Drusus

Drusus was a Lord General Militant of the Astra Militarum and the second leader of the Angevin Crusade that conquered the Calyx Expanse in the Segmentum Obscurus and founded the Calixis Sector for the Imperium of Man in the early 39th Millennium.

Drusus was initially a subordinate commander to Lord General Militant Golgenna Angevin who first led the Angevin Crusade which had been named for him. But after Angevin's mental breakdown, Drusus took de facto command of the waning Imperial Crusade against the Chaos-corrupted xenos race known as the Yu'Vath and their allies.

After he had gained the political favour of the High Lords of Terra, jealous rival Generals of the Crusade attempted to kill the rising star with assassins. Though supposedly slain during their attempt, Drusus was seemingly resurrected as a Living Saint, leading many to believe that he also held a special place in the eyes of the Emperor of Mankind.

As a result, Drusus was formally granted full command of the Crusade by the Senatorum Imperialis and led a new, massive offensive that saw the final destruction of the Yu'Vath and the establishment of Imperial settlement in what became the Calixis Sector. Drusus is hailed as a great hero and Imperial Saint across the Calixis Sector to this day.

History

In 322.M39 Praetor Golgenna Angevin, a powerful noble from the Terran Court, was raised to the rank of Lord General Militant in the Astra Militarum and granted a writ from the High Lords of Terra to persecute an Imperial Crusade to liberate and dominate the area of space designated as the Calyx Expanse. His Crusade's forces were drawn principally from the Segmentum Solar and numbered over 17 million levied troops who were divided into 4 battle groups and a strategic reserve, re-enforced by elements of the Titan Legios Venator and Magna, as well as the Black Templars, Tigers Argent, Sons of Medusa and Charnel Guard Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes and a significant Imperial Navy deployment drawn from the Battlefleets Solar and Obscurus.

A score of Rogue Trader and Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleets ranged ahead of the main Imperial forces, identifying targets and providing active reconnaissance in this dangerous region of space. Swelling the force's already vast ranks were tens of thousands of "pauper warriors" of the Frateris Militia whipped up into a frenzy of holy zeal by the Ecclesiarchy and innumerable petty hangers-on, opportunists and logistical transports, with supply trains leading back whole sectors away from the front.

Using the well-established Frontier World of Sinophia as its forward staging post and marker, the Crusade's main thrust was launched like an armoured fist into the heart of the Calyx Expanse across the Periphery in a two-pronged assault directed towards two prominent star systems where Rogue Traders had long-established pro-Imperial human contact: Malfi and Solomon.

The Reaping of the Emperor's Wrath (341-545.M39)

Having strongly established and fortified two salients of conquered Imperial territory into the Calyx Expanse, with their domains now anchored on the worlds of Solomon and Malfi, as well as defeating three minor xenos empires and innumerable other non-Compliant forces in the prior twenty years of fighting, the Angevin Crusade paused for fortification and entrenchment of its gains from 341 until 545.M39 before the next stage of conquests begins.

The Crusade was then granted a fresh influx of troops by the High Lords of Terra in recognition of its success (and the wealth already pouring into Imperial coffers from their conquests), in order to press on. Seizing the moment, the Crusade forces carried out the greatest single sweep of conquests in the conflict as the two-pronged assault from the salient's arms swept together conquering as many worlds in the pace of four Terran years as had been taken in the proceeding two solar decades.

These conquests formed the territory later known as the Golgenna Reach sub-sector in a campaign that was called by Imperial chroniclers the "Reaping of the Emperor's Wrath". Of the many famous victories of this campaign, one of the most lauded belonged to the young General Drusus, who took the War World of Iocanthos in a single solar week, overthrowing a great and baleful tyranny there, while perhaps the most infamous was the Exterminatus of the world of Amun'an Morrus, whose once-human population of intelligent machines was judged too tainted by tech-heresy to continue to exist. Such horrors are attested to on this world that after its destruction its former location is stricken from all Imperial records, only to live on as a dark Calixian legend.

The Golgenna Consolidation (353-558.M39)

With the first and second great phases of its vast operation complete, (and partly owing to battle fatigue after 30 standard years of Crusade), Lord Militant Angevin's forces consolidated their hold of what was more than 200 captured worlds, and shepherded the arrival of the first wave of Imperial colonisation to the areas they controlled. During this period of relative peace, several notable regiments of the Astra Militarum who had earned great glory in the campaign (such as the Brontine Centurions) were given rights of settlement to their own worlds, while several attached forces (like the elements provided by the various Astartes Chapters) rotated out of the Crusade's service.

The Second Front is Opened (359.M39)

The Angevin Crusade's third great push began with a freshly raised army group gathered from the core worlds of the Segmentum Obscurus, under the command of the Imperial Navy's High Admiral Vaakkon who opened a second front. The new army group to enter the Crusade assaulted the Calyx Expanse from the Segmentum's coreward regions, with the goal of linking up with Angevin's own forces who advanced from Golgenna to meet them.

This phase of the campaign proved disastrous, as worsening conditions in the Warp and a series of calamities and reversals beset the Imperial forces, and when the fleets finally met in 363.M39 at the world of Orendal the Imperial losses of the last four years nearly equalled that of the first two decades of the Crusade.

Angevin commanded the world of Orendal be transformed into a shrine to honour the fallen dead and then he ordered a retreat. Some say that after this time Angevin is a man broken in will and purpose. The Crusade's forces withdrew to the interior of the Golgenna Reach, and Angevin devolved command of his armies to his senior generals and admirals with mixed success, as with no clear line of authority factionalism and bitter rivalries started to appear in the ranks of the Crusade.

The Bleak Years (363-369.M39)

With the Angevin Crusade's forward impetus stalled, its domains began to come under repeated and sustained attack from without, weathering the storms of an Ork WAAAGH!, and the privations of xenos corsairs and raiders whose assaults claimed the lives of millions. Signs and omens were everywhere; a burning black fire was seen in the skies of the world of Lossal Prime days before all contact with the thriving Imperial colony world was lost, the wreckage of an entire overdue re-enforcement battle group out of Akurion was discovered by piquet ships operating on the fringes of the Ha'az'Roth region and plagues decimated the worlds of the Malfian Holdfast.

Rebellions and cult activity rose to threaten what were thought to be stable worlds and assassins claimed the life of Arch-Confessor Melcher El, the Crusade's spiritual leader and Ecclesiarchy adviser. Worsening political rivalries between the Crusade's generals and Imperial Commanders break out into petty conflicts. Betrayals and a wave of outright distrust between the Crusade's leaders allow matters to deteriorate further.

For the first time the Crusade's gains began to be lost, and the Imperial forces were stretched increasingly thin in their defence of the new realm. Morale problems and discord grew in the ranks. Only the fleets of the Rogue Traders Sibylline Haarlock and Ludd Sabrehagen provided the rapid transport and redeployment needed to support the brilliant and daring counterattacks of General Drusus' army group against the Warp-worshiping xenos race known as the Yu'Vath and their debased human allies which prevent the entire Malfian region from collapsing and leaving the Crusade's conquests wide open for assault. Drusus was widely acclaimed as a saviour but many powerful figures in the Crusade viewed him as a dangerous warmonger, rival and would-be usurper.

The Transfiguration of Drusus (367.M39)

According to some sources, betrayed by agents of his rivals among Lord General Militant Angevin's generals, Drusus was attacked by a deadly assassin whilst rallying his depleted forces on the world of Maccabeus Quintus and was seemingly slain, before rising again -- an event many see as a true miracle and a clear mark of the Emperor's favour.

The newly established Drusine sect of the Imperial Cult begins to flourish in his shadow, already revering him as a Living Saint, while shadowy agencies, some say belonging to the Ordo Malleus of the Inquisition, also bring new aid to his forces in the persecution of the Yu'Vath and their human allies (which include Traitors within the Imperium's own ranks). Almost by sheer force of personality and by independently rallying much of the Crusade's forces to his own banner with tacit backing from the wider Imperial powers (including the involvement of a sizable force from the Iron Hands Astartes Chapter), Drusus orders the launch of the Angevin Crusade's third and final phase of conquests.

This campaign succeeded in destroying the powers that controlled much of what would later be known as the Drusus Marches Sub-sector in General Drusus' honour, laying waste to as many worlds as he dominated.

The Great Founding (370-610.M39)

Mass colonial expeditions from the overpopulated worlds of the distant Segmentum Solar, and from nearer afield in the troubled Mandragora and Gehenna Sectors arrive within the fledgling Calixis Sector, creating a great influx of human population to the region.

The Death of Angevin (372.M39)

Lord General Militant Golgenna Angevin dies at his palace on the world of Quaddis. Though the official cause of death is listed as natural causes, rumours lay his decline in health on advanced old age and a surfeit of fine living. Darker stories persist of the Officio Assassinorum's hand in matters as punishment for his later failings in the prosecution of the Angevin Crusade. Drusus is named Lord General Militant by wide acclaim in Angevin's stead (with the political support of both the Departmento Munitorum and the Inquisition) and as soon as a state period of mourning for the late Angevin is over, Drusus immediately sets to re-forging the region's military forces for a final counterattack into the regions of the Adrantis Nebula and the remaining strongholds of the Yu'Vath Hell Worlds.

The Grant of The Lathes (380.M39)

In recognition of their invaluable assistance and heavy losses in the purging of the taint of the Adrantians, as well as their service to the Angevin Crusade in decades past, Drusus grants the Lathe System to be the sole domain of the Adeptus Mechanicus in perpetuity, and ratifies their claims to several other worlds and rights of free and unchecked passage through the stars the Crusade has conquered. By this act, the Lords of Mars were bound in strength both to the fledgling sector and to Drusus' own banner.

Birth of the Calixis Sector (384.M39)

With the final defeat of the xenos known as the Yu'Vath and the Bale Childer, and the Exterminatus of their homeworlds, the final serious organised resistance to Imperial rule in the Calyx Expanse ends and Drusus declares the Angevin Crusade to be complete.

Drusus is installed with full rights and title by the Equerry Primaris of the High Lords of Terra as the first Lord Sector Calixis to much acclaim. Amongst his first acts are the confirming of the world of Scintilla as his sector capital, the ratification of the great trade charters for the new sector's mercantile shipmasters and rising commercial powers that had maintained the Crusade.

This binds the new sector's life blood of trade and creates what would become the great Chartist families and first great Calixian noble houses. His other achievements include the creation of the sector's great legal code, the Corpus Presidium Calixis and the instillation of a Calixian branch of the Holy Synod of the Adeptus Ministorum at Tarsus on Scintilla.

The full effective pacification of the sector will continue to consume much blood and treasure of the Imperial war machine for a further three Terran centuries to come.

The Death of Drusus (417.M39)

The first and greatest Lord Sector Calixis dies and is succeeded by Marshal Corin Shultus in 417.M39, his former aide-de-camp and distant kinsmen to the late Golgenna Angevin. The final resting pace of Drusus' mortal remains is kept a secret, although rumours circulate that he was taken back to Maccabeus Quintus to be interred at the site of his first "death." Mass lamentation and political unrest accompany the news of his passing and the entire sector undergoes a seven-year cycle of mourning.

The Beatification of Saint Drusus (502.M39)

After nearly a century of deliberation the General Synod of Terra confers Imperial Sainthood on Drusus, whose cult and dogma had already flourished within the Calixis Sector and become a dominating factor in the local Calixian sect of the Imperial Cult.

Sources

Dark Heresy Apocrypha - Dark Heresy Timeline by Alan Bligh (RPG Web Supplement)