Editing Warsmith (section)

==Overview==
Warsmiths are highly skilled individuals, both in skill of arms and at siegecraft. They must also maintain a certain degree of paranoia toward their equals and direct subordinates: if a Warsmith is killed by a fellow Warsmith, the victor might absorb his opponent's Grand Company, and a good number of Warsmiths obtained their rank by killing its previous holder.

The Iron Warriors Legion of the late 41st Millennium is organised into a number of large warbands known as Grand Companies, each commanded by a Chaos Lord who bears the title of Warsmith. Originally, each Grand Company would have been similar in size and organisation, totalling approximately a thousand Space Marines, but now they vary in size enormously after ten millennia of battle and losses. It is uncertain how many Grand Companies there are at any given time. At the time of the Horus Heresy, the IVth Legion had an added layer of organisation known as a Grand Battalion, which contained several Grand Companies and was commanded by an officer with the rank of Warsmith. At the time of the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V there were at least twelve Grand Battalions in the IVth Legion, although with the widespread deployment of many garrison forces in that era, it is impossible to be sure.

One of the most famous Warsmiths is [[Honsou]], who has a great record in [[/tg/ gets shit done|getting shit done]], and being one messed up asshole.

It is interesting to note that the position of Warsmith can be held even when a marine would usually lose their rank, so long as they don't go bonkers even by CSM standards; Berossus from [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''Dead Sky, Black Sun'' retained the rank of Warsmith (albeit as a subordinate to another) despite being a bloodthirsty, half-crazed [[Chaos Dreadnought]], while Idriss Krendl from [[Rob Sanders]]' ''Adeptus Mechanicus'' duology kept his rank despite being an [[Obliterator]]. Another would have been Chengrel, a character from a novella, but he had to settle for [[Chaos Lord]] since he never officially made it to Warsmith.

Another interesting thing is their high mortality rate - [[Honsou]] is the only one we're 100% sure is still alive, with most of the others dying during or after one novel (Forrix, Berossus, Kroeger, Harkor, whoever that asshole in ''Siege of Castellax'' was; maybe Krendl, depending on how you interpret the ending of the AdMech books), vanishing into the ether despite having unresolved or unexplored plot threads connected to them (Kyr Valen, Toramino, Kalkator), or pulling an exit stage left after achieving their goals ([[Daemon Prince|The Warsmith]]).