Legio Solaria - Origins: The origin of the Legio Solaria is tied to the Knight World of Procon, for it was upon that world that Mohana Mankata VI, known now as the "Great Mother" of the Legio Solaria, was born.Like many Knight Worlds, Procon was rife with traditions and beliefs that harked back to its founding, lending support to a society far from egalitarian, where each person's status and role was determined more by blood than skill.It was the ancient rites of Procon Vi, Knight household of Procon, that saw Mankata's victory in a horse-riding competition used to determine which members of the Procon nobility could become Nobles of House Procon Vi.Instead of accolades, Mankata was rewarded with exile for having participated without permission. Punished by her own due to her perceived audacity, others were more forthcoming with praise and her skill attracted the attention of the ancient Mechanicum, who offered Mankata a place upon the Forge World of Tigrus.Upon her arrival, she was proclaimed domina princeps of the newly-founded Legio Solaria, the first to join its ranks. By her edict, the princeps of the Titan Legion were drawn solely from the ranks of women, cultivated from her own genetic line, and the sole commanders of a god-engine drawn from Tigrus.Paying tribute to the traditions of the ancient Procon goddess of the hunt named Pahkmetris, the Legio Solaria went on to become an all-female Titan Legion, with vat-born, genetically-modified women serving as the Legio's princeps and moderati and the few number of males born into the Legio ordained as tech-priests or converted into servitors.In recognition both of her role as progenitor of the Legio Solaria and her leadership in the centuries following its founding, Mankata was given the title of the "Great Mother" by her princeps, holding almost divine status within the ranks of the Titan Legion.Given the nature of the Legio Solaria's founding, born as it was from the pride of its Great Mother, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Titan Legion established a reputation for its bellicose and prideful princeps.Nowhere was this more evident than in battle, for the princeps of the Legio Solaria would make great boasts in their search for glory while employing aggressive tactics that favoured the large number of Warhound-class Scout Titans the Titan Legion possessed.There were some who served alongside the Legio Solaria who showed contempt for the seemingly blatant recklessness of the Titan Legion's tactics, yet many others were quick to praise its efforts upon the battlefield.Regardless of opinion, the skill of the Titan Legion was undeniable when, during the latter decades of the Great Crusade, the Legio Solaria were  recorded as possessing an engine kill to engine loss ratio greater than some of the largest and most ancient of Titan Legions, though such statistics varied as to the scale required for a slain foe to constitute an engine kill.It was with great pride that the Legio Solaria accepted the title of "Imperial Hunters" bequeathed upon them, in part due to the impressive combat record they had amassed.The nature of the Legio Solaria saw them forge strong bonds with Titan Legions of similar demeanour. Indeed, the Legio Gryphonicus was quick to offer praise to the younger Titan Legion, with both Legios noted as pushing each other to greater heights when sharing a battlefield, a circumstance attributed to the highly competitive nature of these Titan Legions.Similarly, the aggressive tactics favoured by the Imperial Hunters saw them regularly paired with Space Marine Legions such as the White Scars and Space Wolves, with much of the Titan Legion's strength assigned to expeditionary fleets containing one or the other Legions.The Imperial Hunters' service alongside others was not without incident, the most notable example being the long-held feud between the Legio Solaria and the Legio Vulpa, one that began during the Compliance of Dendrictia, when the Death Stalkers callously extinguished 50,000 lives in a single action.Though naught but harsh words and official denouncements were exchanged, the two Titan Legions were bound together in hatred from that moment onwards, a rivalry that kept them apart during the Great Crusade and was reignited come the Horus Heresy.The years following the appointment of Horus Lupercal as Warmaster brought much turmoil to the Legio Solaris, even before the Horus Heresy began. To outside observers, little changed in the Imperial Hunters' demeanour, yet, inwardly, the future of the Titan Legion proved unclear.Much of this strife came from the degenerating health of the Great Mother and the expectancy of her approaching death. As founding domina princeps of the Legio Solaria, having commanded it since its creation, the anticipated loss of the Legio's foundation led to uncertainty amongst the ranks of the Imperial Hunters.In some manner, the outbreak of the Horus Heresy brought a period of certainty to the Legio Solaria, for the conflict offered a new crucible in which the martial prowess of the Titan Legion was tested against that of more ancient Titan Legions and a place where old grudges could be settled.