Iron Dragons

"Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking!"

- Pyre Warden Phaestos Vry'kir

The Iron Dragons are an ancient and honourable Loyalist Space Marine Chapter that was created during the 3rd Founding in 001.M32. Due to their similar heraldry, chthonic traditions, beliefs and practices, the Iron Dragons are suspected to have been created from the lineage of the venerable Salamanders of Nocturne. Like their supposed forebears, the Iron Dragons are also well known for their similar humane treatment and concern for the lives of innocent citizens of the Imperium as their supposed Progenitors. However, their divergent beliefs in the Promethean Cult and reverence for their Primarch Vulkan above all else, whose Chapter cult is centered around his worship, is considered unseemly by the Salamanders and not in keeping with their Primarch's original teachings.

Like their supposed genetic forebears, the Iron Dragons pride themselves on achieving victory in the face of overwhelming odds and have earned a reputation for doing so, no matter the odds stacked against them. However, this reputation has only be achieved because the Iron Dragons will only take to the field of battle when portents deem the outcome of a particular campaign or battle will be favourable to the Chapter. These prognostications are achieved through the use of an ancient practice known as ' Reading the dragon-bones ' by the Chapter's Chaplains, known as Pyre Wardens, whom they believe receive portents from the spirit of their Primarch Vulkan. Due to these limitations of when they can seek out battle, when they do so, it leads the Iron Dragons to fight with the absolute conviction of zealous fanatics, which does not sit well with some Imperial commanders and Chapter Masters of other, more Codex-oriented Chapters.

Almost nothing else is known about this Chapter in official Imperial records other than that they have continuously stood firm in their beliefs as paragons of strength, honour and resolution in accordance to the legacy of their Primarch.

Chapter History
"We will not settle this by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood!"

- Irondrake Sergeant Karnis Zu'ul

The origins of the Iron Dragons harken back to the dawn of the 32nd Millennium. They believe they are one of a handful of supposed Successor Chapters of the venerable and heroic Salamanders. Since their inception the Iron Dragons have continued to foster the belief that their gene-seed is indeed linked back to ' The Promethean Fire ' himself, the great Primarch Vulkan. The Chapter takes extreme pride in their genetic inheritance despite the fact their supposed Progenitors have never formally acknowledged them as such. This does not bother them in the least as they have continued to practice the tenets of their genetic forebears' Promethean Cult, conducting themselves honourably as any true Scion of Vulkan would.

Chapter Homeworld
Drakonis

Officer Ranks

 * Fire Lord - Chapter Master equivalent.
 * Lord Arcanist - Chief Librarian equivalent.
 * Arcanist - Librarian equivalent.
 * High Warden - Reclusiarch equivalent.
 * Pyre Warden - Chaplain equivalent.
 * Forge Master - Master of the Forge equivalent.
 * Forge Wright - Techmarine equivalent.
 * Irondrake Champion - Chapter or Company Champion equivalent.

Specialist Formations

 * Irondrakes - The Irondrakes are those veteran warrior elite of the Iron Dragons. To be granted this exalted status, mere skill-at-arms is not enough alone, as a warrior must prove to possess faultless bravery and just as importantly, faultless self-control.
 * Storm Proven - These are the Chapter's elite breacher assault elements who specialise in ship-borne and 'forlorn hope' objective assaults. They often deploy at the spearhead of any attack, or as the core of any defensive line. Given this onerous duty, it is a position of honour to be chosen to fight among their ranks in the Chapter. Induction is only granted after a gruelling series of trials which culminates with the hunting of one of Drakonis' legendary saurians and the forging of a shield incorporating the beast's resilient scales and iron hard bones.
 * Pyroclasts - A bygone specialist position formerly used by the XVIII Legion of old during the Great Crusade and the dark days of the Horus Heresy. The Iron Dragons have continued this tradition of utilising these elite devastator marines who specialise in the use of extremely powerful thermal and incendiary weaponry devised by their Chapter's master artificers.
 * Drake Shields - Selected from amongst the finest warriors and craftsmen of their companies have to offer, these Terminator armoured elite serve as the personal bodyguards of the Chapter's company commanders. These indomitable fighters stand as the embodiment of the principles of the Promethean Cult, having invariably won many honours which are then engraved and crafted onto their finely wrought, master-crafted suits of Terminator Armour. These Chapter relics are eventually passed down to their elite descendants who continue to honour their ancestors by adding additional ornamentation and decoration to celebrate their victories.

Chapter Gene-Seed
The Iron Dragons have long been suspected of being a Successor Chapter of the Salamanders due to their similar, larger-than-normal physiques and similar physical mutations. The Iron Dragons' gene-seed appears to be both stable and as yet uncorrupted. They also possess more notable physical mutations similar in appearance to the Salamanders, which is also part of what gives rise to the suspicion of this venerable Chapter being the Progenitors of the Iron Dragons. This variant in their gene-seed, however, results in a much-remarked "ember-like" bioluminescence to their eyes and a tendency for skin pigmentation to permanently darken in response to prolonged exposure to high levels of potentially harmful radiation as part of their biological defence mechanism, often adopting an unnatural granite-like or obsidian quality with sufficient exposure. This is a result of a genetic mutation in the DNA of the Chapter's Melanochrome organ, a flaw that is only known to affect the gene-seed of the Salamanders, thus, giving rise to the rumours of the Iron Dragons' true heritage.

Chapter Combat Doctrine
The tactical doctrine of the Iron Dragons uses close-quarters combat, shock tactics, and focused force to obliterate their foes. The Dragons deploy as line troops, unleashing their strength where it is the most thickest.

The Iron Dragons tend to use a greater number of plasma and melta weapons to burn their foes, blasting through the enemy and frying whole swaths of infantry. Also the emphasis on craftsmanship on Crystallos means the Iron Dragons can create and maintain a significant number of advanced technologies and the Chapter has access to a great many suits of Terminator and Artificer Armor, Thunder Hammers and Master-Crafted weapons, made possible by their skill at artifice and their rich mineral resources, and it is this capability that gives the Dragons a great deal of trading power with the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Chapter Recruitment
Though the Iron Dragons still draw many recruits from their home world of Darkonis, though they typically draw the majority of their recruits from a variety of different Imperial planets, mainly from the two forge moons located adjacent to their Chapter home world. Representatives of the Iron Dragons visit each recruiting world once within a normal human's lifetime. Initiates are chosen through a bi-annual process of the strongest juveniles from the population.

Each Aspirant is thoroughly screened, his past becomes irrelevant. Once the recruit is accepted he will undergo the normal rites to become a Space Marine. However, should he fail, he will be made into an Intendant to carry out the labourious tasks of the Chapter.

The Prophecies of the Flames
"Wheresoever is found the craft of the forge, the avatar of our lord Vulkan has power, even in the works of the enemy, even in the flesh of the enemy where it has felt the touch of the forge. So he turned foe to the cause of righteousness."

- Words of Cassian Dracos, the "Twice-Dead," excerpt taken from The Prophecies of the Flames

Many of the teachings and beliefs adhered to by the Iron Dragons come from the ancient tome known as ' The Prophecies of the Flame '. This tome is comprised of the sacred words of the hero of Isstvan, Cassian Dracos - the "Fallen Master", the "Twice-Dead" and "The Avatar of the Sacred Flame" - the first Lord Commander of the XVIII Legion before their reunification with their Primarch Vulkan on Nocturne. During the Dropsite Massacre of Isstvan V he would survive where most of his Legion had perished. His tale would become intermingled with the famed vessel, Ebon Drake, alongside which he would return to the battlefields of the 31st Millenium. The initial words and later pronouncements of Cassian Dracos were recorded both by the Ebon Drake ' s vox system and in the personal logs of many of the crew, and later assembled by the hand of the "Prophet of Fire" - the notable Chaplain-Lieutenant Xiaphus Jurr - into the tome now referred to as the ' The Prophecies of the Flames '. This tome would be deemed both seditious and of extreme mortal danger during the Great Scouring, but some few copies still remained and were secretly disseminated amongst the ranks of the more zealous battle-brothers of the Salamanders Legion and passed down to subsequent generations of Salamanders.

The Prophecies of the Flames would become the core of the creed promulgated by Xiaphus Jurr and was adopted by the so-called Disciples of the Flames, the band of Legiones Astartes who followed him during the Horus Heresy. In the wake of the revelations bestowed upon the company of the Ebon Drake at Isstvan V by Cassian Dracos, a stark change overcame its complement of Legiones Astartes. Many began to adopt the obscure divinatory practice of their commander Xiaphas Jurr's home world of Proximal, affixing Nocturnean charms and prayer scrolls to their armour, while others covered the original heraldry of their armour with devotional scenes depicting the Primarch or Cassian Dracos, who many consider his avatar. This practice is still observed by the warriors of the Iron Dragons Chapter today.

Promethean Cult
Since their inception, the Iron Dragons have followed the tenets and ritual practices of the Promethean Cult. These are the teachings of the Primarch Vulkan first set down in written form and codified, becoming the formal body of doctrine that was actively promoted for the spirit of the XVIII Legion following the Primarch's reunification with his lost sons. Since that time those of Vulkan's get have continued to follow the tenets of this doctrine, whose core beliefs at the heart of this cult's ritual practices states that the Adeptus Astartes are living weapons, created in both physical and spiritual form to protect and liberate all of humanity. The Iron Dragons take to heart Vulkan's teachings of self-reliance, awareness, duty, loyalty, patience, self-sacrifice and, above all, self-discipline and endurance.

Like their genetic forebears, the Iron Dragons also practice similar trials of strength and endurance, for the Chapter's Pyre Wardens espouse their forebear's beliefs that both determination and the ability to endure any hardship is another principle tenet to be rigorously adhered to, as taught by the Primarch himself. Often, battle-brothers will make use of ritual scarring or branding during training and relative times of peace, when there are a few quiet moments for self-reflection and mediation between campaigns. Though some detractors point out that these practices are both barbaric and border on superstitious idolatry contrary to the Imperial Faith, the Iron Drakes and other supposed Salamanders Successors have pointed out that the Promethean Cult has never promoted the worship of any gods, for its fundamental tenet is that it is Mankind's manifest destiny to inherent the known galaxy as their rightful domain. The Iron Dragons possess strong contempt for all those people of the Imperium that worship the Emperor of Mankind as a 'god', and on more than one occasion have refused to help the Inquisition or the Ecclesiarchy due to their zealous beliefs in the divinity of the 'God-Emperor'. This behaviour has given them many high-ranking enemies within the bureaucracy of the Adeptus Terra but also has developed a reputation for the Dragons of favouring steadfast justice and honesty. The Iron Dragons hold true to the memory of the Emperor's wishes that superstition and religion be cast aside by Mankind, though they continue to revere him as the paragon of what humanity should aspire to emulate.

Drakkan-Asca
The ancient Proximan arts of divination and augury is often utilised in a ritual known amongst the Chaper's Pyre Wardens as ' Reading the Dragon-bones ', a bygone and almost forgotten practice that was frowned upon by Vulkan himself, though it was never purged from the Promethean Cult doctrines. This ritual involved the inscribing of questions in archaic Nocturnean upon the bones of Salamander drakes and casting them into the heart of the forge, the patterns of discolouration etched upon the bones by the flames would foreshadow their resolution. Known in the ancient Nocturnean dialects of the northern polar region as the Drakkan-Asca, the ' ' Dragon's Ash Ritual ', a practice that skirts the every edges of Imperial doctrine.

The Iron Dragons' Pyre Wardens adopted this practice from the ancient Salamanders Chaplain-hero, Xiaphas Jurr, the "Prophet of Fire", and are known to rely extensively on the ritual for divination to determine if the portents are favourable to achieve victory. The Iron Dragons will not deploy for battle without consulting the dragon-bones. They rely on the auguries of the Pyre Wardens, considering the prophecies that they deliver as the word of their gene-sire Vulkan. As the Iron Dragons are unusually traditionalist, they often adhere to the practices and beliefs of their native homeworld. When a Battle-Brother prays before going into battle he will speak his own personal litany, often in the tribal dialect of his birth. Warriors of the Chapter are also known to display a variety of tattoos on their arms, chest, and face. This hints at the tribal practices of their homeworld when they were still feral warriors, before their indoctrination into the Adeptus Astartes. Such connections to their prior lives as mortals before ascension to the ranks of the Astartes is actively encouraged. The Iron Dragons are proud of their heritage and those who have come from the Chapter's homeworld tend stoically onto the traditions and practices of their upbringing.

Notable Iron Dragons

 * Fire Lord Zephon Sar'raph - Zephon Sar'raph was the first Chapter Master and patriarch of the Iron Dragons Chapter. He was a Battle-Brother of the Salamanders Legion who had won the Primarch Vulkan's respect countless times during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. Known as much for his massive physical size and prowess as his leadership and tactical expertise, Sar'raph led the Iron Dragons for the first 700 standard years of their existence. One of the more zealous battle-brothers and follower of the Disciples of the Flames, Sar'raph did much to shape their interpretation of the ancient tome known as ' The Prophecies of the Flame ' and their combat doctrines.
 * Fire Lord Tytus Xu'sia - Current Chapter Master Tytus Xu'sia is a renowned Veteran who has fought countless xenos and untold numbers of battles and campaigns throughout the Imperium, receiving great honours. Under his skilled guidance, the Iron Dragons have earned a well deserved reputation for acts of heroism that are equally inspiring and terrifying to behold.
 * Lord Arcanist Pyr'rhos
 * Forge Wrought Ogun - Current Master of the Forge of the Iron Dragons Chapter.
 * High Warden Grannus - Current Reclusiarch and Master of the Faith.
 * Chief Apothecary Logi Iazo - Chief Apothecary of the Iron Dragons Chapter.
 * First Captain Alaz Ba'tyr
 * Irondrake Champion Cacus - Current Chapter Champion.

Chapter Relics

 * Flame of Light - Chain Weapons and Power Weapons are often deadly enough, especially in the hands of the Astartes, but Chapters sometimes modify these weapons to enhance their already impressive effects. One such modified device is known as Flame of Light. This device is an inverse heat sink, which uses the excess power generated by the motor of a chain blade or the charge core of a power weapon to project flame along its edge. When it strikes a target, there is a chance that the weapon will set the target on fire, causing additional damage.


 * Wyrm's Breath - Just as the Iron Dragons know well how to protect themselves from flame, so too are they adept at its use. Many Dragons alter their flamer with unique modifications and upgrades they have learned over a long career.One such modified Flamer has a reputation with the Captain of the 2nd Company.

Chapter Fleet
The vessels that can be confirmed to be in the Iron Dragons' fleet include:


 * Anvil of War (Unknown Battleship) -
 * Great Wyrm (Battle Barge) -
 * Steel Talons (Battle Barge) -
 * Red Reaper (Strike Cruiser) -
 * Sword of Wrath (Strike Cruiser) -
 * Claw (Strike Cruiser)  -
 * Ravage (Destroyer)  -

Chapter Colours
The Iron Dragons primarily wear deep red and silver battle-plate. The helmet, shoulder insets and coutres (elbow guards), vambraces and gauntlets are deep red while the backpack, shoulder pauldron trim, cuisses (thigh armour), poleyns (knee guards), greaves (shin armour) and sabatons (boots) are silver in colour. Their armour is often obscured by patterns of black ash and fire, along with ritual images of the Dragon Revenant and Vulkan. Suspended on chains across their armour are engraved bones and fragments of the armour of the fallen, each an omen of events yet to pass, that were cast in the presence of the High Warden Grannus himself. Battle-Brothers often suspend pages and prayer scrolls from the writings of Xiaphas Jurr's Prophecies of the Flames, some of which are affixed with Nocturnean seals of the Promethean Cult, forged in the fires of Mount Deathfire itself.

By the Iron Dragons
"Facta Non Verba!"

- ("Deeds, Not Words!") Iron Dragons Irondrake Chaplain

"Mors Antequam Ignominiam! Sanguis Eorum Fluat!"

- ('Death before dishonour! Let their blood flow!') Battle-cry of the Iron Dragons' 9th Company during their last stand before being wiped out by Hive Fleet Kraken.