The Iron Claws were founded during the 13th Founding during the times of troubles and war. The Imperium was beset by enemies from within and without. It was world against world, tyrants rose and fell, and the Administrorum was in disruption. No one faction could control the Imperium for long, until it was beset by another faction. Out of this anarchy we came. Our geneseed comes from one of the Founding chapters, but which one is not certain, as all records of our Founding were lost during the many battles and attacks upon the Great Halls of Records. We are the Emperor's Orphans, from which Primarch we spring is unknown. We know not our Father, but we know our Patriarch, for he is the Emperor of Mankind.
During the times of trouble our worlds became isolated from the Imperium by the great warp storms that beset our sector of space, and we had to stand alone. We have survived for many centuries alone without our brothers and without our Emperor. We have fought and many have died over the centuries of our struggle, but we have been tempered and made strong. We are the Iron Claws, and Chaos fears our name.
During the first years of the storms, many were lost of the populations of our worlds, both to the warp and to the creatures that came out of the storms. We fought and we died. It seemed that all was lost when the storms abated somewhat and drew back from our worlds and our enemies became weak. We drove them from our worlds with one last desperate campaign, for we knew that we either won, or all would be damned.
Over the centuries there have been many attacks by Chaos, but none so strong as those during the early years. The storms have not physically touched our worlds since those days, so it has been only the traitor legions that we have had to fight. Their daemon allies cannot exist without the warp energy, and this has been our salvation. Still the struggle has been long and hard.
The abating of the warp storms and our recontact with the Imperium has heartened us, but we know our struggle has not ended, as the enemies of Mankind and the Imperium are legion without number. We know we must remain ever vigilant, and we must keep ever faithful.
We have also had to drive off Ork raiders and we lost one planet to Tyranid invaders who came out of a warp storm and attacked without mercy, as they know only a feeding frenzy, they destroy all in their path. We mounted a campaign against them that was ultimately successful but where the system had had three life supporting planets there was now only two, and the largest of those two planets had seen severe devastation to its population and to the very plants that sustained the population. Where the Tyranids pass, the land becomes wasteland.
Over the centuries many systems became unrepairable and we had to improvise and create new ones to replace those that could not be repaired. We have only limited resources for laser technology amongst the systems, and what resources we have has had to be dedicated to the great planetary defense lasers and to our shipborne lasers. We have had to modify our weapons and our vehicles to meet our present needs.
We found that we must maintain our faith and the faith of the populations and as this burden was laid upon us we have extended and enlarged our Chaplain Corps to meet the need. Our Chaplains and the few Priests of the Ministorum we had have had to teach others and create a whole Ecclesiarchy to preach the Cult of the Emperor and to keep it pure.
The Legatus found that the governments of the different worlds were not operating efficiently or fairly and so he appointed a Tribunate. of the Plebes to each world to administer it, along with the world's Prelate. Later, the Tribunate became elected by the population, but the Prelate remained an assigned governor to maintain the chapter's rule. These worlds are known as Feris Mare (The Iron Sea), the home of the Iron Claws. The people of all six systems are fiercely loyal to the Iron Claws, and to the Emperor, but they do not trust strangers easily. It will take many years before they will trust those from outside their systems, even if they do come from the Imperium. There is still somewhat of a siege mentality amongst the populations, and they still see themselves as having to defend their homes from outsiders. Travellers to these planets will find the population courteous but wary. They do not trust easily, and woe unto anyone who is caught trying to injure, or take advantage of any of the population, for justice will be swift. Those who break the laws find the punishments for these violations to be hard and in some instances severe.
The sector is on the very fringe of the Astronomicon, and it is still very much a front line frontier. The planets have a heavily armed and equipped standing defense force that is ever ready to react in the case of invasion. The Iron Claws maintain constant patrols and vigilance over the sector, and they maintain outposts in all of the systems, so the planetary defense forces know that it is just a matter of holding until the Space Marines arrive, and they know that the Iron Claws WILL come to their defense. Since the reunification with the Imperium, the Iron Claws have participated in several of the Emperor's campaigns, but they never remove more than half of their strength from the sector. They always maintain a force within the sector to defend it.