House Griffith

House Griffith is a Loyalist Knight House aligned to the Imperium. The Knights of House Griffith are a fierce and proud warrior caste who value courage and skill at arms above all else. Duels of honour are commonplace amongst Griffith's hot-headed Knights. A regular jousting tourney, the Field of Adamantium, dictates the standings of each family in society; a Knight can be preeminent one day, but overshadowed the next, should one of his rivals emerge triumphant. The Knights of House Griffith use Errant armour almost exclusively, the exo-suit's powerful thermal cannon befitting these close range specialists. Such is their aggressive nature, however, that many of Griffith's Knights eschew the use of ranged weaponry in battle unless absolutely necessary, preferring instead to charge forwards and strike down their foes with reaper chainswords in glorious combat.

House History
Founded by the great Lord Nathaniel in the 24th Millennium, House Griffith has a long and glorious history boasting some of the finest warriors ever to sit on the Throne Mechanicum. The elite cadre of Griffith Nobles can trace its illustrious ancestry back to a time when their forefathers rode horses into battle against the great winged dragons of their world, fighting desperate battles against the terrible beasts. In their early on the volcanic world of Dragon's End the early settlers lacked the means to make use of their Knight STCs, unable to mine the components to make Adamantium. In their place genetically engineered steeds were used, fashioned to survive in the harsh atmosphere of the world with filer-lungs and nictitating membranes over their eyes. Astride these mounts the knights, clad in baroque armour of techno-plate crafted from locally-mined obsidian and beast-faced rebreathers, would do battle. The mightiest of their number was Nathaniel, who slew three dragons with his dragonbone lance before eventually becoming House Griffith's inaugural ruler. Even though the Knight suits enabled the Nobles to finally overcome the dragons, they never forgot the skills they had mastered.

To this day, Griffith's Knights are amongst the very deadliest in battle. Though these times are long gone, just like the reptilian beasts themselves, the Nobles still test their fighting skills against each on horseback, each one a great warrior both in and out of his Knight armour. The result is a House of consummate bladesmen, each one deadly in close quarters with a reaper and more than capable of besting war machines many times their own size with a flurry of devastating thrusts and cuts. House Griffith is one of the Imperium's greatest knightly houses, despite being one of the smallest in number with less than fifty Knights at its disposal. In honour of the cavalry formations that once battled the dragons of their ancient home world, House Griffith refers to a household detachment of its Knights as a Lance. Indeed, the Knights of House Griffith crave such melee combat, and have earned a bloody reputation for aggressiveness in battle, charging quickly into their foes and rend them to scraps.

Dragon's End, Land of Beasts and Fire
The world inhabited by House Griffith is a bleak and blasted place, where thick sulphurous clouds hide the sun and volcanic mountain ranges cover black stone valleys in an endless rain of ash. Though its crust is rich in rare and precious minerals. Dragon's End borders on the inhospitable; hostile and dangerous for the unprepared. When the first human settlers arrived on the planet they looked around in dismay, the world as close to a vision of hell as they could imagine, and seemingly devoid of life. Unfortunately for these first humans there was one kind of beast which thrived in the ash wastes of the world, and which would react violently to these newcomers. Called dragons by the humans, they were beasts of flame and ash, each one a huge stone-skinned reptile with vast membranous wings. Fed by the very fire of the world, the dragons spent much of their time wallowing in magma-filled fissures or the boiling caldera of volcanoes, occasionally soaring through ash-choked skies on thermals. The beasts would prove to be both the curse and salvation of the settlers, forcing them to evolve and adapt in unexpected ways just to survive the first terrible years.

The Dragon War
In the early years of settlement on Dragon's End humans lived in almost constant fear of attack by dragons. Hidden in the billowing ash clouds that constantly obscured the planet's skies the beasts would seek out their prey, glowing red eyes occasionally visible in the gloom. So in tune with their surrounding were the beasts that auspex and auger were nearly useless in detecting them or following their movements, the creatures blending into the background heat of the world or vanishing into its ash-laden skies. Workers would toil in the near dark glancing fearfully up at the heavens, while equally nervous sentries held tight their Lasguns, knowing full well how useless the weapons would be in the event of a dragon attack.

Into this oppressive time of fear and dismay came the knights of Griffith, men who had practised the skills of horse and lance during the long voyage from Terra. When no one else would dare venture beyond the high walls and reinforced domes of the settlers' cities the knights rode out onto the wastes seeking out the foe. Though many fell their legend grew, as did their understanding of the beasts. A shiny black stone akin to obsidian was mined and fashioned into armour, the knights discovering it had the power to turn dragon fire, and was hard enough to defend against a glancing blow from talon or tooth. At first the knights had no weapons that could kill a dragon, even the most power guns possessed by the settlers having little effect on the hides of the beasts. Energy beams and plasma blasts seemed to wash off the dark scales of a dragon like water, while solid rounds needed to hit an eye or open maw to have even the slightest effect. In time, the knights of Griffith discovered the only sure way to slay a dragon was to pierce its heart, and the only thing strong enough to punch through scale and muscle was the bones of the dragons themselves.

The knights were forced to raid dragons' graveyards for the bones to fashion into lances, creeping in while the beasts slumbered to plunder the remains of their dead. These were the weakest of the lances made, their shafts pitted by age and worn away by wind and fire. Even so, it allowed the knights to kill their first dragons, and harvest better lances from the remains. Eventually it became a tradition that a knight would carve his lance from the corpse of the first dragon he slew, tempering it in the cooling blood of his kill and carrying it until his demise. For years the knights fought against the dragons, taking the battle deep into the fiery wastes, and killing scores of the beasts. By the time the first Knight suits were fashioned House Griffith was well established and had learned much about fighting dragons. With their new weapons of war the noble warriors of Griffith were able to devastate their foes. Although the new weapons proved more lethal and adept at the task, the image of the obsidian armoured knight on horseback would endure as the true symbol of the Dragon War.

After decades of dragon slayers eventually drove the beasts to extinction and freed the world of their curse, it left behind a warrior elite within the settlers' society, long before even the whispers of the Throne Mechanicum helped create a feudal society of Nobles. By the time humans had created the mines capable of refining materials like adamantium to make Knight armour, the Nobles who piloted them were already peerless swordsmen and fighters. This strife-filled history has served House Griffith well in its wars against the foes of the Imperium, each Noble House unmatched in skill with blade and cannon.

This legacy of knightly virtue and might would soon be writ large upon the stars, and though the Dragon War had taken a heavy toll upon the people of Dragon's End it would prove invaluable in their alliance with the Imperium. When the Nobles of House Griffith talk of their ancestors it is tales of men that once fought beasts from horseback. Some rare surviving Throne Mechnicum still hold memories from that time, filled with the ghostly whispers of long dead dragon slayers.

Field of Adamantium
As part of their ancient traditions the Nobles of House Griffith still ride horses and train with lance and blade. Though they have little call to use these archaic skills outside a Knight suit, they still employ them in contests between the houses. Disputes between Nobles and within families themselves are routinely settled with duels or jousts. First and second sons become able swordsmen and riders, lest younger siblings usurp their position within the family. Equally martial might continued to hold precedent long after the dragons were exterminated, with the fairest maidens and most favourable matches only go to those who can prove themselves in such contests.

Without a doubt the largest tournament on Dragon's End takes place in the Field of Adamantium, where by ancient covenant the families compete for standing. Under dark cloud-choked skies and across smoking black earth, men clad in gleaming adamantium plate do battle. Their steeds are genetically augmented to breath the poisonous air of the field as it streams from fissures in the ground and rolls down from the circling volcanoes. The Nobles themselves wear beast faced helms with built-in rebreathers, flared steel nostrils and fanged snouts expelling thick yellow plumes. Combat focuses on the joust, the grand contest at the centre of the tourney, and while lesser events involve melee and marksmanship, it is the joust that draws the attention of the families. Using a complex system of lineage and prestige each Noble is ranked by his skill with the lance and his standing within the societies of Dragon's End. This in turn determines who he is allowed to face and how he might rise or fall within the standing.

Even the ruler of House Griffith, the Grand Master of the Lance, takes part in the annual tournament. The Grand Master of the Lance has the honour of wielding the reforged Lance of Nathaniel in the jousting tournament, the Field of Adamantium. Intricately carved from the femur of a great dragon, this weapon dates back over fifteen millennia, and is the most revered relic of House Griffith. In the Field of Adamantium, Nobles joust against one another from horseback in the manner of their ancient forebears. The lances are dangerously sharp, but instead of wearing the obsidian armour of old, each Noble dons full adamantium plate to avoid injury.

For the citizens of Dragon's End the regular tournaments are a central part of their culture, providing a brief and violent escape from the drudgery of the agri-subfarms or scar-mines. The crash of steel lance on adamantium armour or the crunch of bones breaking when rider and horse are sent tumbling to the ground are always met with cheers. From atmosphere-shielded stands people will wave banners, cry out insults and encouragement or even hurl tokens at the field, the tournaments the one place where the citizens allowed to vent their true emotions, unchecked by the rituals and strict forms of society.

The names and heraldry of favoured Nobles are well known to the common people, their fame leading to the creation of shrines and statues in their honour where prayers will be made for their good fortune at the joust, Grand Master of the Lance Bryce, current lord of House Griffith made his name in this way for unseating a dozen warriors in a single day of contest, and hundreds of shrines still bear his likeness, the people praying for his good fortune.

Knight Trials
For centuries the wastes of Dragon's End have rung with the clash of mighty adamantium blades and echoes to the thunder of battle cannons as the Knights of House Griffith test their skills against each other in sacred tournament. Many of these contests are undertaken in suits of Knight armour, where a Noble will be measured by his speed or bladesmanship and how well he can control his war machine in battle, In these sparring matches alacrity of thought is paramount if a falling reaper chainblade or hurtling cannon shell is to be avoided. However, not all the knightly trials are concerned with mental grace and skill at arms alone. Some require endurance and, of equal importance, luck. The Rain of fire incorporates both of these. The scions of the house will haul a seismic charge into the burning mountains above the chosen trials grounds, ancient machines and raw muscle heaving it into place above one of the range's smouldering volcanic rifts.

When the Knights signal their readiness, the charge is dropped into the rift to explode deep within the magma river that flows beneath. Centuries of this kind of geological abuse means that the results are always unpredictable and spectacular as the earth heaves in anger and flaming debris is spewed forth in all directions. The Knights will then duel under this onslaught, their Nobles fighting to keep their war machines balanced and to angle their ion shields against both their opponents and the rain of flaming rock, each Noble struggling to keep their footing as the ground bucks and breaks under the adamantium feet of their Knight suit. Other knightly houses are scornful of such reckless use of Knight suits, though House Griffith's Nobles know that it is only through the greatest adversity that true warriors are forged.

Megasaur Herds
The Megasaur is often cited as the real reason for the dragon's aggression toward the settlers. Herds of the huge beasts were once common on Dragon's End, their thick black hides and mineral rich stone-blood coveted by the early settlers. Unfortunately for the humans the Megasaur were also the principle prey of the dragons. Many of the first dome cities included pens and slaughterhouses where captured Megasaur would grow to maturity on a diet of refined mineral waste, before being butchered for their bones, blood and skin. These enclosures of great numbers of Megasaur attracted dragons, the winged beasts ripping their way into the pens to get at the already fattened prey within. In addition to harvesting the beasts, the Knights of House Griffith would use the Megasaur as bait, stalking out a braying beast in the wild to attract dragons. In the end, centuries of exploitation and culling eventually reduced the Megasaur population to a fraction of its former size, those few that survived doing so in captivity. The extensive mines created by hundreds of years of human settlement also robbed the Megasaur of its main food source, those regions once rich in sustaining minerals reduced to wastelands of fire and ash. Even so, the Megasaur still has a place in the tournaments and games of Dragon's End, House Griffith keeping its own stock of the beasts just for this purpose.

Notable Campaigns

 * The Dragon Slain (993.M41) - Segmentum Command dispatches a relief force to evacuate Yorvith before it can be overrun by Hive Fleet Kraken. At their head ride a lance of Knights Errant from House Griffith, whose thunderous charge scatters the xenos swarms around Solartis spaceport. As battle rages and refugees flood aboard the evacuation ships, a Trygon erupts from the ground and winds itself around Sir Brannach's Knight. The noble Knight wrestles with the mighty bio-horror amid showers of sparks, before jamming his thermal cannon between its jaws and vapourising its skull in a spray of ichor. The evacuation craft take to the skies just minutes later, Griffith's Knights limping aboard the last ship moments before its ramp slams shut.

Honourifics and Titles
Although all Knight worlds have similar feudal societies, local factors and other external influences meant that the exact nature of these emergent cultures varied somewhat between worlds. Nowhere is this more evident than in the names utilised by the knightly houses for their ranks, battle formations and even their strongholds. The ruler of House Griffith, for example, bears the rather pretentious honorific of Grand Master of the Lance. None, however, would dare claim that Griffith's current ruler, Bryce, does not merit such a grandiose title, for his skill in battle is legend across the galaxy. Battle formations of Knights are also prone to utilise honourific titles. In honour of the cavalry formations that once battled the dragons of their ancient home world, House Griffith refers to a household detachment of its Knights as a Lance.

House Arms
The heraldry of House Griffith owes much to its founding ruler, the great Knight Nathaniel. It was he who chose the crest of his house, which depicts the great dragon Alvirax holding the broken lance with which Nathaniel slew him. Even the livery worn by Griffith's Knights is in honour of the legendary dragonbone lance Nathaniel wielded. To this day, the ruler of House Griffith, the Grand Master of the Lance, bears a stylised lance emblem on his Knight suit in Nathaniel's honour.

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