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As the Title Suggests, I'm wondering if its ever been explored in the lore about the Mechanicum or Imperium at large has ever recognized a noble Knightly Household after it was detroyed ( either completely or to a lone freeblade) and decided to re-build it for some reason. I'm thinking about starting a Knight army and the House Drakkus Scheme just looks so tempting to do in multiple knights. I just have a hard time justifying it in the fluff as to why their would be multiple knights and the new Armiger knights by their side.

Thanks in advance.

Not sure. They are an insert. While they don't enjoy the yrs of lore love that vanilla factions have since the inception of this setting they also aren't burdened with long history of retcons the vanilla factions are saddled with either. Can always make up your own house. Or you can do the house you want and their paint scheme for the mechwarriors that fit and for the gundam robots that don't fit the house they can be painted as freeblades. Just a thought.

I coukld see maybe a freeblade who is descended from the house rebuilding it.

OK did a bit of looking. House Drakus comes from that mobile game filled with forced 30 sec ads and constant reminders to buy their boxes of loot. Only one surviving knight that is the newly recruited protagonist. I'm pretty sure he classifies as a free blade now but there's no reason you can't build the house he was part of before they all get wiped out. Does he even continue with his old house's colours? The knight painter feature of that game (it's only decent feature) might suggest he's taken on a new scheme now that he's got no house.

 spiderman518 wrote:
As the Title Suggests, I'm wondering if its ever been explored in the lore about the Mechanicum or Imperium at large has ever recognized a noble Knightly Household after it was detroyed ( either completely or to a lone freeblade) and decided to re-build it for some reason. I'm thinking about starting a Knight army and the House Drakkus Scheme just looks so tempting to do in multiple knights. I just have a hard time justifying it in the fluff as to why their would be multiple knights and the new Armiger knights by their side.

Thanks in advance.

Off the top of my head I can't think of one, but knight houses aren't like Marine Chapters or IG regiments - they date to pre-Imperial times for the most part so are probably closer to Rogue Traders and Chartist Captains as far as the politics go, which means that being the last scion of a noble house is a big deal, because you have ancient and iron-clad legal agreements with at least one of the two major powers in the Imperium - the Administratum or Mars. For Rogue Traders, there's definitely a lot of background of old houses coming back from the brink and making various alliances with Forgeworlds and Planetary Governors on the basis of being a person with a Warrant of Trade that lets you operate your own ship and have free movement throughout the Imperium (as well as setting up your own colonies).

A Knightly Order doesn't quite have the same pull, but maybe not far off. They have a treaty that they can push for a Forgeworld to resupply them with new knights if they can provide the raw materials, materials that would be a trivial to acquire for a nearby Hiveworld if they were so interested - perhaps for the hand in marriage of this last scion of a Knightly house to one of their heirs, which paves the way in the future for the noble family of the Hive World to close family connection to a Knight Household, or maybe even to be able to inherit. A feather in any family's cap, but if you know that your regiments (led by your offspring as senior officers) can call upon honour bound Knights - then the chance of your nieces and nephews ended up as planetary governors themselves of worlds claimed by right of conquest or settlement just increases - so not only have you now started an interplanetary dynasty, but you've also generated a reason for your idle heirs and distant cousins to stay loyal rather than to plot and scheme to overthrow you. Lot easier to get rid of potential rivals if you can banish them to the colonies and keep supporters on side if they think they can get rulership of the world out of it.

All you need is for this penniless Freeblade Scion to complete some minor tasks for you, to show their valour and win your heir's hand in marriage...and it just so happens that you have a few off-world interests that might benefit from having a Lord of War turn up to assist.

Maybe the best way to look at this is to follow the medieval/renaissance allegory to its full extent. If the last surviving scion of a knightly house has a couple of kids, then they become heirs to the house. They hold on tenaciously and ruthlessly to what land and rights they can. The kids, in turn have a few kids themselves, and within fifty or sixty years, the household is back in business.

 ProwlerPC wrote:
Not sure. They are an insert. While they don't enjoy the yrs of lore love that vanilla factions have since the inception of this setting they also aren't burdened with long history of retcons the vanilla factions are saddled with either. Can always make up your own house. Or you can do the house you want and their paint scheme for the mechwarriors that fit and for the gundam robots that don't fit the house they can be painted as freeblades. Just a thought.

Actually Imperial Knight households predate quite a few factions in 40k - first appearing in 1990! - they were just an epic-scale only thing for a long time.


(From White Dwarf 126, 'June 1990)

They do have a lot more background in epic - including such details as House Devine, who ended up getting noodly-appendaged by Slaanesh and changing into the first traitor knights:


Has a completely wiped out house been resurrected? Maybe. Nearly-extinct houses have certainly been rebuilt. House Taranis was functionally speaking exterminated during the opening battles of the Horus Heresy on Mars, but was rebuilt afterwards.

During their time in epic is there any lore and fluff about knights in 40K? Any books or such in which they are are portrayed to be a regular part of the setting? Appearanceces for Horus Heresy? Great Crusade? Black Crusades? Armageddon 1 2 and 3? Beast? I cant recall it's an honest inquiry. Or did they get inserted into the fluff in 6th at same time as the models? My perception has been the latter so far and it appears that even then they got inserted into very little of the background story and still lack presence in all the key stories that that make up the history of the setting. The largest battles and events in the timeline that define why 40k is grim dark now seems devoid of their presence. I get that they were in Epic and so were the squats, but let's say the ressurect the squats for 9th edition. We can point out that we had them before but they would still have to be inserted into the fluff since they have had no presence throughout all of 40ks stories. Well I suppose they can be written as just newly found and their part in the setting begins right there. They didn't do this with knight in 6th. Their inserted fluff states they've been around since dark age of technology and I assume authors never got around to inserting their role in the pivotal events that nearly ended the Imperium. I assume they had backbones and didn't choose to awol during those tough times.

I like them but it's like they didn't exist till 6th. Too bad they didn't get appropriate spot light time in the novels of the 40K setting during their time in Epic.

 ProwlerPC wrote:
Any books or such in which they are are portrayed to be a regular part of the setting? Appearanceces for Horus Heresy? Great Crusade? Black Crusades? Armageddon 1 2 and 3? Beast? I cant recall it's an honest inquiry.

Well, just as one example, Houses Krast and Arokon are listed among the Imperial forces fighting against Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade in the Codex Eye of Terror supplement for 40K 3rd edition. They've never not been part of the setting.

OK. That's suitable enough evidence for me. I stand corrected and I apologize. I'll shoulder this burden. With my lack of knowledge of Epic and Knights I'll wager I glossed over any mention of them as me misunderstanding what the author was referring to.

House Vyridion lost their knights when they split from the Emperors Children during the heresy. The Legion annihilated their homewolrd in retaliation and the pilots reached Terra to be imprisoned. Offered a chance to redeem their house they were given machines from other loyal houses and entered the Webway War, knowing they could never leave the Webway.

Youve also got the infamous incident in Beast Arises where the Mechanicum invents a new planet (not quite accurate but best non spoilerish way of describing it) ......

So there is a lot of ways a Knight Household could reborn , in fact it's possible for the Imperium to lose nearly an entire chapter but remove it from record thoroughly .... so Knights easy!