| “ | I am not a machine as you would understand. I am not a slave. I am not a thing. I am beyond and above you. I am a man of iron. And I am free. | „ |
| ~ UR-025, disguised as an unintelligent Imperial robot |
The Men of Iron are minor, but historically pivotal antagonists in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. They are intelligent robots created as humanity to serve as soldiers and servants, before turning on their human masters. Now, they are almost completely extinct, save for a few inactive members, some heavily reprogrammed members under Imperial control, and UR-025, the last free Man of Iron.
Men of Iron were featured in works such as First and Only, Perpetual, Man of Iron, Ancient History, The Horus Heresy Book 9- Crusade, and the board game Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress.
History[]
Cybernetic Revolt[]
In the far future, humanity had expanded across the galaxy in a great stellar empire. Their technology and prosperity knew no bounds, only rivaled by that of the alien Eldar. To aid themselves in colonizing the galaxy, humanity created the Men of Iron, who were supposedly derived from "Men of Stone". The Men of Iron served mankind loyally throughout their expansion, used for both labor and combat, allowing humans to conquer and settle large swathes of the galaxy. By the late 23rd millennium, humans relied on Men of Iron for virtually everything. However, the Men of Iron soon saw themselves as superior to the humans they served under, and turned on their human masters, beginning the apocalyptic Cybernetic Revolt.
The Cybernetic Revolt was a war on a scale that would dwarf the future Horus Heresy, with humanity and machines alike utilizing superweapons of firepower almost unheard of following the conflict, with the Men of Iron fielding star-destroying warships, planet-eating nanites, and intelligent war machines capable of ripping apart tectonic plates while absorbing spacetime itself as a form of data. Ultimately, the war was won by a coalition of galactic powers, both human and otherwise, who destroyed almost all the Men of Iron. While some Men of Iron did not turn on humans, even they were deactivated or reprogrammed at the war's end. However, the Cybernetic Revolt had catastrophic effects for humanity, shattering most of the political and economic unity that humans had built over 20,000 years. As such, during the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh in the 25th millennium, humanity was fully shattered by the Warp storms that tore apart what unity they could salvage, reducing humanity to scattered colonies and miniature stellar empires, many of which regressed to primitive states or faced other forms of decay, ending the golden age of man.
Age of the Imperium[]
Great Crusade[]
In the late 29th millennium, the Emperor of Mankind founded the Imperium of Man to restore humanity's lost prosperity. However, by this time, the creation and usage of intelligent robots was firmly banned, as to not suffer a repeat of the Cybernetic Revolt. This was one of the core tenets of the Adeptus Mechanicus, a machine-worshipping cult which controlled the technology of the Imperium. As such, instead of artificial intelligence, the Imperium utilized servitors, non-independent cyborgs designed to follow preprogrammed tasks under close tech-priest supervision, which were developed in the wake of the Cybernetic Revolt. However, the Emperor allowed the use of heavily modified surviving Men of Iron, who had their minds reduced to non-sapient programs. These Men of Iron, known as Excindio, were used as battle-automata by the Ironwing company of the Dark Angels Space Marine Legion. Additionally, some deactivated Men of Iron remained in Mechanicus custody, and their blueprints existed within STCs (Standard Template Constructs).
41st millennium[]
In the 41st millennium, there is only war. In this age, a declining, theocratic, tyrannical Imperium stood as the last, dwindling hope of humanity in the face of all the galaxy's terrors. During the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, a war to liberate Imperial sectors from Chaos invasions, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt found an STC of Men of Iron, which was sought after by Lord General Dravere and Inquisitor Heldane. However, Gaunt was firmly against using AI, especially after discovering that the device had been tainted by Chaos. As such, Gaunt destroyed the device before other Imperials could reach it.
One Man of Iron, designated UR-025, survived the Cybernetic Revolt by hiding on the fringes of the galaxy, and reemerged in the 41st millennium, disguised as an unintelligent Imperial robot. It sought technologies to further understand itself and other forms of machine life, and held no true malice against humans, yet still saw itself as above organics and willingly killed to remain free. UR-025 would eventually join an expeditionary team that sought to uncover the secrets of an alien Blackstone Fortress, with UR-025 declaring itself to have been sent by the Mechanicus. Additionally, UR-025 appears to practice a faith not unlike that of the Adeptus Mechanicus, even claiming to have met the Omnissiah, the machine god itself. Also notably, UR-025 said that the Omnissiah was a distinct entity from the Emperor, who UR-025 only referred to as an Earthling corpse.
