House Kaushik was an Imperial Knight house that hailed from the Knight World of Molech. Originating from the planet's ancient subterranean arcologies located hundreds of kilometres beneath the towering Untar Mesas, House Kaushik was an insular household. Ruling their underground domain from Pyros Mountain, this Knight Household had remained within their subterranean fortress for millennia, rarely adventuring forth except to hunt under-realm's megafauna or visit the planet's capital.
Due to their taciturn and parochial lifestyle, the people of Kaushik also fell into a debased form of technology worship, and their Sacristans barely maintained an understanding of how their Knight armours and technology actually functioned. However, despite their perceived backwardness, Kaushik Scions were able to bond with their Knight armours on a spiritual level. Despite their poorly maintained armour, they fought with the fury of those who had cast off mortal fears.
Tragically, House Kaushik was one of several Loyalist Knight houses that were destroyed through the vile machinations of the Traitors at the Battle of Molech during the Horus Heresy.
House History[]
House Kaushik colour scheme displayed by the Questoris Knight Warden Shadow's Grasp during the Horus Heresy.
Beneath the towering Untar Mesas, hundreds of kilometres of caverns and caves twist their way through the ground. This cold under-realm was the domain of House Kaushik, who rules its depths from the Pyros Mountain. The arcology is a wonder of the Dark Age Technology, built by the first Human colonists to sustain them on a strange and alien world.
Other arcologies, each one once a complete self-contained city, dotted the surface of Molech, though most were little more than ruined shells, stripped for parts when the initial settlers built their first true structures. House Kaushik had, however, remained within the earth, and turned their gaze inward rather than out into the wilderness of the continent of Molechari, fighting the creatures of the deep earth, such as the maw-craggadon stone serpents or the arcanodons, which prowled the underground ways. By the 30th Millennium these beasts were less common than they once were, the house having driven them off time and again, though the people of Kaushik still hunted them for both sport and food.
The people of House Kaushik were deeply insular, leaving the safety of their ancient fortress only to hunt or occasionally visit the planetary capital of Lupercalia. Surrounded by artefacts of a lost age, they had also fallen into a debased form of technology worship, possessing little understanding of how the mechanisms of their technology worked, only that they did -- for the most part. Their Knight armours especially hold a sacred place for them.
However, House Kaushik Sacristans knew little of the workings of the Knight armour, only that through ancient prayers and the performance of certain rituals could they be awoken and maintained. As systems failed or were forgotten, other means of rousing the Knight to readiness were found, fusion cranks, muscle-driven cog-generators and magma-pumps all means of keeping the Knight's power plant alive. All their Knight armours bore the signs of ill-maintenance.
Of course, the true strength of a Knight is always its pilot, and for Kaushik Scions, the bond between them and their machine was considered a spiritual pairing. In fact, the greatest state a Kaushik Knight pilot could attain was known as the "Great Quiet," when their soul was cooled by its proximity to the dead whispers of the Throne Mechanicum and their emotions were stripped away.
The upper echelons of the house were ruled over by those who had succumbed to the Great Quiet, their emaciated faces and fever-bright eyes hinting at their discarded Humanity. It was a quality that served these lordly Scions well in battle, and despite their poorly maintained armour, they fought with the fury of those who had cast off mortal fears.
During the invasion of Molech by the Warmaster Horus's forces, House Kaushik suffered greatly as both their tactics and poorly maintained Knight armours were little match for the Traitor forces, although their courage in the face of such adversity was well documented.
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 during the Great Crusade 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 Kaushik. 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 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 chosen 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.
Southern Steppes[]
On the far side of the Untar Mesas on the continent of Molechari, the lush greenery of the Western Marches gives way to the desolation of the Tazkhar Steppe. A savage and barren land, it covers thousands of kilometres of southern Molechari like a parched canvas. The peoples of this rugged land are for the most part nomadic, traversing it in long snaking convoys of land crawlers and riding beasts.
Those few settlements that do exist are influenced by the seasons, swelling from ghost towns of a few hundred souls to thousands in those times when convoys converge to feed their beasts and farm the soil. The people of the Tazkhar also have a long history as raiders, and think nothing of attacking each other's caravans beyond the agreed safety of the settlements.
Two of Molech's major Knight houses called the Southern Steppes home -- House Kaushik and House Tazkhar. House Kaushik formerly dwelled on the edges of the great wastes, their agri-arcology clinging to the side of the Untar Mesas. Considered insular by their peers, they maintained numerous Knight armours and claimed both a substantial area of the near-steppe and the Kush jungle as their ancestral hunting ground.
House Indra made its home among the vast swamplands of the Southern Steppes found beyond the Tazkhar Steppe.
Notable Knights[]
- Shadow's Grasp (Questoris Knight Warden) - A Questoris Knight Warden that served at the Battle of Molech.
Notable Personnel[]
There are no notable Nobles of House Kaushik listed in current Imperial records.
House Traits[]
The Kaushik Scions also displayed a variety of qualities that made them unique amongst their fellow Knight households. Many of their Scions had spent their lives in the caverns beneath the Untar Mesas on Molech, and due to their unique experiences fighting in a subterranean environment hunting the unique under-realm megafauna, they knew the importance of detailed reconnaissance to help form a plan of battle.
When hunting these deadly beasts, once located, Kaushik Knights would draw out their prey with barrages of missiles that would cave in portions of their lair. When the beast emerged to confront its assailants, sustained barrages would weaken the creature enough to engage in melee.
Forming strong bonds with their Knight suits, many Scions had worked the stone forges of the Sacristans of their house and knew the intricacies of their Knight's armour like their own skin. Some were so in tune with their Throne Mechanicum, that these fortunate few had entered the state known as the "Great Quiet" of the Kaushik, and were guided to a cold and unfeeling place by the ghosts of their command throne.
House Allies[]
Titan Legios[]
Space Marine Legions[]
House Appearance[]
House Colours[]
House Kaushik painted their Knight armours in a halved mint-green and blue colour scheme with corroded golden trim. Flame decorations were often painted on the blue side of their armour, including the left greave and left shoulder guard.
House Arms[]
House Kaushik's arms took the form of a large, flaming black mountain, representing their home within Pyros Mountain. This symbol was centred upon a black lozenge (diamond) outlined in white and centred upon a field of blue.
Sources[]
- Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Doom of Molech (Specialty Game), pp. 54-55
- Vengeful Spirit (Novel) by Graham McNeill
Gallery[]
