Iron Hands - The Tempering: These events drove the Iron Hands to despair as they returned to Medusa. This despair soon turned to anger against the Chaos Space Marines and the other Traitor Legions, an anger which the Iron Hands began to use as a driving force to recover from the trauma of the Drop Site Massacre. The fractured Iron Hands Legion, reduced to a shadow of its former strength, reeled from the monstrous blow dealt to them. Terrible scars were left upon the Legion's collective soul, and many among their number remained in denial about the death of their Primarch. A gathering of clans and Iron Fathers on Medusa formed a new council to rule the Iron Hands now that the Primarch was "lost". It was decided that no single individual would ever rule over the Iron Hands again. Instead, the Iron Council was fully established as the Iron Hands' new ruling body. It now fell to the Iron Council's members to collectively direct the fate of their brothers, and to consider their Legion's greater purpose and responsibilities. While many Imperial factions bayed for blood and rushed to vent their fury upon those who had betrayed them, the Iron Hands gathered their strength on Medusa and convened the entire Iron Council in a conclave that would be known forever after as the Tempering. It went without saying that vengeance would be their first and greatest motivator, for their Legion had suffered more than any other during the bloodbath of the Heresy. Yet anger could not be allowed to rule, for by following such a path the mistakes of the Primarch would be repeated. Instead, the Iron Hands would have to calculate the most logical, measured course of action and follow it without remorse or division.The debate ran long, solar days turning to weeks as all possible theories, doctrines and philosophies were discussed and dissected to an obsessive degree. Occasional outbursts of frustration or angry recriminations punctuated the discussion, each being met with universal disapproval and swift repression. The Primarch had bound the Iron Hands' wellspring of wrath in chains of discipline and expectation, and though his own emotions might have slipped their leash at the end, the Iron Hands could little afford to allow the same thing to happen to them. Eventually, as the 86th Medusan day-cycle came to a close, the rulings of the Iron Council were announced and put into immediate effect.The Iron Fathers of the council had determined that it was the Human race itself that was to blame for the Heresy. The Warmaster Horus' rebellion had gained such traction only because the Space Marine Legions, the Primarchs, even the Emperor Himself, were unable to eliminate human inconsistency from their decisions. Jealousy, avarice, fear -- all were suppurating sores upon the human soul that must be seared clean in the fires of war. Trust, too, had played its part, for it was the Primarchs' trust in one another that had left the Imperium open to the abuses it had suffered.Those guilty of such weakness, the Traitors and Renegades who had fallen into rebellion, could not be allowed to spread their corruption to others. Humanity must be purged of its flaws in a war unending, lest that same weakness be allowed to take root once more. So it was that the Iron Hands determined their guiding mission. They would extract payment for the wrongs done to them, but with a measured ruthlessness. In their every thought and deed, they would seek out weakness and destroy it, replacing it with the machine-like fortitude that they so venerated.The Clan Companies took ship that night, forged into unstoppable strike forces and distributed against the most appropriate foes as determined by pure logic. This was the beginning of a bloody campaign that would see the Iron Hands tested to the very limits of their endurance.Unbeknownst to the wider Imperium, the Tempering also played host to several Adeptus Mechanicus envoys -- with their Primarch lost, the Iron Fathers sought new strength to add to their own. The Priesthood of Mars and their Titan Legions had long fought beside the Iron Hands during the days of the Great Crusade and the Heresy alike, forging ever stronger bonds as they did so. In the devotees of the Omnissiah, the Iron Hands saw a mirror of their own doctrine of steel over flesh, a reliable ally who would not fall prey to hubris and pride as had the preening braggarts of the Emperor's Children.The Iron Council thus deemed it logical to offer the Adeptus Mechanicus closer military ties than ever before. In exchange for the Iron Hands' alliance and protection, the Martian Priesthood would grant them unprecedented access to the sacred mysteries of the Omnissiah, augmenting their Techmarines' knowledge far beyond that possessed by their counterparts in the other Legions of the Legiones Astartes. By the Tempering's end, the Voice of Mars would be ratified as an official position upon the Iron Council itself, and would be occupied evermore by a triad of senior Tech-adepts.