The Iron Legion was the powerful army of an ancient Empire, Old Xylvania to be precise.
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 looks a lot like Mordor from 'The Lord of the Rings'. The warriors of the Legion appear to be green-skinned, orc- and later zombie-like creatures.
History
The origins of the Legion are unknown. However, the appearance of the Legionnaires is caused because they were "infected" with genoshene gas(the same that xslyvanian acid gas troopers use) resulting in a strage mutation. They seem to live like slaves, doing nothing during their entire life but fighting for their Lord or gathering resources for their massive army.
Weaponry
This is the very first Battlestation ever, invented by the Iron Legion during the Lightning Wars
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.
The Iron Legion has a huge arsenal of nerocite-powered weaponry at its disposal(the nerocite is a substance extracted from rocks and similar to petroleum) , and many weapons of the BW universe are inspired by the powerfulprototypes invented in Old Xylvania by the Legion blacksmiths".
Iron Legion Veteran Infantry weapons and armor. These were very advanced in their time.
The bat-design of the Legion fighter is said to have been created by a Violet Baron, who was an ace in dogfighting.
The All-Conquering Legion
The Iron Legion managed to overrun most of the world except for the Western Frontier, Tundran Territories, and the Anglo Isles' homelands. They destroyed entire cities and nations, and even made the Anglo Isles lose almost all of its glorious empire, making them give up all of their empire and forcing them to recall all of there forces back to their homeland, which that marked the fall of the powerful Anglo empire. 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 these monstrous legions of evil.
The End of a Dark Era
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, the satellite was 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, because they were the only two nations with a powerful milliatry campared to the rest of the world or without heavily damaged milliatry left on the planet. The rest of the nations' armies were heavily damaged, including the Solar Empire and Anglo Isles.
However, the Solar Weapon did pulverize the army but the Xylvanians managed to gather the remains and bury them The surviving Xylvanians build 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.
Present Day
In order to use the Iron Legion against the allies, Countess Ingrid steals the sword 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 "Overmind" of the Iron Legion, although there is some speculation that Lord Ferrok's spirit may have possessed her. Back to life, the Legion might of seek to bring an end to 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.
End of the Legion
However, a Western Frontier battalion and Solar Empire air support manage to destroy the Cenotaph (along with its Obelisks), bringing an end to the Legion, and saving Xylvania (and the world) from complete destruction.
Old Xylvanian landscape
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 in 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.
Trivia
- The Iron Legion is the only nation that doesn't appear to have Naval Units. it makes them have the smallest arsenal in the entire game, despite its alarming power.
- 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.
- Due to the durability of Xylvanian/Legion citizens, they are able to live for a long time, an example being Kaiser Vlad's near-100-year-old age. This could possibly mean that Lord Ferrok is Kasier Vlad's grandfather or great-grandfather.