I've been watching the Angels of Death animated series on Warhammer+. I thought the series was over, but there have been releases of prequel episodes lately, the latest of which is Patience of iron. This review contains spoilers.
In the first series, Tech Priest Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 is more or less the sole survivor on Niades, a planet overrun by genestealers. In this episode, we spend some quality time with her, learning how she acquired her servitors and, I guess, why she's even on the planet in the first place (although I feel like that question answered itself by the end of the series).
I'm a fan of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and I really love the voice actor of Tech Priest Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 (I think it's Zehra Jane Naqvi, the voice actor for the Hammer and Bolter episode Kill Protocol ), so this episode is enjoyable for me no matter what. Maybe I know too much about the Adeptus Mechanicus, but I do feel the plot of the episode is a little weak. I like what it's going for, though. As with a horror movie, if I take sides with the monster,then it's fun to witness the false hopes of the people to whom Tech Priest Magos Domina Castia Theta 9 offers sanctuary. And that's why the people end up in her bunker. Imagine it. Running from the genestealers, you find yourself at a dead end in some maintenance tunnel. Suddenly, a Tech Priest of Mars is standing in front of you, beckoning you into her secret hideout. By the Emperor's grace, you're been rescued.
That seems like a compelling pitch to me, and I think the horror would have been greater had the story gone exactly that way. This episode mixes a little more conflict in, though, by having the Tech Priest kill one of the injured military guys who arrive at her front doorstep, making his teammate pretty upset from the start. He gets placed in what appears to be a holding cell and has to deal with a fellow prisoner who's been on ice for several days, and claims that the Tech Priest is up to no good. It's atmospheric, I guess, but it tips the episode's hand. Not only does anybody familiar with Warhammer lore know exactly why these humans have been saved, but now the humans suspect it themselves. As a viewer, I can't do my evil laugh because the humans are already worried about their apparent saviour, and I don't feel all that bad for them because I have no reason to cheer for them over the Tech Priest I already know from the first series.
So there's no emotional journey here, but if you take it as documentation of [pretend] events that [fictionally] happened [in the future], then this is a valid Adeptus Mechanicus story. That doesn't seem like high praise, and I guess it's not, but there is value to this kind of thing. This is a good chunk of the Adeptus Mechanicus, summarised. If you haven't read books about the Martian tech cult, and you're not sure what they're all about, then this demonstrates some aspect of them. That's valid lore, and it contributes to the world building process.
This episode isn't as compelling as Kill Protocol, but then again it's hard to top that episode for Adeptus Mechanicus content. If you're looking for something to keep you on the edge of your seat,Patience of Iron probably isn't the episode to go to. If you treat Patience of Iron as a lore video rather than a dramatic story, I think this episode is worth watching.
All images in this post copyright Games Workshop.