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Herman von Strab was the Overlord of Armageddon during the Second War for Armageddon. He was the fourth son of his father, Luthor von Strab.
Rise to Power
He rose to power in the way all others had done before him, through assassination of the other claimants to the throne, his brothers. He was considered too stupid, weak or unsophisticated to be taken seriously as a rival, which they soon found out to be wrong at their own expense. He set off a bomb at a banquet, killing Anton (his eldest brother) and 322 guests, Otto was killed by a hit and run driver and Vilhelm was found in his room, his body riddled with bolter shells. Herman was standing with a smoking bolter in his hand, but proclaimed it to be the worst suicide he had seen. The officers investigating the death were too afraid to confront Herman, for he was next in line for the throne. When his father died, suspiciously from grief and spidervenom poisoning, Herman rose to total power of a planet.
His personality reflected that of a typical aristocrat, decadent and ignorant of the impending threat. He used fear to control the population and maintain his position of power. He was however, personally fearless (whether this be through blind stupidity or actual fearlessness is unknown) and ruthless to the point of insanity. He had little idea of the magnitude of the problem and had even less idea of how to deal with it.
Armageddon War
His incompetence was seen right from the very beginning of the second war. He was given several warning about the potential invasion. The Imperial Tarot gave the same reading of disaster, time after time, Navigators on incoming freighters warned of a massive warp storm brewing and the Statue of the Emperor in Hive Helsreach wept bloody tears. Von Strab ignored them all.
Then the hulk Alveus Alpha Alpha Sextus appeared from the warp in the Armageddon system. He didn't send any ships to investigate the hulk, he simply said that no piece of cosmic flotsam could threaten his ancestral world. He did as most aristocrats do, the minimum necessary to satisfy those watching them. He complied with the standard instructions in the Codex Ministorum and notified the Administratum of the sighting but that was all. Only after the first Orks landed did a distress signal go out, and von Strab then banished the sender of that message, Commissar Yarrick, to Hades Hive. Von Strab didn't wish to trouble the Imperium with this fight, as he knew he could deal with them all himself.
It seems von Strab was an even worse military commander than he was a planetary commander. The poorly ordered forces he had at his disposal were quickly overrun and destroyed, and he adopted the tactic of small piecemeal attacks, which were quickly outflanked and destroyed. It was soon obvious that von Strab had underestimated the threat and cunning of the Orks.
One of the greatest failures for von Strab (and the worst blow to Armageddon) was the destruction of the Iron Skulls Titan Legion commanded by Princeps Prime Kurtiz Mannheim. Von Strab ordered the Titan Legion to battle the Orks unsupported and they were soon eradicated by the overwhelming gargant forces. Earlier, when von Strab had relocated to Hive Tartarus, Mannheim urged von Strab to prepare for invasion of Armageddon Secundus, but he was ignored, proclaiming that the Orks would never breach the equatorial jungles. Two days later the Orks appeared in Armageddon Secudus, pouring from the jungles. Mannheim died when his titan's reactor went critical, but not before he walked it to the centre of the Ork force and wiped out a huge swath of the greenskins.
Von Strab had one last secret weapon, a stock of deadly virus bombs from when the planet was first colonised. When he tried to launch them, most failed due to their age, many missed their targets, some refused to lift off, and the potent virus had weakened with the passing of time. It rent giant holes in the Ork forces, but nothing close to what was needed. Von Strab retired to his bunker to sulk and he was not seen for a long time.
Then, when the Space Marines arrived and turned back the Ork hordes, Commander Dante of the Blood Angels took command, much to the annoyance of von Strab. He was then put under armed guard and house arrest, but escaped in a stolen land speeder. This was found later, badly damaged, but his body was never found. This was the last to be seen of von Strab in the Second War.
Third War for Armageddon
Von Strab took little part in the actual fighting of the Third War for Armageddon but it is rumoured that the fall of Hive Acheron was mainly due to sabotage of power lines and Orks appearing from secret tunnel entrances. He soon emerged and revealed himself to the population with Ork brute squads ready to put down dissenters. He made as passionate speech to the people, asking them to rise up against the tyrants of the Imperium. He was welcomed back by much of the old nobility as a long-lost prince, ignoring the fact that he had joined forces with the invaders.
Eventually, with the appearance of Imperial forces, a bloody civil war broke out between the loyalists and von Strab's supporters. The forces of von Strab were forced down into the underhives. Von Strab was killed in a secret mission by the 13th Penal Legion, under the command of Colonel Schaeffer1,2.