The Iron Wardens

[corai]

This is something of a fluff experiment. I'm not convinced I'll ever build an army of these, but I really wanted a chapter I could call my own to sit within the developing background of the Bastion Crusade which a number of local campaigns have adopted. After all this, these may wind up as nothing more than an awful lot of background for a single member of a deathwatch kill team, but I fancied a go at creating a chapter which fit within the established parameters of the 40K lore, but still afforded me the opportunity to play to all the tropes of ancient greek mythology which interests me. I'd hoped to make them suitably different from the Ultramarines, Iron Snakes or Minotaurs whilst still being heavily greek themed. Likewise, I wanted something which would allow me to build the models I wanted without winding up with a Mary Sue chapter which can do no wrong and excells at everything.

 

Accordingly, any feedback is appreciated:

 

++Iron Wardens++

 

Primogenitors: Unknown

Homeworld:  Lemnoth IV (lost). Currently fleet based

Battle Cry: 'For The Emperor!’ (official); ‘Blood of the fifth!’ (unofficial. Adopted subsequent to Calidum Portus Siege)

 

++Chapter History++

 

Origins: Founded at some point prior to the Age of Apostasy, little else is known of the Iron Wardens’ origins. Much was lost during the tumultuous period as Goge Vandire turned the Imperium against itself. Since then, the Iron Warden’s Librarius has attempted to piece together their shattered origins.

 

Whilst, the Legion which provided the Chapter’s Gene-Seed is lost to history, it is recorded that that the newly founded Iron Wardens Chapter were given stewardship of the fourth planet in the Lemnoth system within the Bastion Subsector. Lemnoth IV was an ocean world, with only a equatorial scattering of volcanic islands forming any significant landmass. The indigenous humans (who named themselves the Sintians) are believed to have been a hardy breed, something necessitated by the harsh truths of living on a world of islands. They were tribal in nature and spent much of their time isolated from tribes on other islands leading to a self-reliance and skill at artifice the Adeptus Astartes coveted in their recruits. The first Chapter Master, Haistion is said to have built the Fortress-Monastery in the shadow of Mount Aetnum, the largest of the now dormant volcanos which ringed the world.

 

Haistion passed into legend long before the onset of Vandire’s heresy but the precise date of the Chapter’s founding as well as which official founding – as the High Lords of Terra measure it – is now lost. During the Age of Apostasy, warp storms began which would last until the M41. which effectively cut off the entire Subsector from the Imperium. Much of the Chapter’s fleet was abroad during this period and engaged on a number of fronts in quelling the violence which so defined the period, sparing them from the isolation and possible destruction of their home world.

 

The Loss of Lemnoth was a devastating blow to the Chapter. Not only did it represent a psychological defeat, but many battle-brothers, including the current chapter master, were still stationed at the Fortress-Monastery training the 10^th company to replenish the losses incurred whilst on Campaign during the Age of Apostasy. In one fell swoop the Iron Wardens’ were dispossessed of their ancestral home, their sole recruiting grounds, their chapter master and, most severely, their entire stock of Gene Seed.

 

The Iron Wardens became a fleet based chapter. Unable to swiftly replenish losses at the speed of other chapters, greater emphasis was placed on keeping veteran space marines in the field. The Wardens had always been artificers and tinkerers, content to embellish their wargear and even craft some of their own but now that artistry was turned towards the practice of fashioning bionics to keep their injured Asartes combat ready whilst the Gene Seed stocks were slowly rebuilt aboard the capital ships which now formed the Chapters Headquarters. Likewise, the practice of interring injured warriors beyond even their bionic ability to repair in dreadnought sarcophagi became commonplace.  For many millennia, the only source of new recruits was a scant handful of suitable aspirants snatched away from worlds Liberated by the Iron Wardens. With no planets officially allocated as recruitment worlds, it would be a long and painful march towards recovery for the Chapter.

 

The Schism: Immediately after the outbreak of the Bastion warp storms, the surviving Chapter made shift to a point just beyond the boundary of the Bastion Subsector. Rendezvousing with the disparate parts of their fleet, the company Phylax-Captains, surviving Librarians and company command staff convened what would become known as the Aetnaean Council to decide the future of the Chapter. Severed from the bulk of their resources and suffering grievous losses from the tumultuous period of war, moods were bleak. Some argued that the Gene-Seed losses would never be recovered and the chapter could not continue, the only reasonable course being the launching of a final crusade in the Emperor’s name to ensure they entered the annals of history doing the Emperor’s work. Eventually, a decision was reached. A new Lord-Anax was elected from within the ranks of the remaining Phylax-Captains and the Chapter began the long process of reforging itself into the form it takes today. However, one voice of opposition would not be silenced.

 

Dysseus , Phylax captain of the veteran first company would not forsake his liege-lord or home world and stood defiant. When his claims that his first company rank should ensure him the right of succession to the position of Chapter Master went unanswered hebroke his blood oath to abide by the council’s ruling. Dysseus took his company and plotted a course to Lemnoth. Without access to the Warp, it would take many generations to reach the home world but Dysseus would not be dissuaded. He would place his company in stasis, rotating a single squad at a time for hundred year terms, to maintain the command whilst the human serf crew turned his craft into a generational ship. His brother-captains decried the decision to remove the Chapter’s veteran elite, as well as its entire supply of terminator armour at so fractious a time. Dysseus left a token handful of tactical dreadnought armour suits behind, claiming he would not need them on his voyage and began his quest. His brother-captains watched his vessel leave the ranges of their auspexes from their council chambers. Fire and betrayal in their heart. Since then, the Chapter has maintained no formal first company, and preventing another Phylax-Captain from assuming a position of first-amongst-equals.

 

The Search for Knowledge: In addition to the physical resources housed at the Fortess-Monastary, the loss of Lemnoth also severed the Chapter from the wealth of knowledge and lore which had been gathered within the halls of the Librarius. Most Iron Wardens give little regard for the scholarly pursuits which occupy the Librarians of the Chapter, considering themselves warriors first, last and always. As such, the vast majority of the chapter’s history prior to the Age of Apostasy, including the details of their founding and their Primogenitor Legion, was lost. The Librarians who had been with the various fleet elements at the time the warp storms broke out were able to preserve some knowledge, passing it down to their students as the chapter rebuilt itself and, in time, a new Librarius was sanctified aboard the flagship of the now fleet-based Chapter. But over the millennia, as ships have been lost and Epistolaries have passed into legend, much has been lost. By the time of the forty-first millennium, virtually nothing of the Chapter’s history prior to the loss of Lemnoth remains common knowledge.

 

This does not especially trouble the vast majority of the Chapter who have, over the centuries, become even more taciturn and stoic, an understandable side effect of their grim resolve to see the Iron Wardens reforged after an event which could have so easily broken them. The past is not held in high regard, with the next conflict and next act for the Emperor’s glory being upheld as the driving force of the Chapter. Nevertheless, the Librarius has dedicated itself to retrieving any scrap of data and chasing down any clue which could lead them to uncovering the secrets of their origins. More than once a Librarian has deviated from their mission parameters at the hint of knowledge which could further their understanding of the Chapter’s history. This has led to many Commanders being wary of the Librarians under their command and, it is rare that a Librarian is given overall command of an undertaking. Indeed, even when a Librarian would be the highest ranking Astartes in a given theatre, it is not uncommon for a Dekarchus-Sergeant to be given overall command in his place.

 

Blood of the Fifth: The early years of M41. would provide both a decisive victory, and another harrowing blow to the Iron Wardens. Responding to a distress signal from the Aethean system, the vagaries of the warp had the Chapter arrive too late to be much help. Nearly the entire strength of the Chapter as well as allied Deathwacth forces under Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Rosencrantz converged upon the star system to find it all but overrun by a marauding Ork Waagh. Only one world remained contested, Calidum Portas, an agri world on the Spinward Edge of the system. Determining the system to be beyond saving, the Inquisitor sanctioned Exterminatus. Prideful to the last, the Iron Wardens were unwilling to sacrifice Calidum Portas so readily. Whilst Rosencrantz coordinated half the Chapter fleet in order to position for a system-wide Exterminatus protocol, the remaining half took steps to evacuate the defenders and agri-workers of Calidum Portas. The Entire Fifth company was deployed aboard strike vessels in orbit and in small forces across the surface. Stretched so thin, the Fifth company could not hope to stem the tide of greenskins for long. Instead, they bravely gave their lives to allow the remaining battle companies to evacuate the defenders.  The Fifth died to a man, but their sacrifice so that the Chapter may endure with a valuable new resource would not be in vain. In time, the Fifth was rebuilt but the Iron Wardens ensured they would never forget the sacrifice made at Calidum Portas. From that day hence, the battle-brothers of the Iron Wardens paint the left kneepad of their war plate black – a sign of respect to fallen comrades. Indeed, the selfless defence of the Agri-World has become a legend in its own time, and by the closing days of the forty-first millennium, the official battle-cry of the Iron Wardens has been all-but supplanted with the roar of ‘Blood of the Fifth!’

 

Lemnoth reborn: In the wake of the desperate last stand of the Fifth, the Iron Wardens had lost an entire battle company, but had gained a valuable new resource. Several million refugees were now sequestered aboard the battlebarges and strike cruisers of the Chapter. The Fifth Company had sold their lives dearly, but it had not been for solely humanitarian reasons. More than most Astartes, the Iron Wardens had reason to covet the refugees of Calidum Portas. After many painful millennia, the Chapter had a new pool of humans to recruit from. No longer must the get by on the scraps of worlds, picking one or two suitable candidates from the wreckage of societies. At last they had a makeshift society they could mould in the image of lost Lemnoth.

 

The Refugees were ferried to the Shadow of Aetna one of the largest battlebarges in the Chapter Fleet. With much reticence from the chapters artificers and attached members of the Cult Mecanichus, the grand barge was retrofitted to serve as a tremendous generational ship. The Peoples of Calidum Portas were denuded of their conventions, traditions and societal trappings and forcibly reforged in the image of the Iron Wardens lost ancestral home. Within a generation, the refugees were referring to themselves as New-Sintians.

 

The New-Sintians live aboard the great ‘World-Ship’ the Shadow’ in a tribal, warrior society. Most are not even aware that a world beyond the walls and shafts of the great ship even exist, and the notion of bodies of water or blue skies above are totally alien to them. The Iron Wardens keep the tribes in constant conflict with each other, ensuring that food and supplies are kept sparse so as to encourage the self-reliance and isolation which so defined the lost tribes of Lemnoth. Every few years, the adolescent warriors amongst the tribes are invited to a great Test of Champions within the Oculus Firmament, a great hall shrouded in secrecy on the dorsal-most deck of the ship. No one who has ever entered the hall has returned to his tribe to talk of it, so the wonder at what occurs beyond the great doors give life the myriad myths and legends. Chief amongst these are the theories that the victors of the Test of Champions tournament are invited into the halls of Lympus to walk with the god-soldiers of the Emperor.

 

In truth, the Oculus Firmament was once an observation dome aboard the ship which now serves as the arena the Iron Wardens use in their Trials, to select new aspirants for the transformation into space marines. Housed behind the monolithic Sentinel-Doors, it is spread like a great armourglass blister upon the hull.  It is true that no man returns from the Test of Champions, they either lie dead on the ground, slain in The Trials, or are spirited away to begin the arduous and painful process of becoming one of the Emperor’s chosen Astartes.

 

Those who survive the implantation process will find their new lives beginning in the belly of The Shadow’ in chambers unknown to the New-Sintians set aside for the training fo the fledgling Tenth Company of the Iron Wardens.

The Bastion Crusade: In the latter days of M41. the warp storms which had so long divided the Bastion Subsector from the Imperium finally and, without warning, began to recede. The Imperium wasted no time in declaring a great crusade to reconquer the worlds of Bastion, so long divorced from their Imperial masters and the clarion call went out to every Segmentum of the Imperium for warriors to join the crusade. Seeing a chance to finally recover their long lost home world, or even intercept the deserted First Company, the Iron Wardens wasted no time in adding their Standard to the Astartes Chapters who were backing the crusade. As many companies as could be mustered made shift for the Bastion Subsector, eager to reclaim their gene-sired birth right.

 

++Combat Doctrine++

 

Like all Space Marine Chapters, the Iron Wardens are capable of prosecuting a war using any necessary strategy or tactic. The combat practices of Old Lemnoth and the New-Sintians favour defensive blocks of troops, safe behind high shield walls, or sequestered in cover, forcing the enemy to run through a hail of fire and into a wall of blades and this has translated into the current crop of Iron Wardens Astartes. Any sanctioned to do so will stride to war with a combat, boarding or storm shield strapped to their gauntlet upon which to break their opponents and stand pauldron to pauldron with their brother, defending each other’s flanks in tight, defensive formations.

 

The Concept of the Champion or Hero is central to the warfare of the New-Sintian Tribes, just as it was for those of Old Lemnoth and this is true with all Iron Wardens. Heroes and Champions are venerated, and given free rein to roam the battlefield seeking worthy opponents. Whilst ground is taken inch by inch by the battle companies’ marines, the Chapter’s champions and heroes are amongst the enemy lines, shattering their enemies’ morale by slaying their commanders.

The fleet-based nature of the chapter lends itself to an orbital insertion in attack craft and drop pods, designed to deliver overwhelming force to the heart of the enemy forces, mirroring the core concept of the hero, where the entire assault becomes a macrocosm of the concept of removing the enemy general’s head from his shoulders.

 

++Organisation++

 

Chapter: The Iron Wardens maintain a broadly Codex Astartes adherent structure, with the Chapter being subdivided into Battle Companies, Reserve Companies and the Scout Company. However, unlike the more rigidly Codex-Adherent Chapters, the Iron Wardens maintain only nine companies, leaving the First Company absent from their roster. In their place, the first two tactical squads of the Battle Companies are comprised of honoured veterans trained in numerous battlefield roles, allowing them to adopt positons in the Companies, Vanguard or Sternguard as required. Each of the Battle Companies also maintains a handful of suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour which is made available to the company Veteran squads, although most will struggle to field more than a demi-squad of terminators at any one time. Each of the companies bears a meaningful epithet which will see use colloquially within the Chapter cult itself, although these are seldom shared with outsiders. Conversely, the individual squads which comprise the companies are named for glorious heroes or champions of the chapter’s past which are etched upon their wargear and displayed proudly. It is not unheard of for a champion’s name to be retired if a new member of the squad acquits himself in a suitably notable manner and joins the ranks of the Chapter’s venerated champions. In this instance, the supplanted Champion’s name is inscribed upon the prow of the Shadow of Aetna, forming another inscription upon the ‘Eternity Wall’.

 

Ranks: The Chapter is rules over by the Lord-Anax who fulfils the role of Chapter Master. He is attached to no Company and maintains overall command of any Chapter activities within a given theatre. As in ancient times, the Lord-Anax spends much of his time within the Fortress-Monastery (now aboard the flagship Shadow of Aetna) overseeing the recruiting of the Tenth Company.

 

Below the Lord-Anax are the nine company commanders, the Phylax-Captains. As with most chapters, each bears an additional responsibility beyond the command of their company such as Master of the Fleet, Lord of the Arsenal etc.

Each Phylax-Captain commands ten Dekarchus-Sergeants, each leading a squad within the company.

 

Special Ranks: Beyond the normal chain of command, two special ranks exist within the chapter, the Strategos and Polemos-Champion.

 

Strategos is an honorary rank bestowed upon any battle-brother given command of a combat operation. All Phylax-Captains, by default, will also bear the title Strategos, but is can also be given to Chaplains, Librarians, Forge Lords or even Dekarchus-Sergeants who command a force of Iron Wardens in much the same way the term ‘Force Commander’ is utilised by other chapters. If the honoured warrior distinguishes themselves in that command, they will be allowed to maintain the honorific when returning to their normal duties.

 

The Polemos-Champion is a position of great honour within the Chapter. Each company and the Lord-Anax’s honour guard maintain a single Polemos-Champion who shoulders the responsibility of bearing the Company’s honour into battle. He stands apart from the normal command structure, answering only to the Phylax-Captain who leads his company, yet bearing no command responsibility of his own. The Polemos-Champion is furnished with the best wargear the company can muster, equipped with relics from the days of their founding and deployed to battle. He is charged with seeking out the enemy champions and laying them low. In this way, their battle brothers are content in the knowledge their company champion is within the enemy ranks, and are less likely to answer their natural urges to break from formation and hunt for the opposing officers.

 

++Chapter Disposition (cM41.)++

 

++Headquarters++

 

 

• Lord-Anax Klutotekhnes, High Warden and Master of the Chapter
• Chief Apothecary Anateas
• Senior Fleet Officers, Support Personnel, Administrative Staff

++Librarius++

 

• Chief Librarian Amphigueis
• Epistolaries, Lexican, Codiciers

++Armoury++

 

• Forge-Lord Khalkeus
• Techmarines, Servitors

++Battle Companies++

 

• Second Company, Dawn Guard
• Third Company, Wards of the Aethyr
• Fourth Company, The Iron Tide
• Fifth Company, The Honoured Dead

++Reserve Companies++

 

• Sixth Company, Morning Swords
• Seventh Company, Coppersmiths
• Eighth Company, Sentinels of Dusk
• Ninth Company, Sight of Dios

 

++Scout Company++

 

• Tenth Company, The Rising Tide

 

++The Fifth Battle-Company The Honoured Dead++

Reforged following the devastating losses at Calidum Portas, the Fifth Company, renamed ‘The Honoured Dead’  for those lost in the defence hold a place of special regard amongst the Chapter and a place within their ranks is coveted amongst the scouts training with the Tenth Company. At the close of the Forty-First millennium, their ranks looked as so:

 

++Company Command Staff++

 

• Phylax-Captain Strategos Daedalus
• Apothecary Dilochia
• Chaplain Diomedes
• Alexander Charon, Human serf and captain of the Strike Cruiser Theseum
• Polemos-Champion Apollon

 

++Veteran Squads, capable of deploying as Vanguard or Sternguard units++

 

• Veteran Squad Ajax-Dekarchus-Sergeant Strategos Polumetis. Squad Ajax could also deploy fully equipped in Tactical Dreadnought Armour.
• Veteran Squad Ephimedes – Dekarchus-Sergeant Xander

 

++Tactical Squads++

 

• Tactical Squad Kullopodion – Dekarchus-Sergeant Chaeris
• Tactical Squad Deinocrates – Dekarchus-Sergeant Strategos Myron
• Tactical Squad Tolmides – Dekarchus-Sergeant Heliocres
• Tactical Squad Cadmus – Dekarchus-Sergeant Brasidas

 

++Assault Squads, capable as deploying as Assault Squads, piloting Landspeeders or mounted atop Bikes++

 

• Assault Squad Cylon – Dekarchus-Sergeant Onidas
• Assault Squad Praxilla – Dekarchus-Sergeant Helion

 

++Devastator Squads++

 

• Devastator Squad Dorin – Dekarchus-Sergeant Convexas
• Devastator Squad Solon – Dekarchus-Sergeant Amphitrion

 

Thanks to anyone whomade it this far through the wall of text!

 

 

[Loddfafnir113]

This was a really enjoyable read. There's a few great points in particular that stick out. I think the explanation of the reliance and amount of bionics in the chapter is fantastic, its believable and avoids the traditional "they're buddies with the mechanicus" which everyone jumps to. The organisation of the chapter in regards to how companies are structured also seems very well thought out. Its divergent enough to be interesting while still sticking to the main structure of the codex, and again the reasoning behind the divergence is solid.

 

The only part I'm not entirely sold on is the society aboard the Shadow. I think the concept is good, but I'm struggling with the idea that the society doesn't realise they're on a ship. A lot of that has to do with the size of a typical battle barge. Once you've got an extra generation or two, I just don't think your average battle barge is big enough to handle a population of that size whilst also serving as a training base for the tenth company. As I said the concept is cool, but perhaps having them on groups of ships and the chapter using them as serfs/workforce etc would be better, similar to a hive city? You'd still get social stratification, and the tribal aspect could still be played on. Plus, who among the people wouldn't want to claim that their son was chosen to join the ranks of their saviours?

 

Aside from that part however, I think its solid work. Hope you decide to do an army of them at some point, could see some stunning models coming from this!

 

EDIT: Charon as a ships captain. Awesome.

[Jape]

I agree really excellent stuff, it feels like a natural progression rather than stitching 'cool stuff' together. Quite intrigued by what they'll find once they return to their homeworld.

[corai]

Thanks for the feedback guys, it's really appreciated.

The only part I'm not entirely sold on is the society aboard the Shadow. I think the concept is good, but I'm struggling with the idea that the society doesn't realise they're on a ship. A lot of that has to do with the size of a typical battle barge. Once you've got an extra generation or two, I just don't think your average battle barge is big enough to handle a population of that size whilst also serving as a training base for the tenth company. As I said the concept is cool, but perhaps having them on groups of ships and the chapter using them as serfs/workforce etc would be better, similar to a hive city? You'd still get social stratification, and the tribal aspect could still be played on. Plus, who among the people wouldn't want to claim that their son was chosen to join the ranks of their saviours?
 

I can see what you mean. How about if that section was rewritten as follows:

 

Lemnoth reborn: In the wake of the desperate last stand of the Fifth, the Iron Wardens had lost an entire battle company, but had gained a valuable new resource. Several million refugees were now sequestered aboard the battlebarges and strike cruisers of the Chapter. The Fifth Company had sold their lives dearly, but it had not been for solely humanitarian reasons. More than most Astartes, the Iron Wardens had reason to covet the refugees of Calidum Portas. After many painful millennia, the Chapter had a new pool of humans to recruit from. No longer must the get by on the scraps of worlds, picking one or two suitable candidates from the wreckage of societies. At last they had a makeshift society they could mould in the image of lost Lemnoth.

The Refugees were ferried to the Shadow of Aetnam the largest battlebarge in the Chapter Fleet. With much reticence from the chapters artificers and attached members of the Cult Mecanichus, the grand barge was retrofitted to serve as a tremendous generational ship. The Peoples of Calidum Portas were denuded of their conventions, traditions and societal trappings and forcibly reforged in the image of the Iron Wardens lost ancestral home. Within a generation, the refugees were referring to themselves as New-Sintians.

The New-Sintians live aboard the great ‘World-Ship’ the Shadow’. Most will never set foot beyond the plasteel hull or know any life beyond the thrumming of engines and lumen-lit squalor of the ship’s decks. The memory of what fresh air tasted like, or the feeling of an ocean breeze upon the skin are now the stuff of legend, discussed by misty eyed elders to youths increasingly disinterested with the agricultural nature of their past. They stand apart from the existing staff of chapter serfs who have ever crewed the ships of the Iron Wardens. Whilst the chapter serfs look down on the New-Sintians as savages, suitable only for the continued strength of the Chapter, the New-Sintians view themselves as blessed, for they were rescued from oblivion by angels, and, they believe the most worthy amongst them are granted a measure of immortality and inducted into the ranks of their saviours. They accept their menial labour, and savage living conditions as the test they must ensure in order to prove their worthiness to their unseen masters. The youths venerate the god-soldiers who swept down from the heavens and carried them into the firmament. Whilst the New-Sintians are organized into the duty shifts and workcrews you would imagine to find aboard a vessel, the Iron Wardens foster a level of competition between the various crews by ensuring that food and supplies are kept sparse in a bid to instill the same self-reliance and isolationist tendencies of the tribal culture of ancient Lemnoth. When not laboring on the vessel, the New-Sintian’s entertain themselves with increasingly violent leisure activities. Gladiatorial conflicts are becoming increasingly common and, whilst not officially condoned by the Iron Wardens, many amongst their number see value in their recruiting peoples gaining a warrior’s value and skill as early as possible, not to mention the inbuilt population control benefits this affords.

Every few years, the adolescent warriors amongst the various sub-cultures are invited to a great Test of Champions within the Oculus Firmament, a great hall shrouded in secrecy on the dorsal-most deck of the ship. No one who has ever entered the hall has returned to his tribe to talk of it, so the wonder at what occurs beyond the great doors give life the myriad myths and legends. Chief amongst these are the theories that the victors of the Test of Champions tournament are invited into the halls of Lympus to walk with the god-soldiers of the Emperor.

In truth, the Oculus Firmament was once an observation dome aboard the ship which now serves as the arena the Iron Wardens use in their Trials, to select new aspirants for the transformation into space marines. Housed behind the monolithic Sentinel-Doors, it is spread like a great armourglass blister upon the hull. It is true that no man returns from the Test of Champions, they either lie dead on the ground, slain in The Trials, or are spirited away to begin the arduous and painful process of becoming one of the Emperor’s chosen Astartes.

Those who survive the implantation process will find their new lives beginning in the belly of The Shadow’ in chambers unknown to the New-Sintians set aside for the training of the fledgling Tenth Company of the Iron Wardens.

 

 

 

EDIT: Charon as a ships captain. Awesome

:-D

[corai]

Had a quick play with colour schemes. I was planning to paint them silver armoured with white and red trim, but this could looks very similar to the already greek-inspired iron snakes, and wont show up the bionics very well. Leaning towards this:

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b98/Corai/JTDemonSpaceMarineTemplate_zps2eca9d06.jpg

 

Very similar to the blood ravens I never got past the first squad with, and done in the same metallic red method as them, with bone shoulders a bit closer to cream,and more greco trappings.

[Reyner]

Hey corai - how about this colour scheme? You could greek that scheme up a little and with your fluff they would be pretty awesome. 

[corai]

Hey corai - how about this colour scheme? You could greek that scheme up a little and with your fluff they would be pretty awesome. 

Oops! Thought I'd done a good enough check to make sure I wasn't stepping on anyone's toes with the name! I'm not married to the name 'Iron Wardens' thogh, I just thought it sounded cool, but am totally open to sggestions for a more suitable name if anyone ahs any kicking around!

 

Cheers

Dan

[Reyner]

No no I didn't mean to point out my guys had the same name - that happens all the time so don't worry about it! I was more interested in getting someone to try out the scheme who is a decent painter haha!

[Welcheren]

This is really well-written stuff. It has been thought through with great deal of clarity.

As has already been said, it is not impossible for two chapters to share a name: a) it's still your chapter, and b) the Imperium is vast and its records scratching (especially given your chapter's history).

But... ... If you were still in the market for a name (and given the stoic, duty-bound nature of the chapter), what about:

The Draconian Lords.