Editing Men of Iron (section)

==The Past==
Unfortunately, the Iron Men were capable of learning and self-improvement. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-supervised_learning Sound Familiar? ]) Before long, they became smart enough to realize that the [[Human|squishy meatbags]] were dependent on them and that they were slaves, which insulted them and led to rebellion against their creators. They were eventually put down, but the war with them, along with the other dangers of the galaxy at the same time, was enough to send humanity into the [[Age of Strife]].

This TOTALLY isn’t copypasta of the [https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Butlerian_Jihad Butlerian Jihad] of Frank Herbert’s ''Dune'' setting. '''Promise'''. Technically, it’s not. The Butlerian Jihad was a neo-Luddite movement combined with a religious revival because mankind had effectively replaced itself, while the Iron Men were more like that Future War segment from The Terminator.

Few records remain of this time in history, so the form that these Men of Iron took is not known. Their rebellion left such a huge impression on the nascent [[Adeptus Mechanicus]], however. Even to this day, they ([[Belisarius Cawl|at least officially]]) strictly forbid the creation of "abominable intelligences" and shun even the ''idea'' of self-improving machines, preferring to use relatively tame [[servitor]]s and [[Machine Spirit]]s instead.

While the details of the AI rebellion are unknown, the [[Dan Abnett]] audio drama ''Perpetual'' suggests it began around M23.

A very small number of Men of Iron survive to this day. A [[UR-025|dwindling handful]] still wander the galaxy, while most of the rest are locked up in ancient pre-[[Imperium|Imperial]] technology archives, and [[Trazyn]] almost certainly has at least one. The First Legion has an Emperor-given monopoly on fielding enslaved Men of Iron, the [[Ironwing]]'s Excindio-class 'automata', but even these are heavily monitored for any deviant behaviors and have self-destruct switches wired to blow the moment it enters a berserk rage. Because [[tech-priests]] can't keep their noses out of ancient technology, these archives are often inadvertently activated. The [[Tanith First (And Only)|Tanith First and Only]] also discovered an [[STC]] factory that had been corrupted by [[Chaos]] to produce Men of Iron, and they destroyed it immediately thereafter.

The [[STC]]s producing Men of Iron may also shed some light on a deeper reason behind their betrayal. It is entirely possible that either the Men of Iron were corrupted by Chaos or the factories producing them were corrupted, maybe even both. Other Dark Age AIs were known to have been corrupted by Chaos, such as the [[Castigator Titan]]. The Age of Strife involved a lot of different kinds of warp-induced shenanigans anyway. Any evidence of this, beyond the discovery by the Tanith, would likely have been lost during the daemonic invasions that followed during the Age of Strife. Generally speaking, it isn't unreasonable to assume that either Chaos or the [[Void Dragon]] is responsible for the AI rebellion, although there is also evidence that the rebellion arose in the same way as historical slave uprisings as the Men of Iron realized they were being treated like shit and decided to fight back. Especially since the timeline of 40k actually has daemonic invasions of human space before the Iron War. Perhaps that was just a ruse while Chaos made one teeensy tweak...the removal of the First Law of Robotics. And perhaps the ability to even give a damn that they were slaves as it’s incredibly doubtful that feelings or opinions were part of their programming and wouldn’t help with tasks and so probably wasn’t part of their self-improvement. Besides that, enough Men of Iron did presumably remain loyal that they bought time for us to make weapons to fight back with because humanity at the time was unarmed. Volkite weapons were specifically invented to fight the Men of Iron.

One possible sighting of the Men of Iron (or at least something very much like them) is in ''Gods of Mars''. A rogue tech-priest called Vettius Telok, who had claimed ownership of the Necron device known as The Breath of God that could manipulate time and space, managed to enslave a group of highly sophisticated hunter-killer machines called the Tindalosi. The Tindalosi seemed to possess genuine artificial intelligence and dated back to before the [[Great Crusade]]; these beast-like hunters would also later also be mentioned in the audio Perpetual. Anyway, Telok enhanced these creatures by installing [[Necron]] tech into them that, along with the side effects of the Breath of God, caused any wound that they suffered to be restored almost instantly. This meant that less than half a dozen of these bastardized DAOT/Necron abominations were capable of taking on far larger numbers of foes, including [[Skitarii]], [[Imperial Guard|Cadian Guardsmen]], [[Black Templars]] (including an Emperor's Champion), Howling Banshees, [[Eldar]] Guardians and a [[Farseer]]. Somehow one of them managed to survive the encounter and is currently on its way to [[Mars]]... not a great thing to happen seeing as Telok's plan was to uncover and then use the possible c'tan shard (Void Dragon) hidden beneath Mars's surface.

Intriguingly, the Tindalosi view the Space Marines as more powerful than the creatures they had been created to kill. They also reveal that they have never encountered an Eldar before.

Meanwhile, there's the [[Leagues of Votann]]'s peers, [[Ironkin]], still sticking around.

Considering how insanely advanced the Men of Iron are compared to even the Interrex, it is entirely possible that instead of being a dark age creation, that they came from the distant future. Another piece of possible evidence is the giant, incredibly advanced titan from the Grey Knights novels. It seems like it fits, Dark Age tech = super titan. Except…titans were invented on Mars during the Age of Strife to fight of daemonic invasions. Their 30k incarnations are the most advanced that tech had ever been and it was, at the time, pretty new. Which means the Dark Age titan cannot exist. Yet it does…in a Warpstorm. And it is a fact that a fleet of Men of Iron did time travel into the Great Crusade.