Iron Hands - Chapter Gene-Seed: The extreme hatred the Iron Hands hold for the weaknesses of the flesh is believed to gloss over an underlying psychological fear of their physical form. As an Iron Hands Space Marine matures, that hatred and fear grows ever stronger, resulting in more extreme mechanisations of the Astartes' body.It is unclear from where this fear may originate, though many in the Adeptus Mechanicus believe that the source is a flaw in the gene-seed of the Chapter that originated some time after the death of their Primarch on Istvaan V. This flaw seems to be controlled or at the very least made moot by the increasing mechanical augmentations Iron Hands Astartes undergo.Despite their own opinions to the contrary, the Iron Hands are still Human beings, however augmented, and they share the full range of blessings and curses of that particular state. Among the psychological states that afflict Mankind are those in which a healthy subject comes to harm himself.A person lets himself waste away through neglect, or cuts his own flesh, or desires to have limbs amputated where no wound has been inflicted. The image he has of his body is distorted, and it is difficult for others to understand such an impulse, since they can have no insight into what he sees when he stands before a mirror.The body of a Space Marine is the most perfect Human form ever created, given every augmetic aid known to the Adeptus Mechanicus. Nothing can be compared to it in power and facility. An ordinary Human could not imagine what degree of mental trauma would be required for a Human to give up such a gift, to mutilate themselves and replace their priceless gene-forged heritage with mechanical parts.Those of the Machine Cult take ordinary bodies of flesh and blood and improve upon them. They do so because they desire to improve on what they were born with. The Iron Hands cannot make their bodies better, since they are already nearly perfect expressions of the Human form. Nevertheless, they choose to amputate their limbs in favour of metal parts and aspire to the state of machine-hood.They do so because they fear their flesh. They look at it in the mirror of their minds and they see something loathsome. This condition gets worse the longer they serve as Astartes. Some individual Battle-Brothers of the Chapter recognise this as the flaw that it is, while others do not. Eventually this compulsion claims them all.There is a myth, a rumour, still repeated amongst the Tech-priests of Mars, that the Iron Hands' Primarch knew of this weakness and wished to purge it. Many within the senior circles of the Mechanicus had seen scrolls, purportedly written in the hand of Ferrus Manus, that stated the matter clearly. No one knew if these scrolls were genuine. Even if Ferrus intended it, he died long before he could accomplish it.The Iron Hands no longer place trust in their gene-wrought perfection. They do not see the universe in the way that most of Humanity does. When an Imperial ally advocates a course of action that seems prudent -- to slow the pace of the attack, to conserve strength, to protect their exposed flanks -- they see only weakness. It reminds them of their own inherent bodily weakness, and so they recoil from it, unaware that their own morbid fear of weakness is in fact the most obvious expression of that which they so fear.The Iron Hands Chapter has become increasingly reclusive and hostile towards outside interference since the Horus Heresy. Though the Inquisition continually investigates the Iron Hands, the Chapter bears such scrutiny with unconcealed disdain. Strangely, the Inquisition does not appear very concerned with the Iron Hands Chapter's many deviations from standard Adeptus Astartes and Imperial practice.Despite having apparently identified some aberrations within the Iron Hands, the Inquisition has chosen not to act against them, seeing their existence as a useful way to later enforce their will upon the Chapter, if necessary. The Inquisition seems to have decided the flaws within the Iron Hands are not particularly dangerous to the Imperium and the effectiveness of the Iron Hands as defenders of the Imperium cannot be questioned.The peculiar traits of the Iron Hands have precluded the Adeptus Mechanicus from making use of the Chapter's gene-seed in new Foundings and so only a few other Iron Hands Successor Chapters have been created in the centuries since the Horus Heresy.