House Skota

House Skota is an ancient an powerful house that is numbered amongst the 'Famous Families' of Holy Terra and one of a handful of dynasties whose service to the Emperor of Mankind dates back to the end of the Age of Strife. The Skotii can trace their clan's origins back to the dim depths of the Age of Terra and prides itself on being older than the Imperium. As a House Palatine the Skotii have absolute control over their fief worlds New Venus and the other worlds of the Centauri system in Sector Solar. One branch of the family are hereditary governors of the Skotus Sector in the Segmentum Tempestus. The House is well represented in the various Adeptus Terra and many Skotii have sat on  the Senatorum Imperialis.

Wars of Unification
While House Skota claims great antiquity the founder of the modern House Palatine was a Terran Warlord know as Alastor le Scot, ruler of Alba Nordis, who allied with the Emperor to defeat his southern neighbor the infamous Uilleam the Red who claimed rule over all Albyon. Alastor's son, Jock leSkotus, at the head of an army of Albyon Highlanders conquered the Centauri Republic, a Human splinter government who made the mistake of resisting the nascent Imperium, and was granted the entire system as a fief palatine.

Great Crusade
Sons and daughters of House Skota continued to lead their highlanders during the Great Crusade, serving in Fleets commanded by Primarch Rogal Dorn, Lion El'Jonson, Ferrus Manus and Leman Russ, but the most famous of them was Lady Commander of her own fleet. Skotia Skota-Macaran led the 202nd Expeditionary Fleet into the aptly named Segmentum Tempestus. Her conquests on the fringes of the Ophidium Gulf became the Skotus Sector of which she was the first governor.

Alba Nordis
This most ancient of the Skotii's fiefs palatine is on Holy Terra herself. It encompasses what was once the Highlands and Isles of Scotland, the Faroe Isles and Ireland as well as the former sea floor lying between. Earth's natural resources were exhausted aeons ago of course but Alba Nordis is a major pilgrimage site thanks to the soaring cathedron to 'Him Unconquered' where the armor worn by the Emperor during the conquest of Albyon is enshrined along with lesser altars dedicated to the memories of the Thunder Warriors who fell in that war and to Alastor le Scot. In addition Alba Nordis is a prime site for archaeotech and with its multiple hanging parks and grotto lakes one of the pleasanter places to live on Holy Terra.

The House Seat on Terra is Turres Alba built on and into a peak of the Faroe Heights (formerly Islands).

Centauri System
This entire system is controlled by House Skota as a fief palatine. It is located in the Sector Solar less than a parsec from Holy Terra and comprises three stars, thirteen planets and a void station. Alpha Centauri, the principle star, is orbited by eight planets including two habitable worlds: the industrial world of Cherub and the paradise world of New Venus. Alpha Centauri 3, 4 and 5 are all inhospitable worlds with thin or non-existent atmospheres but rich mineral deposits. The spent workings that honeycomb the three are given over to hydroponic farming making these three worlds an unusual combination of mining and agri-planet. Alpha's outermost planet is the gas giant Vulcan and it's habitable moon, the mining world of Charis. The second star, Beta Centauri, orbits Alpha beyond a wide asteroid belt. It has three satellite planets of which one is habitable, the agri-world of Harmonia. The other two are airless and unpopulated rocks.

Distant Proxima Centauri, the outermost star of the system on the very edge of the halo zone, is orbited only by an ancient void station also called Proxima, an elegant snowflake-like structure designed and built during the Dark Age of Technology.

Skotus Sector
Located in the Segmentum Tempestus on the edge of the Ophidium Gulf Skotus Sector was conquered for the Emperor by The Lady Commander Skotia Skota-Macaran founder of the Sectorial Dynasty that governs it to this day from their throne world Skotia. The Skotus Sector sept of House Skota has maintained its ties with it's parent stem by means of periodic dynastic marriages to renew the kinship the most recent of these being between the current Lord Sector Alastor XVIII Jaymie Skotus and the Lady Kymbeline Skota of the Sol Sector Skotii.

Eachan XV Mor Skotus
Palatine Patricus and Lord Governor of Alba Nordis, the most ancient and prestigious if also the smallest of the House's primary holdings. Eachan is a relatively young man - not yet fifty - with an eye on a seat among the High Lords of Terra an ambition he may well achieve, though it may take as much as a century for the necessary opening to occur. His consort is well placed to promote his interests; the Lady Soraide Sichar is the daughter and a potential heiress of the present Lord Palatine of Hy-Brasil and mistress of immense wealth deriving from Panalto industries and estates on the terraformed agri-worlds of the Jovian satellites and Venus.

Alastor XVIII Jaymie Skotus
Palatine Patricus and Lord Governor of Skotus Sector. As titular head of the Skotus Sector branch of the family as a youth he entered into a dynastic - and temporary - marriage with Kymbeline Skota, the senior Palatine Domina of the Sol Sector Branch to renew the blood ties between the two. The elder of their twins, Davod XXI Malleus is leading contender for the sectorial succession. Alastor also has two daughters by his second wife the Lady Sybil-Vhari.

Sybil-Vhari
The Gubernatorial Consort of Skotus Sector is a native of the capital world Skotia and a descendant of the pre-Imperial planetary nobility. The lady is ambitious for her two daughters and is working determinedly and secretly to promote their rights. Unfortunately her tactics include trading in warpcraft. So far her heretical dabblings have remained undetected but for how much longer?

Lady Iphigenie Skota
Palatine Patrica and Creche Mistress of the Skotii. She is in charge of the rearing and education of both of the young domini and the hereditary vassals of the House.

By:
"50,000 Generations of your ancestors look down upon you."

- Lady Iphigenia to her younger kin, frequently.

About:
"The Skota line has certainly stagnated since my blade last tasted the blood of the Highlanders."

- Brother Krandred, Draugar Lord of the Tenth Storm, Old Wolf of the Storm Draugar|Storm Draugar Warband