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House Vextrix is a Renegade Knight House formerly of the Questor Mechanicus that repudiated its oath of loyalty to the ancient Mechanicum and the Imperium of Man during the Horus Heresy.

Since being declared an Infernal house of Chaos Knights, the Knights of Vextrix have welcomed the corrupting influence of the Dark Mechanicum. The more warped a Knight becomes in service to the Dark Gods, the higher their status.

Dread campaigns are frequently launched from the Fallen Knight World of Daxos Gemini to uncover repositories of knowledge that have remained hidden since the Age of Technology, and to acquire esoteric xenos machinery that the Tech-priests of Mars consider heretical.

Daxos Gemini is covered in the sprawling forge metropolises of the Dark Mechanicum. Inside these vast factory-cities the Knights of House Vextrix continually augment their mechanical forms, warping their war engines into perfect embodiments of Chaos.

House History[]

Saw-of-the-Eastreach

House Vextrix Post-Heresy colours and Warp-altered form as displayed by the Knight Rampager Saw of the Eastreach, piloted by Virnet XI.

Hailing from Daxos Gemini, a Knight World located within the Segmentum Obscurus and discovered by Explorator fleets dispatched from Mars, the integration of House Vextrix into the Imperium proved a bloodless affair.

Notably, the warriors of House Vextrix were eager students in the ways of the Cult Mechanicus, accepting ever-increasing numbers of emissaries from Mars as a sign of the household's devotion to the new order unto which they had now been accepted. In acknowledgement of the strong connection between Daxos Gemini and Mars, combined with a desire to facilitate rapid integration of House Vextrix into the expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade, responsibility for tactical assignments of the household's strength was bequeathed to the Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal.

Accepted as honoured servants of the Omnissiah, House Vextrix were regularly sent forth across the galaxy alongside the Legio Mortis, who are known to many in the Imperium as the "Death's Heads." In this role, the warriors of Vextrix acted as enforcers of the fabricator-general's will with a particular focus on the retrieval and protection of any fragment of desirable knowledge held by rediscovered strands of Humanity throughout the galaxy.

House Vextrix Knight Styrix

House Vextrix colours as displayed by the Knight Styrix Fractured Angel during the Horus Heresy era.

On occasion, those that served with distinction were assigned a place amongst the personal bodyguard of the fabricator-general of Mars himself. To be given such a role was perceived as a great honour amongst the ranks of House Vextrix and did much to secure the ascension of those chosen individuals to positions of authority within the household.

So it came to be that, by the end of the Great Crusade, the ruling class was placed there as much by virtue of their association with Mars as they were by their skill-at-arms. It is perhaps safe to presume that those leaders of House Vextrix, so entangled with the fabricator-general, were the driving force behind the household's march down the path of treachery.

Horus Heresy[]

As a sign of their commitment to the fabricator-general, the first act of House Vextrix during the Horus Heresy was to adorn the buttresses of their fortress upon Daxos Gemini with the corpses of the ruling Noble house whose loyalty to the Imperium proved unquestionable. After purging their world of dissenting elements, the warriors of House Vextrix took to the stars in service to the Warmaster Horus.

Many were placed alongside the Legio Mortis, supporting the Titan Legion in some of the most pivotal conflicts of the Horus Heresy. In recognition of their devotion to the cause, the remaining numbers of House Vextrix were assigned tasks according to the whims of the fabricator-general himself, given leave to pursue such goals by whatever means they deemed fit. It was this role that led to several dozen warriors of House Vextrix being dispatched to the Belt of Iron, ordered to conquer all in the Warmaster's name.

House Vextrix were amongst the Heretics who participated in the Battle of Beta-Garmon during the Horus Heresy, in which hundreds of Loyalist and Traitor Titans were obliterated. The Vextrix Knights also suffered staggering casualties, but this only served to stoke their hatred of the Imperium, and of those who continued to blindly serve the Omnissiah.

Notable Campaigns[]

  • Battle of Daxos Gemini (Unknown Date.Early M31) - Following the Warmaster Horus' open betrayal of the Emperor, the first act of House Vextrix during the Horus Heresy was to purge their own homeworld of dissenting Loyalist elements. They adorned the buttresses of their fortress with the corpses of the ruling Noble house whose loyalty to the Imperium proved unquestionable. Following this act of bloodshed, House Vextrix took to the stars in service to the Warmaster, serving alongside the Legio Mortis. Wherever the Traitor Titans prosecuted their heretical wars they were accompanied by lances of Vextrix Knights.
  • Cataclysm of Iron (010-015.M31) - Across border sectors of the Segmentum Tempestus and the Segmentum Pacificus are located numerous lesser Forge Worlds known collectively as the "Belt of Iron." After the sundering of the Imperium, many declared for the Traitor cause at the engineering of the treacherous fabricator-general of Mars, while others remained loyal to Terra or sought to remain as aloof as possible from the conflict. Strife and tentative conflict between these once-aligned worlds erupted into full-scale war in 010.M31, pitching the Mars-aligned Forge Worlds of Incunabula, Urdesh, Valia-Maximal and Kalibrax against the forces of the Loyalist worlds of Graia, Arl'yeth and Atar-Median, while Arachnis and Jerulas Station both fell into civil war. The resulting conflict, that later became known as the "Cataclysm of Iron," saw the forge lords, their armies and allied Titan Legions and Knight Houses turn on each other in protracted warfare, with scores of Human-inhabited worlds in the region suffering as they become the battlegrounds upon which they fight.
    • Second Invasion of the Findari Spoil (091.012-417.012.M31) - The barren world Findari Prime, contained within the borders of the Findari Spoil, saw the tread of Traitors once more when an assault, spearheaded by the warriors of House Vextrix, made landfall upon the planet. This caused much confusion to the First Shield Nuvarss who had been tasked with defending the Spoil, for the force assembled by the Traitors posed only a minimal threat to the defences erected by Kalibrax years before and since strengthened by the Tech-priests of Atar-Median. The actions of the Traitor forces also stood at odds with conventional invasion tactics, with roaming groups of House Vextrix Knights moving from location to location, with evidence of collapsed digsites at the centre of each. To understand the logic behind the actions of the Traitor forces, a directive was issued demanding the capture and interrogation of a Traitor Tech-priest in order to extract the purpose behind the invasion. After several solar weeks of running battles, during which House Vextrix managed to fell three Legio Atarus Titans amongst the World Spine Crags, the warriors of House Col'Khak achieved their goal, capturing a Tech-priest left behind as the Traitors enacted a hasty evacuation of the planet's surface.
  • Battle of Beta-Garmon, "The Titandeath" (006-013.M31) - Numerous Traitor Titan Legions engage in battle with their Loyalist counterparts throughout the Beta-Garmon star cluster. Knight houses fight on both sides of the sprawling conflict, upholding oaths to follow the god-machines into the fray. Whole households are lost in the war zone, their once-mighty war engines reduced to flaming wreckage alongside the metallic carcasses of annihilated Titans. Marching alongside their Titan allies of the Legio Mortis, the Vextrix Knights also suffered staggering casualties, but this only served to stoke their hatred of the Imperium, and of those who continued to blindly serve the Omnissiah. Those Vextrix Knights who had expressed even the slightest reservation in siding with their bond-lieges against the Imperium are placed on the front lines, where they suffer the greatest losses. The conflict therefore becomes known amongst the nobility of Daxos Gemini as the "Great Cull."
  • 13th Black Crusade (999.M41) - Iconoclast households, Infernal households and Dreadblades from across the galaxy flock to the banner of Abaddon the Despoiler as he launches his 13th Black Crusade. Dread lances march on multiple fronts. On Macharia, Chaos Knights of House Vextrix, House Iattol, House Mesmr and House Lucaris battle alongside various warbands of Heretic Astartes to lay waste to the militarised hive cities. Throughout the crusade, many Chaos Knights pledge fealty to Abaddon for the first time, whereas others settle blood oaths against the Imperium that had stood for millennia.

Notable Knights[]

  • Fractured Angel (Questoris Knight Styrix) - A blessing from Mars, the Fractured Angel, depicted above, was one of the first Styrix Knight armours gifted to House Vextrix when they swore their oaths to the Red Planet. After the ancient Mechanicum was riven by betrayal and the Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal sided with the Warmaster, House Vextrix honoured its ancient accords by using Knight armours like the Fractured Angel to wreak havoc in the name of the Dark Mechanicum. Throughout the Cataclysm of Iron, this particular Knight armour would be responsible for some of the greatest violent excesses of House Vextrix against Loyalist worlds.
  • Steadfast Aegis (Cerastus Knight-Atrapos) - Steadfast Aegis, depicted below, was one of several House Vextrix Knights present on Mars during the Schism of Mars, assigned to the Red Planet as part of the fabricator-general's personal bodyguard. As the Horus Heresy proved, Atrapos Pattern Knights were considerably effective at felling god-engines, and thus Steadfast Aegis rarely stood in the presence of Kelbor-Hal himself. Instead, the Knight and its two companions, Valour's Duty and Spear of Daxos, were regularly assigned hunter-killer missions, combing the red sands of Mars for surviving groups of Loyalist Titans and armour. The honour banners of the three Knights displayed a considerable number of heavy armour, Knight and god-engine kills, proving the three Vextrix Atrapos earned their position of prominence by virtue of their consummate skill on the battlefield.
  • Spear of Daxos (Cerastus Knight-Atrapos)
  • Valour's Duty (Cerastus Knight-Atrapos)
  • Anvil of Trevenek (Knight Rampager) - A Knight Rampager of House Vextrix.
  • Drixia's Maul (Knight Desecrator) - The Knight Desecrator Drixia's Maul proved to be the most stubborn of the Knight suits of the Drixian Nobles, yet through unending mechanical tortures even it succumbed to the corruptions of Chaos.
  • Saw of the Eastreach - Knight Rampager Saw of the Eastreach was named for the massacre it perpetrated during its first march.

Notable Personnel[]

  • Trevenek LVI - The 56th Fallen Noble of the Trevenek line who has piloted the Knight Rampager Anvil of Trevenek for well over three Terran centuries.
  • Virnet XI - The 11th Fallen Noble of the Virnet line and the pilot of the Knight Rampager Saw of the Eastreach.
  • Xitra CDV - In millennia past, the Xitras were bondsmen of the Drixian line, at the beck and call of the more powerful Noble family. But when the Legio Mortis fell to Chaos, the Drixians were among the few to renounce their oaths to the Titan Legion, proclaiming that their first duty was to the Omnissiah. The Xitran line repaid this lack of loyalty by turning upon their bond-lieges. Before long, the dismembered corpse of the last Drixian was being mounted atop the spiked gate of Vyre Keep in the heartland of Daxos Gemini. Over long centuries the Knight suits of the Drixian Nobles were bent to the will of the Xitras. The current pilot of the Drixia's Maul is the 405th direct descendant of the Xitran line to man that Knight suit. Though she has been bonded to the Knight Rampager for scarcely more than a solar decade, she has already made a name for herself as a fearsome combatant and cunning tactician, as well as a loyal servant of the Legio Mortis.

House Strength[]

Though House Vextrix stood amongst the smallest of Knight houses, capable of fielding an estimated 140 Knight armours at the onset of the Horus Heresy, thus marking it as a Tertius-grade house, its war vaults were well-stocked with rarer patterns. Indeed, a quarter of House Vextrix's strength consisted of Knight Magaera, Knight Styrix and Knight Asterius armours, a rarity amongst any household, let alone one of House Vextrix's size and lineage.

This discrepancy can be attributed to Daxos Gemini's close ties to Mars, with shipment records highlighting the frequent supply convoys leaving the Red Planet destined for the Knight World. House Vextrix's rarer armours saw frequent use in service to the fabricator-general, primarily as part of his honour detail.

As the Horus Heresy progressed, it was these Knight armours that underwent the most radical changes within House Vextrix, welcoming any modifications blessed by the Traitor fabricator-general and proudly displaying their allegiance.

Household Allies[]

Traitor Titan Legios[]

House Appearance[]

House Colours[]

The colours of House Vextrix are green and black with silver trim.

House Arms[]

Pre-Heresy[]

House Vextrix Icon Fancy

Pre-Heresy House Vextrix iconography

The heraldry of House Vextrix prior to their fall to Chaos took the form of a large sword bisecing a cog symbol, indicating their bond with the ancient Mechanicum. The sword was centred between two smaller symbols; a cracked skull on the right and the symbol of the great Forge World of Mars on its left.

Alternatively, after House Vextrix declared for the Warmaster during the Horus Heresy, they would often display the sword bisecting the Eye of Horus, indicating their loyalty to the Warmaster's cause. This central symbol was centred above a half-cog icon, which indicated this Knight household's loyalty to the Dark Mechanicum.

Post-Heresy[]

Following their subsequent retreat to the Eye of Terror following the end of the Siege of Terra, the heraldry of the Iconoclast Knight House morphed into a large black sword bisecting a black skull centred within a white corrupted Opus Machina icon of the Dark Mechanicum.

Sources[]

  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Titandeath (Specialty Game), pg. 95
  • Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Traitor Legios (Specialty Game), pp. 104-107
  • Codex: Chaos Knights (8th Edition), pp. 20-21, 29-30

Gallery[]

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