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Konrad Curze

2016-11-03T01:07:02Z

2A02:C7D:CD8:CF00:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

{{heresy}}
[[File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, The Last Judge, The King of Terrors. Badly in need of a hairstylist- just look at that dandruff.]]
''The horror, The horror...'' 
- [[Konrad Curze|Konrad]]'s real last words after probably describing to M'Shen [[40k|what really saw in his visions]]

''"There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment."'' 
- Hunter S. Thompson

''"In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which."'' 
- George R. R. Martin

''"You either die a Hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain.""'' 
- Harvey Dent

If you were to put [[Batman]], the Punisher, Vlad the Impaler, and the Predator in a blender, '''Konrad Curze''' is the result that will reach out and rip your face off. Konrad Curze (also known as Mr. Cuddles) was the [[Primarch]] of the [[Night Lords]] Legion, sometimes known as the '''Night Haunter'''. A [[Psyker]], Curze is well-known for the fact that he was [[/b/|plagued from the moment of his awakening by visions of the most horrific future imaginable, terrifying waking dreams that would follow him from cradle to grave.]] Whilst [[/tg/]] has joked that he suffered the lamest death in history due to falling to a Callidus Assassin's blade, he remains a complete bad-ass compared to [[Roboute Guilliman|these]] [[Leman Russ|faggots]].

He's widely considered the [[Chaos]]-aligned counterpart of [[Corax]]. The two probably would've gotten along pretty well had they been in the same sector during the Great Crusade and didn't have totally different views on disemboweling innocent civilians. His name is an oblique reference to ''Heart of Darkness''.

==History==
Curze wound up on the eternally-dark world of [[Nostramo]] after the Primarchs were scattered by [[Chaos]]. Unlike most Primarchs, no one took Curze in, and he had to raise himself. It should also be noted that while the other Primarchs landed in style with awesome stasis pods like God descending from Heaven, Curze ended up punching through the Adamantium crust of Nostramo and embedded himself into the core. Where he decided it kinda sucked and dug himself out back where he wouldn't have to worry about temperature hot enough to fuck Vulcan up the ass as an infant. Sorry, how's that not landing with style? Nostramo was a lawless hell-hole, where crime was rampant and usually went unpunished, the rich openly exploited the poor, depression and the inability to escape one's social standing was rampant, and the population was largely kept down not through any fancy measures, but suicide. Curze was enraged by how this panned out and as he grew he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Stalking the eternally-dark streets as a sort of [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]], Curze began hunting down heretics and those who had been responsible for turning Nostramo into the cesspit it had become. Leaders of the corrupt administration disappeared, only to be found later hung from Imperial administration buildings and beaten into unrecognizable messes that couldn't be identified without DNA testing, though their faces were often untouched so people would instantly recognize the victim. Notorious criminals were found out in the streets, eviscerated or impaled and left to die on the spires of manufactorum rooftops. The blood of those who had committed crimes flowed in the streets, with body parts stopping up storm drains.

The really scary part? ''It worked''. Within a year, Curze had killed so fucking many dicks that the crime-rate of Nostramo reached damned-near zero. Society went through a massive upheaval and curfews were imposed to minimize the casualties from [[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]. Mothers began to threaten their kids that if they continued to misbehave, the Night Haunter would come for them - a story that came into common use on Nostramo, describing Curze, who stalked through the city, ready to disembowel any heretic or criminal foolish or bold enough to cross his path with anything on hand. His favored weapons of 'Lightning Claws' weren't used until he was found by the Emperor and united with his legion, which also made armor and weapons available to him.

Curze became convinced of his choices being the right and just ones when he saw that the people of this world started to have hope again - he had become the only thing on the entire planet that people truly feared (and hated). Seizing the moment, Curze appeared before the few remaining nobles that had survived his vigilantist purges - the only ones who basically weren't complete assholes, and gave them a choice: Obey his rule, or die. One or two protested that he had not imposed an order based on fear, but it made no difference. Curze, the Night Haunter, was made the ruler of Nostramo.

To the surprise of most, Curze proved to be a fairly capable ruler; surprisingly just and temperate. He made strong attempts to educate himself on absolutely everything he could learn, and was noted for his skills as an adjudicator, worthy of a [[Reasonable Marines|Reasonable Marine]]. This was, of course, until word of an injustice reached Curze's ears - at which point he would hunt down the transgressor himself, wearing them down, and killing them horribly. His unpredictable pattern of benevolence and wisdom contrasted by jaw-dropping levels of violence beyond that of an [[Eversor]] ushered in a new era of efficiency and honesty across Nostramo on a planetary scale, mainly as an act of capitulation in order to keep the Night Haunter from their doors. Needless to say, this peace did not come with a contentedness like some of his brothers achieved.

===The Great Crusade===
[[Image:The viii primarch by saint max-d424fmh.jpg|right|thumb|350px|[[Castlevania|I was called here by ''huuuuuumans''. Who wish to pay meeeee ''tribute''.]]]]
Soon after Curze took over and began ruling the planet, the [[Emperor]]'s Great Crusade reached Nostramo; the coming of the Emperor of Man was an event long prophesied in Nostramo's history - an event which would eventually bring about the apocalypse. The Emperor and his delegation (which consisted of [[Rogal Dorn]], [[Ferrus Manus]], [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]], [[Fulgrim]], and their respective Legiones Astartes) proceeded to the Palace on foot, his radiance blinding the adapted-to-darkness onlookers and mesmerizing those who did not look directly at him.

At the end of the road leading to his Palace, Curze stood, waiting for the delegation when he had one of his visions. He saw the fate of each of his brothers and in the end his own death, he saw blood spurting from his own neck and no matter what he did he couldn't stop it. He would have succeeded in clawing his eyes out if the Emperor hadn't stopped him. He and the Emperor then had this badass exchange:

''"Konrad Curze, be at peace, for I have arrived and intend to take you home."'' 
''"That is not my name, Father. I am Night Haunter, and I know full well what you [[Just as planned|intend for me]]."''

Awesome. Curze began training under [[Fulgrim]], who taught him of the Adeptus Astartes combat doctrines and began molding him to be a suitable leader for his role as the leader of the Eighth Space Marine Legion - the Night Lords. Later it was revealed that during his training under [[Fulgrim]], Curze had had one of his visions, this one about the Horus Heresy. While he told Fulgrim this in confidence, he would later learn that one flaw Fulgrim had (beside dressing like a peacock), was that Fulgrim didn't know the meaning of the word confidential or that the notion of what was told to him was done so in sacred trust between himself and his favored brother. Well, the joke seemed to be on Curze, as no sooner had he told Fulgrim about the vision than Fulgrim had run over to [[Rogal Dorn]] and told him everything.

Though Curze and his legion excelled in many different hot-zones throughout the Great Crusade, a disturbing tendency arose in short order; the Night Lords would never use anything other than total, decisive force to achieve their goals. Or maybe "force" is the wrong word; they didn't battle so much as terrify their enemies into submission. The Night Lords quickly adapted to Curze's combat and tactical ethos, becoming one of the most brutally effective, if not ruthless, legions in the Imperium. The Night Lords decorated their armor with iconography designed to inspire terror in the enemy - a tactic that proved incredibly effective. Unsurprising, considering how terrifying Space Marines are without it. Where they struck, the Night Lords left examples - grim reminders of the price for disobeying the Imperium. In time, it became so that even the mere ''mention'' of the Night Lords' approach would cause a system to pay all outstanding tithes, cease all illegal activities, stop downloading torrents of ''Blossom'', and put to death any [[Furry|mutants or heretics]]. In hindsight, though, we here on /tg/ can't really be all that surprised by their brutality when we remember it was Fulgrim who tutored the VIII Legion's primarch. How else would the Night Haunter interpret the Phoenician's excessive battlefield perfectionism than a need for excessive violence?

Problems arose, however, as the Great Crusade dragged on - reinforcements to replace the Night Lords that fell in battle were, as was the case of the other Legions, selected from the population of Curze's homeworld, Nostramo. Unfortunately, in Curze's absence, the population collapsed into the same corruption, criminality, and despair that had ruled the roost before his arrival (which, given the strong Imperial presence on the world, especially since it was literally made out of ridiculously rare adamantium, makes no sense at all... unless the Emperor wanted this state of affairs, so he could get more effective terror troops). The most ruthless of the criminals were the only ones healthy and strong enough - and these were the most common replacement recruits for the Night Lords. Insubordination to Curze's orders became more frequent and he began having to deal with his own measure of "fixing" things with the criminal scum that were inducted into his forces. Making matters worse, his visions continued to increase in both frequency and graphic severity.

Finally, it reached the point where Curze had no choice but to deal with the problem of his recruiting world turning into a [[Star Wars D20|wretched hive of scum and villainy]], but Fulgrim, the only Primarch Curze had any real connection with, was largely unavailable, and the other Primarchs, instead of listening to him and trying to help, bitched him out and said that it wasn't their problem.

The straw that would finally break the camel´s back was during a joint operation between The Night Lords and the Imperial Fists.

[[Rogal Dorn]] had confronted Curze where he was overseeing the process of [[Grimdark|a long line of prisoners of war who were to be executed as a punitive action]], where Dorne had taken issue with Curze´s way of doing things, saying that peace through fear was not what the Emperor of mankind had intended. Konrad Curze decided to prove his point to Dorn; that without the fear of consequences people wouldn't stay loyal. To illustrate this, Curze gave one of the prisoners a gun and then ordered his men not to kill him, no matter what might happen. Kurze pointed the gun in the prisoner's hand right under his chin, saying [[Troll|"Go ahead, kill me."]] The prisoner refused, to which Kurze stated his Astartes not would kill him. The prisoner, now confident that the Night Lords wouldn't shoot him and when Curze turned his back to him, immediately raised the gun, but Curze killed him before the prisoner could fire at him. Using the intimidation and the predictable reaction to it, Curze "proved" his point: once the fear of consequence has been removed, people will feel no loyalty.

Now, if [[Rogal Dorn]] had been a smart primarch, he would just have left well enough alone, or perhaps, told Curze that one could rule through being loved and trusted just as well as being feared. But as established before, the Emperor hadn't exactly designed the Primarchs with brains in mind. So in an effort to win the argument, Rogal revealed what Fulgrim had said to him about Curze's vision. Angry at the betrayal of trust while in the grip of one of his visions, Curze attacked Rogal Dorn with the claws on his armor´s fingers, slashing Rogal´s face to such a degree that if Rogal hadn´t been a primarch he would have died from his wounds.

As it was, Curze was just put on house arrest/grounded until the matter of an unsanctioned attack ''(read two missing primarchs)'' by one Primarch towards another could be resolved. Curze, however, after reading a special batch of Nostraman tarot cards said "Screw you guys, we're going home". Killing the Imperial Fists who were guarding him, he and the Night Lords set course towards Nostramo. Curze tried to salvage things while on his homeworld, but the Emperor's arrival had removed the one last barrier the people of Nostramo had between themselves and utter despair: ignorance.

Of course, as the "Prince of Crows" heavily hinted, Curze didn't ''do'' anything other than kill people and incite fear by doing so. No improving the infrastructure, setting up a police force, or anything. And Curze refused to see this as a problem. This could have only lasted so long. In all actuality, the Emperor's arrival just sped things up. It wasn't the other Primarchs' problem, it was Konrad's mess and his one trick wasn't working anymore.

The knowledge of other worlds beyond Nostramo inflicted a hopelessness that guaranteed that nothing on Nostramo could ever change... which makes no sense given both the fact that the Imperium had massively improved their lives and that Nostramo had been trading its adamantium to several other human star systems long before the Imperium arrived (though "Prince of Crows" shows that this was because Curze made it so that there was nothing to do on Nostramo besides "behave and slowly die in an adamantium foundry" or "become a criminal and have some fun before dying quickly"), leaving the world to fester in corruption and depravity like a metastasized tumor. This was made worse by the Imperial Governor appointed to rule Nostramo in Curze's absence, whose corruption-heavy regime more-or-less plunged the entire planet into the same shit that gave birth to the Night Haunter in the first place. Needless to say, Curze was absolutely pissed at his planet and his work going back to square one.

Imperial pursuit craft, determined to stop Curze for abandoning the Great Crusade and checking on his homeworld, arrived just in time to see the laser batteries of Curze's fleet put an end to the nightmare that the planet's inhabitants had found themselves in - the only way he knew how: remorseless mass murder. Curze destroyed the planet with sustained orbital fire to the fissures his own arrival created.

Curze's actions caused him to be especially vulnerable to the whispers of Chaos. The campaigns of the Night Lords became harder and harder to justify - terror campaigns leaving a trail of devastated worlds across the breadth of the galaxy. Curze abandoned his devotion to the Emperor, instead fighting only to spread death and fear. Eventually, it got so bad that the Emperor recalled the Night Lords and prepared to call Curze to task for his actions and that of his legion.

This was 20 years before the Horus Heresy mind you, and it is very likely that the Imperium thought he had gone rogue at that point, or at the very least, completely unhinged for blowing up his homeworld. Especially, since they had been recalled to account for their terror campaigns and war crimes. So it's a bit bizarre that the loyalists thought it was a good thing that the Night Lords showed up to support them at Isstvan and ''didn't'' see a double-cross coming.

===Horus Heresy===
[[File:NocturnusObsessoris-Final.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Konrad overlooking the spires of Nostramo. and looking badass while doing it.]]
When Horus turned against the Emperor with Fulgrim, Curze was quick to throw in his lot behind the brothers he had actually been able to relate to as opposed to [[Roboute Guilliman|the fucking asshole]]. He even ended up saving Lorgar from [[Corvus Corax]] (although after seeing the Gal Vorbak, the very first squad of [[Possessed Marine]]s, felt it was a mistake).

The Night Lords remained impious, siding with none of the Chaos Gods and instead using them as mere tools in their terror campaigns. Almost entirely populated by criminals and murderers, the Night Lords led the [[Dark Angels]] and the Lion all over the Eastern Fringe. The insanity doesn't end there. In the middle of dicking with the Angels, he invites [[Lion El'Jonson]] to a dead planet (future place of his new palace and his own death...) to deliver a message from Horus, which actually predicts the Dark Angels fate of everyone hating their guts for not being on Terra because Curze has lead them all over the Eastern Fringe (HAR HAR HAR).

The Lion, who has [[Serious Business|zero tolerance]] for insults, proceeds to attack Curze and gets a fantastic one-shot off on him, though that was all he'd get and the two descended into a brawl which had to be ended with the brothers getting pulled off of each other and dragged back to their respective fleets.

The Dark Angels would eventually get the upper hand, presumably because Curze was partly pre-occupied by his "guest" (see below) and because the Lion would start using a [[Heresy|powerful and sentient warp engine]] that allowed him to out maneuver the Night Lords and capture Curze temporarily; essentially breaking the back of the Night Lords Legion. ''([[Sevatar]] took over, killed most of the leading captains and told the fleet to disperse and do [[Rip and Tear|whatever it was]] they wanted)''

====Vulkan====
[[Vulkan]] becomes Konrad's prisoner after Isstvan V. Unfortunately, Vulkan is [[Perpetual|immortal or some shit]], so he keeps coming back from the dead. This pissed the shit out of Curze, who decided to torture him instead. He had to do all kinds of shit, including being forced to kill his own [[Salamanders]], watch prisoners starve themselves, and fight [[Corax]] in a dream. In the end though, Curze couldn't bring Vulkan down to his level, causing massive amounts of [[rage]].

*SPOILER ALERT*

Vulkan ended up in a maze built by [[Perturabo]], with his hammer at the end of it. Vulkan had a teleporter in his hammer, which he figured Curze didn't know about, which made him hopeful. He couldn't navigate the maze worth shit though, and he was pretty much fucked, but after a couple of days, he pissed off Curze, who then led him to the center so they could fight. Curze was all "fuck you, teleporters don't work here", to which Vulkan replied, "[[Lulz|It's also a hammer]]". Vulkan then proceeded to beat the shit out of Curze, but didn't kill him (Because that would be stooping to his level, apparently).

When he was done, Vulkan said (essentially) "Fuck you Curze, ''I'M'' VULKAN! So MY teleporters work here. I just wanted to beat the shit out of you." He then escaped, leaving Curze more emo, depressed, and filled with more [[RAGE]] than ever before. Not that this mattered because Curze subsequently went on to take out his considerable ire against the entire Dark Angels Legion, leading to an impressively murderous trip to Macragge where he role-played a combination of every slasher movie killer and went with whatever felt natural. He would have killed the Lion AND Roboute with a powerful explosion (he had set the chapel of Hera to explode with them in it) if it hadn't been for the power of friendship. Seriously...[[My Little Pony|friendship truly is magi]]{{BLAM}}

After having a running battle with Vulkan through the streets of Macragge in which he ends up killing Vulkan several times, taking a morbid delight in seeing how long it will take for him to revive after every kill he ends up being jumped by a bottled demon and briefly being dragged into the warp, Kurze managed to kill (as in completely, not just banishing) the demon, and being dumped back onto Macragge. He's yet to reappear but he has the entire planet on curfew whilst he's still (theoretically) around.

Curze after spending some time terrifying the locals eventually sneaks into Sanguinius’s throne room. After talking for a while about how “It’s all daddy’s fault” Curze and Sanguinius end up fighting each other. Despite Curze outmatching Sanguinius in both speed and skill at arms he is fully aware that he cannot kill Sanguinius in the fight (even if he wanted too) due to the fact his destiny was to be eventually killed at Horus’s hands. Both Primarchs have visions of what could happen during the fight and are evenly matched due to their precognition. They eventually separate and Curze gives Sanguinius the chance to kill him, but Sanguinius stops the blow in mid-air out of pity. Curze then proceeds to mutilate Azkaellon before blowing up a whole lot of Sanguinary Guard, throws what remains of Azkaellon off a cliff and disappears.

Despite having the resources of almost 3 full legions, the rulers of Imperium Secundus had great difficulty tracking Curze Down. When it was revealed that Curze had never ever even left Macragge once in the years since his arrival, the Lion put the planet under almost total martial law and brought in his official Overkill brigade to deal with him. Curze had been fermenting rebellion amongst the Illyrian's, a part of Macragge that had never really accepted the civilisation of Konor and Guilliman. After the Dark Angels massacred an entire nation in response, Curze laid his final endgame in a mountain fortress. The Lion, in response, broke his word to Guilliman, and contrived a devastating (and forbidden) orbital bombardment using droppods and assault rams converted into barrage bombs and torpedoes. When the smoke cleared, the Lion went solo hunting again, walking into the trap Curze had set for him. Unfortunately, for a precog, Curze hadn't anticipated that the Lion had already cleared all the traps set for him and he was captured after a duel (the Lion cheated by calling in Fire Raptors too provent Curze from escaping).

Despite being finally caught, Curze had both the penultimate and last laugh. He managed to do what the Word Bearers, World Eaters, and Night Lords legion had not managed to do with soldiers and fleets, and broke Imperium Secundus. His official court trial had barely started when he told Guilliman that that the Lion had broken his word by staging an ersatz orbital bombardment. Guilliman, having finally lost his patience with the Lion, snapped the Lion's sword in two and Sanguinius told him and his legion to the GTFO of Imperium Secundus. However, just as the Lion was about to leave the system, he remembered Kurze's words of prophecy, that his back, the lion's sword, and word would be broken (as well as Kurze's proclamation that he would be killed by an assassin sent by the Emperor). The Lion teleported back to Macragge, just as Kurze was about to be executed and explained the situation. Guilliman had a mini breakdown over everything he had done on the premise the greater Imperium had fallen and Kurze laughed himself into an aneurysm at the whole situation.

===Death===
They got there late to the party but still [[/tg/ gets shit done|got shit done]], inflicting considerable morale damage on the loyalists. It's still unknown how Kurze got out of Ultramarine custody or even if he participated in the siege of Terra itself but he somehow managed to return to Tsugalsa with what was left of the Legion. The Emperor however, wishing to stop the Night Lords forevermore, dispatched an [[Officio Assassinorum]] operative from the [[Callidus|Callidus Temple]] to kill him.

Curze had foreseen this, however - and he allowed it. He allowed her into his palace and the Callidus encountered no guards between herself and his throne room. Confronted with the Callidus Assassin M'Shen, it is believed that Curze proceeded to make jokes about how she had [[Pretend|butt-sex]] with [[Macha]] before getting down to brass tacks and explaining why he'd allowed her in so easily:

''"Your presence does not surprise me, Assassin. I have known of you ever since your craft entered the Eastern Fringes. Why did I not have you killed? Because your mission and the act you are about to commit proves the truth of all I have ever said or done. I merely punished those who had wronged, just as your false Emperor now seeks to punish me. Death is nothing compared to vindication."''

Whilst it's never been confirmed who [[rape|came out on top]] (or whether or not the Callidus and he engaged in [[Heresy|hardcore ball-busting sex]]), it is believed by many that Curze allowed himself to be killed, having given explicit orders to the Night Lords to allow M'Shen to escape. Only one Night Lord, Apothecary Talos Valcoran of the 10th Company, pursued her out of vengeance (the Night Lords did eventually join in pursuit, but that was only after the senior Captains realized that M'Shen(no connection to Martin Sheen, none at all) had [[Ork|looted]] Curze of all his bling, which they wanted for themselves). It is believed that Curze had come to see himself as a murderous and corrupt villain - the very thing he had sought out to destroy (or perhaps he wished to prove that his decision to destroy Nostramo and join Horus was justified, as the Emperor had become one more tyrant who had to be slain). Maybe he was the hero who lived long enough to become the villian ([[Awesome|Space Marine Batman]]). We may never know the full story behind his actions, and his final words are considered one of the most bizarre enigmas in the Imperium's history.

==Psychic Ability==
Although knowledge of his gifts apparently were not widespread amongst the ranks of his brother Primarchs, Curze was capable of mild feats of psychic display. This was first evidenced by what he would come to call his "affliction" or "curse". Namely, that Konrad was often wracked by horrible visions, likened to waking nightmares, of how people would die. He was no exception; as stated above, the Night Haunter had foreseen his own death from the moment he awoke on Nostramo. These visions also occasionally extended to those he would lay eyes upon. This included his brother Primarchs, and explained his fondness for Fulgrim - the one person who Konrad had not seen suffer a terrible death upon first meeting him. In fact, Konrad's vision after laying eyes on Fulgrim was often described as hazy or lacking in some quality. What was apparent was that Fulgrim somehow found a way to cheat death. It was when he laid eyes on Ferrus Manus, immediately after, that he was shown Fulgrim would somehow be present at the site of Ferrus' demise. Despite this, he was the one primarch whom Konrad didn't foresee a misfortunate or ghastly future. It was this closeness that eventually led Konrad to confess to Fulgrim the nature of the visions he had received, as detailed in the popular duology of Black Library short stories ''The Dark King'' and ''The Lightning Tower''.

The Night Haunter also displayed a few other feats of psychic development, such as telekinetically destroying a series of lights to aid in his escape from a VII Legion detention chamber, and psychically conversing with Jago "Sevatar" Sevatarion. Sevatar, a latent psyker, was exploring Konrad's psyche during the latter's unconsciousness resulting from wounds inflicted by the Lion El'Jonson during the Thramas Crusade. Apparently the Night Haunter had a role in helping to suppress Sevatar's psychic potential, as revealed in the conversation between them - and that, because Sevatar was not trained in their use, those psychic abilities would be increasingly self-destructive.

As the Primarch of the VIII Legion, Konrad had a servant throughout the Great Crusade named Ekra Trez (who bore the title of "Sin-Eater"). Trez was tasked with keeping a record of the Night Haunter's pre-cognitive visions in a massive tome, and would often make note of which ones had been proven correct or false. Trez was also more than aware of Sevatar's psychic ability, leaving some readers of the Black Library's Horus Heresy novels curious as to what role Trez may have played in the Primarch's psychic development - if any.

==Lasting Legacy==
The Night Haunter, in his death, may have continued to leave a lasting impression upon the Imperium as inspiration for one of it's many institutions. Although his legion continues to sow fear and discord amongst the stars, Konrad Curze's legacy of weaponized fear lives on within the Imperium through the Emperor's Holy Ordos of the Inquisition. Like the inquisitors of the 41st Millennium, Konrad brought loyal citizens into compliance through fear and threats of death/torture beyond imagining to those who weren't sure where their allegiances lay. Those who failed to comply were guaranteed either a swift death at the hands of his legion, or a slow death at the tender mercies of his legion's most depraved souls. Lastly, if those comparisons weren't enough, look at the fate of Nostramo - Konrad essentially carried out an act of Exterminatus. Just as Lorgar's teachings on the Emperor's divinity would later lay the foundation for the Imperial Creed of the Ecclesiarchy, the Night Haunter could effectively be treated as the first author of the Inquisition's playbook.

Within the Night Lords, Curze and the Night Haunter each left their own legacy, which caused no small amount of schism. Officially, Curze appointed Zho Sahaal as his successor and Talonmaster, because Sahaal understood that a true warrior is more than just a murder machine. A true warrior has ''focus''. As you can probably predict, every other Night Lord captain decided that ''they'' were more deserving of being Curze's successor and tried to get Sahaal dethroned for being "weak" or whatever. Their logic was that Curze wasn't in charge, the Night Haunter was, and the Night Haunter was supposed to choose the ''true'' successor. After Sahaal became lost in the Warp, captain Kreig Acerbus "the Axemaster" slowly but surely took over huge swathes of the Night Lords and led them to become Chaos Undivided followers. Ironically, the Night Haunter had no intention of ever choosing a successor as he would have preferred that his legion die out completely for becoming everything he personally despised.

==Multiple Personality Disorder?==
Now, we all know the [[Black Library]] can range from the [[Dan Abnett|godly]] to the [[C.S.Goto|Goto]]. So this must be taken with a grain of salt. But ''Lords of the Night'' implies that Curze suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder, such that he and the Night Haunter were two different people, Konrad the just leader of men, and the Night Haunter the murderous vigilante. 'Blood Reaver' also implies it (a Night Lords sorcerer talking about how at one moment he was trying to teach his long-dead father some idealistic lesson, while at another he was only concerned about eating some slave's heart.) and shows it outright (when he has a bit of a manic episode and forgets that his First Captain died several years ago.) 'Blood Reaver' also suggests that the Emprah's DNA may not have entirely settled in Curze's body, explaining why he was so batshit crazy by the time of his death, not to mention the corpse like appearance he was sporting near the end. The upshot of this is that ''only the Night Haunter'' fell to Chaos, while Curze remained clean. Which one got the other killed is unknown.

Another thing perhaps tied with his Multiple Personality Disorder is that Konrad Curze towards the end had ended up hating his own legion. In a conversation with First Captain Sevatar, Konrad mentioned how he had spoken with Angron and Lorgar following the Istvaan III purge. Cleansing the untrustworthy elements of the World Eaters and the Word Bearers. The sheer absurdity of the idea was laughable to the Night Haunter, for his brothers knew exactly when to stop the killing of the weak, the treacherous and the corrupt within their bloodlines. He had no idea where to begin culling the Night Lords' ranks. His sons were no longer cast in his image. Less than a decade after he had departed Nostramo that world had sent him nothing but filth to integrate into the VIII Legion as Neophytes; the disgusting dregs of humanity his own Apothecaries had infused with his genetic material and reforged into transhumans. The VIII Legion had become poisoned by their presence. The VIII Legion was now composed of warriors who were murderers in the Primarch's own image, yet devoid of his conviction. The Night Lords had become nothing more than killers and abusers, bleeding the weak for their own amusements because they enjoyed it as good sport. Fear became an end unto itself, and its propagation was all the Night Lords desired as they fed upon it.

This was made even more clear by what Curze told Talos before he and the Assassin gotten it on: 
''"Many will claim to lead our Legion in the years after I am gone. Many will claim that they - and they alone - are my appointed successor. I hate this Legion, Talos. I destroyed its world to stem the flow of poison. I will be vindicated soon, and the truest lesson of the Night Lords will be taught. Do you truly believe I care what happens to any of you after my death?"''

Now some might say he was overreacting a bit but, still given how the criminal overlords he had spend most of his life on Nostramo eradicating, took over again as soon as he had left the planet and started sending their henchmen to be turned into space marines, it might be understandable. It was not for nothing that Horus had cause to muse that his generals were psychopaths while the Emperors were noble, statuesque leaders of men.

==Tabletop==
[[Image:Konrad-Curze-1.jpg|thumb|right|Wristblades? Check. Stealth capabilities? Check. Skinning prey and taking trophies? Check. Now he just needs a shoulder mounted plasma gun and he'll be able to pass himself off as the Predator.]]

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! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Konrad Curze:''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+/4++
|} 
On the tabletop, Curze has the basic Primarch statline plus Shrouded and Stealth. He has several fear based abilities, such as granting fear to all Night Lords (those who already have Fear impose a -1 on the leadership test), fear tests when in combat with him are taken at -3LD, and if he kills a unit in close combat any unit subject to fear within 12' and line of sight must take a leadership test or fall back. Sire of the Night Lords also grants him the Acute Senses and Night Vision USR, and he may elect to have the first turn of any game have the Night Fighting rule. His weapons are 2 Lightning Claws called Mercy and Forgiveness which have AP 2, the Murderous Strike rule and grants +1 attack (Paired) and his armour, the Nightmare Mantle, provides 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save (like most Primarch Armour), plus when he charges, it grants him hit and run and Hammer of Wrath special rules (inflicting d3 HoW hits instead of the usual one).

Best of all, his ranged weapon proves definitely that Konrad Curze is Batman. He literally uses Batarangs during the shooting phase. His ranged attack is called a "Widowmaker Volley", which is essentially 3 bolt pistol profile shots with a special rules that make 4+ to hit precision shots makes 6's to wound ignore both armor AND invulnerable saves. You can't save against the God-Damned Bat Man. The best part is the actual description of the weapons in the Horus Heresy rulebook: "The Widowmakers: Based on the micro-serrated throwing knives utilized for signature-kills by Nostraman assassin-cults, Curze favored the use of these vicious, yet highly precise weapons over more conventional firearms in battle, using them for non-lethal takedowns.

==Konrad Curze VS other Primarchs:==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying. With that in mind this section is about how Konrad Curze fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to happen in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the Primarch use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?).
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Konrad Curze VS Horus
**Horus hits 3 times (Talon), wounds 2.667 times, 1.333 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417.
**Konrad lose (not a big surprise) and as always Horus use his Talon 'cause, even though he would do more damage with Worldbreaker, the Talon allows him to make his opponent basically harmless after a couple of wounds.

* Konrad Curze VS Angron
**Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds 4.444 times, 2.222 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.889.
**Angron Round 2 and thereafter: hits 4 times, wounds 3.333 times, 1.667 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times (0.75 of which causes ID), 1 wounds after saves and FNP and IWND will take that down to 0.667 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Angron easily wins, doing a lot more damage and receiving less in turn.
**Note: Curze can Hit & Run, but by doing so he would only gain one more attack, while allowing Angron to reset his Hatred, thus actually making himself dies even faster. However he would be a much better fight: Konrad on the Charge would do 2.625 wounds (0.875 with ID) which become 1.168, plus 0.1389 for HoW and 0,359 for the Widowmakers, for a total of 1,666 wounds, or 1.333 after IWND. This, thanks to the -1 wound of Angron, actually means that they would kill each other on the fifth assault, at the same initiative step. Provided that Konrad always succeed in his escape, that is.

* Konrad Curze vs Mortarion
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze lose as even though he does more damage, Mortarion has 1 more wound that will make him outlast the Night Haunter.
**Note: with the Hit & Run tactics Konrad would actually win, thanks to the +1 attack on the charge, HoW and the knives, butchering Mortarion in 9 rounds while Mortarion would need 11 (counting overwatch).

* Konrad Curze vs Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 3.5 times, wounds 2.333 times, 1.167 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.833 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Easy win for Fulgrim. Even with Hit & Run, Konrad would not win this fight. Still, he would outdamage Fulgrim on the charge (1.472 wounds after all saves, 1.139 after IWND) and he would loose only thanks to the superior initiative of the Phoenician, coming extremely close to claiming a surprising draw.

* Konrad Curze vs Ferrus Manus
**Ferrus hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times, 1.042 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.709 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.407 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus win.
**Note: Even though with Hit & Run Konrad could close the gap and do almost the same exact damage as Ferrus over the course of the fight, mathematically winning thanks to his superior initiative, this tactics is not reliable against the Gorgon thanks to the Concussive & Strikedown of Forgebreaker.

* Konrad Curze VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.222 times, 0.741 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Vulkan is just too tanky for Konrad.
**Note: with the usual tactic of Hit & Run Curze would outdamage Vulkan, but this is hindered by the fact that Dawnbringer has Concussive, making it difficult to foresee: it could go either way. (Because it's also a Hammer.)

* Konrad Curze VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.0833 times,1.042 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.708 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 1: hits 3.555 times, wounds 2.369 times, 1.184 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.851 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: as always, psychic powers not included. You know how it would end anyway...

*Konrad Curze VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2 times, wounds 1.667, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad loses as Perturabo does marginally more damage.
**Note: With Hit & Run Konrad would win, but the chance he is not concussed in the round he wants to escape are pretty slim, meaning that Perturabo has still the edge in this fight.

* Konrad Curze VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.701 times, 0.851 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.517 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.

* Konrad Curze VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.75 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.417 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 1.125 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins thanks to his superior number of attacks.

* Konrad Curze VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 3 times (Scourge)/2.25 times (Shadow-walk), 1.5 wounds (Scourge)/1.125 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.167/0.792 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze hits 4 times/3 times, wounds 3 times/2.25 times, 2 wounds/1.5 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.667/1.167 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad wins.
**Note: even though they both got Hit & Run, Konrad doesn't get +1 attack to charge Corax, 'cause he has Shroud Bombs, and also doesn't get +1 S ans I, making Corax considerably stronger when he charge all things considered. All in all, a pretty balanced fight, even if the stats don't say so. Corax doesn't have Widowmakers, though...

* Konrad Curze VS Roboute Guilliman
**Guilliman Round 1/2: hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Guilliman Round 3 and thereafter: hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.963 times, 1.481 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.148 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 1: hits 4 times, wounds 3 times, 1 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.667 at the start of the next turn.
**Curze Round 2 and thereafter: hits 3 times, wounds 2.25 times, 0.625 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.292 at the start of the next turn.
**Konrad lose.
**Note: as always, Konrad could attempt to even the odds with Hit and Run, negating Preternatural Strategy while gaining the +1 attack for the charge (and sniping some wounds with his knives). But so long as Guilliman uses his power fist by the second round of combat Curze will be locked to initiative 1 and will be dead before it's guaranteed he'll be able to leave combat.

* TLDR version: Even though he does a lot of damage, Konrad is not really suited for Primarch vs Primarch fights. Do not misunderstand: he is a real beast when he can make use of Hit & Run and the Widowmakers are extremely good, especially against Primarchs with strong invulnerable saves. Still, you have to consider that all of his special rules are primary designed to scare his opponents and make them flee, but since all Primarchs are Fearless he can't use them. Despite this, he can win some fights and, when he struggle, he can still significantly cripple even some of the strongest Primarchs, leaving them weak and vulnerable. But you are arguably best served to employ his mobility to evade them (instead of fighting) and charge something he could actually butcher in a single round, to make the most of his King of Terror special rule. Make their allies flee in panic and then destroy them when they are alone and surrounded...

</div></div>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Night haunter by cabal art.png|Isn't he the cutest murderous psychopath vigilante ever?
File:Konrad.jpg
File:BigKurze.jpg|[[Emperor|Christ]] that looks epic. Even if it's on graph paper.
File:Konspire.png|Do not get on his bad side.
</gallery>

{{Primarchs}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Imperial Fists

2016-11-03T00:51:32Z

2A02:C7D:CD8:CF00:352C:6492:5881:EA26:

{{Infobox Spess Mahreen Chapter
|Name = Imperial Fists
|Heraldry = [[Image:Imperial_Fists_Livery.jpg|center|140px]]
|Battle Cry = "Primarch-Progenitor, to your glory and the glory of Him on earth!"
|Number = VII
|Founding = [[First Founding]]
|Successors of = N/A
|Successor Chapters = [[Black Templars]], [[Crimson Fists]], [[Excoriators]], [[Executioners]], [[Fists Exemplar]], [[Hammers of Dorn]], Iron Knights, [[Soul Drinkers]](sort of), [[Celestial Lions]], Emperors Spears (not officially)
|Chapter Master = Vorn Hagan (formerly Vladimir Pugh)
|Primarch = [[Rogal Dorn]]
|Homeworld = Used to be [[Inwit]], then [[Terra]], now a giant space fortress called the ''Phalanx''
|Specialty = Defensive Siege Warfare/Urban Warfare
|Strength = 1000 Marines
|Allegiance = [[Imperium]]
|Colours = Yellow
}}

The Imperial Fists are a [[First Founding]] chapter of yellow [[Space Marines|guys]]. Descended from [[Rogal Dorn]], they are the forefathers of the [[Crimson Fists|blue guys with red hands]], as well as the [[Black Templars|in-game Angry Marines]]. Sometimes they get together with their successors and have a [[Feast of Blades|sword fighting tournament]]. They aren't as angry as the [[Angry Marines]] (close though), but they [[/tg/ gets shit done|get the shit done]]. Unlike [[Pretty Marines|some people.]]

Basically they're the true Vanilla Marines, albeit the most badass vanilla marines ever. Probably best represented on the table top by IA: 10's [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marines/Siege_Assault_Vanguard(7E)|Siege Assault Vanguard list]], since it includes most codex space marine options, plus additional siege-y stuff.

They're well known for their fixation on physical and spiritual mortification, predominantly through a gadget called the "pain glove" which is apparently a fucking bodysuit hung on a gibbet or something that hurts you a lot. The name probably comes from "body glove" instead of the glove that goes on your hand. Reading between the lines in many of their fluff articles, especially in earlier editions, implies that as part of their genetic degradation (which means they don't develop the organs they need for spitting acid or entering stasis) they are, to a Marine, masochists. Yep, they're the only Space Marines chapter that officially has anything implicitly resembling a sexual appetite (Space Wolves anyone?) and it manifests as a love for having the shit beaten out of them. If taken as fact, this helps explain why they are so good at getting shit done; when getting hurt simply turns you on, you don't back down from anything, and you can keep going long after others would have fainted from the pain, because you just want to hurt ''more''.

On the other hand, some other fluff indicates they rather use pain as a focus, that is, running at top efficiency not because they enjoy the pain but because they are trained to react to pain in that way, making an even greater effort to get shit done when things are starting to fall apart. Differing from a Slaanesh follower who wants to experience the pain for the joy of it, your average Imperial Fist will avoid getting hurt whenever it isn't absolutely needed.

They appear in the [[Warhammer Films|Ultramarines movie]], ostensibly to teach aforementioned smurfs how to get the shit done, or probably steal the movie from the smurfs and make the Theater explode due to epicness and faithful Imperium subjects yelling as many literal one liners of 40k when they see the motherfucking Imperial Fists. Also, John Hurt plays an IF chaplain in said film. Sadly, due to the amount of Smurf Fanboyism in said film, all but two of them die, their Chaplain gets shot by SPOILER a daemon in disguise, and some scrawny Ultramarine recruit saves the day instead. Normally we'd say this is [[C.S. Goto|fucking retarded]], but the Fists die holding the line and fight to the last, both on-screen and off (and at the very least, one of the Fists survives the movie).

They are known for being one of the Chapters who try to keep the Imperium together as the Emperor intended the most, and defends Imperial soil with tenacity and stoic contempt. This harkens back to their Legion being one of the most Imperial in morals, and known as the "true Imperial Legion", beside the [[Blood Angels]] (although only outwards - [[Red Thirst|Things weren't as well internally]]) and the [[Ultramarines]]. They even recruit people from all the worlds of the Imperium, showing traits from Hive worlds, Agriworlds, Death Worlds, Ocean Worlds, etc. They even recruit from Terra itself, making them to a degree Terra's marines and being known as the [[Awesome|Defenders of Terra]]. Combining this with their standard reaction to pain ("This sucks... I'LL DEFEND IT EVEN MORE!!!") paints a picture of a stubborn Chapter who refuses to let go of the ideals that the Imperium was founded on, but unlike the [[Dark Angels|catholics]] aren't afraid of showing it, and aren't a dick about it, like the [[Space Wolves|vikings]].

==History==
[[File:Imperialfist78.jpg|450px|thumb|left|Chaos proctologists]]

They were masters of siege warfare and construction, like the [[Iron Warriors]], though the [[Horus Heresy]] series tells us that it was [[Perturabo]] who turned the Iron Warriors into siege specialists with his head for numbers and engineering ''(they were intended as a "workhorse" legion)''. The Imperial Fists were designed to consolidate their victories and build fortresses in their wake, leaving well defended systems upon which the Imperium could count ''(contrasting with the [[World Eaters|War Hounds]] who were absolute destroyers)''.

Since '''ALL''' [[First Founding]] Legions originally recruited from Terra, their first home-world was officially Rogal Dorn's planet of [[Inwit]] which is exactly as it sounds, a frozen planet of low-tech Inuit people, though Dorn was such an impressive dude he managed to turn the feral worlders and their ice caves into a sprawling interplanetary Empire ''(beat THAT [[Roboute Guilliman|Girly-pants!]], though to be fair Guilliman was probably better at actually setting up and "running" societies, while Dorn was better at crusading and consolidating)''.

Rogal Dorn was the only Primarch ''(aside from [[Magnus the Red]])'' to actively seek out the Emperor rather than be discovered by him, so when he showed up with the '''Phalanx''', big Emps was like ''"oh Hai... erm... I wasn't expecting you yet... Dorn? was it? okay here's your Legion."''
And then when Dorn met the Space Marine who was the place-holder Legion Master he simply said ''"Cheers dude, you're in command of [[Inwit]] now, make me thirty more regiments of you guys, I'm off on a crusade"'' (seriously, that's pretty much how it went).

It wasn't all [[Noblebright]] crusades though, they were described as [[Black Templars|zealous]] as the [[Ultramarines]] or [[Word Bearers]] when it came to conquering and drawing recruits. On one feral world they recruited EVERY SINGLE male child old enough to hold a spear, whilst on one hive world they went down into the [[Necromunda|underhives]] and walked away with half of the male population. This was perhaps not the best way to get results, and most of the potential recruits would end up dead, though one can guess that the ones that survived would be guaranteed to be the best of the crop, probably in a similar way to how the [[Space Wolves]] whittle out the weaklings from the strong.

They did so well at crusading during the Great Crusade ''(go figure)'' that the Emperor landed more honours on them than anyone else and fought alongside them more often than any other. One might wonder why Dorn wasn't named Warmaster, but was probably more to do with Horus being '''a)''' already well established and crusading on his own, '''b)''' presumably a better all-round general than Dorn and '''c)''' Dorn was noted as lacking in the interpersonal skills necessary to keep the primarchs in line. The Imperial Fists were considered by many to be the bedrock of the Imperium (and most associated with the Emperor, thus midway through the Great Crusade when big Emps retired to his dungeons to play with warp trinkets, they got the job of guarding [[Terra]] and the surrounding solar system ''(but not guarding the [[Emperor]] himself since the [[Adeptus Custodes|Custodians]] already had that job)'', fortifying the Imperial Palace and so they became the most publicly visible loyalist Astartes during the time of the [[Horus Heresy]]. Not only that, their Primarch, along with [[Jaghatai Khan|the Khan]] personally carried the Emperor's fucked up body all the way to the Golden Throne.

How smurfs became more famous for writing a book about how to be a Space Marine than the chapter who did all the shit for/with the Emperor, the [[Imperium]] may never know.

When [[Roboute Guilliman|Rowboat Girlyman]] arrived with his "Bro', I've got an awesome [[Imperium Secundus|idea]]!" for the Imperium, Dorn first answered "GTFO! Gotta punish traitors! You should punish traitors too!". Then he got [[troll]]ed by [[Perturabo]] and lost many of his Battle-Brothers, and when Girlyman came again with his "Bro', you should really listen to my awesome [[Codex Astartes|idea]]", he was a bit down because he just got trolled, and listened to Girlyman. Okay... one mistake in a whole lifetime! Awesome Primarch is still fuckin' Awesome!!

[[Rogal Dorn|Rogal Dorn]] is also portrayed as having a manly mustaches and/or sideburns. This naturally solidifies his position as demigod. He died (or didn't? See 6th Ed Space Marines Codex fluff) after skullfucking an entire Chaos armada with a handful of Marines in rowboats he built in a cave, with a box of scraps.

Not all bad things though, since he split his legion into the ever raging [[Black Templars]] which remains ''the'' largest and busiest Chapter to date, and the conservative [[Crimson Fists]] who actually have brains and don't throw themselves wastefully into wars about glory or honour.

The series The Beast arises, shows that Dorn serectly made a plan that if something bad happens to the main chapter all the Imperial Fists chapters will unite again as a full legion. They also, technically, went extinct during the same war, but were covertly reconstituted by members of other Imperial Fists second founding chapters.

==Ultimate Badasses==

[[Image:275px-Imperial Fists Sternguard.jpg|thumb|right|Washing away the [[Rage|sour disposition]] most of us have towards [[Marines Malevolent|yellow armour]].]]

If you still doubt that the Imperial Fists are awesome, then look at this guy, First Captain [[Darnath Lysander]]. You see Lysander was a Terminator, he and almost the entire first company teleported down on a planet, all regular business, but the Chaos Cultists used the warp to send most of the company into a mountain side (Good excuse for not loading the P-code into their GPS!). [[Just as planned]]. Lysander found the Company Captain dying, but before he died he gave him the thunder hammer named, Fist of Dorn. After that, Lysander was named 1st Company Captain, he did so much crazy shit most people thought he was insane, but he was just awesome. Lysander lead a force of Fists into a warp stormed planet, hey not his best move but nobody is perfect. Many thought Lysander and all those with him died, but they re-emerged out of the Warp in a hijacked Iron Warrior Ship. You see, Lysander and his force were taken prisoner by the [[Iron Warriors]]. Eventually Lysander, without weapons or armor, escaped and fought his way out to freedom. When he returned to the Imperial Fists Chapter, several centuries had passed in the material universe. After they made sure he wasn't corrupted by the years he spent in [[Warp|that god forsaken place]], Lysander returned back his position as Captain of the 1st Company. Lysander then led a force to fuck up the Iron Warriors, and killed them all. Not forgetting he likes to hunt Titans on foot, getting his Titanhammer squads to reduce them to extra parts for use in the TV show "Scrapyard Wars". Also, he's technically older than even Commander Dante, with only Bjorn being an older living SM, since he was a sergeant (~approx 150yrs) in 567.m40, making him roughly 1600yrs old. No mention is ever made of what happened to the guy who was already leading the first company when Lysander returned. (Actually, he was named Chapter Champion and accepted it, presumably while giving Lysander a brofist of badassery)

In short, Lysander is badass, he's [[Mary Sue|not perfect]] (ironically, he's even less of a Mary Sue in the Matt-Ward written supplement for the Imperial Fists - as it turns out, he was demoted to 3rd Company Captain after a bout of stubbornness considered suicidal even by Imperial Fist standards led to the near-destruction of the 3rd Company), he's no smurf, but he is still awesome, and don't believe me, check Lexicanum out; http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Lysander. And he's tough as shit: 4 wounds @ 2+/3++ with eternal warrior to boot. And his hammer is arguably one of the best anti-tank weapons in the game. Nope, nothin' wrong here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While many say that the Imperial Fists do not follow the Codex Astartes, this is in fact incorrect. While they do not follow it as obsessively as the Smurfs, the very reason why Dorn participated in the Iron Cage was not only to atone for the sin of letting the Emprah die, but also to create a force of hardened warriors ready to follow the Codex. If you read the unofficial 40 wiki (http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Fists), you'll see that their adherence to it is second only to the Smurfs (at least until the appearance of [[Red Scorpions|these guys]]). A key difference however, is that the Fists combine the formidable wisdom contained in the Codex with actual brains and thus win more battles than the faggots in blue.

In fact, thanks to the existence of the Ultramarines' non-Codex Tyrannic War Veterans, the Imperial Fists are - in organizational terms - [[Derp|more Codex-adherent than the Ultramarines]].

If this '''still''' doesn't convince you, then consider the following.

==What it means to be an Imperial Fist==
You are an Imperial Fist, a member of the VII Legion, you are charged with the defense of Terra, the seat of Imperial Power. When the news came to you that Horus had betrayed mankind, it felt as if someone had placed a knife in your heart and left it there after twisting it and turning it. Horus, greatest of the Primarchs, had turned from the Emperor. This is impossible, he is either ill or deranged. The very core of your beliefs is rocked; if one such as he could turn, what about you? You steel yourself to do what must be done, trusting in your Primarch, who would never lead you astray. You slowly begin to tear down the Imperial Palace and in its place build a monstrosity of fire lanes, choke points, barricades, battlements, and gun pits. Razorwire replaces rose gardens; trenches replace esplanades, all by your hand. The Emperor is close but never seen; this makes you happy to know that he doesn’t see the horrors you commit to this edifice of his glory. You continue on for years until finally, the forces of the Warmaster are on the approach. Smashing aside all resistance, they fight their way to Terra and make orbit above the cradle of mankind. You take your post, readying your mind to kill whatever comes, warriors whom you might know or have even shared a similar battlement with. The warriors of the Blood Angels and White Scars lend their aid, but in your heart you know it isn’t enough. You will not give in to your fear, because you are fear incarnate, you are an Imperial Fist. The skies darken in an unnatural storm, the drop ships of the traitors speed towards the planet. Fiery comets of malice come not to conquer, but to destroy. What spills from the bellies of the Stormbirds and Thunderhawks are not the noble warriors of the Legions you once knew, but twisted and corrupted mockeries of Space Marines. Spikes and kill trophies of loyalists hang from their backs in a grisly spectacle. You hold the line, you fire magazine after magazine into them. Decaying members of the Death Guard plod towards you, soaking up every round you fire and shambling forward as if against a light breeze. World Eaters throw themselves into your fire zone, bodies piling one on top of another, having no more effect than to slow their traitorous brethren. Creatures from nightmares assail you from all angles, battlements being no more tangible to them than wind to your armored gauntlet. Your efforts are not enough and slowly, inch-by-inch, they gain on you until you have to retreat deeper and deeper into the palace. Now, you really feel the pressure, your enhanced psyche is pushed to its limits. Warp-spawned abominations do battle with your brothers, reaping terrible rents in your defenses, the great cannons of your hated rivals, the Iron Warriors, pound night and day with out cease.

After months of this you still hold, you are still alive, you still are invigorated when the Primarch commands you. They will never take him from you, your rock and shelter. The Primarch will see you through this, he has never failed before, why should you now, at his greatest test, see him break. One day, you are swept up into a mob of your brothers. Horus has lowered his shields! The Emperor is leading a counter thrust! You grab whatever you can and continue in the fumbling ecstasy; this is your chance for revenge. This could end it all and the Great Crusade could begin again! Mankind will see even greater growth with the Emperor at its head, and you will live to see it; you must. Blood Angels, White Scars, Imperial Fists, Custodes, and even Imperial Soldiers fill the vast teleporter arrays. A green light fills your vision and when you are brought back to your senses the ship you once knew as the Vengeful Spirit lies before you. It has become a foul reflection of the ship you once walked through with your brothers from the Luna Wolves. You are alone, and for the first time in your life, physically scared. This is unlike anything you have ever seen or known. Monsters lay into you, the very material of the ship is anathema to you. In a great chamber you manage to link up with more loyalists. What luck! One of them knows where your group is located, and better yet the way to the last known rendezvous, Lupercal’s Court. Running through the corridors, you no longer take any notice of the battle around you, your combat reflexes take over and you fight on autopilot. You must get to the Primarch, he will know what to do. When you finally meet back up with him, it is not what you expect, it is what you feared. The Primarch lies weeping over the Emperor’s body, his ear pressed to the barely moving lips of the broken form of the man at whose word worlds moved and stars died. First Captain Sigismund, his black and white heraldry gore-spattered and his armor rent from dozens of weapons, is being restrained by Captain Polux. Members of the Huscarls kneel around the Primarch, sharing tear-filled glances. The Primarch wordlessly lifts the Emperor’s body and signals for the remaining Imperials to be teleported back to the surface.

The Primarch is a broken man. Having donned the black armor of mourning, he waits for Guilliman and his Ultramarines, Jonson and his Angels, and Russ and his Wolves. When they arrive it is not the homecoming they want. How dare they come here after what you have been through and demand status updates and military courtesies? What have they done? Who have they lost? You were there when the Emperor fell; where were the Ultramarines, and the Dark Angels, and the Space Wolves? Everyone you know is dead, everyone. You are the only remaining member of your company, of the three companies that made up the great company. The Legion went from being a glorious manifestation of the Emperor's power, to a ghost of its former glory. Only those ruined at Istvaan could know this pain. The Dark Angels and Space Wolves are insufferable, especially the Space Wolves. They camp on the sites where you lost everything. You even see one spit into a trench where you fought tooth and nail with a dark champion of the World Eaters, curse them. The Dark Angels are morbid and quiet, you can suffer that. You even begrudge them a recounting of the Emperor’s fall. You feel ashamed as you do it. It is wrong to even think about that horrible scene ever again. You decide that you won't tell it again. The Blood Angels have long since left, what can a Legion do without its Primarch? Doomed to a slow death, you hope that you may fight alongside them again before the end. Lord Dorn quickly relinquishes command of Terra to Guilliman. You and the rest of the Imperial Fists board the Phalanx, and the Scouring begins.

On worlds that you once fought to conquer in the name of the Emperor, you now fight to liberate again, although this time you fight those who fought alongside you the first time. The Scouring takes years. More of your brothers live and die, especially die. You no longer joke with your friends after battles, because you have no friends remaining; and why would you make new ones when they will all be killed eventually? But not you, no you will live forever in this endless cycle of death, you will endure, for you are an Imperial Fist and sacrifice is your nature. The High Lords have decreed that the Legions will be broken up, so that treason of this magnitude can never happen again. Dorn will not bow to these councilors and mortals who had no part in the War. These men are more concerned with reacquiring the taxes and tithes of the worlds lost to the traitors and xenos than returning the Imperium to its former glory. It comes to a head when Guilliman declares Dorn no better than the traitors and accuses him of power-mongering. In your wisdom, you can see Guilliman’s point: Lord Dorn has been on Crusade since the Siege, he has sat out the most important meeting and forfeited his vote on the matters at hand. Though he conceals it deep down, you can see the disdain Guilliman has for your Legion, he no doubt thinks that if it had been him, the Emperor and Sanguinius would still be alive. You hate him for that. He would have fared no better, what right has he to judge you! You, who fought day and night with no rest, no respite! You, who watched the same patch of ground for weeks, ever vigilant! You, who was there to see the Emperor’s greatest mistake.

Lord Dorn relents, but only on one condition: that Guilliman allow him to fight the thrice-cursed Perturabo, alone, at his Eternal Fortress. The last charge of the Imperial Fists Legion. The chance to cleanse yourself through sacrifice. The battle is more bitter than the Siege, it is the explosion of hatred held by both Legions. At first, it seemed as if the battle would be fought in noble virtue, with steel and fire. But Perturabo has different plans for you. First comes the explosions, trapping you on the planet, then the ambushes from well-concealed tunnels. You reap a bloody toll upon the traitors but their spite knows no bounds. They slowly and surely break you apart, until again you are all alone, surrounded by the piled bodies of your brothers and foes. Night and day you fight alone, crawling on your belly through the no-mans-land, trying to find anyone, friend or foe. The shelling is constant, the Iron Warriors have no lack of ammunition. The ground becomes an ever-changing bog, the blood mixing with the rain, eventually covering every part of your armor until the gold of the Legion is completely covered. The days blur together and you no longer know how long you have been crawling, until fate intervenes and again you find yourself in the presence of the Primarch. He is not as you remember. His black armor is pitted and scarred, the mud covers most of it. The rest of the first company shares the harrowed appearance of the Primarch. The once proud Templars of Sigismund, who used to wear the finest tabards of rich cream, their company heraldry displayed by devotion markings now show their devotion in scars and burns. Their bolters have long since been discarded and they now use bits of chain and razorwire to keep their swords fastened to their arms. Sigismund is no longer the Champion you remember hurling back the traitors single-handed, but a relentless whirlwind of destruction. All caution thrown to the wind, the First Company charges the traitors at every opportunity, their losses only driving them to greater heights of rage. The Iron Warriors fall before them like long grass to a scythe, the traitors' only recourse is to shell their own positions. The fighting continues as such for what seems like years, every firefight seems like a lifetime. All military objectives have long been abandoned, the only mission is to find Perturabo and destroy him. The senior captains call for a breakout, but the Primarch will not relent, he will kill Perturabo. You continue on day and night until, one day, the tide turns. The Ultramarines have come. Their Thunderhawks bombard the traitor positions, their Battle Barges fire volley after volley into the central keep. Lord Dorn is incensed; when Guilliman makes landfall at your position you half expect the Primarch to strike him down, but it does not happen. As the last of your brothers board the Thunderhawk, Dorn takes one last look at the battlefield, and steps aboard wordlessly.

You leave over four hundred brothers un-recovered on the battlefield. That figure does not include the dead that have been brought back. The Legion is no more, it was able to end with its honor intact. The successors are formed, Lord Dorn gives Sigismund the first of the successors and commands him to keep true to the original virtues of the Astartes. The First Captain leads those still thirsty for vengeance on an Eternal Crusade, forever carrying the Legion's memory as a torch. Master Polux is given the other successor and takes the newest members of the Legion on Crusade as well, but not with the zeal of Sigismund’s Black Templars. Polux uses the bloodied fist as a metaphor for the Chapter. It symbolizes your tradition of sacrifice in the Emperor's name. The new Chapters take to the field in your Chapter's stead, winning much honor for the Primarch. You rebuild. It is a sombre process, few remain who fought at the Cage and fewer still who fought at the Siege. You see faces that might have been at there, but you aren’t sure. The Chapter slowly takes shape, with the Codex at its heart. You endure, ever more.

You continue on, true to the Emperor that was. When word reaches you of a Black Crusade driving into the heart of the Imperium, a chance for vengeance is at hand. The Primarch takes three hundred warriors to hold the forces of chaos back until the rest of the Chapter can join him. But, it does not happen. The Primarch is laid low, and you fight to recover his remains. It is the saddest moment of your life, the Primarch is gone, the Emperor is gone, and the Legion is gone. You bear his remains back to the Phalanx where they will rest for eternity. You endure. You relive your nightmares when Vandire causes a second Imperial Civil War, and you fight through the same corridors you once defended. The Tau menace is thwarted by you and the Ultramarines, fighting alongside each other once more. On Miral the horror of the Great Devourer is thrown back by your hand. You are there when First Captain Lysander returns in time to stop the Traitors from ruining the Imperium during the 13th Black Crusade. You fight across the bleak moors of Cadia, against the sons of the monster who crippled your Master so long ago; it is a wound that still drives so much of your being so many years later. You sacrifice and you believe. You will fight the enemies of the Emperor for all eternity, you endure, you sacrifice, you do not relent. That is what it is to be a Son of Dorn.

==Daily routine==

3:00-Reveille: The Imperial Fists are roused from their iron slabs and spiked beds to start the day. Morning Prayer is still an hour away, but it takes that long just to get past the locks and barricades they put up the night before. 
4:00-Morning Prayer: The Imperial Fists assemble for a sermon by the Chaplains. The poses of fealty they maintain are specifically designed to be the most physically uncomfortable possible. 
5:00-Morning Firing Rites: The Imperial Fists assemble to practice their firing drills. You can imagine everyone's surprise when the Chapter serfs learn that the Fists have built up fortifications around their firing ranges. 
6:00-Battle Practice: The Imperial Fists descend into the battle cages for practice in close combat and moving targets. Frequently the Imperial Fists will forgo medical attention for injuries. 
9:55-Milkshake and Cookies break: Nutrient fortified. 
10:00-Pain Stimulation: The Imperial Fists undergo pain stimulation and endurance tests. Such tests range from the Pain Glove to sitting naked in rooms where the temperature is designed to simulate the night-side of [[Inwit]] during winter. 
12:00-Midday meal: A light meal is prepared by the Chapter serfs. Showing pleasure at the taste earns you an hour in the Pain Glove. Rumors that Imperial Fists deliberately say they enjoyed the meal to get into the Pain Glove have never been proven. 
12:30-Tactical Indoctrination: The Imperial Fists undergo tactical indoctrination on what sort of enemies they can expect to be crusading against in the near future, how to best design fortifications to stop them, and what sort of pain contact with their weapons causes. 
16:00-Evening Firing rites: The Imperial Fists engage in evening firing drills. 
20:00-Evening Prayer: The Imperial Fists assemble for a sermon by the Chaplains. 
21:00-Evening Meal: A feast is prepared for the Imperial Fists by the Chapter serfs. 
22:00-Evening Fortifications: The Imperial Fists set up fortifications in their cells to make sure no one can get into their room and surprise them while sleeping. 
23:00-Rest: The Imperial Fists retire to their iron slabs or spiked beds for the evening.

==See Also==

*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdlAerT2aT0 Their theme], done by [[HMKids]], Fucking [[Awesome]]!
*Read "The Beast Arises: I am Slaughter", by Dan Abnett: They got LITERALLY destroyed to the last man, and by that literally one Space Marine, Captain Slaughter survived.(nope as of last son of dorn even he is dead now wether taht continues into the next is up for debate.) What that means for the Chapter is yet to be known, though there are hints it was refounded.
*"Space Marine", by Ian Watson.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:5bb1320db65801446d0238d653385da7.jpg|Line Holding Specialty. Angry Prussians in Space FTW!
File:Marcius Flavius Color.jpg|[[Marcius Flavius]], the first(and only) space marine assigned to a Federation starship in the historic Federation-Imperium officer exchange program
Image:Lysanderart.jpg|First Captain (later Third Captain) Lysander.
Image:RogalDorn.jpg|Rogal Dorn.
</gallery>

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

Space Marines

2016-10-28T02:25:19Z

2A02:C7D:CD8:CF00:352C:6492:5881:EA26: /* Creation */

[[File:Silver Skull.jpg|300px|right|thumb|WE ARE THE EMPRAH'S FUREH!]]
''For the vidya gaem, please see: [[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]]''

''"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall [[Finecast|mould]] them, and in the furnace of war forge them. They will be of iron will and steely muscle. In great [[Pauldrons|armour]] shall I clad them and with the [[Bolter|mightiest guns]] will they be armed. They will be untouched by [[Nurgle|plague]] or disease, no sickness will blight them. They will have [[Deep Strike|tactics]], [[Steel Rain|strategies]] and [[Dreadnought|mac]][[Centurion Squad|hin]][[METAL BOXES|es]] so that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against [[Chaos|the Terror]]. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my [[Robert Heinlein|Space Marines]] and they shall know no fear."'' -The [[God-Emperor of Mankind]]

The '''Space Marines''', also known as '''[[Indrick Boreale|SPESS MEHREENS]]''' (canonically named the Adeptus Astartes; Astarte is the Greek name for the Mesopotamian goddess of war, Ishtar. Ironic given that the Astartes is an all-male organization) are an army in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe. They are bio-enhanced super soldiers clad in [[Power Armour]], and are generally regarded as the toughest warriors to ever serve the [[Emprah|Emperor]] (except for the Adeptus Custodes and Imperial Assassins). The average Space Marine is around eight feet tall. They used to be seven feet in the old fluff, but [[Dan Abnett]] and the rest of Games Workshop have a hard-on for gigantism (though they have addressed the problems real-life gigantism can cause by throwing in more bio-engineering) so they jacked them up a foot, though RPGs from Fantasy Flight Games and games by THQ scaled them back to the more reasonable seven feet. Although do note that the height of Marines can vary greatly; some can even reach ''ten'' feet, like [[Asterion Moloc]].

Internally, they have bones that can repel anything short of a boltgun round and can breathe underwater even without their helmets on because they have a third lung. They can also breathe all but the most potent of toxic fumes with little to no damage to their respiratory system, have two hearts, and live for hundreds of years (they may be functionally immortal, but they usually die in battle after a few centuries, so nobody can be sure). They are vastly more powerful in their [[fluff|official descriptions]] than they actually are in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' tabletop game (although the Marines statted in [[Dark Heresy]] or [[Rogue Trader]] are walking rapemachines, and the [[player character]] Marines in [[Deathwatch]] are hard as nails). Much like the [[Chaos Space Marines]] are the 40k successors of the [[Warriors of Chaos]], Space Marines are the 40k successors of Warrior Priests, right down to their BALD. Portrayals range from hardcore but plausible super-soldiers to shameless [[Mary Sue]]s who could fight off Batman with one hand and the Joker with the other. Although occasionally, they serve to make other galactic forces seem superior. ''More like the Ineptes Astartes.''

They account for approximately 35% of the playable armies (counting chaos space marines) in 40k, over 21.4% (yeah, I thought that was a pretty conservative estimate too) of played armies among the 40k fandom (factoring in that people can collect and play more than one 40k army), and as of October 2010, receive about 50% or more of new releases. While there are many, ''many'' chapters that you can choose from, the actual armies basically boil down to six main choices: [[Dark Angels]], [[Blood Angels]], [[Space Wolves]], [[Grey Knights]], [[Legion of the Damned]] (barely), [[Deathwatch]], and everybody else. Everyone who's a successor of the first two choices follows their codex and generally share their units, while the "everybody else" just follows the generic Space Marine codex. Don't let the promotional art fool you, though; the Space Marine army isn't exclusively [[smurfs]]. It used to be that you also had individual codices the [[Black Templars]], but they got folded into the generic Space Marine army. At least they still get special chapter-specific units, which is more than can be said for the likes of the [[Salamanders]] or other important yet still-neglected chapters.

Contrary to that, fluff-wise Space Marines are amongst the smallest factions in the game, second only to the Sisters of Battle. With all Chaos and Loyalist Marines combined they number below two millions in a galaxy where Imperium alone have tens of millions of honest to good inhabited worlds (not some dipshit colonies with a population of only few millions). In fact any single capital-class space ship have a population higher than the entirety of Marines in the Galaxy. Furthermore, marine armies are extremely fractured, very rarely deployed at above a few companies per war zone. GW never cared to explain how forces so small could have such a huge impact on the battlefields, when Orks, Guard and Tyranids could field their troops in millions, and Chaos can convert entire populations of planets (which is often tens of billions). Regardless, everything that is something in the setting has a tendency to at least have a bit Space Marines in it, if they aren't flat-out the protagonists. Expect enormous campaigns to revolve around a few companies, regardless of the involved numbers of Guardsmen and enemy xenos and chaotic characters, and the Marines to be the key to victory in any given war.

Of the many kinds of 40k fans, the Space Marine fanboy might be the most obnoxious ''and'' common one. They closely resemble fans of a politically radical movements; having little to no ability to see their own faction's obvious and glaring faults, while demonstratively arguing that all other factions are below them. The Space Marine fan fervently believes that any Marine-centered Bolter Porn presents the truth about the setting, which will lead to many a SM Fan proclaiming that they know ''exactly'' how all other factions are weaker in relation to Marines, regardless of what the actual fans of those factions and accepted lore actually says. Space Marine fans are often fans who have been reading the books or playing Dawn of War before getting into the wider setting, and as such get their views in a bit of a twist. Fortunately, many Space Marine fans end up migrating to another faction, becoming bored with the Marines and getting into a faction [[Orks|with some]] [[Imperial Guard|meat in]] [[Dark Eldar|it]], or, in search of further elitist kicks, get's [[Eldar|into something]] [[Tau|even worse]].

[[Games Workshop|Geedubs]] [[Meme|has a hard-on for Space Marines]]. [[Slaanesh|Between the writers favoritism and the "Spots the Space Marine" fiasco, it's gotten to the point where they should seek professional help]]."

The name Adeptus Astartes is usually portrayed as meaning Star Adepts. However [[Just As Planned|Astarte is actually Greek]] for [[Not As Planned|Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of fertility, love, war, sex and sexuality.]] The Emprah [[HERESY|may have been horny and/or romantically interested]] [[Rule 63|in the idea of a badass God-Empress]] and [[What|named his sons to symbolically show this]] using a language that he and [[Ollanius Pius]] [[Derp|are the speakers of]] besides dead people and three of [[Khorne|the]] [[Nurgle|Ruinous]] [[Tzeentch|Powers]], or this is just the Emperor keeping himself sane by engaging in humor he knows only one loyal person will get, which does not include his last [[Malcador the Sigillite|two]] [[Companion|friends]]. [[Grimdark|No wonder the Emprah doesn't smile much.]]

==History==
[[File:Prayer before battle.jpg|250px|left|thumb|Marine with half his face missing, skulls in the wall, bolter laying ready and servitors with hoods swinging censers. Ladies and gents, [[Warhammer 40k]].]]
After the end of the [[Age of Strife]], the Emperor of Mankind wanted to reunite [[humanity]] in a [[Great Crusade]] across the galaxy, and he realized that in order to do this he would need one epic-ass army and equally epic generals to lead it. He created the [[Primarchs]], his sons, to be his generals, and let me tell you, these guys were some of the most insanely powerful badasses in all the lore of 40k, and that is saying something. (There is a story in which [[Sanguinius|one of them]] snaps a fucking [[Bloodthirster]]'s spine over his knee.) From their DNA, he created the [[First Founding|Legiones Astartes, the first Space Marines]]. Their first task was to locate their Primarchs, because the [[Chaos Gods|Gods]] of [[Chaos]] had scattered them across the galaxy in an attempt to foil the Emperor's efforts at human reunification. All of the Primarchs were eventually recovered and reunited with their respective legions, but then, at the height of the Space Marines' power, disaster struck. [[Horus]], the Emperor's most trusted Primarch, fell to Chaos and turned traitor along with his legion, the [[Luna Wolves]], and several others followed suit. After much [[Grimdark|sorrow, pain, and civil warring]], the Emperor killed Horus personally, but was mortally wounded in the process, which is why he is now a zombie being kept alive by the technologies of the Golden Throne. The traitor legions, who are now known as the [[Chaos Space Marines]], were defeated and pushed back to the [[Eye of Terror]]. All of the Primarchs that did not fall to Chaos during the Horus Heresy have either disappeared or been killed, and none remain to lead the Space Marine legions (though [[Roboute Guilliman]], primarch of the [[smurfs]], is [[Matthew Ward|according to some people]] healing in stasis). In addition, after the Heresy, the legions were mostly [[Second Founding|split into smaller "Chapters"]] of up to a thousand Marines according to the teachings of the [[Codex Astartes]] (although some Chapters, such as the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Black Templars]], do not follow Astartes orthodoxy and maintain forces in much greater numbers, and [[Dark Angels|some chapters]] go so far as to form almost legion-strength forces.)

The Space Marines are most commonly looked upon as warrior-monks, generally referring to each other as "Brother", "Battle Brother" or some variation thereof based on rank, spending most or all of their time training, in battle, or venerating the Emperor. However, no two Chapters are exactly alike, and many differ wildly from the standard perception of the Marines. The Space Wolves, as one example, appear to be much less disciplined than most other Chapters, maintaining a much larger force than permitted by the Codex and frequently having great feasts with much merriment and drinking (the Space Wolves happen to produce the only intoxicating beverage known to have any effect on Marine physiology, and which liquefies the innards of non-Astartes). Their attitude toward others in the Imperium can also differ greatly from Chapter to Chapter or even from marine to marine. Some are very idealistic, believing very strongly in their role as protectors of humanity (such as the [[Celestial Lions]] or the [[Salamanders]]). Others, like the [[Black Templars]], tend to disregard the ordinary elements of the Imperium, and emphasize much more their role as a weapon against its enemies.

Their attitude towards the Emperor can also vary. Although they are typically believed to worship him as a deity like most of the rest of the Imperium, the Space Marines are, by virtue of their gene-seeds, derived from the Primarchs and hence the Emperor himself, making them much closer to him than most humans. In fact, many of the Space Marine chapters' beliefs maintain some of the old [[Imperial Truth]] that the Emperor was not a god, but simply the greatest of mortal men, worthy of praise and veneration but not a deity proper. Although it is true that the majority of the chapters certainly venerate him in an orthodox manner, others just scream his name a lot because that's tradition.
[[Image:Blingmarine.jpg|thumb|right|The great Papa Smurf hisself.]]
Space Marines are generally regarded as having something of an "unfair advantage" in the tabletop, mainly because every young 40k player has a strong liking for them, and almost every unit in the listings has at least a 3+ armor save, making them rather hard to kill, especially when considering armies such as the Blood Angels have models that allow players to roll an additional "Feel No Pain" 4+ save if they fail the 3+ one. The problem is that it took 3 Space Marine chapter books in 5th edition to come up with a Space Marine Codex framework that didn't suck (almost nothing in C:SW is non-competitive or poorly priced), which is why Long Fangs are usually 50 points cheaper than their Space Marine counterparts, while being twice as effective. Why are Devastators supposedly more expensive? Combat tactics. Yeah, you're never going to use it. The Ultramarines in particular are an extremely popular choice of Space Marine chapter, and their blue design coupled with the small size of the miniatures often leads to them being referred to as "Smurfs". Thanks to [[Indrick Boreale]], the Space Marines in general are frequently called "Spess Mehreens", or variations to that effect. The Space Marines of today look very different from the glory days of Rogue Trader, when they earned the nickname "[[beakie|beakies]]" because of their signature helmets.

Denizens of /tg/ are prone to claiming a wide variety of things about the Space Marines, usually about their sexual activity (or lack thereof), ranging from assertions that the genitalia of a Space Marine is nonfunctional to claims that they are castrated during the creation process. They never have any supporting evidence for these theories and it is not clear whether or not Space Marines are allowed to have sex, which chapters would allow them to have sex, if they even can have sex, if they're still capable of normal human reproduction, or what bits they may or may not still possess. Still, that doesn't stop anyone from stating their personal opinion as if it were fact.

==Creation==
[[File:1396451926378.jpg|400px|thumb|right|From deranged lab-experiment to fucking [[awesome]].]]
Knowing [[Chaos|just]] [[C'tan|what]] [[Necron|the]] [[Dark Eldar|fuck]] [[Ork|was]] [[Eldar|waiting]] for humanity in space, the Emperor of Mankind designed the [[gene-seed]], [[Gene-seed#The_Organs|nineteen special organs]] to enhance the regular human body to keep the Space Marines going when fighting these monstrosities. Over a series of several years, human adolescents, dubbed aspirants, are selected through a rigorous process which varies from Chapter to Chapter. They are always male, with cited reasons including that Astartes are basically clones of their Primarchs, and by extension the Emperor, and that the geneseed requires portions of the Y-chromosome to function.

When their training goes to the next stage, the aspirants are implanted with the initial gene-seed. They then become neophytes, Space Marines in training. As the gene-seed is implanted into them, the neophytes also go through hypnotic conditioning to hone their responses. By the time they're done, the subject has few impulses beyond fighting and killing in the name of the Emperor (it's sometimes thought that this is what kills their sex drive) and most of their memories of their earlier lives are all but forgotten. The only mental frailties remaining are a "fear" (ATSKNF notwithstanding) of failure and experiencing notable stress when severely injured or crippled, as they are no longer able to fulfill their function.

After receiving all these organs and conditioning, it's highly arguable if a Space Marine still qualifies as human. Though the [[Imperium of Man]] has basic "kill on sight" orders for most non-humans and venerates the "Holy Human Form", the topic of whether or not Space Marines violate this edict is ignored, mostly because they were designed by the Emperor and thus considered holy creations. There is also an understandable hesitance to declare war on the only thing standing between the Imperium and the unfathomable evil of the [[Chaos Gods]]. Arguably marines are no less human than Mechanicum, just with organic implants instead of bionics, and mechanicums are likewise still count as 100% right and proper humans (even if most of them consider themselves a separate species or at least "humans 2.0" ).

In fact, this religious need to adhere to the Holy Human Form may be why the Emperor designed the gene-seed to be a bio-enhancement project and not a genetic modification one; all of a Space Marine's inhuman abilities are a result of the artificially engineered organs shoved into their bodies during their creation, either directly (the secondary heart or multi-lung) or indirectly (the Ossmodula, which alters their hormone balance and so makes their skeleton growth go berserk). Consequently, this means a Space Marine would technically pass a genetic scan of being "human" better than an [[abhuman]] like an [[Ogryn]] or [[Ratling]] would. Though, the holiness of the Human Form came long after the Horus Heresy, so this theory is unlikely. Besides, the Emperor did attempt genetic modification but it proved either too expensive (Thunder Warriors) or resulted in unrecorded disasters. Gene-enhancements are also much more conductive to mass-production.

Yes, this tramples all over the spirit of the law whilst technically adhering to the letter, but it's hardly unique -- see the Ecclesiarchy having its own army of [[Sisters of Battle|power-armored gun-toting nuns]] despite being formally forbidden to have "men" under arms.

Another theory is that the Space Marines were designed this way for more symbolic reasons. Done this way Marines retain a link to humanity; all were born human, no more than any other citizen. They became more through science and training but they aren't some new species or a warrior caste. As marines they are beyond humans but they know where they came from. The regular citizens see the marines as the best of humanity, proxies for the emperors power. The marines remember humans are their kin and while they are more than human they are still the same species all coming from the same root. The power vested in them doesn't pass by blood, it passes by merit and a normal citizen can still aspire to becoming an Astartes even if that's a long shot. The Emperor's whole deal was based around humanity, so he built something that could be a symbol to all humanity. He could have bred a new war species but he altered us because his dream of the Imperium was the dream of humanity. Symbolic difference, sure, but it matters. There's a reason space marines are venerated not feared.

Incidentally, bio-enhancements like the gene-seed are actually more controllable than a genetic enhancing procedure would be, since the resultant outcome is more predictable, more easily mass-produced, and it means that even if a Space Marine could have kids, they would in all likelihood not be different from ordinary humans, since their abilities aren't tied to them on a genetic level, though they would be far more likely to become space marines since some amount of genetic compatibility is required.

==The Lifespan Debate==
[[File:Sons of Corax by MajesticChicken.jpg|450px|thumb|left|When the going gets tough, the tough get going.]]
The lifespan for Astartes is something of a tricky subject. While it’s made clear that Space Marines live many centuries longer than normal humans, exactly how long they’re ''supposed'' to live has never really been elaborated on. It doesn’t help that there has never been a Space Marine shown or described to have ever died of anything resembling old age, and that different chapter bloodlines (and writers) each appear to handle aging differently. So there really isn’t any kind of baseline to work with here. Perhaps most central to the issue is the question of whether or not Astartes are biologically immortal.

On the “for” side, both Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill claim that Astartes are indeed immortal, and that although they might physically age (grey hair, wrinkles, etc.) it is only skin deep and they are in just as good physical condition as when they first joined the Astartes, only dying when they are killed. Nick Kyme also appears to be a believer in the immortal point of view (though more in a sitting-stone-gathers-moss-and-lasts-forever kind of way), as in his Salamanders series, an [[wat|Astartes survivor from the Horus-friggin-Heresy was found in a crashed and buried Salamanders starship]]. His armor had melded into the metal of the ship and he could no longer move, but he was alive. He had apparently been sitting there watching over the empty, ancient suits of armor from his fallen brothers for ten thousand years. He was also borderline crazy from all the memories filling his head (thanks eidetic memory, but then if he had human memory he'd have Alzheimers or something) and his vocal cords and throat were dessicated, so old age does have an effect.

On the “against” side, the Blood Angels are specifically noted for having exceptionally long, but limited lifespans, namely a 1000 years give or take, and Marines from other chapters don’t live nearly as long. This has been reaffirmed in the current Blood Angels Codex, and it should be noted that it was written by GW's biggest Space Marine fanboy. Yes, even Ward says Space Marines can die of old age.

So yeah, Black Library has a tendency to be inconsistent with the established lore. Big surprise. But in this case the reason is twofold: firstly, some gamers would think less of the Space Marines if they could die of old age, and Games Workshop doesn't want that. Secondly, Games Workshop seems to agree that they would be awesome if they didn't die of old age, but they don't want to anger the part of the fanbase that would disapprove of Space Marines being biologically immortal, so they're deliberately vague about it. Besides, if Marines were already immortal, it would give the [[Chaos Space Marines]] less impetus to become [[daemon prince]]s.

Biologically immortal or not, at the end of the day the only true measurement of an Astartes’ lifespan is how killy they are. If Space Marines can die of old age, they’re almost certainly going to die in battle before age ever starts to take its toll, and if it does, then they just die in battle as soon as old age starts to slow them down, so that doesn't really count. As a general estimate, though, 400-500 years seems to be a good average life expectancy for most Space Marines. Past that point, a Space Marine is usually considered among their chapter’s most venerable elders, and only the real badasses ever get this old.

==GW Space Marine Chapters==
[[File:40k RPG.jpg|300px|right|thumb|We honestly can't tell whether this is a dude or a chick, so you'll just have to make a guess and face the consequences.]]
*[[Aurora Chapter]] - Institutionally lazily named.
*[[Astral Claws]] - Institutionally secessionist.
*[[Astral Knights]] - Institutionally [[The World Engine|crazy awesome, but totally dead]].
*[[Alpha Legion]] - Institutionally closet loyalists
*[[Black Dragons]] - Institutionally taking their cue from Wolverine.
*[[Black Templars]] - Institutionally crusaders.
*[[Blood Angels]] - Institutionally [[Black Rage|unstable]].
*[[Blood Ravens]] - Institutionally relic hunters.
*[[Celebrants]] - Institutionally gradient.
*[[Celestial Lions]] - Institutionally suffering losses from [[Ork Snipers]].
*[[Crimson Fists]] - Institutionally Mexican.
*[[Dark Angels]] - - Institutionally <s>mysterious</s> Loyal.
*[[Dark Hunters]] - Institutionally grim of grim marines.
*[[Death Spectres]] - Institutionally albino.
*[[Deathwatch]] - Institutionally, intentionally and professionally xenocidal. Employed by the [[Inquisition]], recruited from other Chapters.
*[[Doom Eagles]] - Institutionally doomed.
*[[Excoriators]] - Institutionally ugly.
*[[Executioners]] - Institutionally [[lawful stupid|honorable]].
*[[Exorcists]] - Institutionally [[Heresy|possessed and exorcised]].
*[[Flesh Tearers]] - Institutionally RIP AND TEAR.
*[[Flame Falcons]] - Institutionally ON FIRE. ALL OF THEM.
*[[Fire Lords]] - Institutionally [[Flamer|burny]], possibly more so than the Salamanders (see below).
*[[Genesis Chapter]] - Institutionally [[Ultramarines]].
*[[Grey Knights]] - Institutionally killing [[Daemon|Daemons]].
*[[Guardians of the Covenant]] - Institutionally record-keeping catholic space monks.
*[[Hammers of Dorn]] - Institutionally trolling the Ultramarines.
*[[Howling Griffons]] - Institutionally Black Templars wannabes.
*[[Imperial Fists]] - Institutionally waiting tactically.
*[[Invaders]] - Institutionally trading blows with Eldar.
*[[Iron Hands]] - Institutionally [[Awesome|Scottish]].
*[[Iron Snakes]] - Institutionally [[Awesome|Texas Rangers]].
*[[Lamenters]] - Institutionally unlucky.
*[[Legion of the Damned]] - Institutionally undead.
*[[Marines Malevolent]] - Institutionally MASSIVE assholes.
*[[Mantis Warriors]] - Institutionally misdirecting.
*[[Mentors]] - Institutionally academic. Has not been heard from [[Rogue Trader (Sourcebook)|for a long time]].
*[[Minotaurs]] - Institutionally mysteriously paranoid teamkilling assholes. They are suspected to be in league with the [[High Lords of Terra]] as an attempt to police the Adeptus Astartes. Cause that'll work.
*[[Mortifactors]] - Institutionally goth.
*[[Raptors]] - Institutionally [[Reasonable_Marines|reasonable]] and [[shooty]].
*[[Raven Guard]] - Institutionally [[Troll|tricksy]] and speedy.
*[[Rainbow Warriors]] - Institutionally not appearing in this game.
*[[Red Scorpions]] - Institutionally pure.
*[[Red Talons]] - Institutionally bloodthirsty.
*[[Relictors]] - Institutionally radical.
*[[Salamanders]] - Institutionally [[Flamer|burny]]. Also, surprisingly nice for all their... fiery nature.
*[[Sable Swords]] - Institutionally heirs to the [[Astral Knights]].
*[[Scythes of the Emperor]] - Institutionally NOT DEAD YET.
*[[Silver Skulls]] - Institutionally [[Shaman|shamanistic]].
*[[Sons of Medusa]] - Institutionally lime green.
*[[Soul Drinkers]] - Institutionally rebellious.
*[[Space Sharks]] - Institutionally [[Shark|SHARKY]], BITCH!
*[[Space Wolves]] - Institutionally spess vikings with a wolf fetish
*[[Star Phantoms]] - Institutionally SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER!.
*[[Storm Wardens]] - Institutionally Celtic.
*[[Ultramarines]] - Institutionally [[Codex_Astartes|orthodox]].
*[[White Scars]] - Institutionally Mongolian.

==Space Marine Chapter Masters==
[[File:Angels of the Rock.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Tiny head syndrome is a common side effect of the augmentations]]
*[[Marneus Calgar]] (A.K.A Papa Smurf) - Chapter Master of the Ultramarsmur.....I mean [[Ultramarines]]. Received the rank by having the most plot armor.
*[[Dante]] - Chapter Master of the [[Blood Angels]]. '''Beware!!!!'''. Dante is watching you! Received the rank for being so old and always wearing a mask so no one knows what his face looks like anymore.
*[[Logan Grimnar]] - Great Wolf of the [[Space Wolves]]. Is the wolfiest of all the wolf lords without being a furry.
*[[Azrael]] - Supreme Grand Master of the [[Dark Angels]]. Best at VANQUISHING FOUL TRAITORS FROM OTHER LEGIONS.
*[[Vorn Hagen]] - Chapter Master of the [[Imperial Fists]]. Appointed as Chapter Master out of pity after the [[Darnath Lysander|TRUE HERO]] turned down the job.
*[[Jubal Khan]] - Chapter Master of the [[White Scars]]. Proved his speediness by outracing a bike mounted captain wearing only rollerskates.
*[[Tu'Shan]] - Master of the Fire Drakes, [[derp|de-Facto]] Chapter Master of the [[Salamanders]]. Forged the burniest flamer.
*[[Kardan Stronos]] - Chapter Master of the [[Iron Hands]](sort of). Was actually democratically elected for diplomatic reasons, temporarily. It's complicated.
*Corvin Severax - Former Chapter Master of the [[Raven Guard]], nicknamed "Master of Shadows". Got the job by being the sneakiest of the sneaky marines(they were looking for him to officially grant him the rank until the last day). Unfortunately some [[Shadowsun|blue-skinned bitch]] had him killed in the Damocles Gulf (ironically by being even sneakier and trickier then him). [[Kayvaan Shrike]] was decided unanimously to be his successor, adding to his [[awesome]].
*[[Kaldor Draigo]] - Supreme Grand Master and of the [[Grey Knights]] and one of [[Matt Ward]]'s [[Mary Sue|Special Snowflakes]]. Honored for being the single biggest mary sue in the whole damn setting.
*[[Helbrecht]] - High Marshall of the [[Black Templars]]. Was voted High Marshall for being the angriest of the not angry marines.
*[[Pedro Kantor]] - Chapter Master of the [[Crimson Fists]]. Got the most votes (read: all three) during the election.
*[[Gabriel Seth]] - Chapter Master of the [[Flesh Tearers]]. Ripped and tore the most during the chapter master audition(also kicked one of the judges in the balls).
*[[Azariah Kyras]] - Former Chapter Master of the [[Blood Ravens]] who was killed for being a filthy, despicable, traitorous, no good follower of Chaos. Later replaced by [[Gabriel Angelos]].
*Sarpedon - Chapter Master of the [[Soul Drinkers]].
*Carab Culln - Lord High Commander of the [[Red Scorpions]]. Got promoted after the last one was killed.
*Artekus Bardane - Chapter Master of the [[Relictors]]. Collects and uses chaos artifacts better then anyone in the chapter.
*[[Asterion Moloc]] - Chapter Master of the [[Minotaurs]]. No clue how he got the job, our inquiries were met with death threats and top level cease and desist orders. Has a laser-shooting pimp cane.
*[[Lugft Huron]] - Chapter Master of the [[Astral Claws]]. Got the rank by being absolutely awesome, unfortunately he overdid it and caused the [[Badab War]].
*Lias Issodon - Chapter Master of the [[Raptors_(Chapter)|Raptors]]. The most reasonable of the not-reasonable marines.
*[[Tyberos the Red Wake]] - Chapter Master of the [[Space Sharks]]. Showed the best technique when it came to applying '''RIP AND TEAR''' to heretic asses, assisted by his [[awesome|lightning chainfists]].
*Omadon Tiresias - Chapter Master of the [[Star Phantoms]]. Blinded by warp storms during the evacuation of the Star Phantom home world, he forsook his own sight to save the relics of his chapter.

== Rivalries ==
[[File:Moloc.JPG|300px|right|thumb|Everyone hates the Minotaurs]]
While normally above mortal shortcomings, the greatest flaw of the Space Marines is their hubris. They are immensely proud warriors who do not take kindly to having their honor slighed. Some take mental note of this for a later date while others [[rip and tear|take the more direct approach]]. This has created some notable rivalries between the various Chapters, some of which date back to the Great Crusade.

*'''Space Wolves and Dark Angels''' - The Space Wolves and Dark Angels have a rather tumultuous and sometimes violent rivalry, but in a way their legions truly reflect the relationship between brothers. The rivalry itself stems from a confrontation between their primarchs that stemmed from the different cultures the primarchs had come up in. During a joint operation between the Wolves and the Dark Angels, the planet's ruler had insulted Russ personally, so Russ resolved to slay him personally. The Lion tried to cut Russ in on his deep strike plan, but Russ would have none of it: He didn't want to defeat the enemy, he wanted to utterly crush them. Frustrated with his brother's lack of cooperation, the Lion launched his strike without the wolves help, and Russ fought his way into the planetary ruler's palace just in time to watch the Lion behead him. Furious, Russ threw down his weapons and punched the Lion, starting a lengthy fist fight that only ended when Russ started laughing upon realizing how pointless the fight was and how stupid he'd been. Thinking that Russ was laughing at him, the Lion punched Russ unconscious. When Russ awoke he sought out the Lion to make amends, but he had already departed with his fleet. Though the two would work together again, the Lion was rather unforgiving (oh the irony) towards Russ. To Russ the Lion seemed the antagonist. After all, in the halls of Fenris a brawl between angry brothers was hardly unusual. When the fight ended you'd toast each other and drink away the bruises and move on. To the Lion Russ seemed at fault. After all, in the knightly orders of Caliban striking one's brothers was not done: petty infighting could not be tolerated when monsters slavered at the gate. As is so often the case between brothers, both were at fault and neither would back down. To this day the Space Wolves and Dark Angels (and their successor chapters) will fight (usually) non-lethal honor duels to "settle the score," though "the score" has never really been agreed on. Occasionally tensions between the two chapters will boil over into open warfare which is often caused by <strike>Fallen Angels</strike> TRAITORS UNASSOCIATED WITH THE DARK ANGELS hiding amidst the Space Wolves' protectorate worlds, using the tensions to their advantage. Finally it's worth noting that even though the two (former) legions often fight, they never show that rivalry to the wider imperium, and they'll set aside their rivalry whenever they need to [[get shit done]] together.

*'''Ultramarines and the Word Bearers''' - The Ultramarines are pissed off at the Word Bearers for a great many things: 1) They turned traitor 2) They used millions of cultists as meat shields during the battle of Calth, which the Ultramarines saw as dishonorable and disgusting 3) They almost destroyed Calth

*'''Ultramarines and the Alpha Legion''' - The Alpha Legion led the Ultramarines halfway across the galaxy on a fool's errand that ultimately ensured they were nowhere near the Imperial Palace during the Horus Heresy. Adding insult to injury, they inflicted enormous casualties on the Ultramarines, and though they succeeded in killing Alpharius (or did they?), the Alpha Legion's command structure was so decentralized that it did little to affect them.

*'''Ultramarines and the Black Templars (also the Imperial Fists, the Crimson Fists, the Space Wolves, and the Salamanders)''' - When Roboute Guilliman tried to force the Codex Astartes on the Space Marine legions after the Horus Heresy, some legions - most notably the Imperial Fists - outright refused, not wanting their legions to be broken down into smaller chapters. Rogal Dorn called Guilliman a coward, while Guilliman called Dorn a rebel. The Space Wolves and the Salamanders ended up backing Dorn, while the Raven Guard and the White Scars supported Guilliman. The rivalry became so intense that the Imperial Navy even fired on the Imperial Fist strike cruiser ''Terrible Angel'', and it seemed that the Space Marines would war against one another once again. Finally, Rogal Dorn yielded to prevent another war and broke his legion into the Black Templars and the Crimson Fists. As the Ultramarines still were wary of the loyalties of the Imperial Fists and their successors, Sigismund - the first Emperor's Champion and the man that Dorn had appointed to be the Black Templars Chapter Master - declared a 10,000 year crusade in the Emperor's name to prove their loyalty. Even though tensions have since cooled between the Ultramarines and the other chapters, the Ultramarines are still suspicious about (read: sticking their nose into the business of) the Black Templars as they still refuse to conform to the Codex Astartes, and won't tell the Ultramarines just how huge their chapter is. In short, Sigismund and Leman Russ told Guilliman where he can shove his Codex Astartes, and he's all anal pained about it.

*'''Ultramarines and the Iron Warriors''' - [[Uriel Ventris]] and Pasanius Lysane, of the Ultramarines, were sworn to a Death Oath by their Chapter Master Marneus Calgar as punishment for violating the Codex Astartes (specifically, because they had abandoned the rest of their company to assist a Deathwatch Kill-team during the Battle of Tarsus Ultra). Their mission: find and destroy the [[Daemonculaba]]. The quest took the Ultramarines pair to the nightmarish [[Daemon World]] of [[Medrengard]], within the [[Eye of Terror]] itself. Medrengard was the homeworld of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion. It was also the location of [[Honsou]], the evil Iron Warriors Warsmith who oversaw the Daemonculaba project from within his fortress, Khalan-Ghol. The Ultramarines were successful in destroying the Daemonculaba, and were also able to bring ruination to Khalan-Ghol and Honsou's forces. Uriel Ventris also managed to shoot Honsou in the head. Unfortunately, the Warsmith survived the headshot. Upon realizing the extent of the damage Uriel had caused, Honsou swore revenge and also the utter annihilation of [[Ultramar]]. Honsou was aware that before he ever dealt with Uriel Ventris, the Ultramarines spent years and countless resources and lives to repel a [[Tyranid]] incursion at Tarsis Ultra. Honsou thus unleashed a plan which destroyed every living thing on Tarsis Ultra, and reduced the planet itself to a lifeless rock. Destroying the planet provided no strategic gain to the Iron Warriors; Honsou carried out his horrific genocide simply to spite Uriel Ventris and the Ultramarines. Following this, the Iron Warriors use an army won from the [[Red Corsairs]] to free the [[Daemon Prince]] [[M'kar]], and invade [[Ultramar]]. Though the "Bloodborn" army is beaten back, the Ultramarines lost over one third of their battle-brothers in the attempt, leaving them open to attack for the first time since the First Tyrannic War and unable to properly participate in the Imperial counter-offensive for the [[13th Black Crusade]]. The Ultramarines and the Iron Warriors have thus become bitter enemies-- with Uriel Ventris and Honsou in particular becoming sworn foes.

*'''Ultramarines and the Hammers of Dorn''' - The Hammers adhere rigidly to the Codex Astartes, to the point where they point out any deviations from the codex by the Ultramarines. According to the Hammers of Dorn, Guilliman may have had the genius to pen the codex, but the sons of Dorn are the only ones that can bring out its full potential.

*'''Ultramarines and the Minotaurs''' - While the Minotaurs are hated by everyone the Ultramarines have a special grudge against them, due to the Euxine Incident during the Macharian Heresy. During the heresy the loyalist Doom Warriors and Inceptors chapters were busy [[skub|fighting each other over a matter of honor]], and refused to stop and aid Imperial forces. The Minotaurs were sent to quell the dispute, which they did in their [[rip and tear|usual manner]]. They attacked both sides in force, nearly destroying them both. The Doom Warriors were badly beaten and forced into a barely-organized retreat almost immediately. The Interceptors weren't so lucky. With no way to withdraw they suffered the full onslaught of the Minotaurs and finally surrendered with less then 100 marines left. The honored 2nd founding chapter was subsequently [[Blood Ravens|robbed of most of their chapter relics, the Minotaurs stealing them right off their dead bodies]], including their flagship, a relic of the Great Crusade. This brought them a great deal of hatred from the Ultramarines and their successors, who have since forbidden the Minotaurs from entering Ultramar and seek vengeance whenever the opportunity arises.

*'''Blood Angels and the World Eaters''' - Both constantly compete for superiority in melee combat and also the angriest motherfucking berserker full of rage.

*'''Raven Guard and White Scars''' - Supposedly dates back to a huge fucking argument between [[Corax]] and [[Jaghatai Khan]], where the two had a massive spat over the proper use of rapid-reaction forces. Corax insisted they be used as part of infiltration and deep-strike units, and Jaghatai insisted they were to be on the front lines - the two never really saw eye-to-eye, Corax seeing Jaghatai as devastatingly effective, but with the tactical sense of a drunken Space Wolf, and Jaghatai seeing Corax as too cautious and tactical for proper man-fighting. The two would eventually make up after the Horus Heresy, and both the Raven Guard and White Scars would be forced to ally on several occasions - most notably during the infamous Hunt for Voldorius - but an intense rivalry over whose fast-attack doctrine is better persists to this day, and the two factions are still kind of assholes to one another as a result.

*'''Blood Angels and the Black Legion''' - Considering that Horus killed their Primarch (who, before the Heresy, were closer than any other Primarchs) which resulted in them suffering from the Black Rage which eventually causes every descendant of Sanguinius to have visions of being killed by Horus, the Blood Angels probably despise the Black Legion to the point of pure obsession. Also as a rule, the Blood Angels have a special hatred for the [[Abaddon|owner]] of the '''Talon of Horus''', since it killed their father.

*'''World Eaters and the Grey Knights''' - Angron was banished back to the Warp by Grey Knights during the first battle of Armageddon, which resulted in the World Eaters' defeat. Angron has since been resurfacing, and has sworn revenge.

*'''Raven Guard and the Black Legion (also the Word Bearers, Night Lords, Iron Warriors, and Alpha Legion)''' - The Raven Guard were the second hardest hit by the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V ''(the Salamanders got hit worse, but there weren't really enough survivors to hold a grudge)''. Though all of the traitor legions except the Thousand Sons were involved, the Raven Guard holds a special hatred for the former Luna Wolves and Horus, a hatred which has transferred over to [[Abaddon]] and the Black Legion. That said, the Raven Guard go absolutely murderous on any of the Legions who turned on them at Istvaan V.

*'''Grey Knights and the Space Wolves''' - Officially, there really isn't a rivalry at all. Because officially the Grey Knights don't exist. Unofficially, during the First War for Armageddon, Grey Knights were ordered to fire on dozens of civilian ships because there was a fraction of a shadow of smidgen of a chance that they were tainted by Chaos. The Space Wolves decided this was pretty dickish, and protected the civilians. Naturally, the Inquisition made it worse. Then old [[Logan Grimnar|Loggy]] chops a Grey Knight Grand Master's head off and kills four Justicars, the ugly downward spiral of '''''WTF!?'''''s started there. Eventually, an understanding was reached where the remaining civvies weren't murdered but just mindwiped a bit and Inquisitorial ships would never again come to Fenris or the wolves would tear them a new asshole.

*'''Imperial Fists and the Iron Warriors''' - Imagine their rivalry akin to World War I. The Imperial Fists are the Brits who love making defenses, while the Iron Warriors are the Germans who also love making defenses but also love destroying stuff. Also, Perturabo hated Rogal Dorn for being Daddy's golden boy and his constant boasting of the fortifications of the Imperial Palace. Perturabo eventually bested Dorn and the Imperial Fists by making a huge space fortress that Dorn then tried to attack in an effort to bring Perturabo to justice. Inside the fortress was nothing but inwardly-faced gunlines, meaning the entire thing was a trap and wound up cutting down enormous numbers of the Imperial Fists before they could retreat. The Imperial Fists were too fierce for the Iron Warriors to destroy without making the ultimate sacrifice however, proving that they get shit done. Perturabo, naturally, found his plan fucking hilarious.

*'''Thousand Sons and the Space Wolves''' - The Space Wolves despised the Red Sorcerers for their practice of magic, and didn't question a goddamned thing after Horus had intentionally given the Wolves incorrect orders (to destroy the Thousand Sons, as opposed to talking Magnus down). Suffice to say, the Space Wolves caused colossal damage to the Thousand Sons, and in the process, destroyed one of the largest repositories of knowledge in the entire fucking Imperium, including a huge amount of information that would have helped the Imperium better fight off its enemies. Horus' dick move forced the Thousand Sons to eventually turn to Tzeentch just to survive. Though the Wolves' offense devastated the Sons, the Legion would nonetheless resurface to attack the Space Wolves: they led a siege on their homeworld and succeeded in causing considerable damage before being driven off. During this offensive, they managed to destroy a series of laboratories, including one that held an entire generation worth of the Space Wolves' Gene-Seed (as well as the cure for the Wulfen curse), and Magnus himself was responsible for killing the Space Wolves' chapter-master.

*'''White Scars and the Space Wolves''' - Thousand Sons were the biggest bros of the Scars during the Great Crusade, their primarchs were total bros too, so when they figured out that Wolves destroyed Prospero, killed most of the (still totally loyal) Thousand Sons, forced surviving ones into going heretic, and don't even feel any guilt or remorse about it, none were surprised Scars kept a huge grudge against the Space Yiffs. Also during the crusade, the Scars hated being compared to the Wolves because of the apparent link to barbarism. The Wolves themselves also have a thing or two to say about the multiple times Scars hadn't come to help when they could, starting from when they left Wolves alone against entire Alpha Legion fleet.

*'''Iron Hands and the Emperor's Children''' - Prior to the Heresy, Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus were '''extremely''' close friends. Their bond ran so deep that even as Fulgrim declared his intentions of joining the forces of Chaos to Ferrus, asking him to join him in overthrowing the Emperor, Ferrus couldn't open fire on his brother's ship. Naturally, this had some rather nasty effects in the long term, not least of which was Fulgrim decapitating the Gorgon with his own sword. The Iron Hands did not take kindly to this. Also, getting all repressed and logical over the next 10,000 years caused Slaanesh to take breaking them as a challenge.

*'''World Eaters and The Emperor's Children''' - In addition to following rival deities, the Emperor's Children lost huge numbers of troops to the World Eaters at Skalthrax. Really, all you need to know is that [[Kharn]] and a Flamer were involved, and that before this incident, the World Eaters were a much more coordinated force.

**'''World Eaters and World Eaters''' - This event caused the World Eaters to break up into warbands

*'''Emperor's Children and the Iron Warriors''' - Given that Fulgrim tried to sacrifice Peturabo's soul to Slaanesh to fuel his ascension to Daemon Prince...

*'''Dark Angels and FOUL TRAITORS''' - Do ''not'' get between them and a FOUL TRAITOR TO THE IMPERIUM WHO CERTAINLY HAS NO CONNECTION TO THE SONS OF THE LION. It can only end in tears.

*'''Thousand Sons and World Eaters:''' Khorne hates sorcery, and so the World Eaters hate the Sons. Sadly for the World Eaters, they're usually well out of the Sons' league; the Thousand Sons tend to pick conflicts selectively, which means the followers of Khorne have rarely even had the chance to fight them. Also, it doesn't do much to appease Khorne's bloodlust, since there is no blood or skulls to offer, just dust.

*'''Blood Ravens and EVERYONE:''' Apart from Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, almost every Marine Chapter mentioned in having contact with the Blood Ravens have not been on good terms. Most likely due to their rampant kleptomania. This animosity extends beyond the Space Marines, and into the rest of the Imperium as well; Imperial Guard forces hate them for exterminating the Kronus Liberators, and the Inquisition doesn't like them for their secrecy.

*'''Blood Angels and the Emperor's Children''' - [[Fabius Bile]] stole the blood of Sanguinius from the Blood Angels' Fortress-Monastery as part of a plot to make a clone of the God-Emperor. As the neophyte initiation process for the Blood Angels requires the consumption of some of the aforementioned blood, the Blood Angels and all their Successor Chapters have sworn to find and kill Bile at all costs. (For a while, it looked like they succeeded- that is, until they found out that Bile had begun cloning ''himself''.)

*'''Iron Hands and Raven Guard and Salamanders''' - The Iron Hands are still pissy about the whole [[Drop Site Massacre|Isstvan V]] thing. They believe that had the Salamanders and Raven Guard followed their Primarch Ferrus Manus they would have won at the dropsite massacre. Completely overlooking the fact that they were surprised, surrounded, outgunned and outnumbered nearly 3 to 1. They don't like the Raven Guard in particular for their use of stealth and subterfuge, and also for having a pretty much identical color scheme. The Salamanders aren't too keen about the Iron Hands belief of "purging the weak" and usual disregard for civilian casualties and sometimes their own Marines. The Raven Guard and Salamanders never pulled any of this bullshit with each other, though, and remain close allies, if for nothing other than the Hands constantly being dicks to both of them.

*'''Marines Malevolent and Salamanders''' - What happens when the galaxy's greatest assholes meet the galaxy's greatest humanitarian marines? Hilarity that's what. The hate fueled rivalry that was first widely known came during the Third War for Armageddon where a squad of Marines Malevolent used their [[Whirlwind|Whirlwinds]] to fire upon an Ork-occupied camp, when they ''knew'' that the camp contained hundreds of Imperial civilian hostages, mostly women and children. Oh and guess what their response was, something to do with "Meh, we only serve the Emprah only" and "We didn't know there were ''"that"'' many civilians". As you can imagine, this both horrified and royally pissed off the Salamanders, and when these two Chapters met again after the war, Chapter Master Tu'Shan, to put it simply, bitch-slapped the Captain of the Marines Malevolent in front of ''everybody in the city,'' prompting much sniggering and cheering among both Guardsmen and civilians alike. Because of such reaction to complete dickwards, the Salamanders were considered as the '''Heroes of Armageddon''' by popular vote.

==Bros To the End==
As there are several chapters and legions who despise one another, there's a few that get along damned well.

*'''Raven Guard, Salamanders, and Iron Hands''' - True since the great crusade, where these three found they worked extremely well in-concert - The Raven Guard acting as the advance and cutting off critical locations and eliminating command units, the Salamanders in providing the heavy punch to follow this up, and the Iron Hands providing the tide of firepower to support both. That being said, the Iron Hands' relationship with the Raven Guard and the Salamanders has deteriorated since the Horus Heresy; they believe that had their allies not retreated from the Drop Site Massacre, Ferrus Manus would not have been killed and Horus would have been defeated before he could pose a threat to the Imperium. (It doesn't take a genius to realize that this would have just led to the complete annihilation of their Legions in practice.) It's not really clear if the Hands still fight alongside their former best bros in the 41st millennium, but given the whole "feeding a Raven Guard company to psyker orks for lulz" thing, it doesn't seem likely.

*'''Salamanders and Blood Angels''' - Though the Salamanders are friendly with most Chapters anyway, they're particularly tight with the Blood Angels. Both Chapters are some of the few in the Imperium that actually go out of their way for civilians and put them before pride and glory in battle. This became particularly evident during the [[Armageddon|Second War of Armageddon]], when both fought side-by-side against the [[Orks]] and when [[Dante]] publicly honored [[Tu'Shan]] for his bravery during the war and bitch-slapping the Marines Malevolent Captain.

*'''Imperial Fists and Imperial Fists successors''' - Doctrinal differences aside, the sons of Dorn have always been on good terms with each other. Whenever a crisis threatens Terra that is too great for a single chapter, the Imperial Fists and their successors unite to put an end to that threat, such as [[The War of The Beast]], and the [[Age of Apostasy|Second Siege of Terra]] to put [[Goge Vandire]] in his place. Every century, they also come together for an epic swordfighting tournament called the [[Feast of Blades]].

*'''Blood Angels and Imperial Fists''' - Both fought and died in the defense of the Imperial Palace. Broforce = very yes.

*'''Ultramarines and Imperial Fists''' - Similar to the Space Wolves and Dark Angels above, beef about the codex aside, the two chapters have always been on very good terms.

*'''Dark Angels and Dark Angel successors''' - THE DARK ANGELS HAVE NO SUCH RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS. RUMORS THAT DARK ANGEL SUCCESSORS ARE STILL UNDER DIRECT COMMAND FROM THEIR PARENT CHAPTER, EFFECTIVELY STILL MAKING THEM FUNCTION AS A LEGION, ARE OBVIOUSLY LIES AND SLANDER FABRICATED BY THE FOUL HERETICS OF CHAOS, AS SUCH AN ACT WOULD BREAK THE GUIDELINES OF THE CODEX ASTARTES, WHICH LOYAL CHAPTERS WOULD NOT DO.

*'''Salamanders and Word Bearers {pre-heresy.}''' - Something about all the sacrifices, and all the red paint.

==Official /tg/ Space Marine Chapters==
[[File:Cloten.jpg|300px|right|thumb|THE RAPE TRAIN HAS NO BRAKES!!!]]
One of /tg/'s favorite pastimes is creating new and exciting chapters of the Adeptus Astartes based on silly concepts. [[/tg/|/tg/'s]] [[/tg/'s homebrews|homebrew]] chapters include:

*[[Adeptus Orthodontus]]
*[[Angry Marines]]
*[[Bald Marines]]
*[[Bro Marines|Alpha Sigma Sigma]]
*[[Butthurt Marines]]
*[[The Wonderful Misadventures of: Inquisitor Fob and the Classy Marines|Classy Marines]]
*[[Censor Marines]]
*[[Comedy Marines]]
*[[Disco Marines]]
*[[Dorf Marines]]
*[[Drunk Marines]]
*[[Sigmar Marines|Emperor's Hammers]]
*[[Emperor's Paragons]]
*[[Galactic Partridges]]
*[[Golden Aquilas]]
*[[Lazy Marines]]
*[[Manly Marines]]
*[[Metal Marines]]
*[[Mexicarines]]
*[[Mole Marines]]
*[[Obstinate Marines]]
*[[Pathetic Marines]]
*[[Pretty Marines]]
*[[Reasonable Marines]]
*[[Red Skeletons]]
*[[Scary Marines]]
*[[Silly Marines]]
*[[Sleepy Marines|Dream Warriors]]
*[[Star Shanks]]
*[[Elderly Marines]]
'''As you can see, /tg/ has a problem with creativity.'''

===Second Founding of /tg/ Space Marine Chapters===
After the release of Deathwatch: Rites of Battle, /tg/ quickly flung itself at the chapter creation rules and began to produce a second wave of /tg/ chapters. Noticeably more serious business than the previous chapters, these Spess Mahreens range from the widely popular Emperor's Nightmare, to the derpy Flesh Helms.

*[[BANE OF SANITY]]-AGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*[[Abyssal Jaws]] - Institutionally sharky.
*[[Black Locks]] - Institutionally corsair.
*[[Blood Jaguars]] - Institutionally Aztec.
*[[Brotherhood of the Gauntlet]] - Institutionally Arabic Ghazi.
*[[Brotherhood of the Megalith]] - Institutionally rocky.
*[[Conservators]] - Institutionally poor and under-equipped. It's what happens when you piss of the Mechanicus.
*[[Deep Ones (Tiji Sector)|Deep Ones]] - Institutionally aquatic and environmentally resistant.
*[[Desert Fangs]] - Institutionally [[Angry Marines]] taken seriously.
*[[Dune Walkers]] - Institutionally Arabic Nomads.
*[[Emperor's Bears]] - Institutionally lost.
*[[Emperor's Nightmare]] - Institutionally [[Sleepy Marines]] taken seriously.
*[[Eyes of Mordred]] - Institutionally [[Scary Marines]] taken seriously.
*[[Flesh Helms]] - Institutionally [[Imperial Guard]] of the Adeptus Astartes.
*[[Guardians Exemplar]] - Institutionally equal to the [[Marines Malevolent]].
*[[Ice Serpents]] - Institutionally [[Baneblade|mechanized]] for war.
*[[Ice Wraiths]] - Institutionally [[Awesome|cyborg-ice-vampire-yeti-riders]].
*[[Knights Inductor]] - Institutionally [[Reasonable Marines]] taken seriously. Also [[Mary Sues|MARY SUES]], don't mention them on /tg/. You'll just [[troll|cause a shitstorm]]
*[[Knights Repentant]] - Institutionally UTTERLY LOYAL and true pre-heresy [[Word Bearers]].
*[[Lumbermarines]] - Institutionally lumberjacks.
*[[Rising Sons]] - Institutionally BANZAI!!!
*[[Screaming Eagles]] - Institutionally 'MURICAN!!! FUCK YEAH!
*[[Talons of Corvus]] - Institutionally a more heroic [[Command and Conquer|Nod]].
*[[The Sovereign's Appraisal]] - Institutionally loyal and sympathetic despite mutations, being declared renegade, [[Slaanesh]] trying to seduce them and the [[Ultramarines]] and their successors trying to terminate them.
*[[War Brothers]] - Institutionally not giving a damn about what the [[Dark Angels]] want from them.
*[[The Adeptus Estates]] - Institutionally home building.
*[[Mourning Sons]] - Institutionally shedding [[Fist of the North Star|Manly Tears]].
*[[Star Krakens]] - Institutionally Viking, yet not [[Space Wolves|THAT]] Viking. Plus one of the biggest of shits that /tg/ has done right. AND HOW!
*[[Space Knights]] - Institutionally dour.
'''The second wave WOULD show improvements to creativity... If they didn't use a RPG system as a crutch, among other issues.'''

==See Also==
*[[Beakie]] - When the Spehss mahrens were awesome looking.
*[[Chaplain]] - The spiritual leaders of the space marines.
*[[Female Space Marines]]- Records officially decommissioned and terminated by the [[Inquisition]] on the grounds of [[Heresy]], there is nothing here trust us. E-Commissars will blam you from your monitor when attempting to access said heretical records.
*[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]]- The official game of [[Pauldrons]] (despite the fact that the pauldrons in this game are smaller than they should be)
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Space Marines|Tactics/Space Marines]]
*[[Guidelines of the Space Marines]]
*Despite the considerable amount of hate at the space marines nowadays, [[The World Engine|they can still be awesome.]]
*[[Stormcast Eternals]] (AKA, [[Ground Marines]]), their [[Warhammer: Age of Sigmar]] equivalent.
*[[Terminator]]
*[[Apothecary]]
*[[Techmarine]]
*[[Librarian]]
*[[Scout]]

==External Links==
* [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Space_Marine Lexicanum on Space Marines]
* [http://wackycamper.deviantart.com/art/Space-Marine-Commandments-88741651 The Commandments of the Space Marine]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13nM17TV_sU/ Rap song dedicated to the mighty-ass space marines.]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMzWrDSNN4Y/ Another rap dedicated to the mighty-ass space marines.]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzPuK1vib_c Emperor's quote about the Space Marines in a remix done from If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device glory.]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shRHZLheEJI What is to be a space marine, in thrash metal version!]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:Xenos sighted.jpg
File:Pingas.png
File:Pyramidheadspacemarine.jpg
File:Troll Emperor.jpg
File:New Marine.jpg
Image:1227373581722.gif
Image:Femalemini.jpg
File:Correction.JPG|Drill Abbots '''hate''' him!
File:Stuffy.jpg|Build a Marine Workshop
File:Pauldronius.png|[[Pauldron]]ius
File:Brother Sergeant Aznable.jpg|'''EEECK!'''
image:steelrain.jpg|Steel Rain in action!
File:Reasonablemarine.png|Don't fuck with [[Reasonable Marines]].
Image:LEGO_SpaceMarines_by_Jerac.jpg|Brick by brick we shall conquer.
File:1285382081001.jpg|Apparently, marines '''DO''' in fact have tiny heads.
File:Sperm Marine.jpg|I'm in ur w0mb, fertulizan yo eggz
File:Amuricuh.jpg|What historians didn't want you to believe
File:Yes they can.jpg|[[Skub|A matter of some contention.]]
File:False.jpg|Taking a page from their fallen brothers.
Image:Primarchs_as_teen_girls.png|'''[[Rule 63]] Primarchs are the most popular girls at [[HS40K]]'''
File:Gearing up.jpg|A rare glimpse at a Space Marine without his awesome pauldrons on
File:1294948918986.jpg|Salamander Space Marines training starts at a reasonably young age
File:Armour of Bulk.png|Space Marines and ridiculous suits of armour go hand in hand.
File:BruceAstartes.jpg|Brother Campbell brings a world into Imperial compliance.
File:SpessM.jpg|Indrick Boreale nearly turned Space Marines into the laughing stock of the entire franchise.
File:Angels of Derp.jpg|Space Marines as depicted during the dark ages of GW art (aka 2nd Edition)
Image:1228559892410.jpg|The scary thing is that this isn't fan art, seriously, this was an official GW product.
File:Warhammer 40k space marines we'll find your mom mother storytellers storytime missing child lost little girl.jpg|Now gather around children as I recount to you the exploits of the Emperor's chosen...
Image:1207335921499.jpg|The Space Wizards of Warpwarts have mastered the art of profecting the power of the warp through small wooden sticks. How they refrain from breaking them is a mystery.
Image:Horny Marine.gif|'''Hump the heretic, penetrate the mutant, cum in the alien''' '''Goodness [[Emperor's Children|me]]!''' I didn't know you loyalists had [[FATAL|it]] in you.
</gallery>
</center>

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