The monstrous, psychic Knight Abominant was revealed at AdeptiCon, along with the new Codex: Chaos Knights. Now, we’re taking a first look inside its cursed pages to learn about some of the vilest dread households to ever claim a Chaos Knight – and their most infamous battles.
House Lucaris
House Lucaris threw in their lot with the arch-traitor during the Horus Heresy – and they didn’t take the Warmaster’s death well, vowing vengeance upon the Imperium. They’ve been as good as their word for 10,000 years, butchering their way across the galaxy from their warp-storm shrouded homeworld, Morda Prime.
Infamous Battle: The Fall of Graggen Keep – In the wake of the Horus Heresy, the Knights of House Lucaris came to blows with a member of their household who remained loyal to the Imperium. Unflinching Steel was wrecked and dragged back to Morda Prime – where it’s said the Noble Pilot is still undergoing punishment, ten millennia later.
House Herpetrax
It’s a bit tricky to call House Herpetrax “traitors”, since they never actually swore allegiance to the Imperium. Their home world of Jedathra was only discovered long after the Great Crusade – and having spent most of Old Night rejecting so-called “Emperors of Mankind”, when the representatives of a dead one showed up, the Herpetrax decided they’d much rather stick with their profane rituals than worship a corpse on a golden throne.
Infamous Battle: The Kreen Scar – Billions died when House Herpetrax invaded the Kreen Worlds and enslaved their populations, using them to dig up the foundations of their own hive cities in search of ancient technology. Once they claimed their prize, Herpetax exterminated the surviving slaves via massed orbital bombardment.
House Khymere
House Khymere fell foul of the strange way time moves within the warp. This once-loyal House emerged from the Cicatrix Maledictum to attack the Imperium, and were promptly declared Iconoclasts. When an Imperial strike force arrived to destroy their homeworld of Surtur’s Wake, the confused Nobles claimed to be loyal to the God-Emperor. To save their planet, House Khymere fled into the Great Rift – from which they would emerge, warped and embittered, years in their own past.
Infamous Battle: The Conflagration of Rho Zapphire – Knights from House Khymere tipped the balance in a battle between the White Scars and Slaaneshi daemons, leading to the destruction of an Imperial Navy fleet. Once they ignited the fuel derricks supplying the Imperial forces, the fire spread to the atmosphere of an entire planet…
House Korvax
When your entire planet is stolen and moved across the galaxy by Be’lakor, you have no choice but to pledge yourself to the Dark Master. That’s just the rules. Hence the former home of the loyal House Raven became the base of operations for the thrice-cursed House Korvax.
Infamous Battle: The Battle for Kolossi – When Be’lakor’s dark influence over House Raven’s Sacristans was revealed, members of the Adepa Sororitas rushed to aid the besieged loyalists. However, they were no match for the corrupted Knights and their daemonic allies – and the world of Kolossi was spirited away.
House Vextrix
Even Knight households want to impress their bigger brothers, and so when the Death’s Head Titan Legion fell to Chaos and declared for Horus, House Vextrix gladly followed them to the side of the traitors. Since then, they have welcomed the heretek influence of the Dark Mechanicum, and seek to destroy any who still blindly worship the Omnissiah.
Infamous Battle: The Massacre at Beta-Garmon – In one of the final battles before the Siege of Terra, untold numbers of Titans clashed throughout the Beta-Garmon star cluster.* House Vextrix marched to battle alongside the Titans of Legio Mortis, helping to ensure victory for the forces of Horus.
House Khomentis
On the Knight world of Matarakh, the Nobles of House Khomentis perfected their tactics by hunting and taming predatory beasts. Embittered by the Imperium’s destructive exploitation of their home planet, these Fallen Nobles turned to Chaos. Bonded with daemonic symbiotes, their War Dogs flush out prey for the larger Knights to obliterate.
Infamous Battle: The Hunt on Y’tach’gerra – After a band of Kroot saboteurs take down a lone War Dog and devour the Fallen Noble within, his daemonic partners mark the alien mercenaries for vengeance. A lance of Knights from House Khomentis soon arrived, and the hunters became the hunted…
Those are the six most famous Dread Households of Chaos Knights – which one will you pledge yourself to?
The new Chaos Knights Army Set is coming soon. This colossal box features the new Knight Abominant, two War Dogs, a unique special edition the new Codex: Chaos Knights, and a set of datacards – making it perfect for anyone looking to stand at the vanguard of this titanic traitorous force.
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* You can read about these (literally) titanic battles in the Horus Heresy novel Titandeath.