Monsta Ridaz

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The **Monsta Ridaz** are a dangerous tribe of the Snakebites Klan of Orks that - for many millennia - were suppressed by the surrounding Orks with whom they fought. The Magos Biologis of the Adeptus Mechanicus are unsure whether or not to classify this tribe as a Klan in their own right since studies have suggested enough deviation to allow for such distinction, but no conclusive decision on the matter has been reached.

One reason for this consideration - and one potential reason that many suspect the tribe survived so long before rising to prominence - is that they have a natural physical and mental tenacity that is unique in nature and comparatively high.

In spite of this tenacity, they had very little success throughout the galaxy before at last finding some success under an Ork considered to be their first truly great Warboss - Graug. He was a dangerous Ork who began as a Shoota Boy before rising quickly through the social order of the Klan and gaining a reputation for his ability to control the Orkoid creatures the Klan bred.

The Klan specialises in the breeding of Orkoid creatures, and while their ability to do so is not as good as that of many other tribes of the Snakeskins, they make up for it through their use of more advanced technologies than their cousins. This set of hybrid specialties has made them very dangerous from their rise to prominence in the 35th Millennium, and they've been a constant and very real threat to the Imperium ever since.

## History

### Early History

For millennia, the Monsta Ridaz were the bottom of the food chains as far as Ork Klans went. They were the bottom rung in every conceivable ladder and were constantly beaten down to lower and lower points. They were close to being effectively destroyed, but that all changed when Graug - a Shoota Boy of very little yet existent renown who rose through the Klan to become Warboss - took charge and led with a vigour and as much sense of strategy as an Ork could have to bigger and greater things.

### The Rise of Graug

Very little is known about this rise to power beyond embellished records passed from worlds that were the first to encounter this rising Warboss. These records first whisper the name as a subordinate to the then-Warboss of the day who was brutal but lacked cunning. It is said that Graug was able to overthrow this Warboss during one of their rampages across an Imperial Civilised World world by displaying a level of cunning that this Warboss could not have overcome.

The rampage faltered and failed, and the tribe - as well as many others who had joined them in this endeavour - were driven off the planet. This, however, did not lead to Graug's defeat. He used the dissenters who would overthrow him as examples with which he would solidify his position as Warboss, and he started to once again rampage across poorly-defended planets of the Imperium.

Now he not only had his position, but he had the attention of the Imperium. They had become aware of this very individual and potential threat.

### The WAAAGH! Graug

As Graug led the Monsta Ridaz across the fringes of Imperium-controlled space rampaging across both Imperial worlds, xenos worlds, and even other Ork worlds alike, momentum was building and the potential for greater things was building. A number of Imperial Guard regiments were sent on three separate campaigns to dull the momentum of the Monsta Ridaz enough to dull the effects of the gathering storm enough to dissipate it, but these efforts failed.

#### The Coming of the Gargant

As Graug slaughtered his way through the forces of the Imperial Guard campaigns sent to oppose him, it is said that he constructed a Gargant. With this mighty war machine and the reputation he had already built, the beginnings of a WAAAGH! emerged. There were still contenders to his position as Warboss and commander of the WAAAGH!, but - with the aid of this mighty war machine - they were quickly put to death and the WAAAGH! continued to grow with the frightening speed they often do.

#### An Expanding War

The WAAAGH! Graug initially targeted many more poorly defended worlds, but what truly mad the Imperium worry was when they began attacking worlds that were either more fortified, more important to the Imperium for one reason or another, or both. The only worlds the WAAAGH! Graug was thought to have either struggled with or failed at defeating were Fortress Worlds and Forge Worlds.

This began when the WAAAGH! Graug emerged from the fringes of Imperium-controlled space in 097.M35 into the depths of it within the inner reaches of the Segmentum Tempestus, rampage across many sub-sectors as they went.

While no Space Marine Homeworlds were attacked by the WAAAGH! Graug as far as the Imperial records show, many worlds from which fleet-based Chapters of Astartes tithe from were known to have been at least attacked if not conquered.

#### The Coming of the Angels

Regiments of the Imperial Guard had failed to stop the WAAAGH! Graug in spite of the relatively small amount of success they had seen in some theatres of war. Some worlds had been reclaimed, but the WAAAGH! Graug had only been slowed to a degree. They were, however, far from being stopped.

Contingents of Astartes had embattled the WAAAGH! Graug, but no Astartes had been sent in force to battle these Orks. Rumour suggests that there was too much faith placed in the abilities of the Imperial Guard since some records indicate Graug and his WAAAGH! were seen as a minor threat for an unreasonably long period of time. Eventually, however, the threat was taken with the seriousness it was due.

The Winged Knights - shamed sons of the Great Angel - were sent to deal with the WAAAGH! Graug and exterminate Graug himself. The speculation as to why this Chapter was sent began flowing because of the Chapter's obscured history and the shame surrounding the Chapter, but official records do not indicate any special circumstances surrounding their assignment to this task.

Because of their recent history and acts of penance, the Chapter was fresh with zealotry and a desire to serve. This meant that the Chapter fought this was with righteous ferocity and brought a halt to the advance of the WAAAGH! Graug's most powerful forces - including the main force led by Graug himself - while the Imperial Guard was allowed to focus their efforts elsewhere in the conflict.

This was a titanic and blood effort for the Chapter, with as many as three hundred Astartes estimated to have been killed by the time the Chapter had stopped the WAAAGH! Graug's advance and positioned themselves to face Graug directly.

#### Death of Graug

Graug and his WAAAGH! were attempting to overtake a Forge World of the Imperium - Gatalicus III - when the Winged Knights finally made their way to him. While he had set himself and his forces on a path to this invasion before the Astartes became truly involved, Graug had hoped that he could conquer this would and pillage is wonders before the Astartes of the Winged Knights arrived. He had failed in this.

Upon the surface of Gatalicus III, the real battle to define what would happened next began with a costly descent for the Winged Knights. Many Astartes and scores of Chapter assets were killed and destroyed respectively as they attempted to make planetfall without effectively destroying what the Adeptus Mechanicus desperately wanted to save.

This assault was led by none other than the Sky Lord of the day - Rayas Kourtis. A mysterious figure as far as history would remember him, Rayas was an Astartes of exceptional skill, great honour, and - if legend is to believed - an exemplar of the longevity seen in many of his gene-stock.

While Graug was considered to be very if not exceptionally good when it came to tactics, Rayas tried using his pride as a Warboss against him. Rayas not only had his men hit Graug where it would cost him the most regardless of whether or not the actions would actually succeed, Rayas also used whatever methods he could in order to project audio of him publicly challenging Graug at great volume across the battlefields of the planet.

This tactic worked, and an enraged Graug actively sought out Rayas in order to put him down once and for all. This would prove to be his undoing.

Wielding a master-crafted Storm Bolter and the Chapter Relic known as ***The Angel's Axe**,* Rayas engaged in a titanic battle with Graug around the feet of a Warlord Titan. Legends surrounding the battle sometime refer to a smaller type of Titan, but the Chapter's own records state that it was a Warlord Titan - something that the Chapter has vehemently stood by.

#### Aftermath

The body of the slain Warlord Graug was taken from the site after the fighting had died down in order to be destroyed along with Graug's wargear, and his head was taken to the Chapter's Fortress Monastery in order to be preserved in stasis and displayed as a trophy.

The WAAAGH! itself fell apart soon after, and a reclamation effort began for the Imperium. For the most part, this effort was led by the Winged Knights, though Rayas himself was barely involved until the final weeks of his Chapter's involvement due to his recovery and slow progress in adapting to his new augmetics.

Once the Winged Knights were sure that their involvement was no longer required for Imperial territories to be reclaimed and remain secure, they departed, thus entirely ending their involvement with the Orks involved in this conflict.

### Across the Millennia

The defeat of Graug threw the Monsta Ridaz back into obscurity for quite some time. While they were involved in a number of major conflicts over the next few millennia, they were neither a major player in any of these conflicts nor were they driven to extinction by them.

They only saw major success even among their own kind in the later centuries of the 41st Millennium, where they began to once again use the power of their specialisations to truly craft themselves a small empire.

### Current Activities

The tribe maintains a relatively small yet still significant empire within the central regions of the Segmentum Obsucurus and still come into regular contact with the Winged Knights. Because their empire lies on the far side of the *Cicatrix Maledictum* from Holy Terra, very little is actually known about their current activities, who the current Warboss is, and so on.

## Notable Monsta Ridaz

* Graug the Great Rida - Graug the Great Rida rose to the position of Warboss of the Klan and took the Monsta Ridaz from a minor threat to the galaxy at large to a very real and present threat. Though he was eventually killed by Sky Lord Rayas Kourtis of the Winged Knights Chapter at the climax of the *War with the Wings*, the Klan continues to benefit from the standing he achieved for the Klan millennia later.