House Tazkhar is an Imperial Knight house that hailed from the Knight World of Molech. Originating from the wastes of the Tazkhar Steppe, a savage and barren land located in the Southern Steppes of the continent of Molechari, it covers thousands of kilometres. This unforgiving environment naturally bred ferocious Scions, giving this Knight house a well-deserved reputation for savagery.
Commonly dismissed as barbaric by the more refined Knight houses of Molech, the Scions of House Tazhkar claimed the greater measure of the steppes as their own, duelling among themselves in their Knight armours as much as they hunted down the beasts of the wastes. Due to their harsh and often unforgiving lifestyle, this made the savage nomads of Tazkhar among some of the best fighters on all of Molechari.
During the Battle of Molech and subsequent betrayal by House Devine, House Tazkhar would rise to become one of the focal points for the remaining Loyalist Knights, and the Tazkhar Steppe became a heartland for the resistance.
House History[]
The savage nomads of Tazkhar are among the best fighters on all of the continent of Molechari. That their house had never claimed the position of High House of Molech spoke more to their fractious nature than their fighting ability or bravery. Life on the Tazkhar Steppe is hard, and breeds hard people as a result. Water, grazing and farming land are incredibly scarce, and most Kharii, as the people of the steppes are known, must remain on the move if they hope to survive.
House Tazkhar is no exception, their Knight armours marching at the head of great desert caravans, weighed down with the Scions' baggage. Tribes gather around the Knight armours for more than just leadership, as they provide protection against the giant flying skyragg carrion beasts and the ur-lyons that burrow beneath the Tazkhari sands. Tazkhar Sacristans are among the few inhabitants of the steppe who hold permanent dwellings, their great stone temples acting in the same manner as wells or grass fields, and servicing the Knight armours of a Tazkhar caravan when it passes through their lands.
While many other Knight houses sought to shake off the primitive practices of their ancestors, the Scions of House Tazkhar were little changed from ancient times. Their caravans were still led by the Dervish Lords and no single Seneschal had power over the tribes. These warriors claimed an ancestral link back to the champions of the high king of Molech, the seven legendary swordsmen who served as part of his inner circle, and these lords also had to prove their right to lead through feats of arms during the ritual combats of the Feast of the Storm Lord. This annual gathering of the tribes celebrated the Lord of Storms' journey across the steppes, when He gave His blessing to the Kharii tribes when Molech was first brought into Imperial Compliance during the Great Crusade.
At this great gathering, the leadership of Kharii tribes could change, with sons or daughters besting their fathers or mothers in single combat from the command throne of a Knight armour, or in the old way, unarmed save for shield and blade. The Scions were also invited to test their strength against each other, and the Kharii who could defeat all comers could claim the title of "Vizier of Blades," mightiest warrior of the steppes, until the next gathering, when they had to test their right to hold the title once more.
All of these reasons made House Tazkhar one of the most formidable Knight households of Molech, rightly feared and respected in equal measure by the other Nobles 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 during the Age of Technology. 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 Tazhkar. 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[]
- Dune Strider (Cerastus Knight-Acheron) - This Knight armour was piloted by Scion Oktillo and was active during both the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.
Notable Personnel[]
- Scion Oktillo - Oktillo was the pilot of the Cerastus Knight-Acheron Dune Strider. Prior to the Traitors' invasion of Molech, Scion Oktillo stood as a protector of one of the many caravans that traversed the Tazkhar Steppe. During the battles that followed the invasion, Oktillo acquitted himself well, surviving several engagements and escaping the fall of Lupercalia. After the end of the Horus Heresy and the reclamation of Molech by the Loyalists during the Great Scouring, Imperial forces found Dune Strider still protecting the population of the world, scouring the Traitors with flame fuelled by salvaged promethium.
House Allies[]
Titan Legios[]
House Appearance[]
House Colours[]
House Tazkhar paints their Knight armours a desert tan with portions made orange and white, evoking the barren landscape of their homeland among the steppes.
House Badge[]
House Tazkhar's arms consists of a large, black, coiled sand snake.
Sources[]
- Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Doom of Molech (Specialty Game), pp. 7-11, 58-59
- Vengeful Spirit (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- Warhammer Community - Frequently Asked Qustions v1.1 (28 Feb 2020)