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The bitter siege-master Primarch, a genius of engineering whose Legion was squandered on garrison duty and attritional assaults. Resentment and a feud with Rogal Dorn drove him to Horus.
He wielded the hammer Forgebreaker after taking it from Ferrus Manus's body, and wore the Logos Array armour. During the Heresy, his Iron Warriors besieged the Imperial Fists on Phall and later fought at the Siege of Terra. After the war he retreated into the Eye of Terror, where he became a daemon prince on the world he renamed Medrengard. Perturabo, the Lord of Iron, was primarch of the Iron Warriors and the Imperium's greatest siegemaster. He was cold, gifted and deeply resentful: he felt he had been given only grinding, unwanted sieges and that his brothers' fame came at his expense. That bitterness, and his rivalry with Rogal Dorn, led him to join Horus. He later ascended to daemonhood and rules the Medrengard daemon world.
Origins
Taken in by the tyrant of Lochos on Olympia, he became a polymath and warlord before joining the Crusade.
On Olympia, he grew up as the adopted son of Dammekos, the tyrant of Lochos, and became a scholar, engineer and military genius. When the Emperor found him, Perturabo left Olympia to lead the IV Legion. Later, Olympia rebelled against him, and he crushed it brutally in the Olympian Massacre.
Even his early history is uncertain. The only accounts were given to Imperial iterators many years later and were always distrusted as coloured by Olympia's intrigues. The most reliable version has the Tyrant of Lochos's guards finding him in the rocky wilds outside the city. On Terra, after his discovery, he became fascinated by the ancient Firenzii and spent months with Magnus searching for knowledge lost in Old Night. He was most interested in the writings of the world's former masters. He shaped his Legion first in the Meratara Cluster around Olympia. There he overthrew the 'Black Judges', purged the xenos Ecto-Saurids of Verikhonia and subjugated the renegade Knight fiefdom of Lyxos. He also ended an ancient schism between the cluster's fragmented empire and the Mechanicum, which won him favour with Mars.
Key events
- Was found on Olympia and raised by Dammekos, tyrant of Lochos, becoming a brilliant engineer and siege master.
- Led the Iron Warriors through the Great Crusade's grinding sieges, coming to resent being used as a garrison force.
- Crushed a rebellion on Olympia with brutal reprisals that cut him off from his past.
- Sided with Horus and engineered much of the assault on the Imperial Palace's walls.
- Trapped and slaughtered Imperial Fists in the Iron Cage after the Heresy.
- Ascended as a daemon prince and rules the daemon world Medrengard in the Eye of Terror.
The soldiers of the Great Crusade called the Iron Warriors the 'Corpse Grinders' because they spent the auxiliaries placed under them so freely. Mutinies broke out and were crushed with thorough slaughter, until Horus ordered that most troops given to the IV Legion should be indentured criminals or enslaved non-compliants, to protect wider morale. After the Drop Site Massacre, Horus gave Perturabo the hammer Forgebreaker, taken from the body of Ferrus Manus. Later, when Fulgrim came seeking his help, Perturabo suspected it was about breaking open the forges of Mars. In fact it led to the hunt for the Eldar world Iydris, with the Sisypheum's Loyalist survivors pursuing both Legions. At Cavor Sarta, Sabak Wayland and Nykona Sharrowkyn captured one of the Dark Mechanicum 'Kryptos', the creatures that encoded the Traitors' communications.
Battles & campaigns
- Olympia: When his homeworld rose in rebellion, he purged it city by city, killing five million Olympians and enslaving the rest.
- Hydra Cordatus: A siege fought against the Imperial Fists' fortress world, where Fulgrim played a dangerous double game.
- Iydris: He was drawn into Fulgrim's ascension and was slowly drained by the maugetar stone given to him as a gift.
- Siege of Terra: He designed the assault on the Palace walls and fought against Dorn's defences.
Personality
Brilliant, resentful and isolated. He sees war as an engineering problem and shows almost no warmth.
He was a brilliant intellect but an embittered soul, feeling unappreciated by his father and brothers. He was cruel to his own Legion, ordering decimations when he felt they had failed. His rivalry with Dorn grew into hatred that drove much of his conduct during the Heresy.
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Connections
Characters (3)
The Emperor of Mankind creator · Imperium of ManPerturabo felt his father undervalued him and the Iron Warriors.
Rogal Dorn rival · Imperial FistsThe siege-master and the fortress-builder despised each other; their rivalry culminated at Terra.
Factions
- Iron Warriors primary faction
- Chaos Daemons also affiliated
Related units (5)
Also in this faction
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Perturabo left the Iron Warriors bitter, methodical and hateful toward the Imperial Fists. Medrengard remains a fortress of endless war, and his rivalry with Dorn's line drives the Iron Warriors still. The Iron Warriors remain the masters of siege craft and slave labour in the Long War, and the Iron Cage and Medrengard are his most feared monuments.
Appearances & sources
- The Horus Heresy novels Angel Exterminatus (Graham McNeill) and Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia (Guy Haley)
- Storm of Iron (Graham McNeill)
- Codex: Chaos Space Marines (Iron Warriors background)