House Vornherr - Notable Campaigns: Long March to Ultramar (Unknown Date.M30) - Following their alignment to the Imperium and the Great Crusade, House Vornherr was central to many of the 12th Expeditionary Fleet's greatest victories, including the campaign known as the Long March to Ultramar, where they confronted numerous xenos strains, several of which they knew of old and took immense satisfaction in scouring from the stars for all time, including the dread Orks, whom House Vornherr had confronted in battle on numerous occasions and had become increasingly adept at slaying.First Scouring of Jardingris (Unknown Date.M30) - The greatest and most portentous battle the Knights of House Vornherr fought in, it was here on this grave-world that the household first took to the field of battle under the overall command of Primarch Roboute Guilliman as part of a combined force consisting of twelve full chapters of the Legiones Astartes Ultramarines, the Legio Metallica Titan Legion and ten cohorts of the Solar Auxilia and scores of Excertus Imperialis line regiments, along with the Conquestor companies of Rogue Trader Militant Kohnwallis. The Imperial forces were victorious, as they wiped out the necrogenic xenos strain for its crime of existence with utter extermination. The victory came at the cost of a dozen Titans and a hundred Knights, tens of thousands of Human infantry and almost three thousand Astartes. At the height of the victory parade, the duke of House Vornherr and his fellow Scions bent the knee in their Knight suits to Primarch Guilliman, and pledged themselves to fight alongside the hosts of the Five Hundred Worlds unto death.Compliance of Sophias-Mors (Unknown Date.M30) - Detachments of Vornherr Knights fought under the command of Primarch Magnus the Red and his Thousand Sons Legion during the gruelling jungle wars of Sophias-Mors.The Delta-Arbuthnot Landings (Unknown Date.M30) - Detachments of Vornherr Knights fought under the command of Primarch Rogal Dorn and his Imperial Fists Legion during the costly Delta-Arbuthnot Landings.Battle of Calth (ca. 007.M31) - Duke Sorvak Bhaevenwulf lands a formidable army of several hundred Knight armours and their supporting Sacristans to the Imperial muster at Calth. They were to fight alongside the XIIIth Legion ("Ultramarines") and the XVIIth Legion ("Word Bearers") as well as supporting elements from various Titan Legions, Solar Auxilia and Excertus Imperialis forces in a crusade against the Orks of the Ghaslakh Xeno-hold. The Knights of Vornherr were arrayed in a great phalanx on the muster field of Platia City, with a demi-household assigned to shadow the Titans of the Legio Praesagius at the city of Ithraca. When the Word Bearers revealed their treachery, they callously attacked the Knights of Vornherr with an orbital atomantic bombardment, wiping out all the Knights in a creeping barrage of inexorable nuclear fire. The surviving two-dozen Knights secured within the holds of the orbital conveyor, the Iaxth-CV, had not yet begun its embarkation. When the auguries of the Iaxth-CV detected the wall of incoming missiles from above, they performed an emergency launch. Rising to the skies away from the target zone as the atomantics struck, the electromagnetic fury of the assault burned out the conveyor's command systems, and the massive vessel overshot its destination in Ithraca city and crash-landed off the coast of the metropolis. Those crew not killed by the impact were quickly drowned. As the conveyor sank to the ocean floor, the Knights of Vornheer safe inside their suits survived. Led by Duke Bhaevenwulf they managed to cut their way out of the bulkhead of the conveyor and make their way across the ocean floor towards the coastline of Ithraca. As they did so, the temperature rose until the ocean flash-boiled away from the blast. A dozen or so Knights managed to emerge from the boiling oceans. What occurred next is unclear, as the pict-feeds aboard the Knights' datacore in-loads returned to Luhnborg-IX were purposely purged by the agencies of Ultramar in order to spare the surviving Vornherr the truth. Months later, a Legion recon squad of the Ultramarines came upon the grisly scene of the Knights' demise. A dozen Knights were arrayed as if in battle against an unseen force, their joints frozen and their armour scoured, rent and pitted as if by the talons and teeth of a host of predatory animals. All were dead, their forms burned coal-black by the touch of some second empyrean fire.Shadow Crusade (007-008.M31) - In what would be later known as the Shadow Crusade, Angron and Lorgar, primarchs of the World Eaters and Word Bearers, respectively, led their treacherous Space Marine Legions to one world after another. At their call, former Imperial Army hosts joined in the carnage, casting off any pretence of loyalty to the Emperor to serve Horus and his bid for galactic domination. Against these rampaging forces the Ultramarines and their auxiliary forces, including House Vornherr, mustered, still reeling from the blow struck at Calth, but determined to save as many planets from the betrayers as possible and to exact revenge for the staggering loss of life during those opening battles.Defence of the Three Planets (ca. 007.M31) - During the Defence of the Three Planets, in the far eastern sectors of Ultramar, House Vornherr and House Vyronii fought a campaign to rid the canal basins of Martrek V of Traitor forces. When the Traitors threatened to drive the  Loyalist Knights back to their landing zones, they received aid from Knight banners with blacked-out heraldry, the newcomers driving deep into the formations of the enemy. Then, once Martrek was pacified, the Blackshield Knights turned on Vornherr and Vyronii, declaring the Three Planets for the Sons of Konor and the Crownless King, drawing the Loyalists into a long and bitter war between households.Battle of Beta-Garmon, "The Titandeath" (006-013.M31) - House Vornherr took part in the long and savage Beta-Garmon campaign, which included hundreds of war zones across dozens of worlds. During this conflict, House Vornherr provided Knight support to the Legio Honorum and Legio Atarus. Even before the greater armies of the Warmaster Horus reached the star cluster, the battle lines had long since been drawn, and fighting had been going on for many Terran years. It was a cauldron of battle that would consume millions of lives before its end and see the demise of entire Titan Legions, earning this campaign the dire moniker of the "Titandeath." The Beta-Garmon Cluster, also known as the gateway to the throneworld of Terra, was the last hurdle that the Warmaster Horus' forces had to overcome before they reached the Imperium's capital world. Heavily fortified by the Loyalists, Beta-Garmon would become one of the greatest and bloodiest battles of the Horus Heresy, as well as one of the longest-lasting.Crusade of Iron (ca. 008-010.M31) - The Shadow Crusade was made manifest, its pain and suffering bringing about turmoil in the Warp. This deadly era came to be known as "Shadow and Iron," a time marked by the Traitors' reckless hatred loosed upon the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar, and the Loyalists' righteous vengeance sent to meet them. It was the war within a war that arose between the Titan Legions, when gods of steel and plasma walked the Realm of Ultramar, and the doom of worlds walked with them. When the Warp opened and consumed those Loyalist Titans set to defend Calth, it revealed the true extent of the Warmaster's heresy. In the span of a single solar day, the greater sum of the Legio Praesagius was destroyed, along with millions of the Imperium's soldiers, and thousands of loyal Space Marines. Such was the scale of the betrayal that it echoed across the segmentum, a booming war cry that demanded a response. In the wake of this atrocity, the surviving princeps of the Loyalist Legio Praesagius gathered their allies, including House Vornherr and several other Knight households, and launched the Crusade of Iron across the Five Hundred Worlds to bring their betrayers to account.Battle of Zarathusa Secundus (ca. 008.M31) - Zarathusa Secundus was a blue jewel within the Zagor System, its oceans teeming with life, its deepwater trenches rich in fluidic mineral deposits. The diversity of life within the planet's shallow seas drew the attention of Mars, and by the beginning of the Horus Heresy there were numerous Mechanicum enclaves dotted across its surface. It was these enclaves that would later rebel against the Emperor, and force a response from the armies of Ultramar to pacify the world once more. Aquila Atoll was the informal name given to an island in the planet's southern seas. One of the few pieces of land for hundreds of kilometres in all directions, and large by the standards of the islands and archipelagos of  Zarathusa, it became a forward base for the Loyalist invasion forces. Following the defeat of the Loyalists on Espandor, the Traitors launched an invasion of Zarathusa Secundus. Spearheaded by the Traitor Titans of the Legio Mordaxis, both sides fought over the strategically important Aquila Atoll. The Traitors commenced their attack as the Loyalist forces, commanded by Princeps Krane of the Legio Lysanda, awaited extraction upon the principal landmass of Zarathusa, known as the Aquila Atoll. The Traitors seized control of both the planet's orbit and the Loyalist vox-net, masquerading as loyal servants of the Imperium until the trap was sprung. As landers approached the surface of Zarathusa, they revealed themselves not as the intended extraction ships but rather transport carrying the Titans of the Legio Mordaxis, a Traitor Legio transformed by the machinations of the Word Bearers Legion. Desperate to deny the atoll to the invaders, the Legio Lysanda and House Vornherr scrambled to form an effective defence, aware that retreat was not an option without abandoning those ground forces unable to wade through the seas of Zarathusa; seas that turned black as the battle raged and the toxins that had ravaged the Legio Mordaxis polluted the ground they walked upon.Confrontation on Drooth II: Crusade's End (010.M31)  - Though the Traitors had achieved many victories, Horgoth Nyr, princeps maximus of the Legio Suturvora, found his forces bloodied by the vengeful Loyalists, led by Dae Vergos, princeps ultima of the Legio Praesagius, that pursued him. As the rampage across Ultramar undertaken by the Word Bearers and World Eaters drew to a close, Nyr knew he must settle the running battle between Vergos and himself. Committing to luring his foe to him, the Traitor forces burned a dozen worlds, each an open challenge to the Loyalists that pursued them. Though it was clear such actions were committed to bait Vergos into a fight, the Loyalists had little choice if they wished to punish their enemy. Gathering what remained of those forces committed to the Crusade of Iron, the Loyalists set sail for Drooth II and the battle that awaited. Known for its burning sand-like mineral deserts, Drooth II was originally populated solely by a research station and listening outpost, placed there by the Ultramarines Legion to watch over the eastern edge of Ultramar. This outpost was quickly overrun by the Dark Mechanicum as war engulfed Ultramar and turned into a profane manufactorum capable of churning out debased weapons infused with powers pulled from the Æther. It was here that Nyr chose to make his stand against the Loyalist forces, aware that the veil lay thin and the entities within the Warp were easily called upon should the Traitors lose the advantage. In preparation for the Loyalists' arrival, the defences of the outpost were strengthened, denying approach from orbit and forcing any invader to land far from the Traitors. With both sides drawn to the world, the stage was set for a battle of cataclysmic proportions. Vergos chose her landing zones accordingly, and the Legio Praesagius set down in the desert 600 kilometres from the Traitor defences, their landing shielded by the curvature of the planet. Similar landings took place all around the outpost, the Legio Lysanda and Legio Oberon taking up position along with several Psi-Titans of the Chamber Occedentalis -- the Loyalist forces keeping their distance from the dark god-engines. Upon a signal from Vergos, the Titans walked, the shimmering desert dunes shuddering to their every step. On all sides of the outpost, dozens of Titans were fully engaged in brutal exchanges of fire. With unnatural speed and strength, the Traitor Titans fell upon the Loyalists, ripping and tearing at them like savage beasts. But, unlike on Calth, the Loyalists were prepared. From amongst the ranks of the Loyalist Titan Legions the Psi-Titans let their might be felt. The darkly majestic Warlords of the Ordo Sinister unleashed torrents of psychic energy into the Traitor forces rising against them. However, the Psi-Titans were caught unawares, as the Warhound Scout Titan wolf packs of the Legio Audax attacked the unsuspecting Loyalists from their unprotected flank, pulling the larger Titans down with their deadly Ursus Claws, like a ravenous packs of wolves pulling down a bear. Though the carnage and burning Titans, Vergos' Warlord, the Pride of Konor, pulled its way into the heart of the outpost, her guns tearing apart the structure and any who barred her path. Finally, she confronted her nemesis -- Princeps Maximus Horgoth Nyr and his Warbringer Titan Mons Ingnum. But as the two princeps fought one another in a deadly struggle, Vergos realised that Nyr's Titan displayed an unnatural Warp-enhanced endurance, which allowed it to rise like a revenant risen from the dead. Seeing no other options, Vergos fired her Titan's remaining Volcano Cannon upon the magnetic locks holding the research outpost's gravity elevator in place, causing the massive structure to collapse in on itself and down upon the battlefield, killing both Nyr and Vergos. Though the Horus Heresy would drag on for years yet to come, the Crusade of Iron ended that day on Drooth II. Whatever rage had driven Princeps Dae Vergos and her followers to hunt down Horgoth Nyr died with her, and the Legio Praesagius returned to Gantz to count its losses and rebuild its strength. By contrast, the death of Nyr tore what little unity of purpose remained among the Fire Masters, and its princeps fell even deeper into the thrall of the Warmaster Horus. Not until the dark days of the Battle of Beta-Garmon, the so-called "Titandeath", and the invasion of the Sol System itself, was the Traitor Legion to gather again in significant numbers, guided by the hand of a single Grand Master. By then, of course, the Legio Praesagius had rebuilt its numbers, and hastened to join the fight against their old foes, both Titan Legions playing their part in the final battles for the future of the Imperium.Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon (012-013.M31) - For reasons only understood later in the war, the Ruinstorm that had been invoked by Lorgar, primarch of the Word Bearers, several standard years earlier during the Battle of Calth, began to abate across vast swathes of the galaxy. Loyalist high commanders were able to utilise the potent astropathic relay at Beta-Garmon to contact and recall formerly lost or stranded forces from across the war-torn reaches of the northern Imperium. The Imperial Muster at Beta-Garmon rapidly escalated into the largest gathering of Loyalist might since the early years of the war, a concentration of forces so mighty that the Traitors had to respond in kind. The resulting clash of arms would become known as the Great Slaughter, a theatre of war of such scale that it would encompass the "Titandeath" and the Sea of Fire campaigns, each major campaigns in their own right. By its end, both sides were so badly bled that their only remaining option for ultimate victory was to force a final, decisive confrontation. As history related, the final battle would be fought at Terra, but only after the weighty butcher's bill of the Great Slaughter was paid in full.Scouring of Arten's World (Unknown Date.M31) - Spearheaded by the darkly renowned Scion Zholon-Kuthos of House Malinax alongside their Traitor allies of the Legio Ulicon during the Scouring of Arten's World, the scions of Knight Banner Zholon-Kuthos won its darkest honour, slaying three times their own number of Knights of House Vornherr.Defence of Ryza (012.M31) - When the Dark Mechanicum moved to capture the vitally importan Ryza, one of the Imperium's foremost Forge Worlds under siege during the latter years of the Horus Heresy, several notable Loyalist Titan Legions and allied Knights households, including House Vornherr, were called upon to help in its defence. The Loyalists could ill-afford to lose this valuable Forge Worlds as Ryza was second only to Mars in power and prominence. The Traitor force's main goal was the knowledge of Plasma Weapons and engines that Ryza held, for with this information, coupled with the daemonic pacts of the traitor Tech-Priests, Horus' power could be unmatched. The Warmaster cared little as to how his allies achieved their goals and while the Arch-Traitor desired only that the world be crippled beyond recovery, the Dark Mechanicum held more sinister ambitions for Ryza, seeking the creation of a new Hell-Forge for their profane experiments.Battle for Ryza Secundus: Last Stand (012.M31) - Ryza Secundus was the first to feel the wrath of the Traitors when the Warmaster's allies descended upon the Forge World. To better claim the Forge World as their own, the Traitors launched a dozen vessels far in advance of their main fleet, each one a modified cruiser laden with troops intended for Ryza Secundus. These vessels slipped into the Ryza system over a period of weeks, each one powering down their systems to avoid detection by patrolling ships. Thus concealed, the Traitor vessels slowly made their way towards Ryza Secundus, powered by momentum alone. By virtue of meticulously calculated trajectories, this vanguard fleet was in range when the remainder of the Traitor fleet transitioned into the Ryza system. When battle was joined the vanguard unleashed thousands of boarding craft upon the station, flooding its hallways with Traitor troops. Such numbers were swelled by the Knights of House Morbidia as more of the station was lost to the defenders and its defences powered down. Opposing them were a handful of Knights of House Vornherr. The Household, once great and powerful, had suffered greatly during the Betrayal at Calth, when the treachery brought forth by the Word Bearers decimated their numbers. Of those of the House that survived, many sought only vengeance and death, some obscuring the bold colours of their armours with black in recognition of the doom brought down upon their lineage. Seeking aid amongst those loyal to the Imperium, accepting the gift of new armours from Ryza in return for a portion of the House's rehabilitated strength in defence of the world. It was a dozen of these newly-forged Knights that stood as guardians of Ryza Secundus, two dozen more standing proud upon Ryza proper. For many of these Scions, the battle to come was to be their first true foray into the maelstrom of war and so too would it be their last. Alas, a dozen Knights could not hold every cargo hold and hall of the vast station and each victory they secured saw a dozen losses elsewhere. Section by section, the Loyalist forces were pushed inwards, retreating in the face of the Traitors’ implacable advance. As ground was lost, the weight of fire unleashed by Ryza Secundus dwindled as ever-increasing numbers of Traitors set foot upon the station. With the reinforcements came House Morbidia, Scions pledged to the Traitor Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal and no other, many veterans of decades of war. Faced with such a threat, those of House Vornherr knew their death had come, outnumbered by a foe that stood their equal in all but numbers and honour. In the final hours of the fall of Ryza Secundus, communications between the planet and the station were cut off, replaced only by static, the flash of plasma batteries upon the void the sole indication that resistance still stood. Such reports that remain tell of a valiant last stand led by the Knights of House Vornherr, the surviving defenders gathered around the central control station within the heart of Ryza Secundus. Data later retrieved from the ruined forms of House Vornherr armours indicate a furious battle lasting six standard hours, a score of House Morbidia slain in return for their own lives.Ruins of Prosperity (012.M31) - No longer embroiled in conflict with Legio Crucius, Legio Vulturum marched west upon the southern continent, scattering the gathered might of Legio Osedax before them as fresh reinforcements flowed from the recently captured Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega, the Titans of the Legio Mortis amongst them. Across the Sea of Reclamation, it fell to the Legio Magna to pursue the fleeing Warmongers. To this end, the Flaming Skulls, supported by companies of tanks and the Knights of House Oroborn descended upon the forge city of Prosperity, sweeping aside any in their way. It was to Prosperity, the first city founded upon Ryza according to the Forge World's archives, that the surviving elements of the Legio Crucius had withdrawn, linking up with three maniples of the Legio Honorum and the remaining Scions of House Vornherr. Reports of the final hours of Prosperity are contradictory at best, assembled from distorted pict-recordings and corrupted vox logs. What little can be determined points to a canker unleashed upon the city's dataweb, a corruption  possessed of a measure of sentience shaping the code anew. Minutes after it first made its presence known, garbled reports echoed across the vox warning of malshaped constructs emerging from the shadows, formed from the broken remains of machinery torn from Ryza's plasma-producing manufactoria and possessed of a crude form of life. As if driven by a single mind these new foes swarmed through Prosperity, slaying all who stood in their way. For a single night pandemonium gripped Prosperity, the screams of the dying fading as the night gave way to day. It fell to the Knights of House Vornherr to assess the state of the city, the Titan Legions remaining ready should the Traitors seize this moment to assail them. What accounts still exist speak of a city coated in blood, every surface forever stained red by the lives lost that fated eve. Of the foe that had wrought such slaughter no sign remained, the bodies of those slain having vanished along with them. Only a lingering taint remained within the city, a faint sense of nausea and unease gripping all who walked Prosperity's streets. Without discussion, the Loyalists withdrew, for nothing worth defending remained, leaving the now-damned city of Prosperity to the invaders.