Index Astarters: Iron warriors. Lies made of iron
Characterized by a cold and ruthless efficiency, the Iron warriors march to war crushing and destroying everything in their path. In the days when they served the Emperor, the warriors of the fourth legion served as the hammer of humanity's master, able to break through any defense put in front of them no matter what challenges they had to overcome, but when the legion fell into the net of lies of the architect of destiny, the legionnaires of the fourth legion turned in search of controlling their own destiny. They think they now decide their own path, but in fact they are just another of chaos' numerous puppets.
-Origins:
The first legionaries of the fourth legion were drawn from the various tribes and cities of the Auro plateau during the last years of the unification wars. This region was characterized by a higher than average level of technology. This allowed the construction of huge fortresses by self-appointed rulers and dictators, and forced the robber tribes and barbarians to adapt to siege warfare if they wanted the resources of these warlords.
It is believed that the Emperor recruited the first marines of the fourth legion from this region because he wanted to turn the fourth legion into a siege warfare legion. Whether this assumption is true or not is something only the master of humanity knows.
As the recruitment process continued, it didn't take long for the scientists to notice a high compatibility rate of the legion's genetic seed, as well as a low rejection rate of bionics. Thanks to these two characteristics, the size of the legion grew at dizzying speeds, and as a result the legion was among the first to be deployed on the battlefield.
The tactics and weapons implemented by these legionnaires saw hundreds of enemy strongholds and citadels all over the Earth turn to ash, all thanks to a style of warfare that relied on the use of heavy weaponry and the mobilization of large numbers of legionnaires.
Little by little, the Fourth Legion began to build up a reputation as one of the most effective legions among the Astarters. This reputation only grew when the Emperor's armies took the war to the rest of the solar system, most notably the Mehr Yasht campaign on Venus, where the legion would be led by the master of humanity himself against the War witches and their armies of golems. The legion's excellent performance in this campaign was rewarded with praise from the Emperor himself, and the honor of being among the first legions to receive new weaponry from Mars.
So when the Fourth left the solar system and fought in the first battles of the Great Crusade, it quickly built up a remarkable record of victories and a reputation for efficiency among the Emperor's armies.
But the legion's glory didn't last forever, as the more the Great Crusade progressed, the more the legion's lack of adaptability became clear. In a mixture of ego, hard-headedness, and simply not knowing how to wage war any other way, the fourth legion refused to abandon the tactics that characterized the legion in exchange for tactics that better suited the occasion. The fourth legion's losses began to mount, and little by little various imperial generals and commanders began to only call on the legion in siege wars.
This culminated in the liberation of Incaladion's Forge World, the battle having cost almost thirty thousand legionnaires from the fourth legion to bring the world into the imperium's fold. This battle only reinforced the idea that the legion was inferior to its sisters, and many began to consider the idea of turning the legion into a purely auxiliary force to the other legions. But before this idea could take hold, the world of Olympia was found, and with it came the fourth Primarch.
-The Lord of Iron:
After being thrown into the sea of insanity that is the inmaterium, the capsule containing the fourth primarch returned to the materium in orbit around the planet Olympia and made its forced landing there.
Olympia was a planet that stood out for its enormous mountains, which far surpassed the highest peaks of old Earth. Because of this, the planet's inhabitants had to group together in large city states that were only connected by paths up the mountainside and which were full of extremely aggressive fauna.
The child who would later be known as Perturabo landed at the bottom of the mountain valley, far from any trace of civilization. There, without knowing where to go, the boy began to wander in search of sentient life.
They were laughing.
Just as they had done the hour before, and the hour before that, and at absolutely every moment since he had risen from his pod, even in his dreams he could still hear their laughter.
A part of him wondered if the laughter would stop when he finally met others of his kind, but deep down he knew that wouldn't happen.
He finally finished climbing the mountain to its highest point. There he saw on the horizon what looked like a city, the same one that was closer since the last time he checked, two kilometers closer if his calculations didn't deceive him.
He analyzed which route he had to take to get to that city. And then he looked up, and there he saw a purple dot in the sky. He didn't know what that dot was, no matter how many times he looked at it he could never fully understand what it was, but he could feel the power it emanated and instinctively knew that that was where the laughter came from.
He stared at the point for a few seconds, then lowered his gaze and resumed his walk.
"I'll make them not laugh at me anymore." He said to himself as he walked. "I'll make sure no one laughs at me anymore."
The young Primarch's journey took him to the city state of Lochos, where the Emperor's fourth son was welcomed by the city guards. Seeing that the child was clearly special and that he showed no signs of evil intentions, the guards took the young man to the city's leader, a man called Dammekos.
Dammekos was one of Olympia's many warlords. Thanks to his tactical cunning and his firm regime that tolerated no rebellion, Dammekos earned the nickname "the tyrant of Lochos" from his adversaries and opponents. Dammekos already had several sons by the time he met the Primarch, however, the leader of Lochos didn't consider any of them fit to take over Lochos and was secretly looking for a successor. When he looked at the Primarch, he saw the potential he had and decided to adopt the boy to become his successor.
Under the tutelage of his new father, Perturabo was educated by countless doctors and had access to a huge range of books and scrolls on the most diverse subjects. In every topic, from engineering to war tactics, the fourth Primarch absorbed what his tutors taught him with inhuman speed, and soon surpassed every one of his teachers.
One proof of the Primarch's intellect was that he was able to decipher a text that spoke of a splendid human general who commanded an immense army in times gone by. Impressed by this general's skill, Perturabo decided to name himself after him.
With this level of intellect, it didn't take long for the primarch to be promoted to the top general of the Dammekos army. As a general, Perturabo was able to break down the walls of several opposing cities with never-before-seen tactics and huge siege machines that he developed himself. This earned him the nickname "Lord of Iron", since his armies were much more mechanized than those of his opponents.
Dammekos also tried to get closer to his adopted son, since even though he was his greatest general, he was his son first. But unfortunately, the tyrant of Lochos was never able to get close to the Primarch, something that his other children also failed to do. The only one who was able to form an emotional bond with the Primarch was Dammekos' daughter, Calliphone.
Both Calliphone and Perturabo shared a love of invention and science. That's probably why she was the only person who could get close to Perturabo and create a genuine friendship.This friendship reached such a point that Perturabo let Calliphone call him by the nickname "Bo".
After a few years as general-in-chief of Lochos' armies, Perturabo finally conquered all the cities near Lochos, but both Dammekos and the Primarch himself were determined to unite the entire planet under one banner to bring it into a new golden age. So both organized a huge campaign in which Perturabo would go from city to city offering to submit to the armies of Lochos or fight and inevitably be conquered.
For almost a decade the Primarch carried out this campaign throughout Olympia. Several cities opposed it and knelt to the tyrant of Lochos, which inevitably led to their walls falling to the guns of Perturabo and their inhabitants being forced to submit to the rule of Dammekos. Some of these cities even made alliances with their neighbors to try to resist the armies of Lochos, but even this was in vain against the mighty Lochonian armies.
At the end of the campaign, the last city in Olympia that wasn't under the power of Dammekos decided to surrender in order to avoid the wrath of the Lochos tyrant. A small celebration was held between the different generals of Perturabo as a way of having a more intimate celebration before the big party that was undoubtedly to come. For the first time in a long time, the Primarch felt genuinely happy and that he belonged somewhere. Perturabo was feeling that a bright future lay ahead. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In the middle of the celebration, a group of suicide bombers burst into the party and launched themselves at Perturabo in an attempt to end the Primarch's life. The explosion killed most of the generals present, but thanks to his genetically enhanced body, the Emperor's son was able to survive the attempt on his life.
After receiving medical treatment, the survivors of the party received news that Dammekos had declared Perturabo a traitor to Olympia's empire, since he had supposedly found the Primarch's plans involving a coup d'état to take control of the planet. These accusations split Olympia in half and brought confusion and discord to both the population and the Olympian army. People were torn between believing the words of the Lochos tyrant or supporting the greatest general the world had ever seen.
The most affected by these accusations was Perturabo, who felt betrayed by his father and confused as to why he would make such false claims. But the Primarch couldn't stand idly by, as no doubt Dammekos was already mobilizing an army to wipe out Perturabo and his followers, so, with no time to lose, the Primarch announced to his army that they would march to Lochos to find out what was going on.
This move by the Perturabo's army was interpreted as confirmation of the words of the Lochos tyrant, that his adopted son was marching to the capital to carry out a coup d'état with the help of his army. This caused irritation among elements loyal to Lochos in the Perturabo army, with some even being imprisoned or executed for revealing themselves against the primarch. But this didn't slow down the iron lord's march, since not only did he have the support of several Dammekos opponents, but the last cities he conquered were on his side, since they were so far from Lochos that they hardly saw Perturabo's father as anything more than a dictator.
So the iron lord marched from city to city crushing any followers of Dammekos who stood in his way. Until finally he reached the gates of Lochos. After nine days of siege, Perturabo was finally able to breach the walls and gates that he himself had built years ago. What followed was a bloody advance to the tyrant's palace. When the Primarch reached the palace steps, he and his bodyguards fought the guards of his former home. The fight was so bloody that only Perturabo managed to reach the doors of Dammekos' chambers with his armor almost completely destroyed, where he fought and killed his two adopted brothers before coming face to face with his father.
A dull thud was the only sound in the room as Perturabo broke his adoptive father's neck. The fourth Primarch watched in silence as his former father's body gradually went limp, the hand that had been clutching the knife he had plunged into Perturabo's arm lost its strength and let the knife fall to the stone floor.
The iron lord then released his father's head and watched as the body fell sitting on the iron throne of the former tyrant of Lochos.
Perturabo remembered for a minute everything that had happened over the last year, how he had been unable to stop this war, and that he didn't even understand why it had happened. And one of the things that intrigued him the most was the fact that the laughter had become louder since the start of the war, even now it was still ringing in the back of his mind.
Suddenly, interrupting the Primarch's thoughts, Perturabo felt a laser gun fire at the unarmored part of his back. The primarch turned to face the shooter, and the moment he did, the lord of iron froze in place.
"Calliphone."
Her sister was standing in the doorway, her hands shaking as she held the Las-pistol that Perturabo had given her as a present. Tears were falling from her eyes, but that didn't hide her expression, which was a mixture of anger and fear.
"You monster!". She screamed as more tears fell from her eyes. Seeing his sister's state, Perturabo stepped forward.
"Calliphone please let me explain-". Before he could finish his sentence, Calliphone fired once more. This time the shot hit his bare chest, leaving a slight mark that disappeared within seconds.
"You don't have to explain anything! The counselors told us about your plans, and our spies confirmed everything they said! We gave you everything Bo, Dammekos gave you everything! And you reward us like this?!"
Seeing his sister's emotional state, Perturabo advanced towards his sister to make sure she didn't do anything crazy. The primarch ignored the shots his sister fired and grabbed her by the arms. The fear that his sister would also betray him meant that Perturabo didn't realize how tightly he was holding her.
"Calliphone, please listen to me! I never wanted to betray you or Dad, it was his accusations that made me do it!". Her grip was so strong that it was almost crushing her foster sister's arms.
"Let me go! Let me go, you monster!". His sister began to struggle in a futile attempt to escape the Primarch's grip, as he was so overcome by his emotions that he didn't realize he was hurting his sister. With all the effort he could muster, Calliphone pointed the LAS-pistol upwards at his brother's head and pulled the trigger.
The shot hit the left side of the Primarch's face, and the ensuing explosion blinded his left eye and stunned his senses. Disoriented by the shot, the Primarch threw his sister away.
The primarch stood still for a few seconds recovering from the shot, then when he finally realized what he had done, Perturabo turned to look at his sister. For a second, both their hearts stopped when they saw his sister's body slumped against a wall in the room.
The room was completely silent for several seconds as the fourth Primarch stared at the lifeless bodies of his adoptive family. Then Perturabo fell to his knees on the floor, tears starting to fall from his eyes.
With the death of Dammekos and his family, Olympia's civil war ended with Perturabo taking over as leader of the planet. The lord of iron assumed this position without the support of any acquaintances to act as advisors, since none of the people he was close to survived the civil war. He necessarily had no listeners or close advisors to help him govern the planet.
His first action as undisputed ruler of the planet was to eliminate every one of Dammekos' advisors and close associates, since he suspected that they were the ones really responsible for the civil war. This cleansing only increased Perturabo's reputation for being cold and cruel. No one tried to get close to him during his reign.
The fourth primarch also set up an intelligence network in every city on the planet as a way of neutralizing any kind of rebellion before it had time to grow.
Thus, Perturabo ruled Olympia with an iron rule that was even harsher and more oppressive than that of Dammekos. This regime lasted for almost 20 years, until one day a dozen golden ships arrived in Olympia's orbit, from the largest of which came a dropship that left the Emperor of humanity in front of Lochos. There, the undisputed master of humanity marched through the city to the palace of Perturabo, and there father and son met, and the Iron Lord pledged allegiance to his genetic father.
-The Great Crusade:
"Weaknesses only exist if you let them be born and grow."
~Phrase taken from the personal records of the fourth Primarch.
After meeting the Emperor and joining the great crusade, the Primarch spent a long time finding out about his father's crusade and several of its most important battles. He also focused on reading about all the campaigns carried out by his sons.
When the fleet of the fourth legion arrived in the Olympia system, Perturabo boarded the legion's flagship to finally meet up with his sons. It is said that the first thing the Primarch said to them was "we have work to do".
The first action taken by the legion was the decimation, in which one in ten legionnaires would be chosen at random to be beaten to death by their own comrades. The first victim of this was the legion master himself, who was beaten to death by Perturabo for his weakness in leading the legion and had his name erased from the legion's records.
The decimation was carried out without question by the legionaries of the fourth legion, since they were so desperate to improve their situation that they accepted their primarch's orders without complaint. Thus, the decimation was completed and with it Perturabo mostly eliminated the legion's mental weakness. The primarch congratulated his sons on having successfully carried out what they had been ordered to do, and announced that the legion's next action would be to exterminate a group of rebellious humans known as the Black Judges.
The Black Judges were a group of warlords who had in their possession various technologies from the dark ages of technology, including one that allowed them to extend the life of the user in exchange for human genetic material. The Black Judges traveled from planet to planet kidnapping its inhabitants both to use them as sacrifices for their extended lives and to use them as guinea pigs in their own sick experiments. This group had been able to defeat all the solar auxiliary regiments that had been sent to eliminate them, and because of this and their proximity to Olympia, Perturabo considered them ideal for his first campaign at the legion's behest.
The battle was hard fought and caused hundreds of legionnaires to be killed and wounded, but the fourth legion could overcome the creations of the judges and put an end to the lives of these sick warlords. Perturabo congratulated his legion again, and announced that the legion was as strong as iron, both mentally and physically, and declared that from that day on the legion would be known as the Iron Warriors. And with the beginning of this new era for the legion, Perturabo finally started recruiting legionnaires from Olympia.
Even though the legionaries of the fourth did not complain about the practices carried out by their primarch, several generals and other primarchs were unhappy with this treatment of such a valuable resource as the Astarters Adepts. Perturabo in turn threatened the human generals not to mess with his legion, while sending messages to his brothers recommending that they follow his example to make the legions stronger. This caused irritation among his brothers and resulted in the fourth legion being quite distant from the majority of the legions, something that Perturabo didn't mind fixing throughout the crusade.
With the Primarch now at the helm of the legion, the Iron Warriors won several victories on behalf of Imperium in the first few months since the discovery of the fourth Primarch. Perturabo's knowledge and tactics in siege warfare helped the legion perfect its way of waging war, while the primarch instructed the legion's top brass to follow cold, efficient logic most of the time.
Perturabo also made a point of building up a long network of informants throughout most of the imperium. According to him, this was a way of ensuring that large-scale rebellions died down before they could break out. To this end, the Iron Lord bribed several planetary governors and low-ranking politicians to serve as his ears throughout the imperium, while at the same time scattering legion strongholds throughout the Imperium, each of which would have a handful of legionnaires in them and would serve to directly control certain star systems and ensure that no revolts took place, while at the same time serving as eyes and ears for the legion.
Another particularity of the legion was the subject of psykers. Perturabo never liked psykers since the Primarch didn't like things he couldn't fully understand and control, so for a while the legion operated without the support of psykers. But after much thought, Perturabo allowed the use of psychic powers such as telepathy since such powers offered the possibility of knowing what enemies were thinking. Thus, the psykers within the Fourth Legion were used as yet another way of satisfying the Primarch's obsession with controlling everything and everyone around him.
Sarvar novix
Sarvar was among the first generation of legionnaires from Olympia to join the Fourth Legion. Sarvar quickly stood out for his almost unhealthy loyalty to his Primarch, which meant that he never retreated or hid from an enemy unless the Primarch ordered him to do so.
Later in his career, Sarvar's psychic powers awoke, allowing him to join the librarium that Perturabo had recently reopened. From then on, Sarvar quickly became a prominent figure within the legion thanks to being a prodigy in the art of telepathy, which he saw revealing the secrets of xenos and human rebels in numerous campaigns.
This went so far that he became the head of the fourth legion's Librarium, while several times having the honor of serving as an advisor to the Primarch.
For most of the Great Crusade, the Iron Warriors fought extremely bloody campaigns that saw the use of massive weapons of destruction and the deaths of several hundred legionnaires. Several hundred times, the fourth legion was involved in this type of highly bloody conflict, but it didn't receive the recognition it deserved.
Most of the legion began to resent the other legions for taking all the glory while they were barely remembered by the imperium, but Perturabo still hoped that his father and brothers would recognize his efforts to make the legion as strong as possible, and took similar measures.
When Perturabo received the news of Ullanor's triumph, the Primarch quickly mobilized his legion to be part of this historic moment for mankind. There he watched in silence as Horus was elevated to Warmaster while his own announced his retreat from the great crusade. A part of him was jealous of Horus' new title, but with the first one found being among the brothers who had the best relationship with the fourth Primarch, Perturabo could put those thoughts aside and congratulated his brother on such an honor.
After retreating from the triumph, the fourth legion returned to its usual campaigns of attrition until Perturabo received another call from his father, this time to head to the world of Nikea where the fate of psykers in the imperium would be decided. As someone close to Magnus, the fourth Primarch supported the use of psykers as long as they were properly controlled, and responded to Corvus and Dorn's statements about the dangers of the Warp, calling them fools for being unable to see the positive side of psychic powers.
At the end of the council, the Emperor announced that psychic powers would continue to be used under new guidelines. But before those present could leave, the Emperor announced the position of Praetorian, and that he had already decided which of his sons would have this honor.
Perturabo was surprised by this announcement, and for a moment he believed that his father had finally recognized his efforts. But then everything fell apart when the Emperor announced that Fulgrim would be his praetorian. Perturabo looked outraged at his brother and father, an expression that Dorn also shared, and then hurried off the planet before his father or brothers could say anything.
-The choice:
"I always thought that they understood the reason for my actions, that in the future they would decide to follow my example. How foolish I was. They don't understand me, they see me as a cruel, paranoid barbarian, and my actions as little more than my own delusions.
I refuse to go on like this, I refuse to be a puppet once again. I will take my fate into my own hands, whatever the cost."
~From the personal records of the fourth primarch. It is believed that he wrote this shortly before being corrupted by chaos.
After Nikea, the legion felt humiliated at not being chosen as Praetorian, and in response isolated itself even more from the larger imperium. The Iron Warriors focused 100% on their own grueling campaigns while actively staying away from the other legions.
To make matters worse, it was around this time that several of Perturabo's informants ended up being discovered and several imperial officials gained knowledge of the primarch's informant network. Even though this didn't cause the Warmaster or Emperor to take any action against the Primarch, the mere fact that Perturabo controlled a network of informants caused most of the legions to distance themselves even further from the Fourth Legion.
The legion continued its brutal campaigns for several years until the infamous Sak'trada Deeps campaign. Under orders from the War Council, the Fourth Legion was tasked with eliminating the Xeno presence from the Sak'trada region. This region of space was strategically useless to humanity, but it was home to a huge colony of Xenos known as Hrud. These xenos had the peculiar ability to generate a field around them capable of distorting space-time to such an extent that it could block low-caliber projectiles, and was capable of aging anyone it came into contact with by hundreds of years.
This characteristic of the xenos made them practically impossible to eliminate by unenhanced humans. Because of this, the warsmith council decided that the Iron Warriors would be in charge of eliminating this Xeno threat.
The campaign that followed was as tough and complicated as anyone could have imagined it would be against an enemy with such peculiar abilities. The entropic field that surrounded the xenos made hand-to-hand combat practically impossible since both the astarters and their weapons aged hundreds of years in seconds. At the same time, the xenos' weaponry interacted with the user's field to make their shots pass through solid objects, making cover and armor practically useless against such weapons.
After several minimal advances against the xenos, Perturabo was able to develop a high-scale stasis field that nullified the xenos' abilities, thus allowing the fourth legion to push back the Hruds. Desperate at the loss of their main weapon and the advance of the fourth legion, the Hruds fled the system in the hope of escaping the wrath of the Iron Lord.
The Iron Warriors were caught off guard when hundreds of Hruds ships revealed themselves beneath the surfaces of the system's planets and fired their engines at maximum speed to escape humanity's warriors. Hundreds of Legion ships were destroyed by fire from and collision with the xenos ships. And to make matters worse, the Xenos launched a temporal pulse that caused severe damage to the remaining ships as a way of ensuring that they would not be pursued by the Primarch.
The Fourth Legion was able to expel the Xenos, but it cost them more than 40,000 marines and a ridiculous amount of weaponry that was completely unusable. As a result, several commanders of the fourth legion complained about the campaign and called it pointless, something that angered Perturabo, who in response put them in lower ranks and sent each of them to legion's strongholds far from the front line.
Over the next few months, the fourth legion prowled the region in search of any Hrud remnants that had been left behind, while at the same time trying to rebuild its strength to what it was before the campaign against the Hruds. It was during this time that the Primarch was approached by a fleet of the Eighth Legion led by his own brother.
Even though he wasn't particularly close to the fourth Primarch, Konrad Curze requested a meeting with his brother to discuss urgent matters. Perturabo approved the meeting, and behind closed doors, the brothers and the elites of both legions met. It is not known exactly what was discussed at the meeting or how long it lasted. The only thing that is known is that when Perturabo left the meeting, the seed of Chaos had already been planted in his soul. At Konrad's request, the fourth Primarch headed for the segmentum obscurus, but specifically to a planet within the warp storm known as the Eye of Terror.
With each passing day, the laughter in Perturabo's head grew louder the closer he got to the warp storm, but the primarch didn't give up on his journey, and finally the fleet of the fourth legion arrived at the planet known as Cadia, which stood in front of the main entrance to the eye of terror.
When they reached this planet, most of the fleet stayed behind, while the Iron Blood accompanied by a few escorts entered the warp storm. The journey was complicated, as you would expect from any crossing in a warp storm, but the fleet didn't give up and was finally able to reach its destination, the planet known as Fael'tioum. Primarch, accompanied by his honor guard, the Tyranthikos, to meet his fate.
The Primarch walked the surface of the planet for hours on end.He didn't walk in any particular direction, he simply walked forward as he felt that was where he should go. The very earth of the planet seemed to change every few steps. Rocks the size of Land riders abruptly turned into lava, and then that lava turned into sand and then earth and finally into crystals. The Primarch tried to understand this process of transformation, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't find any meaning behind it.
This was just another of the planet's many mysteries, another being the fate of its bodyguards. For some reason, the planet simply took them away from their genetic father, some were swallowed up by the earth itself, while others disappeared without a trace. The hours passed and little by little his children disappeared, until the Primarch was finally alone.
So he continued to walk alone in search of understanding what was happening on this planet, just him and the laughter that has accompanied him since he left his gestation capsule.
The answer to his questions finally seemed to appear when, at the ninetieth hour, a small stone temple appeared out of nowhere a few hundred meters from the primarch.
The Iron Lord continued his walk until he reached the temple, and then opened its thick stone doors. When the Primarch opened the doors he quickly realized two things, that the inside of the temple was several times larger than the outside, so much so that it should have been impossible, and that the psychic energy inside was incredibly concentrated. All the planets within the eye of terror had high concentrations of shapeless energy in them, but this temple took it to ridiculous levels, even the battlefields of the XV legion couldn't compare to the energies the temple emanated.
The Primarch scanned the inside of the temple for any relevant seven. The temple was completely empty except for a small altar in the middle of it, this altar having a large crystal almost a meter above it. Seeing that this was the only relevant element in the structure, Perturabo walked to the foot of the altar.
He stared at the crystal on the altar, seeing that not only did it appear to be the source of psychic energy, but that it changed constantly, never having the same silhouette for more than a millisecond. The Primarch stared at the crystal, until then the crystal glowed, and suddenly the fourth Primarch fell to the ground on his knees. The sudden increase in warp energy was one of the reasons the Primarch was on his knees, the other being that he simply didn't understand what he was seeing.
The crystal began to glow in physically impossible colors while taking on sizes larger than entire segmentums but no larger than the size of a human head. The sensors in his armor went haywire trying to analyze the crystal while both nostrils bled and his brain ached trying to understand what was in front of him. Then the Primarch heard it. Not a voice or any kind of sound, but a set of images, colors and other forms of more primitive and advanced languages.
"+Son of anathema.+"
"+I am the architect of destiny, the lord of change, and the one who knows everything.+"
"+I am Tzeentch.+"
"+What do you seek from me, Iron Lord?+"
With all the strength he had, Perturabo forced himself to stand up and faced the standing crystal.
"I- I seek knowledge. I se- I seek power. I want to know what's going to happen before it happens, and that I can control what's going to happen."
The temple was silent for a few seconds, before a new wave of sounds hit the primarch.
"+What you're asking for is something big, Lord of the Fourth.+"
"+I can fulfill your request, but it will come at a price.+"
"+I will make you my champion, and then, when you prove yourself worthy, I will give you your acclaimed knowledge.+"
Before the Primarch could respond to the crystal, a massive psychic wave came out of it and struck the Primarch. Perturabo could feel how his body absorbed the psychic energy and every cell in his body changed and adapted. The Primarch fell to the ground in spasms of pain, and stayed there for several minutes until they finally stopped.
The fourth Primarch got up from the floor with slow movements, and looked to where the crystal was only to find the altar empty. Perturabo the second thing the Primarch noticed was the laughter in his head. Since entering the eye, the laughter had become almost unbearable, but now it was almost imperceptible to the Primarch.
Perturabo then spent several minutes sensing his surroundings, looking for any other changes in his senses. He could feel the shapeless energy in much more detail than before. The Primarch then opened his hand and with a thought psychic power flowed from his eyes and psychic rays manifested in his palm. The Primarch tested his newest psychic powers a little more before turning and leaving the temple.
After more than nine hours, the Primarch returned from his exploration of the Daemon world and told his children about the entity he had found.
The journey back to the materium was quick and much less complicated than the outward journey, and when they finally left the warp-storm and met up with the rest of the fleet, they discovered that only a couple of minutes had passed since they entered the eye of terror.
After meeting up with the rest of the fleet, Perturabo wasted no time in calling all the legion officers in the fleet to tell them what his next move would be. The Imperium didn't care about them, saw no value in the battles the legion had fought, and only saw them as disposable pawns. They had lived this way long enough, it was time to change the situation once and for all. To change the imperium into one where they were their own masters, they would have to overthrow the Emperor and crown Sanguinius in his place, only then would their fate not be controlled by bureaucrats who had never seen war, only then could they make the imperium strong as iron.
To guarantee this, he had made a deal with the being known as Tzeentch. This new ally would give the legion power and forgotten knowledge that would be needed in the war to come, and in return he was to be worshiped by the fourth legion.
The majority of those present were amazed by their genetic father's words, agreeing with this course of action and ready to spill the blood of the loyalists. A small part opposed the Primarch and questioned whether this was the right way to go. In response, the Primarch killed these elements and stated that this was the fate of all opponents, if any legionnaire could not be convinced then they would have to be eliminated.
However, to Perturabo's misfortune, he knew that there were many loyalists in his legion, and that eliminating them one by one without their betrayal being discovered would take several years. So the Fourth Primarch dedicated himself to gradually eliminating the legalistic commanders within the legion, while at the same time trying to corrupt those whose loyalty was still in doubt. For two years, the Primarch carried out these measures while gathering resources that would be useful when the war against the Emperor began.
During these years, the legion gradually began to become even more corrupted, while the worship of Tzeentch spread further and further throughout the legion. Sorcery and demon invocations began to become commonplace in the legion's librarium, and every few weeks it would perform rituals in the name of the architect of fate. This was only possible because the legion barely had contacts with the rest of the imperium at this point, which allowed corruption to run wild within the fourth legion.
Perturabo's wait ended when a messenger from the eighth legion contacted him informing him that the first blow against the Emperor would be struck on the planet of Istvaan III, where the loyal elements of the traitor legions would be purged. The fourth Primarch began his journey to Istvaan at the same time as calling on most of the legion's expeditionary fleets to join him with the excuse of neutralizing a rebellion on the world of Istvaan III.
When they finally arrived in the star system, Perturabo was surprised not only to see the fleet of the Seventh Legion, but also by the lack of Blood Angels in the system. The Primarch threatened the messenger with death if it turned out to be a trap, but he managed to convince the Primarch that it wasn't one and to collaborate with the other traitors in the system.
In this way, Perturabo met with his other brothers, and the traitorous Primarchs agreed on how the legalists' cleansing would take place and how they would carry it out. The legalists would descend on the planet without contact with the fleet above, and while they crushed the rebellious human soldiers, the traitors would prepare to bombard the planet's surface with the flesh-eater virus.
However, the traitors' plans were thwarted as Imperial Fists legalists who were among the fleet were able to warn their comrades on the surface about the bombardment, which gave them enough time to hide in underground bunkers to avoid the virus.
Seeing that the bombardment could only killed a third of the loyalists, Ferrus Manus decided to descend to the surface of the planet and take care of the loyalists himself. The remaining traitors soon joined him and fought with the loyalists all over the planet's surface. The loyalists present knew that this battle was already lost, and that it was only a matter of time before the traitors won, but they still fought with determination to eliminate as many traitors as possible who were wasting their time in a battle that was already doomed.
In the end, the traitors hoisted their banners over the entire surface of Istvaan III, and the few remaining legalists hid in bunkers that would soon be breached. But it wasn't a complete victory for the traitors, as news soon spread that Death Guard loyalists had escaped and were days away from reaching imperial space.
The room in which Perturabo and the head librarian Novix stood was filled with a supernatural chill as slaves and servants prepared everything. In silence they both watched as the servants wrote symbols that caused pain to the eye on gis while fourth legion librarians recited impossible syllables to gradually weaken the barrier between reality and the warp.
Then, when the last symbols were recited, Novix joined the ritual and with the help of a group of occultists who sang a cursed symphony to the dark gods, the sky of reality finally broke and let the unborn guest enter reality. While others wept blood at the sight of the daemon, Perturabo gave him a stern look and stepped forward and spoke the neverborn's name.
"Changeling."
Unlike the other Daemons of Tzeentch, the Changeling was not a giant figure with bird-like features or an ever-changing mass with various limbs and appendages, other than that it was a humanoid figure the size of an astarters wearing a long white and blue tunic. The only thing showing from the robe were four blue arms with glowing tattoos, one on one side holding a staff, and three on the other. The being stared at the Primarch, its true face always covered by a supernatural darkness that never went away.
"+Iron Lord, it is a pleasure to be in your presence.+" The demon saluted as he finished speaking. "+What would be the reason behind my summoning you?+"
"Don't play the fool, you know why you're here." Perturabo said dismissively as he stared at the daemon. "Sanguinius and Konrad knew those legalists would escape, didn't they?" The Primarch spat out the question while still staring into the darkness that was the daemon's face. That was the only thing he had been thinking about lately, how convenient it was that there were no ninth or eighth ships in the system when the loyalists escaped.
"+That's a probability, no doubt. But I don't know if the Angel or the Night Hunter knew it would happen. The only ones with such knowledge would be his brothers and the architect of fate himself, Tzeentch.+"
"That wasn't our deal!" The Primarch cut in. "Your master promised me that he would give me knowledge so that something like this wouldn't happen again!"
"+Your deal with our master was that when you fulfilled your duty as his champion, you would be rewarded with your much-desired knowledge.+"
"What more does he want? I've already eliminated the loyalists within my legion and learned to use sorcery. What more does your master need from me?". With that last sentence, the Changeling let out a long laugh.
"+You mortals are so simplistic, you have already molded your children to fit my master's wishes, but you have yet to fight on his behalf. My master wants you to fight in his name to test your loyalty and efficiency, only then will you become the champion you are destined to be.+" The demon then floated up to within a few centimetres of Perturabo, and with a little magic made the image of a planet appear that Perturabo recognized very well. "+Come Lord of Iron, our master has a very special mission for you. You will be the flame that will make Prospero burn.+"
-Heresy: The burning of Prospero
After being informed of his mission to eliminate the Thousand Sons in the name of Tzeentch, Perturabo informed his sons of the task Tzeentch had assigned them and proceeded to leave the system and head for Prospero, leaving behind only a small band of astarters who would support their sisters when the legalists finally reached the Istvaan system.
However, Perturabo didn't head straight for the fifteenth legion's home planet, since even though he had 175,000 astarters in his possession and his legion's entire arsenal at his disposal, facing Magnus and his Thousand Sons head-on would cause Perturabo too many losses, losses he couldn't admit to right at the start of the war against his father. So, in order to carry out this extermination, Perturabo decided to ask for help from the only brother who would be willing to put an end to Magnus' legion, Leman Russ.
After Nikea, Russ distanced himself from his brothers and was distressed by the current state of the imperium, believing that his father had made a mistake when he decided to give Horus command of the great crusade and allowed the use of psychic powers. This, together with Russ's well-known hatred of Magnus, allowed Perturabo, with the help of the Changeling, to manipulate the wolf king into thinking that Magnus had betrayed the Emperor and that he had commissioned Perturabo and Russ to eliminate the Crimson King.
With that, the Space Wolves and Iron Warriors headed for the Prosperino system with the intention of cleansing the galaxy of the Fifteenth Legion.
When they arrived in the system, both fleets were approached by ships from the Thousand Sons who were plundering their home system. Russ wanted to try to shed as little blood as possible, but this was quickly thwarted when the fourth legion simply opened fire on its sister legion. Thus, both legions made their bloody way to the orbit of Prospero. There in the planet's orbit, the sky lit up as the Fourth and Sixth Legions furiously fought the Fifteenth's fleet until they were finally able to gain orbital superiority.
Without wasting a minute, the fourth legion began its orbital bombardment of the planet, annihilating every city on the planet, with the exception of its capital, Tizca, which was protected by the void shields installed in the city. So many psychic deaths in such a short space of time caused the warp around the system to become so agitated that little by little the barrier between the materium and the inmaterium began to weaken.
Seeing that the planet's capital was still standing, and that it was very likely that Magnus would be there, Russ contacted Perturabo and between them they decided on the attack on Tizca. The wolves would serve as the spearhead while most of the fourth legion would provide covering fire for Fenris' legionnaires.
So began the battle for Tizca. The wolves of Fenris ran wild through the white streets of the city as they were led by Leman Russ himself, they were supported by the war machines of the warriors of Olympia. The sons of Magnus in response used their psychic powers in an attempt to drive back the invaders.
It was during these bloody fights that several Librarians of the Fourth began performing dark rituals and techniques against the Fifteenth Legion and the planet's PDF. Several sons of Russ smelled maleficarium coming from these librarians, and in response several of them attacked such astarters because they considered them dangerous, but unfortunately most of the astarters of the sixth legion were too focused on attacking the sons of Cyclops to stop the librarians of the Iron Warriors. If the sons of Russ had paid more attention to such legionnaires, it is likely that the battle of Prospero would have had a different ending.
The battle for Tizca raged for several hours, the pearly white streets of the city soiled with the blood of post-human warriors and ash. The wolves suffered heavy losses throughout the battle, but finally after much sacrifice they were able to reach the outskirts of the fortresses of each of the Thousand Sons cults. It was then that Perturabo finally decided to personally join the battle that was developing on the planet.
The Primarch descended to the planet accompanied by the legion's main sorcerers and cultists and several machines that boost psychic powers. The Lord of Iron contacted the other sorcerers of the legion and together they began to perform a ritual that would mark the legions present on the planet forever. The Thousand Sons and Space Wolves nearby sensed the cursed energies emanating from the ritual and tried to stop it by attacking the machines and the sorcerers, but the veterans of the fourth legion stood in the way and protected their Primarch. Then, with one last psychic boost, Perturabo launched the ritual across the entire surface of the planet.
The ritual performed by the fourth primarch can be described as a cry performed by a billion voices. The sorcery performed by the fourth legion pulled from the warp itself the souls of hundreds of thousands of propertarians killed throughout history, ranging from those killed in the ongoing conflict to spirits who had walked the planet hundreds of years before Magnus arrived. The psychic scream of so many spirits being pulled into the material plane and their subsequent manifestation not only caused madness and death in hundreds of psychics who weren't prepared for it, but finally caused the already weakened veil between the Warp and the Materium to finally crack and the energies of the great ocean to flow like rivers across the surface of Prospero and for demons and other predators of the warp to walk the streets of Tizca.
The carnage that followed the ritual was of unimaginable proportions. Almost a fifth of the Thousand Sons still alive died in the minutes following the ritual, some collapsed in pain from feeling so many souls screaming and fell victim to the fire of the fourth legion, while others found themselves attacked by creatures that had never been born. The sixth legion fell victim to the fire of the Iron Warriors and their war machines, any form of cohesion being broken by the attack of the sons of Perturabo. Both legions struggled to reorganize and effectively counter-attack the advancing warriors of Olympia, which allowed Perturabo to advance unopposed to the pyramid of Photep, the place where Magnus was.
The Primarch knocked down all the defenders who stood between him and Magnus, until on the steps of Photep's pyramid the two demigods met, and without saying a word the duel between them began.
Magnus is easily one of the most powerful psychics in the galaxy, second only to the Emperor of Mankind himself. On any other occasion, a duel between him and Perturabo would have ended in victory for the Crimson King. But unfortunately, that wasn't what was happening. Magnus was already extremely tired physically and mentally from having to face several powerful demons and sorcerers over the last few hours, while the Lord of Iron was not only in top form, but had his advanced weaponry to his advantage and the dark knowledge that his followers from Tzeentch had taught him. So it wasn't long before the fifteenth Primarch fell defeated before the hammer of Olympia.
With a psychic pulse, Perturabo made his brother fall to the ground right in front of the steps of Photep's pyramid. The crimson Primarch lay with most of his bones broken and dozens of other wounds all over his body, each one more than enough to kill an Astarter. The fourth Primarch, on the other hand, stood triumphantly in front of his brother. He too had several serious wounds, but they were far less numerous than Magnus'.
Perturabo then slowly raised his arm and pointed his cannons at Magnus, who could only stare helplessly at his brother.
But before the cannons could fire, a shot from a combi-bolter impacted Olympia's primarch, and before he could turn he heard a shout louder than humanly possible
"PERTURABO!"
When the Iron Lord turned around, he didn't find his brother, but the beast that decades ago could bring Fenris to his knees with its power. Said beast was now rushing towards him at a speed that not even an Astarter could keep up with. Perturabo barely had time to dodge his brother's attack.
In the previous duel, Perturabo had been able to take advantage of Magnus' state to outwit his brother, but now it was Perturabo who was being outplayed. Even with his psychic powers, the fourth Primarch had little to do against the fury of the Emperor's executioner. The duel between the two Primarchs was fast, in the first few seconds of the duel Perturabo was struck dozens of times and was barely able to fight back. It was then that Leman took advantage of a small gap in his brother's defense, and with one swift movement he stabbed his brother's primary heart and severely damaged his secondary heart using his Frostblade.
For several seconds it seemed as if the entire planet fell completely silent. Perturabo stared blankly at his brother's sword, before looking him in the eye.
Little by little, Perturabo's soul left his body, while he could only think that this shouldn't be happening.
But it was in the primarch's last moment of life that the sound returned to the world.
As every sense in his body screamed, Russ jumped back a moment before reality itself broke and cracked around Perturabo's body. Everyone present watched in horror as the warp energies enveloped the body of the fourth Primarch, who began to spasm and change as the warp energy entered his body.
The Primarch increased in size while large metal wings appeared on its back. Its legs deformed and became a hybrid of the legs of a bird and a human being.
When the transformation was complete, a being that was and at the same time was no longer the Primarch rose above everyone around him. He then laughed in such a way that reality itself began to squirm in pain with that impossible laugh, and then, with a wave of his hand, cracks grew and a warp storm began to form around him.
Seeing that the storm could kill everyone on the planet, Magnus began to prepare a spell to get everyone out. Perturabo cast a psychic bolt of lightning to stop his crimson brother, but Russ got in the way and took the blow for Magnus. It was then that Magnus finished the spell, and most of the planet's legalists disappeared in a flash, just before the warp storm expanded across the planet's surface.
Perturabo's ascension to daemon prince caused a huge warp storm that ended up devastating the planet and permanently marking it with warp energy that has not disappeared to this day. Most of the loyalists on the planet were able to narrowly evacuate thanks to Magnus being able to teleport them to their ships in the fleet.
But unfortunately for the loyalists, the warp storm began to grow and engulfed part of the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves fleet, including the captaincies where the Primarchs were. This was the blow that finally broke the sixth and fifteenth, and caused both legions to retreat from the prosperino system.
Perturabo's rise also affected his entire lineage. Legionnaires who had dormant psychic powers awakened them, and several dreamt or heard the whispers of the daemons of the architect of fate.
But before the fourth legion could celebrate their victory, the legionnaires realized that their genetic father had disappeared after the storm calmed down. When the wizards questioned the daemons about the whereabouts of their Primarch, they simply said that he was in the great library of Tzeentch and that he wouldn't literate the legion in the short term. To make up for this, the daemons instructed the legion's sorcerers on how to create oracles that would allow them to stay in contact with their genetic father. So the legion split up and followed the directives that delivered the oracles to the letter.
Using its vast network of infiltrators and informants, the legion spread disinformation throughout the galaxy, the main one being that the Space Wolves had betrayed the Emperor and attacked Prospero, but other false reports that branded certain legions as traitors or legalists were also spread by this network of informants.
Another of the oracles' directives was to attack certain strategic planets. Some of these planets contained strongholds of the Fourth Legion that were operated by legionnaires whose loyalty was in doubt. These legionnaires were saved from Istvaan III's purge by the fact that they were too far away to heed their genetic father's call. Some of these strongholds joined their brothers in the rebellion against the Emperor, while the majority refused to join the angel's armies and remained loyal. Most of these loyalists strongholds fell to the fire of their corrupt brethren, while those who survived the heresy would be known as renowned bastions who could survive the tides of madness.
Finally, we can also highlight the search for relics and powerful objects carried out at the behest of the oracles. Most of the legionnaires who set off in search of these relics never returned, but those who did had objects of extreme power in their possession. The best example of this would be trident member Barban Falk's trip to the forge world of Sarum, where he met the demon known as Sa'ra'am, who through a demonic pact offered his warlike knowledge to Barban in exchange for being able to possess one of the legionnaires accompanying the warsmith, which in the process created the first of the marines who would later be known as Obliterators, iron and flesh aberrations who have the ability to create machines out of nothing.
But even following the directives of the oracles, the lack of their primarch was clear in the legion, as it was extremely divided. Unity and discipline, a characteristic of the fourth legion, was cast aside by an environment that encouraged the survival of the fittest and most cunning, since if a commander didn't have these characteristics it wouldn't be long before he was stabbed in the back by his own men. Imperial historians and the inquisition believe that only half of the legion was focused on advancing towards the solar system led by the ninth legion, the rest of the legion was too focused on following the instructions of the oracles or attacking loyal systems with little strategic weight.
This is most evident in the deaths of Kydomor Forrix and Harkor, both members of the trident.
The legion's proximity to Tzeentch's followers didn't sit well with Harkor's psyche, who gradually suffered from more and more whispers from the inhabitants of the great ocean, each of which informed him of possible traitors around him. This led Harkor, in his desperation, to create a long network of informants and spies to anticipate any treachery against him.
In the middle of the third year of the heresy, the alpha legion was able to find and infiltrate the warsmith's network of informants, and it didn't take them long to use it against the legionnaire of the fourth legion. In his captaincy, Harkor found himself in the middle of a crossfire between spies and infiltrators who had been duped by false reports from the 20th legion accusing certain legionnaires of being traitors. In the midst of this confusion, an Alpha legion kill theme infiltrated the ship and assassinated the warsmith in the middle of the confusion. With the death of their leader, most of Harkor's fleet split into several groups and began killing each other, each group accusing the other of treason.
After the burning of prospero, the first captain Forrix gradually began to distance himself from the rest of the legion. He didn't fully trust the word of the oracles and he was disgusted by the fact that the rest of the legion's top brass blindly followed them. This, together with the fact that he had witnessed the near-death of his genetic father, made Forrix extremely bitter and distant from the rest of the legion. Every day he longed for Perturabo's return, as he was the only one who could change the legion's current state. This continued until the beginning of the third year of the heresy, when Forrix decided to leave the front line of the war and settle in Olympia.
The first captain had always been fond of Olympia from the first time he landed on the planet, to the point where he felt the planet was more his home world than Terra itself, so it's no surprise to learn that he decided to prepare the world for when Perturabo returned by optimizing its factories and improving its defences. Forrix made a point of taking only the legionnaires and staff he trusted the most, as he wanted to avoid as many greedy looks directed at the world as possible, whether they came from inside or outside the legion.
Unfortunately for the first captain, this was his undoing, as three years later Eidolon attacked the planet Forrix found himself alone to protect the legion's homeworld, with few if any traitors close enough to respond to the first captain's calls in time. Forrix then had to fight the outnumbered legalists for two months, until the third legion and its auxiliaries were finally able to break through Forrix's fortress and assassinate him. The end of Olympia came when the traitors decided to bombard the planet with nuclear warheads to ensure that the legalists didn't take their home world.
The death of both members of the trident dealt a heavy blow to the legion. Even with Barban and Sarvar taking over the responsibilities of the two dead warsmiths, the death of both commanders and the destruction of the resources and personnel they had shook the legion and slowed down its campaigns. The legion began to get agitated as the legionnaires themselves questioned the ability of their commanders and their actions, accusations of incompetence and betrayal were hurled between different captains and commanders within the legion.
But before the situation could escalate, something happened that caught the legion's attention. Simultaneously, all the oracles sent plans for a new type of automaton that had been devised by Perturabo himself. Such war machines were more advanced than most of the automata used by the mechanicum and would be extremely difficult to build, but the legion was so desperate for the return of their genetic father that they did everything possible to create these machines. For two months Tech-marines and hereteks worked day and night to build these automata, until finally their efforts bore fruit and the first Iron Circle automaton was born.
Iron circle
These infamous war machines, which have caused the deaths of thousands over the last ten thousand years, were created during the time Perturabo spent in the library of Tzeentch during the heresy. The fourth Primarch used all his technological and heretical knowledge to create these automatons that can match up to even demon princes.
Each of the automatons that make up the Iron Circle are telepathically linked to the primarch of the Iron Warriors, so that any information they provide serves as the primarch's eyes and ears in the materium. In this way, Perturabo can control his children from these robots and quickly eliminate any future traitors, something that is of great value to a being as paranoid as the fourth Primarch.
A notable feature of this group is that not all the robots in it are physically identical, but that most are based on different automaton patterns. It has already been recorded that at least two of these robots use the highly modified Domitar class body, while an Iron Circle robot of the Castellan class and a Thanatar class have also been recorded fighting side by side during one of Raldoron's Blood crusades. The only physical feature that unites all these robots is the iron skull-shaped head they all share, the head being made in the image of the legion's symbol.
How these machines work is a mystery to everyone except the god Emperor. Some inquisitors of the ordo malleus believe that these machines house the souls of the Tyranthikos who accompanied Perturabo on the surface of Fael'tioum, each of the nine machines containing the soul of a legionnaire, others believe that these machines serve as material receptacles for the great daemons allied with the Primarch, and some even talk about the possibility of them being Men of Iron that Perturabo can build thanks to the knowledge in the library of Tzeentch.
Speaking on behalf of the Fourth Primarch, the Iron Circle automatons made the Fourth Legion reunite and focus their efforts against the defenses of the solar segmentum. Thus, the entire fourth legion joined their traitorous cousins in the fight against the worlds loyal to the throne.
The automatons quickly proved their worth, being not only lethal machines, but also strategically astute. They also served propaganda purposes, as through the use of holograms and other illusory techniques, the legion made the automatons pass themselves off as their genetic father, something that caused much confusion and panic among the imperial commanders, as they received dozens of reports from worlds light years away from each other that reported the presence of Perturabo there.
The war continued as the legalists were gradually pushed back while the Beta-Garmon cluster gradually fell into traitorous hands. It was then, at the end of the eighth year of the heresy, that the automatons led the legion to the Zeta-Garmon system and there performed a great ritual that allowed the manifestation of an entire fleet of daemonships that was led by Perturabo himself.
All those years in the warp, in his personal Daemon world, the Lord of Iron worked on building a fleet of ships that would earn him the appreciation of Sanguinius. It was then that these efforts were finally revealed to the galaxy when the ritual allowed the fleet to move from the planet's orbit to the Zeta-Garmon system. With this fleet, the Primarch finished devastating the worlds of the system and then set off to reunite with the main traitor fleet. There, Perturabo gave the Archangel ship to Sanguinius as a gift, while promising to eliminate the legalists from the cluster as quickly as possible.
With the efforts of Iron Lord and his sons, the loyalist defenses began to fall faster and the loyalists found themselves closer and closer to the cradle of humanity. The only planet that posed a real challenge to the fourth was Beta-Garmon II and III, which finally had to be taken down by the sudden appearance of the 16th legion.
With the way to Terra finally clear, Sanguinius made a speech announcing a new era for humanity and then called on his brothers to organize the attack on the solar system.
-Siege of Terra:
The Iron Warriors were part of the second wave of the traitor fleet in the solar system, staying in the rear while the Dark Angels and their hated Imperial Fists rivals faced the first lines of legalist defenses. It was only after the battle for Jupiter, in which the traitors were ambushed and suffered several casualties in the fight to subdue the legalists in the planet's orbital cities, that the Iron Warriors and the other traitor legions joined the front line against the legalist defenses.
After the battles for Luna and the defeat of the loyalist fleet in Terra's orbit, the traitors were finally able to reach the cradle of humanity. And after weeks of bombardment and cannon fodder, the traitor legions finally landed on the planet and the siege of the imperial palace began.
Even though they weren't in large numbers during the first attacks on the Eternity Wall, the Iron Warriors weren't absent during these attacks, since the fourth Primarch had sent several Kill-Teams both to attack weak points in the wall and to monitor and control the other traitor legions. It was through this last objective that Perturabo was able to intervene in the Dark Angels' attack and thus bring down the Indicus Gate.
After finally entering the inner palace and discovering what an open-air slaughterhouse it was, Perturabo decided to divide his legion into two parts. The first had the mission of reaching the Lion's Gate and would be led by Sarvar and Barban, who had been promoted to official members of the trident since the Primarch's return, while the second part led by him and Erasmus Golg would attack strategically valuable points for the loyalists near the Eternity Wall, since they could launch an attack on the traitorous rearguard if they weren't careful. This is how several fortresses attached to the wall found themselves under attack by the Iron Warriors. One of the most important attacks the Iron Warriors took part in during this time would be supporting Raldoron in his attack against the defenders of the Lion's Gate Spaceport.
After being contacted by Raldoron and informed of the plan to attack the Spaceport, Perturabo united the half he led of the legion with the half led by Sarvar and Barban and prepared the legion for the attack. Together with the Blood Angels and the Death Guard, the Iron Warriors attacked the spaceport in a battle that would be remembered as one of the bloodiest of the siege. Thousands of soldiers from the imperial army and the most diverse courts of the solar auxilia fought against cultists and Skavens while their allied Astarters fought against their traitorous cousins.
The Iron Warriors focused on attacking the base of the spaceport while the ninth and fourteenth legions focused their efforts on the upper levels of the structure. The war was tough for the sons of Perturabo, having to deal with the fury of the Addaba Corps and the sudden attacks of the Raven Guard, which claimed the lives of several legionnaires from the fourth legion. In one of these attacks, Nykona Sharrowkyn and her kill team were able to ambush Golg's entourage and eliminate it in a matter of seconds. Only Golg escaped alive from this encounter and he had to be buried in a dreadnought sacorfa*go to prevent him from dying.
But even with the loyalists to the throne fighting with all their fury, the sons of Perturabo fought with grim determination and were slowly able to gain ground against the legalists. It was then, several days after the start of the attack, that Perturabo was finally able to dock his personal ship the Iron Blood in the Spaceport, and from there hundreds of technological abominations and obliterators descended on the Spaceport and slaughtered everything in their path. That was the final blow needed to collapse the legalists' defenses and force them to flee.
With the conquest of the Lion's Gate Spaceport, the traitors were finally able to count on the support of the traitor titans and thus push the loyalists towards the bastions guarding the Lion's Gate. The traitors then planned their next move.
After their recent victory at the Lion's Gate spaceport, ego and vanity took over most of the traitors, who considered the coming battle as already won. However, that was exactly what the legalists were counting on. Anticipating the traitorous attack, both Fulgrim and Corvus positioned several Kill-teams around the bastion with the intention of catching the traitors off guard. The Primarchs' plan worked and thousands of traitors died in the first hours of the attack. The Iron Warriors tried to bring the fortress down with their artillery, but it was rendered unusable by lightning attacks carried out by the Raven Guard. The ensuing battle was intense and constantly both sides seemed to gain the upper hand only for the situation to change after a few minutes. This continued for several intense hours until the loyalists were finally able to drive the traitors out of the bastion.
The fourth legion was furious that they had been unable to break through the legalist defenses, the legionaries of the fourth began to accuse each other and members of other legions for the failure of the attack, refusing to admit their own incompetence. The situation only got worse when the news that Dorn had broken through Marmax's defenses reached the legion. Even before they dedicated themselves to opposing gods, both legions were already bitter rivals and one side constantly claimed to be superior to the other in siege warfare. The news that the seventh legion had managed to do what they couldn't was the straw that broke the camel's back, and finally caused the fourth to openly attack the Imperial fists.
It would be wrong to say that the entire fourth legion was involved in this conflict, since several battalions, the equivalent of chapters in other legions, continued to focus their efforts on the loyalists, but even so, a considerable portion of the legion threw itself at its sister legion in order to satisfy petty grudges. Thus began the war between the seventh and fourth legions.
Little was done on either side to stop these conflicts, as sanity in both legions was already severely damaged by the worship of chaos. Perturabo himself seemed to enjoy watching his sons massacre the legionnaires of the seventh legion.
This is how the final stage of the siege of the imperial palace for the fourth legion can be summed up. Half the legion focusing on the real goal, while the other half was so lost in warp corruption that they cared more about a futile rivalry than making their efforts throughout the heresy count.
But even as the war between the two traitorous legions raged on, the angel armies were able to gradually push back the legalists until the Ultimate Gate was left to protect. It was during this apparent climax that Sanguinius called Perturabo to meet him at the Red Tear, and asked for the daemon primarch's help in performing a kind of demonic ritual, which according to the ninth primarch "would put an end to the war".
But then the unexpected attack on Red Tear carried out by Russ and Magnus happened, and the whole traitorous organization began to crumble. Perturabo then decided to protect the room while Curze performed the ritual and came face to face with Russ and Magnus after nine long years. Leman advanced against the Iron Lord and gave Magnus enough space to reach the ritual room without Perturabo being able to intervene. Then, now alone, the Hammer of Olympia and the Wolf King of Fenris faced each other, and the fight began.
The combat between the two demi-gods was as intense as one would expect; Perturabo's daemon primarch powers were able to push the sixth legion primarch to the limit, while Russ was able to land blows that would have killed Perturabo had he not ascended to Damonhood. But before the duel between the two Primarchs could be concluded, a wave of psychic power swept through the ship, both Primarchs recognizing it as coming from the Emperor himself. As Russ rushed to the source of this power, Perturabo's status as Daemon prince and his connection to Tzeentch allowed him to instantly understand what had happened. Sanguinius was dead, and the rebellion had failed.
Perturabo quickly contacted his sons on the ship and ordered everyone to retreat, leaving behind everything and everyone that wasn't important. In this way, the fourth legion fled ashore while the Red Tear fell into Terra's orbit as a sign that the heresy was over.
-Post-heresy:The Iron Cage
With the failure of heresy, the traitors retreated from the solar system to escape the fury of the legalists. The death of Sanguinius broke any form of organization that existed in the traitor army, each of the traitor commanders went in search of their own agendas in the now devastated galaxy. Some made their own little empires, others attacked legalists and traitors alike to satisfy their bloodlust.
While all this was going on, Perturabo hatched a plan with the intention of settling the score with Dorn once and for all.
Perturabo launched a series of attacks against the Inwit cluster, devastating dozens of planets in the seventh legion and desecrating their temples of Nurgle while building their own temples dedicated to Tzeentch. At first the Fists thought that these attacks were intended to weaken the Inwit Cluster, but it didn't take long for them to notice messages purposely left behind by Perturabo's children. In these messages, Perturabo challenged Dorn to define once and for all which legion was superior, and left coordinates for the world where both legions should meet, the world of Sebastus IV.
In Sebastus IV, Perturabo began the construction of an enormous fortress known as the Eternal Fortress. This fortress was built in such a way that only the greatest masters of the art of siege in the galaxy could breach it. To further increase its lethality, Perturabo equipped it with cutting-edge technology and demonic artifacts to make it resistant even to the corruption and degradation inflicted by the demons of Nurgle.
So Perturabo waited on the planet with most of his legion. Until one day the fleet of the seventh legion led by Phalanx entered the system.
Perturabo put few orbital defenses in his brother's way, thus allowing Dorn to quickly reach the orbit of Sebastus IV and attack the planet. The first wave of attack was mostly made up of reanimated corpses and Nurgle cultists who threw themselves against the defenses of the fourth legion, these attackers were torn apart in minutes by the power of the fortress, causing little resalable damage to it. The second wave was when the battle really began, as the sons of Dorn descended on the planet and attacked the fortress.
Nurgle's blessings allowed the legionnaires of the Imperial Fists to take far more punishment than any normal legionnaire could handle before finally succumbing to their wounds, but the Eternal Fortress had more than enough firepower to take down the Children of Dorn. So the astartes of the Seventh Legion advanced little by little through the fortress, each advance costing the sons of Dorn dearly. And the situation in the planet's orbit was no better for the Seventh, as the Fourth Legion's forta appeared in the system, with the sole intention of causing as much damage as possible to the Seventh Legion's fleet.
The battle seemed to be in favor of the fourth legion, but it was then that Dorn showed his card of triumph. The wizards among the legion simultaneously performed a ritual that bound the flesh of the dead and made them rise again as golems of rotting flesh, while various rituals to summon the neverborns of Nurgle were performed throughout the battlefield.
Suddenly, the Iron Warriors found themselves overcome by the appearance of these rotting golems and the demons of the plague god. The sons of Perturabo tried to hold back this horde, but little by little they were pushed back by the seventh legion. It was then that Dorn along with several squads of Templars joined the battle, and they quickly made their way into the heart of the fortress.
Perturabo tried to use everything at his disposal to stop his brother, but all was useless and Nurgle's Daemon primarch finally met up with the Iron Lord. While the Iron Circle took on the Templars, Dorn and Perturabo fought with murderous fury. Unfortunately for the fourth legion, at the end of the fight it was Dorn who emerged victorious.
"+How?!" asked the Daemon Primarch of Tzeentch on his knees. "It should have been impossible for you to break through my defenses! I had everything under control!+"
The seventh Primarch stared at his brother on the ground, his Templar helmet preventing Perturabo from seeing his brother's expression.
"+That's the difference between you and me, brother, you think you're a key player in the grand scheme of things, someone who's destined for glory. I, on the other hand, have always accepted my role, whether it's within our false father's empire of lies, or as a herald of the great grandfather's decadence. I know I'm just another piece on the galactic chessboard, whereas you think you're actually a player+"
"+You're wrong! I stopped being a piece the moment I took control of my own destiny. I am the incarnation of Tzeentch on the material plane and much more!+" With a leap Perturabo charged at his brother, who in response took several steps back before stabbing both of Perturabo's hearts with his Chain-Sword. It was then that Perturabo's eyes met the infinite darkness that existed behind his brother's helmet.
"+No, you're just another pawn of the god of change. You protect yourself with a shield of lies while you play at changing people's destinies, thinking you're the equivalent of the gods. But the dead can't listen to your lies, and they have no future for you to change their fates; you are powerless in the face of death. You're neither a god nor a player, you're just another slave to Tzeentch's lies, incapable of seeing reality.+" With that said, Dorn raised his sword and sliced Perturabo's upper half in half, banishing the Primarch of Olympia back to the warp.
With the banishment of their genetic father, the fourth legion fled Sebastus IV, leaving the victorious Imperial Fists behind.
Following the instructions of the oracles and the Iron Circle automatons, the legion headed for the eye of terror, and inside they wandered until they found the Daemon world known as Ho'krum, Perturabo's personal daemon world. The legion commanders headed for the Primarch's fortress, the only fortress on the planet, and inside they had a meeting with their progenitor. It's not known exactly what was said inside, but it is known that when they left the commanders announced that this would be their new base and from where they prepared to wage war on the imperium and all their rivals. After that, they reformed the legion and created several fortresses across the planet.
Since then, the fourth legion has been involved in hundreds of wars against the imperium, such as each of the blood crusades and the siege of Vraks. The legion is constantly looking for ways to break the cadian cord so that they can finally be free to overthrow the imperium.
Little is known about the Primarch, since the end of the heresy he hasn't left his fortress in Ho'krum. But as the millennium draws to a close, the warp stirs and its inhabitants announce that Perturabo will return to the material plane to finish an unfinished business.
-Organization:
Unlike the other legions that fell to chaos, which split into dozens of warbands and lost any semblance of order. The Iron Warriors have remained relatively united since the end of the heresy to this day.
The grand battalions, which were groups of three to six battalions under the command of a warsmith, have become a title that only the nine largest and most powerful battalions have the honor of bearing. Each of the grand battalions has access to resources and technology that conventional battalions could never reach, while also having the honor of having one of the nine largest fortresses in Ho'krum as their base.
Because of the nature of the title, the great battalions are constantly at war with the normal battalions seeking to achieve that title, and with other great battalions seeking to eliminate opponents and absorb their resources, since every time one battalion falls to another, the survivor has the right to absorb the resources and men of the fallen to become part of their battalion.
This structure, with its clear focus on survival of the fittest, means that each of the legion's commanders is a mentally astute individual and a fearsome threat on any battlefield.
Each of the leaders of the great battalions are fearsome warriors who have left planets with oceans of blood and entire continents devastated in their wake. Among the leaders of the great battalions you can find Perturabo himself, the chief librarian Sarvar Novix and other survivors of the heresy. But there are also prodigies who were able to achieve such an infamous title in a short space of time, the clearest example being the warsmith Honsou.
Honsou
The Iron Warrior who would later cause chaos and destruction throughout the galaxy has a rather peculiar origin.
Instead of being a legion slave who was chosen by an Apothecary to become a Legionnaire of the Fourth, the child who would later become Honsou was kidnapped by the warband known as the Consortium, a warband composed mainly of Apothecaries and dedicated to playing with the human genome, Honsou then joined the guinea pigs of a project that aimed to create warriors using two gene-seeds from different legions.
As expected, such a project yielded little more than deformed aberrations, since the human body is normally incapable of withstanding two such organs from different lineages. However, somehow, either by the hand of a chaos god, or by Honsou simply refusing to die, Honsou is able to survive after being implanted with the gene-seed of the fourth and seventh legions, and after a few years of testing, he is able to escape from the consortium and reunite with the fourth legion.
Even though he was accepted into the legion, the truth was that most of the legionnaires disliked Honsou for carrying the gene-seed of the seventh legion, and saw him as little more than an expendable weapon. But Honsou had survived the hell that was the consortium's experiments, and he wasn't going to be killed easily. So Honsou fought tooth and nail against his opponents, gradually rising through the ranks of his battalion and the legion, until he finally became a warsmith and made his battalion a grand battalion
Honsou himself is an intimidating figure, his body having grown larger than normal as a result of the consortium's experiments, and as a result his size and structure is on a par with that of a legionnaire in Terminator armor. But unfortunately for Honsou, his hybrid nature isn't all that beneficial; the curse of the Seventh Legion's genetic seed, which made the Legionnaire gradually rot away, also affects him to a lesser extent. To relent and hide this degradation of his body, Honsou amputates the rotten parts and replaces them with bionic implants, which contain magical runes that help relent the curse. Honsou has so far had to replace several internal organs and most of the right side of his body, including his entire right arm, with implants.
-Combat doctrine:
The Iron Warriors' military doctrine focuses mainly on siege warfare, both offensive and defensive, but the legion also favours mechanized warfare in general.
Two characteristics that set the fourth legion apart from other armies focused on siege warfare are the use of infiltrators and the legion's cold logic.
The legion has a large number of spies or scouts who not only inform the legion of the smallest details about the enemy, but if necessary cause chaos and confusion through sabotage or surprise attacks. Although this network is not as extensive as the one used by the Alpha Legion, the Fourth Legion's intelligence network should not be underestimated, as it has access to demonic aids and sorcery that allow its agents to obtain information that mortal eyes could not see.
It's also worth noting that the Fourth Legion almost never enters a war without a chance of winning or without a clear objective. Only the Iron Warriors with the most damaged psyche tend to act without first analyzing the likelihood of winning or surviving a conflict
-Technology and weaponry:
Technologically, the Fourth Legion is among the most advanced of the traitor legions. As the legion has always focused on the use of war machines, the legionnaires of the fourth legion became accustomed from an early age to carrying out quick repairs and slight modifications to the tanks and heavy weaponry they used. This practice was encouraged when Perturabo took command of the legion, and resulted in the legion's legionnaires being more technologically adept than those of the other legions.
After the heresy and with the start of the legion wars, the fourth legion found itself increasingly relying on the use of automata stolen from the Dark Mechanicum and Daemon engines. These technologies helped the legion compensate for the fact that they rarely had the support of their god's demonic legions, unlike other legions dedicated to a Chaos God. Instead of legions of pink horrors or mutants supporting the legionnaires, the fourth legion marches off to war with the sound of hundreds of automatons accompanying them.
Slinnar War Machines
These machines are believed to have originated in Jericho Reach, more specifically in the proto-star system known as Slinnar Drift. It is not known if this is really the origin of these machines, and if it is, how the Iron Warriors managed to get their hands on them even though they were half a galaxy away is a mystery to the imperium.
What is known is that around Millennium 37, the Fourth Legion began deploying these machines on the battlefield as a substitute for the cultists and mutants that had accompanied the legion up to that point. Such machines quickly proved extremely effective against the defenders of the Cadian cordon.
These machines appear at first glance to be armor similar to that used in medieval worlds that is on fire from the inside, but the truth is much darker than that. Such armors are actually automatons that are powered by an extremely advanced plasma generator, which not only allows the automaton to launch discharges of supreme heated plasma, but also makes the automaton capable of creating simple weapons such as swords from its generator's own plasma.
However, the disturbing thing about these machines comes from the fuel they use, since they can only be turned on by a sacrifice that links the victim's soul to the plasma generator. The generator then feeds on the soul of the sacrificed until it is completely extinguished. How this machine can do this is a mystery to everyone, even the Iron Warriors who manufacture such weapons
-Recruitment, Homeworld and Gene-seed:
Like all chaos legions, the main source of recruits for the fourth legion comes from slaves and prisoners they kidnap on their forays into imperial space or in their raids on other legions' planets. These raids to get recruits are even more important in the fourth legion, since as their current home planet is touched by Tzeentch the mutation quickly spreads to any non-enhanced human population that calls that planet home. Thus, the Iron Warriors constantly launch attacks on imperial worlds or those of other legions in search of recruits.
Their current homeworld, Ho'krum, is a world that at first glance could pass for a Dark Mechanicum Forge world. Vast forges larger than entire cities stretch across the planet's surface working day and night to supply the legion. These forges surpass any structure on the planet with the exception of the fortresses of the fourth legion. These fortresses vary in size depending on the battalion that governs them, some barely exceeding the size of the forges, while the largest of them are equivalent to small countries and can be seen from the planet's orbit.
Outside the forges is a lawless land, where mutants incompatible with the legion's genetic seed and metallic aberrations useless for the fourth primarch's purposes roam aimlessly. Most of the surface is a desert with gray and cobalt blue sands, where the winds are strong enough to cause sandstorms that could tear apart anyone not in a vehicle or wearing power armor. Outside the deserts you can find impossibly high mountains that provide minerals for the legion, and rivers so cold they could freeze a man in seconds.
Since its inception, the gene-seed of the fourth legion has been characterized by a high acceptance rate, a characteristic that, incredible as it may seem, continues to this day. Normally, the purity rate and acceptance rate are closely linked in gene-seed; the purer the gene seed, the more acceptance it has. But that's not the case with the seed of today's Iron Warriors, as they have a high acceptance rate, along with an even higher mutation rate as a result of their dedication to Tzeentch, the god of mutations.
Some Legionnaires see their mutations as blessings from Tzeentch, and keep them even if they are negative. However, this is a minority of the Legion, as most Iron Warriors tend to cut off mutated limbs and replace them with mechanical prostheses. Such measures are actually futile in the eye of terror, since even though the prostheses are made of metal, this doesn't prevent them from being mutated by the powers of the architect of fate. As a result, it is not uncommon to find Legionnaires of the Fourth Legion with horribly deformed metal limbs or with iron tentacles where one of their arms should be.
One of the most peculiar mutations that developed in the Iron Warriors' genetic seed was an increase in the Legionnaires' paranoia. This defect was already present during the Great Crusade and since the legion dedicated itself to Tzeentch it has only increased. As a result, several of the legion's commanders have spies just to keep an eye on their closest allies to make sure they aren't plotting against them. Most of the time these suspicions are unfounded, but in some cases the betrayal turns out to be true in the end.
-Relations:
Rancorous and paranoid, the Iron Warriors rarely deal amicably with other traitors. Even with the Dark Mechanicum they hardly tend to negotiate, since when Perturabo took over the legion he was able to buy the loyalty of several tech-priests of the mechanicum through technological marvels made by the Primarch himself, who in return demanded total loyalty to the fourth legion. Thus, these priests left behind their oaths to Mars and swore new oaths of loyalty to the Iron Lord, oaths that continued during the heresy and remain firm to this day.
So it's not surprising to discover that the legion is better known for its enmities than its alliances.
The legion hates the Emperor's Children, believing that it was because of them that the fourth legion was not elected to be the Emperor's praetorian. As for the other traitor legions, the Iron Warriors constantly attack the territories of the tenth legion, not only because they are the legion of a Chaos God rival of Tzeentch, but also because the Iron Warriors see the Iron Hands as worthy technological rivals, and constantly use the battles against the tenth legion to test prototypes of new weapons.
But if there is one Legion that the fourth legion hates to death, it would be the Imperial Fists. Their hatred for the sons of Dorn is so great that it not only eclipses their hatred for the other legions, but that legionnaires who aren't aggressive enough against the Seventh Legion are treated as weaklings by their brother legionnaires.
The hatred towards the seventh began after Rogal Dorn claimed that he could make a fortress that the fourth legion couldn't break, such a comment angered Perturabo who responded by insulting his brother and calling him a fool, since then both legions have never gotten along, and the heresy and the fact that each has dedicated itself to an opposite god has only made the hatred between the two grow to ridiculous levels. And the failure of the Iron Cage only made the Iron Warriors' flame of hatred burn even brighter. Since the traitor legions took refuge in the eye of terror, hundreds of thousands of wars have been fought between the fourth and seventh legions, some so small that they only encompassed a few cities, others so large that they devastated entire star systems.
In addition to the relationships detailed above, we can point out that each major battalion tends to have its own list of hated rivals, either because these rivals always hinder the battalion's operations, or because of the pettiness of the Warsmith who leads them. These rivalries are relatively small and only relevant to the battalion in question.
-Beliefs and war cry:
Unlike other legions or warbands dedicated to a god of chaos, the Iron Warriors mostly don't worship Tzeentch as a god per se, but see their relationship with Tzeentch as an agreement. In exchange for performing rituals and fighting in his name, Tzeentch will give them power and knowledge. The wars against the Seventh Legion and other legions and warbands dedicated to a god of chaos are wars 100% motivated by the interests of the legion, not the interests of Tzeentch.
To any outside observer, it is abundantly clear that this is nothing more than a lie that the Iron Warriors tell themselves as a way of not accepting that they are no better than other traitors who have lost themselves in the worship of dark gods.
The Fourth Legion has few war cries compared to its traitorous sisters. The most common and used of the war cries is "Iron Within! Iron Without!"
We can also highlight the unbreakable litany, a litany used by Perturabo and the legion for meditative purposes and very rarely for warlike purposes. The litany is as follows:
"From Iron, cometh Strength. From Strength, cometh Will. From Will, cometh Faith. From Faith, cometh Honour. From Honour, cometh Iron. This is the Unbreakable Litany, and may it forever be so"
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"The laughter continues." The Primarch said quietly. "They're still going on".
