The Legio Krytos ("God Breakers") is a Traitor Titan Legion of the Dark Mechanicum that repudiated its oaths to the Emperor of Mankind and followed the Warmaster Horus into the service of the Ruinous Powers during the Horus Heresy. It was based on the world of Krytos.
The Legio Krytos is known to have participated in both the infamous Battle of Tallarn and the Battle of Beta-Garmon. Even before the outbreak of the Heresy, this notorious Titan Legion were known to be excessive in their pursuit of achieving Imperial Compliance and levelling cities that showed even a shred of defiance.
The God Breakers were also known for making extensive use of Earthbreaker Missiles -- specialised weapons that were designed to burrow into the ground before detonating, tearing the terrain apart in showers of broken earth. These weapons were used extensively by the Legio Krytos to bring down fortifications, but they also proved effective in slowing the advance of enemy maniples.
Perhaps as a result of these preferences in waging war, the Legio Krytos tended to work closely with the siege-breaking Iron Warriors Legion. The two working in concert often reduced worlds to smoldering wastelands, inhabited by guttering cities and bleached skeletons.
Legion History[]
Legio Krytos colour scheme as displayed by the Warlord-class Titan Hammer of Tyrants.
The Imperium's path to the rediscovery of the Forge World of Krytos was paved with broken worlds, crumbling ruins and barren wastelands the sole evidence that such planets once held life. On each, the perpetrators of such widespread destruction had left the planet ritually scarred, a kilometres-wide sigil carved into the planetary crust, its form that of a stylised winged hammer.
Empyreal wake tracking eventually led the 125th Expeditionary Fleet, commanded by Perturabo, primarch of the Iron Warriors Space Marine Legion, to the Forge World of Krytos and the chief architects of the witnessed destruction -- the Legio Krytos, a Titan Legion named in honour of the planet it stood sentinel over.
The Legio Krytos proved to be a bellicose and destructive Titan Legion, holding firm to the ideals that only through the total eradication of all who resisted could victory be achieved. Much of the Titan Legion's early history had been dominated by warfare with the Agrenium Convocation, a reportedly brutal empire ruled over by a divergent strain of Humanity and built upon a foundation of slavery of both Humans and xenos. At an unknown date during the Age of Strife, the Convocation set its sight upon the Forge World of Krytos, seeking to enslave its Tech-priests and plunder the vast stores of knowledge they possessed.
The archives of Krytos state that it was the Agrenium Convocation that struck first, and the opening years of war saw the Forge World besieged and under threat. At the forefront of Mechanicum resistance stood the Legio Krytos, wielding power the Convocation had little answer to. When the Forge World was free of invaders, the Convocation is said to have sued for peace and, in answer, the Legio Krytos laid siege to their worlds.
The exact size and scope of the Agrenium Convocation's rule remains unknown, but what fragments exist, extracted from the testimonies of ancient princeps, emphasise the Convocation's deep societal class divides, with its citizens assigned roles at birth based entirely on their heritage. To further enforce segregation between its strata, each city was a veritable fortress, with elaborate fortifications separating the domiciles of different classes.
Though intended to prevent the mixing of the Convocation's population, its architects had not been lax in their work and each city presented a formidable challenge to invaders, walls bristling with macrocannon and guarded by slave-infantry whose loyalty was secured through complex psycho-surgery.
War against the Agrenium Convocation wrought great changes upon the psyche of the Legio Krytos; faced with armies brainwashed to fight to the last, complete annihilation was the sole option. To achieve such a goal, the fortress cities of the Convocation were besieged and laid low, their armies crushed and their leaders scoured from existence. Warlord and Warbringer Nemesis-class Titans became prevalent amongst the ranks of the Legio Krytos, the fearsome armaments they wielded proving decisive in sundering the Convocation's strongholds.
Over a standard century of war, during which time the intensity of conflict waxed and waned, the Legio Krytos visited ruination down upon their foe, burning cities to ash and causing irreversible damage to the biospheres of dozens of planets. All offers of peace extended to the Titan Legion were rejected and victory was achieved upon the world designated as Planet-296A, capital of the Agrenium Convocation, known as Agreniux to its people. There, the God Breakers force assembled in its entirety, dozens of god-engines turned towards a single purpose.
Within three solar months, Agreniux bore life no more, inhabited only by crumbling ruins, fire-scorched deserts and the icon of the Legio Krytos carved deeply into its surface.
When Perturabo made contact with Krytos and learned of its past, he expressed great admiration for the dedication and skill with which Krytos had subdued its enemies. In acknowledgement of their struggles, the primarch extended the hand of friendship on behalf of the Imperium, binding Krytos to Mars and the Emperor. Once concord was reached, the 125th Expeditionary Fleet departed for new fronts, its numbers augmented by the god-engines of the Legio Krytos.
The Terran War Council quickly recognised the unsurpassed skill the Legio Krytos possessed in siege warfare. For the remainder of the Great Crusade, the Titan Legion served admirably alongside the Iron Warriors Legion, lending its superior guns and well-honed tactics to complement the expertise of the IVth Legion. Thesole stain on the God Breakers' records was the direct and brutal methods it employed, with casualties among indigenous populations of invaded worlds often far in excess of operational parameters. Attempts to rein in the destructive potential of the Legio Krytos had little effect, its princeps confident that total destruction was the ideal path, an ethos supported by the stoic Iron Warriors.
A Warmaster Iconoclast Heavy Battle Titan and several Warhound-class Scout Titans of the Legio Krytos in combat during the Horus Heresy.
The similarity between Titan Legio and Astartes Legion saw the two develop a lasting fraternity, with the princeps of the God Breakers holding loyalty to Perturabo above all else, save perhaps their own Forge World.
The most apparent explanation for the treachery of the Legio Krytos, who turned against the Emperor during the Horus Heresy, lies with the bonds of fellowship the Titan Legion and its Forge World held with Perturabo and his warriors. Indeed, the god-engines of the Legio Krytos were frequently seen taking to the field of battle alongside the IVth Legion during the fratricidal war that followed.
The destructive nature of the Titan Legion appeared to escalate during the Horus Heresy, its princeps displaying a particular enthusiasm when thrown against the fortifications of the Imperium. Combat records note the frequency with which the Legio Krytos would lay siege to strongholds constructed or garrisoned by the Imperial Fists Legion, a singular focus no doubt motivated by the animosity the Titan Legion's Iron Warriors allies held towards the VIIth Legion.
The god-engines of the Legio Krytos participated in many of the most infamous conflicts of the Horus Heresy, with a demi-Legio dispatched to the Beta-Garmon Cluster along with lesser detachments accompanying Iron Warriors forces across the galaxy. Perhaps the most lasting mark made by the Legio Krytos was upon the once-verdant world of Tallarn, a significant portion of the Titan Legion's strength participating in Perturabo's invasion of the planet. After the primarch unleashed his virus bombs upon Tallarn, the god-engines of Krytos took to the surface under orders to wipe out all survivors.
The ensuing campaign saw the Titan Legion clash with Loyalist armoured companies and the god-engines of the Legio Gryphonicus. The virulent nature of the bombardment unleashed upon Tallarn prevented the fielding of infantry, the Life-eater virus stripping the flesh from any exposed to it. Those of Tallarn that had survived had done so by retreating to subterranean shelters, yet even this did not stop the Legio Krytos from bringing its wrath down upon the planet's defenders. Infamous for the directness of its tactics, the Titan Legion once more proved its ingenuity in the field of siegecraft.
Denied avenues for direct assault upon the subterranean holdfasts of Tallarn, the Legio Krytos instead employed allied Dark Mechanicum Taghmata forces to probe the underground network and, with the aid of tremor-sensors hastily retro-fitted into the Titan Legion's Warhounds, undertook malicious acts of terraforming upon the planet's surface. Great rents were caused in the subterranean complexes, exposing vast sections to the atmosphere above and, in doing so, unleashing the deadly Life-eater virus upon tens of thousands of defenders hidden beneath the surface.
As a mark of its precise brutality, harking back to its ancient war against the Agrenium Convocation, each canyon, crafted by the guns of Legio Krytos Warlords, bore the crude image of a stylised winged hammer, the God Breakers forever leaving its mark upon Tallarn and the Imperium.
As the Heresy progressed, the God Breakers perfected their methods of scorched earth, often fighting alongside the Iron Warriors Legion to reduce a planet to smouldering wastelands, inhabited only by guttered cities and piles of grinning skeletons.
Notable Campaigns[]
- Battle of Tallarn (010-012.M31) - During the Horus Heresy, Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors, launched an all-out planetary invasion of the verdant Imperial staging world of Tallarn, his IVth Legion bolstered by dozens of allied Traitor Imperial Army regiments, the Titans of the Legio Krytos and the Knights of House Caesarean. Both the Loyalist and the Traitor high commands were taken by surprise by Perturabo's actions and the invasion quickly escalated after he ordered an Exterminatus upon the world, scouring its surface of living matter by way of a voracious Life-eater virus bomb barrage. While the population of the once-verdant world was all but wiped out, many defenders survived thanks to extensive subterranean shelters. The ensuing campaign was fought between vast formations of Imperial Army and Solar Auxilia tanks, the Titans of the Legio Gryphonicus, the Knights of House Megron, the indentured Battle-Automata of the household army of the Rogue Trader Sangrea as well as the armoured forces of the Iron Hands, Imperial Fists, White Scars and Ultramarines Legions. No infantry could survive in the poisoned wastes, and the war quickly drew in other forces from across the Segmentum Tempestus. The Battle of Tallarn is considered the largest armoured engagement in the known history of Humanity, and while counted as a victory for the Loyalists, millions of warriors and war machines on both sides were left scattered across the lifeless, deadly surface of the planet.
- Battle of Beta-Garmon, The "Titandeath" (006-013.M31) - The Legio Krytos took part in the long and savage Beta-Garmon campaign, which included hundreds of war zones across dozens of worlds. Even before the greater armies of the Warmaster Horus reached the star cluster, the battle lines had long since been drawn, and fighting had been going on for many Terran years. It was a cauldron of battle that would consume millions of lives before its end and see the demise of entire Titan Legions, earning this campaign the dire moniker, the "Titandeath." The Beta-Garmon Cluster, also known as the gateway to the Throneworld of Terra, was the last hurdle that the Warmaster Horus' forces had to overcome before they reached the Imperium's capital world. Heavily fortified by the Loyalists, Beta-Garmon would become one of the greatest and bloodiest battles of the Horus Heresy, as well as one of the longest lasting. Even as the fires of Istvaan III were cooling, Alpha Legion attack cruisers entered the cluster. A campaign of assassination and sabotage unleashed by the XX Legion paved the way for an assault by an Emperor's Children Millennial, seeking to win back the favour of Fulgrim by bringing the Garmonite lords of Beta-Garmon II to heel. Meanwhile, the Traitor Titans of the Legio Mortis "Reaper" Titan maniples swept away the Loyalist Nemesis brigades defending Beta-Garmon II's capital of Nyrcon City in a matter of solar days. After Nyrcon and the orbiting star fort known as The Anvil were taken, forces across the cluster declared for or against the Warmaster and many of the cluster's worlds descended into civil war.
- Beneath a Blood Red Star (361.012.M31) - The God Breakers came to Alpha-Garmon IX with the order to level the world and rob the Beta-Garmon Cluster of its harvested energy in preparation for the wider Battle of Beta-Garmon. Anticipating the arrival of the Traitor Titans, the planet's Loyalist Martian Domini called out to the Legio Atarus and Legio Astorum for aid, while massing their own regiments of Mechanicum Knight Houses. The resulting conflict turned the black plains of Alpha-Garmon IX to glass with the fury of battle, while Dark Mechanicum War Servitor clades and mutant levies clashed in the tunnels below with the defenders. During the battle, many of the world's tesla-spines are felled -- their kilometres-long spires crashing down among the fighting Titans.
- The Titandeath (356.013.M31) - More than twenty Legios and hundreds of Titans converged on Beta-Garmon II as the Loyalists sought to strike a decisive blow to reclaim Nycron City and clear the system of Traitors. Shoulder to shoulder, the Loyalists met their enemies in battle like infantry formations facing off, only on a much grander scale. Knight banners raced around their feet like hunting hounds. Many Titan Legions are extinguished forever in the days of battle that followed, and even legendary formations such as the Legio Astorum and Legio Fureans are reduced to a fraction of their initial size. By the time that the Loyalists reached the shattered walls of Nycron, both sides were staggering over fields of fallen god-machines, while the light from Beta-Garmon II's burning hive cities was visible from space.
- The Needle Breaks (788.013.M31) - The tipping point of the Beta Garmon campaign comes in the shadow of the Carthega Telepathica on Beta-Garmon III, its astropaths still screaming out for aid from Terra. Having pinned the bulk of the Loyalist forces against the defences of Caldera Hive, only a handful of Loyalist Titans drawn from different Legions defend the Diviner's Needle along with their Knight allies, among them the Legio Defensor, Legio Astorum, Legio Atarus and Legio Solaria -- some reduced to a single maniple of undamaged war machines. Unbroken by solar months of fighting, the Legio Mortis led a massive host of Traitor Titan Legions against the tower's defences, the Titans and Chaos Knights marching up through the toxic storms to battle on the mountain top, and ultimately bring the spire down. As it fell, a psychic scream reached out across the cluster and beyond, spreading dismay and horror to all Loyalists it reached. Though the fighting at Beta-Garmon continued until Horus stood at the gates of Terra, and long after, history recorded this as the point when the fate of the cluster was sealed, and the Warmaster's armies began their final march toward the heart of the Imperium.
Legion Combat Doctrine[]
Legio Krytos is a hammer that knows only one way of waging war -- to crush its enemies utterly beneath the repeated blows of its Titans.
While the Legion fields Warhound and Reaver Titans, its commanders favour deploying its Warlord Titans into potent battlegroups, and use their massed firepower to obliterate opponents.
The God Breakers' maniples are methodical in their destruction of the battlefield, turning forests into seas of flame and buildings into clouds of dust and ash. Over the course of the Horus Heresy, their princeps mastered the means of bringing down structures, and were experts at identifying their weak points.
The swirling flames of a dying world can be a hostile environment, even for a great god-machine like a Battle Titan. The God Breakers routinely endured these adverse conditions, and developed tactics to deal with them.
Notable Titans[]
- Hammer of Tyrants (Warlord-class Titan) - Warlord Battle Titans are among the greatest war machines of the Collegia Titanica and among the God Breakers, these towering beasts are revered as deities of destruction. Hammer of Tyrants, shown above, fought in the Delta Garmon II landings and bore the scars of this battle upon its armoured plates. While other Legions busied themselves restoring the heraldry and iconography of their god-engines, the Legio Krytos allowed their enemies to see that their maniples had already tasted war and embraced the carnage they had wrought upon their foe.
- Black Arrow (Reaver-class Titan) - Black Arrow, shown in the gallery below, was typical of those Reaver Battle Titans that the Legio Krytos used on Beta Garmon II during the assault on Hive Caldera. In this battle, the God Breakers used their Reaver Titans as a spearhead to reach the hive city's gates before the storm closed in, while Warlord Titans provided covering fire and Warhound Titans covered the flanks. It proved to be an effective tactic, the relative speed and armour of the Reaver making it well-suited to the task of creating a breakthrough and then exploiting it fully.
- Apostate of Days (Warhound-class Titan)
- Curse of Iron (Warhound-class Titan)
- Grateful Punishment (Warhound-class Titan)
- Havoc (Warhound-class Titan)
- Manus Infernum (Warhound-class Titan)
- Night's Hunter (Warhound-class Titan)
- Oedium Aelemium (Warhound-class Titan)
- Tyrant's Torment (Warhound-class Titan)
- Wolf Scythe (Warhound-class Titan)
Notable Personnel[]
- Yavar the Pitiless - Yavar the Pitiless was the Princeps of the Warhound-class Titan Grateful Punishment during the Horus Heresy. In the closing days of the Beta-Garmon campaign, Yavar led the Legio Krytos Lupercal Light Maniples. Its Princeps at first resented his role, jealous of his peers tasked to heavier Titans and siege breaking tactics. By the end of the war though, Yavar had learned the true joy of crushing the wounded and weak beneath the tread of his Warhound, ultimately earning a dark reputation for the Grateful Punishment and the Lupercal Light Maniple as a weapon of war.
Legion Allies[]
Knight Houses[]
Space Marines[]
Legion Strength[]
Recorded as a Secundus-grade Titan Order shortly before the onset of the Horus Heresy, the principal strength of the Legio Krytos lay in its Warlord-class Battle Titans, with Reaver-class Titans their main support. In total, the operational numbers of the Legio Krytos were estimated at 115-140 when the Titan Legion sided with the cause of the Warmaster Horus, with over half this number consisting of Warlords, many constructed during the conflict with the Agrenium Convocation.
Owing to its preference for siege tactics and direct action, the Legio Krytos invested significantly in the construction of Warbringer Nemesis Titans, with nearly two-dozen recorded as operational during the [[Great Crusade]]. Three God Breakers Imperator-class Titans are also noted to have existed, of which at least one was always stationed upon the Forge World of Krytos.
Lastly, the strength of the Legio Krytos during the Horus Heresy was, like many ancient Titan Legions of similar standing, augmented by the emergence of the Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan. Unsurprisingly, examples of Warmaster Titans fielded by the Legio Krytos were almost exclusively the Warmaster Iconoclast variant, its nature as a siege engine proving highly compatible with the Titan Legion's preferred medium of war.
Legion Appearance[]
Livery of the Legio Krytos, displaying the Hammer of Krytos iconography.
Legion Colours[]
The god-engines of the Legio Krytos march in gray-green and white with gold trim.
Legion Badge[]
This Traitor Titan Legion's badge is a stylised winged warhammer known as the Hammer of Krytos centred upon a livery shield containing the Legion's heraldic colours of white, green and red.
When the Legion turned Traitor, this seal was often hammered over icons of allegiance to the Emperor, masking the Aquila or the Cog Mechanicum symbols of Mars.
The Hammer of Krytos harkens back to the Legion's origins and the mythos of its Forge World, reputably wrought from a dead rock by the Omnissiah's hook-tooth hammer.
Beyond these icons of the Legio, Krytos banners bear the signum nobilis and campaign skulls of their kin, though the God Breakers like to show the scars of battle upon their maniples, and so many of their war banners show the tears and rents of recent action, with some even reduced to tattered rags bearing only a faint trace of the Legio's colours.
Sources[]
- Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Titandeath (Specialty Game), pp. 14-17, 45-49, 66-67, 78-79, 91-95
- Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Rulebook (Specialty Game), pp. 14-17, 60-61
- Adeptus Titanicus - The Horus Heresy: Traitor Legios (Specialty Game), pp. 38-43
- White Dwarf (Aug 2018), "Parad Ground - The God-Machines March", pg. 108
- Tallarn: Ironclad (Novel) Ch. 3, by John French
- Titandeath (Novel) by Guy Haley
- Black Rowan Games Online Store - Adeptus Titanicus: Legio Krytos Tranfer Sheet
- Games Workshop Online Store - Legio Krytos Transfer Sheet
- Warhammer Community - Adeptus Titanicus: Old Alliances (26 Feb 2019)
- Warhammer Community - Titandeath: The Legions of the War for Beta-Garmon (18 Jan 2019)
- Warhammer Community - Adeptus Titanicus Part 5: Miniatures Showcase (10 Aug 2018)
- Warhammer Community - Adeptus Titanicus Part 3: War on a New Scale (08 Aug 2018)
- Warhammer Community - Adeptus Titanicus Part 2: The Horus Heresy (07 Aug 2018)
- Warhammer Community - The Horus Heresy at Blood and Glory (24 Oct 2017)
Gallery[]
.png "Legio Krytos Warlord Titan (Top).png (759 KB)")
