Hydrades Line

The Ring was home to many different empires in the days before the Imperium, some small, containing no more than half a million souls such as the Redal Empire, while others spanned across thousands of kilometers of the station, home to billions. The largest and most powerful of these however was without doubt the Hydrades Empire, home to eleven and a half billion before the Hydrades Civil War.

The Hydrades Empire had absorbed half a dozen of its lessers throughout its thousands of years of history, Ashuran and Zarsen standing as the two largest conquests, while other empires willingly allowed themselves to be absorbed, their power maintained even through this transition, the mighty Forges of Nurn being amongst the first of these peaceful conquests, catapulting the Hydrades Empire above their neighbours, the Forges providing the Hydrades armies with weapons and armour of the highest quality imaginable.

There was one event however that both safeguarded and damned the line of Hydrades, and that was the adoption of the Star Fallen child, the one who would take the name of Shaaa, third child and adopted ward of Asher Hydrades. Shaaa was no mere human, and through his work was the Hydrades Empire expanded upon, gaining more territory than at any other time in the lines history. The Ring stood on the precipice of true unity, something that had not come about since before the Age of Strife and the terrors of Old Night.

He also damned the line of Hydrades, turning father against son, plunging the nearly unified station into a bloody civil war from which there could be no peace, only the ultimate victory of one side, and the utter destruction of the other. As it happened, Shaaa led his warriors to victory, despite the lesser nature of his forces, and at the apex of his victory, a golden being arrived aboard the station.

The Emperor of Mankind, ruler of the Imperium of Man and the twinned empires of Terra and Mars spoke to Shaaa that day, revealing his true nature. Shaaa would not relent however, refusing to join his true creator until the line of Hydrades was unified under one banner, his own. Shortly after, Shaaa succeeded in this goal, the Civil War ending, the Hydrades line all but wiped out, only Shaaa remaining, the final Hydrades.

## Persons of Note

### Rostam Hydrades

**Seventh of his name, High King of the Hydrades Empire, Overlord of Ashuran, Zarsen and the Forges of Nurn**

Rostam Hydrades was the father of Asher Hydrades, and widely considered to be one of the greatest kings of the Hydrades empire, bringing multiple empires and over a billion souls into the Hydrades Empire without a single shot being fired. That is not to say he did not maintain the Hydrades military, personally leading the conquest of Shirat, an endeavour that would succeed, though Rostam would never see it, perishing in the final days of conflict

Rostam fathered two children, twin sons, one mere moments older than the other; Asher Hydrades and kaelron Hydrades

### Asher Hydrades

**Seventeenth of his name, High King of the Hydrades Empire, Overlord of Ashuran, Zarsen, Shirat and Forges of Nurn.**

Eldest son of Rostam and the last Hydrades king to bear the blood of the Hydrades line, Asher Hydrades was a shrewd and paranoid man, possessing a keen intellect for military and civil matters, but always assumed the worst, seeing plots and schemes arrayed against him, even from his most loyal of his servants. Asher oversaw the greatest military expansion in both the history of the Ring and the Hydrades empire, though he led none of these battles, and here his paranoia finally cost him more than it gained. In trying to strike down Shaaa Hydrades, his adopted son, Asher instead created a rival to eclipse all others, a rival who would one day see him dead.

Asher fathered three children and adopted one more, Hamood, his eldest son, Zulfa, his eldest daughter, Rajaa, his youngest son, and Shaaa, his adopted ward. He was killed by Shaaa Hydrades at the end of the Hydrades Civil War

### Kaelron Hydrades

**Third of his Name, Second Son of Rostam Hydrades, Master of Shirat**

Kaelron Hydrades was Asher’s twin brother, younger by mere moments, Kaelron missed his chance at the throne in those seconds before his birth, forever standing in Asher’s shadow. Despite this, he was loyal to the Hydrades line, and as a result, was placed in command of the empire of Shirat by his brother after their father's passing, entrusted to rule the empire in Asher’s name.

Kaelron was caught up in the Hydrades Civil war, throwing his empire behind Shaaa, rather than his traitorous brother. He proved to be a considerable thorn in Asher’s side throughout the war, until he was finally killed by Hamood, three months before the war ended.

Kaelron father no children and took no wife.

### Hamood Hydrades

**Lord High General of the Hydrades Military, Heir to the Throne of Hydrades, Eldest Child and Son of Asher Hydrades**

Hamood was the eldest son of Asher Hydrades, heir to the Hydrades throne, and rose to be the leader of the entire Hydrades military, named the Kra Stor, the Lord High General. Hamood was the spitting image of his father, shrewd and paranoid, despite possessing one of the keenest military minds in living history. He had a feud with his brother Shaaa since the day the latter could walk, something that only grew when Shaaa began to lead the armies of the empire without his orders, bringing victory after victory that reflected on Shaaa, not on Hamood.

It was this that led to Hamood plotting alongside his father, attempting to strike down his adopted brother, a task he failed in, instead starting the Hydrades Civil War. He would clash wits with Shaaa throughout the war, each time leaving the battered looser, until finally the pair clashed in the flesh, Shaaa crushing the life from his elder brother.

Hamood fathered one child, Saman Hydrades. His wife, Athana, died in childbirth.

#### Saman Hydrades

**First Born Son of Hamood Hydrades**

Saman was born mere years before the Hydrades Civil War erupted across the Ring. None know how he would have grown up or what he would have accomplished, rebels fighting for Shaaa breaking into Hamood’s quarters while the Kra Stor was away, killing all they found, including the young child, in an attempt to gain Shaaa’s favour. None of the rebels survived Shaaa’s wrath when they brought him the corpse as a show of their loyalty to him.

### Zulfa Hydrades

**Stor of the Hydrades 2nd Division, Eldest Daughter of Asher Hydrades, the Stormwind**

The eldest daughter of Asher Hydrades, Zulfa was an accomplished military mind to match her elder brother, and was known to be the greatest swordswoman across the Hydrades Empire, and perhaps across the entire Ring itself. None could best her in the arena, save for Shaaa himself. Rather than breed resentment however, Zulfa and Shaaa became close, Zulfa teaching Shaaa the techniques that she herself had developed, while Shaaa adopted those same techniques to work with his hammer, rather than her sword.

Zulfa was in the early stage of pregnancy at the start of the Hydrades Civil War. She was standing alongside Shaaa when Asher’s bomb detonated, killing her and her unborn child almost instantly.

### Shaaa Hydrades

**Stor of the Hydrades 1st Division, Adopted Son of Asher Hydrades, the Star Fallen, Master of the Star Forge**

The single greatest boon to the Hydrades line in the empires history, Shaaa Hydrades fell from the stars and was quickly adopted by Asher, the High King seeing the child's potential almost instantly. No mere human, Shaaa’s appetite for knowledge was only tempered by his skill in war. It was he who led the Hydrades empire to unify the Ring, and was almost killed when Asher, fearing his growing power, moved against him.

Enraged by the betrayal, Shaaa waged a bloody Civil War against his father, building an army from a rag-tag cluster of dissidents and survivors from his previous conquests, eventually standing at the head of an army to rival that of Asher himself. At the head of such a force, Shaaa struck down both Hamood and Asher, before leaving the station, revealed to be no mere human, but a Primarch, created by the Emperor of Mankind to lead the IVth Legiones Astartes.

Shaaa fathered no children in the traditional sense, but his genetic code was used across the IVth Legion, hundreds of thousands bearing his geneseed. His husband, Torex, was killed in the blast that nearly claimed Shaaa’s own life.

#### Torex Hydrades

**Husband of Shaaa Hydrades**

Torex bore no blood of the Hydrades empire, even by relation, given his marriage to the adopted son of Asher. However, as Shaaa’s husband and love of his life, he was afforded position far beyond his lowly rank when the pair had met, elevated to stand amongst the highest echelons of the Hydrades Empire.

Truly and utterly in love with Shaaa as Shaaa was with him, the pair would rarely be separated even in battle, Torex proving himself a valuable asset to the larger and slower Primarch, the pair making a deadly duo, renowned across the Ring.

Torex was killed when Asher detonated a bomb in an attempt to kill Shaaa. Many who knew the Primarch before and after that time said that while Shaaa physically survived that day, he was a hollow shell of what he had been, dying in all but body.

### Rajaa Hydrades

**Youngest Son of Asher Hydrades**

The last son of Asher Hydrades, Rajaa was barely out of his teens when Shaaa led the conquest of the Ring, serving as his elder brothers standard bearer throughout the conflict, staying close to his side and learning the ways of war first hand.

Rajaa was still by Shaaa’s side when Asher tried to kill the Primarch, perishing alongside countless others, never knowing who had betrayed him.