Iron Guard

The Iron Guard
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Battle Cry	WIP
Number	XII
Founding	First Founding
Successors of	N/A
Successor Chapters	WIP
Chapter Master	WIP
Primarch	Zelbezis Dyestes
Homeworld	Novi Zhelezem
Strength	WIP
Specialty	Co-ordinated Mass-theatre Warfare, Retribution and Counter-insurgency campaigns, Psychological Warfare, Targeted Decimation
Allegiance	Separatist
Colours	Drab with black right arm and helm with red trim

This page is part of the Warmasters Triumvirate, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the Warmasters Triumvirate page for more information on the Alternate Universe.

The Iron Guard are the XIIth Legiones Astartes led by Primarch Zelbezis Dyestes

History

Pre-Primarch history and reunion

Created along with its brother Legions during the latter days of the Unification Wars, the XIIth Legion would find its origins in those peoples of Terra that bowed to the nascent Imperium of their own accord. As gift to their new liege, the various warlords and generals gave their sons to form the basis from one of his armies of gene-enhanced warriors. Compared to the preceding Tenth Legion, the stability of the Twelfth would prove exceptionally stable in those early days, with little deviance from the Standard Pattern. As an experiment on the Imperium's part, new psycho-indoctrination techniques were introduced, aiming to increase the warriors' efficiency by inducing a drive towards total war doctrines: anything less than complete eradication of the enemy would be seen as unsufficient in the new legion's eyes.

The first recorded deployment of the XII Legion as a self-sufficient entity would be the Compliance of Sotho, which would pave the way for the later conquest of Sa'afrik. There, three thousand Astartes fought against twenty times their number of irregulars and mercenaries gold-sworn to the Oligarchs of Sa'afrik in rad-swept plains. The campaign would be one of skirmishes in small settlements as the wasteland offered no useful cover. From town to town, the legion would hunt its prey and deliver a heavy decapitating strike before cutting down those who fled. No prisoner was taken, no survivor tolerated. To this day, the only accounts that remain from the Sotho Compliance hail from the Imperium, as no opponent was left to testify.

Legion Doctrine

Legion Organization

When the Twelfth Legion, then named the Warmongers, was reunited with its Gene-Sire, its command structure had become a mess of informal designations and personal concurrence between glory-seeking officers. Thus the first major change to the legion was the rebirth of the Opsequarion, a disciplinary corps present at the birth of the Legiones Astartes but dissolved as the Primarchs were discovered, their presence sufficient to ensure compliance in most cases.

Gone would be the flexible structure of the Warmongers, and their champion-culture. In its place, the Principia Bellicosa would be enforced and expanded upon, with the creation of two additional levels, one tactical, the other strategic.

The first would be the Platoons, elements of one hundred Astartes, more suited to enclosed quarters fighting than isolated squads or vast companies. A Platoon would possess a sufficient variety in squad designations to cover every aspect of warfare, should the conditions of battle change over the course of a single operation.

The second would be the Brigade, a grouping of two companies, with a theoretical nominal strength of two thousand legionnaires. Adapted to wider campaigns, a myriad-strong Division could strike in better coordination and higher strength when divided in five parts than ten, without two Captains vying for power when a single Brigadier could command the entire operation.

Notable Members

Rheus Astavic, 2nd Brigadier, 1st Division

Initially assigned to recon duties, Legionary Astavic displayed a surprisingly accurate ability to estimate enemy locations when out of sight. Common sense would have decreed that he become a Vigilator, yet it would not be. During the compliance of Hanesva, his squad would fall prey to an ambush, leaving him stranded alone in the mazelike corridors of the underhive, his bolter destroyed. For days on end, he roamed the hive with but his combat blade, always one step ahead of the hive-millitia. When extraction came and victory was decreed, he demanded re-assignment to purgation cadres, and took the moniker of "Bloodied Hand in Darkness"