The Knights of Iron Blood

The Knights of Iron Blood are a 3rd Founding chapter of space marines of Imperial Fist lineage. They adorn themselves in black armor with blood red accents. They are specialists in assault and are loyal to a fault.

A Legacy of Confusion
The Knights of Iron Blood are often confused for other chapters. This is simply because, statistically, their armor color is the most common and their name is completely unremarkable. The Imperium habitually attributes their glorious deeds to other, less storied, chapters. They are sometimes also mistaken for other chapters: sometimes this is to their benefit and other times this is to their extreme detriment.

In fact, in M36 an Imperial scribe mistakenly removed them from Imperial records when they thought that the The Knights of Iron Blood were a duplicate entry or perhaps a placeholder (due to their generic nature). This caused them to go on 2 century long penance crusade to reclaim their identity

Early History
The first years of the Knights of Iron Blood were filled with war and glory. They participated in some of the most glorious battles of the Imperium’s early years. Their triumphs, however, were stolen from them because they were attributed to other chapters by mistake. In fact, Imperial records seem to not list them as having done much of anything during these great battles. Because of this they didn’t receive the reinforcements or supplies they needed because the Imperium didn’t see a reason why the chapter should have lost so many lives and spent so much ammunition while in reserves.

In an event known within the chapter as “The Great Snub”, The Knights of Iron Blood had to watch other chapters receive their trophies, accolades, and awards as they were assigned to deliver many of them or stand guard at the ceremonies where they were given. Most of their early years after that involved garrison duty on the edge of imperial space.

Reaching for Greatness
After The Great Snub the chapter sought glory to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Imperium. They undertook many dangerous missions, suicidal campaigns, and won glory in all of them. Some of the glory was actually attributed to them (though some was still mistakenly attributed to others) and they were hailed as heroes by their brethren. For several centuries the chapter had a successful, if not expected and unremarkable, history.

A Clerical Error
In M36, a high ranking member of the Adeptus Administratum noticed the frequent misattribution of the deeds of The Knights of Iron Blood to others and flagged it for review. After consulting with many cogitators and peers, they came to the conclusion that this was clearly an attempt by someone to create a fake chapter and insert it into the imperial records for some nefarious purpose. Thus the chapter was deleted from Imperial records, stranding the chapter in the middle of a crusade against the Tyranids. Despite this handicap the chapter bravely fought on and seized victory from the jaws of defeat.

The Identity Crusade
The chapter found itself with a problem; they were fully removed from imperial records yet they still existed. They pleaded with the contacts to rectify the situation but their pleas fell on deaf ears. This marked the beginning of a two century long campaign by the chapter to get the mistake fixed by winning glory for themselves.

This crusade occurred in the midst of one of the Black Crusades and the The Knights of Iron Blood leaped at the chance to contribute. Their lack of identity worked in their favor as the loyalists thought them to just be another loyal chapter fighting for the Emperor and the chaos warbands assumed they were just generic members of the Black Legion warband. In fact, the chapter famously received orders from Abaddon the Despoiler himself due to this mistake, which they used to great advantage in foiling his schemes. Unfortunately the credit for this was given to another chapter that was present, The Knights of Blood-Iron. Abbaddon was furious when he heard of the treachery, though he promptly attributed it to The Alpha Legion.

Some among them lost faith and turned renegade. This caused a rift in the chapter that erupted into a civil war where brother fought brother. The bloody conflict ended when Tiberius Normalem rallied those still loyal to the Emperor and slew the defectors. He was subsequently declared the new chapter master as the previous one had died during the civil war.

The cleric error was eventually fixed, not by their glorious deeds, but by a member of the Adeptus Administratum when they supposedly received a divine vision to upload a sacred backup into the system to “right a great wrong”. The Master Logisticar never realized quite what she had done but in short order the chapter began receiving supplies, support, and orders from the Imperium once again as if nothing had happened. The chapter sees this as a holy miracle and it has been worked into the chapter cult as the Emperor directly interceding on their behalf.

Indomitus Crusade
The Knights of Iron Blood saw glorious combat during the Indomitus Crusade. However, a snag occurred in the early years of the crusade when they were supposed to get Primaris marine reinforcements. The marines that were supposed to be sent to them were accidentally sent to The Iron Knights of Blood, a blood angel successor, and the recruits for the The Iron Knights of Blood were sent to them instead. No one noticed this error until the new recruits started to exhibit odd traits like the black rage and the red thirst. The Knights of Iron Blood exterminated their new battle brothers when they went mad, thinking them possessed, and The Iron Knights of Blood celebrated, thinking that the Primaris upgrade had cured their gene-seed flaws. When the mistake was revealed, there was much beheading and both chapters received a fresh batch of Primaris recruits.

Chapter Disposition
Despite the sometimes blackly humorous situations that caused their tragedies, The Knights of Iron Blood are a rather stoic and steadfastly loyal chapter whose faith has been tested many times. Their chapter cult teaches each new marine that they should not seek glory in life, for the Emperor has chosen them to show humanity that actions and faith are more important than glory. Members of the chapter carve “Absque Gloria”, Low Gothic for “Without Glory”, on the inside of their helmets to remind themselves of this core tenant of their belief.

The chapter has fought in adverse conditions that few other chapters have; without supplies, support, or direction from the Imperium for two centuries. They are clever warriors that can make due with very little in the way of wargear. Because of this they have developed into a chapter that specializes in assault; swords and knives don’t run out of bolter rounds. Otherwise the chapter is fully compliant with all doctrine regarding troop organization and tactics. The only way that they stand out is that they don't stand out.

Notable Knights of Iron Blood
Hadriotor Tigulux: Hadriotor is “famous” for having been seconded to the Deathwatch only to have his chapter mistakenly recorded as “none”, indicating that he was a Blackshield or perhaps from an expunged chapter, due to the Clerical Error. While he never intended to take a Long Watch (a lifetime of service), his inability to return to his chapter meant he spent his entire life as a Deathwatch marine. Despite this, he performed adequately and was actually a semi-famous Deathwatch Dreadnaught.

Cyrurion Contanus: Lt. Contanus was the leader of the so-called “Forgotten Twenty” who had deployed with his men during the Second Tyrannic War. They deep struck via drop pods but, as commanders had accidentally each mislabeled the company as having belonged to another commander, they were overlooked in the chaos. It was eventually assumed that they had died when their transponder went dark amidsts a swarm of tyranids. In fact, Lt. Contanus and their squad had heroically slain a hive tyrant and stemmed the flow of xenos attempting to outflank the main body of troops but they had suffered horrific casualties. The company, having lost 80% of its members and now being comprised of just 20 members, had lost their communications capacity due to a strange piece of xenos tech that they had discovered among some ruins and had to fight onward against insurmountable odds. Eventually, 2 months after having been assumed dead, they left the jungle they were in and called for evacuation at a deserted Imperial Guard outpost. Their glory was misattributed to the Ultramarines 1st company.

Daarmoron Darkscream: The story of Daarmoron is an unfortunate one for the Knights of Iron Blood. He is one of the few Knights of Iron Blood who has fallen to Chaos has has become a feared champion of chaos undivided. Daarmoron is, unfortunately, famous and this is one of the only instances of the chapter being properly attributed in the Imperial record (so they suffer all the blame for him).

Hyrex Issocles: Known as “The Forgotten”, Hyrex is the true name of a mysterious marine who serves in the retinue of Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Zhu Guiying. The nature of this arrangement is unknown but seems sanctioned in some fashion. Some have speculated that he was once inhabited by a daemon and repelled it with his own will but was reborn in the process.

Theories & Heresy

 * Their name is somewhat common: there is a 5th founding chapter known The Knights of Blood-Iron (an Iron Hands successor chapter), a 19th founding chapter known as The Iron Knights of Blood (a Blood Angel successor chapter), and the infamous renegade warbands known as the Blood Knights of Iron and the Knights of Blood.
 * They have had their identity co-oped twice by renegade chapters who sought to do missions without attracting Imperial attention. It took a full century for this mix-up to be rectified each time it occurred.
 * One theory for the stunningly bad luck of The Knights of Iron Blood is that they were cursed by Chaos or they were simply cursed at the time of their founding, as the Lamenters are.
 * The chapter’s battle cry of “For the Emperor!” is also sometimes used, in an ironic fashion, by the Emperor’s Children chaos warband. This had lead to confusion that has both benefited and caused hardships for The Knights of Iron Blood.