House Crosius
Warrant-holders of the Sundered Reach since before the Horus Heresy.
The dynasty
An ancient line, in reduced circumstances. Eight hundred systems under charter, ten worlds that matter, and a fleet that Skarn can no longer properly service.
Historic ties to the Administratum, the Astra Militarum, the Navigator House of Sabaeus, and the Knight house of Corvane — all of which were assets before the storm and are now obligations.
Lord-Captain Domenico Crosius
Warrant-Holder. Master of The Consolation of Just Slaughter.
Surviving heir from a cadet branch, elevated three years ago by war and attrition. Previously a line officer of the Imperial Navy, which shows in everything he does — he fights the ground war like a fleet action, in batteries and boarding parties and disciplined fields of fire.
A believer in the Imperium and, awkwardly, in people. He consistently takes the option that minimises suffering, and has a documented history of doing so where it was neither ordered nor wise:
- Refused an Exterminatus order on a cult-infested world and attempted quarantine instead.
- Has negotiated with xenos where it was cheaper than fighting them. There are receipts.
- Suppresses the psyker tithe on his own worlds.
- Retook the Chamber of Voices from a Concordant faction in eleven hours with minimal casualties, having refused the orthodox response of burning the district. This impressed nobody who mattered and terrified everybody who realised what it meant.
He privately agrees with the Retrenchment bloc and cannot possibly say so, because agreeing means writing off populated worlds. So instead he flies out personally with a force sized for nothing and tries to hold everything.
Inquisitor Hadrian Thule
Ordo Scriptorum. A records officer with a rosette and a suit of Great Crusade-era Terminator plate.
Came to the Reach four years ago to verify an archival discrepancy. The storm closed behind him. His ordo does not know he is alive. He has no ship, no funds, no reinforcement, and no line of authority he can call on — only the rosette, which still works because nobody in a cut-off sector is willing to be the man who tests it.
He found something in the Crosius archive. He has not said what. He has been very clear about what will happen if he is not assisted.
The force
Everything Domenico could beg, trade, cajole or press into service.
Household — void-armoured troops in Great Crusade pattern wargear, maintained by Skarn from templates nobody has updated in ten thousand years. Full house livery: lagoon, crimson and gold, polished metals. These are his.
Retinue — voidsmen, specialists, the ship’s company. Lagoon and gold, tarnished brass. These are the dynasty’s.
Levies — Guard regiments seconded, requisitioned or acquired by favour; the 23rd Halvern Highlanders, a Krieg detachment nobody can explain the presence of, Praetorian foot, beastmen auxiliaries under a Commissar, and a very large number of Vantry pilgrims who were not invited. Regimental colours, with a single lagoon marker on each man. These are Crosius’s too — every one of them serves because of his name, his warrant, or a debt owed to his house.
The chain of command
Thule commands nothing. His retinue is a dozen people and a shuttle.
What he commands is Domenico, and Domenico commands everything else. Every order the Inquisitor gives has to pass through a man who can slow-walk it, reinterpret it, or misunderstand it in good faith — and who is far better liked by every regiment in the Reach than Thule will ever be.
Thule knows this. It doesn’t trouble him. He does not need to be liked; he needs to be obeyed, and he has the archive.
To a point. Neither of them knows exactly where that point is, and both are careful not to find out. What is reasonably clear so far is that Domenico will not order a massacre, will not surrender Vantry’s pilgrims to censure, and will not give up the Navigators. Everything short of that has so far been negotiable.
Faction page template
Copy this structure for your own faction. Nothing is mandatory — but the first three questions are what make the campaign work.
- Who leads it, and what do they personally want? A name and a motive beats a paragraph of background.
- Why are you in the Reach specifically? Were you here when the storm closed, or did you come after? Both are interesting; they’re interesting differently.
- What do you want the relics for? Or: why do you want nobody else to have them?
- Who do you hate most? Not “the Imperium” — a person, a place, a specific grudge.
- What are you short of? Everyone in the Reach is short of something. Nothing is being resupplied.
- One thing you’d like to be true about the setting that isn’t written yet. Claim it and it’s canon.