Severan Dominate - WAAAGH! Grimtoof: Upon his ascendency, Duke Severus XIII began to slowly make his ancestor's dream of his own realm a reality. Quietly, Duke Severus used intrigue and his vile allies, the Children of Thorns Kabal, to make his domain functionally independent of the Imperium without stirring up sufficient trouble to catch the attention of the great powers in the Calixis Sector.However, the arrival of Ork forces in the Spinward Front added a new element to the equation -- one for which the duke had not prepared. Duke Severus XIII immediately began to fear that this complication would make holding his new domain untenable, as he lacked the power to oust the Greenskins but feared the results of calling for assistance from the Imperium, which he had worked so hard to covertly cut off.As the Ork numbers spiralled out of control and evidence of a WAAAGH! became undeniable, the duke had no choice but to take desperate action. It was his frantic plea for help to the Calixis Lord Sector Marius Hax that began the downward spiral into the current situation.Were it not for the Ork assault, the duke might have had the time to complete his preparations prior to launching his secession. The resulting war could have progressed very differently if not for the Ork WAAAGH!, or might not have occurred at all if Severus' quiet campaign of isolation had been allowed to continue.Initially, the duke hoped to overcome the brewing WAAAGH! with the forces he had mustered on his own. However, he simply lacked access to the assets necessary to effectively resist an Ork onslaught of this scale. WAAAGH! Grimtoof represented the most significant Ork threat to the Spinward Front in centuries.During that time, countless star systems specifically designed to oppose an assault of this magnitude fell into disrepair. Rampant expansionism led to locations that were never constructed with the necessary defensive measures.Some of the assets that the duke reassigned in preparation for secession had even been originally budgeted for use against a theoretical Ork incursion. Because he had misappropriated these forces and equipment for his own projects of expansion, they were no longer available for their intended purpose.In spite of his best efforts, the duke had too few assets to defend all of the worlds threatened by the xenos. He could either effectively consolidate his forces to try to secure the most vital of locations, or he could remain thinly spread and let the Orks roll through and secure the entirety of his holdings.The situation had become dire before Duke Severus XIII called for help from the Imperium, finally conceding to the words of the many advisors he had executed for voicing such opinions. By that stage, he had already lost a handful of planets to the savage Greenskin advance, and realised that he had little hope of retaining any of his worlds without outside assistance.If these worlds were to be held by any Humans, they would require substantial reinforcements. Of course, the Astra Militarum answered the call under their own authority, rather than ceding command to the duke, as he initially requested. Consequently, on those worlds where they were able to most effectively resist the Ork advance, the Traitor lost any control he might have had.Sector Lord Hax used the Astra Militarum forces to subdue worlds key to the duke's fledgling domain, and thus brought them back to the Imperial fold. Some say the sector lord had even been aware of Duke Severus XIII's quiet betrayal, but had for some unknown reason stayed his hand, waiting until asked to intervene.Losing worlds and resources to the Orks and the Astra Militarum, as well as the depredations of his capricious Drukhari "allies" and Chaos warbands such as that of Sektoth the False Whisperer, Duke Severus grew desperate and gathered the last of his domain into the "Severan Dominate," finally making his de facto betrayal from the Imperium openly known. Sector Lord Hax turned the forces of the Astra Militarum against the Traitor, aiming to retake the worlds he had claimed and cast him down for his audacity.The Orks, for their part, continued their WAAAGH!, either uninterested in or unaware of the politics consuming the Human factions around them. They continued to rampage across the Periphery and beyond, causing havoc for both the newly-created Severan Dominate and the Imperial forces alike, crushing and enslaving any world they reached.Duke Severus realised that if he was incapable of fighting the Orks, his only chance for survival would be to redirect the savage horde towards other targets. Ideally, these targets would be ones of his choosing; places that the Imperium could ill-afford to lose. The duke's belief was simple -- any Imperial forces committed to fighting Orks were not endangering his own holdings.Unfortunately, herding the Orks proved more difficult than Duke Severus had hoped. Ork starfaring technology is based largely around travelling on the winds of chance, casting themselves into the void aboard barely-guided Roks and waiting until they crash into something worthwhile to fight.Thus, when Duke Severus leaked information to the Orks about Imperial vulnerabilities and holdings, the Orks, in typical fashion, ignored them and continued their semi-random rampage across the region.The duke has learned from this mistake, and has since begun a new strategy, attempting to draw the Astra Militarum into unnecessary conflicts with the Orks. Using intrigue and falsely-leaked documents, Duke Severus has drawn the Imperial forces to various worlds occupied by the forces of WAAAGH! Grimtoof, sparking battles between the two wherever their paths cross. Whether this strategy proves sufficient in the long run remains to be seen.