Imperium of Man: Founders, The Primarchs, Adeptus Astartes (First Founding Chapters, Other Chapters, Characters, Primaris Marines), Astra Militarum, Adepta Sororitas, Inquisition, Mechanicus, Other factions
Forces of Chaos: Chaos Gods, Chaos Primarchs, Chaos Marines
Xeno Races: Aeldari (Asuryani, Drukhari) | Leagues of Votann | Necrons | Orks (Characters) | T'au Empire | Tyranids (Genestealer Cults)
"Be they indefatigable siege-masters of the Imperial Fists, the shadow-wreathed operatives of the Raven Guard, the swift-riding hunters of the White Scars or the merciless tank-commanders of the Iron Hands, all of the Primarchs' sons have one thing in common. We are Space Marines, Adeptus Astartes, the Emperor's own angels of death, and we will not lay down our weapons until every last enemy of the Imperium is slain."
—Novamarines Captain Aethorian
This page gives the tropes for Warhammer 40,000's Second Founding Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, as well as other Chapters that are particularly noteworthy. The heroes of the Astartes can be found on their own page.
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Chapters of the First Founding
Noteworthy Second Founding Chapters
Black Templars
The more we spread the more we find. World after world. New worlds to conquer. Space is limitless, and so is our appetite to master it.
— Sigisimund, first High Marshal of the Black Templars
The Black Templars are a successor chapter of the Imperial Fists. Their current High Marshall is Helbrecht and they are fleet-based.
Initially composed of the most fanatical battle-brothers of the old Imperial Fists Legion, the Black Templars have been on crusade for ten thousand years in order to prove their undying loyalty to the Emperor. They are infamous for their suicidal bravery and zealous hatred of witches and non-humans, which often extends to those they perceive as harboring said heretics. The Black Templars break from the Codex Astartes by fielding mixed squads of Initiates and Neophytes, and more significantly by being organized into multiple crusader fleets that exceed the limit on a conventional chapter's strength, a fact of considerable concern to the Inquisition.
The Black Templars began life as a regular Space Marine Chapter in 1st Edition Warhammer 40,000. During 3rd Edition the Chapter were the Imperial Forces included in the Warhammer 40,000 starter set while the Third War for Armageddon Worldwide Campaign saw the Black Templars receive a major revamp, along with unique rules included in the Codex: Armageddon supplement alongside rules for some of the other forces involved in the conflict. The 4th Edition of the game saw the Black Templars receive their only solo codex sourcebook as from 6th Edition onwards the Chapter was included as part of the regular Codex: Space Marines. Begining in 8th Edition, the Black Templars used the basic rules in Codex: Space Marines, with additional Chapter specific rules printed in 8th Edition's Psychic Awakening: Faith & Fury and the 9th Edition Index Astartes: Bllack Templars downloadnote .
- Absolute Xenophobe: Even by the standards of the Imperium, the Black Templars are infamous for basically embodying the concept of hatred for xenos, heretics, and mutants.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: The Black Templars have gone through several special rules reflecting their absolute fanaticism and hatred for the enemy, even when it might go against sound tactical logic. In some editions they've had to take Leadership tests to shoot enemies who aren't the closest, been Fearless in close combat, or could take a Vow that forced them to charge any enemy unit within range in exchange for getting Preferred Enemy against everyone. Their most infamous trait is a rulenote that makes the Black Templars charge forward instead of falling back after sustaining casualties from enemy fire.
- Bling of War: The Black Templars are one of the flashiest chapters, with heavily decorated armor featuring lots of gilding and scrollwork. Like the Dark Angels, they also frequently wear mantles or tabards over their armor.
- Chained by Fashion: The Black Templars wear chains as part of their iconography, frequently affixing one end of the chain to their weapons and the other end to their armor, wrapping them around their arms to shorten the slack. Aside from making it harder to lose their grip on their weapons, they do it to symbolically show that they are unwilling to set aside their arms until their enemies are destroyed. This tradition has its roots in the days of the Great Crusade, before the Horus Heresy, when Sigismund accompanied a chapter of World Eaters, who introduced him to the idea. Upon founding the Black Templars, the technique spread among them, though he kept its origins to himself.
- Church Militant: The Black Templars are one of the (relatively few) Space Marine Chapters that venerate the Emperor as a god just as fervently as the Ecclesiarchy. Their forces fight in Crusades, their armament and armor is very reminiscent of The Knights Templar, and they rarely take to the field without being led by a consecrated champion.
- Cool Helmet: The Crusader's Helm is an ornate relic of the Chapter that incorporates the jawbone of a saint into its vox-unit. This sanctified and enhanced vox enables the wearer's voice to carry clearly across the din of battle, represented in the 8th Edition of the game by increasing the range of the model's special abilities.
- Cool Ship: The Eternal Crusader, an Astartes battle-barge that has been in continuous service with the Black Templars since the Great Crusade. It is the flag-ship of the Black Templars, host to the High Marshal himself, and has been expanded and enhanced across the ten millennia to the point that it is capable of both carrying and supporting twice as many Space Marines as a typical battle-barge. It travels between the various Black Templar fleets, giving its support where it is most needed at any given time.
- Counter-Attack: The Black Templars will always retaliate against their foes if given the opportunity and the Black Templars Stratagem Vicious Ripostenote represents this by giving unit the chance to inflicting mortal wounds against an opponent after an attacked has been stopped by their armour.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: The Black Templars have indirect access to several powerful relics. During a campaign, their army may gather relic pieces through fulfilling particular objectives during a narrative play, and when those relic pieces are gathered the player may equip their army with the completed relics. For instance, the special pistol The Penitent's Roar is divided into four pieces.
- Duel to the Death: The Black Templars are firm believers in individual strength and personal honour with their officers deliberately seeking out enemy leaders to engage in personal combat. In previous editions of the game this was represented by the "Accept Any Challenge, No Matter the Odds" vow that gave their characters bonuses while fighting a duel.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Black Templars are literally the most fanatical anti-mutant and anti-psyker Chapter of Space Marines named in the fluff. But even they were appalled at the extents that the ruling powers of the planet Lastrati went to in the name of "purifying" themselves of mutation, unleashing multiple bio-engineered viruses programmed to wipe out traits they defined as "undesirable", culling their population so thoroughly that it had dropped from 14 billion to 2.5 million. In fact, they were so appalled that they declared the government of Lastrati to be corrupted by Chaos and violently purged them.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: With their tabard-covered armour, Germanic names, knightly theme and monochrome colour scheme, the Black Templars are essentially Super-Soldier versions of The Teutonic Knights.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Due to their shared convictions and long history fighting alongside the Ecclesiarchy, the Black Templars get along quite well with the Sisters of Battle.
- Frontline General: Ironically, despite the chapter's infamy for Attack! Attack! Attack!, the Chapter Master and Captain-equivalents for the Black Templars (High Marshal and Marshals) unlike many other examples in 40K avert this and actually generally just act as coordinating tacticians away from the front itself during battles.
- Heroic Vow: The 9th Edition supplement for the Black Templars includes rules that represent how their Chapter keeps the habit of making specific oaths to protect the Imperium and fight its many foes. The special "Oath of Crusade" allows a player to select one or several oaths, or in practical term give themselves extra objectives to fulfill during a narrative game, which reward the player by giving access to bonuses or relics. There is also a system of "Templar Vows" that, for one game, give your army a unique set of bonuses and restrictions. For instance, if one takes the "Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch" vow, their Black Templars army has an easier time killing Psyker models.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Previous editions of the game included the Holy Orb of Antioch as a wargear option for the Black Templars. These masterwork grenades are filled with sacred unguents, inscribed with blessings of purity and destruction, and have consecrated acids mixed with their explosives. All this ensured that these blessed weapons destroy the daemon and the heretic with the sacred wrath of the God-Emperor himself.
- Knight Templar: This is the chapter that even the Inquisition worries is overzealous.
- Loophole Abuse: Technically, Codex-compliant chapters are allowed to exceed the thousand-man limit if on a crusade... the Black Templars have just been on crusade for over ten thousand years. The only caveat to this is that they cannot maintain a home world for the duration... which allows them to plonk recruits from every single world they pass by and set up "outpost" monasteries. No one but their High Marshall knows exactly how many of them there are, but it's speculated to be around six thousand Astartes and hundreds of strongholds spread throughout the galaxy, a force that if ever assembled in one place would be all but unstoppable.
- Necessarily Evil: While the Black Templars hate all psykers, as a fleet-based crusading chapter they are necessarily highly dependent on astropaths to coordinate anything and navigators to go anywhere. These are the only exceptions they allow to their fanatical loathing of psykers. Astropaths are even given a small measure of respect for having touched their souls to that of the God-Emperor.
- Sacred Scripture: The Ancient Breviary was originally the personal prayer book of the Black Templars' first High Chaplain, and it is now held in awe by the Chapter's battle-brothers. Reading from this sacred book helps a Chaplain to whip his fellow Black Templars into a religious fury, with the 8th Edition rules making it more likely that a model with this relic will successfully use a Litany of the Devout.
- The Squire: Rather than training in a Scout Company, Neophytes are apprenticed to an Initiate to be taught the ways of the Black Templars, fighting alongside them in mixed Crusader Squads on the battlefield while acting as the Initiate's servant between campaigns.
- Unstoppable Rage: In battle, the Black Templars fight with a furious zeal, with casualties caused by enemy fire only making them angrier. In-game this is represented by the “Righteous Zeal” rule that gives them bonuses if they suffer casualties from enemy fire as well as the Warlord Trait “Furious Indignation” where, instead of suffering morale penalties if there are casualties, the Warlord and his unit will instead undergo a Heroic Second Wind and storm forward to take the fight to the enemy in revenge for the fallen.
- Weapon of X-Slaying:
- Witchseeker Bolts have been specifically created to slay those with psychic abilities. Made from the blades of slain Black Templars and consecrated by Ministorum Priests, these bolt rounds have proven to be the bane of witches on multiple battlefields and they can cause multiple [1] mortal wounds against any Psyker unit in the 8th Edition of the game.
- The Skull of the Cacodominus, a relic from a period of the Black Templar's history known as the Howling, still echoes with the psychic screams of the monstrous creature that, when unleashed, can damage the minds of enemy psykers and cause multiple mortal wounds in the 8th Edition rules.
- The Witch Hunter: The Black Templars have an intense hatred for xenos witches and those rogue psykers who have rejected the Emperor and turned to the Dark Gods of Chaos in their search for power. The Black Templars often make the extermination of these witches a priority whenever they encounter them as the destruction of a single psyker could result in the salvation of an entire sector. In previous editions this hatred extended to both Imperial and enemy psykers, and in their current rules they're the only chapter that can't take Librarians as an HQ choice.
The Emperor's Champion, Sword of the Emperor
- BFS: Even by Space Marine standards, their Black Swords are huge, longer than the eight foot plus wielder is tall.
- Black Swords Are Better: Forged from jet-black solarite, the Black Swords wielded by the Emperor's Champions are masterpieces of the weaponsmith's art. Perfectly balanced and sharp enough to cleave through adamantium, only ten of these magnificent blades exist.
- The Chosen One: A battle-brother cannot choose to become the Emperor's Champion but is chosen by the divine will of the Emperor, and will serve the rest of his life hunting down the greatest of the His foes. How and why an Emperor's Champion is chosen is unknown, even to the most learned Chaplains of the Black Templars.
- Duel to the Death: The Champion's primary role is to find the strongest warrior in the enemy's force and challenge him to single combat. In-game an Emperor's Champion gains bonuses when fighting against enemy characters. The exact rules for these bonuses vary depending on the edition with the 8th Edition rules enhancing his characteristics and granting him re-rolls when facing such foes.
- Heroic Vow: In their original codices, the Champion could take one of four vows that gave him an advantage over a certain type of enemy, but often with a disadvantage of some sort. The 6th Edition Codex: Space Marines replaced this rule with special Stances to use in challenges but these were later removed in the 7th Edition codex.
- Legacy Character: There is no single Emperor's Champion with each of the Black Templars' Crusade Fleets being accompanied by one of these blessed warriors. Some other Chapters, particularly those of the Imperial Fists' lineage have been recorded fielding an Emperor's Champion on rare occasions.
- One-Handed Zweihänder: The Black Sword has such exquisite balance that the Champion is able to wield it just as easily with one hand as with two. While this doesn't have any in-game effect in the 8th Edition version of the rules, previous editions allowed a choice between using the Black Sword two-handed for extra power or one-handed with a bolt pistol for extra attacks.
- One-Hit Kill: The strength of the Emperor himself is said to flow through the veins of the Emperor's Champion, guiding his blows to his enemies' weak points. In past editions, the Black Sword gained the Instant Death rule on To Wound rolls of 6 while fighting in a challenge.
Crimson Fists
Those of the xenos that our Predators do not crush beheanth their armoured tread, we shall strike down ourselves with avenging bolt and righteous blade. Onward Crimson Fists, ever onward!
— Brother-Captain Telamon, at the Thule Intervention
The Crimson Fists are a successor chapter of the Imperial Fists. The Chapter was named after Alexis Polux, their first Chapter Master, who was known as the Crimson Fist and their current Chapter Master is Pedro Kantor. The Chapter's homeworld is the former agriworld of Rynn's World and they recruit their initiates from the feral worlds of Blackwater, Trachan and Fordari II.
Originally founded from the youngest and most level-headed brothers of the old Imperial Fists Legion and inheriting their Primarch's determination, selflessness and pragmatism, the Crimson Fists have served the Imperium valiantly for millennia and despite having been on the brink of annihilation a number of times they remain steadfast defenders of Humanity. One of the most famous and influential of the Chapter's engagements was the Rynn's World Incident where, while defending their home world from the invasion of Waaagh! Snagrod, a freak missile malfunction obliterated their fortress monastery nearly wiped out the Chapter itself. After many tough years of rebuilding the Chapter was almost back to full strength when the Great Rift opened and Rynn's World was once again invaded, this time by the daemonic forces of the Daemon Prince Rhaxor. On the brink of destruction once again, the Chapter was saved by the arrival of Roboute Guilliman and the Indomitus Crusade. Saved from extinction by an influx of Primaris Marines, Guilliman charged the Crimson Fists with the reconquest and defence of the Loki sector, a task the Chapter has perused with their typical efficiency and courage.
The Crimson Fists have been a prominent Space Marine Chapter for many years appearing on the covers of both the 1st and 2nd Edition Warhammer 40,000 rulebooks, as well as the cover of the 3rd Edition Codex: Space Marines. The Crimson Fists generally use the same rules as their parent Chapter, with more of a focus on Veteran Marines, but did receive a limited rules expansion during 7th Edition. In 8th Edition, Crimson Fists players origionally had the option of using the Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics rule from Codex Adeptus Astartes: Space Marines or to use the official Crimson Fists rules published in the Index Astartes: Crimson Fists article from the January 2019 issue of White Dwarf, but these were later replaced by rules published in Codex Supplement: Imperial Fists released in October 2019. For 9th Edition, the Chapter uses a combination of the rules published in October 2020's Codex: Space Marines along with the previous edition's Codex Supplement: Imperial Fistsnote .
- Arch-Enemy: Due to the Ork invasion of their home world and the serious losses they sustained, the Crimson Fists have an intense hatred of the greenskins. In game terms, this is represented by the Crimson Fists Warlord Trait "Rynn's World Veteran" giving the Warlord and his unit the Hatred: Orks and the Preferred Enemy: Orks special rules. If Kantor is the Warlord however then every model in the army has the Preferred Enemy: Orks special rule.
- Back from the Brink: Happens twice to the Chapter: the first time during the Rynn's World invasion, and again during the expansion of the Great Rift and the Daemon invasion that followed.
- Benevolent A.I.: After its entire crew was killed, the Machine Spirit of the Land Raider named "Rynn's Might" went fully autonomous and sought to avenge its fallen crew, going on a one-tank guerilla war.
- Determinator: Much like their parent Chapter, the Crimson Fists are renowned for their stubbornness and inability to accept defeat. The near annihilation of the Chapter has tempered the more self-destructive aspects of this trait however and they have now tempered this stubbornness into a drive to rebuild regain their former glory.
- Elite Army: Since its founding, the Crimson Fists have fielded a 1st Company larger than that advised by the Codex Astartes and although they have yet to rebuild their Veteran Company back to its 128 man strength, the Crimson Fists are still able to field more Veteran squads than most Codex compliant Chapters.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: As part of a Crimson Fist's initiation they must kill a barb-dragon with their bare hands, thereby earning their right to paint their left gauntlet red as a Battle-Brother. Those that join the 1st Company are allowed to paint their right gauntlet red as well.
- Power Fist: The Fist of Vengeance is an ancient master-crafted power fist that was one of the few things recovered from the ruins of the Chapter’s shattered fortress monastery. In the 8th Edition rules, this revered weapon does more base Damage than a regular power fist while suffering from none of the drawbacks of such unwieldy weapons.
- Primary-Color Champion: Their colors are blue and red, two of the primary colors and they are the most traditionally heroic successor chapter of the Imperial Fists.
- Straight for the Commander: After being reinforced by the Indomitus Crusade, the Crimson Fists have made it their mission to free those Imperial worlds subjugated by xenos and heretic forces. In order to accomplish this task in the most efficient way possible the Chapter target the enemy commanders to destabilise the enemy forces. The 8th Edition Index Astartes rules published in the January 2019 White Dwarf represent this with the 'Slay the Tyrant' Crimson Fists Stratagem that gives a unit a bonus when targeting enemy Characters.
- The Strategist: One of the strengths of the Crimson Fists is that their training emphasises tactical flexibility so that they are capable of dealing with anything the enemy can throw at them.
- Token Minority: From their names and skin tone, the majority of (Blackwater-born) Crimson Fists are implied to be Spanish.
- Unfriendly Fire: It was one of their own planetary defence missiles malfunctioning and detonating the armoury that atomized Arx Tyrannus, the Crimson Fists' fortress monastery. The improbability of this event, and other circumstantial evidence, has led some to believe that this was a deliberate "mishap."
Flesh Tearers
We are fury! We are wrath! We are death!
Do not fear the Black Rage, for it is a part of your essence. Learn to embrace the fury that comes with it, so that you may direct the savagery toward those foes of the Imperium who deserve our ire. This is our beloved Primarch's parting gift, and as with all he granted us, it must be proudly accepted.
—High Chaplain Carnarvon
The Flesh Tearers are a Second Founding successor of the Blood Angels. Their Chapter Master at the time of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade is Gabriel Seth and their base of operations and recruiting world is the densely jungled death world of Cretacia.
The Flesh Tearers have been hit particularly hard by the gene-curse of Sanguinius often exhibiting mindless savagery far in excess of their brother Chapters, something that has placed them under near-constant Inquisitorial investigation for the past four millennia. Their reputation as near uncontrollable berserkers has led to few Imperial forces being willing to fight alongside the Chapter, and those that do rarely wish to repeat the experience. The high number of warriors falling to the Black Rage, coupled with the high casualty caused by their preferred close assault tactics, meant that the Chapter could barely field four full companies by the time they helped defend their parent Chapter’s home world from the ravages of Hive Fleet Leviathan. The introduction of Archmagos Cawl's Primaris Marines have given the Flesh Tearers some much needed reinforcements, but without a cure for the Flaw the original Flesh Tearers could still be doomed to extinction.
The Flesh Tearers have been a part of the Warhammer 40,000 game since its 1st Edition and have generally been treated as a more assault oriented version of their parent Chapter. The Chapter received an Index: Astartes article during 3rd Edition that expanded their background and included rules for using the Chapter on the battlefield, while 5th Edition saw the release of their Chapter Master as a special character. The Flesh Tearers received some additional rules in 7th Edition's Shield of Baal campaign books what were later collated into a digital codex supplement. In 8th Edition the Flesh Tearers are treated as Blood Angels that can be led by Gabriel Seth using the rules printed in Codex Adeptus Astartes: Blood Angels with additional rules published in the November 2019 sourcebook Psychic Awakening: Blood of Baal. For 9th Edition, the Chapter uses a combination of the rules published in October 2020's Codex: Space Marines combined with the Index Astartes: Blood Angels download, available free from the Warhammer Community website.
- Ax-Crazy: The Flesh Tearers' savage fury in battle often makes them just as dangerous to their allies as to their foes.
- Battle Cry: In a more literal sense than usual. Instead of a motto, the Flesh Tearers amplify their screams of rage as they charge into battle, which even their allies find profoundly disturbing.
- The Berserker: The increasing degradation of the Chapter's gene-seed and the resulting increase in instances of the Black Rage has led to the Flesh Tearers gaining a reputation for brutality and savagery. Even when in control of their senses, Flesh Tearer brothers will take every opportunity to charge towards the enemy as quickly as possible to rip them apart with chainswords or even their bare hands if needs be.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior: The traditional image that many allied Imperial forces have of a Flesh Tearer Marine is of a blood drenched warrior with a touch of madness in their eyes.
- Chainsaw Good:
- The Flesh Tearers make use of a wide variety of chain weaponry with chainswords and eviscerators being popular choices for the Chapter's battle-brothers. The Chapter also has at least two relic eviscerators in their armoury and there are reports of Flesh Tearer brothers making use of chainaxes, something relatively uncommon for Imperial Astartes of the forty-first millennium.
- The relic chainsword Severer of Threads has two chains of razor-sharp teeth that can rip almost any enemy to shreds in moments and, in the 8th Edition rules, has a chance of causing mortal wounds against its victims.
- Death Seeker: A subfaction within the chapter, led by Chaplain Appollus, believes that the only viable end for the Flesh Tearers is to seek out a powerful foe that will wipe the entire chapter out to the last Marine. To that end, they actively seek out any enemy they can find to fight, even going so far as to enrage other Imperial factions to try and push the Inquisition to to finally wipe the Flesh Tearers out.
- Death World: Cretacia, the Flesh Tearers' home world, is a tropical jungle planet with climate and fauna very similar to prehistoric Earth, including giant dinosaur-like reptiles. Recruits typically have to hunt and kill one of these reptiles and bring back a trophy to be allowed to become a Neophyte.
- Friend or Foe?: Although they are often poorly documented, there are many reports from Imperial commanders that the Flesh Tearers have few qualms about cutting through anything between themselves and the enemy, including their own allies. One such incident lead to the brutal, bloody battle known as Honour's End on the Shrine World of Lucid Prime, when the Flesh Tearers continued their indiscriminate slaughter of civilians even after the Chaos forces had been driven away. This in turn outraged the Space Wolves who had fought alongside them, leading them to attack the Flesh Tearers. The resulting battle saw brother fighting brother, with the death of many hundreds of Loyalists on either side, and a lasting feud between the two chapters.
- Hollywood Prehistory: Cretacia, their homeworld, is based primarily on this trope. The planet is an untamed Death World covered in dense jungles and steaming swamps, home to ferocious reptilian predators the size of a small mecha, even bigger herbivores capable of crushing Marines underfoot without even noticing, blood-drinking insects the size of a grown man, and tribes of primitive, savage humans descended from ancient colonists who tried to tame the planet.
- Horrifying the Horror: During the Third Armageddon War, the brutality of the Flesh Tearers terrified the Orks of the Fire Wastes so much that the usually battle-loving greenskins would retreat rather than face their fury.
- Jack of All Trades: Due to their lack of manpower, all Flesh Tearers are trained to fight in as Tactical, Assault or Devastator squad, as well as vehicle crew, as needed. Due to the Chapter's susceptibility to the Black Rage however, their battle plans and tactics lean heavily toward using Assault Marines and de-emphasize Devastators.
- Not Enough to Bury: Not only is this a favourite combat tactic, Flesh Tearer Librarians in the Deathwatch RPG have a psychic power called Flensing that has the same effect, described as reducing foes to unrecognizable piles of bloody bones and shredded meat.
- Onrushing Army: Although the Flesh Tearers are as capable of executing as wide a range of tactics as any other Chapter, their vulnerability to the Black Rage often leads their tactics devolving into an all-out charge towards the enemy.
- Unstoppable Rage: They are a chapter of Blood Angels that have been hit particularly hard with the Black Rage, and they show it through tearing apart any enemy they are set upon, becoming living epitomes of Friend or Foe? until everything around them is dead.
Noteworthy Chapters of the Dark Thirteenth Founding
Exorcists
Daemonium interficere est.
- "By my will I deny thee, by my heart I spurn thee, by my hand I destroy thee; fiend of emptiness, to the void I cast thy blackened soul..."From the Liber Exorcismus
The Exorcists are one of the only confirmed Astartes Chapters to have been founded during the 13th founding. They are supposedly a successor chapter of the Imperial Fists. Their homeworld is a Feral World named Banish.
The Exorcists' true origins are a mystery, but it is known that the Inquisition (probably the Ordo Malleus, specifically) began a secret experiment around the time of the Dark Founding to create a Space Marine with extreme resistance to both daemonic possession and chaos corruption, namely by having their prospective subjects briefly possessed and then having the daemon forcefully removed by an Inquisitor. The vast majority of the test subjects survived and became Marines, and quickly proved to be a fantastic force against Daemonic incursion, for they do not have a psychic signature that psykers (or more importantly, daemons) can detect.
The Exorcists were first mentioned in Warhammer 40,000: Compendium in a section regarding the Babab War, and were expanded upon in the Codices Codex: Armageddon and Codex: Eye of Terror, and finally ended up in a Space Marine codex in the 5th edition Codex: Space Marines, and returned again in 8th Edition as a chapter from the 13th founding. They have since been largely story based, being a staple of Babab War fluff such as Trial of the Mantis Warriors, and having individual marines and mentions in stories like The Death of Antagonis and are an available chapter for use in the Deathwatch RPG.
- Ancient Keeper: They tend to keep a bunch of Master Crafted and spooky weapons in their armories, as a result of them being some of the only Imperium-aligned beings who can properly wield them.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: Members of the Exorcists willingly undergo daemonic possession, to better learn how to expel Warp creatures. Due to the high failure rate of this "highly unconventional" training method, the Exorcists are forced to maintain three full Scout companies.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Exorcists rarely stick to a combat strategy for any longer than they feel necessary, switching things up in order to get the drop on an enemy that by it's very nature is impossible to predict can be an advantage.
- Confusion Fu: The Exorcists, as mentioned above, rarely stick to a single tactic or methodology for longer than necessary as they fight an enemy that is just as unpredictable. In certain editions where the Exorcists had separate rules, they represented this by allowing them to use the Chapter Tactics of other Space Marine chapters.
- Demonic Possession: Required to become an Exorcist. You get possessed, and you either exorcise it yourself, or you get the emperor's peace from those who did.
- Demon Slaying: Being immune and invisible to chaotic-possession of any kind and knowing Chaos' tricks inside and out make them fantastic at this.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The original color scheme for the Exorcists was bright mustard yellow with a checker pattern trim for the pauldron.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: The Exorcists have cross-Company units called Orisons that are trained in a very specific method of warfare, honing their chosen methodology to a razor's edge so that, when they face foes susceptible to their specialty, they will have that much more of a leg up.
- Gone Horribly Right: In a way, they're basically a sanctioned, common sense, and publicly known second version of the Grey Knights that arguably do what the Grey Knights do better than even the Inquisition could've imagined. One source even suggests they are a successor chapter of the Grey Knights — the only one known if true.
- Heroic Willpower: A central tenet of all Chapters, but the Exorcists take it to truly remarkable levels, as one of their final rites of initiation is being possessed by a daemon. The prospective Initiate must then exorcise himself using only his own willpower, lest he succumb to the possession and be executed by his brethren. While this does mean that even fewer Neophytes will survive their initiation, the upshot of this process is all Exorcists become intimately familiar with identifying and purging daemonic influence, and are themselves invisible, body and soul, to daemonic entities.
- Mirroring Factions: They're essentially loyalist Word Bearers who can't be bothered by Warp taint and know how to fight it effectively, unlike the Word Bearers who embrace it fully and try to spread Chaos' influence however they can.
- Mysterious Past: A past placed under inquisitorial seal ensures it. The general idea is known, but the specifics are known only to the highest members of the Inquisition.
- Praetorian Guard: Theirs is called the Enochian Guard, who are even better at daemon slaying than your average Exorcist.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: What you have to do in order to become an Exorcist, or you get a one way trip to a bolter round to the head.
- We Have Reserves: They have a two extra companies of neophytes due to the particularly gruesome realities of becoming an Exorcist.
Death Spectres
"Fear not death, we who embody it in His name!" "We fear not death, for we are death incarnate!"
- "You give up your humanity that the citizens of the Imperium may keep theirs. Pity or despise them, but never expect them to understand."Apothecary Bharan, Death Spectres
The Ghoul Stars are located at the far "Northeastern"note edge of the Imperium of Man, right at the edge where the astronomican can reach. It's also a place of extreme danger where Xenos the likes of which few have ever survived to talk about, to the point that they're described as "supernatural". But there are still worlds inhabited with humans in the Ghoul Stars region who need protection from said dangerous entities that even the Imperium doesn’t fight on a regular basis, so a special chapter of space marines was designed to fight these horrors in the deep blackness of space: The Death Spectres. Their first Chapter Master, Corcaedus, was brought to the world Occuludus as a result of seeing a vision of the Emperor and found deep underground the mysterious artifact known only as the Throne of Glass. From there he interred himself to better help his comrades fight the mysterious evils of these cold, unknown worlds bathed in cold, unflinching light.
The Death Spectres were first mentioned in Codex: Eye of Terror, but received more comprehensive lore and rules in Codex: Space Marines 5th Edition and have been accounted for in nearly every edition since as a successor chapter for the Raven Guard. Individual marines from this chapter have also seen representation in books such as the Deathwatch novels with its related short stories, plus other short stories such as Flayed.
- Came Back Strong: The Death Spectres have both codified and weaponized this; their aspirants must die and then return from death by willpower alone. Then they have to do this every time they get promoted.
- Creepy Cemetery: Occuludus is an entire planet that looks like this.
- Dark Secret: The Chapter Master sitting on the Throne of Glass isn’t only used to boost the entire chapter’s psychic potential, it’s been stated by several members that it’s vital to keep the Imperium as a whole alive. What the reasons are, no one other than the Death Spectres knows and will never tell outsiders, but it involves bringing about an event they call the “Great Resurrection.” Yet a great deal of the Imperium doesn’t even know the Throne of Glass exists in the first place.
- Death-Activated Superpower: The Chapter Master of the Death Spectres is eternally enthroned on a special artifact known as the Throne of Glass that saps the life energy of the user, but vastly improves their psychic potential and is implied to essentially be a mini-Astronomican. Given how far out the Ghoul Stars are from the Imperial center it's tragic for this sacrifice to happen, yet it’s a vital part of their operations.
- Death Is Cheap: If you're an especially skilled Death Spectre, it's more of an inconvenience to becoming a lieutenant than anything.
- Eerie Pale Skinned Bald Guys: The flaws in their geneseed are similar to their progenitors the Raven Guard.
- In the End, You Are on Your Own: The Death Spectres are unusual for an Astartes chapter in that they don't (or more accurately, can't) rely on Imperium supply lines thanks to how far out in space they are. As a result they have to control a mini-system of agri-worlds and breeding worlds to keep their numbers up as well as keep the humans they defend safe.
- Magic Knight: The chapter specializes in psychic powers and is known for tactics involving heavy usage of close-range Assault Marines.
- Mirroring Factions: Their organization may be superficially pretty different from the vanilla Raven Guard, but on the off-chance they happen to be called to a greater threat such as a Black Crusade, they typically fill the same combat roles as their progenitor chapter.
- Only Mostly Dead: Aspirants, Battle Brothers, and even the Chapter Master all go through varying degrees of this. The key is that they have to power out of it...with the exception of the Chapter Master, of course.
- Pragmatic Hero: Given the far distance from normal Imperium supply lines, the Death Spectres have had to improvise with what they have at hand, including making use of stealth tactics to fight their enemies — a running theme with many successors of the Raven Guard chapter.
- Super Breeding Program: Revealed to have one in Flayed due to the extreme distance between the Imperium, and the Ghoul Stars' colonized worlds. Anyone found to be not-corrupted and of exceptional skill, bravery or simple survival skill on worlds being torn asunder will be "saved" to these large Agri-Worlds to live out the rest of their days in relative peace.
Noteworthy Chapters of the Cursed Twenty-First Founding
The Legion of the Damned
Exūrite eos, novit enim Imperator qui sunt eius.Translation
...their armour was coloured black and upon it was drawn chilling images of bones and fire, and on their helm they bore skulls... Like the bones of men in the torment of purgatory they were, and yet not a sound did they make... We that remained watched the dark battle-brothers at their work, and never before or since have I witnessed such fighting... Soon we secured the objective once more, yet of the dark brotherhood, there was no sign!
— Excerpt from a report by Chief Librarian Varro Tigurius of the Ultramarines
On several occasions, Imperial forces facing certain death have been rescued by these mysterious Space Marines. Shrouded in spectral flames, their black armor covered with macabre imagery, the so-called Legion of the Damned appears as if from nowhere to turn the tide of battle. Fighting in grim silence and with ruthless efficiency, once the threat is neutralized the Legionnaires vanish as quickly as they came, leaving naught but slain foes and astonished Imperial survivors.
It is widely believed that the Legion of the Damned could be, in fact, the remnants of the Fire Hawks chapter, lost in the Warp after the Badab War, which fundamentally transformed the entire chapter's surviving Marines into the otherworldly daemon-like killing machines they are now. This makes them a Twenty-First Founding Ultramarines successor chapter and Zhoros and Cousteau XI (both destroyed) would be their home worlds. Other explanations exist, of course, and Depending on the Writer have been used in novels and supplements. The Fire Hawks were notorious for refusing to offer their aid if they felt that a situation was untenable; the Legion of the Damned only appears in the most hopeless of last stands...
The Legion of the Damned have been a part of the Warhammer 40,000 game, in one form or another, since 1st Edition and have received rules in almost every edition since. Generally the Legion only appear as a single special unit in the Space Marine army lists but in 2004 White Dwarf published trial Chapter Approved rules for using a full army of the Legion of the Damned in 3rd Edition, while 6th Edition saw the release of a digital only codex with limited content. The 8th Edition rules for the Legion of the Damned are included in the Index: Imperium 1 book released in June 2017.
- Abnormal Ammo: The Legion's bolters shoot flaming projectiles that little (if anything) is proof against. In-game, their shooting attacks remove cover bonuses.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Legion of the Damned only ever appear when all seems lost and the forces of the Imperium are facing their darkest hour. When they do appear, victory often follows, even if few of the Imperial forces they assist survive the victory.
- Bottomless Magazines: No matter how intense or prolonged the fighting, the Legion of the Damned have never been witnessed reloading their bolters.
- Dark Is Not Evil: While some members of the Inquisition are suspicious of their appearance and abilities, the Legion of the Damned have never taken any action that would endanger the Imperium and are one of the most powerful groups of loyalists in spite of their few numbers.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: When introduced during 1st Edition, the Legion of the Damned were portrayed as ordinary Marines with a mysterious Warp sicknesses that numbed their bodies and strengthened their armour. All subsequent versions of their backgroundnote have cemented them as incorporeal, wraithlike beings.
- Flying Dutchman: Trapped in hyperspace for about a hundred years and cursed with some Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane warp disease/curse, the last handful of survivors wander the galaxy searching for other Marines, coming to their aid in their hour of need, vanishing as mysteriously and silently as they came, never straying from their dedication to the Emperor even as their bodies and minds slowly break down.
- Good Counterpart: To the Thousand Sons, being Warp-tainted Astartes using flaming munitions, but still loyal to the Imperium. In-game both have very strong invulnerable saves and powerful ranged attacks, the Thousand Sons ignoring most armor while the Legion's ignore cover.
- They could also be considered this to the Flame Falcons. This is another chapter of the Cursed 21st Founding. One day they just burst into flames... and didn't seem to care in the slightest while continuing to fight. They considered this a gift from the Emperor and celebrated their victory... a victory they won right in front of an Inquisitor who then had them purged. Granted, they could have cursed by Tzeentch (fire being his domain as the Lord of Entropy) and, thus, tricked into thinking they were still loyal... Or maybe their curse progressed to the point that they JOINED the Legion of the Damned (since unnatural warp fire is utilized by both chapters), but no material confirms or denies this. Like the Fire Hawks, the Flame Falcons just exist as another reason why the Cursed Founding got their name since neither chapter has special rules for their untainted state.
- Logical Weakness: Being Warp-based entities, they are logically vulnerable to many of the same weapons and devices that counter Chaos Daemons. Most notably, during the Fall of Cadia, the activation of the Necron pylons on the planet banished Legion Marines as easily as it did the hordes of Chaos daemons.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Exactly who the Legion are or what they have become is a mystery. Some say that they're the long-lost Fire Hawks chapter, riddled with a warp mutation that's made them far more powerful than normal Astartes but is also slowly killing them. Some say that they're the ghosts of long-dead Space Marines coming back to fight for the Imperium forever more. One particularly disturbing theory among the Eldar is that the Legion are not even Astartes at all, but are effectively the Imperium's equivalent to Chaos Daemons, based on the desires of those present on the battlefields for the Space Marines to come and save them. Another is that they are some chapter (maybe the Fire Hawks) who have found a constant stream in the Warp, allowing them to go back to the sites of Imperial defeats and turn the tide to change the course of history - quite tellingly, records of Legion sightings stretch back to before the Fire Hawks were ever declared lost.
- Mysterious Protector: While the ultimate motives of the Legion of the Damned may be unknown, the fact that they fight to protect the Imperium in general, and the Adeptus Astartes in particular, is beyond doubt.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: The ethereal nature of the Legion of the Damned makes them incredibly difficult to destroy as their enemies' attacks pass through their bodies without causing any harm. In-game, they have a 3+ invulnerable save in addition to their 3+ armor save.
- Ominous Floating Castle: There has been at least one report of a mysterious Star Fort, of a comparable size to the Rock, operating in the same area as the Legion of the Damned. The Star Fort is said to be heavily weathered as if it had spent centuries adrift in the Warp and is wreathed in spectral flame. Some Imperial scholars have speculated that this Star Fort may be the Rapturous Rex, the massive mobile fortress monastery of the Fire Hawks that was lost in the Warp along with the rest of the ill-fated Chapter.
- Playing with Fire: Some Damned Legionaries have been witnessed exerting control over the ethereal flames that cover their bodies, smiting their foes with a fiery holocaust.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: The Imperium as a whole likes using a skull motif, but the Legion of the Damned take it a step further with black armor and other bone decorations over their armor.
- Suicide Attack: The use of their flames to attack their enemies appears to be a weapon of last resort for the Legion of the Damned as those recorded using this ability succumb to their own flame and disappear from reality.
- The Voiceless: There have been no recorded instances of a Damned Legionary verbally communicating with anyone. During battle, the whole Chapter fights in complete, eerie silence without a single cry of rage, triumph or pain.
- Wreathed in Flames: Members of the Legion of the Damned and their equipment appear to burn with ghostly flames that blaze bright as they slay the enemies of the Emperor.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: The Animum Malorium is a mysterious artefact carried by some Legion of the Damned Sergeants. This powerful relic, that often takes the form of a sinister skull, appears to be able to consume the soul from an enemy to strengthen the bearer and his comrades.
Black Dragons
"Bless the curse..."
The Black Dragons are a fleet-based Chapter. As with many Cursed Founding Chapters, it is unknown which Chapter their gene-seed originated from, but the Magos Biologis of the Adeptus Mechanicus believe that they are a successor of the Salamanders.
Like many chapters of the Cursed Founding, the Black Dragons' gene-seed is believed to have been heavily modified at their founding and they have since developed flaws in their genetic structure. In their case, their Ossmodula (the organ that regulates bone growth) has mutated so that bony protrusions sprout from various parts of their bodies. Investigations into the chapter have failed to expose any taint of Chaos, but their obvious physical mutations has led to great suspicion amongst other Imperial forces and push the tolerance of the Inquisition to its limit.
The Black Dragons were introduced during the 3rd Edition of Warhammer 40,000 where they were they appeared in the White Dwarf Index: Astartes article on the Cursed Founding and received a mentioned in the background material for the Third War of Armageddon Worldwide Campaign. The Chapter also received trial Chapter Approved rules during 3rd Edition. The 8th Edition Codex Adeptus Astartes: Space Marines includes a brief mention of the Chapter in the background section but in the rules they are treated as regular Space Marines.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Black Dragon veterans, known as Dragon Claws, coat their bone outgrowths with adamantium to increase their combat effectiveness.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: The Black Dragons chapter have a mutation in their Ossmodulanote that commonly causes this. They're also (usually) retractable. What do they do with these blades? Sheath them in Adamantium of course. It can also end up making them a Horned Humanoid.
- Blessed with Suck: Some Black Dragons consider their mutated Ossmodula a sign of corruption and are filled with self-loathing despite the increase in their combat power. Many Imperial forces also believe that the Black Dragons are tainted, and several (especially the Dark Angels and Marines Malevolent) refuse to have anything to do with them. Some within the Inquisition would like to see the Black Dragons destroyed despite their history of loyalty to the Imperium.
- Demoted to Extra: The Black Dragons haven't received official rules since 3rd Edition, but they still appear in the background and have a book in the Space Marine Battles series by Black Library. A Black Dragon is also a noteworthy side character in Nick Kyme's Salamanders trilogy.
- Horned Humanoid: A common symptom of the Black Dragon's genetic defect is horns sprouting from their skull. They are often depicted with a single horn growing from the forehead that has been shaped and sharpened in the same manner as their arm blades.
- I Have No Son!: While rumored to be a successor to the Salamanders, their mutations have garnered lots of suspicion from their supposed parent chapter, even when they adopted one of the Dragons as a Scout.
Lamenters
"For those we cherish, we die in glory!"
A chapter of the Cursed Twenty-First Founding, the Lamenters are successors of the Blood Angels. A fleet-based chapter, the flagship of the Lamenters is the Mater Lachrymarum and they recruit from any feudal worlds they come across. Their Chapter Master at the end of the 41st Millennium is thought to be Malakim Phoros, but many believe he was slain during the Minotaur’s siege in the Badab War, or has fallen to the Black Rage, yet rumors persist that he rejoined his brothers in secrecy and continues to fight alongside them. Whatever the case, their history has been tumultuous.
The Lamenters were part of an experiment by the Adeptus Mechanicus to remove the gene-curse of their parent chapter, and for the most part it appeared to be successful. Unfortunately, the Lamenters are seemingly cursed by fate or by the Ruinous Powers with ill-luck and have suffered more unfortunate campaigns, accidents and disastrous tactical decisions than any other Chapter in the Imperium. The Chapter have been soundly defeated, almost wiped out, exiled, put on trial, distrusted, outright murdered, and deserted by their allies, and yet they still remain both loyal to the Emperor and to the people of the Imperium who they will defend down to the last Marine. Towards the end of the 41st Millennium the Blood Angels made numerous attempts to contact the Lamenters in an attempt to investigate their apparent resistance to the Red Thirst, but were unsuccessful in reaching the Lamenters who also were the only successor of the 9th Legion to not send relief forces to take part in the defence of Baal from Hive Fleet Leviathan (albeit given their terrible luck the Blood Angels weren’t too disappointed). The Lamenters have, however, been sighted fighting Hive Fleet Kraken a second time with their own Primaris Marines, giving hope they will one day rebuild back to their original glory.
The Lamenters have been a part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe since its 1st Editionnote but didn't receive any specific rules until 3rd Edition when they received trial rules as part of the Cursed Founding Chapter Approved White Dwarf articles that were later reprinted in the Chapter Approved 2004 supplement. During 5th Edition Games Workshop's Forge World department released a pair of books focusing on the Badab War that included rules for using the Lamenters and their Chapter Master Malakim Phoros. In 8th Edition the Lamenters are counted as regular Blood Angels successors using the rules printed in Codex Adeptus Astartes: Blood Angels and Psychic Awakening: Blood of Baal, while the Forge World rules for Chapter Master Phoros can be found in Imperial Armour – Index: Forces of the Adeptus Astartes. For 9th Edition, the Chapter uses a combination of the rules published in October 2020's Codex: Space Marines combined with the Index Astartes: Blood Angels download, available free from the Warhammer Community website.
- Aloof Ally: In M42, while they maintained their noble nature with Civilians and Astra Militarum, they were actually fairly distant allies with the Iron Lords they came to aid in the Aberrus system, only ever communicating with them when it was necessary. This may have to do with what happened the last time they trusted someone during the Badab War.
- Artifact of Doom: One relic of the Lamenters Chapternote is the power spear Victory's Price. The spear has ensured many victories for the chapter, but more often than not the Marine chosen to wield Victory's Price will end up dead. Even Space Marines find themselves mildly uneasy at the prospect that wielding this mighty weapon may mean their next battle is their last.
- Because You Were Nice to Me:
- Believing they owed a debt to the Ultramarines for helping them in Corillia during the 9th Black Crusade, the Lamenters answered the Ultramarine’s call for backup during the Liberation of Slaughterhouse III.
During the Liberation of Slaughterhouse III the Lamenters managed to free over three million enslaved Imperium citizens from the Orks, which went well until the Orks responded by sending reinforcements via a mass fleet to take the planet and her citizens back. Refusing to abandon the citizens, the Lamenters planned to fight to the death, but the citizens knew it wouldn’t be enough. So they thanked their armored liberators the only way they could: having the Lamenters instead save as many women and children by fleeing the planet with them in tow on whatever ships they could find, whereas the remaining citizens would be bait for the Orks to perish by Exterminatus; a final middle finger to give their captors and to deny the Orks the planet’s resources. The Lamenters were reluctant, but understood the pragmatic reasoning and agreed to the plan, which led to the destruction of Slaughterhouse III with only a handful thousands of the original citizen population. - The Lamenters were treated as fellow brothers for the first time by the Astral Claws, led by Lugft Huron, along with the Mantis Warriors. As a result, they fought alongside the latter two during the Badab War, believing the Astral Claws were being mistreated and ignored by the Imperium. This would later bite the Lamenters in the ass, for it turned out Lugft Huron had been using them all along, having been tainted by Chaos. In the end, the Lamenters were forced to go on a one hundred year Penance Crusade, during which they couldn’t recruit new members.
- Believing they owed a debt to the Ultramarines for helping them in Corillia during the 9th Black Crusade, the Lamenters answered the Ultramarine’s call for backup during the Liberation of Slaughterhouse III.
- Being Good Sucks: The Lamenters will defend innocent civilians — even when it wouldn't be in their best interests — and have gone above and beyond the call of duty to free innocent civilians if they're enslaved. None of this has improved the Chapter's dark reputation with their peers.
- Born Unlucky: If there is such thing as a curse in the setting then this chapter suffers from one. They have had more misfortune, betrayal, and loss than many of their Space Marine brethren.
- Cavalry Refusal: While defending the world of Corillia during the 9th Black Crusade, the Lamenters suffered terrible casualties when the superstitious Mortifactors chapter refused to help the Lamenters and withdrew. Refusing to abandon the citizens of Corillia, the Lamenters fought on for the next six weeks before the Ultramarines and White Scars arrived to help defeat the Black Legion forces.
- Combat Pragmatist: While they are Codex Astartes compliant, their nature as a fleet-based chapter that doesn’t always get the chance to restock supplies often means they’ve had to improvise in many battles. They also used clever maneuvering and other tactics to avoid killing other Spare Marines during the Badab War, up until they were forced to defend themselves against the Minotaur chapter who refused to hold their punches.
- Cosmic Plaything: At first the Lamenters seemed to be the only Cursed Founding chapter to escape a crippling defect; despite being a Blood Angels successor the Lamenters appeared immune to the Flaw. Then they suffered 80% losses in their first campaign when their allies the Mortifactors abandoned them out of superstitious fear. Then the Lamenters got lost in the Warp for two hundred years, were dragged onto the wrong side of a civil war, and had to fight Hive Fleet Kraken as penance. By the time the Blood Angels tracked the Lamenters down they were reduced to three companies and reeling from the sudden onset of the Red Thirst and Black Rage, having been forced to create a Death Company as a result. The Emperor’s Tarot cards have also revealed that things will only continue to get worse for the Lamenters, though given everything that has happened thus far it’s hardly a surprise.
- Determinator: The Lamenters have been cursed with the worst circumstances possible for a Space Marine Chapter, yet even when horribly outgunned, outmanned, and no reinforcements can or will answer to their calls, they continue to fight on for the people of the Imperium.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The original background for the Lamenters stated that the reason they didn't suffer from the Black Rage, despite being of the lineage of Sanguinius, was because their gene-seed had been spliced with that of the Dark Angels. It was this mixture of gene-seeds that was thought to have resulted in the Chapter's curse but later background material has since dropped this theory, especially since the Black Rage was later said to have reemerged in the chapter regardless.
- Escaped from Hell: Immediately after their involvement in the 9th Black Crusade the Lamenters were thought lost when their fleet was struck by a freak Warp Storm. It took them two centuries to fight their way through the denizens of the Warp before they were able to make it back to the Material Universe. They also ended up surviving against Hive Fleet Kraken, though only barely.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Their unpopularity even extends to real life, where not many would play them since it takes a degree skill to properly paint their checkerboard emblem.
- Heroic Resolve: It is rumoured that Malakim Phoros, the Lamenters' missing Chapter Master, has fallen to the Black Rage, yet has managed to keep his sanity through willpower alone.
- Ideal Hero: Even in the Warhammer 40000 universe, the Lamenters are selfless and will go out of their way to protect and save civilians at the cost of their own lives. They also share a friendly nature to those that they help fight for with a humble attitude. And all of this despite their many failures and how almost nobody gives them the proper respect in-universe.
- Irony: Of the few groups that would cause a serious amount of problems to the Minotaurs chapter, it was the Lamenters who would go on to cause a considerable amount of grief. During the Badab War, the Minotaurs were tasked by the High Lords of Terra to hunt down the rebelling loyalist Space Marines; they chose the Lamenters, seeing them as weak fleet-based anti-xeno specialists who would be ill-equipped due to the amount of time they spent out in space without being able to replenish their supplies. Instead, the Lamenters were able to inflict a considerable amount of casualties using strong and cunning tactics before being forced to surrender to the Minotaurs. Enraged, in the aftermath they pilfered a great deal of equipment as well as several ships from the Lamenters, only for the Minotaurs to lose all those ships and much of their entire chapter in the Orphean War against Necron forces later on. Turns out taking as much equipment and ships as you could from one of the most cursed groups in 40k’s universe wasn’t a smart idea.
- It's Personal: While their heroic nature meant it was natural that they responded to the Iron Lords' chapter's call for aid against a splintered arm of Hive Fleet Kraken in M42, the rebuilt chapter and especially it's firstborn were eager at the chance to achieve vengeance against the Hive Fleet.
- Keep the Reward: The Ultramarines were so impressed with the performance of the Lamenters during the Liberation of Slaughterhouse III that Marneus Calgar wanted to present them an Iron Halo in recognition of their efforts. The Lamenters however felt that they deserved no such reward due to how few of the 3 million Ork prisoners that they liberated survived.
- Knight Errant: As a fleet-based chapter the Lamenters have used their mobility to seek out the Imperium's foes and have engaged in numerous crusades — both self-imposed and as punishment for their actions in the Badab War — against the enemies of the Emperor.
- Knight in Sour Armor: Many battle-brothers are noted as having some aura of depression about them, whether because of something wrong in their gene-seed or because of the terrible luck the Lamenters have. Regardless, they have continued to defend the Imperium against numerous xeno threats and will go out of their way to protect innocent civilians, some even shedding the “sour” part and continuing to hold on to Sanguinius’s idealism.
- Last of His Kind: Invoked by Chyron, a Lamenter dreadnought permanently attached to team “Talon” of the Deathwatch group, who believes his Lamenter brothers all perished to Hive Fleet Kraken while he had been called away to serve Deathwatch for a temporary mission (despite the fact they lived) and feels guilty to still be alive; this has left him depressed and borderline suicidal when he’s not outright irate. As a result he’s more than willing to disobey even an Inquisitor if it means he gets to kills more xenos (particularly tyranids), all to slake his thirst for vengeance against them, though his fellow squad mates refuse to abandon him.
- Last Stand: It is thought that the Lamenters have taken part in more last stands and hopeless campaigns than any other chapter in Imperium history.
- Meaningful Name: A Lamenter is someone who expresses grief or sorrow. Upon restoring the Chapter Banner, the Sisters Pronatus who helped repair it openly wept for the chapter's misfortune. This Banner became known as the Banner of Tears, though as time went on this was retconnned into the Sisters denouncing the Lamenters for going against the God-Emperor. Either way, the Lamenters have much to grieve for what the 40k universe has done to them.
- Medal of Dishonor: Marneus Calgar awarded the chapter an Iron Halo for their work in the Liberation of Slaughterhouse III. Due to losing over two-third's of the strike forces' numbers in the "victory" (and the Lamenters rarely ever have an excess of manpower) and being forced to collapse the mines with explosive charges (thereby euthanizing around 90% of the millions of slaves that were initially freed) lest the Ork reinforcements reclaim the world, the Lamenters were in no mood to accept a reward... and then some Imperials worsened the Lamenters' reputation further by assuming they intended to snub Calgar with their refusal.
- Pet the Dog: Marneus Calgar is one of the few known members of the Imperium who not only doesn’t despise the Lamenters, he even sees them as upstanding Astartes for their work on Slaughterhouse III. As such, when the Lamenters turned down the Iron Halo offered to them for their services because they believed they didn’t deserve it, he graciously understood, and when he learned there were others in the area looking down on the Lamenters for these actions he silenced the naysayers. Unfortunately for the Lamenters, it wasn’t enough to prevent their reputation from being further looking down on by their peers.
- The Pollyanna: Despite their cursed nature and string of poor luck, many Lamenters still hold on to Sanguinius' idealism.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The Liberation of Slaughterhouse III, which saw to the destruction of a large Ork mining world with its production performed by human slaves — less than a hundred Lamenters returned from the three-hundred strong sent on mission, and the vast majority of the slaves could not be saved due to a lack of on-hand ships to evacuate them while Ork reinforcements threatened to end the mission as a complete failure. The Lamenters were so devastated that they rejected attempts from the Ultramarines to honor them for it.
- Retcon: The Lamenters have had a few changes made to their storyline, but due to the rather muddy waters of canon storyline on Games Workshop’s end it remains unknown if they’ll stick.
- In the aftermath of the Badab War, the Sister Pronatus who repaired the Lamenter’s Banner wept due to the misfortunes that the Lamenters suffered, but later sources instead changed this to the Sisters denouncing the Lamenters for sinning against the God-Emperor himself. While this did make more sense considering the Sisters of Battle aren’t close buddies with most Space Marine Chapters — due to their differing beliefs regarding the Emperor — it’s noticeable that other loyalist chapters were tricked as well by Lugft Huron into fighting against the Imperium, yet none of them received the same mistreatment other than similar penalties imposed on the Lamenters. This is despite the fact the Lamenters didn’t kill their brethren other than the Minotaurs (who were doing their best to completely wipe out the Lamenters), whereas others like the Mantis Warriors did. Fans have been divided on this new interpretation.
- Initially the Lamenters were stated to have received Primaris Marine reinforcements, but later sources would instead declare they weren’t for unknown reasons. Instead, the Lamenters would be given the technology to make their own, though in the end run they do at least have Lamenter Primaris forces who helped them fight Hive Fleet Kraken in their second encounter.
- Spanner in the Works: During the Corinth Crusade, the Lamenters' destruction of the Ork Mining World of Slaughterhouse III meant that the Orks' WAAAGH! effort was set back years and led to infighting that eventually led to the end of the Orks' control of the star system. At the same time
- Throw the Dog a Bone: The 8th Edition Blood Angels codex confirms them to have survived their penitent crusade and to have been reinforced with Primaris Marines, or at least the technology to make their own, giving them a fighting chance at making a comeback.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: During the Liberation of Slaughterhouse III, the Lamenters soundly defeated the Ork forces and saved three million slaves all on their own. This success didn't last long however as Ork reinforcements arrived and the former slaves themselves requested that the Lamenters kill them so that they could die free rather than become pawns of the greenskins once again. The resulting destruction of Slaughterhouse III created one of the largest planetary tombs in Imperial history - of the millions of slaves originally freed by the Chapter, barely a tenth made it off-planet on the evacuation ships.
Minotaurs
The Minotaurs are officially a chapter of the Cursed Twenty-First Founding but some Imperial scholars question whether the chapter active in the 41st Millennium is the same one founded in the 36th Millennium. They are a fleet-based chapter and their Chapter Master is Asterion Moloc.
After their founding, the Minotaurs quickly gained a reputation for ferocity, with some Imperial Commanders who fought alongside them considering them little more than a roving band of barely sane murderers and psychopaths. The chapter was also known to have suffered from corruption of their gene-seed and by the 38th Millennium they had disappeared from Imperial records. The chapter that reappeared in the early 41st Millennium still had a reputation for fury on the battlefield, but this was now tempered by more orthodox tactics and organisation. The chapter has also been noted to respond quickly to the orders of the High Lords of Terra, especially when called to bring renegade Space Marine chapters to account. This has led to the chapter having a shaky relationship with other Astartes and the Inquisition.
The Minotaurs have been a part of the lore for the Badab War since the 1st Edition of Warhammer 40,000. The 21st Founding Minotaurs received trial Chapter Approved rules, alongside some of their fellow Cursed Founding Chapters, in White Dwarf during the game's 3rd Edition. The 41st Millennium Minotaurs received rules from Games Workshop's Forge World department in their 5th Edition Badab War books. In 8th Edition the Minotaurs are counted as regular Space Marines using the rules printed in Codex: Space Marines while the Forge World rules for their Badab War era characters can be found in Imperial Armour – Index: Forces of the Adeptus Astartes.
- Ancient Grome: The visual theme of the 41st Millennium era Minotaurs is strongly based on that of Ancient Greece. The bronze power armour of the Chapter imitates that of the Greek Hoplites while their Chapter Master is named after a mythological king of Crete for example.
- Ax-Crazy: The characterization of the 38th Millennium era Minotaurs was that of barely controllable madmen. Since their return, this aspect of their character has been downplayed, but they are still notorious for their brutality in combat, particularly when facing other Astartes forces.
- The Dragon: Seemingly to the High Lords of Terra. Having the very best wargear, being dispatched to deal with troublesome chapters, and even the Inquisition being unable to dig up much dirt on them.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Prior to Forge World's Badab War books, the Minotaurs were depicted in an unusual yellow and red scheme, with some plates picked out in one colour, and others in a chevron pattern. If the Minotaurs of the 41st Millennium truly aren't the first Chapter with that name, it's possible that the yellow and red scheme was that of the original iteration. The original scheme is reflected in the colouration of the current Chapter's weapon casings, however.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The Badab War books from Forge World paints them in this light, as their brutality and general jerkassery manages to ostracize them from their allies.
- Good Is Not Nice: While they are theoretically on the side of mankind, the Minotaurs are extremely pragmatic, to the point of insulting (and actively murdering) other Space Marine chapters and using the Imperial Guard and Navy as meat shields. They're also believed to be at the beck and call of the High Lords of Terra, who aren't exactly known for being totally level-headed about dealing with threats.
- Internal Affairs:
- The Minotaurs specialize in fighting other Space Marines, and are rumored to have been created, or possibly refounded, in secret as the High Lords's private army. Other than their deference to the High Lords, their ruthlessness, brutality, and can act with impunity against other Chapters that have become difficult or landed themselves in trouble with the wider Imperium. Despite acting like renegades towards their nominal allies, the Minotaurs are never reproached for their actions due to their links and orders from the High Lords, and official records are tied up with enough tape that even Inquisitors can't get to them.
- In-game, any Minotaur primary detachment with Asterion Moloc as their HQ (and why would it not?) has the Preferred Enemy: Space Marines special rule.note
- Jerkass: The Minotaurs don't respect anyone other than the God-Emperor and the High Lords of Terra, often going out of their way to antagonise other Imperial forces.
- Kleptomaniac Hero: The Minotaurs have a tendency to seize equipment from those Astartes forces they fight against as spoils of war. This has gotten them in trouble on more than one occasion.
- Legacy Character:
- The entire chapter may not be the same one that has been seen in Imperial history. Some records indicate that there was a Minotaurs Chapter as early as M32, while there are others indicating that the Chapter was founded during the Cursed Founding in M36, around 4,000 years later. Complicating the matter, they disappeared from historical record in M38, only to abruptly reappear in a big way in M41 as the High Lords' unnoficial enforcers. While new chapters reusing the names of disbanded chapters isn't unheard of, it's incredibly rare. And given their connections to the High Lords, its quite possible that there is a single chapter that may have reorganized at least once, or there really have been three Minotaurs chaptersm and the current chapter is a much newer and secretly founded chapter using the identity of an old one.
- The Chapter Master Asterion Moloc is also speculated to be a legacy persona. He has been recorded as KIA and miraculously recovered alive in at least seven instances in the last five centuries. While this string of miraculuous recoveries isn't technically impossible, it's thought that Moloc may either be an identity inherited by each Minotaurs Chapter Master, or mental programming is used to enforce a persona onto the Astartes who claims the title.
- Loyal to the Position: The Minotaurs are loyal to whoever is currently acting as Master of the Administratum, specifically. When several of the High Lords of Terra attempted to overthrow Guilliman in a coup, the Minotaurs were deployed as their muscle and even threatened to fight the Imperial Fists and Custodes over the matter. It then turned out that Guilliman had anticipated the coup and made contingencies to replace the High Lords in question with ones more amenable to him once the conspirators revealed themselves, the Minotaurs immediately standing down when the new Master of the Administratum took their post and commanded them.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: The Crozius Arkanos is a unique Crozius Arcanum wielded by Reclusiarch Ivanus Enkomi that incorporates an auxiliary assault launcher. The weapon was created from the shattered remains of Enkomi's Crozius after the Battle of Gathetris.
- Mouth of Sauron: Reclusiarch Ivanus Enkomi often acts as Asterion Moloc's mouthpiece and representative when dealing with other chapters due to the Chapter Master's lack of patience for cooperation and strategic planning.
- Mysterious Past:
- Their gene-seed tithes are locked away, no one is sure who their progenitors are. Given their tendencies to absolutely annihilate whatever is in their way it's possible for them be successors to the World Eaters, but what little we do know about their gene-seed hints at them being derived from a multitude of Chapters. This would certainly make sense considering their connections with the High Lords, but it doesn't make much sense since they are pretty much free of any mutations.
- There's some circumstanstial evidence that the Minotaurs are actually descended from Iron Warrior gene seed; their chapter tactics are the same as the Iron Warriors Legiones Astartes rules, both are known for their siegecraft, ferocity in assault, and disregard for casualties. The Minotaurs also have a strong Ancient Greek aesthetic, which was emphasized not so much by the Iron Warriors, but it fit their homeworld Olympia to a tee.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Asterion Moloch is the Chapter Master of the Minotaurs, and his combat skills show this. In a case of Gameplay and Story Integration, Moloch can basically 1v1 ANY named Chapter Master and easily win. The closest match in the entire list is Marneus Calgar, since Calgar can give himself Iron Resolve, in which case the fight ends in a Mutual Kill.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: While they aren't the crazed berserkers that they were originally, the Minotaurs are still renowned for their brutality and love of combat.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The reason that they haven't either been declared Excommunicate Traitoris or simply faced a group smackdown by the other Astartes is because they're the hammer of the High Lords of Terra. Even the Inquisition can't do anything about them.
- Storming the Castle: On top of their bloody melee skills, they are also have strong siegecraft capabilities.
- Team Killer: The Minotaurs have gained a reputation for this where other Space Marines are concerned, something that has alienated a number of their fellow Chapters. The Ultramarines and their successor chapters especially despise the Minotaurs because of their near-total destruction of the Inceptors chapter and pillaging of their Chapter relics.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: While the Minotaurs are strict followers of the Codex Astartes, they're almost never seen as small groups or even individual companies. Every time they're deployed its always been at full Chapter strength, they fight in only one war zone at a time with the entire chapter fighting together. Yes, the ENTIRE chapter.
- Troll: Other Astartes find them quite unpleasant to be around, though the cause of this remains unknown. It is speculated that, given their all-but-confirmed role as the High Lords' anti-Astartes hit squad, their standoffish demeanor is encouraged to make it easier for them to perform their intended duties. It may also be that their chapter is possibly descended from the Iron Warriors, a legion not exactly known for their sunny dispositions even Pre-Heresy.
- Unexplained Recovery: As well as their mysterious return to action in the 41st Millennium, after a two-thousand-year absence from Imperial records, the Minotaurs have been noted to be able to recover from catastrophic losses at a rate far in excess of what should be possible for an Astartes Chapter.
- Zerg Rush: While they may closely follow the Codex when it comes to organisation, the Minotaurs' preferred tactics differ considerably. The Chapter prefers to operate as a single force, overwhelming their enemies with numbers and attritional warfare.
Noteworthy Chapters of Unknown Founding
Carcharodons
- Aloof Ally:
- Owing to their contrasting modes of extreme still patience and equally extreme violence of action, they have a habit of coming to the rescue of other Imperial forces just in the nick of time (when they had, in fact, been clandestinely observing the situation for some time), then departing just as quickly with no explanation. If contacted by those they fight beside, they only ever respond tersely in old dialects of High Gothic, usually giving polite but firmly worded requests for supplies.
- Some Carcharodons develop the "chill of the void", which ramps this up and adds a splash of He Who Fights Monsters. Afflicted warriors begin to cut themselves off from their brothers, losing any semblance of fraternity or informality and eventually refusing to lead or join a squad. Furthermore, they slaughter anything that would dare oppose the imperium, with no regard for surrender or strategic value.
- Antiquated Linguistics: When they talk to other Imperials, they stick to older, antiquated variants of High Gothic.
- The Berserker: Being a chapter that specializes in scorched earth shock assaults that rarely leave survivors, the Carcharodons have a reputation for this. Their battle tactics are a subversion of these — Carcharodons generally begin an operation by sending out scout parties to harass enemy positions and identify weak points. Once they're confident they can break their enemy, the full force of the company descends on their prey with silent fury and wild abandon. On tabletop, their chapter specific rules gives every one of their models Fear and Rage after destroying a unit.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Carcharodons are considered one of the most loyal chapters in the Imperium, with a unique culture that has withstood the test of time. But they mostly keep to themselves beyond combat operations, meaning the impression they leave on their allies (and the odd enemy that manages to survive) is that of inhuman monsters who massacre their foes in emotionless silence.
- Facial Horror: Tyberos the Red Wake, the First Captain of the Carcharodons, has a horrifically scared corpse-white face, with half his skull exposed in a bloodless grimace. The First Captain's soulless, black eyes add to his highly disturbing visage.
- Made a Slave: Their preferred way of restocking their chapter serfs is a process known as a Red Tithe, where they descend upon an unsupecting planet and kidnap every man, woman and child they can get their hands on. The most fit male youths become aspirants; the rest are forced into lifelong service as menials and personal servants. Smaller colonies can be completely depopulated in this manner.
- Mysterious Past: Their origins aren't well-understood — their Founding and Legion of origin are entirely unknown, to begin with. There are no official records of their founding, their own accounts of their past are highly mythologized and allegorical and as far as most can tell they just showed up one day out of the galactic edge to take part in the Badab War. In their earliest mentions they're posited in-universe to be Raven Guard-descended, but later publications indicate they might also be Night Lords or World Eaters-descended.note
- Their history can be pieced together from different parts of their fluff. A Carcharadon's corpse was genescanned, shown to be Raven Guard, and in the novels it is shown they suffer Ash Blindness (a Raven Guard geneflaw); their leader is known as Shade Lord, the rank used by the XIXth/Raven Guard legion's top commander before Corax took command, with the last to bear that title, Arkhas Fal, being exiled along with most of the terran born members of the legion; The title of the chief librarian "Pale Nomad" is the title Horus gave the XIXth legion before Corax took command, and the Raven Guard supplement mentions a XIXth legion fleet that sided with Horus, but fled to the edge of the galaxy when the traitors lost.
- Named Weapons: Tyberos, the First Captain, uses a pair of lightning claws named Hunger and Slake.
- The Quiet One: Carcharodons are generally one of the less talkative chapters outside of battle. During combat, they transistion into The Voiceless.
- Space Romans: They're based on Pacific islanders. They sport facial tattoos reminiscent of those found in Pacific cultures, and the transfer sheet that Forge World sold for them additionally has symbols that mirror these tattoos. Red Tithe takes this further with the Carcharodon Captain and Librarian greet each other with hongi
. - Threatening Shark: They file their teeth specifically to invoke the image of the aquatic predators. Their chapter symbol is also a shark, and they tend to be depicted with a lot of shark imagery. Fittingly, they're also feared berserkers known for their ruthlessness and brutal tactics.
- The Voiceless: The Carcharodons have a reputation for fighting in complete, eerie silence. The only communication performed in combat is orders from their leadership, which is done over heavily encryped vox channels to boot.
Specialist Chapters
Grey Knights
We are the Hammer! We are the Hate!
We are the Woes of Daemonkind!
We are the Woes of Daemonkind!
One last shield against the coming darkness,
One last blade, forged in defiance of fate,
Let them be my legacy to the galaxy I conquered,
And my final gift to the species I failed.
One last blade, forged in defiance of fate,
Let them be my legacy to the galaxy I conquered,
And my final gift to the species I failed.
— The Emperor, attr.
Although officially a Second Founding Chapter, the Grey Knights were actually founded by Malcador the Sigillite in great secrecy during the later stages of the Horus Heresy. Their Primarch is officially considered to be the Emperor. Their current Supreme Grand Master is Kaldor Draigo and their home world is Titan.
Daemon slayers extraordinaire and close allies of the Ordo Malleus, the Grey Knights are one of the most elite forces in the Imperium although few are allowed to know of their existence. Not only is each warrior trained to the highest possible standard, each is also a potent psyker able to banish their daemonic foes back into the warp with the power of their mind alone. Armed and armoured with masterfully crafted and sanctified equipment, created on their own dedicated Forge World, the Grey Knights may be few in number but they are nonetheless the Imperium's greatest weapon against the forces of the Dark Gods.
The Grey Knights began life in 1st and 2nd Edition Warhammer 40,000 as a single unit of Terminators that could be taken as allies to other Imperial forces. 3rd Edition saw the Chapter included, alongside the forces of the Inquisition, in Codex: Daemonhunters before receiving their first solo codex sourcebook during 5th Edition. During 7th Edition, the Grey Knights received their second codex while Codex: Imperial Agents also included a special detachment for using the Grey Knights as allies with other Armies of the Imperium. The 8th Edition Codex Adeptus Astartes: Grey Knights was released in August 2017 while additional rules were included in the January 2020 supplement Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned.
For more about these ultimate daemonhunters, see Grey Knights.
- Abnormal Ammo: The psilencers used by some Grey Knights are arcane firearms that fire the condensed and amplified psychic energy of the wielder instead of regular ammunition.
- Absurdly Exclusive Recruiting Standards: Normal Space Marine exclusivity is taken even further in case of the Grey Knights: not only must they all be psykers, but have to be stable enough to resist the daemons they must fight, and they have to endure a Training from Hell extreme even by Imperial standards. The initial test alone features the most promising child psykers to travel from the landing pad of their ship to the Fortress across a frozen wasteland, but whatever comes after that is pure torture, often literally. Some sources claim that only one in a million shows the Incorruptible Pure Pureness required to become a Grey Knight, and all agree it's one in a thousand at most.
- Arm Cannon: Grey Knights typically wear wrist-mounted Storm Bolters so that they can wield their Nemesis Force Weapons with both hands.
- Amplifier Artifact: The Sanctic Shardnote is a purified crystal that can boost the powers of any psyker that holds it, making it far easier to pass their Psychic tests to use a power during a game.
- Anti-Magic: The relic warding stave known as the Stave of Supremacynote gives its wielder the ability to destabilise and dissipate warp energy in the surrounding area, making it more likely that enemy psykers will suffer dangerous miscasts while attempting to manifest their powers.
- Bait-and-Switch: One piece of background information in the 7th Edition codex sees a Grey Knight force encounter some Adepta Sororitas that had survived on a planet invaded by daemons. Rather than retelling one of the most infamous pieces of background from the previous codex where they start slaughtering the Sisters and paint their armour with their blood, the Grey Knights are saved by the Sororitas, who earn a proper heroic death.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Nemesis doomglaives are rare psychically attuned blades attached to the arm of a Doomglaive-pattern Dreadnought that allow the machine's pilot to utilise his psychic abilities in combat as he did when fighting amongst the ranks of the living. In the 6th and 7th Edition version of the rules, a Doomglaive Dreadnought could use this weapon to make scything attacks against multiple enemies whilst in the 8th Edition rules they almost as powerful as the Nemesis Greatswords wielded by the Chapter's Dreadknights.
- Bling of War: The Aegis-pattern power and Terminator armour used by the Grey Knights is unique to the Chapter. Crafted to the highest standards and coloured in shining silver (representing the purity of the Chapter), each suit is a relic that has often been worn by many warriors of the centuries and is intricately decorated with icons, prayers, protective wards and other ritually consecrated symbols that provide greater protection from daemonic energies.
- Cannon Fodder: The 6th Brotherhood of the Grey Knights, known as The Rapiers, believe in swift surgical strikes by small specialist squads. As such, the Brotherhood will deploy waves of disposable Servitors to tie-up and bog down enemy forces so that their elite squads can strike at the most crucial targets.
- Cool Helmet: One distinguishing feature of the Grey Knights' armour is their use of the older Crusader-style helms for both their power and Terminator armour. These helmets strongly resemble late-style knightly helmets.
- A Commander Is You: Elitist/Brute/Technical! Elite even by Astartes standards, excellent in melee or at range, well-protected, and each and every unit is a psyker, allowing you to rival even the Eldar in the psychic phase. The only issue is you pay a premium for each and every model you field.
- Deflector Shields: In order to protect the otherwise exposed pilot, Nemesis Dreadknights are fitted with a powerful force shield that gives the Dreadknight an invulnerable save. In 8th Edition this save is enhanced by the addition of an Iron Halo when the Dreadknight is piloted by a Grand Master.
- Demon Slaying: The Grey Knights were founded by the Emperor for the sole purpose of defeating the Daemonic servants of the Dark Gods.
- Due to the Dead: The Cuirass of Sacrifice is a relic suit of Terminator armour that has had its interior inscribed with the names of those organisations that the Grey Knights have been forced to destroy in order to uphold the secrecy of their mission. The suit is intended to remind their wearer of the sacrifices necessary to fight against the forces of Chaos.
- Dual Wielding: Nemesis Force Falchions are short and light force weapons carried in pairs by some Grey Knights. A talented wielder is able to use these blades to strike far quicker than he would be able to with a larger force weapon.
- Fire Purifies: The incinerators flamers used by the Grey Knights enhance the widely held belief in the purifying effects of fire with the addition of sacred oils to its already highly blessed fuel to make them especially dangerous to the Chapter's daemonic enemies. Some editions of the rules represented this by giving incinerators bonuses such as the ability to ignore the invulnerable saves of daemonic creatures.
- Godzilla Threshold: With the opening of the Great Rift, daemonic hosts rampaging across the galaxy and the return of the Daemon Primarchs, the highest ranked members of the Grey Knights are coming to believe that the Threshold has been crossed and are considering unleashing the Chapter's ultimate sanction, the mysterious Terminus Decree.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Due to the official policy of total secrecy enforced by the Inquisition where daemonic incursions are concerned, the greatest victories of the Grey Knights will never be known to the Imperium's general population.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness:
- In order to turn them into the greatest daemon hunters of the Imperium, the Grey Knights undergo a combination of extremely harsh psychic conditioning and rigorous training, making them all but untouchable by Chaotic influence.
- The Purifiers. Chosen for their exceptional psychic ability, the Purifiers are able to weaponize their mental purity into holy fire that burns their enemies. The Purifiers are also the only ones with the mental fortitude to protect the greatest secrets and corrupted artefacts collected by the Grey Knights.
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Imperial Guard forces that fight alongside Grey Knights are usually terminated (or simply memory-wiped, Depending on the Writer), partly to preserve the secrecy of the Grey Knights' existence and partly because said forces are quite likely to have been exposed to Warp taint.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- Grey Knight aspirants are usually mind-wiped as the last part of their indoctrination, to better preserve them against potential daemonic corruption, as well as to strengthen their loyalty and faith.
- Space Marines who fight alongside Grey Knights have their memories of the encounter(s) erased to preserve the secrecy of the Grey Knights' existence.
- Magic Knight: Every single one of these Demon Slaying Space Marines (but even more stringently selected and trained) are obviously all highly formidable fighters, but to be selected as one also requires you to be a capable-enough psyker to channel psychic power into a Grey Knight's Nemesis Force Weapon.
- Magic Staff: The Nemesis warding stave is a defensive form of Nemesis force weapon. As with other forms of Nemesis weapon, the warding stave is a powerful force weapon that allows a Grey Knight to channel their psychic might into their attacks, but it can also be used to create a powerful force shield to defend the bearer. In the 8th Edition rules this is represented by the wielder of a Nemesis warding stave receiving a boosted invulnerable save in close combat.
- Magical Library: The Sanctum Sanctorum within the Grey Knight's fortress monastery on Titan holds the Imperium's most comprehensive collection of information on psychic abilities, while its deepest chambers, known as the Librarium Daemonica, hold records of the daemonic threat facing humanity. Containing records and arcane lore gathered across millennia of the Chapter's existence, as well as information from the Emperor's own, long experience with the subject, the knowledge stored within the Sanctum Sanctorum would prove disastrous if it were to fall into the wrong hands and the library is considered to be the most heavily defended place in the Imperium outside of the Emperor's Palace itself.
- Meaningful Name: In-universe, the names chosen for each Grey Knight is a fragment of lore that acts in opposition to the true name of a particular daemon so that merely being in the presence of the Grey Knight will cause the daemon unspeakable agony.
- Mercy Kill: The Grey Knights' justification for purging survivors of a daemonic incursion is that it is better to give them a swift, clean death than potentially let them become corrupted by their exposure to Chaos and suffer a much more horrific fate.
- Meta Mecha: The Nemesis Dreadknight is an open-bodied mecha piloted by a Grey Knight in a manner similar to the powerloader from Aliens or the mecha from The Matrix Revolutions. It packs an enormous amount of firepower and is intended to fight Greater Daemons.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: The Nemesis Force Halberds used by the Grey Knights during the 1st and 2nd Editions of the game incorporated a storm bolter into the hilt of the weapon. This secondary weapon was moved to the Grey Knight's wrist when they were revamped for 3rd Edition.
- Named Weapon:
- The Fury of Demos is said to be one of the finest storm bolters ever created by the Adeptus Mechanicus with a range, accuracy, rate of fire and reliability far greater than that of its lesser brethren.
- The Soul Glaive was the Nemesis Force Halberd of the 13th Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights, Sylas Kalthorne. Upon his death, Kalthornes soul left such a strong imprint on the weapon that subsequent wielders are able to draw upon the psychic might of the former Supreme Grand Master to boost their own psychic abilities.
- Number of the Beast: The Grey Knights are chapter 666 (heavily implied to be a joke by their founder), and initiates go through the 666 Rites of Detestation in order to completely ward their minds and souls against Chaos corruption.
- Open Secret: Despite all their efforts at secrecy the existence of the Grey Knights is well known among the upper echelons of Imperial government. Furthermore their presence among the forces of the Indomitus Crusade suggests that their existence may no longer be a secret in the post Great Rift galaxy.
- The Paladin: The Grey Knights put a grimdark spin on the concept of the ultimate holy warrior. The sole purpose of the Grey Knights is to fight the forces of the setting's Hell, but their tactics include acts like mass murder of people who may have come into contact with Chaos corruption simply by fighting alongside them.
- Playing with Fire:
- The purity and psychic abilities of the elite Purifiers typically manifest as a cleansing blue flame capable of incinerating the body and soul of any evil creature caught in the conflagration. This ability is represented in the 8th Edition of the game by the 'Purifying Flame' Ability that increases the damage done by the Purifier's Smite psychic power but reduces its range.
- The Inner Fire psychic ability, from the Dominus Disciplinenote allows the caster to manifest the fire of their soul to create a blazing ball of flame that burns all those in the vicinity and has a chance to inflict mortal wounds on nearby enemy models, as well as the caster themselves.
- Real After All: The battle-brothers of some Chapters believe that the Grey Knights are nothing but a myth or that they are merely a standard non-Codex compliant Chapter, if they have heard of them at all. Only the Inquisition and Chapter Masters have been allowed to know of the Grey Knights' existence.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Along with the Daemons and profane artefacts sealed within the Chambers of Purity on Titan is a mysterious and powerful evil that even the Emperor at the height of His power couldn't destroy.
- Seers: In order to arrive at the site of a daemonic incursion in time to deal with threat, the Grey Knights have a body of specialist psykers known as Prognosticars who use their abilities to predict the location and severity of such incidents.
- Silver Bullet: As well as being inscribed with runes of banishment and charged with psychic energy, the rare and valuable bolt rounds fired by psycannons are tipped with silver to further enhance their effectiveness against daemons.
- Super Prototype: The Destroyer of Crys'yllix was the first Nemesis Daemon hammer forged and is still the most powerful of its kind. The 8th Edition rules represent this by giving the hammer a higher Damage characteristic than other Nemesis Daemon hammers.
- Taking You with Me: Grey Knight Brotherhood Champions will fight to the last to bring down their enemies, refusing to fall to mortal wounds until they have defeated their foe. The 8th Edition rules represent this with the 'Heroic Sacrifice' ability that allows a Brotherhood Champion to fight immediately after being reduced to 0 Wounds.
- Technopath: The Aetheric Conduitnote is an ancient, archaic relic of the Dark Age of Technology that allows a Grey Knight Techmarine to use his psychic abilities to directly manipulate any STC-based technology, greatly enhancing his ability to repair a vehicle's lost wounds.
- Teleportation: The Grey Knights make greater use of teleportation technology than any other Imperial organisation. The teleporter arrays installed on the Grey Knights' Strike Cruisers are also far more advanced than those used by the rest of the Imperium, while the Chapter's Interceptor Squads utilize small, man portable teleporters to improve their manoeuvrability on the battlefield.
- Training from Hell: Due to the extreme danger of the foes that they face and the highly psychic nature of the recruits, the talent and purity of those who would become Grey Knights is of the highest importance. The trials and training that Grey Knights undergo would break a normal Marine with only one in a million recruits being deemed strong enough to succeed. For context, this means to produce a single Grey Knight, there is a wastage rate of recruits sufficient to fill a thousand Space Marine chapters (equal to their entire current galactic strength). With psykers, to boot.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: The Chapter's founder, Malcador, hid the moon of Titan in the Warp itself to conceal the Grey Knights' creation. When the moon returned to real space many years had passed for the Imperium but for the Grey Knights many decades had passed.
- You Are Number 6: Grey Knight aspirants are only referred to by designated numbers, only gaining new names if they survive their training.
Deathwatch
Across the vastness of space alien races plot the dethroning of the Emperor and the downfall of Humanity. This is the Imperium's call to arms, and nothing shall stand in the way of our righteous crusade.
Founded by Koorland, the Lord Commander of the Imperium during the war against the mighty Ork Warlord known as the Beast, and close allies of the Ordo Xenos, the Deathwatch are the premier alien hunters of the Imperium. The Chapter draws its recruits from those veteran battle-brothers of more conventional Chapters who have distinguished themselves battling aliens. Such warriors leave their own Chapter to join the forces of the Deathwatch and defend the Imperium from the xenos threat, gaining access to advanced training and restricted wargear. Those veterans that survive their service to the Deathwatch are permitted to return to their original chapters, sworn to secrecy of what they saw but bringing new skills to pass on to their battle-brothers.
The Deathwatch maintain a series of Watch Fortresses throughout the galaxy with their primary training base situated on Talasa Prime, a world near Ultramar on the Eastern Fringes of Ultima Segmentum.
First introduced during the 3rd Edition of Warhammer 40,000, the Deathwatch received Chapter Approved rules published in White Dwarf but subsequently became a primarily background focused faction, featuring in the Deathwatch series of novels by C.S. Goto. On the tabletop, the Deathwatch could be represented by count-as Sternguard Veteran squads but did feature in some Gaiden Games such as Inquisitor and received their own dedicated Deathwatch RPG. In 2016, the Chapter featured in Deathwatch: Overkill board game that pitted a Kill Team against a Genestealer cult and provided new models as well as free downloadable rules to use them in the 7th Edition Warhammer 40'000 game. The 7th Edition rules and background for the Deathwatch were later expanded when they received Codex: Deathwatch in August of 2016 along with the boxed set Death Masque that began the storyline that would cumulate in the release of the 8th Edition of the game and saw the alien hunters face Eldrad Ulthran and a troupe of Harlequins. Rules allowing other Imperial factions to use a specific Deathwatch allied detachment were also included in the 7th Edition Codex: Imperial Agents. The 8th Edition Codex Adeptus Astartes: Deathwatch was released in May 2018. For 9th Edition, the Deathwatch uses a combination of the rules published in October 2020's Codex: Space Marines combined with the Codex Supplement: Deathwatch book, released Novemeber 2020.
- Abnormal Ammo: The Deathwatch use all the special issue ammunition available to the Sternguard Veterans of regular Chapters, such as the incendiary Dragonfire bolts and the long ranged and armour piercing Kraken bolts. Where the Sternguard ammo is limited to regular bolters however, the Deathwatch also have access to bolt pistol and silenced variants of these powerful and rare bolt shells.
- Absolute Xenophobe: The Chapter was founded to wipe out any and all alien threats to the Imperium and have xenophobia at the core of their doctrine.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: The xenophase blade is a power sword with a molecular realignment field that makes it capable of cutting through force fields and armour with equal ease. Due to its suspicious origins (likely captured Necron tech, based on its appearance and the green energy crackling across its blade), it's forbidden to discuss that topic. In-game, the xenophase blade has the same stats as a normal power sword but also forces the target to re-roll successful invulnerable saves.
- Arm Cannon: Deathwatch Terminators often attach an auxiliary meltagun to the underside of their power fists in order to increase their close range firepower.
- The Atoner: Disgraced Astartes who seek redemption for their past sins or those of their former battle-brothers can petition Watch Commanders for admission into the Deathwatch. What is discussed with the Watch Commander is never revealed, but if they are admitted, they paint their armor completely black except for the Deathwatch heraldry and become Black Shields, obscuring their chapter's heraldry as a symbol of their cutting ties to their chapter of origin. They will accept whatever task is put before them without question, no matter how menial, and go into battle with the utmost zeal.Brother Vigilant: Masters of the Watch, I come before you with nothing but the plate I wear and this most sacred of weapons. All else I have lost. I require only a purpose, that I might direct my righteous fury and earn absolution for the sins I am about to divulge.
- Badass Army: While the average Astartes is already a one man army, the Deathwatch are an elite task force of handpicked veterans, specially trained and equipped to exterminate aliens.
- BFG: The Infernus heavy bolter is unique to the Deathwatch and is quite possibly the largest BFG carried by an infantry unit. It's essentially two separate BFG (a heavy bolter and a heavy flamer) packed into one large package. The Deathwatch also have frag cannons, a weapon that's normally only on Dreadnoughts.
- Combat Pragmatist: Due to their missions often requiring unorthodox methods, the Deathwatch are willing to use tactics and strategies that most other Chapters might consider dishonourable or cowardly and Space Marines with these qualities are actively sought out as potential recruits. The Deathwatch also are one of the very few Imperial forces that actively pursues innovation in their technology, constantly studying xenos tech and adapting their own to counter it.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Deathwatch repaint their armor solid black as a show of solidarity with their temporary new chapter, except for the left arm which is painted silver. The right pauldron bears the symbol and color(s) of their chapter of origin (so as not to anger the armor's machine spirit) and the left bears the Deathwatch symbol on a silvery background. This is done to reflect that though they come from different origins, they are all battle brothers in the Deathwatch.
- Deflector Shields: The highly ornate relic Storm Shield, Dominus Aegis, incorporates a far more powerful force field generator than other such shields. When braced against the ground, the Dominus Aegis projects a field across a wide area, protecting the bearer's allies as well as himself.
- Drop Ship: As well as the Thunderhawks available to other Chapters, the Deathwatch have the Corvus Blackstar, a unique drop ship that combines the hurtling speed of a Drop Pod with the manoeuvrability and firepower of a Stormtalon Gunship.
- EMP: Tempest shells are one of the rarer types of specialist ammunition used by the Deathwatch. These bolt shells incorporate a miniature plasma-shock generator that produces a small EMP when they impact and can cause serious damage to any vehicle they hit. The 8th Edition of the game represents these shells with the 'Tempest Shells' Deathwatch Stratagem that can be used to cause mortal wounds against enemy vehicles.
- The Exile: Many Black Shields have been cast out from their chapters for one reason or another, and have joined the Deathwatch to regain their honor and maybe earn redemption. In-game, Black Shields have the "Atonement through Honour" special rule that enhances them in melee combat with specific enemies or if his squad is outnumbered.
- Gun Accessories: As a highly elite fighting force, the Deathwatch have access to specialised equipment such as suspensor discs that considerably reduce the weight of their Infernus Heavy Bolters.
- Identity Amnesia: The background material for the Deathwatch mentions the Venerable Dreadnought Xenomortis. The Marine within this ancient war machine has lost all memory of his former existence many decades ago and is now only known by the motto inscribed onto his hull. How Xenomortis lost his identity is unknown but one of the most popular theories is that his hatred of the alien is so absolute, it has replaced all other thoughts in his bionically enhanced mind.
- Last of His Kind: It is not uncommon for individual Marines of otherwise destroyed Chapters to be found fighting with the Deathwatch as they were serving with the alien hunters when their brothers were lost. Many of these orphaned battle-brothers become Black Shields due to the guilt of their survival.
- Lowered Recruiting Standards: The Deathwatch has traditionally only accepted elite Astartes, who have had centuries of experience battling the alien threat, into their ranks. Due to the rising threat of alien invasion and migration caused by the opening of the Great Rift, Roboute Guilliman, in his roll of Lord Commander of the Imperium, issued the Ultimaris Decree, permanently deploying newly created Primaris Marines to the Deathwatch to boost their numbers. These new additions have been welcomed into the ranks of the Deathwatch with their greatly enhanced physical abilities more than compensating for their inexperience.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon:
- Deathwatch Watch Masters are equipped with guardian spears: long polearms with a bolter incorporated into the head that are gifted only to the most trusted and skilful of the Emperor's warriors
- The Infernus Heavy Bolter is a unique heavy combi-weapon used by the Deathwatch that consists of a Heavy Bolter with an underslung Heavy Flamer. Unlike most combi-weapons, the secondary weapon of the Infernus isn't a One Use Only weapon.
- Mourning Clothes: The first members of the Deathwatch were drawn from the precious few Astartes survivors of a failed assault against The Beast's home world, and had their armor painted black in mourning for their lost brothers.
- Multinational Team: Any Deathwatch Kill Team will typically be comprised of Marines from many different chapters.
- Named Weapon: The Thief of Secrets is a power sword inhabited by a highly advanced machine spirit capable of analysing the biology of any creature it wounds. Once the analysis is completed, the machine spirit communicates this information to its wielder so that they can take advantage of their enemy's weaknesses.
- Non-Uniform Uniform: As long as they stick to the Deathwatch colours of black and silver, battle-brothers of the Deathwatch are able to equip and armour themselves however they like. This will often result in situations where somberly-robed Dark Angels fight alongside barbaric Mortifactors hung with skull trophies and Salamanders wearing expertly crafted Terminator Armour.
- Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: Kill Teams are created on a mission-by-mission basis, and as such the Battle-Brothers who make up such teams can bring a wide variety of personalities, which can lead to serious friction depending on who's teamed with who. The Deathwatch novels and short stories by Steve Parker make this a key theme, as the Kill Team the stories revolve around includes an officious, pompous Ultramarine; an irreverent and rather Motor Mouth-ed Raven Guard; a Jack of All Trades Imperial Fist; and a very grouchy Dreadnought from the Lamenters.
- Skeleton Key: The clavis is a repository of ancient machine-spirits, and is capable of opening any door in the Imperium and can take control of any Imperial machinery. It is used by Watch Masters and is explicitly compared to a skeleton key.
- Sniper Rifle: The Deathwatch have access to the rare Stalker pattern boltguns, long-barrelled and silenced bolters used for the assassination of alien warlords and champions.
- The Squad: While most chapters deploy their Marines in company-sized detachments with specialized individual squads (Tactical, Devastator, Assault, etc.) the Deathwatch typically is deployed for more surgical missions as an individual squad, called a Kill Team. Each Kill Team will often be specialized on the level of individual battle brothers, such that a single Kill Team might include any combination of Tactical, Devastator, and/or Assault Marines, Terminators, etc. This is reflected in the Kill Team models in Overkill, which include all three normal types plus a Salamanders Terminator, and in the various types of Kill Teams in their codex, which have advantages over different categories of models depending on their construction.
- Straight for the Commander: Purgatus Kill Teams specialise in hunting down and killing the commanders of xenos forces. Typically equipped with high firepower weaponry, to cut through troupes of bodyguards, and power weapons to eliminate their target, these Kill Teams are also generally accompanied by Librarians to augment their battle skills and counter any warp-trickery attempted by the enemy. In the 8th Edition rules, this specialisation is represented by the 'Purgatus Tactics' Mission Tactic that allows re-rolls against enemy HQ choices.
- Take a Third Option: Faced with multiple requests for the repatriation of seconded brethren to their original Chapters, many Watch Masters face the choice of refusing, and therefore harming relations with their allies, or acquiescing and suffering a crisis of manpower. The Watch Master of Futor Shield however came up with a compromise solution, returning the battle-brothers without releasing them from their oaths to the Deathwatch. The Watch Master hopes that such a compromise will allow the returned Marines to fight alongside their brothers while still retaining their autonomy, as well as acting as specialist advisers to their Chapter’s commanders when facing xenos forces.
- Training the Peaceful Villagers: Since the opening of the Great Rift, a number of Watch Fortresses isolated in the Imperium Nihilus have begun training the garrisons and PDF regiments of nearby planets in advanced anti-xenos tactics so that they can defend themselves in this increasingly dangerous half of the galaxy.
Other Noteworthy Chapters
Many other chapters beyond the aforementioned have managed to distinguish themselves in the fluff. See Brothers of the Snake and the Dawn of War and Soul Drinkers book series for more about those chapters. Several receive brief mention in the Space Marines codex, especially the First Founding Chapters' more noteworthy successor chapters.
- 13 Is Unlucky: For whatever reason, the Adeptus Terra have little to no records of the chapters created during the Thirteenth Founding, such as the Exorcists and Death Spectres. This extends to whose gene-seed was used to form the new chapters (though the Death Spectres have been confirmed to be successors to the Raven Guard).
- Ace Pilot: The Hawk Lords Chapter are renowned for the skill of their gunship pilots, specialising in the use of Thunderhawks and Stormravens to perform low-altitude insertions of troops. The pilots of the Chapter are so skilled that many other Chapters send their own pilots to serve with the Hawk Lords so that they can learn from their talented flyers.
- Animal Motifs: Many chapters have animals they closely associate with and often use in their heraldry, usually ones with some thematic link to their outlook and traditions or which have an important presence on their homeworld.
- The Iron Snakes have serpents, especially the Sea Serpents that swim in their seas of their homeworld and which they revere as holy.
- The Hawk Lords and the Solar Hawks, chapters heavily focused on piloting and aerial warfare, use hawks and general birds of prey in their heraldry.
- The Mantis Warriors make heavy use of insect imagery and naming themes.
- The Celestial Lions, as part of their subsaharan African Fantasy Counterpart Culture, use a lot of lion imagery.
-
Ascended Fanfic: The Retributor chapter first appeared in the fan-made Astartes animation, which would be later made into an official content and as such, the Retributors are now canon. - The Atoner: The Mantis Warriors have been undergoing a Penitent Crusade from most of the last century, trying to wash away the stain of having sided with the rebellious Astral Claws.
- Ax-Crazy: The Knights of Blood (another Blood Angels successor) were even more unstable than the Flesh Tearers, committing acts of brutality and attacking allied forces to the point of being declared Renegade until their final battle in the defense of Baal. They managed to ultimately "weaponize" this during the evacuation of the Blood Angels successors from Baal, giving themselves completely over to the Black Rage and fighting furiously to hold the Tyranids back so that the Flesh Tearers could escape.
- Badass Teacher: Rather than fight at Company strength, the Mentors typically second their highly trained squads to other Imperial factions to act as advisers and tacticians, as well as teaching them how to improve their battlefield doctrine.
- Battle Trophy: The battle-brothers of the Emperor's Spears are known to take the heads of defeated enemies as trophies, a practice they inherited from their barbarian home world. Their officers often display the heads of enemy champions on their shields as proof of their deeds.
- Because Destiny Says So: The highly superstitious Silver Skulls base their deployments on the divinations of their Librarians, known as Prognosticators, and have been known to refuse to enter battle if the omens are bad. This habit has given the Chapter a reputation for unreliability.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Blood Drinkers, a Blood Angels successor chapter that practices secret blood-drinking rituals to control the Red Thirst, are based on the planet of San Guisaga. Sanguisuga is the Latin and Italian word for "leech", and literally means "blood sucker".
- Born Unlucky: The 21st Founding was an attempt by the Adeptus Mechanicus to improve the Astartes' gene-seed and rid it of defects such as the Flaw of the Blood Angels. Instead, every chapter created during this "Cursed Founding" ended up suffering from severe mutations or inexplicably bad luck, and some have even fallen to Chaos. There is some evidence that the followers of the Ruinous Powers, and Fabius Bile in particular, may have been manipulated the events of the Founding.
- Canon Immigrant: The Blood Ravens first appeared in the Dawn of War games, and have received numerous mentions in codices or magazine articles. They also appeared in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine alongside the Black Templars to provide aid to the Ultramarines. They even have an official model from the Deathwatch: Overkill board game, where a Blood Ravens Librarian is a playable character.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Raptors are a Chapter who scorn traditional Astartes tactics in favour of camouflage, stealthy attacks and sniping, essentially acting like modern day special forces troops.
- Companion Cube: The Astartes of the Silver Templars Chapter form uncommonly close bonds with their wargear, undergoing the Bond Martial ritual that the believe allows them to fight with uncommon skill. This bond is so close that, should the weapon be destroyed, they will grieve in the same way as if they lost a battle-brother.
- Cultured Badass: Due to recruiting exclusively from the noble houses of their home world, the battle-brothers of the Brazen Consuls are just as practiced at etiquette, and other civilized pursuits, as they are at battlefield strategy and personal combat.
- Deal with the Devil: The Blood Drinkers, a Successor chapter of the Blood Angels, were shown by a winged individual a ritual to help hold back the Red Thirst and Black Rage which were crippling them. Alongside nonlethally drinking the blood of their servants, this ritual involves the sacrifice of a regular human. Unbeknownst to most of them, it's actually a ritual devised by a demon of Tzeentch to give it the opportunity to corrupt any member of the chapter who receive visions revealing this, and all it needs is to convince one of them to win the entire chapter.
- Deep Cover Agent: The Blood Eagles are a loyalist Chapter who pretended to fall to Chaos in order to bring it down from within. They report to high-level members of the Inquisition, with the rest of the Imperium believing they are genuine traitors.
- The Exile:
- As punishment for supporting the Astral Claws' rebellion, the Mantis Warriors were stripped of their homeworld, which was given to the Carcharodons instead, forbidden from recruiting men or supplies from Imperial worlds, and sent off on a century-long Penitent Crusade; only if they survive to the end of this exile will they be alllowed back into the Imperium.
- The Sons of Medusa began their existence after the Moirae Schism, a minor civil war within the Adeptus Mechanicus, spread to the Iron Hands and their Successor Chapters. In order to prevent full-scale bloodshed within the Chapter, the Iron Council exiled those battle-brothers that followed the Moirae Creed. By the time the Schism ended, the Iron Hands exiles had been joined by those cast out by the other Chapters of Ferrus Manus' linage and had grown to Chapter strength. After having their actions and loyalty strictly vetted, the High Lords of Terra recognised the exiled Astartes as a new Chapter and they were renamed as the Sons of Medusa. Although the Sons of Medusa have fought alongside their parent Chapter without incident, they still cling to a version of the Creed that resulted in their banishment and the relationship between the Chapters is still cold at best.
- The Faceless: The Angels Sanguine never remove their helmets, refusing to show their faces to those outside their Chapter. It is rumoured that the reason for this is related to a dark secret that lies in the catacombs beneath their fortress monastery.
- The Fair Folk: Unlike the population of most Chapter homeworlds, the people of Nemeton view the Emperor's Spears as malevolent spirits who steal their children away, and hang charms and mutter counter-curses to keep them at bay.
- Fantastic Racism: Even more than other Imperial forces, the Red Scorpions are extremely intolerant of non-humans. Their Chapter Master in particular has a number of quotes expressing his refusal to serve alongside abhumans such as Ogryns.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: The Marines Malevolent are a loyalist chapter, but only appear in the lore to emphasise the callous side of the Imperium and their methods are almost universally disliked by everyone who has to work with them, especially the Salamanders.
- The Fundamentalist: The Angels Penitent subscribe to an incredibly puritanical interpretation of the Imperial Cult which is extreme even by Imperium standards.
- Geas: The Emperor's Spears believe in these. On their homeworld, during childhood, every son and daughter of the clans are brought before a tribal shaman, who reads the flow of fate through their blood, resulting in these. Many of then involve death or dishonor if a certain action is done. Tribesmen who join the Emperor's Spears retain these beliefs.
- Genetic Memory: The Excoriators's gene-seed flaw causes them to experience visions or waking nightmares where they relive Rogal Dorn's memories of the Emperor's death.
- Genuine Human Hide: The Iron Talons are a White Scars successor chapter infamous for their habit of draping their power armor in the skins of their enemies.
- He Who Fights Monsters: The Relictors received numerous sanctions for their interest in recovering, studying and wielding Chaos-touched artifacts, including Daemon Weapons. By the 13th Black Crusade they were declared heretics and the survivors are thought to have fled into the Eye of Terror.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The entire Astral Knights chapter purposefully crash-landed onto the Necron World Engine and spent their last hundred hours destroying every target they could find, which eventually dropped the battle-station's shields so that the rest of the Imperial force could destroy it.
- Hit-and-Run Tactics: The Mantis Warriors specialize in using guerrilla tactics, lightning strikes and ambushes to combat numerically superior foes.
- Human Popsicle: When not on campaign, the reclusive Charnel Guard seal themselves and their equipment in vast stasis-crypts within their Battle Barges.
- Human Sacrifice: The Libators have the habit of bleeding captured foes to offer their blood as an offering to the Emperor and their Primarchs, Guillman. This has led to rather dubious treatment of prisoners of war on their part, which has led to censure against them on multiple occasions.
- Jerkass: The Marines Malevolent have nothing but sneering disdain for anything that shows a hint of weakness or compassion, and their tactics epitomize "the ends justify the means." Casualties (both civilian and military), property damage, and constructive camaraderie with other Chapters are afterthoughts to completing their missions. Their callous slaughter of civilians during the Third War for Armageddon got them censured by the Inquisition, and several Space Marine chapters (especially the Salamanders) refuse to fight alongside them.
- King in the Mountain: The Chapter Master and First Company of the Storm Wardens were infected with a virulent, deadly virus that would wipe out the Chapter and their homeworld if it ever got out. Therefore, they are kept in cryosleep and sealed in a vault below the Fortress-Monastery until a cure can be found. The primitive people of their homeworld have a legend of a great king and his warriors sleeping below the earth who will rise in their hour of need.
- Knight Errant: The fleet-based Marines Errant were founded specifically to constantly travel the galaxy in small groups of companies, looking to assist other Imperial forces and attaching themselves to whatever Imperial crusade is going on at any given time.
- Morton's Fork: The Iron Snakes test accused criminals through the Trial by Wyrm, where the accused is left on a spit of rock in Sea Serpent-infested waters for six hours. After the time is up, the Marines come back to check if they got eaten. If they're still alive then they're considered guilty and executed, since the Iron Snakes don't believe that the serpents would sully themselves by eating a criminal.
- Multinational Team: Astartes often recruit from primitive worlds where the natives are divided into warring tribes/clans, or occasionally Bronze-to-Iron Age level kingdoms. This inevitably results in recruits from various different groups serving together in the Chapter.
- Mysterious Past: The Imperium's record keeping being what it is, combined with deliberate obfuscation of records and the general difficulty of keeping everything straight over ten millennia of history, a lot of Chapters' origins are either ambiguous or completely unknown. In particular, some are suspected of being descended from loyalist members of the Traitor Legions who took deliberate steps to obfuscate their ancestry.
- This is a defining trait of the Blood Ravens chapter, who are fixated on discovering the identity of their long-forgotten Primarch, but are also constantly taunted by the forces of Chaos with proclamations of brotherhood. Given their obsession with knowledge, great libraries of artifacts, higher than normal numbers of psykers and bearing an eerie similarity to the Legion's Pre-Heresy heraldry, it's quite likely they're the descendants of Loyalist defectors from the Thousand Sons.
- During the Horus Heresy, the Ultramarines openly sheltered and adopted fleeing loyalists from the traitor legions, such as a Chapter of loyalist Iron Warriors led by the warsmith Barabas Dantioch, who repainted their armor and are depicted chanting "We march for Macragge!" This muddies the waters considerably regarding the true genetic lineage of some of "their" successor Chapters; the most likely candidate for those Iron Warriors' descendants is the Silver Skulls, due to similarities in their colours, iconography, and tactics (possibly suspected in-universe, since their heritage is under investigation by the Ordo Hereticus).
- Mythical Motifs: The Sons of the Phoenix use phoenix symbology to represent their willingness to throw themselves into the fiercest flames of battle.
- Off with His Head!: The Silver Skulls have inherited a tradition of headhunting from their recruitment worlds, and plate the skulls of prestigious foes in silver for display.
- One-Steve Limit: While attempts are made to ensure that no two active Chapters share the same name this isn't always successful. In the case of the Celestial Swords, a bureaucratic error saw two chapters founded under that name, an oversight only noticed when both were wiped out during the 9th Black Crusade.
- Pyromaniac: The Fire Lords have something of an obsession with flame, and make heavy use of flamer weapons and incendiary missiles during battle.
- Reformed, but Rejected: The Mantis Warriors were officially pardoned for siding alongside the rebellions Astral Claws during the Badab War, but other Imperial forces still regard them as traitors.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The Chapter Master of the Iron Snakes, a Chapter with a heavily nautical and Grecian culture, is named Seydon after the sea-god Poseidon.
- Retcon:
- In 1st Edition, the full twenty First Founding Legions were all listed — the missing two would be the Rainbow Warriors and the Valedictors. However, Games Workshop liked the idea of a nod to the Lost Roman Legions and so demoted those legions to later founding chapters, thereby giving players some
Canon Fodder to toy with. - A few former First Founding Legions were bumped from their slots to allow more popular Second Founding Chapters to take their place. Most notably, the Crimson Fists lost their place as the XIIIth Legion to the Ultramarines when 2nd Edition rolled around.
- In 1st Edition, the full twenty First Founding Legions were all listed — the missing two would be the Rainbow Warriors and the Valedictors. However, Games Workshop liked the idea of a nod to the Lost Roman Legions and so demoted those legions to later founding chapters, thereby giving players some
- Revenge Before Reason: After their home world of Talus IV was destroyed by a Chaos invasion, the Chapter Master of the Brazen Clawsnote led his entire Chapter on a punitive invasion of the Eye of Terror. After just twenty years, the Chapter had lost over 60% of its numbers due to casualties or defections and were forced to return to the Imperium where some treated with suspicion due to their extended exposure to Chaos. Despite this, the Chapter still undertakes campaigns around the fringes of the Eye, determined to gain a measure of revenge for their lost world.
- The Rival: The Storm Lords Chapter have maintained a rivalry with the White Scars since the Second Founding, competing for glory and always trying to outdo their parent Chapter. This rivalry is mostly good-natured but things can get out of hand, with the Storm Lords becoming overly reckless in their pursuit of victory.
- Scarred Equipment: The Excoriators note take great pride in the battle damage of their armour and vehicles, retaining every burn and blast mark on their wargear accompanied by inscriptions of when and where they were acquired. The power armour of the Chapters veterans will often be covered with such marking.
- Self-Harm: Battle-brothers of the Star Dragons Chapter have inherited the scarification rituals of their home world, lacing their self-inflicted scars with intricate circuitry so that they glow like the stars.
- Skull for a Head: The scouts of the Mortifactors Chapter wear the flayed skull of their first significant kill as a mask. Until they have earned such a right, the Neophyte isn't considered a true member of the Chapter and is never referred to by name.
- Space Romans:
- The Iron Snakes have a heavy Ancient Greek theme: they have Greek-inspired names, their squads are called phratriesnote and their home world is Ithakanote .
- The name of their Chapter Master, leonine theme and some of their unique rank titles (such as Pride Leader) indicate that the Celestial Lions have a nonspecific African theme. Lore also occasionally mentions their dark brown complexions, as well as their passion for oral histories and preserving the legacies of great battles and warriors through them.
- The Red Scorpions, with their grey uniforms, red and white insignias on a black background, and fanatical obsession with both genetic purity and over-engineered battle tanks, makes them the Naziest of 40k's many Catholic Space Nazis.
- The Storm Wardensnote are based on Scottish Highlanders, with Celtic names, claymores and glorification of honourable single combat.
- The Emperor's Shadows, a chapter made for How to Paint Space Marines by a fan whom won a contest to be featured in the book, are extremely Japanese in their design, with their chapter badge being a bonsai tree over what's essentially the modern Japanese flag with kanji around it.
- Some background material for the Mantis Warriors indicates that they have a Chinese theme that focuses on warrior honour and mysticism.
- The Emperor's Spears are fairly Celtic with strong tribal identities, belief in "geas" prophecies, and elaborate woad-like designs painted on their armour. They take the heads of their enemies and amalgamate all their specialist marines into a single role called "Druids". Their homeworld, Nemeton, is also named after a sacred grove in Celtic religion.
- The Ultramarines' various successors often retain their Roman theming. This is especially visible among the White, Black, Red, and now-extinct Crimson Consuls; "Consul" was the highest elected officials in the Roman Republic, and White Consuls also refer to their lowest officer rank as "Proconsuls". Their naming conventions also tend towards Latin-sounding names, with some particularly outstanding examples such as Gaius Aquilus.
- The Stoic: The Silver Templars have a reputation for being cold and focused warriors who display little visible emotion during battle.
- Storyboard Body: The Novamarines have inherited the tradition of tattooing their bodies with scenes of their greatest achievements from the feral tribes that they recruit from. The Novamarines believe that after their death, the Emperor will judge the worth of their life by the deeds inscribed on their skin.
- Straight for the Commander: Due to their skill in personal combat, the favoured tactic of the Silver Templars Chapter is to engage enemy leaders in a one-on-one duel to the death in an attempt to disrupt the command abilities of their foes and reduce their morale. Such is their belief in the superiority of this tactic that there have even been times when the Chapter have undertaking such attacks in defiance of direct orders from the overall commander of Imperial forces in the theatre of war.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: The Black Guard are firm believers in achieving victory through overwhelming firepower and have little regard for concepts like "overkill" and "half measures", which tends to leave the worlds they conquer for the Imperium long on craters and short on cities.
- Un-person: One of the biggest mysteries is what happened to Legions II and XI to see them removed from the list of Space Marine Legions, especially since the Traitor Legions are still on it. The Horus Heresy novels offer hints that they may have gone renegade before the Heresy, had unacceptable genetic deviations, been destroyed by the Space Wolves, and/or disbanded and absorbed into the Ultramarines, but there is no definitive answer.
- Uriah Gambit: After making the mistake of (attempting to) complain to the High Lords of Terra about an Inquisitor's Exterminatus action, the Celestial Lions found themselves deployed to a hive on Armageddon where, due to appallingly bad intelligence, they took over 90% losses. The chapter's Apothecaries in particular were singled out by what official reports dubbed "Ork snipers," putting the Lions at risk of extinction. The survivors are attempting to rebuild with the help of the Black Templars.
- Vision Quest: Members of the Novamarines often undergo vision-quests to a shadow version of their fortress monastery of Fortress Novum where they are able to seek advice from deceased battle-brothers about events to come and decisions they must make.
- Wreathed in Flames: The Flame Falconsnote , a Chapter of the 21st Founding, manifested the mysterious ability to cover themselves in flame that would burn their enemies yet leave themselves and their allies unscathed. The Chapter viewed this mutation as a gift from the Emperor, but the Inquisition did not agree and ordered the Chapter destroyed by the Grey Knights. Although officially declared Excommunicate Traitoris and destroyed, there have been some reports of mysterious flame-wreathed Astartes in the colours of the Flame Falcons fighting the enemies of the Imperium.
