Merciless

Warband armorial with corrupted iconography

Merciless Warband Heretic Astartes

### **Numbers**

Unknown (Estimated 24,000+ Traitor Guardsmen. Chaos Cultists, and Traitor Titan Legions allies)

### **Specialty**

Siege Warfare, Co-ordinated Mass-theatre Warfare, Armoured Assault, Planetary Decimation, Attrition, Retribution and Counter-Insurgency Campaigns

## Pre-Heresy

### **Colours**

Silver Armour, Gold Trim, and Black Shoulder Plates

"*We fight the long war, not through vain notions of duty and honour, but through a far purer purpose: hatred. It is this hatred that has sustained me through the long millennia. I lend it with bitterness. I nurture it with the deaths of my former brothers. For I know when the end is upon us, we shall take our rightful place.*"
—Warsmith Torian "The Iron Butcher"
The **Merciless** are a large splinter warband of the merciless and unforgiving Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. Dedicated to Chaos Undivided, they were founded and commanded by the infamous Warsmith Torian, the '*Iron Butcher*' of Xiollon II, a former Battle-Brother of the Iron Warriors who had fought alongside Primarch Perturabo during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy that followed. The embittered Merciless march to war once more, their sole intent - to wreak such devastation upon the Imperium that no stone stands upon another.

## Warband History

### Dispute of Iron

Some time around 600.M34, a vast civil war erupted upon the daemon world of Medrengard, homeworld of the Iron Warriors Traitor legion, located in the Eye of Terror. This conflict rapidly escalated spread to the other domains of the Iron Warriors. Ancient pacts of fealty and alliance were called upon, and soon scores of Heretic Astartes warbands, daemons and Traitor Titan Legions were drawn into the maelstrom of relentless war. The conflict raged for over century, lasting until 730.M34, and just as abruptly as it had begun, the war suddenly came to a rapid conclusion and was ended. This has led some to believe that the official conflict had been carried out according to the Daemon-Primarch Perturabo's design in order to weed out the chaff from the wheat - cutting away the weak and unworthy from his scions. This conflict was reminiscent of the self-decimation the Primarch enacted upon his warriors when he first took the reigns of command of the IV Legion. This bitter feud is accredited at creating several sub-factions of Iron Warriors still active to the present day, including the Merciless, while utterly destroying others.

## Warband Home World

As the Merciless are a fleet-based Warband they do no possess a home world of their own, therefore they are not tied down to a demesne and may continue in their twisted Crusade in and around the Eye of Terror.

## Warband Recruitment

Given the Merciless' preferential mode of operation is to cull potential initiates from the young of the survivors of their assaults where practical - that is of course if those survivors are human. The young males are then forced to fight to the death to prove their worth. Suitable recruits are taken (willingly and unwillingly) where they are selected periodically by various Warsmiths for their Grand Company and subjected to ordeals until they prove themselves worthy of being implanted with the Legion's Chaos-corrupted gene-seed.

## Warband Gene-Seed

Like their former brethren in the Iron Warriors, the Merciless have also been subjected to varying degrees of mutation due to the effects of residing within the Immaterium and the corrupting touch of the Dark Gods. They are known to replace mutated limbs with cybernetic replacements. Being of Iron Warriors' stock, they too, tend to display the same marked tendencies towards suspicion and paranoia, but are known to produce Heretic Astartes with extreme intelligence and naturally developed lateral thinking, enabling them to solve difficult engineering or technical issues.

As they are a Chaos Warband and lack the proper resources to replace lost or degraded gene-seed corrupted by exposure to the Warp, the Merciless are also forced to steal viable gene-seed from their Loyalist Astartes cousins whenever possible in order to create new warriors to replace their losses. However, this is only done begrudgingly, as the Merciless (like their progenitors) possess an inherent hatred for those newly created Heretic Astartes that posses non-Iron Warriors gene-seed. These warriors are often regarded as "half-breeds", and are not treated with the same respect as those who are descended from "pure" Iron Warriors gene-stock. Deemed a necessity due to circumstances, these second-class warriors are not considered true Scions of Perturabo by the warband's ancient veterans who fought by the Iron Lord's side during the Horus Heresy. Despite their mixed heritage, it is possible for a half-breed to rise in rank or prestige, but it is often extremely difficult, as all but a few their brothers will often hold some measure of resentment against them for their impure genetic lineage.

## Warband Organisation

The Merciless warband's organisation is abnormally orderly for a Heretic Astartes formation. They move as one, operating as an extremely cohesive, well-integrated and highly disciplined, unstoppable force. To facilitate command-and-control over their forces, the warband is organised into a number of large formations known as Grand Companies. Each of these formations are commanded by a Chaos Lord who bears the bygone Iron Warriors' title of Warsmith. These formidable warriors are champions of the Ruinous Powers - granted the boons of various malefic abilities, mutations and hell-forged weapons, to help them prosecute their neverending Long War against the armies of the 'Corpse Emperor'. Warsmiths are extremely cunning tacticians and superbly gifted in the arts of combat engineering and are often accompanied by a sizable force of slave-mechanicians to perform their Grand Company's more menial work. These Grand Companies are often divided into component detachments led by a lesser Chaos Champion, often operating in multiple of three.

The bygone formation of the Grand Company was once comparable to a Chapter in size, numbering 1,000 Astartes, but after ten millennia of ceaseless warfare and battlefield losses, the size of these Grand Companies now vary greatly. Imperial savants are unable to determine how many Grand Companies exist at any given time, but like many of the larger Traitor Legions, the current organisation of the Merciless is often completely non-standard compared to their Loyalist counterparts.

### Warband Combat Doctrine

"*Warriors create themselves through trial and error, pain and suffering, and their ability to conquer their own faults.*"
—Anonymous
In battle, the Merciless prefers a simple, yet effective, modus operandi. Utilising every heavy weapon at their disposal - barrage cannons, surface-burning ordnance, short-burn incendiaries and electromagnetic pulse-bomblets - they usually commence an assault with a sustained artillery bombardment on the enemy's positions in accordance to complex fire plans. This ensures each weapon is directed with the utmost care at the optimum target for maximum effect. When possible, the Merciless will often coordinate with a Traitor Titan Legion in order to add the considerable firepower of these deadly god-engines they can bring to bear, in order to obtain the maximum amount of damage.

The Merciless also utilise its many war machines as support for individual detachments and Grand Companies, but also field large units of heavy battle tanks as distinct units. These formations can range in size from squadrons of less than a half dozen vehicles to company-sized formations comprised of scores of vehicles. These armoured formations vary enormously, some of which are committed to frontal assaults and breakthrough actions while others are utilised for wide flanking manoeuvres.

In battle, the Merciless are also known for their abilities for close-range, brutal engagements as well, where their relentless firepower can be brought to its fullest effect. Individual Merciless Heretic Astartes are often armed with a mighty bolter, plasma gun or other such ranged weapon, as well as a close-combat power weapon or chain weapon. These weapons give them a fearsome aspect and allows them to be terrifyingly adept at both ballistic warfare and close-range melee battle.

Often, they will bring the enemy to battle, holding them in place, allowing the enemy to smash themselves against the body of the Warband's forces, while reserve forces of mechanised armour encicles them, before closing in to create a withering crossfire that eviscerates the heart of the foe's resistance. The warband's preference on the emphasis of artillery and mechanised warfare ensures that the Merciless are nigh unstoppable in the realm of siege warfare and armoured advances on enemy territory.

When conducting defensive operations, where possible, the Merciless will utilise field fortifications to occupy the maximum number of opponents while using the absolute minimum number of warriors. To accomplish this, they make extensive use of Castellan Rhinos - an ancient specialised siege variant of the comparable Rhino armoured personnel carrier. The Castellan Rhino features unfolding armour plates and impact bracing that turns them into miniature bunkers, whose modular construction allows the Castellan Rhinos to be linked together in a chain, forming a makeshift fortified line when materials for more permanent emplacements are unavailable or a defence has to be fashioned quickly. This allows the Merciless to deploy many Castellan Rhinos to encircle fortifications and cities quickly in an impenetrable defensive line utilising the least amount of warriors. This in turn keeps the bulk of the Merciless fresh and available for assaults, and allows them to achieve superiority elsewhere.

## Warband Beliefs

Like their Iron Warriors forebears, the Merciless are resolute in their beliefs that the Emperor thoroughly used their Legion as cannon fodder, to fight the bloodiest and most brutal conflicts during the 'Great Crusade'. Once the Imperium's objectives were obtained, they were disregarded like broken blades - unremarked and unremembered. The Merciless see themselves like the Titans of ancient Old Earth legends; running amok in the universe, reaving and pillaging and spreading chaos wherever they go, superbly confident that there is no natural or man-made force that can halt their advance. Though they honour the Ruinous Powers as a pantheon, the Merciless are not beholden to any one Chaos God and are not truly devout themselves, preferring to utilise the Octed as a tool rather than paying the Dark Gods proper obeisance.

## Notable Merciless

* **Warsmith Torian, "The Iron Butcher"** - Torian, the so-called '*Iron Butcher*', is a merciless and cold-hearted Warsmith of the **Merciless**, a breakaway splinter warband of Iron Warriors. A sadistic and ruthless commander, he is also a brutal tactician, and in the realm of ordnance and siege he is nearly unrivaled in this arena of warfare. Torian was part of the first intake of Legionaries for the IV Legion from the Iron Warriors' former homeworld of Olympia and was utterly devoted to the Lord of Iron. He would later take part in some of the most notable campaigns of the Great Crusade and subsequent Horus Heresy. Following the defeat of the Traitor Legions during the Siege of Terra, Warsmith Torian would help strategize and plan the infamous campaign of vengeance that would come to be known as the Iron Cage, against the IV Legion's hated rivals, the Imperial Fists. Later, during the latter centuries of M34, the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion would fall into internecine conflict, known as the Dispute of Iron, that saw the formation of several splinter factions from the Iron Warriors, one of which would be the notorious Chaos Warband known as the Merciless, led by Warsmith Torian. This warband would go on to survive into the modern era and continue to plague the realm of Mankind, sowing death and destruction wherever they go.

## Warband Fleet

The Merciless have existed as a fleet-based warband designed to operate solely as a warfleet. The warband functions exclusively on a much rarer operational strategy for its warfleet known as the 'Nomad-Predation' pattern. This pattern utilised by the Merciless has matured over the millennia when operating beyond the Eye of Terror for prolonged ages of time. The Nomad-Predation pattern has allowed the Merciless to be an entirely sovereign force that could sustain itself without any support whatsoever.The Merciless are ever vigilant, and are always ready for battle which is why they have chosen to remain a highly mobile, fleet-based warband.

The warband fleet of the Merciless is known to contain the following starships:

## Warband Appearance

The Merciless do not accept mutation among their ranks as willingly as some of the other Traitor Legions, instead choosing to remove the corrupted limbs and replace them with powerful, infallible cybernetics, as do the Loyalist Iron Hands. The Merciless are more likely to have extensive cybernetics than they are to have fleshy mutations, more likely to become one with their weapons than with the daemons of the Ruinous Powers like other Heretic Astartes.

This is consistent with their beliefs, as they are not devout worshipers of the Chaos Gods like some of the other Traitor Legions, instead honouring their power and using the benefits offered by allegiance to Chaos to empower themselves rather than worshiping it. Due to a few Chaotic corruptions in their gene-seed, they often suffer from deformed limbs, but this too is usually corrected with cybernetics. They retain their Primarch's cold intelligence, paranoia, dark skin and dark eyes, and are noted for a preference for technological methods of warfare.

Mark III Iron Power Armour is a common sight amongst the ranks of Perturabo's Traitors, as are the weapon patterns and configurations dating back to the zenith of Perturabo's contribution to the Great Crusade.

### Warband Colours

Prior to the Horus Heresy, the Merciless wore silver Power Armour, trimmed with gold. This has changed very little in the millennia since save to display iconography with Chaotic symbolism, such as the golden Iron Halo. The Merciless wear largely black Power Armour of a deep metallic hue marked with yellow and black industrial symbols. They care little for trophies and embellishments, instead preferring to prove their strength and prowess through acts of large-scale destruction. Though each warband wears markings of allegiance to their Chaos Champion, these are scoured off and repainted whenever circumstance dictates that a change of loyalty would be advantageous.

In the Time of Ending, the colours of the Merciless tend to be muted and black metallics, weathered by the aeons and heavily scarred by the rigours of battle. Much could be said of the souls of those who wear such wargear, for the Merciless never forget the inequities that befall them, using them as fuel for the fires of their hatred.

### Warband Badge

The Warband's badge is that of an iron mask formed into a shape of a skull that is superimposed over the symbol of a golden Iron Halo. Both before and after the Horus Heresy, Merciless often painted and continue to paint their weapons and other heavy equipment with black and yellow construction chevrons to emphasize their tendency to construct their own fortifications while demolishing their enemies'.

### Enemies

#### Imperial Fists

There have been many engagements throughout the long millennia against their most hated foe - the Imperial Fists, for the Merciless will stop at nothing to wipe out these bastard sons of Dorn for the grievous act that dishonored them. How Rogal Dorn considered the IV Legion second-rate at best, and how his defences would hold against anyone, an insult they would never forget or forgive. The Merciless' hatred for these treacherous curs knows no bounds, and they will stop at nothing to completely eradicate these lap dogs of the 'False Emperor'.

#### Steel Harbingers

The **Steel Harbingers** are an ancient and venerable Space Marine Chapter created during the 3rd Founding at the dawning of the 32nd Millennium. This Founding took place following the tragic era of the Age of Darkness during the Horus Heresy, the subsequent Great Scouring and the sundering of the Legiones Astartes into separate Chapters. Steel Harbingers have move to counter the Merciless whenever the two forces meet and it is not well known that the Steel Harbingers call them fallen brethren.

### By The Merciless

"*I know of no higher fortitude than stubbornness in the face of overwhelming odds.*"
—Anonymous
"*This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die!*"
—Anonymous
*Feel free to add your own*
### About The Merciless

 Tzeentch Warbands
 Nurgle Warbands
 Slaanesh Warbands
 Chaos Undivided Warbands
 Malice Warbands
 Minor Chaos God-Aligned Warbands

[Source]

## Gallery

A Chaos Havoc of the Merciless operating a relic Reaper Autocannon