"If men should remember our house in times to come, let them not say we were cowards, let them not say we fled before the foe, and let them not say we died with our backs to the enemy, for we are sons of Molech, and Molech stands with the Emperor!"
- — Lord Balmorn, Baron of House Donar
House Donar was an Imperial Knight house. Known as the "Preceptor House," House Donar served as the warden of the Western Marches of the continent of Molechari on the Knight World of Molech during the Horus Heresy.
House Donar was destroyed at the Battle of Molech while guarding the Preceptor Line along the western edge of the Kushite Eastings, the trackless jungles of Kush, located to the east of the planet's capital city of Lupercalia. Unleashing the power of Chaos sorcery, the Death Guard Traitor Legion was able to push through the jungle of Kush on Molech. These dark arts annihilated every life form the Death Guard forces came into contact with within the jungle.
This devastation pushed many of the powerful mega-fauna that inhabited the Kush jungle out of the region and into the Preceptor Line, where they were slaughtered by the Knights of House Donar. Yet many of these creatures survived and continued to storm through the Preceptor Line, destroying many of House Donar's defences.
Badly weakened by this Traitor stratagem, the Knights of House Donar made a last stand against the Traitor Titans of the Legio Mortis and were slain to the last Noble.
House History[]
Origins[]
House Donar colour scheme as displayed by the Questoris Knight Errant Davard during the Horus Heresy.
The history of House Donar records that the first Donar Scions were descended from the Guardian Preceptor, the bladesmaster of the ancient high king of Molech. In those lost days, the people of the continent called Molechari were plagued by the beasts of Kush, the huge monsters ranging out into the Western Marches to hunt among the scattered Human settlements.
When the old high king passed, the Preceptor walked into the east to face these beasts. On the edge of the great jungles of Kush, the Preceptor planted his blade in the ground and vowed that as long as his house endured, the lands of Mankind would be defended.
Centuries later, the Scions of House Donar ruled over the Western Marches and the Preceptor Line. An ancient defensive wall erected against the jungle macro-fauna, it ran hundreds of kilometres from the peaks of the Untar Mesas in the south all the way to the storm-lashed Azure Coast in the north. Along its length, watch towers stood sentinel against the deep jungle beyond, while ramparts, each large enough to accommodate a Knight armour, provided firing platforms.
It was a matter of pride for House Donar that as long as the wall had stood, the Western Marches lived free of the horrors of the savage mallahgra and other beasts that had once ranged deep into their lands.
Over the years, House Donar became one of the preeminent hunting houses, often competing with House Devine for the venator's glory during Lord Cyprian's beast hunts. These hunts served a dual purpose, both honing the skills of the Scions and thinning the numbers of monsters living close to the edge of the Kush.
Baron Balmorn Donar and his firstborn, Robard Donar, the lord and Seneschal of House Donar, respectively, were principal among these hunters.
They regularly sallied forth from their watch upon the Preceptor Line to exterminate nests of arcanodons or xenosmilus, dragging the creatures' carcasses back to their fortress as trophies, each kill having honoured the Guardian Preceptor's ancient oath.
Battle of Molech[]
It had long been held that the jungles of Kush, a formidable natural barrier populated with dangerous beasts, effectively denied an invader ingress from the east. To this end, Tyana Kourion, lord general of the Grand Army of Molech, had kept her best troops back for the defence of Lupercalia and commanded only second line Imperial Army companies to hold the Preceptor Line.
Fortunately for the defenders, its protection was not the responsibility of the Imperial Army alone. House Donar, one of the ancient knightly houses of Molech, held dominion over the lands bordering the great Kush, and their household fortress was incorporated into part of the ancient defensive wall.
When news came of invaders landing on the eastern shore of the continent of Molechari in 008.M31 during the Horus Heresy, the Knight armours of Donar massed upon the Preceptor Line. Unbeknownst to the defenders, the Primarch Mortarion and his Death Guard Legion were forging a path through the jungle even as they waited, fell Warp magicks turning its once verdant reaches into a sea of death.
Driven forth before the destruction of the jungle, tens of thousands of massive creatures stormed the Preceptor Line, emerging in a frenzied rush to fall upon the defenders. Ravaged by hordes of beasts driven from the jungles, the already crumbling Imperial defences had taken further damage to the point that they represented little more than a line in the sand against the advancing Traitor Titans.
Despite having expended large amounts of ordnance on destroying the rampaging packs of azhdarchid, xenosmilus and stone serpents, among other macro-fauna, the Knights of House Donar stood their ground. Even as the jungle fell into blackened ruin before their eyes, devoured by the Life-eater Virus, Lord Balmorn, Baron of House Donar, bade his Knights to hold the line.
That they faced the vanguard Titans of the Legio Mortis did not diminish their courage and when the first Titans were sighted emerging from the miasmic clouds that had once marked the jungle's edge, Lord Balrnorn mustered his Knights and issued the order to charge.
Though valiant, the efforts of House Donar proved fruitless and the house was destroyed to the last Knight.
Notable Campaigns[]
- Battle of Molech (009.M31) - Molech was a Knight World ruled over by House Devine ever since the Emperor Himself led an expedition to bring it into the fledgling Imperium and left a significant garrison there. The planet thrived under the rule of Devine, the populace of its capital city of Lupercalia never knowing the true reason why the Emperor had taken it upon Himself to lead the force that claimed it. Unfortunately for the citizens of Molech, the Traitor Horus knew exactly what lay beneath the city that had been named in his honour -- a Warp Gate which, it was said, had allowed the Emperor to convene with the Ruinous Powers themselves. When Loyalist forces became aware of the Traitor fleet's approach, they mustered at Molech. As well as a trio of Titan Legions -- the Legio Gryphonicus, Legio Crucius, and Legio Fortidus -- there were elements of each of the Imperium's fighting forces, including nearly a dozen Knight houses which owed fealty to Devine, including House Donar. The Traitor force was equally impressive, featuring no fewer than four Titan Legions: the Legio Vulpa, Legio Interfector, Legio Vulcanum I, and the infamous Legio Mortis. As the Warmaster Horus unleashed a massive coordinated assault, the planet's defenders were thrown into disarray when the Plasma Reactor of an Imperator-class Titan, Paragon of Terra, was destroyed. Thousands of Loyalists were immolated in a blinding flash as a miniature sun erupted from the Titan's core to leave a smoking crater half a Terran mile wide. In the wake of the catastrophic blast, the spearhead of Traitor Titans marched through the gap in the Imperial lines. At the height of the battle, House Devine revealed its true allegiance to the Warmaster, its treachery unveiled at a pivotal moment, heralding a slaughter from which only a handful of Loyalists escaped. Caught between the treacherous Knights of House Devine and Horus' rampant forces, the shattered remnants of Molech's defenders were slaughtered without mercy. They were totally defeated, so brutally that only one in a hundred of the troops of the Imperial Army survived the campaign. After his passage through the portal into the Realm of Chaos, Horus won the full blessing of the Ruinous Powers as their champion. His drive on Terra seemed unstoppable.
House Homeworld[]
Molech has a long history as a Frontier World; its Knight houses protected it from the darkness of Old Night during long standard centuries of isolation. Though it lies within the borders of the Segmentum Solar, that most civilised centre of the galaxy within which Terra rules, its position at the very end of the Elliptical Way makes its planets difficult to reach via routes through the Warp. Molech is close to Terra in terms of size and orbit, sitting as it does within the primary biosphere of its star system.
Similar to Terra, Molech also has a large moon. Though not as influential as Luna, it regulates the tides and seasons on the world below, making the planet more habitable for Humans. In time, as the planet was developed by Humanity, this moon, as well as several of Molech's smaller celestial bodies, would become outposts for orbital defence networks and fuelling stations for void ships contributing to its impressive defences.
Four major continents grace the surface of the planet, divided by clear warm waters at the equator all the way to frozen seas at each pole. The two smallest continents, Estara and Neuropia, remain rugged wilderness realms, home to hunters and remote mining operations. These undeveloped lands lie far to the east and north of Molech, respectively.
Next in size and importance is the southern continent of Arcanius, an industrialised landscape of manufactoria and smoke-shrouded cities. Centred around the vast metropolis of Clockwork City, Arcanius produces the wealth of Molech's manufactured goods and is home to its tinker guilds and tech-slaves. The Knight houses tolerate Arcanius for it is here that many of their Sacristans receive their training in the ways of maintaining their Knight armours.
Molechari is Molech's principal continental landmass, the seat of power of its Knight houses and Titan Legions. Sprawling across the equator of the planet, its thousands of kilometres of landscape comprise the southern steppes of Tazkhar, the high mountain peaks of the Untar Mesas, the jungles of Kush and the huge agri-belts arrayed around the planet's capital city -- Lupercalia. These heartlands of the Knight World were where the Battle of Molech was fought during the Horus Heresy.
Kushite Eastings[]
East of the capital city of Lupercalia on the continent of Molechari, the trackless jungles of Kush rise up, a tangled wilderness prowled by dangerous beasts. As effective a barrier as any fortress walls, the jungles effectively divide Molechari in two. No Human settlements stand within them, and only when the wilds thin towards the easternmost coasts do refineries and ports appear, though these are walled against predators from the west.
As long as Humans have lived upon Molechari, the jungles of Kush have defined their existence. A nightmare realm of dark animal kingdoms and bestial lairs, any settlement erected too close to the jungle risked extinction. Even great cities such as Archmaga once suffered attacks by raiding beasts from the Kush, and only the presence of Knight armours kept it safe. For a long time, the Kushite Eastings were a no-man's-land to the people of Molech. Eventually though, as Humanity asserted its influence over the world, the dangers of the Kush were driven back into its jungles.
The Preceptor Line was constructed along the Kush's western edge, and House Donar was granted the honour of its maintenance and defence. Designed as a barrier against the predatory creatures of the Kush, the wall was upgraded over the years to include gun towers and watch fortresses, its great ramparts widened and reinforced so that a Knight armour could mount them. Despite these improvements, the great scale of the wall and the disregard the ruling House Devine had for the other Knight houses of Molech meant in time large sections of the Preceptor Line fell into disrepair. By the time of the Warmaster Horus' invasion, it was a defensive line largely in name only.
Part of the reason for the wall's neglect was the presence of the jungles. The defence had proven adequate to hold the small numbers of predators at bay that once raided the Western Marches, but against a conventional foe advancing overland from the east, it was believed that the jungle itself was a far greater barrier than anything the defenders could hope to construct. Even the Knight houses only entered the shadowy labytinth of ancient trees in numbers, supported by heavily-armed retainers and clad in their Knight armours.
As dangerous as the indigenous beasts of the rainforest were, the jungles themselves were filled with perilous terrain, from vine-choked chasms and deep brown rivers to bottomless fens and quicksand flats. During the Traitors' invasion of Molech, a vast swathe of the jungle was consumed by the Life-eater virus, and while this blackened ruin became a battlefield, so too did what little was left of the jungle itself in the battles that followed.
Notable Knights[]
- Davard (Knight Errant) - The Davard was a Knight Errant destroyed during the Battle of Molech.
Notable Personnel[]
- Baron Balmorn Donar - Lord Balmorn was the ruler of House Donar. He and his Knights made their last stand when the Traitor Titans of the Legio Mortis advanced upon the Preceptor Line at the Battle of Molech.
- Sir Robard Donar - Sir Robard was the firstborn of Lord Balmorn. He was also the Seneschal and a Lord Scion of House Donar.
- Sir Davard Donar - Sir Davard was a rising figure in the hierarchy of House Donar. Known for successfully hunting the deadliest of beasts even when the odds were stacked against him, Davard ultimately escaped Molech after its fall and offered his services as a Freeblade. Upon his heraldry, skulls traditionally used to represent kills instead represented those of his banner that had fallen on Molech. Davard was reported to have moved towards Terra intent on slaying the greatest beast of them all -- the Warmaster Horus himself.
- Luthias — Donar Scion killed in the Battle of Molech.
- Urbano — Donar Scion killed in the Battle of Molech.
- Tyrae — Donar Scion killed in the Battle of Molech.
House Appearance[]
House Colours[]
House Donar Knights were primarily a dark green with portions of their chassis black. The trim was a burnished gold. Various symbols and iconography displayed upon the Knight armours were red.
House Arms[]
House Donar's arms took the form of a horizontal red bar with a trio of black skulls centred within. Below was a red portcullis, which indicated House Donar's duty as the sentinels of the Preceptor Line of the Western Marches of Molechari.
Sources[]
- Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Doom of Molech (Specialty Game), pp. 7-11, 48-49, 62-63
- Vengeful Spirit (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- Warhammer Community - What is the Battle of Molech? (18 Apr 2019)
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