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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→History
After the commander of the [[Vervun Primary]], Marshall [[Gnide]], was killed by the city's paranoid High Master, [[Salvador Sondar]], the city's ruling noble houses nominated various candidates to replace him. Croe was the obvious candidate: in addition to belonging to one of the leading noble houses, he was tall and impressive-looking, highly popular among the officers and troopers, and one of the few VP officers with recent combat experience. His chief rival for the post, [[Heskith Anko]], possessed none of these advantages, but was appointed Vice-Marshal to appease the feuding noble houses.{{Fn|1a}}
Croe was a conscientious military leader, but hamstrung by the need to appease the competing agendas of the noble houses, the autocratic [[Vervunhive Primary Hive Commissariat]] (the VP's political wing), the officious [[General]] [[Noches Sturm]] (the most senior officer of the arriving [[Imperial Guard]] reinforcements, and the ambitious [[Commissar]] [[Pius Kowle]], an expert propagandist and a popular hero among the city's people for his actions in the opening stages of the Siege. Because of this, Croe was forced to accept several of this cabal's more short-sighted decisions, including vetoing the proposal to make an armoured sortie from the walls to delay the [[Zoican]] forces{{Fn|1b}}, and the VPHCVHPC's arrest of General [[Grizmund]] for allegedly disobeying orders.{{Fn|1c}}
During the Third Storm by the Zoican forces, Sturm's inadequacy as a leader was exposed; faced with panicked calls for help from every quarter of the city, Sturm faltered and began to suggest ordering a retreat. Croe promised to kill him on the spot if he finished the suggestion. Dispensing with politics, Croe ordered Sturm to release Grizmund from the VPHC stockade - by force if necessary - and detail him to command an armoured counterattack, while Croe left to take personal command of a reinforcement corps heading for the city's South Wall.{{Fn|1d}}
