Editing Gene-seed

In [[Warhammer 40,000]], [[humans]] are transformed into [[Space Marines]] by, among other things, implanting them with a series of 19 organs that dramatically alter and enhance their biology. The organs' DNA strings, from which they are vat-grown, are collectively known as "gene-seed."

== Origins ==

Gene-seed is a vital part of the [[Space Marine]] program, and is as old as the Astartes themselves. When the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]] was still conquering [[Terra]], many of the techno-barbarians' armies had augmented human warriors; the Emperor realized that he would need vast armies of super-soldiers for his coming [[Great Crusade]], so he embarked on a project to create a mass-producible means of enhancing humans.  This project resulted in the twenty [[Primarchs]], and from their genes, he created the gene-seed organs.

== The Organs ==

# The '''Secondary Heart''' is pretty self-explanatory. It lets a Space Marine get more blood flowing through his body, which lets his muscles work harder and longer, and it gives him a backup just in case one fails (i.e. gets shot, stabbed, ripped out by a Dark Eldar Archon or what have you). The Secondary Heart is not beating at all times. It only activates during times of stress (bear in mind that a twenty mile run is not considered stressful to Astartes) otherwise it just sits there awaiting activation.
# The '''Ossmudula''' makes a Space Marine's skeleton grow and incorporate some ceramic dietary supplements into itself and fuses his ribs together into a solid structure.
# The '''Biscopea''' triggers muscle growth. These first three organs are often implanted together, as they collectively prepare the Initiate's body for further augmentation. Around this time, the Initiate gets put on a diet containing extra nutrients to fuel his new growth.
# The '''Haemastamen''' enhances a Space Marine's blood to better accommodate the Space Marine's nifty set of new organs. It also turns it [[Orks|bright red]].
# The '''Larraman's Organ''' creates Larraman's Cells, which are like super-platelets; they make wounds rapidly scab over.
# The '''Catalepsean Node''' messes with the body's sleep cycle, letting Space Marines get away with four hours of sleep every day, or even less, and allowing them to not sleep for like 2 weeks without losing awareness.  It also makes the brain susceptible to hypno-therapy, which is a fancy word for brainwashing Initiates while they are asleep.
# The '''Preomnor''' is like a bird's crop, in that it holds food before passing it to the stomach, except that the Preomnor also decontaminates its contents before passing them on. In Ian Watson's Space Marine novel, Initiates celebrated getting this organ by eating the most disgusting things they could until they finally provoked a vomit reflex.
# The '''Omophagea''' is one of the odder organs. It connects to the stomach and the spinal cord, and it somehow takes knowledge from the brains that a Space Marine eats.
# The '''Multi-Lung'''...do I have to spell it? It's another lung! It also has a lot of filters and such, and can function underwater and in low-oxygen atmospheres.
# The '''Occulobe''' gives Space Marines super-vision, and allows their eyes to adjust to changes in light almost instantly.
# The '''Lyman's Ear''' gives them super-hearing and makes them immune to motion sickness and concussion.
# The '''Sus-an Membrane''' lets them enter a state of ''Sus''pended ''an''imation when they are hurt, or starving, or just bored.
# The '''Melanchromic Organ''' makes Space Marine skin like Transition lenses; it darkens in response to radiation. On the plus side, they tan really fast; the fact that they pale right back up once they're inside is not so great.
# The '''Oolitic Kidney''' detoxifies their blood, like their regular kidneys, but this one does it really fast. Also, it controls some of the other organs' hormones. As a result, Space Marines are incapable of ingesting poison unless with the help of [[Chaos]] or the [[Dark Eldar]]. It also means they can't get drunk, though the Space Wolves found a way around that.
# The '''Neuroglottis''' lets a Space Marine identify chemicals and track adversaries by taste.
# The '''Mucranoid''' gives Space Marines super-sweat that protects them from heat and cold, and can even be hardened into a vacuum-proof shell.
# The '''Betcher's Gland''' gives them acid spit. The acid within varies depending on the source, from simply reacting only on organic tissue to fully dissolving ceramite. 
# The '''Progenoids''' provide no benefit to the Space Marine, but are universally considered the most important organs, as they are the keys to making more of these organs. Each Space Marine starts with two, one in the neck and one in the chest, and they are removed after a few years of maturation, or after their death, whichever comes first. The neck based progenoid is ready for harvesting five years after implanation, while the chest based progenoid is ready after ten. Each harvested progenoid is a bunch of DNA and chemical stuff that when implanted in a suitable environment grows into more organs. Sometimes, the term "gene-seed" is taken to refer to these glands specifically.
# The '''Black Carapace''' interfaces a Space Marine with his [[Power Armour|armor]], making them effectively one being. [[Scout|Space Marine Scouts]] don't have this yet; under the [[Codex Astartes]], they don't get it (and thus an expensive suit of power armor) until they've spent a decade or more in a Scout Company.

Funny how most 40K works never refer to most of these, if any.

== Mutation ==

As each new set of gene-seed comes from a Space Marine, requires many years to mature, and many more to be used, there is a lot of room for things to go wrong. This is especially true when desperate circumstances (the impending [[Great Crusade]], or a Chapter being dangerously under-strength) cause Space Marines to skimp on the safety checks and wait periods in order to accelerate Chapter growth. Over the millennia, many flaws have found their way into into the gene-seeds of each Legion, and some of their successors have even more.

=== [[Dark Angels]] ===

No defects. Ties with Ultramarines for "most stable source", so the limited number of Dark Angels successors is usually put down the [[Inquisition]]'s limited knowledge of the [[Fallen Angels]].  That and the fact that due to successor chapters often working with/take orders form the Dark Angels has lead to the Inquisition to fear the Angels and successors to be "legion building".

=== [[Emperor's Children]] ===

An accident during the early days of the raising the Legions resulted in only two hundred Space Marines of the III Legion by the time the Emperor found [[Fulgrim]] and Chemos, forcing the Emperor's Children to work along side the Luna Wolves for the early decades of the Great Crusade. Due to Fulgrim's high standards of perfection being passed on the Legion's apothecaries, Emperor's Children Aspirants had to be nothing less than physically perfect, resulting a largely stable gene-seed. By the 41st millennium, however, the Emperor's Children's gene-seed is fucked up beyond all reasonableness. Millenia of drugs from both inside and out the Warp have damaged it greatly. While the relatively few sane tech-priests left and [[Dark Mechanicus]] working with them can and do make new Marines (thus proving their Marines can and do make new gene-seed), the chemical and other material abuse render each generation further crazy. Even before the Heresy, they were more sensitive to external stimuli like sound.

=== [[Iron Warriors]]===

* Innate familiarity with machinery, due to millenia of work and cybernetic implants

Especially noteworthy for the Iron Warriors considering they reside in the Eye Of Terror, there has been little mutation in their gene-seed as well. Those that do suffer mutation simply replace their mutated limbs with cybernetics. However, there may be some unknown issue which caused them to be afflicted with the [[Obliterators|Obliterator Virus]] (or was it them who made it?) more easily - the first ones originated from them.

However, this is rendered null by the fact they are the sick fucks behind the [[Daemonculaba]]. Due to its nature, the women themselves may have the gene-seed organs implanted (among other things), or at least the DNA required to be able to quickly grow the organs into a child stuck in their wombs. While the poor, innocent, scared kid inside can become a fleshless abomination/mutant, they will normally emerge a genetically stable, gene-seed uncorrupted [[grimdark|fleshless adult SPHESS MAHREEN with the mind of that same scared child]]. Suffice to say, this is a sick way of getting to [[Female Space Marines|FEMALE SPHESS MAHREENS]], and is [[Extra Heresy|DOUBLE HERESY]].

=== [[White Scars]] ===

* ''No defects.''
* Mongolians, but this just makes them better.

Possibly corrupted slightly, due to them fighting the Dark Eldar for so long, that there HAS to be some sex/hybrids in there SOMEWHERE. Don't even ask about the White Scars prisoners in [[Dark Eldar|Commorragh]].

=== [[Space Wolves]] ===

They actually have two different implanted DNA: the Canis Helix, which makes them viking werewolves (long canines, tough skin, vertical pupils, awesome sense of smell, animalistic [[RAEG]] in combat) or, if one is really unfortunate, into an ordinary werewolf (aka [[Furry|Wulfen]]), and their super-unstable geneseed, which can't function without pre-implanted Canis Helix and so, with the momentary exception of the Wolf Brothers, no effort to found a successor has succeeded.

The Space Wolves have constantly labored to stabilize their genome in order to found successors to cordon off the Eye of Terror, and crusade against the [[Thousand Sons]], a plan called "the Sons of Russ." Once, they got really close, which [[Magnus the Red]] didn't like, so he took his Marines and bumped off the Wolf Priest in charge (and generally wrecked things for the Space Wolves), using some [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] trickery to get an opening. In short, he [[gets shit done|got shit done!]]. But considering just how warrantlessly cruel and dickish the Space Wolves have been to the Thousand Sons (how exactly do you NOT even doubt or question an order to destroy a valiantly loyal Legion?) since day one, many people think this was a rightly delivered boot in the ass to the [[Space Wolves|Furries In Power Armor]]. Even if Black Library disagrees.

=== [[Imperial Fists]] ===

* Missing Betcher's Gland (no acid spit)
* Missing Sus-an Membrane (no suspended animation)

Despite missing two organs, the Imperial Fists gene-seed is considered the second most desirable source of gene-seed for Foundings. ''Second'' to the Ultramarines, of course.

=== [[Night Lords]] ===

* Despite what you may think, ''no defects''! The Night Lords are officially the most stable of the Traitor Legions, a trait often put down to the fact that they rarely dwell in the [[Eye of Terror]]. That, and they don't even like Chaos or the gods. What little mutations there are are usually upon their Sorcerers...what ones have survived do not have them anymore either. It is important to note that while Night Lords eyes are extremely sensitive to light, this is an environmental condition due to there being very little actual light on [[Nostramo]], not due to an inherent flaw in [[Konrad Curze]]'s gene-seed.

=== [[Blood Angels]] ===

Prior to the [[Horus Heresy]], [[Sanguinius]] discovered that some of his sons were beginning to suffer the Red Thirst, where they would descend into a thirst for blood, whether human or xenos, in a blind rage. If that wasn't bad enough, as a result of Sanguinius's death at the hands of [[Horus]] imprinting itself on their genetic memory (or something), all Blood Angels and their successors have the [[Rip and tear|Black Rage]]; a berserk rage where they believe themselves to be Sanguinius during his final battle.

=== [[Iron Hands]] ===

''No defects.''

And just to make sure, if there are any, they follow the Bible's advice on offending organs and replace them with holy machinery instead.

=== [[World Eaters]] ===

Nothing particularly mutated about the gene-seed except minor things like increased adrenaline/etc; but during training [[Angron]] had the Legion's neophytes undergo cybernetic conditioning like the surgery he recieved as a gladiator (referred to as the Butcher's Nails) that increased aggression even further, making an already testosterone-fueled warrior even more aggressive and unstable.

=== [[Ultramarines]] ===

*No official defects. Considered the most stable and preferred source of gene-seed for new Foundings.

=== [[Thousand Sons]] ===

* Increased chance of bringing out psychic powers, as well as amplified psychic power.
* Body subject to a high rate of mutation, called The Flesh Change; unstable.

The most unstable genome in the Space Marine legions, the Thousand Sons suffer from the Flesh-Change, a problem that caused Thousand Sons to mutate spontaneously. [[Magnus the Red]] fixed it, with some "help" from [[Tzeentch]]. After the [[Horus Heresy]], the flesh-change came back with a vengeance. [[Ahzek Ahriman]] tried to fix it with his Rubric, and he did end up stopping the flesh-change ... by turning all non-[[psyker]] Thousand Sons into dust; sorcerers also had their powers enhanced in addition to no longer suffering ill-effects from the Flesh-Change. So while theoretically, the Sorcerers of the long suffering Legion can provide gene-seed, in practice, its so corrupted often that few will ever make new Marines, and these they do presumably become sorcerers.

=== [[Death Guard]] ===

Pre-heresy, the Death Guard had a much stronger constitution than most Legions, leading to their role as the toxic environment specialists. Post-heresy, however, the Death Guard are so diseased that implanting Aspirants seems more or less impossible - however, there have been new Death Guard legionaries, who are not defectors from other Legions or renegade Chapters. This means that its possible that gene-seed is used in the Legion to make new Marines. How it functions still no one knows, though we suspect it has something to do with Nurgle and that he has necromantic powers of sorts.

=== [[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion]] ===

No real defects, but members have a tendency to look more like their [[Horus|Primarch]] than members of other legions. Aximand was the most notable example of this, but by no means the only one. This gives extra meaning to the "Sons of Horus" thing. Ten thousand years in the Eye of Terror has left the Legion's gene-seed more unstable. However, we do know that new Black Legionaries are inducted constantly (seeing as they are the primary generic Chaos Space Marines), so its a good bet a large part of theirs is still usable [[grimdark|and that generations of children for millenia to come will be torn away from their parents and families, unfortunate enough to live in the Eye Of Terror, to be inducted into the Legion.]]

=== [[Word Bearers]] ===

The Word Bearers suffer a unique "quirk" in their gene-seed, resulting in a psychologically obsessive loyalty to anything. The Word Bearers in turn thus have a much stronger sense of loyalty to their battle-brothers and Primarch than other Chaos Space Marines, but this loyalty also borders on fanaticism.

=== [[Salamanders]] ===

* Malfunctioning Melanchromic Organ (Salamanders are all black, all the time, and have glowing red eyes)
* Predisposition to fried chicken and watermelon (lol just kidding)

=== [[Raven Guard]] ===

* Malfunctioning Melanchromic Organ (their skin is always pale)
* Missing Mucranoid (no super-sweat)
* Missing Betcher's Gland (no acid spit)

While their primary gene-seed is decently stable with a few deletion mutations, [[Corax]], out of desperation, delved into use of forbidden lore and archeo-tech from days long past to accelerate gene-seed maturation, and try to boost his Legion's numbers after their losses of the [[Horus Heresy]].  He was succesful, until the [[Alpha Legion]] decided to FUBAR the whole project. The subsequent 'Marines', if they can be called that, were numerous, but were barely controllable monsters and/or would simply die off as a result of the extreme imbalances in their dispositions. Presumably, few out of them would even have functioning Progenoids, let alone usable gene-seed. Due to the law of averages though, at least a FEW would have had to been stable enough, and is being worked on secretly by the Raven Guard Apothecaries and associated [[Adeptus Mechanicus|Mechanicus]] Biologicans.

=== [[Alpha Legion]] ===

No such Legion exists, therefore no such gene-seed exists.

=== [[Blood Ravens]] ===

* A mutated Catalepsean Node - perfect memory recall, but unable to enter REM (deep) sleep 
* Unknown mutation that increases psychic ability and occurrences
* Small tendency towards mutations (hurr sounds like any other Legions we know of?)
* Psychological Compulsion towards stealing
* Luxuriant Hair.

=== [[Blood Drinkers]] ===

* They suffer from a literal blood thirst, and must drink blood.

=== [[The Flawless Host]] ===

* Possibly an offshoot of the Emperor's Children, these psychos are so hopped up on combat and other (read, Warp derived, impossible) drugs that they make normal Emperor's Children drug use look tame - however, damage from things like extreme sounds/etc doesn't seem as prevalent. Little comfort. Despite all this, and defying any sense of physics or reality, their Progenoids still seem to manufacture new gene-seed.

===The Cleaved===

Chaos Space Marine warband unique in the fact that they constantly ooze some oily liquid from broken joints and seals within their armor. Have an abominably high threshold of pain tolerance, and can take huge amounts of damage that would fell a normal Space Marine.

=== A Note On That Sick Fuck [[Fabius Bile]] ===

This guy is fucking insane. I mean shit, his labcoat is made of human skin. While originally the Chief Apothecary of the Emperor's Children, he is now a freelancer. His goal even before the Heresy was to find and unlock the secret to the creation of the Space Marines. In the [[Warp]], he provides a valuable service to the Chaos Legion warbands and their auxiliaries of billions more regular Chaos humans - while often millions strong even now, the warbands still need to replenish their numbers. Considering how many die and how often they are away from any place where they can produce more, that's a lot. Even with slave raiding into the Imperium, child abduction both in and out, breeding centers (stop touching yourself) and many [[Daemonculaba|other creative ideas]], its still not enough. Fabius provides services of human cloning, along with gene-seed production, among his many skills. As he is not a super-devotee of Chaos, the gene-seed he has and makes is some of the least corrupted found within the [[Eye Of Terror]]. Though of course, he fucks this all up by hopping up his own warband's clones with the same psycho drugs and shit that make monsters out of men. Lore hints that his genetic tinkering is far more than we have been lead to believe - much of his 'changes' to even standard human genome are genetic and now passable by both men and [[Female Space Marines|women]]. Even now the Imperium is trying to hunt and eradicate what they call his '[[Twilight|New Men]]'.

=== [[21st Founding]] ===

Over the millennia, further mutations have afflicted the many Successor Chapters, but the 21st or "Cursed" Founding deserves a special mention, because a bunch of [[Adeptus Mechanicus|tech-priests]] decided that they wanted to try and fix the flaws, but failed so hard they actually created some new ones.

* Bursting into Flames: Yes, the [[Flame Falcons]] really were covered in fire. The Flame Falcons thought it was a blessing from the [[God-Emperor of Mankind]], but the [[Inquisition]] disagreed, and sent the [[Grey Knights]] to wipe them out.
* Bone Growths: Due to a malfunctioning Ossmudula, the [[Black Dragons]] suffer a bone solid growth to harden and extend from their forehead and forearms during times of stress. The ones on the forearm can be used as weapons against unarmored opponents. So in essence, they're space-Wolverine-after-the-bone-claws kind of guys.
* Indestructibility: The Sons of Antaeus are much tougher than normal marines, and nobody knows why.

=== A Note On Implant Organs/DNA Elsewhere ===

While the SPHESS MAHREENS are the most widespread users of artificial glands, organs, and such, they are not the only ones. Inquisitors likely have access to organs or other artificial mutations they desire. Depending on what world they hail from and its beliefs, its Imperial Guard regiments and PDF may have artificial organs, or even whole new ones derived from millenia long mutations, which of course has certain advantages. Furthermore, Warp Exposure can result in a change of the functions of organs - a simple example of this is the Cadians, who nearly universally have powerful, violet colored eyes. Gland Warriors were an [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] project to help legions of Guardsmen heading into battle against a [[Tyranid]] hive fleet. They were to do battle in an incredibly toxic and hard environment, and a variety of experimental organs and DNA strands were utilized - including organs that would secrete stims, painkillers, and various medical drugs, more powerful natural air filters, and the like. While only [[grimdark|three survived]] the whole campaign in the end, the AdMech was pleased and took the three to be debriefed.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Space Marines]]