House Orhlacc is a Loyalist Imperial Knight House of the Adept
us Mechanicus that illustrated itself during the latter part of the Great Crusade and troughout the Horus Heresy. Although not amongst the most powerful Knight Houses, being only a Secundus GradeImperial Knight House, House Orhlacc neverless involved itself heavily throughout the Horus Heresy, particularly in the region of the Coronid Reach where their valliant effort contributed to the reconquest of the the Agri-world of Numinal which had fallen under traitorous dominion early on in the civil war. Although of sinister repute both within the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus and those of the wider Imperium - albeit for very different reasons - House Orhlacc has always been famed for the technological skills both of its Sacristans and its Knights which vastly contributed to their strenght and ultimate survival through their millenia-long isolation. Reunified with the Imperium in late M.30 through the efforts of Lord Commander Suleiman Grimm of the Dark Angels Space Marine Legion, House Orhlacc became a respected ally, their courage and heroisme being rewarded by the attribution of a Memento Mori by the hands of the Emperor himself for their bold sacrifice during the Rangdha Outbreak. Due to its untennable strategic position, House Orhlacc is one of the few known houses to have willingly abandonned their original Homeworld of Dark Haven during the events of the Horus Heresy as to better relocate itself on the grim world of Wychval and fight on. Throughout the Heresy the house would remain on Wychval, whose dominion they had been granted by the leader of the loyalist war effort, the famed Ireton MaSade of Agathon.
House History
Perhaps surprisingly so the history of House Orhlacc - or 'The Dread and Wise House of Orhlacc' to give it its full title - is one well accounted for. At the very least it is well-documented, most record and archives having been preserved having beien preserved by the House's Sacristans and remaining Lexmmechanics. The Chronicles of Founding of House Orhlacc relates the tale of how explorators originating from Lucius Forge World set out for the Cyclops Cluster in their tireless quest for ressources and mineral wealth. Having discovered both in the nearby system as well as a live-sustaining world close-by, decisions were made to protect those valuable ressources by establishing the newly discovered world as a Knight World. Isolated, covered in shadows an teeming both with vegetation and mega-fauna the world was aptly named Dark Haven and soon became home to dozens of Knight Households.
So it was that in the lattter era of mankind's golden age, Dark Haven was colonized by the Mechanicum. Space was cleared in the dense vegetation, settlements were founded and mighty keeps erected to house the new knightly houses. However as the first colonist discovered soon enough Dark Haven never was the paradise they were promised, but a death world. Every lifeform of the planet from the tinniest plant to the mightiest animalwas fatally toxic to the humans that were now trying to colonize this world. The thick forest canoply had hidden an entire hostile eco-system dominated by local predators whose venom was so corrosive that it could eat through plasteel and even sear ceramite. Unable to feed of local growths the colonist had to progressively rely on the vast stockpiles they had brought with them. The colonist petitioned their Forge World for aid, which was swiftly granted : off-world agriculture was introduced onto Dark Haven which in conjection with supplies shipements from Lucius helped keeping food shortages at bay. Additionally a team of what can only be described as Magos Biologis was despatched to Dark Haven with the certain hope to eventually find a solution to the planet's toxicity. In these first decades, progress was slow but steady.
Age of Strife
Matters however worsened dramatically with the beginning of the Age of Strife for which the colonist were obviously ill-prepared. Despite their best efforts the Magos Biologis had failed to deliver a solution to the initial problem and the planet very much depended on external shipments to survive, a supply chain the warp storms had now abruptly cut short. Relying solely on their ever-dwindling stockpiles the colonists soon suffered privations and famine. To make matters worse, as if sensing the colonist weakness, the planetary ecology surpsisingly and abruptly turned against the humans, entire settlements vanishing under the hyeractive canopy, their inhabitants killed by predators, intoxicated by hence unknown micro-organisms or starving to death due to mysteriously polluted supplies. Tirelessly the Knights rode out, doing battle against the very planet itself, defending their keeps at all cost. Most were by now protected by mighty everburning pits or trenches, their elemantal fire seemingly the only sound defense against everhungry vegetation, silent spores and toxic predators alike. In the hope of survival the Knights of Dark Haven continously had to ride out to hunt down mega-predators our mow down the teeming vegetation. As the stockpiles dwindled the inevitable happened: to satisfy their hunger and save their people House turned against House and Knight fought Knight as increasingly desperate people resolved themselves to turn to abominable and horrifying acts to guarantee their survival.