Games Workshop has set Warhammer 40,000 fans on high alert after it published the first ever official artwork of daemon Perturabo, primarch of the Iron Warriors traitor legion.
In Warhammer 40,000 lore, Perturabo is one of the demigod sons of the Emperor who turned traitor during the foundational Horus Heresy saga, set 10,000 years before current events. The Lord of Iron ended up abandoning the Siege of Terra and retreating to the Eye of Terror, where he ascended to become a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. He’s been there, building up his home world of Medrengard as a massive daemon world, for the past 10,000 years, plotting the Imperium’s demise. Now, it seems, he’s ready to take on Terra itself.
In a post on Warhammer Community, Games Workshop revealed the artwork, below, which it described as perhaps the “first ever proper depiction of post-ascension Perturabo ever published in a Warhammer book.” It’s lifted from the upcoming Eye of Terror: Reign of Iron book, which is set to reveal Perturabo’s master plan for the Imperium.
“He’s a bit of a monster, isn’t he?” Games Workshop said, and yes, he is. Perhaps the most striking part of this image is just how big Perturabo is in daemon form. There won’t be much stopping him and all that iron sprouting from his back. That’s for sure.
“Despite his fearsome appearance, Perturabo’s deadliest weapon is his mind, and he’s been engaging it inside the towers of Medrengard for thousands of years,” Games Workshop continued. “Every dispatched warband and recalled fleet has been part of his intricate manoeuvres, and now the masterstroke is at hand. The time of the Infinite Citadel has come.”
This Infinite Citadel is described as “an expanding ring of horrifically brutalist fortifications designed by Perturabo himself.” It “forges ahead – entire worlds turned into keeps, their resources plundered to the last stone so the Iron Warriors can raise walls that cross entire systems.”
It’s all heading towards Terra, destroying anything that gets in his way. All the while, the veil between realspace and the Warp will thin, allowing the Daemon Primarch to “finally walk upon Imperial soil again at will, and drop the killing blow in person.”
So, the artwork we see above is daemon Perturabo finally doing just that, although it sounds like it’ll take some time for the Warhammer 40,000 narrative to get there.
What does this mean for the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game? Most fans assume it means daemon Perturabo is set for his own miniature and official rules. If that does happen, we’ll have four daemon primarchs (Angron, Magnus the Red, Mortarion, and maybe Perturabo), and two loyalist primarchs (Roboute Guilliman and Lion El’Jonson) on the field. The Space Marines are clearly outmatched here, so perhaps Perturabo’s arrival, assuming it does happen, will be followed by the return of Rogal Dorn, boss of the Imperial Fists, or Space Wolves chief Leman Russ. Whatever the case, if Perturabo does get a model, it’s going to be pretty big, right?
The Perturabo news comes hot on the heels of Games Workshop’s announcement of Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition, due out June 2026. It revolves around Commissar Yarrick versus the Orks on the war-torn world of Armageddon. There is no big picture lore development with either that announcement or this announcement. In January, Games Workshop set up the long-awaited meeting of loyalist primarchs Roboute Guilliman and Lion El’Jonson via the 500 Worlds: Titus campaign book, but we haven’t heard anything more on that since. Perhaps they’ll need to join forces to fight back Perturabo and the Iron Warriors?
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
