 With many, often with good reason. The inability to endure the privations life hurls one's way is not something to count upon with any pride. Endurance is often the hallmark of great men, men who have risen above the masses of us mortals by virtue of their stoic fortitude and overcoming what trials they may encounter. In some cases, however, such strength of will can take on an altogether different vein. Sometimes such men look upon those different to them, those they perceive as weaker, as being pathetic, inferior things. Instead of perceiving them to be worthy of protection, they are cast as hindrances. Sometimes strength of will becomes a toxic thing that, ironically, is a poison in and of itself. Such a venomous cast of what is ordinarily of virtue can be caused by many factors. In the case of the subjects of this record, theirs is a bitterness borne of horrific tragedy, for they would suffer a dire calamity few legions of the horrors heresy would ever have to experience. So then, that this is a record of the origins and history of the unbowed, the relentless, the remorseless, tenth legion, iron hands. Recruitment for the tenth legion in its protogenic stage took place over several locations on terra, including the quavitine plate cities and the blocks of solis stalax. It was the martial cultures of old Albia that informed much of the legion's early character, lending them stern warrior pride. With the fourteenth legion also seeing heavy recruitment in this area, the tenth would not reach sizable numbers until the close of the unification wars, where they took part only as small elements under the command of larger Astartes task forces. When the Emperor set his sights upon reclaiming the wider solar system, the tenth were to win their first battle honors in extermination operations, wiping out the Xenos Lyasks from the icy demiplanate of Oberath, and removing the stain of degenerated mutant populations in the Kuiper Belt, which by their very nature held little glory, nonetheless proved the perfect blood and ground for the tenth, as in the prosecution the legion displayed impressive discipline and cohesion against powerful foes in conditions of the worst environmental hazards. Whether an airless and frozen dead world in the case of the former, or man-made hulks of fused ships and space debris in the case of the latter, the environs did not hinder the effectiveness of the legion, which emerged from both engagements having suffered casualties far below expected amounts. It was not, however, until the first extra solar engagement that the legion would have the opportunity to demonstrate where their true martial skills lay. On the world of 234, so-named for being the 34th planet brought it to compliance by the second expeditionary fleet, but that at the time was operating under the informal designation of Rust. A vast green-skin empire of more than sixty systems had founded a mining colony. Rust was a desert planet replete with petrochemical resources, its surface covered with long-ruined human cities, now heaving with orcs and their crude, smoke-belching machinery. To extract the world's bounty, the greenskins utilized a massive population of enslaved human laborers stolen away from their homeworlds in nearby systems, and their torment at the hands of the Xenos was something the emperor could not abide. As soon as the system's existence had been identified by rogue trader Hendrik Zuckerman, the emperor personally led a task force straight into this alien domain. In what was, as of 804 M30, the largest to start his offensive in crusade history. While the full count of the battle shall remain locked away and sequestered for a later record, should you wish to continue your studies, know that the battle was hailed by many as an absolute triumph, not just for the capture of a resource-rich planet and the liberation of its enslaved human population, but also for how the Tenth Legion had accounted for itself in the face of a numerically superior foe. In the ensuing conquest, they had lost less than twenty percent of their number, far fewer than most imperial estimates had placed them at. For the War Council had anticipated that the Tenth would take the battle into the cities and tunnels of the planet itself, as many other legions had. Similarly, the Imperial Army regiments seconded to the Astartes, though mauled in the initial stages of the engagements, had suffered less overall losses than many other unaugmented forces in the overall offensive. As, after their initial losses, they had been assigned to guarding supply lines and the landing zones of the Legion, as it was making planet for. Little had been sacrificed beyond what was necessary, and this supremely effective use of Imperial resources earned the Tenth much renown. The Seraphina offensive, as it would later become known, was a massive early victory for the forces of the budding Imperium. The Tenth Legion went on to practice the tactics they had learned during this campaign with great success, becoming widely celebrated amongst their fellows for their skill at integrating armor vehicle support with infantry tactics. The Fourth and Thirteenth legions were known to have studied and incorporated Tenth Legion armored warfare strategies into their own doctrines, but this was not universally adopted due to the discipline required in the successful enactment of these tactics, and the issues with discipline becoming inherent in the Fifth and Sixth legions. The Seraphina offensive was the first true test of the Tenth Legion in force, one which had passed with flying colors, and allowed it to form a unique identity in those early crusade days. The Imperial army regiments, most notably the Urshan Velatate, who had operated with them for the remainder of the campaign, had dubbed them the Stormwalkers. But what would become of this potential legion will never be known, as within only a few standard Terran years after the defeat of the crooked Claw Greenskins, word reached the legion that their Primarch had been found. Upon the geologically unstable world of Medusa, the infant Primarch Ferris Manus had fallen, his stolen gestation pod colliding with Karaashi, the pilot's highest peak. Burying itself deep into the rock, it is said the Primarch's arrival sparked yet further upheaval in the planet's already violent bedrock, with whole mountain ranges disappearing into yawning chasms, and whole new peaks rising out of the world's crust. Unlike many of his brothers, Ferris was not immediately found by the planet's natives. Instead, years later, a giant walked out of an uninhabited range in Medusa's reaches to greet one of the many nomadic human clans that clung to existence on that violent world. Records from this period in the Primarch's life are scant, as those of Medusa kept no written records. But crucially, it is known that he did not settle into a life with any one of the clans, contrasting quite notably in that regard with his brother Leman Rus, instead preferring to rove between them as he pleased. He never interfered with the petty wars raged often between rival clans, believing such conflict served to whittle the weakest from the planet's population, and that struggle bred in the clans a strength to better survive their brutal homeworld. There are, however, several allegorical details of the Primarch's early life. One such tale recounts the battle between Ferris and the giant worm, Zernoth, and is perhaps the most famous of the Medusa's saga poems. The creature, the mightiest of the world's megafauna, is said to have possessed a skin of living metal, tougher than any mortal armor yet flowing across its form like liquid, and was known to dwell within the land of shadows, a place of giant cyclopian ruins of some long lost civilization. Quite what the nature of this creature truly was, is the subject of much debate amongst imperial scholars. Certainly, there is evidence that its living metal bears striking similarities to certain xeno-form constructs, as do the ruins described within the saga. However, it is not one's place to speculate upon this given record. Whatever its origin, a Zernoth was quite a match for even one of the emperor's own sons, who, after days of tracking and battle, was forced to hold the beast under a river of molten rock, the lava causing him agonizing pain, which he bore with his incredible force of will. When Ferris removed his hands from the rock, he discovered that they now bore the same flowing metal that his Zernoth had been formed of, as flexible as his own skin, but harder than the strongest ceramite. Having only emerged from the battle with the Zernoth with his own life, Ferris Manus was now a changed man. He resolved to no longer idly stand by and allow nature to take its toll upon the people of his world, but rather he would shape these people to better combat their violent homeworld. Already famous amongst the Tlaners, the Gorgon, as he was coming to be known, demanded obedience from the Nomads, and bloodily broke those Tlans who refused to submit. Such was his legendary status that few resisted, and those that did were unable to do so for long. Ferris was quick to strike compacts with the Iron Fathers of each clan, leaders who were half-engineer and half-shaman in their role. Medusins possessed primitive but hardy technology, remnants that had survived from the long dark of the Age of Strife, and it was to these that Ferris turned his attention. Through rigorous study, he devoured the knowledge the Iron Fathers had imparted upon him, and turned such knowledge into forging better and more advanced technology, by combining the scraps of information jealously guarded by the disparate clans. All he created was made available to all who desired it, for Manus had seen the true face of the enemy, and it was not a human one. The Primarch soon began to lead Medusa's strongest warriors in bands into the ancient and long-sealed crypts under the planet's crust, breaking open areas of the world not seen in millennia. Always the Gorgon and his warriors would emerge victorious, carrying the technological or mineral spoils of their victory to the surface in triumph. When the Emperor arrived in the skies over Medusa, he found a world united, the clans working together for the betterment of all under a metal-skinned warlord king. Ferris alone went out into the fiery storms that heralded the arrival of the Emperor's ship, returning a day later in the company of a gold-armored warrior taller than even he. To the odd Medusans of his closest circle, he presented the Emperor of Mankind, and told his people of his true father's great work. In many ways a mirror to the efforts Ferris had made to unite his own world, the great crusade was an endeavor to which the people of Medusa readily followed their battle king, who departed with his father to take command of a legion of sons cast in his own name. What Ferris found in the tenth legion satisfied him, to a degree. But the success of his sons earned them no respite from his exacting standards, which were imposed immediately and broke no debate. He immediately renamed the legion in his image, and unto his iron hands he imposed sweeping reforms designed to wed the highly different Terran and Medusa cultures now present in the legion. The legion chapters were now known as clans, but not simply in name only. Terranist artis were sent to Medusa itself, forcibly assigned to govern the clans they now represented, and to lead the youth of these clans in trials of endurance and conflict upon the planet's surface as part of the ongoing compliance operation. In this way the Terrans of the tenth were expected to learn all they could from their new legion homeworld, and in turn impart upon its new imperial citizens what they had learned in their years fighting in the emperor's great crusade. There was, in the primarch's new legion, no room for failure. Medusa's society was not, however, changed much by the coming of the Imperium, by deliberate action of the primarch. Now the primary recruitment ground for his iron hands. Ferris Manus saw the world as a crucible for the finest, most resilient recruits a legion could ever desire. To counteract its relatively small population base, the iron hands would now select the strongest youth from worlds they conquered to be shipped to their icy homeworld to live and work amongst the clans, winnowing out of the weaklings until they were deemed fit to become legion recruits. With his own living metal hands, Ferris shaped his legion to match his vision, to carry with them the bleak creed of Medusa in their hearts, to be a force of utter ruthlessness and efficiency. In the years that followed, the iron hands displayed every characteristic their primarch desired of them, becoming a harsh and unsuttle, but incredibly effective force of arms. The warrior spirit of the Albion Terrans was wedded to the cold steel of the Medusan heart. The 10th legion was not without emotion. Not simply soulless and feeling automatons, their war spirit was now a determined burning fury, wedded to ironclad logic and discipline. The legion's predilection for armored warfare married well with their primarch's desire for the most efficient victory possible, and whatever technology was at their disposal was utilized to fulfill this goal, leading to them amassing the concentration of, and skill with, technological expertise unmatched by any of their fellow legions. Ferris Manus' leadership was utterly consistent in its harsh exactitude. He broke no failure from any under his command, and was quick to anger, heaping scorn upon those who did not meet his standards, while dispensing scant praise to even the greatest of successes. To him, victory, no matter how well won, was simply the base level of competency. Despite this, the iron hands loved their father, with whatever scraps of commendation he did dispense, worth more to them than any triumphal parade. For the Gorgon held himself to the same standards he did his sons, and despised hypocrisy. The effect that this leadership had on the legion's psyche was writ large for all to see. Failure was intolerable, for failure was weakness, and weakness was the greatest sin of all. The weakness of man had led to the downfall of the species in the age of strife, and only through the strength of the Imperium would mankind be able to survive in this most hostile of galaxies. The Iron Tenth, as they became known to many, were often to be found in high intensity war zones against technologically or numerically superior foes, in many cases selected specifically for the annihilation of Orc Empires, the legacy of the Battle of Rust, here remaining strong. The speciality the legion evinced in early victories in massive battles, where their war machines and technology proved devastatingly effective, created a circular effect, where they were to become more specialized in this field, and simultaneously more in demand in the most hotly contested crusade war zones. As the foe often possessed highly advanced Xenotech or Dark Age of Technology equipment, the Tenth Legion forged close ties with many Titan legions, Night Houses, and Tagmata of the Mechanicum, often in the process, serving to expand the legion's own technological skill and stock, as they would acquire newly refound equipment and study it in tandem with the Mechanicum. Owing to his status, as one of the first Primarchs found, Ferris Manus grew to become one of the Imperium's most experienced generals, often tasked with taking charge of sector-wide campaigns as a senior commander of an army group, issuing orders to other later found Primarchs. These joint endeavors would have mixed results for the Iron Tenth, as it led to a close friendship with some legions, such as the Third Legion Emperor's Children, but also distaste of the most extreme nature bordering on blows with others, such as the 20th Legion Alpha Legion, the tactics of whom the Tenth despised as needlessly complex, wasteful, and dishonorable. The list of the Legion's detractors would only grow longer as the Great Crusade drew ever on, and the character of the Iron Hands hardened even further. Certain avenues of warfare became, by sheer nature of their temperament, closed to them. Whereas once they had taken pains to reduce the cost of suffering born by allies, the Tenth now became heedless of such particulars, seeing high casualty figures amongst those they fought with as evidence of weakness, either in skill or in fortitude. Whereas the Imperium army once venerated them, they now had a reputation as black as their armor, being seen as needlessly cruel taskmasters who expected to start his standards from mortal men. This reputation was not unique in just unaugmented forces. In other legions, the Iron Tenth were seen as impatient and lacking in any and all subtlety. While this never drew the same ire as the fickleness of the Fifth Legion White Scars, or the atrocities of the Eight Legion Night Lords, it earned the Tenth few true friends. Their nature made them conquerors, not liberators. They were a blunt instrument and battering ram. A weapon unleashed when resistance needed to be smashed outright, whatever the cost. The Gorgon despised what he saw as a minutiae of the Great Crusade, scording things like politics, intelligence gathering, and logistical planning unless any of it had a clearer purpose. His goal, and consequently the goal his Legion held in their hearts, was simply to expand the frontiers of humanity's domain, and destroy all who opposed this. Nothing else was to matter. When once asked why he did not concern himself with the hearts and minds of those his Legion left in their wake, the Gorgon has been apocryphally recorded as saying, Make war and move on and again and again until nothing breeds which stands against us. All else is sophistry and pretty lies. What this attitude engendered was a Legion that, while undeniably effective and loyal to their core, countered amongst their own kind few friends, and would only grow more insular as the years passed. Often at the forefront of the Crusade, in the heaviest fighting and the most violent extermination campaigns, the iron hands turned inwards. Their impatience in what they saw as ill-discipline and wastefulness of those that did not meet their own standards, rendering them uninterested in outside knowledge, experience or input. That they maintained a close kinship with the Emperor's children was one of the few examples of brotherhood they displayed with their fellow Astartes, and heart-breakingly one of the seeds of their greatest tragedy to unfold upon the sands of Istvan 5. This video and this channel are made possible through the incredibly kind contributions of my Patreon subscribers. If you'd like to help support the channel, head on over to patreon.com forward slash oculus imperia. And if you're looking to keep in touch with the channel, get regular updates, you can follow me on twitter at butstuffkaiju, or check us out on discord, a link will be in the description and on the channel page.