Iron Snakes

Iron Snakes
Battle Cry	"For Ithaka!"
Founding	Second Founding
Successors of	Ultramarines
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	Seydon
Primarch	Roboute Guilliman
Homeworld	Ithaka
Strength	1000
Specialty	Infantry, close combat
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Silver armour, white pauldrons with red trim.

The Iron Snakes is an Ultramarines Successor Chapter of unknown descent(See new Space Marine Codex). Their primary mission is to guard the Reef Stars from mostly Dark Eldar and Orks. They are based on the Ocean- and Feral World of Ithaka. Their heraldry kind of looks like the Grey Knights, except less pimp and anti-Daemon stuff. They also seem to be a relatively popular Chapter on the tabletop, probably because of their uncomplicated but still good-looking colour scheme.

There also seems to be some greek inspiration to their theme, as Ithaka, which their home planet is called was the home of Odysseus in the Odyssey. Combined with the bone-white pauldrons and having a "Damocles Squad", it's fair to say that these guys are about as Ancient Greek as the Minotaurs.

History

The Iron Snakes were created during the Second Founding, but their parent Chapter has been forgotten. It is suspected to be the Ultramarines, due to their reverence for Roboute Guilliman. In the novel Know No Fear the Ultramarines 6th company lead by Saur Damocles wears the emblem of a snake similar to the heraldry of the Iron Snakes. One of the founding squads in the Iron Snakes were also named Damocles Squad. As such it seems likely that the Iron Snakes are in fact descendants of the Ultramarines. At the same time it seems unlikely, as the Chapter does not follow the Codex Astartes as many Ultramarine-descendants do.

They have been stationed in the Reef Starts for thousands of years. While most of the sector is relatively low-tech, the Chapter is very serious about this duty and will go to great lengths to defend the population against any threat, primarily Dark Eldar and less frequently Orks.

The Chapter has fought in several major crusades, including the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, where they only lost eight marines against almost thirty thousand Chaos casualties in a battle, and the Thirteenth Black Crusade.

Culture

The Chapter restricts its forces to the one thousand Astartes the Codex Astartes dictates but ignore the company structuring, instead basing their organization into a hundred ten-man squads that function somewhat autonomously. This means that the squads contain battle-brothers of all levels of expertise, pairing veterans with novices. If a squad is wiped out to the last man, that squad will be remade under the same name and with new Astartes from other squads. Each squad also has its own standard-bearer, as well as an special weapons bearer. Many squads also have their own Apothecary, leading to the Chapter having higher than usual numbers of these.

It seems their Chapter Master inherits the name of the previous one, as their current Chapter Master is the eighteenth to bear the name Seydon. The current Seydon is an ancient and seasoned Astartes, pretty friendly too. He always wears a hood, so we don't get to see his face beyond the beard and jawline. He's also fucking huge, noted for being a meter taller than a line Astartes.

POSSIBLE ORIGINS

A theory about the origins of the Iron Snakes is that they are not successors to the Ultramarines but to the Alpha Legion *BLAM!* HERESY! NO SUCH LEGION EXISTS. A lot of hints can point to this such as their Chapter Master Seydon towering over an average astartes (Most Alpha Legionnaires were very similar to their primarch in size and appearance to appear as doppelgangers). Also since they are not a Codex Compliant chapter, their chapter organization is somewhat similar to Alpha Legion tactics to allow flexibility on the battlefield, such as having 100 ten man squads that are fully autonomous as previously mentioned. Hell even their chapter icon is similar to the Alpha Legion. Basically either they are successors of the Alpha Legion, or Alpharius decided to troll the Imperium even more by having a loyalist sect (read: sleeper cell) of Space Marines led by either him or one of his legionnaires, or neither, or both (Nobody fucking knows anymore). Hopefully Dan Abnett touches upon this.

Gallery

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  Lookin' awesome

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  Is the Librarian massive or the Space Marines tiny?

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  Dat neck tho.

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  This picture is cool and all, but it's impossible to unsee the Angry Marine in disguise in the background.