Editing Iron Hands (section)

==Organisation==
The chapter itself is ruled by the Great Clan Council, composed up of 10 seats, each representing one of the ten clans (the Iron Hand equivalent of a company). The clans themselves are all highly autonomous and are nomadic, travelling across Medusa in mobile fortresses called [[Land-Behemoth]]s as their [[Fortress-Monastery]] equivalents and represent the original ten clans that founded Medusa. Each clan nominates a notable warrior as "[[Iron Father]]" to represent them at the Great Clan Council. Together, the ten warriors get into all sorts of [[A Game of Pretend|debates and political shenanigans]].

The logic behind this is that with no central leadership role, the chapter cannot be lead astray like so many others have and if that central leadership dies, the rest of the chapter won't fall into disarray. Then again, they also believe that replacing their dicks with drills is the best fucking idea in the world, so I suppose your mileage may vary. (And the fact that /tg/ considers this sort of setup as fucking ridiculous based on [[Codex Astartes|where the suggestion comes from]], so again, your mileage may vary.)

That said, they do have a chapter master of sorts. When something major happens that affects the whole chapter, the council elects one of their members best suited for their current state (the real life citation was the old republic of Rome, who elected for a short time a rightful and strong man as dictator until the emergency was resolved). For example, if they're fighting orks the one who has the most experience fighting them will lead the chapter, and once done he will step down. This makes him more of a Chapter President than a Chapter Master; the chapter master prevents the council from getting caught up in red tape and the council makes sure he doesn't lead the chapter astray.

Organisation and doctrine wise, the chapter follows the basic idea of the [[Codex Astartes]], while changing all the bits they don't like or cannot follow due to the heavy losses/destruction of equipment at Isstvan V (yup 10,000 years later and the Departmento Munitorum has not yet resupplied them, fucking REMF's). Each company is called a "Clan" and there isn't a specific company for Scouts; instead each Clan recruits their own Neophytes...until 7th Edition just effectively undid that and let the Tenth Clan-Company return to Scouts and Vanguards.

Once the recruit is indoctrinated, his left hand is replaced with a cybernetic replacement. The 8.5E supplement does note curiosity that the Tenth doesn't subscribe entirely to the clannish behaviour of the rest of the chapter, as all marines will possess at least one piece of tech from them (a vertebra, first of hopefully many that also acts as a supplement of a traditional chapter's service studs, as each vertebra will denote a decade of service to a particular clan), though those who hail from the Tenth Company do remain as Scout Sergeants and Vanguards.

As an Iron Hand serves his Chapter he gets more and more augmented: appendages, limbs, organs; the whole shebang until the Marine is little more than a brain in a shell. There are also rumours that dead warriors are instead replaced with automatons rather then new Neophytes - Something not entirely false as augmetics have been harvested and handed down to future generations and the chapter is very rigorous about the indoctrination via uploads as well as emotional suppressors. Because of their extensive augmentation the Iron Hands are amongst the strongest Space Marines: strong enough to dual-wield weapons that regular Space Marines would need both hands for like the [[Melta|Multi-Melta]].

Due to the destruction of equipment at the Drop Site Massacre, the chapter lacks in Terminator armour. However veterans are often given suits of Terminator armour and placed in charge of leading squads, called "Klaven", of Tactical Marines, who see the suits [[Pauldrons|giant pauldrons]] as inspirational. Despite their lack of Terminator armour, the ones they do have and used by the aforementioned Klavens are truly a one-of-a-kind, chapter-exclusive, custom-made [[Gorgon Pattern Terminator Armour]]. No one outside of the Iron Hands have access to this elusive cyberised Gorgon Terminators other than them. Not even the AdMech is given a chance to have a look inside. This doesn't mean that the Iron Hands have enough suits to kit out EVERY squad-leader like this, of course - certainly not if they're also equipping leaders, their guards and entire squads of specialists in Terminator armour.

Additionally, Dreadnought chassis are highly revered and sought after pieces of equipment, and being entombed within a Dreadnought is the considered the best fate possible for an Iron Hands Marine. Finally, due to their shared love of machines the Iron Hands and [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] are pretty much bros 4 lyfe, with much Bromance and fist bumping.

[[File:Iron_Dakka.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The Iron Hands are the most gritty of the First Founders. You could even call it... True Grit. Also, yes that guy is dual wielding Boltguns, which would be extremely inaccurate if the firer in question did not have a pair of metal arms and a bionic face that compensated for that. Or, y’know, super-strength as a super-soldier.]] The one general exception to this is the Librarius of the Chapter, who tend not to get heavily augmented (and often still have both organic hands) and are frequently not Medusan.

In combat they are utterly unforgiving and relentless, hate [[Daemon|Daemons]] and the [[warp]] with a [[Angry Marines|rare and intense hatred]] and utterly despise [[heresy]] and [[blam|cowardice]]. In other words, they're pretty much like most Space Marine Chapters. During one particular campaign involving the rebellion of an entire sub-sector, the Iron Hands got in and [[Rip and Tear|fucked shit up so bad]] that they executed a third of the sub-sector's entire population. That is not killed. [[Commissar|Executed]]. As in the ones they did not kill in battle, and those who surrendered and begged for mercy.

Despite this they are seen by some as a wholesome and pious chapter, unlike [[Flesh Tearers|some others that murder everything within sight regardless of whose side they're on]] [[Marines Malevolent|or level refugee camps because there are hostiles within the perimeter.]] Either way, don't piss them off lest you fuel their murderboner; and whilst on the subject of boners, it is believed they hate [[Slaanesh]] with the [[Rage|intense hatred]] of a billion [[Æonic Orb|Æonic Orbs]] because they're the Prince of Excess and the Iron Hands believe THE FLESH IS WEAK (the previously-mentioned one-third-of-a-subsector-getting-[[blam|blammed]] was because of Slaaneshi orgies and daemons).

This could mean they are more apt at fighting the minions of She Who Thirsts, but there is, as all things Iron Hands related, not much to elaborate on this except they are getting shit done. (It could also be due to their particularly strong hatred of the [[Emperor's Children|Emperor's Children]], for a long list of reasons that include [[Fulgrim|a certain Primarch]] decapitating [[Ferrus Manus|a certain other Primarch]].)

There's also the tactic known as "The Hammer and the Storm", a military doctrine that dates back to a peculiar conflict on Rust during the [[Great Crusade]]. The basis of it was essentially to gather the entire enemy force in one location with one force, then gather the rest of the army to surround and eradicate the gathered enemy with a nonstop hail of firepower. There's nothing subtle about the tactic, and it appeals to the heavy-weapon and tank fetish of the technophiles. What it doesn't factor in, however, is that it won't factor in the enemy's intelligence, meaning that a competent enough strategist might realize that they're being clumped together and then orders the troops to disperse far enough to spoil any ability to blast them all at once.

In the Book "The Eye of Medusa" by David Guymer there is a description for "Helfathers", the honor guard of the Iron Fathers and [[ honour guard|the best of the best]]. They're clad in black, bulky and heavily augmented suits of Terminator Armour. They have neither clan nor klaven-insignia on their armour and even their bionics are darkened and ancient. There is the superstition that the attention of an Helfather is bad luck, [[Awesome|even among Iron Hands]]. [[Kardan Stronos]] (at the time, a squad leader) told his accompanying tech adept:"[[Grimdark|The Helfathers aren't even human in the the way I am human]]. I don't know how many of them exist. I never heard any of them speak. As far as I know, they don't even have names. And believe me, Melitan Yolanis, [[Grimdark|I don't wish to know any more]]".

It's also said that they rarely, if ever, leave Medusa, so we won't see any rules for them anytime soon.

(Unless we already did... in two Heresy short stories by John French, an Iron Hands warband starts using the "Keys of Hel". This was Meduson tech that Ferrus himself had forbidden and sealed away, including the means of "true mechanical resurrection". The narrator in the second refers to his multiple deaths. So this suggests that the Helfathers may be renowned warriors who who haven't just been wounded unto death, but outright killed and brought back.)

===Company Clans===
*'''Clan Avernii''': The "Veteran" Company. Due to the way the clans are made, it's not exactly true that each member is indeed a veteran, but they tend to make up for the lost time through many uploads, countless simulations and hypno-indoctrination. While this does result in a critical attrition rate, it also makes them far more robotic.
*'''Clan Garrsak''': Believe in using willpower to suppress emotions. Their plans [[Just as Planned|tend to be very thoroughly planned in advance thanks to simulations and even time instances where they can cut loose for a bit]].
*'''Clan Raukaan''': The dangerous mofos. It seems to be a clan trait that they are ruled by emotions more openly than others, as attested to during that Gaudinian Heresy. While this has cost countless lives, it has also brought them renown both in and out of the chapter.
*'''Clan Kaargul''': Their plans tend to be very long-term and meticulous in regard to contingencies. They treat melee as an absolute last resort, after having exhausted all other venues.
*'''Clan Haarmek''': Watch over the countless tech-relics on Medusa. This duty is so critical to them that if a relic is stolen from their watch and not retrieved, then the captain responsible is stripped of rank and forced to undertake the Silver Pilgrimage practically naked, a quest that demands the disgraced captain find a single scale from the wyrm that Manus slew.
*'''Clan Sorrgol''': Responsible to watching over the Chapter's own personal government, the [[Medusan Reach]], the fiefdom that the Iron Hands prize for supplies.
*'''Clan Borrgos''': Apparent remnants of the [[Moirae Schism]] who weren't deemed extreme enough to be booted to the [[Sons of Medusa]]. Is often accompanied by Chaplains, to make sure there's no funny business going on in their ranks. The current Iron Captain also subscribes to purges.
*'''Clan Morlaag''': Focus their strategy into a single killing blow rather than a hundred weaker ones. They also have a [[Space Wolves|lot of trophies kept in their fort.]]
*'''Clan Vurgaan''': Being deemed too wild, this clan tends to have the most emotion-inhibitors installed. These inhibitors tend to have long-reaching effects, for even after they are removed the brothers of this clan tend to display tics from their reliance on the augmetics.
*'''Clan Dorrvok''': The closest thing the chapter has to a Scout Company post-7th. The company itself is compared to a sort of alloy, as scouts from all clans are gathered here, with those native to Dorrvok just remaining as veteran scouts and Infiltrators. Furthering that analogy is their component of the Forgechain, a symbolic augmetic that replaces a vertebra and marks a decade in service to a particular clan - While all the other companies get to make their vertebrae in all sorts of exotic metals otherwise unique to their clan, Dorrvok makes theirs out of an alloy of all these metals as a symbol of their shared origins.