Attilan Rough Riders

The Attilan Rough Riders are a cavalry regiment of the Astra Militarum recruited from the feudal world of Attila, in the Ultima Segmentum. Also called the Imperial Guard, the Astra Militarum forms the Imperium’s primary human armies, and Attilans within it serve as light cavalry scouts and skirmishers, prized for reconnaissance, hit-and-run raiding, and operations deep behind enemy lines where slower mechanised formations cannot follow. Raised from Attila’s warrior horse-lodges rather than any centralised drafting apparatus, the exact date of the regiment’s founding is not firmly established.

Attila is a sparsely settled world dominated by a single vast continent of steppe and desert, ringed by mountains and inland seas, with Khanasan standing as its only city and the seat of both clan governance and the Imperium’s small Administratum and Ecclesiarchy missions. Its population remains organised into nomadic clans whose lives centre on horsemanship and the breeding of Attila’s ill-tempered, compact warhorses. In the field, a rider may draw and drink a small quantity of his mount’s blood to sustain himself when supplies run out, a practice that allows Attilan cavalry to operate far from any support line. Clan warriors mark their coming-of-age with deliberate facial scarring, wear their hair long, and hold washing to be an offence against the spirits of water, a custom the Ecclesiarchy has never managed to suppress. Attilans also take pride in their own tongue, which many regard as more expressive than Low Gothic.

The regiment’s service record includes the Argovon Campaign, the War for Orvaston Planus, and deployment to Oleris III, all recorded in the M42 era, alongside action on Loxar IV, where Attilan riders are recorded as having mounted one of the largest cavalry charges in Imperial history to break a Necron force. Attilan formations have also served for an extended period on the Spinward Front, in the Calixis Sector’s Periphery Sub-sector, under Lord Marshal Ghanzorik, where Commander Tenzing directed Attilan cavalry against both Ork incursions and the human separatists of the Severan Dominate. Within this deployment, the 264th Attilan Rough Riders, led by Commander Khutulun, gained particular note for defending the Imperial worlds of Sisk, Sinophia, and Oriad from raiders, before being committed to clearing Renegade forces entrenched in Garhive, the hive city of Cepyrsk.

Named Attilan commanders and officers recorded in Imperial service include Mogul Kamir, Tu’Sakh Khan, Kudubai Khan, and Sergeant Batu, who served with the regiment sent to Oleris III. Captain Sartak led a detachment of Attilans seconded to Interrogator Kiefer during his pursuit of Sisyphon Vail. Alongside formations such as the Cadian Shock Troops, the Valhallan Ice Warriors, and the Death Korps of Krieg, the Attilan Rough Riders are counted among the more renowned regiments the Astra Militarum draws from its feudal and frontier worlds.