Iron Legion

The Iron Legion was the powerful army of the ancient Empire of Old Xylvania, they are one of the playable Armies in Battalion Wars 2.

History

Background

This is the very first Battlestation ever, invented by the Iron Legion during the Lightning Wars

Old Xylvania was a horrible desert of dust, ashes and lava. This land was ruled by a megalomaniac Emperor, Lord Ferrok, ancestor of Kaiser Vlad. Old Xylvania is based on European fables of demons and vampires.

The Legion was the first to invent the all-conquering Battlestation, which gave them a huge advantage in the Lightning Wars, due to its incredible power and deadly force. However the Battlestation "Project", as said in the Unit Dossier, was not completed until the near-end of the Lightning Wars. The same time the Solar Empire launched their assault on Old Xylvania.

The Iron Legion has a huge arsenal of nerocite-powered weaponry at its disposal (Nerocite is a substance extracted from rocks and similar to petroleum of the real world) and many weapons of the BW universe are inspired by the powerful prototypes invented in Old Xylvania by the Legion blacksmiths.

The bat-design of the Legion Fighter (and possibly the Legion Bomber) is said to have been created by a Violet Baron, who was an ace in dogfighting.

The Lighting Wars (BWii Prologue) 

The origins of the Legion are unknown. However, the appearance of the Legionnaires is because they were "infected" with Ghosgene gas (the exact same substance that Xylvania supplies their Acid-Gas Troopers) resulting in a strange mutation. They seem to live like slaves, doing nothing during their entire life but fighting for Lord Ferrok or gathering resources for their massive army.

In order to save the world, the Solar Empire invented a satellite weapon which would use the energy of the sun to destroy any territory on the surface of the planet it was used against. When Lord Ferrok held a speech to what remained of his army on his great Iron tower unbeknownst to him he did not have enough troops to conquer the world, and when the satellites activated, and destroyed the area, leaving Old Xylvania without leadership or a viable army. Thus, the dark empire was defeated.

This also marked the eventual rise of the Western Frontier and Tundra Territories, because they were the only two nations with an undamaged/powerful milliatry left in the world. The rest of the nations' armies were heavily damaged, including the Solar Empire and Anglo Isles.

However, the Solar Empire's Weapon did pulverize the Iron Legion's army but the Xylvanians managed to gather the remains and bury them. The surviving Xylvanians built a great monument in the centre of the destroyed land (which was named the Crater of the Sun by the Solar Empire), called the Cenotaph, a monstrous stone slab that marked the historical armies' remains. It is later revealed that this Cenotaph is really some unknown Xylvanian machine, which is able to bring the Legion back to life. For this, a special key is needed, disguised as a sword...the sword of which each Kaiser recieves when the power is passed down to him.

Battalion Wars

In order to use the Iron Legion against the Alliance, Countess Ingrid stole the Sword of Lord Ferrok from Kaiser Vlad (who was against using the Legion since he knew that unlike his ancestor Ferrok, he would be unable to control it). Ingrid eventually loses her mind and is controlled (or at least thinks to be controlled) by the "hive mind" of the Iron Legion, the mighty Legion seeks to enslave all living things, including their descendants in new Xylvania. This was unlike Ferrok's original reign, in which he only wanted to rule the world, not destroy it like Ingrid intended, However, a Western Frontier battalion and Solar Empire air support managed to destroy the Cenotaph (along with its Obelisks), bringing an end to the Legion, and saving Xylvania (and the world) from complete destruction. 

Country Representation

Old Xylvania was a horrible desert of dust, ashes and lava. This land was ruled by a megalomaniac Emperor, Lord Ferrok, ancestor of Kaiser Vlad. Old Xylvania is based on European fables of demons and vampires.

Non-Humanity

Much like its successor Xylvania, the people of the Iron Legion do not appear fully Human, in fact, to a much greater extent than the Xylvanians. Although this might be due to the fact that they live in a polluted, poisoned country, and they mine deadly Nerocite all the time (See unit dossier). They have green (and later, blue) skin, red eyes, and pointed ears. These may emphasize the fact that they are truly demons, as the name Iron Legion implies.

Weaponry

The Iron Legion managed to overrun most of the world as they destroyed entire cities and nations, and even made the Anglo Isles lose almost all of its empire, making them give up many of their colonies and forcing them to recall all of their forces back to their homeland, which marked the fall of the Anglo Isles as a global power. Only the Solar Empire was strong enough after the fall of the Anglo Isles empire for durable resistance. Their super-advanced technology more than saved them on many occasions. But it was still no match for the sheer power of the primitive but monstrous legions of evil.

Trivia

• The Iron Legion is the only nation that doesn't appear to have Naval Units. This causes them to have the smallest arsenal in the entire game, despite its alarming power, was destroyed by the Anglo Isles navy but at cost of the commanding Anglo Admiral's life. 
• The Iron Legion is the only nation that does not have a clear equivalent, but it does share some similarities with Germany during WWI and WWII. For example, Germany and Prussia (which, historically is often part of Germany or allied with Germany) have been commonly called the Iron Kingdom, especially during WWI.
• The Iron Legion is the only Faction that is not named or reffered after its Nation: Xylvania, meaning that the Iron Legion was Lord Ferrok's personal Army.
• Due to the durability of Xylvanian/Legion citizens, they are able to live for a long time, an example being Kaiser Vlad's near-century-old age. This could possibly mean that Lord Ferrok is Kasier Vlad's grandfather or great-grandfather.
• Because the Iron Legion war machines were powered by Nerocite (the main fuel their descendants the modern Xylvania Army uses as well) , every Iron Legion vehicular unit had some type of furnace usually mounted in the rear. Also expelling large amounts of smoke exhaust behind them.
• The Iron Legion Campaign is the only campaign in both games that allow the player to utilize their every type of unit without assistance from multiplayer matches online.
• Since the Iron Legion has no Naval Units or Transport units, it's a mystery on how they traveled to the other continents and islands of the world during the Lightning Wars. Although it can be said that they may have improvised by using the Air Units they had as the transportation they needed or they were just so straightforward they merely swam across the oceans to their destination.
• Because the Iron Legion had the smallest arsenal of the entire series, it could be said that they only accepted strength and only built the strongest unit types for their army.
• According to the possessed Countess Ingrid from the first Battalion Wars, "The Iron Legion's sole strategy is emitting onslaught!" therefore the Iron Legion's goal and intentions were straightforward.