House Valhalla

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(To be added)

### Warcry

"The glacial caves bond us to our suits. The house bonds us to each other. May we temper this bond in defence of our planet!"

### Colours

dark Greenish Blue and Silver

**House Valhalla** is an extremely defensive Questor Imperialis Knight Household that rarely leaves the system of its home world, Valhalla IV. This house prefers to use, and is prominently comprised of, Dominus-class Knights and does not contain any Knight Preceptor suits. Each noble pilot has two Armiger pilots or Moirax pilots under their command, as they see through their training into fully-fledged knight pilots.

## History

When the first knights came to the system the forces were quickly deployed down to Valhalla IV after the planetary scans were done. There was something in the scan that was deemed important enough to deploy and secure the most harrowing planet in the system, which is still unknown to the imperium aside from those within the house.

The first fortress was constructed on the planet while the weather continuously damaged and destroyed parts of it. Many knights deployed on the world for patrol had returned severely damaged and three had never returned. Two terran months later the amount of damage that the suits and the fortress were taking from the weather was deemed too extensive to warrant constant repairs and supply shipments that a new method of staying on the planet was needed. Sir Elric was first to come up with the idea of placing the fortress off planet and have it orbit Valhalla IV. Once Castle Glacies was constructed and moved into place Sir Elric had expanded on his idea into the Five Castles and created the specialities that each castle has.

## Homeworld

### Valhalla IV

The planet itself is encased in a constant blizzard, so cold that most life forms cant survive. There isn't many buildings placed on the surface, with those built on the planet are constructed underground and the Five Castles of Aegis in orbit around the planet.

#### Five Castles of Aegis

The house is unorthodox in the fact that it doesn't use just one fortress, instead it uses five fortresses in orbit around Valhalla IV. This allows them to deploy on the planet in any location in minutes and gives them an easier ability to be shuttled out to other planets. These castles are:

* **Castle Glacies** - Home to the High King.
* **Castle Ferrum** - Home to the Barron Alpha.
* **Castle Doctrina** - Home to the Barron Beta.
* **Castle Impetus**
* **Castle Armis**

## Combat Doctrine

### Orbital Drop Harness

The Orbital drop harness or ODH is the method the nobles use to deploy onto the worlds. The harness comprises of a large heat shield placed at the bottom and a suite of retro thrusters connected at the top of the carapace. The knight is placed in a fetal position while the harness is attached and during the decent. When the knight is released the heat shield is the primary method to protect the knight as it descends and when the atmosphere gets thicker slows the knight down to a speed where the thruster suite can take over. The suite itself only slows the knight down far enough that its suspension can handle the impact of landing before hurling itself off the knight.

Armiger/Moirax suits do not have their own separate harnesses and instead use a harness set up in tandem for either 2, 4 or 6 suits.

### Tactics

Dropping straight into the heart of the foe and surrounding them with heavy artillery is the favoured method of attack for the household. Creating fear and panic to destroy the enemies ranks, is a common tactic employed to end armies assaults and mopping up the rest with continuous bombardment from all sides. The speed of the armiger suits is utilised to confuse targets while laying down suppressive fire from helvrens and warglaives leaping in to take the kill when in large groups, while with their bond liege their primary targets are armour threatening weapons.

## House Rituals

* ***The Frozen Ritual of Bonding***: Once a pilot has completed their training, before being noticed by the house the must enter The Glacial caves of Sendrax. When a pilot enters the caves their sensors become ineffective, deeming the knight lost within as they rely on limited optics, and they start to hear voices of those that once inhabited the suit. Most knights will reach a dead end before they run out of fuel to find that the entrance to the dead end had froze over leaving them stuck.

"*No pilot can be truly accepted until they stride out of that cave having shared a thousand memories with their suit*"
—High King Sir Roderic
* ***Ritual of Excavation***: Every 100 years an expedition is lead by the High king into the caves of Sendrax to thaw out and retrieve the bodies who have failed the Ritual of Bonding along with the suits to be given to the next pilot in line to receive the honour of a suit. The bodies are placed in the Vault of Cassa deep underground on Valhalla IV, to pay respect for those who tried to become a knight and defend their home sector.

## Notable Members

* **High King Sir Algus**: The first Noble to to discover the ability to bond to a knight suit, after he was trapped in the Caves of Sendrax while fighting the Aeldari. Later after an expedition into the caves to ensure the High King wasn't going mad because of the Eldar psykers, they discovered that many of the knight that went in with the High King went missing. The expedition was ended shortly after that was discovered and those that remained left the cave. When some of the knights returned claiming they had the same experience as the High King and both feeling like that had "bonded with the knight" , the ritual of bonding was soon introduced by Algus.

* **Sir Elric**: The noble to create the logistics of the Five Castles of Aegis.

## Notable Knights

Three suits govern who gains the three highest ranks in the household. The next noble in line with one of these suits who also completes the bonding ritual shall inherit the title and position that comes with the suit.

* ***Infurmum* (Knight Valiant)**: A noble with enough mental fortitude to successfully bond with this suit shall become the new High King/Queen of the household. Infurnum is a Knight Valiant suit of the dominus class.

* ***Adamant Faith* (Knight Castellan)**: If a noble completes a bond with this suit they shall become the Baron Alpha of the High Circle. Adamant faith is a Knight Castellan suit of the dominus class.

* ***Sunset's Companion* (Knight Warden)**: If a noble completes a bond with this suit they shall become the Baron Beta of the High Circle. Sunset's companion is a Knight Warden of the questorus class.

## Relations

### Allies

* **Silver Crusaders**

* **Regiment Delta**

## Notable Quotes

### By House Valhalla

"*The resilience of the dominus is what carries our doctrine. No matter how many hits we take, we still stand, destroying the enemy formation from the inside and surrounding them on the outside.*"
— Lady Rei, Herald of the siege
"*A knight strides forth never fearing what's ahead. They have faith that their armour protects them, and trust that their weapons shall crush their foes. But a true knight has not only these but their allies, the true strength of a knight.*"
— Sir Algus, previous High King