Ortag Theokon
Ortag Theokon is a Warsmith and Siege Breaker of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion, who took part in the Great Crusade, the Horus Heresy and the Great Scouring.[1a]
History
A Warsmith of the 37th Grand Battalion, his skills led Theokon to be honoured by the Iron Warriors and earned him titles, such as the Master of Sieges and the Earth-Tormentor. The Siege Breaker was among the Traitor Legion's forces that took part in the Horus Heresy's invasion of Terra. He was also among the Iron Warriors who remained there, after their Primarch, Perturabo, chose to no longer take part in the invasion. By then, though, Theokon was committed to achieving victory over the Imperium and did not care how many of his forces were lost, as long as he aided in destroying the Imperial Palace's Sanctum Imperialis. It was the Imperium's last redoubt on Terra and the Siege Breaker thought that once it fell, Warmaster Horus would be victorious. This brought joy to Theokon, as the Imperium would then enter the era of the Reign of the Astartes Unfettered and be free of the Emperor's influence.[1a]
However, just as Theokon was poised to destroy the Sanctum Imperialis' structures, the Warmaster was slain and with his death, the tide quickly turned against the Traitor forces. All at once, their Daemon allies vanished and shortly afterwards, Imperial reinforcements began arriving from orbit. They swarmed the Traitors in overwhelming numbers and Theokon had no choice but to order his forces to retreat. In the mayhem of the battle though, only a few of his Iron Warriors escaped Terra, aboard a Stormbird with Theokon. While he was left bitter with shame and humiliation by the Traitors' sudden defeat, the Siege Breaker vowed to survive and not allow the Imperium to kill him.[1a]
As the Stormbird lacked any sort of Warp Drive, Theokon was effectively stranded drifting within the Sol System. He eventually was discovered by a group of fellow Traitors under the Word Bearers Dark Apostle Adraharsis, who were attempting to sneak out of the Sol System in a depowered corvette.[5] Theokon wished to retreat through the Elysian Gate and regroup their forces, while the Word Bearers were more distraught over their prior defeat and wished to rekindle the power of the Warp within Sol.[1f]
The group eventually managed to locate a concealed Word Bearers base on Neptune's moon of Laomedeia, where they discovered that the Traitors were building a Warp device to rekindle the power of Chaos within the Sol System and restart the war. Theokon saw this as a fool's errand, and was able to secretly send a transmission to the Iron Blood.[1f] His actions were discovered, and he was captured by the Word Bearers and brutally tortured.[1d] However Perturabo received his transmission and attacked the moon, dismissing the Word Bearers plans as a threat to his own grander scheme. All of the Word Bearers were wiped out and Perturabo stripped the moon of its remaining resources and personnel. Recognizing Theokon's competence, Perturabo promoted him to a command role for his coming campaign.[1e]
