Iron Warriors (Characters)

From Tv Tropes

Characters among the Iron Warriors novel series and background.

Contents 1 Perturabo 2 Honsou 3 The Warsmith 4 Forrix 5 Jharek Kelmaur 6 Etassay 7 Guardsman Hawke

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. The Iron Warriors were eventually relegated to single squads being expected to keep control of planets with millions of inhabitants. Perturabo resented this, and when Olympia rebelled, the Iron Warriors launched a savage reprisal. Soon called to Isstvan V to deal with the beginning of the Horus Heresy, the Iron Warriors defected to the Chaos Space Marines, and later reveled in destroying the ramparts of the Imperial Palace. 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.

• Ascended To A Higher Plane Of Existence.
• Bald Of Evil.
• Bigger Bad.
• Drop The Hammer: Forgebreaker, a hammer forged by Fulgrim for Ferrus Manus, later given to Perturabo by Horus.
• Evil Overlord: As Daemon Prince of Medrengard.
• Hates Everyone Equally: In the end.
• Orcus On His Throne: Hasn't led an attack on the Imperium since ascending to Daemonhood.
• The Resenter: Originally toward Rogal Dorn, but later damn near everyone.
• Serious Business: Damn near everything.
• The Spock: Noted as having a much higher emphasis on logic in all things, a trait shared by the rest of the Iron Warriors.
• The Strategist.
• Well Done Son Guy: Got it from Dammekos but didn't want it, later wanted it from the Emperor and never got it.

Honsou

I have no such impressive titles, human. I am called Honsou. Half-breed, mongrel, filth, scum. I will cross blades with you.

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 his Iron Warriors gene-seed.

• Artificial Limbs: Losses his right arm in the siege.
• Bald Of Evil.
• Berserk Button: Less from the Chew Toy status those around him put him into, and more on confronting those responsible for his heritage. When he actually meets the Imperial Fists, cue Unstoppable Rage and Demonic Possession.
• Bond One Liner: Inadvertently:

  Vauban: Damn you... he whispered.

  Honsou: That happened a long time, human. hissed Honsou, but Vauban was already dead.

• Chainsaw Good: Wields a chainsword.
• Dark Chick: Among the Warsmith's other lieutenants.
• Demonic Possession: Gets possessed by a minor Daemon during the battle for Hydra Cordatus. The Warsmith is impressed. He however realises it was dumb luck that got the thing out of him, and thus spared his life.
• Dragon Ascendant.
• Hair Trigger Temper: At the start of Heraclitus effect, for several reasons.
• Half Breed: And it's why the other captains hate him.
• Hidden Depths.
• Jerkass Façade: To a lot of people. Only through the narrator and maybe Forrix we realise he's more than he lets on.
• Nostalgia Filter: Goes through this after he loses Forrix, Kroeger and the Warsmith and remembers their own Nostalgia Filter.
• Oblivious To Brotherly Acceptance: Forrix has to point out this to him, but he's daft enough not to get the hint even when it's spelled out for him. Forrix leaves rightfully annoyed.
• Second Hand Storytelling: Explains rather clumsily both the events between The Enemy of my Enemy and The Heraclitus Effect, as well as the events from Storm of Iron.
• Self Deprecation: Because all of the centuries, if not millenia of being put down, he doesn't have much self esteem. He compensates by being an ass to anyone close to being an enemy. Even his introductory line is sad, but ends in a Badass manner:

  I have no such impressive titles, human. I am called Honsou. Half-breed, mongrel, filth, scum. I will cross blades with you.

• Self Exile: After some sour events on Medrengard, he realises staying there to build fortresses just to be attacked by his brother who have something to prove will end in wasted life and a work lost.
• The Unchosen One: From all the captains, he's the only one to survive and get the title of Warsmith. Possibly an inversion of the trope, since although he's unlikely and unwilling to become this, The Warsmith groomed him for it for his idealism.
• Villain Protagonist.
• Visionary Villain: Genuinely believes in the dream of Horus of uniting humanity under the power of Chaos to protect it from Xenos threats.
• Well Done Son Guy: Towards the end of Storm of Iron, he receives the Warsmith's approval, to his immense wonder and happiness, as well as the title of Warsmith itself.
• You Are In Command Now: 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. He is planning to capture the gene-seed within to assure his status as a Daemon Prince.

• An Axe To Grind.
• Ascended To A Higher Plane Of Existence: Goes onto become a Daemon Prince.
• Big Bad.
• Bling Of War: Wears Terminator Armour.
• Brown Note: Just looking at him causes nausea in his own underlings. It's because of his transformations.
• Hidden Depths: Before the final battle, he proves A Father To His Men, recognizes Honsou's ability and even has an Honor Before Reason (yet still pragmatic) boast in which he apparently genuinely declares to not consume the souls of his foes if they commit suicide before his army attacks. He is shown to also been one of the few idealists that didn't forget what he fought for, or at least remembered again and gives Honsou his title because he's the closest one with the idealist ambitions still burning in his heart from his captains.
• I'm A Humanitarian: Begins feeding on Progenoids after breaking into the Citadel.
• Karma Houdini.
• Large And In Charge.
• One Winged Angel: Well, he had two and they could fly, but they weren't really material.
• Power Gives You Wings.
• Time Abyss: Originally came from Olympia, and took part in the Great Crusade. He even helped design the Citadel on Hydra Cordatus.

==Kroeger, later, The Avatar of Khorne==

The Captain of the Second Company of the Warsmith's Grand Company. Slowly falling into the grips of Khorne.

• The Berserker: And he doesn't even realize it.
• The Brute.
• Chainsaw Good.
• Dead Person Impersonation: At the middle of the novel, he gets killed off by Larana and the demon in his armour. For the rest of the story, it goes on pretending to be Kroeger, and in the final battle finishes off its "duty" and leaves to other planes to fight until the end of time.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: He gets unceremoniously and offscreen killed off by Larana and the demon in his armor around the half of the story.
• Eye Scream.
• General Failure: Honsou claims this from the beginning about him.
• Names To Run Away From Really Fast: Kroeger is a K Name sounding a lot like Krieg[er] and has that Germanazi sound to it.
  • The Avatar of Khorne.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Let's see: he has a German-ish name, he hates Half Breeds, he's feared from inside his group as a General Failure, he lives in a regime that pits its finest men against each other to enhance their abilities...
• Nice Job Fixing It Villain: He breaks from guarding the Daemon Engines to get his slaughter on.
  • Almost does it before:

  The Warsmith: You would cost me my victory, Kroeger? [...] The servant of the machine with only one hand. He is important to me, Kroeger. And you almost killed him.

• Not Himself: For the last half of the novel, he becomes taciturn and a lot more restrained. Some of his brothers believe he went insane, Honsou tries to talk to him but it almost kills him, and most of the Warsmith's champions are more interested in Xanatos Pileups than crazy Kroeger, but we know The Reveal that Kroeger is dead.
• Paper Thin Disguise with Newspaper Thin Disguise (in the form of his helmet) to boot. The Avatar of Khorne acts Not Himself, doesn't talk to anyone, is close to biting off one of his equals and generally acts Out Of Character long days. The only reason nobody caught on was because Kroeger was a Bad Boss and a Hair Trigger Temper, and presumably The Warsmith knew and didn't say anything because he knew the guy was still useful in the coming battle and his Captains wouldn't have seen it with good eyes.
• Riddle For The Ages: In-universe example on what the hell happened to him. Twice. The audience knows The Reveal that he was killed and replaced by his armor, but his brothers only see "him" go through a portal into other worlds - well, hell knows where is what they see. To add insult to injury, they find a Space Marine corpse in his tent, died for some time, which seemed to be him but dead longer than the Living Armor has been running around with his identity. The narrator subverts this in claiming Honsou is wrong about this trope applying to him.
• Sanity Slippage: Of which most of his brothers are aware of, but few dare talking to him about it.
• Time Abyss: Ironically, Forrix still calls him a newblood. Even he lampshades how ironic it it.
• You Have Failed Me: Vents his frustrations on the Red Shirted human minions. This becomes Fridge Logic when you realise he's a Khorne follower and needs to spill blood often.
• You No Longer Entertain Me.

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.

• Animal Nemesis: With the Titans. Hell, everyone holds the Ahab Ball with the Titans.
• Bifurcated Weapon: A combi-weapon.
• Crowing Moment Of Awesome: Fighting a Warhound with his bare hands and winning.
• The Cynic.
• The Dragon: He's the Warsmith's chief lieutenant.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: After his CMOA, he gets unceremoniously killed by another Warhound to which he has no time to react. Ouch.
• Karmic Death.
• Power Fist.
• Shoot The Shaggy Dog: He's been the Chew Toy for the entirety of the novel, all his plans failed and his hard-worked respect shattered, and he finally has the chance to pull a Crowning Moment Of Awesome by defeating a Warhound, only to be killed by another. For Bonus Effects, even in death he's not recognised his CMOA, as Honsou's Second Hand Storytelling claims he took on a Warhound... and got killed by it.
• Time Abyss.
• You Can't Go Home Again.

Jharek Kelmaur

The Sorcerer of the Warsmith's Grand Company.

• And I Must Scream.
• Bald Of Evil.
• Evil Genius.
• Evil Sorcerer.
• Eye Scream: His eyes have been permanently shown shut.
• Fate Worse Than Death.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness is the official reason the Warsmith gives to turning him into a devolved piece of tentacles, but most likely is You Have Lied To Me.

Etassay

• Dark Chick.
• Dumbass Has A Point: Ends up seeing at one point a tactical opening better than siege masters around him. The irony? He only thinks of it and suggests it for the pleasure the thought of such death gives him and caring generally little for the strategical advantage of such a maneuver.
• Go Out With A Smile: And that's one of the best ways a Chaos Marine (especially a hedonist like himself) can get in death.

  Etassay: Incredible!

• The Hedonist.
• Honor Before Reason: Is implied it's the reason he lost the fight and his life. Still, probably Worth It.
• Punny Name: Would be appropriate to believe it comes from "ecstasy".
• Worthy Opponent: Invokes this trope, waiting for the right warriors to fight.

Guardsman Hawke

• Air Vent Escape.
• Allergic To Routine: Bordering on Tempting Fate.
• Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Just about his entire story, especially since he's a "simple" human.
• Dedication: "To all the Guardsmen Hawkes out there and the idea of getting a second chance. Don't waste it.
• Doomed Protagonist: Well, at least twice subverted.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Possibly the point of his character.
• Earn Your Happy Endings: At the end, he's rescued by the Imperial Fists.
• Failed A Spot Check: Mauve Shirt as he is, he does it repeatedly, though in his defense he acts pretty level-headed for a "mortal" and even manages to take out two Space Marines and inadvertently trick the survivor that he was dead.

  "You just messed with the wrong guy!" he yelled.

  Dust blew in his face, filling his mouth and he angrily spat it clear. Then he-

  Dust? He glanced quickly at the door.

  Oh no...

  • He later gets himself stuck in the tail of a missile and is only saved by dumb luck.
• Grenade Hot Potato: Hawke throws two grenades that were "left at his door" away from him and has time to take rudimentary cover. He survives, but it's revealed that this is barely, as he didn't manage to throw the second.
• Hot Blooded.
• Indy Ploy: Really, half the time he doesn't know what he's doing, but he gets through a lot mostly on luck and good reflexes and observation of the environment.
• Life Or Limb Decision: Takes A Third Option: the other guy's limb, which is conveniently mechanical.
• Madness Mantra: Oh damn, oh damn, oh damn...
  • Later No no no... when a possible escape ship leaves him stranded. He's probably lucky he didn't catch it.
• Mauve Shirt.
• Rebellious Rebel.
• Sir Swears A Lot.
• Spanner In The Works: Proves trouble for the Iron Warriors, and later, his superior calls him this in an entire wrong context.
• Taking You With Me: A Chaos Marine tries to do this to him in the missile hangar. It doesn't work.