Legio Xestobiax



By all accounts, the Legio Xestobiax ("The Iron Vigil") -- is one of the lesser known Titan Legions of the Collegia Titanica. Rated as a Tertius grade Titan Legion at the end of the Great Crusade, the defensively-minded Iron Vigil has never fought in the great battles of this era, relegated to secondary battlefields and infrequent Compliance actions. In fact, the Titan Legion which hails from the distant Forge World of Zhao-Arkhad, deep in the galactic south, has more of a checkered past than many would readily believe.

The Legion has only recently been declared "Officio Fidelitas" and if circumstances had been different, this Titan Legion might well now be counted amongst the enemies of the Imperium of Man and not its defenders. Therefore, it is almost ironic that the Legion's greatest achievement, its participation in the Burning of Prospero, has been all but forgotten and most historical tomes do not even mention their participation in that victory which began the era of the Horus Heresy. Long shunned for their role in this battle and the ties they indirectly once held with the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion, the Legio Xestobiax was deemed guilty by association and marked for execution before the Adeptus Mechanicus revised their sentence and steadily purged both the Iron Vigil and their parent forge from the hereteknical beliefs that had festered in their hearts, thus returning them to the purity of the Machine God.

Legion History
Throughout its long Terran millennia of isolation and the turmoil of its more recent history, very little is known about the Legion's early years before it came to be the "Iron Vigil." As with most extant Titan Legions, it is presumed that the first of the Legio Xestobiax 's war engines were part of the initial expedition that founded the new Forge World of Zhao-Arkhad. The Forge World's own existent data-archives confirm this, although no trace can be found as to which greater Forge World produced the first Titans of the Legio Xestobiax. In fact, no established Forge World has been recorded to have despatched an expedition to the galactic south. What little evidence remains indicates a foundation pre-dating the formation of the Imperium of Man but cannot be more specific. From these truly ancient times, the Legio Xestobiax conserves a single reminder, the crippled Warlord-class Titan Munus Aeternum which now rests in the vaults deep beneath the forge-fane of the Supreme Domini on Zhao-Arkhad. The Munus Aeternum is not listed in the roster of any existing Titan Legion and the details as to which battle or battles left it in such a lamentable state have since been consigned to oblivion. Like many things concerning the Legio Xestobiax, its very existence thickens the mystery around the true origins of the Iron Vigil.

Thanks to the Arkhadian Mechanicum, sources describing the first years on Zhao-Arkhad are more numerous. Several accounts relate how it was only through the devastating weaponry of the Legio Xestobiax that the first forge-fane survived against the hordes of macro-predators lingering in Zhao-Arkhad's tropical jungles. This means that very much from its inception as an independent Titan Legion, the Legio Xestobiax has been a defensive force against the multiple horrors that plagued the Zhao System, be they beast or xenos. Given the severely corrosive effects of Zhao-Arkhad's atmosphere, which even the hardiest materials could not resist, the Arkhadian Mechanicum quickly decided to relocate the Legion's headquarters to the moon of Arkhad III, with smaller garrisons spread on the other Arkhadian moons of Arkhad I and II in order to defend the Forge World's nascent lunar colonies. Intended at first to be a merely temporary solution, these deployments or "Vigils" as they were known, became near-permanent formations, each distinguished by the individual Vigil they upheld. Thus was the Legion's cognomen of "The Iron Vigil" born. While overall the Legion maintained its identity as the Legio Xestobiax, assignment to these individual Vigils became second nature to the Legion and many of their battle-honours memorialise only the Vigil the victorious Titans belonged to. For instance, the 14th Battle of Istiam Station -- a gruesome, destructive siege conducted by elements of several nomadic Eldar fleets, or "Craftworlds" -- is celebrated as a resounding victory for the entire Legion, but its battle-honour is borne only by the two Maniples of the Istiam Vigil.

This scattered deployment means that for much of its history, the Legio Xestobiax has never fought as a whole but has always stood guard above those Arkhadian colonies and forge-fanes they were honour-bound to protect. Theoretically, the Legion is commanded by a Grand Marshal as custom would dictate it, but the Legion's deployment leaves the Grand Marshal with little more than ceremonial or diplomatic duties, as in the field each Vigil is led by an officer with the rank of Princeps-Warden. Some of these Vigils have stood unchanged for many millennia and may exist for centuries apart from the greater Legion and its home garrison of Istiam Station. Their solitary duties has increasingly led each Vigil to develop tactics,deployments or configurations best suited for the kind of terrain they were occupying -- some of them even developing traditions and idiosyncrasies of their own that set them apart from the greater Legion. As such, Maniples of the Legio Xestobiax are used to relying on themselves and prefer to operate as small, autonomous units. As a result, Princeps of the Iron Vigil tend to be more independent-minded than their colleagues from other Titan Legions. The Iron Vigil implicitly trusts the judgement of its Princeps and gives them considerably more command leeway than other formations of the Collegia Titanicus or the Adeptus Mechanicus. Because of the many Vigils it maintained, gatherings of all the Legio's Princeps-Wardens where troublesome to organise. However, the isolationnists tendencies of the forge-fanes of Zhao-Arkhad and the Legio's lack of transportation capacity made such events rare occurrences, even after its reunification with the wider Imperium.

During its many millennia of isolation and solitary duty, the Legio Xestobiax has benefitted from its parent Forge World's acceptance of illicit practices in the domain of psykana-arcana and other related fields of study. To guarantee the survival of their homeworld, the Magii of the Arkhadian forge-fanes had dwelled deep in the half-forgotten and ill-understood lore dating back to the Age of Strife about fusing organic components with the creation of the Adeptus Mechanicus. However, these Magii also studied the strange artefacts they were able to scavenge from the hulks of vanquished Eldar Titans felled by the Iron Vigil. As such research had ever been officially censured on Zhao-Arkhad, this led to the creation of proscribed techno-artefacts such as the Eminarii sub-type hybrid Battle-Automata. It would seem that the Arkhadian forge-fanes tried to emulate the properties of the Wraithbone cores at the heart of every Eldar Titan. These strange devices are believed to conserve psychic imprints of their previous pilots, allowing the living crew to tap into the memories or even experience of their forbearers. In addition, these Wraithbone cores are far more effective than the standard Mind Impulse Unit used by the Collegia Titanicus. Their efforts lead to the creation of the Black Iron Core, which is still regarded as the greatest achievement of the Eminarii forge-fane and their Forge-Domini, Tacitus Proctor. These prototypes would be fitted in the majority of the Iron Vigil's God-engines and had become common place by the time of the Battle of Prospero. The use of these iron cores allowed the engines of the Legio Xestobiax to operate with a far smaller crew than Titans of an equivalent class as well as enhancing the crew's reflexes and tactical prowess. By the time the Thousand Sons Legion rediscovered Zhao-Arkhad, these Black Iron Cores were still mere prototypes. As part of the terms of their Imperial Compliance, a portion of the Legio Xestobiax would go on to serve within the Great Crusade, although, again through their lack of means of transportation, their contribution was a modest one.

With the new influx of materials, Zhao-Arkhad was finally able to expand the Legio Xestobiax 's fighting be it through producing a limited numbers of new Titans on their own world, or receiving several new models as gifts. The Legio Xestobiax was expanded through the creation of a Prosperine Vigil, a new detachment that would be send to the Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero to watch over a new sub-fane of the Arkhadian Mechanicum. It would be this Prosperine Vigil that would later be involved into the events of the Burning of Prospero. Whilst the entire Prosperine Vigil was to be destroyed, the Legio Xestobiax nevertheless bested and vanquished a detachment of the highly decorated Legio Mortis, which was at the time considered the most powerful Titan Legion of the entire Collegia Titanicus. Condemned by the highest echelons of the Imperium and the Mechanicum for siding with the first true Legion to defy the Emperor's Will, the Legio Xestobiax was declared guilty by association through their allegiance to the Forge World of Zhao-Arkhad. True to their oaths, the remaining Legio -- believed to have numbered no more than 50 god-engines -- sided with their overlords of the Arkhadian Mechanicum but were little involved into the infighting of the Horus Heresy, upholding their lone vigil and defending Zhao-Arkhad and its domains from those that would try to prey upon them. What truly happened during the Great Scouring is a matter of conjunction, and whilst the Legio Xestobiax was officially pardoned for not taking sides in the gigantic conflict that tore the Imperium asunder, the Legio was thoroughly investigated and had to relinquish all hereteknical items and technologies to the control of the Mechanicum. More recent records are almost void of any reference to the Legio Xestobiax other than they continue to uphold their ancient vigils.

Notable Campaigns

 * The Burning of Prospero (ca 004.M31) - The involvement of the Legio Xestobiax in the events of the Fall of Prospero has almost been entirely forgotten, perhaps aided by the fact that the military hierarchy of the Adeptus Mechanicus was loathe to acknowledge that one of its very best troops, the Titans of the Legio Mortis (then still believed to be loyal to the Golden Throne) could be defeated by what was regarded as an almost unknown Titan Legion from a backwater Forge World. Reinforcing the initial Censure Host under overall command of the Primarch Leman Russ, the Titans of the Legio Mortis were deployed outside of the planetary capital of Tizca with orders to clear the Arkhadian sub-fane. Believed nearly destroyed to the preliminary bombardment of the censure fleet, the forge-fane had in fact weathered the bombardment almost unscathed, protected as it was by the many hundreds of metres of soil and rocks and its powerful array of Void Shields. Roused for war, the Titans of the Prosperine Vigil of the Legio Xestobiax emerged from their subterranean storage-bunkers before the great bulk-landers of the Legio Mortis touched Prospero's soil. While inside Tizca, the Thousand Sons valiantly fought back against the Space Wolves, the desert's plains became the battleground of the Titans of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Led by one of Mortis' highest decorated Princeps, Princeps Senioris Maldris Drane, the Legio Mortis was met by the full forces of the Iron Vigil on Prospero, including their Sekutarii ground-troops and the Tagmatha Mechanicum of the Arkhadian forge-fane. Whilst even in numbers, the Legio Mortis had the advantage of both fielding more of the heavier Warlord-class Titans and of greater experience, being all veterans of the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet. However, it would quickly become apparent that the Legio Mortis and their allies drawn from Imperial Knight Household of House Malinax had vastly underestimated the Legio Xestobiax. Perhaps through the advantages of their Black Iron Cores, the Titans of the Prosperine Vigil virtually annihilated the forces of the Death's Heads, even killing Drane in the process. The Legio Mortis detachment was nearly entirely wiped out, requiring the deployment of the elite-forces of the Ordo Sinister against which the weakened Prosperine Vigil would utlimately be powerless. Alhough defeated, the Prosperine Vigil had destroyed the myth of invincibility that surrounded the Legio Mortis.

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