Iron Lords

"Only when the last xenos has been scoured from the galaxy shall the Imperium know peace."

— Captain Do'tharri, Iron Lords 4^th Company

Iron Lords
Warcry	"Iron of vigil, iron of grip!" The warcry is intoned usually by two Iron Lords. The first says "Iron of vigil" and the second replies, "Iron of grip." The warcry can begin with either of the two statements.
Founding	Unknown
Successors of	Iron Hands
Successor Chapters	Unknown
Number	Unknown
Primarch	Ferrus Manus
Chapter Master	Unknown
Homeworld	Sternac
Fortress-Monastery	Heorot
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Black and red

The Iron Lords is a rare Successor Chapter of the venerable Iron Hands, created during an unknown Founding. The Iron Lords are known for their exceptionally stern demeanor and absolute and commendable hatred for all xenos life.

The Iron Lords played major roles in combating aggressive xenos species, including the Barghesi, the Tyranids and the T'au.

Chapter History

Iron Lords Chapter colour scheme as displayed by a Firstborn Veteran Space Marine of the 1st Company.

Ever since the 38th Millennium, it has been the duty of the Iron Lords to maintain the blockade of the Grendl Stars, confining the vile alien species known as the Barghesi within that region of space until the Imperium can muster enough resources to exterminate them as a threat to Mankind.

In recent years, the Iron Lords have battled the tendrils of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken as it sweeps through the Grendl Stars, leading the Iron Lords to engage in one desperate battle after another with ever-greater swarms of bio-engineered horrors.

Iron Lords Chapter colour scheme as displayed by Primaris Marine Brother Gaphor, 3rd Company, 1st Squad (battleline). The colour of the helmet stripe denotes company.

Should the Kraken be allowed to assimilate the genetic potential of the Barghesi, the results would be dire indeed for the galaxy. The Iron Lords have vowed in the name of the Emperor to prevent this at all costs, a vow they will honour with the life of every battle-brother in the Chapter if needs be. But the Iron Lords have suffered greatly in upholding this oath.

Notable Campaigns

• Grendl Stars Campaign (Unknown Date.M38) - The Iron Lords were responsible for driving back the hyper-aggressive xenos known as the Barghesi to their home in the Grendl Stars.

• Judgement of Hellenus (801.M41) - Inquisitor Hector Rex assumed direct control over the entire 279^th Assault Armada of the Navis Imperialis and ordered the mutant population of Hellenus purged for crimes against genetic purity. At the height of this purge, a combined strike force consisting of Space Marines form the Iron Lords, Skull Bearers and Sons of Guilliman Chapters was gathered together to confront the mutant abominations holding the enemy capital. During this confrontation, the Iron Lords contingent became tainted by the mutants' hideous gene-taint, forcing their fellow Space Marines to purge them as well.

• Cleansing of Eurydice (Unknown Date.M41) - Four squads of the Iron Lords' 3rd Company assaulted the nesting-crypts of a previously unknown xenos species attacking the frontier worlds of the Imperium along the Trailing Marches of the Eurydice Sector. The alien species was exterminated.

• Hive Fleet Kraken (992.M41) - The Iron Lords have so far been successful in preventing the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Kraken from entering the Grendl Stars and thus harvesting the genetic potential of the vicious Barghesi species.

• Defence of Valedor (997.M41) - The Tyranid Hive Fleet Leviathan overran the Ecclesiarchy world of Valedor in a matter of solar hours, slaughtering the entire population of pilgrims and Adeptus Ministorum priests, as well as overwhelming a battle barge of the Iron Lords Chapter. A small force of battle-sisters from the Order of the Sacred Rose represented the only Humans to bear witness to the event, having barely fought their way clear of the carnage.

• Zeist Campaign (999.M41) - The Iron Lords answered the summons of Marneus Calgar, the Lord Macragge and Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, for a force of Space Marines to throw back the expansion of the T'au Empire in the Eastern Fringe in 999.M41. The Chapter participated in the successfully punitive Zeist Campaign.

• Second Relief of Mordian ("Iron Crusade") (Unknown Date.M42) - As Imperial forces withdrew from the Stygius Sector during the Invasion of the Stygius Sector, the Iron Hands refused to retreat and instead gathered on Mordian, itself under siege from Chaos forces. Alongside a mere dozen or so regiments of the Astra Militarum's Mordian Iron Guard, the Iron Hands sought to reforge themselves and purge the weakness they had displayed earlier in the campaign. During the siege the Iron Hands were joined by allies enraged by the defeatism of the Imperial forces, among them the Brazen Claws, Fire Lords, Silver Skulls, Sons of Medusa, and Iron Lords in what became known as the "Iron Crusade." They arrived on Mordian to find the planet terrorised by a Night Lords warband under the command of Ahrak Deathshriek and his Raptor hordes. Deathshriek planned to use the terror his Heretic Astartes created in the Mordian population to power a sorcerous Chaos ritual that would plunge the entire world into the Warp. The Iron Hands and their allies struck with customary bluntness, emerging without warning from the Warp and engaging the Traitor fleet in orbit and launching a Drop Pod assault on Mordian's capital. Clan Avernii under Iron Captain Caanok Var led the charge and Deathshriek drove his Chaos Cultists into the Iron Hands' guns. One by one, the remaining Iron Hands Clan Companies joined the battle and Deathshriek was wounded in single combat by Caanok Var. Even as the Iron Hands' drop zone came under fresh assault from the Traitoris Militarum Benedictian Guard and the Cult of the Whispered Word, Renegade warlords from across the sector united in their realisation that the Iron Hands could be wholly destroyed. With the Loyalist assault faltering, Deathshriek claimed victory as he led his fleet against the Iron Hands in space, outnumbering their warships three to one. It was at this point that the Iron Hands Successor Chapters arrived. Deathshriek's armada was caught in disarray by the Loyalist reinforcements and crushed. The newly-arrived Loyalist warships rained obliteration below on the Mordian populace. The orbital bombardment seemed indiscriminate, but nothing could have been further from the truth. The tactical doctrine known as "Hammer and the Storm" had been pursued planetside as well as in the trackless void, the Iron Hands' assault calculated to stir the Renegades and Traitors into reckless deeds. What had seemed a faltering Loyalist advance had merely paused while the Iron Hands Techmarines laboured to erect planetside void shields and reinforce the capital city's surviving bunkers. Thus the Iron Hands and those portions of the Mordian populace they deemed worthy of survival endured the orbital firestorm. Their foes, caught in the open and drunk on the prospect of their imminent victory, were not so fortunate. In a little over one solar hour's bombardment, the Chaos hold on Mordian was broken for the second time. Eventually other Imperial reinforcements arrived from Cypra Mundi and the Iron Crusade was able to not only push the Chaos forces off Mordian, but to counterattack Chaos garrisons on nearby worlds. The Iron Hands' governing Iron Council then unleashed a second phase of the campaign, with a plan to scour the surviving worlds of the Mordian System of their Chaos presence and wrest the refineries and orbital shipyards of the neighbouring Kharvos System from Chaos. At present, the campaign is ongoing.

• War for the Aberrus System (Unknown Date.M42) - Captain Nikeras of the Iron Lords' 2nd Company led a strike force composed of elements from the 2nd, 8th and 10th Companies to the Aberrus System alongside forces drawn from the Lamenters, Knights of the Raven and Scythes of the Emperor Chapters. There, the Adeptus Astartes served as crucial reinforcements in defending the system from an assault by a tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken. While the Space Marines helped to stabilise the ongoing conflict and raise Imperial morale, they did not realise that Inquisitor Shalisha Talaris of the Ordo Xenos had learned from her void watchers that a second tendril of the Kraken, twice the size of the first, was about to assault Aberrus. She feared that if the Tyranids could not be defeated, the hive fleet would sweep into the Grendl Stars and claim the genetic material of the hyperviolent Barghesi for themselves, putting the fate of the entire Eastern Fringe at risk.

Grendl Stars

The Grendl Stars are a constellation of stars located on the far Eastern Fringe of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Imperium Nihilus. The region was once known as the "Wings of Sanguinius" and is sometimes referred to as "the Fourteen." The region is known to harbour the hyper-violent xenos species called the Barghesi.

The Iron Lords have proved instrumental in confining the Barghesi to the Grendl Stars for the last three thousand standard years, and also in preventing the destructive biological potential of the species from being harvested by the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Kraken.

The Barghesi are held within the Iron Lords' "Iron Grip" pending the massing of Imperial forces with strength enough to exterminate the Barghesi forever. No such Imperial Crusade has been forthcoming, and with the birth of the Great Rift, now seems all but impossible.

The Grendl Stars are surrounded by Imperial beacons that warn interstellar travellers to "avoid at all costs," though this has not prevented pirates and fugitives from delving into the Fourteen's depths in search of sanctuary. Most are dead within solar months, often slain by xenos. The others are identified and destroyed by one of the Iron Lords' fourteen fortresses of the Iron Grip, the "Holdfasts," that are responsible for monitoring each star of the region.

Notable Iron Lords

• Captain Nikeras - Nikeras is the captain of the Iron Lords' 2nd Company. He was tasked with commanding the Iron Lords strike force composed of elements from the 2nd, 8th and 10th Companies that participated in the War for the Aberrus System against Hive Fleet Kraken.

• Deathwatch Sergeant Sotorr - Sotorr is an Iron Lord who has been seconded to the Deathwatch. He is currently serving at the watch fortress on Talasa Prime as the sergeant of Kill-team Sotorr.

• Deathwatch Librarian Heathobar - Heathobar was an Iron Lords Librarian seconded to the Deathwatch watch fortress Eye of Octos' Company Secundus. Company Secundus was commanded by Watch Captain Daox Glykas, who joined his forces with those of Inquisitor Athocles van Roth, a psyker, during the Era Indomitus. The Inquisitor used this combined strike force to defend himself as he sought to master using the Ork technology known as Baddkrasha's Crown that was capable of disrupting Tyranid synapse creatures and was located on the Ork and Tyranid-infested Aeldari Maiden World of Veloria. However the activation of the Ork device drew numerous Ork warships to the Baddkrasha's Crown's location. The Deathwatch fleet retreated to avoid being destroyed, but van Roth came up with a plan to allow his forces to escape, though it would require the Imperials to work with the Craftworld Aeldari they discovered had been left stranded on Veloria. When Glykas explained this to his Watch Company, many of the Astartes were opposed to working with any xenos, even at the cost of their lives. The Deathwatch were ultimately convinced to accept van Roth's plan by the arguments made by Heathobar. The Librarian explained that following the Inquisitor's plan would give them the best chance to prevent the Orks from reclaiming Baddkrasha's Crown, which the Watch Company had first taken from King Mek Baddkrasha. Glykas commanded a portion of the Watch Company and went to aid van Roth and the Craftworld Aeldari. Meanwhile, Heathobar was given command of the other half of the Watch Company and possession of Baddkrasha's Crown itself. The Librarian made use of it himself to lure the newly-arrived Orks into the numerous Tyranid swarms on Veloria. Heathobar succeeded in doing so, but in the end he was the only member of his team to escape the battle between the xenos that followed. Heathobar returned to van Roth's camp to find it being overrun by the Orks and his allies slaughtered. Unfortunately, when Heathobar used the Crown to lure the Orks towards him, it had done the same for the Orks that were already on Veloria. This had led the Greenskins directly to the camp and, with their fleet also overwhelmed, van Roth's forces were not able to escape from the Maiden World.

Chapter Relics

• Entropic Field Generator - The Entropic Field Generator is a specialised entropic force field emitter. Since their Founding, the Iron Lords have kept an unflinching watch on the Grendl Stars where the alien Barghesi dwell, and have developed many specialised armaments with which to assist their age-old vigil. The Entropic Field Generator is one such tool, favoured even over the Iron Halo in protection against the Barghesi's vile assaults. The Deathwatch Techmarines and Forge Masters of Watch Fortress Erioch have never uncovered the secrets of its manufacture and its existence is something of a mystery even to the Iron Lords, credited with presenting the device to the stewards of the watch fortress several centuries ago. Regardless, the utility of the unique device cannot be denied. Any attack passing through the field generated by the emitter is assaulted by the ravages of decay as the local entropy is dramatically increased, causing energy to flicker out, flesh to rot, and projectiles to lose their force.

Chapter Appearance

Stylised Chapter badge of the Iron Lords set before the Grendl Stars constellation. The gauntleted left fist holds a spiked halo. This most obviously represents the Iron Grip the Chapter's fourteen Holdfast fortresses have placed on the Grendyl Stars -- a sign of strength, tenacity and implacability.

Chapter Colours

The Iron Lords' power armour is painted black with red thigh plates and greaves. The rest of the armour is black, save for the Aquila or Imperialis on the breastplate which is golden.

The white squad tactical specialty symbol -- battleline, close support, fire support, Veteran or command -- is indicated on the right shoulder pauldron or the right shin plate.

A black High Gothic numeral is stenciled on the centre of the squad specialty symbol, which indicates squad number.

The colour of the helm stripe indicates which company the individual battle-brother belongs to, as dictated by the Codex Astartes -- i.e. white (1^st Company), yellow (2^nd Company), red (3^rd Company), green (4^th Company), etc.

Chapter Badge

The Iron Lords' Chapter badge is a silver fist, in a similar style to the Imperial Fists, gripping the bottom of a white Iron Halo. This is centred on a field of black.

Sources

• Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pg. 57
• Codex: Deathwatch (7th Edition), pg. 17
• Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pp. 29-30, 48
• Codex: Space Marines (6th Edition), pp. 71, 147
• Codex: Space Marines (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pg. 143
• Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pg. 56
• Codex: Space Marines (9th Edition), pp. 24-25, 71
• Codex Supplement: Iron Hands (8th Edition), pp. 32-33
• Deathwatch - Honour the Chapter (RPG), pg. 127
• Imperial Armour Volume Two (Second Edition) - War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes, pp. 21-23, 200
• Insignium Astartes, pg. 54
• War Zone Octarius Book 1: Rising Tide (9th Edition), pp. 22-27, 31
• The Successors: A Space Marine Anthology (Anthology), "Iron Lords: Iron Watch" by Callum Davis

Gallery

An Iron Lords Firstborn Tactical Marine

Insignium Astartes page depicting the Iron Lords Chapter colour scheme.

An Iron Lords Assault Terminator in Indomitus Pattern Terminator Armour armed with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield.