Adrastapol



Adrastapol is a Knight World of the Imperium of Man whose primary allegiance is to the Imperium itself as a member of the Questor Imperialis rather than the Adeptus Mechanicus. Located in the distant Majestis System, Adrastapol is home to several knightly households of noble descent which are ruled by a supreme leader who bears the title of High King. Throughout its long history, the title has been passed from House to House and currently resides with the House Draconis.

Yet the name of Adrastapol also carries its share of misgivings and mistrust, for time and again the Knights of Adrastapol have had to battle their own, as entire Houses fell to the insidious touch of Chaos. This was recently illustrated by the dire events of the Donatos Uprising. In the wake of this campaign, the Ordos of the Holy Inquisition have despatched an envoy to the world to make sure the loyalty of the Knights of Adrastapol remains above all suspicion.

History
Much of Adrastapol's history has sadly been lost to the ravages of time and war. As a result, the only truly accurate source of historical information on Adrastapol's past is the memories of former Knights that still reside within the Thrones Mechanicum of the most ancient armours. As with most Knight Worlds, it is generally recognised that Adrastapol was colonised in the distant past of the Dark Age of Technology when most Colony Arks were outfitted with the sacred STC-systems that would lead the settlers to build the first Knight armours to aid in the defence of their new homes. Sadly, whatever threat initially prompted the STC-system to begin the construction of Knights has long since been lost to history. Over the long millennia of the Age of Strife, the Adrastapolian branch of humanity maintained much of its technological mastery, preserving the ancient suits of Knight-armour their forefathers had entrusted them with and defending their homeworld from exterior threats. During this time, each of the knightly households of Adrastapol developed extensive martial traditions, codes and customs that through accumulation have become almost impenetrable to outsiders.

But the Adrastapolians also maintained high levels of skill in mechanics, energy production and metallurgy, which resulted in the development of ingenious and highly unique weapons such as the Draconsword of House Draconis or the Chimersword of House Chimaeros.

For much of the world's history, the Households were left to govern themselves, each House operating from its own mighty fortress and watching over Adrastapol's population, which grew exponentially until it reached into the tens of millions. To ensure stability and prevent internecine conflict, the hereditary title of High King was created and awarded to the ruler of the strongest House of Adrastapol's seven confirmed Knight Houses. In addition to his crown, the High King was awarded an additional symbol of his rule, a coterie of seven Servo-Skulls which were covered in precious metals and fashioned to resemble each of the Houses' heraldic animals: the dracon, the minos, the wyvorn, the pegas, the hydra, the chimer and the medusa.

For Terran centuries if not millennia, Adrastapol prospered under the rule of the different dynasties of High Kings until it was absorbed into the Imperium of Man. Yet Adrastapol did not escape the Horus Heresy unscathed as during the rule of High King Rhoderic Tan Chimaeros, two full Houses of Imperial Knights -- House Hydrax and House Medusos -- sided with the Traitor Warmaster Horus Lupercal. This would be the first, but sadly not the last time that the Knights of Adrastapol would spill each others' blood.

In the wake of the Horus Heresy and the destruction of Houses Hydrax and Medusos, the remaining Houses divided the fallen Houses' territory and resources amongst themselves, consolidating their power and nursing their wounds. During this period, a pall of secrecy descended upon Adrastapol and what truly transpired on the Knight World is unknown. As was their Emperor-given duty, the High Kings of House Chimaeros led the Knights of Adrastapol into battle when called upon and for millennia their homeworld prospered and remained safe.

The Ork Wars and the Fall of House Manticos
Towards the end of the 40th Millennium, in the youth of the future High King Tolwyn Tan Draconis, Adrastapol became the target of one of the violent migrations of Orks known as a WAAAGH!. Led by the fearsome Warboss Skarjaw, the Orks assaulted Adrastapol in force. The Adrastapolians called this sombre chapter in their history the Ork Wars because the conflict lasted for many standard years and would see millions die. Skarjaw was a savage representative of his foul xenos-breed, a creature almost feral in his savagery.

Skarjaw brought many of the Orks' great warbeasts, the towering Squiggoths, to Adrastapol. The foul creatures flourished on Adrastapol and the five remaining Houses of Imperial Knights were hard-pressed to hold the line against the Orks, as High King Gerraint Tan Chimaeros proved incapable of vanquishing the foe. Many are the tales of heroism forged during this conflict, until Skarjaw was finally defeated. Having broken through the defence lines of House Pegasson, the Orks sought to assault the Draconspire, the ancestral home of House Draconis but were unexpectedly attacked by a party of Draconis Knights led by Tolwyn Tan Draconis. These Knights succeeded in disrupting the Orks assault and killed Skarjaw who perished beneath the blows of Markos Dar Draconis. The scattered survivors of WAAAGH! Skarjaw would go on to provide the Knights of Adrastapol with welcome quarries for their great hunts and the training of their squires.

The Ork Wars left Adrastapol severely weakened as the conflict destroyed one of the noble Houses -- House Manticos -- whose keep had been razed by the Orks. But as he walked the scorched and blackened ruins of the former fortress, High King Gerraint Tan Chimaeros discovered a lone survivor, a beautiful girl on the brink of womanhood, whom he would save from the debris and eventually take as his consort. She was the Lady Alicia Kar Manticos, last scion of a lost House. Ultimately, for the Imperium, Adrastapol and House Chimaeros, it would have been better had the girl perished at the hands of the Greenskins.

While still recuperating from the Ork Wars, the Knights of Adrastapol were called upon to reinforce the Imperial troops of the Galhorn Crusade which would see the death of many Knights, including Gerraint's only son and heir. Gerraint himself was badly injured during the Crusade and would need to rely on an augmetic brace to walk. As mandated by the traditions of Adrastapol, the crown of the High King passed on to House Draconis as one of the central tenets of Adrastapolian dogma was that the ruling High King must have a living heir, the Kingsward, in order to ensure that the line of succession was not broken. While Gerraint had fathered a second son, Luk Tan Chimaeros, he was not eligible to succeed his father since his mother -- Lady Alicia -- was merely Gerraint's consort and not his lawful wife.

Feeding upon Gerraint's grief and outrage at the usurpation of his crown, Lady Alicia poisoned the mind of now-Viscount Gerraint into the service of Chaos. Through years of careful planning and the most subtle means, Alicia Kar Manticos began to corrupt the Scions of House Chimaeros and bind them into the service of the Changer of Ways, the Chaos God Tzeentch. Unknown to the other Houses, Alicia was a powerful psyker, a daemonologist and an expert manipulator, an utterly ruthless woman who would not shrink from communing with the denizens of the Warp and ally herself with other Traitors to reach her goal: the restoration of Gerraint to the throne of Adrastapol, with her at his side.

Through his influence as a former High King, Viscount Gerraint Tan Chimaeros sought allies within the other Households and was able to sway Archduke Duncan Tan Wyvorn to their cause. Patiently the would-be Traitors bid their time. It was not until the Donatos Uprising that House Chimaeros and House Wyvorn would reveal their true allegiance, dealing a crippling blow to the Loyalist Knight Houses and even killing High King Tolwyn Tan Draconis.

After the Donatos Uprising
Fortunately for the Imperium, the determined efforts of Tolwyn's son, the newly-proclaimed High King Danial Tan Draconis foiled Gerraint's and Alicia's plans at Donatos, but at tremendous cost. Although the Renegade Knights of House Chimaeros and House Wyvorn were hunted down, their keeps razed and every mention of their deeds purged from Adrastapol's records, the treason and corruption of two Households of Imperial Knights had shaken the Imperium's trust in the Knight World. An Imperial envoy in the person of Inquisitor Massata was despatched to Adrastapol to ensure that the three remaining Knight Houses are and forever will be loyal to the Imperium and the God-Emperor.

For five years, the Loyalist Houses eagerly awaited the Inquisitor's arrival without that the inquisitorial envoy showed himself. Expecting the envoy to have been delayed by turbulences or storms in the Warp, High King Danial used his authority to profoundly change Adrastapol's face and society. Where once verdant plains had stretched as far as the eye could see, now new settlements had been constructed. All across Adrastapol, new keeps were erected and orbital defence silos hidden in deep valleys or high mountains. In all but name, Adrastapol gained a Planetary Defence Force in the household armies of Houses Draconis, Pegasson and Minotos. Great industrialization programs, better housing conditions and other efforts considerably improved the living conditions of Adrastapol's peasant-class, leading to a rapid increase in the Knight World's population.

In the five years of peace Adrastapol knew after the end of the Donatos War, the planet's face had been changed and High King Danial had implemented more changes in these short year than Adrastapol had known since the reign of House Chimaeros. The full worth of these improvements upon Adrastapol's infrastructure would soon become apparent to all.

Herald of the Storm to Come
Upon invitation of High King Danial, all noblemen and noblewomen as well as the common folk had been invited to attend a great celebration, a ceremony upon which conclusion Adrastapol's latest technological marvel would finally be completed: the awakening of the Machine Spirit of the great Imperatus Dam. For five years, thousands of laborers had toiled according to the specifics of High Sacristan Polluxis Dar Mechanicus.

What was intended as a show of unity had been marred from its very beginning by the absence of House Minotos. House Draconis and Pegasson on the other hand assisted in force, with both their rulers and their respective Royal Courts being present. Very much to the pleasure of the High King, his solder sister and First Knight, Jennika Tan Draconis had recently returned from an expedition and would attend as well. Their reunion was however cut short by an unexpected arrival.

Just as the ceremony of awakening entered its third hour, an unidentified flying object suddenly appeared on the Augur banks of Mount Imperius. In a matter of minutes, the object passed into Adrastapol's atmosphere, following a trajectory that would take it directly to Imperatus Dam. By design or an incredible amount of bad luck, the object would avoid every countermeasure taken beforehand to ward the ceremony from outside interference. As combat air-patrols of Lightning Strike Fighters rushed to catch up with the still unidentified object, the Imperial Knights of House Draconis and Pegasson rguarding the perimeter readied their weapons. Evacuating the area in orderly fashion, the High King's personal aircraft, a richly furnished Aquila Lander landed directly on the dam, right before the great dais erected for the nobility.

With mere seconds to spare, the aircraft departed, banking hard right to avoid a mid-air collision with the still unidentified object, which crashed ten terran miles deeper into the Valatane Plains. The perimeter guard quickly closed on the object. Expecting some kind of attack, both Royal Courts mounted their own respective Imperial Knights before confirmation was relayed through the Vox that the downed aircraft was of Imperial design.

Adrastapolian Society
The Adrastapolian value honour and decorum to the extent that addressing a Scion with the wrong form of address can quickly lead to an honour duel being called. To complicate matters further, the name of a Scion as well as his formal title may change over time. In its most basic form, an Adrastapolian Knight will have a prefix before the name of his House that will denote his relationship to the House's ruler. In this regard, the most valued prefix is that of "Tan," which denotes direct kinship to a Noble House's ruler without considering the Knight's position in his own House's hierarchy. In general terms, this prefix would indicate that everybody bearing the prefix of "Tan" is a member of royalty and should be treated with the greatest respect. For example, the current ruler of Adrastapol bears the name of Danial Tan Draconis, son of the former High King Tolwyn Tan Draconis and brother to Jennika Tan Draconis.

The most common prefix is "Dar" -- which could loosely be translated into Low Gothic as "of House" or "belonging to House." The prefix "Dar" indicates to which House a Knight's allegiance is given. This prefix is of great symbolic value and only upon completing his Rites of Becoming and being formally ordained as a Knight may a squire claim this prefix. During his training, a squire may be referred to simply by his first name and rank, such as Squire Willem, and may be called Willem Dar Minotos only after having survived his Becoming rituals. Should a Knight choose or be forced by circumstance to become a Freeblade or have his House destroyed, he would automatically bear the prefix of "Kar" which would replace any prefix that came before it. Seldom has this been seen as anything other than a mark of shame.

Each Knight House is governed by a ruling council of the House's most trusted and most notorious Knights which is usually designated as the "Exalted Court." Each member of the Exalted Court has been hand-picked by the ruler of the House and been rewarded with one of the many honorific positions that form the council. On the Exalted Court, the most coveted position is that of "First Knight," which is awarded only to battle-hardened veterans of impeccable reputation and conduct, closely followed by the positions of Herald and Gatekeeper of the House's ancestral fortress. Other titles such as "Kingsward," the heir-designate to the High King's throne exist but carry no formal power. As a matter of tradition, the Exalted Court is completed by the High Sacristan of the House in recognition of the Sacristan's technical expertise and his or her tireless efforts to keep the Knights battleworthy.

In marked contrast to other, more conservative Houses, the knightly households of Adrastapol do not distinguish between men or women, with the notable exception that a woman may not be proclaimed High King. Yet female Knights are a common sight within Adrastapolian society, including in ruling positions. For instance, House Pegasson has been ruled by women with the title of Marioness for many standard centuries.

Notable Locations

 * Imperatus Dam - Begun and finished under the reign of High King Danial Tan Draconis, Imperatus Dam was a mighty edifice designed and constructed under the aegis of High Sacristan Polluxis Dar Mechanicus of House Draconis. Located in the foothills of the mighty Adrapotine Mountains, the dam is powered by the waters of the mighty Valatane river. Its primary function is the transformation of hydropower into electricity for both civilian and military installation all across the Valatane Plains. Largely functional, the dam nevertheless sported a gigantic Aquila spreading its wings across the entire length of the dam. Constructed in a five-standard-year span, the great celebration marking the awakening of the dam's Machine Spirit was most notoriously interrupted by the impromptu arrival of Inquisitor Massata which heralded the beginning of the Second Ork War. In the following conflict, Imperatus Dam would be destroyed by the Orks of WAAAGH! Killfist.
 * Mount Imperius - Mount Imperius harbours the headquarters of Adrastapol's orbital surveillance and planetary defences as well as the world's Astropathic Choir.
 * The Chimerkeep -
 * The Draconspire -
 * The Eyrie -
 * The Labyrinth -
 * The Minotane Throneroom - The throne room of House Minotos is an impressive display of architectural grandeur. The floor forms one giant mosaic depicting Imperial Knights marching into war. Behind the throne of the Grandmarshals stands a towering statue of the God-Emperor in his aspect as a warrior god. The statue supported the Gothic ceiling whose fresco depicted great heroes battling Heretics on a stylised star-field. Huge statues of marble and iron lined the processional route to the throne, each a replica of one of the past Grandmarshals of House Minotos. In accordance with its traditions, House Minotos preferred to depict its heroes in the fire of battle, roaring their warcry, wielding their warhammers or standing victorious over a slain foe. Many of the statues incorporated industrial machinery so that flames flickered in their eyes and black exhaust fumes rose from their mouths. This smoke tended to gather beneath the high ceiling like menacing clouds.
 * The Iron Sanctum - Accessed through an ornate door located directly behind the throne of House Minotos, the Iron Sanctum is a private hall where the rulers of House Minotos and their guests retreat in order to discuss important matters of state. Far from the prying eyes of the courtesans and courtiers, the Iron Sanctum is heavily protected by great blast doors and Servitor-contolled Heavy Bolters that guard the hall's only access. The sanctum itself is a large hexagonal chamber of perhaps a hundred Terran feet across. It derives its name from the massive iron conference table that takes up most of its length. A complement of iron, high-backed thrones surrounds the table.
 * Valatane Plains - The Jousting Plains of the Valatane are an ancient location where the Knights of Adrastapol meet to prove their skill at arms or settle scores during peacetime. The site has hosted many tournaments since the dark days of the Horus Heresy.