Space Marine (Warhammer 40,000)

File:Space Marine Codex.jpg

The 4th Edition Space Marine sourcebook (codex) cover

In the fictional Warhammer 40,000 setting created by Games Workshop, the Space Marines (or Adeptus Astartes) are elite human soldiers enhanced to superhuman levels through genetic therapy, surgical modifications, and hypnotic indoctrination. The standard Space Marine is the Imperial Space Marine, but several variations exist, such as corrupted Chaos Space Marines and the elite Grey Knights.

Space Marines feature in the table-top wargame, its spin-off games such as Epic and Inquisitor, the computer games including Dawn of War and Fire Warrior, and the novels based on the setting produced by Black Library. Over the years the Space Marine has become an iconic image of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Appearance

Space Marines wear power armour, a bulky suit which includes large, rounded shoulder plates, a backpack with side vents, and a full-face helmet. This armour is painted in a variety of different colours, depending on which Chapter a Space Marine belongs to. The Space Marine Codex displays around 30 different official Chapter colour schemes, and the Games Workshop website lists several more[1], but players are not restricted to these and are free to create their own. Common colour schemes include the blue-and-gold Ultramarines, green-and-black Salamanders and red-and-black Blood Ravens.

As well as power armour, Space Marines carry weapons known as boltguns or bolters. The other iconic weapon of the army is the chainsword, a weapon which, as its name suggests, incorporates a chainsaw blade into a sword. The majority of Space Marine that are close combat specialists utilise chainswords as their basic weapon.

Playing style

Space Marines are a flexible, versatile force, often described as a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. They have a solid, all-round statline which makes them better than the average but not exceptional in any one area, except perhaps toughness. The basic unit is the Tactical Marine, armed with the rapid-firing bolter. Space Marine specialist units, such as the Assault or Devastator squads, are distinguished by their weaponry rather than by a change in their statistics - Assault squads are equipped with bolt pistols and chainswords ,accompanied by jump packs , whilst Devastators carry a number of heavy weapons. The army specialises in close-range firefights with vehicle support, utilising the Rhino APC and its more heavily-armed variants. These elements combine into a flowing, combined-arms style which grants the player a number of tactical choices during gameplay. Standard Space Marines are armed with relatively good weapons, a selection of grenades and Power Armour, making the basic Space Marine unit very well equipped even compared to the elite choices in other armies. It is not uncommon for a Space Marine player to be outnumbered due to the relatively high cost of their units, the idea being that one Space Marine is equal to multiple models of almost any other army.

History

The Great Crusade

During the Great Crusade, twenty superhuman Primarchs were made by the God-Emperor, using his own genetic material. Before the project was complete, however, the Primarchs were scattered across the galaxy. It is suggested that the Ruinous Powers of Chaos were responsible for this. Each Primarch landed on a different world. Some, such as Horus, were relatively close to Terra (Earth) whilst others ended up far across the galaxy. As the Great Crusade progressed, the Emperor discovered each of the Primarchs in turn. They had universally grown to become heroes on their native planets, and many had adopted local cultural practices. Two of the Primarchs are variously described as having had "tragic accidents" or as simply never having been found; no single official explanation has been published. Each of the rediscovered Primarchs was appointed command of the Space Marine Legion whose members matched their genetic code.

The Horus Heresy

Eventually the Primarch Horus, who had been the Emperor's favoured son and appointed Warmaster when the Emperor retired from the Great Crusade in order to consolidate the rapidly expanding Imperium, was turned to Chaos. This event sparked the Horus Heresy, wherein fully half of the Imperium's forces (including 9 of the Space Marine Legions, described below) joined Horus in a civil war against the Emperor.

After a number of bloody battles, Horus was defeated at the Siege of the Emperor's Palace, and the Emperor consigned to the Golden Throne from which he rules the Imperium to this day. With Horus defeated and the Emperor effectively dead, the Primarch of the Ultramarines, Roboute Guilliman pushed for the adoption of his Codex Astartes as the primary document organising the Space Marines. The remaining loyal Legions were divided into smaller "Chapters" of 1,000 Marines each, in order to prevent a single commander from having as much power as Warmaster Horus. The first Chapter of each of the old Legions retains the name of the founding Legion. All subsequent Chapters gain their own names and are referred to as Successor Chapters.

Loyal legions

Name	No.	Primarch	Primarch's world	Current base of operation	In-game description
Dark Angels	I	Lion El'Jonson	Caliban (Destroyed)	The Rock (asteroid base)	The First Legion to be created by the Emperor. More so than any other Legion, the Dark Angels divided within during the Horus Heresy, with all the companies that remained on their homeworld Caliban siding with Luther (Lion El' Jonson's right hand man and ruler of Caliban in Lion's absence) who Rebeled Agenst the Emperor independently of Horus, while the rest remained loyal to the Emperor. The Dark Angels and their successors refer to themselves as "The Unforgiven". Highly secretive, they hunt the Fallen (those Dark Angels who sided with Chaos) as an attempt to redeem themselves of the taint upon their Legion's honor. This secret mission occasionally puts them at odds with other Imperial forces.The Dark Angels culture and background is heavily influenced by the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights and by the poem 'The Dark Angel' by Lionel Johnson, althought the novella Deathwing portrays their recruitment from tribes based heavily upon Tribes Like Native Americans but there Recruitment Varies form generation to generation as Portrayed in the Novell Angels of Darkness. The Dark Angels' combat doctrine is centred around a Tactical Versatile Force favouring the use of heavy Plasma based weapons, They also they maintain specialised wings of superheavy Terminator Armoured veterans Deathwing and fast attack vehicular raiders Ravenwing.
White Scars	V	Jaghatai Khan	Mundus Planus	Mundus Planus	The White Scars have a Mongolian-inspired culture and fast-attack combat doctrine. Following this theme, the Chapter makes extensive use of Hit and Run tactics on Space Marine bikes. They are feared for their ability to storm the battlefield with lightning speed, and are very rarely out-maneuvered on the battlefield.
Space Wolves	VI	Leman Russ	Fenris	Fenris (The Fang)	The Space Wolves are fierce warriors with an organization that differs strongly from other Chapters. They are known for their fierce independence, and were the only loyal Legion never to adopt the Codex Astartes. The Space Wolves' culture and background is heavily influenced by the Viking archetype and by werewolf mythology.
Imperial Fists	VII	Rogal Dorn	Holy Terra	Phalanx (space-borne fortress ship)	During the end of the Great Crusade, the Imperial Fists were appointed as the Emperor's personal Praetorians. As a Legion which excelled at fortification, fortifying the Imperial Palace, whose improved defences were tested during the Siege of Terra. They are masters of defense and relentless attackers who would rather die than retreat. Their current Gene-seed suffers from a few minor mutations. The novel Space Marine describes their culture as being based upon the German Junker system, with Honour Duelling a regular feature of daily life.
Blood Angels	IX	Sanguinius	Baal Secundus	Baal Prime, Secundus	The Blood Angels and their successor chapters suffer from various gene-seed flaws. Most notably the "Red Thirst" and "Black Rage", referring to a constant drive to shed blood and a psychological state of rage when that drive consumes them. When they succumb to the Black Rage, their pale skin and sharp canine teeth lend the Chapter a somewhat vampiric appearance. Those who begin to suffer the Black Rage strive to attain death in battle before they succumb to the Red Thirst, where they become little more than ravenous beasts driven only to consume blood. The Blood Angels excel at close combat and assault tactics.
Iron Hands	X	Ferrus Manus	Medusa	Medusa	The warriors of the Iron Hands display a high incidence of cybernetic modifications to their bodies. All recruits have their left hands removed and substituted with a cybernetic replacement. During the Horus Heresy, the Primarch of the Legion, Ferrus Manus, was killed by his brother Primarch Fulgrim. The Iron Hands do not have a single Chapter Master or Fortress-Monastery. Instead, they are ruled by a Council made of the commanders of the ten companies, known in the Iron Hands as Clans, which remain independent and maintain their own massive land-crawler-like mobile fortresses. Their combat doctrine is straight-forward and brutal, making extensive use of Dreadnaughts, and their Chapter philosophy emphasises the importance of constant trials and struggle, and the need for constant reinvention and self-perfection is tied into their predilection for Bionic modification.
Ultramarines	XIII	Roboute Guilliman	Macragge	Macragge (Fortress of Hera)	The Ultramarines are rigid adherents to the Codex Astartes, written by their Primarch to make sure his knowledge of warfare was preserved. They are the archetypal Space Marine Chapter from whose stable genetic material most new Founding chapters are formed. In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy their Primarch became the first High Lord of Terra and used the Ultramarines to restore the shattered Imperium. The Ultramarines are based loosely around ancient Rome, though they also use imagery relating to Classical Greece.
Salamanders	XVIII	Vulkan	Nocturne	Prometheus (moon of Nocturne)	The Salamanders are technically-adept warriors with a preference for short-ranged combat; particularly with flame and heat-based weaponry. The Salamanders have coal-black skin and red eyes due to the high levels of radiation on Nocturne. Scarification is a common practice among the warriors of the chapter.
Raven Guard	XIX	Corax	Deliverance (Moon - previously named Lycaeus)	Deliverance (Ravenspire Tower)	The Raven Guard specialize in hit-and-run attacks on vital targets to maximize their ability to cripple a larger enemy force. Guerilla warfare using jump packs and extensive use of Scout Marines are common. Due to a gene-seed defect, their skin fades to pure white while their hair and eyes turn night black.

Traitor Legions

Nine legions sided with Horus and the forces of Chaos during the Horus Heresy. After their defeat they fled into the Eye of Terror, becoming the Chaos Space Marines.

Traitor Legions

Name	No.	Primarch	Primarch's world	Current base of operations	In game description
Emperor's Children	III	Fulgrim	Chemos (Unknown status, presumed destroyed)	Eye of Terror	Once the most loyal and steadfast defenders of humanity, the Emperor's Children now are hedonistic devotees of Slaanesh, deriving pleasure from the most extreme actions and sensations. They are also renowned for sonic weaponry, and their forces feature many of the infamous Noise Marines
Iron Warriors	IV	Perturabo	Olympia (Destroyed)	Medrengard (Eye of Terror)	The Iron Warriors are siege and trench warfare specialists. They favour heavy weaponry and fortifications. During the Great Crusade, the Iron Warriors and the Imperial Fists were engaged in an increasingly bitter rivalry, owing to their similar specialities and the Primarch Perturabo's perception that Rogal Dorn was more favoured by the Emperor. In the aftermath of the Siege of Terra, the Iron Warriors constructed the infamous Iron Cage as a trap for Dorn and the Fists.
Night Lords	VIII	Konrad Curze/Night Haunter	Nostramo (Destroyed)	Eye of Terror	The Night Lords specialize in raids and terror tactics, taking special interest in psychological warfare.
World Eaters	XII	Angron	De'shea (Destroyed)	Eye of Terror	The World Eaters are the chosen ones of Khorne and favour close combat. The Legion has devolved into bloodthirsty fanatics with no organized command structure, with a common desire to spill blood and collect skulls for their God.
Death Guard	XIV	Mortarion	Barbarus (Destroyed)	Plague Planet (Eye of Terror)	The Death Guard are plague-ridden devotees of Nurgle who are driven to spread plague and pestilence across the galaxy to please their god. They are amongst the most organized of the Chaos Space Marines.
Thousand Sons	XV	Magnus the Red	Prospero (Destroyed)	Planet of the Sorcerers (Eye of Terror)	The Primarch of the Thousand Sons became fascinated by magic and during one of his rites had a vision of Horus's betrayal. The Emperor ignored his warning and condemned his use of forbidden magic, sending the Space Wolves legion to bring Magnus back to Terra to answer for his crimes. Magnus and the Thousand Sons managed to escape the assault on Prospero and sided with Chaos to ensure survival. The Thousand Sons are favoured by Tzeentch and value knowledge. The battle brothers of the Legion have been rendered to dust trapped inside their armor by a spell called the Rubric of Ahriman, with only the Legion's Sorcerers spared to lead their brethren.
Luna Wolves / Sons of Horus / Black Legion	XVI	Horus	Cthonia (Destroyed)	Eye of Terror	The Luna Wolves were renamed to Sons of Horus in honour of Warmaster Horus before the Horus Heresy erupted. After Horus’ death, Abaddon the Despoiler renamed them as the Black Legion, as a rejection of Horus whom Abbadon viewed as a failure. Prior to Horus' betrayal, the Sons of Horus were considered the greatest of all the Legions.
Word Bearers	XVII	Lorgar	Colchis (Destroyed)	Sicarus (Eye of Terror), Ghalmek (Maelstrom)	The Word Bearers are strongly religious, worshipping the Gods of Chaos as a pantheon. They were the first of the Legions to fall to Chaos. They are also the only Traitor Legion to maintain the use of Chaplain-like officers, which the Word Bearers refer to as "Dark Apostles". They are known for never retreating even when facing certain destruction, particular when facing the hated Ultramarines Chapter. The Word Bearers are feared greatly for their frequent use of demonic allies in their strike forces. Entire planets are turned into unholy temple worlds to gather favour in summoning rites for a coming battle.
Alpha Legion	XX	Alpharius/Omegon(2 beings make up the same primarch)	Unknown	Unknown	Subtlety and covert operations are this Legion's forte, using minimalistic but devastating force against their enemies. Alpharius was revealed to have had an identical twin named Omegon who could serve as Primarch in Alpharius' stead. The brothers were described as being "one soul in two bodies" in an encounter with a Xenos group called the Cabal. With that same presence, they were told that they had to side with Horus for the Galaxy's sake. In the novel Legion, Alpharius says that "... So what I do ... from this moment on, I will do for the Emperor." This suggests that even though his Legion turned, he remains loyal to the Emperor. It has also been suggested that the Alpha Legion may in fact be manipulating Chaos to be more vulnerable to the loyalist Space Marines. If this is true, then the small size of the legion's raids on the Imperium could be a cover-up.

"Lost" legions and primarchs

The narratives leave two additional unnamed and undescribed First Founding Legions, Legions II and XI. In some literature the missing Primarchs and their Legions are listed as being "Deleted from Imperial records". The only information Games Workshop has ever released that directly addresses them, can be found in False Gods, Mechanicum and The Lightning Tower (Dan Abnett).

In the Horus Heresy novel series, Horus, in a Chaos-induced dream sequence, apparently goes back in time and sees the cracked incubation capsule of Primarch XI before the Primarchs are scattered to the warp. He places his hand on XI's capsule and feels "the untapped glories that might have lain ahead for what grew within, but knowing that they would never come to pass."

In the Mechanicum novel, another book in the Horus Heresy series, Rogal Dorn (Primarch of the Imperial Fists Legion) and the Imperial Governor speak of the lost legions, with the Governor telling Dorn "Do not even think of it brother, they are lost to us forever", but provides no further information.

In the audio book The Lightning Tower by Dan Abnett, Primarch Rogal Dorn while constructing the defences of the Imperial Palace on Earth in preparation for the coming attack by the Traitor Marines is walking through the palace and comes across a corridor showing statues of all 20 Primarchs. The audio book states that 'an accident befell them that may somehow be a precursor of what happened to Horus'.

However, Games Workshop has explained the game play purpose for these "deleted" Legions: they are available to help those who wish to develop their own, custom Legions. The basic idea is that since there were 20 Legions, and half went to Chaos but half stayed loyal, these two lost Legions would represent the same for "do-it-yourself" forces.

Post-Heresy Space Marine Chapters

A Space Marine Chapter is described as having a nominal fighting strength of 1,000 Marines, with several times that number of support staff (most of which are normal humans or servitors, rather than actual Space Marines) and initiates in training (which form the 10th 'Scout' Company). A Chapter is divided into 10 semi-autonomous companies made up of roughly 100 men, with each company led by a "Brother-Captain". The First Company is the Veteran Company, composed of 10 squads of 10 Veterans. Companies 2 through 5 are the Battle Companies, composed of 6 10-man Tactical Squads, 2 10-man Devastator Squads, and 2 10-man Assault Squads. The 6th-9th Companies are the Reserve Companies; the 6th and 7th are comprised entirely of Tactical Marines, the 8th of Assault Marines, and the 9th of Devastators. The 10th Company is known as the Scout Company and its numbers vary depending on the number of available initiates. It should be noted that this applies only to those Chapters which follow the tenets of the Codex Astartes. Some Chapters, particularly the Space Wolves, Salamanders and Black Templars, have different organisational practices.

Later foundings

In subsequent millennia, the Imperium has also created new Chapters of Space Marines, there are now roughly one thousand Chapters. These later chapters have appeared in various tie-in products produced by Games Workshop, as well as in works of fiction from The Black Library and the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series such as the Blood Ravens.

From an out-of-universe perspective, the numerous undocumented later chapters provide room for official development of the fiction, as well as allowing players to create their own chapters without contradicting established canon.

Appearances

Space Marines are featured in:

Tabletop games

• Rogue Trader
• Warhammer 40,000
• Space Marine
• Space Crusade (1992) and its sequel, Advanced Space Crusade
• Space Hulk
• Talisman — through the Timescape expansion
• Battlefleet Gothic — through the Armada expansion
• Inquisitor

Computer games

• Space Hulk (1994) - Terminator armor marines
• Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels (1996) - "sequel" to Space Hulk
• Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000 (1997)
• Chaos Gate (1998)
• Rites of War (1999)
• Fire Warrior (2003)
• Dawn of War (2004), and its expansion packs, Winter Assault (2005), Dark Crusade (2006) and Soulstorm (2008)
• Squad Command (2007)
• Dawn of War 2 (2009)
• Space Marine (forthcoming)

Bibliography

• Chambers, Andy (1998). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Space Marines. Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-869893-28-X.
• Haines, Pete (2004). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Space Marines (4th Edition ed.). Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-526-0. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Johnson, Jervis (2004). Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. Nottingham: Games Workshop. {{cite book}}: Text "ISBN : 978-1-84154-506-6" ignored (help)
• Priestly, Rick, Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, Games Workshop, Nottingham, 1987, ISBN 1-869893-23-9
• Warhammer 40,000 5th edition rule book, Games Workshop, Nottingham 2008
• Priestly, Rick (February 1988). "Chapter Approved: The Origin of the Legiones Astartes". White Dwarf (98). Nottingham, UK: Games Workshop: 12–17.

See also

• Equipment of the Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)
• Vehicles of the Space Marines (Warhammer 40,000)