Index Astartes - Iron Warriors: Guardians of Heaven and Wardens of Hell

The dour sons of Perturabo eternally man the walls of the Iron Cages, keeping the horrible forces of Chaos at bay. They guard the Solar System alongside the Adeptus Custodes but are given no glory. They take the jobs no one wants, digging trenches and grinding attrition. They are considered thoughtless and cultureless brutes, but nothing could be further from the truth. Each and every Iron Warrior has the soul of an artist just like Perturabo, and like there gene-father they realize the necessity of their tasks. They know the walls of the galactic hells must be held, and the foolishness of the Tau prevented from unleashing the lords of the Ruinstorm. Even in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium they do these jobs. Just like Perturabo they know that the dreams of peace and artisan works died when Vulkan struck down the Emperor, but just like Perturabo they still make blueprints and sketches of their arts. For the only thing keeping the Imperium together is hope, and there must always be hope.

Origins

Humanity has always tried to defend itself with fortresses and to wall off great dangers. And the Imperium is no different, as the Iron Warriors man the great Iron Cages, literal cages surrounding the galactic hells that are the four great Warpstorms, the Eye of Terror, the Ruinstorm, the Maelstrom and the Screaming Vortex. While the myriad worlds of the Baator empire exist scattered throughout the galaxy and other minor Warpstorms also exist, it is these four grand hells that pose the greatest threat. In addition, the Solar System is itself a great fortress, with the outer planets serving as grand defensive forts and the asteroid belt being a massive trench full of traps mundane and exotic. Between Mars and Terra orbits the Phalanx, purged of all Tzeentchian influence, and turned against chaos. Terra itself is the most defended planet in the galaxy, as befits its role as the Throneworld. The genius behind these grand defenses is Perturabo, fourth son of the Emperor, the Iron Lord, and the Praetorian of Terra.

The pod of the child who would become Perturabo landed upon Olympia, a rocky and harsh world long ago stripped of most of its resources long ago and was divided into city states made out of stone. Indeed, Olympia's stone reserves are nigh endless, and even in the 41st millennium shows no signs of ever being depleted. Perturabo landed in the palace of Dammekos, the tyrant of the city state Lochos. Dammekos was a strange ruler, having great cruelty and being feared by other city states yet ultimately being a kind ruler who tried to do what was best for his people. He would listen to their concerns and explain what he was doing and why he asked them to make sacrifices. He was a far cry from such rulers like the tyrants of Inwit or the Witch Lords of Barbarus. When he saw the child he adopted him, naming him Perturabo after the ancient hero who long ago build the fortress that keeps Lochos safe. Perturabo and his new family bonded, and when he was fully grown he had joined Dammekos in an effort to unite Olympia.


Dammekos looked up from his work to see Perturabo in front of him, holding a sheet of paper. Perturabo smiled and said, "Hey dad, I made a plan for a fortress, can you please critique it?" Dammekos looked at the drawing and was struck by how beautiful and functional it was. It broke his heart to tell Perturabo what he did, "Son, I am sorry. This is beautiful, but it cannot be built." Perturabo frowned and asked, "Why not?" Dammekos sighed and explained, "Our world was strip-mined long ago, most of this fortress cannot be made without resources that either don't exist here or cannot be spared. There are nobles much more selfish than I and would see us dead and our people enslaved. But it's a great design son, you should keep working on it." Perturabo nodded and hoped to help end the war so at least some of his work could be shared with others.


When Perturabo had become fully grown, he helped his father to conquer Olympia. Always before any attack a message would be sent, offering peace and aid to those who accepted it in turn. After the first arrogant nobles refused and were conquered by the forces of Lochos wielding weapons made by Perturabo, and the power of such weapons were revealed to those who were offered peace afterwards. Indeed, it was Perturabo who took the initiative at uniting Olympia, for Dammekos did not initially want to conquer Olympia but sensed the natural destiny of all Primarchs, which as to conquer there home (Angron is an exception through no fault of his own).

Perturabo soon conquered his world, and with Dammekos running things he turned to artistic pursuits, making what he could with the resources available to him and made many plans for those he couldn't make. The Emperor found Perturabo soon after his conquest, and Perturabo immediately recognized the Emperor as his maker. He excitedly showed the Emperor his myriad plans for his artistic works, and the Emperor told him of his gene-sons and of the Great Crusade. Perturabo was saddened that more war was required but was excited for he knew once the Great Crusade was over he could work on his artistic pursuits free of limitations in resources. Olympia became a loyal imperial world and Dammekos happily accepted the title of Planetary Governor, for the title of Tyrant had always left a bad taste in his mouth. Perturabo also had his family become Half-bloods, so they could live as long as he would.

The Great Crusade

"My sons, I know your reputation as harsh warriors, those willing to do what must be done. Corpse-grinders they nickname you. I myself have a reputation on my home, and no doubt we shall gain such a reputation during this Great Crusade. I bet they will call us Trench Diggers and give us the grunt work. But do not despair my sons, for I know that like me you have artistic souls. Like me you want so badly to bring beauty into the galaxy and let me tell you this: we will. We will work wonders that will rival the monuments of Rome or the Pyramids of Egypt, but first we must fight. We will fight against the barbarians that care nothing for beauty, against the traitors who value power over the happiness of the people. Let our detractors call us brutes, let them call us Trench Diggers, for the glory of war is not the glory we seek. Leave that glory to the true brutes like Leman Russ or Rogal Dorn, who truly enjoy the horror that is war. But once peace prevails our works shall endure long after war is but a bad tale told by mothers to scare their children into behaving. The road shall be hard, but we are the Iron Warriors, and hear this, our Unbreakable Litany. Iron Within, Iron Without!"

extract from Perturabo's speech upon receiving command of his legion

The fourth legion was recruited from the savage gun tribes of terra, whose origins rested in the Preppers of old earth. There had always been those who believed the apocalypse would occur in their lifetime, and they were always a bit off, to put it politely. When the Age of Strife hit, they were in no more prepared for it than any other group had been. They eventually devolved into the gun tribes, yet another classification of techno barbarian. Unlike most of the techno barbarians they immediately joined forces with the Emperor when he appeared before them, with their sons becoming the first of the fourth legion.

Early on they showed there strength as both builders of fortresses and as siege breakers, and during the unification war they brought down the wall of hell that protected the celestial empire of china and the Emperor personally killed the Black Jade Emperor who ruled said empire, proving that the black jade emperor didn't have the power of a god. During the conquest of the solar system the Emperor led them against the war witches of Venus, and the fourth legion shattered the litho-golems that served the psykers. They had no official nickname like the other legions, but they were frequently called corpse grinders for their willingness to sacrifice the imperial army regiments with them. As such, penal legions and other such expendable imperial army assets were sent to the fourth legion.

Most of the soon to be Iron Warriors did have artistic tendency's, making plans for things they knew they could never make much like Perturabo. However, the cruel and calculating interim commander (as those Astartes who led the legions before there Primarchs were found were called) Barabas Dantioch absolutely hated this phenomena. He was a cruel and angry leader, seeing war as a mere numbers game. He frequently burned these plans and forced the distraught Astartes to watch, enjoying their sobs and screams of anguish. His own hatred of beauty came from the fact that his face was mangled and deformed during a campaign against the Hrud, and he wore an iron mask to hide his scarred and ugly visage. His own tendency to use degenerated clones to supplement his forces also made him unpopular with the Imperium at large.

It was soon before Olympia was found that the Decimation occurred, and Barabas Dantioch met his end. The xenos known as the Mesmers were unwilling to unify and their powers of mind control and worship of a heathen god (now believed by the Inquisition to be a face of Tzeench) meant the only recourse was there annihilation. The fourth legion met them in battle, and soon they found that their own minds could be controlled by the foul xenos. One tenth of the legion fell and had be killed by their brothers, and while the Mesmers were killed Barabas Dantioch was killing during this campaign. The circumstances of his death are shrouded in mystery, and it is unknown if he was mind controlled, was killed by one of his clones (who were unanimously controlled by the Mesmers) or if something less noble happened. Even if the third possibility occurred, the combined facts that he was hated by everyone, was not a very good leader and that Perturabo was found a mere week after the Mesmer campaign ended means that the exact specifics don't matter.

Perturabo soon became fast friends with Magnus, bonding over there shared love of knowledge. Indeed, Perturabo quickly gained a fascination with the Warp, having always suspected that there was more to the universe than the physical. Quickly the Iron Warrior Librarians became masters of the art of warding and sigils, the geometric configurations appealing to them. And to Magnus was shared Perturabo's greatest secret, that no matter where he was he felt the glare of the Galactic warp storm that once was the old eldar empire. It was Perturabo that gave it the name it bears to this day, the Eye of Terror.

The biggest rivalry was undoubtedly with Rogal Dorn. Both were great siege breakers and fortress builders, but Rogal knew that Perturabo was better than him, and he hated his brother for that. Indeed, the only reason Rogal was praised was because Perturabo didn't put his whole genius into his siege breaking and fortress building, focusing on artistic pursuits for the future. Rogal was ultimately the brute everyone perceived Perturabo to be, and thus Rogal was eternally struck by insecurities. Once Fulgrim asked Perturabo if he could make a fortress that Rogal couldn't break into, and he replied with a Shrug and a "Maybe." This enraged Rogal in the extreme, for he saw Perturabo's disinterest as a dismissal of his skills.

When Horus became the Warmaster Perturabo was amongst those who didn't have a major reaction, for he considered Horus a competent commander but was still not interested in the art of war. When the issue of psykers came to a head he and his gene-sons created the colosseum that housed the debate, and he argued in favor of psykers. It is unknown if Rogal was always going to argue against psykers or if it was Perturabo arguing in favor of them that caused him to change his tune, but in the end the Emperor ruled in favor of the Libarious. Afterwards he declared Perturabo the Praetorian of Terra, which enraged Rogal even further. Perturabo knew that there was no threat to the solar system, and realized this was his first true artistic endeavor, as such it would be a grand and glorious work. He took most of his sons with him, leaving some token forces to man other fortifications and continue the Great Crusade, but most of the Iron Warriors aided their father in fortifying the solar system.

His fortifications spread from the Imperial Palace to the Oort cloud itself, and while he was careful to not harm any of the beauty of the solar system he still made the fortifications able to withstand any attack Perturabo could think of. The defenses that existed before the heresy could fill an entire tome, while those added during the scouring and afterwards could fill an entire library. For many years Perturabo worked on the defenses, and soon before the horrible events that began the heresy in earnest he and his legion went back to Olympia to retrieve his plans for various grand additions, including a modified dyson sphere that would allow Sol's light to shine but also be harnessed. What they found was Olympia under attack by xenos and suffering from revolt.

Pre-Heresy: the Olympia War

"My family is gone; my home is burning. Those xenos said Rogal was responsible, but why would he commit such treachery? No, treachery is to soft a word. Why would he commit this Heresy?"

Perturabo to the trident in the aftermath of the Olympia War.

The Olympia war might seem to most outsiders as two separate events occurring at the same time, but as with most things influenced by Tzeench the root cause is the same. The Gedehams, the horrible xenos responsible for driving Rogal Dorn mad, attacked Olympia while the noble class led a revolt against Imperial rule, but it was all the Gedehams who caused it. The noble class had fallen victim to the unique side effect of the Gedehams model of faster than light travel, which had alerted the Imperium to their existence in the first place. The nobles had never truly been broken, their dreams and ambitions merely pushed to the wayside in the name of survival. At first it was Perturabo's weapons that put them in line, then it was the promise of the Imperium's overwhelming retribution. But the horrible buzzing of the approaching Gedehams fleet opened their minds to the whispers of Tzeench, and soon their ambition flared to the point that not even the Emperor himself would be able to cow them into submission.

The nobles literally stabbed Dammekos in the back while Herakon was drowned in a cask of amatikalo, a red wine that he planned to drink with Perturabo. It was then that the Gedehams attacked, and the treacherous nobles were destroyed by the xenos. Andros and Calliphone fought the Gedehams and died in the process, making sure Perturabo learned of the attack. Perturabo was enraged and sorrowful, knowing full well that only the complete and utter annihilation of the hive's set up by the Gedehams. He was forced to burn much of his homeworld, and in the wreckage of his childhood home he dueled the slave-general of the Gedehams, which had been driven mad by Rogal Dorn's destruction of all those higher than it, forcing the full might of the geasa-hive network upon it.

The monster babbled typical Tzeentchian nonsense, but when it realized Perturabo wasn't listening it revealed why the Gedehams had attacked Olympia. Rogal Dorn had ordered them too, and it left out his now total subservience to Tzeench to try to spread distrust amongst the loyal Primarchs. The Slave-General spoke of things only someone who had engaged in extended contact with Rogal Dorn could know. Eventually Perturabo brought down his Thunder hammer upon the Slave general, killing it and destroying the last of the Gedehams by forcing the geasa-hive upon the non-royals of the species.

The backlash destroyed the Thunder hammer he wielded, and Perturabo looked upon his home. His family was dead, and his home was on fire, and this was too much for him. He didn't know if there was a better way, but he had let his rage at his family's death prevent him from finding it. He fell to his knees sobbing, and when the trident found him hours later he was whispering that the Emperor would never forgive them. The trident managed to bring him out of his shock, and he and the Iron Warriors went back to Terra to face the Emperors judgement. They were greeted with horrible news, that of Prospero's Rotting and of the Istvaan Atrocities. They were forgiven Olympia's destruction (as they would have been were the Heresy not happening) and quickly began reinforcing the defenses of Terra.


Perturabo gripped Forgebreaker tightly, it's heft strangely familiar, as if it were an old friend. How Alpharius got it he didn't know, but it was free of whatever madness had tainted his brothers. Magnus knew just what it was, but he didn't really explain it well. Whatever had caused it didn't matter, what mattered is he had a job to do. He had to fortify the solar system, and he couldn't let his sorrow or grief distract him. His adoptive family was dead, and now his biological family was tearing itself asunder, and tearing the galaxy and the Imperium with it. Indeed, the very weapon he held had killed his brother Fulgrim, the very brother who forged it. He refused to let all the deaths of his family be in vein, the solar system would endure, and the Emperors dream would be a reality.


The Heresy: the Solar War

While there were many Iron Warriors defending the fortresses they built across the galaxy, the majority of the legion was involved in what would be called the solar war. Throughout the heresy the very solar system was wracked by civil war, and they had to divide their attentions between reinforcing the defenses and putting down rebellions on all the worlds. Chaos cults arose, either having hidden in the woodworks, being born from Vulkan's kindness, or arising from one of Guillimans contributions to the heresy. For most of the heresy he imprisoned the Word Bearers and World Eaters in the Ruinstorm, while Marius Gage and Aeonid Thiel each led a fourth of the legion in the wider galaxy. But Roboute was a master of Daemons, and for the solar system he summoned the Changeling.


the Changeling, the trickster of Tzeench

This daemon is the embodiment of Tzeench's deception, and the only being it cannot mimic perfectly is Tzeench himself. He is given much autonomy by his god and has even played practical jokes on the other chaos gods. His true form is a cloaked humanoid, and within his cloak his face is ever shifting, for he himself does not remember his face. Tzeench knows his face, and for the laughs does not let him know. The changeling has many dark deeds to its name, and its mastery of disguise can only be pierced by beings whose power level reaches the divine. As such, only the chaos gods and eldar gods can instantly tell if it is the changeling. However, if a Primarch has discovered the changeling before, they can instantly pierce the disguise afterwards.

However, unless Tzeench gives it a mission it will always twist the words of its binders. Indeed, a Slannesh corrupted governor asked the changeling, in the form of a keeper of secrets, for something to end the siege of his world by the Dark Angels. He was given a homing beacon that alerted the Death Guard to his world. Only during the solar war did he not twist the orders, for he feared the Emperors victory just as much as the other Daemons did.


All across the solar system, the Changeling resurrected enemy's thought destroyed and created cults from scratch. Perturabo managed to pierce its disguise once and thus gained an immunity to his illusions, but he couldn't be everywhere at once. The Changeling spread cults like wildfire, most notably resurrecting the war witches and causing a revolt amongst some of the Selenar. But the main fighting of the solar war occurred on Mars.

The Mechanicus is a separate empire allied with the Imperium, much like the Ulthwe alliance. Born upon Mars, they are the keepers of technology, and their rites appease the machine spirits of the devices necessary to the survival of the Imperium. The Mechanicus buckled under the Emperors rightful restrictions on forbidden research, banning such topics as Abominable Intelligence and chaos corrupted technology. Indeed, when the "what if" is considered, it is surprising that Kelbor Hal stayed loyal, just as it is surprising that Vulkan was the Arch-Traitor.

Kelbor Hal and his nine disciples hated the Emperor, and Kelbor Hal himself had always hated the Emperor. However, Kelbor Hal was a good friend of Horus, having forged the Talon of Horus in the aftermath of the triumph of Ullanor. In addition, he was an old school tech priest and hated xenos Horroificious tech and was disgusted by the few examples of chaos corrupted tech that he encountered, even if he didn't know what it was. However, the twin founders of the Dark Mechanicus were not bound by morality or goodness. As the heresy started, Archmagos Cawl went into the depths to Mars to crack open the Forbidden Vaults of Morevac, while Zagreus Kane led the a C'tan shard and the twisted men of iron against the loyalists.


Zagreus Kane

Kane was once the most loyal tech priest you could find, and it would have been him that replaced Kelbor Hal should the fabricator general succumb to age or violent death. But he fell to the desire for knowledge and embodies one of the twin facets of technological heresy. Where Cawl represents the corruption of Chaos, Kane represents the corruption of hostile xenos technology. He was the first xenos tech heretek, and every tech priest who falls when studying the technology of the Orks or the Necrons, or any other xenos that cannot possibly have peace with the Imperium, is walking the path of Kane.

Where the corruption of Cawl originated in his desire to innovate and his friendship with Guilliman, Kane's corruption was much more overt. Sanguinius led the Mechanicus detachment that Kane commanded to the Karos Graveyard, an El Dorado for the Mechanicus. At this point however, Sanguinius was already corrupted by the lie that is the primordial truth. The chaos gods gave the first fallen the location of the graveyard and commanded him to corrupt a portion of the Mechanicus with the secrets entombed within it. For the Karos Graveyard was a Necron Tomb World (only realized in the 41st millennium, when the Necrons started to truly wake up), and trapped in its core was a shard of the C'tan known as Baudros.

It is unknown what happened to Kane, but he left the Graveyard a changed man. He was a Heretek, but like Cawl he hid it perfectly until it was time to strike. During the Martian Schism, he led the strange Dragon Cults and sought to break the Noctis Labyrinthus. He somehow knew the horrible truth, that the void dragon was imprisoned there by the Emperor. The void dragon is the only unshattered C'tan, and while Kane did not succeed he still caused mass havoc on Mars, unleashing horrors born in the dark age of technology and the age of strife.

Kane became one of the first members of Janus's Cabal, and his controlled C'tan were vital in all three of Janus's damnations. During the first damnation his control of the last shard of the now dead C'tan known as Baudros allowed the cabal to escape their rightful destruction. During the second damnation, his summoning of a Nightbringer shard distracted Magnus while Janus pursued whatever was the true mission of the attack on Sortarius. And during the third damnation he summoned a shard of Nyadra'zatha, the burning one. This C'tan has the goal to burn the Webway, and its strength required the White Seers to call for Lorgar's aid. Lorgar thus sent Argel Tal and the Gal Vorback, or the blessed sons, to aid the defense of the black library.

In the eye of terror, he controls a hell forge world in the system of Janus, the chaos corrupted system controlled by the Cabal. He is utterly obsessed with the C'tan, frequently launching Black Crusades with the sole purpose of stealing a single Tesseract Labyrinth. He utterly hates Necrons, for they betrayed and broke the gods he worships, and any Necron he encounters he will attempt to destroy. Like the rest of the Cabal, his services can be purchased by any warlord, and has provided Sanguinius with the strange device known as the Sainting Tainter, which created the Unholy Saint Zariela. As the end times approach and the Necron dynasties start to awaken, it is said that Kane now works to some unholy goal, seeking as many C'tan shards as he can gain. His ultimate goal is unknown, but it can be said with absolute certainty that it does not bode well for the Imperium.


The opening of the vault spread Scrap-Code throughout the Martian Noosphere, causing many Skittani and Tech Priests to go mad. The infection of Scrap-Code is completely random, also spreading paranoia amongst those uninfected. Of all the places on Mars, only Olympus Mons was immune to the Scrap-Code wave. From this mighty fortress, Kelbor Hal directed the loyalist efforts. Many battles on the red planet occurred, and the world still bears scars from the schism. The ring of iron was broken, and the terraforming enacted by the Imperium was undone.


Kelbor Hal considered himself a man of logic, he actually prided himself on it. Despite having removed the emotional half of his brain, he still felt some emotions. But there was nothing logical about this situation. Half of Mars had gone insane, and he had nearly died. In his hands he held the only thing that kept him from being destroyed by that creature Kane had summoned, that thing Kane called a void god. It was a golden mask forged by the Emperor himself, and the monster had roared in fear at the very sight of it. This mask had saved him, as both the things maddened by the wave of that program, that Scrap-Code, and the unholy things from the Dark Age of Technology feared it, claiming it anathema. He knew now where his loyalties lied, for even if the Emperor was a Terran Warlord who conquered Mars, he was much better than the things he protected Mars from. He put the mask on his face, it interlocking with his machines, and he would wear it until his destruction.


Eventually, as Vulkans forces neared the solar system Perturabo launched a final strike against the Dark Mechanicus. Perturabo knew the nature of warfare was a harsh one, and while every single death he could have prevented tore at him, he knew that the protection of the Imperial Palace was the most important goal. But the grim algorithm of war revealed that if the Dark Mechanicus was not stopped, or at least made a manageable threat, then the traitor legions chances of victory increased exponentially. In his mind, he saw the grey goo's unmake the palace walls, the traitor titans break the inner palace, and the twisted Scrap-Code taint the works of the Emperor himself, and he could not allow that to happen.

An entire company of the Iron Warriors was led by a triarch to liberate Mars from the Dark Mechanicus. It is unknown which triarch it was, for whatever he saw during the battle of the Noctis Labyrinthus caused him to discard his name and until his death he was called one thing, the Warsmith. The first action was to break the siege of Olympus Mons, and with that he was joined by Kelbor Hal and a massive host of the loyalist Mechanicus forces. Kelbor Hal led from the front and participated in such battles as the Breaking of the Face and the Downfall of the Kirban Machine, the leader of the abominable intelligences not corrupted by chaos. It is known that Kelbor Hal met his end during the battle of the Noctis Labyrinthus, and only the golden mask given to him by the Emperor was recovered. All fabricator generals have worn this mask until their deaths, a visual dedication to the Omnissiah's mortal avatar. Lukas Chrom became the new fabricator general, and alongside the Warsmith and the higher ups of the Imperium perpetuated the Lie of Iron.


The Lie of Iron

The Imperium is built upon a fabric of lies, all of them necessary for mankind to survive in a hostile galaxy. The biggest such lie, one that would break anyone who is not an Astarte or has high enough clearance to read these files, is that the Emperor is a god. He is not a god, merely the most powerful member of humanity, and refused to be worshiped when he walked amongst his subjects. In fact, calling him a god was what planted the seeds of heresy in his sons, for his harsh rebuke of Sanguinius was what drove him to the worship of the Dark Gods. In addition, the Lectitio Divinitatus was not written by Lorgar but by Sanguinius, and Lorgar merely made modifications and additions to it, realizing that mankind needed religion once more. A smaller lie, though one just as important, is the Lie of Iron.

This lie is that the Iron Warriors and loyalist Mechanicus succeeded at driving all of the Hereteks and their twisted minions from Mars. A great many of them were driven from Mars and joined the traitor forces, Cawl and Kane amongst them, but not all fled or were destroyed. Some went underground, deeper than the noctis labyrinth, and they created the twisted civilizations that are known as the techno-hells, for lack of a better word.

The techno-hells are all corrupted by chaos or by horrible xenos technology, with daemons summoned in metal bodies and dark tech abominations, each of which hates each other but ultimately hate the Imperium and the Adeptus Mechanicus more. There is no law of sanity or goodness that has not been broken in these unholy places, and much of the Mechanicus's forces are dedicated to keeping the techno-hells imprisoned. It is only the power of the thing sealed in the Noctis Labyrinth that allows some of Mar's forces to aid the Imperium at large, as no being of the techno-hells is foolish or crazy enough to disturb the being trapped there.


The Siege of Terra: the duel of iron and stone

When Vulkans forces entered the solar system they immediately faced Perturabo's defenses, many great wards, and powerful weapons. Indeed, one such weapon was the creation of Leman Russ, a null bomb that countered psychic powers using purely material methods. Daemonships were banished by these weapons, but it was Dorn who led the efforts to siege Terra. Soon, enough carnage was made that the materium was split and Daemons rampaged across the solar system. They attacked all worlds, focusing their efforts on Terra and Titan, ensuring the inquisition and the grey knights could not intervene.

It was Perturabo's genius that allowed the loyalist forces to endure the siege, directing forces where they were needed and countering Dorn's stratagems. When word reached Terra of the returning loyalist legions, freed from the Ruinstorm through means unknown, he had hope once more. With two loyal legions breaking the flanks of the traitors the Imperium would win. Indeed, the death of Roboute by Lorgar and the banishment of Corvus Corax by Angron and the resulting slaughter of the raven guard, it seemed the chaotic forces would be destroyed.

Then the Flamewrought lowered its shields, and Perturabo realized there were only two ways the battle would end. The first was that the Emperor would lead a force into the Flamewrought and destroy Vulkan. The second was that Vulkan would lead an intrusion into the palace to try to kill the Emperor and end the heresy. Perturabo knew that the Emperor would choose the first and gathered his forces to aid his father. Thus he was teleported into the twisted Gloriana, and like the rest of the imperial forces he was scattered across the corrupted corridors. Most of the Space Marines were driven mad by the sights, the faces protruding from the bulkheads, the shapeless things grabbing and clawing at them from the impossibly dark shadows, and the daemonic voices that taunted them. Like the others who had joined the Emperor in this desperate strike Perturabo and those forces who had not been driven insane slaughtered hordes of things that had at some point been human while the corridors shifted, and the sounds of wailing and gibbering assaulted their ears.

Soon Perturabo was alone, as every Iron Warrior he had brought either required the Emperors mercy or had fallen valiantly in battle, and the Iron Circle of machines that he had repaired on Olympia and had functioned as his bodyguards had all been reduced to sparking piles of scrap metal. This is believed to be because of Perturabo's status in the great game of Chaos. The Primarchs and the champions of both the Imperium and Chaos are essentially more important "pieces" in the game. The heresy was always going to end with the Emperor and Vulkan dueling on the bridge of the Flamewrought. But those whose names were not remembered were just pieces, even the Custodes who joined in the assault were just extras to be discarded. The Mournival managed to stay with Horus because of their importance, but Perturabo had left the Trident to direct the defense of the palace.

Then as Perturabo continued alone, he was confronted by Rogal Dorn. Dorn was completely insane at this point, his insanity worsened by the visions Tzeentch was giving him, sights of timelines where he had made the imperial palace and Perturabo was the one futily trying to break it. He lifted Storm's Teeth, now a weapon that was truly dedicated to Tzeentch, and charged at his rival. The fight between the two was a harsh one, the hammer Forgebreaker clashing with the chattering blades of the chainsword. The duel was a moving one, as Perturabo still tried to find the bridge, hoping to aid his father. During the fight Rogal Dorn babbled Tzeentchian madness, but one line he spoke would forever hinder chaos and earn Rogal and his legion the ire of all who resided in the warp storms.


"If our situations were reversed, I would drag you back to Terra in an iron cage!"

Rogal Dorn, Shouted at the top of his lungs


Then suddenly the presence of the Chaos gods left the solar system, and Rogal Dorn was temporarily incapitated as Tzeentch fled the full power of the Emperor. Perturabo then hit Rogal in his nards with Forgebreaker and he rushed to the bridge to aid his father. He reached the bridge, the corridors no longer shifting, and found his father on the verge of death. With the Mournival's aid he interred his father on the golden throne per his wishes, thereby ending the heresy.

The Scouring: the First Damnation of Janus

No matter how much Perturabo wanted to lead his legion in the scouring, he knew his services were better spent rebuilding the solar system. Indeed, the Imperial Palace was half destroyed. The threat of chaos or a hostile xenos empire taking advantage of the weakened solar system was too great, and thus while Lorgar rebuilt the political and spiritual structure of the Imperium Perturabo rebuilt the physical structure of the Imperium. That is not to say the Iron Warriors didn't take part in the scouring, as Perturabo let loose the trident. The famous Iron Cage incident was the direct responsibility of Harkor, a member of the trident since the Great Crusade, who built the Aquila fortress from Perturabo's plans.

However, something started to happen that most considered impossible. Daemons started to appear in the solar system. The final blow the Emperor unleashed that annihilated Vulkan and vaporize his body also meant it was impossible for the cell monsters of the Chaos Gods to manifest in the home system of humanity. The only exceptions being in the techno hells and the broken remnants of the Imperial Webway, both of those places being so saturated with Chaotic energy that only their complete annihilation would unmake the summoning zones of Daemons. Yet something was summoning Daemons and allowing them to wreak havoc on the solar system. Each was banished by Lorgar once they were discovered, and these brief instances of combat greatly reduced Lorgar's stress over rebuilding the Imperium.

On the mining world of Mercury, a undivided Daemon resembling a small child surrounded by canary's lured miners away from safety and into traps and the natural hazards of mining. Born from the harshness of child labor and the cruelty of those who forced innocents to labor in unsafe conditions. Each of its canary's was the spectral imprint of a canary that suffocated to warn miners of poison gas. By pulling on the heartstrings and curiosity of the miners, it greatly impacted the supplies coming from Mercury.

In the Underhives of Terra, a Khornite Daemon of inequality led the mutant undercastes in an uprising. It was born during the American Civil War, from the blood shed as brother fought brother in a war born from the hypocrisy of a country praising freedom keeping slaves. It resembled a member of the long dead hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan; its white robes stained red with blood. Unlike most Khornite Daemons, it rarely shed blood personally but instead inspired others to do so. It made fiery sermons inspiring mutants to rebel, speaking of the hypocrisy of how some deviations from the human genome were praised while others were hated. The Mutant uprisings led by this monster took necessary forces away from the Scouring.

In the pleasure station orbiting Venus a Slanneshi Daemon caused entire families to kill each other, turning brother against brother with her feminine wiles. She was different to every observer, being the perfect ideal of beauty. She was born from an ancient legend, where a princess's beauty started a horrible war that lasted for a decade. It is unknown if this actually happened, but the popularity of this story ensured that a Daemon was born.

In manufactoriums across the solar system horrible fires burned, destroying the factory's, and killing all of the workers. The daemon responsible was an undivided being, resembling a woman burning eternally, suffering pain and never gaining release. It was born from the deadliest industrial accident in the history of long-gone New York city, where 146 garment workers perished from a blaze. The screams of pain and horror from these tragic deaths ensured a Daemon was formed, inflicting the same fate on others.

On Luna, those Selanar who had stayed loyal came under attack by a few Daemons, and their goals was the destruction of irreplaceable Selanar geneworks and biotech. The first was a Daemon of Nurgle, born from the horrible bubonic plague. During the middle ages fleas on rats infected the continent of Europe and killed 25 million people over the course of centuries. During this plague there were plague doctors who worked under a false perception that the disease was spread through the air. Forever afterwards, humanity would associated the tall bird masked figures of the plague doctors with horrible plagues. It was inevitable that a Nurgleite daemon would be born from this image.

The second was a Tzeentchian Daemon appearing like African man with bullet holes all across his body. He was born from a genocide amongst an African nation known as Rwanda. While the horrible act of genocide inevitably births a Daemon, it is usually one that is not bound to any god. What made this Daemon different was the cause and aftermath of this horrible conflict. A system of racial class was established in Rwanda, and those at the bottom rebelled. What truly drove this Daemon to Tzeentch was the fact that the caste system was merely reversed instead of abandoned. This pointless change was enough to make this daemon a servant of Tzeentch.

The third was the most powerful and the most horrible, a creature of chaos undivided born of the greatest atrocity mankind had committed. In the second world war, the Nazi's forced the Jewish people and other undesirables into the concentration camps, killing millions. This horrible event created a Daemon of much power, feared and despised by even the Chaos Gods themselves. It took the form of a Germanic man clad in Nazi livery, breathing and surrounded by poisonous gases like those used in the camps, and those it killed only left behind their shoes. Notably this monster was the only Daemon truly killed instead of banished, for not even the Ruinous Powers wanted this being to continue blighting the galaxy.

In the kitchens of the royalty of Terra, many innocents fell sick as the cook was in fact a Daemon Princess of Nurgle. In her mortal life she earned the name that all know her by, and the name she now goes by. That name is Typhoid Mary, and while only three deaths could be confirmed, an estimated 50 deaths were attributed to her. Her favor in Nurgles eyes was ensured by the fact that she was the first typhoid carrier to show no symptoms and the fact that Typhoid Mary became a term for those who spread Nurgles Love, whether knowingly or not. Usually Typhoid Mary cooked for Isha when Nurgle couldn't and showed no outward signs of Nurgles Love, just like when she lived.

In the Underhives a Khornite Daemon ensured gangs massacred each other on holidays, bolters and las weapons firing. Born from the saint valentine's day massacre in 1929, it resembled a man wearing red and pink, with many hearts bedazzling him. He resembled a ganger from the prohibition wearing a suit themed on the long dead holiday of Saint Valentine. He represented not only the massacre from which he was born but also all of the bloodshed in the name of love.

In the great halls of art and culture, the sound of violin music played and suddenly people began wreaking havoc, burning and destroying great works of art and annihilating artifacts from the age of terra. Those who heard the violin believed, often incorrectly, that they could rebuilt it better. The cause of this was a Slanneshi Daemon, born from the ancient legend of the Great Fire of Rome. In popular culture of the age of terra it was believed that the roman emperor of the time started the fire and played his violin while his city burned. While it is unconfirmed if this happened, and if it did the roman played a lyre, but the popularity of this story meant that when Slannesh was born one of her many Daemons was based on this story. Its physical appearance was that of a roman emperor playing a violin, eternally surrounded by devastation.

In the Jovian shipyards, many expert pilots suddenly went mad and crashed their ships into vital places. Over the vox they screamed praises to various concepts and gods, both real and imaginary. Many times the beings they praised where things they had no way of knowing. It was a undivided Daemon born of the kamikaze maneuver from world war 2, and then by the very concept and actions of suicide bombers. It resembled an old airplane, for the airplane was the most commonly used method of this horrible tactic.

On Pluto, the augur arrays came under attack by a strange and malicious code that disrupted vital communications and drove many insane with strange backwards messages, and from those singular infected people sprouted new chaos cults. These new cultists work with those cults that went to ground after the disastrous failure of chaos at the siege of Terra. Those tech magi on Pluto who knew of Scrap-code stated that this thing was fundamentally different from this code. Indeed, it was of a Tzeentchian bent, and was born of the fear of subliminal messages. It was first truly sparked by the fear of backwards messages in music, and every fear of secret messages corrupting weak minds. In form this being is identical to a chaos corrupted Vanus temple member, a spectral lighting being composed of maddening computer code. Occasionally this has meant the death of an important imperial official as the firewards that repel corrupted Vanus temple assassins do not work on this tzeentchian daemon, and the fact that their methods of killing are completely different. Where a corrupted Vanus member will turn technology against their target this tzeentchian daemon will turn other people against their target.

In the continent once known as México an ancient evil was resurrected. There were mighty ziggurats which were once the dark temples of the blood lords, techno-barbarians wielding the ancient blood magic of the Aztecs. The blood lords had praised the Aztec pantheon, and it is unknown if the Aztec gods were real. Maybe they were and either became lords of the warp in service to Khorne or were destroyed by the blood god for defying him. Or maybe they never existed, and where just the product of sentient life's tendency to make and worship deities. Or the most troubling theory, that these Aztec gods were all faces of Khorne. The old blood lords were thrown down by the legion that would become the Raven Guard, and some Inquisitors have made grand thesis and academic debates over whether the Raven Guard were always going to be corrupted by Slannesh based on the rivalry between Slannesh and Khorne. While it unknown if the old blood lords served Khorne, but it is a fact that the new blood lords did. The Daemon of Khorne who made the new blood lords was born of the bloody sacrifices made by the Aztecs and impowered by every bloody sacrifice in the name of a god. It resembled a coatl of Aztec myth, made of blood and having wings of fire, with an aura of pure zealotry that drove any with religious tendency's to madness. This was its downfall as the word bearers sent to destroy it focused their rage upon destroying the blood lords and banishing the Daemon.

In the many halls of the imperium's nobility and important facilities, females became seduced and tricked into sabotaging vital points of supplies. Not even the Custodes where immune to the charms of this Slanneshi Daemon. Born of the most famous lover in human history, Casanova, either from the idea of Casanova or from real person, it embodied the perfect lover. To each being this daemon appeared different, the perfect figure of masculine beauty. Indeed this being was responsible for the death of three craftworlds from his seduction of a single Farseer.

In the mines of Jupiter vital orders were misunderstood and miscommunicated, resulting in the death of many in both mine accidents and a lack of resources. It was soon revealed that a Tzeentchian Daemon was manipulating all communications, and its nature meant not even Astropathic communications were safe from its influence. This being was born of an ancient legend from the Abrahamic religions, which were present for almost all of human history, predominant for most of it and even survived the age of strife until during the unification wars when the Emperor met Uriah, the last priest of terra, and through logic and debate managed to convince Uriah of the Emperor's rightfulness and allowed him to cast off the bad parts of his faith while keeping the good parts, the virtues that were the same as those of the Imperial Truth. Indeed, Uriah became the first messenger of the Imperial Truth until he died of natural causes, an old and fulfilled man surrounded by loving family. However a legend of the Abrahamic faith known as the tower of babel, which was an explanation as to why people spoke different languages. The creature Tzeentch made from this legend was a living tower made of faces, each speaking a different language at the same time.

But the last was the Lord of the Flies, the first of Nurgle's Daemon Princes. It was born of a xenos race that died long before Holy Terra was even formed, it's title in the whispers of the warp being simply the Beast. It has a Porcine head and the body of a tribal humanoid bloated with the love of Nurgle, and it laughs in a parody of the joyous sound emitted by a dark forest. But what was worse was that it relied not on its strength but on the fact that it represents the inner savagery of mankind, making it similar to the space wolves. However like all other servants of Nurgle it finds the space wolves distasteful, for they are only savages and refuse all signs of disease nor do they spread Nurgle's love. It manifested aboard the Phalanx, seized by the Iron Warriors as the Imperial Fists fled the solar system. This mighty warp capable battle station was undergoing purification and the psykers who were doing so were watched by the Custodes. However the Lord of the Flies manifested aboard this ship, essentially a Tzeentchian Daemon World, and used its twisted rhetoric to cause the laborers to rebel. Those who listened and fell to the unnatural buzzing voice gave into their base nature and it took the Custodes and Lorgar working together to banish this being, the equal of Doombreed. This epic battle saw the Nurglite influence cancel out the Tzeentchian influence and the death of all the Custodes aboard the Phalanx.

This incident caused Lorgar to contact Magnus, who confirmed their fears. These attacks were not random or the work of some chaotic warlord but a powerful psyker who was a higher up in the Imperium chain of command. It had to be someone who could undo the Emperor's lingering power that kept Daemons at bay. It also had to be someone who knew not only which places in the solar system were vital to the scouring but also of the continued existence of the Phalanx. Even as the Phalanx orbits between Mars and Terra few associate it with the Tzeentchian fortress that earned the title of the Daemon Luna. No, what most people see is the Sky Fortress of Perturabo, which has suffered great damage in the 13th black crusade. To the Night Lords and Alpha Legion members who investigated this problem there was only one organization that had these qualities, the newly formed Inquisition.

However, even as these two legions interrogated the secret police and managed to cause the Inquisition as a whole to be more moral, Perturabo set aside his labors temporarily to investigate a newly founded origination that he believed responsible. This organization was the only member of the secret Second Founding, the Grey Knights. Only Perturabo could fathom that these Astartes who bore the Emperor's Gift could turn traitor, for he knew that even those who were enhanced by the Emperor himself could in fact be disloyal. He remembered the tale of Amon, the Custodes traitor who during the unification wars destroyed a village in Australia proclaiming some nonsense about the Emperor being Cain the first murderer. Said tale was unknown to all but the Primarchs and the Custodes as well as the Emperor himself, but it provided the train of thought that Perturabo pursued.

He looked at the first generation of Grey Knights, those born of Malcador's Knights Errant and the Blackshields. These Grey Knights originated in other Astarte groups, be they loyalist legions or the traitor legions, and unlike the Grey Knights after them the first generation had only been enhanced in there geneseeds, not having the original Grey Knight geneseed formed from the Emperor's own genome and the most chaos resistant genetic strains of all 20 Primarchs. Any corruption originating from the geneseed could affect the first generation, and he knew that chaotic corruption could affect anyone so the Knights Errant were not spared. While all Grey Knights were psykers of much power only the first generation was high ranking enough to pull off the targeting of these summonings. Indeed, the combination of these two factors was why he didn't interrogate the Custodes, for none of them were psykers. Indeed, by the very nature of the Custodes they could never have psychic powers. Eventually Perturabo found the traitor, and it shocked him. The traitor was none other than Janus, the first chapter master of the Grey Knights.


Janus the thrice damned

The being known as Janus was born of two beings, from the soul shard of Magnus the red which was torn from the Primarch alongside his eye and the Rune priest Ohthere Wyrdmake. This rune priest was one of the Blackshields and was essentially the prototype for the Grey Knights. He was merged with the soul shard by Malcador, inadvertently creating a new being. This soul shard originated in the same event that saw Magnus freed from Tzeentch, namely his exploration into the Cave of Lies, a ritualistic vision quest into what is most likely a corrupted Webway gate where those who enter confront Tzeentch directly. This ritual was discontinued by Magnus once he gained power, but whatever happened to him in the cave scarred him forever. He lost his right eye, but that was only the physical scars that he endured. Tzeentch is a petty being, and will rarely relinquish his toys, breaking them if he cannot keep them. When Magnus freed himself of Tzeench's puppet strings a part of his soul was torn off. Magnus did quickly heal from this metaphysical injury, but the soul shard made its way to the Imperial dungeon where it would be found by Malcador and Wyrdmake. It was unknown at the time what part of Magnus this soul shard represented, and thus Malcador implanted it into the rune priest. However, in the aftermath of the third damnation the newly formed Ordo Universium would deduce that this soul shard was the same one that would fall to Tzeentch in so many universes. Namely, it was Magnus's pride and desire to eternally prove he was smarter than everyone else.

Wyrdmake was a rune priest who held the same views that the Thousand Sons held about the psykers of the Space Wolves and White Scars legions, namely that their differences were cultural in nature and should be respected. This fact, plus his friendship with Azhek Ahriman, caused him to be recruited to the aiders of the work, those psykers who helped Malcador, The Emperor and Magnus in the construction of the Imperial Webway. Even when he became Janus, he argued for the aiders. It was him that allowed those aiders who, for whatever reason, could not gain the Emperor's Gift to still be of use to the Grey Knights in the form of the Grey Squires.

When he was implanted with the soul shard of Magnus, he essentially became the Primarch of the Grey Knights. It was he who gave the Emperor the idea for the 666th chapter. And it would seem the Grey Knights were completely loyal, an all psyker chapter based on the moon of Titan, hidden in the warp for the majority of the Heresy, and alongside the nascent Inquisition were prevented from aiding the loyalist forces on Terra by Argonis and a horde of chaotic forces. As for why he turned traitor, there are three causes that are generally accepted.

The first is his nature as a Space Wolf, which was one of the traitor legions whose fall could be proven to lie in genetics. During the Rotting of Prospero the curse of the Wulfen came to the fore, and Leman Russ made a deal with Nurgle to save his legion, tearing out his left eye to seal the deal. While the Wulfen still exist, they are relatively rare. However a side effect of this deal was that all who bore the gene seed of the sixth legion would be insidiously turned to Leman Russ's hypocritical views, that his rune priests aren't psykers and that his legion has fallen to chaos not because of their degenerate nature but because of Magnus and his witches putting poison in the Emperors mind. This corruption, this hypocritical and incorrect belief system is now a fundamental part of all who bear the Space Wolf Geneseed, and every Space Wolf from the lowliest Blood Claw to the highest Wolf Lord believes these lies and know them to be true to their very core. Janus was ultimately a Space Wolf not a Grey Knight, the Emperor's Gift and its complete immunity to chaotic corruption was ultimately an add on, not a fundamental part of him. Thus unlike the Grey Knights, he could not resist the poisonous beliefs that drive the Space Wolves. But the fact that he had a soul shard of Magnus meant he also knew down to his core that the Rune Priests were psykers and that the Space Wolves were responsible for their own fall. The Cognitive dissonance that arose from this undoubtedly helped to break his sanity and lead to his embrace of the dark gods.

The second reason was the whispers of the Changeling. During the Siege of Terra Argonis led a massive attack on the moon of titan, keeping the two newly made organizations from aiding the Emperor. His forces were made up of cultists, creatures of the Baatorian Empire and of course Daemons, and during the month-long battle that only ended with the annihilation of Vulkan and the mortal wounding of the Emperor Janus was seemingly absent. It was only at the end of the siege. when the Emperor's sacrifice banished all Daemons in the solar system, that Janus fought. He killed Argonis with a mighty blade covered in runes, which he had taken a month to forge for the very purpose of killing the Herald. However, during this process the Changeling had come to him in the form of a Grey Squire. The Changeling gave accurate reports, but underling his words were chaos magic that spread memetic madness. These whispers exacerbated his Cognitive dissonance and made him more open to the idea of serving the Chaos Gods.

The third reason, the one that put him over the edge, was the connection to the main Magnus his soul shard shared. No one can claim to understand how the soul works, but Janus could feel what Magnus felt. As such he felt the joy Magnus undoubtedly felt during the Burning of Fenris, and this happiness as his home burned was what broke him.

Janus is now a faceless mockery of a Grey Knight with power equal to a Daemon Primarch and stays upon a chaos sun at the center of the cabal system. In his twisted citadel he plays the great game and devises new rituals to aid the long war. His ascension was bought by the three damnations of Janus, three revelations of unwanted truths that broke the sense of safety the galaxy possessed. It matters not how long these truths were revealed, so long as they were. The first truth is that chaos is not a defeated foe and that none are incorruptible. The second truth is that the Rubric is not perfect and can be perverted, as shown by the resurrection and corruption of the Blood Ravens. The third truth is that nowhere is safe from the powers of chaos, as shown by the attack on the Black Library.


Using the true names gathered by Ctesias and the power of the Warp Nexus, Janus had managed to summon these twelve Daemons. Perturabo led a force of Iron Warriors and Custodies against the Cabal, and thus began the battle of Titan. Janus was stopped from summoning the ancient Daemon Princess Lilith, which seemed to be his ultimate plan. If he had summoned the thirteenth Daemon he would have started a Warp Storm that would have destroyed the Solar System, finishing what Vulkan had started. However, like in his other damnations the true goal of Janus was achieved even if a grand victory for chaos was lost, as is the nature of chaos. In this case, the Solar System was once more vulnerable to Daemonic incursions and the Warp Nexus was damaged, meaning that Titan could no longer return to its halfway point between the material and the Warp. Thus Titan is eternally vulnerable, and the Grey Knights still struggle to keep the Warp Nexus stable.

Once the Warp Nexus was damaged the Cabal escaped to the Forge World Deimos, moved from its orbit around Mars to one around Titan by ancient and arcane technology. Thus began the battle of Deimos, as the Imperial forces fought against chaos corrupted Skittani and servitors. Then the smog wreathed skies were forcibly cleared as the last shard of the two headed dragon C'tan Baudros was summoned. This shard then spirited away the Cabal and would meet its end at some point before the Second Damnation of Janus. None know what killed Baudros, as none of the Cabal will speak of it. Indeed the only reason Baudros is known to be dead is the Heldrake Abomination is an attempt to recreate this being. While the nature of the C'tan means that this attempt failed, the Abomination is still much more powerful than an average Heldrake.

Post-Heresy: The rise of the Iron Cages

In the aftermath of the Scouring, Perturabo began a great project on the scale of the fortifying of Terra. He began building the Iron Cages around the four grand Warpstorms. Normally this would be folly, as space travel existed in four dimensions and thus a two-dimensional cage would be insufficient. However the nature of the Warp Storms meant that those attempting to escape from these galactic hells must go through choke points, such as Cadia. While small groups could get out other places none of these groups could truly threaten the Imperium at large, and thus the Iron Cage worlds could usually handle them. But a true chaos crusade, one that could damage the Imperium, needed to go through one of these choke points. Perturabo made the Iron Cages despite the Imperium's belief that the Traitors had died in the galactic hells they had fled to, but Perturabo knew that was wishful thinking. He was soon proven right as the first Black Crusade attacked, with the Flamewrought at its head. While the term Black Crusade is in fact a general term for a massive chaotic incursion, most associate it with the thirteen such invasions led by the Forgefather.

The First Black Crusade, like all of the Black Crusades led by the Forgefather, had the ultimate purpose of ensuring Vulkan's return. The first was like twelfth, third and seventh in that the ultimate purpose was not to acquire one of the artifacts of vulkan but to acquire a powerful advantage. Like the third, the ultimate goal was Drach'nyen the daemon blade whose origin is in the first murder. This unholy weapon which is in the possession of the Forgefather has gained him the respect of even those chaotic lords who seek for Vulkan to stay dead, for he has used it for thousands of years where even immortal Daemons have been found dead a mere month after grasping its hilt. This weapon has been the death of many high-ranking Imperials, having ended the life of Abbadon during the first crusade and the life of Angron himself in the Third Black Crusade, bisecting the Primarch of the World Eaters during the melee of the Impossible Mountain.

But Perturabo fought on Cadia, and while the Forgefather went to Uralan to gain the End of Empires and then lose it to Abbadon and a Sons of Horus strike force the Primarch of the Iron Warriors fought against the Flamewrought. He knew more about the nature of Chaos than most, and he knew that a chaos corrupted Gloriana was not only a major tactical advantage in the war but also an irreplaceable piece in the great game. The Salamanders had lost the favor of the Dark Gods, and the Flamewrought was a deterrent for the servants of these gods to express their displeasure. Thus Perturabo led a tactical strike team directly into the corrupted Gloriana with the goal of destroying it.

Using his knowledge of what the Flamewrought had become Perturabo destroyed the mighty Gloriana. While the Forgefather managed to build a battle barge of the same name out of the pieces of the Flamewrought, it wasn't the same as a true Gloriana. Perturabo is believed to have died in this action, but some believe that the Primarch still lives. This theory is supported by the fact that Perturabo's body was never found, and those who believe Perturabo still lives point to him possibly having been shunted to some point in time and space when he destroyed the warp drive of the Flamewrought. But the Iron Warriors do not believe that there Primarch is alive, for all their idealism and hope they are also realists. If Perturabo still lived he would send some sign to his gene sons, or there would be some sign of his actions. No Primarch can truly hide their presence, and no sign of Perturabo being alive has arisen.

For many years, the Iron Warriors manned the walls of the Iron Cages, weathering attacks from within and without. The fortress worlds frequently became infested with cultists, and innumerable chaos crusades have been stopped by the Iron Warriors. The cages have endured many attacks from the Baatorian empire and Ork Waaghs seeking good fighting in the form of the warp storm inhabitants. But recently, the Iron Warriors encountered their greatest threat.

The Tau were first discovered by a Mechanicus ship in M35, but at the time the Tau were experiencing what became known as Mont'au, which translates to "the terror" or "death age". It seemed the Tau would destroy themselves, and the Age of Apostacy soon distracted the Imperium from this minor race. But in M36 the Ethereals appeared and united the Tau, and they began expanding the Tau Empire. In M37 they had expanded into world controlled by the Imperium, and given they gave the choice of surrender the Imperium didn't deem them an enemy. Soon they were met by a Word Bearer Iterator squad as was standard procedure when encountering a species that could become part of the Imperium. Soon a dialogue between them and the Water Caste was established, and the Word Bearers were confident that the Tau empire would be integrated without incident. After all, the only real sins that could be attributed to the Tau were naivety and lack of melee combat, both of which were easily fixable.

Sadly, negotiations broke down as the Farsight Enclaves turned traitor, and the Tau themselves proved ignorant of Chaos. The Damocles Gulf conflict ensured, and the Imperium managed to maintain frosty relationships with the Tau Empire. However, as long as the Ethereals command the Tau to the point of willing suicide and the Tau people don't realize the dangers of Chaos there is no hope of integration. The Imperium's conflicts with the Tau Empire have all been purely defensive, keeping the naive species from unleashing a chaotic threat upon the Galaxy. The same cannot be said of the Farsight enclaves, corrupted by chaos and having holdings in both the Hadex Anomaly and the twisted Scourge Stars.

But now as the 41st millennium ends, the Iron Warriors are even harder pressed than usual. They defend against the 13th Black Crusade, and the Iron Cage around the Ruinstorm is attacked by the Tau in their Fourth Sphere Expedition. More ominously, there are reports that Kor Phareon, the Specter King and leader of the Covenant Reborn, has made overtures to his ally Commander Farsight. Now the Farsight Enclaves gather for an ominous purpose, one that does not bode well for the galaxy at large. However, even as the end times come the Iron Warriors dig in as they have always done. Their jobs are thankless but necessary, and not even the apocalypse will sway them from their purpose.

Organization

The Iron Warriors are one of the most divided legions, as while all legions have spread across the galaxy the Iron Warriors are stretched thinnest. Of course mistaking this for weakness has been the death of countless foes of the Imperium. They are stationed on worlds across the Imperium, but most of their forces are concentrated on the Iron Cages and the Solar System. In the wake of Perturabo's sacrifice the Trident has taken over control of the legion, and they are also scattered. One always stays on Olympia, while the second controls the Phalanx and the third travels the Iron Cages.

Homeworld

The main home world of the Iron Warriors is undoubtedly Olympia, the world upon which Perturabo landed. This world is a grand place with sprawling and grand architectural creations. None can match the palace of Perturabo, the fortress-monastery of the Iron Warriors. This was Perturabo's grandest construction save the Imperial Palace and was built by the Primarch after the Scouring ended but before he manned the Iron Cages. This mighty palace has four grand tombs, each one containing a member of Perturabo's mortal family. In the center is a grand tomb meant to contain the mortal remains of the Primarch, but since his body was never found the throne his body was to rest upon remains empty.

The Phalanx is a warp capable battle station once controlled by the Imperial Fists but was taken from them and claimed by the Iron Warriors during the retreat from Terra. It was then purified and rededicated to the service of the Imperium. It serves as the fortress-monastery of the Iron Warriors based in the solar system. Many have been the battles aboard the Phalanx, as its chaotic taint has never fully been purged. In the lower decks where once cells that held those Imperial Fist Librarians who offended Rogal Dorn, either by staying loyal or contradicting his ever-maddening whims. Through Alpha Legion spies, these loyalist Imperial Fists played a vital role in allowing the Iron Warriors to capture the space fortress, at the cost of their own lives. These cells, called the Cells of Chaos by the superstitious mortals who crew the Phalanx, are a dormant rift. It was here that the Lord of the Flies manifested, and in M33 Samus himself manifested, requiring the intervention of Angron. As such a squad of Cusodes are permanently stationed aboard the Phalanx and bombs are ever ready to vaporize this great battle station.

There are also many minor worlds that bear caches of Iron Warrior Gene seed but are not publicly recognized by the Iron Warriors. On at least one occasion the Rock has been sent to defend a hidden world from the Tau. These worlds are usually close to one of the Iron Cages, but not so close that the gene seed can be mutated by the warp storm emissions.

Combat Doctrine

The Iron Warriors are most concentrated on the Iron Cages, and this shows in their tactics. They fight best in the trenches and when defending fortresses. Unlike other legions, they are pragmatic in the extreme. More adept with the weight of a hammer than the lightness of a sword, they know and embrace the value of traps and so called "dishonorable" tactics. There librarians are experts in the arts of sigils and wards, as they constantly reinforce the defenses of the Iron Cages. They are also responsible for those warbands who use the rituals of Janus to bypass the Iron Cages.

Beliefs

To those who distrust the Space marines, the Iron Warriors are heartless and cultureless brutes who long ago tore down the glory of the Imperial Palace. Again this is an oversimplification, for in truth the Iron Warriors can be summed up in one oxymoronic phrase: Pragmatic Idealists. They are all artists and could so easily create glorious fortresses of precious metals and gates made of gems. But they would be besieged and warped, made ugly by their service. Only when there is finally peace will they embrace beauty, crafting the glorious works of art they constantly design in their minds. But they know full well that the dream of peace died when the Emperor was put upon the Golden Throne. They accept the grunt work willingly, knowing these thankless jobs need to be done. They ultimately do not want glory for war and death, and so they do not even pretend that it exists. But they bear no hatred for this, and all of Perturabo's sons dream of a day when their hammers can finally craft glorious monuments instead of casting down nightmares.

Recruitment and geneseed

One would think the Iron Warriors geneseed would be the most mutated of all the loyal legions, considering that most of the legion is based on the Iron Cages which surround the four great warp storms. But it is relatively untouched by warp energies. This is because most of the Iron Warrior gene stores are located on out of the way worlds, far enough from the Iron Cages to be unaffected by Warp based mutations but close enough for at least one Iron Warrior chapter to come to their defense. Occasionally the attacks have been severe enough to require the Rock's intervention, but the Iron Warriors can handle themselves well. The apothecaries also harvest the Progenoids of the new space marines as soon as they manifest, which are then sent to one of the many gene stores.

The majority of Iron Warriors come from Olympia, as well as from the Solar System. But all Iron Warrior recruitment worlds (save Holy Terra) have a single feature. All the loyal legions have a so called "final test" to prove a Scout is worthy of becoming a true space marine. For the emperor's children and the thousand sons these are more esoteric, taking the form of the Wandering and the casting of the Rubric. Others are more mundane, like the trials of the Sons of Horus and the Night Lords. The Iron Warriors final test is somewhere in the middle, as the scout must battle in the Ring of Stone. This structure is a gran arena, very similar to the Arena of Angron used by the World Eaters. In the Ring of Stone a prospective Iron Warrior undergoes a vision of his future as an Iron Warrior, enduring a life of hardship and battle in mere moments. The stress of this is great, and should a scout survive this he has proven themselves worthy of being an Iron Warrior.

Warcry

The Iron Warrior battle cry is a simple shout of "Iron Within, Iron Without!". While most of the loyal legions have no specialized battle crys as a way of insulting their foes, the Iron Warriors just don't care about warfare enough to make another battle cry.


Author notes

Ok, so I have Perturabo bonding with his family, Dammekos being nicer and being found as a child. This solves most of the problems that caused him to fall. As for Perturabo seeking glory but accepting grunt work, I can't really make sense of that. So I have my Perturabo wanting glory in things worthy be glorified, aka artistic pursuits.

Barabas Dantioch is basically canon Perturabo.

I originally planned for the Gedehams slave general to whip out a bolter that Perturabo made for Rogal, but decided against it

As for why I have Kane turning traitor, I am trying to be closer to a true good guy bad guy swap, the imperium is good in this case. For example, imperium knight houses in canon are chaos knight houses in the volcanic heresy. I cannot be completely accurate in this, after all if I were doing a true complete swap the Emperor would be a bad guy. So some people stay their alignment, like Argonis the herald of Horus who summoned Doombreed (he stays corrupted mainly because I didn't know how to make him stay loyal or didn't care to).

The Karos Graveyard comes from the evil that men do, the first alternate heresy I encountered on the alternate history site. It was a Necron hide out and had a C'tan shard in it, but it wasn't the Nightbringer. I don't know what C'tan it was, it was a serpent thing.

The void dragon being the only unshattered C'tan and being imprisoned in mars is my head canon if it's not canon.

For the Gal Vorback, they earned this name not by becoming the first possessed marines but for there heroism during the shadow war fought in the Ruinstorm.

The lie of iron is obviously the iron lie from the Robutian heresy, I just thought it was such a good idea. Credit goes to Zahariel.

Janus turning traitor is based on a few facts. First is that I don't know much about Janus, and thus I could make up what I wanted because of the fact that this is an AU. The second is that I wanted rituals that allows the traitors ty bypass the iron cages. This is inspired by prince of the eye by Zahariel, the main differences being that Janus makes them here instead of Magnus, and the rituals don't have to be preformed outside of the eye. His story and the cabal is based on Van Horstmann, a character from Warhammer fantasy, who was a traitor from the white order, who are basically the grey knights of fantasy, being anti daemon mages. Van Horstmann is a Tzeentch champion who leads a chaos organization known as the cabal. Thus I figured I'd make a second cabal. Buadros is a chaos dragon in Warhammer fantasy, but I made him a C'tan because, well why not? As for the three damnations of Janus, well in Warhammer fanfiction some traitors are called thrice damned, and I call Janus thrice damned, so why not make him earn the title.

The many daemons are born from the fifteenth ascended by Zahariel, where makes many Daemons from important events in human history. In the chapter Illuminations might he makes twelve daemons, and that is the main inspiration. Unlike in illuminations might, my daemons origins are described in their paragraphs. For those who didn't get them I will list the events/phenomena that created them below, as well as what chaos god they serve.

1. Children being forced into mines, undivided

2. The American civil war, Khorne

3. Helen of troy, Slannesh

4. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, undivided

5. Plague doctor/ black plague, Nurgle

6. Rwandan genocide, Tzeentch

7. Concentration camps/Nazi aryan ideals, undivided. It will never be mentioned again and is dead because everyone hates Nazi's, even the dark gods.

8. Typhoid Mary, Nurgle. If you didn't know that you didn't read her paragraph

9. Saint valentine's day massacre/ bloodshed in the name of love, Khorne

10. Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned, Slannesh

11. Kamikaze maneuvers/ suicide bombers in general, undivided.

12. Fear of subliminal messages, Tzeentch

13. Aztec sacrifices/ bloody religious sacrifices in general, Khorne

14. Casanova, Slannesh

15. Tower of babel, Tzeentch

16. Lord of the flies from book of same name, Nurgle

Uriah is the last priest of terra, and during the unification wars he met the emperor in the guise of revelation, and the Emperor is basically an asshole during the story. He breaks the man's faith and everything he belied in, then had his church burned down despite Uriah being willing to serve him, and the last priest and last church burn together. I haven't read the story, but I think that's the jist of it. My Emperor is a lot nicer than the canon one, so I have my version of Uriah casting off the trappings of his faith (since I am a Christian myself, I will always have my head canon be that the Abrahamic religions devolve into the blood thirsty and hypocritical organizations they were during the dark ages and middle ages, and those might be the same thing but they might not) while keeping the essential virtues of the faith.

The custodes Amon going rogue and destroying an Australian village comes from renegades, where the emperor falls to chaos and is revealed to be Cain. The village got destroyed by custodes, but not Amon.

The aiders of the work and the grey squires are my own creations, as far as I know.

The Daemon form of Janus is based off of kaldor drako in lordlucans works "the shape of the nightmare to come" and "Age of Dusk"

The heldrake abomination being an attempt to resurrect a C'tan is not canon, as it is driven by a Daemonic presence in canon.

Now the Tau are considered the "good guys" of Warhammer 40k, but that isn't much considering the other factions are Catholic Space Nazis, the literal legions of hell, xenomorphs on steroids, fungal berserkers, space elves, space drow, and omnicidal skelabots with their enslaved and broken star gods. Compared to those, of course naive communist greys are the good guys.

The Tau being antagonistic in here is a choice, unlike my Khanite heresy Tau they aren't corrupted by a warp god (yet), but they aren't a part of the Imperium. This because they are naive and don't realize the unnatural is real. The Imperium is taking a general long view, hoping that the Tau will realize their follies and join up. As for that yet, well just look to the lord of order prophecy in the intro. This also helps explain why Tzeentch jumpstarted the Tau Ethereals and their ambition when the Tau didn't fight the Iron Warriors during the Age of Apostacy.

Since the beginning I had the Farsight Enclaves corrupted by chaos. They will get a more detailed explanation in chapter 11, the Covenant Reborn. But in general, I like the concept of Chaos corrupted Tau. In universe the reason why they aren't corrupted is because they have weak souls, but I think anything with a soul could theoretically be corrupted by Chaos. Only the Necrons and Tyranids are immune in my mind. I get some statements that Genestealer cults can be corrupted, but in my 8ed Genestealer codex there is something called a Broodmind that is basically the Tyranid hive mind in miniature, so I honestly don't know if they can be corrupted. In my fics, Genestealer cults can't be tainted.

On aliens in the Imperium, the Imperium is open minded. If an alien race is willing to join the Imperium, either wholeheartedly like the Squats or as a separate empire like the Eldar, then they are let in. If they don't want to join then they aren't forced but are warned that if they attack the Imperium or unleash the dangers that must be fought (what they call Chaos to those who don't already know of it) then the Imperium will act. Of course they hope the race joins and will keep in touch. That's the Tau's situation. Then there are those xenos with whom peace is impossible, the Xenos Horroificious. For the longest time, the only beings who fit this category where the Dark Eldar, the Orks and Chaos corrupted Xenos. This is because the Death Guard annihilated all others who might fit this category, but as the 41st millennium reaches its end the Necrons and Tyranids are added to this category. You won't see any alien Inquisitors for the same reason no Tech Priest becomes an Inquisitors. Namely there very soul is incompatible with the doctrines and callings of the Inquisition.

I don't know if the third black crusade happens before M33, but mine happens at the start of M34. Also, for each loyal legion there is gonna be a description of the doubters' stereotypes.

One final note before I cut off the rambling is that the warcrys are the same no matter what foe the loyal legions are facing in this heresy because I don't want to make more for them. That's the meta reason, the story reason is that it's a bigger insult than having made a special warcry when facing their hated rivals. The traitor legions will get hateful warcrys, however.

Alright, the next chapter will be the white scars.