Towards the end of the Age of Strife, the Emperor crafted 20 magical clone babies that he called Primarchs. The forces of Chaos didn’t like the Emperor very much, so they kidnapped his magical clone babies and threw them randomly all over the galaxy, and the Emperor had all kinds of adventures finding them again. This thread is about the fourth magical clone baby the Emperor recovered – Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the 10th Legion.

The two biggest things I need you to know about Ferrus Manus (Latin for Iron Hand) are that 1) he had hands encased in a strange iron-like substance and 2) that he named his legion the Iron Hands. Let it sink in for a moment; you may be forming some preconceptions about Ferrus. You are probably right.

When Chaos punted this particular magical clone baby out of the nursery, he landed on a planet named Medusa IV. Medusa IV was, even then, categorized as a ‘waste world’ – a post-industrial world stripped of all resources. The continent he landed on was roamed by devolved, hostile artificial intelligences. One of these artificial intelligences, in the shape of a great worm, was destroying and laying waste to the few settlements and creations humanity still had left on the planet. Young Ferrus swore he would never stop hunting the monster until it was dead; he kept his word, “drowning” the beast in magma, its body coating Ferrus’ hands and forearms and giving him his name.

We’ll skip over the Emperor finding his lost little son. Suffice to say, there was a battle, legends say it leveled mountains, eventually the Emperor bested Ferrus, yadda yadda yadda. What’s interesting is how his brothers, the ones who turned to Chaos, seemed to be obsessed with him. They all had mean nicknames for him; they went out of their way to kill him, specifically; his Brother Horus even took Ferrus’ skull and mounted it on his throne and would loudly and publicly complain to it about how all Horus’ generals were genocidal madmen and grasping tyrants instead of men of honor like Ferrus was. Most of those who remember those days think it was a sign of Horus’ madness, but I personally think Horus was being really passive-aggressive.

Later, one of the traitor magical clone babies, Fulgrim, would order his chief scientist, Fabius Bile, to create a clone of Ferrus Manus, and asked him to betray the Emperor with him. Clone Ferrus said no. Fulgrim killed him. He had Fabius create another clone. Clone Ferrus 2 said no. Fulgrim killed him. Rinse and repeat, literally hundreds of times.

Don’t YOU go nuts, Avocados. Be nice, have fun, follow the rules, and don’t clone your dead siblings in the hopes of them turning out differently.