House Yato

During the Age of Technology, Human colonists would set out across the galaxy to colonize worlds across its breadth in what is known as the Long March. Originating from what would later form the Dragon Nations on Terra, a particularly vast host of settlers found their way to the Draconis system and colonized a couple of planets orbiting the yellow star, as well as those in surrounding systems. The greatest of these worlds is Ryusei, home to the ancient and stalwart Knight Household of Yato.

As the first colony arks were reshaped into fortress-cities amidst the plains of Ryusei, the explorers assaulted by megafauna and other hostile organisms that composed its vibrant ecosystem, the bipedal exosuits that would later become known as Knights were fabricated from sophisticated technologies - the Standard Template Constructs. Eventually, the colonists were able to carve out inhabitable spaces that expanded from the beached colony arks serving as the cores of their individual castle-kingdoms. From here, the first of the Nobles would emerge. Gradually, over the centuries, these Noble scions - known as bushi to their fellows on Ryusei - would impose a neo-feudal order upon their populations. Further split into clans by blood ties or oaths of allegiance, they warred against each other as often as they hunted and drove back the Ayakashi that haunted the massive jungles of Ryusei.

The greatest of these bushi are the Daimyos, the equivalent of Barons in other Knight Houses. Leading massive armies of their own, the Knight walkers would clash in colossal formations that see entire landscapes ravaged by apocalyptic weaponry. Frequently, the Knight clans would set aside petty grudges and differences to launch hunting expeditions of the Ayakashi that infested their world. From the titanic serpentine Orochi and their kings, the Yamata no Orochi, to the leviathan Bake-Kujira that dwelled beneath the ocean depths to the gargantuan, amphibious Ryuu, the Ayakashi were truly fearsome beasts whose power was matched only by a skilled bushi piloting a Knight armor.

Remnants of the Colonist fleet that remained void-capable remained in orbit, allowing these nobles to maintain an interstellar empire that stretched across several star systems. The Noble clans warred amongst themselves for centuries, and eventually, House Yato succeeded in subjugating the other Knight Houses and persuading them into vassalage - by force or extermination if necessary. The Patriarch of House Yato at that time, Yato Yasutaka, became the Shogun - the ruler above all other Daimyos, and House Yato's counterpart to the High King of other Questoris Familia. With Ryusei forming the stalwart core, worlds came under the Knight House's fold, whether by astute diplomatic overtures or military might. The Draconis system was rich in agri-worlds that include the famous "bread basket trio" known for their bountiful macro agri-complexes - Inari, Beisei and Nouzen - and most of whom badly required the protection of Knights from the predations of xenos raiders and pirates. There was also the jungle world of Aomori, Yamahodo - a world full of mountains whose jagged, cloud-misted peaks soared as high up to the stratosphere, and the ocean planet of Namikai, where visitors could drink their fill, as well as dine on freshly caught seafood that was consumed raw.

The peace would not last long, for the Age of Strife had begun. The relatively tiny interstellar empire of House Yato was cut off from the rest of galaxy by violent warp storms, and their Noble Knights were hardpressed against the constantly mutating denizens of the forests. Ayakashi grew ever more ferocious and vicious, their already monstrous forms tainted by the warp.

To make matters worse, the Men of Iron had risen against their creators. Conservative as most other Knight Worlds were, House Yato and their homeworld of Ryusei was spared the worst of this cataclysmic conflict. However, their neighboring planet was not as fortunate. Blasted into oblivion and its surface transformed into an irradiated landscape inimical to organic life as the apocalyptic aftermath of a horrifying war that saw nightmarish weapons from the Dark Age of Technology unleashed upon men of flesh and Men of Iron alike, the world was cordoned off and abandoned. Whatever its ancient name was has been long lost to the winds of history, but the scarred world would from henceforth be known as Koya to the people of Ryusei.

Under the protection of House Yato and their various vassal Houses, as well as Household Militia that formed the infantry regiments that fought at the feet of the Titanic bipedal Walkers, Ryusei and its client planets endured. The Household Militia had tanks and walkers of their own, from volkite culverin armed Sentinel walkers to Carnodon medium tanks bristling with volkite weaponry. Its peoples maintained a vigil throughout the Long Night, driving back nightmarish invaders and opportunistic xenos raiders alike. And so their heraldry sport a single full moon - the survivors of Old Night, resilient and enduring in the darkness, their faith in the bright, yellow sun of their system that outshines any horrors that spawn from the warp. Their Knight armors shrouded in black, all the better to blend in during those nightmarish times, the bushi of House Yato stalk out of the shadows to drive their blades deep into the hearts of their foes.

Their Knight suits tended to by prodigious craftsmen and armorers, who also meticulously maintained the Standard Template Constructs that the old Colonists had brought with them from Old Earth, House Yato was able to sustain a colossal stockpile of Knight armors. However, with most of the worlds in their interstellar empire dedicated to agriculture, House Yato lacked the minerals, ores and materials required to replicate their war machines on a large scale. Nonetheless, the stagnating House remained a formidable force, and coupled with STCs that could manufacture volkite weaponry and military vehicles sufficient to equip their Household Militia, they were able to survive the Age of Strife unscathed.

When the warp storms broke and the Emperor launched his Great Crusade, the first contact with the greater Human Imperium that was reestablished with House Yato was through Lord Marshal Mathias Perry, the commander of the 402nd Expeditionary fleet that was largely composed of Solar Auxilia Cohorts. Accompanying the 402nd Expeditionary fleet were the First, Fourth and Sixth companies of the Thousand Sons Legion and their subordinate Prosperine Spireguard contingent, which numbered at least twenty regiments.

Confronted by such a mighty host and firsthand witnessing the psychic power that the XV Legion could bring to bear, the Shogun, Yato Yoshinobu would pledge the loyalty of House Yato to the Imperium. Ever the shrewd diplomat, he was able to preserve his Knight House's autonomy in exchange for providing military support in the Great Crusade. The bushi of House Yato were only too eager to consent, with many perceiving this as an opportunity to explore the wider galaxy and earn unparalleled glory and honor. Among the more ambitious scions even sought the wealth and power that military successes would bring, and countless lances would set out as part of the Ordo Questoris, attaching themselves to various Expeditionary fleets or even Explorator contingents.

Meanwhile, despite the efforts of Iterators to spread the Imperial Truth, the conservative and superstitious population of Ryusei saw in the Emperor the descendant of the Sun Kami they worshipped, and so they revered Him as divine, much to the chagrin of those who would bring Compliance and ensure secularism.

However, the single largest boon was the deal that Yato Yoshinobu struck with the Mechanicum. Badly require ore, minerals and materials to raise his Knight House to unprecedented heights, he welcomed Explorator vessels and Mechanicum survey vessels to the Draconis system. Too powerful and independent a Knight House for the Mechanicum to bound to vassalage, the Shogun ensured that House Yato would remain allies and partners with the mysterious priesthood of Mars. The craftsmen and armorers who have served the Knight House for so long were inducted into the Mechanicum and trained in their mysteries, becoming Sacristans, but despite their indoctrination into the Cult Mechanicus, they remained politically subservient to the bellicose, proud and independent bushi of House Yato.

Of the myriad orders and dizzying array of allegiances in the feudal Mechanicum, it was Ryza and its principal sect, the Omnissiah Igvita, that exploited the opportunity of alliance. Enthusiastic in founding a new Forge World, especially one where near-renegade Tech-priests bordering on heretek research can carry out their experiments far from the prying eyes of Mars, hosts of Magos and their accompanying Taghmata traveled to the Draconis system with ideas of innovation for plasma and volkite technology. Even more tempting to the cybernetically augmented Tech-priests were the sacred STCs in Ryusei, still functional and pristine, and capable of manufacturing both Knight armors and volkite weaponry, the latter of which was growing scarce in the latter days of the Great Crusade. Yet, here was a world that maintained an armory that dated back to Old Night and wielded to fight off its horrors with impressive efficacy.

Martian and Ryzan Tech-priests alike settled upon Koya, ignorant or uncaring of the catastrophic warfare that had transpired there. Rumors were abound that the Mechanicum had deliberately selected that planet for colonization, seeking ancient archeotech buried within once irradiated sands, as well as looking to salvage the burned out husks that previously belonged to the Men of Iron. Indeed, the majority of Magos and Archmagos who flocked to the Draconis system were of Cybernetica leanings, bringing with them sizable cohorts of Battle-automata.

Coldly rational and not at all reverent of the dreadful history of the once-obliterated world, the Mechanicum impassionately renamed Koya as Draconis IV - being the fourth major celestial body from its parent star - and set about terraforming the entire planet as well as fabricating forge-fanes, forge-cities and plasma generators. The nascent Forge World, apart from its armies of automata and battle robots, were still in dire need of protection, which House Yato was only too willing to provide. So it was that Ryusei and the newly founded Forge World of Draconis IV were bound in a mutually beneficial alliance, one lending military assistance and seasoned warriors whenever necessary, and the other manufacturing new Knight armors on a much larger and swifter scale with which to furnish their allies and augment their already formidable strength.

Though several families nominally under House Yato have elected to be permanently stationed upon Draconis IV, splitting off to form House Kanda - now technically a separate Household whose oaths and allegiances are to the Mechanicum and to their home Forge World as opposed to the Emperor and Ryusei - dark rumors surround them. Some whisper that the Tech-priests have seized the superior Noble bloodlines from scions of House Yato and cloned them in vats, genetically engineering and cybernetically augmenting them into superlative pilots that are often entombed in more exotic Knight suits. If such accusations are discovered to be true, the wrath that House Yato will mete upon these renegade Magi would be calamitous indeed.

The mountainous world of Yamahodo was transformed into a staging facility for void vessel assets, and an academy for training naval officers was established above its hanging peaks. Artificial islands were fabricated and immense seafaring ships constructed to sail across the oceans of Namikai, the Magi thirstily drinking in whatever resources they could find, including reservoirs of promethium beneath seabeds. Within decades, the Draconis system and its outlying systems were utterly and irrevocably altered by the Imperium - a process that would be repeated over 10,000 years in the future when they are incorporated into the Anaxian Line as a bulwark against Magnus's Thousand Sons, particularly after the emergence of Sortiarius into real space over Prospero.

House Yato has a long, gloried history of fighting on the frontlines of the Great Crusade, repelling horrifying xenos in the Rangdan Xenocides, holding the line against Ork hordes at Ullanor, and many more. However, their first involvement in the Horus Heresy stretches back to even before the atrocities at Isstvan III and V. As staunch allies of the Thousand Sons Legion, several lances of Knights were present in Prospero when the VI Legion and the Talons of the Emperor descended. Bewildered by the apparent treachery, the Knights of House Yato were beset upon by the insidious scions of House Malinax, and ever since then, the bushi of Ryusei have sworn to destroy their archnemesis wherever they meet.

Eventually, after the mysterious disappearance of the Thousand Sons on Prospero, the remnants of House Yato fought their way back to orbit and blasted a path through the Space Wolves' blockade, though at great cost. Several vessels of the Vlka Fenryka pursued the battered ships, only to abruptly vanish before the adhoc fleet limped back to the safety of the Draconis System. Later analysis of auspexes and long-range sensoria indicate that ships bearing the livery of the XX Legion had been lying in wait in the outer reaches of the Propserine system. When news of the treachery in the Alaxxes Nebula spread to the wider Imperium, battlefield analysts and Lexmechanics assume that the VI Legion vessels had been ambushed by the Alpha Legion.

At the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, and the revelation of the Warmaster's treachery, Shogun Yato Yoshinobu and the Knights of House Yato remained true to their oaths to the Emperor and the Imperium, dispatching countless Lances to stall the Traitors' advance toward Terra. Their conviction was reinforced when they finally establish contact with pockets of Thousand Sons, particularly the contingent at Zhao-Arkkad, who still pledge their loyalty to the Emperor. Their decision was further vindicated when the sinister Knights of House Malinax revealed their treachery, resulting in clashes between the two Houses over numerous battlefields, including the Belt of Iron. They reinforced Tallarn against the Iron Warriors, participating in a massive armor clash on the lethal surface of the now dead world. They answered the call to defend Ryza, committing their adamantine phalanxes to aiding the venerable House Taranis and the former home of their Mechanicum allies. Several lances were present in Holy Terra during the siege as well, though a significant portion of their forces assisted the Imperial Fists in defending the Inwit Cluster and holding the Praetorian Rogal Dorn's homeworld from the Iron Warriors until much-needed reinforcements in the form of Salamanders, Imperial Army and Mechanicum arrived to lift the Traitors' siege.

The vengeful bushi of House Yato would later participate in the Scouring, meting their unbridled fury upon the retreating Traitors, particularly the fallen scions of House Malinax and other traitor Knight Houses, as well as Traitor Titan Legions such as the dreaded Legio Mortis.

MATERIAL STRENGTH

With access to still fully functioning STCs on Ryusei, House Yato was able to maintain an enormous stockpile of Knight suits, though many of them were worn down throughout centuries of war, whether it was against other Knight Houses and clans refusing to bend their knee to the Shogun or xeno raiders and warp spawn. When the Forge World of Draconis IV was founded upon the ashes of Koya, the Tech-priests brought with them macro-haulers and mining vessels that ply the void, extracting ore from rich asteroid belts, as well as cracking the crust of their new home open for a wealth of minerals. In exchange for studying the STCs, the Magi of the Mechanicum invested the immense supplies of resources they had harvested into fabricating legions of Knight suits for House Yato.

Consequently, despite the terrible casualties inflicted upon them as they eagerly threw themselves into countless battlefields, and the inevitable erosion of their strength through atrocious attrition rates, House Yato could still sustain vast numbers of Knight suits. It is said that if the zealous bushi are able to temper their impetuousness and not discard their lives recklessly in combat, House Yato could field Knight armors in numbers surpassing those of House Taranis or even House Raven.

The assistance of Draconis IV proved invaluable to augmenting the strength of House Yato, allowing them to construct a core of Cerastus Knight patterns that made up almost half of their strength. The majority of Cerastus Knights were the Lancer variant, though there was also substantial numbers of Castigators. The remaining strength of the Household was composed of mostly Questoris patterns and even several Acastus patterns, which thanks to the Omnissiah Igvita's innovative methods, far exceeded those possessed by others of the Questoris Familia. Though House Yato obtained several of the rarer Knight patterns usually reserved for Mechanicum-oathed Houses, such as the Styrix, Magaera, Atrapos and even a single Asterius, it is later revealed that the Draconian priesthood had kept the bulk of these esoteric variants for their locally founded House Kanda.

Even without these exotic classes of Knights, House Yato was still capable of fielding an immense number of Knights, recording a peak of 586 functional Knight armors of diverse patterns and armaments (not including Armiger classes) at the end of the Great Crusade. Several of these would be lost during the Razing of Prospero, and even more would fall in countless other battlefields when House Yato was dragged into the apocalyptic fires of the Horus Heresy, but even at the end of Siege and the beginning of the Scouring, House Yato remained a considerable force to be reckoned with, their systems having escaped the darkest of treacheries relatively unscathed, and possessing several hundred Knight armors. However, the horrendous death toll meant there was a dearth of experienced warriors and veteran scions, and many of the freshly fabricated Knight suits were piloted by youths barely into the first years of their adulthood.