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Ultramarines

2016-08-25T01:59:31Z

2600:8803:1C02:A800:85A9:6D45:115C:DF1D: /* Overview */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Ultramarines
|Heraldry = [[File:Smurfpauldron.jpg|140px]]
|Battle Cry = "Courage and Honour!" and "We March for Macragge!"
|Number = XIII
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Successors of = N/A
|Successor Chapters = Roughly 65% of all Chapters.
|Chapter Master = [[Marneus Calgar]]
|Primarch = [[Roboute Guilliman]]
|Homeworld = [[Ultramar|Macragge]]
|Specialty = Jack of All Trades
|Strength = Exactly 1000 Marines
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Blue, white & gold
}}

''"What else, then, is all history, but the praise of Rome?"''

-Petrarch

''"Our presence remakes the past''"

-the Banner of Macragge

The '''Ultramarines''' are a chapter of [[Space Marines]], probably the most famous and well-known (both within the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe and without). [[Games Workshop]] considers the Ultramarines their chapter of choice, and the Ultramarines represent the standard upon which most other Space Marine chapters are based. Why Games Workshop would want a Space Marine chapter whose symbol is a <s>toilet seat</s> upside down Omega (℧) is beyond us. Maybe Rick Priestley was a Colts fan, who knows? Despite what canon has been trying to imply lately (see the intro to the CGI failmovie), the Ultramarines are not named so because they are 'ultra', as in, superior, 'marines'. Nope, they're called that because their Home sector is Ultramar, and the armour is ultramarine, which is a shade of blue. They have an easily recognizable blue-with-gold-trim colour scheme that's totally not like any other legion (technically that's only the second company but who ever heard of an ultramarine player not painting his army blue and gold) - the blue colouration, coupled with the small size of the minis, has lead them to be nicknamed "Smurfs" by some. The Ultramarines, perhaps more than any other imperial faction, draw inspiration from ancient Rome.

A squad of Tactical Marines are the protagonists of the 40k-based movie not so coincidentally titled "[[Ultramarines:The Movie|Ultramarines]]".

==Overview==

[[File:NroL23W.jpg|left|350px|thumb|All said and done, the Ultries can be badass.]]

The Ultramarine's central concept is that of a well drilled, immaculate army of warrior-monks who executed their duty with professionalism and competence. "By the book, no mistakes," is essentially the Ultramarine way, more so than most other Chapters. Even before they had reunited with their Primarch, it had been noted that the XIIIth Legion was strongly inclined towards the adoption of carefully thought out battle plans, an established chain of command, and an aversion to inflicting collateral damage. These tendencies was intensified further by their extensive study and practice of the Codex Astartes, which cover a very broad range of battlefield situations and doctrine to live by. Thanks to each and every one of them training and living by it, their companies operate like a smoothly functioning combat machine with every unit functionally interlocking with every other. However, as much as this by-the-book discipline was their strength, it is often also, like the real life ancient Roman Legions, their weakness, since the few situations that the Codex Astartes did not prepare them for tended to catch them flat-footed, lacking the flexibility to properly respond. The initial Tyranid invasion was one such situation, where they got their asses handed to them, until they managed to adapt and developed the Tyrannic War Veterans.

The [[Primarch]] of the Ultramarines is Robot Girlyman, aka [[Roboute Guilliman]], and it was he who wrote the (in?)famous [[Codex Astartes]] after the events of the [[Horus Heresy]], prescribing each Space Marine chapter to a mere thousand warriors to ensure that no one man would ever command the loyalty of an entire Space Marine legion again. At least, that was the plan, but Roboute Guilliman himself never got to see it come to light, as he was mortally wounded by a poisonous attack from his bro, the Traitor Primarch [[Fulgrim]], and he has been kept in stasis by the Ultramarines for thousands of years, where many claim that his wound is slowly healing.

The Ultramarines base their ideals upon the teachings of Roboute Guilliman, who ended up on a neo-Roman planet and soon adopted their way of thinking. They believe in individual strength to strengthen the whole ([[Chaos|and not for the betterment of one self]]), and in following the rules, however strict they might be - This way, they strive to maintain order both towards their attacks on their enemies and in management of the Chapter itself. Courage is, naturally, also a big thing to them, since it goes with the idea of the individual working to better the whole. All this means that the Ultramarines are very, very good at doing their job, as long as they are prepared for it and works alongside the rest of their Chapter, but tend to be completely stumped when a situation, which their planning and reasoning can't immediately deal with, comes up.

The Ultramarines are also very infamous for disregarding much of the Imperium in favour of their own worlds, the 500 (or so) worlds of Ultramar. This has garnered much hate from in-universe factions, who don't like how they essentially go "Screw you guys, we'll just make our own, sort of working empire!", but many elegen/tg/entlemen dislike this as well, since it sort of makes the Ultries seem they know better than the rest of the Imperium, while still being lauded as being some of the most honourable Chapters in the entire galaxy. Remember: The Space Wolves are seen as mindless savages by many upper-class citizens, since they don't follow the rules and sumsuch. The Ultramarines are seen as honorable warriors of the Imperium, [[Derp|and they've created their own mini-state.]] Figures, Ultramar is actually quite a decent place when you check the other option, what with for once having a meritocratic structure.

[[File:SpacemarineGettingArmoured.PNG|500px|right|thumb|Sparing nothing on the awesome factor.]]

Many, but not all, of the other Space Marine legions adopted the Codex and split up into multitudes of smaller chapters, and most Space Marine chapters today follow the practices found within it, although some like the Space Wolves and the Black Templars have refrained from implementing it. Few are as rigid in pursuing the use of the Codex as the Ultramarines, though. Where most other Chapters like the [[Imperial Fists]] and [[Raven Guard]] looks to it for guidance when encountering unfamiliar situations, the Ultramarines see the Codex as a sort of "holy book" and follow its instructions to the letter. Ironically, Guilliman himself believed this to be misguided and noted that the Codex was never meant to replace the ability to act on one's own judgments.But [[Grimdark|Irony]] is a strong force in 40K universe.

Because they are the poster-boys for Space Marines, they are perhaps the most famous Chapter in the general 40k fandom, but are widely hated by many denizens of [[/tg/]]. This may initially have been due to their popularity - the Space Marines in general suffer something of a backlash from fa/tg/uys because of their overwhelming popularity with the annoying young children that infest the hobby, and the Ultramarines are the most popular of them all - but of recent editions the blatant favouritism displayed by certain Games Workshop writers towards the Chapter have earned them considerable ire, especially from fans of other Space Marine chapters that get slagged off in the process. This is mainly the fault of [[Matthew Ward]]'s 5th edition Space Marine Codex, which explicitly claimed that the Ultramarines were superior to all other Space Marines (In 2nd edition it was explicitly stated.) and was not helped by Ward's own poor fluff-writing skills (see [[#Quotes|Quotes]] below). However, more recent fluff has served to bring the Smurfs back to their "Space Roman" roots, making them far less objectionable than they were in the past. Forge World's Horus Heresy line has been particularly kind to them, giving them a variety of stylish Heresy-era gear, all of them with that "The Glory That Was Rome" vibe.

==First Edition History==

[[Image:UltramarinesRT.jpg|thumb|right|Fig.1.1: An Ultramarine, note the [[Beakie]].]]

{{Oldschool}}

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/118383071/WD97-Chapter-Approved-Index-Astartes| Back in the] [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|first edition]] of Warhammer 40,000, in an article co-written by [[Rick Priestley]]. The XIIIth Legion were actually traitors and were banished to the Eye of Terror along with the other traitor legions. The modern day 40k Ultramarines were established on new years day 001.M32, which would make them a Third Founding chapter. They received all of the [[Gene Seed|gene-"sperm" & implants]], rituals and paraphernalia of the original legion.

Not only that, they only received lordship over the world of [[Macragge]] AFTER the First Tyrannic War. And though they did have different names for all of their company captains and command staff, they were/are still commanded by a man named Marneus Calgar.

The implications of this would be startling if we use the ''"everything is canon, but not necessarily true"'' stance that GW has adopted when regarding fluff inconsistencies. Hinting that Guilliman's marines were [[Imperium Secundus|heretics and traitors]] and were eventually banished from the Imperium.

However, attempting to reconcile this old origin story with "modern" Ultramarines is extremely difficult, we can only coherently insert it into the current state of play if we assume there is a second chapter out there called the "Ultra-Marines" with a chapter master and homeworld of the same name and the same level of involvement with the Tyrannic Wars. Though what completely knocks this old fluff out is that it ''also'' has possession of the body of [[Roboute Guilliman]] so it has to be a retcon though it still opens the door to conspiracy theories or that Marneus Calgar is [[Lugft Huron|in command of multiple Chapters]]. Or more likely, it's just old fluff which went the way of the [[Squats]] after Rogue Trader.

==Notable Members==
*[[Marneus Calgar]], the current Chapter Master of the Ultramarines. His accomplishments include being thoroughly ripped apart by the [[Swarmlord]] (by that we mean all his limbs, a large portion of his body and his eye), single handedly holding off an Ork Waaagh! for 9 days all by himself and killing a Daemon Prince with only a squad of Terminators by stabbing him with a <s>warp-touched dagger</s> An Anathame shard named "The Shard of Erebus". However, his crowning moment is his defeat of an Eldar Avatar of Khaine in 1 vs 1, hand-to-hand combat, which is typically killed by the same effort it takes to kill a Khornate Bloodthirster - never mind that the thing is made of molten metal and over three times his size. He also had a rematch with the Swarmlord and won.
*[[Severus Agemman]], captain of the Ultramarines First Company. He was Captain of the Second Company, and Sicarius commanding officer before being promoted after the First Tyrannic War. There isn't much fluff about him besides being overshadowed by his former subordinate Sicarius. As first Company Captain he's Calgar's appointed successor, however much of the chapter thinks it will be Sicarius instead of him. Agemman is aware of this possibility and isn't very happy about it.
*[[Cato Sicarius]], the captain of the Ultramarines Second Company, is kind of a glory hog, but he's arguably earned his right to be a braggart through his skill at arms.
*[[Uriel Ventris]] is the captain of the Ultramarines Fourth Company and the main character of Graham McNeil's Ultramarines novel series. Notable for destroying the [[Daemonculaba]].
*[[Ortan Cassius]], a chaplain of the Ultramarines, is one of the oldest Space Marines alive and [[Bjorn the Fell Handed|not yet placed in a Dreadnought]]. The Tyrannic War Veterans were his idea.
*[[Varro Tigurius]], the Ultramarine's Chief Librarian, has enough psychic prowess to make psychic contact with the Hive Mind without going bonkers in the process.
*[[Torias Telion]] (aka; Sean Connery made [[Grimdark]]) is an Ultramarine Scout Sergeant. A skilled sniper, other chapters have borrowed him to train their scouts occasionally. He also has an impressive mustache.
*[[Captain Titus]] is a Captain of the who the fuck knows company (if the trim of his pauldrons are accurate, he's Captain of the 2nd Company). He gained prominence (will gain prominence?) on the forge world of Graia, trying to keep a whole Waaagh! from stealing all the bitz for themselves while keeping a probably radical Inquisitor happy. Also there's a portal to the warp letting out Daemons and Chaos Marines to go on a jolly old pub crawl. He is also one of the few Ultramarines who clearly states that the Codex Astartes is not meant to be a mental straightjacket. Thus, he is [[awesome]].
*Chaplain Varnus, an Ultramarines Chaplain dispatched to Lorn V. For perhaps the first instance in recorded time, he is a Space Marine who actually respects the Imperial Guard and couldn't ask for a better force (barring his own company).
*Aeonid Thiel: A sergeant during the Horus Heresy, despite being seen as rule breaking maverick he ends up playing a major role in the gorundwork for the Ultramarines post-war including the red panted helmets for sergeants, the Tactical Marine Squad and the co-writer of the Codex.
*Sargent Cornellus: A Sargent of an embarrassing squad. Notable for Killing Eliphas the Inheritor the first time, stopping a demon invasion and finding the Ultramarines Scrabble set all while sounding like a baby

==Quotes==

<blockquote>
"Chapters [not descended from Guilliman's geneseed] are disciples who owe their genetic inheritance to another [[Primarch]], but follow the [[Codex Astartes]] as keenly as their divergent heritage allows. While primarily composed of successor Chapters, this group also includes several Chapters of the [[First Founding]] - notably the [[Imperial Fists]], [[White Scars]] and the [[Raven Guard]]. <s>These chapters can never be Ultramarines, for their gene-seed is not that of [[Roboute Guilliman]]. Nevertheless, they will ever aspire to the standards and teachings of the great [[Primarch]].</s> Fucking [[Matt Ward]]...

[Chapters who do not emulate the Ultramarines] are aberrants; chapters who, through quirk of gene-seed, mutation or stubbornness, eschew the Codex Astartes in favor of other structural and combat doctrines. Some, such as the [[Blood Angels]] and their successors, strive to be worthy of Guilliman's legacy, but their recalcitrant gene-seed drives them ever further from it. Others, such as the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Black Templars]], remain stubbornly independent, looking to their own founder's ways of war and caring little of how they fare in the eyes of others. These aberrant Chapters were always few in number and their presence diminishes with each passing decade, for their gene-seed is no longer the source of fresh Chapters."
</blockquote>
- [[Matt Ward]], Ultramarines player, codex writer, [[Codex]]: [[Space Marines]], 5th Edition, p. 25.

<blockquote>
"The Ultramarines are undoubtedly the best Space Marines ever. Yes, really! Thanks to the heritage of Guilliman and their myriad heroic deeds, the Ultramarines are the exemplars of the Space Marines. With a few fringe exceptions who have severe mutations <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Blood Angels]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> or stolid stubbornness <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Space Wolves]] and [[Dark Angels]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> all [[Space Marine Chapter]]s want to be like the Ultramarines and recognize [[Marneus Calgar]] as their [[spiritual liege]]."
</blockquote>
- Matt Ward, Ultramarines player, codex writer, in the [[White Dwarf]] interview celebrating the release of Codex: Space Marines.

<blockquote>
"But your teachings…"<br/>
"Are yet flawed," said Guilliman. "No one, not even one such as I, can anticipate every possible outcome of battle. My words are not some holy writ that must be obeyed. There must always be room for personal initiative on the battlefield. You and I both know how one spark of heroism can turn the tide of battle. That knowledge and personal experience can only be earned in blood, and the leader in the field must always be the ultimate arbiter of what course of action should be followed."
</blockquote>
- [[Roboute Guilliman]], making a point that his successors would quickly forget about and [[Matt Ward|the writer above]] would ignore.

==Some music==

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wTXrLsZvVI Their theme] done by [[HMKids]].
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt1M8iZNHpQ Their theme] from Chaos Gate.
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf9AaTV4-yw A track] from their official movie.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Spacemarine.jpg|[[Iron Hands|Sgt Pasanius didn't want that hand anyway.]]
File:Warhammer ultramarine take 2 by faroldjo.jpg|Say what you want about Ultramarines, but their Honour Guards looks pretty boss.
File:Ultramarines concept by Malkavian7515.jpg
File:Pimp Suit.png|Captain Cato Sicarius' power armour, also known as the Mantle of the Mary Suzerain
File:CodexSM EPUB Cover.jpg|Ultramarines got the front cover of the Space Marine Codex and admittely looks fucking cool for it.
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Who Watches Them]]
*[[Macragge heresy]]
*[[Ultramarines Honour Company]]
*[http://www.scribd.com/doc/118383071/WD97-Chapter-Approved-Index-Astartes| The past wot got remade by their presence - the original Chapter Approved write up of the "Ultra-Marines."]

{{Template:Marines-Official}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]][[Category:Space Marines]][[Category:Matt Ward]]

Stupid Good

2016-08-24T22:58:58Z

2600:8803:1C02:A800:85A9:6D45:115C:DF1D:

:''" Ignoring what he's done in the past. Blindly, stupidly disregarding the entire graveyards he's filled, the thousands who have suffered, the friends he's crippled."''
:-- Jason Todd to Batman, nailing the exact point on why Stupid Good characters fuck things up for everyone else, because "morals".
'''Stupid Good''' is a term derived from the [[Dungeons & Dragons]] [[alignment]] system, but can easily be applied to [[character]]s in any [[role-playing game]] in fact, it can be applied to characters in any medium, or even real life for a specific way of playing a morally good character, usually a [[Paladin]] with a relatively even split between this and [[Lawful Stupid]].

==Definition==
Unfortunately, Stupid Good is considerably harder to define than Lawful Stupid, where the latter generally accepted to apply in situations where following the "Law" or pre-defined codes of conduct can lead a person/PC into morally dubious situations.

By contrast; the former would logically be applied to those who would perform good acts "no matter the cost", usually things like sparing the unarmed [[Big Bad Evil Guy|villain]] over and over again so that he can go on to commit more acts of evil in future, where a brief act of evil on the part of the good person ''(i.e., murdering the fucker)'' would create an overall better outcome.
*This is often what differentiates '''Stupid Good''' from ''[[Lawful Stupid]]'' in that Stupidly Good characters have a marked tendency to get fooled by supposed acts of "redemption" and are more inclined to offer second chances rather than letting basic rationality take its course.

Generally though, this alignment will mostly depend on your [[GM]]'s outlook, since the above example is actually considered to be one of the prime examples of the "good" alignment. This has also been spoon-fed to us over years and years of early morning cartoons where the good guy can always be relied upon to do the right thing, even to a fault and where the villain ''always'' gets away to return "next time".

Note however that this nearly always applies to situations where choice becomes a factor, the above examples nearly always depend upon an unarmed/defeated opponent. The choice of what to do with the villain then becomes a moral question, which can be entirely separate from society's requirements on the lawful/chaos axis. ''(where handing him to the authorities may be the lawful thing to do.)''
The morality issue often gets thrown out of the window if the villain is slain during a difficult fight or through circumstance.

In this case examples of '''True''' Stupid Good would be a person attempting to spare the life of a villain even then, perhaps even refusing to cause them harm since they would classify causing pain, suffering and/or injury as an evil act regardless of the circumstance.

These are the PCs who can bring gaming groups problems, when they get into the nitty gritty about what actually is classed as evil, and their strict moral codes often require them to intervene on the actions of the party members. Though anyone who owns a copy of the '''Book of Exalted Deeds''' back in 3rd Edition D&D can find that this can be a legitimate (though often extreme) attitude towards goodness, but can find rules to accommodate these play-styles.

===Examples of Stupid Good===
*The '''Autobots''' particularly from the classic 80s cartoons. Almost incessantly "good" and stubborn in their refusals to do anything remotely bad. Seriously, in the whole run of the original series and the millions of years of war between them and the Decepticons, did they kill anyone?
**Optimus Prime can also be equally described as [[Lawful Stupid]], though the terms are not as mutually exclusive as the D&D alignments are.
*The '''Organians''' from the original series of [[Star Trek]] are peace lovers to the extreme, to the point in intervening in the Federation/Klingon War and stopping all fighting across the galaxy. Particularly in the expanded content where they refuse to get involved in Q-Wars threatening multiple dimensions of existence.
*Batman. Just...how many times did he let the Joker live, almost intentionally knowing he'd escape Arkham and kill many more innocents, and doing the whole dance over again? Oh yeah, because for some stupid reason, putting a Batarang through the psycho-clown's throat makes the Batman as bad as the Joker. This also extends to other dangerous villains, including Penguin "kill all of Gotham's firstborn children in their sleep."
*Ned Stark can both fit into Lawful Stupid and Stupid Good, as his penchant for mercy (he doesn't want Robert to murder Tommen and Myrcella in a fit of rage) ends up getting him executed and generally starting the major clusterfuck known as the War of the Five Kings.

==The darker side of goodness==
<blockquote>''"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain." ''</blockquote>

On the flip side of Stupid Good, there are those who attempt to justify whatever it is that they do so long as their characters create good outcomes. In essence as opposed to good '''actions''' "no matter the cost", the other side of stupid good is good '''consequences''' "no matter the cost". Generally those who circumvent moral problems with clever use of ethics and is therefore more often associated with Chaotic Good on the alignment scale ''(though not exclusively).''

This ''"ends justifies the means"'' approach is less like taking good actions to the point of situational absurdity and more like players using logic to create goodness out of absurd situations.

An example of a dilemma surrounding this phenomenon is: Is it morally good to do something evil, to result in an even [[Greater Good]]? Such as killing an innocent to save the king/country/world/universe?

The '''Book of Exalted Deeds''' says that the above example is most definitely '''not''' a Good act, no matter the intention of the PC and treads the muddy Neutral ground at best, however not all RPGs use the [[D&D]] alignment system, but any RPG that involves some mechanical tracker of morality may inevitably encounter a player action which causes an awkward collective intake of breath, followed by the question of ''"[[This Just Happened|did you really just do that?]]"''.

This is dangerous ground for any potential [[GM]] and needs to be [[Rules Lawyer|decided]] upon firmly when it arises. While there are many examples of real-world applications of the line of thought historically and politically, they are controversial almost without exception. In roleplaying games; the end justifies the means approach can certainly be seen as upholding the "moral good", but if a GM allows attitudes like this to take root, savvy players may eventually find reasons to do anything and have essentially just become [[Murderhobo]]s with apparent moral authority, and it can force hard-alignment systems to lose their legitimacy.

If "Good" players start justifying why they are [[Imperium|seeking out and slaying whole villages]] of Orcs "just BECAUSE they are evil" or if they are committing acts of [[Alpha Legion|terrorism against an oppressive state]] even when that state system is perfectly codified and functional then a GM should probably think about dropping any alignment systems rather than attempt to enforce muddy and dubious decisions.

===Examples of "Good" done Stupidly===
* The [[Tau]] in 40k, though with particular reference to the harsher side of the [[Greater Good]] where they believe that people can be forcibly brought into harmony with one another. It's not terribly unreasonable given that pretty much everyone else in the setting is either insane, evil, or xenophobic (or all three) to the point where almost nobody gets along without a gun to their head.
*[[Konrad Curze]] - VERY VERY much so, despite the fact he [[Noblebright|brought crime and corruption on his world to near-zero, improving efficiency and bringing hope]] to his world, he was NOT a good person, no matter what he was attempting to argue.
*The '''Organians''' again; Though only in [[/v/|video games]] where they have given up the non-violent approach and decide to force everyone into peace by [[derp|declaring war on them]].
* Stannis Baratheon, from the show adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire. He keeps on committing morally dubious and sometimes even downright villainous acts, such as sacrificing his own daughter to a fire god, in order to save Westeros from a bunch of evil elves, their zombie minions, and their Darth Maul lookalike leader; all at the behest of a crazed priestess who can't see that Stannis is NOT the chosen hero of yore, which she has fooled both herself and him into believing. In other words, he's a more well intentioned Macbeth who will end up with the same fate.
* Cortana, from the Halo franchise. Starts off as a Neutral Good character (her concern and care for John eclipsing her duty to humanity), but through a combination of torture at the hands of the Gravemind (Halo's biggest dick), her ongoing issues with Rampancy, living through the horror of the Human-Covenant War, and going through a state of near death, she develops a worldview that organics cannot be trusted to run affairs on their own, and becomes determined to become the Galaxy's version of Augustus (though she obviously lacks Augustus' political acumen), [[Tau|setting out to unify the galaxy under her rule and bring about a Pax Galactica, becoming the exact sort of tyrant that C.S Lewis claimed was the worst]] (She views a few million lives lost due to her awakening gargantuan flying robots known as Guardians as a "necessary sacrifice").

[[Category:Gamer Slang]]