Daer'dd Niimkiikaa

**Daer'dd Niimkiikaa**, known as the '**Paragon of War**', '**The Forge Giant**', '**Leviathan of the North**' and '**The Fell Axe**', is the foreboding Primarch of the VIth Legion , the mighty Iron Bears Legion. No Primarch epitomised sheer physical power as much as Daer’dd. Raised among the war machines of a Knight House, he evinced a keen understanding of the value of both flesh and metal. Indeed, when he took to the field, he was clad in armour more suited to one of the great walkers than a mortal warrior. To his Legion and the wider Imperium he was the Iron King, rivalled only by Niklaas in forge-craft. Several Primarchs, the Warmaster included, used and treasured the weapons gifted to them by Daer'dd.

A masterful tactician and adept commander, Daer'dd nonetheless was most at home in the melée. His vast strength and consummately forged weapons made him a match for almost any foe, and under his command the VIth Legion earned a great tally of glories.

Daer'dd presided over his realm of Tricendia just as he ruled his Legion; a benevolent king, beloved of the common man. His initial campaigns served to unify the two, creating a fearsome system of auxiliary forces to support the Iron Bears. It was this that Icarion feared most about the Bear, as he drew his plans against the Emperor. Daer'dd's outrage and grief would deliver him to the blades of traitorous brothers, and only the sense of duty he had instilled in his Legion would save them from utter destruction.

## History

### The Bear's Cradle

Daer'dd's incubation pod split a late winter's sky on the planet Huron, coming to rest on the shore of the Ouenda sea. As the infant Primarch clambered from the wreck of his pod, he heard voices raised first in alarm, then confusion. These belonged to Noodin, heir to the Chief of the Niimkiikaa Tribe and his wife Eskisia, a scion of the Knight House Blintrubas. Having taken the noise for an attack of some kind, now they found a lost child, and unhesitatingly took him in. While a Primarch's adoptive family would often hail them as a blessing, Daer'dd's did so with a particular fervour. Noodin and Esikisia had wed out of love on a world where such things were typically decided by political considerations, and breaking from this custom invited dire consequences.

The true measure of this blessing became apparent within a few short years, in which the child became an imposing young warrior of astonishing might and razor-keen intelligence. He was fascinated by machines, especially the sacred armours of his mother's House. It seemed only natural to groom him as a scion, yet Blintrubas' engineers had barely begun to adapt a throne and suit to Daer'dd's bulk when he outgrew them entirely. Even before he was fully grown it had become apparent that no Knight the household had possessed would bear his weight. Moreover, the notion of putting him at the controls of a war machine had become redundant as the Primarch came into his full power. His strength allowed him to wear armour and bear weapons that seemed more suited to a war machine than a man. With these he displayed a preternatural skill, whether he wielded a gun, sword or throwing axe. Many of these he forged himself, and he created masterful weapons for his kin and allies. Even bereft of weapons and raiment, he was beyond any mortal or beast in sheer lethality.

Certainly, there was no shortage of foes ready to test Daer'dd's abilities. Niimkiikaa and Blintrubas had powerful foes, and the marriage of Noodin and Eskisia offended other Houses who had offered matches for her. With whispers of their strange child circulating, it took only a few years for icy politicking to turn into outright violence. Retributive attacks were made, aiming to deprive the Niimkiikaa and Blintrubas of their power and standing, only to falter when Daer’dd joined his tribe's armies and unleashed his might against their foes. Once it became clear to the rival lords that the tales of a giant who felled Knights were true, the fighting took on a new intensity.

Yet it was not to the ruin of Niimkiikaa, but their foes. Daer'dd's genius for the making of weapons was applied to the armies that served his tribe. Perhaps most importantly, he refined the primitive power armour used on Huron, and while it did not approach the warplate which adorned the Emperor’s Legions, it gave his people a crucial edge. Meanwhile his understanding of war only grew, and away from the battlefield, a dream began to take form in the young warrior's mind.

Studying whatever history he could find, he was enthralled by the image they painted of a prosperous, united society. Mere dominance did little to stir his blood; the vision he conceived, in contrast, was electrifying. He began to extol it, winning allies for his ideals as much as the his tribe’s strength drew them to his side. Messengers in sublight spacecraft were dispatched to Accer Ferrus and Xephyr, carrying his message to any willing to hear it. Many scorned it, but some accepted eagerly. First, a scattering of idealistic warriors took leave of their families, risking or even embracing banishment as the price of serving Daer'dd. Soon, as the last swathes of Huron fell under the sway of Niimkiikaa, entire Houses and tribes added their strength to his. Foremost among them were House August of Accer Ferrus, who had committed early on, as well as the Xephyrite Songblade Clan.

Others resisted, however, cobbling together alliances in a vain effort to hold back the tide. Their hatred curdled into obsession, and drove them to deeds which frightened off many who might have stood with them. Some delved into sorceries prohibited among the shaman orders of Huron. Others took to the void and hunted for spoil among the wreckage of old battles. The most bitterly determined slunk away from the system entirely, seeking even more extreme ways to oppose Daer'dd's advance. They alone would survive the unification of Huron, Xephyr and Accer Ferrus.

### Melded and Alloyed

"*You shall no longer be Juggernauts, but Bears of iron and steel, fierce and hardy, ready to take the light of the Imperial Truth to all corners of the galaxy and feast until the final sunset of the universe!*"
— Daer'dd Niimkiikaa declaration upon taking command of the VIth Legion
Twenty-four years of war and diplomacy saw Daer'dd firmly in control of what he dubbed the Three Fires, or Tricendia to use its High Gothic name. By the time his father located him, that name served for an empire of eighteen worlds, though raiding and skirmishes continued along their borders. Moreover, Daer'dd rejoiced to meet the Emperor and his brothers, and the meeting with his Legion went much the same way. Daer'dd mandated that his sons would become protectors of his realm as well as crusaders but also invited them to join him in shaping the next generation of their Legion. Juggernauts travelled the length of the Three Fires, watching the trials of aspirants as they themselves learned the ways of their Primarch's culture and the armies he would have them fight beside.

The ease of this transition was fortunate, as politically Daer'dd's realm threatened to cause serious discord between Terra and Mars. Not only had Forge colonies been conquered, but now their Mechanicum doctrines were diluted, their inhabitants bound by oaths they were unwilling to sever. The Demiurge only made for another complication, caught on the blurred line between abhuman and xenos. It was only with difficulty and the Emperor’s own influence that compromises were reached, and neither Oamura nor Kotossa were regarded warmly by the Fabricator General, denied the status of Forge Worlds despite their size and output.

Daer'dd found himself master of a Legion which, although it had been one of the largest after Unity on Terra, had long since found itself eclipsed by faster-growing Legions. That he integrated it so seamlessly into the fabric of Tricendia was a testament to the extended implantation period. Upon the first intake of Tricendian recruits achieving the status of full Astartes, Daer'dd renamed the VIth as the Iron Bears. Extensive reforms to its structure would follow over the next ten years, but for now the Legion threw itself back into the Great Crusade, adding another eight systems to Tricendia. In these wars Daer'dd found the last of those who had opposed his earlier conquests, allied with xenos or corrupted by forbidden technologies and sorceries. Perhaps the most loathsome were the Morraigha, who harnessed the sciences of genetic manipulation and cloning to create abhumans of monstrous strength and savagery, which they then fashioned into automata and servitors of a power to test even the Astartes. Across three systems Daer'dd led his forces against them, until the last fortress tumbled under the guns of the Legio Auris and the cloners were put to the sword.

With Tricendia completed, Daer'dd took his place in the wider Crusade, and finally the Iron Bears began to grow into one of the mightiest Legions, fed by the pocket empire. As with so much of the early Imperium's campaigns, the historiography is often maddeningly limited; while some remembrancers established close bonds with their hosts, there was a limit to the things an Astartes will speak of. In several campaigns all we can tell is that Daer'dd was mentored by a brother, and the Iron Bears gave an excellent account of themselves. Others are better documented, and we see the kinship shared by the Juggernauts and Halcyon Wardens continued in their new incarnation, as well as Daer'dd's role as unlikely mentor to Pionus Santor. The timeline is punctuated as much by Daer’dd’s technological achievements as military victories, including the Mauler-pattern Land Raider and the king-ship *Dragon of Autumn*. Even with their newfound strength, it took a further twenty-three years until the Iron Bears could campaign independently of any other Legion, and a further decade until Daer'dd could form expeditionary multiple fleets. Their auxiliary forces were to prove vital in enabling the Iron Bears to fight effectively despite their limited numbers.

The rare quality of their wargear set both the Legion and their auxiliaries apart, and terrestrial war machines featured heavily in their line of battle. Conversely, the Iron Bears took particular pleasure in close combat, and often used their armour to deploy and quickly engage their enemies. There was logic to this as well as a love for the melee; nowhere else did a Space Marine's enhancements count for more, and Daer'dd led these attacks wherever possible. Frequent injuries were the price paid for this tendency, however, leading to a high rate of bionic augmentation among the Legion. Nonetheless, the Iron Bears proved extremely hard to kill, and this as much as anything enabled them to grow steadily as a Legion over the course of the Great Crusade.

In the eyes of the mortal soldier and citizen, the Iron Bears became heroes to stand beside the Halcyon Wardens and Lightning Bearers. Against human cultures, their ferocity was measured, deployed to overwhelm the defenders and stave off the devastation of longer conflicts. Against xenos they were the bringers of oblivion, levelling empires across the breadth of the Galaxy. Daer’dd’s ideals and conduct earned him close friendships with several of his brothers, though others had little regard for the VIth. This was perhaps one of the reasons why Daer'dd was not considered by many as a potential candidate for the post of Warmaster. At the same time, he was not a political animal to the degree of Alexandros and Kozja; he preferred to delegate such matters to trusted subordinates within his realm and Legion and dedicate himself to campaigning.

As Icarion plotted his rebellion, he recognised that Daer'dd's allegiance to the Emperor would never waver, and there was no division among his sons that could be exploited. Indeed, with Icarion's belief that Alexandros would take his side, the Iron Bears were perceived as the greatest threat to the Insurrection. Thus their destruction was plotted most carefully of all, and they would pay the steepest price for their loyalty.

## Personality

Many called Daer'dd the ultimate advocate for peace within humanity; despite his bravado and gusto for war he is ultimately an artist whom simply seeks to create and sees war as another art. Though unlike most of his primarch brothers, he mastered not personal combat skills nor tactica, he won wars simply with feats of strength and his mind for science, developing weapons that won on strength of iron. As such he has always relied on his commanders to be better tacticians then that of himself. Daer'dd continues to rely on feats of strength to motivate them. It is said that Eldar and Orkish Titans have fallen to his hand personally, teleporting onto their hulls then simply tearing his way inside the hulls and killing the crews, though one early purported tale tells of him flipping an Ork Gargant.

## Wargear

* ***The Gauntlets of Ares*** - Given the great store of weapons Daer'dd maintained and wielded, and his relations with Mars, is is perhaps surprising that he favoured the *Gauntlets of Ares* above all. Gifted to Daer'dd by Kelbor-Hal to seal the Treaty of Xephyr, these lightning claws are among have undergone extensive modification at the hands of their bearer. With each finger tipped by a great, hooked claw, they are among the most brutal weapons borne by any Primarch.
* ***The Mantle of Huron*** - Befitting a warrior whose first sets of armour were forged by House Blinstrubas, Daer'dd wears armour more appropriate for a Knight or Dreadnought than any mortal man. Augmenting his strength beyond its already staggering levels, the Mantle of Huron has enabled him to endure all manner of attacks.
* ***Deathwind Tomahawks*** - While Daer'dd created a range of firearms for his own use, he much preferred to carry this brace of throwing axes into combat. Known among his people as the Cleaving Wind, they are each equipped with teleport units which return them to him without fail.
* ***The Stormstrider*** - Acutely aware of the restrictions his size placed upon his mobility, Daer'dd modified this archeotech device and integrated it into his armour. Using an inversion of teleportation technology to distort space around him, it enables Daer'dd to cross short distances in an instant.
* **Tomahawk Charges** - Taking simple massed forged tomahawks brothers started adhering grenades to them so they could get long more precise throws. It became so popular that the legion now mass produces them.
* ***Xephyrite Bulwark*** - A suit of Tactical Dreadnought Armour based on the Indomitus pattern, the Xephyrite Bulwark was ruined beyond repair after Daer'dd's confrontation with an Avatar of Khaine on Lorspatha.