Iron Warriors ranks

[Kythnos]

Fellow Warsmiths,

 

I am currently designing my crusade force and am thinking about writing a few fluff pieces to introduce the army into our player group's campaign.

But this has raised the question, what ranks the legion's warbands are using in the 42nd millenium. Of course, we have warsmiths and battlesmiths, but what else? How do you refer to your Aspiring Champions and other unit leaders? What about Dark Apostles and other secondary characters?

 

I am open for ideas. If you play in a German speaking group, I am also interested in the German rank names that you are using :)

Edited September 8, 2020 by Kythnos

[MegaVolt87]

Perturabo largely kept the initial legion rank structure intact during the GC/HH. Anything goes in M42. Aspiring champion is as valid as the traditional sergeant. DA and sorc are basically Chaplin and librarians once if they lived that long. I would say it would come down to how much of a traditionalist the lord in charge is, the balance of thin bloods vs olympians, thinbloods vs full IW genseed legionaries, who is in charge overall. Your warsmith could also be a paper tiger, complete coward who only holds his position by the virtue of the strength of his terminators backing him up, good strategist but useless on the frontlines etc. 

[Doctor Perils]

Siege of castellax has the following characters with special ranks:

Warsmith Andraaz

Arch-Commander Vortsk

Over-Captain Vallax

Slave-Lord Algol

Captains Rhodaan and Gamgin

Skylord Morax

Admiral Nostraz

 

Considering there were only 64 Iron Warriors in the siege, these overly grandiose sounding rank names probably don't really mean all that much

 

I also seem to recall a line at the end saying that the Over-Captain or Skylord could not become the next warmaster because it's a specialist rank, but can't remember which.

 

 

Great thread idea :D

[Kythnos]

Thanks for the input. I will see what I can make of it for the background my army :)

 

If anyone else has other references to share, feel free to do so.

[Rammael]

I also took some inspiration from the siege of castellax. Here are my ranks for my grand company for inspiration.

 

Warsmith

Master of Arms (lord)

Master of the Soulforge (disco lord)

Watcher - (sorceror)

Speaker - (apostle)

Fabricator -(warpsmith)

Warp lord - (master of possesion)

Squad leaders are just sergeants

 

I hope this might give you some inspiration. I really enjoyed writing the fluff for my army and helped plan my purchases aswell.

[Goreshed]

I'll add some of mine to the mix since fluff has been about all I've managed to get done lately.

 

Possible Lieutenant names:

Battlesmith

Blade of Hate/Destruction/Gore

Master of Death/Destruction/Gore

Trenchlord

Shell-Lord

 

Disco Lord/warpsmith -

Architect of Destruction/Hate/Death/Souls

Fabricator of Hate/Souls/Death

Engine Lord

 

Sorcerer/Apostle -

Voice of the Warp/Soul/Damned

Speaker of the Warp/Soul/Damned

Seeker of the Warp/Soul/Damned

 

Master of Execution -

Deathmaster

Lord of Death/Souls/Pain/Gore/Hate

Harvester of Hate/Gore/Death/Pain/Souls

Pain/Gore/Death/Soul Lord

 

Champion -

Trenchmaster

Painmaster

Shellmaster

Engine Master

Goremaster

[Kythnos]

Both great lists as well. Any other suggestions for Aspiring Champions/Sergeants? The former doesn't strike me as very fitting for the IV, the second feels a bit out of place since it is a current military rank and I will likely not use any other of those in my warband.

 

Also, how do your IW refer to each other when having a similar rank? The omnipresent 'brother'? Or is that too much of a loyalist term for you?

[Goreshed]

I'll probably end up with one of those I put in my list depending on what the squad does. Known for being more of the forlorn hope type of deal? Probably go with Goremaster as the Champ title. If it's more of a utilitarian squad? Most likely Trenchmaster. Long range squad would probably be Shellmaster. Something a long those lines to differentiate a bit more between each squad I think would be cool.

 

"Brother" has been used fairly consistently through the books even after the fall of everything. At this point it really doesn't bother me too much honestly. Then again I could see them also using their titles as well, the real difference being the tone and such that they use.