I have rewritten the fluff for my Knight Houses and Imperial Guard regiment in the aftermath of 8th Edition, Adeptus Titanicus, Mechanicum (and its evolution into the Adeptus Mechanicus), Lord Commander Roboute Guiliman's return, and all the other stuff. So I'm going to combine my old material with the new one here.
The Draconis Coalition
The Draconis Coalition is a cluster of systems located at the far northeast segment of Segmentum Solar. A Coalition of over two hundred worlds, united under the rule of the Shogun (Generalissimo), who rules on behalf of the Emperor, the core system is known as the Draconis system, home and capital to the Shogun and the largest Knight Houses in the Coalition. House Yato, House Uesugi and House Takeda reside on Draconis III, the third world from the star Draconis. Further out is the forge world Draconis IV, where renegade Tech-priests and outcasts from the Adeptus Mechanicus seek refuge and gather. Many of these exiled Tech-priests are those who have been banished from Ryza, and as such, Draconis IV seek to reproduce the plasma technologies of Ryza. That is also the reason why the Astra Militarum regiment on Draconis III - which also serves as the Household Retinue and military armed forces for the Knightly Houses of Draconis III - are equiped with more plasma weaponry than most Imperial Guard forces. The mainstay of their armored regiments, the Draconian Armored Defenders, are Leman Russ Executioner tanks. Recently, they have been re-manufacturing Volkite Carnodon tanks that had been mothballed for ages inside the manufactorums in Draconis IV since the days of the Horus Heresy and Great Crusade, but these remain rare and eschewed for the more powerful and much sturdier Leman Russ Executioner tanks. Indeed, entire regiments of Draconian Armored Defenders consist of nothing but Leman Russ Executioner tanks, volkite-armed Carnodon tanks with Stormblades as super-heavy support. Otherwise it's mostly Leman Russ Executioner tanks, Carnodon tanks and plasma-armed Draconian infantry, living up to Draconis IV's reputation as the Second Ryza.
Currently, the Shogun is Yato Yoshimoto, the equal of a High King on other Knight worlds. While the Knightly Houses on Draconis III are Imperial aligned, they tend to have very close relations with the Forge World of Draconis IV. Similar to the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar, the Draconis Coalition is made up of over two hundred worlds allied to each other, the Daimyo of each world owing fealty to the Shogun, who in turn rules over the Coalition on the behalf of the Emperor. Draconis III serves as the core world and the capital of the Coalition, and while the largest concentration of Knights gather there, there are minor Knightly Houses scattered across the two hundred worlds in the Coalition, all of whom are distant relatives to one of the three major Knight Houses on Draconis III. The equivalent of a Baron are the Daimyos, Lords and Nobles who pilot the Knights, and the previously mentioned Shogun is the Draconian equivalent of the High King.
History of Draconis III and the Great Crusade
Draconis III is a lush agri-world full of greenery, fertile plains, life-giving rivers, streams and oceans, and vibrant forests. The first colonizers immediately set up farming settlements and fishing villages across the four major continents that stretched across an otherwise ocean-populated world, but to protect them from the amphibious Leviathans that rear from the seas, and the monstrous serpentine behemoths (known as the Orochi) that assault their relatively small villages, the human colonizers had to depend on the newly constructed Knight suits from the Standard Construct Templates that they had brought along. Along with the Knights we all know, there were also STCs for Titans, particularly Warlord Titans, vast, lumbering god-engines who incinerate the gargantuan monstrosities from the forests with their Sunfury plasma annihilators and volkite destructors.
Yet, these colonizers, having hailed from the Asian continent of old Earth (now Terra), sought harmony with Nature. So unlike more extreme colonizers who valued technology and efficiency over coexistence, they did not exterminate life from Draconis III. Rather, they built their homes beside forests and oceans, and respected Nature as an admirable force of life. For Millennia, the colonies expanded, basing their trade largely on agriculture and fishing, and they became quite wealthy, able to set up small but bustling and packed metropolises on an Eastern chain along the biggest continent. Similar cities were also built on the other three continents, but they served to integrate Mankind with Nature rather than attempt to subjugate it.
This peace did not last long, as the great Age of Strife soon came upon them. Warp rifts tore open the fabric of reality, vomitting out daemonic hordes and destruction. Yet, as necessity dictated, Draconis III had already constructed countless Knight suits to combat immense goliaths from both sea and forests, the Draconian population was able to stem the horrific tide and repel them back to the foul dimension from which they emerged. In this way, Draconis III managed to survive the horrors of the Old Night and continue to prosper despite being isolated from the rest of humanity. Having practiced self-sustainance, and already alienated because of their attempts to coexist with Nature rather than subjugate it, Draconis III welcomed this change and continued to develop. However, much of their technology was reduced to ruins when their Artificial Intelligences rebelled, only to be ruthlessly put down by the Knights that patrolled the continents for any sign of chaos. It was this that led to their technological regression and further deepened their faith in Nature rather than technology.
As the millennia passed, the Knights began to take command by virtue of their prestige and great martial power, and replaced the aristocrats as the new ruling class. Fights began to break out between these newly emerging powers and they splintered off into many different factions, each ruling over a domain of their own. Much like other Knight Worlds, they devolved into a feudal system, with vassals pledging loyalty to the Nobles in exchange for protection or chances for glory. Having already possessed a number of Knights that ranked among one of the most in the galaxy, Draconis III descended into bloody civil war as each of these Knight warlords sought to subjugate each other and reign supreme over the four continents. The greatest of these warlords were known as Daimyo, the Warlords. Being the greatest of powers, they fought, forged alliances, dabbled in politics such as engaging in political marriages to strenghten the ties of two houses, and traded. During the darkest period of Draconis III, the Knights and millions of their vassals, Household retinues who would later provide the foundation for a Planetary Defense Force and later an Imperial Guard Regiment, clashed and flooded Draconis III's fertile soil with blood and iron. Hundreds of Knights duelled each other in honorable battles under the shadows of titanic Warmaster Titans and massive Warlord Titans, who would later form Legio Draconis (Dark Dragons) on the newly founded Forge World of Draconis IV, providing apocalyptic firepower that leveled mountains, razed cities to the ground and even tear open the stalwart defenses of the bustling metropolises.
The warriors did not care about coexisting with Nature in the way their preceding ruling class did. Focused solely on victory, they trampled upon the grassy plains of Draconis III in their hulking, adamantine armor, followed by columns of armored tanks. Thankfully, they did not have the technical expertise or vision to industrialize their world either, so the ecology of Draconis III remained largely untouched. The Rough Riders used to make up the majority of the soldiers, escorted by marching ashigaru, or foot soldiers, but their ineffectiveness against the colossal armor of Imperial Knights drove them to obsolescence, and the warlike leaders grudgingly acknowledged the futility of sending mere foot soldiers into combat with these giants. What few Standard Template Constructs and manufactorums left were used to construct armored tanks, which allowed even the common soldier to at least wound a towering Knight. A single tank might not be able to put a dent, but an entire squadron of tanks firing in concerted unison could put down a single Knight. This, of course, was limited to the relatively few tanks produced - numbering only in their thousands as opposed to the millions of marching foot soldiers, but it at least reduced the senseless loss of life. The particular military tradition was kept and later served as the foundation for the Planetary Defense Force, and subsequently the Draconian Armored Defenders, which is almost entirely made out of tank companies with armor infantry support. Working in concert, the armor infantry would escort and protect the tanks from anti-tank fire, while the tanks blast huge holes in enemy fortifications and rain fiery death upon massed formations of foes.
The warriors did not care about coexisting with Nature in the way their preceding ruling class did. Focused solely on victory, they trampled upon the grassy plains of Draconis III in their hulking, adamantine armor, followed by columns of armored tanks. Thankfully, they did not have the technical expertise or vision to industrialize their world either, so the ecology of Draconis III remained largely untouched. The Rough Riders used to make up the majority of the soldiers, escorted by marching ashigaru, or foot soldiers, but their ineffectiveness against the colossal armor of Imperial Knights drove them to obsolescence, and the warlike leaders grudgingly acknowledged the futility of sending mere foot soldiers into combat with these giants. What few Standard Template Constructs and manufactorums left were used to construct armored tanks, which allowed even the common soldier to at least wound a towering Knight. A single tank might not be able to put a dent, but an entire squadron of tanks firing in concerted unison could put down a single Knight. This, of course, was limited to the relatively few tanks produced - numbering only in their thousands as opposed to the millions of marching foot soldiers, but it at least reduced the senseless loss of life. The particular military tradition was kept and later served as the foundation for the Planetary Defense Force, and subsequently the Draconian Armored Defenders, which is almost entirely made out of tank companies with armor infantry support. Working in concert, the armor infantry would escort and protect the tanks from anti-tank fire, while the tanks blast huge holes in enemy fortifications and rain fiery death upon massed formations of foes.
It is in this dark period when a shrewd tactician emerged. The Daimyo of House Yato, Yato Yasutaka, devised a strategy to begin uniting the divided Houses of Draconis III under one rule. Forging alliances with the powerful House Takeda and the indomitable House Uesugi, he slowly picked off one House after another, adding their domains and military might to that of his House and his allies. Manipulating politics so that the rulers of House Takeda and House Uesugi would remain loyal to him, either through family marriages or promises of glory, he was able to unite Draconis III under four decades of constant warfare. At long last, he had all the Knight Houses, including the great House Oda, the stubborn House Tokugawa, the resilient House Akita, all pledge loyalty to him as he took up rule as the Shogun, the Draconian equivalent of the High King. Dispersing his defeated foes into divided territories, he was able to build up and maintain his power base, ensuring the rule of his descendants. Under House Yato, Draconis III returned to prospering once more, the civilians able to experience peace and joy after millennia of bloody warfare. As centuries went past, House Yato and its allies, House Takeda and House Uesugi, began to subsume and integrate the other Houses into their own clans, and eventually there were only three Houses left, the others either now part of the three great Houses or destroyed.
This was not to last, however, as within another few millennia, the Imperium stumbled upon the isolated world. Nearing the end of the Great Crusade, the Imperium was still continuing their efforts to reclaim long-lost human colonies and return them to the fold of the Emperor. Lord Marshal Mathias Perry led several regiments of Solar Auxilia to the surface of Draconis III and negotiated with the powerful but aging Knights. At first, the Knights rebuffed his advances, and war broke out as the Imperial Army, consisting largely of Solar Auxilia, attempted to subdue the three major Knight houses. As old as the suits were, the Knights were still terrifying weapons of war, as the Solar Auxilia found to their cost. Petitioning for aid, reinforcements finally arrived in the form of the Thousand Sons Legion, fresh from the Ventris campaign where they destroyed an entire Household of Knights for refusing to submit to the Imperium. Eventually, the first, fourth and sixth companies descended and destroyed the formidable lances of Knights with psychic powers alone, but not without sustaining casualties of their own. Even so, they continue to bolster their ranks with regiments of Prosperine Spireguard, landing millions of mortal soldiers and armored vehicles upon the great plains of Draconis III. Recognizing the immense firepower, arcane witchery and undecipherable scale the Imperium presented, the current ruler, Yato Yoshinobu decided to minimize bloodshed and attempted to preserve his planet's autonomy through negotiations. He was intelligent enough to understand that the aging Knight suits of the three great Houses would not be able to stand up to the massive firepower the Imperium wielded, and that they would never survive a war of attrition against an Imperium that numbered hundreds of thousands of worlds. Even if they somehow fought off this incursion, they would have incurred unsustainable losses and suffered bloody damage.
Fortunately, Yoshinobu knew that there would also be benefits to returning to the Imperium, either through old Mythology about an Emperor descended from a sun goddess, or the ancient technology scattered about the planet but rendered out of use by the Age of Strife. Shrewd enough to find an opportunity to recognize this rule, he then brokered a deal with Magnus, the Primarch of the Thousand Sons, to legitimize his rule further and named himself Shogun of Draconis III. As Shogun, he had received the right to rule from the Holy Father of Terra, the Emperor Himself, and would reign over this world on His behalf. Recognizing his authority, the Imperium did not aggressively press for more concessions, and after pledging his fealty to the Imperium and promising to tithe troops to pursue the Great Crusade, House Yato's dominance was all but assured. Yoshinobu also saw the need to modernize, realizing that his world's antiquated Knight suits and obsolete armored vehicles were no match for the vast armies the Imperium could bring to bear. Above all, he craved the military technology he was exposed to, such as the much more armored and powerful Leman Russ tanks that the Imperium had.
The combined Knights of House Yato, House Uesugi and House Takeda number over hundreds, each of their massive rosters second only to that of the great House Raven. Thanks to the Mechanicum coming to claim Draconis IV as a Forge World, another cunning move by Yato Yoshinobu to secure allies and the prosperity of his House and allies, they continued to grow in strength, the Mechanicum providing new Knight suits and able to help maintain, repair and even upgrade the existing ones. This also saw Yoshinobu realize his dream of modernizing and his House...no, his world emerging as a pre-eminent power much like his ancestors were in the past, and achieving honor and glory that surpassed those of historical legends.
Draconis IV, the Estasblishment of the Legio Cybernetica and Legio Draconis and the Horus Heresy
With the arrival of the Mechanicum, Draconis IV was transformed into a forge world, its once silent air polluted with toxic fumes, and its barren landscape overrun with radioactive sludge and waste. Vast hive cities and manufactorums sprang across the dry continents of Draconis IV. As a very young Forge World fresh from its cradle, the priesthood of Draconis IV could not afford to be picky, and aggressively recruited Tech-priests from all over the fledging Imperium, regardless of faith or creed. Consequently, most of the Tech-priests who arrived and made Draconis IV their new home were exiles, outcasts, renegades, and progressives, banished or persecuted in their original forge worlds for heretical beliefs. This wasn't to say the priesthood of Draconis IV allowed heresy to propagate within their ranks, but they were certainly lax when it came to matters of faith. As long as one remained loyal to the Fabricator-General of Draconis IV, one could research and build whatever one liked. Many of the Tech-priests were exiles from Ryza, having been hunted for pursuing new paths in plasma technology, and they arrived in Draconis IV to continue their supposedly blasphemous research. They brought with them scattered maniples of Skitarii, personalized cyborg armies more loyal to their individual Tech-priest masters than any overarching Martian priesthood.
It was most likely because of Draconis IV's youth that when it began and was later plunged into the hellish fires of the Horus Heresy, that it did not have much of a standing military. The fledging forge world depended heavily on the various, scatterd Skitarii maniples under Warlord-like Tech-priests or renegade Magi and Knight Houses of Draconis III for defense, and a symbiotic relationship arose. Aware of the Knights' power over them, the Tech-priests of Draconis IV were not foolish enough to attempt to seize power over the Knight Houses, and indeed, were as submissive to them as the Sacristans permanently attached to the Knights. Indeed, rather than a forge world, Draconis IV is also known as a Sacristan World in addition to its nickname as the second Ryza.
Even though they have a small force of Skitarii, which was slowly merging into a single military organization as a group of high-ranking Archmagi formed the core of authority in the fledging forge world, the free-spirited and progressive Tech-priests of Draconis IV continued to indulge in their experiments and mass-produced battle-automata. Hence, Draconis IV became home to one of the largest Legio Cybernetica cohorts in the Mechanicum, and the Imperium. Thousands of battle-automata and siege-automata were produced in Draconis IV alone, many of them shipped to help the Legions - especially the Thousand Sons Legion - in the Great Crusade, but the bulk of the Legio Cybernetica forces remain on the surface of Draconis IV, guarding alongside their Skitarii escorts and handlers vital installations and massive manufactorums that continue to churn out their brethren and hundreds of thousands of Leman Russ Executioner tanks and Carnodon tanks, and millions of laser and plasma weaponry at an incredible rate. It was also because of their specialization in producing plasma weapons that Draconis IV produces an unnaturally high number of Thanatar Siege-automata, and they tend to favor the plasma and Darkfire versions of Castellax Battle-automata over the Mauler bolt cannon patterns. The Skitarii Vanguard of Draconic IV are also armed with an unusually high number of plasma calivers, when compared to other forge worlds, probably second only to Ryza. However, the Skitarii Rangers favor arc weaponry, wielding exotic lightning to devastating effect in both range and melee combat.
Along with the Legio Cybernetica, the Titan Legio, Legio Draconis was also created and established during this time. Nicknamed the Dark Dragons, the black and gold Warlord Titans marched to war, escorted by Reaver Titans and other exotic variants such as the towering Warmaster Titan. However, the youth and lack of manpower of the Forge World Draconis IV meant that there wouldn't be many maniples of Titans. As such, in contrast to the vast number of Knights, Legio Draconis remained one of the smallest Titan Legions in the Imperium. Ironically, it was this lack of size and presence that saved Legio Draconis, for their distance from Beta-Garmon meant that Legio Draconis would not be able to muster any large amount of forces to send to Beta-Garmon. They also escaped the Doom of Molech, but they were eventually present in Terra to fend off the Traitor forces of the Warmaster, albeit in very small numbers.
Unlike most Legions, Legio Draconis, the Dark Dragons as they were to be known, tend to favor large Titans more than the smaller ones. There are no Warhound Titans or other Scout Titans in Legio Draconis, the Dark Dragons comprising virtually only Warmaster Titans, Warlord Titans and a mix of other large-sized Titans. They also have two Imperator Titans, the Shogun's Will and the Rising Sun, both of whom survived the siege of Terra. However, they are rarely ferried out of Draconis IV, remaining as honor guards and twin sentinel guardians of the forge world. The core mainstay of the Legion are Warmaster Titans armed with massive plasma destructors and Warlord Titans with a preference for Sunfury Plasma Annihilators, though a sizeable number of them are equipped with the lethal volkite destructors, and they are usually escorted and protected by Knight lances formed by banners of a Knight House seconded to the Dark Dragons. They often march to war with the tiny figures of fearless Skitarii swarming over their massive feet like ants. The Skitarii maniples' job is to keep their Titan charges from being overwhelmed by hordes of xenos, and even within the very few Imperator Titans, whole maniples of Skitarii await alongside small squadrons of Kastelan Robots, ready to defend the god-machines from intruders, raiders and boarders (particularly Chaos Space Marines). They have an entire Knight House seconded to them, House Kanda, which is a direct branch from House Yato, and thanks to their connections with the Mechanicum, consist primarily of Cerastus Knight Lancers, Cerastus Knights Atrapos, entire lances of Questoris Knights that include exotic variants such as Questoris Knights Styrix in addition to the regular chassis, supplemented by a few Acastus Knights.
Aftermath of the Horus Heresy
In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, the Legio Draconis was one of the few Titan Legions left relatively intact after the Siege of Terra, having sat out most of the engagements. The Knight Houses and the Solar Auxilia regiments from Draconis III had borne most of the fighting, but while they bore scars of the conflict, they emerged mostly unscathed in comparison to other worlds, for Horus did not deem the Draconian cluster strategically vital to his plans.
Nevertheless, the outlying systems surrouding the core Draconian system had fallen to anarchy and infighting, as Traitors and Heretics took advantage of the chaos following the Horus Heresy to stake their claims as rightful rulers of their worlds. Often ambitious Daimyos, these Renegade Knight houses took up arms against the Shogun, and by extension the Emperor and the Imperium, who had already suffered terrible casualties in the narrow victory over the Warmaster. Even the vaunted Legio Cybernetica Cohorts of Draconis IV were but a shadow of their former glory, having sacrificed the bulk of its forces fighting Traitor Legion Astartes and Dark Mechanicum renegades during the Horus Heresy. Reduced from thousands to mere hundreds of battle-automata, they were ordered to swear terrible binding oaths of loyalty, and fear of the battle-automata they produced - with many of the Dark Mechanicum's twisted constructs turning malefic and possessed by Daemons - invoked their allies' distrust of them, despite the great costs they had borne in fighting for the Loyalists during the Heresy. On the other hand, the resilient Skitarii maniples of Draconis IV prospered, probably because of an influx of wounded and damaged human soldiers from the Imperial Army regiments of Draconis III returning and requiring cybernetics and augmetics to survive. Even so, the influx of new Skitarii was barely enough to replace the cyborg soldiers lost during the terrible battles of the Horus Heresy.
The Knights did not come away unscathed either, having lost many of their nobles and soldiers. The worst casualties were those suffered by the Solar Auxilia regiments raised in Draconis III, with half of their strength effectively wiped out during the civil war. It would take them many decades to rebuild.
But rebuild they did, with the Mechanicum priesthood now reorganized and united under the Adeptus Mechanicus with teeming legions of Skitarii programmed to a central command, and the Solar Auxilia replaced by the Astra Militarum organizations to ensure a betrayal on the scale of Horus Heresy would never occur again. Once replenished to their full strength, the Knightly houses, the freshly raised Imperial Guard regiments of the Draconian Armored Defenders and the cold, merciless Skitarii Legions of Draconis IV enthusiastically participated in the Scouring, driving what remained of the Traitors back toward the Eye of Terror.
However, their role was far from done...
Expansion
While the core Draconian system had remained largely intact and firmly in Loyalist hands throughout the Horus Heresy and after, the sourrounding systems making up the outer systems had fallen to anarchy.
The Shogun of that time, Yato Yoshitsune, ordered a Crusade - the Draconian Crusade - to conquer the outlying worlds and bring them back into the fold of the Imperium...to bring them back to the Emperor's light. Gathering a huge Imperial Guard battlegroup on the Segmentum Scale, he then launched a century-long campaign to reconquer the two hundred worlds and establish Imperium hegemonial rule over them once more. Leading hundreds of Knights and millions of Imperial Guardsmen and Skitarii, as well as dozens of cohorts of Cybernetica automata, Yoshitsune was able to conquer the two hundred worlds within his lifetime. It also helped that he had the aid from the steadily growing Titan Legion of the Dark Dragons, who had suffered minimal losses during the Horus Heresy. With nothing to oppose the enormous god-engines stalking the worlds alongside emotionless Skitarii escorts, many of the renegade Daimyos and their populations capitulated at the mere sight of them. Even the pockets of Iron Warriors or Alpha Legion Legionnaires who had chosen to hide and lead the incursions in these worlds were rooted out and mercilessly wiped out, the Chaos Space Marines unable to withstand a barrage from the Knights. The Word Bearers attempted to summon Daemons and turn Jigoku into a Daemon World, but the Knights of House Yato, House Uesugi and House Takeda smashed through their rituals, routed the Word Bearers and banished the Daemons crawling out of the Immaterium with the help of the Draconian Armored Defenders and Draconian Skitarii. On the jungle world of Morita, the attempts of a small band of Death Guard legionnaires to turn it into a garden of Nurgle were thwarted and the disgustingly resilient Marines hacked apart and incinerated by reaper chainswords and conflagration cannons as well as the incendiary combusters of the Legio Cybernetica, and the cybernetic Skitarii immune to diseases, toxins and viruses, flushed out any traces of the Heretic Astartes with plasma and arc weaponry.
Within a century, all two hundred worlds in the cluster had become subservient to Shogun Yato Yoshitsune, and he, with his Knightly subordinates - the great Daimyo - forged a Coalition binding the two hundred worlds together under his rule - answerable only to the Emperor Himself.
Of course, throughout the next ten thousand years, the numbers often rise and fell. Some worlds fell to Chaos, but more worlds were reclaimed and forcibly brought back to the foe by sheer military might. After all, there was little in the galaxy that could stand against the Knight Lances of the noble Houses of the Draconis Coalition. Failing that, they would face the sheer apocalyptic power of Legio Draconis...
The Fall of Cadia and the Cicatrix Maledictum
Despite sending large detachments of Draconian Armored Defenders consisting of thousand-strong tank squadrons, and the vauntly Knight lances of Draconis III, Cadia still fell. What remained of the Draconian army was forced to flee along with the surviving Cadians, and these Cadians followed the Draconian hosts back to the Draconian Coalition, where they continued to recruit and raise new regiments or bolster existing ones from the two hunrded worlds. As a result, the Draconians learn armor warfare and receive infantry training from the proud and revered Cadian Shock Troops, becoming on par with them...or at least I hope. In any case, that's why their regimental doctrine is so similar. Of course, their fighting styles differ - the Draconian Armored Defenders are primarily an armored regiment, with few infantry support, and they specialize in plasma weapons. They use Leman Russ Executioner tanks exclusively, because plasma is their bread and butter. If possible, I would like to have all my infantry wield plasma guns, but obviously that is neither practical nor balanced, nor would the points be cool, ugh, you know what I mean.
Anyway, the Great Rift opened up, and the Draconian Coalition was swallowed up by tides of screaming Daemons pouring through the warp. Many of the worlds fell, and only the core system survived. Draconis III and Draconis IV are what remain of the once proud Draconian Coalition, with the majority of the two hundred worlds consumed by insanity and cackling creatures from the Warp. Some planets endured, protected as they were by the indomitable custodians of the Knight houses and their Household retinues, the Draconian Armored Defenders living up to their names and defending their worlds. Many forge worlds, guarded by countless Skitarii and Cybernetica Cohorts, even succeeded in eradicating the immaterial invaders with their faith in the Omnissiah. But more fell.
Fortunately, even among the worlds that had fallen, pockets of resistance continue, with surviving Draconian Guardsmen and tanks, Skitarii and Cybernetica robots rallying around the remaining Knights of Houses Yato, Uesugi and/or Takeda and fighting off the Daemonic incursions in bastion-cities. Often these would be the only hive-city left in the world, such as Ama-no-taka, where the City of Light remained standing, bristling with defiant Draconian Guardsmen and a total of seventy Knights when reinforcements finally arrived to relieve them.
With the Warp Storm falling away, and the light of the Astronomican finally becoming visible after such a long time, the time has come. Yato Yoshimoto, the current Shogun, has declared a second Draconian Crusade. Mustering his forces from across the core system and gathering the greatest number of Knights ever since the Great Crusade, Yoshimoto intends to recapture the two hundred worlds that have been engulfed by Chaos and Daemons, and bring them back to the Imperium while relieving the beleaguered defenders. With their Cadian allies, and calling upon favors owed by various other forces such as the stoic Valhallan Ice Warriors and the lethal legions of Skitarii and Adeptus Mechanicus military assets from various forge worlds, and even Knightly Comrades such as those from House Hawkshroud, the Knights of House Yato, House Uesugi and House Takeda march out again, leading their Household Retinues of Draconian Armored Defenders, Draconian Skitarii and Cybernetica Cohorts to reclaim the two hundred worlds in the Coalition from anarchy, chaos and certain doom. They are further reinforced by the Titans of Legio Draconis, the Dark Dragons offering apocalyptic firepower to raze whatever enemies that stand before them.
Their job is made easier now that most of the Daemons had disappeared into the warp along with the Warp Storm, but new enemies lurk in the shadows of these worlds, ready to spring their traps and claws their filthy xenos jaws around the honorable Knights, resilient Skitarii, revered god-machines and determined Guardsmen of the Draconian Coalition...not to mention countless Cultists and their Dark Masters dwelling in the shadows and just waiting for fresh converts to come to them...
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