Wrought from the gene-seed of Ferrus Manus, the Xth Legion carries a grief that has never healed. At the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V their primarch was slain and beheaded by his once-beloved brother Fulgrim, and the trauma of that betrayal reshaped the Legion's very soul. Where other Chapters merely mourn, the Iron Hands resolved to purge from themselves the weakness they believe doomed the Gorgon: the weakness of the flesh.
Every battle-brother submits to the ritual replacement of his left hand with a bionic upon his elevation, the first step on a lifelong path of augmentation. The oldest and most revered among them, the Iron Fathers, are more machine than man, their scarred bodies a shrine to cold logic and mechanical endurance. The Chapter reveres the Machine God alongside the Emperor and maintains close ties to the forge world of Mars.
Forsaking the single command structure of the Codex Astartes, the Iron Hands organise into ancient clan-companies drawn from the tribes of their harsh home world of Medusa, ruled over by an Iron Council rather than any one master. They are patient, remorseless and slow to forgive, least of all the Salamanders and Raven Guard, whom some still blame for the loss of their primarch when the three shattered Legions bled together upon Isstvan's black sands.
Order of battle
The Iron Hands field the units of the Space Marines, a detachment from the roster:
Other Space Marines formations
Angels VermillionSecretive to the edge of paranoia, the Angels Vermillion are a Blood Angels successor who bear their bloodline's curse in bleak isolation, shunning their brother Chapters and guarding their darkest secrets with quiet menace.
Angels of AbsolutionThe Angels of Absolution are a Second Founding successor of the Dark Angels who wear their gene-sire's shame more lightly than any of their kin. Armoured in stark bone-white, they hold the singular conviction that their sins were washed clean in the fires of Caliban's fall, and so they have set aside the very name of the Unforgiven. Serene where other successors are haunted, they nonetheless ride to the secret war with undimmed resolve, hunting the Fallen not to purchase their own salvation but because justice demands the guilty answer for their crimes.
Angels of VengeanceThe Angels of Vengeance are among the grimmest of the Unforgiven, a Second Founding successor of the Dark Angels who wage the secret hunt for the Fallen with a cold, unrelenting fury. Clad in armour of funereal black, they are austere even by the standards of their tormented lineage, speaking little and forgiving nothing. Where their parent Chapter cloaks its shame in ritual, the Angels of Vengeance carry theirs like a drawn blade, and they will cross any gulf and shatter any oath of secrecy to see a single Fallen dragged before the Inner Circle.
Black TemplarsZealous crusaders without a true homeworld, the Black Templars roam the stars in vast fleets, purging heresy and xenos wherever they are found. Sworn to unending crusade in the name of the Emperor, they answer doubt with faith and the sword, the most relentless holy warriors of the Adeptus Astartes.
Blood AngelsNoble and haunted, the Blood Angels wage constant war against the twin genetic curses of thirst and rage inherited from their martyred primarch Sanguinius. From the blasted world of Baal they answer the Imperium's darkest calls, warriors of aching beauty forever poised on the edge of the abyss within.
Carcharodons AstraGrey ghosts of the void, the Carcharodons emerge from the darkness between the stars to slaughter the enemies of Mankind, then vanish once more. Few know their origins, and fewer still survive their coming.
Crimson FistsBattered but unbroken, the Crimson Fists rose from the ashes of near-extinction to become a byword for defiance. Sons of Dorn, they fight on when all hope is spent.
Dark AngelsThe secretive First Legion, the Dark Angels wage two wars at once: one for the Imperium, and a hidden one to hunt down the traitors of their own broken past. Knightly, disciplined, and consumed by ancient guilt, they pursue the Fallen across ten thousand years, guarding a shame no outsider must ever learn.
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