House Zivich

**House Zivich** are a widely respected Knight House closely allied to the Halcyon Wardens and sworn to the service of the Forge World Eskut. Aside from their service to the Vth Legion, they are known for popularising the Dominus Knight-Vigilant.

## **The Black Towers**

Forged in the fires of war from a shattered House, Zivich has become a byword for the best that a Knight House can strive to be. Yet for all the glory they have attained in their long decades of service, their origins are strikingly humble by the standards of these aristocratic armies. These lay on the world of Scythae, home of the venerable House Gusta who stood as protectors to a small clutch of planets. A redoubtable force, they held a pact with a Mechanicum Forge colony in the Eskut system, sharing its protection with their near neighbours House Devel.

Gusta’s roll of honour shows that for three centuries, the two Houses patrolled and kept safe their territories, and prospered by their success. But even as the unseen cutting edge of the Emperor's Crusade drew near, pandemonium took hold throughout the region, and decadence ate away at the heart of Gusta as a massive Ork Waaagh! encroached on their borders. The Ork warboss, enamored of the sacred armours that Gusta fielded, conceived a mania to create walkers of his own which would exceed them in power. Duke Kromplate, as he became known, therefore ordered the construction of scores of Morkanouts and Gorkanauts, and with these the Orks harried the Knights again and again. For decades the House stood against these and all other menaces, but every battle saw sacred armours destroyed or worse, seized and profaned by the xenos.

House Gusta maintained a strong force of “bannermen”, as some Houses called their low-born soldiers, one which drew on the industry of a Civilised World. But these too were hard-pressed, massacred in their hundreds of thousands by the Orks’ barbaric machines with every engagement. King Cuneg took charge of the defences, and still his armies found themselves locked into a gory retreat, barred from their Mechanicum allies and steadily falling back to their home world. This was the time at which every warrior must stand with sword drawn, if Kromplate was to be denied his prize.

But the King’s sons, though they craved the trappings of rank and heroism, proved indolent and craven. As the enemy pressed its advantage, hammering against the outer worlds and then Scythae itself, they failed to rise to the occasion and fulfill their duties. Their allies in House Devel, although themselves beset by enemies in their nearby system, dispatched a score of Knights at the head of a relieving army. These were insufficient to reverse the tide, and for their exertions they had only scorn from the princes of Scythae.

Cometh the hour, it is said, cometh the man, and as the bloodline of Gusta faltered, one such man emerged to defend his people in this time of need. Thom Zivich had begun as a low-born squire, beginning his service at the controls of a Knight Armiger and rising by dint of his wits and mettle. As Kromplate's armies broke the borders of Gusta’s realm and hemmed in the Knights around their homeworld, Zivich took to the field with grim determination and won a series of unlikely victories over the greenskin menace.

But no one man could stem the tide alone, and four years into the war, disaster struck. King Cuneg sallied against Kromplate on the moon of Cardain, but the Ork had acquired a Knight of his own. Outfitted with the most fiendish weapons his meks could devise, Kromplate overbore the king and destroyed his venerable walker. Zivich and the Knights under his command drove off the warboss, but the damage was done, their master mortally wounded. The sacristans of Gusta could only prolong his passing for a few days, and the Orks would surely return before long.

Finally the princes of the realm gathered at their father's bedside, eager for their inheritance, and found that a profound shock awaited them. The king, nearing his last breath, announced that the succession would not go to any of his heirs. Zivich alone had proven himself capable of leading the defence of the realm and its people, and the line of Gusta had decayed. Thus the mantle of command would be given to him. House Gusta was dissolved, with the remnants willed to Zivich to do with as he would.

Several of the disinherited scions spat on their oaths, fleeing the system with their ornate armours as the Orkish fist closed again around Scythae. Zivich was left to fight on with the bannermen of Gusta as well as those Knights - both of Gusta and Devel - who stood with him still, bound as much by respect for their leader as fealty. Many of these warriors had come from similar backgrounds, rising by proven courage and ability as their superiors had fallen in battle. As the Orks came on again, Zivich evacuated the populace to the most defensible cities, choosing those places for his armies to make their stand.

History has shown that in this pitiless Galaxy, such valour might easily prove to be for nought, the worthy heroes dragged down and overwhelmed with no one to record their deeds. Zivich and his comrades seemed to be such a band of doomed heroes, as Kromplate marched on the capital with his menacing throng of walkers. Crude as they were, the machines possessed all the brute power that Ork technology is known for, and they outnumbered the Knights by five to one. But a futile act of defiance, staving off the inevitable, was not to be the fate of Scythae. Help came, unlooked-for, in the world's hour of absolute desperation.

In the outer reaches of the system, the veil was broken by an armada. Its vanguard ships were clad in deepest imperial purple and carried the three rings of the V Legion Astartes on their prows. The 35th Expeditionary Fleet, commanded by Alexandros himself and alerted to the siege by refugee vessels, had made all haste for Scythae and fell upon the invaders without delay. As they smote the Ork fleet and carved out dropsites on the surface, they were joined by maniples of the Legio Tempestus and its vassal Knights of House Taranis. At last, war machines walked Scythae that were more than a match for Kromplate’s.

Even as Zivich and his warriors plunged into the fray to make a noble end, the new arrivals struck and uprooted the Ork formations. House Taranis formations struck the packs of greenskin walkers from the rear, their sacred armours carrying them to the gates where the remaining defenders stood. Kromplate too fought his way to the gates, where Zivich barred the way in his Knight Warden. The Ork's own machine was a thing of awful power, but his entourage were cut down by the bright blades of Taranis and the last Knights of Scythae. Zivich closed with the warboss, grappling with his enemy and finally hacking him down with the aid of his nearest shield-brothers.

Only a score of scions had survived among the defenders, and just one walker remained standing. Charred by shot and blade but unbowed, Zivich’s Warden finally bent the knee when Alexandros came before them, having delivered their world and burned the greenskin invaders. Their valour was praised, most of all by the commanders of Taranis when their history became known. Taymon Verticorda himself described them thusly: “No gilded vainglory do I behold here, but black towers, battered unto collapse and yet unyielding.” With his commendation, the newborn House Zivich was confirmed in its domain and gained its sigil.

Now the history of House Zivich began in earnest with the repair and reconsecration of their ruined armour's. Alexandros pledged his support for Zivich and protection for Scythae, in return for their service in the Great Crusade. Zivich and his warriors, their fortresses and the infrastructure of their world restored, began to grow again in power. Fighting alongside the Halcyon Wardens placed them on testing battlefields, but with the full mechanised power of the Vth Legion at their backs - and in time, maniples of the Legio Tempestus - House Zivich took relatively few losses and shared in the fruits of conquest.

Security and the growth of trade links around Eskut benefited both the Houses which defended it. The House’s roll of honours grew to the extent that it could not simply be explained away as standing on the shoulders of giants. The gruelling battles of the Naulek Cluster and the Turskid Wilderness were of particular significance, as was the Breaking of the Ossevid Conclaves on Erusk 4, in which they spearheaded the Imperial advance against xenos sorcerers and their bone-golem armies.

By the time Alexandros became Warmaster, House Zivich had grown powerful indeed, despite the often gruelling campaigns they took part in. They were now respected throughout the Crusade’s armies, although they retained an admirable humility and appreciation for their good fortune. This proved fortunate, for the Ruins would see them brave some of its gravest trials, and Mars’ gruelling battlefields would prove just the start.

## **Material Strength**

On the eve of the First Ruin, House Zivich’s strength was growing towards its previous height of 500 Knight armours, having been reduced by approximately 130 during the Maelynos Campaign over a decade before. These were berthed aboard vessels of the Vth Legion fleet which were set aside for their use, with Halcyon Wardens assigned to guard the ships and fight alongside the Knights in battle. Distributed throughout the Vth’s various detachments, roughly half of Zivich’s strength was eventually brought to Mars.

The House operated a wide range of armours, favouring ancient Questoris patterns such as the Errant and Paladin. Beyond this their ranks included a considerable strength of Dominus and Cerastus-class Knights.