The Ironstrider Ballistarius lore is a study on perpetual motion, treachery, and data. The chicken legs of the Ironstriders never stop on their quest for the Machine God.
The Tech-priests are always looking for new ways to deliver pain on the enemies of the Machine God. If you love chickens or just cool gun platforms, you’ll have fun with this one. Grab a bucket of fried chicken and learn about some Ironstrider Ballistarius Lore.
Initial Inspiration
We have to go back in time quite some ways to find the first spark of an idea for these walkers. Way back in the 33rd Millennium, Tech-Priest Aldebrac Vingh took his initial inspiration for the Ironstriders from the stilt-legged seekers. He worked for centuries to perfect the design. Everyone who saw the design was flabbergasted at how close he came to achieving perpetual motion. Even Belisarius Cawl was impressed with the efficiency of the two-legged walkers. The more the chicken walks, the more power it gives to itself. A perfect design powered almost with nothing but two moving legs.
Sadly Vingh was about as good at politics as Dorn was. He was quickly ostracized by jealous tech-priests. Despite creating the breakthrough he never reaped any of the rewards. He mysteriously died when he fell onto a pile of bullets, no one cared to investigate further.
Lost Technology
After his not so mysterious death, the design secrets were lost, along with the keys to the walkers as well. He must have set up a destruction protocol at his death so his enemies could not steal his secrets or know how to turn the walkers back on once they stopped moving. If he couldn’t have the chickens, no one could.
He created too perfect of a machine, however. The other Tech-priests decided they would just never let the striders stop moving. So they have just let the striders run giant circles, keeping themselves powered up for thousands of years. The Imperium isn’t one for waste and the Tech-priests keep thousands of them alive in treadmill factories all across the Forgeworlds. They farm the energy these machines create as they stride forever. They use the kinetic energy generated from these machines to power far less graceful machines
The walkers pound endlessly until they are called to war. Riders are lowered by crane onto the moving machines and ride them to war. The work of perpetual motion was beautiful and genius. Of course, the Imperium turned such a great thing into a machine of war. The Skiitari riders mount their favorite weaponry on them and use them to blast their enemies apart.
They move tirelessly through the millennia, legs pounding away until they are destroyed in battle. Finally, they are able to rest, their perpetual motion both their greatest strength and weakness.
Ironstriders Walk To War!
About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
