Editing Silver Skulls (section)

====Guilliman====
The most recent Space Marines 8th ed (2017) lists the Silver Skulls as directly descended from the [[Ultramarines]], being one of the "Scions of <s>the Spiritual Lei</s>Guilliman". However, you might still think this leaves the possibility that the Silver Skulls were snuck in as a successor during the Second Founding, being loyalists from a traitor legion. If they are Ultramarine descendants, then this is likely just a sign of respect and memory for Dantioch and the other loyalists Iron Warriors, but would not really explain why they engage in siege warfare since such a thing is distinctly un-Space Marine like. Don't forget, [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]] had his memory wiped when he took in members of the [[Lost Legions]] so that even he would not know they had joined the Ultramarines, nothing stopping him from doing it again to protect Dantioch's boys.

That said, ADB also said that the fluff intentionally associates some chapters from two or three foundings with "Traitor/dubious gene-seed", but without confirming or denying if the fluff is true. The question is whether you believe the Second Founding to be one of the foundings ADB had in mind. If so, it is justifiable to read the Silver Skulls as a loyalist fragment of a traitor legion. If not, the Silver Skulls are just Ultramarines successors. There has never been as much traction to the Silver Skulls' murky origins in fandom as was the case for the Blood Ravens, and so you should not expect GW people to come out and explicitly clarify any intended/unintentional ambiguity. [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] also explicitly stated on the Bolter and Chainsword forum that the [[Blood Ravens]] are not a loyalist splinter of a traitor legion (or rather, that they're not allowed to have a definitive answer to their origins), and that chapters with murky origins are just bad writing to make them stand out, confusing readers about their basically vanilla origins. He says he has had the lowdown straight from the IP people of GW. Which is great and all but it is common for GW to not remember their own lore. Like later, in the book "Burning of Prospero", a psyker scrying the future of the Thousand Sons' Corvidae Cult includes "lost sons and a Raven of Blood" looking for knowledge, but it being denied to them. That's not even a subtle in-lore confirmation that the Blood Ravens are successors of the Thousand Sons, though their flesh change issue doesn't jibe.