House Mamaragon is an Imperial Knight house that hailed from the Knight World of Molech. Originating from the northern seas and archipelagos of their homeworld, this Knight household are descended from the explorers, seafarers and corsairs of ancient times. Their Knight Scions were adept at commanding the fleets of Mamaragon in battle and are just at home on the rolling deck of a war barge as they are on dry land. In fact, many of the Scions of Mamaragon still believed in the piratical ways of their forebears and adhered to their more flexible codes of honour and concept of allies.
This Knight house was known to be particularly haughty and infected with their sire's insufferable arrogance and reckless overconfidence, often mocking their land-locked cousin-households' hunting trophies through the audacious display of the massive sea-going leviathans and sea beast carcasses that adorned their own Knight armours.
House Mamaragon was one of the fortunate few Loyalist Knight houses that avoided being destroyed through the machinations of the Traitors at the Battle of Molech during the Horus Heresy. Though the majority of their Knight household was shattered, a handful of survivors would go on to play an instrumental role in rebuilding both their house and world following the end of the Great Scouring.
House History[]
House Mamaragon colour scheme as displayed by the Cerastus Knight-Lancer Enveloping Tide.
North of the primary inhabited continent of Molechari on Molech, thousands of islands are scattered across the vast Azure Sea. House Mamaragon claims dominion over these specks of land and all trade that passes between them. Much like their standing among the leaders of Molech, control of this realm is an ancestral right passed down from the days of the high king.
In ancient times, the forefathers of House Mamaragon were explorers and seafarers, their ships responsible for reaching the shores of distant continents and charting Molech's vast oceans. Later they would become sea wolves, hunting the trade routes that they had a hand in creating, and targeting the realms of the other Knight households. When House Devine finally united the fragmented houses and claimed Lupercalia as the world's capital city, the Scions of Mamaragon were relegated to wardens of the outer reaches, the far lands and the open seas.
The ruling Seneschal of House Mamaragon at the time of the Horus Heresy was Lord Erol Vor Mamaragon. He was known to be monstrously arrogant and possessed a reckless nature, and was a constant annoyance to House Devine and House Donar whenever his retinue of Paladins made landfall.
Lord Erol and his Mamaragon Scions also mocked the hunting trophies of the land-bound houses by displaying the carcasses of great, toothy sea beasts on their Knight armours. These massive coiling serpents are bigger than the largest of Molechari's macro-fauna and had to be bested in gruelling deep-sea hunts that made the other houses' forays into the jungles of Kush seem simple by comparison.
Despite their irreverent nature, the Scions of Mamaragon were fiercely loyal to Molech, and held the safety of their world above their oaths of obedience to the High House. In the aftermath of the Warmaster Horus' invasion, Mamaragon would be among the first to organise the surviving Loyalist houses of Molech against House Devine, continuing the fight even as the remaining Traitor forces spread out, first across Molechari and then out across the oceans. And, years later, when finally the Traitors' lash was lifted from Molech during the bloody years of the Great Scouring, the handful of surviving Scions of House Mamaragon would be there to meet their liberators, and rebuild the shattered remains of their world.
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 Mamaragon. 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.
Northern Oceans[]
Beyond the shores of Molechari stretches the Northern Oceanic Zones, the collective term for the continent's nearby island chains, isolated peninsulas and sea-rigs. Busy shipping lanes criss-cross the region, connecting Molechari to the rest of the planet. The industries of the southern continent of Arcanius flow northwards towards the capital city of Lupercalia and its Knight houses, while raw materials from the smaller continents of Estara and Neuropia feed both of Molech's principal continental land masses. Likewise, food is carried from the agri-belts of the Western Marches out across the oceans to feed the far communities of the planet.
Despite their diffuse nature, the Northern Oceanic Zones are well-defended. At the time of the Horus Heresy, Imperial Army fleets plied their waters. The Knight house of Mamaragon considered these regions their domain. Mamaragon's great sea fortress rises up from the ocean depths a hundred kilometres off the coast of Hvitha, guiding vessels with the Light of Dagos, a great lighthouse-like structure whose illumination burns perpetually from the fortress' highest tower.
This area was devastated during the Traitors' invasion of Molech, littered with the toxic dust from the debris of the broken battlefields, the remains of its void ships crashing down into the ocean and on the islands, and then from a campaign of heavy bombing. Horus was concerned only with the path between his landing zone and the city of Lupercalia, having no interest in capturing the cities and fortresses of the Northern Oceans.
Even so, he did not want his forces outflanked by the armies stationed on Molech's other continents or from its most northern reaches. Starships and atmo~pheric craft both savaged the landscape with their ordnance, filling the sea lanes with wreckage and turning ports into gutted ruins.
The Hvitha coastal distribution hub on Aenatep Peninsula, a lynchpin of the intercontinental trade routes, was among the first to be hit. For generations, its sprawling dockyards and towering administration structures had directed Molech's fleets, acting as a last port of call for vessels coming from Ophir or Larsa heading out to the Clockwork City and beyond, or as a first port of call for travellers on their way to Lupercalia.
In the span of a few solar hours, this ancient linage was washed away in a storm of flame. Later, Knights and Titans would fight through its flooded and burning streets, as they would across the scarred remains of the once-prosperous region, long after the Warmaster had moved on to new conquests.
Notable Knights[]
- Enveloping Tide (Cerastus Knight-Lancer) - This Knight armour, depicted above, was piloted by Scion Yarramanda during the Great Crusade and the opening years of the Horus Heresy. Unfortunately, like many of its fellow Knight armours, it too, fell to the guns of the Traitor Titan Legios during the Battle of Molech.
Notable Personnel[]
- Lord Erol Vor Mamaragon - Seneschal of House Mamaragon during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, the leader of this Knight household had a reputation for being monstrously arrogant, possessing a reckless nature and constantly annoying his fellow Nobles from both House Devine and House Donar whenever the opportunity presented itself. He passed on many of these undesirable traits to his offspring and fellow Scions, who often seemed to possess the same insufferable arrogance and reckless overconfidence as their sire.
- Scion Yarramanda - Pilot of the Cerastus Knight-Lancer Enveloping Tide during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, this Mamaragon Scion was infamous for arrogance even in a household known for its over-developed egos, often hunting the sea beasts of his homeland alone. Striding across the depths, the Enveloping Tide used its increased manoeuvrability to chase down creatures through underwater valleys, often far outpacing any who followed. During the Battle of Molech, Yarramanda attempted to use similar tactics when engaging the Traitor Titan Legions. Separating from the rest of his banner, the Enveloping Tide would dart between ruins in an attempt to surprise any Titan traversing the battlefield. Alone and outmatched, it was Yarramanda's arrogance which proved his downfall, for the beasts of the sea proved poor opponents compared to the might of a Titan.
House Allies[]
Titan Legios[]
Space Marine Legions[]
House Appearance[]
House Colours[]
House Mamaragon paint their Knight armourer in a blue-green and light blue colour scheme, evoking the seas and the underwater realm they hunted in and ruled.
House Arms[]
House Mamaragon's arms consisted of a large, black, five-pointed trident with a sea serpent coiled around it.
Sources[]
- Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Doom of Molech (Specialty Game), pp. 7-11, 56-57
- Vengeful Spirit (Novel) by Graham McNeill, Ch. 18
Gallery[]
