Space Wolves

Space Wolves / Vlka Fenryka / Space Corgis
Battle Cry	"For Russ and the All father!"
Number	VI
Founding	First Founding
Original Name	The Rout
Successor Chapters	Wolf Brothers Wolfspear
Chapter Master	Logan Grimnar
Primarch	Leman Russ
Homeworld	Fenris
Strength	2-3000
Specialty	CQC, shock assaults, infantry, encirclement tactics, being viking enthusiasts, being furries
Allegiance	Imperium of Man
Colours	Generally Bluish-Grey and Yellow. Red, Black and White used for specific Companies.

"Let a man never stir on his road a step without his weapons of war; for unsure is the knowing when need shall arise of a spear on the way without."

– Havamal

The Space Wolves (also known as The Rout or the Vlka Fenryka) is Space Marine Chapter hailing from the icy Death World of Fenris. They are known as noble, if savage warriors, who have little love for Imperial bureaucracy but will fight fiercely for its common citizens. The Marines of the Chapter are famed as experts in the art of close combat, much like the Blood Angels, but unlike the sons of Sanguinius their fighting style is less that of a maddened, blood-crazed berserker, but that of a cunning pack of hunters running down their prey.

Thematically, the Chapter draws a lot of real-world inspiration from Nordic culture, especially the Viking sagas, particularly in terms of aesthetics as well as ferocity. That said, there's a bit of a disconnect between how the Wolves are portrayed in fiction compared to how they're presented as a tabletop army.

On one hand, we have a nuanced portrayal of a proud warrior tradition that just so happens to have the Wolf as its primary totem animal, among many other Fenrisian nature spirits they worship. On the other, we have an over-the-top army of wolf fetishists that precedes most of their equipment with "wolf", ride actual giant wolves into battle, and are like a drunken frat party outside of it.

Origins

Back during the Great Crusade, the Space Wolves began as the VIth Legion, and was developed in conjunction the Salamanders and the Alpha Legion. Developed in isolation from the other two Legions, they proved to be a vicious and aggressive fighting force, but also almost impossible to keep in line by its officers. What's worse, they were indiscriminate in their slaughter, and even helpless civilians were not free from their wrath. Due to this brutal reputation, they soon became known as "the Rout", the Emprah's agents of fear and retribution.

The Wolf King cometh

The ice world of Fenris was found early on by the Crusade fleets, and the Emperor soon heard of the exploits of its so-called Wolf King, a man named Leman Russ. Raised in the wilderness by wolves, then adopted and educated by the jarl Thengir, Leman was a massive ox of a man of extraordinary strength, sharp cunning, and personal magnetism, and the Emprah was sure he was one of His lost sons. He descended onto the world in disguise, ingratiated Himself to the locals to gain access to the High King's feasting hall, and there he sought to test the Wolf King's mettle.

Depending on the version or edition, this led to the following: an eating contest, a drinking contest, and a brawl. Leman won the first two rounds, but was finally goaded into a fight when the Emprah insulted him, saying that he was nothing more than a glutton and a drunkard. What followed next was either a massive fight that wrecked the drinking hall, Beowulf versus Grendel style, or the Emprah laying out Leman with a single fabulously golden Power Fist to the forehead.

Regardless, when Leman finally came to, the Emprah revealed himself, and told him about his true origin as one of his Primarchs, as well as his role in the greater Crusade. What happened next, as they say, is history.

From the Rout to the Wolves

Leman Russ' rediscovery, and the integration of his own Fenrisian retinue, slowly remade the VIth Legion. Their ferocity was soon tempered with discipline and obedience, as the Fenrisian culture slowly spread through its ranks, and while they would still crush any traitor to the Emperor, they would at least have the good sense this time to not slaughter the innocents that just so happened to be in the area. It didn't happen overnight, but soon enough the Legion became less about punishing oathbreakers, and more on watching out for the little guy.

Oh, and if an offhand comment by Russ is to be believed, they had a hand in destroying the two so-called Lost Legions. Emperor's Executioners indeed.

The Fate of Leman Russ

Of Leman Himself, you ask? Legends state that after a great feast, He said unto his warriors:

"Listen closely Brothers, for my time is short. . There shall come a time far from now when our Chapter itself is dying, even as I am now dying, and our foes shall gather to destroy us. Then my children, I shall listen for your call in whatever realm of death holds me, and come I shall, no matter what the laws of life and death forbid. At the end I will be there. For the final battle. For the Wolftime."

And so, Leman departed, with his closest retinue... No, not you Bjorn... Some say he searches for a means to revive His God-Emperor.. But despite the efforts of the Great Hunt, Leman remains beyond the reach of Man... Who knows what great feats of Heroism he undertakes....

. . . Oh, who the fuck are we kidding? Leman got lost in the Warp and became a Daemon Primarch of Kho-//Historitor 109.163.233.200 decommissioned by Inquisitorial decree.//

He was, in fact, turned into a small girl. (Holy shit! A change like that can only mean that Magnus must have gotten revenge.) And if by that you think we mean, "Russ had a shitton of bastard children everywhere and one was a mutant that could shapeshift" then yes; only because Russ's kids turning into wolves is nothing new. Nobody really knows if this had happened before he went to Warhammer Fantasy and made the Norscans or not, but since they aren't vikings out of a shoujo anime, we can make a pretty good educated guess. Somehow, he found his way back to the Dark Millenium, still stuck in the form of a small girl.

(But seriously, we have no idea. There HAVE been sporadic reports of sightings of the 13th great Company with Russ leading them, for what that's worth. And Magnus has mentioned that he knows exactly what happened to Russ, but it's not like he'd ever tell them.)

Actually he has entered Slaanesh's realm of eternal yiff, meaning we will never see him again.

Until GW releases him, because they've said at least 2 more loyalist Primarchs are coming and its obviously the Lion and the Wolf since Guilliman can kind of stand in for the space marines covered by the regular space marine codex while Russ' legion really could use him back after the ass kicking they got from Magnus and the Inquisition, and the Dark Angels' storyline is rather clearly leading to the Lion's reawakening.

Organization

The wolves taking on a Tyranid horde.

Since they only see the Codex Astartes as a source of toilet paper (when they bother to wipe), the Space Wolves have roles and titles far different from the standard Space Marine chapters. Additionally, while traditional chapters each hold ten ~100-strong companies, the Space Wolves instead have 12 autonomous companies, each of which is in varying strength and since they aren't bound by the Codex, each company may have more than 100 marines on hand (in fact, a full list of the members of Grimnar's company gives them a strength of nearly 200). However, the Space Wolf legion were never particularly numerous following the Horus Heresy in the part due to their unstable gene-seed and the fact they they were restricted to recruiting from one world (The fact that Magnus the Red destroyed the long-sought cure to this during his attack on Fenris for this didn't help, but it should be noted that it wasn't that big of a victory for Magnus, as Bjorn made it quite clear he would have destroyed the project when he found out about it) but also the battles of the Horus Heresy hurt the Space Wolves legion badly; culminating in the Battle of Trisolian which effectively ended their existence as a "Legion" altogether.

Even so, with 12 independent Great Companies (each with their own fleets, logistics support etc), this means that even if each Great Company had 100 brothers, they would outnumber a normal codex-compliant Spess Mehreens chapters by at least 20%. This is corroborated by the 7E codex which has rules for playing a Great Company on its own; consisting of eleven squads of varying size.

However since each Great Company doesn't bother to limit themselves to 100 (some Space Wolves great companies sometimes number over 300 brothers) it means that they outnumber codex chapters by an even greater degree, so with that said, the Apocalypse formation for the same thing has no hard limit on the number of Blood Claw squads that may be taken, so will probably represent a good period of recruitment for the Chapter. Therefore the total numbers will vary over time in response to casualties and recruitment rates but can reasonably reach estimations of 3000 marines or more; several times the official codex strength at peak times.

As of 998.M41, Logan Grimnar's own company was the largest in the chapter and it totaled 200 exactly (not counting the "Great Wolf" assets like Dreadnoughts & Priests) whilst Ragnar Blackmane's was said to be second, sitting at 162 marines. Following the return of Magnus and the battle of Fenris this number would undoubtedly be diminished, though after the Ultima Founding, the number probably remains about the same if not slightly higher as the chapter would be bolstered with Primaris reinforcements. Guilliman probably has more sense than delivering 1000 new warriors to a chapter which already "should" have around 1000 warriors; for excess Primaris Marines we have the Wolfspear Chapter.

Hierarchy

The different wolves ranks and wolves assignments for the Wolves are the following:

• Great Wolf: The Chapter Master of the Space Wolves, the Great Wolf (also known as the High King by people who want to tone down the overwolf (i.e. everyone)) is chosen from among the Wolf Lords by virtue of having the most furry porn being the most badass of an army of space vikings. The Great Wolf is effectively the First Captain of the Space Wolves, commanding an elite Great Company that includes the members of the three Priesthoods and the Chapter's Dreadnoughts. Logan Grimnar serves as the current Great Wolf.
• Wolf Lord: The Brother-Captains of a company in Codex Chapters (although more like a watered-down vanilla chapter master), Wolf Lords (AKA the Jarls) lead their Great Companies and charge the Iron Priests with maintenance of its motor pool and the Wolf Priests with recruiting new Astartes.
• Wolf Guard: A cross between Veterans and Honour Guard, Wolf Guards (Thanes) serve as the body guard of the Wolf Lord and leading packs in battle, serving as the Space Wolves version of a Brother-Sergeant. They also get Terminator armour. In Second Edition they also got to take any weapons they liked and could be built from stock parts with an Assault Cannon and Cyclone Missile Launcher. This led to many games being won as Assault Force Dickhead rampaged across the table murdering everything.
• Wolf Priest: Combining the role of Apothecary and Chaplain, the Wolf Priests do the standard roles of preaching and medical duties, but are also charged with recruiting Aspirants for their companies. Plus they have a secret role on the battlefield, trying to prevent their battle-brothers from turning into Wulfen.
• Iron Priest: The Iron Priests serve the role of Techmarines, overseeing the motorpool and equipment of the companies they belong to.
• Rune Priest: Taking the role of Librarians in Codex Chapters, Rune Priests are the psykers of the Space Wolves. However, instead of seeing their powers as coming from the Warp, they hold that their powers come from the world spirit of Fenris, and consult the runes in a means to divine the future. Trying to explain to the Rune Priests that they're drawing power from the Warp, and that they cannot "draw their powers from Fenris" while being half-Galaxy away from it will usually result in the non-Space Wolf getting a month's stay in the Apothecarion. The ultimate irony of this is that they are, in reality, Sorcerers, the very thing they denounced the Thousand Sons for being. Whether they are psykers or not. Besides, if Fenris has a world spirit, it is something akin to a Daemon World (or an eldar maiden world)...
• Wolf Scouts: Each Great Company will have members who shun their pack brothers and are shunned in return, preferring the company of more somber individuals, Wolf Scouts serve to scout out enemy positions and terrain. As opposed to the regular codex, Wolf Scouts tend to be veterans of battle able to rein in their savage rage.
• Lone Wolf: Space Wolves who are the last of their pack. The loss of their brethren drive them to seek a glorious death in combat at the hands of some form a fell enemy. Think of Dwarf Slayers only a few metres tall with powered armour and weapons of doom and destruction. Often the only way out of the Lone Wolf lifestyle is managing to kill something that the individual shouldn't have survived killing and being elevated into the Wolf Guard. They sometimes take part in a small pack of Wolf Scouts, being lonely wolves in company of other lonely wolves, which technically should defeat the purpose of the analogy.
• Skyclaws: Skyclaws are the trouble makers among a Chapter of trouble makers, forced to wear Jump Packs. The Space Wolves view Jump Packs as an insult, reasoning that if the Emperor wanted them to fly, he would have given them wings. Snide comments regarding Sanguinius result in a short game of tug-o-war involving the offending battle-brother's beard.
• Thunderwolf Cavalry: Space Wolves who function in a manner similar to a Bike Squad, but instead of actual bikes, they use Thunderwolves, which can be the size of a small car, and biologically more akin to Terran rhinoceros than actual oversized wolves.
• Long Fangs: Taking the role of Devastators, Long Fangs are veterans who have grown long in the fang. No pun here - Space Wolves' teeth actually lengthen as they age, as an effect of a mutated Betcher's Gland.
• Grey Hunters: Having the role of Tactical Marines, Grey Hunters are those Marines who have survived long enough as Blood Claws to quell the worst of their ferocity and blood lust (read: wear a helmet in battle). Their new found experience and control allows them to shoot and fight better than their younger brethren.
• Blood Claws: Neophyte Space Wolves who serve in the Assault Marine roles of Codex Chapters. As mature as a buncha punks that just discovered a Metal band and think the life of a Marine is fucking Chao's shit up and killing stuff. Unsurprisingly, the survival rate among this guys is not that high. Something to point out, is that it is perfectly possible for a Blood Claw to stay on this rank for his entire life if you are not seen as someone to trust in a higher rank.

Other Assets

The Space Wolves have an impressive number of other gadgets and gizmos going for them.

Not least the fact that the Fang (Aett) is one of the three most defended locations in the entire Imperium (the other two being the Imperial Palace on Terra and the Keep Inviolate on Kolossi the homeworld of House Raven) and is tall enough that entire battlefleets can dock with the fortress.

Speaking of battlefleets; the Wolves themselves have a navy to rival most others, with eight Battle Barges and more than thirty Strike Cruisers, which in terms of logistical support could accommodate over 5400 fighting men. As well as this, they have TWO Star Forts and over forty escort squadrons. To let you know how much firepower this counts as, some lesser-known chapters would consider themselves fortunate to have even a single battle-barge. Even the Grey Knights have only four Barges and twelve strike cruisers, so basically when Fenris held off the Grey Knights during the Months of Shame, they had plenty going for them. They used to have even more ships, and a star-fort network that could put the infamous Iron Circle of Badab to shame before the Thousand Sons attacked Fenris in M33.

They also have over one-hundred Dreadnoughts stored in stasis vaults within their fortress depths, where/how they accumulated them is uncertain and considering that most other chapters tend to have around two or three Dreadnoughts per company, they likely outnumber nearly anyone else by a considerable margin. (For comparison, the Blood Angels have 35 dreadnoughts listed in their rolls of battle) This can likely be traced to their viking tendencies to super pillage everything they come across. I mean Logan's got a daemon axe so I'm just assuming they are just ripping daemons out of chaos dreadnought hulls, slapping a new coat of paint, some wolf sigils and motifs on and dropping their wounded brothers in and no one will ever know. They only had one successor chapter (which failed) so they didn't have to share their dreadnought hulls out perhaps?

Not to mention the packs of feral wulfen that they can scrounge up... Yeah, they might happen to have a shit ton of unregistered mutated werewolf murder machines lying around as 'failed' aspirants. That said, Fenris is far less populous than the likes of Macragge, and feral Wulfen are basically wildlife, so this is a moot point.

Oh, and all the "actual" Fenrisian Wolves & Thunderwolves that the chapter can muster.

They also exclusively possess Helfrost Weaponry thanks to rare Fenrisian crystals.

Combat doctrine

"The best way to defeat a Space Wolf is to wolf his wolf. You must be careful, though, because if the Space Wolf wolfs your wolf first, then your wolf is wolfed."

– Attributed to Wolf Rider Volk Wolfclaw, On the Weaknesses of the Space Wolf Doctrine

"A good way to get into a state of pure wolfness, would be that you shall wolf the wolf until the wolfing wolf wolfs. Then, when the wolf wolfs your wolfness, the wolves of the wild will wolf your wolf up. Wolf!"

– Attributed to Wolf Master Jonal Wolfhand, "The Call of the Nightblizzard

"Wolf wolf wolf wolf wolfity wolf. Wolf wolf, wolfo wolfy wolf wolf wolf. Wolf? Wolf!"

– Attributed to Wolf Lord Egil Ironwolf, On the Intricacies of Tactical Wolffare

Jokes aside, the Space Wolves are rather unusual when it comes to organisation and tactics. Contrary to what many fans will tell you, they do actually study the Codex Astartes's points on combat, though they completely reject it from an organizational standpoint. In battle the warriors of the Rout will usually work on their own initiative and experience, but at the same time, they don't disrespect or ignore the lessons of the codex. Their battle strategies tend to be neglected in favor of localized battlefield tactics. They keep to their wolf theme by working as a "pack", with very "make it up as we go along" tactics. This doesn't bite them in the ass as much as it would other space marine chapters, because they can "smell the plan" (I can't make this shit up). The books try to base this off of how normal wolves coordinate hunts, with nonverbal cues being premium. The idea is that the wolves can read the situation by smelling their pack member's moods and thoughts, using natural pheromone cues (and a few added by the Canis Helix) to anticipate the moods of those around them. This is actually why most wolves prefer to fight without helmets: you can't smell anything in the sealed environment of closed power armor.

Flaws

As many on /tg/ will happily tell you, (and Magnus won’t stop Reaggng about) the Wolves are far from perfect. Where the Imperial Fists are inflexible and stubborn, the Dark Angels are unreliable and austere, and the Raven Guard are aloof and brooding, the Wolves are boisterous and arrogant. During the Heresy (and/or when Chris Wraight is writing them) they were incredibly brutal toward those they saw as oath-breakers, even if the oath-breaker in question was a fleeing, defenseless civilian. The Ragnar Blackmane books further emphasize this and also portrayed the Chapter as willing to ignore the misdeeds of their heroes in spite of the importance they place on honor. This, combined with the Wolves hating the Thousand Sons for being psykers while also using psykers led many to label the Wolves hypocrites, especially since the Space Wolves pick a fight with the Flesh Tearers for killing civilians in spite of their own troubled history in that regard. Now, everyone including Wolves players admit that the Sons of Russ are entirely too short-sighted and prone to making enemies for their own good. During the Heresy, almost nobody liking them bit them in the ass at Alaxxes Nebula, but fast-forward to M41 and they're happily pissing off the Inquisition, Ecclesiarchy, Dark Angels, Ultramarines, etc. During Warzone Fenris, the galaxy at large is only too ready to write the Wolves off as heretics. Fans and detractors alike also note that it's arguable whether being so quick to make enemies and disobey orders to save civilians really saves more people in the long run, especially at Armageddon, where the Wolves' actions backfire badly.

Civilians

Of all the inconsistently written aspects of the Chapter, this is by far the worst offender. Sometimes, the Space Wolves are written as brutal and merciless, giving zero fucks about collateral damage or civilian casualties. On the other hand, sometimes the Wolves put their lives on the line to protect the innocent. This can induce Rage in just about any fan, because some people get into the Space Wolves seeing them as heroes while others prefer their more savage, bloodthirsty tendencies. The best fluff attempts to find a middle ground by presenting them as violent and pragmatic, but disciplined during the Heresy and increasingly heroic over time. By M41, the Wolves actively stop the Flesh Tearers from murdering Imperial civilians at Honour's End, disobey orders so they could protect the settlers at Thressiax, and play chicken with the Inquisition to save the people of Armageddon; this example is particularly notable, because the Wolves didn't just attempt to save the civilians from the Inquisition, for the first few months of the conflict they did so with passive resistance, defending civilian transports with the shields and hulls of their own ships, never firing back. This paints a picture of a Chapter that actually becomes MOAR independent and heroic as the galaxy goes to shit around them. Or perhaps, they've remained the same and the galaxy has gone so grimdark that the Space Wolves now appear heroic in comparison. Then Warzone Fenris happened. In it, the Wolves pretty much abandon their allies to focus on the Wulfen. On the plus side, they send warriors to Cadia and Maccrage in spite of the mauling the Thousand Sons hand them. This is further heroism. Because Fenris is the only place they are genetically capable of recruiting from, so abandoning their allies to save it is perfectly reasonable and would save more people in the long-run by not losing an entire Chapter of ass-kickers.

Daily rituals of a Space Wolf

13:00 - Wake Up with Hangover - The Space Wolf awakens from his booze-induced coma and begins the day. Headaches abound. Aspirin is consumed by the ton.
13:10 - Morning Piss - The Space Wolf empties the alcohol that has accumulated in his bladder(s) in the Sacred Alcohol Excretion Grounds. (Doing so anywhere else is hazardous as space wolf urine is capable of corroding ceramite)
13:11 - Morning Fart - The Space Wolf empties his intestines. Pissing without farting is like going to a holy site without praying to the Emperor, which is heresy.
13:20 - Morning Piss Ends - The Space Wolves have finally finished urinating. The surrounding landscape is scorched with a aura of menace resembling nurgle’s rot.
13:30 - Ritual of the Hair of the Dog - The Space Wolf now cracks open his first cold one of the day. The first of many. Cheerios may be consumed as well.
13:45 - Firing Drills - The Space Wolf consumes another liter of alcohol before going out back and shooting empty beer bottles with his bolter. This takes place far away from the Alcohol Excretion Grounds, after that one time Brother Brynjolf accidentally lit his own piss on fire. an entire company had to spend 6 months in the sickbay until their hair grew back and they were thus fit to be seen in public again.
14:00 - Freeze your Balls - The Space Wolf sheds his armor and most of his clothing to wander around Asaheim for an hour.
15:00 - Feeding of the Land Raiders - Space Wolf observes a feast with his brothers in honour of the chapter's revered battle machines. Blood Claws are still wandering around outside naked in the snow.
15:30 - Boozing of the Land Raiders - No feast is complete without metric fucktons of liquor. Fenrisian Ale, beer, and if available bylestim blend are poured and scrubbed all over the most honoured of the chapter's war machines. Many still have bullet holes, sometimes allowing beer to get into the exhaust ports and make for kickass explosions later. Blood Claws are still wandering around outside naked in the snow.
16:00 - Wolf your Wolf - Grey Hunters and older Space Wolves take this time to play with their favourite 4-legged companions. Blood Claws are still wandering around outside naked in the snow.
16:30 - Save the Blood Claws - Blood Claws are brought in from the cold. Most are frozen blue or black - and hungry for more.
17:00 - Evening feast - Eat. Drink. Start brawls. The usual non-warzone Space Wolf thing.
18:00 - Try to wake up Bjorn.
18:10 - Give up, try to find something fun on the Vox Saga.
19:00 - Night shitter break.
20:00 - Night firing drills - Much to the Iron Priest's dismay, the Space Wolves practice writing their names in the snow with bolters. In runes. In the dark.
21:00 - Ritual Intake of Narcotics and Purging of Testicles - bitches and blow.
05:00 - Daily Rest - The Space Wolf passes out.

A Quick Word Out of Character

The true reason for all this, is that, we at /tg/, in our pathetic, low-reaching mastery of comedy, have seen how idiotic it is that every goddamn Space Wolf codex unnecessarily uses the word "wolf" as a prefix or a suffix every 3rd sentence (similar to the Tyranid codex shoe-horning the prefix bio- into every 3rd sentence). Since /tg/ is an easily angered monster, not unlike an Angry Marine, we furiously attempt to link Space Wolves to furries (it's really fucking annoying), as we are as fucked up as Chaos Pretty Marines.

It has been established in the Horus Heresy series that the VI Legion doesn't employ the word "wolf" as much as they appear to do. Wolves are readily apparent in their motifs, such as Leman Russ's titles as "Wolf-King" and "Great Wolf," as well as in the formal name of the Wolf Guard, but it's not as overblown as it's made out to be. Apparently, whoever did the Fenrisian-to-Gothic translation made a few errors. First off, they don't call themselves "the Space Wolves." When speaking formally, they refer to themselves as the Vlka Fenryka, which we can look at a few ways. "Fenris" is easy, a reference to Fenrir from Norse mythology. "Vlka" has a couple options; if you walk it backwards through the Germanic Volk you get "Folk of Fenris". This supports a common theory on 1d4chan where a bunch of colonists landed on a planet, bred giant dogs from their great, great, grand-children (more on that in a minute) then thought, "You know what's better than planet Unicorn? Planet fucking Fenris". So the the Vlka Fenryka are literally the folk of Fenris. Alternately Vlka can be translated from Slavic to get the "Wolves of Fenris" again.

No matter what you conclude on, you get Dan Abnett using linguistics to reinforce his theme that the Space Wolves are misunderstood by the rest of the Imperium - calling the Space Wolves because of a mistranslated word. One could even argue they are actually called "Space People", would make sense since Ragnar referred to them as "Star warriors" in the William King novels and their Fenrisian Kaerl auxiliaries call them "sky warriors," but the lore from these novels has been left by the wayside so take that as you will. When speaking informally, they refer to themselves as "the Rout", solidifying their purpose as the Emperor's executioners (self-proclaimed)/snowflakes. Additionally, the post of "Wolf-Lord" is also a mistranslation, as they refer to their Company commanders as Jarl. Finally, they don't call their fortress-monastery the Fang, but rather the Aett, which can be literally translated as "clan home." There's also this in-universe meme "there are no wolves on Fenris." At all. This was started by one of the primarchs remarking that they should be called xenos, because they're natives of an alien planet, and it quickly morphed into a joke. As it turns out, this is literally true.

With regards to the Fenrisian wolves, the origin a little more freaky than expected: they're not wolves, but descendants of human-wolf mutants. Back when Fenris was first settled, the colonists had the Canis helix added to help them adapt to the harsh environment by adding wolf genes to their genetic-makeup. Unfortunately, it worked a little too well--the canix helix caused a number of settlers to degrade into wolfmen and wolfwomen. Following this, they bred and produced a new strain of wolf into the environment. So there are no wolves on Fenris. They're just the descendants of human mutants. Which might explain why, post-Heresy, only Fenrisians can become Space Wolves (assuming that's why the successor chapters couldn't handle Russ' gene seed).

So yes, naming the planet after the wolves means we really do just end up all the way back at Wolves of Wolves after all. Whelp.

Of course, that means that the Space Wolves are wearing pelts made of human skin, but lets not dwell on that - after all it's fairly common in the Imperium to wear human skulls... WolfyWolfWolf *BLAM*.

The Wulfen issue aka "Fucking Furries"

The blatant author favouritism annoys fans of the other chapters with "Dark Secrets". GW's treatment of the Wulfen makes it effortless for fans of other chapters to hurl Mary Sue accusations at them, unlike the Blood Angels and Dark Angels. The Wulfen are now out in the open; once they were exposed they get little (arguably no) punishment while the Inquisition and Grey Knights just "kept one eye open". The aforementioned chapters on the other hand have to keep their secrets from being found out by the Inquisition and the Imperium at large.

Despite the fact that Fallen Angels were paraded around on Terra, many would assume they were Ravenwing without their fancy bikes. While any claims of Dark Angels being the real traitors from the Fallen would have Guilliman retort back that they are full of shit (with more and longer words), as he knew exactly what The First was up to during the Horus Heresy with the exception the events that caused the destruction of Caliban. Of course, the Unforgiven would also be pissed if they found out if one of the predecessors of the Grey Knights killed a Dark Angel and were part of the reason their homeworld was destroyed and would demand censure.

The Blood Angels on the other have an infection similar to the Wulfen without mutating into some kind of half-human man-beast. The Red Thirst. The Blood Angels and their successors organize the afflicted into Death Companies who are lead by their Chaplains into killing Xenos and foul traitors. If they somehow survive the mutated Blood Angels are *BLAM*ed. Both chapters send their traitors/mutants into battle to be used as cannon fodder. A much more grimdark action that would be in character for Space Marines. They wouldn't be the only chapters to have done this either. Instead of treating mutants as fellow warriors. Inserting noble bright into the setting where it doesn't belong. The same reasons that so many players also hated the Tau until GW retconned them into being more grimdark.

Making this all the more stange. In all likelihood Guilliman himself wouldn't see a problem with using mutated Space Marines as cannon fodder. Because he did so when he created the Moritats after combat exercises with the Raven Guard. So chances are he would side with the other two former Imperium Secundus Legions. Due to not only favoritism but he and the rest of the Imperium at large would find it strange that the Space Wolves do not.

Why people hate the Space Wolves, tldr version

One user on reddit summed it up with this. (fixed for grammar somewhat)

"The Space Wolves remind me of a 13 year old’s first D&D character: very cool, special, powerful barbarian hero who is morally flawless but doesn't listen to authority and always does the right thing but don't you dare cross them. They get away with shit because they're so special and the rules don't apply to them, guys. They got to wage war on the Inquisition with a slap on the wrist, while the Celestial Lions were slaughtered for merely questioning the morals of the Inquisition. They get a free pass on mutation in a setting where that gets chapters purged. They drink and party while other chapters lose hundreds of brothers on meaningless, forgotten battlegrounds. They aren't even Vikings! The White Scars are Space Mongols. The Black Templars are Space Teutons. There are Space Rome. Space Egypt. Space Iroquois. But Vikings? No. They don't raid. They don't pillage. They don't terrorize. They don't explore, chart, map, and push boundaries. They just fuck around, being special, unique perfect little dudes who don't suffer in GrimDarkness.

They exist in the wrong game."

So basically Space Wolves now have the same problem as the Tau did a few editions back.

Gallery

• 
  'Tis only a matter of time until Steve Blum voices 'em. Apparently, this set somehow makes things you hit weigh less.
• 
  Totally not overcompensating...Yeah he's just hiding a massive hardon with supporting the skull with a massive hard-on.
• 
  Leman Russ. About to mercilessly fuck over the Thousand Sons.
• 
  Is he carrying a wooden shield? Really? Against a bolt shell? It better be a Combat Shield.
• 
  You better watch out, you better not die, you better not fight, I'm telling you why: Santa Grimnar's coming to town
• 
  Good thing they brought the sneaking flag.

See also

• Bjorn the Fell Handed
• Space Wolves Tactics
• Warriors of Chaos - With whom they get into bar brawls and drinking contests to see who is moar Viking
• Skyrar's Dark Wolves - Before calling your Dark Angels brothers traitors read this first to understand theirrage.
• Legion Consul - The old "Commissars" of the VI legion.
• Space Wolves theme song