History Characters / Warhammer40000AstartesChapters

* KingInTheMountain: Every Chapter Master sits on a Xenos artifact called the "Throne of Glass" immediately after his ascension. This somehow improves the effectiveness of the Chapter while slowly killing him. Most of the day-to-day running of the Chapter is done by the First Captain, but the Chapter Master does occasionally stir and make a proclamation.

* KingInTheMountain: 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, a secret the Chapter hides from the Imperium as their homeworld would be Exterminatused is the Inquisition ever found out. 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.

** The Emperor's Spears are fairly Celtic with strong tribal identities, belief in "geas" prophecies, elaborate designs painted on their armour like woad, taking the heads of their enemies and amalgamating all their specialist marines into a single role called "Druids". Their homeworld, Nemeton, is also named after a sacred grove in Celtic religion.

** The Emperor's Spears are fairly Celtic with strong tribal identities, belief in "geas" prophecies, elaborate designs painted on their armour like woad and amalgamating all their specialist marines into a single role called "Druids". Their homeworld, Nemeton, is also named after a sacred grove in Celtic religion.

** The Death Spectres, a Chapter tasked with guarding a region of space known as the Ghouls Stars, discovered a Xenos artefact called the "Throne of Glass" on a desolate planetoid. Every Chapter Master sits on the throne immediately after his ascension, which somehow improves the effectiveness of the Chapter while slowly killing him. Most of the day-to-day running of the Chapter is done by the First Captain, but the Chapter Master does occasionally stir and make a proclamation.

** Some background material for the Mantis Warriors indicates that they have a Chinese theme that focuses on warrior honour and mysticism.

* ReforgedBlade: The [[BladeOnAStick Halberd of Caliban]], wielded by the Company Champion of the Deathwing, was created from one of the Blades of Caliban[[note]]ancient power swords dating from before Lion El'Jonson came to Caliban[[/note]] that was shattered many years ago. The Halberd is inscribed with the names of every Champion to wield it and incorporates a censer that burns the ground finger bones of the Fallen.

* BladeOnAStick: The White Scars employ a unique type of power weapon known as a power lance, khan's spear or guan dao[[note]]based on the Chinese weapon of the same name[[/note]]. Modelled after the weapons used by the tribesmen of Chogoris, these polearms are wielded with great skill by the Chapter's Khans and are particularly powerful when [[DashAttack charging into combat]]. The 8th Edition ''Codex Supplement: White Scars'' rules for the weapon gives them a superior stat line to the more traditional power sword, with an additional bonus when charging.

** The power lance known as the [[BladeOnAStick Glaive of Vengeance]] is an ancient relic of the White Scars once wielded by the Great Khan Kyublai. Many within the Chapter believe that the former Chapter Master's spirit still resides within the weapon, enhancing its power with his desire for vengeance against the enemies of the Imperium. The 8th Edition ''Codex Supplement: White Scars'' rules represent this mighty spear by giving allowing it to use the Strength, that a normal khan's spear gives only when charging, to all its attacks

* ArtifactOfDoom: One relic of the Lamenters Chapter[[note]]from the ''[[TabletopGame/{{Deathwatch}} Deathwatch RPG]]'' [[/note]] is the [[BladeOnAStick power spear]] [[NamedWeapon 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.

* BladeOnAStick: The Nemesis Force Halberd, which was the signature weapon of the chapter until other types of Nemesis weapons were introduced during 3rd Edition.

Mysterious robed beings who were native to Caliban, the Dark Angels' lost homeworld. Little is known about their origins, nature or appearance save that they oppose Chaos, and that they appointed themselves as aides and guides to the Dark Angels. After the destruction of Caliban during the Horus Heresy, they continued to inhabit the Rock, the planet's last surviving fragment.

* TheSpeechless: They never speak aloud, and it's not particularly clear if they even can.
* TheSpook: The Watchers in the Dark are diminutive, perpetually-robed-and-hooded figures who never speak and are immune to psychic probing. It's hypothesized that they might be aliens or even non-daemonic natives of the Warp, all that's certain about them is their almost guaranteed to not be human. All that is known about them is that they aid certain Dark Angels as weapon bearers, but never directly contribute in battle. They also [[spoiler:keep watch over Lion El'Jonson as he slumbers in the depths of the Rock]].

* DreamTeam: Ostensibly. While a Deathwatch kill-team will consist experienced Astartes from various Chapters to suit the mission at hand, ideally to create one of these, it doesn't always work out smoothly thanks to friction between the various parent Chapters.

The Exorcists are one of the only confirmed Astartes Chapters to have been founded during the 13th founding. They are a successor chapter of the Imperial Fists. Their homeworld is a Feral World named ''Banish''.

* GoneHorriblyRight: 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.

** With the dawn of the Era Indomitus and the dispensation of Primaris Marines to every Chaoter throughout the galaxy the Imperial Fists have truly been reborn, as they now have Marines in their ranks again with gene-seed directly derived from Rogal Dorn as opposed to the various Second Founding successors they'd been using since the War of the Beast.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Asterion Moloch is the Chapter Master of the Minotaurs, and his combat skills show this. In a case of GameplayAndStoryIntegration, 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 MutualKill.

* TheExile: 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.

* OneMillionBC: Cretacia, their homeworld, is based primarily on this trope. The planet is an untamed DeathWorld 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.

* MysteriousPast:

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The original color scheme for the Exorcists was bright mustard yellow with a checker pattern trim for the pauldron.

* TheAtoner: It's pretty much taken for granted that the Dark Angels are an entire ''chapter'' of these, but what (or ''whose'') actions they're trying to redeem themselves for is, like pretty much everything about these guys, a closely guarded secret.

* HonorBeforeReason: The pursuit of the Fallen trumps virtually all else in the Inner Circle's eyes, and thus they will regularly abandon campaigns and other objectives to hunt them down, along with performing arguably more dishonorable acts in the pursuit of retribution. This fact isn't lost on their current chapter master Azrael, who admits that what they're doing is wrong, but that they have a millennia-old oath to fulfill.

* AHeroToHisHometown: Unlike most Astartes, when not at war the Salamanders return home and live quiet lives with their birth families. To the surprise of absolutely no one, being the home of an [[SuperSoldier Astartes Warrior]] is a cause for immense pride among many settlements, and they often elect these favored sons [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority to the position of tribal leader.]]

* ReturningWarVet: Salamanders are unique among Astartes in that many of them, when on leave, return to their home planets, tribes, towns, and sometimes even birth-families rather than maintaining a monastic lifestyle at the Fortress-Monasteries. [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Unsurprisingly]], their communities of origin frequently appoint returning Salamander leaders to the position of tribal authority.

* WouldNotShootACivilian: Unlike many Chapters, the Salamanders follow the example of their gene-father and take great pains to avoid [[DownplayedTrope unnecessary]] civilian casualties. Their value for human life causes them to any mission that involves them being [[PragmaticHero forced to kill Imperial citizens]] or failing to save civilians a failure. One of the quickest ways to [[BerserkButton anger]] them is for an allied force to show casual disregard for human life.

* DeathWorld: The Blood Angels' home world of Baal, as well as its two inhabited moons Baal Prime and Baal Secundus, are irradiated, mutant-infested, post-apocalyptic hellholes, making them perfect recruiting worlds for the Adeptus Astartes.

* WouldNotShootACivilian: Unlike many Chapters, the Salamanders follow the example of their gene-father and take great pains to avoid [[DownplayedTrope unnecessary]] civilian casualties, will feel like they have failed when they are [[PragmaticHero forced to kill Imperial citizens]] and they will [[BerserkButton fiercely reprimand]] allies that show a casual disregard for human life.

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 orientated 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.

A chapter of the Cursed Twenty-First Founding, the Lamenters are successors of the Blood Angels. A fleet-based Chapter, the flag ship 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 rumours persist that he has been slain or has fallen to the Black Rage.\\

* BornUnlucky: If there is such thing as a curse for the chapter, this is undoubtedly it. They have had more misfortune, betrayal, and loss than many chapters could possibly have before either finally having their spirits broken or just being plain destroyed.

* PyrrhicVictory: 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.