House Immoren

House Immoren
House Immoren is a loyal Imperial Knight house hailing from the Knight World of Vulkorad

Founding and the Great Crusade
The Knight House known as House Immoren was founded during the Age of Technology on planet Vulkorad. From the fragments of knowledge that survived to the turmoil of those years, Imperial scholars inferred that Vulkorad's pre-imperial society was very keen in the preservation and recover of ancient knowledge. The ancient colonists built all over the planet massive vaults, filling them with every scrap of lore they could salvage. When the Age of Strife stroke down humanity's first interstellar empire, the knights of House Immoren stood firm, true to their duty in preserving the vaults of Vulkorad.

When the 12th expeditionary fleet of the Great Crusade reached Vulkorad, it found a feudal world steely ruled by its aristocrascy and more than happy to join the fledgling Imperium. The memory of Terra was, in fact, kept alive by the wealth of lore preserved on the planet. The nobles granted both the Mechanicum and the Remembrancers access to their libraries and, most importantly, pledged their warmachines to the Great Crusade, proving instrumental to many compliance actions.

The Horus Heresy and the Age of Imperium
During the devastating civil war known as the Horus Heresy, House Immoren stood by the loyalis faction, providing reinforcements and logistical support at the price of heavy losses in terms of Knight suits.

During the Great Scouring the damage inflicted to the house was repaid in kind, when the knights of Vulkorad joined their old allies, the Ultramarines, in throwing back the traitorous forces from imperial territory.

In the next ten millennia, the knights of Vulkorad continued to wage war against the enemies of humanity. But arguably the most important contribution to the imperial cause was the access to the vaults of lore guarded by House Immoren. Umbertus' Keep welcomed inquisitorial retinues and mechanicus expeditions, scholars and rogue traders. All of them in search of secrets and bits of forgotten lore.

The Noctis Aeterna and the 42nd millennium
Vulkorad, like any other planet in the galaxy, was not spared the horrors of the Noctis Aeterna. The great fortress-libraries on the planet were an irresistible lure for the hordes of the chaos god Tzeentch.

Armies of demons besieged the fortress-vaults of Vulkorad and eve the mighty war machines of the House Immoren found themselves in trouble dealing with such an enemy. Seeing his forces spread thin throughout the planet, High King Guillaume ordered his nobles to retreat to their fortresses. This choice doomed thousands of imperial citizens who did not manage to get to the safety of the fortess-vaults, but allowed House Immoren to protect the wealth of knowledge they swore to defend.

For many weeks the steel and fire of the Imperial Knights fought the fire and magic of the Tzeentchian horde to a bloody stalemate. It was only the intervention of the 61st army of the Indomitus Crusade, led by legatus Wolfram Blodhmon, that broke the siege, turning the tides of battle in favour of the imperials.

In recognition for the help given, Guillaume swore to help Wolfram Blodhmon in times of war. An oath that House Immoren has kept when the Wild Hunt astartes chapter joined the attack on the Ultor system to cleanse it from the taint of chaos.

Vulkorad
The Knight world of Vulkorad is affectionately called "the Damp" by his inhabitants. The landscape is dotted by hills rising above marshes criss crossed by rivers ending in roaring seas. Humidity is so high that the land is almost constantly covered in mist, except when it rains.

Like many Knight worlds, Vulkorad is rich in resources. Metals and rare minerals are quarried from the bottom of the sea, while promethium is refined from the decaying marshes matter.

But the planet's true treasures are not ores or promethium. Up on the highest hills rise the keeps of the Immoren knightly house. Each one of them containing a great library. Accounts of past wars, astronomy, philosophy, poetry and many other parts of human knowledge are stocked in the cavernous halls of Immoren's fortresses.

The greatest of these fortress-vaults is Umbertus' Keep, seat of the High King.

House Traditions
House Immoren has sworn, since its founding, to defend and expand the great vaults of lore on its homeworld.

To uphold their oath, the knights of House Immoren bring to the vaults of Vulkorad every single scrap of knowledge they can. Relics and accounts, trophies and diary logs, every single piece of information is diligently catalogued and preservede in the vaults of Vulkorad.

The love for ancient knowledge reflects in their rituals. Every noble of House Immoren is both a skilled warrior and an accomplished scholar. When not waging war for the Imperium, the nobles tend to spend many hours locked away in the fortified vaults of their keeps, pondering over dusty volumes of lore. Debates and arguments over seemingly trivial topics of knowledge are quite common too, and it is not unheard of such discussions escalating in ritual duels.

In times of peace, while the lords of House Immoren dedicate themselves to scholarly matters, the minor nobles are tasked with patrolling Vulkorad on their Armiger knights

Notable House Immoren Nobles and Knights

 * High King Guillaume (Lux Scientiae, Knight Castellan): Guillaume Immoren earned the title of High King by acclamation for retrieving a priceless first edition copy of the “Legenda Aurea Filiorum Imperatoris”(a collection of legendary deeds of the loyal primarchs written in M33) during the St. Mikelus Campaign in 979.M41. Since then, he has fully embraced his duties as High King of Vulkorad, putting the defence of Umbertus' Keep above everything else. This became evident during the Noctis Aeterna, when he sacrificed many of his subjects to better protect the fortress-vaults.


 * Baron Severian (Rex Bellator, Knight Gallant): Severian is House Immoren's Master of Justice. Outside the cockpit of his knight, Severian is a man of keen intellect and great irony. These qualities help him to control the bellicose echoes of his knight's  throne mechanicum that goad the darkest part of his mind.


 * Lord Hubertinus (Machina Belli, Knight Paladin): Hubertinus is one of the oldest nobles of the House. He passes his days in an almost monastic way overseeing the vast fortress-vault of Baron Severian, who once was his pupil. Still, when the baron requests the experience and watchful eye of his former mentor in war, Hubertinus is more than ready to board his Knight Paladin to provide covering fire to his lance companions.


 * Lord Adson (Igniferum, Knight Errant): Adson has been recently added to Severian's Baronial court. The eagerness to prove his worth often drives the young noble to close in for the kill before the rest of lance. Severian has taken Adson under his wing to teach him the ways of war and to avoid that the newest knight of his lance meet the same fate of his predecessor.


 * Lord Jorgos (Pantokrator, Knight Valiant): Jorgos towering figure and vast knowledge impose respect on every Lord of Vulkorad. In the halls of the fortress-vaults it's whispered that he alone knows by memory every book he has ever read in his long life. It was however a surprise that such a scholarly man bonded with a brutal machine like the Pantokrator. In battle Jorgos is a storm of fiery destruction, bringing utter ruin with flame and steel.