Editing Chaos Space Marines (section)

==The Traitor Legions==
[[File:Word Bearers by Chingonman.jpg|500px|right|thumb|When Space Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking, don't answer the door.]]
When the [[Horus Heresy]] struck, nine of the original twenty Legions turned against the [[Emprah]]. These guys are basically the original and the best. All of these survived the Siege of Terra and escaped into the [[Eye of Terror]] with a very large number of bodies (Space Marine legions frequently numbered up to 100,000 members by the time of the Heresy). Over time, they have become widely scattered, generally working in mixed warbands combining a variety of Traitor Legionnaires, Renegade Marines, and lesser humans (frequently rebellious Imperial Guard). However, it should be noted that quite a few Chaos Marines still fight as a Legion (generally drastically reduced in size) led by their original (now-Daemon) Primarch (if they're still alive, anyway). It's very rare to see more than a Grand Company (roughly equal in size to a Chapter of loyalist Marines) in any given battle unless it's an organized invasion (of which the most notable examples are the Black Crusades led by a [[Abaddon|certain armless failure]]), the Legion's Primarch himself calls them to fuck some shit up, or you're dealing with the Word Bearers or Iron Warriors, who are generally more organized than anybody else. The following are the nine Traitor Legions:

*[[Emperor's Children]]: Also known as the Chaos Pretty Marines, their Primarch is [[Fulgrim]], who is now <s>a painting</s> getting his serpentine dick sucked by a swarm of daemonettes on his pleasure planet. <s>possibly still a painting</s> They don't operate as a Legion at all anymore, mostly because [[Kharn]] and the Slave Wars kinda fucked all their shit up. Anyway, they were basically OCD hyper-perfectionists that also really liked to party. They got ever-more hedonistic, attracted the attention of [[Slaanesh]], and the rest is history. Their Cult unit is the [[Noise Marines]], which are (as their name implies) Chaos Marines that like to kill people with noise. This used to mean sweet heavy-metal guitars, but GW retconned that, so now they have less-impressive (but still cool) <s>bass cannons</s> sonic cannons.

*[[Iron Warriors]]: The evil twins of the [[Imperial Fists]], they really like to build shit and then tear (somebody else's) shit down. In other words, they are masters of siege warfare (basically, rooting out cover-camping bitches). Their Primarch is [[Perturabo]]. They're generally the second most coherent of the Traitor Legions, retaining most of their pre-Heresy organization and numbers, although their great companies are generally independent and only answer to Perturabo himself, who for his part doesn't give a fuck and let them fight each other just for lulz. Also, they probably created the [[Obliterator|Obliterator Virus]], seeing as how they seem to have special connections with the Obliterator Cult. Sadly, they can no longer take [[Basilisk|Basilisks]] and don't have any special rules or Cult units (seeing as how that was quite broken back in 3rd), but GW did throw them a bone in the new book with the [[Warpsmith]] (not to be confused with a [[Warsmith]], which is also Iron Warriors-related). One of their noted leaders is [[Honsou]], a Warsmith in the running for "evilest villain".

*[[Night Lords]]: Their Primarch was [[Konrad Curze]] (also known as the Night Haunter). They're basically space-terrorists, which (unsurprisingly) means they created Raptors, the sociopathic, predatory answer to the loyalists' Assault Marines. They prefer ambush tactics, which is quite difficult when you're a bunch of eight-foot-tall transhuman psychos clomping around in power armour and wearing stupid bat-wing helmets. They also like screaming like maniacs to cause terror. They are one of the few traitor legions (in fact, pretty much the only one) who refuse to employ daemons or live in the Eye of Terror. (Well, at least the warbands that remained loyal to Curze's vision. The biggest extant warband worships Chaos and is lead by a Daemon Prince.) They're also one of the few Traitor Legions that has a dead Primarch, on account of Curze's desire to go down in a fucked up version of suicide by cop to vindicate his obsessive belief that monsters and criminals should be put down like rabid dogs.

*[[World Eaters]]: A legion of rabid, Khorne worshiping, bloodshed-obsessed maniacs that was handpicked by the Emperor to be hyper-aggressive, murderous, psycho attack dogs from the very beginning. Their Primarch is [[Angron]], who is the Galaxy's Angriest Man. Dissolved after [[Kharn]] turned the legion against themselves, what a guy. Now acting as roaming warbands and mercenaries. They still unite every now and then when Angron wants to fuck something's shit up, such as [[Cadia]]. The <s>only</s> legion known to get shit done when called up to do so.

*[[Death Guard]]: [[Mortarion]] - Didn't show up much in the fluff until the release of the Death Guard codex, though Plague Marines and champions can be found in many other warbands and, next to Khorne Berzerkers, are the most common cult unit. Also before the Thirteenth Black Crusade Typhus's Plague Fleet kicked major ass in systems all around the Eye of Terror, turning entire planetary populations into zombies. As of 8th edition, they are now their own separate army. Oh, and Mortarion has returned, and his model is [[skub|controversial in terms of appearance]]. They also possess a planet known as the "Plague Planet".

*[[Thousand Sons]]: [[Magnus the Red]] - Another legion that doesn't show up much at all in fluff after the Horus Heresy and [[Rubric Marines|rubric marines]] don't show up much in other legions' warbands and most warbands use their own sorcerers. Except for [[Ahriman]]; Ahriman goes out trolling the Harlequins and those few [[Inquisitor]]s. Ahriman also does this because Tzeentch likes dicking Magnus over in his passive-aggressive way. Fluff-wise, Thousand Sons walk through the universe, searching for knowledge like ancient books and artifacts to research and nerd out in their libraries, and magicking the shit out of anyone stupid or bold enough to stand in their way. Being smart and cunning motherfuckers they fight only where it really needed and only on their own terms (read: very rarely). Have recently succeeded in fucking up the Fenris furries with Big Red leading them and are now their own army and range of models, including a giant daemon version of Magnus with wings.

*[[Black Legion]]: [[Horus]] (kind of) - Originally called the Luna Wolves and then the Sons of Horus, though Abaddon formally disbanded the Legion and used its assets and whatever ragtag allies he had as the foundation of the Black Legion. Unites every now and then when Abaddon wants to launch another Black Crusade. It's honestly a miracle they survived this long, seriously if you look at their battles and losses it really makes no sense how they managed to live long enough to become the Black Legion, let alone the wars after. Known for calling black crusades, massive chaos invasions that consist untold numbers of chaos space marines (provided there's an ass to pull them out of), daemons, and general renegades and heretics all working together to try and tear the Imperium a new asshole. They are the largest legion by far, stated to outnumber the Word Bearers ten to one, namely because Abaddon preys on the other Legions and lures their troops into his own. Unfortunately, they have no real central command structure outside of a Black Crusade, and even then Abaddon can't keep the Legion's shit together for very long before they start breaking off every which way in search of a fight, usually getting slaughtered not long afterward.

*[[Word Bearers]]: [[Lorgar]] - The only Traitor Legion to have retained its Chaplains, who would later become the first [[Dark Apostle]]s, who can often lead a Word Bearers' Warband in the place of a Chaos Lord or Champion. They're one of the more organized and complete legions as they have a central daemon world of their own named "Sicarus". Sicarus is covered in dozens of temples and cathedrals devoted to Chaos. The Word Bearers are still united under the banner of their Primarch: Lorgar (even if the lazy bastard never does anything these days but sit around doing nothing). The most coherent after the Iron Warriors, seen as their great companies (or Hosts, as they call them) are still working together under the watchful eye of the Dark Council.

*<s>[[Alpha Legion]]: [[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]</s>- No such Legion or Primarchs exist, further speculation on this issue is [[heresy]] and will result in execution. Said nonexistent Legion has not trolled the Imperium for the last 10,000 years by faking the death of every member, any idea to the contrary is [[HERESY]]. Also, masters of <s>sneaking around undetected</s> fucking their enemies' brains with multi-step Just As Planned schemes, that aren't overly complicated or lack the fallback plans (unlike Thousand Sons ones). In fact, their fallback-fallback plans usually have their own fallback plans just in case. Pretty much everything the Imperium knows about them is a lie, suspected to be one, or a truth no one believes in since it looks like a lie.

Naturally, [[Traitor_Legion_Loyalists|not everyone turned traitors]].

=== Renegades ===
The legions of old are not the only source of Chaos Space Marines, with the fluff no longer being clear on whether they even are the largest source anymore. It's either the traitor legions or the Ultramarines who have produced the most Chaos Marines and renegade Chapters. Loyalist marines get turned to Chaos like all the time (well, okay, it's actually pretty rare considering the limited numbers of Space Marines, but significant enough). Most often it's just a few individual Marines or squads, sometimes going as far as entire companies, and rarely (but not rarely enough) entire chapters turn to Chaos. Sometimes it's the Imperium's own fault for turning initially loyal Marines against the system due to a misunderstanding or an overzealous Inquisitor declaring them heretics and the new 'renegades' then realize that since no matter what they do they'll be viewed as traitors by the Imperium, they may as well become traitors in reality. Sometimes, like with the [[Abyssal Crusade]], it's a case of [[just as planned]] succeeding so hard Tzeentch isn't even miffed that particular plot gets tied up. Other times, Marines "caught" some Chaos taint due to fighting Chaos too much without proper Librarian control (bonus points if Librarians themselves get corrupted), committing terrible crimes in their fights against the Ruinous Powers, or trying to fight Chaos with Chaos, like the [[Relictors]]. And finally, a Chapters' own flaws in temperament may leave them all too easily manipulated into bringing their damnation upon themselves, or [[Crimson Slaughter]]'s case, the loyalist elements of Fourth Company broke away when they fell.

What is the most surprising, is that shit still happens despite loyalist marines being heavily brainwashed, even more than the Death Korps of Krieg or Sisters of Battle (both of which are famous for having close to zero Chaos corruption rate). More so, marines even have a specific organ, to make them even more brainwashable. Some speculate the reason behind this is just Astartes longevity - after all SoBs and Kriegers don't get continuously exposed to the Ruinous Powers for hundreds of years. Others say that Marines are just naturally susceptible to corruption, which makes sense if you believe the story daemons tell: that the Primarchs were made with the help of the Four, and were given their power to make them something more than just genetically engineered humans. A theory from 30k states that the reason Marines are more easily turned to Chaos is that Marines naturally are fanatical in almost anything they do, and when feeling scolded by the very thing they are fanatical about it makes them do a full 180" to worship something else instead. This is what happened to the [[Word Bearers]], and most modern-day Marines are <s>at least as religious as the Word Bearers were before the Horus Heresy</s> either atheist or view the Emperor as a sort of Living Saint. Marines that worship anything are rare and looked upon as oddballs by the rest of the Adeptus Astartes. Usually it's whole Chapters rather than individuals that do it. Being Space Marines are highly valued by Chaos, they might simply be singled out for dedicated attempts to corrupt them whereas even Sisters of Battle are basically ignored and either get corrupted the same way as Guardsmen or not at all because Chaos doesn't care about them. It does care about Astartes.

ADB once said that Abaddon embodies the old Biblical thing about Satan refusing to bow down to man, and this might be applied to most Chaos Space Marines. Space Marines are expected to give their whole lives - centuries (if not millennia) and sometimes even [[Dreadnought|beyond that]] - to war, so that ordinary humans, most of whom will never have to fight for their lives, can live in relative comfort. Unsurprisingly many Space Marines do resent this on some level, although regular indoctrination helps them cope with that particular feeling by redirecting it toward xenos/heretics in [[rip and tear|a more productive way]]. It has been suggested that Marines genuinely treating mortals with respect are probably in the minority, though, and then along comes a Word Bearer talking about these gods who will set them free, who'll make them the masters instead of the servants... Despite the nigh-constant indoctrination, these words don't always fall on deaf ears. Which is still really weird since the Astartes voluntarily ''chose'' their life barring the rare Chapter that conscripts/kidnaps aspirants. Sure, they might change their mind over time, but they didn't go through all those trials and hardships and training just to decide it wasn't worthwhile after all.

Renegades also have rather divergent attitudes to the Traitor Primarchs. Some venerate them as the daemonic overlords that they are. Others wonder why everyone seems to fanboy themselves over beings who "lived" thousands of years ago and even then only for a few verifiable centuries before vanishing up their own arses to sit out the wars that the renegade has potentially been fighting for far longer than the Primarchs were ever alive for.

No matter the true reason behind, this shit happens, and from one retcon to another after-Heresy chapter renegades become more and more prevalent to the point that they could actually outnumber the old Legions, even if the Black Legion isn't shy about inducting any who is willing to join and swear fealty to [[Abaddon]] amongst their ranks.

Although, "Renegade" is also used to refer to [[Ashen Claws|non-Chaos aligned Astartes]] and other rogue but non-Chaos forces. They aren't generally against the Imperium, either. At worst, they're just pirating as needed to survive and little else but it isn’t uncommon for them to (futilely) try to find absolution or [[Soul Drinkers|just ignore their own expulsion and continue to serve the Imperium as usual]]. Which is hilarious.