Iron Snakes

Iron Snakes
Battle Cry	"For Ithaka!"
Founding	Second Founding
Successors of	The Ultramarines (confirmed in Dark Imperium by Guy Haley)
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	Seydon
Primarch	Dan Abnett (Possibly Omegon)
Homeworld	Ithaka
Strength	1000
Specialty	Infantry, close combat
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Gunmetal armour, White Pauldrons with red trim, Blue Iconography

The Iron Snakes is a Chapter of Ultramarines descent. 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. The best part about them: they were created by Dan Abnett.

History

The Iron Snakes were created during the Second Founding. They have been stationed in the Reef Stars 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 Iron Snakes restrict their forces to the one thousand Astartes the Codex Astartes dictates, but they 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 reformed 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, and apparently all squads also have their own Apothecary, leading to the Chapter having a much higher number of Apothecaries than usual. On the tabletop, they are probably best represented with Red Scorpions chapter tactics, as they have a similar apothecary fetish.

Despite the loose organization, they still have a hierarchy which includes captains. Dreadnoughts and the recruiting and training of neophytes are left to the command staff, though squads are usually assigned to help out training once in a while. Neophytes are combat trained and turned into Astartes right on Ithaka, those who complete the transformation are given their power armor and become full Astartes, so no Scouts and no neophytes in the field.

Though they're as much about teamwork and brotherhood as any Astartes, Iron Snakes also place a value on their troops being able to act alone if necessary, as they recognize any supersoldier worth his power armour should be able to kick some ass on his own. Given this, Iron Snakes will sometimes deploy a new Astartes to solve minor issues to see if he can act reliably independently, or veterans to conduct harassing maneuvers on enemies.

It seems their Chapter Master inherits the name of the previous one (or there are only like, 4 names on Ithaka), 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 hueg, noted for being a meter taller than a line Astartes.

Geneseed

The Iron Snakes parent legion 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.

Dark Imperium by Guy Haley confirms that the Iron Snakes are indeed an Ultramarine successor chapter.

Possible Alpha Legion Connection

Consider the following about the Iron Snakes.

• Focus on army compartmentalization and versatility.
• Often deploy individual astartes to serve as operatives and sabotage behind enemy lines.
• Chapter master is a larger than the average astartes, conceals his face, and has been known to swap identities.
• Serpent is a prominent feature of their iconography.

It seems quite possible that the Iron snakes are a descendent of an Alpha Legion loyalist faction, much as the Silver Skulls are often thought to be the descendants of Iron Warriors Loyalists. Given their similar tactics and iconography, their association with the Ultramarines, and finally given their tall disguise-prone chapter master, it's entirely possible that this is where Omegon (also possibly Alpharius) went with his loyalist (also possibly traitor) splinter faction.

Possible Iron Warriors Connection

But also, consider the following about the Iron Snakes

• They are basically the Marine version of a Garrison force for a whole sector of space, and having his legion split up into Garrison chapters posted here and there outside his direct command was one of Perturabo's many rage issues.
• Very Greek themed, so perhaps distant sons of Olympia.
• Iron is Literally right there in the name

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.