House Malinax

House Malinax was a Traitor Imperial Knight House that repudiated its oaths to the Emperor of Mankind and followed the Warmaster Horus into the service of the Ruinous Powers during the Horus Heresy. The Knight House of Malinax was founded shortly after the rediscovery and incorporation of the Forge World of Xana II, located on the western fringe in the Vicidax Thule Sector within the Segmentum Pacificus. The newly created Knight house went on to serve with distinction in some of the Great Crusade's more savage campaigns and would go on to serve alongside the Titans of the Legio Vulturum and the Taghmata Scoria throughout the latter Great Crusade.

Ultimately, Xana II would attempt to play both Loyalist and Traitor alike, when the Horus Heresy erupted in the early 31st Millennium. When evidence mounted against the recalcitrant Forge World, who professed neutrality in the internecine conflict, that there was substantial double-dealing occurring, Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion and Praetorian of Terra, declared Xana II Traitoris Perdia and under sentence of death in 007.M31. This later led to the desperate covert campaign conducted by the Loyalists, known as the Xana Incursion in 009.M31. House Malinax defended one of Xana's major forge-fanes from the Loyalist forces. Forced to chose a side, Xana II ultimately declared for the Traitor cause and followed them into damnation. With the failure of the Traitor cause and the death of Warmaster Horus during the Siege of Terra, it is presumed that House Malinax fled alongside their Dark Mechanicum masters into the Eye of Terror where they still reside upon the Hell-Forge of Xana II, deep within this hellish realm.

History
The Forge World of Xana II was accidentally rediscovered in 843.M30, when a damaged galleass belonging to the Rogue Trader Casilida DeAniasie, having been flung far off-course after engaging in battle with Fra'al Corsairs, intercepted a trio of hulking automata warships at the edge of the intergalactic void. Although they might have taken or destroyed her already damaged ship with little effort, these vessels instead offered aid and carried with them a message of greeting and an offer of diplomatic exchange between the "Sovereign Forge Domain of Xana" and the Imperium of Man and its Emperor. The Xana vessels made good on their intentions by taking the stricken galleass back under tow to the Xana System itself, where it was repaired and resupplied for its journey home with exemplary speed, and the Rogue Trader herself treated with courtesy and honour. Negotiations between the lmperium and Xana soon followed upon the Rogue Trader's return.

The Knight House of Malinax was founded shortly after the incorporation of the Forge World of Xana into the Imperium as part of the re-alignment of native Xanite armed forces to better serve the Great Crusade. This would include the incorporation of the Malin-Qatlu Scion Bloodline, a regressed House which was at that stage without extant world of its own and with few remaining operable Knights. This cadre of scions was provided with fresh machines and bound by blood and oath to the Lords of Xana, and would form thenceforth part of Xana's new order of battle. Brought back from the edge of extinction, the newly patented house of Malinax would serve with distinction in the savage wars of the Rangdan Xenocides, and detachments would continue to serve alongside the Titans of the Legio Vultorum and the Taghmata Setna and Taghmata Scoria throughout the later Great Crusade.

As the Horus Heresy suddenly and bloodily unfolded in the early 31st Millennium, Xana's isolation only increased and it was a situation its ruling synod of magos, known as the Vodian Consistory, did little to attempt to outwardly alleviate, choosing initially neither faction to favour, avowing, at least publicly, that the matter was an "internal matter of the Great Crusade's military" in which they had no direct involvement. As the war went on with no clear avenue of victory in sight, both sides now looked to the increasingly bellicose and active Forge World of Xana with renewed interest. In their years of isolation since the war's outbreak, the forges of Xana had not been idle and evidence began to amass that a vast and well-guarded stockpile of munitions and war machines had been built up in the system, and readied as if for shipment to a client, but to what end or to whom remained unclear. Eventually, Primarch Rogal Dorn, the Praetorian of Terra, made an open proclamation declaring the Forge World of Xana Traitoris Perdita and under sentence of death. House Malinax would go on to serve at the whims of the Lords of Xana, and willingly follow them into damnation.

When the Heresy ultimately failed, during the final epic battle, known as the Siege of Terra, it is presumed that House Malinax fled alongside their Dark Mechanicum masters, and now resides deep within the hellish realms of the Eye of Terror, still standing sentinel over the Hell-Forge of Xana II.

Homeworld
The Forge World of Xana was a potent and storied example of its kind, an Ultima II grade faculty rated as one of the most capable Forge Worlds of the Imperium, and unmatched in its region of the galaxy. It comprised a main planetary sphere, Xana II, with a number of inhabited moons and extensive mobile sub-faculties in the form of void and gas mining installations scattered throughout the debris belts and turbulent atmosphere of the macro-magnitude gas giant, Xana I, around which the Forge World orbited. Its position was on the very far tip of the galactic arm of the western fringe, granting it the title on the star charts of the Carta Imperialis as "Occidentem Thule" -- the last great port on the edge of the intergalactic abyss.

Notable Campaigns

 * Rangdan Xenocides (Unknown Date - Late 800's.M30) - Following their inclusion into the nascent Imperium of Man, the Xanite forces hurled themselves and broke their greater strength in countless battles against the vile xenos on the edge of the Halo Stars, becoming shattered remnants of their former selves, but earned much honour in doing so for their Forge World. More importantly, weapons and arms poured forth from Xana and were shipped directly to the Segmentum-wide battle lines of the war, providing much needed respite and fresh strength to beleaguered Imperial forces, helping to slowly turn the tide of defeat into first stalemate and eventually victory. It was a victory Xana was in no small part bled dry to achieve.
 * Raid of Guilders Grave (008.M31) - The raid on the world of Guilders Grave is the first known example of the Xanite Mechanicum forces conducting an aggressive military operation to their own ends, engaging both Traitor and Loyalist auxiliary forces in open battle in order to achieve their aims of looting the mining world of its resources and heavy machinery. The vanguard of the Xanite forces during this attack were several maniples of Mechanicum Knights, at least two of which have been identified as belonging to the sinister House Malinax. This was a force which the defenders of Guilders Grave could not hope to match in firepower or resilience, resulting in a complete massacre of local forces.
 * Xana Incursion (009.M31) - The Xana Incursion was a desperate covert campaign conducted by a Legiones Astartes Blackshield irregular forces as well as a small force of Dark Angels against the recalcitrant Forge World of Xana II in 009.M31, during the galactic civil war known as the Horus Heresy. Intelligence had reached Terra that the renegade Forge World on the western fringe of the Imperium had reached an accord with the Traitor forces to supply the Warmaster's armies with vast output of arms and material. The bargain was to be sealed with the delivery by Xana of a number of newly created powerful Odinatus class weapons undergoing final field tests. In what was effectively a suicide mission, a handpicked force of Legiones Astartes, including many Blackshields -- in this case Space Marines who have chosen to remain loyal despite their parent Legion's treachery -- was despatched under great secrecy to destroy the war machines and drive a wedge between Xana and the Traitors. During the Loyalist assault, the veteran warriors of House Malinax defended the major forge-fane of Setna from the Loyalists' assault, and successfully halted their progress. Two Ordinatus were captured by the Loyalist force and evacuated from the surface of Xana-Tisiphone, to be maintained and utilised by Loyalist tech-magi in latter campaigns of the Heresy.

Notable House Malinax Knights

 * Matonari (Mechanicum Knight-Atropos) - The Matonari was a rare Cerastus Atrapos subtype, a platform for a particular set of technologically arcane weaponry intended for deployment against hardened targets and heavy armour. It was known for having taken part in the raid on the world of Guilders Grave, the first known example of the Xanite Mechanicum forces conducting a military operation to their own ends. Matonari served in the assault as a leading element of an attacking Knight detachment. It is known to have taken part in the sub-engagement raid on the Yellow Atallo sub-orbital transit depot in 008.M31.
 * Xaulhqui (Questoris Knight Styrix) - Xaulhqui is known to have taken part in the Defence of the Barbican Gate at forge-fane Setnat during the Xana Incursion. Additional ident-markers in register also indicates that this Knight also took part in such campaigns as the Siege of Arrian Mysteries, the Brycantia Purge and the Tyrian Suppression.

House Colours
Much of the heraldic panoply of the re-formed House of Malinax was taken from the predatory megafauna that was surprisingly common on the Forge World on which they were homed. The distinctive colouration of their primary armour was in fact ritually created from the dense, silicate-rich bone plates harvested from Xana's gigantic armoured Regathok Ursids, the augmented skull of which also forms the core icon of Xana's Taghmata forces.

House Arms
The tripled-tailed scorpion utilised by House Malinax as their house's heraldry, pre-dates the pact with Xana and owes its origin, the ancient sigil of the Malin-Qatlu, later rendered as "Transfigured by the Omnissiah" as the House's Xanite Sacristans had it, to a purer, more blessed form.

Gallery
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