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Well since my post about speculation into what happened before the Age of Strife got moved to here, I might as well take a stab at doing something. I'll apologize for my writing now. The Men of Iron is a term that was used by the Terran Cofederation (a placeholder name, I was a Confed pilot long before 40k) in propaganda broadcasts regarding their AI forces. It was taken up in the millennia to follow to brand the mechanical demons of a forgotten age. What the Men of Iron were were strong AIs created through virtual cortexes, which mimicked human brains. Virtual cortexes could be installed into a variety of frames besides military ones which ranged from industrial labor to human services. The AIs created with the cortexes were far more versatile than the previous weak AI robots that came before. Naturally numerous safety protocols, ethical programs, and kill switches were installed in every cortex so that none of their free thinking machines from turning on their creators. The Synthetics, as they were commonly called, could generally be found in three different categories. Service models saw to jobs requiring regular human interaction from a sales clerk at a shop, personal assistants, to seedier rolls. These synthetics were covered in a life like bio-dermis that would fool anyone if not for the general practice of manufacturers putting their logs on the forehead of their synthetics. Labor models were by far the most numerous and didn't require the same level of human interaction. Their frames were designed for industrial manufacturing, zero-G construction, to toxic waste cleanup. Finally there were the military frames that fought humanity's wars. These were heavily armored constructs with built in advanced weaponry. It is interesting to note that virtual cortexes had trouble functioning in non-humanoid forms as they mimicked the human brain so well that not having a humanoid form became disconcerting to the AI. This would lead arms manufacturers to develop large humanoid war machines over more practical ones. Humanity became completely dependent upon their synthetics. They had created a slave race that was guaranteed to serve happily and faithful, no matter what indignity the synthetics were put through. Humanity believed that the failsafes were perfect in the synthetics and yet they modeled the virtual cortex on a human brain which can overwrite and circumvent areas based on stimuli and experiences. Humanity should have realized what was coming but arrogance kept them from seeing synthetics as thinking beings rather than machines. Well that's some basic framing. I need sleep