House Taranis

The oldest Knight House, raised on Mars even before the Imperium; the STC patterns of Dark Age exo-armour trace back to the Knights of Taranis, and the house itself was the guard of the foremost of the forges. By the Heresy it fielded almost 600 machines, including the rare Porphyrion, Atrapos, Magaera and Styrix patterns, from a stronghold on Arsia Mons near Magma City. Its two Lord Commanders were Taymon Verticorda (pilot of Ares Lictor) and Caturix (Gladius Fulmen), and Raf Maven’s Equitos Bellum carried battle honours from campaigns beside Vulkan’s Salamanders. At the Schism of Mars the house fought for Fabricator Locum Kane but was almost wiped out by the Dark Mechanicum — only Raf Maven and Leopold Cronus survived, sitting out the rest of the war. After the Heresy Maven rebuilt the house and, in memory of the fallen, added a sword cleaving the heraldry, while the Knights repainted themselves from their pre-war blue to red as a sign of their debt to Mars.

At the Schism of Mars it was torn by feuding, but as a house it stood for the Emperor; many fell at Magma City with Legio Tempestus. Raf Maven survived the Schism and rebuilt the house as its new Lord Commander.