Knight Titan. The nobles of
House Cenwulf pride themselves on the variety and rarity of the
house's knight armors and go to great lengths to secure and protect
their steeds, even when all-but-destroyed in battle. Several bitter
conflicts have emerged as a result of the house salvaging ruined
Knights from various battlefields, the former owners, or puritanical
Mechanicus elements, objecting to the house's claims of war-geld. Yet
if conflict is the price for securing and maintaining the knight
armors necessary for the preservation of the house then it is a price
the lords of Andlang are happy to pay.
The nobles themselves are
organized into four broad ranks. The lowest are the Hirdmen, the
non-combat nobles of the house and the lesser nobles who serve in the
ranks of the Armigers. Technically this term is a more ancient
variant of the Huscarl title used to denote the household troops and
has a similar meaning but the more ancient term serves as an
honorific for members of the house of noble birth. The primary ranks
of the nobles who have survived the Becoming and pilot the Knight
Titans of the house are known as Hersir, an honorific similar to Sar,
or Sir used in other Imperial Knight Houses. Above the Hersir are the
Thanes, the chieftains and commanders of the house who serve in the
Exalted Court, or Alpha Lance as it is known in the house. The Thanes
serve directly under the Jarl, otherwise known as the High King or
Seneschal to the wider Imperium. The number of Hersir in the house is
directly linked to the number of combat-worthy Knight armors the
house can field and shifts significantly over time. However the
number of Thanes is fixed at twelve, one for each of the lesser
mountain fortresses of Andlang with the Jarl commanding Jotunheim
itself and serving as the thirteenth member of the Alpha Lance.
The ranks of the nobility
are largely distributed among the thirteen major fortresses of
Andlang though the size of each contingent varies, typically
Jotunheim boasts the largest population while Vanaheim maintains a
skeleton garrison. As a matter of tradition and ritual the primary
Vault Transcendent of House Cenwulf is housed in the central keep of
Jotunheim and is large enough to accommodate more than two hundred
Knight armors at a time. Each of the twelve lesser fortresses
generally houses some three to five scions martial at a time, each of
which is expected to maintain a pair of Armiger squires, six to
twelve Huscarl Lancers and one to two hundred Huscarl Rangers each,
with the Thanes and Jarl usually fielding twice that minimum number
of retainers. In situations of extreme threat the lesser fortresses
can be abandoned and the strength of the house consolidated in the
primary fortress of Jotunheim, making that indomitable mountain keep
one of the most formidable defensive installations in the segmentum.
Although
the primary responsibility of the nobility is to defend their domain
and answer their allies calls to arms the original purpose of the
knights was to aid in the salvage of archaeotech from the expansive
ruins across the surface of Andlang. Some nobles, particularly the
younger ones, will still ride out from their keeps and embark on
expeditions into the ruins. Every year tectonic shifts and massive
storms tear up the lowlands, burying what was previously visible and
uncovering other ruination from the planet's past. Under the surface the
ruins stretch into a dense maze of semi-collapsed caverns and tunnels,
intersecting with the burrows and nests of predators and natural cave
systems that run through the crust of the world. Though each season new
material is exposed on the surface the best salvage is often
underground, hidden away in the collapsed sub-basements and under-levels
of whatever cities and installations once stood on that ground. Knight
suits are quite useful in salvaging the ruins but are limited in how
deep they can go. Expeditions by Thralls and Karls regularly scour the
lowlands for salvage but the deepest and most valuable artifacts are
left to expeditions by lesser nobles to uncover. Those Hirdmenn not
fortunate enough to pilot Armiger warsuits will sometimes embark on
salvage expeditions of their own using other technology from the vaults
of the house. Servo-rigs, power armor, grav-sleds, cyber-mastifs and
other rare and valuable technology aids the nobles in their search and
allows them to delve deeper into more dangerous regions of the ruins in
search of the most valuable salvage. Often these expeditions will be
launched to exploit information gathered by Thrall search teams who are
richly rewarded if their intelligence proves valuable, enticing the
Thralls to leave the riskiest and most valuable finds for the nobles to
recover. Should a Hirdmenn expedition prove enormously successful and
recover artifacts or technology of significant value they may be
rewarded with the right to pilot an Armiger or even a Knight suit, or at
times, become wealthy enough from their finds to purchase new suits
from the Adeptus Mechanicus directly, helping to grow the military
strength of the house.
In
addition to salvage the nobles of the house are also regularly required
to embark on beast hunts. What little fauna survives on Andlang is
almost universally hostile and dangerous. Should the native predators be
allowed to reproduce without culling they would quickly become a
significant hazard to the salvage teams and could even threaten the
safety of the fortresses themselves. To prevent this the nobles of the
house work tirelessly to keep the predator populations down, closely
monitoring a network of orbital, aerial and ground-based sensors and the
observations of the salvage teams to track the movement and numbers of
different predatory species. When such creatures become a threat the
Knights will ride out from their fortresses on a hunt to track down and
slay particular beasts or eradicate an entire nest of pests. It is
during these hunts that young nobles can seek to prove themselves and
earn some glory and renown in the eyes of their peers and seniors,
though far less than they would in battle against proper enemies.
The Ritual of Becoming
Regarldess
of what family clan or bloodline a young noble hails from every
prospective knight pilot in House Cenwulf undergoes their Ritual of
Becoming at the principal fortress of Jotunheim. It is in the Vault
Transcendent of that fortress that those functional knight armors
without pilots are kept and in the chamber of echoes situated above the
vault that prospects will make the attempt to bond with one of the
available Thrones Mechanicum. Technically any young noble can choose to
attempt the Ritual of Becoming by dint of their bloodline, however
typically only those nobles who have been hand picked by the High King
and his Exalted Court personally will undertake the ritual. These
selections are made after a painstaking review of prospects capabilities
and performance during their training and education as well as
extremely strict psychological and physical examinations. Any physical
deviance or undesirable psychological trait may see a candidate
rejected, only the best, the purest, the most steadfast and dependable
are permitted to mount the Thrones Mechanicum and command the might of
the knight armors of the house. However any noble may make the attempt
to bond with a throne, success does not necessarily guarantee the right
to pilot the knight should the High King reject the prospect, yet even
in such cases a young noble who successfully bonds with a throne
receives a considerable boost to their personal honor and their position
in the house even if they are not selected to pilot the knight armor
itself and it is instead bonded to and piloted by someone else. Although
this is a possibility and does happen a young noble who dares to risk
such a thing and succeeds does often receive the blessing of the High
King, for although the tests and standards of the house are exacting,
the nobles of House Cenwulf are wise enough to accept the value in
embracing the exceptional and the unusual, fortune favors the bold and
sometimes that is enough to earn the favor of the Exalted Court and the
Jarl.
At the age of sixteen young prospective pilots will embark
on a pilgrimage to Jotunheim where they will undergo days of extensive
and exhausting rituals, fasting, combat exercises, recitations of the
house and their bloodline's history and combat record, and a battery of
further tests and examinations. These trials culminate in the Ritual of
Becoming itself where the aspirant is strapped into the empty and
dormant Throne Mechanicum and spends a full night plugged into the
throne, wrestling with and attempting to gain the favor of the machine
spirit and the ghosts of past pilots that inhabit the throne. Failure
often results in death or crippling physical and mental trauma, those
worst affected are typically given the Emperor's Mercy and recorded in
the honor rolls of the house as warriors fallen in honorable combat,
unless the data from the thrones indicates corruption or treachery as
the cause for failure.
It
should be noted that although any noble can be chosen to undertake the
Ritual of Becoming, or demand the right to attempt the ritual
regardless, the significant majority of the knight pilots in the house
are male. House Cenwulf has never had an over-abundance of knight
armors, the demand is high and the supply low so typically only the most
exceptional candidates are chosen to undertake the ritual and the
traits that the Exalted Court select for bias towards the young men of
the house. However should a young lady of the house prove themselves the
equal or superior of their male counterparts during the selection
process they will be given the opportunity to attempt the ritual. Many
that are chosen do make the attempt and succeed at a comparable rate to
their male relatives. Most recently one particular exceptional example
occurred when the young Lady Aska was rejected as a prospect due to her
particularly violent and aggressive temperament but demanded the right
to attempt the Ritual of Becoming anyway. Aska was permitted to attempt
the ritual and selected the throne of one of the few Questoris Knight
Gallant armors in the armory of the house. Although electrical feedback
from a highly fraught becoming left Aska's face muscles partially
paralyzed and gave her severe burns to her head and face that took many
months to heal the young noblewoman was successful and mastered the
machine-spirit of the Gallant. After a full review of her becoming and
her connection to the knight the Exalted Court chose to grant Aska the
right to pilot the machine. In the years that followed Aska's renown in
the house grew rapidly, her extreme outbursts of violence on the
battlefield serving as a notable exception to the typically reserved and
clinical combat doctrines of the house but her success could not be
denied, everything that dared stand in Aska's way was demolished with an
exacting and exceptionally skilled brutality. Earning herself the
monikor the "Ice Banshee" the young noblewoman has become one of the
most widely talked about knight pilots in the house and gained the
loyalty of a small faction of devotees among the armiger pilots of the
house. Aska is often accompanied now by a pack of devoted Warglaives on
the battlefield who follow her eveywhere and mimick everything she does,
half of these Armiger Warglaives are piloted by young noblewomen. As
the number of knight armors available to the house has risen in recent
years the number of female pilots has also grown noticeably, though
perhaps thankfully none are anything like as aggressive or hot-tempered
as Aska herself.
Genealogy, Succession and Family Clans
Every
noble of Andlang can trace their family history all the way back to the
earliest colonists of the world, namely the crews of the long-march
colony ships that first arrived on the hostile world thousands of years
before the Emperor would launch his Great Crusade to reclaim the stars.
There are some gaps, some details that have been lost, for even the
expansive archives of House Cenwulf have not come through the last ten
thousand years completely unscathed. Where possible the archivists of
the house endeavor to fill in these gaps and are constantly searching
the holds and deep vaults of the house for scraps of knowledge. In other
cases these gaps are filled by conjecture, theoretical lines drawn
between certain ancestors where exact knowledge has been lost. Despite
these few flaws that history of House Cenwulf is, like many Imperial
Knight houses, far more complete and accurate than can be found almost
anywhere else in the Imperium for the nobles have long memories and
jealously guard their histories for these record the glory and renown of
the house and serve as a living link between the nobles of today and
their ancient ancestors who bonded with the first Imperial Knight armors
and took up arms in defense of their world and their people.
While
the house takes it's history and legacy extremely seriously,
particularly when it comes to tracing family lines, that does not mean
that inbreeding is normal or tolerated. Any family line that becomes too
stagnant risks being rejected by the Thrones Mechanicum and so genetic
diversity in the bloodlines is critically important. So much so that
occasionally a lowborn or lesser noble will be strategically elevated by
marriage into the house to introduce some fresh blood. In rarer
instances partners may be found further afield and it has not been
unknown for Imperial Guard or Imperial Navy officers, Rogue Traders,
planetary nobles or other such individuals of great talent and superb
breeding to be courted by select members of the house and their genetics
welcomed in through carefully negotiated marriage contracts.
To
formally prevent stagnation within the house the greater body of House
Cenwulf's nobles is split into dozens of distinct family clans, the
Halsteins, the Olsens, the Thorsens, the Eerikki and the Calders are
just a handful of these ancient family lines. Stretched far enough back
all of them are related, cousins, nephews, aunts, once, twice, thrice
removed or more but still the complex web of family lines are extremely
important and one of the most constantly debated topics of Andlang's
courtly politics. The high-clan as it is known is the Cenwulf family
itself, and direct marriage to one of the sons or daughters of the clan
is the most sought after prize among all the other clans on Andlang.
Only members tied directly to the eldest child of each generation of the
Cenwulf clan are permitted to take the throne of House Cenwulf and rule
Andlang. Procedures do exist to handle succession in the event that a
direct successor does not exist, however such cases are extremely rare
and in the recorded history of the house there has never been a
contended succession between multiple claimants to the throne. Those few
High Kings who have failed to produce offspring are required by
tradition to nominate one of their siblings as their successor until
such time as a suitable heir is produced. In the last ten thousand years
of the house history this has only been necessary once. The extended
age that many members of the house reach and the relatively low casualty rates of the house's campaigns means that there have been
relatively few High Kings over the last ten thousand years and they
often have centuries to produce an heir, and many siblings to that heir
as well.
Despite
these sub-divisions among the nobles of the house assassination, sabotage and subterfuge are all
extremely rare on the homeworld of House Cenwulf, unlike many other
Imperial Knight worlds. This is for several reasons, firstly the extreme
hostility of Andlang's native environment breeds a collective unity
geared towards survival that heavily suppresses any potential resentment
or desire for political upheaval. Secondly the hard-boiled pragmatism
of the house means that most nobles of Andlang are loath to place
personal glory or advancement over the collective good of the house.
Where other Imperial Knight pilots might forsake strategy to seek out
high-value targets to destroy for their own political advancement the
nobles of House Cenwulf are content to erase threats with artillery
bombardments if necessary, so long as victory is achieved and losses are
minimized. Victory must be absolute, if personal glory is obtained at
the same time then that is a plus, but never allowed to detract from the
clean and efficient prosecution of a campaign. This military doctrine
is not an aberration but rather indicative of the personal attitudes and
culture of House Cenwulf as a whole.
When severe disagreements
do arise among members of the house they are dealt with in the same
pragmatic and efficient manner that the house is known for. Minor
contentions, personal disagreements or slights that cannot be ignored,
are handled with honor duels, either on foot with swords or mounted
within the thrones of knight armors and settled in a ritual and
typically non-lethal combat arena. More serious disputes may be
arbitrated by senior Sacristans or Huscarls, the most ancient and
renowned of both orders carrying enough political influence to sway even
the most hot-tempered member of the house to listen, for age and
experience are highly prized and even lesser servants of the house can
carry significant sway by dint of their age and combat record. Nobles
who cause trouble may be disciplined, often by assignment to garrison
duties at Vanaheim or on Folkvangr, the former a forbidding and dour
responsibility that weighs heavily on the soul while the second is seen
as astoundingly boring and bereft of any opportunity for honest combat.
Such rotations are never over-long but a few years serving in a
less-desirable post is often enough to curb the tempers of even the most
ill-mannered of young nobles and see them take greater care in their
behavior lest they sit out more campaigns in some remote outpost in the
middle of nowhere again.
The Huscarls
The core strength of House
Cenwulf's body of household troops are the heavily augmented Huscarl
Ranger battalions. Numbering in their thousands these highly-trained
soldiers are drawn from the most able and skilled natives of Andlang
and are outfitted with the highest quality weapons, armor and bionics
the house can afford. The replacement of limbs is practically
standard and many Huscarls in time end up replacing fifty percent or
more of their body-mass with artificial components, sacrifices deemed
necessary to better serve the house. The standard armament of the
Huscarl Rangers is the Galvanic Rifle, the considerable range and
precision of these deadly weapons considered the most effective
armament to supplement and support the capabilities of the Knight
Titans of the House. In addition to the Galvanic Rifles the Huscarls
have access to most of the weaponry standard to the tech-guard of the
Mechanicus acquired through exchanges of material with the Forge
World of Lokabrenna. While the Huscarls serve as a professional
standing army the culture of Andlang allows for precious little
weakness or cowardice and it is expected that every able-bodied
native of the system be able and willing to take up arms in the
defense of their home. When necessary the house can call upon several
million armed Thralls, raised from the ranks of the bonded servant
classes, equipped with their standard armored environment suits and
armed with a mixture of las and auto weaponry the citizen levies of
Andlang and her sister planets number in the tens of millions, a
formidable fighting force that has repelled more than a few attacks
on the system over the last ten thousand years. Squad command within
the ranks of the Huscarls falls to Alphas, a title derived from a
rare similarity in the naming conventions of the Mechanicum and the
traditions of House Cenwulf which, throughout it's history, granted
battlefield leaders the title of Alpha. The designation of Alpha also
applies to the commanders of walker squadrons, Knight Lances and
Thrall militia formations and the Exalted Court of House Cenwulf even
bears the title of Alpha Lance.
In addition to the ranks of
the Huscarl Rangers are specialists known as Lancers, Dragoons and
Ancients, experts in mechanized warfare drawn from the wider ranks of
the household troops. The largest of the Huscarls sub-formations are
the Lancers, numbering in their hundreds these are semi-professional
soldiers drawn from the ranks of the Thralls and equipped with
Armored Sentinel walkers. Each noble of House Cenwulf is required to
maintain at least a single company of Lancers as part of the greater
military strength of the house, which in terms of vehicle squadrons
usually number anywhere from nine to fifteen sentinels strong. Unlike
many of the Sentinels used by the Astra Militarum the Sentinels of
House Cenwulf always equip a chainblade secondary weapon. Normally
such implements are rare outside of the jungle-fighters of Catachan
who use them to cut their way through dense jungle. Why the natives
of Andlang are so keen to add a chainblade to their machines is
unknown though many speculate it is an attempt to imitate the
heavy-weapon and reaper chainsword equipment loadout of most
questoris class knight armors, the Huscarl Lancers essentially
seeking to imitate the fighting styles and equipment of their lieges.
The Dragoons are recruited from the ranks of the augmented
Huscarl formations and have the distinction of taking to the field of
battle astride priceless and all but irreplaceable Ironstrider war
machines. Extremely fleet and agile the Ironstriders allow the house
Dragoons to race across even the most broken and treacherous of
terrain to close with the enemy and deliver punishing blasts of
concentrated electricity from their overcharged tesla lances, or
provide deadly-accurate fire support from twin-cognis lascannons or
autocannons. While the Sentinels used by the lancers act as escorts
and bodyguards for their knight lords the Ironstriders act as swift
outriders and counter-attack formations. In total only a few hundred
of these ancient, and largely irreplaceable, warmachines reside in
the armories of the house, only a handful of which are likely to be
deployed with the forces of the house at any given time.
The last major sub-division
of the Huscarls are the Ancients. Recruited from Dragoons who have
attained at least a century of distinguished service to the house the
Ancients are permitted to command the fearsome power of
Onager-pattern Dunecrawlers, rare and valuable machines bartered at
great expense from the Adeptus Mechanicus in small numbers. On the
battlefield squadrons of Onagers serve as deadly fire-support for the
knight suits of their lords, the veteran crews providing pin-point
heavy weapons fire against high-priority targets that might threaten
their lieges. Armed primarily with the incredibly powerful Neutron
Laser weapons systems the Onagers of the house are able to lay down
barrages of high-intensity laser fire powerful enough to obliterate
battle-tanks, or even cripple Titans with enough focused volleys.
Fielded almost exclusively in squadrons of two to three machines to
maximize the protective effects of the dunecrawler's overlapping
emanatus force-fields the Onagers of the house are fearsome and
deadly threats on the battlefield that often rival the performance
and kill-tallies of the knight lords of the house. In rarer
circumstances the Onagers may be equipped for other battlefield roles
such as the close-ranged destruction of enemy fortifications using
Eradication Beamers or anti-air fire through the deployment of
specialized Icarus weapons arrays.
Those lancers who prove
themselves particularly talented and those lesser nobles of the house
not afforded the right to pilot one of the limited number of knight
suits, are given the opportunity to serve in the ranks of the
Armigers. Every noble of the house is expected to maintain at least
two Armiger piloting apprentices at all times, with the Thanes and
Jarl sometimes fielding twice that number. At around two hundred
strong the Armigers serve both as a proving ground for promising
young nobles and warriors of humble birth who may one day earn the
right to marry into the house. This practice provides the house with
an influx of fresh genetic material to prevent the bloodlines from
becoming too inbred. A mixture of battlefield escorts and apprentices
the Armigers fight alongside their liege in battle, protecting the
flanks of their Knight lord and responding rapidly to any shift in
the lines of battle. Sometimes Armigers may spearhead an attack,
their smaller, faster frames allowing them to surge ahead to strike
the enemy a crippling blow before withdrawing rapidly to strike again
elsewhere, while other times they will be held in reserve, ready to
surge forth to plug gaps in the battle-line or respond to emergent
threats.
Sacristans
The most significant
non-combat assets of the house are the Sacristans, Mechanicus trained
tech-priests and engineseers who maintain the various weapons and
warmachines of the house, oversee the mining and processing of
Vanyr's material wealth as well as all local manufacturing outside of
Ydalir. Sacristans maintain the Hearth Ships, repair the Knight
suits, restore damaged weapons, manage the agri-complexes of
Folkvangr, sort and evaluate all salvage through the system and
negotiate all trade deals with Rogue Traders, the Adeptus Mechanicus
and even material exchanges with the Space Wolves. The importance of
the Sacristans to the survival and military capability of House
Cenwulf cannot be overstated, without the Sacristans the Knights
would not walk, the ships would not fly, the nobles would not even
have anything to eat. Next to the nobles themselves none of the
house's servants are held in higher regard or have more privileges
than the priests of the Sacristans. For the most part the Sacristans
do not take an active role in combat, however their considerable
level of cybernetic augmentation and formidable personal arms and
armor allow some of the more martial-minded Sacristans to take to the
field of battle to conduct emergency repairs, salvage damaged mounts,
or provide leadership to the Huscarl forces.
The Thralls
The vast majority of the
population of Andlang live as bonded Thralls. Oathed to a life of
servitude to the scions of the house the Thralls live lives that are
often brutally difficult, dangerous and short. Nevertheless the stoic
tenacity of the people of Andlang can perhaps be seen most clearly in
the Thralls of House Cenwulf for they are to a fault stubborn,
tenacious, proud and heavily armed. It is common practice for nearly
every man, woman and child on Andlang to bear a weapon of some kind,
be it a knife or an autogun personal armament is a high priority for
even the lowly Thralls. House Cenwulf is perfectly happy to take
advantage of the warlike an combative nature of the Thralls and
deploy hundreds strong formations of Thrall levies as a strategic
reserve during campaigns. Thousands of Thralls serve aboard the
Hearth Ships or serve in the retainers of their noble lords and when
necessary these forces can be put into the field with little
additional preparation. The standard work uniform of the Thrall being
an armored environment suit and an automatic small arm means that
Thralls may be mobilized for combat without great difficulty or
logistical complication. For the most part the nobles of House
Cenwulf do not rely on the Thralls to undertake any serious fighting
but use them as a security force and reserve, digging in and
fortifying taken ground to prevent an enemy from flanking and
isolating the knightly lances in the field. The Thrall militia is
well suited to such tasks, especially when supported by elements from
the professional Huscarl soldiery or nobles of the house Thrall
forces can be relied on to hold their ground even in intense combat
situations and perform roughly equivalent to Astra Militarum light
infantry formations.
Often Thrall units will be
formed around a senior member who will serve the role of a Sergeant
and at least one member of each ten man section will be equipped with
some kind of support weapon, most often a grenade launcher. These
squads are then commanded by an experienced and combat hardened
company officer, who usually holds the social rank of Karl and as
such can afford superior personal armaments and protective devices.
Sometimes, when the situation is dire and the Thralls must hold the
line, or sometimes as a punishment, a scion of the house will debark
their armor and take to the field as a foot knight. Armored in heavy
carapace plate, protected by a potent conversion field generator and
armed with deadly masterwork swords and pistols a House Cenwulf foot
knight makes for an inspiring figure on the battlefield as well as an
effective and deadly field commander. No proud son or daughter of
Andlang would dare turn their backs on the foe in the presence of
such a figure.
For the most part light
infantry formations are the standard deployment model for Thrall
forces fighting alongside House Cenwulf on campaign, however the
garrison of Andlang itself does possess a variety of additional
weapons and warmachines. Industrial vehicles may be re-purposed into
effective armored personnel transports and the up-gunned walkers used
by the Thralls in their salvage and mining operations across the
surface can easily be put to use on the battlefield. In addition to
Goliath trucks and Sentinels the Thrall forces on Andlang are
equipped with dedicated battle-tanks and artillery, most of which are
of local manufacture and possess legs instead of tracks. The forges
of Andlang produce many walker-based systems and the tech-adepts of
Ydalir are particularly famed for the production of advanced
combat-walkers. Ydalir-pattern Leman Russ and Baneblade tanks all
utilize six multi-jointed legs for mobility. Though this typically
makes them slightly slower than typical vehicles of their class
Ydalir-pattern battle-tanks are better able to negotiate urban
terrain and hazardous environments and do not need to rely on dozer
blades to clear obstacles. On Andlang such technologies are
particularly useful given the rough ground upon which they will
likely need to fight and thus the Thrall militia possesses dozens of
such tanks housed in militia forts across the major fortresses of
Andlang. Though rare it has been known for House Cenwulf to field a
small number of such armored units with supporting Thrall elements on
campaigns, particularly extended deployments far from wider Imperial
support. In such cases squadrons of Ydalir-pattern Leman Russ tanks
have proven highly effective weapons, capable of laying down
punishing light-artillery barrages in support of the household's
primary fighting forces.
On Andlang the vast
majority of defensive works and installations are garrisoned by
Thralls. Though highly trained and heavily armed the professional
troops of the house, the Huscarls, are relatively few in number
compared to the wider population. Even the Karl's are significantly
outnumbered by the ranks of the Thralls and their relatively higher
economic and technical importance relieves the Karls from most
military responsibilities though they, like all the natives of
Andlang, remain heavily armed and willing to fight in defense of
their home. Every year a portion of the Thrall population is called
up by lottery to serve in the active militia levies and will spend
their term of service assigned to a posting somewhere on the surface
or aboard one of the house vessels. This posting may be to a remote
communications-outpost atop a distant mountain peak with a garrison
of no more than a dozen souls or to the defense stations of
Jotunheim's curtain wall where levy barracks houses are home to
several thousand Thralls at any given time. In times of war a sizable
portion of the population may also be called up to service, giving
the house an armed planetary defense force numbering in the millions.
The Fleet
The next most significant
support element of the house is it's fleet. The Hearth Fleet stands
today as a powerful void fleet in it's own right, comprising five
powerful capital ships and a modest number of support and escort craft.
What the Hearth Fleet once was before the acquisition of these vessels
is little remembered even among the nobles of House Cenwulf, the house
possessed void ships dating back to before the coming of the Emperor but
what kind and how many has been largely forgotten, or simply considered
irrelevant. Likely the nobles of House Cenwulf have at times relied on
whatever ships they could get from wherever they could get them, bulk
haulers, light cruisers, armed mechantment or whatever else was to hand.
Today the bulk of the great Hearth Ships of House
Cenwulf are converted Grand Cruisers, mostly of the Exorcist class. The
Imperial Navy has long since moved away from the archaic grand cruiser
platform in favor of more versatile cruisers, battle cruisers and
dedicated battleships. Most of the grand cruisers still in service have
been rotated out of main-line battlefleets and consigned to secondary
duties, system garrison, long-range patrols or reserve fleet
deployments. House Cenwulf has taken advantage of this circumstance and
has over time managed to acquiree five such reserve ships
from the Segmentum Obscurus battlefleet at considerable cost,
modifying them to serve as the principal transport vessels for
household detachments. The considerable short-ranged armaments and
shields of the Grand Cruiser allow the Hearth Ships to smash their
way through enemy battle-lines to the high-orbit anchorages necessary
for deploying the house's forces. Similarly the sizable launch bays
are well-suited to the massive drop-ships needed to deploy the
super-heavy Imperial Knight walkers. Even the vast ventral cargo bays
of the grand cruiser platform made it relatively easy for the Sacristans
of
the house to modify the lower decks of the ship to house and launch
the massive drop keeps used for rapid insertion.
Household Thralls and Huscarls serve as the crews of the Hearth ships
as well as bonded Astropaths and ten Navigators, one primary and one
secondary for each of the capitol ships. Few escort craft are
maintained by the house, which prefers to rely on the Imperial Navy or
other branches of the Imperium's forces to provide support for the
slow but powerful Hearth ships. This is because the house fleet is
not designed or intended to engage in and win void battles, it's sole
purpose is to deliver the ground-forces of the house into an active
warzone and withdraw to a safe distance until required for
extraction. In the absence of the Hearth Ships defense of the Vanyr
system falls to a moderate fleet of defense monitors that
relentlessly patrol the system.
The Telepathica
Two hundred soul-bound
psykers of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica are kept housed within the
forbidding black citadel of the southernmost mountain fortress of
Vanaheim. From the earliest days of House Cenwulf the fotress of
Vanaheim held the wyrd-tainted, those addled or mystical individuals
culled from the population who during Old Night manifested psychic
powers. During Old Night the superstitious nobles of House Cenwulf
routinely purged the wyrd-touched of the population, removing them to
Vanaheim to be contained, purified and executed before they could
present a risk to the wider population. Following the coming of the
Imperium the dark cells and blood-stained halls of Vanaheim became
the dark abode of the bonded psykers seconded to House Cenwulf to
ensure it could remain in contact with the wider Imperium. In M33 House Cenwulf negotiated a formal treaty with the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, formally transferring Vanaheim into the care of the Imperial Adepta and becoming a fully-fledged Astropathic Sector Relay, an important hub for psychic communications across the sub-sector and beyond. In exchange for the use of Vanaheim as a relay and the protection of House Cenwulf the Adepta Astra Telepathica assigns more Sanctioned Psykers to the regiments raised in the sub-sector, psychic warriors often recruited from psykers taken into custody from the region and trained in the halls of Vanaheim itself. While the boon of battle psykers is a considerable asset the nobles of House Cenwulf agreed to the arrangement primarily to put a major hub of inter-galactic communications on their doorstep. Vanaheim remains one of only a handful of locations on Andlang given over for the use of an Imperial adepta, the fortress is forbidden to all but the
highest-ranked nobles and sacristans of the house and is guarded
exclusively by the black-clad vigilators of the Astra Telepathica. Replete with it's own imported servants, servitors, scribes,
tech-priests and everything else necessary for the provision,
protection and potential extermination of the dangerous psykers
housed within the inner precincts of Vanaheim are effectively a realm unto themselves, wholly isolated from the wider society of Andlang.
Colors
and Iconography
Many Imperial Knight houses
choose heraldry that is bold and colorful. The panoply of a knight
house proudly and clearly displays the history and identity of the
house, the noble pilot and the knight armor itself. Rarely, if ever,
are you likely to find an Imperial Knight whose armor has been
camouflaged and it's heraldry shrouded. House Cenwulf is certainly
very proud in its heraldry and history but the traditional armor
colors and markings used by the house are considerably more subdued
than would normally be expected. Granite-gray and black are the
standard armor colors of House Cenwulf. Typically the edging of armor
plates is made of darkened brass. White, red and yellow are used to
depict runes and the heraldry of each individual knight on the
front-right shoulder-plate of each Knight and Armiger. Apart from a
generally subdued pallet of colors House Cenwulf stands out as
unusual in a few minor ways, the first is that the Imperial eagle
depicted on shin and shoulder plates is styled as a skeleton, not a
proud angular eagle. House historians believe this heraldry was first
utilized after the Horus Heresy when news of the Emperor's fall had
reached the Segmentum Obscurus and that it stylistically represents
the death of the Emperor's dreams for mankind. The second is that
House Cenwulf Knights typically avoid the use of banners outside of
all but the most ceremonial of circumstances, the surface of Andlang
is hostile to most fabrics and the regular use of banners would
require their replacement after nearly every deployment, something
generally considered wasteful and conceited to the nobles of House
Cenwulf.
The third and most
significant difference is that House Cenwulf utilizes unique
wolf-headed Knight Helms across all chassis and platforms instead of
the usual bare mechanical skull or the typical plate-armor helms. It
is believed that these wolf helmets were gifts from the Space Wolves
to honor the alliance between House Cenwulf and the VI Legion. Apart
from giving the knights of the house a sinister and lupine appearance
the house claims the helms incorporate advanced sensor technology and
networked auspex systems. Some houses on less than friendly terms
with the scions of Andlang believe these claims are false posturing
but such technology would explain House Cenwulf's notably superior
accuracy ratings and target-detection speeds in recorded deployments
alongside forces from other knight households.
Combat
Doctrines
“Victory through
superior firepower.”
-House motto.
The predominant combat
strategy of House Cenwulf can be defined as victory through superior
firepower, an ancient dogma common to a number of the Imperium's
military organizations. It should not therefore be a surprise that
House Cenwulf heavily favors the firepower of the Crusader and
Castellan patterns of Knights and the Armiger Helverin and possesses
a disproportionately higher number of these patterns among its
arsenal. In battle the lances of House Cenwulf will be flanked by
squadrons of Sentinel outriders, a scouting vanguard of Sentinels and
Sydonian Dragoons, and reserve fire-support in the form of
Ballistarii, Onagers and Huscarl Ranger squads. Compared to the usual
blunt hammer of Knight Lances from houses like Taranis or Cadmus the
larger and better supported formations of House Cenwulf do not need
to rely on other Imperial formations to provide support nearly as
much and are better able to react and respond to changing battlefield
conditions. It is not uncommon for House Cenwulf Knight Lances to
take point and soak-up the majority of the enemy fire while their
Huscarl support is almost entirely ignored. Alternately the lighter
formations may be used as an expendable vanguard to entangle enemy
forces and lure out larger prey for the Knights of the house to
engage.
Even in honor duels nobles
of House Cenwulf are more likely to bring down their foe with
precision firepower than try to engage in close quarters. Many
indignant nobles of other houses have requested duels only to find
their opponents unwilling to engage in the cut and thrust of reaper
chainblades and instead choosing to simply shoot the legs out from
under them with highly-accurate barrages of bolts, shells or thermal
energy. Any noble who continues to be affronted however is given a
simple choice, yield or be destroyed, it is difficult even for
Imperial Knight nobles to remain defiant when staring down the barrel
of a Thermal Cannon through the armorcrys window of their cockpit
hatch. It has long been a tradition for the Knights of House Cenwulf
to hang the faceplates of their defeated enemies as trophies from the
armor of their own knight suits. Most veteran Scions of the house
bear several faceplates hanging from the waist of their knight armor
while more veteran nobles may possess half a dozen or more trophies
bolted to their chassis.
In addition to its Huscarls
it is not uncommon for House Cenwulf to deploy thousands of Thrall
militia. Equipped with armored hazardous environment suits, autoguns
and grenade launchers these formations act as additional light
infantry support, holding ground taken by House Cenwulf and scouring
ruins for enemy snipers, sappers or ambushers in the wake of the
knights advance. From time to time these elements may even be
supplemented by regiments of Imperial Guard conscripted from
Folkvangr or one of the other worlds of House Cenwulf's protectorate
or elements of Skitarii, Cybernetica or Battle-Servitors from Ydalir.
In times of dire need House Cenwulf may even call on the support of
God-Machines of the Legio Sirius from their fortress garrison on
Ydalir or call on the aid of the Space Wolves Chapter itself. On more
than a few occasions battle-forces of House Cenwulf have been
accompanied by a Strike Cruiser in the storm-gray of the Sons of
Russ. This predilection for deploying auxiliary forces and calling on
the aid of allied military factions means that any given deployment
of House Cenwulf can vary greatly in size even if the number of
knight armors themselves remains constant.
During the recent
deployment to Vigilus following the opening of the Great Rift the
forces of House Cenwulf and their allies numbered thirty-one knights,
sixty-three Armigers, three-thousand five hundred Huscarls,
twenty-thousand Thrall militia, four thousand Folkvangr Light
Infantry, two thousand Skitarii, Cybernetica and Battle-Servitors,
three Warhound-Class Scout Titans and an entire Great Company of
Space Wolves. Two Grand Cruisers of the Hearth Fleet, a Mechanicus
Cruiser, and an Astartes Battle Cruiser along with over a dozen
escort craft made up the fleet elements transporting these forces.
While far from the largest forces drawn to Vigilus the armies rallied
under the banner of House Cenwulf proved highly effective and highly
coordinated throughout the chaotic and brutal campaign.
The Search for Ancient
Knowledge
Although House Cenwulf has
never entered into the Sidon Protocols or sworn allegiance to the
Adeptus Mechanicus the scions of Andlang and their Sacristan servants
possess a rapacious desire to acquire and safeguard knowledge and
technological artifacts wherever possible, especially and
particularly technologies related to weapons, power systems,
protective energy barriers, and any walker-based technology whether
it be military, civilian or industrial in nature. A handful of the
Sacristans of the house specialize as tech-acquisitors, focused
solely on tracking down, securing and archiving new technologies for
their knightly lords. More than a few of House Cenwulf's campaigns
have been fought to obtain artifacts or tech-lore and the house is
particularly keen to engage renegade elements of the Mechanicus or
other Imperial Knight houses.
The scions of House Cenwulf
and their servants display zero hesitation in looting artifacts and
equipment from the battlefield, claiming all such finds as justly
claimed war-geld. Some acquisitions are obtained through non-military
means, the resources of the Vanyr system and the wealth of House
Cenwulf enables the scions of Andlang to purchase artifacts from
Rogue Traders, barter for technology and material from the Adeptus
Mechanicus and even negotiate payment in exchange for military
services or access to the archives of Jotunheim. Several haughty
Mechanicus adepts have arrived on Andlang seeking knowledge and
artifacts only to end up parting with far more than they had expected
in exchange for much less than they wanted.
Much of what House Cenwulf
obtains is eventually shared with their allies on Ydalir and further
abroad but almost always as part of a reciprocal exchange of some
kind. Many outsiders believe the scions of Andlang must have acquired
access to Skitarii-grade augmentations and weaponry as part of one
such data or material exchange, though what House Cenwulf parted with
to obtain such rare and closely-guarded Mechanicus technology remains
unknown, though it must have been significant.
Most recently the nobles of
House Cenwulf have become obsessed with acquiring the
source-technology for the recently emerged Questoris Traitoris
Abhorrent-class knights. While many Inquisitors and Tech-Priests
believe the Abhorrent-class to be the result of warp-taint twisting a
standard Questoris-class knight into a new and abominable form the
lords of House Cenwulf believe these knights are too consistent and
uniform to be the product of simple degeneration and believe a
long-lost Imperial Knight STC schematic must be behind these new
warmachines. So certain are the lords of Andlang in this belief that
the house has taken on the discovery and capture of this technology
as its primary mission in recent years. Many of the campaigns and
engagements fought by House Cenwulf since the opening of the Cicatrix
Maledictum have revolved around this quest. Fallen knights, Dark
Mechanicus adepts, renegade forges and corrupt Rogue Traders have all
fallen beneath the guns and blades of House Cenwulf, each battle
taking the house one step closer to discovering and claiming this
elusive technology. Already several Abhorrent-class Knight chassis
scavenged from the battlefield have been restored and returned to
service in the arsenal of House Cenwulf, though only after extensive
purification and reconsecration. So far these new Knights,
provisionally dubbed Adamant-class, have proven highly effective in
battle and the house is ever eager to obtain more. Thus far all of
the Adamant-class Knights in service have been outfitted as Knights
Preceptor and are piloted by only the most experienced and
strong-willed scions of the house as further protection against any
possible corruption.
Technology and Production
Like
a number of the more fortunate Imperial Knight worlds discovered by the
Imperium the world of Andlang came through Old Night with a
considerable amount of the ancient technological lore and secrets of the
house intact and under careful guard. Archives housed in heavily
armored vaults deep beneath the foundations of the principal house
fortress of Jotunheim contain tech lore, history and knowledge found in
few, or no other places in the galaxy. Such knowledge is incalculably
valuable and the source of the long-standing relationship between House
Cenwulf and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Unlike houses in more precarious
positions House Cenwulf never had to bend the knee to the Mechanicus and
enter into the Sidon Protocols but also has not outright refused all
contact or commerce with the adepts of Mars either. Select knowledge and
tech lore has been shared by the house with its Mechanicus allies,
primarily the lords of Lokabrenna, over the centuries in exchange for
fresh Knight armors, ships, weapons and other technology that the house
cannot produce itself or can produce in only limited quantities. Like
other technologically adept houses it is believed by the Mechanicus that
it is highly likely that House Cenwulf maintains a number of STC
blueprints, perhaps even a partially functioning STC machine itself, the
very same equipment and schematics used by the first settlers of
Andlang to produce the original Imperial Knight armors and defend
themselves against the hostile fauna of the world. If so, such artifacts
would be of truly monumental value to the Mechanicus and thus it is
little surprise that the occasional political tresspass by the nobles of
Andlang are ignored, for the last thing the priests of the Martian cult
would want is to lose even their current limited access they have to the lore of
Andlang and trying to take such lore by force would only risk damaging
or destroying the priceless and fragile archaeotech. So the Mechanicus
must play politics and bribe the nobles of Andlang for every last sliver
of data.
The
exact manufacturing capacity of the house forges overseen by the
Sacristans is a closely guarded secret but it is known that the house is
capable of manufacturing small numbers of new Knight armors of a
variety of the more common classes. Rarer patterns of armor are outside
the skill and knowledge of the house to create but the Sacristans of
House Cenwulf are well versed in salvaging and restoring captured and
recovered Knight armors and it is likely that dozens of incomplete
armors in various states of restoration could be found in the house
forges at any given time.
In addition to the knight suits
themselves the nobles of Andlang possess a variety of technological relics including power armor, archaeotech firearms, powered weapons,
personal refractor field generators, gravitic aircraft and all manner of
other rare and valuable artifacts normally found only in the possession
of powerful planetary lords and senior officials of the various
Imperial institutions. Outside of their knight armors a noble of House
Cenwulf is protected by master-crafted carapace armored suits, personal
energy shield generators, archaeotech pistols and powered blades and are
typically more than the equal of many elite soldiers of the Imperium in
personal combat. Not to mention personal cybernetic augmentation and high-quality rejuvenant treatments keep House Cenwulf's nobles in fighting shape for decades or even centuries longer than unaugmented humans.
In
addition to the weapons and equipment used by the nobles of the house
the forges of Andlang produce a wide variety of equipment, weapons and
vehicles. Most of the items manufactured on Andlang are shipped off
world to supply nearby worlds and arm regiments of the Astra Militarum
across the Segmentum. However a sizable portion of Andlang's capacity
goes towards arming and protecting the knight world itself. Because of
the local conditions on Andlang the forges of the planet specialize in
walker-based armored vehicles and explosive projectile weapons.
Sentinels, Mortian pattern Leman Russ variants, bolters,
autocannons and battle-cannons are among the most common weapons and
armor produced on Andlang. Most of the hostile predators native to the
world are resistant to energy weapons leading the domestic forces of
Andlang to heavily favor armor-piercing projectile weapons over las and
plasma technology. Autoguns, stub guns and shotguns make up the majority
of the small arms produced to arm the Thralls and even the elite
Huscarls of the house prefer servitor-bullet firing galvanic rifles over
energy weapons. Although the Mechanicus adepts of the forge-world
minoris of Ydalir obviously produce a wider range of technology the
forges of Ydalir also produce a disproportionate number of armored
walkers and projectile weapons, the priests of that world taking
advantage of the knowledge and experience of House Andlang to produce
higher-quality versions of these weapons than the forges of many other
worlds in the Segmentum. The adepts of Ydalir have even specialized in
the production of the Mortian walker variant of Leman Russ. Hundreds of
walking medium, heavy and super-heavy armored vehicles can be found in
the arsenal of the House Cenwulf Thralls and thousands more can be found
in the armories of planetary armies across the Vanyr sub-sector and
beyond.
Political
Relations
Like all Imperial Knight
Houses the nobles of Andlang are fiercely independent, and stubborn
to a fault. That does not mean that House Cenwulf has not formed
alliances with other military orders within the wider Imperium over
the centuries. The first and foremost ally of the house are the Space
Wolves, who first formalized pacts of mutual support and fellowship
with the house during the Great Crusade. The similar cultures of
Fenris and Andlang led to a fast friendship between the two military
orders, a friendship that has endured for thousands of years. It is
believed by some that one of the reasons the Space Wolves are still
able to field so many Dreadnoughts, far more than even other first
founding chapters, is in some part thanks to the technical expertise
and archaeotech lore of House Cenwulf.
Only slightly less
formidable allies than the Space Wolves are Mechanicus of Lokabrenna
and the God-Engines of the Legio Sirius, who formed a close
fellowship with House Cenwulf around the same time as the VI Legion.
Much like the Space Wolves the nobles of House Cenwulf and the
Princeps and Moderati of the Legio Sirius shared markedly similar
cultures, languages and traditions. It wasn't long before lances of
House Cenwulf Knight Titans saw extended secondment to Legio Sirius
Titan Maniples. Before the end of the Great Crusade the vassal Forge
World Minoris of Ydalir was granted a garrison of Titans from the
Legio Sirius. The Legio established a fortress keep on Ydalir known
as the Ironwolf Bastion and has maintained one to two maniples of
Titans there ever since. In M36 Ydalir was granted the rights to
possess a copy of the Mars-Pattern Warhound Titan construction
schematics and begin production of God-Engines for the Legio
Titanicus. Since then most of the engines created have gone to the
Legio Sirius and many now serve in the Ironwolf Bastion's garrison.
It is not uncommon for the Legio Sirius to dispatch a single Warhound
Titan squadron with battle-forces of House Cenwulf to support their
allies and earn their new Titans and their crews experience in combat
alongside reliable and trustworthy allies who will gladly ensure the
safety and success of the new Titans.
Less formal friendships
exist between House Cenwulf and other Imperial agencies and military
orders but the informal nature of these relationships prevents easy
categorization or confirmation. It is believed the house has formed
bonds with the nobles of House Skandos as well as a number of Astra
Militarum regiments from the worlds of Armageddon and Valhalla,
friendships which seems to be based on a mutual hatred of the ork
xenos. A few ancient records suggest House Cenwulf made overtures of
friendship with House Ærthegn
during the later days of the Great Crusade but quickly abandoned the
attempt after discovering the general lack of honor and piratical
practices of the house. It is also known that several members of
House Hawkshroud maintain friendships with nobles of House Cenwulf
and both forces have fought alongside the Space Wolves in several
recent campaigns.
Household
Domains
Andlang – Homeworld
of House Cenwulf
To call the homeworld of House Cenwulf
inhospitable is a gross understatement. Whatever ancient conflict
wiped out the former xenos inhabitants left the second planet of the
Vanyr system scarred by radioactive blast craters, it's few lakes and
oceans transformed into a toxic sludge. Poisonous gasses drift across
the lowlands gathering in clouds that pour acid rain on the slopes or
gathering in corrosive fogs that can blanket the plains and valleys
for weeks at a time. If simply breathing the air does not kill you
there are plenty of native predators up to the challenge of finishing
the job. The most common beasts hunted and culled by the house are
the Rust-Wyrms, vicious pack-hunters that can grow to be some
five-feet wide and up to thirty-feet long with diamond-hard fangs and
mandibles able to chew through ceramite and enable the creatures to
dig vast networks of burrows through the dense rock of the mountains.
Crag-spiders infest the countless caves that worm through the high
cliffs, with legs up to three-meters long and a venomous bite capable
of killing a full-grown grox in moments these arachnids are solitary
ambush hunters that prey on small salvage parties as they return from
their work laden with recovered salvage. More than a few work crews
have dumped their precious loads and fled at the first sign of a
spider attack, valuing their lives more than their pay. Those who
choose to fight must work to hem the creatures in with volleys of
shot and las, driving the spiders into a spot where a good las or
plasma cannon shot to the head or torso can put them down. Such kills
are celebrated but rare for many who choose to stand and fight never
return.
Like countless worlds across the
Imperium the deadly ambull has also become a well-entrenched threat
to the inhabitants. When or how these creatures made it to Andlang is
unknown, however their numbers have never risen to become a serious
threat. With fearsome competition against the other native predators
the population of ambulls has long remained low and it is rare indeed
that the nobles are given cause to track down and burn out a
troublesome nest of the creatures.
Perhaps the deadliest and mightiest of
the native predators of Andlang are the rock-drakes. The name fails
to convey the savage majesty or sheer lethality of these monsters.
Easily growing to a size comparable to a Questoris-class knight in
size with a wing-span many times wider, equipped with fangs two-feet
long and hard enough to crush steel the creatures are formidable
opponents even for the knight-scions of House Cenwulf and are a prime
target for beast hunts. The rock-drakes take their name from their
chameleon-like outer-scales that can shift in color subtly to match
the dark browns, grays and reds of the cliffs and mountain-spurs from
which they lay in wait for prey to pass by. Should a rock-drake
choose to take to the sky in search of food it's underbelly is
similarly adapted to the colors of the sky, the lighter-tans and
sickly yellows of Andlang's poisoned clouds matched perfectly by the
softer leathery underbellies of the drakes. Many hunters falsely
believe the rock-drake's claws and fangs to be its deadliest weapons
but these pale in comparison to the potency of the creature's spit.
The stomach of the rock-drakes is adapted to filter out the poisons
of Andlang's water and the spoiled meat of its prey, siphoning these
chemicals and contaminants off into a secondary stomach which can
then expel its contents as a ball of deadly vomit. Such ejections of
bile have been known to eat through the armor of a knight and can
render an armored human down into soup in moments.
Legends tell of one particular
beast-hunt undertaken centuries before the coming of the Imperium
where a lance of young knights chanced upon a feeding rock-drake that
was easily twice the size of a Knight. The foolhardy young warriors
rushed to engage the beast only to be taken aback when it launched
into onto one of the knights, bearing it to the ground in its talons
before rising into the air with furious beats of its massive wings.
To the shock of the young knights the stricken warrior was lifted
into the air and carried off. Hours later the knights found their
comrade wedged between the spurs of a cliff some leagues away, his
reaper chainsword wet with the creature's blood. The young hunter had
survived the fall, if only just, and claimed he managed to strike and
wound the legs of the beast enough for it to drop him after which it
flew away never to be seen again. To this day there are those who
doubt the story but the Vault Transcendent of House Cenwulf still
houses an ancient Questoris knight armor damaged beyond repair,
bearing exceptionally large claw wounds across it's armor and whose
limbs and chassis were crushed after falling from a great height.
Despite the native hazards and deadly
predators Andlang is home to a population of around one hundred and
seventy million, relatively large for an Imperial Knight world but
precious few for a major industrialized world of the Imperium. Some
of that number is scattered across dozens of outposts, factorums,
depots, refineries and air-docks scattered across the mountain ranges
but the majority of the population is concentrated in the thirteen
mountaintop fortresses. Located across the eastern and western
mountain chains known as the Sk
öll
and the Hati ranges the fortresses are all built on and around the
colossal adamantium carcasses of ancient starships, the first and
greatest of which was the great colony-ark that bore the name Andlang
and that became the foundation of the capitol fortress of Jotunheim.
From orbit the original profiles of some of the ships can still be
seen in the outline of the defense walls of the inner baileys of each
fortress and it is even believed that some of the defense turrets of
those fortresses may have been the original weapons of those vessels,
still visible despite centuries of later construction. Unlike the
haphazard agglomerations of most Imperial cities the fortresses of
Andlang were built purely for defense, sight-lines, gun towers,
landing pads and transit-ways take precedence over all other
concerns. All construction has to be approved of by the senior
Sacristans and Huscarl Alphas to ensure nothing impedes the
functionality and strength of the defenses. The heart of each
fortress is the house spire, the great bastion towers at the heart of
the cities that house the warriors and servants of House Cenwulf. At
least one lance of Knight Titans, scores of lesser warmachines and
several hundred Huscarl infantry garrison each of the thirteen house
spires, in addition to the semi-regular formations of Thrall militia
who man the bulk of the outermost defenses. Adjacent or nearby each
tower are the great sky-docks where the drakkars and void-craft of
the house are stored, maintained and launched. Hundreds of vessels of
all sizes can be found in these docks with the largest capable of
transporting whole lances of Knight Titans and the smallest barely
large enough for a single human adult.
While
permanent settlements in the lowlands are impossible due to the
extreme hazards they do play host to scores of mobile industrial
crawlers at any given time. These ramshackle vehicles stalk across
the surface of the planet on multiple insectile limbs that allow them
to traverse the broken and treacherous terrain. Each crawler houses
anywhere from a few dozen to upwards of a thousand workers, crew,
engineers, cooks, medicae, vox operators and militia. In
claustrophobic hangars built within each crawler are the work
vehicles necessary for digging out and recovering the precious
salvage each crew desperately seeks. Fully enclosed sentinel-loaders
with manipulator claws and lascutters make up the bulk of these
industrial machines but they are often backed up by tracked digger
and tunneling machines, magnetic cranes and cargo haulers. The work
is difficult and dangerous with thousands of salvagers and crewmen
injured or killed every year. The dangers do little to curb the
enthusiasm of the salvagers with countless new recruits competing for
spots on the work-crews every year. The scrap and salvage recovered
from the surface of the planet has sustained House Cenwulf and the
people of Andlang for thousands of years and will doubtless continue
to do so for thousands more. The great ruins and fields of
battlefield wreckage seem inexhaustible, each storm season seeming to
reveal yet another layer of endless war remains ripe for the picking.
Jotunheim – The
Throne of Giants
The largest of the thirteen fortress
cities of Andlang the stronghold of Jotunheim lays atop a spur of the
eastern Sköll
mountain range. This spur, situated roughly in the middle of the
range which runs from the northwest to the south-east, projects west
out into the broken plains of the equatorial region of the planet.
This central location makes Jotunheim the natural capital and primary
stronghold of House Cenwulf. The house spire of Jotunheim is home to
the High King, or Jarl, and his personal retainers. The largest
sky-dock of Andlang is also located within the walls of Jotunheim and
serves as the planet's principal starport.
Like
all of the thirteen great fortresses of Andlang the original walls of
the fortress were formed from the armored hull of an ancient starship
deliberately scuttled on the surface. Jotunheim was the first city
created in this manner and formed from the wreckage of the colony-ark
Andlang, after which the planet itself was named. Over time that
original outline has become almost completely obscured by thousands
of years of constantly growing fortifications and expansion to
accommodate a growing population. Now those original walls form the
innermost ring of fortifications around the house spire at the heart
of the fortress city. Two further walls encircle the fortress,
crowding out across the surrounding ridges and sub-peaks, connected
by great spars, bridges and enormous permacrete foundations built
into and on-top of the bare rock-face foundations and looking out
over man-made plateaus cut from the weathered stone of the mountains
that themselves lead into the wide and winding roads that descend
into the distant plains and valleys. A notable distinction between
the fortifications of Andlang and those typical to most fortresses
across the Imperium is that House Cenwulf's fortresses are built to
accommodate the Knight Titans of the house. The battlements are wide
enough for two knights to pass easily and feature shielded firing
platforms that project slightly from the wall and allow a knight to
fire on an attacking enemy while remaining largely sheltered from
incoming fire. The stretches of wall between each of the gun towers
dotting the walls are large enough and include enough firing
positions for an entire lance of knights.
Inside the walls
of Jotunheim the entire city-fortress is laid out to accommodate the
Knights of the house. Every causeway and transit bridge, every stair
and walkway is scaled to the great tread of the Knights with smaller
sub-stairs and pathways reserved for lighter vehicles and
pedestrians. The structures of the city are built to last, shielded
from radiation, armored from attack and fitted with environmental
seals to protect against the occasional toxic storm that sweeps up
the mountain from the lowlands. A second curtain-wall splits the city
into two and separates the outer-industrial district from the
wealthier commercial inner-district. The outer district is home to
the Thralls, the bonded laborer class that makes up the bulk of
Andlang's population. Most Thralls live in single room habs and their
food and water use are strictly rationed. The majority of Thralls
live hard and brutal lives of endless toil that almost invariably
result in an early death. Even so the hardy inhabitants of Andlang
meet this fate with boundless stoicism and tenacity. High achievement
or acts of noteworthy valor can earn a Thrall elevation to the ranks
of the Karls, the wealthier artisan and scribe class that occupies
the inner-district of the city. The Karl's are granted better habs,
larger ration portions, better educations and much better access to
medical care and augmentation. The Karl's are permitted to own
property, operate businesses, serve as artisans, sculptors, scribes,
artists, medicae, overseers and administrators. House Cenwulf
typically leaves the governance of the Karls and the Thralls to an
elected body of elders who are trusted to oversee the affairs of the
common people of Andlang and free the nobles from the burden of
administration. These governors maintain a professional body of law
enforcers and conduct much of the business and trade with the wider
galaxy under the supervision of the Sacristans of House Cenwulf. It
is from the Karls that most Sacristans and Huscarls are recruited and
it is through such recruitment that Karl's have an opportunity to
rise into the ranks of the nobility. Senior Sacristans may earn the
right to marry a lesser noble of the house, as may accomplished
Armiger pilots recruited from the ranks of the Huscarls. Through
merit a Thrall may become a Karl and a Karl may become a Huscarl and
a Huscarl may become a Hersir.
The
southern edge of the inner-district is home to the principle
sky-docks of Jotunheim. Projecting out from the curtain-wall into the
open-air the docking spurs and platforms project out over a massive
drop of nearly a thousand feet before reaching the descending slopes
of the mountains which continue down for several thousand more feet
before reaching the valleys. The flanks of the docks feature massive
defense batteries and shield generators that remain ever vigilant for
any sign of aerial attack, the massive guns capable of tearing the
largest attack craft from the sky. Beneath the vigilant gaze of
defense batteries hundreds of vessels arrive and depart each day.
Some coming from or going to other locations across Andlang and many
more coming down from or returning to orbit.
The innermost
district of Jotunheim is the household keep, the outer shell of the
original colony ark encloses the principal bailey which is itself
overlooked by the great spire of the house. Smaller docking
facilities accommodate light transport of individual nobles and their
armor while armories, workshops, barracks, kitchens and apothecary
facilities house the nobles, their servants and their wargear. The
central keep itself sits above the principal Vault Transcendent of
the house, a massive cavern carved into the rock of the peak that
possesses enough storage and maintenance bays for two hundred
knights. Many of these bays house the wreckage of ancient knights,
returned from distant battlefields and interred with honor. These
silent and forbidding sentinels stand watch whenever the knights of
the house stride to war, passing judgment on their successors as they
marshal for battle.
Even
though House Cenwulf effectively rules over a small stellar empire
within the greater body of the Imperium, receiving tithes in exchange
for military support over a dozen inhabited worlds collectively
referred to in Administratum records as the Vanyr sector the world of
Andlang has never officially been sanctioned as the sector capitol
given that it remains an independently ruled Imperial Knight World,
exempt from most bureaucratic oversight or interference. Nevertheless
Andlang remains the effective administrative hub of the sector and
frequently plays host to off world visitors from the worlds under
House Cenwulf's protection and beyond, all coming to pay homage to
their protectors, bring missives, request assistance, offer trade or
attempt to curry favor. Off worlders are usually housed in the
inner-district of the Karls until their business is concluded.
Vanaheim
– The Ominous Peak
Situated
atop the southernmost peak of the western Hati range the fortress of
Vanaheim sits near the southern pole of the planet. Remote and
inhospitable, even by Andlang's harsh standards, the freezing
temperatures, low-oxygen and isolation of Vanaheim leave the city
with the smallest population of the thirteen fortress-cities. Yet
this is not what makes Vanaheim uniquely and notably inhospitable,
rather that dubious honor belongs to the ominous obsidian spire of
the Adeptus Astra Telepathica choir that dominates the center of the
fortress. The Vanaheim choir is the Vanyr system's principle means of
communication with the wider Imperium and a significant telepathic
relay in the sector. The relatively few inhabitants of the city and
it's dour household garrison are there purely to protect the
telepathica spire and the critical resource and strategic asset the
astropathic choir represents. Precious few Thralls call Vanaheim
home, most service labor is provided by mind-wiped servitor automata
and servo-skulls. Those mortal servants of the house who do reside in
Vanaheim are mostly battle-hardened Huscarls there to garrison the
outer fortress defenses. Assignment to the Vanaheim garrison is often
considered a punishment within House Cenwulf and may be used to
censure a noble for a particular failing or act of insubordination.
Fortunately assignment to the Vanaheim garrison is only temporary,
the entire complement of mortal soldiery rotated out every few years.
Even the stern constitution and firm loyalty of House Cenwulf's
nobles and soldiers cannot long stand such close proximity with the
terrible haunt of the astropaths.
Muspelheim
– The Forge Mountain
Situated
in the Hati mountain range roughly opposite Jotunheim the city of
Muspelheim serves as the largest concentration of forges and
foundries on Andlang. Most of the war material produced on the
homeworld of House Cenwulf is forged in the mills and workshops of
Muspelheim whose fires are never doused. Bonded workers labor in
shifts to keep the forges working twenty four hours a day, every day,
endlessly. Munitions, weapons, armor plates, refined fuel, vehicle
chassis and electronic components all spill from the conveyor belts
of Muspelheim in a never-ending tide to feed the hungry armories of
House Cenwulf. Some civilian goods are produced as well but even then
most of these are destined for the industrial-crawlers working
salvage runs on the lower surfaces of Andlang. Components for the
crawlers themselves, munitions for their defense weaponry,
replacement vehicles, tools and equipment are all shipped by drakkar
grav-ships to the distant salvage engines. Muspelheim also serves as
home to the largest concentration of Sacristans on Andlang, including
the Sacristan Primus Eorlund Ironblood. Unsurprisingly the rarest and
most esoteric of the knight armors possessed by House Cenwulf are
also stationed in Muspelheim where they can be most effectively
repaired and maintained. The nobles who pilot these machines are
usually drawn from nobles of the house who have been partially
inducted into the rites and lore of the Sacristans before attempting
the Ritual of Becoming. The greatest source of pride of Muspelheim is
the forging of new knight armors for the house. Limited numbers of
new Imperial Knights are forged in the foundries of Muslpelheim by
the most senior and experienced of the Sacristans under the direct
and exacting supervision of the Sacristan Primus himself. The
capability to forge their own knight armors is not unique to House
Cenwulf, a number of other houses possess that capability but it is
relatively rare, most houses rely entirely on the Mechanicus for new
armors. Thus the forges of Muspelheim are a critically important
asset to House Cenwulf and one of its greatest resources that the
house will go to any length to protect.
Fensalir – Warden of
the North
Located near the northern tip of the
western Hati mountain range the Fortress of Fensalir is home to some
of the fiercest hunters on Andlang. The northern reaches of Andlang
are even less hospitable to mankind than the rest of the brutal
planet. Frozen snows the color of rust and oil stretch as far as the
eye can see across desolate wastes broken by a few lonely hills and
mountains. The deadly beasts that roam this region are larger and
more numerous than those found elsewhere. Few beast hunts reach this
far north and so the savage native fauna has time to grow large and
fearsome in relative safety, preying on lone travelers and any
creature weaker than themselves. Relatively few ruins lay in the
north, the closest ruins are either the salvage domains of Roskilde
or Valland and so the inhabitants of Fensalir make a living
prospecting for rich veins of precious metals as yet unexploited and
hunting the native beasts for skin, fur, chitin and bone that can be
sold or traded to other fortress cities or exported off-world. Most
of the knight scions who call Fensalir home favor the Errant pattern
of Knight armor, the potent Thermal Cannon having proven highly
effective against the thick hides and durable armor of Andlang's
native predators. More recently a handful of Knights Valiant have
been added to Fensalir's arsenal and gained rapid popularity, the
Thundercoil Harpoon is a particular favorite. To the north and east
of Fensalir lays a lonely stretch of mountains off-limit to the
natives of Andlang by ancient decree. Who holds domain over these
crags or why is a mystery to the common Thrall, they only know that
to venture there is to invite a swift death at the hands of the
Huscarls or to the native predators that stalk those peaks in
astonishing numbers. Regular patrols by the nobles of Roskilde
prevent the beasts of the north from migrating further south, using
the broken ruins on the doorstep of the fortress as a natural breaker
against any incursion.
Odense – The City of
Craftsmen
The
inhabitants of Odense include some of the finest artists and
craftsmen. Most of the deadly northern beasts are kept at bay by the
tireless efforts of the nobles and warriors of Fensalir and Roskilde,
the mountains of the northern Sköll
range add a further barrier against danger. The nobles of Odense
range out to the southwest to add to the defense against incursions
from the north but for the most part the Thralls and Karls of Odense
are free to work in relative peace and quiet, isolated from most of
the dangers and with rich salvage near to hand the Karls of Odense
are able to take the time to learn and master many fine crafts. Bone
carving, stained-glass, manuscript illumination, murals and mosaics
are the common trades of Odense.
Glitnir
– The Prison Mine of the North
Home to the Master of Judgement of the
house and the only major criminal detention facility on the planet
the fortress city of Glitnir is effectively a cit-sized labor-prison.
For the most part the harsh life of Andlang and the strict rule of
House Cenwulf keeps crime rates low but those criminals who are
discovered and convicted need somewhere to go and that somewhere is
Glitnir. Beneath the walls of Glitnir stretch an enormous network of
mines that weave deep into the earth and spider out beneath the
Hvalsey Sea. The prisoners cannot dig their way to safety for leagues
in all direction are planketed in the deadly black waters of the
great inland sea. Few guards are needed for there is nowhere to go
and prisoners receive no food or water if they do not produce mined
ore. This practice keeps the relatively small prisoner population
highly productive and helps feed the forges of Muspelheim and even
produces surplus for off-world export. Isolated by the sea the native
predators of Andlang and outside threat are rare and the modest noble
and Huscarl garrison is mostly charged with controlling the prisoners
and ensuring steady production. In the main most of the guards are
combat-capable servitors, their weapons hard-wired into their flesh
and nearly impossible for prisoners to steal, disarm or appropriate
for themselves. The heaviest labor is also conducted by servitors.
Those prisoners too heinous to be reformed are used as the source
stock for most of the servitors in service to the house and most of
those serve in the mines of Glitnir. Despite the harsh conditions
sentences in Glitnir are not, or at least not always, a death
sentence and once they have served their sentence prisoners are
released back into the population, though regardless of previous
station they return to service as Thralls.
Brimir – Keeper of
the Labyrinth
Situated near the far north-eastern
edge of the Sk
öll
range the city of Brimir is famed for the reckless exploits of it's
miners and prospectors. To the south of Brimir lies an extensive
stretch of pre-human ruins. Unlike the half-buried stretches of
broken buildings and collapsed transit-ways common to the ruins
elsewhere on Andlang whatever catastrophe befell the ancient
inhabitants it broke open the earth and split the valleys into a
series of labyrinthine canyons and crevasses. The ruins sit atop the
solid earth between the canyons, they jut from the sides of the
canyon walls and carpet the twisting depths. Rivers and streams of
toxic sludge meander through the bottom of many canyons while others
are too narrow for a grown human man to squeeze through. This terrain
is dangerous even for the mighty Knight armors of the house to
navigate and culling the beasts that inhabit the cliffs is difficult
and dangerous work. As such the work of gathering salvage from the
labyrinth is far more difficult and hazardous than elsewhere on
Andlang but the salvage itself is far more valuable for it has not
been picked nearly as clean as the other ruins on the surface. This
rich resource brings daredevils and treasure seekers from across the
system looking to strike it rich where countless others have failed
or fallen. Most of the Cerastus-pattern knights in the arsenal of
House Cenwulf are stationed in Brimir, the longer stride and greater
agility of the Cerastus proving highly effective at navigating the
treacherous terrain and these knights are supported by a larger
number of Armigers than most other fortresses.
Valland – Master of
the Skies
Outside of Jotunheim the fortress of
Valland is home to the most expansive sky-docks and the largest
Drakkar fleet on Andlang. The Drakkar are aerial transports common to
the homeworld of House Cenwulf, inspired by the ancient sailing
vessels of the cultures from which the ancient settlers of Andlang
hailed. Drakkar's can vary in size from single-person craft to ships
large enough to transport entire lances of Knights. In the main these
ships are a combination of anti-gravitic and jet-turbine powered
aircraft, long and narrow the command deck is sited at the back of
the craft and the prows feature sculpted animal heads. Most Drakkar
do not feature completely sealed compartments, often only the
piloting deck at the back of the vessel will be a sealed and
pressurized environment. The rest of the decks are open to the
high-altitude air of Andlang which is not comfortable to breath but
is not nearly as toxic or hazardous as the polluted air of the
lowlands. Drakkar intended to transport passengers may feature a
covered and sealed hull but some do not and passengers may resort to
their own oxygen, filtration masks or other equipment to make the
passage more comfortable.
Situated to the far west of the Hati
range on a lone mountain barely connected to the rest of the range
the fortress of Valland commands the skies for leagues all around and
is home to the greatest Drakkar pilots and navigators on the planet.
Almost every Drakkar on Andlang is forged in Valland and most of the
pilots and crews hail from that fortress as well. Despite the import
of many other patterns of aircraft and transport the Drakkar remains
the most popular aerial vessels on Andlang for the underlying design
is robust, reliable and easy to manufacture. The sky-docks of every
fortress will feature bays full of Valkyrie's and Thunderbolts,
fat-bellied void transports and Arvus-lighters, the vast majority of
aircraft will be Drakkar of all shapes and sizes. Most Drakkar are
not heavily armed, they may feature small defensive weapons to see of
the occasional aerial threat but are not dedicated combat vessels. In
a pinch however Thralls and Huscarls may crowd the decks with guns or
mount artillery and heavy weapons to the hulls with great ease,
making the Drakkar an easily up-gunned platform that can be mobilized
into the defense of the planet quickly and to surprising significant
effect.
Hvergelmir –
Lifespring of Andlang
The only drinkable fresh-water source
on Andlang is found beneath the foundations of the fortress of
Hvergelmir. Over time the nobles of House Cenwulf have carved great
reservoirs under the fortress that house the vast majority of the
potable water on the planet. Underground tunnels and pipes carry this
water to the fortresses across the Sk
öll
range but those further abroad require regular shipments of water via
Drakkar if they do not wish to rely entirely on extensive
water-filtration systems. Within many of these cultivated reservoirs
House Cenwulf farms a variety of imported fish-stocks to supplement
the diet of the nobles and their servants. Such resources make
Hvergelmir one of the most strategically vital strongholds on the
planet. Increasingly the nobles of Hvergelmir are attempting to carve
out even more room underground and install hydroponics facilities,
further granting Andlang some moderate self-sufficiency in the event
of a major catastrophe. In the wake of the Great Rift splitting the
galaxy the importance of such efforts has only increased and now
significant resources are being dedicated to this endeavor.
Situated
close to Jotunheim the fortress of Hvergelmir benefits from the
protection afforded by the principal fortress capitol of the planet
but has also found itself caught in some of the heaviest fighting the
planet has seen in the last ten thousand years. Any major invasion
must target Jotunheim and many battles have been fought on the great
Jotunheim plateau that stretches east through the mountains from the
capitol most of the way to Hvergelmir in the east. So important is
the fortress and the well-spring it guards that Hvergelmir maintains
a sizable garrison and is largely exempt from musters of the
household, the defense of the vital fresh-water source too critical
to risk weakening the garrison under any but the most extreme of
circumstances. Proximity to the capitol and a monopoly on a vital
resource have made Hvergelmir a relatively safe and prosperous city
with a far greater proportion of Karl's in its population than most
of the other fortress cities.
Skálholt
– The Fang of the South
Located
towards the southern tip of the Sköll
range Skálholt
has suffered more damage and loss of life than any other fortress on
Andlang. The ragged plains to the east of Skálholt
are largely clear of canyons, toxic waterways or expansive ruins.
This makes the area a prime target for any large military force that
wishes to make planetfall. The great plains to the west, south and
north of Jotunheim are broken, rough terrain with many broken ruins
that make landing large forces difficult and dangerous. Thus to
attack the seat of House Cenwulf most invaders have chosen to land to
the east of the Sköll
range and approach the capitol over the mountains. This means
fighting past the reaches of Skálholt
and Hvergelmir before reaching the Jotunheim plateau and gaining the
ground to lay siege.
At
least three times in the history of the house Skálholt
has been sacked. In most cases a significant portion of the
inhabitants have been able to escape via Drakkar or tunnels to reach
the safety of other fortresses but the loss of life has nevertheless
been far greater in Skálholt
than elsewhere on Andlang. This has made the inhabitants of Skálholt
even more militaristic of temperament than the other natives of the
planet, which is saying something. The Karl's and Thralls of Skálholt
are the most heavily armed of any fortress and the Huscarl garrison
larger than any other keep save Jotunheim. More tanks, artillery, and
military aircraft fill Skálholt
armories than even Jotunheim possesses and the scion garrison is the
largest outside of the capitol. Invaders face tens of thousands of
armed soldiers, thousands of war-machines and scores of artillery
pieces if they wish to attack the fortress and, even so, it has
fallen in the past. Typically Skálholt
is the home of the Gatekeeper, the Thane of the Exalted Court charged
with protecting the domains of the House at all costs. The Gatekeeper
not only commands the extensive garrison and arsenal of Skálholt
but also commands the only Acastus-class Knight in the household
armory, an ancient relic from the Horus Heresy that has never fallen
in battle this single Knight Porphyrion is a legendary and supremely
deadly foe whose Magna-Lascannon's have felled many
gross-displacement engines in its long history.
Kinsarvik
– House of Blades
Sited
atop one of the central peaks of the southernmost mountains of
Andlang the fortress of Kinsarvik stands nearly as alone and isolated
as Glitnir in the far north. To the west of Kinsarvik lays the
forbidding peak of Vanaheim and the Astropathic Choir housed there
and to the east is the peninsula upon which sits the dour fishing
obsessed fortress of Hindarfjall. Despite it's relative isolation the
people of Kinsarvik are among the most prolific salvagers of any of
the holds, with relatively close proximity to the largest
concentration of ruins on the planet the people of Hindarfjall make a
good living scraping relics from the bones of the dead. Many of the
great industrial walkers that pick over the plains for relics launch
from the gates of Kinsarvik, the fortress being an easier destination
to reach than the heights upon which Jotunheim sits, though most of
the recovered material is shipped via Drakkar to the capitol for
export off-world. Most of the invasions that have ravaged Andlang
have overlooked Kinsarvik, which has allowed the garrison to serve as
a mobile reserve, striking at the rear of invading forces and
fighting to break sieges and relieve the garrisons of other
fortresses whenever they come under attack.
Apart
from its salvage operations Kinsarvik has one other claim to fame,
it's combat arenas. Among the Huscarls, Karls and Thralls duels of
honor are theoretically permitted but considered a dereliction of
duty under most circumstances. Only in Kinsarvik is dueling among the
lower orders permitted largely without restriction. This policy has
led to the establishment of formal arenas for the fighting of duels
and an economy of betting and bribery that flows around such
business. The nobles of House Cenwulf permit such behavior as it
provides ample opportunity to observe the engagements and hand-pick
the best fighters for service to the house. Many of the personal
bodyguards and proxy-duelists serving the nobles of the House got
their start in the dueling cages of Kinsarvik. Many industries have
developed around the practices of dueling. Some of the best
blade-smiths on the planet keep workshops in Kinsarvik, not
Muspelheim, and the number of apothecaries offering bionic
augmentation operating in Kinsarvik is far larger than the other
fortresses. Little surprise then that Kinsarvik is known as the House
of Blades.
Hindarfjall
- Scavenger of the Sea
Found atop a lone mountain near the
edge of the Bergen Ocean the fortress of Hindarfjall is largely
focused around the exploitation of the ocean and what lays beneath
it. Save the Spring of Hvergelmir the bodies of water on Andlang are
toxic pools of sludge, polluted to the point that next to nothing is
able to live in them. What few native aquatic life remains is without
exception hardy, almost impossible to eat and dangerous. Even so some
of these creatures can be harvested and exploited, for fat, oil,
teeth and bone. Not only that but the depths of the Bergen Ocean and
the more distant Hvalsey Sea both possess ancient xenos ruins sunken
below the dark waters. Sealed within armored submersibles and walking
mining rigs the denizens of Hindarfjall haul up precious salvage from
below the frothing toxic black waves in significant quantities.
For a few days each year when the
seasonal tides are at their lowest leagues of formerly sunken land
returns temporarily to the surface. When this happens many creatures
become trapped in shallow pools scattered across the short-lived
plains. For these few days each year the nobles of Hindarfjall and
their retainers ride out to hunt, culling hundreds of dangerous
beasts and hauling their carcasses back to the fortress for
processing. In these few days of slaughter more beasts are slain and
skinned than most of the rest of the year combined. Following the
conclusion of each hunt the lords of Hindarfjall throw a great feast
day, during which almost all normal labors are suspended and the
people of the city are allowed to celebrate the glorious victories of
their lords and forget their hardships for a time. Wealthy Karls and
nobles of House Cenwulf travel from far abroad to join the feast and
sometimes even to participate in the hunt itself. Whenever this
happens the beasts culled by the visiting nobles are not kept as
trophies for the nobles themselves but donated to the common peoples
of Hindarfjall as a gift for only the nobles of Hindarfjall itself
are permitted to keep and profit from the harvest of the Bergen
Ocean.
Industrial Crawler-Rigs
One
of the most dangerous but lucrative jobs a Karl or Thrall can take is
to serve on the crew of one of the Industrial Crawler-Rigs. Ever since
the nobles of House Cenwulf became a largely military force the Knight
Suits of the house rarely venture into the lowlands to put their
super-heavy weapons to work mining raw minerals or scavenging
archaeotech salvage. Instead that job has fallen to specially outfitted
industrial crawler-rigs acquired from the Adeptus Mechanicus. The
smallest of these rigs, the Ardent-Class, is twice the size of a
Baneblade while the largest, the Maximus-Class, is three time the size
of a Capitol Imperialis, literally three mobile chassis linked together
into a strange, crawling train of sorts. On the small end the crawlers
are fitted with a wide variety of lascutter and melta turrets,
rock-grinders, saws and servo-claws of varying sizes and positions.
These tools are used to mine ore and extract precious salvage from the
vast ruins and mineral seems that are abundant on the surface of the
Knight World. When threatened these tools also serve as effective
defense weapons to protect the rigs from hostile native fauna and even
invading enemy forces. The larger rigs rarely use their hull-mounted
equipment to retrieve material directly but instead serve as mobile
command centers to deploy a variety of crew equipped with sealed walker
suits or servo-rigs who perform the work themselves and return the
material aboard grav-sleds, hauler rigs or sometimes common transport
vehicles like Cargo-8 land trains.
Despite
meters thick armor and environmental shielding cassualties among
crawler-rig crews are always high and even those crew who survive a tour
on the rigs often return to the fortress-cities with a variety of
ailments and infections that severely shorten their life-span.
Nevertheless the rewards can be considerable, a single year of service
on a crawler-rig nets a Thrall more income than a decade of other work,
and if the crawler-rig makes a significant and valuable discovery the
crew may be handsomely rewarded by the house. Stories abound of
debt-laden Karls and Thralls undertaking risky journeys into seldom
travelled reaches and facing terrible dangers only to return with holds
full of ancient and priceless technology, earning riches enough to set
them and their families up for life. Such rewards insure that every time
a crawler-rig is ready to depart on another journey into the lowlands
there is no shortage of willing volunteers fighting for the chance to
join the crew.
Scrap-Clan Holds
Rarely
mentioned in official documentation or correspondence it is a little
known fact that there is a class of citizen on Andlang that falls below
even the indentured Thralls of House Cenwulf. These beings are known as
the Draugr, literally the living-dead, those whose very existence denies
the harsh reality of the toxic and radioactive hellscape of the
lowlands of the Knight World. Whether this population is made up of
Karls and Thralls who could not stand the structured life of service to
the house and fled into the wastes or are inhabitants who have carved a
living from the polluted ruins in the valleys for thousands of years is
unknown. What is known is that the scrap-clans have founded a number of
"Holds" throughout the inhospitable lowlands of Andlang. Typically
carved into the extensive maze of caverns and tunnels that run across
much of the planet the scrap-clans will occasionally set up temporary
fortified camps on the surface, typically to stake a claim on some
valuable salvage or mineral deposit. Despite the unauthorized and
ramshackle nature of the scrap-clans the nobles of House Cenwulf permit
their existence for the simple reason that they are hardy survivors,
loyal servants of the Imperium, and provide valuable information to the
nobles of native threats and valuable materials.
Anything
threat the scrap-clans discover that they cannot overcome is fed
through informants up to the house while any salvage too large or deeply
imbedded for the clans to recover and trade themselves is also fed
through a network of informants and traders until it reaches the ears of
Andlang's nobility. Valuable information is rewarded through dead-drops
of food, medicine, weapons and technology that help keep the clans
functioning despite the horrific conditions they face on a daily basis.
Although the clans have rejected the normal life of a citizen of Andlang
they are not traitors or chaos worshippers, quite the opposite, in
times of war when House Cenwulf sounds the call to arms the clans
typically turn out in force, their numbers far greater than most on the
planet realize. During the last greenskin attack on the planet tens of
thousands of scrap-clan warriors engaged in running battles with the
orks across much of the surface and several scrap-clan holds came under
direct seige.
Folkvangr
– The Breadbasket of Kings
The fourth planet in the Vanyr system,
Folkvangr is classified as an agri-world by the Administratum. A
relatively green and fertile paradise by the standards of the Vanyr
system Folkvangr features extensive oceans and a single massive
land-mass that is home to hardy forests, fields of grain as far as
the eye can see and huge herds of belligerent Grox beasts. The people
of Folkvangr are a hardy and proud bunch, largely content in their
role as the breadbasket of the Vanyr system. The farmers and ranchers
of Folkvangr take great pride in knowing their labor puts food on the
tables of Andlang's nobles and their world is watched over and
protected by the iron might of a household of Imperial Knights.
Technically Folkvangr is considered by the Imperium to
possess limited sovereignty, ruled over by a planetary Governor,
possessing its own local Administratum bureau, Ecclesiarchy
cathedral, and minor Arbites precinct and would normally be subject
to the Imperial tithe. What sets Folkvangr apart from any normal
agri-world is that by ancient right the world is claimed by House
Cenwulf as a vassal domain. Given that Imperial Knight worlds,
like the homeworlds of Space Marine Chapters, are not subject to the
Imperial Tithe, ancient decree dictates that the tithes due from
Folkvangr to
the Imperium are the rightful claim of House Cenwulf. However the
production of the world far exceeds
the needs of the house, therefore while House Cenwulf takes a portion
of the tithe the majority is contributed to the good of the
wider Imperium. Folkvangr's tithe is primarily composed of a variety
of foodstuffs harvested from the fertile and productive world. The
wide oceans of Folkvangr produce vast quantities of fish and
food-grade algae while the expansive fields grow a variety of grains
and a significant portion of the southern region of Folkvangr's
principal land-mass is reserved for the Grox pastures. These precious
nutritious resources are then exported off-world to supply the
ravenous worlds of the Vanyr system and the wider Segmentum. In
addition to grains and protein Folkvangr exports hides, bonemeal, and
lumber as well as raising regiments of Astra Militarum and supplying
conscripts to serve aboard the warships of the Imperial Navy.
The planetary Governor ultimately
rules as a proxy of House Cenwulf, usually overseen by a senior
adviser appointed from the ranks of House Cenwulf's nobility. Usually
this adviser is a noble who has passed the Becoming and possesses
their own armor as well as Armiger-equipped Hirdmenn squires and a
retainer of Huscarls and Thralls. This adviser effectively serves as
a garrison of the planet, serving to cull the troublesome native
fauna that remains and protect the world from foreign attack. The
household maintains a small keep known as Steinvikholm located in the
outskirts the planetary capitol known as Holmestrand Hive. Even
though House Cenwulf typically maintains a modest garrison over their
principal off world fiefdom in the Vanyr system Folkvangr also
maintains a sizable planetary defense force that is notable in the
number of sentinels it can field thanks to a steady supply of such
war-machines from the forges of Andlang and Ydalir.
The
planetary Capitol Holmestrand is the largest population center on the
planet and the only settlement classified as a Hive City. The
remaining settlements are mostly farmsteads and modest farming
communities featuring a few thousand residents each. A handful of
these settlements, including Leirvik, Brekstad, Sandvika, Rjukan and
Leif's Landing, number in the hundreds of thousands but these pale in
comparison to the dense tens of millions crammed into Holmestrand. The
majority of Holmestrad's population work in the agri-processing mills
that process Grox and grain into the finished materials ready to be
shipped off-world in the bellies of vast cargo ships. Other
inhabitants are required to work in the minor manufactoria that
produce the day-to-day goods that keep the mills running and the
local vendors stocked while others labor away in the huge underground
geo-thermal generatoria plants or haul cargo in the starports. To
keep this population in check the planetary Governor maintains a
sizable PDF presence in the hive as well as a significant force of
Lex Imperialis Enforcers. Not technically members of the Adeptus
Arbites the Enforcers serve the Lex under the supervision of an
Arbitrator Marshal who serves as the representative of the Arbites in
the Vanyr system. Like in most large hives much of the industry in
the hive is controlled by entrenched organizations loosely referred
to as houses and guilds, each of which maintains an iron-grip on
their particular niche role. So long as these organizations maintain
acceptable levels of productivity such individual enterprise and
monopoly is permitted by the Governor and by extension the nobles of
House Cenwulf. Only when productivity falls do the governing forces
of Holmestrand come down hard on the hive-dwellers to restore order
and maintain production.
Falkenberg Lifeguard
The elite security forces of House
Falkenberg, the ruling family of Folkvangr, the Falkenberg Lifeguard
are some of the best equipped and most battle-hardened soldiers on
the planet. Recruited from the Folkvangr Defense Auxilia the
Lifeguard skims the cream of the veteran soldiers serving in
Folkvangr's planetary defense force to provide hardened veterans
capable of protecting the nobles of the Falkenberg dynasty from their
countless political enemies. The Lifeguard rarely deploys on its own
and is in reality sub-divided into dozens of individual garrisons
armed and armored to the tastes of the individual noble or nobles
they are assigned to protect. Many of these garrisons number a few
dozen veterans total but taken together the total number of Lifeguard
spread across the upper-spires of Holmestrad number in the hundreds.
House Falkenberg essentially has an elite private army at it's
disposal well suited to locking down and defending the upper-hive
should such extreme measures ever be necessary.
Holmestrand Civil Enforcement
Division
The Holmestrand Civil Envorcement
Division, often shortened to CED or simply as the Enforcers, are
Folkvangr's local Adeptus Arbites subordinate enforcement agency.
Most of the time only a single member of the Adeptus Arbites lives on
Folkvangr and oversees the enforcement of the Lex Imperialis through
the locally recruited, trained and equipped enforcers whose authority
is directly derived from and subordinate to the Adeptus Arbites.
Currently however no actual member of the Arbites serves on
Folkvangr, the last incumbent to the position having fallen in combat
with cultists in the early years after the opening of the Great Rift
and no replacement has ever arrived. In many respects the CED is
beholden to and serves the interests of House Falkenberg, the ruling
dynasty of Folkvangr, however the extent to which the Civil
Enforcement Division is willing to act as the thugs and strong-arms
for the Falkenberg's varies from precinct to precinct. Dozens of
precincts are scattered throughout Holmestrand Hive, and several
existing among the smaller outlying settlements. Each precinct can
number from a few dozen to a few hundred Enforcers and is commanded
by a Marshall. Marshalls have broad authority to enforce the Lex
Imperialis as they see fit within their area of responsibility and
may requisition a variety of resources to serve their purpose from
construction materials and manual labor to weapons, vehicles,
supplies and munitions. Since the opening of the Great Rift the
entirety of the Vanyr system has existed on a war footing, a
situation that has lasted for decades and seen daily life radically
change across the system. Within Holmestrand Hive the Precinct
Marshalls often have seniority of command over all local defense
forces, the Folkvangr Defense Auxilia officers usually deferring to
the authority, experience and local knowledge of their area precinct
officers and Marshall in the mustering of supplies, the staging of
choke points and perimeters and the deployment of personnel. Although
stretched thin by countless minor chaos cults and insurrectionist
movements spawned over the last few decades the Enforcers and their
PDF allies have largely managed to keep these threats contained and
preserve the efficiency and production of Folkvangr and Holmestrand
Hive despite the daunting situation.
Folkvangr Defense Auxilia
The largest standing military force on
Folkvangr is the Folkvangr Defense Auxilia, otherwise known as the
Planetary Defense Force. Equipped with green fatigues and olive-drab
weapons and armor the Folkvangr Defense Auxilia are largely formed as
a light infantry militia, having only received a relatively minimal
amount of training and largely lacking active military experience
Folkvangr's PDF is, like most such forces, largely good for holding
ground and enforcing martial law over a civilian population and not a
great deal more. Some Defense Auxilia units have obtained a decent
amount of combat experience in recent decades from deployments
against chaos cults, anti-Imperial insurrectionist movements and
xenos raids. Many experienced veterans from such units have been
recruited by the Falkenberg Lifeguard to provide protection details
to the ruling house of Folkvangr while others still have gone on to
form the backbone of newly raised Astra Militarum regiments or even
been transferred to the Holmestrand Civil Enforcement Division.
The Penitent Legion
In recent years Cardinal Sebastian
Wellington has inspired dozens of minor redemptionist cults
throughout the mid and lower hive sprawl of Holmestrand. The largest
and most powerful of these cults is known as the Penitent Legion.
Numbering in their thousands the Penitent Legion are a mixture of the
desperate, the zealous and the insane. Armed with junk weapons,
wearing little in the way of functional clothing or footwear these
religious warriors form the backbone of Cardinal Wellington's legions
of faith and frequently undertake crusades to spread the faith of the
God-Emperor throughout the hive, calling the sinful and the
unfaithful to repent. Most of the Penitent Legion view the Great Rift
as a sign of the God-Emperor's displeasure and a sign of Folkvangr's
lack of faith. While the ruling elite of Holmestrand typically view
the Penitent Legion as a bunch of lunatics who pose little real
threat there are indications that House Falkenberg takes the
redemptionists much more seriously and has invested considerable
resources to observe, contain and direct the cults from a distance
and ensure they do not come to cause the Falkenberg dynasty undue
difficulties.
The Brotherhood of Shadows
Self-styled information brokers and
assassins operating mostly in the mid-hive ranges of Holmestrand the
Brotherhood of Shadows is really a lot less significant of an
organization as their dramatic name would suggest. For the most part
the cloak-and-daggers mask is just pageantry to amuse the minor
nobles who like to engage the brotherhood's services but in reality
the organization spends most of it's time and energy smuggling
weapons and narcotics throughout the hive. There are many rumors
whispered throughout the hive that the brotherhood has only managed
to maintain it's existence in these trying times because of the
patronage of General Hohlt Van Der Graaf. So long as a portion of
every weapons shipment finds it's way into the armories of the
Folkvangr Defense Auxilia the general seems willing to turn a blind
eye to the operations of the brotherhood and protect the organization
from the prying eyes of other gangs and the Enforcers as well.
The Ironblood Clans
Many centuries ago the Falkenberg's
imported feral worlders to augment the work-servitor crews charged
with loading and unloading the industrial dockyards that ship the
produce of Folkvangr off-world and import the many goods and
materials needed to keep the planet running. This back-breaking labor
had long proven too punishing for most local-stock to handle and so
the Falkenberg's decided to bring in hardier workers from nearby
systems to do the dirty work of moving and handling the massive
shipping containers and their contents instead of having to rely
mostly on expensive and maintenance intensive industrial servitors.
Though this plan has proven overall quite successful the result has
been the forma
tion of the Ironblood Clans. Raised from an early age
in the rusted sprawls of worn-out containers, maintenance yards and
mass-storage warehouses the former feral-worlders have become
increasingly violent and territorial, clashing with other criminal
and civil organizations throughout the hive for control of the docks
and the goods that pass through them. Armed mostly with repurposed
tools and crude scrap-metal weapons the Ironblood Clans are brutal
and unsophisticated but dangerous nevertheless. Fortunately for
everyone else the clans seem content to spend most of their time
fighting each-other. However calls for a concerted action against the
clans have only increased in recent years and it may soon become
necessary for the PDF and the Enforcers to clean house.
The Agricultural Cooperative
The bulk of the agricultural
settlements scattered across Folkvangr are members of one or another
of the various Agricultural Cooperatives. These organizations serve
to provide protection and material support to the farmsteads and
family groups that make up the rural population of the planet.
Although these cooperatives are ostensibly upright and legal
organizations the reality is that much of their activities are fairly
criminal in nature. Most farmsteads pay protection fees to their
local cooperative and many are forced to contribute juve fighters to
the ranks of the cooperatives. The armed members of the cooperatives
often fight to protect their stranglehold on the agri-trains,
granaries and territory under their control against the hostile
intentions of either other cooperatives or any of the various other
criminal organizations on the planet or the civil authorities.
Although not as numerous as some of the other criminal gangs across
Folkvangr the Agricultural Cooperatives somewhat legal nature allows
them to obtain better weapons and training than many of their
competitors and their fighters tend to be capable and heavily armed.
Since the appearance of the Great Rift the Agricultural Cooperatives
have become much more militant in their attitude. Although the
presence of the rift is felt by nearly everyone on the planet most of
the hivers have kilometers of structure between them and the open sky
and are somewhat insulated from it's oppressive presence. Out among
the farmsteads and smaller settlements across the planet that is not
the case and the ever visible rift has had a significantly
deleterious effect on the population. Together with the Folkvangr
Defense Auxilia formations of armed cooperative gangers have taken to
enforcing strict curfews, performing regular searches and medical
checks at chokepoints around settlements and transitways and
undertaken frequent patrols all to combat the spread of radical cults
and insurgent cells.
The Rad Devils
The collection of smugglers,
merchants, mercenaries and arms dealers known as the Rad Devils to
the hivers are officially recognized as the Ydalirian Free Merchants.
Although much of the manual labor performed on the Forge World
Minoris of Ydalir is performed by mind-wiped servitors some jobs
still require a conscious mind to effectively perform, or are simply
tasks to menial to assign a valuable servitor. In both situations the
Ydalirian priesthood turns to a body of indentured workers culled
primarily from the population of Folkvangr. Inevitably the regular
trade between the worlds of the Vanyr system and the accumulation of
experience, and thus value, among some workers has enabled the
formation of a semi-independent merchant caste among the indentured
population of Ydalir. This cast has managed to assemble a modest
fleet of merchant transports and over time took over most of the
inter-planetary trade between the three inhabited worlds of the Vanyr
system. Because of their long-term exposure to the harsh environments
of Ydalir without the augmentation and protection of the priesthood
or their Skitarii servants these merchant clans typically bear an
unhealthy, radiation sick appearance and unnaturally short life-spans
leading to their common hiver-given cognomen the Rad Devils. Such
proximity to the realm of the Mechanicus is not entirely without it's
benefits however. With such close access to the forges of the Martian
priests the Ydalirian Free Merchants are able to skim some potent and
esoteric weapons and equipment, for either their own personal use or
blackmarket sale across the Vanyr system. Of all the criminal
organizations in the Vanyr system the Rad Devils are easily the best
armed and armored. However the short life-spans and general poor
health of the Rad Devils gangers means that they are not the hardiest
or best trained fighters, often relying on firepower and the
intimidating effect of their strange and terrifying weapons to make
up for their lack of grit or experience. Increasingly some of the
other gangs, like the Cooperatives and the Ironblood Clans, have come
to realize that if they can weather the initial salvoes of fire from
the Rad Devils gangers a stern charge and determined melee will
usually carry the day against the pale Ydalirian natives.
The Savage Valkyries
Often referred to as the Death Maidens
by their enemies the self-styled Savage Valkyries are one of the
smallest but easily the best known of the gangs operating within
Holmestrand Hive. Composed exclusively of female gangers recruited
from the ranks of street walkers and exotic dancers the Savage
Valkyries delight in explosive and brutal displays of firepower and
dazzling blade work to exact bitter vengeance against those they
believe have wronged them. Unlike most of the other gangs the Death
Maidens have little in the way of a greater purpose, delusions of
grandeur or designs on power. The Death Maidens do not even maintain
much in the way of an established territory, but shift randomly from
safe-house to safe-house, shifting across districts, precincts and
levels freely, never tending to stay in one place for too long lest
they draw the ire and hostile intentions of another gang. In head-on
confrontations with most other gangs the Valkyries fare poorly,
relying instead of numerical superiority, ambush, assassination and
sabotage to accomplish their goals, whatever those happen to be at
the time. The only gang that does not seem to draw much attention
from the Valkyries are the Rad Devils, who the Valkyries seem to
treat with equal parts aversion and pity and the two gangs
consequently rarely cross paths. However more than a few cooperative,
ironblood, brotherhood and legion gangers have found themselves
crossing the wrong working girl and paying for it.
The Children of Ruin
One of the most pervasive and
difficult to stamp out threats to the security of Holmestrand Hive
since the opening of the Great Rift have been a succession of chaos
cults collectively known as the Children of Ruin. The oppressive
presence of the Great Rift has a warping effect on the minds of even
the hardiest of individuals, down in the depths of the hive this
effect is even more pronounced on the malnourished and ill denizens.
With increasing frequency bands of cultists have caused problems as
far as the mid-hive and ever greater numbers of Folkvangr Defense
Auxilia troopers and Enforcers have had to be called upon to clear
out the cultists and prevent further disruption to the hive. Yet
after each cleanse yet more cultists emerge within short order and
the process must be repeated once again. As the years have progressed
these cults have become ever more numerous, better organized and
better armed leading many among the upper-echelons of the hive to
fear infiltration by elements of the traitor legions. Several members
of House Cenwulf and their armor have been recently deployed to the
hive to aid in rooting out the cults and take action should heretic
infiltration be confirmed.
The Eaters of the Dead
The Bloody Butchers, the Skinning
Blades, the Skull Harvesters, the Brotherhood of Bone, there are many
names to describe these savage murderers but all pale in the face of
reality. Recruited from the savage feral-worlder Ironblood Clans
these deadly killers are a brutal off-shoot of the chaos cults that
have begun to cause such problems in the under-hive of Holmestrand in
recent years. Only the youngest and least experienced members of the
Eaters of the Dead even bother to carry projectile weapons, the
greater bulk of the cultists exclusively bear deadly melee weapons,
skinning blades, executioners axes and a variety of deadly chain
axes. The Ironblood Clans are already savage and deadly warriors,
huge, heavily muscled and prone to excessive violence. Warped by the
corrupting influence of the Blood God these fighters become truly
terrifying opponents that have caused no end of difficulty for the
defenders of Holmestrand. Countless patrols of Enforcers and Defense
Auxilia troopers have gone missing only for their empty skins,
severed heads, or dismembered corpses to be discovered later arranged
into grisly and gruesome displays. Members of House Falkenberg and
the elite Lifeguard have made it their personal responsibility to
track down and eradicate bands of Khornate cannibals. No matter how
many have been destroyed however yet more seem to appear seemingly
from the very walls of the hive itself. Calls for the complete
extermination of the feral-world clans have only increased as the
bloody rampages of the cannibal cults have continued unabated.
Ydalir
– Forge World Minoris
First established shortly after the
rediscovery of the Vanyr system by the Imperium the world of Ydalir
was settled by the priests of the Forge World Lokabrenna and remains
a sub-domain of that greater Forge World to this day. Thanks in part
to the ancient archaeotech archives of House Cenwulf the small Forge
World quickly became famed for the quality and quantity of
walker-based weapons systems produced in its forges.
Ydalir
is a world of mountains and craggy volcanic plains formed in
millennia past for those ancient volcanoes fell dormant long ago.
What remains is a harsh and hostile world with a thin, only barely
breathable atmosphere. Life clings to Ydalir only thanks to the
technology of the Adeptus Mechanicus and a constant supply of fresh
workers and vast quantities of foodstuffs from Folkvangr and beyond.
The only major body of liquid on the surface is the Sogndal
Promethium Sea, otherwise the surface is entirely dry and barren. Few
hardy planets persist on the surface and what little fauna they
support is almost universally hostile and dangerous. Nevertheless the
solid, stable ground, rich mineral resources and modest atmosphere
make Ydalir a prime location for exploitation by the Adeptus
Mechanicus and so it's surface now teems with massive forge-sprawls,
vast wastelands of junk and slag and clouds of toxic fumes belched
from chimneys that have not gone cold since the day they were built
thousands of years ago.
Sentinels march from the factories in
their many thousands every year, helping supply the Astra Militarum
and planetary defense forces across the Segmentum. The forges of
Ydalir are also one of the relatively few sources of newly
manufactured Adeptus Astartes Dreadnoughts in the region. Unlike the
countless Leman Russ, Chimera or Sentinel platforms that roll from
the factory floors of forges and manufactorum across the Imperium the
Dreadnoughts of the Space Marines rely on ancient and complex
technologies that are difficult to maintain, let alone newly
manufacture. To produce new Dreadnoughts requires rare and precious
materials, as well as extensive knowledge. Thanks to Ydalir's
long-standing alliance with House Cenwulf, and thus access to the
extensive tech-lore and experience of the house Sacristans, the Forge
World Minoris is able to produce a modest but steady number of
advanced walker technologies including Dreadnoughts, Penitent Engines
and Imperial Knights. The Dreadnoughts produced on Ydalir supply
several chapters operating in the Segmentum including the Space
Wolves. In the thirty-seventh millennium the priesthood of Ydalir
acquired the rights and STC-data to produce Mars-Pattern Warhound
Titans. The production of new Scout-class God-Engines has
significantly increased the native garrison of the Legio Sirius,
which has maintained a modest presence on Ydalir since relatively
early in the Forge World's existence. The Legio Sirius maintains a
force of three maniples of God-machines quartered in the Ironwolf
Bastion, the Legio fortress headquarters on Ydalir.
The Capitol of Ydalir is the
Stravanger Forge Temple, a hive-city in it's own right located at the
heart of the Namsos Forge Sprawl, Stravanger is the seat of the
ruling Magi Administrators from the principal Forge World of
Lokabrenna and the highest ranking priests of Ydalir itself. The
Namsos Forge Sprawl itself contains ten further major forge-complexes
as well as the critical Titan Forge and two large space-ports and
thirteen hab-complexes that serve to house the millions of
worker-thralls necessary to keep the forges running and are each
themselves essentially minor hive-cities. Ydalir also features three
further forge sprawls dubbed Narvik, Drammen and Grimstad as well as
the Promethium refiner island known as Hvitsen. Trondheim Mountain is
another notable feature of the planet, the tallest peak on a world
dotted with large mountains, which features it's own dedicated
communications fortress-station high atop it's crags and helps ensure
that the various forge complexes remain in constant and reliable
communication as well as managing a continual and massive stream of
transmissions to and from the planet and the rest of the system.
Between the Namsos and Grimstad Forge Sprawls lies a massive plain
carpeted in the defective, obsolete or discarded castoff of the
various forge facilities across the planet, known as the Junkyard
Plains this region is a frequent haunt of scavengers and renegades
who make a living trawling through the scrap for valuable pieces of
technology or material. Three relatively independent settlements
known as Mandal, Horten and Sarpsborg also dot the surface of the
planet. Mandal and Horten serve to maintain and service the vast road
networks and railway lines that criss-cross the surface of Ydalir and
permit the mass movement of goods and raw materials from one hive
sprawl to another. Sarpsborg, a comparatively minor settlement, is
located at the foot of Trondheim Mountain and serves to maintain and
garrison the Varde Comm station atop the mountain.
The
Ironwolf Bastion, home of the Legio Sirius garrison, was carved into
the depths of a dormant volcano located to the far north of the
planet. Much of the surrounding terrain is dominated by a treacherous
region of unstable chasms and fissures formed from volcanic glass. In
a singular failure of imagination this region was dubbed the
Labyrinth of Glass and serves as the first and most treacherous line
of defense for the Ironwolf Bastion. Only a single major road bisects
the labyrinth, known as the Giant's Causeway this huge bridge network
bored into the bedrock beneath the obsidian plains can be collapsed
at a moment's notice, sealing the Ironwolf bastion away from the rest
of the planet and preventing any invading army from easily assailing
the fortress. As such it should be no surprise that the Ironwolf
Bastion serves as the fortification of last-resort and a safe-haven
for the Adeptus Mechanicus of Ydalir in the event of a catastrophic
and overwhelming invasion. Much of the most precious data and
technological secrets of Ydalir have backup copies stored in
stasis-shielded crypts beneath the bastion, allowing the Mechanicus
the option of destroying the principal archives to deny them to any
attacker and withdrawing to the north at speed without risking the
permanent loss of Ydalir's most precious resource; it's knowledge.
Planetary Defense Maniples
The Forge World Minoris of Ydalir,
while continually growing and expanding it's production and
consumption possesses a relatively small population of non-augmented
human workers. Much of Ydalir's work-force is made up of augmented
and mind-wiped servitors of various grades. Raw material for these
servitors is sourced from the prisons of Folkvangr and Andlang as
well as from worlds in nearby systems, most notably from worlds that
fall within the protection of House Cenwulf. Other bodies used in the
manufacture of servitors on Ydalir are purpose grown, sculpted to
perform specific tasks or functions. With a steady and reliable
supply of raw material and with the native conditions on Ydalir
remaining quite harsh to unaugmented humans despite the centuries of
terraforming the Ydalirian Mechanicus have little demand for baseline
human workers and so the human population of Ydalir has remained
largely the same for decades. This emphasis on servitors also
translates into the defensive forces available to the Ydalirian
Mechanicus. Some Skitarii patrol the forges and crew defenses across
the planet but the bulk of the non-Titanicus military forces
garrisoning the planet are made up of combat grade servitors and
battle automata. Company strength maniples of Kataphron
battle-servitors and Kastellan robots patrol the battlements of the
forge temples, guard the portals and serve as bodyguards to the
priests themselves. In times of need thousands of menial servitors
can be armed and deployed as expendable Tech-Thralls or baseline
combat servitors and it has even been known for the Ydalir priesthood
to arm and deploy the modest baseline human population as canon
fodder, much to the dismay of the workers. Any loss of life is deemed
acceptable in the service of preserving the machines and the forges.
It is not uncommon for joint deployment of Ydalirian Planetary
Defense Maniples and House Cenwulf forces to result in the Huscarls
of House Cenwulf making up the bulk of the Tech-Guard equivalent
soldiery while the majority of the Ydalir forces are comprised of
combat-grade servitors and automata.
The Legio Sirius - The Void Wolves The
principal domain of the Legio Sirius is the Forge World of Lokabrenna,
home to the Legio fortress, the Black and Silver Mountain. Like many
legio of the Collegia Titanica however the Legio Sirius maintains
outposts and garrisons on a number of worlds, including the growing
Forge World Minoris of Ydalir in the Vanyr system. From their garrison
fortress the Ironwolf Bastion the Legio Sirius maintains regular patrols
across the surface of Ydalir and dispatches maniples to join the
campaigns of the Ydalirian Mechanicus forces or commit Titans to the
campaigns of House Cenwulf, or sector Crusades. In total the Legio
Sirius garrison housed on Ydalir numbers three maniples, one battle-line
maniple composed of a Warlord Titan, two Reaver Titans and three
Warhound Titans, and two scout maniples composed of five Warhound Titans
each. This is a relatively small garrison for a Titan Legio but a
sizable concentration of force should it be committed to any single
warzone in the region. Most times the Legio Sirius will deploy one of
the scout maniples or even a single Warhound to join a campaign, crusade
or expedition, most often keeping the battle-line maniple on Ydalir to
secure the legio fortress with the strongest engines available. As the
forges on Ydalir continue to grow and production expands however it is
likely that the legio garrison will be expanded as well, with more
maniples added in direct relation to the growing power of the Forge
World Minoris. For their part the princeps of the Legio Sirius have
found considerable commonality in their favored strategies and combat
doctrine with the nobles of House Cenwulf. When they take to the field
together it is not uncommon for the roaming lances of House Cenwulf
knights to lure enemies into careful ambushes prepared by the Warhound
Titans of the Legio Sirius, who are adept ambush and pack hunters adept
at taking on larger prey.
Mining Clan Zirak - The Dispossessed
Centuries
ago many of the homeworlds of the Squat race of sanctioned abhumans
were wiped out by the coming of the Tyranids. Since then most contact
between the surviving squats, most of whom are known as the Leagues of
Votann, has been minimal at best. However some clans fled to other
worlds in the Imperium such as Necromunda and established themselves as
craftsmen, traders, miners and salvagers of considerable skill. One such
group was Clan Zirak, who found refuge among the forge-halls of
Lokabrenna. Over time small numbers of the Ziraki have filtered through
the wider trade networks of Lokabrenna and taken up residence on other
worlds, particularly the Forge World Minoris Ydalir. The numbers of the
Ziraki on Ydalir are largely unknown, the Squats tending to be insular
and secretive, keeping to themselves unless absolutely necessary.
However their presence has not gone unnoticed and in recent decades the
Ziraki have gained a reputation as trustworthy and accomplished warriors
and craftsmen and found themselves fairly warmly welcomed among the
vassal domains of House Cenwulf. The existence of a clan of abhumans in
the Vanyr system has caused some within the more conservative branches
of the house to raise some concern but given the desperate times most
criticisms are laid aside in recognition of the desperate need for every
capable sword arm. At least one of the Ziraki has found a place among
the Tech Priests of Ydalir and even been granted the privilege of
serving aboard one of the Warhound Titans of the Legio Sirius, a great
honor and an unusual one for a squat to obtain. As yet none of the
Ziraki have gained access to the archaeotech rich wastelands of Andlang
itself though doubtless the squat clan would relish the opportunity to
delve into such rich fields of salvage, regardless of the inherent
hazards and dangers.
The
House Cenwulf Protectorate Domains
Although Andlang is not the officially
recognized administrative capitol of the Vanyr sub-sector, the nobles
of House Cenwulf are clearly the dominant power in the region and
nearly every inhabited system in the sub-sector is bound to the Imperial Knight house through oaths of mutual support and allegiance. Official records vary in
regards to the actual administrative seat of the sub-sector with some
records indicating Folkvangr is the capital while others list no
single world as the seat of recognized governance. Few would be
foolish enough however not to realize that nearly everything that
happens in the region does so at the pleasure of House Cenwulf. The
presence of the Imperial Knight House is indeed the reason the
sub-sector is named after the Vanyr system, though that was only done
in the mid thirty-eighth millennium. Prior to that the region was
known as the Austerlitz Reach, dubbed as such by the famous Rogue
Trader explorator Albrecht von Austerlitz and marked the furthest
extent of his explorations from Terra before his death in the
mid-years of the Great Crusade. The sub-sector contains dozens of
systems but only a small number are inhabited. Situated roughly at
the center of the sub-sector is the Vanyr system itself, home to the
Forge World Minoris Ydalir, the Agri-World Folkvangr and of course
the Imperial Knight world Andlang. Four other systems in the
sub-sector feature notable habitation and a few others feature minor
outposts and backwater worlds though possess few resources or forces
of any strategic significance.
Folkvangr serves as the only direct vassal of House Cenwulf, meaning that it is the only world of the protectorate domain other than Andlang itself, that House Cenwulf rules over directly, or which the house maintains a legal claim on a portion of the world's tithe. The remaining worlds of the protectorate domain are independent planets and systems but which have sworn oaths binding them to the house in one way or another. Each system and each planet have their own set of oaths and obligations to the house, no two agreements being exactly the same, but in general these oaths promise a portion of that world's export and contributions of men and material to military campaigns, in exchange for the protection of House Cenwulf's nobles. An Imperial Knight house is a considerable military force and the promise of protection against invasion or unrest from an army of super-heavy archaeotech killing machines is of enormous value, so it is little surprise that so many worlds have proven willing to commit significant resources in exchange for the sworn protection of the house. The aggressive nature of House Cenwulf in combating threats to the region has meant that the house has rarely been called upon to actively repel attacks against their protectorate worlds and the resources committed to the house from those worlds ensures that the nobles of Andlang remain the most powerful and well armed force in the sub-sector.
The Krastenwald System
-The closest neighbor to the Vanyr
system the Krastenwald system is home to four inhabited planets. The
system capitol is the Hive World of Nevsky, a populous and relatively
prosperous world that is largely known for raising numerous Astra
Militarum regiments. Two agri-worlds, Falkner's Reach and Halvard's
Hope drift through a lazy and slow orbit with long growing seasons
and mild winters. Praxis IV is the final inhabited planetoid in the
system and is actually the fourth of eleven moons orbiting the Gas
Giant known as Praxis. The gas giant has been used as a refueling
stop for Imperial Navy patrols and merchant vessels traveling through
the region since the late thirty-fourth millennium and is really the
most vital economic asset of the Krastenwald system. Possessed of
only a relatively weak gravity Praxis IV made an excellent anchor for
a sizable dockyard facility that extends some kilometers from the
surface and enables even capitol-class vessels to dock for minor
refit-repairs and refueling. Dozens of orbital refineries and gas
processing stations orbit the planet and a fleet of bulk-cargo
haulers make ceaseless round-trips to bring the product of those
stations to the fourth moon. A small enclave of Ydalirian Mechanicus
personnel is located on Praxis IV and oversees the maintenance of the
dockyards and ensures the continued supply of vital fuel and
resources to the vessels that dock there.
The Krastenwald
Defense Forces
-The worlds of the
Krastenwald system maintain sizable standing armies of volunteer
soldiers known collectively as the Krastenwald Defense Forces. The
rulers of Krastenwald's planets are largely benevolent monarchs who
allow their people a standard of living and social freedoms notably
greater than those on many populous Imperial worlds and in return the
native inhabitants are fiercely loyal to their rulers and proud
defenders of their homeworlds and their traditions. Most natives of
Nevsky, Falkner's Reach and Halvard's Hope voluntarily serve in one
of the defense regiments for at least a minimum term of service
following their graduation from the local scholas. Upon discharge
from their regiments the citizens are permitted to keep their
service-issue weapons. Competition between the PDF regiments of the
Krastenwald Defense Forces is fierce and each world maintains its own
particular traditions, standards of armament and favored strategies.
Regiments of Astra Militarum are regularly raised from all three of
the major planets of the system and generally these regiments will
conform closely to the traditions of their homeworld. The Nevskian
Grenadiers raised from the Hive World of Nevsky are heavily armed and
highly trained shock troops who thrive in dense urban combat
environments and siege assault and are equipped with large numbers of
grenade launchers, mortars, Basilisk and Wyvern artillery tanks. The
Falkner's Rifles light infantry regiments raised from Falkner's Reach
are famed marksmen, recruited from the hunters and trappers living in
remote settlements across the agri-world. These regiments typically
include large numbers of snipers and heavy weapon teams armed with
lascannons and autocannons. Few are the foes that can withstand the
withering and deadly accurate volleys of las-fire from Falkner's
Rifles regiments and their heavy weapons in particular are renowned
for their lethal accuracy and ability to bring down anything from
enemy heavy armor to deadly Tyranid Carnifex. The last and perhaps
most unusual formations are the Raptoryx Lancers Cavalry Regiments
raised from Halvard's Hope. The agri-world is home to many native
reptilian fauna, some of which the natives have domesticated over the
millennia. The most fearsome of these domesticated beasts are the
Raptoryx, large carnivorous hunters that can carry an armored lancer
into battle at high speed. Even the most blood-crazed orks mobs tend
to crumble under the charge of a hundred Raptoryx Lancers driving
into their formation with hunting lances lowered. The explosive tips
of the hunting lances can punch through the armor of battle-tanks or
blast an armored soldier into pieces. The dockyards of Praxis IV also
raise the occasional regiments and maintain their own Krastenwald
Defense Force known as the Praxis Merchant Guard. Outfitted in a
manner akin to the Naval Armsmen or the Imperial Navy the Praxis
Merchant Guard are universally equipped with hardened void armor and
las-carbines supplied by the Merchant Guilds that raise and maintain
their formations. Praxis regiments are capable of operating for
limited durations in the hard vacuum of space or in the halls and
decks of starships whose life-support has failed or whose hulls have
been breached.
The Mazzanti System
-What sick and decrepit survivors of
Old Night remained in the Mazzanti system did not survive the
Imperium's purges during the later years of the Great Crusade.
Cleansed of aberrant life and deviant mutation by the forces of the
Expeditionary Fleets the system was marked for resettlement and
fleets of colonists were prepared, and then the Horus Heresy broke
out. All plans to settle the system collapsed and for centuries the
remote backwater was left empty and abandoned. Bar one minor clash
between Legiones Astartes forces belonging to the VI and XII Legions
during the Scouring the system remained empty and uninhabited until
the early thirty-third millennium when the Mazzanti Rogue Trader
Dynasty was awarded the system in exchange for their service during
the Bellicosa Crusade. The capitol of the system is the hive world of
Mazzanti Prime. Mazanti Tertius, Quintus and Septimus are all mining
worlds and the outermost Mazzanti Novem is a penal world. Of all the
systems in the protectorate of House Cenwulf the Mazzanti system is
the most reluctant vassal and the most rebellious. Even though the
ruling Mazzanti dynasty lost it's writ of trade millennia ago the
nobles of the clan continuously attempt to deny House Cenwulf it's
due tithe and are ever making demands for aid or providing pitiful
excuses for tribute shortfalls. Twice in the last thousand years
detachments from House Cenwulf have been forced to deploy to the
system to put the Mazzanti's back in their place and remind them of
where the power in the sub-sector truly lays. While troublesome the
system does provide a considerable wealth of raw material and
processed goods that help ensure House Cenwulf remains wealthy and
powerful and so the house is ever quick to ensure that the system
does not slip the yoke of control or get delusions of independence.
The Mazzanti
Dragoons
-The Planetary
Defense forces of the worlds of the Mazzanti System are all known as
the Mazzanti Dragoons. Well supplied by the manufactoria of Mazzanti
Prime the regiments of PDF and the Astra Militarum forces raised from
the system are all outfitted as Mechanized Infantry Regiments.
Equipped with Chimera armored transports and supported by companies
of Leman Russ Battle Tanks these regiments are some of the best to be
found in the Vanyr sector. Despite their high standards of training
and equipment the Mazzanti Dragoons are generally disliked by
Imperial forces that have fought alongside them. Regiments raised
from the Mazzanti system have a reputation for arrogance and
insubordination, often taking charitable interpretations of their
orders or flaunting authority entirely on the battlefield, following
their own discretion and pursuing personal glory in favor of assigned
battlefield objectives. Brash bullies the Mazzanti Dragoons know they
are better equipped than many of the Astra Militarum regiments they
will be deployed alongside and often use their status to demand the
best accommodations and rations and secure for themselves the most
cushy assignments they can. Given the origin of these regiments as
the brutal enforces of the Mazzanti dynasty this attitude is far from
surprising. Within the Mazzanti system the Dragoon PDF regiments are
feared and respected as ruthless and implacable fist of the Mazzanti
clan and will mercilessly suppress any and all resistance to their
benefactor's will.
The Novem
Deathsworn
-Most of the penal inhabitants of Mazzanti Novem are debtors, former
mine or manufactorum workers who failed to meet their quotas and fell
into debt to the Mazzanti clan. Ruthless collectors the Mazzanti
nobles never forget a debt and falling behind on tithes ensures not
only the bondage of the worker but their entire family will be forced
into indentured servitude until the debt is paid off, a veritable
death sentence given that such a task is almost invariably
impossible. Only service with the Penal Legions raised from Mazzanti
Novem offers liberation for the debtor's family, joining the Imperial
tithe serving to pay-off any and all outstanding debts to House
Mazzanti. Thus it is little surprise then that countless thousands of
prisoners on Mazzanti Novem crowd the recruitment stations anytime
the raising of a Penal Legion is ordered. Fitted with bomb-collars to
ensure loyalty and chem-injectors to remove fear and drive the
conscript soldiers into killing fury the Novem Deathsworn are brutal
forlorn hope forces intended to be used as canon fodder and close
assault forces, fighting to the last to fulfill their service and
free their families from bondage.
The Caspian System
-The most remote of the inhabited
systems of the Vanyr Sub-Sector the Caspain system is home to three
inhabited worlds, the Feudal World of Caspian Sigma, the Feral World
of Caspian Delta and the Death World of Caspian Beta. Although almost
entirely unproductive these worlds are well liked by the nobles of
House Cenwulf who will at times undertake beast hunts across them and
maintain the system as something of a game preserve. Younger nobles
of the House will often be brought to one or more of the planets of
the Caspian system to undertake training regimens. Caspian Beta in
particular offers a wide variety of deadly megafauna that are
entirely capable of damaging or even destroying an Imperial Knight
and so young nobles must be careful and exercise caution and work
together if they wish to prove successful on beast hunts through the
planet's fetid swamps and jungles. Caspian Sigma is also home to
House Cenwulf's principal tournament grounds. The remote eastern
mountain range of the planet features an expansive hidden valley
accessible only by a handful of narrow and treacherous passes that
are all but impassible in winter. This remote valley makes for a
picturesque setting for noble contests of arms as it possesses lush
woodlands, flowing streams and still ponds, ivy-choked ruins and moss
covered wreckage from past battles and tournaments. Whenever possible
the nobles of House Cenwulf prefer to invite guests from other houses
to Caspian Sigma instead of to Andlang for political negotiations,
contests of arms and to settle disputes of honor. Few outsiders wish
to set foot on the toxic soil of Andlang and it makes for a poor
setting for an honorable contest of arms between knights. Caspian
Sigma maintains its own Imperial Governor and limited offices from
various adeptus of the Imperium but the local level of technology is
generally kept quite low. Caspian Sigma tithes a modest amount of
foodstuffs and raw minerals to the Imperium as well as the occasional
regiment of light infantry to the armies of the Astra Militarum
raised from among the local Preceptoral Guard defense forces.
The Preceptoral Guard
-The predominant
military force on Caspian Sigma the Preceptoral Guard are a cross
between a native Planetary Defense Force and local arbitrators. Their
duties mostly revolve around enforcing civil order and basic law
enforcement however in times of crisis the various formations may be
called upon to serve in the military defense of Caspian Sigma,
especially when the threat is relatively minor or the nobles of House
Cenwulf are not present to defend the planet and its fortresses. Each
company or regiment of the Preceptoral Guard is garrisoned in one of
the noble-owned chateaus, or castles, that dominate the fertile
countryside of Caspian Sigma. The primary armament of the Preceptoral
Guard, or Gendarmes, is the las-lock, a crude but functional lasgun
of ancient pattern with a slower rate of fire than a typical Kantrael
pattern weapon but a longer range and requiring less training to use
effectively. The elite of the Preceptoral Guard are the
Gardes-du-Corps, the bodyguards of the local nobility who wear
armored chestplates and helmets and typically carry modern lasguns
supplied from the forges of Ydalir. Few in number the Gardes-du-Corps
are trained to a higher degree than most of the rest of the soldiers
and civilians on Caspian Sigma and are among the few locals capable
of operating basic vox casters and manning the moderate defensive
weapons and shield systems of the chateau fortresses.
The Kagrian
Knives
-Regiments of
Astra Militarum are occasionally raised from among the feral
inhabitants of Caspian Delta, virtually the only tithe the world
contributes to the Imperium. Recruited from the native headhunter
Knife Clans who refer to their world as Kagria the so-called Kagrian
Knives Regiments are brutal close-quarters jungle fighters who favor
the thrill of slitting an Ork's throat in silent ambush above
anything else. Largely undisciplined and barbaric the Kagrian Knives
are rarely deployed in large numbers alongside other regiments and
are often tasked with scouting, ambush and interference operations
where their individual cunning and violence can be put to best use
without adversely affecting other Imperial forces. A young Kagrian
tribesman must claim a tooth from one of the sabretusk alphas that
stalk the jungles of Caspian Delta to earn the right to call himself
a hunter. Possessing not even bronze-age technology most of the tools
and adornments of the Kagrian tribes are made from animal hides and
bones and their primary weapons are made from the large canine fangs
of the sabretusks that are the alpha predators of the planet. As long
as a human forearm and razor sharp these blades make for deadly
weapons and are symbols of status among the clans. Regiments raised
from Caspian Delta are forced to abandon their canine knives but are
instead often issued with long adamantium blades based on the
Catachan Fangs of the famed jungle-fighter regiments. Notably the
demeanor of the Kagrian Knives changes dramatically in the presence
of the Knight Titans of House Cenwulf who the Kagrians view as
war-angels of destruction, the iron children of the Emperor. Orders
issued by a scion of House Cenwulf are obeyed without question. As
such occasionally war hosts of House Cenwulf will choose to travel
with one or more Regiments of Kagrians to make use of their
unquestioning loyalty.
The Triton System
-Before the opening of the Great Rift
the Triton system was a moderately prosperous and peaceful system on
the edge of the Vanyr Sub-Sector. Composed of four inhabited planets,
the Industrial World and system capital Uriah's Hope and the
agri-world's Saint Sebastian's Will, Ovid's Folly, and Marna's Rest. The system produced a steady stream of goods and foodstuffs as tithe
to both the Imperium and House Cenwulf, raised regiments for the
Astra Militarum, contributed conscripts to the Imperial Navy and was
otherwise a relatively quiet and remote place. The Great Rift changed
all of that. Raiders coming from the rift towards the more
strategically important systems in the sub-sector must pass through
the Triton System before reaching the Krastenwald or Vanyr systems
and as such Triton was the first to come under attack by pirates,
traitors and renegades. The system was left in utter ruins by the initial chaos forces that poured out of the great rift and, though a fleet led by House Cenwulf drove the enemy from
the system, Triton was forever changed. The capitol, Uriah's Hope,
had been virus bombed and Saint Sebastian's Will was a complete ruin,
its people dead, its cities ruined and its surface dotted with the
carcasses of scores of ships fallen to the surface during the void
battle against the traitors. Now only Marna's Rest still produces any
agricultural goods and these are reserved almost exclusively to
supply the growing number of defenders packed into the system. Ovid's
Folly has been heavily rebuilt as a Fortress World, it's defenses
vastly expanded and hardened by the efforts of the Mechanicus and
House Cenwulf. Huge fortified garrison cities rise from the ruins of
the previous agricultural communities while the vast farmlands are
now criss-crossed with razorwire, minefields and trenches. Turrets
jut towards the sky and void-shields flicker over the walls. Nearly
twenty Imperial Knights of House Cenwulf garrison the planet, the
largest detachment stationed anywhere beyond Andlang itself. Hundreds of
thousands of men and women at arms fill the fortresses and millions more are destined to join them.
Since
the initial chaos invasion Ovid's Folly has become more commonly known
as the Tritonhold. Three star fortresses fill the orbit over the planet
supported by dozens of orbital defense guns. On the surface most of the
original settlements remain the scorched ruins they were left
after the first invasion was repulsed. Once tranquil and beautiful
cities such as Krefeld, Rostock and Dortmund are now deserted
graveyards, the broken ruins rapidly reclaimed by the aggressive
ironbark forrests native to the planet that have stubbornly resisted the
efforts of constant warfare to completely burn out. The former capitol
of Regensburg remains and has been heavily rebuilt and fortified and
surrounded by a massive starport that serves as the primary receiving
facility for off-world resources and personnel for the planet. To the
east the fortress hive of Jena has only recently been completed, while
to the west Chemnitz and Erlangen form a ring of fortresses around the
new capitol: Wolfsburg. Named in honor of the warriors of House Cenwulf
who fell in the defense of the world the new capitol was built in just a
few years, the result of incredible macro-engineering by the Magi of
Ydalir and Lokabrenna. The central fortress tower is the home of the
House Cenwulf garrison, numbering twenty Knights and almost two score
Armigers, plus thousands of Huscarls and Thralls. Wolfsburg forms the
lynchpin of an unbroken line of fortifications that stretch from the
Tegernsee Ocean to the west to the Mummelsee Ocean to the east. Three
lines of fortifications, each composed of trenches,
ferrocrete walls that stretch for kilometers, thousands of miles of
razorwire, millions of mines and hundreds of defense weapon batteries,
bunkers and bastion towers connect these two bodies of water. Behind these lines are the great artillery
yards, dozens of them, each housing anything from a handful to a score
of super-heavy howizer guns, each capable of firing shells the size of a
tank miles into the distance. These great guns are supported by
hundreds of lesser artillery pieces of all shapes and sizes, from
man-portable mortars to massive earthshaker guns. After years of near
constant warfare against the hordes of chaos spewing forth from the
Great Rift the once verdant fields and plains between the defense lines
and around the artillery yards have become known as the Warfields,
dumping grounds for tens of millions of spent shell casings, broken
weapons, ration tins, energy cells and whatever other detritus is
produced by armies chewing through supplies and equipment. These fields
themselves have on occasion proven an effective barrier, their shifting
mass of refuse, itself full of caustic, toxic, flammable and explosive
compounds and contaminants proves inhospitable ground for any
conventional army to attempt to traverse.
All of the remaining
cities south of Wolfsburg before the Westreach penninsula have been left
abandoned. Bielefeld, Karlsruhe, Koblenz, Moers, and Aachen remain as
nothing more than broken corpses. Westreach penninsula however was
heavily fortified for the hive-fortress of Neuss serves as the guardian
of the Primus continent's only major port-facilities. Kiel to the north
and Herne on the western tip of the penninsula further shield the port
and are supported by fortified defense lines that ring the coast line
and port. Most of the macro-habs that house the civilian and worker
population of Tritonhold are located in the interior of the penninsula,
protected from attack by the massive fortifications to the east and
west.
The
southern island is home to the ruins of Krefeld and Rostock while to
the north-west of Herne are the ruins of Dortmund. A fortified ring of
bastions stand on the opposite side of Dortmund's island, built to
contain and engage the heretic forces still bunkered down in the ruins
of the former agri-hive. A small chain of uninhabited islands separate
Dortmund from the fortress of Heilbronn to the north-east and further
north, to the west of the Primus continent are the fortresses of Ulm and
Darmstadt. Darmstadt itself stands watch over the great ironbark
forrests of the secundus continent. So dense and hostile to cultivation
are these forrests that, short of overwhelming orbital bombardment, the
region has been considered impractical to clear and settle and so the
native fauna is kept in check by Darmstadt. A series of islands around
Ulm and off the eastern coast of the Primus continent house orbital
defense weaponry protected by manned defense bastions, these facilities
are formidable but ultimately expendable, built to harass any enemy
attempting to achieve landings on the Primus continent and divert forces
to silence them that would otherwise be used to press the assaults on
the principal defenses around Wolfsburg and Neuss.
In a few
short years, and under constant attack, the world of Ovid's Folly has
been transformed into a formidable bullwark against the threats spilling
from the Great Rift. Millions of soldiers have fought and died across
the battered landscape and many millions more will likely be hurled into
the cauldron of war before the tide is stemmed.
The Triton
Defense Corps
-Like the other
systems of the Vanyr sector the worlds of the Triton system once
maintained their own distinct planetary defense forces that
maintained their own heraldry, equipment and traditions and possessed
proud histories dating back millennia. The opening of the rift and
the chaos invasions that followed burned away that history and left
behind little but battle-weary survivors. Those defense forces that
remained, pitifully few in number and no longer combat viable as
their old formations, were universally disbanded and reorganized into
the newly founded Triton Defense Corps. Outfitted and trained as
hardened siege-fighters the Triton Defense Corps wear segmented
carapace armor over heavy chem and rad-resistant trench-coats. Heavy
helmets sit above bulky rebreather aparatus and hands clutch compact
lascarbines, flamers and meltaguns. Most of the warriors now serving
in the defense corps did not live through the invasion and many are
not even native inhabitants of the system. Those still serving who
did survive through the chaos invasion are hardened and morbid
warriors capable of facing down the horrors of chaos without
flinching. Under the guidance of their seasoned core of veterans the
regiments of the Triton Defense Corps have become notable for their
ability to stand in the face of the enemy no matter the odds without
giving so much as a step backwards, fighting to the bitter end to
avenge their savaged homeworlds. Imperial strategos have taken to
assigning regiments of defense corps soldiers to the center-line of
battle, relying on the tenacity and bitter fury of these formations
to hold the line and follow orders when many other regiments would
break and retreat.
The Galene System
-Unusually for a star system the Galene
system contains no intact planets or moons and is instead filled with
several dozen vast asteroid fields that orbit the system in dense
rings around a bright blue sun. Large, moon-sized fragments of rock
and ice stand as evidence that the system must once have possessed a
number of planets of varying sizes but some ancient war or
catastrophe resulted in the near complete destruction of every
habitable body in the system. What fragments remain are rich in
various minerals and raw materials suitable as fuel for the forges of
the Adeptus Mechanicus however extracting those resources is a
time-consuming and difficult process. The various asteroid fields are
so dense and thick with intense radiation and electromagnetic
interference that navigating them is a dangerous and unreliable
endeavor. Even once inside the system the act of actually
establishing safe mining installations within the rings is an
extremely difficult and resource intensive prospect. As a result
those few mining installations that have been constructed throughout
the various fields of the system are almost entirely operated by
indentured penal crews who are overseen by the dour, pain-worshiping
sisters of the Order of the Iron Maiden, themselves consigned to such
duty as penance for past sins. Though the population of the system is
extremely small relative to most Imperial systems it is well
safeguarded from attack as any potential invaders face the same
dangers navigating the asteroid fields as the workers and transport
crews and lack the hard-won experience of the native inhabitants.
Those enemies who have dared to invade have generally found
themselves shocked at the suicidal and reckless tactics of the
defenders who are wont to transform rusted cargo hulks into
promethium filled fire-ships and use salvaged ship-engines bolted to
smaller asteroids as semi-autonomous mass projectiles. Even should an
enemy manage to board one of the mining stations they face thousands
of chem-fueled penal legionaries willing to hurl themselves savagely
at any foe armed with little more than stub pistols and steel
pickaxes. Whatever the prisoners do not manage to kill or destroy the
Battle Sisters of the Order of the Iron Maiden are perfectly capable
of tackling, though few in number the order possesses larger than
average numbers of Penitent Engines and Mortifiers and a cadre of
Anchorites that the order view as blessed engines of destruction. In
the close-quarters of the mining installations such battle-engines
are nearly unstoppable.
The Order of
the Iron Maiden
-One of the
youngest and smallest of the Orders Militant of the Adeptus Sororitas
the Order of the Iron Maiden was established from among the ranks of
the Order of the Valorous Heart. A large priory had been stationed to
defend the Cathedral of Saint Sebastian on the agri-world of Saint
Sebastian's Will. The Cathedral was a place of pilgrimage for the
faithful, with millions of pilgrims traveling across the sector and
beyond to visit the holy site every year. Five centuries before the
opening of the Great Rift a commandery of the Valorous Heart on Saint
Sebastian's Will was censured for failure to prevent a riot from
forming among the pilgrim ques, a riot that damaged the Cathedral and
cost the lives of a number of priests. As punishment the commandery
was sent to garrison the mining outposts in the Galene System and
provide security for the penal workers there, freeing up the elements
of the Astra Militarum that had previously provided security there to
be deployed elsewhere. After three centuries of distinguished service
in seeing off several notable incursions into the system the penitent
sisters were granted the honor of being designated as their own
minoris Order Militant. Though presented as an honor few were under
the illusion that the title was anything other than a means of
permanently distancing the Priory on Saint Sebastian's Will from the
penitent commandery in the Galene System. As fate would have it
though the opening of the rift and the vast chaos invasion of the
Triton System that followed would see the Priory from which the Order
of the Iron Maiden split all but wiped out in a brutal and
bloodthirsty assault that saw the Cathedral and all its holy relics
destroyed and the absolute slaughter of every priest and pilgrim on
the planet. Those few sisters who survived the fall of Saint
Sebastian's Will, awash with the shame of bitter failure and defeat,
were offered a chance of redemption and service within the ranks of
the Order of the Iron Maiden. Whatever salvation the Valorous Heart
survivors had expected however their real fate was far more terrible,
every last one was implanted within the command cradle of a Mortifier
Engine, doomed to a life of endless pain and suffering until they
earned death and the final absolution of the Emperor's Mercy in
battle.
Though the Priory
of the Order of the Iron Maiden now numbers several hundred sisters
it is still very small for an Order of the Adeptus Sororitas, however
despite its limited size the order does maintain a surprisingly large
number of Penitent Engines, Arco-Flagellants, Mortifiers and even
Anchorite engines. The prisoner population is an endless source of
recruits for the engines and arco-flagellation. As descendants of the
Order of the Valorous Heart it is little surprise that the sisters of
the Iron Maiden worship and take solace in pain and suffering,
viewing their own agony as holy prayer to the Emperor and their
patron saint. However the sisters of the Iron Maiden take this
worship to extremes that even members of the Valorous Heart would
almost certainly view as distasteful. Of particular note is that the
order does not view internment within Mortifier engines to be a
punishment, rather they view it as the holy apotheosis of their
creed, the ultimate expression of suffering as worship and service
both. Only those sisters who have achieved some notable deed in
battle or been marked by some sign are awarded the chance to be
interred in a Mortifier. Should a sister survive one or more
engagements as a Mortifier they will be given the chance to be
interred in the armored Iron Maiden pain engine of an Anchorite.
Unlike the Mortifiers within most orders the Iron Maiden do not strip
the pilots of the order's machines of their personality but permit
the pilot to remain utterly conscious of their own suffering. It is
rumored, though remains unconfirmed, that the first Prioress of the
Order of the Iron Maiden still lives and serves the order as an
Anchorite pilot and even more strangely that she is treated as a
prophet, her engine kept chained before the high-alter of the
priory-fortress where the former Prioress emits an endless stream of
raving prayer and prediction, her visions apparently forewarning the
order of attack or predicting the coming of great battle.
Despite the habit
of the sisters of the Iron Maiden to appear as reinforcement to
Imperial forces in the sector on the eve of significant battles the
Order's arrival is rarely greeted warmly and their presence is often
taken as a barely tolerated burden. The terrible scars and savage
demeanor of the order often have a deleterious effect on the morale
of Imperial forces fighting alongside them and the horrid screaming
prayers of the Mortifiers and Anchorites that march with the order's
ranks are a disturbing and terrifying sound to friend and foe alike
that often carries for miles across the battlefield. The Order of the
Iron Maiden bears as its heraldry a white-painted death-mask on a
black field, their robes are black over armor of burnished steel.
Given that the order almost exclusively fights aboard the
close-confines of space stations or within starships and the risk of
exposure to the vacuum is high the order is unusual in that its
sisters almost always march into battle wearing their full helms and
are rarely seen even outside of battle without their headgear. This
is perhaps a mercy as the visages of the orders members, when seen,
are often badly scarred from terrible wounds inflicted and often left
without restorative treatment.
The Palatine Mission of Folkvangr
-The
large number of mechanized walkers serving the Order of the Iron Maiden
is in part because of the particular predisposition and beliefs of the
sisters of the order but is also possible thanks to the technological
assistance and manufacturing capability of the Sacristans of House
Cenwulf and their allies the Tech Priests of Ydalir. The Vanyr system is
one of the pre-eminent sources of Imperial walker technology in the
galaxy, being positioned close by and falling under the military aegis
of House Cenwulf made the acquisition of Penitent Engines, Anchorites
and Palatine Warsuits in large quantities a simple proposition. To
better ensure a steady supply of warmachines and material the sisters of
the Order of the Iron Maiden built an outpost of the Order on
Folkvangr, the closest Imperial world to Andlang that would allow the
order to establish a permanent garrison. From Folkvangr the sisters have
easy access to Andlang and Ydalir and are able to request a fresh
consignment of war machines whenever they have need of them. To bolster
the fighting strength of the small number of sisters stationed at the
garrison the Folkvangr Mission was assigned a large number of Palatine
Warsuits. These machines quickly proved well-suited to the terrain and
to operations alongside the walker-heavy formations of Andlang, Ydalir
and Folkvangr.
The Celestia System
-Although uninhabited for thousands of years the Celestia system was
once a fairly frequently trafficked system for merchant and navy ships.
Featuring a number of gas giants with easy to extract gasses the system
made for a convenient place for a wide variety of ships to dump waste
and take on various gaseous material fuel for plasma engines and
atmosphere recyclers. Over the long centuries of such activity the
system gained several sizable debris fields, mostly made up of waste
material and scrap ejected from ships passing through thet system but
also a number of dead ships abandoned or scuttled in the system for
various reasons. Destroyed pirate vessels, ancient ore haulers that
simply broke down and weren't worth fixing and even some ghost ships
spat out from the warp. Since the opening of the Great Rift travel
through the system has ceased completely and the ship graveyards and
junk fields have expanded enormously. Located at the very edge of the
Vanyr Sub-Sector even closer to the Great Rift than the Caspian system
the Celestia system has become something akin to the rocky shore against
which ships wreckage has washed ashore from the terrible storms raging
further out to sea. Scores of vessels of all shapes and sizes have
washed up in the system, their crews dead or twisted beyond recognition,
hulls torn, engines burned out and plasma drives dead. The system has
become an ever growing ship graveyard, a field of corpses and ruin that
no sane soul would wish to traverse if they could avoid it. Clouds of
ejected plasma, radiation and electromagnetic distortions as well as
drifting unexploded ordnance add to the hazards of the system. What few
ships have dared the system in the hopes of salvage have almost
universally failed to return and those handful that have escaped the
system alive report a deadly labyrinth where dead ships can come alive
and unleash their weapons in a last vengeful barrage from beyond the
grave, crewed by ghosts, daemons or other unspeakable horrors. Curiously
strange rumors have started to circulate among the ship crews operating
in the Vanyr Sub-Sector that the Celestia System has become the haunt
of a chapter of space marine reavers. Imperial authorities have been
quick to stamp down on any such hearsay and the Celestia system remains a
prohibited region by Imperial edict.
Hostile Vanyr Sub-Sector Systems
LGX-5147/17 System
-Officially known only by its Imperial
cartography designation this remote system is recorded as possessing
no habitable worlds or resources of any particular value and is
designated as a "value-null" system. In truth the system is home to a
wealth of resources and several habitable worlds but after early
exploratory expeditions were met with extreme hostility from strike
forces of the Eldar it was deemed that the remote system was not
worth the military effort of conquest and records were quietly
scrubbed. The nobles of House Cenwulf however are aware of the value
and significance of this system and have made occasional forays into
the region to expel the Eldar inhabitants and each time have been met
by fearsome opposition and been forced to withdraw. However each
clash with the system's defenders has curiously seen a higher and
higher proportion of the xenos forces made up of Wraith constructs.
House Cenwulf strategos believe the defenders incapable of replacing
the casualties inflicted in each attack. Thus continued raids have
been authorized to further deplete the defending forces under the
assumption that gradual attrition will eventually eliminate the Eldar
presence entirely so long as the nobles of House Cenwulf can minimize
their own casualties in each attack. One of the upsides to regular
strikes against the Exodite defenders is that the nobles of the house
have gained much experience fighting the wraith constructs of the
Eldar, especially their larger Wraithknight warriors who are the
closest analogue among the Eldar warhosts to the Imperial Knights
themselves. This experience is seen by the nobles of the house as
almost as valuable as claiming the resources and territory of the
system.
Exodite World - Illyasorath
-The primary inhabited world of the
LGX-5147/17 system, Illyasorath is home to thousands of Exodites and
a world spirit that has existed for tens of thousands of years.
Nevertheless its defenders from Craftworld Altansar have struggled to
protect the world from the attacks of House Cenwulf's probing forces
and soon the exodites may have to take up arms to defend themselves
against the Imperials, a battle that they are almost guaranteed to
lose. The prize being fought over is an idyllic world of gentle
pastures, dense woodlands and rich ecosystems of exotic plants and
animals. Clear rivers run into wide oceans teeming with fish and the
snow-capped mountains are rich in veins of precious ores. It is no
surprise to the exodites that their world is desired by outsiders but
they have held on to it this long and are determined not to surrender
their home while they still live.
Hellespont System
-Once a thriving industrial hub on the
edges of the Vanyr Sub-Sector and a major trading partner with the
Hive World of Armageddon the Helespont System fell to the Beast of
Armageddon during the opening stages of the Second War. Since then it
has been ruled by the greenskins and repelled multiple efforts by the
Imperium to reclaim the system. The former industrial world of
Hellespont IV has been renamed by the Orks as Mekzworld and serves as
a major manufacturing center for ork weapons, armor and warships. In
particular the Ork mek's of Helespont have taken to mimicking the
form and traditions of the Imperial Knights of House Cenwulf.
Gorkonauts and Morkonauts, Stompas, Deff Dreads and Killa Kans emerge
from the workshops of Mekzworld in greater numbers than any other
type of orkoid war machine and are supported by heavily
cybernetically modified cyborks who not only ape the appearance and
function of the Skitarii but their robust and augmented forms are
better able to withstand the hostile natural environment of Andlang.
Every few decades a raiding force from Mekzworld will assail the
homeworld of House Cenwulf, eager to pit their latest and greatest
warmachines against the knight scions.
Ork Stronghold World - Mekzworld
-Once a thriving industrial world sited
along a major warp route in the vicinity of Armageddon the world of
Hellespont IV fell to Ghazghkull during the third war for Armageddon.
Since then several attempts have been made by the Imperium to retake
the world but none have thus far proven successful leaving the
considerable industrial capacity of the planet firmly in the hands of
a number of rival greenskin armies, all of them led by cunning and
inventive Big Meks, who turn their instinctive urge to tinker and
create monstrous warmachines on the vast stockpiles of raw materials
and salvage on the planet to churn out an almost endless supply of
incomprehensible yet highly effective killing machines. At least one
of the Big Mek's of Mekzworld has taken a keen interest in the nearby
Imperial Knight world of Andlang and its noble denizens, launching a
number of raids, each one fielding greenskin forces that more and
more closely resemble the armies of House Cenwulf. The last few raids
were conducted almost entirely by squadrons of large walkers,
Morkanauts, Gorkanauts and Stompas, supported by masses of Deff
Dreads and Killa Kans and detachments of heavily cybernetically
augmented cybork troops. The similarity to the lances of House
Cenwulf and their support troops was too obvious to miss. Such aping
of the noble traditions of the Imperial Knights has only further
incensed the nobles of Andlang and it is only a matter of time before
the house launches an all out invasion of Mekzworld to put a stop to
this affront to their honor.
Notable
Members of House Cenwulf
Jarl Halfdan Cenwulf, the Bloodied
Fist
Few records remain of the High Kings
of House Cenwulf before the reign of Halfdan, in fact relatively little
is known of Halfdan himself, his rise to power or early deeds are
long-lost to history. What accounts do survive depict Halfdan, the
Bloodied Fist, as a wise, diplomatic and visionary leader who married
fearsome brutality in war with artful statesmanship. Certainly Halfdan's
role in steering House Cenwulf through the most war-torn and
dangerous period in the Impeirum's history is testament to his
qualities as a leader and an enduring legacy of his deeds. Halfdan's
death would mark the end of an era for House Cenwulf.
Jarl Beirand Cenwulf, the Vengeful
Claw
Eldest son of
Jarl Halfdan Cenwulf the warrior known as the Vengeful Claw rose to
rule the house in the brutal years of the Dark Mechanicum's invasion.
The loss of his father and countless other warriors of the house
drove Beirand to the brink of madness. Unquenchable anger drove
Beirand to reject the Knight Crusader he had previously piloted and
adopt a brutal Knight Gallant instead that he customized to feature a
pair of Thunderstrike claws instead of the typical gauntlet and
chainsword. Brutal and merciless in battle Beirand led countless
devastating ambushes and suicidal counter-attacks against the enemy,
his sheer savagery and recklessness taking the enemy aback and
scattering them before his rage. After the defeat of the Dark
Mechanicum the High King withdrew into a deep melancholy and was
little seen for the next five years. Only the return of the Imperium
and news of the campaigns of the Scouring roused Beirand from his
depression and set him once more on the path of rage and bloodshed.
Despite his own personal disregard for danger the rest of House
Cenwulf's lords and Thanes managed to maintain some semblance of
military discipline and prevent their lances from undertaking endless
suicidal charges. Ultimately Beirand would fight for over a century
in defiance of all expectation before finally falling not far from
the Cadian Gate in battle against the traitors of the Iron Warriors.
Beirand and his ruined armor were returned to Andlang and interred
alongside the remains of his father. To this day no other noble of
the house has achieved the number of gross displacement kills Jarl
Beirand Cenwulf achieved, but nor have the casualty rates of House
Cenwulf's lances ever been as high as they were under his rule
either.
Jarl Baldur Cenwulf, the Raven's Eye
Famed for his
wisdom and patience Jarl Baldur Cenwulf was the younger brother of
Beirand the Vengeful Claw. For decades Baldur watched his brother
descend into the madness of vengeance until his ultimate demise.
Determined to avoid Beirand's fate Baldur set about restoring House
Cenwulf and its domains to something approaching their former
stability and prosperity. Though Baldur's record of combat is one of
the shortest of any ruler of the house following his withdrawal from
the Scouring his achievements are widely recognized as having been
critical to the long-term survival of the house.
Jarl Sigurd Cenwulf, the Iron
Tempest, High King of House Cenwulf
The current High King of House Cenwulf
and Jarl of Andlang. Sigurd is the master of the ancient and storied Knight
Crusader Lupus Rex, one of the oldest and most renowned knight
armors in the entire household, legends hold that it predates the coming
of the Imperium. The
venerable Sigurd Cenwulf is respected and feared in equal measure
as the Iron Tempest of Andlang, though in physical form Sigurd is a
wizened ancient of over five hundred years Terran standard. The aged
High King is kept alive only thanks to advanced life-support
technologies, frequent juvenant treatments and aggressive bionic
augmentation. The wealth and technological sophistication of the house
grants its members access to life-sustaining technologies superior to
most other warriors of the Imperium, it is not uncommon for the most
accomplished, or fortunate, members of the house to live into their
third or fourth centuries, though High King Sigurd is among the longest
lived in the history of the house. Only a handful of nobles in the
history of the house have reached more venerable ages before finally
succumbing to illness, combat injury, extreme infirmity or
assassination.
Thane Borvir, Thunderblade, Ancient
Kingsward of House Cenwulf
One
of High King Halfdan's ancient companions and a member of the Alpha
Lance. Master of the Dominus
Tempestas,
a rare and powerful Questoris Knight Mageara suit still in use by the
house to this day. Unfortunately the deeds of Borvir have mostly been
lost to time, like many of the deeds and fates of nobles from that era, but the earliest kill markings and battlefield honors of
the Dominus
Tempestas
indicate a highly accomplished warrior who achieved a sizable number
of gross-displacement engine kills, a considerable feat even for a
Knight Titan.
Thane Brynjolf, the Savage Rain,
Kingsward of House Cenwulf
At
over three centuries old Thane Brynjolf is far from the youngest
member of the house but a veritable child compared to some of his
fellow Thanes and the Jarl himself. Both Brynjolf's father and
grand-father served as Kingsward before him. From his youth Brynjolf
was raised to serve the same role as his forebears, charged to fight
alongside and protect his Jarl even at the cost of his own life. From
the Throne Mechanicum of his Knight Warden the Omnes
Videntes Thane
Brynjolf punishes any foe foolish enough to strike at his lord with
thunderous barrages of fire from his gatling cannon, rockets and
flamer.
Thane Ulfric, the Crimson Wrath,
Master of Judgement of House Cenwulf
Of
all the dour and humorless members of House Cenwulf the infamous
Thane Ulfric is easily the greatest exemplar of these traits. It came
as little surprise when Ulfric was chosen to become the Master of
Judgement, charged with punishing treachery, disobedience, cowardice
and failure both on and off the battlefield. Ulfric's feared Knight
Errant, the Vermiculus
Ruinam, is a
terrifyingly effective destroyer of machines and fortifications. No
defense, no matter how formidable, is proof against Ulfric's deadly
melta weaponry, armor piercing rockets and thunderstrike gauntlet.
Even Knight Titans walk warily when in Thane Ulfric's company,
careful never to draw the attention of his ruinous weaponry and
fearsome skill.
Thane Einar Haldorsson Cenwulf, Gatekeeper of House Cenwulf
Technically
the warrior Einar Haldorsson Cenwulf is the uncle to the current High
King, Jarl Sigurd, even though he is almost two centuries younger than
his nephew. The complicated marital structures of an Imperial Knight
house can often result in strangely varied and overlapping generations,
particularly should the house employ artificial reproductive
technologies and extensive juvenant treatments that can see individuals
remain capable of bearing children late into multi-century long life
spans. Despite being relatively closely related to the Jarl, Thane Einar
is not in the line of succession but is a respected member of the
Cenwulf clan itself, the oldest and most noble family of the greater
House Cenwulf, which itself incorporates dozens of lesser family clans
and groupings, many dating back millennia, others barely a few decades
old. For over a century Thane Einar has served as the Gatekeeper of
House Cenwulf, the warrior chosen to stand fast as Castellan of Andlang
in the absence of the rest of the house. It is rare in the extreme for
Thane Einar to depart Andlang on campaign, his sacred duty is the
preservation of the house and its domains, only a situation of dire
import may cause the Gatekeeper to set aside his usual duties and take
ship to a battlefield away from the Vanyr system. To perform this duty
Einar is equipped with the only functioning Acastus-class Knight in the
arsenal of the house, the ancient and mighty Acastus Knight Porphyrion
"Ferrum Irae," or the Iron Wrath. The "Ferrum Irae" is one of the oldest
knight armors in the possession of House Cenwulf and easily the most
precious and irreplaceable.
Even at the height of the Great
Crusade when technological rediscovery and expansion was at it's apex
the Acastus class knights were rare and extremely valuable, with so much
knowledge lost in the fires of heresy and the ten thousand years of
stagnation that followed the Acastus-class is all but extinct, only a
handful of houses can claim to possess one of these ancient relics and
even those that remain are rarely seen on the battlefield for their use
comes at a considerable cost. Nearly the size and mass of a Warhound
Titan the Acastus is the single largest war-machine known to man that
can be operated by a single pilot and the strain of controlling such a
powerful machine spirit and such a massive engine of destruction is
rumored to lead to madness or an untimely death for many pilots of the
Acastus-class. To better withstand the physical and psychological toll
of piloting the "Ferrum Irae" the Gatekeeper has been heavily
cybernetically augmented, far beyond what is typical even for the
technologically inclined house or necessary to extend his life. These
augments help Einar better merge with the machine spirit of the knight
armor and offer him some measure of protection from the cognitive
overload of piloting the machine. In addition to these precautions Einar
simply does not mount the throne of his knight very often, his role
typically a more non-combat supervisory and command position, when he
takes to the field it is only when a direct threat has been identified
that his potent weapons are necessary to defeat and such threats are
rare indeed.
Hersir Torsten, The Storm Claw,
Master of Blades
Though Torsten
the Storm Claw does not possess an exalted rank his position as a
Master of Blades, House Cenwulf's title for a Knight Preceptor, is
one of significant honor and responsibility. Charged with overseeing
the instruction of all young nobles of House Cenwulf in the ways of
the gun, the blade and the Throne Mechanicum the Masters of Blades of
the House are relatively few in number but their power is
significant. Few nobles of the house, no matter how senior or
ranking, would easily gainsay the advice or wishes of a Master of
Blades for each warrior learned the arts of war under the tutelage of
such individuals and some of that respect and deference remains
instilled in the nobles of the house from Jarl down to Hirdman.
Hersir Torsten himself is the oldest and most renowned of the current
Masters of Blades and was the first to be awarded the right to pilot
one of the newly reconsecrated Adamant-class Knight armors. Despite
the thoroughness with which the armor was purified, sanctified,
blessed and restored the High King decided that the first examples
would be trusted only to the most senior and experienced of nobles
whose tempered wills should prove effective at resisting any residual
corruption far better than a younger warrior.
Hersir Baldur, the Storm Bringer
One
of the youngest warriors in the lances deployed to Vigiulus the young
Baldur is a mere thirty years old, a bare child compared to the
venerable veterans around him. Nevertheless Baldur has quickly proven
a competent and deadly warrior in the throne of his Knight Crusader
the Geminae Tempestas, or
Twin Tempest. Armed with a Thermal Cannon and Avenger Gatling Cannon
the young Baldur possesses the firepower of an entire squadron of
battle-tanks and has reaped a fearsome toll from the enemy in every
engagement.
Hersir Gulbrand,
the Adamant Blade
A
stolid veteran of the house the reliable and disciplined Gulbrand
pilots the Knight Paladin Ardens
Gladius
or Ardent Sword. The paladin remains one of the most prolific
mainstays of the knightly houses for it's armament is effective
against infantry and armor alike, able to fight to great effect at
range or in close quarters making the paladin a versatile and
reliable platform that makes up the bulk of many knight lances across
the galaxy. Hersir Gulbrand is a firm proponent of precision
bombardment tactics and relishes in reducing the most hardened
enemies to scrap with volleys of accurate battle-cannon shells before
moping up any survivors with sweeps of his reaper chainsword.
Hersir Torvald Cenwulf, the Lightning
Blade, Heir Apparent of House Cenwulf
The heir to the throne of Jotunheim is
no stripling but an ancient and battle-hardened warrior of over two
hundred years of age. Raised and groomed for power and command from
an early age Torvald is a respected and well liked warrior within the house. For many decades Torvald piloted an
ancient and reliable Knight Paladin, however recently the acquisition of
a number of newly forged Dominus-class Knights has given the Heir
Apparent the opportunity to become with the throne of a mighty Knight
Castellan, a weapon of considerable, if temperamental, power.
Hersir Aska, the Ice Banshee
The
ranks of House Cenwulf generally hold relatively few lady-knights.
Most of the young noblewomen of the house who choose to undertake the
Becoming are either among the most naturally skilled or psychotically
violent of their number, the Lady Aska is the rare example of a young
noblewoman who is both. To the surprise of absolutely no-one who knew
her Aska chose to attempt the Ritual of Becoming by bonding with the
Throne Mechanicum of one of the few Knights Gallant in the arsenal of
the house. Also to the surprise of no-one she succeeded and has since
carved out a reputation for brutal and savage violence across many
bloody battlefields. Despite her general trend towards recklessness
and insubordination Aska is still a daughter of a noble house and
follows her orders for the most part, though she does tend to
interpret her orders in ways that favor her own methods over more
conventional household combat doctrine. Though some elders of the
house look on Aska with disapproval her record is exemplary and many
believe Aska may be a sign of changing times. With the Great Rift
splitting the galaxy in twain the need for more warriors has never
been greater and perhaps it is time for House Cenwulf to tap it's
largely under-exploited female population to swell the ranks. Only time
will tell.
Hersir Leif
Direblade
Leif, known as the Direblade, is one of the best swordsmen in the
ranks of House Cenwulf. All scions of the house train in the use of a
variety of blades and guns, primarily to engage in duels of honor but
also in case a noble loses their armor in battle and must fight their
way back to friendly lines on foot. Leif has always excelled in such
training and takes great pride in his ability, perhaps too much
pride. Of all the nobles of House Cenwulf the young Leif causes the
most trouble on deployment, getting into duels with fellow Knightly
scions from other houses, officers from the Imperial Navy and
Imperial Guard and even the occasional Rogue Trader. So problematic
has his dueling become that the High King has increasingly been
forced to punish Leif by making him serve on foot. For the last
several campaigns Leif's Knight Paladin has largely remained in
storage, locked down until its young pilot redeems himself enough to
reclaim the armor. Though separation from his Throne Mechanicum is
difficult Leif does seem to relish fighting on foot, leading
formations of Thralls and Huscarls into battle with his arcane plasma
pistol and master-crafted power sword at the ready, protected by a
full suit of heavy carapace armor and a conversion field generator
the foot-knight is a formidable adversary and has cut down all manner
of foes from Ork Warbosses to Chaos Space Marine Lords.
Hirdman Braig Bloodfang
The young but
talented Armiger pilot named Braig serves as an apprentice to Thane
Ulfric of the Alpha Lance. Braig is believed to be the eldest
grandson of Huscarl Alpha Argis, one of the most renowned and
accomplished infantry commanders of the house. This is difficult to
verify given that personal records on Huscarls and their families are
relatively minimal and any children Argis may have had wold have to
have been conceived several centuries earlier, before his level of
augmentation reached the point where reproduction was no longer
possible. For his part Argis refuses to confirm or deny these rumors,
or even comment on them or Braig himself in any way. Whatever his
family ties Braig has shown himself to be a talented Armiger pilot
who may well earn his way into the nobility if he survives a few more
decades of service.
Hirdman Grisvar Stormclaw
Unlike most
Armiger pilots Grisvar is neither young nor aspiring to any greater
station in life. For his entire life Grisvar has served Thane Ulfric
and the personality of the dour and violently destructive Thane
appears to have rubbed off on his squire. Grisvar lives for nothing
more than to cripple the greatest enemy warmachines with the deadly
anti-armor weaponry of his Armiger Warglaive. The speed, power and
relatively smaller size of the Armiger suits Grisvar perfectly, his
record of armor kills rivaling many young Knight Errant pilots.
Hirdman Vorstag Grimskull
One of the
youngest sons of a lesser Hersir of the house Hirdmenn Vorstag is
desperate to prove himself in the ranks of the Armigers. While
Vorstag has several brothers and even a sister serving with the
Armigers as well, none of them have performed as well as Vorstag, the
reputation and future of his immediate family in the ranks of the
house likely depends on his success.
Hirdman Ogmund Sunblade
Ogmund is a
promising young Sacristan apprentice plucked from the initiate ranks
of the Sacristans. Though a promising acolyte of the forge Ogmund's
aptitude tests and neurological examinations indicated his optimal
candidacy for the ranks of the Armigers. Should he prove himself as
an Armiger pilot Ogmund may one day earn a place in the Throne
Mechanicum of one of the precious Muspelheim Knight suits, or may
choose to retire from combat and make the journey to Mars for
training as Sacristan. Either future will likely see Ogmund not only
outlive his brothers and sisters but likely their children, and their
children's children as well.
Hirdman Eirikur Firelance
A
lesser noble of the house Eirikur is the blood brother of Ingmar and
a hardened veteran. The brothers have both served as squires to the
High King for many decades. Eventually they both
hope to earn their own thrones mechanicum but for the time being are
content to serve as escorts and bodyguards to the great Jarl himself
and take great pride in their duty.
Hirdman Ingmar Razorhail
Brother
to Hirdmenn Eirikur and squire to the High King himself the
battle-hardened Ingmar is a tenacious and stubborn soul. Though he
one day hopes to pilot a knight armor of his own Ingmar takes pride
in his current position serving so close to the legendary Jarl of the
house. Such a position affords many benefits that promotion and a
distant and less glorious deployment would forfeit despite the added
power of command of an actual Knight Titan instead of the lighter
Armiger machine Ingmar currently pilots.
Hirdman Arne Eagle-Eye
One of the most accomplished armiger pilots in the household, Arne Eagle-Eye is renowned for his skill in eliminating the most dangerous of enemies at extreme range with the powerful autocannons his Armiger Helverin is armed with. A sniper of prodigious skill Arne is a patient and careful hunter who has sometimes stalked his prey for days through active warzones, weaving in and out of raging battles to run his foe down and eliminate them with precise volleys of high-caliber slugs.
Hirdman Frode Ironspear
A stoic veteran of advanced years Frode is considered one of the last lines of defense between his liege and the foe. Frode is an expert bodyguard who has saved the lives of a number of senior nobles of the house over his decades of service.
Sacristan Primus Eorlund Ironblood
Easily the oldest member of the house
the exact age of Sacristan Primus Eorlund Ironblood is a mystery even
to the lords of his own house. Normally quite fastidious in their
lore-keeping the Forgemaster Eorlund has gone through so many
transformations over more than thirteen hundred years of service to
the house that identifying his exact date of birth or even his
original identity before he joined the ranks of the house Sacristans
is challenge that none of his house brethren have been able to
decisively overcome. Even as Eorlund's origins are lost to the mists
of time the mighty cyborg master of machines continues to evolve his
physical form, constantly replacing and upgrading his biological and
mechanical components. Currently Eorlund takes the form of a
monstrous war-construct carried along on numerous reverse joined legs
from an extended lower body. From under his voluminous robes dozens
of mechadendrites snake about while his hunch-baked upper torso bears
no less than eight arms bearing a variety of tools and weaponry
including a mighty ceremonial power axe, an archaeotech molecular
atomiser and a deadly arc scourge. As impressive as his physical form
is Eorlund's reputation as a master of the forge is greater still.
There is scarcely a weapon or machine in the entire arsenal of House
Cenwulf that has not benefited from the attentions of the Sacristan
Primus at one time or another, many having been restored to
functionality thanks only to the peerless artifice of Eorlund. It is
not uncommon to see Eorlund on the field of battle, the venerable
Sacristan Primus determined to attend to his charges regardless of
the danger. In truth there are few foes capable of threatening the
mighty physical war-form of Eorlund's heavily augmented body which is
in some ways even more formidable than the knight suits of the house.
Sacristan Dominus Lokyar Blackfist
Senior apprentice to the Sacristan
Primus the veteran field mechanic Sacristan Dominus Lokyar Blackfist
is a common sight on the battlefield where he faces down the most
dire of threats to attend to his mechanical charges. Over the long
centuries of his service Lokyar has lost most of his original
physical flesh to injury and augmentation and now resembles a
stoop-backed wraith more than a man, his entire lower body given over
to multi-jointed metal limbs and mechadendrites while his back is
hunched beneath the incredible weight of augmentations, power
generators and transformers. One of Lokyar's supplementary bionic
arms ends in a fearsome eradication beamer, highly useful for
defending himself against nearly any foe, cutting through debris or
severing damaged components for ease of replacement during
battlefield repairs. Of all the Sacristans of House Cenwulf including
the Primus it is Lokyar Blackfist who has the greatest mastery over
shielding technology. From the Emanatus Force Fields and Ion Shields
to Refractor and Conversion fields there are precious few defensive
energy barrier technologies within the Imperium that Lokyar has not
mastered. Lokyar's greatest work is his own custom Enhanced
Conversion Field Generator, an energy screen projected from within
Lokyar's own heavily augmented body that provides defensive
protection equivalent to the powerful defensive fields of the
astartes Storm Shields.
Sacristan Engineseer Ulfberth the
Bear
Personal Sacristan artificer of Jarl Sigurd Cenwulf charged with serving the Lupus Rex.
Physically Ulfberth is a large individual sheathed in segmented
plates of power armor only partially concealed beneath his storm-grey
robes of office. A single chunky servo-arm and relatively plain power
axe serve as Ulfberth's tools of the trade and symbols of authority.
Sacristan Engineseer Arnskar
Ashenbeard
Arnskar, ironically named Ashenbeard
after the black rubber filtration hose that hangs down from his lower
jaw, is the personal artificer to Thane Brynjolf. Arnskar's sworn
duty is to maintain and serve the Vermiculus Ruinam and ensure
it is every-ready to stride to war at a moments notice. Hunched of
appearance and sporting a trio of slender servo-arms the venerable
Arnskar is nevertheless a rather insectile and strange looking
creature who seems to disturb allies of the house with his very
presence. Perhaps because of his effect on outsiders Arnskar is
rarely seen outside the secure armories of the house and even on the
battlefield prefers to shroud himself from the view of others behind
his own small army of augmented servo-automata.
Sacristan Engineseer Gunmar
Steelcrow
Rigid of both bearing and personality
the tall and proud Sacristan Engineseer known as Gunmar Steelcrow is
the personal artificer to Thane Ulfric. It is a point of great pride
for Gunmar that he serves the Kingsward and his work is at least
partly responsible for the protection of the High King. Unusually
among the senior field sacristans of the house Gunmar bears a more
ornate axe of office and shrouds himself in meticulously clean and
well-kept robes from which emerge a number of slender servo-arms and
augmentations that do little to take away from Gunmar's regal
bearing. When the sacristans of the house are called upon to interact
with outsiders the responsibility usually falls to Gunmar who seems
to revel in such opportunities to represent the forge-adepts of his
house.
Lancer Alpha Brandr the Grim
One of the most senior Huscarls of the
house the warrior known as Brandr the Grim is the commander of Jarl
Ulfric's personal Talon lances. Expected to stride into the most
desperate of battles alongside his knight lord Brandr and his
warriors are the most highly trained and experienced Lancers of the
house, armed with a mixture of weaponry and expected to fight just as
hard as their liege. Alpha Squadron itself typically bears the
awesome might of the plasma cannon, the most powerful and dangerous
heavy weapon the sentinel is capable of mounting. Despite the risks
Brandr views the plasma cannon as the ultimate tool of death
available to his Lancers and the only weapon capable of matching the
incredible destructive firepower of the house knights.
Lancer Frothar
Lancer Arnskar
Lancer Sub-Alpha Galmar
Sub-Alpha Galmar is the leader of Beta
Squadron of the Jarl's personal Talon Company. Though the house
has access to a wide variety of weaponry with which to arm it's
sentinels Galmar favors the ubiquitous multi-laser for his squadron,
preferring the high rate-of-fire over slower firing but more powerful
weaponry.
Lancer Kraldar
Lancer Bolund
Lancer Sub-Alpha Fultheim
Commander of Ceti Squadron of the
Jarl's own Talon Company the young firebrand Fultheim prefers to arm
his squadron with autocannons, the powerful recoil and roaring shells
of these weapons set Fultheim's blood running hot and fill his heart
with battle-fury.
Lancer Kjeld
Lancer Hjorunn
Lancer Sub-Alpha Erikur
One of the oldest members of the
Jarl's personal Talon Company the experienced Sub-Alpha Erikur favors
the versatility of missile launchers, giving his squadron the option
to engage a variety of targets efficiently with a single loadout.
Lancer Skuli
Lancer Helvard
Lancer Ancient Fultheim
Like all pilots of the venerable
Onager Dunecrawlers in service to the house the Lancer Fultheim is an
aged veteran of over two centuries of service to the house. Kept
alive through suspension in a life-support amniotic tank hard-wired
into the hull of the Onager the former mortal is now more akin to a
hybrid of flesh and iron forged in hardship and tempered in the hell
of eternal war.
Lancer Gunner Sulvar
Lancer Ancient Haeming
Pilot of the second Onager Dunecralwer
in Ancient Fultheim's Squadron. Several decades younger than his
commander Haeming nevertheless has nearly two centuries of service to
his name and is credited with enough armor kills to make him a tank
ace many times over.
Lancer Gunner Olvir
Huscarl Ancient Jorund Tyr Valbrand,
the Iron Crow
The oldest and most accomplished
warrior in the ranks of House Cenwulf's elite Huscarl infantry
formations the Huscarl Ancient Jorund Tyr Valbrand, known as the Iron
Crow, is a walking legend. It was centuries ago that Jorund underwent
his initial cybernetic augmentation at the hands of the Tech-Adepts
of Ydalir to become one of the enhanced Huscarl warriors of the
house. With each campaign more of Jorund's old flesh is cut away and
replaced with unyielding metal, it has been many years since the
Huscarl Ancient passed the point of the Crux Mechanicus, becoming
more machine than human and has only been further enhanced since.
Outside the ranks of the nobility and the war-adepts of the
Sacristans the Iron Crow is one of the few warriors trusted to lead
the cohorts of the Huscarls and Thralls into battle unsupervised.
Jorund has seen more campaigns than many nobles of the house and can
be relied on unquestionably to command his brethren with unparalleled
efficiency and competence. Many of Jorund's augmentations focus on
command and control, complex suites of auxpex and data-tethers link
him to his warriors and allow the immediate transfer of battlefield
data and transmission of orders. When personally threatened Jorund
relies on the deadly power-talons that make up his right hand and a
heavy storm bolter that was gifted to him by a veteran warrior of the
Space Wolves. Any foe who manages to weather his storm of shot or
swipes from his claws must get past Jorund's heavy carapace armor and
powerful conversion field generator to strike a wounding blow and
even then the chances of hitting anything vital in Jorund's mostly
mechanical frame are slim.
Huscarl Alpha Argis
One of the most senior Huscarls in the
house, Argis commands over a hundred of his heavily augmented warrior
brothers into battle alongside the mighty warmachines of the house.
Huscarl Sub-Alpha Drennen
Second-in-command to Alpha Argis the
veteran officer Drennen is a reliable field commander and veteran of
dozens of campaigns across three segmentums of the Imperium.
Huscarl Sub-Alpha Odinkar
Squad leader of one of the Huscarl
units under the command of Alpha Argis, Sub-Alpha Odinkar specializes
in the deployment of dangerous plasma calivers against the most
heavily armored of enemy units.
Huscarl Sub-Alpha Ingjald
Squad leader of one of the Huscarl
units under the command of Alpha Argis, Sub-alpha Ingjald and his
squad bear a number of devastating Arc weapons to disable or destroy
heavy armor units that might threaten the Knight Lords of the house
but are not dangerous enough to demand the attention of the knight's
own weapons.
House Cenwulf Void Assets
Aggregate Void Dockyard Romhavn
-The principal void facilities of House Cenwulf the Romhavn space
port is kept in geosyncronous orbit over Jotunheim, the capitol
fortress of Andlang. Originally a relatively small facility large enough
to perform maintenance and repairs on a handful of the household ships
and handle what little trade and traffic the system once saw the
facility has grown many times it's original size over the millennia and
even more so in recent centuries. Now the dockyards are able to house
whole squadrons of escort craft and have docking facilities for several
dozen capital and merchant-class vessels. Most of the vessels moving
cargo through the system dock at Romhavn at least once while in
system. Although a major domain of the household the nobles of House
Cenwulf maintain a minimal presence on the station. Part of the oldest
and most central structure of the station is a series of chambers and
facilities reserved for the exclusive use of House Cenwulf's nobles and
servants, additionally several of the largest docking points and their
attendant storage yards and repair facilities are reserved for the
vessels of the Hearth Fleet, otherwise the station is largely maintained
by the freeholder Karl's native to Andlang. Unique among the holdings
of House Cenwulf however the Romhavn is home to a large number of
non-native personnel. Barred from maintaining permanent residence on
Andlang itself the station serves as the closest possible outpost for
large numbers of representatives from various Imperial adepta and
organizations as well as many merchant outfits who wish to stay close to
the largest power block in the region.
Ramilies-Class Star Fortress Svalbardi
-The most recent major material acquisition by the nobles of House Cenwulf the Svalbardi was taken as wargeld in the reconquest campaigns that followed the Gothic War. Once known as the Stalwart Sentinel
the star fort was broken open and captured by elements of the traitor
legions during the Gothic War and then subsequently retaken by crusading
elements of House Cenwulf. Although originally the property of the
Imperial Navy of the Gothic Sector, the nobles of House Cenwulf claimed
the fortress as war salvage, enacting minimal repairs before towing the
fort back to the Vanyr system for a full refit. Much of the station was
carved out and replaced before the Sacristans of the house were happy
and the resulting fortress has become one of the most powerful assets in
the arsenal of the house, mounting enough firepower to destroy fleets
and cavernous cargo-holds capable of transporting the entire house's
military assets with space to spare. Part of the collossal dorsal spaces
of the station were opened up by the Sacristans of the house to store
eight massive drop-keeps and the skin of the fort was modified with
Knight-sized air-locks and battlements to allow the suits of the house
to fight on the outer surface of the station in its defense. Since it's
acquisition the Svalbardi has only left the Vanyr system twice,
at all other times it follows a variety of randomized orbital patrol
routes through the system, a constant sentinal against attack. Those few
times the nobles of the house have towed the Svalbardi to a warzone it's firepower has proved overwhelming against even the most intractable of foes.
Avenger-Class Grand Cruiser Naglfar
-Flagship of the Hearth Fleet and personal chariot of the High King the
Naglfar is a vessel of dark aspect and vicious purpose. Named after a vessel from the myths and legends of ancient Terra the
Naglfar
is an old and battle hardened Avenger-class Grand Cruiser that has served the house for thousands of years. Although largely unremarkable the
Naglfar is the most heavily armed vessel of the hearth fleet and serves as the de-facto flagship whenever the High King embarks on campaign. Like the other vessels of the fleet the
Naglfar has been modified to launch drop ships from a pair of small launch bays retrofit into the hull behind the broadside cannons and cradles for a brace of drop keeps carved out of the ventral decks of the ship.
Exorcist-Class Grand Cruiser Ognabrandur
-The oldest of the Hearth Fleet vessels still in service the Ognabrandur
was acquired to replace the aging refitted merchant vessels the house
had used before the coming of the Emperor, acquired from the second-rate
vessels of the Expeditionary Fleets the aging Grand Cruiser was
nevertheless considerably larger and more powerful than anything the
house had used before. Over time the house would acquire another six
such vessels though only five Hearth Ships serve the fleet today,
several have been lost or scuttled over centuries of almost constant
campaigning. Although the oldest, the Ognabrandur is not the flagship of the Hearth Fleet, that honor goes to the Naglfar.
Exorcist-Class Grand Cruiser Saebroda
-One of the most storied vessels of the Hearth Fleet the
Saebroda
is the only vessel of the house to have ever entered the Eye of Terror
and returned. The vessel took part in a doomed and disastrous attempt to
chase fleeing chaos reavers back into the Eye of Terror following the
Gothic War. The battles that followed were grossly one-sided and the
Imperial forces were forced to rapidly retreat, most failing to escape
the clutches of the galaxy's most formidable warp storm. Of the small
household fleet that entered the great eye only the
Saebroda
escaped the storm and has since then carried something of a dread aura,
even the forces of the arch-enemy are wary of engaging this fearsome old
warhorse of a ship.
Exorocist-Class Grand Cruiser Ormen
-The Ormen
is easily the least liked of the Hearth Fleet's ships. For centuries
the vessel has been considered an ill-omen and assignment to it is often
seen as a punishment. Many campaigns the ship has participated in have
seen unusually heavy cassualties. Though the Ormen always
survives to return home it usually does so with far fewer passengers and
crew aboard than it should have. As a result the Ormen is often
assigned to patrol the Vanyr system and is rarely taken on campaign.
Only if the house must deploy and other vessels of the Hearth Fleet are
too damaged or in need of refit will the Ormen be ordered to depart the system.
Exorcist-Class Grand Cruiser Baruvalr
-Although not as fleet as the Naglfar the Baruvalr is considered by many in the household to be the most reliable and lucky vessel in the fleet. Many times has the Baruvalr escaped deadly warp storms and ridden through turbulent tides to reach it's destination intact. The Saebroda is typically believed to be simply tough and stubborn but the Baruvalr is
considered agile and cunning by the Thralls and Huscarls of the Hearth
Fleet, a vessel too slippery to be caught by a storm tide.
Defiant-Class Light Cruiser Hrafn
-The least well known vessel of the Hearth Fleet and one that is not
officially recognized by the House in most circumstances is the ship
only known as the
Hrafn or the Raven. This salvaged and refit
Light Cruiser of the Adeptus Mechanicus was acquired by the House some
time ago and serves as it's most fleet and capable exploration and
recovery ship. The crew of the
Hrafn is largely made up of
Sacristans and Servitors with a small but heavily armed cadre of
Huscarls as protection and a single lance of Imperial Knights. No
Thralls or Karls serve aboard the
Hrafn and the vessel is only
sent on missions to recover or salvage lost technology or artifacts of
interest to the house, especially knight armors. In the household's
search for the STC templates for the Adamant-Class Imperial Knight
armors the
Hrafn served at the forefront of the campaign and has
covered considerable ground in recent years. Typically the lance
assigned to the
Hrafn will be made up of the most rare and
advanced Knights of the house, the handful of Styrix, Mageara, Atropos
and Moirax-class Knights and Armigers in possession by the house,
themselves entirely the product of salvage for such rare and precious
technology is rarely given by the Mechanicus to houses not sworn into
the direct service of the Adeptus itself. Though House Cenwulf has never
officially aknowledged the possession of this ship to it's Mechanicus
allies the adepts of Ydalir and Lokabrenna are well aware that the
nobles of Andlang have essentially absconded with one of their vessels
and are not pleased however they are also unwilling to directly confront
the nobles of Andlang about it lest they threaten their relationship
and their access to the technological artifacts and ancient lore the
house still so closely guards.
Additional Assets:
In
addition to the capitol-ships the Hearth Fleet includes a number of
additional military vessels. Seven sword-class frigates and eight
cobra-class destroyers serve as escorts to the Grand Cruisers of the
fleet on campaign. Few in number though they may be the escort craft are
not meant to properly engage the enemy but are typically asigned to
escort and patrol duties, spreading a wide sensor net and ensuring that
foes cannot sneak up on the slower and more vulnerable grand cruisers,
particularly when they are at their greatest risk while holding
geosynchronous orbit over a target planet and deploying their cargo of
drop keeps and transports. The Vanyr system itself is patrolled by
almost two-score system defense monitors, these vessels are not
warp-capable, lacking both warp drives, gellar fields and navigator
towers they are entirely incapable of extra-system travel. Because they
do not possess warp engines or gellar field arrays such ships are quite
fast and well armed for their size and can punch decently above their
weight. When invasion forces or pirates enter the Vanyr system the
defense monitors may be ordered to swarm the attackers, using superior
numbers and hard-hitting firepower to cripple even capitol-class ships
so those more capable vessels in the system can destroy the enemy at
will or they may be ordered to stay out of range and harass or monitor
enemy targets, particularly if their chances of successfully engaging
are low. To aid the monitors a handful of cargo ships have been
outfitted by the House Sacristans as Q-Ships. Cosmetically they are
identical to other cargo-transports but when engaged can explosively
eject sections of their hull to reveal the firepower of a small cruiser,
a nasty shock for an enemy expecting a lightly-defended transport
convoy.
Notable
Figures of the Vanyr System
Archmagos Quillian-V-Zandatos
The senior representative of the Forge
World of Lokabrenna the Archmagos Quillian-V-Zandatos is the
unofficial ruler and administrator of the Forge World Minoris Ydalir.
Though the minor forge world has it's own highly-skilled and
experienced Magos and is officially controlled by a local Archmagos
the representative of the principal Forge World Lokabrenna holds the
real power on Ydalir, ultimately all major decisions and ultimate
authority over the forge world's military and technology falls to the
current representative of Lokabrenna. Though Quillian maintains an
office in the Stavanger Forge Temple he spends most of his time in
the Titan Forge located on the northern edge of the Namsos Forge
Sprawl region. A massive nightmare of flesh and metal in chaotic
fusion Quillian is essentially an enormous centipede creature,
fifty-feet long, carried around on dozens of individual insectile
limbs and sprouting scores of manipulator claws and mechadendrites
the Archmagos oversees the construction and maintenance of all
God-Machines on Ydalir, often personally undertaking the task of
installing major components and systems, his massive form easily able
to manipulate the huge components of the Titan warmachines. The few
times Quillian has ever been called on to fight his physical form
reveals a skitarii maniple's worth of firepower emerging from the
folds of his voluminous robes. Volkite chargers, conversion beamers,
plasma calivers, phosphor blasters, meltaguns and macrostubbers
sprouting from all along his enormous and terrifying form. Needless
to say few enemies withstand the awesome barrage of Quillian's
weapons, enabling the Archmagos to dispense with the tedious chore of
combat and return to his duties in the Titan forge.
Archmagos
Lima-XIV
Officially the designated senior
administrator of the Forge World Minoris Ydalir the Archmagos
Lima-XIV is a strange and inhuman figure. While the
Archmagos-Administrator Quillian-V-Zandatos from Lokabrenna is the
real power on Ydalir much of the day-to-day operations of the forges
are processed through the towering intellect of Lima-XIV. Many who
have witnessed the Archmagos Quillian describe his form as utterly
terrifying but the physical appearance of Archmagos Lima-XIV is
stranger yet. Lima-XIV is essentially a massive sphere of floating
brains, each sprouting significant cybernetic augmentation and linked
into an enormous network of cogitators and networked Calculus-Logi
adepts. The entire construct of Lima-XIV systems takes up a sizable
shaft of space at the heart of the Stavanger Forge Temple that runs
hundreds of feet high and is exactly one-hundred yards in diameter.
Lima-XIV's exact age or even original gender are completely unknown,
even the vast data-stacks of the Stavanger Forge Temple do not offer
a single or reliable answer to these questions as in reality Lima-XIV
grew into it's current form over many centuries. Starting with the
brain of a single calculus-logi adept permanently installed into one
of the core mainframes of the forge temple the construct slowly took
form over a very long time. As the original brain was worn out and
filled to capacity further gray matter was cloned from the original
tissue and installed to keep the adept functioning, the entire system
and fractured personality of Lima-XIV growing ever stranger and more
powerful with each addition. Despite the incredible strangeness
Lima-XIV is an invaluable component of the Stavanger Forge Temple,
alone responsible for processing over seventy-percent of the data
transmitted throughout the Namsos Forge Sprawl. Physical movement is
entirely out of the question for Lima-XIV, any time communication is
required with other ruling elements of the Vanyr system the Archmagos
chooses to appear as a hololithic avatar or to communicate through a
junior adept as a proxy. The lords of Andlang tend to find Lima-XIV
an even more unsettling individual than Archmagos Quillian-V-Zandatos
and so tend to avoid it whenever possible in dealings with the forge
world, a situation that perfectly suits the reclusive and immobile
senior adept of the Mechanicus.
Princeps Senioris Olaf Hjelmstad the
“Stormstrider”
Commander of the Legio Sirius garrison
of Ydalir and lord of the Ironwolf Bastion the Princeps Senioris Olaf
Hjelmstad is known as the Stormstrider, a title earned for his
ability to pilot his God-Machine through the most intense of enemy
fire and live, even where other Titans have perished. Princeps
Senioris Olaf brings that same ability to walk the knife's edge
through danger to his command, leading the Maniples of the Legio
Sirius against countless enemies while minimizing losses in the face
of the incredible threat of the Great Rift and the countless foes
spilling into the Emperor's realm from the hell-light of the warp.
One of Olaf's most critical goals since the opening of the Cicatrix
Maledictum has been to preserve the strength of the Legio Sirius.
Without contact with the wider Legio command Olaf has to operate as
though his command are the sole survivors of the Legio and thus must
be preserved lest the Legio and it's proud history be lost entirely.
Not to mention as the heaviest military assets in the Vanyr system
the God-Engines under Olaf's command are a critical asset in and of
themselves and not to be wasted in vain and foolhardy quests for
glory and renown. On campaign Princeps Olaf is content to let his
allies, whether they be the Adeptus Astartes warriors of the Space
Wolves, the regiments of Folkvangr Imperial Guard, the maniples of
Ydalir Skitarii or the hunting Lances of House Cenwulf, to do the
bulk of the fighting while the maniples of the Legio Sirius content
themselves with providing reinforcement and fire-support. For their
part the other forces fighting alongside the nobles of House Cenwulf
also recognize the extreme value of Olaf's maniples and are nearly as
keen to protect and preserve them as the Princeps Senioris himself.
Though ostensibly sworn and beholden to the Adeptus Mechanicus of
Lokabrenna the Legio Titanicus is an independent organization and not
directly under the command of the Magos of the Mechanicus. In the
absence of a more senior Legio commander Olaf cannot be directly
countermanded even by Archmagos Quillian-V-Zandatos, a fact Olaf has
been quick to point out whenever the issue of the chain-of-command is
raised while on campaign. Nevertheless Olaf is generally willing to
follow the commands of the High King of House Cenwulf so long as the
nobles of the house are also willing to provide escort and screening
support to his maniples. This mutual support has proven highly
effective in battle and though the cost to House Cenwulf has been
high the preservation of the God-Engines of the Legio Sirius is more
important even than the lives of the scions of the Imperial Knight
household.
Princeps Skarin the “Soul-shriven”
Commander of the Warhound Titan Seryi
Volk the warrior known as the Soul-shriven is a grim, bitter and
savage warrior with little care or regard for his own life and a
burning desire to obliterate the enemies of the God-Emperor with bolt
and plasma. Whenever the maniples of the Legio Sirius march to war
alongside the nobles of House Cenwulf the Seryi Volk is the first to
enter the battle and the last to leave. Countless battles have been
turned in the Imperium's favor by the unrelenting brutal destruction
meted out by the venerable Warhound and it's brutal and unrelenting
crew. Though Princeps Senioris Olaf Hjelmstad is primarily concerned
with preserving the fighting strength of his maniples a commander
must ultimately fight with the forces under his command. Though
Princeps Senioris Olaf may have preferred to replace Skarin with a
more level-headed Princeps in such a dire time there are no crews to
replace the reckless Skarin and so Olaf must make do with trying to
support the younger Princeps and prevent the Seryi Volk from being
lost to the recklessness of it's commander. For their part the nobles
of House Cenwulf believe the Skarin is simply a driven and zealous
warrior and are always heartened to see the Seryi Volk stride out to
join them in battle, knowing that whatever the enemy throws at them
the Seryi Volk will meet and crush with remarkable efficiency and
lethality.
Moderati Drakan
The weapons moderati of the Warhound
Titan Seryi Volk. Moderati Drakan oversees the loading, targeting and
cooling of the primary weapons systems of the Seryi Volk, which in
most cases are a Vulcan Mega-Bolter and a Plasma Blastgun. Both
weapons are extremely powerful and dangerous weapons that require
considerable care and finesse to deploy properly from the platform of
a God-Engine. Fortunately Moderati Drakan is a master in their use,
his skills hard-won in countless battlefield encounters over the last
few decades. No other Titan crew in the Legio Sirius detachment
assigned to Ydalir has the kill-tally or engagement numbers of the
Seryi Volk and this record shows in the skill and experience of the
crew. Drakan is aided in his task by a pair of servitors, one
hard-wired into the control systems of each primary weapon. These
servitors help Drakan process targeting information and calculate
trajectories on the fly in the heat of battle.
Moderati Torstein
The moderati steersman of the Warhound
Titan Seryi Volk. Torstein is charged with overseeing the navigation
and steering the Warhound Titan across even the most broken and
treacherous battlefields. Given the aggressive and violent nature of
Princeps Skarin's command the young Torstein is under immense
pressure to keep the Titan moving with speed and agility regardless
of the conditions, navigating the most hostile battlefields to find
the enemy and bring them to battle swiftly and reliably. In this role
Torstein has excelled and proving himself to be one of the most
capable steersman in the Legio.
Tech-Priest Svein
Svein serves as the Titan Tech-Priest
of the Seryi Volk, charged with managing and maintaining the volatile
plasma generators of the Titan in the heat of battle. Even at the
best of times the plasma-cores of a God-Engine are volatile and
temperamental beasts that require a deft hand to maintain properly.
In battle they are raging infernoes that could run out of control at
a moment's notice and swing wildly from drained nearly to death to
overloading close to detonation as the God-Engines either draw power
dramatically or build it to discharge their weapons and fuel their
void shields. With Skarin at the helm of the Seryi Volk the Warhound
Titan is under even more intense demands than would normally be the
case. As a result Svein often appears to be a haunted and drawn
individual, unhealthily thin from the constant demands of his role.
Nevertheless Svein will not abandon his crew or his God-Engine
charge, protective of his role with a fearsome determination that
has clearly earned the appreciation and respect of the volatile
Skarin and his battle-hardened Moderati and cemented Svein's position
on the close-knit crew of the Seryi Volk.
Governess Cosima Nicolina Vidalia
Falkenberg the XXIII
For over nine-thousand years members
of the Falkenberg family have served as the Imperium sanctioned
governors of the agri-world of Folkvangr. Proud, aristocratic and
nearly as wealthy as the nobles of House Cenwulf the Falkenberg
dynasty holds a significant amount of power in the system, even if
their authority exists ultimately at the indulgence of the lords of
Andlang. For millennia the Falkenberg's have slowly carved out their
own niche in the wider power structures of the Vanyr system, ensuring
to never overstep their bounds or offend the nobles of House Cenwulf
while also working to ensure that their role in the governance of
Folkvangr becomes ever more invaluable and irreplaceable. Like her
forebears before her Governor Cosima Nicolina Vidalia Falkenberg the
XXIII works tirelessly to make sure that her family's is so firmly
rooted into every aspect of Folkvangr's infrastructure, bureaucracy
and administration that any attempt to usurp or replace the
Falkenberg's would be disastrous to the smooth-functioning of the
agri-world. As such it serves her interests and those of her clan to
ensure that the agri-world never falters in the quality and quantity
of goods it produces and exports, especially where the tithe to House
Cenwulf itself is concerned. Many of the Falkenberg's also serve as
officers in the PDF and take command of regiments raised for the
Astra Militarum, earning fame and glory for their family fighting
across distant battlefields in the name of the Emperor and House
Cenwulf. In addition to a sizable standing planetary defense force
the Falkenberg's also maintain a considerable number of heavily-armed
Enforcers. Grim and merciless enforcers of the Lex Imperialis these
carapace armored, shock-baton wielding brutes patrol the depths of
Holmestrand Hive, ensuring that the various junior houses and guilds
never let their ambition or greed interfer in the continued efficient
production of Folkvangr. Though the majority of the Enforcers
garrison and patrol the capitol others can be found ranging all
across the surface of Folkvangr, ensuring that the great transit-ways
remain functional and safe and that the various scattered
agri-communities and farmsteads remain loyal and reliable servants of
Governor Falkenberg.
Cosima Nicolina Vidalia Falkenberg
rules her modest kingdom with cunning and ruthlessness. Even the
nobles of Andlang have a healthy respect for Cosima and are wary of
directly interfering in the affairs of the Falkenbergs. The current
commander of House Cenwulf's garrison on Folkvangr, Leif Direblade,
tends to give the ancient Governess a wide berth, preferring to hunt
the sparse native beasts remaining on the agri-world through the
dense forests and leave the administration of the planet in Cosima's
capable hands.
Lady Natalia Federova Falkenberg the
XVII
The eldest daughter of Governess
Cosima Nicolina Vidalia Falkenberg the XXIII, the young Lady Natalia
Federova Falkenberg the XVII is the heir apparent of the Falkenberg
dynasty and one of the most powerful individuals on Folkvangr.
Although she has been groomed for leadership from infancy the young
Natalia prefers the dueling rings of the mid-hive over the courtrooms
and council meetings of the upper hive. An accomplished markswoman
Natalia uses her privileged status to acquire the finest pistols and
targeting augmetics she can acquire and revels in using them to gun
down gangers, mercenaries, cultists and whatever else wanders before
her sights during frequent trips into the downhive slums. Accompanied
by a retinue of bodyguards seconded from the elite Falkenberg
Lifeguard at all times Natalia and her retainers possess more
firepower than a PDF platoon and are quite happy to put it to use. In
the high circles of Folkvangr the young Natalia is something of an
embarrassment for the Falkenberg house and there are many who clamor
for a more mature and less violently unstable heir to be appointed.
Lord Nicholas Augustus Falkenberg
the XIV
A distant cousin to Lady Natalia
Federova Falkenberg the young Lord Nicholas has covertly been
appointed by Governess Cosima to keep an eye on her young heiress and
protect her should her tendency towards low-hive violence get her
into trouble that her pistols and Lifeguard wardens cannot get her
out of. An accomplished duelist and marksman Nicholas has little
trouble keeping up with Natalia and serves as a constant but
unnoticed shadow to the young noblewoman. Wherever Nicholas goes he
always ensures to bring a powerful archaeotech grenade, sourced from
the vast private armories of the Falkenbergs this incendiary device
is quite capable of leveling a small building and obliterating a
company of enemies at once. The grenade serves as an emergency
fallback should Nicholas or the reckless Natalia ever get into a
problematic situation that powered blades and high powered firearms
alone cannot rectify.
Captain Heinrich Wagner
Commander of the elite Falkenberg
Lifeguard the venerable Captain Heinrich Wagner is a seasoned
professional soldier and one of the most experienced military men on
Folkvangr. Born of humble origins Heinrich clawed his way up the
ranks of the Folkvangr PDF, before finally earning promotion to the
Lifeguard. While serving in the bodyguard of house Falkenberg the
veteran soldier proved his worth time and again, protecting multiple
members of the house from assassination and kidnapping attempts and
eventually drew the notice of Governess Cosima herself who personally
promoted him to command of the Lifeguard after the previous Captain
was killed protecting Cosima's daughter Natalia from a gang ambush in
the lower hive. Much of Heinrich's duties revolve around protecting
Natalia and preserving the chain of succession of the house. Despite
Heinrich's frequent lectures and attempts to convince Natalia to
behave as a proper noble should and abandon her frequent sojourns
into the lower hive slums the young Natalia will not be swayed and so
Heinrich has seen more fighting as Captain of the Lifeguard than in
his several decades of prior service combined.
General Hohlt Van Der Graaf
Senior commander of the Folkvangr
Planetary Defense Force the redoubt General Hohlt Van Der Graaf is a
capable veteran of around seventy-years Terran standard who attained
his rank through a carefully negotiated marriage to a great-great
grand-niece of Governess Cosima Nicolina Vidalia Falkenberg the
XXIII. Since then Hohlt has worked tirelessly to skim resources from
Folkvangr's tithe to the Imperium, running the risk of offending both
the Falkenbergs and House Cenwulf, however the goal of this
embezzlement for Hohlt has been the largest expansion in the PDF's
forces and arsenal in over three thousand years. Tanks, Sentinels,
artillery, heavy weapons and munitions have been requisitioned,
stolen, lost and appropriated, and even (somewhat) honestly purchased
all to ensure that the garrison of Folkvangr stands stronger then at
nearly any point in its entire history. Some of those close to
General Hohlt believed he was simply being paranoid, following the
opening of the Great Rift however some whisper the General may have
been dangerously prescient. Whether Hohlt somehow managed to predict
the looming disaster or simply has a well honed instinct for danger
is unknown and since the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum few have
bothered to pay the subject any attention. Thanks to General Hohlt's
preparations, paranoid or otherwise, the military strength of
Folkvangr has never been better prepared to meet the challenges of
defending the planet and the system. Many thousands of conscripts
have been raised and armed, thousands more PDF marshaled as levies
for the Imperial Guard and dispatched into the stars to aide in the
effort to push back against the countless invaders besieging the
beleaguered Imperium. General Hohlt himself has worked tirelessly to
raise and train still more soldiers, emptying the prisons and slums
of Folkvangr and even drawing fresh recruits from the worker habs of
Ydalir to gather more soldiers for the Imperium. So long as his
efforts do not detrimentally effect the production of material from
Folkvangr or Ydalir his efforts have been not only permitted but
encouraged for everyone understands the unprecedented threat facing
the Imperium and that the need for men and women under arms has never
been greater.
Admiral Constantin Fredrikson
Commander of the Vanyr System Defense
Fleet the young Admiral Constantin Fredrikson is a capable but
unimaginative Imperial Navy officer who likely obtained his rank
through dint of his family connections rather than his own individual
merit. However posting to the Vanyr system is hardly a particularly
noteworthy or demanding position. Admiral Constantin Fredrikson
commands three dozen System Defense Monitors and a small warp-capable
fleet numbering a single squadron of destroyers, two small squadrons
of frigates, two light cruisers and a single ancient and battered
cruiser, all seconded from the Battlefleet Obscurus to protect the
modest dry-docks orbiting Ydalir. Capable of constructing small
numbers of escort craft if necessary the dockyards of the forge world
minoris are primarily designed to service the vessels of House
Cenwulf and the transportation vessels of the Chartered Captains and
the Adeptus Mechanicus. In exchange for the modest reinforcement of
the system defense fleet the Battlefleet Obscurus was granted
recruitment, refit and resupply rights at the dockyards making the
facility orbiting Ydalir a minor supply point for the Imperial Navy
operating in the Segmentum.
Admiral Constantin's primary duty is
to protect the docks and the interests of the Imperial Navy but he is
also sworn to the authority of the Imperial Governor of Folkvangr,
putting him under the authority of the Lady Cosima, and by extension
the nobles of House Cenwulf who hold Folkvangr as a protectorate of
the house. Though this complicated chain-of-command would probably be
frustrating to many Imperial Navy officers the relatively young and
inexperienced Constantin seems to have adapted to his assignment
well, happy to allow the extended bureaucracy of the system to keep
him out of the way of the grim and dour nobles of House Cenwulf.
Admiral Fredrikson has instead preferred to remain aboard his
flagship patrolling the outskirts of the system to the political
intrigue of Holmestrand where he could have maintained an office and
left the acting command of the fleet to his subordinates like many
past Admirals have chosen to do. Ironically this isolationism has
given Constantin valuable experience learning the various routes in
and around the system and allowed him to defend against xenos and
traitor incursions into the system far better than if he had chosen
to remain in the comfort and safety of Holmestrand's upper hive
spires.
Primaris Psyker Ichika Watanabe
A bright young prodigy from the
training halls of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica the powerful psyker
Ichika Watanabe serves as an adviser and battlefield weapon in the
service of the Falkenberg house of Folkvangr. Ichika's services were
awarded to the Falkenberg's following an obscene donation to the
Vanaheim Choir and the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. Why Governess
Cosima was so determined to acquire the services of a powerful
telepathica psyker is a subject of much debate but few can argue that
following the opening of the Great Rift the talents of Ichika
Watanabe have proven invaluable in protecting the world of Folkvangr
from the claws of daemons and the blades of raiders and traitors
alike. For her part Ichika does not seem to care overmuch where she
serves so long as she has enemies to fight and Folkvangr has
certainly provided ample opponents for the young psyker to ply her
talents against. Insurrectionist factions, troublesome low-hive
gangs, chaos cultists, xenos invaders and summoned warp spawn have
all tasted Ichika's devastating powers. Most of Ichika's time is
spent aiding the efforts of Holmestrand's Civil Enforcement Division,
the armored enforcers of the Lex charged with rooting out all traces
of heresy, rebellion or corruption within the capitol hive-city of
Folkvangr. Since the appearance of the Cicatrix Maledictum incidents
of rebellion and chaos taint have risen dramatically and the
Enforcers have been stretched to the breaking point putting down
these constant threats, even with Lady Ichika's considerable
assistance.
Choirmaster Chidiadi Akande
One of the very few outsiders
permitted to live on Andlang the master of the Astropaths known as
Chidiadi Akande is the Choirmaster of the Vanaheim Astropathic Choir.
One of the largest and strongest Astropathic relays in the sector the
Vanaheim Choir numbers anywhere from one to five hundred Astropaths
at any given time. The Vanaheim choir is essentially a realm within a
realm. Within the choir tower ever single soul is bound to the
service of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. Grim, black armored wardens
patrol the darkened hallways, ever vigilant for signs of possession
or corruption while blind servitors ceaselessly record every sound
uttered by the Astropaths going about their duties. Other mind-dulled
cyborgs see to the daily needs of the Astropaths, cleaning and
repairing the facilities, preparing food and water and sometimes even
carrying the more aged or infirm members of the choir to and from
their projection cradles. The undisputed master of this realm is
Chidiadi Akande, an aged but extremely powerful member of his order
recruited and trained on the Throneworld itself. Such a bright and
experienced mind likely could have requested a posting nearly
anywhere, why Chidiadi chose Andlang remains a mystery but it may be
a relatively simple thing. Perhaps Chidiadi, like countless billions
of the Imperium's citizens, looks on the Imperial Knights as noble
and powerful warrior-heroes and the chance to serve on the homeworld
of one such household of esteemed heroes may have been exactly the
kind of posting he desired. Certainly it is not the norm for an
Astropathic choir to share a home with a household of Imperial
Knights. Whatever his reasons Chidiadi and his choir are an
invaluable asset to the Vanyr system. The opening of the Great Rift
killed many of the Astropaths of the choir and caused immense damage
within its halls. Nevertheless, in large part to the leadership and
skills of Choirmaster Akande, the choir survived and continued to
function despite the upset. As such the choir continues to keep House
Cenwulf in contact with the nearby systems and other Imperial forces
operating in the Segmentum. At a time when many worlds and whole
systems in the Imperium have found themselves unexpectedly deaf and
blind the nobles of House Cenwulf still hear the cries of friend and
foe across the tides of the warp, this critical information is a key
component in keeping the nobles of Andlang in the fight against the
enemies of the Imperium.
Cardinal Sebastian Wellington of
Gathalamor
The senior representative of the
Ecclesiarchy on Folkvangr and, by extension, the whole of the Vanyr
system, the Cardinal Sebastian Wellington is a relatively humble and
proactive representative of his order. Many priests of Sebastian's
rank use their privilege to surround themselves with wealth and
power, living in vast mansions serviced by armies of attendants,
consuming the finest of imported food and drink and growing fat and
slovenly in their decadence. While Sebastian possesses a fondness for
food, drink and cheer and carries the belly to prove it his domicile
in the upper-spires of Holmestrand Hive is surprisingly modest and
most of his servants are warriors or blessed servitors. Sebastian can
more often be seen journeying through the slums of the mid and low
hive, bombastically preaching the divine word of the God-Emperor than
delivering wise council to the courtly lords and ladies of the
upper-hive. The bulk of Cardinal Sebastian's attendants are hardened
warrior-zealots who protect their holy charge during his frequent
missions into the downhive and even accompany him to battle when the
forces of Folkvangr take to the field in defense of the system.
Numbering Crusaders, warrior-priests, fanatic militia, death cult
assassins and redemptionist cultists these attendants form a small
army in their own right and are a force to be reckoned with. Many in
the upper-hive keep a wary eye on Sebastian, concerned that his
puritanical streak could cause trouble in the future and it is
rumored even Governess Cosima has plans in place should the Cardinal
ever seek to bring his firebrand form of preaching into the
upper-hive itself.
Sir Richter Von Maur
A noble of one of the ancient Crusader
noble houses of Terra the veteran warrior Richter Von Maur is a
knight in service to the Ecclesiarchy, assigned to Folkvangr to serve
as the commander of Cardinal Sebastian Wellington's personal
bodyguard. Although raised in privilege and wealth Sir Richter Von
Maur is a practical, efficient and deeply pious individual. His
personal quarters are nearly indistinguishable from those of a lowly
servants and his personal possessions almost non-existent apart from
his magnificent weapons and armor. Sir Richter takes his
responsibilities very seriously, he never permits Cardinal Sebastian
out of his sight outside the grounds of the Cardinal's own estate, he
even personally tastes everything Sebastian eats or drinks before it
reaches the Cardinal. Richter has gone to such lengths to ensure
Sebastian's personal safety that he has even ensured that a number of
the Cardinal's small coterie of servants are a genetic and blood-type
match for Sebastian, ensuring that a ready supply of donor blood and
organs are available should the Cardinal become ill or injured. One
of the few hobbies Richter allows himself to engage in during the few
moments of free time is to scrimshaw Cardinal Sebastian's sermons
onto the skulls of fallen servants and defeated enemies, creating a
macabre library of the Cardinal's holy words that now fills much of
the interior of the Cardinal's modest estates in the spires of
Holmestrand's upper-hive.
Sister Amelia the Blessed
Formerly of the Order of Our Martyred
Lady the young Battle Sister now serves as one of the personal
retainers of Cardinal Sebastian Wellington. During one of Cardinal
Sebastian's earlier assignments as a warrior-priest serving alongside
the Sororitas the Sisters of the Order of Our Martyred Lady were
fighting against the forces of the Heretic Astartes Word Bearers,
that most blasphemous and reviled of all the traitor legions to the
warriors of the Ecclesiarchy. During that battle the young Sister
Amelia was struck down by a monstrous Helldrake daemon engine which
towered over her and prepared to engulf her in baleful warp flames
from it's throat mounted flamethrower when Father Sebastian stepped
over her and warded away the flames with the power of his faith and
his personal Rosarius power field emitter. Caught on the edges of the
field's protection Amelia was spared the worst of the warpflame but
was still badly burned and scarred by the encounter. Nevertheless
Father Sebastian's intervention saved her life and the Helldrake fell
to the zealous priest when he stove in the nozzle of it's flamer with
the head of his power maul and caused the machine to explode from
within. Ever since that day Amelia has sworn herself to the service
of Father Sebastian, seeing him as a living avatar of the
God-Emperor's divine will. Now she wears heavy plate armor and
carries a flamer with an under-mounted eviscerator chainsword. Next
to Sir Richter she is Sebastian's most trusted and capable servant
and ever at his side when the Cardinal sets out to bring the
Emperor's light into the squalid darkness of the hive-city.
Navigator Primus Xander Argento
Bellisarius
Lord Xander Argento Bellisarius serves
as the Navigator Primus, the most senior Navigator of House
Cenwulf's hearth fleet. Somewhat past his prime Xander was formerly
attached to the Space Wolves Chapter for some thirty years, and
served aboard a number of Rogue Trader vessels for forty years before
that. Assignment to the Hearth Fleet of House Cenwulf is something of
a retirement for Xander Argento Bellisarius where he will likely
serve for several more decades before finally returning to Terra to
live out the rest of his days in the secluded enclaves of House
Bellisarius. Despite his age Xander is still a talented and highly
capable Navigator who has faithfully and reliably transported task
forces of House Cenwulf Knights and soldiers to dozens of embattled
warzones across the Segmentum and beyond for some years now. Though
an outsider the venerable Navigator is held in high esteem by many
factions in the Vanyr system including House Cenwulf itself. Although
his position is one that is typically aloof from the strategic and
political concerns of his employers Xanders past association with the
Space Wolves and his connections through the influence and wealth of the
powerful Navigator House Bellisarius have made Xander a potent asset to
the nobles of House Cenwulf even beyond his ability to safely navigate
the troubled tides of the warp.
Notable
Figures of the Protectorate Domains
Governor-Militant Alesandro
Constantinides
Formerly the Lord-General of the
planetary defense force of the Agri-World Ovid's Folly and a distant
relation to the Governor Estevan Castellanos-Drakos XIII. The ruling
family of House Drakos, based on the system capitol of Uriah's Hope,
had dominated the political structure of the entire system for
thousands of years but was wiped from existence in a matter of hours
when the forces of chaos stormed the system. House Castellanos, the
ruling dynasty of Saint Sebastian's Will fared no better. Even House
Galatas, rulers of the agri-world Marna's Rest were all but
extinguished, only a handful of the great house scions still live.
Only the Constantinides dynasty of Ovid's Folly survived in any
number, and even then much reduced. Alesandro commanded the stubborn
defense of Ovid's Folly and it was entirely thanks to his strategic
insight that anything of the world was left to salvage and rebuild.
Following the reclamation of the system by the forces of House
Cenwulf and the reorganization of its defenders into the Triton
Defense Corps the overall command of the system has fallen to
Alesandro who has taken on the dual role of Imperial Governor of the
remaining populations of Ovid's Folly and Marna's Rest as well as
Lord-General of the system defense forces. In honor of the late
Imperial Governor Estevan the Governor-Militant has taken the former
crest of House Drakos, the coiled dragon, as his personal crest and
many among the defense corps have taken to calling him the Dragon of
Triton.
Governess Elena Galatos
One of the few remaining nobles of
House Galatos, the ruling family of the agri-world Marna's Rest the
Governess Elena Galatos has watched the power of her family wane
nearly to nothing as the remaining inhabitants of the system have
been forced to adopt a militaristic reform under the authority of
Governor-Militant Alesandro Constantinides. Despite her best efforts
Elena Galatos has watched the agricultural export of her planet fall
dramatically as settlements have been fortified with walls and
bastions and fields dug up with trenches, filled with mines and
razorwire and prepared for war. Not all of Marna's Rest has been
repurposed for war and the food-stuffs grown in the kilometers of
golden fields remain of significant import to the security of the
system, needed now more than ever to feed the growing number of
soldiers filling the system. Nevertheless Governess Elena fears the
complete collapse of her world's agricultural production in the name
of further fortification and defense as her system has now become the
bulwark between the Great Rift and the rest of the inhabited systems
of the Vanyr sector.
Governor Giovanni Francesco Mazzanti
The current ruler of Mazzanti Prime
and overall Imperial Governor of the Mazzanti system, Lord-Governor
Giovanni Francesco Mazzanti is a shrewd merchant, ruthless tyrant,
and cunning tactician who has managed to hoard a vast fortune, raise
a massive personal army and cobble together an enormous and
heavily-armed merchant flotilla. Few rulers in the history of the
Mazzanti system have commanded the material wealth or military
strength of Giovanni, what the governor intends to do with such
strength is as yet unclear but he may be preparing to make yet
another attempt to wriggle the system free from the dominance of
House Cenwulf.
Governor Francois De Leon
In the millennia since the nobles of
House Cenwulf crushed the tyrannical Iron Lords and freed the people
of Caspian Sigma from their control the noble house of De Leon has
risen to a role of preeminence on the feudal world, vanquishing all
contenders for the role of planetary Governor. Many other noble
houses exist on Caspian Sigma but none possess the wealth or military
strength of the De Leon family. Governor Francois has long petitioned
House Cenwulf to grant the feudal world additional technology and
develop the world into an industrial planet. Thus far Francois'
efforts have come largely to naught however House Cenwulf has seen
fit to increase the defensive capability of Caspian Sigma
significantly in the last century, much to the satisfaction of house
De Leon. The professional bodyguards of the nobles have been issued
Astra Militarum grade lasguns, their castles have been fitted with
heavy bolters and icarus autocannons as well as void-shields powered
by geothermal power plants built into the fortress foundations, and
each keep has been further outfitted with vox relays capable of
coordinating their efforts with nearby fortresses. Such measures have
significantly improved the defenses of the feudal world and allowed
Caspian Sigma to see off several minor ork and human pirate incurions
on its own in recent decades, victories that have only further grown
the reputation and power of the De Leon family.
Governor
Mikhail Gagarin-Nevsky
The current Imperial Governor of the
hive world Nevsky in the Krastenwald system. The world was originally
named after the ruling dynasty that settled the planet during the
Great Crusade but in truth the Nevsky family was wiped out in
internecine conflict several thousand years ago. Nevertheless every
Imperial Governor of the planet takes the last name Nevsky in honor
of the founding family. The current governor hails from the powerful
House Gagarin, merchants and traders who rose through the ranks of
the planetary nobility thanks to a near monopoly on weapons imports
from Ydalir. The Gagarins have ruled Nevsky for several centuries now
through their power is not so absolute that the house is immune from
the possibility of a coup and thus the Gagarin's must be ever wary of
threats from the other noble houses of Nevsky lest they suffer a fate
similar to the original ruling house. Such paranoia is in part why
the Nevskian Grenadier defense regiments are so well trained and
equipped, the expensive armored personnel carriers and carapace armor
of the regiments attesting to the vast treasuries and abundant
resources of the Gagarin family.
Governor-Elect Richard Osborne
Falkner's Reach is one of the few
worlds in the Vanyr sector that elects its governor from among the
ruling families of the planet. In times past the planet has been
ruled by members of the Byron, Grenville, Pelham, Russell, Astor,
Holland, and Stanhope families and others besides. No one house is
generally allowed to amass too much power for too long before
leadership is passed to a scion of another house, ensuring that power
remains distributed. On those few occasions when a ruler refuses to
easily relinquish authority the matter has usually been settled by a
well placed sniper's bullet. The standards of marksmanship and sheer
number of sharpshooters on Falkner's Reach has meant that few
political issues become too strained as everyone understands that
none of them are immune from the reach of the others. Though
designated an agri-world relatively little of the planet's surface
has been converted into farmland and instead serves as pastures for
large herds of domesticated herbivores of several different varieties
including the common grox. Predators fill the hills, valleys and
forests of the planet and so the natives must remain ever vigilant
for threats to their herds and ready to put down said threats with a
well placed shot from a high-powered long las.
Governor
Marius Godwin Tornberg
Lord-Governor Marius Godwin Tornberg
is one of the youngest individuals to bear the title of Imperial
Governor within the Vanyr sector. Nevertheless he has established
himself as a fierce and proud ruler willing and able to marshal his
people in the fight against the encroaching forces of chaos.
Regiments of Raptoryx Lancers have joined dozens of musters and set
out on crusade in their tens of thousands over the last few decades.
Many of these regiments have been led by members of the ruling house
of Tornberg and Marius himself has led several campaigns against
raiding forces that have threatened Halvard's Hope in recent years.
Godwin's elite Golden Lances regiment have taken to the field several
times and spearheaded assaults against chaos cultists and xenos
raiders alike.
High-Administrator Qing Lao-Tzu
Unlike most of the rest of the worlds
of the Vanyr sector the inhabitants of Praxis IV are largely
transitory in nature and hail from a wide array of cultural and
ethnic backgrounds. The most dominant single faction currently are
descendants of the crews of the Rogue Trader House Qing that arrived
in the system some four centuries previously, themselves claiming
descent from an ancient Terran noble clan of the same name. Sailing
under the flag of a serpentine dragon, the Qing merchant-clan of
Praxis IV controls most of the shipping and dockyard facilities of
the moon and currently dominates inter-system trade. Praxis IV is not
considered an independent world and thus possesses no Imperial
Governor, instead the settlements and facilities of Praxis are
controlled by a senior Administrator who reports directly to the
Imperial Navy and the Administratum representatives operating from
the moon. The High-Administrator is usually appointed from among the
most powerful merchant-clans by the Adeptus Administratum and for the
last century and a half that post has been held by Qing Lao-Tzu.
Despite his powerful position Lao-Tzu faces constant pressure from
the leaders of several other powerful merchant-clans including Hameed
Bin Khalid and Katarina Zaitsev.
Canoness Superior Anastasia of Galene
The current commander of the sole
Priory of the Order of the Iron Maiden, an order minoris of the
Adeptus Sororitas stationed in the Galene System. Originally named
Valentina Octavia, a lesser daughter from one of the noble houses of
the Krastenwald system raised in the Schola Progenium and recruited
to the Adeptus Sororitas for her faith and strength Anastasia
forswore her family names and took a new one taken from the writings
of the Imperial Church after joining the order. Anastasia is a brutal
and merciless commander and gifted tactician who has led her sisters
to victory after victory following the opening of the Great Rift.
Always her formations are spearheaded by the forbidding sight of
heavily armored Anchorites, striding into battle screaming prayers
through teeth clenched in agony within their pain-inducing
sarcophagi. How the order always seems to appear in the right place
and at the right time to participate in nearly every major conflict
in the sector for decades straight is unknown through some believe
the sisters of the order use pain-induced visions of the Emperor to
dictate where and when they will deploy, launching surgical strikes
across the sector aboard sleek Ecclesiarchal cutters from the safety
of their asteroid-fortress deep in the Galene system.
Following the opening of the Great Rift the Order of the Iron
Maiden committed the bulk of it's strength to the crusade force called
together by the nobles of House Cenwulf. In recognition of the Adepta
Sororitas' committment to the joint force the artisans of House Cenwulf
and the Magi of Ydalir combined their efforts to produce a
master-crafted Paragon Warsuit for the Canoness Anastasia. Known as the
Armor of Faith Eternal this heavily customized warsuit features
priceless irreplaceable technology whose secrets of manufacture have
long been lost to the Imperium but of which some examples remain in the
deep vaults of House Cenwulf's armories. This powerful symbol of
authority and strength was gifted to the order along with fifty newly
manufactured Paragon Warsuits, giving the order's line of battle access
to a shocking number of heavy assault units given the relatively small
size of the contingent, a force numbering a bit over a thousand strong.
Notable
Battles
The Invasion of Waaaagh Ironklaw –
538-612.M29
One of the few well known battles from
before the coming of the Imperium is the Invasion of Waaagh Ironklaw.
The invasion was a conflict that would last nearly a century and saw
House Cenwulf come close to annihilation. Thousands of ramshackle ork
ships stumbled upon the system, smashed through what little remained
of the void-born system defenses and landed millions of greenskins
supported by thousands of warmachines. Initially the toxic and
heavily irradiated surface of Andlang cost the greenskins countless
lives but the orks proved hardy and quick to adapt. The poorly manned
and all but abandoned lesser fortresses of the house were quick to
fall and the orks used these mountain strongholds as shelters from
the worst of the natural hazards. The clumsy and ill-suited tanks and
trukks used by the orks were hastily converted into walking
warmachines, killa-kans, deff-dreads and stompas by the hundreds in a
crude parody of the noble war-engines of House Cenwulf. For decades
the ork forces held the upper-hand, pushing the warriors of House
Cenwulf ever backwards until only Jotunheim remained, and there they
were halted. Hundreds of thousands of orks died trying to breach the
walls of the fortress, their dead piled so high that the mounds
became unstable and fell down the slopes of the mountain like an
avalanche, but of corpses instead of the usual radioactive snow. So
high were the ork casualties attacking Jotunheim that the entire
campaign shifted in the favor of House Cenwulf. Depleted in warriors
and material to an enormous extent the orks could no longer withstand
the remaining knight lances of the house and were slowly driven back
to their captured strongholds and exterminated.
Legends told about this conflict
suggest that the campaign raged on so long the stockpiles of
munitions in Jotunheim were nearly exhausted and the Knights of the
house resorted to mounting their few remaining artillery shells on
long metal shafts and carrying them in thunderstrike gauntlets,
imitating the rather insane tankhammers of the orks. This allowed the
nearly ammunition starved knights to deliver a mortal blow to even
the largest ork warmachines up close and personal where energy
shields wouldn't protect them. The great Road of Bones that leads up
from the valleys to the gates of Jotunheim is believed to be named
after the thousands of crippled ork warmachines the xenos used to
build the crude iron road. In modern times the ramshackle highway has
been rebuilt and reinforced with Imperial construction but underneath
the permacrete road and adamantium bracing the rusted iron of ruined
warmachines can still be seen.
Modern Imperial strategos believe that
the hostile environment of Andlang prevented the orks from
replenishing their losses. With precious little in the way of fertile
ground for the spores of the orks to take root and grow the losses
the greenskins took were simply unsustainable. Even so the massive
initial force was almost enough to wipe out the house and only the
combination of fearsome combat skill and wise tactics allowed the
house to survive this terrible time of trial.
Waaagh Ironklaw stands as the first in
a long series of ork invasions of Andlang that have persisted for
thousands of years. Every few centuries a new onslaught will assail
the Vanyr system. Some of these attacks are repelled in space, some
have savaged Folkvangr or more recently Ydalir but most have targeted
the homeworld of House Cenwulf. In a crude mockery of the proud
panoply of the house the Orks have over-time adopted the very
fighting styles and structures of the house in their own savage way.
Each greenskin invasion is spearheaded by a core of heavily armored
walkers largely comprising Stompas, Morkanauts and Gorkanauts,
supported by formations of Killa-Kans, Deff-Dreads, and Mega-Dreads.
This tendency of the orks to ape the weaponry and technology of their
enemies has led to a history of enormous clashes of walkers on the
surface of Andlang. Hundreds of human machines facing off against
many times their number of xenos engines and very often emerging
battered but victorious. The vast hordes of infantry typical of ork
invasions are often absent from the more recent invasions of Andlang,
the greenskins relying much more heavily on sealed armored walkers
and small numbers of heavily augmented infantry known as cyborks,
once again mocking the noble augmented warriors of the Huscarls.
The Liberation of Caspian Sigma –
343.M30
Centuries before the Imperium of Man
would come into contact with House Cenwulf the nobles of Andlang were
busy fighting fiercely to expand and stabilize a small realm of order
and productivity. One of the battles fought during that time was to
liberate the Feudal World of Caspian Sigma from the tyrannical
despots who had risen to power over the world during the dark age of
technology. Most of the settlements on the planet existed in a
pre-industrial technological state, farming with beast-driven plows,
lighting their homes with candles and oil lamps and defending
themselves with iron swords and spears. The lords who ruled over them
however had managed to maintain a somewhat higher degree of
technology. Mounting raids on the lowland settlements from their
mountain strongholds in the east the tyrants would ride out on
clockwork iron steeds, wielding shock-lances and laslocks and armored
in a crude form of powered armor. The most powerful of these Iron
Lords piloted crude bipedal walkers roughly two-thirds the size of a
Questoris-Class Imperial Knight. Far less sophisticated than the
mounts of the Imperial Knight houses these mechanized suits lacked
any kind of MIU interface, lacked the protection of ion shields and
mostly mounted crude cannons and up-scaled shock-lances but against
the simple weapons and armor of the rest of Caspian Sigma's
inhabitants these machines were terrible monsters of death and
destruction that could annihilate anything that stood before them.
Perhaps once, long ago, these machines were knights and their pilots
were descendants of an ancient noble house lost to history but if so
they had fallen a very long way as to become almost unrecognizable.
Far from espousing the noble virtues of the code chivalric these
degenerate monsters preyed on the lowlands farm settlements, steeling
captives to drag back to their mountain abode to harvest for blood
and organs, bathing in the vital fluids of their victims and
replacing their own withered flesh with fresher meat these foul
creatures managed to extend their lives into long centuries at the
expense of the innocent.
Enraged at the terrible state of the
planet the nobles of House Cenwulf landed upon the lowland plains and
marched east towards the mountain fortresses of the Iron Lords. In
winter the few passes into the mountains were all but impassable,
preventing most attackers from reaching the heights but also
preventing the Iron Lords from descending. It was during the winter
months that the lowlands people could breath easy a little and try to
rebuild and prepare for spring and renewed raids by their monstrous
abusers. Though winter lay heavy on the land when the knights of
House Cenwulf landed this proved little difficulty for the mighty
steeds of the house. As if to prove the complete futility of their
enemy's resistance the scions of House Cenwulf marched into the
mountains through the snows. The few fortified gates and watchposts
that greeted them were broken open and cast down as they went. Within
a matter of days dozens of Knight Titans of House Cenwulf had reached
the distant heights to discover an extensive hidden valley at the
heart of the mountain range where the Iron Lords had carved out their
own sheltered existence. The valley was a veritable paradise, kept
prosperous by the wealth stolen from the lowlands and the hoarded
remnants of technology the Iron Lords had amassed the valley was rich
with fruit trees, ponds and streams full to bursting with fish, lush
forests full of game and ringed with lavish castle palaces from which
the various Iron Lords and their households lived. Were it not for
the statues of ghoul-faced monsters in spiked plate lining the roads
or the fields of rotting corpses staked out on spikes the place would
have been reminiscent of many Imperial Knight homeworlds.
Driven into a dark fury by the grim
and morbid trophies and monuments of the Iron Lords the nobles of
Andlang began their assault on the fortresses. One after the other
the Imperial Knights broke open the bastions, dragged out their
enemies and slaughtered them. Tortured slaves with blades for arms
threw themselves at the knights only to be gunned down by stubbers or
stamped into the soil under titanic adamantium feet. Power armored
men-at-arms wielding lightning-sheathed halberds and firing
high-powered laser-bursts from wooden-stocked las weapons marched out
in serried ranks only to be cut down by avenger gatling cannons or
blasted into scraps by battle cannons. Lesser nobles on mechanical
steeds wielding lances and crude plasma carbines launched daring
charges at the knights only to be torn from their saddles by reaper
chainswords or crushed by thunderstrike gauntlets. Rockets and
missiles ripped the few cannons and howitzer defense weapons from
iron-clad battlements. When at last the greatest of the Iron Lords
were forced to take to the field their crude walkers proved little
threat to the noble warriors of the Knight House. Large-bore cannon
shot and poorly calibrated energy weapon fire splashed harmlessly
from the ion shields and armor of the knights while their own weapons
ripped the metal monsters of the Iron Lords apart and made a mockery
of their enemy's greatest weapons and warmachines.
Within a
matter of days more than a score of castles and several hundred enemy
machines had been destroyed, the burnt-out carcasses littering the
kilometers of forests and fields of the valley. Their mission
complete the nobles descended from the mountains and met with the
elders of the lowland villages and told them of the Iron Lords
defeat. The nobles of House Cenwulf promised protection for the
people of Caspian Sigma so long as they remained honest and virtuous
and loyal to the nobles of Andlang. In return for their fealty the
nobles of House Cenwulf worked to share some of the captured
technology of the Iron Lords with the lowlands people, to raise among
them nobles to oversee and protect the settlements, to build castles,
dam rivers, build bridges and otherwise bring a moderate level of
prosperity and order to the world. House Cenwulf's nobles did not
want to advance the people of Caspian Sigma too far for their simple
hard-working and tenacious spirit impressed the nobles and they
feared too much access to technology would degrade their culture. For
the wealthiest simple arc lighting illuminates their keeps, the
professional guardsmen were to be armed with laslocks. Simple
vox-casters would allow the various settlements to communicate and
facilitate trade but otherwise little would change. Grox beasts pull
the plows through the cultivated fields, fishermen still use twine
nets to haul fish from the rivers and wagons and sail-boats are the
primary means of transportation. House Cenwulf itself would maintain
no formal presence on the planet but would keep Caspian Sigma under
its protection and monitor the world for signs of danger. The ruins
of the mountain fortresses were however forbidden to the inhabitants.
House Cenwulf rebuilt the fortified gates protecting the passes and
mounted servitor-crewed defensive guns upon them, ensuring none would
set foot in the mountains without the permission of the house. The
gutted keeps and ruined machines of the Iron Lords were left as
ruins, all trace of statuary, iconography or inscriptions were
obliterated, the libraries burned and the terrible laboratories
smashed utterly.
When they departed the nobles of House
Cenwulf left behind a valley of ruins and wreckage with no
identifiable trace of who had once lived there. A single
pre-fabricated bastion was placed in the north end of the valley,
crewed by servitors and fitted with an orbital vox broadcast array,
which itself could reach a small deep space relay installed by the
house to watch over the system. The relay was a small space station
with a crew of a few hundred thralls and outfitted with a handful of
short-ranged messenger craft. Small ships only barely capable of
making short, blind jumps through the warp. These runners could make
it to the Vanyr system with relative safety and reliability and would
bring word of any threat to the system. This method was used heavily
by House Cenwulf to maintain communication throughout its
protectorate domain through the centuries of the dark age of
technology though today the station has been replaced with a more
formidable installation crewed by several astropaths able to contact
the choir on Andlang in case of emergency. It would not be until
after the coming of the Imperium that House Cenwulf would return to
Caspian Sigma and the Valley of the Iron Lords. Given that Andlang
itself is a poor host for visiting nobles or dignitaries the lords of
House Cenwulf chose to, on occasion, use the valley on Caspian Sigma
as a meeting place. Remote, scenic and peaceful the valley made for a
much better backdrop for negotiating trade deals, marriage contracts
and treaties than the toxic wastes of Andlang.
In time the valley would become the
favored spot of the nobles of House Cenwulf to hold tournaments.
Every few decades House Cenwulf will hold a tournament in the valley,
calling on any Knight from far and wide to come and compete, be they
warrior of a noble house or freeblade is irrelevant, all are welcome,
all may compete. Sometimes House Cenwulf, or one of the other
participants, will bring xenos combatants for the nobles to test
themselves against, usually Ork or Eldar warmachines kept in
stasis-shielded vaults and unleashed on the tournament fields during
special events. Sometimes these foes will be intended to allow for a
somewhat realistic re-enactment of some great battle or victory of
House Cenwulf or one of the other houses participating, sometimes
they are merely sport for the nobles to show-off their skills in
destroying. Always steps are taken to ensure little real threat to
the participants or audience. Concealed void-shields and weapon
emplacements built into the ruins protect the viewing stands while
onlooking Knight Crusaders stand-by to intervene should an enemy
appear to be doing too well. The wreckage of the xenos machines is
added to the expansive detritus of the tournament fields which itself
is never cleared. Ruined limbs from Imperial Knights, broken armor
components, shell-casings by the tens of thousands and rusted hulks
all overgrown with grass and weeds populate the vast fields of the
valley. These wrecks add some interest to the competitions, ensuring
participants have to be wary of their footing and must sometimes hunt
for their opponents through particularly dense fields of wreckage. At
times the nobles of House Cenwulf will collect the ruined carcasses
of enemy tanks and warmachines and bring them back to Caspian Sigma
for the direct purpose of adding to the wreckage fields. So it is
that the ruins of Necron aircraft, renegade astartes and traitor
guard tanks, ork stompas and Tau battlesuits can be seen dotted among
the tournament detritus. Those rare occasions when a legitimate enemy
threatens Caspian Sigma and battle is joined elsewhere on the planet
the nobles of Andlang always ensure to remove any and all remains
from those battlefields and bring them to the mountains. Nothing can
be allowed to remain and taint the serenity and order of the
lowlands, all such evidence of battle is left in the Valley of the
Iron Lords where it belongs.
The Tournament of Souls – 071.M37
Early in the thirty-eighth millennium
the Forge World Minoris Ydalir came under mysterious attack by a
deadly and merciless foe. At first the loss of outposts and mining
settlements was chalked up to industrial accidents, natural disasters
or internal conflict but it was not long before the first major forge
settlements were suddenly going dark. Teams of investigators sent to
discover what was happening were also lost until one lucky vox
report, transmitted just before the sender was brutally killed,
reported contact with an unknown but deadly enemy. The Mechanicus was
quick to mobilize what forces it had and call upon House Cenwulf for
military aid. Supported by lances of Imperial Knights and the
God-Engines of the Legio Sirius the forces of the Mechanicus finally
began to encounter the enemy and survive. Though the first few
engagements saw heavy casualties inflicted on the forces of the
Imperium the Knights of House Cenwulf were quick to react to the
enemy. Closing ranks and providing a formidable front of armor and
shields and overlapping fields of fire the enemy were repelled and
their nature determined. The invaders were Eldar from the Craftworld
of Iyanden. Swift-footed Wraithknights supported by smaller wraith
constructs and swift-moving skimmer tanks and jetbikes. The enemy
were fleet and deadly and had been systematically butchering the
inhabitants of the planet, seemingly on a mission of extermination.
Though the Eldar Swordwind proved to
be fearsome foes and inflicted far greater losses to the Imperium
than it sustained it was eventually repulsed, the majority of the
Iyanden warriors and constructs slain and the survivors forced to
flee, whatever plans they had for Ydalir ended. The crucial juncture
came when several squadrons of psychically shielded Onager
Dunecrawlers armed with icarus arrays were buried beneath the black
sands in a narrow valley and powered down weeks before House Cenwulf
intended to move a large force through the area and lure the enemy
into attacking. When the eventual ambush struck the convoy the
Onagers were remotely re-activated and crawled their way out of the
sand to unleash their deadly anti-air weaponry against the
swift-moving Eldar vehicles. The resulting counter-ambush saw most of
the xenos aircraft and skimmer-transports shot from the sky. This
left the majority of the remaining xenos without support and suddenly
stripped of their advantage in speed. The slow moving Wraithguard,
Wraithlords and their supporting infantry were encircled and crushed.
The few remaining Wraithknights who proved fast and fierce enough to
break from the ambush were eventually run to ground by swift-footed
Cerastus-knights and Armigers and were destroyed to the last. This
ambush also saw the death of the Farseer leading the campaign and
several Spiritseers providing support and leadership for the
wraith-warriors. Denied leadership and the bulk of their forces the
remaining enemy units quickly vanished by unknown means. Because of
the odd similarity between the forces of the Eldar and the lances of
House Cenwulf this conflict was somewhat comically named after the
courtly tournaments common to Imperial Knight Houses.
On several occasions after this first
conflict forces from Craftworld Iyanden have struck at formations
from House Cenwulf entangled in conflicts across the Imperium.
Seemingly possessed of no military purpose apart from exacting
revenge on the warriors of the house these attacks often inflict
considerable casualties before withdrawing but never without
sustaining losses of their own. Why the fate-obsessed Eldar would
bother repeatedly engaging Imperial forces for little, if any, gain
remains a mystery.
The Storm of Blood – 888.M37
One of the less well known but brutal
conflicts to be fought on Andlang was a savage invasion by a vast
Khornate army during the eight-hundred and eighty eighth year of the
thirty-eighth millennium. Having already scoured several nearby
systems of nearly all life a massive Khornate army managed to breach
the Vanyr system and made straight for Andlang, almost completely
bypassing Folkvangr and Ydalir in eagerness to engage a more worthy
enemy. Featuring an enormous number of Hellbrutes, Maulerfiends,
Forgefiends, Decimator Engines, Defilers, Soul Grinders, Brass
Scorpions, Blood Slaughterers, Kytan Daemon Engines and even great
Lords of Skulls. A dizzying array of armored walkers formed the core
of this warband of slaughter supported by masses of cultists fitted
with environment suits and rebreather masks, as though the armies of
Khorne had specially prepared to fight the warriors of House Cenwulf
on their homeworld. No matter what preparation they had made the
forces of Khorne proved to lack the leadership and discipline to make
the most of their preparations and assets once they reached the
surface.
Despite the formidable masses of
armored killing-machines backed by hordes of blood-frenzied cultists
the forces of the Khornate army proved relatively easy to bait,
ambush and eliminate piecemeal. Fast-moving Cerastus Knights would
strike at the greater mass of the chaos army and swiftly withdraw,
luring the more mobile elements of the force to chase after them.
Before the rest of the enemy army could catch up ambushing units of
Knight Crusaders, Onagers with Neutron Lasers and lascannon armed
Sentinels and Ironstriders would hit the enemy from the flanks and
behind even as the Cerastus lances turned about and struck back to
the fore. Time and again these systematic ambushes whittled away the
greater strength of the enemy army, bleeding it of it's most deadly
machines and capable warriors. When the forces of the Khornate army
were sufficiently weakened the bulk of House Cenwulf was assembled
into a massive formation numbering scores of Knights and hundreds of
lesser machines and struck at the enemy as a single massive
spear-thrust. In a three-day long battle of annihilation the forces
of Khorne were wiped out to the last man.
It would be several months more before
the last of the Khornate invaders were driven from Folkvangr and
Ydalir. The enemy on Ydalir had mostly been contained by the armies
of the Adeptus Mechanicus but had still managed to inflict some
damage while on Folkvangr the loss of life had been considerably
greater. Despite the best efforts of the PDF garrison the heavily
armed and swift moving chaos warbands had slaughtered many-thousands
of civilians before they were finally run down and destroyed.
The Humbling – 113
The campaign known as the Humbling was
one of the first major military actions taken by House Cenwulf
outside of the Vanry system after the opening of the Great Rift and
the sundering of the Imperium. Serving with an outrider element of
the Indomitus Crusade several lances of House Cenwulf Knights
ventured to the galactic south-east along the edge of the Great Rift,
eventually joining forces with Imperial fleets fighting on the
borders of the Damocles Gulf against a variety of threats including
stranded elements from the Tau Empire. Despite being cut-off from
reinforcements and heavily outnumbered the Tau were still fighting
on, relying heavily on their advanced weapons and superior mobility.
The scions of House Cenwulf had never fought the Tau before but
relished the idea of crossing wits and guns with an enemy who so
heavily favored armored walkers similar to their own Knight Titans.
Clearly the Tau had fought Imperial
Knights before and were quick to deploy teams of Crisis Suits armed
with Fusion Blasters, heavy-rail rifle armed Broadsides and even
heavier units such as Riptides and Stormsurge units to engage and
destroy the Knights of House Cenwulf. For their part the nobles of
Andlang were unimpressed with the efforts of the Tau. Onager
Dunecrawlers equipped with Icarus Arrays and twin-Icarus Autocannons
mounted to the carapaces of many of the deployed Knights made short
work of the airborne battlesuits. Streams of rapid-tracking tracers,
flak rockets and homing missiles blasted the xenos from the sky to
scatter their broken forms on the rocks below. Heavier Stormsurge
units found their firepower deflected across overlapping ion shields
while Neutron Lasers and Thermal Cannons made short work of their
heavy armor. The Tau had arrogantly engaged the warriors of House
Cenwulf believing their mobility and advanced weapons would see them
victorious but they had clearly not anticipated the sizable support
elements typical of House Cenwulf's lances or the sheer weight of
anti-air firepower those elements could provide. Outfought and
heavily outgunned the Tau forces engaged by House Cenwulf were
slaughtered. Before the campaign could continue it's purge the
Indomitus Crusade forces were recalled for another push into Imperium
Nihilus. Though left unfinished the humbling showed that the
technology of the Tau could not make up for a lack in discipline or
experience.
The Battle of Saint Sebastian's Will
Just a few months after the sky tore
open a huge fleet of ramshackle raiders, pirates and scum spilled
into the Triton system on the edge of the Vanyr Sub-Sector and
immediately set to ravaging the inhabited worlds. Spearheaded by a
detachment of Black Legion traitor marines the attack was swift and
brutal. The capitol world of Uriah's Hope was quickly brought to heel
and then, out of sheer spite, virus bombed. The world is now a dead,
lifeless husk of empty cities and scorched topography. Saint
Sebastian's Will was the next target as the world was a minor sacred
site for the Ecclessiarchy and featured a cathedral dedicated to a
lesser saint of the Imperial Cult. While the traitors were distracted
laying waste to Saint Sebastian's Will a large flotilla of loyalist
forces entered the system and powered straight towards the traitor
fleet. Led by the Hearth ships of House Cenwulf, supported by a
Strike Cruiser of the Space Wolves and a handful of Imperial Navy
ships-of-the-line the bulk of the fleet was made up of dozens of
escorts, merchantmen, q-ships and rogue trader vessels. Fortunately
the enemy fleet only contained a handful of capitol-class vessels
itself and was mostly composed of ramshackle escort craft crewed by
the lost and the damned, cultists and heretics in the thrall of the
ruinous powers. The battle over Saint Sebastian's Will lasted for
three full days and saw dozens of damaged ships fall into the
gravity-well of the planet and crash into the surface. If the
traitors hadn't succeeded in destroying the planet then the battle to
save it did. Many more gutted ships now slowly orbit the planet,
their courses slowly deteriorating. Every few months another wreck
crashes into the surface and joins the growing ship graveyard. Now
Saint Sebastian's Will is a scorched and wreckage strewn wasteland.
So much dust and ash was cast into the sky during the fighting that
sunlight no longer reaches the surface and won't for the next few
centuries. Almost all life on the planet has perished and every major
center of habitation was left in utter ruins. Despite the destruction
some enemy forces survived the void battle and so the vengeful lances
of House Cenwulf made planet-fall and spent weeks hunting through the
wreckage and ruin to ensure that all trace of the foe was
obliterated. Similar efforts were launched on Ovid's Folly and
Marna's Rest but the damage to both worlds was also considerable.
More than two-thirds of the inhabitants of Marna's Rest had perished
and though the population of Ovid's Folly had fared better,
sheltering in their fortified towns and cities until relief arrived,
the planet's fields and granaries were burned to ash. In one fell
blow the system was left in complete ruin and its once prosperous
people all but annihilated. Now Saint Sebastian's Will and Uriah's
Hope are both classified as dead worlds and Ovid's Folly is a budding
fortress world. Only Marna's Rest continues to function anything like
before and even then at significantly reduced production. Much of the
burned fields remain in a ruined state and the population has yet to
be restored to its pre-Great Rift levels. Much of the terrain now
features prefabricated military structures serving as temporary
barracks for thousands of soldiers waiting transfer to the growing
fortifications on Ovid's Folly, where a garrison of some twenty
Imperial Knights oversees the construction.
The Vigilus Campaign
Shortly after first contact was established with elements of the Indomitus
Crusade the nobles of House Cenwulf received word that a stable
corridor of space between the Imperium Sanctus and the Imperium
Nihilus had been discovered and that it was under serious threat. The High King immediately mobilized all available forces,
rallying some thirty Knights and their supporting forces as well as
conscripting regiments from Folkvangr and calling for the aid of
Ydalir, the Forge World Minoris committing warriors and god-engines
to the campaign. En route to Vigilus the fleet of House Cenwulf made
contact with a Lost Company of Space Wolves and requested their aid
in the campaign to secure Vigilus. The request was granted, adding
nearly two hundred Space Marines to the forces under the general
leadership of High King Sigurd. Upon arrival the forces gathered to
the banner of House Cenwulf committed themselves to battle without
hesitation. In a series of brutal battles against genestealer cults,
ork speed freak mobs and chaos forces the warriors of House Cenwulf
acquitted themselves honorably and with distinction, driving back the
enemy in defeat wherever they fought. Despite their best efforts
House Cenwulf could ultimately do little to alter the outcome of the
war. Though the Imperial forces and the world of Vigilus itself
suffered greatly in the conflict the Nachmund Gauntlet was ultimately
preserved, if diminished somewhat. With the worst of the fighting
over the surviving House Cenwulf units and their allies have
withdrawn from the surface, preparing to set out into the Imperium
Nihilus yet again in search of new foes.
The Hunt for the Abhorrent
The recent appearance of a previously
unknown pattern of Knight armor among the forces of the Questoris
Traitoris houses has piqued the curiosity of House Cenwulf's nobles
and sacristans. Many among the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Inquisition
believe these new Abhorrent-class Knights are simply warped Questoris
chassis that have been twisted into new forms by their time spent in
the warp. The scions of House Cenwulf disagree with this sentiment.
The regularity of form among these Abhorrent-class machines has
convinced the nobles of Andlang that the forces of the archenemy have
discovered some long-lost Imperial Knight related STC fragment that
has enabled the production of these new warmachines. Always keen to
recover archaeotech lore related to any walker-based weapons
technology the nobles of House Cenwulf have set themselves to the
task of either recovering this lost technology or reverse-engineering
it from captured enemy machines. Strike forces from House Cenwulf
have made raids into the territory of House Herpetrax and to Surtr's
Wake, former homeworld of the now fallen House Khymere. These
missions have resulted in the capture of priceless machine-lore and a
number of examples of Abhorrent-class Knights that the sacristans
have already set about re-purposing into functional and pure knight
armors for the use of House Cenwulf. Several formerly Abhorrent-class
Knights already march among the ranks of House Cenwulf, sanctified by
the efforts of the house Sacristans, aided by adepts from Ydalir and
warded by the arcane rituals of the Space Wolves various priests,
Rune, Wolf and Iron. So far all such restored knights have been armed
as Knights Preceptor and given into the care of venerable veterans of
the House and fitted with newly constructed Thrones Mechanicum. In
battle these provisionally dubbed Adamant-class Knights have proven
keen and agile and earned great renown even in their relatively short
service. Despite many setbacks the adepts of House Cenwulf are
convinced they will eventually succeed in returning the STC of the
digitigrade legged Knights and their distinct Laser Destructors to
the arsenal of the Imperium.
The Vaults Unleashed
The Fall of Cadia, the Great Rift, the Indomitus Crusade, Ork Waaaghs, Necron awakenings across the galaxy, Tau expansion, all of these disasters and more have befallen the Imperium in recent years but it was not until the sudden emergence of vast new fleets of Tyranids clearly extensions of existing Hive Fleets that the nobles of House Cenwulf finally decided that the End Times were finally upon Mankind. Of all the threats facing humanity the revelation that the Tyranid hive fleets were vastly larger than previously anticipated and their claws were now encroaching on the galaxy from multiple fronts caused Jarl Sigurd Cenwulf to recall the lances of his house and steel his domains for invasion. The events on Kamidar had already caused rifts between various houses of the Questoris Familia and the Indomitus Crusade command, including House Cenwulf, but the threat of the great devourer was the final straw. The lances of the house could no longer charge into the fray at the behest of Roboute Guilliman when the greatest threat to the galaxy was closing on the household domains. Every last ship and warrior was called back to Andlang with all haste and once gathered the Jarl announced the unprecedented. The household vaults were to be thrown open, all reserves were to be activated, nothing would be held back. For tens of thousands of years the house had maintained sizable reserves, enough Knight Armors and potential pilots to replace the entire fighting strength of the house at least once, if not more. That caution would continue no longer. The fighting forces of the house were to be more than doubled, young nobles who would never have otherwise had the privilege of undergoing the Becoming would undertake the rituals immediately and the house Sacristans were to empty out every relic weapon, every ancient armor, every dark age technology the house possessed. Across the protectorate domain House Cenwulf was calling it's allies to arms like never before. The xenos were coming and House Cenwulf would resist them to the last man, the last bullet, the last drop of blood.
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