Ruin is coming. Come see the tale of “The Breaker”, Primarch of the Iron Warriors, Perturabo the Lord of Iron!
“Tell them ruin has come to their world. Death, despair and red war…Tell them their hopes and pride have come to nothing. Tell them their empty whispers fall upon deaf ears – their gods are dead, human reason has killed them. Tell them the Angels of Death have come. Tell them nothing can save them now.”
- — Attr. Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors Legion
From our friends at Lexicanium
Perturabo is the Primarch of the Iron Warriors, one of the original twenty Space Marine Legions.
He sided with Chaos during the Horus Heresy and has since been promoted to Daemon Prince status. He, like his Iron Warriors, had a natural affinity towards technology and a cold logic, but lacked the strength of faith.
Youth
When the primarchs were scattered to the ends of the galaxy, Perturabo landed on a planet named Olympia. He was discovered climbing the mountains below the city state of Lochos. The guards, having realized this was no normal child, brought him before the Dammekos, the Tyrant of Lochos. Dammekos was intrigued by the child and brought him into his house and treated him as family. Supposedly, Perturabo never trusted the Olympians and refused to return any affection given by Dammekos.
Dammekos spent plenty of time with his new son, but never got anything in return. Many saw Perturabo as a cold and brooding child but when considered that he had been thrown onto a world with no idea of his origins or purpose, this is perhaps a little harsh.
When the Emperor arrived Perturabo immediately submitted himself to the Emperor’s mercy and ousted the Tyrant of Lochus. Dammekos is said to have spent his remaining few years gathering forces to attempt to retake his power. He failed but created a current of unrest which would be used later
Great Crusade
Perturabo led his Iron Warriors on a lightning crusade against the nearby planet of Justice Rock and its heretical Black Judges. The Iron Warriors went on to create citadels throughout the regions they fought in. Small numbers of Iron Warriors were left behind at these outposts, but Perturabo resented being forced to split his army. As time went on they were stereotyped as being the best army for sieges and garrisons, but eventually the Iron Warriors were so worn out that they simply began to enjoy the killing they had to do after the trenches were dug. It might well have been Horus who kept the legion on this role, allowing him to more easily sway the mind of Perturabo towards Chaos
It is widely acclaimed that Perturabo was envious of Rogal Dorn. He was annoyed by his constant reminders of the perfection of the defences on Terra. The other primarchs also kept Perturabo at a distance. This might have been because of his supreme command of technology, far in advance of anything the other primarchs could do. He is referred to as the ‘comrade’ who devised the best plan to avoid the defences of Overdogg Mashogg, an Ork Warboss under attack by Leman Russ, leader of the Space Wolves, and Jaghatai Khan, Khan of the White Scars.
Horus Heresy
Perturabo was leading his Iron Warriors on a campaign to cleanse the Hrud Warrens on Gugann when he received news that his home world, Olympia, was in rebellion. Dammekos was long dead but demagogues had brought the people together and risen in arms. The thought of being the only primarch who could not control his own homeworld appalled him. Horus made the most of the opportunity by presenting Perturabo with a hammer named Forgebreaker, the gift symbolic of a signing of a pact between them. Perturabo purged Olympia city by city, overrunning the fortresses he had built and sparing no one. By the time the massacre was over, five million Olympians had been killed and the rest put into slavery. Perturabo looked on in cold silence. After the pyres were burning, the Iron Warriors realized what they had done. They were no more the saviours of theImperium, destroying the Hrud one moment and the next they were committing genocide. Perturabo realized the Emperor could never forgive him for what he had done.
It was in that time that disturbing news of the Horus Heresy and new orders came from Terra. Leman Russ and the Space Wolves had attacked Magnus and his Thousand Sons on Prospero. Horus had turned renegade with his legion the Sons of Horus besides some other legions. The whole of the Imperium was on the brink of a civil-war. The new orders were to join with six other legions and then to face Horus and his forces on Isstvan V.
The result of the following battle was that the Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers and Alpha Legion all joined Horus and almost completely destroyed the three remaining loyal legions on the Drop Site Massacre. After that the Iron Warriors were let loose and Perturabo relished the opportunity to fight in a way that did not rely on massive sieges and trench warfare. Because of their massive deployment throughout the galaxy, dozens of Warsmiths took over planets and demanded tithes to support the heresy.
Later, a large contingent of the Iron Warriors accompanied Perturabo to the Siege of Terra where he supervised the bombardment and siege of the Emperor’s Palace. Perturabo took a perverse pleasure in tearing down the defences set up by Rogal Dorn.
Post-Heresy
After fleeing Terra following Horus’ death, Perturabo took the opportunity to take vengeance on the Imperial Fists with a trap on Sebastus IV. The trap was known as the Eternal Fortress, a keep centred within twenty square miles of bunkers, towers, minefields, trenches, tank traps and redoubts. Upon hearing of this, Rogal Dorn publicly declared that he “would dig Perturabo out of his hole and bring him back to Terra in an iron cage”.
Rogal Dorn expected an honourable battle, but this was not to be. Beginning by isolating the four Companies of the Imperial Fists from their orbital support, Perturabo began to carefully divide his enemy and destroy them piecemeal. Some Imperial Fists managed to penetrate the defences and reach the centre of the Eternal Fortress, only to find there was no central keep – simply an open space watched by yet more defenses. The fortress was a decoy of no real value, surrounded by twenty miles of killing ground. By the sixth day of the siege, Imperial Fists Space Marines were fighting individually, without support, using the bodies of their own battle brothers for cover.
The siege of the Eternal Fortress (later referred to as the “Iron Cage Incident”) lasted for a further three weeks. Relief came in the form of Roboute Guilliman and the Ultramarines, who drove off the Iron Warriors, but the siege left Rogal Dorn a broken man and rendered the Imperial Fists Chapter unable to fight for nineteen years. The gene-seed of over 400 Imperial Fists was sacrificed to the Dark Gods, and Perturabo was elevated to the rank of Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided.
Following this victory, the Iron Warriors fled to the Eye of Terror with and secured a new Daemon world named Medrengard, crafting a terrible fortress world where his soldiers ruled in vast towers. Perturabo’s stronghold, Fortress of Hate, is said to be the most redoubtable of Fortress worlds. Today, the Iron Warriors give their greatest loyalty to Peturabo for saving them from sacrifice in the name of the Emperor.
From the standpoint of being able to understand why Peturabo did what he did, you almost feel like he merely played the only hand he had been dealt.
Iron Within, Iron Without!
About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls.
Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.
Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
