Once a loyal House of Imperial Knights from the proud Knight World of Adrastapol, House Wyvorn is now a mere footnote in Imperial history, the entire House having been declared reductum hereticum extremis by the High Lords of Terra following their betrayal during the Donatosian War.
During that conflict, House Wyvorn willingly followed House Chimaeros into sedition, betraying their brothers and sisters in order to ally themselves with the traitorous Heretic Astartes of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion.
It is currently unknown if any member of House Wyvorn is still at large in the galaxy, though according to official records, House Wyvorn has been totally destroyed.
House History[]
As one of the more obscure households of Imperial Knights from the Knight World of Adrastapol, there is little information on the origin of House Wyvorn. On Adrastapol itself, House Wyvorn has always stood in the shadow of the more influential Knight Houses like House Chimaeros or House Draconis, which might explain why Adrastapol's own historians like the esteemed Sage-Scribe Sendraghorst speak so little of House Wyvorn, even before their ultimate betrayal of the Imperium.
Overshadowed by the other houses, the Knights of House Wyvorn possessed a dubious reputation amongst their fellow Knights. While their martial abilities were never questioned, the Knights of House Wyvorn were generally considered callous fighters for whom the end justified the means and who were more determined to earn victory than care how the combat was carried on.
Although the origins of the tension between House Draconis and House Wyvorn are now lost and buried beneath a pall of secrecy, it was no secret that House Wyvorn was always politically closer to House Chimaeros, which made it the perfect target for Viscount Gerraint's machinations.
Already shunned by the other Houses and tight-lipped about their actions, House Wyvorn seemed to be the perfect partner for Gerraint's plot to retake the high kingship of Adrastapol for himself.
More than House Wyvorn's reputation, it was the persistent rumour of some "hidden strength" of the house that ultimately led the Traitor Gerraint Tan Chimaeros to ally himself with the Wyvorn.
Notable Campaigns[]
- Donatosian Uprising (Unknown Date.M41) - Also referred to as the Donatos War, the Donatosian Uprising marked the Imperial assault upon the rebellious Industrial World of Donatos Primus. Through the laxity of its rulers, previously undetected Chaos Cults had been allowed to grow strong until their presence invited the direct involvement of their tenebrous masters -- a Word Bearers warband under the control of the Dark Apostle Varakh' Lorr. The cultists succeeded in overthrowing the Imperial planetary government and killing the Planetary Governor as well as corrupting large portions of the Donatosian Planetary Defence Forces. However, the enemy's victory was not complete: Loyalist PDF troops and the world's contingent of the Adeptus Arbites still held out against the enemy and were able to issue a call for aid. The Imperium acted with uncustomary swiftness, despatching a sizeable army of Astra Militarum regiments under the general command of High King Tolwyn Tan Draconis and his Imperial Knights. Having secured a beachhead, the men and women of the Cadian Shock Troops, Tanhollis Highlanders and Mubraxis Dustdogs pushed back the insurgents. Both sides knew that control of the Adamant Citadels, an extensive network of powerful fortifications, would bring victory on Donatos Primus and it was with this goal in mind that High King Tolwyn prosecuted his war. As the Loyalist Imperial Knights of House Draconis, House Minotos and House Pegasson charged the enemy, they were betrayed by the Knights of House Chimaeros and House Wyvorn. With the death of High King Tolwyn during this betrayal, Viscount Gerraint Tan Chimaeros proclaimed himself the new High King of Adrastopol with the backing of Archduke Dunkan Tan Wyvorn whilst Tolwyn's son and heir was proclaimed counter-king to Gerraint's claim. For a small time, Renegade Knights, Chaos Cultists and the Word Bearers Heretic Astartes were able to unite their forces against the Imperial troops, but ultimately their clashing agendas led to considerable infighting, allowing the Imperials to emerge victorious. Both Renegade Houses were virtually annihilated on Donatos Primus, declared reductum hereticus extremis their deeds removed from all mention in Imperial records.
Notable House Wyvorn Knights[]
- Iron God - The Iron God was the personal Knight armour of Archduke Dunkan until he chose to abandon his mount in the final act of the Donatos Uprising and bond with the relic Acastus Knight Porphyrion House Wyvorn secretly possessed. What happened to the Iron God in the wake of the Loyalists' victory remains unclear.
Notable House Wyvorn Personnel[]
- Archduke Dunkan Tan Wyvorn - Dunkan Tan Wyvorn was the last ruler of House Wyvorn and the one responsible for his House's downfall. Described as a brutal and capable warrior, the Archduke never had the means to satisfy his personal ambitions. As a leader, he was incapable of winning over the hearts of strangers and lacked the charisma of other great leaders, or for that matter basic sincerity, as one of his most recurring traits seems to have been that when he smiled, the smile never reached his eyes. Rumour had it that he was a man of cruel intention. Proud of his station and the extensive history of his House, Dunkan was a hard man to like, believing himself superior to all common Imperial citizen or soldiers. When forced to cooperate with other branches of the Imperium's military, Dunkan has been noted to display no small amount of arrogance, especially when in the presence of officers of the Astra Militarum. Dunkan was known to deliver barely hidden insults to the face of a commanding officer. He remains famous to this day for daring to ask Cadian officers if their troops would be able to keep up with the rapid advance of his Knights during the Donatos Uprising. Emotionally distant and reserved, the only thing that truly satisfied the Archduke was the prospect of fighting and the glory he would be able to claim for himself and his House. However, as House Wyvorn lacked both the numbers of the greater Adrastapolian Houses or the martial reputations of such distinguished knightly households as House Minotos, the Wyvorn Knights were often relegated to secondary tasks, where little honour could be won. This seems to have considerably agitated Archduke Dunkan and might even have been the cause for his House's eventual treachery. While Dunkan respected the military might of the Word Bearers he allied himself with, House Wyvorn's treachery was motivated purely by the better political standing they would be granted in the wake of House Draconis' destruction. Archduke Dunkan's last and perhaps greatest flaw was to be overly confident in his own abilities. When the tides of battle turned against the turncoat Knights, Archduke Dunkan unleashed his House's secret weapon -- a relic Acastus Knight Porphyrion, which in his arrogance Dunkan Tan Wyvorn assumed he would be able to control without consequence. This proved to be his undoing, as his mind broke under the stress of attempting to bond with the Acastus Knight armour. Dunkan lost all sense of reality, his egomaniac tendencies leading him to believe himself to be a god. Despising the weakness of his own Knights, Dunkan turned his new steed's guns on his own retainers before confronting both the remaining Loyalists and his former allies in House Chimaeros. Archduke Dunkan Tan Wyvorn was eventually killed when the Acastus Knight Prophyrion's reactors exploded and the mighty machine was brought low by the combined efforts of Markos Dar Drakonis, Suset Dar Drakonis and Tamsane Dar Pegasson.
House Strength[]
As one of the secondary Knight houses of Adrastapol, House Wyvorn was rated a Tertius-Grade Knight house. Fragmentary records that survived the conflict on Donatos Primus and the data-purge on the house's homeworld of Adrastapol suggest that prior to the Donatos Uprising, House Wyvorn may have been able to field between 40 and 50 suits of Knight armour.
As a Questoris Familia, House Wyvorn relied upon the Knight Paladin and its variants such as the Knight Errant, Knight Gallant and Knight Crusader. As would later be revealed, House Wyvorn had also been able to maintain one of the most powerful patterns of Knight armour ever produced: the Acastus Knight Porphyrion.
This terrible machine of war was unleashed in the desperate final battle of the Donatos Uprising, the same battle that would mark the end of House Wyvorn -- for even the Prophyrion's tremendous firepower was not enough to halt the determined assault of the Loyalist Knights of Adrastapol.
House Appearance[]
Alone amongst the knightly households of Adrastapol, House Wyvorn favoured a single-tone colour scheme, whereas the other Houses dispalyed bisected or quartered heraldry.
House Colours[]
The colour of House Wyvorn was a simple acid green.
House Arms[]
The arms of House Wyvorn have been purged from all official Imperial records. All that is known is that it bore the symbol of the wyvorn, or wyvern, an ancient mythological beast from the legends of Old Terra from which House Wyvorn derived its name.
See Also[]
Source[]
- Kingsblade (Novel) by Andy Clark