The Hollow Crown

More so than many of those who turned traitor and sided with Horus, the motivations and path of damnation pursued by the Iron Warriors remains perhaps the most unknown and uncertain, save perhaps that of the history of the Alpha Legion around who little but lies circle. Once faultlessly loyal, they did not bend but seemed to outsiders instead to suddenly and inexplicably shatter in their allegiance. Many who view the matter with enough dispassion see, rightly or wrongly, a Legion eroded by too much horror, too much attrition and death in the service of a cause to which they went unheralded and unthanked. They see a Primarch and his sons who were slowly laid low with suspicion, malcontent and a growing madness. But there remains scant evidence of wholesale corruption of the body or the insidious hand of the Ruinous Powers at work among them, let alone any actual traffic with dark forces before the cataclysm of galactic civil war engulfed the Imperium. For others the answer is more simply that there grew in the Legion a savage, jealous arrogance born of nothing more than base bloodlust and malcontent which led the Iron Warriors down the path to their ruin.

相比于其他那些站在荷魯斯派系并背叛了帝國的勢(shì)力，或許除了阿爾法軍團(tuán)那遍布謊言的歷史之外，鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)的叛變動(dòng)機(jī)和通往毀滅的道路可能是最不為人知也最令人不確定的。他們?cè)峭昝赖闹艺\軍團(tuán)，而且他們并非是屈服，在外人看來，鋼鐵勇士們的忠誠似乎是突然且莫名其妙得粉碎了。無論對(duì)錯(cuò)，許多能以足夠冷靜的態(tài)度看待此事的人所看到的都是：一個(gè)軍團(tuán)被太多的恐懼、消耗和死亡所侵蝕著，他們?yōu)橐豁?xiàng)事業(yè)服務(wù)卻得不到感謝，也不會(huì)被提及。他們看到一位原體及其子嗣們被懷疑、不滿和越來越瘋狂的情緒慢慢擊倒。不過，也很少有證據(jù)能證明鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)中存在大規(guī)模生理腐化，或者毀滅大能在他們當(dāng)中動(dòng)了陰險(xiǎn)的手腳，更遑論他們?cè)谕淌傻蹏臑?zāi)難般銀河內(nèi)戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)前與黑暗力量有過任何實(shí)際往來。對(duì)其他人而言答案則更為簡(jiǎn)單：鋼鐵勇士軍團(tuán)中滋長(zhǎng)出了一種野蠻且嫉妒的傲慢情緒，這種情緒誕生自卑劣的嗜血性格和不滿心態(tài)，導(dǎo)致第四軍團(tuán)走上了毀滅之路。

There have been some who have contended that the Iron Warriors' fatal flaw was instead a lack of faith at a fundamental level; that they did not truly believe in the cause of the Great Crusade or the Emperor that they served, or that they themselves were anything more than machines built to kill. It might then be viewed that ultimately they were undone by the very pragmatism and logic that had made them such ruthless and effective soldiers, but left them ill-equipped to fight an enemy as existential as doubt and moral terror. If this is true then for Perturabo, his Primarch's mantle became nothing but a licence for slaughter without a higher purpose; his conquests empty and victories hollow. It has been further contended that this was what ultimately deranged and destroyed them from within, leaving nothing but empty vessels to be filled with the uncaring savagery and the mirror of the horrors they had borne.

某些人認(rèn)為鋼鐵勇士的致命缺陷是缺乏根本層面上的信念;他們并不真正相信大遠(yuǎn)征（所造就）的偉業(yè)，不相信他們所侍奉的帝皇，也不相信自己只不過是用來進(jìn)行殺戮的機(jī)器?？偟膩砜?，毀滅他們的正是將之造就為如此無情且高效的戰(zhàn)士的極端實(shí)用主義（精神）和邏輯——這種思維模式讓他們?cè)趯?duì)抗懷疑和道德恐懼這般關(guān)于存在主義的敵人時(shí)缺乏（精神上的）裝備。倘若這就是真實(shí)情況，那么對(duì)佩圖拉博而言，他身為原體的職責(zé)就是一張沒有任何崇高目標(biāo)的屠殺許可狀；他的征服和勝利都是一場(chǎng)空。有人進(jìn)一步認(rèn)為這就是最終使他們精神錯(cuò)亂并從內(nèi)部發(fā)生（自我）毀滅的原因，這種狀況另鋼鐵勇士們成為了裝滿冷漠野蠻的空殼，變?yōu)榱怂麄兯惺苤目植狼榫w的鏡像。