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The '''{{PAGENAME}}Fall of the House of Ios''' was a [[Daemonic]] incursion in 797.[[M41]].{{Fn|1}}

The [[House of Ios]] was an honoured line of [[chartist captain]]s,its origins pre-dating the founding of the [[Calixis Sector]] athousand years ago. The line’s holdings were spread acrossfive sectors, but the vast majority of the family lived on the[[ocean world]] of [[Spectoris]]. One day in 797.M41, a scion ofthe House of Ios returned from an out-sector Cold Trade runwith a priceless gift for his daughter [[Antigone]]—a glitteringgem said to have been born in the fiery heart of the veryoldest of stars. The girl had the fantastic stone mounted in afiligreed headpiece, and wore it upon her brow so that all inthe palace and the surrounding islands might see her status,and bow down before her. Over the following decades, Antigone rose to become thehead of her line, and her father’s island palace expanded tobecome a marvelous city amidst the islands. In short order,she assumed total power over the House of Ios, and her line’scoffers swelled. Then, something entirely unexpected occurred.Spectoris was ordered by the [[Departmento Munitorum]] sector commandto raise a regiment for the Imperial Guard. A recruitmentmission was dispatched to the islands over which the Queenof the House of Ios ruled to ascertain the fitness of its militia.{{Fn|1}}

However, upon Munitorum inspection, the population ofthe island chain was discovered to be entirely unsuitable forinduction into the [[Imperial Guard]]. The men were listless andeffete and the women indolent and soft. All bore expressionsof vacant distraction, and appeared disinterested in theirsurroundings and unresponsive to questions. The recruiting officers escalated their investigation to include the nobles of the House of Ios, and soon, disasterbefell them. Upon demanding entry into the palace itself, theofficers were unexpectedly attacked by the household guardsclaiming that they had to protect their mistress at all costs. Aslaughter ensued, but before the last of the Munitorum staffwas cut down, he managed to transmit a pict-log to the trooptransport waiting in orbit. The transmission was intercepted by agents of theInquisition, and retribution came three months later. An[[Ordo Malleus]] strike force led by [[Inquisitor Lord]] [[Dhar]] ofthe [[Scholariate at Arms]] descended upon the palace of theHouse of Ios. Nine [[Inquisitor]]s, three dozen [[Acolyte]]s, and ahundred [[storm trooper]]s were inserted directly into the heartof the palace grounds by [[Valkyrie]] airborne assault carriers,supported by a wing of Vulture gunships. The corruptedservants of Antigone were ready for the assault and hadfortified the palace, mounting air defences upon its delicateminarets, and daubing the entire structure with blasphemousrunes. In the months since the household guards hadslaughtered the Munitorum staff, they had become mutated,as if the warping power of Chaos had suffused them withdark splendor. The warriors’ hands had twisted into metrelongclaws, and razor-sharp horns sprouted from their heads.They had preternatural speed and agility, and they shrieked asong of cacophonous discordance that brought men to theirknees as their brains bled out from their ears. Dozens of stormtroopers and Acolytes were slain in the first minutes of theassault, but Lord Dhar and his companions steeled their soulsand fought through to Antigone’s throne room, and there sawjust how close Spectoris was to doom.{{Fn|1}}

Queen Antigone sat upon her throne, the gleaming gemmounted at her brow. From the gem shone the raw energyof the Warp, and three of Dhar’s brother-Inquisitors werestruck down by ravening beams of light before they couldtake another step. Dhar himself fought through the [[Warp]]-energyand approached the throne, pronouncing his verdictupon the Queen of the House of Ios: she had opened hersoul to the [[Daemon Prince]] of [[Chaos]], and would die by theInquisitor’s hand. But before Dhar could carry out his judgment, the gemdoubled its infernal luminescence and the air rippled withimpossible energies. Its light expanded to fill the entire dais,consuming the body of the Queen. The gem had become a gateway into the very depths of the Warp, and throughit came the Daemonic servants of [[Slaanesh]]—dozens upondozens of lithe, deadly [[Daemonette]]s.The battle that ensued raged through the night, and byits end Dhar was the only Inquisitor left standing amidst theshattered bodies of hundreds of Daemonettes. At the verylast, a [[Greater Daemon]] of Slaanesh—a [[Keeper of Secrets]]—emerged from the portal, the glittering gemstone set upon itsbrow. Dhar would have been outmatched and slain, were itnot for intervention from an unexpected quarter. A troupe of[[Eldar]] [[Harlequin]]s emerged from a rippling tear in the fabricof reality, and fell upon the daemon, moving too fast for theInquisitor Lord to follow. The blurred forms of the Harlequinsdarted in and out, delivering a thousand blows, each of whichwas too weak to slay the daemon alone, but combined slowlyrobbed it of its strength and speed. At last, the leader of thetroupe delivered the killing blow, skewering the daemon’sgemstone with a lightning fast lunge of his power sword.{{Fn|1}}

The Keeper of Secrets was transfixed upon the Harlequin’sblade. Before the Inquisitor Lord’s eyes, its form collapsed inupon itself, until the body of Antigone of Ios lay upon thewrecked dais. Their work done, the Harlequins departed, andLord Dhar stood alone in the corpse-strewn throne room.Judgement had been delivered upon the House of Ios.In the months that followed, Lord Dhar led a campaignof retribution against the remaining holdings of the chartistcaptain line. None escaped his attentions, and even those whofled beyond the borders of Calixis were purged by his farrangingoperatives. The name of the House of Ios was stricken from all officialrecords, and its name never spoken again.{{Fn|1}}

*{{Endn|1}}: [[Dark Heresy: Daemon Hunter]] pgpgs.19-2019–20