Ferrus Manus

"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking."

– William Butler Yeats

"By turns our purity inspires and our impurity casts us down."

– Henry David Thoreau

Ferrus Manus, The Gorgon, Wyrmslayer, The Great Iron-Father. It took over twenty five years to get a decent image of him, and he ended up looking like the Punisher.

Ferrus Manus was the Primarch of the Iron Hands Chapter of Space Marines. His hands are made of iron. His name is also Latin for "Iron Hand". Real subtle, GW. He got said hands after wrestling with a silver dragon on the planet he crashed on and dripped the lizard into magma and then the metallic skin of the dragon fused into the skin on his hands. Wait, living metal? That sounds oddly familiar for some reason... Anyway, his arms became so fucking hardcore that he did not even *need* a weapon to tear through dudes: his iron hands were more than enough.

So in summary, Iron Hands, who had iron hands, was the leader of the Iron Hands, who give themselves iron hands in honour of the iron hands of Iron Hands of the Iron Hands.

He also got really pissed off if you called him THE HANDS OF FATE after that incident.

Ferrus, using his shiny metal hands, could make epic weapons that absolutely kick ass but he only used like one or two of them. It's not clear as to whether he or Vulkan was the best smith. Vulkan had better aesthetics, in that he could create things that actually looked pretty instead of just ugly blocks of metal with guns haphazardly glued on, but Ferrus certainly had the better way of making weapons, by punching them into shape with his bare fists. Vulkan also had a respect for geology, where Ferrus thought that details of a metal ended at its usefulness.

History

For a very long time this was one of only two officially produced images of Ferrus Manus, drawn by John Blanche. The other image showed only his backside. Ever get the feeling you're the unfavorite? Ferrus understands you.

Back in the days of the Great Crusade (before the good ol' Horus Heresy), Ferrus met Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children beneath Mount Narodnya, and challenged him to forge the best weapon that he could. After three months, Fulgrim forged an ornate warhammer, while Ferrus made a big blingy sword. After praising each other for their craftsmanship, the two exchanged weapons and became best friends.

Cuddly and friendly, however, he was not. To the people of Medusa he was a grim figure who took warriors into the crypts of the forbidden polar zone to fight archeotech nasties, and otherwise offered them weaponry and told them to fight to ensure they remained strong.. Once he met his Legion, he performed a dramatic volte-face on interfering in Medusan politics. Which is to say he went from non-intervention to "Legionaries, take over their Clans. Btw they'll only understand if you do it really violently." Nonetheless there was that one guy who took that a little far, wiping out a Clan that had gone rogue and claiming their crawler for himself.

As far as military doctrine went, Ferrus wasn't crazy like Angron or cruel like Curze, but he was pitiless, perhaps even more so than Russ or Horus. On the battlefield itself he was the kind of guy who could smash straight through the legs of a Reaver-sized Titan-analogue (a barely disguised AT-AT homage). And Angron thought he was tough holding up a Warhound. Bless.

Like Vulkan, he made a point of forging gear for most of his brothers. Although Vulkan was a bit uncomfortable with Ferrus' way of punching metal into shape and didn't use his dragon-headed flamer until the Heresy broke out. Examples of his work include Horus' sword (which Horus favoured until he got evil and started using Worldbreaker) and Lorgar's mace.

Until Fulgrim found a new boyfriend/girlfriend/hermaphroditic freak. Then decided to screw over Ferrus, Fulgrim totally outmatched Ferrus with his HAWTNEZZ and Ferrus jacked the sword he made for his ex-boyfriend back. Some time later after some epic planning that would EPICALLY FAIL, Ferrus goes with other Primarchs to attempt to kick Fulgrim's and Horus's ass. And it started well: Ferrus brought his army down right at the edge of the enemy's shields, and forced Horus' troops into retreat despite all the shenanigans the Traitors pulled. But then they got totally fucked up by a bunch of reinforcements while Ferrus challenged Fulgrim... until he became Slaanesh's boyfriend; and proceeded to cut Ferrus Manus's head off. Horus was pretty fucking pissed at this.

Ironically, Ferrus' death was caused by the same self-flagellating urge that drives his sons to turn themselves into cyborgs. Fulgrim came to convert him to Horus' side; to Ferrus this meant there was some flaw inside him that needed to be expunged by killing Fulgrim. This was why the Iron Hands stayed in the field when everyone else disengaged, and got screwed over harder than everyone else.

Despite his anger at Fulgrim, or perhaps because of it, Horus kept Ferrus's head, removing the remaining flesh and leaving it a bleached skull for his throne. Sometimes he would talk to it, lamenting that he had nothing but dishonored and broken psychopaths instead of angels and strategists as his generals. Waging a galaxy wide heresy is a tough job.

In 40k?

There is speculation (in-universe and out) that Ferrus Manus somehow lives, and is hidden away on Mars by the Adeptus Mechanicus, though mentioning this to the Iron Hands gets them impressively angry, to the point that they might demonstrate how they think otherwise by using the speaker's own head. The marines who survived the Dropsite Massacre were in no doubt, having seen the visual evidence from multiple angles, but apparently the Iron Hands found the files too depressing and set about wiping their hard drive with a bolter. A projection of his soul was summoned by the Emperor during the final battle in the Webway, where it proceeded to wreck greater demon shit.

That being said, the Horus Heresy book series might currently be sowing the seeds of some sort of truth to the rumour... Fulgrim regretted not being able to convince Ferrus Manus into joining the side of the traitors, and so had Fabius Bile attempt to clone his brother with all of his memories intact so that Fulgrim might try again at turning Ferrus to Chaos. This did not work as the cloned Ferrus would become hostile at the suggestion of turning traitor and would have to be killed by daemon-Fulgrim.

That didn't stop Fulgrim from trying again and again, believing that Fabius' cloning methods resulted in "imperfect" clones and so ordered him to try harder and create more, though fortunately, each one would get angry at the attempt to turn him away from the Emperor and end up getting beaten to death by his now-ascended brother. Guess even Daemon Primarchs can stay butthurt for millennia on end.

Another thing to note is that the Ferrus Manus clones did not have the metallic arms of the original, which is obvious since the original was not "born" with them either and only acquired them later in life. This fact was hidden from the clones by making them wear gauntlets, which the clones found confusing (the original Ferrus never needed gauntlets for protection since the metal skin was protective enough) but ended up rolling with, since their lives tended to be measured in hours. The "original" Ferrus Manus was hacked to pieces by traitor marines after being decapitated, with many taking away parts as trophies and Fulgrim likely taking 'some part to remember him by'. Guess. What happened to the original Ferrus' metallic arms remains a mystery but a number of interested parties cut shavings off them(finger bones) to use in the edges of ritual blades.

The flesh is... strong?

Artist's rendition of Ferrus Manus. Has the chin of TEN MEN!

Being the hardass flesh-haters that the Iron Hands are, one would suspect that Ferrus Manus might as well have been called Ferrus Clunis when it comes to the weakness of the flesh. In reality this is about as far from the reality as possible. The following is taken from the preface to a novel where the Iron Hands are portrayed as emotionless, flesh-hating, misanthropes:

"They are not my hands. This fact is forgotten by my brothers - inexplicably, it has always seemed to me. The hands are strong, to be sure, and have created great things for us all, but they are not mine. And that counts for something. They forget that the silver on my arms comes from a beast that I vanquished. It is the mark of a great evil that I ended, and yet it persists within me... I would struggle to remove it now... I will not remove the silver from my flesh because I have learned to depend on it. The fault is with my mind. I rely on the augmentation given to me by my metal gauntlets, so much so that the flesh beneath them is now little more than a distant memory... A day will come when I will strip it from me, lest I lose the power to master myself forever. Already my Legion's warriors replace their shield hands with metal in my honour, and so they too are learning to doubt the natural strength of their bodies. They must be weaned off this practice before it becomes a mania for them. Hatred of what is natural, of what is human, is the first and greatest of the corruptions. So I record it here: when the time comes, I will strip my hands of their unnatural silver. I will instruct my Legion to recant their distrust of the flesh. I will turn them away from the gifts of the machine and bid them relearn the mysteries of flesh, bone and blood. When my fathers' Crusade is over, this shall be my sacred task. When the fighting is done, I shall cure my Legion and myself. For if fighting is all there is, if we may never pause to reflect on what such devotion to strength is doing to us, then our compulsion will only grow. Already I see the madness that path leads to, and so I shall excise the silver from my hands. In doing so I shall weaken myself and my sons, but nonetheless it must be done. The hands are strong, and have created great things, but they are not mine."

With what the Iron Hands do by turning themselves into cyborgs, with only part of their brains being flesh, is as big of a FUCK YOU to the Primarch as possible. If anything, they took his receiving a viking crewcut courtesy of his once best friend as a byproduct of his own emotional reactions, which only made them hate human weakness even more. In any case, it puts the Iron Hands in an interesting light.

On The Tabletop

Praise be to Forge World for the making of this! The head even comes as a seperate part...

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Ferrus Mannus:	455	7	6	7	7	6	5	4	10	2+/3++

Ferrus Mannus is essentially God-King of Mars, functioning like a Tech-Priest Dominus on steroids. In addition to all the fun godly powers given to all Primarchs, he also has Relentless and Smash, and straight up all ranged weapons fire at him at -1 strength value. At T7, that means boltguns, sluggas, and all manner of S4 shooty guns as are prevalent throughout all of 40k no longer have the chance of hurting him. Bringing him also makes your Legiones Astartes Iron Hands army function a lot like the 40k Chapter Tactics, in that all models gain Feel No Pain (6+) unless it already had one better.

He has Battlesmith and passes all repair rolls on a 3+ (That becomes a lovely 2+ thanks to his servo-arm). He also makes any of your vehicles with at least 1 AV of 13 or higher gain It Will Not Die. You are going to field tanks and Contemptor Dreadnoughts with this guy. He is good to them. His crazy 2+/3++ armor includes a Nuncio-Vox so Ferrus can help direct your heaping gobs of indirect tank fire, and it gives him a servo arm. It also lets him shoot two of his guns in the shooting phase, making him the shootiest primarch we currently have rules for, which include a Plasma Blaster, Graviton Gun, Grenade Harness or Heavy Flamer.

Lastly, his hammer Forgebreaker (that one forged by Fulgrim) is "typical" Primarch stuff in that it's Sx2 Ap1 Concussive Strikedown. Not bad, Fulgrim, you pretty boy fuckhead. You make a pretty decent hammer.

Considering his bonus Primarch powers are a force multiplier for a large tank army, and Legiones Astartes Iron Hands already gain several bonuses for tanks, you're bringing him with as many as you can field. Roll him alongside your tank columns so he can repair as you roll onward, knowing full well he can capably handle most any hand to hand unit thrown his way and is an excellent shot with powerful weapons in his own right.

He's very well designed for the simple reason that he makes the Iron Hands better at what they already excel at (not dying). The 6+ FNP has great synergy with Inviolate Armor, and if you're taking Head of the Gorgon (which you should), Predators and Vindicators can Outflank and possibly regain 2HP a turn. That said, if he gets assaulted by a tarpit or if his transport is destroyed, he can have trouble making his points back. He's ultimately an average Primarch.

And yes, the model's head is detachable. (THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME!!!)

Ferrus Manus 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 (Especially with someone like Ferrus, with T 7 and 2+/3++ as saves). With that in mind this section is how Ferrus Manus 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 be 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 naturally Ferrus is equipped with Forgebreaker. Also, don't ever forget that he comes with Servo Arm for that ever useful +1 attack at S8 Ap 2, even if Unwieldy.

• Ferrus Manus VS Horus
  • Horus hits 4.667 times (Worldbreaker), wounds 3.333 times, 1.111 after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.0833 times, 0.694 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.361.
  • As always, the Warmaster can't be put down. Although Ferrus can put up a decent fight thanks to his resilience.

• Ferrus Manus VS Angron
  • Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.185 after saves, and IWND take it down to 0.852.
  • Angron Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 0.889 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.556 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.868 times after saves and FNP, and IWND will take that down to 0.535 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Again, thanks to his tankiness Ferrus can stalemate Angron (who does a lot of damage) to the point that he will kill him just one round before the Red Angel can actually kill him back. Also Strikedown make this easier since Ferrus will hit first from round 2 and thereafter.

• Ferrus vs Mortarion
  • Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.25 times, 0.416 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.083.
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2 times, 1 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.444 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Even though Mortarion is tough in the end Ferrus wins pretty easily thanks to his superior save and to his hammer

• Ferrus vs Fulgrim
  • 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.
  • Fulgrim Round 1: hits 5.629 (Master-crafted) times, wounds 3.284 times (Child of Terra), 1.094 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.761 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Fulgrim Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3.611 times, wounds 2.107 times, 0.702 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.369 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • The infamous match! And also one of the closest, with the same outcome as the lore unless Fulgrim either has the Laer Blade or he doesn't have Child of Terra, in which case he doesn't really stand a chance. With the Hammer, Ferrus is like Fulgrim's worst nightmare, 'cause strikedown will go off even if the strike doesn't wound him, reducing his initiative to 4 and stripping him of all his advantages. In the end, Fulgrim will win on the 11th round, while Ferrus needs 12 rounds to come on top, so Fulgrim did really well to take the hammer away. Also, a really epic fight!
    • 'Its worth noting that in the fluff during this duel Ferrus was fighting with Fireblade and Fulgrim with Forgebreaker. Here's how well that goes: against a primarch Fireblade is only a little better than just using his bare hands, though against most Primarchs Ferrus still wounds on a 2+ so it's all right for him. For Fulgrim though Forgebreaker is a HUGE upgrade. He goes from wounding of 4+ to 2+ thanks to strength 10. Most importantly Ferrus will no longer have Concussive to mitigate Fulgrim's sublime swordsman rules so he still gets more attacks. Even worse is that since Fulgrim can concuss Ferrus down to initiative 1, sublime swordsman will generate SEVEN additional attacks whenever concuss hits and hitting so much means it should be every turn. And even worse is that since Ferrus is down to initiative 1 a lot of the time, Blind is much much more likely to hit. It doesn't even matter if we make Forgebreaker unwieldy in Fulgrim's hands because unwieldy doesn't actually reduce initiative, it just makes you fight at that initiative step, and putting out so much more damage means striking at the same time simply doesn't matter. In the first turn Fulgrim should get that first unsaved wound to concuss and after that it gets disgusting. Once Fulgrim concusses Ferrus he gets 12(!) attacks (since sublime swordsman doesn't limit the bonus attacks it can give) hitting on 3+ (8 hits) wounding on 2+ (5.3 wounds) which is a frankly disgusting 3.5 wounds after saves. IWND will take that down to 3.177 but holy shit is Ferrus screwed. He dies after 3 rounds of combat and quite frankly he gets wrecked like a bitch. With Forgebreaker there's a reasonable chance that Fulgrim could take on Horus simply because the combination of sublime swordsman and concussive is just so powerful. Turns out Fulgrim WAS the better smith, after all.

• Ferrus VS Konrad Curze
  • Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus win.
  • Note: if Konrad use Hit and Run he can almost completely close the gap, doing 1.018 wounds on the turn he charges (counting his knives and HoW though). but when counting in Ferrus' overwatch he wins anyway. Just not so easily, making this fight akin to that of Ferrus vs Fulgrim, but a lot faster.

• Ferrus VS Vulkan
  • Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.556 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2 times, 0.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.111 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • The fight between the two big tanks end in an almost surprising victory for Vulkan, 'cause even though Ferrus does marginally more damage, Vulkan is a bit tougher.

• Ferrus VS Lorgar
  • Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.556 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.0778 times, 1.389 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.056 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus win.
  • Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

• Ferrus VS Perturabo
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • The mirror match! (yes, I used Forgebreaker for both of them. Yeah, I know it is stupid...) In the end Perturabo win thanks to his WS, since even with one more attack Ferrus hit marginally less times.
  • Note: without the hammer(s) Ferrus would defeat Perturabo, 'cause he would wound Perturabo on a 3+ (2+ with the Servo Harm) wounding 1.75 times, with Perturabo wounding him on 4+ and so wounding him 1.333. Guess old Perty could use Fulgrim's hammer better, in the end.

• Ferrus VS Alpharius
  • Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.379 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.045 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus easily win.

• Ferrus VS Rogal Dorn
  • Dorn hits 2.667 times, wounds 1.481 times, 0.494 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.16 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus win.

• Ferrus VS Corvus Corax
  • Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 2.222 times (Scourge)/1.667 times (Shadow-walk), 0.741 wounds (Scourge)/0.556 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.408/0.222 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus hits 2.5/1.667 times, wounds 2.083/1.389 times, 1.389/0.926 wounds after saves and 1.056/0.592 wounds after IWND.
  • Ferrus win.
  • Note: if Corax can pull off his tactics of Hit & Run he can close the gap, doing a lot more damage on the charge, but Ferrus' Hammer has Concussive AND Strikedown, and even if Corax use Shadowalk there is a 93% chance he will receive at least one wound, making it almost impossible to rely on this tactics and assuring Ferrus victory.

• Ferrus VS Roboute Guilliman
  • Guilliman Round 1: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times (Hand), 0.694 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.361 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Guilliman Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.778 times, 0.926 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.593 wounds at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 0.542 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.208 at the start of the next turn.
  • Ferrus lose this fight.

• Ferrus VS Leman Russ
  • Ferrus Round 1: Hits 1.33 times, wounds 1.11 times, saves take that down to 0.555 and IWND brings it down to 0.366.
  • Ferrus Round 2: Hits 0.666 times, wounds 0.555 times, saves bring it down to 0.2777 wounds and IWND brings it down to 0.1833.
  • Leman: Hits 4.667 times, wounds 2.068, saves bring it down to 0.6827 and IWND brings it down to 0.45604
  • A long as hell fight, since Ferrus' high saves make him very hard for Leman to damage, but at the end of the day, his complete inability to damage Leman (after round 2, every wound takes upwards of 5 rounds due to his needing 6s to hit) means that Leman will eventually win. This isn't including Sever Life however, but while Ferrus' is more resistant to it than most (due to T7), it will add on to the damage which means he'll go down faster.

• TLDR version: Ferrus is a really tough Primarch that, thanks to his sheer resilience and high strength attack can put up a good fight against any other Primarch, being even capable of taking down the big melee monster that is Angron.

External Links

Ferrus isn't dead, he's just stuck inside his favourite 1991 video game.

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