Editing Space Sharks (section)

==Gene-Seed Speculation==
[[File:Space Shark Tau.jpeg|right|thumb|''FFFFFUCKING WEEB!'']]
Initially, many fa/tg/uys speculated that the Carcharodons were of Raven Guard or Night Lord descent, or possibly a loyalist remnant. A minority also speculated that they might be World Eater remnants, though since that seems to be the old [[Minotaurs]]' schtick it's probably not true. Moreover, given that they are believed to have been founded by M32 and most of their wargear appears to be Heresy-era, they are most likely of the [[Second Founding]] or a product of the Heresy.

Most of the evidence for these theories is based on their military tactics and the few descriptions we had of marines outside of their armour. Socially, a lot of their imagery, language, and chapter culture has Polynesian influences, which don't map onto any existing legion's background and, owing to their recruiting practices, are not tied to a known world.

Their favoured tactics, relying heavily on stealth and surprise, would seem to fall in line with the Raven Guard's combat doctrines, at least on a strategic level, where they appear suddenly into whatever battlezone they are targeting without warning. However on a tactical level, they are comparatively unsubtle ; their preference for close-combat, total slaughter, and the strategic use of terror put them at odds with the "tacticool operator" style of the modern Raven Guard. Their method of war is closer to the pre-Heresy Night Lords, if substantially higher in body count, or the World Eaters, if they were a little more subtle. To give an example, they appeared above a shrine world and immediately took command despite the mass unrest such an action caused. They then forcibly shut down the shrines the world was famous for, thus provoking a miniature rebellion and coaxing the genestealer cult out of hiding. So whilst they have subtle overarching goals, they are merciless in their methods.

Physically, the Carcharodons displayed pale white skin and black eyes with black sclera. These were common traits of people living upon Lycaeus and Nostramo, the homeworlds of [[Corvus Corax]] and [[Konrad Curze]], respectively. While the modern Raven Guard exhibit these traits as a result of mutations within their gene-seed, ''[[Imperial Armour#Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two|Imperial Armour]]'' states that the Space Shark's gene-seed is unusually pure, i.e. stable, and that these traits are unlikely to be the result of mutation. However, their Chief Librarian has toothy denticle growths on his elbows and around his neck which comes from a "degraded genetic inheritance" which essentially gives him sharkskin. This condition affects the entire chapter, but is much more common on older Carcharodons. They also suffer from something they call the "the Blindness", a condition that can make them lose all control during combat to the extent they may even attack their own.

This makes their appearance all the more unusual, as the Carcharodons are known to take recruits from the worlds they conquer, meaning there is no common genetic source that could explain their development other than through their [[gene-seed]]. Interestingly, the Chief Librarian also seems to make a note of the 3rd Captain's particular genetic heritage, as if it were somehow significant. It may very well be that the Carcharodons have more than one gene-seed source; Corvus Corax was noted for his snow-white skin, and Konrad Curze for his black eyes.

The Short Version: Official fluff presents their origins as being ambiguous, even to the point of mutual contradiction within the same story. Both Raven Guard-offshoots and Night Lords believe they are related, whilst they retain a lot of World Eater style equipment and tactics. Said Raven Guard offshoots even suggested that they could also be related to the World Eaters, although this might have been figurative. As with a lot of GW fluff, it's unlikely to get explained.

===Excerpts from Red Tithe and Outer Dark===
Red Tithe: (context: a Night Lord is observing the similarities between his legion and the Carcharodons. Also a daemon says that the Carcharodons are the lost brothers of the Night Lords)
"These Loyalists were different from the ones he’d outwitted in the past. None of his Claw leaders
reported having ever encountered them before. Even Shadraith was seemingly without answers,
practically abandoned by his pathetic daemonic patron. Their fighting style was not one Cull
recognised. '''If anything, it seemed eerily like the Night Lords’ own doctrines.'''"

...

"Cull was beginning to understand why his Claws had struggled. These loyalists were unlike any he’d
encountered before. '''They bore a curious resemblance to the Night Lords themselves''', but where the
VIII Legion delighted in the terror they caused, these grey killers seemed to be without any emotions
at all."

...

(Context. A daemon is warning a Night Lord that the Carcharodons are hunting for them.)
"''Beneath the surface'', Bar’ghul said. The daemon’s voice was distant, as though carried on a faint
night wind. ''Others are coming to claim him. They must not succeed.''

‘Others?’

''The Hunters in the Void.'' '''Your lost brothers.'''

Outer Dark: (Context. the Carcharodons and the Ashen Claws are negotiating for the Carcharodons to hand over some Raven Guard geneseed they had collected. The Ashen Claws even outright call the Carcharodons a different breed from the Raven Guard and traitor-born.)

"‘Enough of this,’ barked one of the other Space Marines at the high table, rising
so fast that his chair clattered back. ‘This '''traitor-born scum''' has gone too far!’
‘Sit down, Brother Tanthius,’ snapped a voice."

...

(Context. A Carcharodon is offering to trade a stock of Raven Guard geneseed for wargear from the Ashen Claws)
"‘We bring more than just bolters and power armour,’ he said. ‘We bring the
genetic legacy of '''your ancestors'''. Not much, for we have little enough to spare as
it is. But it is pure.’

‘You have not contaminated it with '''your disgusting breed'''?’ Nev demanded."
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===TL;DR===
'''The first mention of the Carcharodons says that their gene-seed might be Raven Guard''', but doesn't expand on that. Given that this was during the time that the [[Blood Ravens]] were really in the popular vogue (as they still are to this very day), the idea that the Carcharodons are secretly [[Traitor Legion Loyalists]] was pretty popular because their tactics are more like the Night Lords than anyone else's. GW has tried to walk it back a bit by saying the Raven Guard were basically the Night Lords only with Corax instead of Curze since then, but the debate still rages on because most of the documents supporting the Raven Guard hypothesis are speculative in-universe, and the Imperium would probably cover up a loyal Chapter being descended from Traitors if the Blood Ravens are anything to go by.

Horus Heresy III: Extermination suggests they're the descendants of Terran-born Raven Guard exiles led by Shade Lord Arkhas Fal, the grey armoured and white-faced pre-Corax XIXth Legion who had a reputation for going from stillness to extreme brutality and were basically taken under Horus Lupercal's wing in the centuries before their own Primarch was discovered. The exiles are referred to as a "nomad predation fleet" the same as the Carcharodons in the Badab War books and their cognomen during the early Great Crusade era was "Pale Nomads", a title given to them by the Luna Wolves and also the title of Te Kahurangi, the Chapter's current chief librarian, rumored to be only three generations removed from the original exiles. The Reaper Prime (Captain) of the Third Battle Company wears armour bearing the skull and lightning bolts of the Terran Pacification War further highlighting the Chapter's links to the pre-Crusade Legions, and Tyberos' distinctive shark-like helmet is also featured in the book.  In addition, in Robbie MacNiven's Black Library novels ''Red Tithe'' and ''Outer Dark'' (<s>the only books we have dedicated to our jawesome friends</s> not anymore) it heavily implies that the Space Sharks are a chimeric combination of Raven Guard and Night Lord gene-seed, possibly with some World Eater mixed in, so the debate rages on.
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===Raven Guard===
[[File:XIX Legion Vet.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The original scheme of the 19th legion from Terra, sporting dark grey, black and tribal tattoos painted onto the armour. Where have we seen that before?]]
Following the publication of ''Imperial Armour 10'', new evidence was published to support the Raven Guard theory by Games Workshop's licensors. Presumably the idea that every Traitor Legion has a secret Loyalist Successor was too much for them.

[[Fantasy Flight Games]]' ''[[Deathwatch]] RPG'' included rules for playing the Carcharodons ('''Honour the Chapter'''). Among the fluff, it is stated that Deathwatch Apothecaries have occasionally had the chance to analyze the gene-seed of Carcharodons slain in the service of the Deathwatch, and that they bear certain genetic markers unique to the Raven Guard. Of course, this being the Imperium of Man, you can never be certain what they're actually finding or if the records are accurate.

Forgeworld's ''[[Horus Heresy]] Book 3'' included a bunch of new information on the Raven Guard, and their predecessor [[First Founding|Legion]], the '''Pale Nomads'''. The Pale Nomads were noted for being the Emperor's preferred operators, often stealthing their way into enemy fortresses and armies to slay their leaders should they refuse surrender, and adopting multi-angle strike-and-fade tactics if the enemy continued to fight on. The latter is a favored tactic of the Carcharodons on the battlefield. The Pale Nomads were known for crushing any hint of resistance, which some have equated to the Space Sharks decimating entire star systems in order to sow terror. Their tactics evidenced a disdain for humans that the Raven Lord couldn't stomach, which is similar to the attitude adopted by the Space Sharks during the Badab War when they Exterminatus'd Badab and hundreds of Loyalist Space Marines along with it. The Pale Nomads were also slavers who would take children from defeated worlds to raise as Legionnaires, a practice that the Space Sharks have adopted. The Xeric tribesmen from which the Pale Nomads recruited also had a tradition of tattooing their bodies and painting their armor with tribal markings.

This could possibly explain why the Space Sharks have an abundance of [[Beakie|MkVI armor]] alongside their other Heresy-era tech, since the Raven Guard were the first to get their hands on them when they entered production during the Horus Heresy and that they're unusually stealthy with a variety of sensory systems to assist them in the void of space. Additionally, the Raven Guard were revealed to suffer from a gene-seed defect known as the ''Ash Blind'' or ''Sable Brand''. Similar to the ''Black Rage'', this defect caused otherwise normal Space Marines to charge into battle seeking only to destroy all trace of their foes, whether they lived or died. Those afflicted would develop eyes of solid black, and would neither speak nor reason until the condition passed. This sounds pretty similar to the Blindness that afflicts the Carcharodons.

Finally, it is stated that Corax would divest the Raven Guard of the surviving Terran-born Pale Nomads, whom he found too similar to the cruel lords he overthrew on [[Deliverance]]. One of the many branches of Raven Guard he sent off on isolated, never-ending crusades contained the [[Battle Barge]] '''Nicor''', (an old English word for a water sprite or monster) later to be found in the fleet of Space Sharks who ended the Badab War.

Tellingly, in '''Horus Heresy book 3''', Corax had no idea what happened to the fleet of Terran Exiles or to its master Arkhas Fal and made no effort to contact them in the build-up prior to the [[Drop Site Massacre]]. There is no evidence that these exiles were recalled after the massacre either, despite the 4000 men "officially" counting towards about half of the size of the remaining Legion, so they were considered an entirely separate force. They could simply have been designated a new Chapter following the end of the civil war.

According to the ''Carcharodons: Outer Dark'' novel, the descendant Marines of the exiles, still calling themselves the Ashen Claws, have settled on the planet Atargatis Prime, beyond the Ghoul Stars region. Only a few people, including the Space Sharks, know of their existence. When times are desperate, the Space Sharks will trade war machines and gene-seed for the Ashen Claws' aspirants and neophytes. It also turns out that Tyberos's kickass lightning-claw-chainfists once belonged to the Ashen Claws, but the Carcharodons apparently [[Blood Ravens|acquired them in an underhanded fashion]], and the Claws are still pretty butthurt about it.

===Loyalist Traitors===
[[File:Space Shark Chainaxe.jpeg|left|thumb|250px|[[Rip and Tear]] at its finest.]]

Contradicting the Raven Guard theory are some logical inconsistencies, the issue of their battle tactics, and recently published material from '''Horus Heresy Book 6''' where it is revealed that the above-mentioned 4000 Terrans exiled by Corvax from the Raven Guard turned full renegade, calling themselves the '''Ashen Claws''' and abandoning the Imperium to build their own domain in the Segmentum Tempestus. With no contact from the Imperium, no support from the Emperor, and no reward for their loyalty, it seems likely that other Raven Guard exiles could have turned. Interestingly, this band of exiles raided the fortress worlds of the Night Lords for supplies before returning to the darkness beyond the Imperium.

The fact that the Carcharodons adhere to a known pattern of crusading behavior, the "Nomad-Predation Pattern," would seem to indicate that their "recruiting" practices aren't unique to any Legion or Chapter, but an established Space Marine tactic for dealing with long crusades beyond the supply lines of the Imperium. Rather than being a relic of Xeric nomads recruited by the Emperor, it seems likely that the Space Sharks are only unique in that they utilize this pattern exclusively, obeying the order to "ravage the foes of Mankind" in the darkness beyond the galactic plane. It also points to them either being formed prior to the implementation of the [[Codex Astartes]] or an utter disregard for it.

If the Space Sharks were founded during the Second Founding, you'd expect them to have roughly equal portions of their gear granted to them from their original Legion, and thus have higher proportions of more "modern" gear such as mark VI ''(Corvus)'' & VII ''(Aquila)'' plate, yet it is older mark V ''(Heresy)'' plate alongside Phobos pattern boltguns which predominantly fill the ranks. This points to the Space Sharks resupplying during the throes of the Heresy and their access to more recent patterns of wargear have come from salvaged or reclaimed equipment gathered over the years. Even their revered Terminator suits seem to be modified in unorthodox ways just to keep them operational. If they descend from any other Primarch, especially considering their tactics and manner of deployment, it's possible that they simply salvaged ''Nicor'' and other wargear from some distant and bloody battlefield.

The Space Sharks' preferred tactics are bloody and brutal, far more so than expected from any pre-Heresy Space Marine Legion besides the Night Lords and the World Eaters, although the information about the Raven Guard pre-Corax does resolve this inconsistency to an extent. During the Badab War they had no qualms about using the extermination of worlds and entire systems loyal to the [[Mantis Warriors]] to draw them into battle by the scale of their horror, and they would use the shattered survivors of their bloody attacks to demoralize and weaken rebel forces.

The history, as known, of the Space Sharks points to their being present during the Second Founding. Whether the Raven Guard exiles were recalled or returned on their own, or if they were a Loyalist remnant of the Night Lords, or more unlikely the World Eaters, and were given the chance to forge a new life and history, it seems odd that they would've been dispatched to such distant battlefields if they weren't regarded with mistrust by the High Lords of Terra. And assuming they possessed a reputation for such brutality that "ravage" is a more appropriate word for their orders than "harry" or "destroy," they should be descended from a Legion or portion of a Legion with a particularly bloody reputation.

Amusingly, the same ''Honour The Chapter'' splatbook that posits that the Carcharodons are descended from the Raven Guard also says they are of the 23rd Founding, descended from the Eagle Warriors. And the Chapter immediately preceding them in the splatbook, the [[Raptors|Reasonable Marines]], are definitively stated to be a Second Founding descendant of the Raven Guard. While the Raptors skin grows translucent and their hair grows darker as they age, the Space Sharks gain gray, shark-like skin and their hair turns whiter as they age. In addition, the Carcharodons by implication have a fully-functioning set of gene-seed organs, unlike the Raven Guard and Raptors who lack functioning Mucranoid and/or Betcher's Glands, as do other Raven Guard Successors.

====Night Lords====
The Carcharodons' deliverance of bloody and total judgment upon the followers of the rebellious Badab Chapters is in line with the [[Night Lords]]' pre-Curze and pre-Heresy role and attitudes towards those who failed the Emperor in loyalty or deed. Brutal purges of the disloyal would build into a reputation that became one of terror and bloody death under Konrad Curze, and his use of fear and fluid, almost wild maneuvers in battle are seen by some in the descriptions of the Space Shark's battles.

The Space Sharks' apparently fractious nature and their manner of giving personal titles of distinction and honor could be echoes of the Night Lords' practices as well. Many commanders and captains would have personal honorifics, like Zso Sahaal, who would either earn idiosyncratic titles or have lurid and unique ranks within the Legion's organizational structure. Likewise, ''The Red Wake'' could be an honorific specific to the Chapter Master or a personal one. As the Night Lords were grouped into semi-independent Companies with individual names, traditions, and markings, it's possible the Carcharodons could be one such Company that rejected the Heresy or returned to the Emperor's light. It would also explain why their forces never seem to gather in full Chapter strength; having passed down this tradition of building brotherhood solely within small, tribal bands like the gangs of Nostramo and fighting in semi-independent units as preferred by the Night Haunter, they would see little reason to fight together while other conflicts and enemies require their notice. Additionally, the Night Lords broke into a whole bunch of independant war bands after the conclusion of the Thramas Crusade, and never had a cohesive legion command structure after that.

The Chapter's preference for close-combat is in stark contrast to the Raven Guard's preference for long-ranged and quick-moving strikes, especially as they prefer stealth and speed to the roar of assault jetpacks and jetbikes. However, these tactics were favored by the Night Lords and their Terror Squads. Indeed, the enforced silence and refusal to coordinate with Imperial forces of the Space Sharks is similar to the silence that Terror Squads would work with during the latter years of the Great Crusade. Rather than being a gene-seed curse, as with the Raven Guard, the Carcharodons simply isolate their vox nets and refuse to speak to anyone unless it is truly urgent and necessary.

As with the Space Sharks, the Night Lords were infamous for stealing the youth of conquered worlds for rapid implantation and hypno-indoctrination. While the former could also be a hallmark of the Nomad-Predation deployment pattern, the latter is a practice that seems to have been preferred by the Night Lords since it was the fastest and quickest way to make a new, battle-ready Space Marine in spite of the risks of instability and insanity it engendered.

Sharks are also ghostly, nocturnal predators, [[Konrad Curze|night haunters]] if you will, so there's that.

====World Eaters====
Yet another possibility maybe [[World Eaters]], since Space Sharks are silent and brooding outside of battle but go absolutely batshit crazy when ''in'' battle, no questions asked, and they seem to have a preference for chain-axes, which is somewhat unusual among Loyalist Space Marines. The love of chain weapons is carried over in a few other ways; one marine has what can only be described as a chain-club / staff - with an enormous flat chain blade running up one edge and handles on the opposite side at either end (potentially doubling as a very heavy duty eviscerator). Their predilection for close-combat and bloody melee, to an even greater degree than the Space Wolves, would be in keeping with the attitudes of the World Eaters and the War Hounds. Like the World Eaters, the Space Sharks have a preference for Drop Pod assaults, fast vehicles like Land Speeders, and Assault Terminators, and it can be argued that Tyberos's Terminator bodyguards, the ''Red Brethren'', are reminiscent of Angron's own Terminator posse, the ''Devourers''. Some of their ships also possess Ursus Claws, which only World Eaters used (but then again, it could just be a salvaged ship).

The main problem with this theory is the Butcher's Nails. We can assume one of two things when it comes to the Nails:
#The Space Sharks learned to control their urges outside of battle, lest they snap and massacre each other since they're out in the void of space for long periods of time doing nothing (though they spent most of the time spent traveling in cryo-sleep/stasis).
#Or they could have simply phased them out of their recruitment process after the Horus Heresy, seeing as it drove the other World Eaters fucking bonkers and was detrimental in the long run.

And whilst there were very few loyalist Night Lords (only two examples in the canon thus far), there are canonically loyalist World Eaters, both at Istvaan III and scattered around the Imperium during the Heresy.

====Chimeric Geneseed====
As another wrench is thrown in, in Robbie MacNiven's Black Library novel ''Red Tithe'', it is heavily hinted that there are, in fact, ''multiple'' gene seeds utilized by the Space Sharks, primarily Raven Guard, Night Lords, and World Eaters. Given the typical canon conflicts that the Black Library is known for, this should be looked at with skepticism at least and as a half-assed excuse to explain why they have traits of all three Legions at best. Hopefully, this will be elaborated on in the future but for now, we can only theorize what this entails.

It is possible that the Carcharodons once consisted of Blackshields of Raven Guard and both loyalist Night Lords and World Eaters during the Horus Heresy, and after a time they were reformed into their own chapter and the traitor aspects of their origins were buried away. This ''could'' explain why their combat doctrine is an odd hybrid of their three supposed predecessors, any mutations they have are hard to connect to anyone Legion, why their equipment is so old and haphazard, and why they were sent out in the void of space due to their origins. Until we have hard evidence from Forge World itself on any such Blackshields, however, this is up in the air.

Another, simpler explanation is that, given the nature of the Space Sharks to scavenge whatever they find, it's possible that they harvested the gene-seed of the fallen marines they have killed. It's never explicitly said that their gene-seed is comprised of ''only'' the three suspected Legions; rather, it just happened to just be mostly the aforementioned three. For all we know they could trace back to every Legion through a small percentage of their gene-seed. Though admittedly, this train of thought makes their origin even harder to pinpoint as we don't have a clear-cut predecessor.

And it should be kept in mind that a good chunk of this information in the novel was divulged to one of the Space Sharks by a daemon. ''A daemon,'' for shit's sake. As we've seen with [[Magnus]], Chaos usually doesn't give accurate information.

This said, this is practically confirmed in HH6, where the Ashen Claws (Raven Guard) raid the Nostromo Sector to take their gear and geneseed. So if the Carcharodons are the Ashen Claws or a related group/successor, then they're Raven Guard and Night Lords. As of the novel ''Outer Dark,'' sequel to ''Red Tithe,'' it has been confirmed that the Carcharodons are related to the Ashen Claws and have a shaky pact with them. When the Carcharodons' Red Tithes can't refill their ranks fast enough, they are permitted to conscript young boys for augmentation from the fragmented domains that the Ashen Claws hid in beyond the Imperium's borders in exchange for war material and fresh Corax-derived gene-seed. It also seems their relationship is a shaky one prone to conflict. This suggests that the Carcharodons origins may lie with the Raven Guard exiles but the two groups split over whether to remain loyal to the Emperor or not. Regardless, both are willing to secretly come together against threats from beyond such as the [[Tyranids]]. When exchanging gene-seed and wargear for aspirants and fleet support, however, the Ashen Claws make a point of confirming whether the gene-seed being offered had been "contaminated with their disgusting breed", implying either widespread degeneration and mutation, or chimeric gene-seed among the Carcharodons. Given how things were during the heresy, it's perfectly reasonable that there's some gene-seed from the Nostramo campaign in there, as well as some "loyalists" who joined up as Blackshields, seeing as they spent the Heresy as an independent force at the edges of the Imperium waiting out on whether the traitors or loyalists won to decide whether to hide out the total collapse the former would result in or continue the status quo of nominal loyalty and de facto independence the latter resulted in.
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