Shadrak Meduson

[Icarus1138]

What do we know about him?

 

He's described as a "flesh-spare warleader of the Sorrgol Clan", and as being 10th Captain. Does that mean he's in command of the Sorrgol Clan, or of that clan's 10th company? He seems to be one of the more tactically flexible of the Iron Hands, setting a multi-layered trap for Horus and commanding a dispersed army formed from many disparate elements. He's the only senior commander in Feat of Iron to suggest they use the Imperial Army alongside them in battle, and his second in command was also in favor of supporting normal human forces. This makes him appear to be one of the more cosmopolitan of a famously intolerant legion. Do we have any good descriptions of his appearance? His favored wargear? He seems to be an intriguing figure but he's barely described.

[StruManChu]

I'll chime in on this, because Shadrak 'Bloody' Meduson is awesome. Ever since I read the opening act of Vengeful Spirit, I've had an idea to build a Sorrgol Clan force.

 

Based on Feat of Iron and the fact that he's shown to be one of four or five of Ferrus' inner circle when a large part (if not all) of the Legion is assembled, I'd say he leads Sorrgol Clan, and 10th Captain is a title of note, similar to the Death Guard's 7th Captain. 10th Captain of the 10th Legion or somesuch may have some meaning.

 

I'd suggest that his flexibility as a commander is potentially due to the events of Feat of Iron. He witnessed the prejudices growing in his Legion leading to a tactical rigidity that would ultimately restrict their effectiveness and made a conscious effort to not succumb to them himself. Especially so given the way that Henricos and the Army were able to do what the Iron Hands themselves could not.

 

In terms of his wargear, appearance and so forth, I have no idea at all, which frustrates me. I know he's not an Iron Father, so he's almost definitely a fighting Captain rather than a Forgelord-type figure, and I'd think he'd be in power armour rather than Terminator armour, but other than that I have no idea.

 

There's also the chance... [MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE SEVENTH SERPENT NOVELLA!]

... that he might be dead and/or that Alpharius stole his face. He's depicted in the Seventh Serpent Novella as having a pale-bladed spear, and having a personal sigil of a snake devouring it's own tale. Obviously, I'd rather that was not the case, and from what I hear it's ambiguous enough in the novel (which I haven't actually read) that it's just a ruse by the Alpha Legion, but you never know. Vengeful Spirit and Seventh Serpent are both written by Graham McNeill, so I can't imagine he made Shadrak Meduson something of a bad-ass in the first just to kill him off-page in the second. 

 

 

[Icarus1138]

That's all good to know. If memory serves, in Feat of Iron he's described as having a "sharp" face and carries a bolter during a meeting. That means your guess of power armor (I'm American ) is likely a good one. I won't comment on your spoiler other than to say I agree with your personal preference.

According to the FW article on the Iron Hands, wouldn't a clan leader have the rank of either Iron-Father (if technically trained) or Iron-Lord (if not)? The article mentions Iron-Captains as being subordinate to the leader of a clan. This leads me to see two possibilities:

1. Meduson is an Iron-Captain (shortened to Captain) in Clan Sorrgol, and the leader of the clan's 10th Company. This is supported by the fact that his second in command is a Sergeant. In Feat of Iron, we see him commanding the forces that Clan Sorrgol have contributed to Ferrus Manus' expeditionary force. After Istvaan he may or may not have moved up to the rank of Iron-Lord, but either way he's operating without a CO that we know of suggesting he is indeed commanding whatever is left of Sorrgol. Henricos is described as having the markings of a "senior captain" which Aximand initially believes is Meduson, which could be an argument for either Iron-Lord Meduson or Captain Meduson.

2. Meduson was the clan leader all along, Black Library and Forge World contradicted each other when it comes to rank titles and Forge World's version is more interesting. Sadly, #2 is often the case in the Horus Heresy.

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Like you say, there is a discord between the BL books & the FW ones - it seems that BL was using a generic Legion structure, adding terms like 'Iron' & 'Clan' to identify back to the X^th Legion before Massacre codified the Iron Tenth's official structure.

 

Easiest way to look at it is outline the Iron Hands structure:

 

Clan (approximately Chapter-sized, likely varies between 500-4000 Legionaries depending on specific losses / Clan's standing)

* Lead by an Iron Lord or Iron Chieftan (closest analogue = Chapter Master)

 

Order (approximately batallion sized, but specifically organised to different warzones / tasks - likely vary between 200-1000 Legionaries)

* Lead by an Iron Captain (closest analogue = Commander)

 

Century (Terminator) / Company

*Lead by a Centurion / Captain - title of Warleader is used when company is part of an Order

 

Iron Fathers seem to exist outside the official command heirachy - all we know is they are 'promoted' from senior officers. Personally, the way I see it is that they act as the 'Discipline Officers' for the X^th Legion - maintaining the Clan's own traditions whilst acting as Ferrus' representatives within the Clan, and ensuring they remain dedicated to the Legion as a whole, due to the competitative nature of Clans.

 

Therefore I'd suggest Meduson is either an Iron-Captain of one of Sorrgol's Orders, or the Iron-Lord of the entire Clan (its possible he assumed the latter role after the Massacre) - Warleader would place him as a mere line captain, which would kinda suck.

 

Also, I'd kinda ignore the 10th Company thing - unless the oldest companies retained their numberings after they became bound to a Medusan Clan, it doesn't really work within the Clan system - after all, surely at least the first 10 companies would be within the Avernii Clan, which I'd imagine to be massive anyway (maybe 8,000 strong?).

[apologist]

Meduson's mentioned in Little Horus, which might give some suggestions for his company, at least. It might be nice to add in a squad of allied White Scars to your force. :)

[Balthamal]

He's also in Seventh Serpent. No spoilers however

[Anvilarium]

Black Library's organisation of the Iron Hands Legion is a total bl**dy shambles.

 

That they did it before FW released Massacre is fair enough, but for BL to carry on screwing up their Legion structure well after the release of Massacre is pretty pathetic IMHO.

[Anvilarium]

So, after reading Dan Abnett's Meduson story (from the Meduson Anthology) I can confirm that:

 

 

Shadrak Meduson was in fact a Captain of Clan Sorrgol.

He was promoted to the position of 'Hand Elect' of the remnants of Clan Sorrgol by Sorrgol's Warleader, Iron-Father Jebez Aug. The Hand Elect is basically second in command to the Warleader himself, and acts as the Warleader's trusted advisor.

When Aug was badly wounded during fleet actions against a Sons of Horus, he named Shadrak Meduson as the new Warleader of Clan Sorrgol. Meduson then appointed members of the Shattered Legions as the 'four quarters' of his own Hand Elect, until such time as Aug was able to resume his duties and become Meduson's own Hand Elect.

 
 

[Daemon2027]

Very interesting. If its not to much trouble could you PM me any info on the Hands Elect particularly those not of the Xth legion.

[Anvilarium]

The Hands Elect are:

 

Dalcoth (Raven Guard Captain)
Nuros (Senior Legionary XVIII Salamanders Legion)
Augos Lumak (Iron Hands Avernii Clan Company Captain)
Lars Mechosa (Iron Hands Sorrgol Clan Company Captain)

The four of them are chosen by Meduson to be the 'four quarters' of his Hand Elect, until such time as Iron-Father Jebez Aug was well enough to resume his duties as Meduson's Hand Elect. Meduson initially refers to them as his Mournival, but then decides that he dislikes the term and that instead they will simply be the 'four quarters' of his Hand Elect.

 

[Marshal Rohr]

Ignore anything BL writes about him. Or most anything they write. The most important information comes from FW and FW alone. From them we know the Morragul clan is relatively intact and leading an insurgency against traitor forces in the galactic north.

 

If it's not by ADB or Abnett on a good day, it won't be worth trying to tie into your heresy army.

[Anvilarium]

If it's not by ADB or Abnett on a good day, it won't be worth trying to tie into your heresy army.

 

Meduson is written by Dan Abnett, and its easily the best Heresy-era Iron Hands story I've read. It is based on the Iron Hands material in FW's Massacre, and gets rid of previous author's "40k copy & paste" Iron Hands (I'm looking at you McNeill & Annandale). I really wish Abnett could write a full-length Iron Hands novel, because based on Meduson, it would be fantastic.

[StruManChu]

The Meduson short story was Abnett's, and he was having a real good day.

 

Seriously. I had something of a vested interest in reading this because I want to build a post-Isstvan V force around Meduson, and it totally delivered. The way they tease the coming conflict between the Shattered Legions under Meduson and the Sons of Horus post-Dwell is something I'm really looking forward to.

 

If FW really are looking at doing a proper Shattered Legions book, then I'll be very surprised if the man himself isn't in there.

[Anvilarium]

The Meduson short story was Abnett's, and he was having a real good day.

Seriously. I had something of a vested interest in reading this because I want to build a post-Isstvan V force around Meduson, and it totally delivered. The way they tease the coming conflict between the Shattered Legions under Meduson and the Sons of Horus post-Dwell is something I'm really looking forward to.

If FW really are looking at doing a proper Shattered Legions book, then I'll be very surprised if the man himself isn't in there.

Completely agree.

I have a feeling that given the opportunity, Dan Abnett would build up Shadrak Meduson into the kind of heroic character Garviel Loken was for the Luna Wolves in the opening trilogy (ie before he became one of the silly Knights Errant). I loved Meduson's honesty, bluntness and dry humour:

'You don't like this, do you?' Jebez Aug said to Shadrak.

'I haven't liked much of anything since my eighth birthday, warleader,' Shadrak replied'

Also, he was pretty fearless in the way that he stood up in front of his superiors and told them in no uncertain terms that they were wrong.

Meduson is definitely shaping up to become one of the legendary characters of the Shattered Legions.

[Conn Eremon]

I was becoming really tired of Meduson, and some other Shattered Legion storylines like Riven. Enough that this anthology dedicated to Meduson made me groan and debate getting it.

 

I'm glad I tried it anyways, and it's a testament to how we should always give something a chance. Abnett did a very good Meduson story. Easily and readily surpassed what I had read of these folk up to that point.

[Marshal Rohr]

Im surprised Dan Abnett decided that, you know, all the major Iron Lords of the largest :cuss Clans all made it off Isstvan alive, and everybody considers that 'a good day' for him. How did they all survive? Why did they all survive? Did their battleship stall out on the way to Isstvan?

 

 

I mean, I guess its a good thing he killed them all so quickly, but come on. A little bit of realism here and there would be nice.

[Conn Eremon]

It didn't seem like that at all to me. It seemed more like these are the highest-ranking Legionaries left.

 

It might also be worth mentioning that any existing Clan Commands wouldn't've been part of the original Massacre anyways, and would have had the best chance of any Shattered Legion to make it out. Excepting the Avernii.

 

Basically, the short did not say they all survived, it just said this is the current Clan Council, and while we see some examples where they were not the Iron Lords before the Massacre, it doesn't go into detail on all of them. That said, we should expect a more intact Clan Council anyways, considering the nature of the Legion's involvement at Isstvan V. With the X Legion forced into retreat, though they still lost enough to be among the Shattered, one would expect the Legion Command to be among the survivors more than the dead.

[Marshal Rohr]

I'm thinking killing the clan council was to give them carte blanche to have Medusons fleet be BL pet project, while FW focuses on Mor with references to the Clan Council.

 

I did like that his name was Smith. Nice to see some AngloSaxon names start popping into the lore.

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

frankly, Meduson was the first 30k item I read that had the Iron Hands portrayed as more than boring morons. They (under Meduson) acknowledged their way alone wouldnt work, learned to adapt to the lessons the RG and Salamanders could teach, and forge the best way forward with both approaches.

 

On the other side of the spectrum, you have the Atticus in the Damnation of Pythos...

 

WLK

[sitnam]

Reading all this is making me antsy for the anthology to get a release on the website, seems like the best source of HH Iron Hands stories published outside of Forgeworld

[Scribe]

Atticus was fine. I like my Iron Hands unyielding, hateful, dismissive, and full of rage.

[Balthamal]

Im surprised Dan Abnett decided that, you know, all the major Iron Lords of the largest Clans all made it off Isstvan alive, and everybody considers that 'a good day' for him. How did they all survive? Why did they all survive? Did their battleship stall out on the way to Isstvan?

I mean, I guess its a good thing he killed them all so quickly, but come on. A little bit of realism here and there would be nice.

You do know that the vast majority of the Iron Hands who made planetfall at Istvaan were Avernii? Ferrus basically grabbed the ships that could get there fastest and went on ahead as it were. The bulk of his Legion, comprising the other clans, didn't arrive until the fighting was already underway and they got caught up in the crossfire of the orbital battle.

They had a LOT of legionnaires escape, at least a few score thousand (can't remember the exact figure from Massacre) and considering that some of the few survivors of the Raven Guard included very high command figures like Numeon or Agapito then it's not exactly impossible.

I quite like the way the anthology presents the X as a shattered legion not because their numbers are down to a couple of thousand like the XVIII and XIX but because a lot of them don't really know what to do now that Ferrus got the chop

[Marshal Rohr]

30K-ish escaped. That's my point. So one clan, 10K-ish made planet fall, but the rest showed up after the fighting began and still got beat down? How did the most coherent body of loyalist ships get ambushed like that? Why were they unable to perform and extraction? How did the traitors take out the entire fleet of the sallies and ravens quick enough to just sweep aside a gigantic fleet of Iron Hands that showed up together on their flank?

[helterskelter]

8 traitor fleets vs 3?

[Marshal Rohr]

That's not really how it works dude.

 

You've got 3 loyalists fleets interspersed with 4 unknown traitor fleets in a deployment for a combat drop, which means everyone is in LEO. You can't jump directly into a system, because of the chance of missing your mark and jumping into a moon or a planet. You jump in at the blank space between the final planet and the captured asteroids and such that float at the farthest edges of the system trapped by the stars gravity (the blank space is caused by the others being pulled in deeper and impacting or forming an asteroid belt). So you've got the majority of the IH heaviest classes of vessels arriving after the fighting starts in a massive quantity, coherently organized and deployed.

 

That means the IH should've had the drop on the traitors AND had the firepower to hold their own because now it's 9 traitor fleets interspersed in LEO in the midst of a massive battle with 2 and a handful loyalists. If any author paid any attention to how that would play out in reality, it would've taken weeks at minimum for the IH fleets to reach the fifth planet, and the other loyalists would've known of their arrival, extracted who they could and run towards the massive fleet of Iron Hands. At which point they all could've fought a fighting withdrawal and survived

 

That's not what happened though. Instead you have these authors come up with bull :cuss reasons that the Iron Lord of Clan Raukaan somehow survived dropping on to Istvaan so that he can be a :cuss at a meeting for their story.

 

It would've been more realistic to explicitly state that the guys who are at this meeting are, in fact, the commanders who command fell to after the massive losses. It is not realistic to leave the impression the majority of Iron Lords survived.

 

I don't give a :cuss if it's fiction, we pay money and build armies around these :cuss stories. The authors need to be explicit about people, names, organization, etc. Leaving it up to the imagination means two players can end up with massively different armies for the same character and that isn't right.