Chaos Space Marines

The eternal war rages on.

Chaos Space Marines are, simply enough, Space Marines that have fallen to Chaos. They are also one of the main factions in Warhammer 40,000. The first Chaos Marines were born during the Horus Heresy from the nine Traitor Legions. Since then, many Space Marines (and even a few full Chapters) have gone rogue, becoming Renegades. However, this is mostly a fluff distinction, as the Codex does not differentiate between the two.

Many Chaos Marines eventually dedicate themselves to one of the four Chaos Gods, becoming little more than an extension of the god's will. This path has great risk and great reward, as the Chaos Gods are quite capricious; between two equally-dedicated champions, one will become a horrific beast that should not be named, whereas the other will achieve apotheosis and become a Daemon Prince.

• Khornate Champions: Those who worship Khorne (such as the World Eaters Traitor Legion) become close quarters badasses full of RAAAAAAAAAGGGEEEE!. Khornate champions are among the best dedicated melee fighters in the setting. They are insane, ruthless, and barbaric, and continually lust after BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! Marines dedicated to Khorne are usually called Khorne Berzerkers, after the Berzerkers of the World Eaters Legion, of whom Kharn (swell guy by the way) is the most famous. They are famed for their use of the chainaxe and their fucktastically fearless charges. They also get the best speeches. "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! LET THE GALAXY BURN!"

• Tzeentchian Champions: All followers of Tzeentch are tricky and conniving, and many of them are also powerful psykers (as Tzeentch is the god of magic). Warriors under Tzeentch tend to rape anything in ranged combat with either enhanced weapons or SPACE MAGIC that would turn heroes into Chaos Spawn, squa-GRAABBRLBLLRBLRLRBLR
  • Ahem. To continue where the previous writer left off... squads of infantry into ash, and vehicles into puddles of molten goo. The Thousand Sons Legion is dedicated to Tzeentch; their (former) chief diviner, Ahriman, is one of the better-known Tzeentchian sorcerers.

• Slaaneshi Champions: What you get when Space Marines start going after hookers and blow, champions of Slaanesh wanna get higher than high while banging an absurd amount of chicks... who are also high. Slaaneshi Marines have taken so many drugs their bodies start to produce them normally. And yes, this is really canon. They also get penis fingers to give them the extra edge in combat (somehow) and hyperactive awareness, meaning they can see bullets flying and evade them. Doomrider is one of the most famous Slaaneshi champions (at least on /tg/), although he isn't from the Emperor's Children, the Chaos Legion that fell to Slaanesh; Lucius the Eternal, on the other hand, is.

• Nurglic Champions: These guys are rotting, diseased, decaying sacks of flesh who can take hits that would kill a squad of Terminators. They're something of a meat shield as far as Chaos is concerned (although not as much as Chaos Cultists. They've contracted every disease in creation and then some. Despite looking like a bag of things best not described, Nurgle's followers won't hesitate to give you a big, long, family hug. D'awww. The Death Guard fell to Nurgle, but it wasn't really their fault.

• Undivided: Back in the good ol' days, Chaos Undivided was the concept of worshipping Chaos as a combined entity or pantheon. The Word Bearers were probably the most well-known worshippers of Chaos Undivided. Since then, it has been largely retconned; instead, Chaos Undivided refers to Chaos Marines with the support of all four Chaos gods (such as Failbaddon). This has left the Word Bearers in something of a weird spot, as their core concept has been badly mangled. Although, this is not completely out of place: Undivided followers do have the support of all four Chaos Gods due to their doctrine, but because they don't swear complete servitude to one like what the Death Guard and World Eaters did, they don't receive the full power of each Chaos God either...well except Failbaddon, who for some reason does not seem to get that his position as the "Most powerful champion of Chaos" is an ironic joke.

Note that many bands of "Chaos" Marines exploit Chaos for their own gain and feel little devotion to the Ruinous Powers. The Alpha Legion, for instance, are closet loyalists, whereas the Night Lords Legion only cares about spreading terror, which Chaos is undoubtedly useful for, but they look down upon the religious. Similarly, the Soul Drinkers, a Renegade Chapter with an entire book series, are enemies of both Chaos and the Imperium of Man (they fight for the Emperor's ideals... don't ask, it's complicated), although most in the Imperium would consider them "Chaos Marines."

We should also mention Malal here. See, way back when, Warhammer Fantasy Battle had a minor Chaos God named Malal. His main goal was the spread of chaos (not the Warp kind) by screwing up the plans of the other Ruinous Powers, so he had dedicated Champions that hunted down other Chaos Champions and generally dicked over the Chaos Gods. However, Games Workshop had to remove him from the setting due to a trademark dispute with the author that invented him. In 40k, meanwhile, there's a warband called the Sons of Malice that hunt down other Chaos Marines and seem to worship a minor Chaos power named "Malice." This has led /tg/ to believe that Malal/Malice exists in 40k and can be entreatied for power, although this is of dubious canonicity at best.

Overview

Basically SPESS MEHREENS who, for whatever non-reason, decided they were too cool and edgy for the Imperium of Man, so they redirected their homolust for the Emprah to something else... like a Chaos god. During the height of the Horus Heresy, they went all evil and did a lot of nasty on their former comrades until they were forced to retreat to the Eye of Terror due to Smurfs. Who were not on the other side of the galaxy when this occurs. disregard that, the Smurfs didn't even participate in the defense of Terra.

Naturally, they fight just like Space Marines, except on average they are stronger, more experienced and older, given that the majority stood with their Primarchs during the Great Crusade. They keep using shit they were equipped with prior to the Horus Heresy such as bolters and the ever useful Space Marine plot armor, which would explain why they didn't fist fuck each other to death before reaching the Eye of Terror or why they would follow the lead of a particular Saturday morning cartoon villain. Chaos Marines are also commonly known to compensate their aging weapons (which didn't really age much considering how fucktarded Imperium tech support is) by using demon magic, giving themselves penis fingers for that extra edge in combat. (Daemon steroids for Khorne's followers, for example.)

For all their powers from Chaos, however, they are nowhere nearly as organized as their loyalist counterparts. Turning to Chaos tends to drive marines insane, causing them to usually lose much of the useful tactics they had when they were loyalists. Different warbands of Chaos Space Marines are every bit as prone to fighting each other as they are anything else for any number of reasons; evil doesn't get along with evil, they're all nuts and just want to fight something, other warband worships a different Chaos god. Yeah, these guys are nuts, infighting inside individual warbands is not unheard off, and their leaders always have to watch their back because every single marine has hopes of killing their superiors and taking over. So yeah, if they didn't have the Eye of Terror to hide in and the Imperium was so idiot ball prone it probably would have killed them by now. However, when they DO get their shit together, they fuck up the Imperium on a scale undreamed of by every other race in Warhammer. See the Dominion of Fire or the Cholercaust Blood Crusade. GODDAMN IT, KHORNATE BERZERKERS ARE AWESOME.

They're the oldest fogies (or at least the ones from traitor legions are anyway) in the setting, barring the space elves, That one angry viking dreadnought, who's about their age, the Tomb King expys and maybe a few of the Omnivorous Space Bug Lizards things. Because of this, they irritably refer to the Loyalists as 'Pups', 'An army of Children' and 'little brothers'. Frequently mocking their methods of Warfare as un-manly, and shouting such phrases as "PUPS! YOU CALL THIS WAR?!" and "WAR WAS BETTER IN MY DAY!". Except when they meet Bjorn the Fell Handed, then they just crap themselves, or in the case of Khornates, they scream, "TEAR THE LOYALIST FROM HIS SHELL!" Of course, even the Khornates still get their shit fucked up by Bjorn, who slaughtered a shit ton of them in the first War for Armageddon.

As of 6th edition, they'll be getting a giant dragon that's designed to troll a Dread Knight. Praise the Gods. Many lulz were had when /tg/ discovered that said dragon thing possessed several engine exhaust ports in the shape and colour of anal orifices. "Gaze into the eye of terror!" and "Glory to the Goatse of Chaos!" were only some of the reactions.

On the tabletop, Chaos Space Marines play similar to their loyalist counterparts, having access to most of the same wargear and vehicles, plus a bunch of unique stuff. They have many of the same strengths and weaknesses, powerful units and expensive units, are often outnumbered, but overall, they tend to play more aggressively. Their ranking amongst armies has varied from in the 3rd edition, where their codex was considered so overpowered it needed to actually be replaced (overpowered units and stuff like nasty Slaanesh psykic power that kept the caster from being shot, it's just as broken as it sounds), after which they fell somewhat in decline due to progressively weaker books. As of 6E, they're badass again. Supremely badass.

When it comes to the traitor marines themselves, /tg/'s opinions were divided. Some praised the new design for its focus on intricate trims and warp-induced mutations (eyes, tentacles), whereas others disliked it for its lack of Grimdark, claiming it looked too cartoonish and too playful.

The Traitor Legions

This is the guy who knocks at the door of your Warp flat if you don't show up for the rituals of the Dark Gods very often.

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 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 Pretty Marines, their Primarch is Fulgrim, who is now a painting (or something). They don't operate as a Legion at all anymore, mostly because Kharn 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 attentions 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) bass cannons 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 most coherent of the Traitor Legions, retaining most of their pre-Heresy organization and numbers. Also, they probably created the Obliterator Virus, seeing as how they seem to have special connections with the Obliterator Cult. Sadly, they can no longer take 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 walking around in Power Amour and wearing stupid bat-wing helmets. They also like screaming like maniacs to cause terror. They are one of the few legions (in fact, pretty much the only one) who refuse to employ Daemons or live in the Eye of Terror. They're also pretty much the only Traitor Legion that has a dead Primarch, on account of Konrad Curze's desire to go down like an emo to rebel against daddy.

• World Eaters: Angron- 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 only legion known to get shit done when called up to do so.

• Death Guard: Mortarion - Don't show up much in the fluff, though plague marines and champions can be found in many other warbands and, next to world-eater berserkers, are the most common of the one-deity dedicated units. Also before Thirteenth Black Crusade Typhus's Blight Fleet kicked major ass in systems all around the Eye of Terror, turning entire planetary populations into zombies.

• Thousand Sons: Magnus the Red - Another legion that doesn't show up much at all in fluff after the Horus Heresy and 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 Inquisitors. 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 majicking the shit out of anyone stupid or bold enough to stand on their way. Being smart and cunning motherfuckers they fight only where it really needed and only on their own terms (read: very rarely).

• Black Legion: Horus - Originally called the Luna Wolves and then the Sons of Horus. Unites every now and then when Failbaddon wants to launch another Black Crusade. It's a miracle they're still surviving with Abaddon's incompetent leadership and numerous failed black crusades, which should have probably left them extremely undermanned. However, their ranks are quickly filled by the millions of volunteers who sign up because god damn that paint job looks cool actually its because Failbaddon keeps stealing other legion's troops or 'buying' them and daemons with big promises he can't keep. Basically he is like a compulsive gambler who has borrowed money from every money lender in existence, some of whom are gods. They are the largest legion by far, stated to outnumber the Word Bearers ten to one. They have no real central command structure outside of a Black Crusade, and even then Abaddon, being the failure that he is, 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 afterwards.

• Word Bearers: Lorgar - The Only Legion to have retained its Chaplains in the form of Dark Apostles, 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). Second most coherent after the Iron Warriors.

• Alpha Legion: Alpharius/Omegon- No such legion or primarchs exists, further speculation on this issue is heresy and will result in execution. Said non-existent Legion has never 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 sneaking around undetected. Bonus points for doing it while 8 feet tall and wearing 500 pounds of armor.

See Also

• Warriors of Chaos: The much more competent counterparts to the Chaos Marines in Warhammer Fantasy
• Tactics/Chaos Space Marines

Gallery

<gallery> File:1227181112539.jpg|The Typical Chaos Space Marine File:1174923365695wq1vj1.png|The dreaded Night Lords preparing an ambush File:Emperor s Children by megalaros.jpg|Slaaneshi noise marine. Because words can hurt. File:Lcw.jpg|They think that corpse on a throne is a god!

The Traitor Legions and Warbands of Chaos
Chaos Legions:	Alpha Legion - Black Legion - Death Guard Emperor's Children - Iron Warriors - Night Lords Thousand Sons - Word Bearers - World Eaters
Legion Offshoots:	Apostles of Contagion - Bloodborn - Broken Aquila Foresworn - Mouldering Claw - Plague Fleet - Prodigal Sons The Consortium - Warband of Subsector Aurelia
Fallen Chapters (Including Judged):	Adharon's Reavers - Blood Gorgons - Company of Misery Corpus Brethren - Crimson Slaughter - Deathmongers Death Shadows - Invocators - Lords of Decay Oracles of Change - Red Corsairs - Shriven The Brazen Beasts - The Flawless Host - The Scourged Skyrar's Dark Wolves - Steel Cobras - Voidrippers
Unknown/ Other:	Apostles of Minthras - Claws of Lorek - Disciples of Destruction Dragon Warriors - Extinction Angels - Hakanor's Reavers - Punishers The Cleaved - The Purge - The Pyre - Sons of Malice - Sons of Vengeance The Reborn - Violators - Warp Ghosts - Bleak Brotherhood