|quote = '''''"'You don't know the things I dream. No one does, no one ever cared enough to find out."'''''{{Fn|7c}}

|Title = The Lord of Iron<br>The Hammer of Olympia

*The [[Primarch]]s<br><small>(Genetic SiblingsBrothers)</small>

*[[Leetu]]<br><small>(Genetic Brother)</small>*[[Iron Warriors]] & Successor warbandsWarbands<br><small>(“Sons” via [[Gene-seed]]Genetic Sons)</small>

'''Perturabo''' is the [[Primarch]] of the [[Iron Warriors]], one of the original twenty [[Space Marine Legion]]s. Bitter and feeling marginalized by the [[Imperium]], he sided with [[Horus]] during the [[Horus Heresy]] and has since ascended to [[Daemon Prince|Daemonhood]]. {{Fn|7}} He, like his Iron Warriors, had a natural affinity towards technology and a cold logic, but lacked the strength of faith.

[[Image:PertYoung.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Perturabo{{Fn|14a}}]]According to Perturabo himself, he is estimated to have been born around 792.[[M30]].{{Fn|1212b}} When the primarchs were scattered to the ends of the galaxy, Perturabo landed on a planet named [[Olympia]]. For at least a year, he was alone in the rural regions of Olympia and became a famed wanderer that would slay legendary beasts. However, he was first discovered climbing the mountains below the city state of Lochos with no memory of anything prior.{{Fn|12a}} The guards, having realised this was no normal child, brought him before the [[Tyrant of Lochos|Dammekos]], the '''Tyrant of Lochos'''. Dammekos was intrigued by the child and brought him into his house and treated him as family. Dammekos noticed the boy's overwhelming intellect and skill with everything from architecture to the arts to political debate to combat, and he became a wonder with which Lochos secured alliances with other city-states. The young Perturabo, though he knew he was not of this world and was made by design as opposed to nature, was disgusted by the religious Olympians and believed in the cold logic of science and reason.{{Fn|12a}}[[Image:PertYoung.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Perturabo{{Fn|14a}}]]

[[Image:PertArtNew.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors]]Perturabo established himself as efficient and highly capable, but also brutal, bitter, and envious.{{Fn|9}} It is widely acclaimed that Perturabo was envious of [[Rogal Dorn]]. He was annoyed by his constant reminders of the perfection of the defences on [[Terra]]. The other primarchs also kept Perturabo at a distance. This might have been because of his supreme command of technology, far in advance of anything the other primarchs could do. He is referred to as the 'comrade' who devised the best plan to avoid the defences of [[Overdogg Mashogg]], an [[Ork]] [[Warboss]] under attack by [[Leman Russ (primarch)|Leman Russ]], leader of the [[Space Wolves]], and [[Jaghatai Khan]], Khan of the [[White Scars]] .{{Cite ThisFn|9}}.

The Iron Warriors went on to create citadels throughout the regions they fought in. Small numbers of Iron Warriors were left behind at these outposts, but Perturabo resented being forced to split his army. As time went on they were stereotyped as being the best army for sieges and garrisons, but eventually the Iron Warriors were so worn out that they simply began to enjoy the killing they had to do after the trenches were dug. A particularly vicious campaign was against the [[Hrud]] in the [[Sak'trada Deeps Campaign|Sak'trada Deeps]], a region that Perturabo saw as strategically useless. Nonetheless, he dutifully oversaw the purging of the Hrud despite his legion's heavy casualties, as it was ordered by the [[War Council]]. At the climax of the campaign, as his fleet lay devastated by a Hrud temporal shockwave, Perturabo could only blame the Emperor's vanity for the damage done to his sons on this useless campaign.{{Fn|1212b}} It might well have been [[Horus]] who kept the legion on this role, allowing him to more easily sway the mind of Perturabo towards Chaos{{Cite This}}.

===Horus Heresy===[[Image:angel-500.jpg|thumb|250px300px|Right|Perturabo and his brother [[Fulgrim]], after their fall to [[Chaos]], battle [[Eldar]] Revenants (not to be confused with 'Revenant Titans').{{Fn|4}}]]

Shortly after the [[Sak'trada Deeps Campaign]] Perturabo learned that his homeworld, Olympia, was in rebellion. Dammekos was dead and in his absence the politicking and bickering of the city-states had resumed. Perturabo demanded the Olympians themselves enact decimation, killing one in every ten of their own or face extermination and enslavement. Many refused, and Perturabo purged Olympia city by city, overrunning the fortresses he had built and sparing no one. Iron Warriors that refused to take part in the genocide suffered the same fate.{{Fn|12b12c}} By the time the massacre was over, five million Olympians had been killed and the rest put into [[slavery]]. While storming [[Lochos]]' palace, Perturabo came across his old foster sister [[Calliphone]] and strangled her to death after a furious argument where she blamed the Primarch for what had befallen their world. As Olympia died, Perturabo looked on in cold silence. After the pyres were burning, the Iron Warriors realized what they had done. They were no more the saviours of the [[Imperium]] - they had been destroying the Hrud one moment and the next they were committing genocide on their own. Perturabo realized the Emperor could never forgive him for what he had done.{{Fn|12c12d}} Horus, on the other hand, commended Perturabo for his decisive action and the Lord of Iron swore an oath of loyalty to the [[Warmaster]]. After the [[Dropsite Massacre]], Horus would present Perturabo with a hammer named [[Forgebreaker]], the gift symbolic of a signing of a pact between them. {{Fn|7b}}

It was in that time that disturbing news of the [[Horus Heresy]] and new orders came from Terra. Leman Russ and the Space Wolves had attacked [[Magnus]] and his [[Thousand Sons]] on [[Prospero]]. [[Horus]] had turned renegade with his legion the [[Sons of Horus]] besides some other legions. The whole of the Imperium was on the brink of a civil-war. The new orders were to join with six other legions and then to face Horus and his forces on [[Isstvan V]]. The result of the following [[Drop Site Massacre|battle]] was that the Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Word Bearers and Alpha Legion all joined Horus and almost completely destroyed the three remaining loyal legions on the '''Drop Site Massacre'''.{{Cite ThisFn|1a}}. After that the Iron Warriors were let loose and Perturabo relished the opportunity to fight in a way that did not rely on massive sieges and trench warfare. Because of their massive deployment throughout the galaxy, dozens of [[Warsmith]]s took over planets and demanded tithes to support the heresy.

[[file:Perturabo.jpg|thumb|230px|right|Perturabo - Iron Warriors Primarch, during the Horus Heresy]]After the [[First Siege of Hydra Cordatus]] Perturabo was approached by [[Fulgrim]], Primarch of the [[Emperor's Children]], who promised the Lord of Iron near unlimited power. The two embarked on a quest to tip the balance of the rebellion in Horus' favor favour by journeying into the [[Eye of Terror]] and retrieve a weapon known as the '''Angel Exterminatus'''. After a brief boarding action with the ''[[Sisypheum]]'' (which Perturabo allowed to escape due to his disgust of Fulgrim's Legion), the duo arrived in the Eye and quickly landed on the [[Crone World]] of [[Iydris]]. Entering an ancient [[Eldar]] citadel known as the ''Amon ny'shak Kaelis'', the Emperor's Children and Iron Warriors [[Battle of Iydris|had to contend]] with an army of [[Wraithguard]] and [[Wraithlord]]s that had awoken from their slumber. At the height of the vicious battle Fulgrim attempted to betray his brother and slip away, but was pursued by Perturabo. Both soon arrived in a massive spherical chamber, and Fulgrim revealed to his brother that there was no Angel Exterminatus, but he rather was destined to become such a weapon on this world. Furious, Perturabo attempted to attack Fulgrim but was drained of his power when Fulgrim activated the ''Maugetar'' stone that Perturabo had previously received under the guise of a gift. Now with the Iron Warriors Primarchs' power in hand, Fulgrim revealed the purpose of his plan: to achieve ''Apotheosis'', better known as [[Daemon Prince|Daemonhood]].{{Fn|7}}

However just as Fulgrim was about to complete his ritual and achieve Daemonhood, Perturabo gathered enough strength to charge at his brother but were interrupted by an ambush of [[Salamanders]], [[Iron Hands]], and [[Raven Guard]] who had been stalking the traitor fleet in search of vengeance since the [[Drop Site Massacre]]. One of the loyalist Astartes during the battle shattered the ''Maugetar stone'', freeing some of Perturabo's energy and giving him the ability to strike down Fulgrim with his [[Thunder Hammer]]. However Perturabo only managed to destroy the Primarchs mortal skin and was reborn as a Daemon Prince. Now a massive but elegant serpentine creature, Fulgrim told his brother that they would meet again then vanished in a burst of [[Warp]] energy along with his Emperor's Children. Exhausted and betrayed by his brother he knew had now lost any trace of honorhonour, Perturabo allowed the loyalist Astartes to withdraw and led his own forces off the Crone World. Looking to settle the score with Fulgrim and better understand the cosmic power he had witnessed, Perturabo ordered his fleet sail deep into the Eye of Terror.{{Fn|7}}

After weeks of fighting, the traitor war effort stalled in the face of the walls of the Palace and the [[Daemon Primarch]]s proved aloof and unreliable. Horus thus relied on Perturabo to conduct the main offensive push into the [[Lion's Gate Spaceport]]. Hoping to overcome Dorn's traps with bluntness, Perturabo put [[Kroeger]] in charge of the ground offensive while inserting [[Forrix]] and a unit of Iron Warriors behind enemy lines to seize key bridges into the Spaceport.{{Fn|1616a}} However the attack stalled in the face of the Emperor's psychic shield of the Palace, forcing Perturabo to rely on the [[Immaterium]] by having [[Zardu Layak]] and [[Typhus]] summon [[Cor'bax Utterblight]] to subvert the Imperial Palace's population.{{Fn|16a16b}} During the main assault on the Lion's Gate Spaceport, Perturabo revealed that Forrix and his men had been sacrificed as a ruse in order to draw away Imperial Fists defenses in order to allow the ''[[Iron Blood]]'' to dock with the Spaceport's main spire. As Perturabo set down, [[Rogal Dorn]] met him on the field of battle. However Perturabo refused to be goaded into a battle by Dorn's taunts, knowing the Imperial Fists Primarch simply intended to buy time for his troops to withdraw. Perturabo instead promised that only after he had torn down the Palace would he kill Dorn.{{Fn|16b16c}}

Following the fall of Lion's Gate, Perturabo landed on Terra's surface and set up a command center to direct the siege. With Horus increasingly losing touch with the [[Materium]], it fell to Perturabo to command the war effort and he became the face of the enemy to the defenders of Terra. With the blessing of the Warmaster, Perturabo controlled his allies through a command staff that consisted of [[Abaddon]] and the [[Mournival]], [[Ahriman]], [[Typhus]], [[Eidolon]], and [[Krostovok]]. Perturabo directly connected himself to the traitor data network, absorbing enormous quantities of data and directing every facet of the siege with his own mind. In this state, commanding the greatest siege in history, Abaddon suspected that Perturabo was finally happy. In an uncharacteristically good mood, Perturabo praised Abaddon when he noticed the same flaw in the [[Saturnine Gate]] that he recently had also discovered. However Perturabo was worried that Dorn also knew of the flaw, and exploiting it would be a trap by his brother. As a result, he allowed Abaddon and the Emperor's Children to attack Saturnine and suffer the losses and humiliation that would come with it should the assault fail.{{Fn|1717a}} Sure enough, Dorn had known of the flaw and ambushed the traitors as they attacked.{{Fn|17a17b}}

Later, aboard the ''Iron Blood'' off [[Mars]], Perturabo watches the data coming in regard to the final actions of the Siege of Terra. He violently rages at being denied what should have been his greatest triumph, destroying whatever can be found around him with ''[[Forgebreaker]]''. Now hating both sides equally, Perturabo contemplates contemplated killing Horus once he (in his mind by that point) inevitably prevails. Perturabo realizes realized he will need further power to survive in a sea of enemies, and begins to wonder how to evolve himself into something far deadlier.{{Fn|20}}By the time of Horus' death and the flight of his armies from Terra in the face of [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s relief force, Perturabo was still aboard the ''Iron Blood'' at the edges of the [[Sol System]]. He observed the [[Word Bearers]] constructing a Warp-based device on [[Neptune]]'s moon of [[Laomedeia]] in order to rekindle the power of Chaos in the System and restart the war.{{Fn|26a}} However the Iron Warrior [[Ortag Theokon]] summoned Perturabo to Laomedeia with a signal, leading to him crushing the Word Bearers, mocking their plan, and stripping the moon of all its resources and personnel before withdrawing. Perturabo indicated that he did not intend to run forever, and that he had a greater plan in mind.{{Fn|26b}}

[[Image:DaemonPerturabo.jpg|thumb|right|500px|[[Daemon Prince]] Perturabo leads the Iron Warriors{{Fn|27}}]]After fleeing Terra following Horus' s death, Perturabo took the opportunity to take vengeance on the Imperial Fists with a trap on [[Sebastus IV]]. The trap was known as the Eternal Fortress, a keep centred within twenty square miles of bunkers, towers, minefields, trenches, tank traps , and redoubts. Upon hearing of this, Rogal Dorn publicly declared that he "would dig Perturabo out of his hole and bring him back to Terra in an iron cage". Rogal Dorn expected an honourable battle, but this was not to be. Beginning by isolating the four Companies of the Imperial Fists from their orbital support, Perturabo began to carefully divide his enemy and destroy them piecemeal. Some Imperial Fists managed to penetrate the defences and reach the centre of the Eternal Fortress, only to find there was no central keep – simply an open space watched by yet more defenses. The fortress was a decoy of no real value, surrounded by twenty miles of killing ground. By the sixth day of the siege, Imperial Fists Space Marines were fighting individually, without support, using the bodies of their own battle brothers for cover.{{Fn|1a}}

{{triviaTrivia}}*"Perturabo" is Latin for "I will disturb"; his name may derive from the word ''Perturbed'', which means anxious or upset. It may also relate to the motto of occultist [[Wikipedia: Aleister Crowley|Aleister Crowley]] ''Perdurabo'', meaning "I Shall Endure".*The earliest mention of Perturabo is from [[Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned]]: ''"On one world a black sun stands in a white sky and smoky threads pour from it onto a tangled black city - this is said to be the homeworld of the Daemon Prince Perturabo, formerly the Space Marine Primarch of the Iron Warriors"''.{{Fn|23}}

{{CiteCitation issues}}<div style="column-width:24em;column-count:2;font-size:85%">

*{{Endn|2}}: [[Fulgrim (Novel)]] by [[Graham McNeill]]{{CME}}

*{{Endn|4}}: [http://www.blacklibrary.com/Blog/Hells-Angels.html The Black Library Blog: Hell's Angels] ''(Site last accessed 19/4/0212April 2012)''*{{Endn|5}}: [http://www.blacklibrary.com/horus-heresy/angel-exterminatus.html Angel Exterminatus on Black Library] ''(last accessed 02 October 2, 2012)''*{{Endn|6}}: [[Codex: Chaos Space Marines (6th Edition)]] , pg. 22*{{Endn|7}}: [[Angel Exterminatus (Novel)]]{{CME}}

*{{Endn|8}}: [[Black Legion - A Codex: Chaos Space Marines Supplement]] , pgs. 39–40*{{Endn|9}}: [[The Horus Heresy Book Three]] , pgs. 104–118

*{{Endn|11}}: [[Codex: Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition)]] , pg. 32*{{Endn|12}}: [[Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia (Novel)]] Chapters 7–11:

**{{Endn|12b}}: Chapters 7–11**{{Endn|12c}}: Chapter 13**{{Endn|12c12d}}: Chapter 15

*{{Endn|15}}: [[The Lost and the Damned (Novel)]] - , Chapters 17 & 24*{{Endn|16}}: [[The First Wall (Novel)]] **{{Endn|16a}}: Chapters 1-2**{{Endn|16a16b}}: Chapters 10-12**{{Endn|16b16c}}: Chapters 30-32*{{Endn|17}}: [[Saturnine (Novel)]] :**{{Endn|17a}}: Part 1 , Chapter 2**{{Endn|17a17b}}: Part 3, Chapters 3-4*{{Endn|18}}: [[Mortis (Novel)]] :

*{{Endn|22}}: [https://joytoy.com/products/iron-warriors-perturabo,primarch-of-the-ivth-legion Joytoy Perturabo] ''(last accessed 6/8/2025)''

*{{Endn|24}}: [[Magnus the Red: Master of Prospero (Novel)]] - , Chapter 1*{{Endn|25}}: [[The Emperor's Architect (Short Story)]] - ''[[Traitorous Scions (Anthology)]]''*26: [[Ashes of the Imperium (Novel)]]:**{{Endn|26a}}: Chapter 36**{{Endn|26b}}: Chapter 39*{{Endn|27}}: [https://web.archive.org/web/20260331140053/https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/krrfctul/perturabos-grand-plan-revealed/ Warhammer Community: Perturabo’s grand plan revealed] saved page, [https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/krrfctul/perturabos-grand-plan-revealed/ original link] (last accessed 31/3/2026)</div>