Mentors

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Mentors Legion
Battle Cry	Unknown
Number	888
Founding	26th
Successors of	Unknown
Successor Chapters	None
Chapter Master	Nisk Ran-Thawll
Primarch	Unknown
Homeworld	Unknown
Strength	1000 (allegedly)
Specialty	Weapons testing, auxiliary squad attachments
Allegiance	Imperium
Colours	Green with White Pauldrons and limbs; colour of Aquila is dependent on company number

Mentors: The Freshmakers

tl,dr: The MACVSOG or for those looking for something more modern the Special Operations Group of the Adeptus Astartes

A Space Marine chapter Games Workshop made for some reason, back in Rogue Trader days. It's a Space Marine Chapter that is quite different in the Grimdark 40k realm. They are the book nerds of 40k and love to seek out new knowledge AND they actually use it...unlike the other people. Also they let other forces "borrow" a few squads, so that the squad reports anything they learned from their mission, straight back to the chapter. One might say they are quite... Reasonable.

Some people find this humorous. Others suspect them of being a loyalist Thousand Sons chapter, or an imitation of said Legion when they were at their awesomest, i.e. before they turned to Chaos and degenerated into scheming vizier-sorcerers or walking piles of dust.

They also have one of the best fighting units in the Imperium, known as the Elite Cadre. These dudes are used to test new stuff the Admech made (read: dug up) in battle. With their experience and special gadgets, they are pretty cool dudes. Rumor has it they have a tendency to create time traveling devices and other mad scientist related technology which they use for shenanigans with the Inquisition and keeping the Imperium surviving while all the other Imperial factions and Space Marines play grabass in space. Long story short, the Mentors are the true heroes who've been unfucking the Imperium's grimdark since 1st edition.

They seem to have strange and suspicious shit around them, as only the highest of the Adeptus Terra know the location of their fortress monastery, where the majority of the chapter spends training with only a few squads going out on missions, and their chapter master Nisk Ran-Thawll (Sounds more like a barbarian than a wise scholar) is rumored to have met the Emperor himself in person several times (and fixed the golden throne when the AdMech wasn't looking).

Also maybe be much larger then anticipated, as back in Rogue trader they were one of the Legions like the Ultramarines, so sending off squads to the huge number of Imperial military arms would require quite a significant amount of manpower. Hence, they could easily hide huge numbers via the seconding clause that most Chapters use to send hundreds of space marines into units like Honor Companies or Deathwatch. Maybe the Mentors finally realized that 1000 glory hounds killing some random aliens or daemons can't make a notable difference, or perhaps their appreciation of the Guard numerical advantage inspired them to use their science and reason to bolster their ranks.

They often clash with the Eldar of the Biel-Tan, probably to determine who gets to use the white-and-green colour scheme. It is safe to say that fighting Space Marines with what amounts to portable time machines and holo-fields and tech that coordinates their fire is not likely to end well for the Eldar.

They are in fact the second Chapter to be designated as the 888th, as the original Chapter of that number, the Star Scorpions, were presumed lost in the Warp. When the Star Scorpions' gene-seed proved to be unusable, the Adeptus Mechanicus re-purposed the number and colouration of the lost Chapter for the Mentors. Unfortunately, some of the Star Scorpions survived but fell to Chaos, becoming the warband "The Pure", and at least one of their leaders expressed an interest in the Chapter now wearing their former colors.

They still exist as of 999.M41 as Ekene Dubaku, Chapter Master of the Celestial Lions was beheaded by a Callidus posing as Thrall Servant of Amadeus Kaias Incarius from the Mentors. The Inquisition and Assassinorum probably made a mistake right there.

Mentors Legion Gadgets

• Mentors Bolters: Just really good bolters that are better at shooting.
• Plasma Missiles: Based off Eldar tech, these are missiles that explode in plasma.
• Targeting Web: A series of helmet and brain implants that allow the Mentors to focus their fire on a single target really well. (imagine if the Imperial Guard had this)
• Time Warper: *Ziggy says* Fucks up the time stream using the Warp to make the squad faster.
• Shift Field: Distorts light to make the squad hard to see.

The Retconning

This article or section involves Matthew Ward, Spiritual Liege, who is universally-reviled on /tg/. Because this article or section covers Ward's copious amounts of derp and rage, fans of the 40K series are advised that if they proceed onward, they will see fluff and crunch violation of a level rarely seen.

In Codex Space Marines of 5th Edition, the Mentors are mentioned as a secretive chapter that prefers to work alone. This goes against their very name, as they were named because they are taught by the Space Marines they assist and in turn teach the Imperial Guard they serve with. Goddamnit Ward, you've ruined their entire gimmick. Or maybe they just keep secrets because rational thinking is apparently heretical.

This has been explained as Mentors fighting separate from other Mentors. (which actually kinda works with the aforementioned MACVSOG shtick, since MACVSOG teams in Vietnam at times operated in very small numbers for nearly-independent recon missions with their only support being aircraft extraction on standby), given they spend actually a lot of time with others, especially squads of trained and augmented Chapter Thralls who they lead into combat.

The Retconning 2: Double-Retconned

As of the release of Aaron Dembski-Bowden's novel Spear of the Emperor, the chapter may be falling to chaos and passively empowering Nurgle (ironic, given 888 is the sacred number of Khorne). The novel contains a recounting of events from one of the chapter serfs, describing how their father contracted an unknown body-eating disease and could only obtain a small amount of pain suppressants from other serfs, claiming they "were far below any rank worthy enough to receive medicae aid," heavily implying the Space Marine Chapter allows diseases to spread through the serf ranks uncontested or even undocumented. The narrating serf goes on to claim their brother (an aspirant) was murdered in a barracks brawl, resulting in commendations for the killer. Kind of a weird thing for Astartes to commend, though, since fratricide is not exactly something Space Marines approve of and an aspirant killing another outside of orders does not bode well.

While either of these may have been intended to add more grimdark to the story rather than as heavy chaos implications, it would seem the original Mentors' heavy involvement with Auxiliaries is all but fully retconned.

Characters

• Amadeus Kaias Incarius - A Mentors Lieutenant Commander who volunteered to monitor the region of space known as Elara's Veil and the 2 remaining Chapters that hold it, the Emperor's Spears and the Celestial Lions. Was captured and tortured by a Chaos Lord which led to him being converted into a Primaris Marine in order to save his life. Deserted his chapter to join the Emperor's Spears after realizing that his chapter may have been complicit with the Inquisition in Ekene Dubaku's assassination, which he genuinely did not know anything about. Wait, if the Chapter seems to be partially turned to Nurgle, then if they're plot of a plot with Inquisitors the implications are extreme.
• Anuradha Daaz - A Helot (Chapter Serf) assigned to Incarius with a grudge against the Mentors after her brother, who had become an Aspirant, was killed in a brawl and his killer was commended for it. Was left to die by the Callidus Assassin posing as another Helot who later kills Ekene Dubaku, but got her revenge by trapping the assassin in a warp rift with a Vortex Grenade, allowing her to be cut down as she tried to escape. Continued serving Incarius following his defection to the Emperor's Spears.
• Dave Eldar