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Sons of Antaeus

2020-05-04T04:15:31Z

2601:443:47F:3CA0:7D0C:CE26:1DD2:8BF7:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Sons of Antaeus
|Heraldry =
|Battle Cry =
|Founding = [[21st Founding]]
|Successors of = Probably Ultramarines
|Chapter Master = Unknown
|Primarch = Roboute Guilliman
|Homeworld = Unknown
|Specialty = Being tuff nutters
|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man]]
|Colours = Grey and black
}}
The '''Sons of Antaeus''' are a Loyalist chapter of [[Space Marines]] who lead a very mysterious existence.

They are known to be particularly hardy and tough, being more impervious to damage than even other Space Marines, as well as being large even by Marine standards. They can shrug off blows that would instantly kill any other Astartes. This is due to the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] going crazy in adding all sorts of extra stuff to harden them up; some whisper that their toughness is on par with the [[Death Guard]] Legion.

Perhaps due to this, they are notably not open to most [[Imperium of Man|Imperial]] authorities and avoid contact with them whenever they can. This is probably a smart choice, considering [[Flame Falcons|what]] [[Blood Gorgons|happened]] to the other [[Cursed Founding]] [[Lamenters|Chapters]].

Over a decade ago, these guys had their own rules in 3rd edition, found [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Chapter_Approved/Cursed_Founding|here]] ''(handily /tg/ updated for 6th edition)''

The Sons are confirmed as being active as late as M41.9, so they're not doing as badly as some of the other cursed chapters. Also, while their toughness is often likened to [[Plague Marines]], the process by which they were created bears more resemblance to [[Primaris Marines]] (made without [[Belisarius Cawl|Cawl]]'s expertise) and could also explain their toughness. Primaris Marines are made using some of the process of creating Custodes. So, the Sons might have a similar connection to the Thunder Warriors.

Note: In real-world Greek mythology, Antaeus was a total badass renowned for being completely invincible while touching his mother. Sounds like a shit superpower, until you find out that Antaeus was actually the son of Gaea... AKA ''the fucking Earth''. He, of course, abused this by challenging random passersby to ''Pankration'' matches (think MMA deathmatches) and taking their shit when they inevitably lost. This continued up until Hercules defeated him by picking him up off the ground and choking him to death.

Also ''antaeus'' means literally "opponent" in ancient Greek... read of that what you will.

A Son of Antaeus shows up in the novel Shadowbreaker, as a member of the Deathwatch no less. Called Androcles, he is described as being fucking massive; without armour he was about the size of a Marine wearing theirs. We also get confirmation that they are thought to be Ultramarines successors. Androcles also claims that despite being a part of the Cursed Founding, the Sons don't see themselves as cursed at all. He also claims the Sons of Antaeus have never been defeated "on solid ground". Sadly he is killed when he's ganged up on by two other Marines, one hoisting him into the air while the other stabbed him to death. It should also be noted that the other two Marines were wearing full power armour and one had a storm shield while Androcles only had recon armour and his combat knife, and he still put up a very hard fight. Notice that until they got him off the ground, they couldn’t win. How much of this is skill and how much might be...something else is questionable if you think about how oddly akin to the myth of Antaeus they seem to be.
===daily rituals ===

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

Black Templars

2020-05-04T03:53:48Z

2601:443:47F:3CA0:7D0C:CE26:1DD2:8BF7:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Black Templars
|Heraldry = [[File:Blacktemplarslogo.png|250px]]
|Battle Cry = "No pity! No remorse! No fear!"
|Number =
|Founding = [[Second Founding]]
|Successors of = [[Imperial Fists]]
|Successor Chapters =
|Chapter Master = [[Helbrecht]]
|Primarch = [[Rogal Dorn]]
|Homeworld = ''Eternal Crusader'' (fleet-based)
|Specialty = Assault, close combat, being massive try-hards
|Strength = Somewhere between one to ten thousand if not more (Reports about their crusades are unsure)
|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man]]
|Colours = Black and white [[Pauldrons|shoulder pads]]
}}
{{awesome}}

{{topquote|They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you? You will be '''worse'''. [[Rip and Tear]], until it is '''DONE'''.|The only order that matters.}}

{{Topquote|I have dug my grave in this place and I will either triumph or I will die!|Relcusiarch Grimaldus, Hero of Helsreach}}

{{Topquote|WHERE IS YOUR GOD? OH YEAH, HE'S WITH ME NOW!!|Rare Black Templar war cry/motto}}

The '''Black Templars''' are a [[Second Founding]] [[Space Marine Chapter]] of the [[Imperial Fists]]. These [[Space Marines|Space Marines]] are as manly as the [[Manly Marines]] and as angry as the [[Angry Marines]]. They make a hobby of dressing up as the Knights Hospitaller and trolling the Inquisition with their larger-than-Codex-approved numbers. They're righteously angry for the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]], they're usually close combat focused and their idea of a charge is a giant zerg rush of a hundred angry Crusaders who won't hesitate to skullfuck the nearest alien/mutant/heretic with their powersword just because they look funny. [[Rip and Tear|Although they don't need swords that much...]]

The Black Templars and their iconography are of a mixture of the Knights Templar, Teutonic Knights and the Knights Hospitaller. Basically if you need someone's shit pushed in hard by a power armored fist, these are the guys you call.

==About the Black Templars==
[[Image:Blacktempbeinbadass.jpg|thumb|left|"I came here to Purge Heretics and pray in chapels of the Emperor. And I don't see any Chapels."]]

The Black Templars have their origins in the first company of the [[Great Crusade]]-Era Imperial Fists, a group originally known as the Templar Brethren. They wore all-black armor and had black crosses on their right pauldron and shields, and were sworn to protect the Temple of Oaths (OK, the reality is that [[Forge World]] wanted to justify including Black Templars into [[Horus Heresy]]. They're really more Templar than Imperial Fist at this point already). Their Commander and First Captain of the Imperial Fists, [[Sigismund]], started the tradition of the Emperor's Champion, in which a Templar would challenge the enemy's champions to single combat. After the Heresy had ended and [[Roboute Guilliman]] called for the [[Second Founding]], Sigismund took his Templar Brethren to found the Black Templars.

They express their [[Rage|fury]] through burning [[Codex Astartes|heretical texts]] (as kindling for the actual heretics), pwning [[furry|mutants]], [[Angry Marines|and skull fucking aliens]]. But you might say, "Isn't that what every other Spess Mehreen chapter does?" Well you'd be right, but they are the most pro-active about it, celebrations on finishing one Crusade involve declaring a new Crusade, recruits are taken from all the planets they've been on then sent to join the fighting so that they never have to slow down, and they usually fight by zerg rushing their enemies with hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of heavily power armoured super humans holding power weapons while screaming a litany of curses at the top of their superhuman lungs. Also unlike other Chapters, they don't have scout teams, as they think they're not righteously angry enough. Instead all new Neophytes (read: meatshields) are given some crap and schooled in the field by a fully appointed Marine (called an "Initiate").

Basically, the Black Templars focus on ''winning'' and ''killing everything'' as opposed to the normal Space Marine actions which prioritize glory and challenges. Most Space Marines would see a concentration of powerful enemies and charge in guns blazing. A Black Templar would call in a Whirlwind strike and walk on their corpses. To them, glory comes from simply murderizing the absolute '''''fuck''''' out of the enemies of man. They come in like a hurricane of death instead of the normal Astartes "Knights in SPAAAAACEEE!!!" shtick. They are not space monks, though they are pious. They are not knights, though they look the part. They are single-minded slaughter machines that retain just enough humanity to relate to...and just little enough to evoke deep dread in all who cross their path. This might also be part of the reason for their high numbers. Since they're so focused on just plain winning, they don't stupidly endanger themselves when a more effective and efficient method is available. They also fight to win rather than to show how powerful they are or to strike fear into the heart of the enemy or boost friendly morale or anything. They don't bother with that stuff, that's what the Emperor's Champion is for. No, the Black Templars just fucking '''kill'''.

The Black Templars are '''THE''' largest loyalist ([[Derp|"codex following"]]) chapter, estimated to have at least over two thousand marines in their ranks. This is primarily because the Black Templars sometimes split their crusade fleets to achive different campaing goals and they're scattered throughout the galaxy so the correct number of Templars in active service is only known by [[Helbrecht]], himself High Marshal of the Black Templars. This means that their chapter alone could wipe out the [[Tau|weeaboo communists]] or almost [[Rape|every faction]] if they were drawn together in one place. Of course this would twist the nipples of the Inquisition and move the setting of 40k along, so don't expect it to happen anytime soon (read:ever). Unfortunately they're unwilling to fight beside psykers except for Grey Knights, they got all buddy-buddy with them fairly quickly, enough so that they willingly shared the STCs for the [[Land Raider|Land Raider Crusader]] with them, mind-wipes not withstanding of course. They are descended from the [[Imperial Fists]], but obviously got more of Dorn's angry [[Gene Seed|splooge]] than his [[Imperial Fists|patient splooge]]. They sometimes get to wear cool Crusader helms, which are at least ten times as [[Awesome|awesome]] as the [[beakie]]s' Corvus helms.

The new Space Marines codex has changed several things about the chapter. It now states they worship the Emperor as a God like the larger Imperium and they have close ties with the Ecclesiarchy. This also makes them good friends with the [[Sisters of Battle]], whom they regularly team up with and have several alliances with. Emperor pity the heretics who have to face both of these groups of zealous nutters at once.

Alternatively, you could choose to ignore the fluff in the new codex that says that they worship the Emperor, as it is wrong and demonstrates a clear Ward-like level of disregard for previous, and better, fluff as it also says that out of all Astartes chapters, only the Black Templars worship the Emperor. This contradicts several novels that say the chapters they revolve around worship him. The first that come to mind are James Swallows series on the Blood Angels. THEN there's the fact that Grimaldus, the Black Templars' High Chaplain (you know, guy who knows better than anyone else what they believe), said that they DO NOT worship him in ADB's sequel to Helsreach, Blood and Fire.

<s>Shame the newer fluff decanonizes the old, but advancement is advancement.</s> Games Workshop says ''everything is canon'' so the debate is pointless. Besides, GW itself consistently holds that Space Marines do not worship the Emperor. GW lore even goes into details explaining that the Imperium accepts it as a quirk due to them being so physically and spiritually close to him that he only ''seems'' less divine to the Space Marines. The Inquisition and Ecclesiarchy don't like it, though. So, we have GW say "everything is canon" (In a multiple layers of reality due to Warp fuckery sort of way) and we have GW ''also'' saying that Space Marines do not worship the Emperor. Since they ''own'' Warhammer 40,000 we can safely say that Space Marines not worshiping the Emperor is the norm but there might be exceptions. Of which the Black Templars are not among them. They're utterly fanatical in enforcing the Emperor's will. Not what the Ecclesiarchy or Imperial Senate claims is his will, but his actual will. They refuse to work with (and often butcher) psykers because the Emperor said psykers and sorcery were no-nos. Logically, this means they would also respect his decree not to worship him and that he is not a god. The Black Templars were a Second Founding Chapter, so they would be fully aware of that.

As a curious aside, the Chapter's "fuck the man" policy has lead them to collect some odd friends. They are the only known allies for a few chapters, including the [[Celestial Lions]], [[Libators]], and [[Star Phantoms]].

==Accomplishments==
*Vowing to go on an Eternal Crusade as part of their deal during the Second Founding and [[awesome|keeping it going non-stop for 10,000 years without getting killed or so diminished they had to settle down to rebuild!]] (Which is a really impressive feat even for superhuman Astartes.) Although the [[Horus Heresy]] novels have revealed that Sigismund didn't start this voluntarily, he was ''exiled'' by [[Rogal Dorn]], and a lot of their more notable traits - like their absolute hatred of psykers - stems from Sigismund's [[butthurt]] over how he got exiled in the first place.
*Not forgetting about the Chaos Space Marines who fled into the Eye of Terror. When Abaddon and company first busted back out of the Eye of Terror, Sigismund was up in their business within the hour. And he nearly killed Abaddon.
*Taking back a hundred planets that were stolen by the [[Tau|blue space socialists]] after the Ultramarines realized the Tyranids were heading their way and left.
*Killing an alien psyker and accidentally blowing out ten billion astropaths in the process, <del>[[Derp|oops]]</del> [[Just As Planned|just as planned]]. To be fair, said psyker was too powerful to let live and the Black Templars didn’t know its power would explode (which implies this was not normal for psykers).
*Wiping out countless alien species and actually sparing one alien species that was worshiping "The Voice of the Emperor" when they got there. They only destroyed their temples just in case this voice wasn't [[Emperor|talking about who they thought it was.]]
*Successfully capturing [[Cypher]]! Then they were [[Fallen_Angels#Ophidium_Gulf_Crusade_incident|forced at gunpoint to hand him off]] to the Dark Angels chapter [[Just As Planned|where he almost immediately escapes.]]
*The Second Siege of Terra! When some crazy ass High Lord of Terra named Goge Vandire [[Age of Apostasy|usurped all power in Imperium]], thinking that he can do everything he wants, he wiped out some Templar fortresses with orbital strikes and when they found out they got all righteous angry! Assisting '''[[Sebastian Thor]]''', the Templars gather around a thousand Crusaders and along with some other Chapters as well as the Martian techno-guard; the Black Templars, with all fury, wage a frakkin second siege of Terra! (The insignificant detail they did get fought to a stalemate by the [[Sisters of Battle|bolter bitches]] until [[Adeptus Custodes|Big E.'s guardians]] told the lasses Vandire was a heretic tends to get glossed over. IMPERATORIS VULT!)

==Organization==
Since the Imperial Fists told [[Roboute_Guilliman|Papa Smurf]] to go fuck himself and his [[Codex Astartes|Codex]], the Black Templars have an organization different from Codex Chapters. They organize themselves into Fighting Companies, with much of it on the fly. Their ranks and positions include:

*'''High Marshal''': The Chapter Master of the Black Templars, who decides which Crusades the Black Templars will participate in, without bothering for an okay from the [[High Lords of Terra]]. [[Helbrecht]] serves as the current High Marshal. Interestingly enough, in their original Codex the High Marshal and regular Marshals typically do not go face to face with the enemy (to the point where Helbrecht never actually touched down in the Third War for Armageddon, he stayed in space dictating the orbital battle), [[Reasonable Marines|Marshals and High Marshals prefer to stay back assessing the battlefield]] and advising the various squads through their communicators about where they should strike and shoot to make the most out of their troops.
*'''Marshal''': The commander of a Crusade, a Marshal is equivalent to a Captain, they're the ones that lead the individual Crusades. When a Crusade is called and there is no Marshal to lead it a candidate is chosen from among the sword brethren and if the High Marshal thinks he is fit for the task appointed Marshal. There has only ever been one case of a candidate being rejected by the High Marshall. It is from the ranks of the Marshals that the new High Marshal is picked should he fall in battle.
*'''Emperor's Champion''': Before an undertaking usually during battle preparations, one of the Black Templars may have a vision granted by the Emperor. This knight will be declared by the [[Chaplain]]s to be the Emperor's Champion, as their founder Sigismund was ten millennia ago. He will be given the Black Sword and the Armour of Faith, and serve as an inspiration to the rest of the Crusading host. As with the first Emperor's Champion, Sigismund, it is the sole duty of those who bear the title to seek out and challenge any enemy champion the crusading force meets in battle. If he is killed before his mission is complete it is considered an ill omen indeed, though there is no requirement for ''every'' crusade to actually have one, the 8th edition codex says there is only ever one in the chapter at any given time. It is unknown what happens to the knight who is chosen after the completion of a Crusade as none have been shown to survive long enough for it to matter. Other chapters, most usually Imperial Fist's successors, occasionally have an Emperor's Champion who serves a similar purpose but without the artifacts.
*'''Castellan''': The lieutenants of the Marshal, a temporary position chosen by the Marshals (one guy cannot be everywhere) and who is a Castellan can vary depending on the current Crusade or even the current battle ([[Reasonable Marines|pick who's best to lead the current fight]]). The Castellans lead the Fighting Companies of a Crusade, and they're also chosen from the Sword Brethren.
*'''Sergeant''': The only Codex rank the Black Templars employ. Also from the Sword Brethren (notice a pattern, yet?).
*'''Sword Brethren''': Roughly analogous to Veterans in Codex Chapters, Sword Brethren are the senior battle brothers of the Marshal. They also get to use [[Terminator]] armour.
*'''Initiates''': Rank and file battle-brothers. Marines (typically Neophytes) dying around them has a beneficial effect on Initiates, making them run harder into enemy gunfire for reasons unknown and oft-speculated upon.
*'''Neophytes''': While most Chapters have their neophytes serve in some sort of recon force, the Black Templars have their new Space Marines join the Crusade at the front lines and hit the ground running. Given that this has worked for ten thousand years, they may be onto something. Every Neophyte is assigned to an Initiate who is to train and tutor them. The Neophyte serves as the apprentice to the Initiate, sort of like Jedi in [[Star Wars]] but the Neophyte gets smacked if they even dare bitch about sand. They are also quite useful to Initiates to use as shields (literally) in battle.

===Chapter Strength===
[[Image:Praykillburn.jpg|400px|thumb|right|It's a lot like this, really.]]
Despite being a Codex Chapter (well, they're a Codex Chapter as of the newest Codex), they basically just cherry pick whatever they want from it. In particular, they're exploiting a loophole in the Codex Astartes that says a Crusading Chapter can go above the limit of 1,000 Marines, because they don't have a Fortress Monastery, a disastrous campaign or Warp mishap could destroy the entire Chapter if not for this stipulation. The Black Templars, however, take this to mean "have as many Marines as you want!" Seeing as they have multiple Crusades at once, they must be the best Marines around. Seeing as every other Crusading Chapter has roughly a thousand Marines (usually less). Guess that's what happens when you genuinely embrace righteous fury and unleash it upon the alien, the mutant, and the heretic.

However, it's not actually clear how many Marines they actually ''have.'' Some [[neckbeards]] (both fanboys and bitter opponents) exaggerate the actual numbers, referring to them as [[First Founding#Legions in 40k|legion strength]] and/or believing that their numbers are figuratively ''without limit'' and end up with ridiculously high guesses. Given the vagaries of in-universe time due to warp phenomena and the inevitable depletion of assets due to the nature of their work, as well as the fact that they have shit record keeping due to a complete lack of [[Librarian]]s, the actual number of active Templars would be in constant flux.

In ''Blood and Fire,'' Grimaldus mentions that they typically have dozens of Crusades going on at any point in time; [[Deathwatch (RPG)|other sources]] tell us that the Black Templars as an entire Chapter actually consist of a total of three '''"primary"''' Crusade fleets from which all other fighting companies are split from and deployed on their own '''"secondary"''' Crusades when necessary. This coincides with the original codex, which said that there were usually no more than three Crusades at any given time but that they can stretch themselves according to necessity, and states that in one exceptional case there were up to fourteen Crusades operating in the Segmentum Solar during the Treachery of Dalmark.

If we were to base the numbers off the estimate in the back of the 4th edition Codex: Black Templars, the deployment map totals greater than 6000 marines, with several of those Crusades routinely exceeding 500 marines. But when you factor in normal redeployment over the years that number isn't very helpful as many of those Crusades were finished by the time others arose. When you consider it like that, [[Blood Angels|many]] [[Minotaurs|other]] [[Dark Angels|chapters]] have deployed en masse over the years and would also generate a similar deployment map. Furthermore, only a handful of Crusades numbered relatively close to one thousand, with only Armageddon passing it, with 1,232 Marines total and even that number was questioned (?) by the author; for this campaign, High Marshal [[Helbrecht]] was said to have mustered three crusades.

So we can either take it as written in the Order of Battle that the three crusades represent the "normal" three crusades and hence the entire chapter, giving us an absolute ''minimum'' of over 1000 marines, or we can assume that the three crusades are not the primary crusades at all, which still doesn't give us much of an indication of the chapter size, leaving us at square one.

To make things even more confusing, each Crusade will be accompanied by a '''Black Sword''' and a set of the Armour of Faith, to be used by the Emperor's Champion. The 4E codex said that every Crusade and fighting company would have its own Champion, but the 6E Codex and the newer novels changed this older fluff and said that there could only be a ''single'' Champion in the entire Chapter at any given time, and that only a handful arise every century. Plus, there are only ten Black Swords in the Chapter and they are held by the Chaplains, just in case they find the Champion within their Crusade. This implies that there can only be ten Crusades active at any one time; hence, if the three Crusades at Armageddon, taken to be around 1,232, are three-tenths of the Chapter's overall size, the Black Templars have around 4,000 marines.

However, the novel ''Eternal Crusader'' flat-out says that the whole Chapter could gather together on the [[Battle-barge|Eternal Crusader]] itself and barely tax the capabilities of the vessel, and that ''"the mere'"'' 200 marines of Helbrecht's Crusade, which constituted one fifth of the Black Templars' total forces, meant that the vessel was mostly empty, making them far more Chapter sized. The book also shows High Marshal Helbrecht purposefully exaggerating the size of his contingent at Armageddon from 400 marines to 900 in order to gain overall command of the Astartes forces that had arrived ''(many Chapters had brought a lot more men than the Templars, and would have had more right to overall command)''. Helbrecht would later leave Armageddon briefly to muster [[A Game of Pretend|"more"]] Black Templars ''(but only bringing the number up to what he promised)'', so it is easy to see how the size of his contingent would be misleading to an outside observer.

The old Codex also suggested somewhere between 5000-6000 ''"if certain accounts are to be believed"'' which places a level of uncertainty on the number, and if you consider the above statement would sound reasonable if you took Helbrecht at his word about the availability to Black Templar soldiers and could easily show how the Administratum has been misled into thinking the Templars are much larger than they actually are. [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden|A-D-B]] also suggested about 6000 in an offhand comment; therefore, it is currently our highest reasonable upper limit without resorting to guesses.

----
[https://guyhaley.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/im-baaaacccckkk/#comment-5779 The author of ''Eternal Crusader'' later acknowledged on his blog that the Black Templars could have maintained extreme numbers in the past, but that the overall strength of the Chapter was reduced to a thousand (more or less) as result of a corporate decision by GW, not just of the codex authors.] Heresy!

It is perhaps best to repeat the Black Library's own take on the fluff: 40k is in the fucking dark ages and everything written down could be a legend, propaganda, an event that happened, or a rumor based on a real event. Any guess as to the number of Marines in the Black Templars is just that, a guess, and a book offers only the author's point of view, or what he wants you to think, or he himself is a fabrications.

8th Edition still maintains the information confusion over the Black Templar's actual numbers, just like before. While the Imperial Index states that ''"each Black Templars battle-fleet contains thousands of warriors."'' The actual Space Marine Codex states that "''the size of each can vary from several battle-brothers to several hundred"'' and though it also says there is no fixed number of Crusades.

The latest fluff from ''Psychic Awakening: Faith and Fury'' gives the throwaway line that ''"each of the crusades is comprised of thousands of space marines"'' without substantiating how many crusades there actually are. There are are still only nine Black Swords in existence ''(Guilliman destroyed one to defeat Skarbrand during the events of Rise of the Primarch)''. So one could infer that there are anywhere between two and nine crusades at most, and their arrangement can change fluidly, just as mentioned above.

...Not much seems to have changed, fanboys and opponents can believe what they want.

==On Psykers==
For most of their history the Black Templars didn't have any Librarians. This was generally thought as a pretty simple fact, they hate all forms of witches. They even have a special rule call "Abhor the Witch". That was until 6th edition when it was more explicitly stated that they had no real compunction against Astropaths and Navigators, since they were the only people who knew how to drive the massive Crusading fleets (pure undadulterated HOLY RAGE!! can't steer a ship through the Warp after all). Of course, this was always true since the BT always accepted those psykers that the Emperor himself had sanctioned (although they watched them closely), which includes Astropaths, Navigators and (surprise, surprise) the Grey Knights. Which invalidates the logic of the following paragraph.

According to the GW apologists, the major difference between their codex and 6E is their opinion on other psykers: In previous works, it was made pretty clear that they wouldn't suffer the witch no matter who they were (except for the aforementioned groups the Emperor sanctioned personally), and as such literally couldn't ally with any other psyker-using force except for the Grey Knights (and even then, it was AoC (Note: "AoC" is a 6th Ed construct)). Come the 6E Codex however, suddenly all their hatred for every psyker was scaled back to merely just being a hatred to all enemy psykers. Some may call this fluff-rape and all that in their neckbearded [[RAGE]], but others realize that setting up tons of restrictions would ultimately serve to cripple the Templars and ultimately just kept things easier by just generalizing it, to say nothing of the fact that the Emperor himself was a psyker. Not to mention the whole organization of sanctioned psykers used by the Imperium. Those guys were permitted to operate by...uh...someone, right? If it was the Imperial Senate, then they speak with the Emperor's voice, so the Black Templars can suck it. If it was literally anyone else with that kind of authority then it would be someone even closer to the Emperor in authority than merely his voice. So, the general hatred of psykers just isn't feasible anyway.

So it was changed. The Black Templars hatred is only towards alien and rogue psykers and that they have great respect for the ones in the fleet. So why no Librarians? There are three <s>theories</s> hypothesis in the codex:

*They still enforce the Edict of Nikaea. Considered most likely, given their [[Crunch|special rule]] "Abhor the Witch!"
*A gene-seed defect.
*They lost them during The Howling.

A small part of it likely has to do with their recruiting process. Since they recruit from the worlds they Crusade on, and they spend a decent amount of time purging renegade psykers, there probably aren't any psykers left for them to recruit and they're not likely to recruit Psykers found by somebody else. It still doesn't explain why they've never had a recorded incident of latent Psykers awakening once they've been recruited.

Rather hilariously, the Black Templars are not even certain why they don't have Librarians; because the Librarius usually maintains the records of the chapter, the Templars have allowed their understanding of history to fall into decay. For the time being, they have come to the conclusion that the loss of the Librarius is simply part of the Emperor's grand design, and should he see fit to bless them with Librarians again they would gladly use them.

Given how the Warp (and 40K in general) works as a genuine Clap Your Hands If You Believe setting, it could be that the Black Templar's own hatred of psykers causes any psykers or latent psykers they didn't realize were such to either become non-psykers or simply inactive/latent and remain that way.

==Notable members==
*''[[Sigismund]]'': First Chapter Master/Soul brother who made the chapter when Dorn broke the Legion up.
*''High Marshal [[Helbrecht]]'': Their current Chapter Master. Gets fucked up by Imotekh the Stormlord who proceeds to take his arm as a trophy. Helbrecht then manages to destroy his entire fucking flagship as retaliation. Currently on <s>a manhunt for [[Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka]] alongside [[Commissar Yarrick]]</s> Crusade to drive Chaos away from some Shrine Worlds.
*''Chaplain [[Grimaldus]]'': THE most badass [[Chaplain]] in the entire Godsdamn Imperium, with the possible exception of [[Lemartes]]. He fought the biggest Ork WAAAGH in history on a very old temple that had relics and artifacts that were sacred to the Imperium. The battle only ended after the temple collapsed and buried every Ork and Marine under the rubble. But since Grimaldus was too badass to die, he crawled out of the temple with a few relics he managed to save. And besides the guy has the word [[Grimdark|grim]] in his fucking name! How can he not be badass? The main caveat about his description is in his depiction in the book Helsreach, featuring Grimaldus' service in Armageddon leading up to his title as "Hero of Helsreach", where we learn he is equally skilled at tantrum-throwing/sulking, as he is kicking lots of ork ass. But to be fair, this isn't the Grimaldus we know and love as first. Helsreach is about him manning up under constant pressure, him finding he has to stop feeling like he has to be his old boss's bitch all the time and learning to be the butch. He does manage to man up and becomes the badass we all know and love (by the end of things, like, the very last second before a cathedral falls on him and knocks him out and not a second sooner). Plus, he had the stones to do it all WITHOUT A [[ROSARIUS]].
*''[[Tankred]]'': He who endures. Also is partial to bitches.
*''High Marshal Ludoldus'': A previous High Marshal notable for having led the Templars during two Crusades that were separated by over 2000 years, specifically the Vinculus Crusade (833.M41) and the Jerulas Crusade (645.M39). Considering that he was already High Marshall by the time of Vinculus, one can only conclude that Ludoldus was FUCKING OLD... and totally blows [[Dante]] out of the water as the guy even has ''old'' in his fucking name.
*''Castellan Draco'': notable role in the Vinculus crusade, notably in killing Inquisitor Lord Vinculus after he got possessed, but not after his own losses; that is, he got buried in rubble after lacing the cult's massive fortress with explosives. For his valiant efforts, he got his lost parts replaced with bionics, a relic suit of armour and Lord Vinculus' sword. Declared Excommunicate Traitoris in IF supplement, becoming the first SM special character with a model who turned traitor in 40k.
* ''High Marshal Bohemond'': Led the Chapter during the War of the Beast.
* ''Marshal Magneric'' See Tankred above imagine if he was in command of his own Crusade. Unlike most dreadnoughts he still kept his name and rank and rarely slept which made him into a crazy fanatic (and implied to be the source of the religious zeal) spends most of his days hunting his old BFF Warsmith Kalkator until Orks of The Beast showed up.

==Daily Rituals of a Black Templar==
Think [[Angry Marines]] but with less copious cursing.
* 03:50: Morning Call to Prayer: Initiates awaken their respective Neophytes from their comfortable slumber on bare stone floors. This often involves buckets of ice water, vox-casters playing hymns with the volume control knob broken off, or a power armor shod foot up the ass depending on the Initiate in question. Complaints that this awakening occurred ten minutes prior to scheduled reveille are met with readmistration of the waking aid.
* 04:00: Morning Prayer: Neophytes are berated for their perceived failings by their responsible Initiates, who are in turn berated by the Sword Brethren, the Sword Brethren by the Castellans, up to the Marshal who berates the entire Fleet then swears a solemn vow to an icon of the Emperor that they will do better and prove themselves worthy by stabbing heretics in the throat with their swords. Tactics may also be discussed and orders of battle issued, assuming they involve rushing headlong at the enemy.
* 05:00: Morning Firing Rites: The Initiates school their apprentices on the art of shooting xenos in the face while simultaneously swinging a chainsword. This shooting preferably occurs while rushing across the active firing range in order to close with the target and hit it with the bolt pistol if possible.
* 07:00: Morning Battle Practice: Initiates inform their neophytes that if they are done being cowardly whelps they may now avail themselves of a sword with which to stab shit.
* 11:55: Milk and cookies break. Any neophytes stupid enough to drink milk or eat cookies in front of their Initiate gets their meal pushed in their noses and eyeballs respectively. Things get interesting if they dipped their cookies in their milk.
* 12:00: Midday Prayer: Neophytes are told how poorly they did during the morning exercises, any sense of pride or joy is rooted out. The Marshal leads the Fleet in prayer and promises the Emperor they will kill more things even more righteously this afternoon.
* 13:00: Midday Meal: The chapter serfs provide cold cuts for the Brothers' enjoyment. Lunchmeat is usually collected by the serfs following each battle and stored in the ships' freezers. Naturally, Neophytes do not get something to eat yet as the Initiates insult them for even assuming they get to eat. The Neophytes soon learn that the Emperor has a sense of humor when the Initiates are informed that only Sword Brethren on up are allowed to eat.
* 13:15: Tactical Indoctrination: Locations of the vital organs and blood vessels of xenos species that may be encountered on the current Crusade and the weak spots of Daemons are reviewed, occasionally an Initiate will cuff his Neophyte on the back of the head and reiterate "Yes that, you stab that retard." Other tactics may also be discussed as long as they involve inserting blades into things.
* 14:00: Afternoon Battle Practice: Initiates attempt to kill their Neophyte with a power sword. If the Neophyte is not dead in four hours he passes muster.
* 18:00: Evening Firing Rites: Neophytes are instructed in how to operate heavy and specialty weaponry dropped by their responsible Initiate when he abandons it so that he may swing his sword with both hands to better kill shit or is eaten by a monstrous creature which he bravely <s>(read:stupidly)</s> (read:RIGHTEOUSLY) tried to skullfuck in CQC.
* 20:00: Evening Prayer: After short session of critique and berating, the Emperors' Champion leads a sermon about how awesome the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emprah]] is and how much He wants them to bifurcate/decapitate the current heretics/mutants/xenos they are fighting with power weapons.
* 21:00: Evening Meal: A feast is served by the chapter serfs. Alcohol and anything that has a pleasant taste will not be consumed as the Emperor looks down on those that enjoy life. No hamburger, no cheeseburgers, no french fries, no milkshakes, no potato chips; you will drink water distilled from the Fleet's waste/reactor AND LIKE IT!
* 21:30: Night-fighting/zero-gravity exercises: Initiates instruct their charges on stabbing things by the glow of a power sword and how to fight in a zero-gravity environment without jump packs (stab foe, use corpse as a springboard to assault another foe, repeat).
* 23:15: Wargear Maintenance: Initiates encourage Neophytes to keep weapons in proper working order with phrases like, "Sharpen your shit you incompetent bastard" as the Emperor reserves great disdain for those that kill heretics with dull blades.
* 23:45: Free time: The Initiate is free to challenge his Neophyte to a short duel. Wounds heal better during sleep anyway.
* 00:00 Rest period: The Initiate sees his Neophyte off to bed, with one last punch to the face to help him fall asleep. The Sword Brethren then punch the Initiates in the face before they retire for rest period.

Note that this constitutes a day off for a Black Templar. A working day will involve 23 hours of rushing monstrous creatures with melee weapons. Neophytes are expected to pull bullet sponge duty so the Initiate is not distracted by little things like enemy gunfire (and that their spilled blood will allow the Initiates to glide on the ground to their enemy faster) as seen here:

===Black Templar Combat Training===
Brother-Initiate Teuton McTemplar: "Neophyte, get your ass over here and hold my Lascannon while I charge that [[Carnifex]] with my Power Fist!"

Neophyte Hans Wolfgang: "But sir I have not yet earned my power armour and a Lascannon weighs 100 kilos..."

Brother-Initiate Teuton McTemplar: "You are going to pick up that spotlight and burn some fucking xenos, and you are going to like it!"

Note: It would be nice if this could happen, but in reality, you can only arm Neophytes with shotguns or bolt pistols with CCWs, though you were able to arm an initiate with both a Lascannon and a Power Fist in their original codex. Hilariously too you could go completely overboard and have one marine armed with a Power fist, three bolt pistols (or two bolt pistols and a bolter), a Chainsword, a Power Weapon, a Heavy Bolter, a Missile Launcher (or a Multi-Melta), a Lascannon, and a Plasma Cannon [[Obliterators|ALL AT THE SAME TIME]] (though while funny is still a terrible thing to put on the battlefield as he can still only fire one per turn, pistols notwithstanding). Talk about a jack of all trades...

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Black Templar|Tactics/Black Templar]]
*Their [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lrs9nIITQk| theme] by [[HMKids]].
*Also their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0TzUNti3rY| theme] by Andrew W.K.
*Their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyAEBux88hw| '''ONE TRUE ULTIMATE THEME] by [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqGKtkZ8-MlAeTVL0fFAMnw| StringStorm].
*An [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUi8Dv73hA| accurate representation] of their daily lives
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUplioG2DC4| The unofficial animated version of Helsreach.]
*Their thoughts on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrJVZZLv2GE| furfags. ]
*Their continued campaign against the [https://youtu.be/j02V_34PXZg| furfags. ]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Templar Terminator.jpg|Actually pretty nice guys, once you get to know them.
Image:1206768954856.jpg|They also like to sing.
Image:howdoipurge.png
Image:bffs.jpg|'''Purging with my Kin!
Image:Imheretopurgehereticsandchewbubblegumandimalloutofbubblegum.jpg|Look at them hips.
Image:Black templar terminator by deadxcross.jpg|When you want to purge as much Heretics and Xenos as possible.
Image:A not so Little Sister by DeadXCross.jpg|They can even inspire zealots of their own.
Image:PURGINGWITHMYKIN.gif|The Black Templars' name does not corelate to the other Second Founding Imperial Fists because [https://youtu.be/0Vh_N8CpcL0?t=1208 they are absolute lunatics]
</gallery>

{{Template:Marines-Official}}

Sons of Antaeus

2020-05-04T03:50:39Z

2601:443:47F:3CA0:7D0C:CE26:1DD2:8BF7:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Sons of Antaeus
|Heraldry =
|Battle Cry =
|Founding = [[21st Founding]]
|Successors of = Probably Ultramarines
|Chapter Master = Unknown
|Primarch = Roboute Guilliman
|Homeworld = Unknown
|Specialty = Being tuff nutters
|Allegiance = [[Imperium of Man]]
|Colours = Grey and black
}}
The '''Sons of Antaeus''' are a Loyalist chapter of [[Space Marines]] who lead a very mysterious existence.

They are known to be particularly hardy and tough, being more impervious to damage than even other Space Marines, as well as being large even by Marine standards. They can shrug off blows that would instantly kill any other Astartes. This is due to the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] going crazy in adding all sorts of extra stuff to harden them up; some whisper that their toughness is on par with the [[Death Guard]] Legion.

Perhaps due to this, they are notably not open to most [[Imperium of Man|Imperial]] authorities and avoid contact with them whenever they can. This is probably a smart choice, considering [[Flame Falcons|what]] [[Blood Gorgons|happened]] to the other [[Cursed Founding]] [[Lamenters|Chapters]].

Over a decade ago, these guys had their own rules in 3rd edition, found [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Chapter_Approved/Cursed_Founding|here]] ''(handily /tg/ updated for 6th edition)''

The Sons are confirmed as being active as late as M41.9, so they're not doing as badly as some of the other cursed chapters. Also, while their toughness is often likened to [[Plague Marines]], the process by which they were created bears more resemblance to [[Primaris Marines]] (made without [[Belisarius Cawl|Cawl]]'s expertise) and could also explain their toughness. Primaris Marines are made using some of the process of creating Custodes. So, the Sons might have a similar connection to the Thunder Warriors.

Note: In real-world Greek mythology, Antaeus was a total badass renowned for being completely invincible while touching his mother. Sounds like a shit superpower, until you find out that Antaeus was actually the son of Gaea... AKA ''the fucking Earth''. He, of course, abused this by challenging random passersby to ''Pankration'' matches (think MMA deathmatches) and taking their shit when they inevitably lost. This continued up until Hercules defeated him by picking him up off the ground and choking him to death.

Also ''antaeus'' means literally "opponent" in ancient Greek... read of that what you will.

A Son of Antaeus shows up in the novel Shadowbreaker, as a member of the Deathwatch no less. Called Androcles, he is described as being fucking massive; without armour he was about the size of a Marine wearing theirs. We also get confirmation that they are thought to be Ultramarines successors. Androcles also claims that despite being a part of the Cursed Founding, the Sons don't see themselves as cursed at all. He also claims the Sons of Antaeus have never been defeated "on solid ground". Sadly he is killed when he's ganged up on by two other Marines, one hoisting him into the air while the other stabbed him to death. It should also be noted that the other two Marines were wearing full power armour and one had a storm shield while Androcles only had recon armour and his combat knife, and he still put up a very hard fight. Notice that until they got him off the ground, they couldn’t win. How much of this is skill and how much might be...something else is questionable if you think about how oddly akin to the myth of Antaeus they seem to be.

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

Minotaurs

2020-05-04T03:48:57Z

2601:443:47F:3CA0:7D0C:CE26:1DD2:8BF7: /* Daily Rituals */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Minotaurs
|Heraldry = [[File:Minotaurs Symbol.jpg|200px]]
|Number = N/A
|Battle Cry = That's a nice watch. (Presumably)
|Founding = [[21st Founding]] (Supposedly)
|Successors of = '''+++Classified by order of the [[High Lords]]+++''' (The original Minotaurs are unknown; the new Minotaurs are all but confirmed to use Iron Warriors geneseed. Hints that one of the two are chimeric, money's on the unstable psychopaths)
|Successor Chapters = None
|Chapter Master = [[Asterion Moloc]]
|Primarch = Unknown
|Homeworld = Fleet Based
|Specialty = (Old) Being psychotic [[Leeroy Jenkins]]; (New) Beating the shit out of other [[Space Marines]], taking their stuff, pissing off the [[Ultramarines]], siege warfare, and being the [[High Lords]]' personal army.
|Strength = 1000 (Officially)
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = (old) Ketchup & Mustard stripes; (new) Bronze with a little Red.
}}
''If you are looking for the bull-headed beastmen from Greek mythology, see [[Minotaur]].''

==Out with the old...==
The '''Minotaurs''' were a [[Chapter]] of [[Space Marine]]s and massive dicks. They were formed in the [[21st Founding|Cursed Founding]] as psychopathic berzerkers and were possibly successors to more stab-happy legions, like the [[Blood Angels]] (looking at you [[Sanguine Berzerkers]]) or [[World Eaters]]. They first appeared in [[White Dwarf]] as one of the playable Chapters for the Chapter Approved Cursed founding article where they were also mentioned to have beaten the shit out of the [[Lamenters]] during the [[Badab War]], because the Lamenters chose the wrong side and the Minotaurs wanted an excuse to [[RIP AND TEAR]]. Then they disappeared. (to everyone's relief). Their color scheme was also fucking atrocious.

==...and in with the new==
[[File:Minotaurs Tact. Marine.jpg|250px|thumb|left|The Minotaurs have many suits of MKVIII "errant" pattern Power Armor.]]
The Minotaurs later popped up in [[Imperial Armour#Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two|Imperial Armour Volume 10]] and had their lore (and thankfully colour scheme) overhauled. They're still massive dicks though. Now the psycho-Minotaurs apparently disappeared thousands of years before the [[Badab War]], instead its these cunts who stomp stomp the poor Lamenters (and also take their stuff). They now dress like [[Iron Warriors|ancient Greeks]] and their Chapter Master, one [[Asterion Moloc]], appears to have pilfered the prop department from 300 for his outfit. They no longer maintain the "psychopathic berzerkers' flavour; instead (while still liking melee combat) they make and execute detailed battle plans focusing on siege and attrition warfare, being brooding, paranoid about security protocols, and very pragmatic. Example of that last trait being in [[Imperial Armour Volume 12]] here they let a good chunk of the [[Imperial Navy]] fight and die before they stepped in to give themselves a better chance against the Necrons (what assholes). They are essentially Greek-ier [[Iron Warriors]], who steal shit like the [[Blood Ravens]] (but instead of hijacking your stuff when you aren't looking, they will just mug you and take it). This better explains why they stole the Lamenters' stuff like the school bully shaking down the class nerd for his lunch money, once the old fight between the Lamenters and Minotaurs was retconned to have happened with these Minotaurs instead.

They now have vast stores of incredibly rare wargear, which includes: shittons of Arkonak and Tartaros-pattern [[Terminator]] armour, Mk8 [[power armor]], loads of [[Dreadnoughts]] (including rare Contemptor-pattern), [[Storm Eagle#Roc Pattern|their very own Storm Eagle variant]], and at least one [[AWESOME|power spear/lascannon combo]] that might have been <s>jacked</s> gifted from the [[Adeptus Custodes]]). With their [[High Lords of Terra|sugar daddies on Terra]] and taking the good wargear from Chapters they beat down, they have no shortage of the best toys available to the Astartes.

They also act as the [[High Lords of Terra|High Lords']] attack dogs now, only acting on orders from the High Lords themselves, telling anyone in their way to piss off. Oh, and the [[Administratum]] records are sealed (under direct order of the [[High Lords]]), so that not even [[inquisitor|Inquisitors]] can easily (if at all) access them. Which implies something about them (gee, wonder what?) has at least some Inquisitors worried.

One of their [[Brother-Captain]]s insulted [[Marneus Calgar]] right in front of the [[Genesis Chapter]] (a 2nd founding [[Ultramarines]] descendant), basically telling them to stop sucking Calgar off 24/7; and the chapter later tore the [[Inceptors]] chapter (another Ultramarines successor) apart and stole all their stuff, formerly pissing off the [[Ultramarines]] and all of their successors. The Ultramarines got so salty they perma-banned the Minotaurs from Ultramar (as if the Minotaurs care much). The Minotaurs also may or may not have shot down a [[Grey Knights|Grey Knight]] strike cruiser for trying to swoop in and steal all the glory for taking down a renegade chapter the Minotaurs had been hunting and fighting for awhile. Essentially they've told both of [[Matt Ward]]'s special snowflakes to go raw dog a plasma gun.

Needless to say, [[/tg/]] thinks they're pretty cool (and they are still massive dicks).

==Current Events==
During later M41 - early M42, the [[Death Guard]] directly besieged their space-borne [[Fortress-Monastery]] and poisoned their gene stocks beyond repair, forcing the Minotaurs to race towards [[Terra]] to restock their gene-vaults. When they arrived back on Terra, they were restocked and even given early access to primaris gene-seed and equipment. They were tasked to work along side the Imperial Fists, Sisters of Silence, and Adeptus Custodes in quelling a rebellion growing on Terra itself. During the course of the investigations, they had to teach the Imperial Fists what they think of someone trying to steal their glory. i.e. the Imperial Fists tried to investigate a cultist kill-site cleared by the Minotaurs, aka the Imperial Fists were trying to steal the Minotaur's intel and get to the cultists first, and in response the Minotaurs killed the two Imperial Fists sent to investigate (after the Minotaurs warned them, and were promptly ignored by the Imperial Fists). An Imperial Fist got salty at this and tried to bow up at a Minotaur back at HQ. Said Imperial Fist got the shit beaten out of him by the Minotaur.

Eventually the HQ of the cultists was discovered, and the Minotaurs were the first ones there. Launching a '''SIEGE''' of the enemy's HQ while the Imperial Fists and Custodes were just then managing to figure out where it was. It turns out the rebellions were caused by the former members of the High Lords who had since been exiled by the now revived Guilliman. At first, it seemed that, the Minotaurs sided with the rebellious former High Lords. With Moloc standing by the former Master of the Administatium: Haemotalion. However, with the actual leaders of the rebellion sniffed out, assassins from the Vindicare Temple killed them all except for the Grandmaster of the Assassorium (who wasnt actually a traitor, instead having infiltrated the traitors as part of the plan to find/kill them) and Moloc (who had "conveniently" left the room just before the kill order was given). With this, all hell broke loose. With no one being aware of who was on whose side, the Minotaurs came into direct combat with the Sisters of Silence and Custodes. The Minotaurs killed several Sisters of Silence, and atleast one of the Custodes, while suffer losses themselves (as if they cared), before surrounding the survivors, who were circling to protect the Grandmaster of the Assasorium (as the Minotaurs weren't told he wasnt actually one of the traitors). Moloc himself was about to 1v1 Custodes Shield-Captain Valerian (with Moloc making [[Mary_Sue|the Custodes feel as close to afraid as a Custodes could possibly be. As in, Valerian admitted he saw no flaw in Moloc's battle form, armour, or anything to exploit, thus had 0 idea how to beat him]]), before the new Master of the Administratum (Violeta Roskavler), teleported in and (whispering to Moloc) ordered the Minotaurs to stand down. Apparently this whole mess, for the most part, was [[Just As Planned]], as the Minotaurs later departed for Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade without any form of issues.

During the Indomitus Crusade, the Minotaurs put on their good ass-stomping boots to deal with some Thousand Sons who had taken over a space station.

==Chapter and Geneseed Confusion==
There is a significant amount of [[DERP]] surrounding who their daddy is, how long they've been around, or if these are even all the same group of dicks. Like the [[Fire Angels]], the Minotaurs are an example of two chapters sharing the same name, even the sourcebooks point out that the [[Cursed Founding]] Minotaurs and the bronzy Minotaurs are so different that it's a possibility there are multiple chapters who have the same name. There isn't much of a question around only "a" Minotaurs chapter being made during the [[Cursed Founding]] in M36, the same books leaves it ambiguous by alluding to there having been different Minotaurs chapters (essentially keeping the ketchup-mustard-psycho Minotaurs canon alongside the "new" Minotaurs). Pulling things like having records of the "Minotaurs" being around as far back as back in M32 (tag teaming a bunch of Chaos-spark rebellions with some other Chapters, and noticably not just wiping their asses with the battle plans before bolting hell-for-leather into melee range), even tho psycho "Minotaurs" chapter is listed as M36 [[Cursed Founding]]; pointing out that "chimeric" geneseed Astartes (especially from the [[Cursed Founding]]) tend to be mentally/physically unstable, but the "new" Minotaurs are about as stable as you can get (the "old" Minotaurs tho....yeah); and highlighting the difference in behavior, look, and combat doctrines of the bronze colored Minotaurs compared to records of the yellow/red Minotaurs.

Given the yellow/red Minotaurs tendencies to absolutely annihilate whatever is in their way, completely forgo any sort of intel gathering or battle plans, and a [[Rip and tear|psychotic need to just rage rush the enemy to get their stabby-stab on]], it's certainly possible for them be successors to one (or more) of the more bloodthirsty legions such as the [[Blood Angels]] or [[World Eaters]]. A chimeric blend with another gene-line would certainly make sense with their [[Cursed Founding]] origins and batshit insanity.

The bronze Minotaurs being the chimeric ones makes markedly less sense, since they are pretty much free of any mutations and have in fact one of the highest [[gene-seed]] acceptance rates of any Chapter (a classic Iron Warriors trait). Given their "brooding, maligned, paranoid, and pragmantic" behaviors; obsessive and meticulous data-analysis; noted mastery of siege and attrition warfare (with a secondary preference for close range combat); and heavy ancient Greek theme, they are a near 1-1 match of the [[Iron Warriors]]. Their 5th/6th/7th edition chapter tactics are even the same as the 30k Iron Warriors Legiones Astartes rules. This makes sense, given their depiction in the [[Imperial Armour]] books basically being [[Iron Warriors]] with a bronze color scheme.

If the bronzy Minotaurs are [[Iron Warriors]] successors, it would go a long way in explaining why the [[High Lords]] keep their records well and far away from the [[Ordo Hereticus]].

According to Eadwin Brown, one of the developers of the Badab War: The current incarnation of the Minotaurs was formed by a garrison of [[Iron Warriors]] who were allowed to rejoin the Imperium (but put on a short leash by the High Lords) back during the [[Great Scouring]]. The reason for their lack of/confusing history (including a different chapter getting the same name) being a mix of deliberate actions of the [[High Lords]] not wanting to lose their personal pet Astartes and the difficulty of the Administratium's already shitty record keeping. Or maybe the Cursed Founding World Eater chimera Minotaurs were explicitly set up to fail in a deniable fashion that allowed the High Lords to get the Iron Warrior Minotaurs quietly formalised. If this is true, this raises all sorts of questions as to whether the Cursed Founding was deliberate to cover this up.

==Other Information==
[[File:Minotaurs Tartaros.jpg|250px|thumb|right|The Chapter has many Tartaros pattern suits and other relics.]]While the Minotaurs are strict followers of the [[Codex Astartes]], they're almost never seen as small groups or even individual companies. Every time they're deployed its always been at full Chapter strength. Their incredible effectiveness just goes to prove the Codex is awesome at a Chapter level and above. It isn’t like Guilliman didn’t study his brothers’ tactics, too. They fight in only one war zone at a time with the entire chapter fighting together. This makes them essentially a massive fucking beatstick that the High Lords call upon when shit hits the fan. They also have an unusual preference for killing other Space Marines, which made them feel right at home during the Badab War. Given their fancy new gear, their borderline omnicidal tendencies, and always operating as a full chapter, it would seem that the job of the "Emperor's Executioners" no longer falls upon the [[Space Wolves]]. They were probably created for fighting Chaos and renegade Marines and just sorta turned out pretty handy for forcing idiot [[Chapter]]s into line.

To the High Lord’s credit, the Minotaurs seem to not be an abuse of power. The Chapters they beat up are let go if they flee or surrender early instead of digging in. Those that keep fighting are curbstomped, but not exterminated. And when they beat on Marines, it’s hard to argue that the receivers of said beating didn’t deserve it (save in [[Lamenters|very specific instances]]).

Unlike most Chapters, the Minotaurs appear to be able to replenish their numbers at an accelerated rate, to the point that they could recover from losses in a fraction of the time it would take other Chapters a century or two to fully recover from. This allows them to quickly rebuild their force to full Chapter strength, even after suffering what would normally be unsustainable causalities. Imperial observers during the Antigonis campaign theorized that this may have something to do with the heavy use of hypnotherapy and neuro-cerebral therapy used in the training of neophytes and frequently "refreshed" with the help of Apothecaries in the Chapter. This has proven to have some unpleasant side-effects- the Minotaurs are highly xenophobic and paranoid, even by the high standards of the Imperium.

There's also a good chance that they recruit from [[Terra]] itself thanks to their connections with the High Lords, giving them a massive recruit pool, as the Imperial Fists are also able to replenish losses equally fast thanks to having billions of potential candidates. This is mostly due to the Imperial Fists building recruitment posts on every world they rescue from invasion. Even then they request permission first as Dorn said he "...want recruits, not vassals". The Black Templars also do this and benefit greatly from this method. And since the Minotaurs gene-seed tithes are locked away nice and tight, no one is sure who their progenitors are.

Aside from the hideous old ketchup-and-mustard motherfuckers and the Greek muggers, there are also a pair of Chapters called the [[Brazen Minotaurs]] (looks like the Minotaurs wearing the [[Taurans]]' chapter badge) and [[White Minotaurs]] (looks like the Minotaurs but with a white Tauran bullhead badge). There isn't much fluff on them, being two of those Chapters with a name and a color design and nothing else.

==(In)famous Campaigns==
*'''[[Solar Rebellion]]''' - The Chapter is listed among the Imperial Forces tasked with bulldozing a Chaos-sparked rebellion within the Segmentium Solar. The interesting part is, [[Time of Rebirth|this was in M32...]] the [[Cursed Founding]] was in M36...
*'''[[Macharian Heresy]]''' - The Chapter is called to deal with the petty star empires created by the former generals of [[Lord Solar Macharius]]. They crush one after the other, following all of the High Lord's orders without question, and causing a lot of collateral damage in the process.
*'''Euxine Incident''' - ''The'' action that earned the Chapter their reputation. Still during the [[Macharian Heresy]], the [[Inceptors]] Chapter got involved in a fight with the Doom Warriors. They were supposedly drinking buddies before-hand but their friendship was broken over [[Lawful Stupid|matters of "honor"]]. The Imperium, not wanting ''more bullshit'', sent in the Minotaurs to beat some sense into them. The Chapter, in it's [[rape|usual style]], hit both chapters at once. The Doom Warriors, having some sense gained from this initial strike, left the Euxine system. The Inceptors did not leave. Instead they dug in and fought the Minotaurs like men. They lost, and the 100 surviving Inceptors were forced to surrender at barrel point. After they surrendered, [[That Guy|the Minotaurs robbed their relics, jacked Battle-Barge, and left.]] The [[Ultramarines]], seeing at how one of their own [[second founding]] successors got treated like shit, declared that the Minotaurs were permabanned from [[Ultramar]].
*'''Defense of Hermetica''' - The heavily-fortified capital of a sector located in the [[Segmentum]] Solar finds itself overwhelmed when the [[Word Bearers]] suddenly dropped from a warp rift in a motherfucking [[Space Hulk]] filled to the brim with [[Mutant]]s. The Minotaurs are the first imperial force to respond: they track the [[Dark Apostle]] into the main cathedral, and decide to blast their way in with orbital bombardement and tanks regardless of civilian casualties. [[Asterion Moloc]] and his [[Terminator]]s slaugther their way into the catacombs, but the Dark Apostle escapes before he can be dealt the killing blow.
*'''[[Badab War]]''' - You know this one: [[Lugft Huron]] declares independance from the [[High Lords of Terra]], and a fuckton of chapters are sent his way to remind him why that is not a thing. The Minotaurs gained several important victories during this time, but would be more infamously remembered for the shit they did to the poor [[Lamenters]]. (The same thing they did to the [[Inceptors]]) Suffice to say, if anyone had any doubts on their behavior before, those doubts were quickly dispelled after that.
*'''Battle of Rynn's World''' - The Minotaurs saw action on Rynn's World during the attempt to reclaim the [[Crimson Fists]]' homeworld from the [[Orks]]. Shockingly, they didn't attempt anything like scavenging the ruins of the Crimson Fists [[Fortress-Monastery]]. Maybe it has something to do with [[Alexis Polux|who founded the Crimson Fists]]....and a certain friendship he had with [[Barabas Dantioch|a particular loyal Iron Warrior]].
*'''Harrowing of the Night Reapers''' The aforementionned [[Chapter]] had been sent on penitent crusade to the a dengerous backwater nebula as punishment for abandoning a Shrine World to the forces of Chaos. They went radio silent after a while, and steadly started to deviate from [[Codex]] doctrine, tactics, and equipment. Six years after last contact and many suspicious raids in the area, irrefutable proof of their attack on a [[Rogue Trader]] vessel earned them an ''Excommunicate Traitoris''. Four companies of the [[Avenging Sons]] went after them, but that chapter can't do anything right and got ambushed by the Night Reapers, who captured one of their [[Space Marine Strike Cruiser|Star Cruisers]] and mauled another. They blamed their humilliating defeat on "Warp flame weapons" that bypassed [[Void shields]], so the High Lords had to send someone who could actually [[get shit done]]: The Minotaurs and the [[Red Hunters]]. (now we're talking) The two Chapters fought the Night Reapers and their heretekal Xeno-tech across a dozen star systems until they cornered them at a pre-human space wreck so massive it had it's own athmosphere and ecosystem. The Night Reapers were searching for a weapon that they beleived would allow them to defeat the Imperials, when a [[Grey Knights]] ship showed up demanding all Imperial forces to pull back. The Minotaurs, naturally, didn't give a fuck and kept fighting. The Knights of Titan had to launch their teleport assault in the midst of the battle. Shortly after, something happened that caused everyone to get BTFO to kingdom come: Minotaurs, Night Reapers, and Grey Knights alike. The Grey Knight's strike cruise was somehow damaged by the blast....and it somehow killed everyone onboard. [[Asterion Moloc]] was [[Phoenix Lord|the only survivor]].
*'''[[Orphean War]]''' - Karma finally starts catching up to the Chapter's douchebaggery when they have to face the Necrons of the [[Maynarkh Dynasty]]. They lose their stolen ships in the desperate assault against the necron fleet over Amarah Prime, and take many casualties that would be sorely felt later in their race back to [[Terra]]. Moloc <s>dies</s> [[Phoenix Lord|almost dies]] again, this time by achieving a mutual KO against the Maynarkh [[Necron Overlord|Overlord]] Makthlan Kutlakh the World Killer.

==Daily Rituals==
:04:00 Wake Up: The Minotaurs arise from their beds (each Minotaur has their own king-sized bed with luxury mattress and comforter). They make sure to beat up a dummy space marine before leaving.
:05:00 Morning Prayer: The Minotaurs gather in the chapel to praise the Emperor. They also praise the High Lords of Terra. Any battle brother who prays to not have to kill other space marines is put in the "patience chamber".perma ban by Guilliman
:06:00 Morning Firing Rituals: The Minotaurs pull live space marines from the "patience chamber" to practice firing upon. Any battle brother whose shot kills the space marine instantly is put into the "patience chamber".This putting your comarads in chamber was perma ban by Guilliman
:08:00 Morning Battle Practice: The Minotaurs release captured prisoners within the "patience chamber." Imprisoned members include failed Minotaurs, rebellious Ultramarines (and successors)perma ban by gulliman, formerly Marines Malevolent, Fallen, The <s>victims</s> participants are then forced to fight the entire chapter with substandard equipment.
:10:00 Morning Tactical Indoctrination: The Minotaurs finish off the last of their prisoners and gather together in the Great Hall to discuss strategy. Common tactics involve marching right through enemy fire, throwing allied units into enemy fire THEN marching through whats left, missile strikes on engaged melee units, and techniques to kill other space marines. Any battle brother who points out the faults in these tactics is put in the "patience chamber" (any actual faults are noted for later tactical refinement).perma ban by Guilliman for those who point faults and are promoted
:11:00 Afternoon Prayer: The Minotaurs give thanks to the High Lords of Terra for allowing them to be such dicks. In a sacred ritual, each battle brother is required to kiss the butt of golden statues honoring the High Lords Of Terra. Any battle brother who claims this is gay is sent to the "patience chamber". Those who say the later are know promoted and made chapter leaders by Guilliman
:12:00 Afternoon Meal: The Minotaurs gather to feast upon fine meats and food provided by their besties: the High Lords. Serfs rush quickly to ensure that each marine is fed to his heart's content.
:13:00 Afternoon Battle Practice and firming rights: The Minotaurs descend to any number of worlds in order to hone their space marine killing skills. The Lamenters are the most frequent target, but Baal and Ultramar are also popular destinations. A number of the the targeted space marines are captured and put in the "patience chamber". The food stocks of enemy forces are taken for Evening Meal. This was later ban forever by Guilliman when he found out about this and send a willing contingent of all space marines chapter beside the marines malevolent to be babysitters who formally had to guard the eye of terror and also he made sure to send the most moral and upstanding of Ecclesiarchy preachers and tech priests to to put proper moral values in place where it headed by and inquesator
:15:00 Afternoon Firing Rites: The Minotaurs practice shooting at cutouts for once. These cutouts are usually painted [[Ultramarines|blue]], [[Lamenters|yellow]], or [[Grey Knights|grey]].
:16:00 Enhanced Tactical Indoctrine: The Minotaurs learn how to most effectively teamkill each army in the Imperium. During this time, they also will use artillery and vehicle simulators in order to practice causing the most possible destruction upon space marines fortifications such as: driving tanks straight through walls and orbital strikes on Astartes medical station.
17:00 gulliman moral values indoctrination upon learning how screwed up the minators chapter was he made sure every day every one gets a daily dosage of moral values and why what they formally did was wrong
:18:00 Evening Meal: The Minotaurs feast once again, devouring the food stocks taken during Afternoon Battle Practice, infront of the survivors of who they took it from. Any brother who feels guilty about this is sent to the "patience chamber". Know there given a purity seal
:17:00 Recruitment: <s>Slaves</s> Fresh recruits arrive from Terra. These are force to either serve as serfs for the chapter, or begin the Minotaurs' <s>forced reprogramming</s> training process. Imperial Officials are ordered to turn a blind eye to this process, causing the Salamanders to [[RAGE]].but this was later change by gulliman and know a salamander supervises there recruitment
:20:00 Propaganda: The Minotaurs gather in the Great Hall [[Bullshit|to listen to the brilliant, enlightened, sophisticated, and productive conversations that the High Lords partake in.]] Any battle brother who dozes off or claims the High Lords are full of shit is sent to the "patience chamber".
:22:00 Free time: The Minotaurs are granted free time. This mostly involves reading the excessive number of manuals on how to kill space marines, beating each other up as practice, and repainting wargear taken from other Chapters.
:23:00 Bed Time: The Minotaurs retire to their quarters for the evening. Before falling asleep, they beat up the space marine dummy again.

==Tabletop==

===Chapter Approved===
When the first Minotaurs were introduced as one of the Cursed Founding chapters, for +10 points per model, or +20 per dreadnought (on top of the regular costs) you could give your entire army Fearless and +1 Attack though they had to move towards and assault the nearest enemy they could (even if they had no chance of hurting it) and had to sweep advance, but nobody did it because painting them WAS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE. Both because they had the most annoying colour scheme (worse than the quarter ones like the [[Howling Griffons]]) and because their colours made them look fucking ugly.

===6th Edition===
With the updates they got their own Chapter Tactics. Minotaurs Chapter Tactics models don't take morale checks from shooting attacks, and can re-roll failed pinning tests. In addition they have crusader USR, and +1 to charge distance when in the enemy deployment zone. Overall one of the [[fail|worst]] Chapter Tactics. Crusader certainly is nice to have, but ATSKNF makes re-rolling pinning and no morale checks from shooting pretty redundant. If you're gonna play Minotaurs you're gonna have to bring Moloc, who is a fucking monster in CC while gaining a VP per character executed in a challenge ''and'' giving your guys Prefered Enemy (Space Marines). So if you didn't get the memo, Minotaurs are meant to be run with Moloc as your Warlord against other Space Marine armies. If a friend of yours is running a really annoying Space Marine army, especially if he has Smashfucker, sic these guys on him and watch him cry.

===8th Edition===
How 8th Edition treated Forge World chapters is an issue of [[skub|intense debate]]. Sure, you can choose whatever tactic you want, but it still feels like an afterthought on the part of Games Workshop. That aside, Moloc and Aiakos came out of the update relatively unscathed, still being hard nuts to crack and very lethal overall, but with loss of initiative, and Moloc has lost the main thing he was taken for - the godsent army-wide Preferred enemy: Space Marines. Instead he can "do the wulfen" now. Ivanus, however, has lost all of his utility and is just an overpriced Chaplain with attacks and wounds of a captain, and no longer gains an extra attack from having two specialist weapons. Hecaton fell into category of Characters too fat to use Character rule and costs a little shy of a goddamn GALLANT KNIGHT but with Hero of the Chapter strategem can be a pain in the ass on a city map. Kraatos also no longer exists as of the FAQ, with Forge World telling you to just [[fail|use him as a regular devastator marine]]. ROC pattern Storm Eagle still rocks though.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Minotaurs_Original_Scheme.jpg|[[Fail|Their original scheme]], just try and paint an entire Chapter of them.
File:Veteran_Brother_Isskar.PNG|Stylized red markings are used to identify [[Veteran Squad]]s...
File:Sternguard_Veteran_Thoul.PNG|...And sergeants
</gallery>

{{Marines-Official}}

Hawk Lords

2020-05-04T02:47:44Z

2601:443:47F:3CA0:7D0C:CE26:1DD2:8BF7: /* Gallery */

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Hawk Lords
|Heraldry = [[File:Hawk Lords Heraldry.jpg|200px]]
|Battle Cry = Unknown
|Founding = Unknown
|Successors of = [[Ultramarines]]
|Successor Chapters = Unknown
|Chapter Master = Unknown
|Primarch = [[Roboute Guilliman]]
|Homeworld = Preyspire
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Purple with Gray Aquila and Gold Heraldry
|Specialty = Fucking Shit up With [[Thunderhawk|Thunderhawks]]
}}
{{Topquote|Fight on and fly on to the last drop of blood and the last drop of fuel, to the last beat of the heart.|Manfred von Richthofen, The Red Baron}}
A [[Space Marine]] Chapter of an Unknown Founding, the Hawk Lords are a pretty cool chapter. Instead of using [[Drop Pod|Drop Pods]] like normal Space Marines, they instead go for the more hands-on approach of flying their troops in on [[Thunderhawk|Thunderhawk Gunships]]. When their ground forces don't work they send in entire squadrons of [[Stormtalon|Stormtalons]]. Besides their extreme boners for airships, they have accomplished making better Jump Packs. Their so-called Hawk Wings are apparently [[Awesome|powerful enough to the point where a Devastator Marine can use it]]. Why these guys don't get more lore is a mystery.

==Origin Controversy==
For whatever reason (mostly writers being lazy and/or not checking consistency) multiple books are giving different Legion origins for the Hawk Lords. On one hand, their heraldry and use of Thunderhawks instead of Drop Pods do lean towards Raven Guard or Emperor's Children (who liked blowing the fuck out of the enemy with big-ass aircraft). On the other hand, they are a [[Codex Astartes|Codex compliant chapter]] (which doesn't really mean anything, honestly). That and the fact that like other Ultramarine successor chapters ([[Aurora Chapter]] and [[Nemesis|Nemesis chapter]] for example) taking their names from their legion chapters, the 21st chapter of the Ultramarines Legion was known as The Hawks. But we don't know. They could be a [[Dark Angels]] chapter seeing as the call their air unit the Talon Wing. Thanks [[GeeDubs]].

==Notable Members==
Atherias: A battle-brother of the Hawk Lords before becoming one of the founding members of the [[Deathwatch]]

==daily rituals ==
4.00 am they way up to the top gun theme song in there barracks
4.30 am prayer to the emperor and thanks to the Primarchs
5.00 am morning firing rights and drills and instruing there imperial guard drill instructors how to train there initiates in the basics while space marines are instructed in the complicated stuff.
7.00 am there wife’s and children or spouses wake up and join them for breakfast which I nice working and hardy it is prepared for by the chapter employees than it off to see the kids go to school and spouse to work they announced people birthdays
8.00 a.m they know do maintaince on there equipment and drop ships they do not completely get rid of orbital drop pods will use if necessary especially the one that fires weapons and fire support or use them as kinetic rod strikes the maintain and make them and give them to all loyalists chapters and give the to forces in need.
10.00 a.m close combat drills
11.30 a.m flaying drills and vehicle and tactical drills
12.30 P.mreview the codex astities
1.30 p.m lunch
2.30 P.m physical exercise
3.30 p.m do your hobby’s
4.30 p.m say hello gulliman tell ask how he been.
5.00 p.m greet there family spend time with family for two hours
7.00 p.m family meals which is a hardy meal. Also chapter weddings of there members are held
8.00 p.m night combat exercises of all forms
9.30 p.m go out on the town is optional or due duties of staying in and helping the government out And listing to briefings
11.00 to 12.00 pm going to sleep

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Hawk Lord Womble.jpg|They got a Womble, and still Games Workshop doesn't give them more lore
File:Hawk Lords Space Marine.jpg|Back when their purple was redder, [[Ork|'cos red makes dere fightaz go fasta]]
File:Hawk Lords Primaris.jpg|8th Edition claims them as Ultramarines, an it is
</gallery>

{{Template:Marines-Official}}