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SPACE MARINES
The Legions of Adeptus Astartes are more commonly known as the Space Marines — the most powerful and the most dreaded of all human warriors. In some respects they are not really human at all but superhuman — superior in almost every way to an ordinary man. Compared to humanity’s teeming billions there are very few Space Marines indeed. They are far too few to form the sole fighting forces of the Imperium. The Space Marines are the Imperium’s elite fighting troops, a core of highly mobile shock troops trained to fight on land and in space. On the battlefield they are expected to take part in the most dangerous and important attacks, and to hold their positions no matter how hopeless the situation.
Space Marines are entrusted with all sorts of dangerous missions, such as lightning raids behind enemy lines, infiltration attacks to capture vital positions, and tunnel fights in enemy-held cities. They also undertake long voyages of planetary exploration and conquest on behalf of the Imperium, ear-marking planets which are too well defended so that they can be attacked later with the support of the Imperial Guard.
CHAPTERS Space Marines are organised into small independent armies called Chapters. Each Chapter has its own ships, its own uniforms, and its own distinct identity and traditions. Most Chapters operate from a world owned by the Chapter, known as the Chapter Planet. Chapter Planets are part of the Imperium, but they are ruled by the Space Marine Chapter that has its base there. Some Chapters are not based on a planet at all: their base of operations can be a vast space fleet, an orbital asteroid, or a giant space station. All the Space Marines in a Chapter belong to its warrior cult. In many cases the warrior cults of the Space Marines preserve traditions and practices older even than the accepted ritual of the Ecclesiarchy. The details of these practices are rumoured to be barbaric and darkly sinister. Space Marines belonging to a Chapter are therefore spiritual brothers as well as brothers at arms. This dual role as physical and spiritual warriors is very important, and it is what makes the Space Marines such dedicated warriors.
ORIGINS
The Space Marines were created at the very dawn of Imperial history, approximately ten thousand years before the present day. Some of the Chapters can trace their history back to that time. These are the Chapters of the First Founding, created by the scientists of the Emperor to take part in the Great Crusade. Since that time many other Space Marine Chapters have been created, the most recent being those of the Twenty-Sixth Founding. The chart below lists the original twenty Chapters and their original leaders (Primarchs) and uniform colours. Many of these Chapters took part in the rebellion known as the Horus Heresy and were subsequently destroyed or exiled.
THE FIRST FOUNDING
This chart shows the original number designations, names, Primarchs, and unit colours of the first twenty Space Marine Chapters. Those indicated with an asterix rebelled during the Horus Heresy and are no longer part of the Imperial Forces (some have survived as Chaos Renegades in the infernal regions of the Eye of Terror). The names and histories of Chapters 2 and 11 were deleted from Imperial records following the Horus Heresy. The name of Chapter 16, the Lunar Wolves, was changed to Sons of Horus prior to the Horus Heresy, and subsequently to the Black Legion, under which name it now serves the forces of Chaos.
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CHAOS SPACE MARINES
During the terrible long wars of the Horus Heresy fully half the ancient Space Marine Legions joined the Warmaster Horus in his bid to wrest control of the Imperium from the Emperor. After many bloody battles the Warmaster’s true loyalties were revealed, and it became known to all that he had sold his soul to the Dark Gods of Chaos in return for undreamed of power. It was too late for the Space Marine Legions that had allied themselves with Horus — their souls were pledged to Chaos and for them there was no hope of forgiveness. Corruption and evil had corrupted their minds, gnawing at their unworthy ambitions, and turning them into the Emperor’s most bitter foes. After the defeat of Horus the Chaos Space Marine Legions sought unholy refuge in the Eye of Terror, where they remain to this day. Of the surviving Legions of Chaos Space Marines the four which have found the especial favour of their patron gods are the World Eaters of Khorne, the Emperor’s Children of Slaanesh, the Death Guard of Nurgle and the Thousand Sons of Tzeentch. It is these foul Legions that most trouble the Imperium with their incessant raiding and wanton destruction.
Rapid Fire.
Chaos Space Marines can employ rapid fire with storm bolters, boltguns or bolt pistols in the same way as other Space Marines.
CHAOS CHAMPIONS
Although we divide Chaos Space Marine characters into Champions, Heroes and Mighty Heroes for convenience, all of these characters are termed Chaos Champions. Chaos Champions are the favoured servants of their masters, the Gods of Chaos, and their complete devotion is rewarded with numerous gifts of power. As a Champion gains favour in the eyes of his Chaos God so he becomes more powerful. There is a terrible price to pay, for the Gods of Chaos are whimsical and uncaring creatures, whose gifts often bring gross physical mutation and deformity. Horns, wildly discoloured flesh, distorted limbs, cloven hoofs and other, stranger, mutations are all too common amongst the Champions of Chaos who bravely bear their disfigurements as symbols of their divine favour.
SLAANESH
Slaanesh is the sensual Lord of Pleasure. His Chaos Champions live on the edge of excitement and experience, revelling in the joy of life and battle. They take a perverse pleasure in all experience, no matter how terrifying or bizarre, and are therefore not affected by the normal psychology rules. This means that they are immune to fear and terror, for example. In addition, they need never take a Break test, as death holds no fear for them, but is seen as a welcome consummation of experience. If a Champion is with a unit that is forced to flee then he is not affected and can continue to fight as normal.
THE PRIMARCHS
Over ten thousand years ago, at a time when the Earth was enmeshed in the warp storms conjured by the Chaos Gods, the Emperor made his plan to free the human race. Together with his scientists, the greatest minds of that age, he slowly unlocked the secrets of life, unravelling the energies of the warp and refashioning them to his purpose. He created twenty super-human creatures, twenty beings whose powers equalled, and in some respects exceeded, his own. The Emperor's plan was that the twenty super-beings would help him reunite human space into a single empire under his protection.
The Emperor’s plan was not unknown to the Chaos Gods. They recognised in the Emperor a creature whose powers equalled their own, a being who they could not realistically expect to harm, and an implacable foe who would not rest until they were destroyed. They also recognised the twenty super-humans as a force that could make the Emperor invincible. The Chaos Gods struck whilst the foetal super-humans grew in their incubation chambers. The Emperor had placed a psychic shield around the chambers, but the Chaos Gods managed to break it down and pluck the infant super-humans from Earth, casting them adrift into warp space. Fortunately, the infants were only dispersed by this action and not destroyed, and the twenty fell from the warp onto human worlds where they were variously adopted by human parents.
The Emperor was to spend the following decades searching for his lost creations. Eventually he found them, and after many long adventures recruited them to his service. Their role was to become the Primarchs ~ the founding fathers of the Space Marines. Using genetic material taken from the Primarchs, the Emperor engineered the implants that distinguish Marines from normal men. As a result, all Space Marines have powers derived from the Primarchs, although a Marine’s powers, considerable as they are, are feeble compared to the super-human energies of a Primarch. The Primarchs were practically indestructible and possessed warp enhanced strength. They could scatter whole armies or even the daemonic creatures of the warp. Some had other powers which do not survive amongst the Space Marines at all, such as flight and invisibility.
The Primarchs led the first Space Marine Chapters in the conquest of the galaxy, effectively creating the Imperium as it is known today. However, the initial influence of Chaos in their unborn lives was to leave some Primarchs with a life long weakness, a hunger for personal power that was to lead to their downfall. It was Horus, founding Primarch of the Lunar Wolves. who was to lead the revolt known as the Horus Heresy.
During the Heresy many of the Marine Chapters joined Horus against the Emperor, and many other troops joined his side. In the terrible war that followed, Primarch fought Primarch, Marine fought Marine, and Man fought Man, as the newly conquered galaxy tore itself apart once more. The bloodiest battle of all was the final contest over the possession of Earth, when the Emperor himself saved the planet by launching a cloaked attack against Horus’s battle-barge. During the Emperor’s confrontation with Horus the traitor was slain, but the Emperor was wounded badly and physically incapacitated. Following the battle the Emperor retired permanently into the life-sustaining Golden Throne where he remains to this day. The followers of Horus were driven into the Eye of Terror, where the Traitor Marine Chapters established themselves as the arch-enemies of the Imperium.
Of the original twenty Primarchs only nine survived the Horus Heresy. The remainder were either killed in the fighting (like Horus) or fled with their Chapters into the Eye of Terror. The survivors helped the Emperor to rebuild the Imperium. A genetic bank was formed from their gene-material so that new Space Marine Chapters could be founded in the future. Although long lived, the Primarchs were not immortal and the last of their kind finally died after fourteen hundred years. Many extraordinary legends are told of the deeds of the Primarchs, many of which are preserved by the lore of the Marine Chapters. Today the Primarchs are worshipped alongside the Emperor as saints in the pantheon of the Chapter cults. Their tombs have become places of pilgrimage, and their bones and personal possessions revered relics.
CHAOS SPACE MARINES
The Chaos Space Marine Legions fled into the Eye of Terror after the Horus Heresy. Four Legions of Chaos Space Marines are directly aligned to the Chaos Powers: the World Eaters to Khorne, the Emperors Children to Slaanesh, the Thousand Sons to Tzeentch and the Death Guards to Nurgle. The names of these Traitor Legions were struck from all Imperial records and they are hated and reviled by loyal Space Marines.
The Chaos Space Marine Legions are some of the Chaos Gods* most favoured warriors. Many Chaos Space Marine commanders became Champions of Chaos and eventually Daemon Princes. Squads of Chaos Marines will often join Chaos hordes to further the aims of their patron, and at other times companies of Chaos Marines will be despatched with their Daemon Primarch to perform specific missions. Companies of Chaos Space Marines are granted special Chaos rewards by their patron gods, making them even more potent,
A troop stand of Chaos Space Marines comprises four Chaos Space Marine models plus a model armed with a missile launcher, Other Space Marine models can also be freely used to make up troop stands of Chaos Space Marines, and these simply represent Space Marines whose appearance has not yet been changed by the corrupting influence of Chaos.
THE SPACE MARINES
The origin of the Space Marines goes back to the distant days before the Imperium itself, to a time known to history as the Age of Strife. This was an age of wars and savagery throughout the galaxy. Interstellar civilisation all but collapsed leaving human planets isolated and vulnerable. It is impossible to say for certain what caused this great calamity, but one of the main contributory factors was the development of massive psychic storms within warp space. All interstellar travel relies upon unique drive systems which propel ships through the alternate psychic dimension of warp space. Sometimes fierce storms within the warp make journeys hazardous. Craft can be carried off course by thousands of parsecs or hundreds of years in time. If storms are sufficiently intense or lengthy it is impossible for ships to travel at all. Such adverse conditions prevailed throughout the long Age of Strife.
During the Age of Strife the Earth was devastated by pollution and plague. Its huge and largely unproductive population had come to rely upon imports of food and raw materials without which life on the planet could not be sustained. Billions died and the survivors fought savagely amongst themselves. From the ruins of civilisation emerged a barbaric society of warlords and warrior tribes. The accumulated accomplishments of millennia were forgotten. Earth’s cities fell into rubble and were soon lost beneath the drifting sands. Of a once proud and sophisticated society nothing remained. The Age of Strife lasted for approximately ten thousand years and ended only when the warp storms abated and interstellar travel became feasible once more. At that time a mighty leader emerged upon Earth, a warlord and conqueror who succeeded in uniting the entire planet under his rule. From the battling tribes of barbarians a new world was created. Ancient technologies were rediscovered and directed to new purposes. The name of the warlord who achieved all this is not recorded, and he is known only by the title he assumed in later times — the Emperor.
THE FIRST SPACE MARINES
A Space Marine is a genetically enhanced warrior, far stronger and tougher than an ordinary human being. Space Marines can live for several hundred years and they possess extraordinary powers.
Every Space Marine is born an ordinary human. The conversion into super-warrior is achieved by the careful implantation of genetically cultured organs. Once implanted into the human body, these organs gradually grow and modify the recipient’s genetic structure. Selected hormones are boosted to encourage extraordinary growth. Muscle tissues expand and the bone structure is strengthened. Genetically tailored substances released into the bloodstream cause further changes throughout the Space Marine’s body. This process takes several years to complete and only works whilst the body is growing naturally. This means that Space Marines are recruited at a comparatively young age and must start their training before they reach adulthood. Genetically altered warriors appeared in the Emperor’s armies even before he had completed the conquest of Earth. They were the first of their kind and as such their powers were less than the Space Marines of later years. None the less, during those early years the techniques of genetic restructuring were perfected. Individual germ cells, called gene-seeds, were isolated and genetically modified. From these few cells tiny organs were cultivated in a nutrient solution. Each organ would then be tested for genetic stability and surgically inserted into a warrior. This technique remains basically the same even in the forty-first millennium.
The development of genetic tissue took many centuries of work. This research was itself a spin-off from the aborted Primarch project, which was an early attempt at genetic restructuring with the aim of creating god-like creatures called Primarchs. The Primarchs were designed to have powers far beyond even the incredible abilities of the Space Marines. Samples of genetic tissue taken from the foetal Primarchs were used to create the genetic banks which provided the first Space Marine gene-seed. Thus the fates of Primarchs and Space Marines were inextricable interwoven even at their conception, and the Primarchs were to play a vital role in the early history of the Space Marines.
THE GREAT CRUSADE
The Great Crusade is the name given to the period of conquest that established the extent of the Imperium. During the Great Crusade massive armies of Space Marines spread out from Earth. Their task was to seek out and liberate human worlds throughout the galaxy, uniting all of humanity in a single mighty Imperium. The Great Crusade lasted for about two hundred years and saw some of the bloodiest fighting known up to those times. The worlds rediscovered by the Emperor’s armies had been cut off from Earth for millennia. Some had degenerated to barbarity. Others had developed into sprawling hive worlds. Many were under the domination of aliens or had become corrupted by the evils of Chaos. All these worlds were gradually reconquered and brought back within the Imperium.
The Space Marines who took part in the Great Crusade were organised into massive armies called Legions. The size of a Legion varied tremendously and could be expanded to provide extra troops as needed. Accelerated gene-seed germination techniques were developed that could turn a human into a Space Marine within a year. At the time, tens of thousands of troops were needed so the Space Marine Legions could push forwards over a widening battle front. Only later would the stability of this accelerated gene-seed prove doubtful when the dangers of its use became apparent.
Twenty Space Marine Legions took part in the Great Crusade. These twenty are known as the First Founding because they were the first Space Marines to be created. Each Legion was led by its own Primarch, the god-like being whose genetic structure formed the basis for the Legion’s gene-seed. The character and special powers of each Primarch were reflected in the abilities of his Space Marine Legion. Even today the descendants of these ancient Space Marines are characterised by genetic qualities derived from their original Primarchs. The twenty original Chapters and their Primarchs were as follows.
These twenty Legions conquered the galaxy and created the Imperium. Later, during the Horus Heresy, they divided into two factions and fought for possession of the empire.
THE HORUS HERESY
Horus was the greatest of the Primarchs and the most trusted of all the Emperor’s generals. He was placed in charge of the entire north-eastern battlefront during the Great Crusade. This was the largest and by far the most difficult of the war zones. Horus’s success was so spectacular that he was appointed Warmaster, standing in lieu of the Emperor in the reconquered zone. As a token of his appreciation the Emperor renamed the Lunar Wolves the Sons of Horus. At the time none guessed that Horus might owe his success to more than mortal courage. Later events revealed that Horus served a darker master, that his loyalty to humanity was nothing but a pretence from the start.
Somehow the gene-seed of Horus had mutated. Both the Primarch and his Legion were touched by darkness, a corruption of the spirit and body that became increasingly apparent. The Chaos Gods, dark malevolent beings from the warp, had wrought their evil upon Horus and his armies. Whilst ostensibly fighting for humanity, Horus was really paving the way for the conquests of Chaos. His dark masters were hatching plans of their own. The Emperor would be allowed to possess the galaxy only for a moment. He would be encouraged to stretch his empire further and further, until his forces were scattered thinly along the galactic fringe. Then the Dark Gods would strike. Horus, their chosen champion, would lead his forces upon the unprotected Earth and crush the Emperor with one swift blow.
Horus led his Legions westward. It is impossible to say which Legions sided with him because they were already corrupted by Chaos, and which were merely following the lead of their commander. In the end it matters little, for all the Legions that - sided with Horus were damned by their actions. All embraced the Dark Gods whether they knew it at the beginning, or whether they were duped by the twisted words of Horus. The following Legions and their Primarchs all sided with Horus including his own Legion, now renamed for the second time as the Black Legion.
These nine are known to the Imperium as the Traitor Legions. Of Legions numbered 2 and 11 nothing is recorded, but it seems likely these also fought for Horus at least during the beginning of the Heresy. The history of the Dark Angels during the Heresy is also unknown. The Dark Angels do not appear in any battle accounts of the loyal forces. In all, and discounting the role of the Dark Angels, there were therefore between nine and eleven Traitor Legions accounting for more than half of the entire Space Marine force. These were amongst the largest and most battle-hardened armies of the Imperium.
THE DEFEAT OF HORUS
It would take many pages and much time to describe in full the attack of Horus upon Earth and his subsequent defeat. Suffice to say the short war ended when the Emperor teleported onto Horus’s battle barge and slew the Warmaster in hand-to-hand combat. During the same conflict Sanguinius, the Blood Angels Primarch, was killed and the Emperor was mortally wounded. From that moment on the Emperor ceased to live in the conventional sense. His body was placed in stasis and his psychic spirit cast into the vortex of Chaos to wander the paths of time and space. The defeated Traitor Legions were driven from Earth and escaped into the region of Chaos known as the Eye of Terror, where they remain to this day. The Traitor Legions inhabit a shadow world between chaos and reality, existing out of normal time and space. Whilst millennia have passed in the outside world the Traitor Legions have endured eons of timelessness, emerging to raid and destroy at moments when the interweaving time streams converge. These are not merely the same Traitor Legions that attacked Earth, they are the very same warriors, doomed to battle for their dark masters for all eternity.
THE HIGH LORDS
By the end of the Horus Heresy the galaxy was in turmoil once more. The armies of the Imperium were destroyed or scattered. Thousands of spacecraft had been lost in the conflict. Worse of all, the Emperor was gone. Though not actually dead he was lost to the living world and his spirit cast into the vortex of Chaos. The guidance which the Emperor had given the Imperium for hundreds of years was suddenly absent. Such was the power and influence of the Emperor that it was impossible to imagine a single successor inheriting his mantle. For a while it seemed as if the Imperium would surely break apart: that the Cult Mechanicus and the workshops of Mars would divorce themselves from the Imperium, that Primarchs and Space Marines would establish their own empires in the depths of space.
What happened next is a tribute to the skills and foresight of a very few powerful men, not least to the Ultramarines’ Primarch Roboute Guilliman. A council was formed of the twelve most powerful individuals in the Imperium. They called themselves the High Lords of Terra, and their self-proclaimed role was to rule the Imperium on behalf of the Emperor. History does not record the names of those first High Lords. Indeed, there are few records of the early centuries of the Imperium. History and legend remain strangely intertwined, describing in almost mythic terms the dark and desperate times that followed the defeat of Horus. However, the tradition of the Ultramarines relates that their Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, was one of these High Lords. He became Lord Commander of the Imperium, the first to carry that title and the only man ever to command the entirety of the Imperium’s armed forces.
The High Lords established the divisions of the Imperium that remain familiar to this day. It was they who formalised the title of Adeptus which is used by all who are servants of the Emperor. The first High Lords laid the structure by which the Adeptus Terra operates, and described the feudal responsibilities and duties of planetary Lords. One of the most important of their accomplishments was the reorganisation of the Imperium’s armies. This task was undertaken almost singlehandedly by the Primarch Roboute Guilliman, who quickly and efficiently codified the structure of the Imperial Guard, the fleet, and the Space Marines. Of all his works the most influential is the Codex Astartes, the great prescriptive tome that lays down the basic organisational and tactical rules for Space Marines.
THE HISTORY OF THE ULTRAMARINES
According to legend the Emperor created the Primarchs from artificially engineered genes, carefully imbuing each of them with unique superhuman powers. It took many hundreds of years to collect and refine the mutant genes needed to produce the Primarchs. When all was ready the genetic matrixes were placed within twenty incubator capsules. Legend goes on to tell how the Dark Gods of Chaos spirited away the Primarchs within their incubator capsules, scattering them widely throughout the warp. More than one of the capsules was breached whilst it drifted through warp space. The forces of the warp leaked in wreaking havoc in the developing genetic material inside the capsule. Undoubtedly damage was done, although the nature of that damage would only become apparent during the Horus Heresy.