Mastodontii

"Yesterday is wood; tomorrow ashes. Only today does the fire burn brightly."

Mastodontii
Battle Cry	"Bäran Schüshe Mädȫ!"
Number	XXIV
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Successor Chapters	None
Primarch	Tollund Ötztal
Homeworld	Tisenjoch
Strength	120,000 at the beginning of the Heresy.
Specialty	Armoured Warfare
Allegiance	Chaos Undivided
Colours	Ice and Ivory

This page details people, events, and organisations from The /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe.

Summary of Legion XXIV

Numeration: The XXIVth Legion

Primogenator: Tollund Ötztal

Cognomen (Prior): The Steel Wing

Observed Strategic Tendencies: Armoured Warfare, Combined Arms Assaults, Liberation Operations

Noteworthy Domains: The Tisenjoch System (Primary), The Lenard Deeps, Tithe Rights to the Nunavitan Cities and Wrangyl on Terra.

Alliegence: Traitoris Perdita

‘The greatest battles are not physical but psychological. Our inner demons telling us to give up when we push ourselves to the limit can never be silenced for good. They must always be answered by the quiet, the steady dignity that simply refuses to give in. Courage. We all suffer. Keep going.’ Ice-Shaman Qitsualik

Few had motives more pure, and yet fell so far as the Mastodontii. Their Primarch, the tragic Tollund Ötztal believed firmly in the cause of the Great Crusade and was willing to shed the blood of his men in their defence. And yet they fell, and became the very monsters they were dedicated to fighting, the very monsters who now prey about the people they once fought the crusade to liberate.

The Mastadontii were like a glacier, a slow moving tidal wave of armour that could sweep away any foe. Hailing from the frigid tundra world of Tisenjoch, where great rolling cities skate across the ice and steppe, the Mastodontii made extensive use of vehicles for rapid deployments and heavy support. Despite their frigid world, they were optimistic by nature, and would keep trying until they persevered, hammering foes into submission with heavy armour. They joined the traitors when their idealism in the Imperium was destroyed, and they saw the Imperium as the rapidly stagnating form it was becoming, with Chaos offering the only solution.

Origins: On Steel Wings

Such sources that survived the Siege of Terra regarding the origins and formation of the XXIVth legion of the Legiones Astartes are fragmentary at best, reflecting the lateness of their creation and the lack of action they saw in the closing stages of the Unification Wars.

The Sacred Band of the XXIV Legion has all but faded from history, for unlike the other legions their Sacred Band did not fight at the forefront, rather they were employed as the tank drivers and commanders of the proto-Land Raiders that delivered the other Sacred Bands into combat. This job, though vital, robbed the Legion of its first taste of glory.

The XXIVth Legion from the outset had a mechanical bend to it, and were known for capturing armoured vehicles from the foe and pressing them into service. This was noted, and soon they were receiving a disproportionately high number of tanks from the forges of the Terrawatt Clan, more than their fellow Legions. Thus equipped they were soon in action, spearheading armoured assaults in the great open spaces of the Atalan Wilderness and the Panpacific. They became known for spearhead thrusts with heavy armour, breaking enemy lines and rolling the foe back.

It was around this time that the name ‘Steel Wing’ was first coined for them by troops of the Imperial Army, for their speed and fury in armoured assaults. Soon the name was verified by the hand of the Emperor, and the sigil of a bladed, armoured wing and thunderbolt became the Legion’s badge of war.

The Steel Wing went out into the Great Crusade, and swiftly gained a reputation as the armoured spearhead of the Emperor. Other Legions used tanks, but never in the numbers or with the skill that the Steel Wing did. Soon they were being deliberately deployed to warzones where large set-piece engagements against massed armies, enemy armour or advanced war machines were likely, creating a circular effect which caused the legion to become even more specialized in its chosen field, and in ever greater demand as the Great Crusade’s preferred weapon to meet this need.

Another thing of note was that unlike some legions, who refused to split their forces at the behest of other – especially human- commander, the Steel Wing would not baulk at any duty with which they were tasked. The Legion spent most of the Great Crusade divided, many different separate battlegroups being deployed to support Imperial Army and other Legion formations all across the Crusade. They were known to be mindful of their allies and worked very well with the Imperial Army and other Legions, gaining much praise for their tact, willingness to take orders from outside their own ranks and close ties that they strived to establish with their human counterparts. It is known that the Fourth Chapter of the Steel Wing spent over three decades alongside the Wolves of Dawn as Hektor’s armoured spearhead, and only reluctantly did he give them up when their Primarch was finally found.

Still fatherless during this time as other Legions gained their Primarchs until only a handful remained to be discovered, this 'orphan' status further bred a self-reliance and a quiet, stubborn pride in the Steel Wing. They were not the most numerous, or the most powerful of the Legions. Their role of battle honours was short, most of them going to the parent Legions they supported in battle. But they had a task they knew they did better than any other Legion. It was into this that their Father would come, and bring about a change that would see them rise within the ranks of the Legions and praised as ones who truly fought for Humanity, but would also plant the seed that would one day damn them.

Unit Organization and Structure within the Legion

The Mastodontii Legion was a highly structured though not entirely inflexible military force, with numerous tactical and strategic divisions of power and organisations within its ranks. Before the discovery of their Primarch, the Steel Wing Legion had been rigidly dogmatic in its adherence to the patterns set out for the nascent Legions at the start of the Great Crusade though with as bias towards armoured assaults with close air support, and Tollund Ötztal deliberately went out of his way to ensure that despite the changes he wrought to more closely resemble the systems of his frigid homeworld, the Legion would not change beyond all recognition from what had gone before, building upon what had gone before.

The principal strategic building block of the Mastodontii Legion was the Mingghan, or Brigade. This was a combined arms formation, which in addition to the standard 1,000 line Space Marine Legionaries also incorporated a very substantial amount of standing armour, artillery and logistical support elements, attendant human auxiliary troops, Mechanicum detachments and integrated support structures far beyond that found in other Legions at the same level. This meant that each Mastodontii Mingghan was a powerful offensive force in its own right, capable of independent action. Inside an Mingghan, the component formations were configured and ordered in such a way that each unit's function combined together to form a gestalt whole whose tactical and strategic capabilities, like the components of a machine working together in unison, were capable of actions outweighed by the sum of their parts. In battle each Mingghan was given a specific task or objective which it was expected to fulfil, and succeed it would at any cost, for pride, honour and belief in themselves and their cause would allow no other outcome.

Farther down, the Mingghan broke down into several Tzuun, or Battalions. Each was a heavily mechanised and reinforced unit comprising three to five mechanized line companies of Legionaries and two to three armour cohorts, with supporting detachments. Below this were the Line Companies and Armour Cohorts, comprising roughly 100 Legionaries or 20-40 armoured vehicles, down through sections and individual squads. Tank detachments in the Legion were comprised of four vehicles, slightly above that of the usual three vehicle sections found in other legions to better absorb losses.

Legion Equipment

Of foremost note within the Mastodontii Legion was the range, number and diversity of the armoured vehicle and artillery support assets fielded by them, with only the armoured formations of the Machine Guard coming close. The Steel Wing Legion had always had an armoured bend to them, and with the mechanically minded Ötztal taking over and renaming them, their specialization in armoured warfare reached new heights. Their armoured component was known to include the full breadth of all general patterns and designs of armour operated across the Imperium by the Legiones Astartes, with tactical emphasis placed on heavy units such as the Land Raider and super-heavy war machines such as the Typhon, Stormblade and especially the vehicle most commonly identified with the legion, the Mastodon heavy transport. Additionally, the employment of very large numbers of "lesser" classes such as the Rhino, Basilisk and Predator was also common. In addition, the Mastodontii were known to operate large numbers of more unusual variant tanks and specialised war machines such as the Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer, Whirlwind Scorpius, Spynx Recon Carrier and Thunderstrike Assault Gun. Because of their dedication and emphasis on armoured warfare, the Mastodontii had the largest armoured reserve of any of the Legions of the Great Crusade.

Legion Doctrine

The legion put great emphasis on repairing and restoring damaged vehicles, and many of the vehicles in the legion were ones that had been damaged in battle many times only to be restored every time. Those vehicles who had survived many great battles, and who had overcome damage and destruction countless times were greatly honoured by the Legion, and adorned with Mastodon Tusks and pelts to honour the machine spirits of such mighty war machines. Mastodontii commanders took all sorts of esoteric concepts from their homeworld up into the void with them after their sudden and enforced leap in technological progress brought about by contact with the Imperium, and ancient ideals of spirits, honour and balance still counted for a great deal within the Legion. This meant others looked down on them as primitive and shamanistic, barely tamed savages who treated their tanks more like armoured steeds then war machines.

At the outset of the Hektor Heresy, the Mastodontii Legion is commonly estimated to have had an operational strength in excess of 120,000 Astartes, with a huge operating reserve of wargear and supplies and many tens of thousands of armoured vehicles, alongside a diverse fleet of around a hundred capital vessels of various classes. This placed the Mastodontii within the mid-tier of Space Marine Legion strengths, but in general terms, their resources in armour, wargear, war materiel and supply made them a considerably greater military power in practice than their sheer number would suggest.

Tollund Ötztal, Primarch of The Mastodontii Legion

Tollund Ötztal, the Steel Mastodon

Youth

Tisenjoch is a world of great open steppes, and cold glaciars, locked in an eternal ice age. The people there live in great mobile towns that follow the herds of Mastodon as they trek back and forth. Life is hard, and the clans were ruled by a caste of tech-priests who maintained their mobile homes. Trade and Warfare between the great mobile towns was common, with battles between them akin to the naval battles of old Terra, with small high-speed ground-carts duelling in the shadow of the mobile towns as they pounded away at one another.

It was into this world that Ötztal was hurled. As luck would have it, he was discovered by a foraging party and taken to the mobile town of Umbaraka. There he swiftly grew to maturity, gaining his first Mastodon Kill at age 10, and making a spear for himself out of its tusks. Then came the day his town was assaulted and taken by a great mobile city, Maiyebord. His family and friends were enslaved, and he too was forced to work in the great machine pits beneath the rolling city, helping to keep it moving.

Ötztal was always an optimistic soul, who saw that there was always a solution, a way out. Even in slavery he refused to ever give up. He could not see the point in the towns fighting. There was plenty of space and food to go around, and he would not take the strong simply taking for the sake of it. He swore to unite all the peoples, and end the wars which plagued his home.

Five times he tried to escape. Four times he was recaptured. The angry city-dwellers had him cuffed, collared, and hung great weights from his limbs, all in an effort to prevent him, but he would never give up. Ever. And finally he escaped, and fled from the rolling city into the steppes.

He found another town, and upon meeting their leaders convinced them to join him. So he set off, uniting rolling town after rolling town into a league of mobile cities, and storming and taking those who refused to join him. Finally he led a mighty assault on Maiyebord, only to find his once-family were already dead. Enraged, he had all the rulers of the city staked out in the steppe and trampled to death by Mastodons.

The Coming of The Emperor

Several years later, the Emperor came to Tisenjoch and Ötztal met with him. The meeting was cool at first, and Ötztal instinctively distrusted this outsider. Eventually he challenged him to a hunt. The one to claim the larger Mastodon would win. Ötztal spent a month tracking he great herds, until he brought down a mighty beast. But upon returning to Neu Umbaraka, he found the Stranger had claimed two, both bigger by far than his. Ötztal was enraged, and tried to attack the stranger, but the stranger easily defeated him, and revealed himself as his true Father, the Emperor. Even then there was acrimony, but finally Ötztal was convinced to leave his world and take command of the XXIV Legion, the Steel Wing, which he renamed the Mastodontii

The Great Crusade

The Legion that now re-joined the Great Crusade gained a dual reputation as both mystic savages, and saviours of humanity. Their archaic customs, their introversion and exceptionalism drew notice. They still willingly deployed their forces to support others all across the Crusade, but now they were a closed book, immersed in their own superstitions, prone to lapsing into inscrutability. They were said to talk to their armoured steeds, to carve runes of warding and witnessing upon them and decorate them with totems and fetishes. They treated their tanks as more than just warmachines, as if they had souls of their own, which brought them into conflict with some sects of the Mechanicum.

The Tisenjochans who soon began to make up a disproportionate number of the Legion became known for treating battle as an art form, for taking great joy in the tasks they had to do, though they never lost a clear-headed concern for practicalities. They were observed to wear their genhancement lightly. A certain kind of self-effacing courtesy seemed to come naturally to them, which made them among the easiest Legions to work with for the Imperial Army, though unlike their previous form as the Steel Wing they remained elusive, closed to outsiders and loath to take orders they saw as foolhardy.

The deeply held superstations of Tisenjoch soon began to dominate among the Legion as well. The belief in fate, the pattern of time, the will of heaven and the spirits of the ice. The Ice-Shamen of Tisenjoch became a powerful force within the Legion, though decried as primitive by the Librarians of other Legions for their refusal to dig too deeply into the Warp.

The Lenard Deeps

"There is a darkness, a callousness in this Legion. They have cold hearts and bitter souls, they use their sons as cannon fodder, drink deep of slaughter but take no nourishment from it. I fear for those who will have to face them in battle in the future."

Ice Shaman Aqavuit after the destruction of Rosean

The Campaign of Astral Woe was one of the first events that began the slow decline of the Mastodontii Legion into darkness. What was supposed to be a chance for two Legions to serve alongside each other in collaborative effort, and thus bond and strengthen each other, nearly led to bloodshed and disaster, and set doubts into the Legion’s mind as to the righteousness of their cause.

Origins: The Souls of the Ice Worlds

Seeing the need to nurture the Silver Cataphracts Legion as its Primarch integrated Himself into the Imperium and became part of the Crusade, the Emperor asked Tollund Ötztal to mentor Alexandri and his Legion, a chance for the Cataphracts to borrow a little gloss from Ötztal’s glory by association and example by serving alongside them in the pacification of the Lenard Deeps. Though Ötztal’s Legion was scattered across the stars and barely a third was with his Fifty-First Expeditionary Fleet, Ötztal willingly agreed to his Father’s request. He had met and got along well with many of his Brothers, and believed likewise with another son of an ice world. He believed that similarity would encourage understanding, but in his case this sentiment would shatter under the weight of reality. For rarely would there be two beings who on the surface so closely resembled each other, and yet were separated by a greater chasm.

Ötztal and Alexandri of Rosskar met several times to plan out the compliance campaign, and it is believed that it was during this time that the first cracks opened. Alexandri’s ruthlessness in his battle plans was at odds with the leniency Ötztal was prepared to show in order to convince human foes to side with them, believing that a true show of strength was in not simply destroying all before them, and in enlisting human allies to aid them in the struggle. Though these concerns were swept aside, they merely started the slippery slope towards disaster.

Discord and Defiance

The initial push was highly successful, in large part due to the support of the Sons of Fire, though Ötztal was privately dismayed at the ruthlessness of the Sons of Fire and the pyres they made of the words they assaulted, as well as the pyromania many in that Legion exhibited. However the initial assault drove two of the larger empires in the Deeps, the Technocracy of Rosean and Grand Principality of Devkar to unite against the Imperial forces. However Ötztal meet with and secured the alliance with a human Confederacy, which he cited as a great triumph, bringing a slew of human worlds into the Imperial Fold.

Rosean was the next target, but it would prove to be a difficult nut to crack. Ötztal however had spoken to Rosean captives taken in the void battles, and believed that a peaceful solution was possible. On his own initiative, he opened a dialogue with the lords of Rosean, and ordered the fleet to refrain from offensive action. However Alexandri ignored this edict and by throwing a moon into the mainly aquatic homeworld of Rosen, destroyed the mighty civilization in an instant. It is known that Ötztal sent an urgent communique to Hektor complaining about Alexandri’s actions and requesting Hektor to speak with the new Primarch, and that Alexandri was furious when he found out, believing that Ötztal was turning the First Primarch against him.

After this event, the Imperial Forces moved on to the territory of the Gaggosh, though relations between the two legions were now strained. With this event the Confederacy immediately switched sides, firing upon the Imperial Fleet with their own ships before withdrawing, leaving the Imperial Forces to fight great bloody clashes to take place on the surface of the Gaggoshi worlds.

As It turned out the Confederacy were long standing allies of the Gaggosh, who they saw as kindred by this point. In yet another move above the chain of command Alexandri had ships of his own legion level the undefended Confederacy planets, destroying a number of habitable worlds in what Ötztal would later term ‘the greatest waste in the history of the Crusade. Though this event ended the war with the Gaggosh, it only deepened tensions on the Imperial Side, and clashes between Imperial Army forces on both sides, most notably between the Rosskan Strelky and Tisenjoch Jäakäri, became more and more frequent.

Legions at their throats

Heaping misfortune upon discord, the Principality turned on the Imperial forces, and even recently compliant worlds including the Rosean sub-states began to bubble with rebellion. With the campaign now stalled with a desperate need for reinforcements that weren’t available, this led to the Primarch of the Silver Cataphracts to declare that the sector was beyond redemption. Every last world would be crushed, repopulated, and all the history of these places was to be buried and gone. Ötztal, horrified, declared that as commander of the campaign he would condone no such action. Words became arguments, which became actions as the two clashed, with Ötztal breaking Alexandri’s jaw and ordering him ejected from the Campaign, his Legion to leave the Lenard Deeps immediately.

Alexandri complied but as his Legion left it fell upon the compliant worlds one by one only to butcher the populace no matter how much they cried for mercy and cleanse them as he had intended. The Mastodontii finally herded the Cataphracts off and the two fleets met over the dead wreckage of Rosean itself, where the two legions would have come to blows were not for the combined delegation of Great-Marshal Alexey, Grand Officer of the Legion Sergei, Spearhead Centurion Nymylan, First Master Kutkh, Overseer of Operations Byk, Captain Nomenir, and Coven Master Galash of the Witchborn. These individuals were able to stay the hand of the Primarchs and prevent their fleets from firing on one another. Kutkh and Nymylan came as they were the closest and most active representatives to the Cataphracts from their Legion, by they did not expect the open and violent threats made by Alexandri's officers, with the exception of Alexey who stayed starkly silent.

Blood and Misunderstanding

Legion rivalries were common, but very rarely did they come close to such bloodshed and horror as in the Campaign of Astral Woe. What came worst for Ötztal was that the Emperor refused to censure or even discipline Alexandri for his actions. Though Hektor was sympathetic, he could do little (For though first among Primarchs, his power then was little compared to his ascension as Warmaster) and Alexandri escaped punishment. Ötztal never forgot the campaign, having one of his Battle Barges named the ‘Rosean’ (Later to be the lead Legion ship of the Rosskan Invasion Force, serving there until the end of the campaign when it was destroyed by Alexandri’s Flagship and lost with all hands) and recruiting Marines from those worlds his forces had spared. It is now believed that the mental and emotional wounds from that campaign let Chaos seep into Ötztal’s soul, and began his path to damnation.

Tisenjoch, the Steppe World

Tisenjoch II
Segmentum	Segmentum Pacificus
Sector	Ilmasviel Sector
System	Tisenjoch System
Population	10,000,000
Orbital radius	1.58AU ± 0.12AU
Gravity	1.08G
Temperature	Sub-Arctic

Jäakäri, the Legion Auxilia

The Tisenjoch Jäakäri (pronounced yay-kar-ree) are the Legion Auxilia and vanguard of the Mastodontii Tank Legions. Composed of men and women from the rural areas of Tisenjoch as opposed to the mobile sled-city dwellers who make up the bulk of the Legion, they have excellent fieldcraft skills and have the task of clearing mines, marking routes and clearing out enemy anti-tank ahead of the armoured columns from the Legion. As the Legion falls into darkness, so to do the Jäakäri, as blood rituals and totems become ever more common in their ranks.

Post-Heresy

After stabilising what remained of the Imperium; the Lords of Terra turned their eyes to the homeworlds of the Traitor Legions, and a combined force of Silver Cataphracts and Void Angels, under the personal command of Alexandri was given the honour of reclaiming Tisenjoch. One by one the great mobile cities that plied the frozen tundra and great ice-plains were overcome and destroyed.

The defenders, the Tisenjoch Jäakäri and the few Mastodontii still left on world, fought back as best they could. Still heeding the last words of the Chosen of the ṣālman, none dared to question the righteousness of their cause. Their hearts were full of sorrow, for the coming of the enemy meant that the Emperor’s dream had failed, and that they were the last warriors of his memory.

There would be only one result to this war; a triumphant Imperium. The tragedy of this conflict would only come to light when the few surviving Mastodontii were interrogated for the location of their primarch. The defenders believed themselves the final guardians of the Emperor’s dream, the invading force, to them, were the traitors. As the truth was told, many refused to accept that their primarch could have discarded them. Others wept as it struck chords within them, their souls telling them all they needed to know. Those left behind were the ones who Ötztal had been unable to taint, those too noble and pure of spirit.

For their virtues, they had led their people into a massacre. A remembrancer of Alexandri’s fleet penned the words for this most harrowing of events; “Tisenjoch, burnt to ashes, bloodied by war. Though enemies, though foes; only loyal sons of the Emperor died that day.”

Not only was every inhabitant slaughtered in the foolish war, the culture and legacy of the world was also obliterated. In the centuries to come, the planet was transformed into the Tisenjoch of today. The great open steppe became host to towering hives and smoke-belching factories that drove many of the native animals, including the great Mastodons, to extinction. Though spared the horror of Exterminatus, Tisenjoch was instead sentenced to become but a simple, anonymous cog in the Imperial machine. For century after century it has quietly and unremarkably produced its worth in goods and regiments for the wider Imperium, oblivious to the horrors of its dark past.

Game Material

Tollund Ötztal, the Steel Mastodon, Chosen of the ṣālman, Ice-Chief of Tisenjoch, Primarch of the Mastodontii

WS7 BS5 S6 T6 W6 I6 A3 LD10 SV3+/3++

Unit Composition •1 (Unique)

Unit Type •Infantry (Character)

Wargear •The Mammoth’s Hide •Tizheruk •Glaciarax

Special Rules •Primarch •Speaker of the Machine •Sire of the Mastadontii •Very Bulky •Vidutana

Sire of the Mastadontii Ötztal is revered by his sons as the warm heart of a Legion born of ice, who spurs his sons on to victory at every turn.

Speaker of the Machine Ötztal has an affinity for the Machine Spirits of his Legion, and can communicate with them. All models with Power of the Machine Spirit gain IWND, and in addition models with the Battlesmith rule may re-roll when repairing vehicles in a force containing Ötztal.

The Mammoth’s Hide Adorned with totems of warding and relics of the great hunts he has done, the Mammoth’s Hide is a mighty warsuit fit for the Lord of the Mastadontii. The Mammoth’s Hide confers a 3+/3++ save, and in addition he may re-roll his Deny the Witch Rolls and has the Monster-Hunter special Rule.

Tizheruk This Ancient Spear, remade from Ötztal’s broken original by the Emperor is a deadly weapon, fast and brutal and perfect for killing great beasts. Tizheruk (Combat) Range: Melee Strength: 9 Ap: 2 Type: Melee, Two Handed, First Strike, Heartrend Heartrend: Every unsaved would caused by Tizheruk in a challenge or against a Monstrous Creature is multiplied into D3 wounds.

Glaciarax An ancient weapon that projects a stream of liquid nitrogen to freeze solid any foe.

Glaciarax Range: Template Strength: 6 Ap: 3 Type: Assault 1, Sheer Cold

Sheer Cold: for each unsaved wound taken from Glaciarax, the target has to pass a Strength test or be removed from play.

Vidutana: In 3000+ point games, Ötztal can take this special transport for 500 points. Vidutana is a Legion Stormblade with a void shield, a transport capacity of 15, the Command Tank upgrade, and a rear access point. In addition it doesn't take up a Lord of War slot.