Adrastapol - The Ork Wars and the Fall of House Manticos: Towards the end of the 40th Millennium, in the youth of the future High King Tolwyn Tan Draconis, Adrastapol became the target of one of the violent migrations of Orks known as a WAAAGH!. Led by the fearsome Warlord Skarjaw, the Orks assaulted Adrastapol in force. The Adrastapolians called this sombre chapter in their history the "Ork Wars" or later the "First Ork War," after a second conflict with the Greenskins occurred, because the original conflict lasted for many standard years and would see millions die. Skarjaw was a savage representative of his foul xenos-breed, a creature almost feral in his savagery.Skarjaw brought many of the Orks' great warbeasts, the towering Squiggoths, to Adrastapol. The foul creatures flourished on Adrastapol and the five remaining Houses of Imperial Knights were hard-pressed to hold the line against the Orks, as High King Gerraint Tan Chimaeros proved incapable of vanquishing the foe. Many are the tales of heroism forged during this conflict, until Skarjaw was finally defeated. Having broken through the defence lines of House Pegasson, the Orks sought to assault the Draconspire, the ancestral home of House Draconis but were unexpectedly attacked by a party of Draconis Knights led by Tolwyn Tan Draconis. These Knights succeeded in disrupting the Orks assault and killed Skarjaw who perished beneath the blows of Markos Dar Draconis. The scattered survivors of WAAAGH! Skarjaw would go on to provide the Knights of Adrastapol with welcome quarries for their great hunts and the training of their squires.The Ork Wars left Adrastapol severely weakened as the conflict destroyed one of the noble Houses -- House Manticos -- whose keep had been razed by the Orks. But as he walked the scorched and blackened ruins of the former fortress, High King Gerraint Tan Chimaeros discovered a lone survivor, a beautiful girl on the brink of womanhood, whom he would save from the debris and eventually take as his consort. She was the Lady Alicia Kar Manticos, last scion of a lost House. Ultimately, for the Imperium, Adrastapol and House Chimaeros, it would have been better had the girl perished at the hands of the Greenskins.While still recuperating from the Ork Wars, the Knights of Adrastapol were called upon to reinforce the Imperial troops of the Galhorn Crusade which would see the death of many Knights, including Gerraint's only son and heir. Gerraint himself was badly injured during the Crusade and would need to rely on an augmetic brace to walk. As mandated by the traditions of Adrastapol, the crown of the High King passed on to House Draconis as one of the central tenets of Adrastapolian dogma was that the ruling high king must have a living heir, the Kingsward, in order to ensure that the line of succession was not broken. While Gerraint had fathered a second son, Luk Tan Chimaeros, he was not eligible to succeed his father since his mother -- Lady Alicia -- was merely Gerraint's consort and not his lawful wife.Feeding upon Gerraint's grief and outrage at the usurpation of his crown, Lady Alicia poisoned the mind of now-Viscount Gerraint into the service of Chaos. Through years of careful planning and the most subtle means, Alicia Kar Manticos began to corrupt the Scions of House Chimaeros and bind them into the service of the Changer of Ways, the Chaos God Tzeentch. Unknown to the other Houses, Alicia was a powerful psyker, a daemonologist and an expert manipulator, an utterly ruthless woman who would not shrink from communing with the denizens of the Warp and ally herself with other Traitors to reach her goal: the restoration of Gerraint to the throne of Adrastapol, with her at his side.Through his influence as a former high king, Viscount Gerraint Tan Chimaeros sought allies within the other Households and was able to sway Archduke Duncan Tan Wyvorn to their cause. Patiently the would-be Traitors bid their time. It was not until the Donatos Uprising that House Chimaeros and House Wyvorn would reveal their true allegiance, dealing a crippling blow to the Loyalist Knight Houses and even killing High King Tolwyn Tan Draconis.