They are smaller, one-man counterparts of the much larger Titans which are crewed by many more people. Originally, they were derived from Eldar technology and were copies of Eldar Knights, used by Exodites to assist in the herding of large, dinosaur-like reptiles they used as livestock. Human Knights were used in the same fashion, and were assimilated by the Imperium's armies whenever they were encountered.

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How TEX and the IRON DUKE came to be!

Tex, or Dwaine McDonald to give him his full name, started life as a simple farm hand working in the Employ of Baron Leopold, one of many land owners on Dresden Prime, a lush mineral rich world on the edge of the Imperial Empire.

A huge bull of a man, he stood head and shoulders above most of his fellow ranch hands and was always a favourite in the local watering hole to settle scores in the good old fashioned bare knuckle way (with a few side bets of course)

Leopold soon recognised his natural aptitude in repairing all things mechanical that passed through the Ranch machine shops and Tex soon worked his way to head mechanic repairing and maintaining the huge robotic Knights that protected both the Barons land and herds from rustlers and giant predators. Of course Tex's mind soon wandered to the idea of actually piloting one of the Knights and to his surprise he found he had a talent and an unmatched skill in being able to make the giants do his bidding. Tex even removed the motion dampers from his machine complaining that they just softened the feedback from his mount and dulled his senses, he preferred to take advantage of brute strength to manually control the giant, he often joked 'he was just another cog in the machine and needed regular oiling' as he downed his tenth pint of grogorian ale!

As time passed tex put his skills to good use and became a local hero, saving many lives, defending the herds and fighting off rival barons forces in his Knight Paladin he affectionately named 'DUKE'

It seemed he had everything, a job he loved, a name for himself and a good woman by his side, and then the Chaos descended..........

The Chaos juggernaut decided that Dresden Prime was a suitable conquest to feed their growing war machine, they systematically raped the planet both of minerals and any souls that were foolish enough to try and stand in their way.

Soon only a few Barons remained, foolish or brave, they decided enough was enough and pooled their forces to make one last stand.

In the end it seemed they were foolish, by the end of the day Tex was the only Knight still standing and offering a fight to the enemy, he had seen his closest friends torn to pieces in the jaws of hideous beasts, the people he loved and lived with vaporised in an instant and many brave men reduced to gibbering shells

As the enemy encircled him closing with every second he punched in the destruct codes of the Duke, he was going to take as many of these Hellspawn with him.

Then he looked up from the console and to his amazement the Chaotic horde was retreating away from him and in the blink of an eye it turned into a route, suddenly to his left he saw a bright light and seconds later felt the earth tremble beneath his feet, a hundred chaos troops ceased to exist. Spinning the Duke round he felt a shadow fall over him and the sky darkened, he couldn't believe what he saw, striding over him an Imperial Warlord Titan, gigantic guns blazing instant death to everything that opposed it. Something drew his attention to the right, two Imperial Warhounds passed by at amazing speed, crushing troops beneath their feet and spitting death from their weapons they seems to be volleying for best position to spread destruction. To his left a larger Reaver class strode into view, it turned its head towards him, it raised its house sized fist pointed ahead and let loose with a volley from its Gatling blaster. Tex suddenly came to his senses, He spun the Duke around and re-joined the battle, and ‘this only happens in the movies' he thought to himself as he cleaved a couple of Chaos spawns in two.

The battle was soon won; the rest of the Imperial forces cleared the planet of minor pockets of Chaos resistance. After speaking with the Imperial forces Tex soon learned that apparently only days before, the Warprunners had emerged from deep space only to pick up a distress call from Dresden prime, with all haste they set course, the call was a few days old, they did not expect any survivors. On entering orbit they had picked up readings of the battle and hastily assembled an assault force that dropped from low orbit into the Frey.

A few days after the clear-up, tex was called before the Imperial commanders, impressed by the tenacity and bravery they had seen they offered him a place with the warprunners piloting his own Warhound, Tex looked around the scorched planet he had once called home, there was nothing left for him, he agreed on one condition, that he could take the Duke with him, Tex and the old bucket of iron had been though a lot and he knew they could both rely on each other. Reluctantly the commanders agreed, they would rather Tex was with them than against them, the Duke would be re-fitted with more effective Imperial armour of course, something which Tex was more than happy to comply with!

A new life awaited them both, a life full of danger, heroism and glory.....but that's a story for another day....