The tragedies of the Horus Heresy - Riven

Caught in the intricate plans of the four Chaos Gods, the Thousand Sons unwillingly became puppets of Tzeentch. Even worse, most became hollow armoured automatons with the former inhabitants' souls bound to them after the desperate attempts of several powerful sorcerers among the legion to overcome the Flesh Change. Their trademark soulless nihilistic chant, "All is dust," chills the morale of the foes facing the hollowed power armoured giants walking towards them in a robotic fashion with bolters unleashing a salvo of bolts coated in etheric fire.

 

Even among loyalists, however, there are those who have literally, "turned the keys to Hel," after witnessing the death of their beloved genesire on the fields of Istvaan V: the massacre ground where 3 legions were shattered upon the anvil of betrayal established between the Arch traitor and his embittered brother Primarchs. 

The Iron Hands have always striven to temper the weakness of their flesh by the ways of the iron and the cold precision of logic. The most pronounced qualities of the flesh being the ever burning furnace of passion and rage within each legionary mirroring the Gorgon's, which reached critical temperature once the betrayal by those they once called brothers in Third Legion came into light. The Gorgon nearly prevented the name of Fulgrim being sullied by taking his head off. Unfortunately, it was the Ferrus himself who found his head on the ground by the foul magic of the Slaaneshi daemon that took control over Fulgrim's arm. 

The book Riven shows us the aftermath of Ferrus Manus being slain in battle. A dream has died. Even the protagonist Crius, Iron Father of the Iron Hands and member of the Crusader Host, can feel the inexplicable emptiness in his soul a galaxy away from the planet upon which his father fell.

The Iron Hands have lost a shining paragon to which they could look to. Some Iron Hands would later go to extremities to exterminate their flesh, only to find out that they are nothing without their souls following the Gaudinian Heresy. Unfortunately, others, who fell upon Istvaan V, have risen again through tampering with the cybernetic resurrection technology forbidden by their father and unlocked by Phidias. To the dead of Istvaan V, tempering the flesh no longer matters to them. Most of their former selves was lost in the transference process, but it is sufficient to keep them going in this hell, where hatred and the need for vengeance against the traitors has consumed them. It is all that matters now.

‘The way of iron, the logic of the machine – it was meant to make us strong, to raise us above flesh.’ Athanatos paused, and when his voice came again there was rage in the dead, electric drone. ‘But it was a lie. Iron can shatter, logic can be flawed and ideals can fail.’   

- Riven -