Cassian Vaughn - Avatar of the Sacred Flame: Even as the Alpha Legion and Iron Warriors positioned their fleets in orbit above Mezoa, Cassian Dracos –- his heavy frame having been restored to the extent that he could move again -- led the Disciples of the Flame into Mezoa's central forge-fane.There, he met with Mezoa's rulers, the Norn-regents, a triad of truly venerable and ancient cybernetic magos-sisters interlinked by a complex web of neural interface technology so that they formed a single intellect of towering power.Their meeting with the former Master of the XVIII Legion is still immortalised in the data-archives of Mezoa, the fire-blackened and battered shape of the Dragon Revenant standing before the emaciated forms of the Norn-regents, each one of their frail bodies suspended spider-like in the complex web of technology that linked them to Servitors, Battle-Automata and other thralls across the entire Forge World.Like every planetary ruler, the Norn-regents benefitted from the best security the Mechanicum could offer, in this case the towering figures of an entire cohort of Domitar-class Battle-Automata.Yet, when Cassian Dracos penetrated into the Norn-regents' throne room, these emotionless war machines fell back in halting steps. To the regents of Mezoa, the ancient Terran warlord spoke of his visions and the trials he had endured on Istvaan and under the sand of the Urgall Depression.He spoke of his search for Vulkan, of his conviction that the Primarch yet lived and of the sacrifice the XVIII Legion had endured, a tale of woe that had a lot in common with the schismatic tech-creed of the Mezoan magi.Yet, it seems rather unlikely that this simple similarity of belief was reason enough for the accord that was sealed shortly afterwards. Did Cassian Dracos' supernatural influence on machines somehow also affect the Norn-regents? None can say for sure.Many scholars have wondered at the sudden acceptance Dracos met with the various groups he encountered during his voyages, some of them theorising that the entombed Dreadnought might have absorbed some sort of Warp-energy due to Istvaan V's position at the heart of one of the greatest Warp Storms ever encountered in human records.Some of them even hinted at a far darker possibility, given the catalytic effects the immense bloodshed of the Drop Site Massacre was bound to have on the denizens of the Warp. Whatever the reason might be, at the end of this conclave, Cassian Dracos was formally recognised as a living avatar of the Machine God and granted a high-ranking position within Mezoa's Taghmata.As the sky darkened with the Drop Pods of the invaders, Cassian Vaughn did not join his brethren in the defence of Mezoa, but was escorted by Mezoa's most skilled forge wrights into the world's deepest and holiest sanctum, located in the forge-fane's hidden depths.There, in an undisclosed location, the Dracos Revenant was restored to its former glory and blessed with the most powerful benedictions of the Cult of the Eternal Flame. In the meantime, rearmed with the best weapons and tools of destruction Mezoa's armouries could offer, Xiaphas Jurr led the Disciples of the Flame against the Iron Warriors and the Alpha Legion.To guard their leader in his most vulnerable hours, fifty of their number remained close to Vaughn, acting as his personal honour guard, while the rest of the Ebon Drake’s complement of warriors joined the defenders outside. Trough sheer determination and great sacrifice, Jurr and the defenders of Mezoa held the enemy at bay for nine desperate solar days, until the Third Siege of Mezoa finally reached its climax.Using the attack of the Iron Warriors' 114th Grand Battalion on the Tertial-05 bastion as a diversion, the Alpha Legion managed to penetrate inside the forge-fane itself. The enemy commander, Consul-Legatus Autilon Skorr personally led a cadre of his warriors into battle, leaving their allies to be slaughtered for the chance to strike at the Norn-queens.Clashing with a portion of Vaughn's personal guard, the Alpha Legion nevertheless succeeded in killing one of the sisters, her death shaking Mezoa to its core and causing untold havoc within Mezoa's Taghmata, but fortunately for the Imperium, the Tertial-05 bastion was held by the Disciples of the Flame and the valiant men of the 891st Lethe Cohort of the Solar Auxilia who successfully defended it. It was then -- in the Forge World's greatest hour of need -- that Cassian Dracos was returned to the battlefield.Returned to his former glory by the diligent ministrations of Mezoa's most gifted forge wrights, Cassian Dracos reemerged from the deep vaults of the forge-fane. However, instead of leading his honour guard against the rampaging Alpha Legion, he took his remaining warriors against the Iron Warriors at Tertial-05.As they advanced through the spires of the forge-fane, every robotic Battle-Automata they passed was seemingly shaken from whatever feedback-induced mania had befallen them and joined their throng, their cortexes now bound in servitude to the Iron Dragon. By the time they reached the battlefield, close to a thousand Battle-Automata had rallied around Cassian Dracos, their number sufficient to tip the battle in the defenders' favour.With grim determination, the Iron Warriors around Nârik Dreygur cowered in their makeshift fortress of iron and broken rockcrete, determined to meet the Loyalist charge guns blazing, but the assault they expected never came. Instead, Cassian Vaughn advanced alone, calling on the enemy commander to show himself.Standing atop his fortifications, Nârik Dreygur eyed the approaching Dreadnought, his own Battle-Automata refusing to engage Vaughn or bar his passage. What words the two commanders exchanged upon the battlefield remain largely unknown, but the Prophecies of the Flame records that, "Wheresoever is found the craft of the forge, the avatar of our lord Vulkan has power, even in the works of the enemy, even in the flesh of the enemy where it has felt the touch of the forge. So he turned foe to the cause of righteousness."The sacred text further notes Dreygur's response. "Brother, once more an oath to us stands broken. The Alpha Legion has abandoned us once again. Now we shall show that we do not renege on our vows. The dead of Stranivar and Mezoa both call for vengeance, and we shall grant it to them."With these words the Iron Warriors ceased all hostilities against the Forge World's defenders and joined them in their march against their former allies, the vengeful Iron Warriors requesting the honour to lead the charge against the Alpha Legion.Surrounded, the Alpha Legion was soon routed, but unfortunately, the enemy commander managed to escape. Locked in combat with Autilon Skorr's personal bodyguard, the towering form of the Contemptor-class Dreadnought known as Ancient Nehalen, Cassian Dracos laid waste to an entire sub-section of the forge-fane before slaying his opponent.This would mark the end of the Third Siege of Mezoa and the beginning of Dracos' career as acting warlord of the Disciples of the Flame, with Nârik Dreygur as his new right hand. Following this initial success, Cassian Dracos would lead several bloody raids against Traitor-held star systems, further weakening Horus' grip in this region of space.