The Conflict
Prelude
In M41.995, Crown Prince Bonet Kankar had discovered something deep within the underhive of Lily; a strange cult worshiping 4 Dark Masters. Shortly after that evening, the prince would experience strange dreams, telling him that if he took a pilgrimage to the shrine world of Gospher with his gellar fields down, he would be able to finally ascend to the throne as well as break free from the Imperium. Bonet did as the voice told. His ship was knocked horrifically off course, landing in the middle of a Dark Mechanicus fleet. Over the vox, he and the Magos talked about what they could offer one another. A deal would eventually be made, Bonet would pledge his house to the Magos, and the Magos would secure his throne.
Upon returning to Estival, Bonet would start putting his plan in motion. Listening to the voices in his dreams, he would introduce the disgraced Lady Margeret of House Chirus to Nurgle, as well as locate his good friend and Lord of House Teros, Lord Gi. Together the 3 would begin spreading the word of the Dark Gods throughout the underbelly of the noble houses. Soon, knights of every house except House Poltar had pledged themselves to Bonet’s banner, including the majority of House Virg, as well as many members of the hive cities on all levels.
The plan was to launch a surprise attack on the yearly festival of unification, held in the crucial city of Grenab. Convincing Lord Satsuna Ophidian to hold a parade in honor of him and the 200 knights he handpicked to accompany him on a crusade, they instead opened fire upon the noble house and seized their knights and armaments.
Shortly after, the Dark Mechanicus fleet arrived overhead and began deploying massive amounts of troops to the Planet. Bonet’s forces began a blitz, targeting all the hive cities as they marched to the planet's capital of Orlainns. Despite some minor setbacks, nothing seemed to be able to stop their march, which Lady Tanis found out the hard way as she led House Hydamm into a suicidal charge designed to at the very least stall the traitors. They finally broke when House Ares lead a countercharge in the Battle of Axen.
Loyalist forces were slowly being pushed back, meanwhile the Adeptus Mechanicus arrived in orbit. After a failed attempt to break the traitor's blockade the loyalist fleet eventually got several blockade runners through, granting the deprived loyalists repairs, infantry, and munitions. Yet the war raged on using information from his own servants, Lady Poa would score a mutual kill with Lord Atoc of Virg during the Ambush of Kana Pass. To make matters worse, much of Hive Whimper had been sacrificed to Nurgle in a ritual by Lady Margeret, damaging their ability to reinforce the forces in the region. Responding for a plea to aid the Sons of Avalon Strike Cruiser Hallowed Night launched a daring boarding action against the traitor's flagship. The boarding action was a success and the blockade was broken, with this Bonet knew his bid for power had come to an end. After a 45 day siege in Lily, Bonet managed to use a bit of Archeotech the Dark Mechanicus had brought with them. Bonet mustered his remaining knights and used the Archeotech to teleport his forces aboard their surviving ships. Once there, the Chaos knights split ways, the ones devoted to Nurgle following Lady Margeret’s Weeping Scythes of Nurgle, and the ones loyal to Bonet forming a band of marauders that would hunt across the sector.
After the war, Toyar swore an oath, that all whom served chaos in the Sector would be put to the sword, and he will personally slay his son. The Adeptus Mechanicus were paid for their service in ancient Archeotech, while they did not succeed in their goal of getting House Kankar to swear an oath to them, the offerings appeased the Magos. The Mechanicus would make sure the recovery process for the knight house was done as quickly as possible. The Inquisition meanwhile decided that while the majority of Estival was fine, Lily was too corrupt and must be purged, destroying the Hive from orbit via orbital bombardment. With 2 hives and 5 houses destroyed, the scars of the civil war will take a long time to heal. While some notable heroes of the war were elevated to the houses of the destroyed hives, the loss of 2 whole hives have lead Toyar to consider the waste nomads as potential candidates for the remaining 2 houses.
The planets population was utterly devestated by the war, initial estimates project that possibly upwards of one fifth of the planets population was lost to this civil war. The conflict has forever destabilised Imperial power in the sector and the long reachin implications of this war are unfathomable.
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