Iron Warriors

The Iron Warriors are one of the 9 Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines that turned to the service of Chaos during the Horus Heresy and now fight to overthrow the Imperium of Man. The Iron Warriors' specialty was the breaking of sieges and assaults on static fortifications, which made them great rivals of the Imperial Fists Legion, which was said to construct the greatest static defences in the Imperium. It was this rivalry between the Legions, and between their Primarchs Perturabo and the Imperial Fists' Rogal Dorn, that helped turn the Iron Warriors to Chaos. Like the members of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Loyalist Iron Hands Chapter, the Iron Warriors have a strong predilection for replacing parts of their body with cybernetic enhancements. When struck with a mutational "gift" from the Ruinous Powers, most Iron Warriors simply cut off the mutated appendage, if possible, and replace it with a mechanical one.

Perturabo
When the twenty infant Primarchs were spread across the galaxy from Terra by the forces of Chaos, the young child who would become known as Perturabo was discovered on the world of Olympia, climbing the sheer cliffs below the city-state of Lochos. The city guard brought the child before the Tyrant of Lochos, Dammekos. Intrigued by this child, Dammekos adopted him into his family.

Perturabo never trusted the Olympians and, although Dammekos took time and trouble to win the trust and affection of the boy, Perturabo never responded with any warmth. Many saw him as a cold youth, dark and melancholy, but with a mind like a razor.

The Great Crusade
When the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade reached Olympia, Perturabo pledged his loyalty to the Emperor, and was granted command of the IV Space Marine Legion and suzerainty over Olympia as the Legion's homeworld. The deposed Tyrant of Lochos spent the last few years of his life trying to marshal support to reclaim Olympia. He failed, but created an undercurrent of political unrest among the Olympians that was to be harnessed many years later.

With the Great Crusade already in full swing, Perturabo wasted no time in recruiting new Iron Warriors from amongst the Olympians. His first action as leader of the Iron Warriors Legion was a lightning campaign against the nearby heretical world of Justice Rock. The new recruits served well and their triumphant return was celebrated by the people of Olympia.

The Iron Warriors, under the leadership and guidance of Perturabo, became renowned as the Imperium's devastating siege troops. Expert engineers with cross-training from the Priesthood of Mars, they quickly built on their already impressive reputation. Whilst the Iron Warriors were determined to serve Mankind and their Emperor, their specialization was an unfortunate one. The nature of siege warfare requires long periods of dull, back-breaking labor broken by the most brutal, merciless combat imaginable. Men, even Space Marines, cannot withstand such hell indefinitely and combat fatigue began to brutalize the Iron Warriors. The custom had long existed in the Imperial armed forces that once the siege lines were complete the besieged must either surrender or they could expect no quarter from the besiegers. With each campaign, the Iron Warriors came more and more to prefer the latter. Battle was to these Space Marines a release from the tedium of life in the trenches.

As the Crusade moved forward, many Iron Warrior citadels were established on liberated worlds, guaranteeing a safe line of communications and an occupational force for the planet. Tiny numbers of Iron Warriors were garrisoned in these new fortifications, sometimes in ridiculously small numbers. One often-cited example was the Iron Keep on Delgas II, where a single Tactical Squad of ten Iron Warriors was stationed, despite the world having a disgruntled population of almost 130 million people. Where other Primarchs like Leman Russ, Vulkan and Magnus the Red refused to split their forces, Perturabo obeyed his orders with increasing bitterness. The Iron Warriors were being turned into a garrison Legion, with tiny deployments all over the Imperium. The Iron Warriors' indisputable success in siege warfare led to them being 'typecast' to the extent that they became an automatic choice for any siege or garrison mission, ignoring the basic needs of all the Legion's Marines for rest and reorganization. Resentment against the Emperor's demands began to build up throughout the Legion, and particularly within Perturabo himself.

The Horus Heresy
In the midst of the cleansing of the Hrud Warrens on the world of Gugann, matters were brought to a head. It was Warmaster Horus himself who broke the news to Perturabo that his homeworld of Olympia was in rebellion against the Imperium. Dammekos had died and the population had taken up arms. Perturabo was by this time tired of repeatedly having to prove his worth, and the thought of being the only Legion unable to hold its own homeworld appalled him. Horus bade Perturabo to return to his place of discovery, presented him with the Power Hammer Forgebreaker, which was believed by some to act as a conduit through which the forces of Chaos could manipulate the Iron Warrior Primarch.

Perturabo and the Iron Warriors suppressed the rebellion on the streets of the city-states of Olympia. No one was spared. It was the principle of surrender or no quarter, and the Iron Warriors had grown accustomed to granting no quarter. Perturabo watched on as the fortifications in which he had once taken such pride were overcome. By the time the massacre was over, Olympia had been culled into slavery. Five million civilians had been killed in the process.

As the pyres burned through the long Olympian night, the Iron Warriors slowly realized the extent of what they had done. One moment they were humanity's heroes assaulting the Hrud and the next they were committing genocide against their own people. Perturabo was overcome by an oppressive feeling of shame. He knew that the Emperor could never forgive him for his crime.

It was in this doomed mood that the Iron Warriors received news and orders. The news would have been shattering under normal circumstances, but when heard in ruins that were thick with the stench of the dead, it was apocalyptic. Leman Russ' Space Wolves had attacked Magnus the Red's Thousand Sons on Prospero. Horus had turned traitor to the Emperor along with his own Sons of Horus Legion. Angron's World Eaters and Mortarion's Death Guard were also now Traitor Legions. Fulgrim and the Emperor's Children had also declared their allegiance to Chaos, and the renegade Primarch had unsuccessfully tried to turn Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands to the worship of the Ruinous Powers. The Iron Warriors were ordered to join the Iron Hands and five other Loyalist Legions; together this task force would crush the nascent rebellion.

Between their bitter rivalry with the Imperial Fists (which dated from the time of the Great Crusade) and the butchery on Olympia, in retrospect it was no surprise that Perturabo and his Space Marines turned traitor to the Imperium. Though Perturabo had almost certainly sided with Horus beforehand, the Battle of Istvaan V proclaimed the Iron Warriors' betrayal. The Iron Warriors, the Night Lords, the Word Bearers and the Alpha Legion were held in reserve, while Ferrus Manus led his own Iron Hands, along with the Raven Guard and the Salamanders, against the Traitor positions. After being heavily engaged with Horus' forces, the surviving Loyalists eagerly sought the shelter of the Iron Warriors' trenches and bunkers, only to be mercilessly gunned down by their erstwhile allies. Henceforth, even unto the present day, the Iron Warriors have been known as the Betrayers of Istvaan.

After the Istvaan V Massacre, the Iron Warriors were let loose. Finally freed from tedious and exhausting siege missions, they were possessed with a terrible energy. On a dozen worlds, an Iron Warrior Warsmith replaced the true Imperial governor and tithes were paid under the shadow of fortified battlements. Yarant and Vanaheim saw horrific fighting between the Iron Warriors and the forces of the Imperium; Tallarn was transformed by virus bombs from a paradise world into the sandy deserts that it is famous for today. A strong contingent of the Iron Warriors Legion accompanied Perturabo himself to Terra, where he supervised the siege of the Emperor's Imperial Palace for the forces of Chaos. The Iron Warriors found a sublime pleasure in tearing the edifices of the Imperium down.

The Iron Cage
In the end, Horus was defeated and slain by the Emperor, and the bulk of the Traitor Legions retreated into the Eye of Terror. Before his Legion followed suit, Perturabo devised and enacted the one real victory for the Iron Warriors in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. He crafted a trap on the world of Sebastus IV, designed to ensnare Rogal Dorn and the Imperial Fists, with whom Perturabo and his warriors had long harbored a bitter rivalry stemming from each Legion claiming to be the best force in the Imperium at laying and defending against sieges. The trap was known as the Eternal Fortress, a keep centered within twenty square miles of bunkers, towers, minefields, trenches, tank traps and redoubts. Upon hearing of this, Rogal Dorn publicly declared that he "would dig Perturabo out of his hole and bring him back to Terra in an iron cage".

Rogal Dorn expected an honourable battle, but this was not to be. Beginning by isolating the four Companies of the Imperial Fists from their orbital support, Perturabo began to carefully divide his enemy and destroy them piecemeal. Some Imperial Fists managed to penetrate the defenses and reach the center of the Eternal Fortress, only to find there was no central keep - simply an open space watched by yet more defenses. The fortress was a decoy of no real value. By the sixth day of the siege, Imperial Fists Space Marines were fighting individually, without support, using the bodies of their own Battle-Brothers for cover.

The siege of the Eternal Fortress (later referred as the "Iron Cage" by the Imperial Fists) lasted for a further three weeks. Relief came in the form of Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines, but the siege left Rogal Dorn a broken man, rendered the Imperial Fists Chapter unable to fight for nineteen years, and paved the way for Perturabo's ascension to the rank of Daemon Prince of Chaos, after the sacrifice of over four hundred Loyalist Space Marines' gene-seed on the bloody landscape of Sebastus IV.

After the Heresy
Under the command of their new Daemon Prince, the majority of the Iron Warriors fled to the Eye of Terror and secured the Daemonworld of Medrengard, from where they could brood on the turn of events and plot vengeance on the Imperium.

The remainder of the Iron Warriors Legion defended the small empire they had carved from the Imperium during the Heresy, but there was no refuge from the retribution of the Loyalist Legions. The Imperial Fists supported the Ultramarines in a decade-long campaign to liberate the subjugated worlds. They discovered the Iron Warriors to be like a barbed hook that, once embedded into a victim, could only be removed with great risk of injuring the patient further. The Olympia garrison of Iron Warriors held out for two full years after the defeat of Horus, eventually triggering their cyclonic missile stockpiles when defeat was unavoidable. They left a blasted wasteland that became quarantined by the Inquisition, and no mention of Olympia has entered Imperial records since.

Legion Organisation
The Iron Warriors Legion of today is organized as a number of Grand Companies, each commanded by a Warsmith. Originally each Grand Company would have been similar in size and organization, totaling approximately a thousand Space Marines, but now they vary in size enormously after ten millennia of battle and losses. The Warsmiths themselves are all extremely gifted in combat engineering, many maintaining a large contingent of slave-mechanicians to perform the more menial work.

It is uncertain how many Grand Companies there are at any given time. At the time of the Horus Heresy, the Legion had at least twelve Companies, although with the widespread deployment of many garrison forces in that era, it is impossible to be sure.

Like many of the Traitor Legions of Chaos, the Iron Warriors' current organisation is completely non-standard. A Grand Company will often be divided into component detachments led by lesser Chaos Champions. There is a tendency to operate in multiples of three. Suitable recruits are taken (willingly and unwillingly) to Medrengard where they are selected periodically by various Warsmiths for their Grand Company and subjected to ordeals until they prove themselves worthy of being implanted with the Legion's Chaos-corrupted gene-seed.

Legion Homeworld
Olympia was, before the time of the Great Crusade, a rugged and mountainous world, its population concentrated within a multitude of city-states. The ready availability of quarried stone and the terrain made the control of strategic passes and high ground the key to military security.

Olympia was destroyed shortly after the end of the Horus Heresy by its Iron Warriors garrison, and like the other Traitor Legions, the Iron Warriors seized a planet within the Eye of Terror to make into their new homeworld. Knowledge of the worlds within the Eye of Terror is scant at best and the realm of Chaos rarely stays the same for long. The Iron Warriors' homeworld, Medrengard, is frequently depicted as a world with a black sun and a white sky, its surface turned into a vast fortress, all trace of its original form lost under mountains of impossibly high towers, its core penetrated by plunging dungeons. Medrengard has been described as a bleak jail world where slaves toil endlessly for the glory of Perturabo. Great Chaos warships are tethered to the tallest fortress towers, wherein reside the Iron Warriors themselves.

Legion Combat Doctrine
The Iron Warriors follow a simple method. They commence battle with a sustained artillery bombardment, utilizing every weapon at their disposal. The basis of this is a complex fire plan in which every weapon is directed with utmost care at the optimum target, for maximum effect. Where possible, the Iron Warriors will coordinate with Traitor Titan Legions to add to their own considerable firepower. This emphasis on artillery and mechanized warfare means that Iron Warrior forces often fare best in siege warfare and armored advances on enemy territory.

Where possible, field fortifications will be used. Iron Warrior doctrine includes extensive use of fortifications to occupy the maximum number of opponents while using the absolute minimum number of troops. This in turn keeps the bulk of the Iron Warriors Marines fresh and available for assaults, and allows them to achieve superiority elsewhere.

When an Iron Warriors force launches a planetary assault, they begin with an intense orbital bombardment (be it nuclear, plasma, viral or chemical) which could pressure the enemy into surrender without a single Iron Warrior having to land on the surface.

However, stronger, well-defended worlds are unlikely to surrender so readily. If the planetary bombardment is indecisive, a landing force will be launched from the Iron Warriors' fleet. The first wave of atmospheric fighters, gunships, and bomber craft will saturate landing zones and launch raids on enemy bases and supply lines. All efforts are made to demoralize and weaken the enemy to the point of destruction before any troops are landed. Sometimes, however, this hammer-blow approach is unsuitable and instead the Iron Warriors will resort to covert insertion of select Iron Warriors on-world to scout and secure a landing zone in a surprise assault, preferably while also eliminating as much of the enemy's defensive capability as possible.

Once the first wave has caused sufficient damage to enemy defenses (or secured a suitable landing area), a second wave is launched. This consists of construction craft, heavy transports and bulk freighters, carrying supplies, prefabricated fortifications, heavy machinery and construction personnel to the surface. The heavy craft used in this wave are large, well-armored and equipped with formidable defensive weaponry, but still require support in the form of escort flyers from the first wave.

Upon landing, the second wave will compound the damage caused by the orbital bombardment and bomber attacks with a secondary artillery barrage, scattering any enemy forces trying to mount a defensive effort in the area. The larger transport and freighter ships land first, their crews immediately disembarking and beginning the construction of walled trenches, bunkers, living quarters and artillery positions, the latter of which are then filled by the massive weapons brought in by the artillery ships. Selected Iron Warriors with incredible logistic skills will direct this complex and dangerous operation. By the time the third wave is launched, the landing zones will be a dense midden of fully-stocked fortifications.

The third wave is made up entirely of troop transports and orbit-to-ground drop pods. The troops deployed will consist of several hundred Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines backed up by a vastly greater number of lesser troops. Iron Warriors armour will also be deployed at this time. Having occupied the newly-built ground fortifications, the commanders will proceed to plan out the destruction of the remaining enemy forces. Over a period of time ranging from months to mere hours, this formidable Iron Warriors incursion will then engage in a series of lightning-fast strikes, armored advances and carefully-laid sieges, until no enemy resistance remains.

Siege warfare follows a very simple but effective set of general tactics. When a breach has been forced in the enemy defences it will initially be probed by veterans and infiltrated, then the gap will be pried open with firepower until a storming force can be unleashed. These storming forces are based around fast-moving heavy armor which can move instantly from relentless barrage to lightning-fast advance. Breaches are then widened until the defenses are shattered. For the key moments in battle when a position absolutely must be taken, the Iron Warriors adopt an ice-cold ferocity that is comparable to that displayed by the Blood Angels or the World Eaters, but only when the moment is right and never for longer than necessary.

In combat, Iron Warriors are terrifyingly adept at both ballistic warfare and close-range melee bloodshed, and use a mixture of the two to slaughter opponents in vast numbers. The typical Iron Warrior is armed with a powerful bolter, plasma gun or other such ranged weapon, as well as a close-combat Power Blade or chainsword.

The Iron Warriors have a special association with the Obliterator cult. They have extensive access to the hulking combination of armor, weapons, and Marines, more so than any other Traitor Legion, and the first observance of Obliterators was among the Iron Warriors.

The Iron Warriors are expert sappers, engineers and miners and have acquired a formidable siege train of specialist equipment over the centuries. This includes Termite tunnelers, a Leviathan transport, Dreadclaw assault boats adapted for planetary landings and a large assortment of Imperial-built artillery. These are used very sparingly and are maintained and guarded by the Iron Warriors' 1st Company. Additionally they have a number of Corvus assault pods which allow them to make use of any supporting Traitor Titans as siege towers. The Iron Warriors are so frequently supported by Traitor Titans that some Imperial experts have asserted that they are part of the same formation.

Legion Beliefs
The Iron Warriors are resolute in their beliefs that the Emperor thoroughly used their Legion to fight the bloodiest and most brutal battles of the his 'Great Crusade', then he let the other, more favoured Primarchs take all the glory, whilst they remained behind to garrison the newly conquered worlds and fade into obscurity. They also believe that the Imperial Fists Primarch Rogal Dorn the people of their homeworld Olympia against them, disgracing them further and having them discarded after they had served their purpose. They have sworn to enact their vengeance upon both.

They see themselves as titans of ancient Terran legends; running amok in the universe, reaving and pillaging, knowing that no natural or man-made law can stop them. Though they honour the Ruinous Powers as a pantheon they are not truly devout themselves. Their greatest loyalty remains to Perturabo whom they believe saved them from being sacrificed upon the alter of lies of the false emperor.

Gene-seed
Since turning to Chaos the Iron Warriors have been subject to varying degrees of mutation and have been known to replace mutated limbs with cybernetic ones. They have a marked tendency towards suspicion and paranoia but are also extremely intelligent with naturally well-developed problem solving abilities.

Legion Battle-Cry
"Iron Within, Iron Without!"

A monotone chant of "Iron Within, Iron Without" is repeated during the beginning of combat operations by the Iron Warriors. Saying "Iron Within" to elicit the response "Iron Without" is sometimes used by Iron Warriors to identify each other, especially in confused combat, such as that in tunnels or during combined operations with other Chaos forces. The Chant is also used as a demoralizing chant for the enemy and a rallying chant for the Legion's troops, whether Space Marines, Traitor Guardsmen, Chaos Cultists or Traitor Titan crews.

Notable Iron Warriors

 * Perturabo - Primarch of the Iron Warriors Legion.
 * Warsmith Berrosus - An Iron Warriors Warsmith encased in a Chaos Dreadnought. Berrosus and his fellow Warsmith Toramino are angered over Warsmith Honsou's refusal in the share of recently stolen gene-seed, and so declares war against him. The aggressive Berrosus has his Grand Company lay siege to Honsou's citadel, and though losses are high (one thousand men) he succeeds in breaching the citadel's walls. Facing Honsou in close-combat, Berrosus nearly succeeds in killing Honsou with a siege drill. Unfortunately, victory is torn from his grasp when Honsou's life is saved by his daemonic life-ward Onyx, whom manages to breech Berrosus' dreadnought carapace. Honsou then reaches inside the dreadnought and rips out the Mind Impulse Unit and pulps Berrosus' head before all to see. Berrosus' men then defect to Honsou shortly thereafter. (Deceased)
 * Warsmith Honsou - the "half-breed" - an Iron Warrior who appears in the novels "Storm of Iron", and "Dead Sky, Black Sun". In "Storm of IronTheir mission was to assault the Adeptus Mechanicus fortress Hydra Cordatus that housed a large cryo-storage of the Imperial Fists Chapter's gene-seed. At this point Honsou is a Captain of one-third of an unnamed Warsmith's Grand Company. Honsou has managed to claw his way to that position despite heavy prejudice from other Iron Warriors for being a 'half-breed'; when transformed into a Marine, Honsou's gene-seed was 'tainted' by captured genetic material from the hated Imperial Fists, the Iron Warriors' most hated foe. Despite their prejudice, his abilities and tenaciousness help him succeed in capturing the gene-seed held in stasis. With this victory, Honsou's Warsmith successfully ascends to daemonhood, appointing Honsou (the only surviving Captain) as his successor. The newly appointed Warsmith Honsou returns to Medrengard in triumph but snubbs two of his fellow Warsmiths, when he decides to renege on their agreed upon promise sharing the requisitioned gene-seed. This leads to a civil war within the Iron Guard ranks. The two rival Warsmiths then lay siege to Honsou's citadel and eventually breach it. Honsou is nearly killed by Warsmith Berrosus but is saved by his life-ward and kills the Warsmith. By the end of the novel "Dead Sky, Black Sun", most of his forces has been smashed by two rival Warsmiths and their armies in their internecine warring. Warsmith Honsou then finds himself in the Maelstrom on the world of New Badab during the Skull Harvest, an annual event hosted by the despicable traitor Huron Blackheart. Rival Chaos Lords bring their warbands and fight one another during the Skull Harvest. When a Chaos Lord is slain, the victor acquires their opponent's warband. Warsmith Honsou takes the opportunity to take part in the harvest. Eventually he emerges on top as the victor, and his army swells into the tens of thousands.
 * Warsmith Kolvax - Kolvax is the commander of a Grand Company based in the mighty citadel known as the Ironblood Citadel, a superb fortification that is the epitome of Iron Warriors ingenuity and engineering genius, said to rival their Primarch's own citadel on Medrengard. Kolvax and his men are based on the ancient fortress-world of Forgefane. Killed during the invasion of Hivefleet Leviathan by a Trygon, that Kolvax arrogantly boasted that he would defeat in single combat. He was swallowed whole by the beast. (Deceased)
 * Warsmith Toramino - One of the Iron Warriors' most powerful Warsmith who commands the allegiance of a Grand Company. He is the ruler of an ancient and mighty fortress on the Iron Warriors homeworld of Medrengard. When Warsmith Honsou was successful in obtaining a large stock of gene-seed from their hated enemies the Imperial Fists on the world of Hyrdra Cordatus, they wanted their promised share of the precious genetic material. When Honsous reneged they declared open-war against their wayward comrade. Toramino and fellow Warsmith Berrosus, brought their armies to lay siege to Hosous's fortress of Khalan-Ghol. Toramino let the more aggressive Berrosus have his forces take the brunt of the fighting. Berrosus' army breaches the citadel walls and the Warsmith nearly succeeds in killing Honsou. But Honsous daemonic life-ward breeches Berrosus' dreadnought carapace where Honsou proceeds to kill the occupant within. Toramino decides that discretion is the better part of valour, and flees for his life.
 * Forrix - One of three captains (including Honsou) who appears in Storm of Iron. A once-lauded veteran of the Horus Heresy, Forrix had become disillusioned and apathetic by the time of the Hydra Cordatus campaign, and was eventually slain during the fighting.
 * Kroeger - A captain in Storm of Iron, Kroeger is a borderline bezerker, though unlike the blood-crazed fiends of the World Eaters he seems able to control his fury. He is killed during the Hydra Cordatus campaign; his own armour (possessed by a minor daemon) decides to 'bond' with a new owner, who subsequently kills Kroeger.

Legion Appearance
Prior to the Horus Heresy, the Iron Warriors wore silver-colored Power Amour, trimmed with gold. This has changed very little in the millennia since save to display iconography with Chaotic symbolism.

The Legion's badge is that of an iron mask. When the Iron Warriors turned to Chaos, this symbol was slightly redesigned, and is now superimposed over the symbol of the eight-pointed Chaos Star. Both before and after the Horus Heresy, Iron Warriors often painted and continue to paint their weapons and other heavy equipment with black and yellow construction chevrons to emphasize their tendency to construct their own fortifications while demolishing their enemies'.

The Iron Warriors do not accept mutation among their ranks as willingly as some of the other Traitor Legions, instead choosing to remove the corrupted limbs and replace them with powerful, infallible cybernetics, as do the Loyalist Iron Hands. This is consistent with their beliefs, as they are not devout worshipers of the Chaos Gods, honoring their power and using Chaos to empower themselves rather than worshiping it. Due to a few Chaotic corruptions in their gene-seed, they often suffer from deformed limbs, but this too is usually corrected with cybernetics. They retain their Primarch's cold intelligence, paranoia, dark skin and dark eyes, and are noted for a preference for technological methods of warfare.