# Iron Hands - What did they do?



## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Ferrus Manus only lead the majority of the 1st company to Istvaan where they mostly, if not all, got wiped out. But what did the rest of the legion do? How big was the Iron Hands legion? I doubt it was the smallest considering Medusa is pretty close to Terra compared to other legions. So did they just sit there twiddling their thumbs or did they get involved?


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## kickboxerdog (Jun 2, 2011)

the only major event the Iron Hands Legion participated in the Horus Heresy was the death of their Primarch and his entire retinue in Isstvan V betrayal.

so says the lexicanum


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

The rest of the legion must of done something though.


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## Rems (Jun 20, 2011)

In previous fluff it was the whole legion which was decimated, explaining their inactivity. Now however its harder to explain. One explanation may be though they they were paralysed with effectively their whole higher leadership killed off in one go. They also lost their primarch, the first time this had ever happened. Hell before that one thought primarchs could even be killed. So likely they were in shock and confusion. 

I do recall reading somewhere that they essentially stayed on Medusae after Istvaan, debating over what to do and trying to sort themselves out. They basically shut off contact to everyone else and became very insular- a trait which has only increased.


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## kickboxerdog (Jun 2, 2011)

i knw they didnt take part in the final battle on terra as i found this little bit info earlier 

They raged at themselves for not being on Terra in its darkest hour, believing that, had they been there, Horus would have been defeated without the Emperor's sacrifice. After this, they isolated themselves from the other Legions, leaving them to their own business and holding minimal contact with their successor chapters. found at http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Hands

lots back ground info on them there

from what i can gather as rem said they were in a weird place being the first legion to loss a primarch .


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I maintain the Emperor's Children lost their Primarch first


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## kickboxerdog (Jun 2, 2011)

Words_of_Truth said:


> I maintain the Emperor's Children lost their Primarch first


ha ha from what i read fulgrims soul was lost after he saw his brother dead

Ferrus Manus was beheaded in the battle by Fulgrim. Fulgrim was beset by grief as he stared down at his once beloved brother's headless body; in this moment of weakness as the Emperor's Children Primarch repudiated his allegiance to Chaos, the Greater Daemon of Slaanesh within his potent blade tricked him into lowering his mental shields, and possessed him, crushing Fulgrim's soul into the recesses of his mind, a mute witness to the daemon's actions.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

It was the Daemon who cut Ferrus's head off though, Fulgrim couldn't do it himself, at least that's what I perceived.

Anyway, in relation to the heresy, the 40k wiki I've been told, isn't a very reliable source. I'd expect the Iron Hands to want revenge, instead of becoming recluse. Ok so they didn't fight at Terra, but I'd expect them to fight elsewhere, like the Raven Guard and Salamanders supposedly did.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

Words_of_Truth said:


> It was the Daemon who cut Ferrus's head off though, Fulgrim couldn't do it himself.


It was able to do that through possession of Fulgrim's body at the moment. But his mind wasn't week enough at that point to allow the daemon to fully take the primarch's corpse. It wasn't until he saw the headless form of his favorite brother that Fulgrim let himself weaken his mindset to avoid the responsibility for his actions.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I think the info on the Iron Hands found at http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Hands comes from the old Index Astartes article well before the novels where written, a lot of it has been retconned, so we may see the Iron Hands doing a lot more.


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## Eetion (Mar 19, 2008)

Personally. If there is a ret con i would like to see the Iron Hands on Mars fighting there during the siege of the imperial palace. Setting up the expulsion of the dark mechanicus and the iron hands close ties with the AM.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I sure hope there is a retcon, makes no sense that one of the most angry and vengeance ridden legions decides to sulk.


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## MontytheMighty (Jul 21, 2009)

please let there be a retcon

the Iron Hands, along with the White Scars and Raven Guard, need to get more love from BL


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## Warlock in Training (Jun 10, 2008)

Iron Hands are the least mention/active Legion and First Founding Chapter in all of 40k. They did absolutly nothing worth mentioning. Except having the first Primarch to die. Tho it could be very much argued that the 2 uknown Primarchs were killed before Manus. So it should have been no shock Manus died.


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## kickboxerdog (Jun 2, 2011)

MontytheMighty said:


> please let there be a retcon
> 
> the Iron Hands, along with the White Scars and Raven Guard, need to get more love from BL


isnt the new HH book due out in jan 2012 deliverance lost all about the raven guard and how corax tryed to rebuild this legion after being devestated on ivaastan v


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Both Salamanders and Raven Guard are being fleshed out, only thing from the books which includes Iron Hands (Even in Promethean Sun) are they get their asses kicked.


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## cegorach (Nov 29, 2010)

Its a bit like the white scars really, they don't get much attention. When they do you get the impression that they are just written by people who seem to think they are Space Wolves.*cough cough**White scars book**cough cough*

But back to subject, all Chapters did alot of things during the Heresy and Crusade, although alot of what the Iron hands seemed to do was being beaten up by the Emperors Children. But that is only a few months of what they did, we don't know what enemies they conquored, what technologies they discovered. What secrets they made. 

We won't know untill the BL publishes a book about it.


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## -Bosco- (Mar 11, 2011)

Their future is with the Necrons, the Deceiver will impersonate Manus and bestow upon them Necrodermis arms, legs and hair extensions and they shall become first of the Deceiver's new army 

But wasn't there something in the old fluff that they managed to retrieve Manus' body, but i guess in the most recent HH book with it being said that they have no idea what happened to Manus only that he was perhaps killed? Maybe his conscience was downloaded into his metal hands and he is now on display in false-Fulgrim's pleasure dome, since hasn't every Primarch to die let out some physic scream that has fucked up his own legion.


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## kickboxerdog (Jun 2, 2011)

-Bosco- said:


> Their future is with the Necrons, the Deceiver will impersonate Manus and bestow upon them Necrodermis arms, legs and hair extensions and they shall become first of the Deceiver's new army
> 
> But wasn't there something in the old fluff that they managed to retrieve Manus' body, but i guess in the most recent HH book with it being said that they have no idea what happened to Manus only that he was perhaps killed? Maybe his conscience was downloaded into his metal hands and he is now on display in false-Fulgrim's pleasure dome, since hasn't every Primarch to die let out some physic scream that has fucked up his own legion.


in some of the fluff to do with what actually happened to manus, there was some that said his body was given to the dark machanincism.

also i found abit about another battle the iron hand and imperial fist fought in during the horus heresy

*Horus Heresy, Battle of Tallarn* *(Circa 200.M31)* - To this day the largest tank battle ever conducted in Imperial history remains the Battle of Tallarn. During the Horus Heresy the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion launched a massive assault on the world of Tallarn. To soften up the Loyalist resistance, the Iron Warriors virus-bombed the former agri-world, the life-eater virus turning the once lush and productive breadbasket world into a wasteland of endless desert in short order. The few surviving Imperial citizens emerged from underground shelters to oppose the Iron Warriors attack and soon reinforcements poured in from both sides. The Iron Hands and Imperial Fists Legions arrived to oppose the invasion, the hazardous environment forcing both sides to fight within the environment sealed confines of battle tanks. Both the Loyalists and Traitors committed armored fighting vehicles of all sizes and configurations in numbers never before seen in a single battle. The resulting fighting was fierce and merciless with both sides taking horrendous casualties but eventually the Iron Warriors were forced from the planet. In the aftermath of the fighting over a million wrecked tanks littered the surface of Tallarn, rusting in the endless dunes and wasting sands of the devastated planet. The ruination of Tallarn is a slight against the Imperium the Iron Hands and Imperial Fists have never forgotten. 

so theres 1 battle they were involved in


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## Giant Fossil Penguin (Apr 11, 2009)

I don't think there's really any need for the dreaded _retcon_, because the Legion is basically missing from the fluff. That being said, this isn't something new; the UMs, WS, RG, hell lots of factions, are not really strongly represented in the GC/HH/Scouring fluff. Which is fantastic. It gives so much more room to craft backstories that will fit and expand the main story as well.
The IA article (which I just really quickly flicked through) mentions a later battle, the taking of the Contquaal Sub-Sector. It also mentions a Paulian Blantar. I'd love to see a story about the Terran Astartes and their adjusting to Ferrus, as well as how the character of the Legion was altered as the Medusan Initiates were raised to full Astartes. Then again, I'd love to see this for _every_ Legion!

GFP


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Having them fight on Mars would be an awesome addition to their fluff although the fact Horus was scared of the Dark Angels and Wolves turning up which supposedly made him drop the shields, you'd think that to would possible have to be retconned to acknowledge the Iron Hands presence on Mars.

On another note, would the Iron Hands have access to Corvus armour during the heresy?


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## Lord Solar Macharius (Oct 5, 2010)

-Bosco- said:


> Their future is with the Necrons, the Deceiver will impersonate Manus and bestow upon them Necrodermis arms, legs and hair extensions and they shall become first of the Deceiver's new army
> 
> But wasn't there something in the old fluff that they managed to retrieve Manus' body, but i guess in the most recent HH book with it being said that they have no idea what happened to Manus only that he was perhaps killed? Maybe his conscience was downloaded into his metal hands and he is now on display in false-Fulgrim's pleasure dome, since hasn't every Primarch to die let out some physic scream that has fucked up his own legion.


I remember reading in the Dornian Heresy about how the Iron Hands essentially turn into Necrons.


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## DelValle (Apr 22, 2011)

Solar Lord Macharius said:


> I remember reading in the Dornian Heresy about how the Iron Hands essentially turn into Necrons.


Alternate universe. Extremely interesting but not relevant to the main story.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Problem with Tallarn is that it is just tanks tanks and more tanks. I'd not be that interested in it, I like hearing about troop on troop action, tanks vs tanks are a bit boring.


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## kickboxerdog (Jun 2, 2011)

Words_of_Truth said:


> Problem with Tallarn is that it is just tanks tanks and more tanks. I'd not be that interested in it, I like hearing about troop on troop action, tanks vs tanks are a bit boring.



true true but it shows the iron hands wasnt just twiddling there thumbs


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

With their ties to the Mechanicus, you'd think they'd do more to fight at forgeworlds.


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## kickboxerdog (Jun 2, 2011)

Words_of_Truth said:


> With their ties to the Mechanicus, you'd think they'd do more to fight at forgeworlds.


i read before cant remmember where tho, that the iron hands had a infinity with machinary all the time but when they lost there primarch , they blamed humanity and its weakness for being weak and easyaly lured and evil that they then went overboard trying to purge there weaknesses throught altering there body with machinary.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Two fluff questions -

1. On another note, would the Iron Hands have access to Corvus armour during the heresy?

2. In pictures Iron Hands's Bolters are apparently white, would you paint them white?


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## kickboxerdog (Jun 2, 2011)

im not sure about the bolters but when i look on a few other sites at ppls models they tend to do them black or all silver.

with the armour i would say yes there still loyal, and they have close ties with the Mechanicus , so if any chapter had access to most things( armours , weapons, tanks ect) it would be the iron hands


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