Donatos War



The Donatos War, also sometimes referred to as the Donatosian War or the Donatos Uprising, was a hard-fought Imperial victory won over the servants of Chaos on the Industrial World of Donatos Primus largely through the action of the Imperial Knights of the Knight World of Adrastapol. Through the negligence of its rulers, the promises of the Dark Gods were allowed to spread amongst the world's class of labourers, leading to an outbreak of worker strikes and a rise in gang violence in the northern industrial zone of interlinked hive cities. When Planetary Governor Gnossul ordered the unrest put down, elements of the local Planetary Defence Forces joined the rebels who soon revealed themselves as the members of a hideous Chaos Cult.

This cult had ties to far darker masters, the Chaos Space Marines of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, who they called to their aid. Directed by the battle-hardened Dark Apostle Varakh'Lorr, the Chaos Cultists soon spread their influence across Donatos' principal continent, bypassing a series of extensive fortifications and turning them against the Loyalist defenders of Donatos Primus. Following the death of Governor Gnossul and the confirmation of the presence of Heretic Astartes in the warzone, an astropathic distress signal was sent to which the Imperium responded with uncustomary swiftness.

Tolwyn Tan Draconis, the High King of the Knight World of Adrastapol, led a powerful alliance of Knight Houses and several regiments of the Astra Militarum to retake Donatos Primus for the Emperor. This assault initially met with great success. The balance of power was tipped back in the Archenemy's favour when two previously Loyalist Houses of Imperial Knights, House Chimaeros and House Wyvorn, changed sides in the middle of a decisive battle. Falling back in disarray, the Imperial forces lost ground to the resurgent enemy before rallying around Tolwyn's successor, his son Danial Tan Draconis. As the Renegade Knights in turn betrayed their Word Bearers allies, the Imperial forces were able to mount a decisive attack on Donatos Primus' industrial heartland and slay both of the Traitors' leaders. Without leadership and abandoned by their more powerful allies, the Renegade PDF forces and Chaos Cultists were slowly pressed back and Donatos Primus was ultimately reclaimed for the Throne of Terra.

History
The history of the Donatos War is heavily entwined with the tale of High King Danial's ascension to the throne of High King of Adrastapol. To the scholar, it comes then as no surprise that the Adrastapolian chronicles and especially the writings of the famed Sage-Strategist Sendraghorst hold the most complete account of these dire events.

The Donatos Uprising
The rule of the Imperium is a harsh one, especially on those countless worlds subject to the Imperial Tithe, whose taxing demands are to be met in time and in full. Such is the strain put on a world's economy that its population have to toil almost incessantly to meet the Adeptus Administratum's demands. Worker strikes and other form of civil unrest are far too common and often discipline can only be maintained by the heavy hand of the Adeptus Arbites or local law-enforcers. So it came that when the first signs of trouble emerged within the industrial sprawl of Donatos Primus' northern Hive Cities, none of this world's rulers were particularly troubled. Sparingly, Planetary Governor Gnossul ordered the deployment of several squads of Donatosian Planetary Defence Forces -- a force which in the past had often sufficed to quell such sorts of civil unrest. Yet this time, rather than open fire on the mob, the men and women of the Planetary Defence Militia joined the ranks of the rioters for even within its own military the discontent ran deep. Like bushfire the wave of open rebellion spread both amongst the civilian population and Donatos PDF-regiments. As more and more regiments declared for the rioters, the situation became tense, but despite the scale of this revolt, Governor Gnossus was still confident to keep what was beginning to be called the Donatos Uprising a purely internal matter.