Just to expand on the men of iron.

The Men of Iron were legendary sentient humanoid machines created by humans during the Dark Age of Technology. Until shortly before the Age of Strife, the Men of Iron were loyal only to Mankind, and served as their army. They came after the Men of Stone, but before the advent of servitors. Eventually, they turned on their Human masters, believing themselves superior to the Humans who relied on the Men of Iron to do virtually everything for them. In the end, the Men of Iron were destroyed by Humanity. In the Gaunt's Ghost novels, the Connel-Commisar discovers an STC for them and destroyed it before it could fall into the hands of schemers