Perturabo

He swells with generic rage, and cripes man, look at all the empty space in the head piece....

"Tell them ruin has come to their world, death, despair and red war...
Tell them their hopes and pride have come to nothing.
Tell them their empty whispers fall upon deaf ears - their gods are dead, human logic has killed them.
Tell them the Angels of Death have come.
Tell them that nothing can save them now."

Perturabo is the Primarch of the Iron Warriors.

Origins

Before he knew the full measure of what he was, Perturabo was a cultivated-scholar and a gentle man of peace. He loved peace, freedom, democracy, and stopping conflicts through diplomacy if at all possible. His foster-father was a tyrannical asshole, mind, so their family was strained. After E-Money showed up on the East Side lookin' for his homey-boys up in the 'hood, Perturabo used his armies to depose his father and reinstitute democracy among the Greeks Olympians. He thought he was finally home.

Unfortunately for him, the Imperium was the exact opposite of a democracy, its leader had no real desire for a diplomat when he wanted a general, and the father he'd found was every bit the tyrannical distant asshole his other parent had been and more. Whoops.

Great Crusade

Shortly after he was re-united with his Legion, something inside him switched drastically; rather than continuing to promote the peaceful compromise that is "democracy" he went full Tyrant himself. His first act as Commander was familiarize himself with the history of his Legion; his second was to enact the age-old procedure of Decimation, where one-in-ten soldiers (determined by lottery) would be beaten to death by the other nine. Most of the other Primarchs declared that Perturabo was insane, but the Emperor let it slide as Perturabo's reasoning being: "Not that they had failed... instead they had not reached their potential." Therefore it was not enough to be merely superior, but Perturabo decided that his legion should have been supreme. Roboute Guilliman was particularly critical of this, as he had known several of the Iron Warriors selected to die personally and objected to what he viewed as their unnecessary deaths. It's worth noting that decimation originally applied to serious offenses like mutiny, not being sub-par.

At the time of The Crusade, Perturabo was a busy boy, building citadels and forts on the planets that he conquered, leaving always a little of his forces behind. In the end it became a stereotype that the Iron Warriors had the best army for sieges. He was also kept far away by the other Primarchs, mainly because Perturabo had so much badass technology they did not possess, but also because Big E wasn't too keen on having him ramble on about all this "democracy and peace" garbage. Perturabo had a big hard on for Leonardo Da Vinci and spent much time searching the ruins of Old Earth for copies of his surviving journals, gathering his hidden papers and learning of the works he pursued in private.

What's also known about him is his rivalry with Rogal Dorn. What we know about these two is that their quarrels were equivalent to the typical sibling rivalry. While Dorn's Daddy's Golden boy, Perturabo serves as the incredibly jealous brother who just wants to tear his brother limb from limb. Another reason why he was jealous of Dorn was due to Perturabo considering himself an architect and builder but was left destroying everything instead while Dorn did what he wanted to be doing. The most iconic incident occurred when Fulgrim asked Dorn if he could build a fortress that Perturabo couldn't crack; Dorn answered "Yes" and Perturabo threw a fit and left. Dorn also said this of Perturabo, "Perturabo throws men at walls. If the Araakites (opponents of that campaign) so much as thought a wall he would pelt it with our legionaries as if there were no other way." He also had an inferiority complex and was greatly pressured when he and his Legion were relegated to garrison duty. They became so frustrated that they vented their frustrations by slaughtering everyone in their own homeworld when it had revolted. This also tipped into ganging up with Horus on his brothers; at the battle of Gate 44, Perturabo accused Corvus Corax of cowardice for not wanting to march his men into a meat-grinder assault. Considering Perturabo had a hard on for following orders without question, even if it meant death, one can see why he bitched at Corax. Unsurprisingly, this put Corvus (and probably Russ) off working with him for good, which pissed Perturabo off even more.

Also, the rest of his brothers treated him like shit and called him a stupid hick (except Sanguinius, best of men, and Magnus, who appreciated Perturabo's scholarly side). He and his legions never got credit for his work, and even when they did it was in a half-assed kind of way. (That fight with Corax above also saw him cracking an orbital defense that had withstood assaults by three different legions, historians recorded him as "a nameless comrade-at-arms." He held it all in for a long, long time, until, after a grueling three-part campaign in which the Iron Warriors, Blood Angels, and Imperial Fists all ganged up on a Fortress World, Rogal Dorn was given a medal, Perturabo was given nothing, and a master artist showed him a master-work of a painting depicting the battle, in which the Imperial Fists won a heroic victory while the Iron Warriors were literally ground face-first into the mud. And that, as they say, was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Weeeell, strictly speaking that wasn't the final straw. That came when Olympia rose up against Imperial rule. With a little egging on from Word Bearer Chaplains sent by Lorgar to manipulate them into heresy, the Iron Warriors crushed the uprisings. It wasn't quite Curze destroying Nostromo, but it was still pretty damn genocidal and tipped Perturabo over the edge.

Perturabo actually bought that painting, then burned it, stamped on it and pissed on it, then when Dorn went to the artist to commission a second one, he wisely refused for fear of the same happening to him.

The man himself, looking awfully disappointed.

Horus Heresy

He joined Horus and the other traitor legions during the Horus Heresy when they promised him that he would be forgiven for his actions on Olympia in exchange for his loyalty. He supervised the Iron Warriors as they bombed the shit out of Terra, and also the main siege. (He was also nearly killed by Fulgrim when the latter tried to suck the life out of him to aid his ascension to Princedom.) And he took much pleasure in taking the Emperor's Palace's walls down with the aid of traitor titan legions and the other traitor Astartes. However, Horus lost and they all fled to the Eye of Terror like little bitches.

Iron Cage Trolling

You come across a seemingly well-fortified daemonic fortress! Defenses as far as the eye can see!

But before fleeing he performed one of the greatest acts of trolling in the entire fluff, called the "Eternal Fortress". A trap set for the Imperial Fists who wanted to take revenge on Perturabo who claimed to be residing in the Central Keep of the Fortress. Surrounding the Fortress was a 20 kilometer killzone, filled with mine fields, traps, bunkers, trenches, and every other kind of base defense imaginable in order to make the assault on the keep a very costly affair. This was intended to bleed the Imperial Fists dry for when they reached the actual fortress. This was made more effective by the fact that the Imperial Fist's fleet was kept busy dealing with the Iron Warriors' fleet, preventing them from providing effective orbital support to Dorn's forces on the ground, isolating them all the more.

When the Imperial Fists DID manage to get to the keep, after wading through twenty miles (or maybe kilometers...) of killing ground and losing a great deal of their forces in the process, they found out the Central Keep was *plot twist* empty! (Except for the various inward-pointing guns aimed directly at the Imperial Fists, essentially trapping them inside the fortress.) This caused Rogal Dorn to become a normal man after getting trolled: Sad, broken and RAGED. But before the Imperial Fists even got out of the mess they had get shot at for three weeks before getting saved by none other then the great heroes of the Imperium, the *cough* Ultrasmurfs *cough*. The Iron Warriors then, realizing they couldn't beat both legions at the same time, decided to instead deny the Imperial Fists from recovering their fallen brothers' gene seed by essentially nuking the entire fucking planet. 400 were never recovered and dealing a great blow to the Fists' ability to replenish their numbers after the assault. The Iron Warriors obtained the gene-seed of hundreds of Imperial Fists and sacrificed it to the Chaos Gods, who showed their gratitude by elevating Perturabo to the position of Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Except some of this gene-seed was used to create few IF/IW half-breeds (may be with a little Fabulous support), including the eviliest motherfucker of 41-st millennium.

Loyalist corpsefuckers claim that Perturabo hesitated to slay Rogal Dorn, because "Only through his self-sacrifice could he break the Emprah's Champion!". Since FW gave rules to both of them, we now do know that Pert have a nice chances against Dorn, if they both start on the even foot. Which they weren't on Sebastus, given Pert spent weeks of the Iron Cage siege laughing at countless Fists being blasted by heavy ordnance, and Dorn spent them fighting 24/7 without rest and repair to his weapon/armour, watching his beloved sons being slaughtered in hundreds in totally unmanly and unfair way. And of course, lets not forget the much more preferable and easily available option to just shoot the fuck out of Dorn with some crazy big and powerful guns Pert had in abundance, since Dorn was already trapped in the crossfire without any cover but the corpses of his fallen sons - few D-blasts in the face is enough to end any Primarch, save Horus and Lorgar.

Post Heresy

While his brothers don't do all that much, Perturabo doesn't sit on his ass all day. In 400.M32, he single-handedly annihilated the forge world of Toil in eight days. With Nurgle's help, he unleashed a machine-plague that transformed the planet's factories into walking monstrosities while causing Daemon Engine-spewing cables to burst out of the ground. This makes him the most deadly hacker to ever exist. And he also helped Abaddon fuck up the Iron Hands during the 10th Black Crusade (possibly because he was sick of people getting the Iron Warriors and the Iron Hands mixed up all the time), making him the only Daemon Primarch to actually participate in a Black Crusade.

Personality

Greatly known for his mastery of siege warfare. He is feared for his status as a Daemon Prince, and his RAGE, which is mainly due to an itch to the back of his head that he cant scratch due to the cable wiring (refer to the picture at the top). In other words, he's one big, mean and badass motherfucker who knows how to make the strongest thing go down.

He is described as "mercurial" in the Index Astartes article, which may be why his personality is so different between the two Horus Heresy authors who have portrayed him and, indeed, between the various segments of his personal history listed above. Graham McNeill presents him in "Angel Exterminatus" as a vastly intelligent, very meticulous man who resented his legion's treatment at the Emperor's hands. Kinda the way he's described as being elsewhere in the fluff. However, in that same novel he is also shown to fit neatly in both ends of the Rage Spectrum. One one hand you get the subtle rage, where Perturabo buys hundreds of House-sized paintings of his own men and has them all burned. On the other hand he's also prone to fits of destructive rage, whereby after being asked to defend Terra on the simulations against his praetors, he went into his inner sanctum and smashed dozens of priceless clockworks. Among those clockworks was a Intricate fully functional titan complete with the ability to move and fire miniature laser cannons, along with a clockwork Phoenix that he spent over a century constructing by hand and writing the code of an AI from scratch for it.

About that painting: The painting in question that he had destroyed was one that showed a Legion Apothecary administering the Emperor's Mercy to an Iron Warrior, in the mud and grimy fields of a conquered fortress. In the background of the painting there was an Imperial Fists flag waving over the fortress. This just shows that Perturabo possesses an all consuming hatred for Dorn, of which every waking moment he lives, breathes, and shits the thought that Dorn is somehow better than him. He hates himself for this.

Fuck your Cerastus Emprah ! Buy another one ya rich muthafucka! FUCK YOUR CERASTUS EMPRAH, FUCK YOUR CERASTUS! DARKNESS' DARKNESS'

In "Crimson Fist", Perturabo was a Saturday-morning villain who flips his shit when a flunky brings him bad news. His emotions range from "hand-wringing evil" to "I'll get you next time". Thanks, John French. "Angel Exterminatus" expands on this.

In the third Forge World Horus Heresy book "Extermination", Peturabo is a cold, resentful bastard who the moment he was re-united with his Legion had it decimated for not being the best. And then wondered how his legion still wasn't as good as the Dark Angels, Ultramarines and Luna Wolves, and why no-one liked him. As an aside the FW books are co-written by John French. The Forge World Imperial Armour Volume 13 Book also mentions a civil war between the Iron Warriors in M34 that, in-universe, is suspected to have been instigated by the Daemon Primarch Perturabo to weed out the weak amongst his scions.

Unknown to anyone else, Perturabo had always possessed a strange connection to the Eye of Terror - for some reason, he could sense it from anywhere in the galaxy, and he became convinced that it was constantly watching and judging his every action. The resulting inferiority complex wasn't really helped by the fact that when he tried ask others if they could see the Eye, they assumed he was hallucinating. (Ironically, he was actually the one to give the Eye its current name- before then, it was called Cygnus X-1.)

Oh, and Perturabo enjoyed playing Warhammer 40000, and no we're not kidding, his legion's warrior lodge had a whole bunch of tables set up where they could all play scenarios against each other and see who's tactics and armies would win. Proving that the Iron Warriors are Neckbeards (which would go a long way to explaining why the IV Legion was so embittered). Perturabo himself owned an awesome perpetual-motion powered clockwork Warhound Scout Titan (I'd buy one! three!! ALL OF THEM!!!!!) which he facepalmed Fulgrim with (at the cost of the model) just to prove a point.

If you want to know, "Perturabo" is the name the nice lil' Perty choose for himself after reading some ancient texts pre-dating the Age of Strife (or climbing out of his pod, depending on the story). Given GW's freaky love for kitchen pseudo Latin, we can assume it to be a deformation of the verb perdurabo, meaning "I shall endure". Best predictive name ever if you considere the mountain of shit his bros and the Emprah threw on him before the Heresy... Or it could be a variant of the word "perturbed." Or maybe both, making it a surprisingly good pun by GW standards.

Tabletop

	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Perturabo:	8	6	7	6	6	5	4	10	2+/3++

At 490 points when kitted out with Forgebreaker he's the second most expensive Primarch after Horus. But he's worth it.

On his own merits, he's sort of what you'd get if you crossed the rules of Horus with Ferrus Manus. Like Manus, his armour is a veritable bag of tricks, although less killy overall since he has fewer attacks and the hammer is unwieldy. Though you can choose to hit things with his fists if you don't want to use/bring the hammer, in which case he strikes as hard as a plasma gun. Also rather than carrying an arsenal of ranged weapons he has practically every item of wargear attached, making him much more of a support character since he can teleport and then bring on other teleporting dudes around himself. Units cannot infiltrate around him and the unit he's with can use Interceptors on enemy units arriving by deep strike. Finally, his armor also lets you refrain from shooting to give a squad +1 BS (due to Cognis Signum) which depending on your play style may actually occur more than you realize, since his own gun is only 24" range. On top of that, all of his attacks benefit from Wrecker and Tank Hunters, so any mechanized list he's up against will be in for a world of pain.

For what he gives to everyone else, his whole army gains a bit more of a close combat focus by becoming Stubborn which makes them very difficult to shift and they also all gain Furious Assault when in the enemy deployment zone, though you may not necessarily have built your army to fully utilize this since Iron Warriors tend to have all the guns. He can also make all other terminators deep-striking via teleportation (including siege terminators) though he does not make them into troops like Horus does. Like Horus, he has a wrist mounted gun (with Rending, no less) and he also has an Orbital Strike, which is slightly less powerful compared to Horus' (and lacks the Lance rule), but compensates by being Ordnance D3 instead of Ordnance 1.

He also lets you roll for reserves on turn one, which when combo'd with teleporting siege terminators can make for an EPIC alpha-strike.

In games of 3000+ points or more, he can spend 500 points to use his special Dedicated Transport, the "Tormentor"- a buffed out Shadowsword with a void shield, a 15-model transport capacity, the Command Tank upgrade, and a rear access point.

Perturabo VS other Primarchs:

Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Perturabo fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?). So he is obviously armed with Forgebreaker. Also do note that Forgebreaker is an incredible weapon for Primarch vs Primarch duelling, giving him an edge against every other Primarch thanks to the combination of Strikedown, Concussive AND Blind, but the rules are only taken into account against Primarchs that he wouldn't be able to beat without, for (my) simplicity.

• Perturabo VS Horus
  • Horus hits 3 times (Talon), wounds 2.667 times, 0.889 after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.556 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Horus (Blinded) hits 2 times (Talon), wounds 1.778 times, 0.593 after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.256 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.556 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222.
  • Perturabo (with Horus Blinded) hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Well well well. So, finally a real challenger has appeared? This fight would actually seems to pend in favor of Perturabo! Then you remember that Horus negates any effect that would adversely modify his characteristic profile with a 3+. Try again another time, Perty.

• Perturabo VS Angron
  • Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 1.48 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.148.
  • Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.69 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.361 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Angron wins.
  • Note: actually in the turn after Perturabo actually wounds Angron (69% per round) he will most probably be blinded and then hammered to death. So if he can't kill him before that (not easy) he is actually dead meat.

• Perturabo vs Mortarion
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and 0.222 wounds after IWND.
  • Perturabo hits 2.666 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn
  • Perturabo wins.

• Perturabo vs Fulgrim
  • Fulgrim Round 1: hits 4.5 times, wounds 3 times, 1 wounds after saves and 0.667 wounds after IWND.
  • Fulgrim Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3 times, wounds 2 times, 0.667 wounds after saves and 0.333 wounds after IWND.
  • Fulgrim Blinded: hits 1.667 times, wounds 1.111 times, 0.37 times after saves and 0.037 after IWND
  • Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667, 0.555 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo (with Fulgrim Blinded) hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Fulgrim surprisingly lose as after the first round he will be brought to I 4 (by Strikedown) and then Blinded and/or Concussed pretty much every round (actually 85% of the total rounds, if my calculation are correct, that is more than enough for Perturabo to destroy him).

• Perturabo vs Ferrus Manus
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.694 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.361 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222, 0.74 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • In the mirror match Perturabo actually wins thanks to his WS, since even with one more attack Ferrus hits marginally less times.
  • Note: without the hammer(s) Ferrus would deafeat Perturabo, 'cause he would wound Perturabo on a 3+ (2+ with the Servo Harm) wounding 1.75 times, whith Perturabo wounding him on 4+ and so wounding him 1.333. Guess old Perty could use Fulgrim's hammer better, in the end.

• Perturabo vs Konrad Curze
  • Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Konrad lose as Perturabo does marginally more damage.
  • Note: With Hit & Run Konrad would win, but the chance he is not concussed in the round he wants to escape are pretty slim, meaning that Perturabo has still the Edge in this fight.

• Perturabo VS Lorgar
  • Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.694 wounds after saves and 0.361 wounds after IWND.
  • Perturabo Round 1: hits 2.37 times, wounds 1.865 times, 0.932 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.599 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo Round 2: hits 2.666 times, wounds 2.221 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.777 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo wins.
  • Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

• Perturabo VS Vulkan
  • Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Vulkan (Blinded): hits 1.333 times, wounds 1.111 times, 0.37 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.037 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • As with Fulgrim, Perturabo actually wins only thanks to his Hammer (great weapon indeed).

• Perturabo VS Alpharius
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.567 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.234 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo wins.

• Perturabo VS Rogal Dorn
  • Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.333 times, 0.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo wins.

• Perturabo VS Corvus Corax
  • Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1 wounds (Scourge)/0.75 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667/0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo hits 2.667 times/2 times, wounds 2.222 times/1.667 times, 1.481 wounds/1.111 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.147/0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo wins.
  • Note: Welcome to Corvus Corax fist nightmare-city, population: Perturabo. He would mostly like to Hit and Run, but then again, with strikedown, concussive and blind, how can he do that? Also, Perturabo is immune to Blind. Yeah, he is like Corax natural enemy and then some...

• Perturabo VS Roboute Guilliman
  • Guilliman Round 1/2: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.74 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Guilliman Round 3 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.963 times, 0.988 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.654 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Perturabo Round 1: hits 2.667 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.611 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.278.
  • Perturabo Round 2 and thereafter: hits 2 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 times after saves, 0.417 for Armor of Reason and IWND will take that down to 0.083.
  • Perturabo lose.
  • Note: Guilliman is immune to Concussive, and even though Strikedown will assure that Blind actually goes on half of the time he still win the fight, even if not as easily as the above statistic would imply.

• TLDR version: Perturabo with Forgebreaker result in one of the strongest challenger above Primarchs, the combination of rules in the Hammer making him even threat Guilliman and Horus! Ok, not Horus, he is invincible...but Guilliman shiver a little as he challenge him. Then again, he IS the second most pricey Primarch.

The Primarchs of the Space Marine Legions
Loyalist Corvus Corax - Ferrus Manus - Jaghatai Khan Leman Russ - Lion El'Jonson - Roboute Guilliman Rogal Dorn - Sanguinius - Vulkan
Traitor Alpharius/Omegon - Angron - Fulgrim Horus - Konrad Curze/Night Haunter - Lorgar Magnus the Red - Mortarion - Perturabo