Editing Iron Hands (section)

==History==
[[File:Iron Hands Space Marine.jpeg|thumb|left|An Iron Hands Space Marine. Notice the iron hands of this Iron Hands.]]
===Past and Present===
The '''Iron Hands''' are, like most of their fellow chapters who originated from the first founding, completely bat shit crazy. The chapter worships their ancient Father who got a bad case of worms and ended up with silver metal-coated hands (sounds a bit like the 18th century method of using mercury to cure Syphilis) and subsequently now believe that flesh is weak and as a result the marines try to copy their Primarch and replace their body parts with machinery and cybernetic implants (right down to emotion inhibitors post-Heresy), which Ferrus himself was actually against, believing that they should trust in the strength of their flesh rather than attempting to improve upon the Emperor's work. This is all part of an undoubtedly Freudian complex brought about by the loss of their primarch during the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V. Of course, the chapter decided to blame everyone, '''especially''' the [[Emperor's Children|legion]] whose [[Fulgrim|primarch]] shortened [[Ferrus Manus]] by a head at neck level. Incidentally, this also includes '''Ferrus himself''', as they came to the conclusion that it was their Primarch's own failure to control his emotions that led to the series of tactical blunders which culminated in his death (even though he didn't make tactical blunders and died because of betrayal, but the Iron Hands have a hard-on (pun!) for the blame-game). In order to prevent this from repeating, the surviving captains (with possible meddling by the Mechanicus) enacted ''"The Tempering"'', which saw the Iron Hands purge and repress their emotions in order to better emulate cold, logical machines.

In spite of all this weirdness and being part of the [[First Founding]], the Iron Hands remain one of the most forgettable Chapters among [[Games Workshop]] and the fandom at large. Seriously, [[Feral World Religion|even /tg/ forgets about them half the time.]] The only chapter who has it close are the [[Raven Guard]], barring [[Kayvaan Shrike]]. To add self mutilation and cybernetic enhancement (insult) to injury, those who do remember them often get confused with the [[Iron Warriors]], and these people are worse than heretics because at least a Heretic knows the difference between "corn" and "Khorne", but the term Iron seems to confuse many. Leading to much fuck'tardery comments like "Iron Within, Iron Without", these people are total bell-ends and deserve to be scorned (Or would that be, sKhorned?). With the publication of the ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' books the powers that be have finally begun to remember that the Iron Hands were one of the original Space Marine Legions, but aside from their Primarch in resin courtesy of [[Forge World]] they've been graced with only two other named characters but Iron Hands don't care cause they are too busy kicking arse, taking names and getting shit done. That said, they really are the Emperor's Tin Men in every sense of the word. In 7th they got their own codex supplement (providing the world at large with a [[Chapter Master Smashfucker|certain slightly competitive character]]) which made them astartes army of the week, but in 8th they got back to their usual niche, causing the tournament players to shelve them again. With Deathwatch having no unit entry for Killteam Cassius any more, the Iron Hands are left with only one named character, a Primaris Marine named [[Iron Father]] Ferrios. Damn Ultrasmurfs and the fan wank they get.....

'''Alternative View''': The Iron Hands are the best examples of humans during grief. They feel horrible shame as a result of their Primarch's death, and so act like, and actually become, machines in order to not repeat an error they saw in themselves. They feel so horribly, bitterly afraid to fail again, that they take every precaution against failure. It is in this grief that ironically, they show feeling. It is a shame /tg/ forgets about them, because a philosophical analysis of these warriors actually reveals quite a bit about human nature during tragedy.

===The Moirae Schism===
After the Emperor's <s>death</s> glorious ascent to the Golden Throne, there was a bit of debate as to whether He was the Omnissiah or not and, if he was, in what capacity. Tech-priests of the Forge World Moirae found one unique answer, when they detected an anomaly in some Empyrean frequencies that seemed related to the Golden Throne. After extended analysis, they somehow turned this anomaly into a formula which allegedly predicted the future—the endgame of which was a new understanding of the Emperor in his aspect of the Omnissiah that would unite the Ecclesiarchy and the Mechanicum, and usher in a new golden age of the Imperium.

Needless to say, this [[Skub|deeply pissed off]] the leadership of both organizations, with the Mechanicum employing their [[Exterminatus|usual direct approach to perceived heresy]] on Moirae. However, either the creed or it’s alleged evidence proved extremely compelling, and the Moirae heresy spread like wildfire through Mechanicum datanets and the Ecclesiarchal flock. This nearly lead to a full blown civil war between those who thought they had a point, and those who thought the creed was [[heresy]]. In the end, the old-school creed won out: the schismatics were either burned for heresy or forced to repent, while the only surviving copy of their dogma and prophecies was buried in an Inquisitorial vault.

Rather than debate it among themselves, the Iron Hands chose to glare angrily at one another until the Admech were done fighting and debating it out. The group of Hands in the minority became the [[Sons of Medusa]] and formed their own chapter, which moved into the still-smoking ruin of Moirae as their new home world (or rather, a series of fortified asteroids in the same system). Despite the extreme levels of [[heresy]], everyone kept a level head and remained (relatively—there was a touch of shooting) civil, and all successor Chapters (except the [[Red Talons]], who killed them) allowed their schismatics to join the Sons of Medusa Chapter. Which is a bit unnatural for 40k, honestly, and just shows how few fucks these guys have to give.

[[Grimdark|Of course]], as it later turned out, the prophecies made by the Moirae heretics included both the formation of the Great Rift and the return of Guilliman, implying that everything they were saying was totally right.

Besides, the real confusion is how those who were pissed about a prophecy that confirms the beliefs of the Ecclesiarchy and Mechanicus’s views of the Emperor being one being justified their anger to themselves and the wider Imperium. And shooting people claiming the Emperor would return and bring humanity into a new Golden Age sounds like incredible heresy.

However, this could likely be due to factional differences being put over the good of mankind. The Ecclesiarchy and Mechanicus are too far apart in beliefs to ever truly unite into one group- they may work together, but they'd never intend to JOIN together. The symbolism of this can even be seen with the positions in the [[High Lords of Terra]], where the Ecclesiarchy and Mechanicus Representatives constantly jostle for the second highest position (neither are strong enough to take on the Master of the [[Administratum]]).

===The Gaudinian Heresy and its results (aka: [[Skub]])===
This event appeared in the ''Clan Raukaan'' supplement and it was meant as a form of character development for the whole chapter - whether or not it actually worked, on the other hand, is questionable. It's given more detail in David Guymer's Iron Hand Novels. To understand it further one should look at one of the people that was part of it.

Some important context is required before the greater explanation. For several millennia after the Heresy, the Mechanicus had a nominal say in the running of the Chapter, to the extent of having three representatives on the clan council. Whilst the alliance to Mars was beneficial in terms of technology and war-gear, it turned out that the Mechanicus had been covertly manipulating the chapter to do what they wanted, even to the extent of falsifying historical records and documents written by Ferrus Manus to twist the chapter to their ends.

It also needs to be emphasized how separate the Clan companies of the Iron Hands were to each other compared to other Chapters. Whilst marines frequently transferred between Clans as duty demanded, the kind of collaboration natural to other chapters was, at best, frosty acquiescence for the Iron Hands. Their attitude to their gene sucessors was little better, seeing them as borderline "heretics" for abandoning what they saw as the true legacy of Ferrus Manus.

[[Iron Father]] [[Dick|Kristos]] of the Iron Hands was an individual that would be described as questionable in many ways. An individual that was adherent to the extreme to the Tempering, Kristos was known as a legendary leader of the Iron Hands, and was baited by Iron Father Feirros to take charge of Clan Raukaan after the company suffered greatly in the Skarvus Ambush and lead it to victory. Under his command the clan managed to even retreat against the Eldar on the Paradise World of Dawnbreak, going directly for the main force around an excavation site the Eldar occupied and taking it, while ignoring the [[Catachan Jungle Fighters|Catachans]] and civilians the Eldar were butchering (not to mention telling the General to fight on and prove his worth while [[That Guy|he and his subordinate Captain Graevaar ran off like the cowardly bitches they were]]).

(It was also on this world that an apparently Eldar device was found dating back to the pre-fall empire. Named the Dawnbreak Technology, the cache was divided between the Iron Hands and two sections of the Mechanicus - with one cache being relocated to Mars itself. Kristos theorised that the technology could free the Iron Hands of their need for fallible flesh - obvious heresy aside and unknown to all, it was the container for an especially nasty Slaaneshi daemon, who would subtly corrupt those who attempted to analyse the technology too closely.)

The final straw came in the form of a controversy around the battle for the Forge World of Columnus against the [[Orks|Weirdwaaagh!]] where the Iron Council accused him of deliberately sacrificing a company's worth of [[Raven Guard]] marines to achieve victory, which in all fairness, he did do. Issue was it was all done in such a way that many in the council accused him of not doing it out of standard cold logic and pragmatism, but personal feelings and a hidden agenda, which was also true: not only did he refuse to assist them in any way, (or accept their assistance) he also actively blocked their communications and left them stranded and dying while he watched on, [[FAIL|committing ''outright fucking treason'' against the Imperium by doing so]]; lives are the Emperor's currency, and he just went around pissing away the lives, relics, and gene-seed of some of the Emperor's most valuable troops out of a [[Iron Warriors|massive childish grudge]].

However, Kristos had himself a cult of personality that refused to accept anything that didn't sing his praises, and found him and his supporters unapologetic despite protests from Captain Verox, Iron Father Marrus and the then young [[Kardan Stronos]] (though why no-one outside the Chapter took them to task over this or even asked about the RG's fate remains unknown, despite there near-certainly being evidence of the deed). This would result in the chapter being divided over their philosophy as the whole investigation into his conduct segued into a debate on the merits of the Tempering which ground on for literal centuries.

That would prove a load of horrible problems later on, only to reach its conclusion during the Gaudinian Heresy.

The Sapphire King, a Slaaneshi daemon [[Derp|formed out of Ferrus' rage and frustration at the time of his death]] and which fed on the repressed emotions and shed humanity of the soul-scarred Iron Hands, saw them ripe for corruption and set a trap on the planet of Gaudinia Prime in the Gaudinia system, [[Soul Drinkers|because that always works so well.]] The Iron Hands sniffed out the heresy at the beginning of the 41st Millennium and Iron Father Kristos ([[Butthurt|still stinking after the Kristosian Conclave]]) led most of the Chapter to fight on the planet while exterminating mutants and heretics on the other planets.

The Emperor's Children were supposedly only on Gaudinia Prime, but to the Iron Hands' surprise, there was absolutely nobody on the planet - not even a single gaudily-painted [[Noise Marine]]. However, scans showed that large amount of bio-signatures were concentrated in the planet's southern hemisphere in the factoria complexes. [[Fail|Kristos took with himself both Clans Raukaan and Sorgoll and waltzed into the area despite Iron Fathers Stronos and Verrox protesting the action]].

Down there he found one billion of Imperial citizens fused into some scary techno-organic construct with the machinery. Bloated human torsos made into boilers, screaming as steaming blood vented from their eyes, conveyor belts made out of millions of tongues transporting [[Daemon Weapon]]s about, cogs and wires made out of bloodied bone and nerves - some real H.R. Giger shit, in other words.

The marines moved on while Kristos was bewitched by the whole thing. At that moment, Kristos rammed one of his mechadendrites into the fleshy thing (rambling about its efficiency, utility, and strength as he did so) and transformed into a cybernetic version of [[Chaos Spawn|that whose name shouldn't be called out-loud]]; the rest of the Kristosians soon followed him into Chaos's embrace, while those who managed to resist (such as Kristos's closest ally, Captain Graevaar) were promptly torn to shreds by the mutating Kristosians. Tears into reality were opening and Slaaneshi daemons were appearing en-masse, swiftly followed by the Sapphire King himself appearing through a rift with his Emperor's Children retinue. What later happened was a battle mixed with madness as Iron Hands had to fight against their corrupt brethren, the daemons, and chaos marines.

While the battle raged, more and more Iron Hands were succumbing to the warping effects that turned the Kristosians into what they became, while others didn't succumb. Through the power of [[Plot Armor|lazy writing]] (see below), Stronos quickly realized what was happening. He activated his vox and barked orders to the marines to deactivate their emotion inhibitors. In that moment the Iron Hands exploded with emotions that they repressed for ten thousand years. It was so powerful even [[Khorne]] felt it at the back of his skull, and could be viewed as a [[Derp|really stupid move as daemons are supposed to be powered by raw emotion, and this should have made them a lot harder to kill]].

(According to the author, the Kristosians took the whole thing with the Tempering ''way'' too literally (completely cutting off their emotions and replacing them with cold logic, as opposed to supplementing emotions with logic), and this obsession with purging themselves of their emotions (a core tenet of theirs) was what would be the chapter's undoing. [[Irony|Ironically, every failing that had to do with this whole incident was directly or indirectly related to getting ''too'' emotional and not from lacking emotions]]; [[Skub|whether or not this explanation holds up to scrutiny is a matter of contention]].)

Filled with [[Plot Armor|sheer rage and true determination]], the Iron Hands [[RIP AND TEAR|RIPPED AND TORE]] their way through their corrupted brethren, the daemons and Emperor's Children towards the Sapphire King. Stronos slew the thing that was once Kristos while the [[Librarian]] Epistolary Lydriik beheaded the Sapphire King himself with the Mindforge Stave so hard that ([[Derp|combined with being deprived of the Hands' repressed emotions]]), the daemon was actually permakilled. After wiping out the chaos forces, the remaining Iron Hands, disgusted and horrified with what they experienced, skedaddled back to their fleet and [[Exterminatus|blew the factoria to kingdom come]] in order to wipe out any survivors left.

After the whole thing, it was discovered that a third of the council was either dead or corrupted. If the Inquisition knew what happened to them, then the consequences would've been fatal for the sons of Manus. In an emergency session, the council babbled and argued about how the chapter should function. At this point Stronos unplugged himself while rising from his throne and, in his natural voice, spoke that the chapter was given a gift: [[AWESOME|''"With steel we are stronger, but without a soul we are nothing."'']] Words that would be eternally immortalized all over the chapter's Ironglass plaques on Medusa and beyond. It was also the first time in ten millennia that the sound of applause would be heard on Medusa. And that's something...

On that day Kardan Stronos became [[Chapter Master Smashfucker]] (and would be re-elected at every single opportunity by the council) despite the disquiet of the few remaining Kristosians (aka older Iron Hands players) that somehow survived the situation and the Voice of Mars (the seat the AdMech were retconned into having on the council so that they could manipulate the chapter), yet even with what he said it wouldn't reverse ten millennia of indoctrination. It would be a long and difficult period for the sons of the Gorgon, but it was indeed a new beginning for the chapter.

The Gaudinian Heresy wasn't an immediate character shift for the chapter, and was arguably somewhat forgotten about. The Iron Hands are (mostly) still angry cyborgs operating on cold calculation. Yet the council saw the Imperium plunging into darkness and their former allies falling to madness and corruption. Thus the Grand Calculation set forth to determine where they would serve best, and their successor chapters would also be included into the equation.

There is still some hope for the Iron Hands even if Stronos bites it. [[Star Wars|An Iron Hands pilot found better performance from his craft's machine spirit once he eased off with brute logic and started ''feeling'' it a bit more.]]

===13th Black Crusade and the Great Rift/8th Edition===

The Iron Hands are no longer sacrificing their allies for total pragmatism or out of past grievances but trying to change their habits. Under Stronos, they have saved the Imperial Guard on a number of occasions.

Medusa was invaded twice, first by a large tank division of Traitor Guardsmen and later by a coalition of Nurgle-worshipping Chaos Astartes. As they were facing a chapter which excels in mechanized warfare and are living in what we can shortly describe as mobile fortress-cities bristling with guns and angry superhuman cyborgs: all of them failed. After they got their affairs in order, they decided to assist in the Mordian system, slowly being overrun by loosed traitors and assorted heretics (Is that what we're calling daemonic invasions these days? It was daemons). Though the Imperial forces stationed there were starting to retreat, the Iron Hands managed to turn things around and salvage the planet of [[Mordian Iron Guard|Mordian]] with help from their renowned regiment. This served to rouse their successor chapters (even those weird Sons of Medusa lads) as well as a couple other chapters to join cause and clean out the system. The Eldar had shown up before the Iron Hands and told the Mordians to evacuate as the planet was lost. As usual, human badassery proved the Spelfdar wrong. Stoopid spelves. Maybe if they'd gotten off their prissy asses and shot some daemons, Mordian would've been just fine before the Iron Hands showed up to kick ass. (Though knowing Eldar and their “just as planned” shenanigans, they might’ve told the guardsmen to give up so they would end up staying just to spite the Xenos scum...and coincidentally keep the planet alive long enough for the Iron Hands to show up.)