Editing Blackshield (section)

==Overview==
These guys are rare - the [[Mary Sue|special snowflake]] of the Space Marine special snowflake Alaska. I can already hear you Deathwatch players rolling up your next character as a mysterious Blackshield with a mysterious past. Pfft.

No two Blackshields have the same motivations for being one, but what is common is that they are all zealous individuals, wishing only to earn their redemption via the destruction of the foes of the [[Emperor]]. There are an abundance of reasons why they join - maybe they were part of a Chapter that went full blown [[Heresy|heretic]] and went all survivor's guilt; maybe they [[Ragnar Blackmane|lost some incredibly important relic]] or got a good portion of those under their command killed... or maybe they were just refusing an order out of basic fucking common sense purely because it was a [[Ultramarines|stupid thing to do in the situation, but got kicked out anyway for breaking the rules]].

These guys are suicidal fucks. Most Space Marines ([[Black Templars|barring]] [[Obsidian Glaives|certain]] [[Doom Eagles|examples]]) know and acknowledge their own worth in the battle against the Imperium's enemies - not the Blackshields. They'll think nothing of jumping headfirst onto a [[Melta Bomb]] or drawing enemy fire. [[Slayer|In a Blackshield's mind he is as good as dead already, and he will always go forth for the most dangerous missions without a second thought.]] On the flipside, he will perform duties deemed too unimportant or lowly for a Space Marine to perform without question, such as guarding secure outposts alone.

Whether this redemption comes in death or in chalking up enough [[Ork]] heads or [[Eldar]] scrotums is anyone's guess, but a very rare few do this with the intentions of being accepted back into their former Chapter. Most are content to kill for the Emperor until they meet a glorious end, buried with honour at one of the huge fortresses of the Deathwatch. Still, some of them end up rising throughout the ranks of the Deathwatch itself - Blackshield [[Deathwatch Chaplain]]s, [[Watch Captain|Watch Captains]] and even cases of Blackshield [[Watch Master|Watch Commander]]s are not unknown.

The tradition of the Deathwatch Blackshields stems from the [[Horus Heresy]]. During the Horus Heresy, [[Traitor Legion Loyalists|loyalist Marines from traitor Legions]] who shunned their traitorous brethren and remained loyal (or in rarer cases were from loyalist Legions but turned traitor - or rarer still, legionaries who went "fuck it" and decided to strike out on their own without taking either side) would remove all livery that connected them to their legion, referring to themselves to as Blackshields.

Despite breaking off from their parent Legion, many of these Blackshields were able to make more Space Marines as they have removed all restrictions on gene-seed production and freely experimented with it (resulting in many Blackshields having gene-seed from multiple Legions) to expectedly unpredictable results. However, these Blackshields were forced to scavenge for their own gear and potentially make their own slapdash armaments, resulting in Marines wielding lasguns (or potentially alien weapons) because their bolters were too difficult/valuable to replace while their power armour became so improperly maintained that they broke more easily against heavier weapons.

After the Heresy ended, the traitor legion loyalists got quietly turned into loyalist chapters and most of the renegades who survived the war returned to the Imperium, proclaimed nominal loyalty and were folded into successor chapters, or were wiped out. Others just vanished into history, perhaps surviving only by virtue of being forgotten by the greater Imperium.

As a curious aside, other Deathwatch fluff says painting over the Chapter badge ''completely'' pisses off the [[machine spirit]] of the armour. We assume that Blackshields probably get a brand-new set of armor rather than repainting and stripping their existing armor. Or this bit of superstition is just superstition instead of the sometimes-common 40k "you think it's superstition until the laundry machine tries to eat you for insulting it".