Legio Ferraeus

The Imperial Titans or God-Machines are titanic armoured war-machines towering over the battlefield at heights that rival many buildings, made in the image of humankind to fight the enemies of the Imperium. Each is piloted by a specialist Mechanicus-trained crew raised within the massive training halls of the Collegia Titanica.

Four Facts about the Collegia Titanica

• They are the pilots of God-Machines. The sight of a Titan striding to war is one to set the coldest Imperial heart ablaze with righteous zeal, and scatter even the hardiest of foes before the deadly weapons mounted by their God-Machines.

• Titans are gigantic. The smallest classes of Titan are around seventeen meters tall, their largest over fifty meters there are few war machines of the same equivalent scale on the battlefields of this era and their firepower is so intense that even the smallest Titans can dominate in battle against lesser ground forces.

• Their Titans are rare and valuable war-engines. There are few pieces of technology more valued by the Imperium, and more sacred to the Adeptus Mechanicus, than a Titan, and the loss of a single one of these increasingly irreplaceable relics is a cause for deep mourning. To this end the discovery of a 'lost' Titan is one of the few things that can quickly rouse the Mechanicus to war as they rush to reclaim their sacred God-Machine.

• They are one with their machines. Within the massive hulls of their vessels, these human crews are neurally linked to the body of their mighty Machine; Titans link the mind of a single Princeps, who serves as the commander of the Engine, to several Moderati who support the Princeps by operating other systems, all working one single will to pilot their great Engine into battle.

Four Facts about the Legio Ferraeus

• Their cognomen is "The Heralds of the Storm". The stormcloud grey and azure heraldry of the Legio Ferraeus gives rise to the imagery of an approaching stormfront as they march to war, their weaponry crackling with energy as they approach.

• They believe that the Emperor and Omnissiah are the same being. The Legio Ferraeus are closely tied to the Imperium unlike other Mechanicus followers and consider the Omnissiah and Emperor to be the same being - though they use the name 'God-Emperor' they are more likely to refer to him at the 'Oncoming Storm' an artifact of the semi-tribal culture they developed during their years as a nomad Legion.

• They founded their Forge World It was the Legio Ferraeus, who were awarded the Forge World that is now named Ferraeus in their honour as a reward for the aid they gave to Warmaster Durovera I at the onset of the Prosperitas Crusade. To this end they command great respect from the Tech Priests of their Forge.

• The crew of each of their Titans share a bloodline. One of the unique quirks of the Legio Ferraeus, is that every Titan in their ranks have been crewed by the same ancient families that are pledged to that particular God Machine since the beginning their bloodline. Often the Princeps and Moderatii are chosen from groups of siblings with desirable sync-rates with their bonded God Machine.

Legio Ferraeus "The Heralds of the Storm"

The foundations of the Legio Ferraeus are lost to time at the opening of the 41st Millennium it was a nomadic Legion constantly travelling from one warzone to the next trading its service in exchange for resources and repairs to its Titans. Their name 'The Heralds of the Storm' was well earned for they would come without warning descending upon battlefields from their transport fleet to destroy the enemies of the Imperium.

The nomadic culture of the Legio has given rise to a number of unique relationships with its machines with each of its powerful Titans promised to a particular bloodline within the Legio - with all its crew being of the same blood and family generation after generation bonded to the same Titan from its Princeps and Moderatii to its repair crews and onboard engineers each of the Titans bares the symbology of the families history in the forms of great tapestries of the Titan and Families histories etched into internal bulkheads. Like ancient horse-riding nomads each God-Machine considered as much a part of the family as flesh and blood kin, with most Legio personnel referring to their Engines affectionately as their 'Grandsire'.

Sometime prior to the end of M.40, the Legio developed a close bond with Lady-Captain Jacinta Durovera long before she discovered the Prosperitas Sector and founded the Prosperitas Crusade.

Summoned to the Crusade at its commencement by Jacinta, its Titans were ancient and in desperate need of repair. Durovera offered them two things for their service to her: the use of the repair bays of her vessels and the promise of a home, the first favourable world for them to make their own would be theirs if they aided her conquest of the Prosperitas Sector. From that point the Legio would be at the thick of the fighting in the Prosperitas Crusade.

The Legio won its home in the early years of the Crusade when it led a massive assault on the Heretek Forge World that supplied arms to the Regency, taking the world with all the fury of a fully deployed Titan Legion the ancient engines of the Legio to the world, which would, after the fall of the Hereteks that ruled it, be named Ferraeus in their honour.

From that date, the Legio Ferraeus have been bonded closely to their Forge and their Forge to it, ensuring that the Heralds of the Storm of the modern day are a well repaired and equipped Titan Legion one of the rare assets that the Prosperitas Crusade can call upon.

But the Legio’s relationship with the Crusade has always been close but not without complications. The Legio’s debts to House Durovera are stronger than its ties to the Crusade and this has always made them a valuable political tool to the House, which has often been able to persuade the God Machines to walk when Warmasters could not; this has made many Crusade Commanders cautious about relying on them for the fact that they often have to do so by accumulating a debt to House Durovera as emissaries to the Legio.

The Battles for Henlock

The Legio Ferraeus was deployed en-mass to the Titan graveyard of Henlock when the first elements of the Archenemy force who would many years later be revealed to be the remnants of the Regency known as the Sovereign Order invaded the world overnight. Drilling with the Demi-Legio Custodii Incudatem of Naximus Prime at the time both Titan forces were attacked while their Titans were docked and uncrewed losing several Titans in the initial archenemy attack, and while the Legio mostly fought free of the world, the wounds left on their engines and their pride would not heal quickly. This wound was salted by the subsequent losses suffered by the Legio in the disastrous Second Battle of Henlock.

With the commencement of the Machine War known as the Third Battle of Henlock in 593.M41 the Legio Ferraeus has thrown the majority of its Titans into the war. Disinterested in the politics between its sister Priesthood and the Priesthoods of Naximus Prime and Castellum the Legio and its accompanying Legion of Secutarii Titan Guard have persecuted their conflict with the Regency and its Heretek allies seeking to reclaim captured Titans as well as bring low the monstrous mockeries of their sacred engines deployed by their foes.

Rank and Status in the Collegia Titanica

The Senior Officers of a Titan Legion are the Princeps, the title for the primary pilot of a Titan - the undisputed Masters of a Legion they do not take 'Staff' roles however, no Princeps would deny themselves the ability to taste battle. Staff Roles in a Titan Legion are normally filled by militant members of the Priesthood of Mars who provide strategic advice to the Princeps in the field.

The Master of a Titan Legion is designated the Princeps Maximus but may have a unique title depending on the Legion. The Princeps Maximus is the senior-most of her kind in a Titan Legion and is an experienced warrior often given command of the mightiest Engines in their legion.

Beneath the Princeps Maximus are the Princeps Senioris the senior Princeps that command the maniples of the Legio, formations of five Titans that represent the squadron-level divisions of the Legion.

Beneath the Princeps Maximus are the regular Princeps of the Legio each the master of her own God-Machine when the legio walks they operate beneath the command of their Princeps Senioris but more often than not a single Titan can be paired off from the main formation to go to walk alone in support of lesser ground forces.

The Moderatii (singular Moderatus) are, after the Princeps, senior in rank aboard an Imperial Titan. They usually assist the Princeps by operating the various systems of the Titan while she focuses upon piloting manning weapons, motive systems, auspexes and void shields of the Titan.

Beneath these come the lesser members of the Titan Legions the swarms of Enginseers and their tech-thralls who tend to the powerful reactors of each Titan and ensure they are kept in operation and repair during and after battle.

Battle Cant and Slang of the Collegia Titanica

Like both the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy the Collegia Titanica has its own lexicon of names and phrases that make sense to it, but mean little to those outside of its ranks;

• Aff (Legio Ferraeus Cant) - Affirmative or Yes

• Neg (Legio Ferraeus Cant) - Negative or No

• Quiaff (Legio Ferraeus Cant) - Used questioningly as 'Query Affirmative?' to check the subjects agreement.

• Quineg (Legio Ferraeus Cant) - Used questioningly as 'Query Negative?' or more literally 'Why not?'.

• Ristar (Legio Ferraeus Cant) - Shorthand for 'Rising Star' usually referring to a promising Princeps or Moderatii

• Pondskum (Legio Ferraeus Cant) - Derrogative term for the Princeps of the Demi-Legio Custodii Incudatem who are often suspended in amniotic tanks.

• Error-Shunt-Abort (Common Mechanicus Slang) - To be irritated with someone as in I am 'error-shunt-abort with the Enginseer'.

• Walk (Common Collegia Slang) - As in 'The Legio will Walk', a slang term that means that a Titan is going to battle or on campaign.

• The Primordial Annihilator (Common Mechanicus Slang) - The Archenemy

• Inload (Common Mechanicus Slang) - To download information directly to the cerebral cortex via a MIU.

• Manifold (Common Mechanicus Term) - The virtual environment experienced by Princeps and Moderatii when they are immersed in the task of piloting their Titans.

• MIU (Common Mechanicus Term) - Mind Impulse Unit, a neural implant that allows a human mind to mesh with machines, used heavily in piloting a Titan, but also starships.

• Amniotic Tanks (Common Mechanicus Term) - a form of Princeps/Titan interface where the Princeps is suspended in a tank filled with a liquid medium that some claim gives a greater interface with the God-Machine.

• Engines (Common Collega Slang) - Titans, often used when countering the number of Titans in a formation.