Characters among the ''Literature/IronWarriors'' novel series and background. Note that many, especially in later stories, are also in ''Literature/{{Ultramarines}}'' novels and can be found on [[Characters/{{Ultramarines}} the character page for that series]].

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Perturabo]]

One of the twenty Primarchs created by the Emperor of Mankind for the Great Crusade, Perturabo and his brothers were scattered to the stars by the forces of Chaos. Landing on Olympia, Perturabo found by the guards of Dammekos, the Tyrant of Olympia, while crawling in the mountains. Recognizing he was no ordinary child, Dammekos took Perturabo in and raised as his own son. While Dammekos gave the boy warmth and affection, Perturabo never returned it. When the Emperor came to Olympia, Perturabo submitted to him and overthrew Dammekos. The fallen Tyrant would try to mount a resistance, but it would fail. Perturabo was given command of the IV Legion of the Adeputs Astartes, the Iron Warriors.


During the Great Crusade, the Iron Warriors became masters of siege warfare, developing a rivalry with Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists, with a similar mastery of sieges. Resent, bitterness, and the eventual rebellion of Olympia drove them into allegiance with the traitors during the Literature/HorusHeresy. After the Horus Heresy, the Iron Warriors defeated the Imperial Fists in the Iron Cage incident, and Perturabo ascended to Daemon Prince, ruling over the Daemon World of Medrengard in the Eye of Terror.


For more information on Perturabo, see his entry under Characters/HorusHeresyTraitorLegions.
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* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: He's ascended to Daemon Primarch long ago by the time the series starts.
* EvilOverlord: As Daemon Prince of Medrengard, he nominally rules over the entire planet. In practice, he generally confines himself to his personal stronghold within the mountains, occasionally stepping in to upset Medrengard's status quo.
* AFatherToHisMen: Only in the literal sense, as the ''Literature/HorusHeresy'' indicates that even before declaring for Horus he was killing Iron Warriors who had fallen from favor.
* TheGhost: His presence is ''[[NotHyperbole literally]]'' felt on Medrengard, and figuratively in his Iron Wariors making it their home. He otherwise makes no appearances. [[spoiler:Well, not unless you brought a limited edition of ''Storm of Iron'', where he makes an appearance to talk with Honsou.]]
* GreaterScopeVillain: As the supreme leader of the Iron Warriors, he's indirectly responsible for the majority of the series' events.
* HatesEveryoneEqually: In the end. Despite being a largely unpopular Primarch, he enjoyed spending time with Magnus as they both shared an interest in researching the great innovators of Terra's past.
* HiddenDepths: He was in fact a cultured artist; the fact no one knew that pissed him off more. By the time he becomes a Daemon Primarch, as far as we can tell, he had all but abandoned this aspect. [[spoiler:Downplayed in the limited edition story ''Warbreed'' - he's still rather cultured, as shown in his talk with Honsou.]]
* MeaningfulName: "Perdurabo" is Latin for "I will endure", reflecting his stubborn nature and mindset.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: He hasn't led an attack on the Imperium since ascending to Daemonhood. Averted [[{{Revision}} with recent materials]] where he's been revealed to occasionally lead an attack with devastating results.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Warsmith's Grand company]]
!! Honsou

The leader of the Warsmith's third company. Has not been named Captain despite holding the post for two centuries, due to his status of having some Imperial Fists gene-seed in with the his Iron Warriors gene-seed.
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* AFatherToHisMen: Surprisingly enough, he is this. While he is a member of Chaos and KickTheDog is practically a requirement, he would never send his men to their deaths without good reason and wouldn't execute them for anything less than outright treachery. It's noted in-universe that he would have been a great Imperial leader had things been different.
* ArchEnemy: To [[{{Literature/Ultramarines}} Uriel Ventris]].
* ArtificialLimbs: Loses his right arm in the siege, and is given an augmetic arm that belonged to one of the Warsmith's old lieutenants as a sign of favour. He later replaces it with a liquid metal arm of xenos origin, which drinks blood and contains a power directly opposed to the daemon in his axe.
* BaldOfEvil: Honsou's artwork shows him to be completely bald and he's the VillainProtagonist of the series.
* BerserkButton: Do not call him "half-breed" or otherwise reference his mixed-blood status. At one point, he nearly gets dismembered by one of the major Chaotic players of the setting, Huron Blackheart, because he mouths off when Huron calls him "half-breed".
* BlackSheep: Amongst the Iron Warriors, Honsou is [[HalfBreedDiscrimination generally looked down upon and derided due to his mixed geneseed]]. Honsou himself is also pretty indifferent to his legion's legacy and dogma, preferring to use unconventional tactics and focus on his own desires.
* BreakoutVillain: ''Storm of Iron'' was written as a standalone novel, but Honsou quickly became a popular character, and one of Graham's favorites to write.
* CombatPragmatist: Honsou repeatedly uses dirty tricks and pragmatic tactics to turn a battle in his favour such as [[spoiler:having a ship with a skeleton crew [[ColonyDrop ram a starfort's fortifications]], or]] giving waves of prisoners dummy weapons then forcing them toward an enemy fort, letting him learn its guns ranges as they fire on the prisoners. This extends to unarmed combat, where he's described as a down and dirty gutter fighter.
* DeadpanSnarker: It's how he lets his anger out in a way that isn't killing people. Although he does kill a lot of people.
* DemonicPossession: He gets "possessed" by a minor daemon during the battle for Hydra Cordatus, though it only really used him to channel its power. The Warsmith is impressed.
* DragonAscendant: By the time ''Dead Sky, Black Sun'' rolls in, he's taken control of the Warsmith's Grand Company.
* EmbarrassingNickname: Amongst the non-loyalist characters, he's called the half-breed. He isn't shy about [[TheUnfettered advertising it himself]].
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: A minor example - he can't believe that Pasanius and Uriel really ''are'' loyalists sent to fight against Chaos, as opposed to opportunistic renegades fighting for an unknown master.
* EvilIsPetty: Does some of the worst things in the setting just to get back at Uriel, right down to ''killing a world''. To put this in perspective: he killed an entire world, [[spoiler:set a Daemon Prince free, and ''killed almost half the Ultramarines''(when casualties from both the Bloodborn invasion and the star fort battle are added up)]], all to spite a single man.
* EvilWeapon: His daemon axe. Of course, Honsou isn't that far behind it.
* FreudianTrio: Honsou forms one with Forrix and Kroeger during ''Storm of Iron''. He's the Ego of the three, balancing a legitimate devotion to Chaos and willingness to break conventions with a pragmatic, rational attitude to the siege.
* TheUnfettered: The author describes him this way, as someone totally unbound by ethics and who doesn't give a damn about the consequences of his actions so long as he comes out of it better than he otherwise would.
* VillainProtagonist: Of the ''Iron Warriors'' side of the ongoing conflict.
* VillainRespect: Contrary to most Chaos and even Imperial leaders, he shows a surprisingly amount of respect for both allies and enemies if they prove themselves {{Worthy Opponent}}s.
* VisionaryVillain: Genuinely believes in the dream of Horus using the power of Chaos to unite humanity and protect it from Xenos threats. Of course, being a Chaos Marine, it's more along the lines of "subjugate humanity", and he's quite easily sidetracked into his elaborate campaign of vengeance against Uriel Ventris.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Discussed when he faces Uriel and Pasanius; when Uriel challenges him to a one-on-one duel, Honsou derisively notes he'd be stupid to accept as opposed to than having his bodyguards (who outnumber them ten to one) shoot them dead.
* YouAreInCommandNow: [[spoiler:After Forrix and Kroeger are killed during the last stage of the Battle of Hydra Cordatus, the Warsmith passes his rank down to Honsou before [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence departing for the Warp]].]]
-->'''The Warsmith''': [[spoiler:"I do not name you Captain. I name you Warsmith."]]

!! The Warsmith

An ancient Warsmith of an Iron Warriors Grand Company, leading the siege on Hydra Cordatus. [[spoiler:He is planning to capture the gene-seed within to assure his status as a Daemon Prince.]]
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* AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:After sacrificing and eating much of the gene-seed stored on Hydra Cordatus, he becomes a Daemon Prince and departs for the Warp.]]
* BlingOfWar: Wears heavily customised artificer Terminator Armour. He also has a massive throne that Perturabo supposedly crafted, which is surrounded by luxurious furnishings.
* BrownNote: He's seething with so much Chaos, just looking at him causes nausea in his own underlings, and keeps an ''entire regiment'' of guardsman from being able to raise their weapons against him. [[spoiler:It's because he's slowly transforming into a Daemon Prince, with the Hydra Cordatus mission as his last hurdle before transformation.]]
* CrazyPrepared: At Hydra Cordatus, he probably had a hand in [[spoiler:getting the Mechanicus infiltrator inside]], which came about roughly ''a hundred and fifty years'' before ''Storm of Iron'', and presumably [[spoiler:built the hidden teleporter in the citadel which they used to infiltrate Cycerin in]] towards the end of the siege.
* EatsBabies: [[spoiler:He triggers his ascension by feeding on Progenoids after finally breaking into the Citadel. The organic "storage" for is essentially a tailor-cultured fetus.]]
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Subverted. The Horus Heresy series gives him the name [[spoiler:Barban Falk]], but he eventually sheds this as part of his ThatManIsDead moment at the end of ''Angel Exterminatus''.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Becomes a Daemon Prince and buggers off into the Warp, avoiding any payback for his evil deeds.]]
* LargeAndInCharge: He's big, even for a Space Marine.
* ThatManIsDead: After something happened to him [[spoiler:on an Eldar Crone World]] during the Horus Heresy, he shed his former identity as [[spoiler:Triarch member Barban Falk]] and went solely by the name of "The Warsmith."
* NoNameGiven: Until ''[[Literature/HorusHeresy Angel Exterminatus]]'', also by [=McNeill=], anyway. [[spoiler:Barban Falk, in case you were curious.]]
* TimeAbyss: Originally came from Olympia, and took part in the Great Crusade. [[spoiler:He even designed the Citadel on Hydra Cordatus.]]

!! Forrix

The First Captain of the Warsmith's Grand Company. Once eagerly believed in Horus's dream of uniting the galaxy under Chaos, but has become jaded over ten thousand years.
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* BadassBureaucrat: His chief talent is supreme organisational and logistical skills. He's seen running the day-to-day operations of a siege until he figures out what the Warsmith is becoming, after which he rejoins the fighting with relish.
* BifurcatedWeapon: Wields a combi-bolter with an underslung [[DeathRay meltagun]].
* BlingOfWar: His combi-bolter is described as "heavily ornamented."
* CoDragons: He's one of three Captains serving under the Warsmith, alongside Honsou and Kroeger. Forrix is nominally superior to them due to his knowledge of logistics and position as First Captain.
* TheCynic: Gave up on Horus's dream long ago. By now he follows Chaos pretty much purely because he's got nowhere else to go. He gradually regains his fervour for Chaos over the course of the siege of Hydra Cordatus [[spoiler:which eventually gets him killed, as his newfound energy leads him to recklessly take on a Warhound Titan]].
* DemotedToDragon: It is revealed in ''[[Literature/HorusHeresy Angel Exterminatus]]'' that he and the Warsmith were equal in rank during the Heresy. Now he's a subordinate First Captain serving under his former colleague.
* FreudianTrio:
** During ''Storm of Iron'', Forrix is the Superego of the three warsmiths FreudianTrio; he's a jaded, cynical bureaucrat who serves Chaos for lack of any other option, while also being a genius logistical expert who handles the majority of the siege's heavy lifting.
** He forms a similar trio with Barban Falk and Kroeger during ''Angel Exterminatus'', being the most overtly logical and rational of the three compared to Falk's fairly balanced personality and Kroeger's blunt, emotive one.
* FrontlineGeneral: Once he puts on the Terminator armour and gets into the trenches. [[spoiler:Forrix even oversees the storming of the Tor Christo bastion, letting the Iron Warriors begin advancing toward the main citadel]].
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:After slaughtering a Titan's bridge crew, he finds himself facing the guns of the other Titan, and has enough time for a LittleNo before the Titan completely annihilates him.]]
* PowerFist: Another favoured weapon of his, which he uses to help bring down a Warhound.
* TimeAbyss: Is over 10,000 years old.

!! Kroeger

The Captain of the Second Company of the Warsmith's Grand Company. Slowly falling into the grips of [[WarGod Khorne]].
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* TheBerserker: And he knows it.
* BloodLust: At one point in the siege, he slashes a guardsman's throat open then lifts him overhead, drinking the man's blood and openly relishing its taste.
* TheBrute: Lacks anything remotely resembling finesse. Even before Khorne got to him, he favoured straight-up melee combat and breach-storming over anything else.
* ChainsawGood: Wields a Chainsword in most of his battles. [[spoiler:Ironically this is the weapon used to kill him in the finale]].
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:Disembowelled, dismembered, and stabbed in the eye repeatedly by the woman he tortured wearing his own armor]].
* DemotedToDragon: Like Forrix, he used to hold a rank equal to the Warsmith.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:How he dies. Ironically, it comes at the hands of the guardswoman he had enslaved, tortured, and abused throughout the book.]]
* FreudianTrio: He's the Id of the Honsou-Forrix-Kroeger trio, being an AxCrazy BloodKnight fuelled mainly by emotion and a desire to kill.
* {{Gorn}}: Spends almost all of his time on-screen drenched head-to-toe in blood or killing people violently in hand-to-hand combat.
* KarmicDeath: After spending most of the book tormenting [[spoiler:the captive guardswoman Lana Utorian]], he dies when they [[spoiler:wear his daemon-possessed armour and then dismember him with his own chainsword, before stabbing him repeatedly in the face with the bone dagger she used to clean his gear of blood]].
* NeverFoundTheBody: PlayedWith. [[spoiler:The Iron Warriors do find his body, but are unsure if it was actually him. The fact that his killer escaped into the Warp wearing his armor makes it harder for the Iron Warriors to really be sure of his fate.]]
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: He breaks from guarding the Daemon Engines to get his slaughter on. [[spoiler:This bites him in the ass when these Daemon Engines get destroyed by the Imperial Fists, enraging the Warsmith]].
* TimeAbyss: He's almost as old as Forrix, being a veteran of the Great Crusade. Ironically, Forrix still calls him a newblood. Even he lampshades how ironic it it.

!! Jharek Kelmaur

The Sorcerer of the Warsmith's Grand Company.
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* AndIMustScream:[[spoiler:The Warsmith ends up turning him into a Chaos Spawn after deciding [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he outlived his usefulness]]. It's implied that he's still sane and aware of his new state, at least for a time.]]
* BaldOfEvil: Hairless, and very evil.
* EvilGenius: Acts as the Warsmith's personal precognitive, using sorcery to find out details about what will happen in the future.
* EvilSorcerer: Runs a whole coven of these. Also acts as the Warsmith's personal seer, and helped kick off the events of the series as a whole by [[spoiler:finding Hydra Cordatus had gene-seed on it]].
* EyeScream: His eyes have been permanently sewn shut.
* AFateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:The Warsmith turns him into a Chaos Spawn as punishment for failing him and then running out of usefulness to him]].
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Kelmaur's failure to intercept the loyalists' distress signal and subsequent decision to lie to him let the Imperial Fists slip by their orbital blockade. This in turn provides the defenders with much-needed reinforcement and lets them sabotage the Iron Warriors' guns, throwing the Warsmith's plans out of whack]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:383rd Jouran Dragoons]]

The regiment of Imperial Guard tasked with defending the Citadel of Hydra Cordatus.

!! Castellan Vauban

Leader of the 383rd Jouran Dragoons.
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* BadassNormal: Fights and [[AnArmAndALeg takes off Honsou's arm]] in sword-to-sword combat, despite being an unarmoured human going up against a millenia-old Chaos Space Marine.
* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:While Vauban manages to maim Honsou, he's killed moments later due to falling for a feint and having a sword driven through his chest by his opponent]].
* BlueBlood: Mentioned offhandedly to be the heir of a noble family on Joura.
* FrontlineGeneral: Leads his men from the front during the first attack on the Iron Warrior lines.
* TheLeader: Commander of the citadel on Hydra Cordatus.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Killed after taking off Honsou's arm, when Honsou feigns a retreat and then stabs him through the chest.]]
* UnstoppableRage: Goes into one of these during the first attack on the trenches, after an enemy tank crushes one of his men. He charges after it in a blind rage and destroys the tank by shooting it in its weakly-armoured back vents.

!!Guardsman Julius Hawke
An unruly Guardsman who was assigned to the listening outpost of Sigma IV.
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* ActionSurvivor: A lowly Guardsman who survives two encounters with Iron Warriors Marines, and [[spoiler:even makes it out of the siege alive.]]
* BadassNormal: A completely ordinary human who kills three Iron Warriors personally, survives weeks out in the wilderness by himself, and even [[spoiler:lives to tell the tale.]]
* TheBusCameBack: After being [[PutOnABus packed off back to Joura]] by the Imperial Fists at the end of ''Storm of Iron'', He makes an appearance in the ''Priests of Mars'' trilogy, also by Graham [=McNeill=]].
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:The only known member of the 383rd Jouran Dragoons to survive and escape the siege of Hydra Cordatus]].
* UnlikelyHero: No one imagined that an undisciplined, unruly excuse for a soldier like Julius Hawke would help do the greatest damage to the Iron Warriors during the siege, least of all the man himself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Legio Ignatum]]

The demi-Legion of Titans assigned to the Citadel of Hydra Cordatus.

!! Princeps Fierach

Leader of the Legio Ignatum forces on Hydra Cordatus.
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* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:Goes down severely wounding the ''Dies Irae'', with his Titan's meltdown managing to disable the corrupted Imperator for the majority of the book. The damage he causes eventually leads to the ''Dies Irae's'' fall, with its weakened reactor armour being breached by Daekian.]]
* FatalFlaw: {{Pride}} and {{Wrath}}: He decides to go head-to-head with ''Dies Irae'', a corrupted Emperor-class Titan, out of anger and his own pride. [[spoiler:It gets him killed, along with the bulk of his Legio.]]
* GeneralFailure: Played With. He's quite successful in Titan-scale combat, with mention of multiple Titan kills on his part. However, his FatalFlaw causes him to forget the wider battle and causes both the attack's failure and [[spoiler:his own death, along with that of the majority of the Legio Ignatum force]].
* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:Gets killed in the same chapter he is introduced in.]]

!! Princeps Daekian

Second-in-command of the Legio Ignatum forces on Hydra Cordatus.
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* TheAtoner: Desires to atone for Fierarch's actions, to the point of offering the Guards' leaders the right to kill him if he fails.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler:Takes down the damaged ''[[TheDreaded Dies Irae]]'' at the climax, despite it destroying his entire Legio and wounding him unto death.]]
* MutualKill: [[spoiler:With ''Dies Irae'', by tearing open its reactor bay and crushing the plasma core. This destroys the Imperator, at the cost of killing Daekian and destroying his own titan]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Adeptus Mechanicus]]

The members of the Adeptus Mechanicus overseeing the Citadel's systems.

!! Archmagos Caer Amaethon

The leader of the Adeptus Mechanicus on Hydra Cordatus. Responsible for all the citadel's systems.
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* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Considering he was responsible for letting the guard regiments (implied to be in the millions or more) get poisoned, and killed several thousand retreating guardsmen when he ordered the tunnels sealed, it's hard to find sympathy when Naicin offs him.]]
* AMillionIsAStatistic: [[spoiler:Amaethon has no hesitation in burying several thousand soldiers under rubble to prevent the Iron Warriors reaching the Citadel, and was complicit if not directly responsible for poisoning millions of guardsmen to death to keep Hydra Cordatus' secrets]].
* BodyHorror: He's nothing but a face and a few scraps of brain, kept alive by a life-support tank.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: As a result of his extreme age and augmentation, Amaethon's not all there in the head. Merely communicating with him is noted by Naicin to be difficult, and he needs frequent reminders of recent happenings to keep him on track.
* TheLeader: Top member of the Adeptus Mechanicus on Hydra Cordatus.

!! Magos Naicin

Amaethon's ambitious second-in command.
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* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:His true face is a mass of worm-like tendrils, with multiple eyes and needle teeth. His fingers are also acid-spraying proboscises.]]
* KillAndReplace: [[spoiler:Actually a mutant, who killed and took the real Naicin's identity.]]
* MalevolentMaskedMan: He's an ambitious and fairly ruthless man wearing a bronze face-mask, responsible for [[spoiler:killing thousands of guardsmen. He's also a traitor secretly serving the Iron Warriors]].
* ManipulativeBastard: Outright lies to Leonid and Vauban [[spoiler:that Amaethon was the one who blew the tunnels, killing thousand of guardsmen]] to try and get himself promoted. [[spoiler:He's also been lying through his teeth for the majority of the siege, having poisoned the Astropaths and manipulated Amaeton all the way through]].
* SmokingIsCool: Smokes specially rolled cigars, and swears blind that they're healthy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Other Iron Warriors]]

!! Shon'tu

The leader of The Sons of the Forge, notable for being the one who tortured Imperial Fists Captain Lysander.
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* ArchEnemy: To Lysander.
* BlackSheep: Most Iron Warriors don't really like him due to how often he works with daemons, in fact its hinted he's not even a Warsmith, but a [=WARPsmith=].
* ColdBloodedTorture: To Lysander, in between talking about how awesome he is.
* CrazyEnoughToWork: His most well know plan involved: Finding a Tyrant Hive Fleet (this after the first Tyranid war but before the other hive fleets came to the Galaxy), stuffing it into a space hulk and wiring a Navigator into its controls and fired it right at Terra.
* DealWithTheDevil: Heavily works with Deamons.
* LegacyCharacter: There is in fact two, a Warlord during the Age of Strife and the current Warsmith.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Claims to be the reincarnation of a great warlord and with surpass even Horus in the level of feats, he's the leader of a warband that's been wiped out, twice.

!! Soltarn Vull Bronn, the Stonewrought

Once the greatest of the Iron Warriors' combat engineers, Soltarn Vull Bronn ended up under Honsou's authority, and commanded his forces while Honsou went on a mission behind the lines.
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* ADayInTheLimelight: He's the viewpoint character of "The Iron Without" short story, and appears in ''Angel Exterminatus'' as a supporting character.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: Considers the loss of several thousand slave workers 'negligible', being more concerned with the loss of machines.
* TheEngineer: His skill at construction was so notable that he was one of the few Iron Warriors with a fancy nickname. Perturabo himself often referred to his geological expertise during the Horus Heresy.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: He retains some semblance of his honor, even into the 41st millennium. It doesn't work out for him.
* HowTheMightyHaveFallen:
** During the Heresy, even Perturabo respected his entrenching skills. Fast-forward ten thousand years and he's subordinate to Honsou.
** Also holds this view of Honsou's Warband, regretting that they choose to ally themselves with the 'dross' of xenos species, 'inferior' Astartes, and sorcerers.
* KilledOffForReal: "The Iron Without" ends with an Ultramarine executing him with a headshot as he lies dying under rubble, though he gets a couple good verbal jabs in before dying.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's not entirely clear whether his ability to sense the composition of rock is Warp-based, or whether he's just that good.
* RedBaron: He's known as "The Stonewrought" due to his nigh-supernatural ability to understand a world's geological makeup. It's shown he needs only a touch or two to figure out exactly where to dig, where to avoid, and how long the entrenching is likely to take.
[[/folder]]
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