Editing Space Marines (section)

==History==
[[File:Prayer before battle.jpg|250px|left|thumb|Marine with half his FUCKING face missing, skulls in the wall, bolter laying ready, and servitors with hoods swinging censers. Ladies and gents, [[Warhammer 40k]].]]
After the end of the [[Age of Strife]], the Emperor of Mankind (overachieving at it's finest) wanted to reunite [[humanity]] in a [[Great Crusade]] across the galaxy, and he realized that in order to do this he would need one epic-ass army and equally epic generals to lead it. He created the [[Primarchs]], his sons, to be his generals, and let me tell you, these guys were some of the most insanely powerful badasses in all the lore of 40k, and that is saying something. (There is a story in which [[Sanguinius|one of them]] snaps a fucking [[Bloodthirster]]'s spine over his knee.) From their DNA, he created the [[First Founding|Legiones Astartes, the first Space Marines]]. But before that he did a trial run with the Prototype Legionaries where only a few survived and was the foundation of Space Marine Legions.

Their first task was to locate their Primarchs, because the [[Chaos Gods|Gods]] of [[Chaos]] had scattered them across the galaxy in an attempt to foil the Emperor's efforts at human reunification (they were basically just butt-hurt that they didn't have some baddass buttfucking sons; [[Slaanesh]] approved!). All of the Primarchs were eventually recovered and reunited with their respective legions, but then, at the height of the Space Marines' power, disaster struck. [[Horus]], the Emperor's most trusted Primarch, fell to Chaos and turned traitor along with his legion, the [[Luna Wolves]], and several others followed suit. After much [[Grimdark|sorrow, pain, and civil warring]], the Emperor killed Horus personally (Daddy issues at their finest yet again), but was mortally wounded in the process, which is why he is now a zombie being kept alive by the technologies of the Golden Throne (Undead Heresy?).

The traitor legions, who are now known as the <s>[[Chaos Space Marines]]</s> TRAITOR ASTARTES, were defeated and pushed back to the [[Eye of Terror]]. All of the Primarchs that did not fall to Chaos during the Horus Heresy either disappeared or were [[Ferrus_Manus|killed]], and until very recently, none remained to lead the Space Marines. ([[Roboute Guilliman]], Primarch of the Ultrasmurfs, long enshrined and [[Matthew Ward|(according to some people)]] healing in stasis has recently been revived after ten thousand years). In addition, after the Heresy, the Legions were mostly [[Second Founding|split into smaller "Chapters"]] of up to a thousand Marines according to the teachings of the [[Codex Astartes]] (although some Chapters, such as the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Black Templars]], do not follow Astartes orthodoxy and maintain forces in much greater numbers, and [[Dark Angels|some chapters]] go so far as to form almost legion-strength forces.)

The Space Marines are most commonly looked upon as warrior-monks, generally referring to each other as "Brother", "Battle Brother" or some variation thereof based on rank, spending most or all of their time training, in battle, or venerating the Emperor. However, no two Chapters are exactly alike, and many differ wildly from the standard perception of the Marines. The Space Wolves, as one example, appear to be much less disciplined than most other Chapters, maintaining a much larger force than permitted by the Codex and frequently having great feasts with much merriment and drinking (the Space Wolves happen to produce the only intoxicating beverage known to have any effect on Marine physiology, and which liquefies the innards of non-Astartes). Their attitude toward others in the Imperium can also differ greatly from Chapter to Chapter or even from marine to marine. Some are very idealistic, believing very strongly in their role as protectors of humanity (such as the [[Lamenters]], the [[Celestial Lions]] or the [[Salamanders]]). Others, like the [[Black Templars]], tend to disregard the ordinary elements of the Imperium, and emphasize much more their role as a weapon against its enemies. And some are [[Blood Angels | just]] [[Angry Marines | angry]].

Their attitude towards the Emperor can also vary. Although they are typically believed to worship him as a deity like most of the rest of the Imperium, the Space Marines are, by virtue of their gene-seeds, derived from the Primarchs and hence the Emperor himself, making them much closer to him than most humans. In fact, many of the Space Marine chapters' beliefs maintain some of the old [[Imperial Truth]] that the Emperor was not a god, but simply the greatest of mortal men, worthy of praise and veneration but not a deity proper. Although it is true that the majority of the Chapters certainly venerate him in an orthodox manner, others just scream his name a lot because that's tradition.<i>The exact degree of Emperor-worship in the Space Marine chapters is a bit mushy. Some openly refer to the Emperor as the God-Emperor while others are outright contemptuous of the idea. [[Excoriators|Captain Zachariah Kersh]], later Chapter Master, was such a nah-sayer but was converted by his experiences during the destruction of the Cholercaust on Certus-Minor. This could mean that among the various Chapters the exact degree of veneration of the Emperor could be entirely a personal choice rather than explicit doctrine. But again the inconsistencies therein make it hard to judge. Alternatively to this theme being a result of lazy writers is that it is in fact a clever but under-developed effect of the progression of the plot of Warhammer 40k. Such that by the end of the 41st millennium, things are so awful that even the Space Marines seek resolve in the worship of the God-Emperor.</i>.
[[Image:Blingmarine.jpg|thumb|right|The great Papa Smurf hisself.]]
Space Marines are generally regarded as having something of an "unfair advantage" in the tabletop, mainly because every young 40k player has a strong liking for them, and almost every unit in the listings has at least a 3+ armor save, making them rather hard to kill, especially when considering armies such as the Blood Angels have models that allow players to roll an additional "Feel No Pain" 4+ save if they fail the 3+ one. The problem is that it took 3 Space Marine Chapter books in 5th Edition to come up with a Space Marine Codex framework that didn't suck (almost nothing in C:SW is non-competitive or poorly priced), which is why Long Fangs are usually 50 points cheaper than their Space Marine counterparts, while being twice as effective. Why are Devastators supposedly more expensive? Combat tactics. Yeah, you're never going to use it. The Ultramarines in particular are an extremely popular choice of Space Marine Chapter, and their blue design coupled with the small size of the miniatures often leads to them being referred to as "Smurfs." Thanks to [[Indrick Boreale]], the Space Marines in general are frequently called "Spess Mehreens," or variations to that effect. The Space Marines of today look very different from the glory days of Rogue Trader, when they earned the nickname "[[beakie|beakies]]" because of their signature helmets.

Denizens of /tg/ are prone to claiming a wide variety of things about the Space Marines, usually about their sexual activity (or lack thereof), ranging from assertions that the genitalia of a Space Marine is nonfunctional to claims that they are castrated during the creation process. They never have any supporting evidence for these theories and it is not clear whether or not Space Marines are allowed to have sex, which Chapters would allow them to have sex, if they even can have sex, if they're still capable of normal human reproduction, or what bits they may or may not still possess. Still, that doesn't stop anyone from stating their personal opinion as if it were fact. The most revealed, beyond a few hints about [[Lukas the Trickster]] being a womanizer in the Space Wolves codex and books, is that a female Inquisitorial henchwoman got an eyeful of a naked Grey Knight novice and was rather impressed by what she saw. The Grey Knight, naturally, had no idea why she seemed so interested. Another hint is a Remembrancer that saw a Marine naked and referred to his manhood as “equine”.

An interesting point to note is that right below this segment on the right is an image of a Marine with a loin-cloth. If there is no modesty to protect, why protect it? One suspects that the reason Marines aren't afforded the luxury of sex (aside from distraction from serving the Emperor), is that they'd kill whatever unfortunate woman or xenos livestock they take a fancy to.
The point is, due to psychological conditioning and likely the sterilizing effects of the augmentation process, followed by a century plus of service to the Emperor in radiation and toxic filled environments, they are simply disinclined towards it, and wouldn't result in any more meat-shields for the Emperor's glorious wars regardless, thus only serving the [[Slaanesh|arch-hedonist.]]