House Draconis - Rise of House Draconis: Since the 31st Millennium, the valour of House Draconis and the other surviving Knight Houses has been such that no enemy has been able to set foot on the soil of Adrastapol. However, the galaxy is an inhospitable place and Mankind's enemies are many.Wherever Humanity has ventured into space, it has encountered the xenos, the impure, the alien, most often under the brutal guise of the Orks. Notoriously hostile towards Humans, Orks are a savage and warlike race that only respect strength. They covet it and where other races show their strength, the Orks will seek to overthrow it and prove their superiority.It was then only a question of time until one of their military migrations and campaigns, a so-called WAAAGH!, would target Adrastapol.One particularly savage leader of the Orks, the Warboss Skarjaw, had fixed his eyes upon Adrastapol and took his WAAAGH! to the Knight World to challenge the might of the Imperial Knights.While some WAAAGHs draw their strength from mechanised infantry and hordes of Warbikes, and others try to erect one of the towering Ork Titans, a Gargant, Skarjaws' horde made use of hundreds of towering greenskin warbeasts, the massive Squiggoths.When Skarjaw's WAAAGH! descended upon Adrastapol, it was at the start of the reign of High King Gerraint Tan Chimaeros, a young, brave Knight of impeccable lineage.Yet nothing could have prepared the young high king for the devastation the Orks would wreak upon his homeworld. The Adrastapolian Knights soon learned that divided they stood little chance of vanquishing the WAAAGH!, but before they could muster all their strength, the Orks had already attacked and razed several fortresses belonging to House Manticos -- killing the house's ruler in the process.With this fearful devastation in mind, the Knight houses of Adrastapol quickly agreed to fight together. In a great battle, the united forces of the Knights faced the Orks, but some amongst their numbers failed to hold back the tide of greenskins.The Knights of House Pegasson, less warlike than those of the other houses, were submerged by the green horde. They had faced Skarjaw and his elite troops, the biggest and meanest Squiggoth riders the WAAAGH! could muster, and these fearful warriors were now able to advance unopposed upon the Draconspire, which had few defenders with all its forces in the field.But the Draconspire was not entirely without defenders. Cautious not to expose his son and heir to an open battle against such fearsome opponents as the Orks, the baron of House Draconis ordered the youngest member of his Exalted Court to remain at the Draconspire. His son's name was Tolwyn Tan Draconis and he carried the title of Gatekeeper to the Draconspire.A junior position within a House's Exalted Court, it was the gatekeeper's sacred duty to ensure that his fortress did not fall into enemy hands. With the Draconspire now in danger, the Chivalric Code demanded that Tolwyn Tan Draconis protect the ancestral home of his house.Gathering what forces he could, mostly squires or newly promoted Knights that had just undergone their Ritual of Becoming -- amongst them one Markos Dar Draconis -- Tolwyn gathered a small strikeforce of Imperial Knights that would take the fight to Skarjaw.This unexpected counterattack surprised the Orks and proved unexpectedly successful when it killed Skarjaw himself and the towering Squiggoth the Warboss rode to battle. With their leader slain, the WAAAGH! broke apart, its remaining Orks mercilessly hunted down by the surviving Adrastapolian Knights.However, as the Orks still numbered in the thousands and soon turned Feral, it would take the Imperial Knights many solar decades of campaigning to rid their homeworld of the Orkish taint.This unexpected but well-earned victory catapulted House Draconis into the upper levels of Adrastapol's hierarchy. Being of roughly the same age, the high king formally acknowledged Tolwyn's role in their ultimate victory and a firm friendship between the two Knights was born.It was also in the aftermath of Skarjaw's invasion that Gerraint Tan Chimaeros would encounter the even younger Alicia Kar Manticos and let himself be seduced by her false innocence and beauty. In hindsight, it would have been better had she burned with the remains of her home.