Knights Temporal

The Knights Temporal are a faction of humanity from the far future. They are primarily led by dictatorial Adeptus Astartes super soldiers who lead stellar fiefs in the small habitable zone left after an apocalyptic war or disaster.

## Background

### The Darkest Timeline

The year the Knights Temporal hail from is unknown but is referred to as the “Third Cycle” and by their count is the year 2132. Two cataclysms befel their universe, each of which ended a cycle. They currently live at “the end of time”, in a stable bubble of time no larger than a sector. While they possess fantastical technology and some of the greatest technology yet designed, they have few resources with which they can survive. So they use high powered time displacement devices to send raiding parties into the past to allow them to survive a bit longer at the end of all things.

### Temporal Raids

After gathering their considerable power a Lord Temporal will rip open a portal in time and connect their little time bubble to a specific point (in space and time) in the past. This creates a two way portal through the warp. The Lord will then lead their troops to the past where they will kill, pillage, and slaughter anyone and anything they encounter. They will haul goods, slaves, fuel, and machines back to their timeline and use it for their continued survival at the end of time. However, an impending temporal raid is psychically telegraphed in advance and a savvy enemy can set an ambush and instead raid the raiders. The Knights Temporal possess fantastic technology and claiming any of it is a huge windfall for anyone who can pry it out of the cold, dead, hands of a knight.

### Biology

While Knights Temporal are described as “human”, that is generous. Their DNA contains xenos contamination, frequent mutations, and sorcerous taint. Many Knights Temporal, particularly peasants, are full on xenos half-breeds or disgusting mutants.

### Stellar Fiefs

Each fief is ruled with an iron fist by a Space Marine known as a Lord. Under them are various other space mines referred to as Knights who act as their bannermen, guards, and war leaders. Marines undergoing the process are referred to as “Squires” and follow one of the Knights so they might learn the ways of war. Below them are the laypeople, the gaunt and dirty dregs of humanity so squalid that their names are not even recorded.

A Fief itself is a planet, though all the remaining worlds have been scourged to the point of behind inhospitable to even bacteria. These remaining worlds are often cracked or broken, irritated, virus-bombed, and all are dead (geologically inactive) hellscapes. Fiefs use various technologies to sustain life on these dead husks and the planets they live on are often more space station or are warp-tainted so badly that mutations are daily occurrences.

### Units

#### Lords Temporal

The Lord has absolute and terrible power within their Fief and they fully take advantage of it. The line between “heretic” and “loyalist” is meaningless; they are coldhearted bastards who are told from birth that they are literal gods and should be treated like such. As far as humanity is concerned they may as well be gods, or as close as one can be to such a thing (as all the gods of old have long since abandoned space).

Lords wear ancient and powerful terminator armor, each wielding a dozen or more artifacts, each is a powerful artificial psyker and artificial perpetual. The possess technological devices that allow them to control time. They have cults that worship them and seek their favor as divine blessings.

#### Knights Temporal

Knights are the upper class of society and are modified at birth to begin the process of becoming an astartes. While they are “astartes” they differ in many strange and profane ways, though their exact nature is a closely guarded secret. Knights come from noble lineages descended from a Lord Temporal or the lineage of previous knights. Power armor, which is often artificer armor, and other pieces of wargear are handed down generation to generation.

#### Squires

The misshapen yet powerful offspring of knights and lords are subjected to mysterious bio and technological modification in utero so they can be turned into knights in later life. They often kill or injure their mothers during their pregnancy or birth.

#### Peasants

The unwashed, uncared for, masses of humanity that are subject to a Lord’s whims are known as “peasants”. While they may have their own hierarchies, the upper class cares nothing for them. The only thing they demand from their peasants is total obedience. They are all slotted with suicide chips in their head and hypno-indoctrinated to slavishly obey any command a lord or knight gives them.

#### Hypes

A “hype” is effectively a peasant suicide-bomber except, instead of explosives, they are given hyper-stimulants that turn them into 18 foot tall, nigh-invurnable, regenerating, mutant freaks with grotesque pules of muscle with the strength of 40 men. They are injected just before being thrown through the time portal and rampage uncontrollably until their body gives out in a few minutes or the enemy kills them.

### Squads

#### Lord’s Retinue

A Lord will surround themselves with a half dozen knights and may also ride atop a powerful vehicle.

#### Knight’s Swarm

A knight will command an endless number of peasants and slaves in a suicide charge at the enemy. These human waves are inconsequential to a knight who wields them like a weapon. If a thousand die bringing down an enemy vehicle, that just means there are less mouths to feed for them.

#### Heroes

There are units known as “Heroes”. These are composed of a knight and their squire (or squires) who are seeking a boon from their Lord. They ride forth and try to accomplish some great feat or deed so that they will catch their Lord’s eye and earn his favor. Many knights die doing this but it is the only way to stand out.

## Famous Fiefdoms

### The Nortanian Empire

Led by “Emperor Norton”, an insane Lord Temporal, the Nortanian Empire is more degenerate than most. After succumbing to his madness Norton slaughtered or was abandoned by most of his knights. He has few left and his holdings have diminished over time. Still, he possesses the powerful “Cubus Animarum”, a psychic artifact said to contain the souls of an entire xenos civilization that bolsters his powers beyond what is possible. His fief lives in a dream of madness that he creates for them with his mind as he sits atop his throne fondling his Cubus Animarum. His temporal raids are the stuff of nightmares as reality twists and distorts under his psychic might as his forces arrive, driving every psyker on the planet mad.

### The Varus Estate

Lord Gaius Pompeius Varus rules over his estate with a literal iron fist. Lord Varus is a disembodied spirit and his consciousness is transmitted to various suits of terminator armor on raids or should he be killed. Still, this wandering spirit is cold, logical, and even amenable to collusion with those he is raiding. He has set up a lucrative, though secretive, temporal trade network so that his large estate can flourish. He is seen as the most moderate of the Lords Temporal though he is as ruthless as they come.

### The Eternal Khanate

Lady Ludmila Maximovna is the head of the Eternal Khanate, who claim to be the legitimate successor to the Imperium of Man. The Khanate is strange in that it is not a single fief but a decentralized alliance of many small ones. Lady Ludmila Maximovna is the “Khan of Khans” with many lesser Lords under her. She has some artifact known as the “Shard of Gemini” (High Gothic: “Geminorum Testa”) that allows her to biolocate or, if the legends are to be believed, appear in many places at once. Forces of the Eternal Khanate don’t often raid Imperial settlements and have a special hatred for xenos and have visited heinous acts (even by Imperial standards). For some unexplained reason they also hate the Iron Fists and have struck at them and their successor chapters for no reason other than to injure them. They keep repeating, “You’ll know what you’ve done.” and leaving similar messages carved into their chests.