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Chaos Vehicles - Whirlwind: The Whirlwind was the Space Marine Legions' primary artillery vehicle during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. The Traitor Legions do not use the Whirlwind any longer, the reasons for this are unknown to the Imperium.
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Chaos Vehicles - Armoured Vehicles of the Lost and the Damned: The Following is a list of all known vehicles used by the forces of the Lost and the Damned:BanebladeBasiliskBombardColossusChimeraGriffonHellhoundHydraLeman Russ Battle TankLeman Russ DemolisherLeman Russ ExecutionerLeman Russ VanquisherMacharius Heavy TankMacharius VanquisherMacharius VulcanMalcador Assault TankMalcador AnnihilatorMalcador DefenderMedusaMinotaurPathcutterSalamanderSentinelShadowswordTestudoValdor Tank Hunter
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Chaos Vehicles - Chaos Aircraft: The following is a list of all aircraft used by the Forces of Chaos:
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Chaos Vehicles - Caestus Assault Ram: The Caestus Assault Ram is one of several types of assault rams that was used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. Assault rams are used for boarding actions during void battles and are capable of quickly placing boarding parties directly aboard enemy spacecraft. The Caestus Assault Ram is the most common assault ram used by the Adeptus Astartes, due to the craft's high speed and phenomenal durability, which makes it highly prized by many Space Marine Chapters. The Forces of Chaos no longer make use of the Caestus Assault Ram in the late 41st Millennium.
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Chaos Vehicles - Dreadclaw: The Dreadclaw is an ancient assault boat design very much like the current Drop Pod that was used by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy and is still in service amongst the Traitor Legions during the late 41st Millennium. Dreadclaws, like the Loyalist Space Marines' Drop Pods, are used to rapidly deploy squads of Chaos Space Marines onto a planet's surface from orbit. The Dreadclaw assault boats are usually deployed from Chaotic Battleships and Cruisers engaged in a planetary assault. These starships will often bombard the landing zone before the Dreadclaws touch down, clearing them of any opposition. They are no longer used by the Loyalist Chapters due to their unnaturally intelligent and aggressive Machine Spirit.
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Chaos Vehicles - Doomfire Bomber: The Doomfire Bomber is an older bomber aircraft that was used by the Forces of Chaos prior to being replaced by the super-heavy Harbinger Bomber.
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Chaos Vehicles - Hell Blade: The Hell Blade is an interceptor and air superiority fighter aircraft that is used by the Forces of Chaos. The Hell Blade is a blasphemous fusion of advanced technology and daemonic forces created by the corrupted Hereteks of the Dark Mechanicum. The craft was designed on the Dark Forge World of Xana II located deep within the Eye of Terror and was created as a replacement for the aging Swiftdeath Fighter formerly used by the Forces of Chaos as their primary interceptor.
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Chaos Vehicles - Hell Claw: The Hell Claw is a known variant of the Hell Blade interceptor. There is little information in Imperial records pertaining to this craft.
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Chaos Vehicles - Hell Fang: The Hell Fang is a known variant of the Hell Talon Fighter-Bomber. There is little information in Imperial records pertaining to this craft.
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Chaos Vehicles - Hell Talon: The Hell Talon is a fighter-bomber that is used by the Forces of Chaos, and is a relatively recent addition to their arsenal. The Hell Talon, like the Hell Blade air superiority fighter, is another product of the malevolent masters of the damned Forge World of Xana II located deep within the Eye of Terror. It is believed that the Hell Talon was either developed as a variant of the Hell Blade or was designed alongside the Hell Blade using the same process as they are extremely similar in design. The Hell Talon was designed to replace the aging Doomfire bomber formerly used by the Forces of Chaos as their primary bomber craft.
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Chaos Vehicles - Locust Fighter: The Locust Fighter is an aircraft used by the Forces of Chaos. There is little information on this craft in Imperial records.
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Chaos Vehicles - Stormbird: The Stormbird was used by the Legiones Astartes as their primary means of deploying forces during combat as well as their primary source of air support during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. Before the development of the Thunderhawk gunship, the Stormbird was often considered the lynchpin of any Space Marine Legion, as it was able to fulfill many combat roles. The Stormbird was fully void-capable as well as functioning as an atmospheric orbital drop ship, a heavy ground attack gunship, or as a bomber. This aircraft was able to quickly carry Space Marine forces from orbiting starships down into the midst of a battle, while at the same time providing supporting fire against enemy ground or air targets. The Stormbird is now rarely seen in use by the Traitor Legions in the late 41st Millennium, as they have been almost entirely replaced by the Thunderhawk Gunship.
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Chaos Vehicles - Storm Eagle: The Storm Eagle is a heavy assault gunship that was used by the Space Marine Legions as a heavy air support unit. Storm Eagle gunships will follow a Thunderhawk gunship into battle, where it can lend its weapons to a devastating aerial assault. The Storm Eagle mounts an impressive amount of firepower for an aircraft of its size and is also capable of transporting twenty Chaos Space Marines directly into the thick of a ground assault. The Storm Eagle is still used in limited numbers by the Traitor Legions in the late 41st Millennium, though those examples still in working order have often been corrupted by the Warp, are covered in blasphemous Chaotic iconography and may have had their Machine Spirits replaced by a possessing daemon.
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Chaos Vehicles - Swiftdeath Fighter: The Swiftdeath Fighter is an aging interceptor fighter craft used by the Forces of Chaos. The Swiftdeath Fighter is slowly being phased out and replaced with the Hell Blade interceptor.
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Chaos Vehicles - Tormentor Fighter-Bomber: The Tormentor Fighter-Bomber is an aging fighter aircraft that is slowly being phased out of service by newer Chaos aircraft.
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Chaos Vehicles - Thunderhawk: Thunderhawks used by the Chaos Space Marines are similar to their Imperial counterpart in nearly every way. However, Thunderhawks used by the Traitor Legions are usually twisted and disfigured by their time spent in the Eye of Terror, where they are affected by the tides of the Warp. Chaos Thunderhawks are also usually customised by their Chaos Space Marine owners and covered in blasphemous Chaotic iconography. Many Thunderhawks in service to the Traitor Legions also have their Machine Spirits replaced by a possessing daemon, essentially transforming them into Daemon Engines. The Thunderhawks used by Chaos Space Marines are used to transport their ground troops and vehicles to a planet's surface and back into orbit to a waiting mothership.
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Chaos Vehicles - Thunderhawk Transporter: The Thunderhawk Transporter was used in great numbers by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy to transport their vehicles from ships in orbit to the surface of a planet. Thunderhawk Transporters used by the Traitor Legions are usually twisted and disfigured by their time spent in the Eye of Terror, where they are affected by the tides of the Warp. Chaos Thunderhawk Transporters are also usually customised by their Chaos Space Marine owners and covered in blasphemous Chaotic iconography. Many Thunderhawk Transporters in service to the Traitor Legions also have their Machine Spirits replaced by a possessing daemon, essentially transforming them into Daemon Engines.
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Chaos Vehicles - Chaos Daemon Engines: The following is a list of all known Chaos Daemon Engines used by the Forces of Chaos:
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Chaos Vehicles - Death Wheel: The Death Wheel is a Daemon Engine that takes the form of a large, self-propelled, spike-encrusted siege wheel that when deployed careens around the battlefield before finally charging toward an enemy fortress and crashing through the wall, shooting out all the spikes within it to horrifically impale the defenders within.
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Chaos Vehicles - Decimator: The Decimator is a Daemon Engine created from a horrific amalgam of human and xenos technology fused together and brought to unholy life by the darkest Warp sorcery. Decimators are nothing more than daemonic engines of death, standing taller than even the mighty Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts used by the Adeptus Astartes. The Decimator is believed to be an attempt to bolster the ranks of such ancient devices that still serve with the Traitor Legions and if this is the truth, then it is feared that many warriors of the Imperium will fall before these deadly machines.
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Chaos Vehicles - Defiler: A Defiler is a massive Daemon Engine in the service of the Traitor Legions and it is a truly potent beast of war, mounted upon six massive spine-legs. It is twice the size of most other Daemon Engines and is possessed of a temper to match. Each Defiler is roughly tank-sized, and both extremely violent in its actions and indiscriminate in who bears the brunt of its wrath.
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Chaos Vehicles - Forgefiend: A Forgefiend is a Daemon Engine used by the Traitor Legions and the forces of the Dark Mechanicum. The Forgefiend was devised by Dark Mechanicum Warpsmiths to sow death and destruction amongst enemy forces from afar. The Forgefiend is roughly centauroid in form and stands on four powerful legs. The daemonic beast's two arms are replaced with twin weapon-mounts that carry hell-forged parodies of Imperial armaments.
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Chaos Vehicles - Heldrake: The Heldrake is a winged Daemon Engine of Chaos Undivided that plummets out of the skies like a living comet, hurtling towards enemy aircraft and crashing claws-first into them from above. Each Heldrake is a vicious predator, hell-forged deep within the Warp. These monstrous creatures take cruel joy in diving down upon the unsuspecting air support of their enemies in order to shred them into pieces with its scything wings and rune-carved talons. Heldrakes are usually found within the ranks of the Traitor Legions, attaching themselves to the bottoms of Chaos warships and waiting until the ship reaches low orbit of its target planet. Then the Heldrake will plunge into the world's atmosphere and engage enemy forces in the war-torn skies.
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Chaos Vehicles - Maulerfiend: A Maulerfiend is a Daemon Engine used by the Traitor Legions and the forces of the Dark Mechanicum. Unlike its counterpart the Forgefiend, the Maulerfiend was designed by the Warpsmiths of the Dark Mechanicum for close-range combat. Maulerfiends thunder towards their foes like giant attack beasts loosed from the leash. The eyes of the beasts glow with the balefire of the Warp as ectoplasmic drool drizzles down through their great fanged maws. The Maulerfiend's primary limbs end in prehensile Power Claws powerful enough to tear an Astartes Dreadnought limb from limb. Should a Maulerfiend catch a squad of less protected warriors, it will scissor them apart or simply squeeze them into paste with a flex of its claws and a growl of satisfaction.
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Chaos Vehicles - Soul Grinder: A Soul Grinder is a massive Daemon Engine of Chaos, a diabolic fusion of daemon and gigantic war machine fuelled by dark malevolence and its own irrepressible desire to destroy. Dwarfing even some of the mighty Greater Daemons in stature, these ironclad behemoths are nigh unstoppable -- great metallic juggernauts whose many limbs are armed with piston-powered claws and daemonic weapons. Those that dare stand against them are swatted aside like bothersome insects or crushed into an unrecognisable pulp. Xenos monstrosities caught within a Soul Grinder's steely grip are ripped in half and enemy tanks are crushed as if they were made of rotten wood.
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Chaos Vehicles - Wirewolf: A Wirewolf is a type of Daemon Engine that was encountered by Imperial forces during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. All of the the Wirewolfs encountered were in the service of Magister Anakwanar Sek, the commander of the Chaos militia known as the Sons of Sek. Wirewolves, like all Daemon Engines, are machines powered by a trapped daemonic entity, although unlike most Daemon Engines used by the Forces of Chaos, Wirewolves can take a variety of shapes and forms, all depending on their maker's will. These range from knights in full armour to actual hounds.
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Chaos Vehicles - Brass Scorpion: The Brass Scorpion is a massive, multi-legged warmachine shaped in the image of the ancient Terran scorpion and is completely dedicated to the service of the Blood God Khorne. The machine is one of the largest Daemon Engines ever encountered by the Imperium, dwarfing its smaller counterparts such as the Defiler and the Decimator.
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Chaos Vehicles - Blood Reaper: The Blood Reaper is a Daemon Engine used by the Forces of Chaos that is completely dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed Khorne. The Blood Reaper is a large, towering Daemon Engine that is literally bristling with weapons.
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Chaos Vehicles - Blood Slaughterer: The Blood Slaughterer, also known as the Blood Slaughterer of Khorne, is a large, gore-splattered Daemon Engine made of brass and black iron that is dedicated to the service of the Chaos God Khorne. The Blood Slaughterer has been encountered in many different forms by the Imperium since the Horus Heresy.
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Chaos Vehicles - Blood Throne of Khorne: The Blood Throne of Khorne is a Daemon Engine in the form of a great chariot employed by the daemons who serve the Blood God Khorne. It is usually driven by a powerful Herald of Khorne who stands high in master's favour and is pulled by twin Bloodletters. Its appearance can dramatically enhance the morale and killing power of a legion of Khornate daemons or mortal servants of the Blood God. The Blood Throne is a baleful echo of the mighty dais upon which Khorne himself resides within the Realm of Chaos.
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Chaos Vehicles - Cannon of Khorne: The Cannon of Khorne is a massive Daemon Engine that takes the form of a giant cannon on wheels. The Imperium has no other information on the vehicle.
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Chaos Vehicles - Cauldron of Blood: The Cauldron of Blood is a Daemon Engine used by the Forces of Chaos that is completely dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed Khorne. The Cauldron of Blood rumbles into combat as an embodied testament to the Blood God's murderous ideals. The vehicle is a Daemon Engine capable of operating on its own accord when the possessing daemon spirit takes control, but also makes use of a crew of Chaos Cultists loyal only to Khorne. The machine features a massive cauldron located on the top of the vehicle that is filled with the boiling blood of Khorne's enemies. This blood is fired forth from a weapon on the front of the vehicle known as a Blood Cannon.
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Chaos Vehicles - Death Dealer: The Death Dealer is a Daemon Engine used by the Forces of Chaos that is completely dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed Khorne. The Death Dealer is a massive Daemon Engine whose role on the battlefield is that of a mobile siege tower in which it carries resolute warbands of fanatical Khornate Berserkers into battle. The front of the Death Dealer is comprised of a gigantic mechanical construct that resembles a Khornate warrior and is equipped with fearsome close-combat weapons.
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Chaos Vehicles - Doom Blaster: The Doom Blaster is a super-heavy Daemon Engine used by the Forces of Chaos that is completely dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed, Khorne. The Doom Blaster crawls forwards on heavy, clanking treads with the gaping maws of its quad-mounted Doom Mortars menacing the enemy from afar. The Doom Mortars are able to lob a thunderous carpet of shrapnel-packed shells amongst the enemy targets, tossing troops and vehicles aside with their close packed barrages until there is nothing left but bleeding remnants to be crushed beneath its heavy treads as the war machine advances.
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Chaos Vehicles - Lord of Battles: The Lord of Battles is a colossal Daemon Engine used by the Forces of Chaos that is completely dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed, Khorne. The Lord of Battles is the greatest of the Daemon Engines in the service to Khorne, and possibly any of the other Chaos Gods. This daemon-machine is the largest Daemon Engine known to the Imperium, and is comparable in size to a small Titan. The Lord of Battles is a towering construction of Warp-forged black iron and brass covered in defensive Runes of the Blood God that protect it from psychic attack. A Greater Daemon of Khorne, a Bloodthirster, is the potent daemonic spirit unwillingly bound into this construct for the greater glory of the Blood God.
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Chaos Vehicles - Lord of Skulls: The Lord of Skulls is a super-heavy Daemon Engine of Chaos that is dedicated to the service of the Chaos God Khorne. These massive Daemon Engines are created by the most ambitious and skilled of Warpsmiths deep within their black forges located within the Eye of Terror. Each Lord of Skulls is a grotesque battle construct armed with a multitude of powerful daemonic weapons.
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Chaos Vehicles - Pillager: Pillagers stride into battle atop four massive daemonic legs. These Daemon Engines of Khorne are striding behemoths of pure destruction, whose armour plates have been warped and taken on a completely organic look and feel. The Imperium has no other information on the vehicle.
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Chaos Vehicles - Skull Cannon of Khorne: The Skull Cannon of Khorne is a Daemon Engine in the form of a great chariot employed by the daemons who serve the Blood God Khorne. The Skull Cannon of Khorne is a large armoured cannon positioned on the top of the main body of a chariot known as a Blood Throne of Khorne, to which two Lesser Daemons of Khorne known as Bloodletters are chained.
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Chaos Vehicles - Tower of Skulls: The Tower of Skulls is a massive Daemon Engine used by the Forces of Chaos that is dedicated to the service of the Chaos God of war and bloodshed, Khorne. The Tower of Skulls is hammered out of arcane Warp-forged brass and black iron at the very foot of the Blood God's mighty throne located within the Realm of Chaos and infused with the essence of countless damned souls.
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Chaos Vehicles - Æther Ray: An Æther Ray is an aerial Daemon Engine of Tzeentch, created on the world of Q'Sal, located in the Screaming Vortex, a Warp Rift that separates the Calixis Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus from the Koronus Expanse region of the Halo Stars. Ruled over by the powerful Sorcerer-Technocrats of the three cities of Tarnor, Velklir and Surgub, the Æther Ray is the direct result of all three cities working more or less together. The Æther Ray is a relatively new construct, designed after the Pact of R'Suleir was enacted as a symbol of the newly united planet. This period ended quickly, but not before this new Daemon Engine took flight. These creations act as both a transport for the elite of the world as well as a powerful symbol of a Q'Sal city's might. Those viewing the beast soaring above them know the terrible power enchained within, and the even greater power it took to keep such a creature bound in service.
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Chaos Vehicles - The Auruntaur: The The Auruntaru is a Daemon Engine of Tzeentch, created on the world of Q'Sal, located in the Screaming Vortex. The Auruntaur was born of a catastrophic mishap within the forges of the city of Tarnor on Q'Sal during the last ruinous wars between the world's three cities. The Auruntaur literally stands above any war engine produced on Q'Sal. Only slightly smaller in height than a Reaver Battle Titan, the Auruntaur is a golden, four-legged creature of destruction, built largely of ensorcelled materials and housing a daemon of immense power. Where the main body is entirely mechanical, the centaur-like upper torso is mostly daemonic. The two arms sport relatively close-range weaponry for something of its huge size, but they are no less devastating to their targets. The right arm is mechanical, covered in spines that almost appear alive but are made of hardened brass. It is tipped with a huge, rune-etched blade of capable of slicing vehicles in half. The left arm is akin to that from a gargantuan Flamer of Tzeentch, fleshy and mutable. It vomits forth great gouts of Warpflame, and creatures and vehicles alike are either altered or destroyed under these iridescent fires.
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Chaos Vehicles - Doom Wing: The Doom Wing is a flying Daemon Engine dedicated to the service of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of change and deceit. The Doom Wing resembles a daemonically possessed aircraft in the shape of a bird of prey. The aircraft is capable of flying at tremendous speeds due to its three powerful jet-engines, making it capable of devastating ground attack-runs and also having the ability to engage enemy aircraft.
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Chaos Vehicles - Fire Lord: The Fire Lord is a super-heavy assault aircraft and a Daemon Engine dedicated to the service of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of change and deceit. The Fire Lord resembles a daemonically possessed aircraft in the shape of a bird of prey.
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Chaos Vehicles - Mirrorfiend: A Mirrorfiend is a Daemon Engine construct of Tzeentch, created on the world of Q'Sal, located in the Screaming Vortex. The Mirrorfiend is a construct exclusively of the city of Tarnor and is one of the more sought after designs from the desert city. Slightly smaller than a battle tank, it appears as a glimmering, polished beast that reflects base reality into constantly altering shapes on its silvered surface. Shaped like one of the giant beetles of the desert, it moves with an unnatural grace and speed that contradicts its massive form. When on the ground, the body is supported by six spindly legs that do not seem capable of supporting its weight, with insectoid wings of spun light that somehow allow it to scuttle through the air as easily as it does on the land.
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Chaos Vehicles - Silver Tower of Tzeentch: Silver Towers of Tzeentch, also known simply as Silver Towers, are large Daemon Engines dedicated to the service of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of change and deceit. Silver Towers are an outlandish sight on the battlefield, appearing as clusters of intricately carved and fluted towers resting upon a circular island topped with slender minarets of gold and bronze. Each Silver Tower is subtly different in its creation, yet all are disturbingly beautiful, with fine snouts of weird, magically-powered weapons studding forth from their walls.
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Chaos Vehicles - Hell-Knight: Hell-Knights are one of the most specialised types of Daemon Knights of Slaanesh. Aside from Bolters, their main weapon is a Thermal Cannon which, albeit short-ranged, has enough power to pierce almost any armour plate with relative ease. Hell-Knights are often used to hunt down enemy Knights and Titans, exploiting their speed to attack from the sides and overwhelm opponents. In addition to this, they are perfectly suited to perform ambushes. As Hell-Knights are super-heavy vehicles, they cannot be defeated in combat except by other super-heavy vehicles or Titans. Anything smaller than this is simply pushed aside by the massive war machine. Hell-Knights are excellent at infiltrating enemy positions, setting ambushes for enemy supply columns and attacking enemy support detachments and artillery.
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Chaos Vehicles - Hell-Scourge: Hell-Scourges are one of the largest patterns of Slaaneshi Daemon Knights. As living machines in the service of the Dark Prince of Chaos, they have crushed countless opponents in the last ten millennia, screeching deafening cries across the battlefield. They are the perfect predators, hunters who mercilessly run down their quarry with the bounding strides of their elegant, powerful legs. The Hell-Scourges attack without warning. As one appears, the enemy turn their weapons on its blurred form, only to see it disappear. At that moment, others attack from all sides, mowing through armour and flesh with their massive Castigator Cannons. Hell-Scourges possess a certain pack instinct and are in constant telepathic communication with each other. As such, they make exceptionally well co-ordinated assaults, out-flanking their enemies with ease. This telepathic contact seems to encompass all Hell-Scourges present on the battlefield, or perhaps even further. This enables Hell-Scourge detachments exceptional flexibility on the battlefield.
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Chaos Vehicles - Hell-Strider: The Hell-Strider is the smallest of the Daemon Knights, but still stands many times the height of a man. They are armed with Lascannons and short-range, Knight-sized Melta Weapons. Hell-Striders are extremely mobile, able to flush the enemy out of woods and ruins with their powerful short ranged weaponry. Given sufficient numbers, Hell-Striders are even capable of toppling a Titan, picking off their prey's Void Shields with their Lascannons before closing in for the kill with their Melta-beams.
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Chaos Vehicles - Questor Scout Titan: A Questor Scout Titan, known also as a Questor, is a variant of the Subjugator Daemon Engine walker. The Questor possesses slightly thicker armour than it's counterpart, but its powerful legs can still drive forward at a considerable pace. Graceful arms spread from the Questor's carapace, each tipped with a rapid-firing cannon called a Tormentor. As well as this main weapon, the Questor also carries a pair of powerful Lascannon, one mounted in the head the other slung between the legs.
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Chaos Vehicles - Slaanesh Subjugator: The Slaanesh Subjugator, sometimes simply referred to as the Subjugator, is a large Daemon Engine of Chaos that is completely dedicated to the service of Slaanesh, the Chaos God of pleasure and excess. The Subjugator embodies the essence of Slaanesh; being lithe, incredibly swift, and fully able to move quickly and still use its weapons. When the hordes of Slaanesh attack, the Subjugator will race ahead of the army, galloping towards its foe with its long, powerful legs, the daemonic spirits inside chattering and screaming with the sensations that battle brings. These shrieks turns to howls of elation as the machine's weapons are brought to bear and the foe is destroyed in exquisite agony.
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Chaos Vehicles - Blight Drone: A Blight Drone, also known as a Bilecyst, is a Daemon Engine dedicated to Nurgle, the Chaos God of pestilence and disease . The Blight Drone is a seemingly weird conglomeration of insect larva, flying machine, and daemonic entity. The maddening, incessant droning buzz of their rotor disks echoing across the battlefield has become recognised as an omen of death by soldiers of the Imperium of Man.
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Chaos Vehicles - Contagion: The Contagion Plague Engine is a foul creation of the followers of Nurgle. The Contagion is essentially a large mobile catapult which bombards its foes with disease-ridden projectiles. Little else is known about this Daemon Engine in Imperial records.
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Chaos Vehicles - Foetid Bloat-Drone: A Foetid Bloat-drone, also called simply a Bloat-drone, is an aerial Daemon Engine of Nurgle designed to provide aerial combat support for the forces of the Death Guard Traitor Legion. This hideous war engine bears monstrous weapons onto the battlefield to annihilate the enemies of the Death Guard. Clad in rusting plates of rot-iron armour, their hulls overflowing with flabby foulness, Foetid Bloat-drones can withstand ferocious amounts of punishment and still keep fighting. They are designed to hover in close, drifting lazily through the most treacherous of terrain to provide supporting fire.
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Chaos Vehicles - Myphitic Blight-hauler: Powering into battle on a trio of articulated track units, the Myphitic Blight-hauler is a light Daemon Engine that provides the Death Guard Traitor Legion with heavy firepower wherever it is needed. Resembling a Foetid Bloat-drone that has been stripped of its turbines, this strange machine has heavy weapons mounted on its carapace, typically a combination of Multi-Melta and Missile Launcher for mid-to-close range tank-hunting.
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Chaos Vehicles - Plague Hulk: The Plague Hulk is a Daemon Engine dedicated to the service of Nurgle, the Chaos God of pestilence and disease. A Daemon Engine is a nightmarish artificial construct used by the Forces of Chaos that is a fusion of a realspace vehicle or combat walker with a possessing daemonic spirit of the Warp. The Plague Hulk is a multi-limbed combat walker that resembles a hybrid of a Defiler or Soul Grinder Daemon Engine with a corpulent daemon of Nurgle.
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Chaos Vehicles - Plague Tower: The Plague Tower, also known as the Plague Tower of Nurgle, is a large Daemon Engine that is completely dedicated to the service of Nurgle, the Chaos God of pestilence and decay. The Plague Tower is a huge construction of rotting timbers and rusting metal that carves its way across the battlefield leaving a trail of death and contamination in its wake.
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Chaos Vehicles - Plagueburst Crawler: A Plagueburst Crawler is a Daemon Engine used by the Death Guard Traitor Legion as a mobile artillery piece to provide combat support to Death Guard Plague Marine infantry assaults. Its primary weapon is a Plagueburst Mortar that combines high-radius explosives with lethal daemonic spore clouds that can eat through almost any known form of protection. The Daemon Engine's only real drawback is that it is unable to unleash this weapon on targets that are closer than its minimum range.
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Chaos Vehicles - Notes: All vehicles, aircraft, and Daemon Engines that are red-linked will have a page created for them once their sources can be correctly identified, until then they shall remain red-linked.
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Chaos Warfleet - Chaos Warfleet: A Chaos Warfleet is the dark counterpart to a battlefleet of the Navis Imperialis and is a fleet of warships dedicated to the service of the Dark Gods.Abaddon the Despoiler may have led a unified Chaos warfleet in the service of Chaos Undivided during the Gothic War, but this is the exception, not the rule, for the forces of Chaos possess no unified naval force like the Imperium of Man.Instead, there are numerous Chaos warfleets dedicated solely to the service of one of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos -- Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch.
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Chaos Warfleet - History: The origins of Chaos Warfleets can be traced to the bygone Age of the Imperium and the Great Crusade of the 30th and early 31st Millennia, launched from Mankind's birthworld of Terra into the stars to reunite the disparate tribes of Humanity into the burgeoning Imperium of Man.The Great Crusade was the largest and most ambitious military endeavour ever undertaken by Mankind. As mighty and valiant as the hosts of the Emperor were, this epic undertaking would have been entirely impossible without the countless thousands of Warp-capable vessels that transported hundreds of thousands of the transhuman warriors of the Space Marine Legions and many millions of Imperial Army soldiers from one star's light to the next.The Great Crusade saw a staggering array of vessels constructed, reclaimed or pressed into service. Some were used for a matter of solar months before being declared obsolete or wearing out and degrading to destruction, quite apart from losses incurred in battle, while others gained a permanent place in the canon of war, with successful designs endlessly copied and modified as the solar decades of the crusade progressed.The first vessels to enter the service of the Imperium were constructed in the orbital foundries of Terra, and later Mars' Ring of Iron and the orbital shipyards of Saturn, under the scrutiny of the Emperor and the Forge-wrights of the ancient Mechanicum, and indeed it was only that alliance of Terra with Mars that made the trans-solar expansion possible in any meaningful way.This was further aided when at last the Saturnyne Dominion, with its accomplished ship-masters, joined the Imperium after their alien overlords were overthrown, and as the Imperium expanded, many more great orbital shipyards were added: Voss, Grulgarod, Lorin and Cypra Mundi, all grew to near rival Mars itself in voidship production.Driven by the will of the Emperor, the first expeditionary fleets pushed outwards into the galaxy. Preceding each great expeditionary fleet of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of vessels often ranged smaller contingents of independent flotillas led by a class of martial leader that would become known as the Rogue Traders Militant. Many of these individuals were former rulers of the numerous realms the Emperor had cast down first during the Unification Wars and later as the Great Crusade spread, formerly independent Human worlds.They were offered a stark choice -- bend their knee before the Emperor and swear service to the Great Crusade, or die by His hand. Though many set pride before what they regarded as slavery, others chose service and took up the Emperor's Warrant of Trade. There was a price, however. The Rogue Traders Militant were expected to scout ahead of the leading edge of the Great Crusade, accompanied by their own armies as well as whatever assets had been ceded them by the Emperor. Operating so far ahead of the Emperor's crusading armies, the Rogue Traders Militant could expect little or no aid should they encounter foes too powerful for them to overcome.After several solar decades penetrating the inky black of the void, Rogue Trader Militant fleets often appeared as ramshackle vagabonds, many of their starships taken from defeated enemies, sometimes including xenos vessels of entirely novel or esoteric form. They were forbidden to return to Terra, for in His wisdom the Emperor sought not to just rid Himself of powerful rivals, but to ensure that even in their deaths they might serve Mankind. Many vanished alone and unheralded; slain, consumed or enslaved by nameless xenos abominations far from the light of Terra.As the Imperium expanded, so too did its fleets. Countless long-lost wonders of technology were recovered, some wrested from the dead hands of unwilling custodians, and others surrendered willingly as fitting tribute to the Master of Mankind.Some Imperial vessels were unique, constructed by methods even the most accomplished adepts of Mars could not hope to replicate: the Terminus Est, the Nicor, the Mirabilis and the Phalanx foremost among them. Other patterns and classes proved possible to reproduce and replicate, and before long the various arms of the Imperium's military acquired their own distinctive panoply of warships.Those of the Legiones Astartes were often blunt of prow and slab-armoured, built to endure the withering storm of fire that accompanies a planetary invasion, their plasma furnace-hearts powering some of the most destructive weapons known to Mankind. But beyond these practical needs, each fleet favoured the nature of its Legion, from the sable black marauders of the Raven Guard to the baroque crimson and gold battlecruisers of the Blood Angels to the brute functionality and unadorned steel of the Iron Warriors' siege-barques.The ships of the Emperor's wider naval armadas of the Armada Imperialis, the future Navis Imperialis, were more diverse affairs, built for void supremacy. They ranged from stately battleships, multi-kilometre long engines of doom, their armour concentrated to the fore and their flanks repleted with rank upon rank of broadside batteries, to lithe and deadly destroyers and stripped-bare Warp Runners, to watchful piquet frigates and lumbering star-fortresses. Beyond these were innumerable classes of transports, arks, conveyers and supply ships, the forge vessels of the Mechanicum and their own strange space-going engines of war.As the terrible extent of the Warmaster Horus' treachery unfolded at the dawn of the 31st Millennium, other disturbing characteristics revealed themselves slowly amid the vessels under the Traitors' command. Fell runes appeared upon the flanks of the Warmaster's voidships and the barrels of their cannons were mutated or re-forged into gaping, fanged mouths. Viewports flickered with the fiery glimmer of the beyond and the once true and solid forms became twisted into hideous mockeries of respected and familiar classes of Imperial warship.As both sides girded themselves for full-scale war after the terrifying events of the Drop Site Massacre of Isstvan V, so the centres of production each controlled increased output exponentially. Demand was insatiable, and while the Emperor had once overseen the creation of the Imperium's fleets according to His own all-encompassing vision, following His return to Terra following the Triumph of Ullanor to begin the Webway Project such matters were turned over to others.The Council of Terra made ever more strident demands on the Forge Worlds of the Mechanicum as the awful scope of the coming civil war became clear. To make matters worse, many Forge Worlds declared for the Warmaster, while Imperial assets and materiel were co-opted or plundered for the armouries of the Traitor Legions. Both sides had pressed into service every class of vessel at their disposal, from mighty and unique relics of the Dark Age of Technology to the newly-produced and often all but untested scions of newly established Forge Worlds.Before long, those warships unsuited to total war would be reduced to void-drifting nebulae of super-heated vapour and broken hulks, the tombs of all aboard, while those that survived would go on to fight in the greatest battles of the Horus Heresy and forge legends both bloody and glorious in their own right.Throughout the seven brutal standard years of the terrible Imperial civil war that was the Horus Heresy after the Drop Site Massacre, both Traitor and Loyalist fleets clashed repeatedly in numerous long-running void battles, many of which still echo down the ages of history: the Battle of Phall, the Thramas Crusade and the epic final battle of the rebellion, the Siege of Terra.Horus fell at last at the hands of his father, as the Emperor vanquished His traitorous son after confronting him aboard the Traitors' flagship Vengeful Spirit. The surviving Traitors broke orbit over Terra and fought their way free of the battle and escaped into the void. A time of reprisal and retribution known as the Great Scouring followed, and countless worlds were put to death by the Loyalists for siding with Horus and the Chaos Gods, their corpses left as a warning to others.Those Traitor Legions that remained in the Imperium were hunted mercilessly and hounded across the stars by pitiless Loyalists. The Traitors took refuge in the Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror, choosing to plunge into that maelstrom of madness rather than face extinction at the hands of the Emperor's vengeful warriors.
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Chaos Warfleet - Shape of Change: Just as the Dark Gods of Chaos visit their warped and twisted blessings upon those of their mortal followers who prove themselves worthy, so too do their "gifts" fall upon the great and aged machines devoted to them. A voidship's form, its very material essence, may be warped by the touch of Chaos to take on a shape ever more pleasing to its divine patron.So it is that a starship might come to truly bear the mark of its patron god. It is not merely the will of a Chaos God that can alter a voidship. A dedicated and worshipful crew will lavish much time on their vessel, reshaping it in their god's preferred image. They will brand great heretical runes of the Dark Tongue all across it, covering it in colours, symbols, substances or geometries favoured by their divine patron as testament to their fervoured devotion.By foul enchantments and dark rituals, Daemons, spirits and other Chaos entities of the Warp likewise in the service of their divine patron may be summoned up, or even granted whole areas of the ship, invited to dwell within its engines, sustained in the material realm by the same bound psykers and Warp-Drive engines that once allowed the ship safe passage through the Immaterium.Alone amongst the material creations of Mankind, these magnificent starships are designed to travel both the material and the immaterial, and so offer a sanctuary to Daemons which cannot be found elsewhere.These entities of Chaos might slumber within a warship's guns, launching fire from them with an unnatural fury; sweep formlessly throughout the ship's decks like a wailing ghost, driving off would-be boarders; or even lurk deep within the hull of the vessel itself, binding their own ancient malice with the intangible and resolute will of the aged machine, birthing a vessel with a true heart of Chaos.
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Chaos Warfleet - Chariots of Slaughter - The Fleets of Khorne: To all but the blindest and most deranged of Khorne's followers, the need for ships to transport them across the stars is obvious, though beyond such cold utility even the most ancient of vessels deserves little more reverance. To Khorne's followers, such vessels are nothing more than steeds, chariots even, to take them to new fields of slaughter.Where other gods might visit their blessing equally upon their followers and their machines, Khorne cares little for the beasts of steel, and it is instead upon the deranged and bloodthirsty warriors that slay in his name that Khorne’s blessing falls. Khorne's lust for blood eschews as cowardly and unworthy the long-ranged weapons of many Traitor vessels.Even a perfectly well-armed and equipped warship of Khorne may forgo all weapons fire as its frenzied crew plough furiously forwards, impatient to fall upon their enemy in hand-to-hand combat within the narrow confines of the enemy vessel. With little love of psychic sorcery or arcane technology, followers of Khorne are often equally loathe to rely upon such tricks as teleportation and instead enact the will of the Blood God with their frenzied boarding actions.So insanely devoured by the lust for blood are some that they forsake any form of ranged warfare entirely, and instead populate drifting space hulks, from where they can fall upon enemy fleets, or even worlds, in an unstoppable tide of boarding actions or bloody planetary assault. Khorne is not blind to the need for firepower, though he gives no favour to it, and his fleets remain rigidly utilitarian in this regard, willing only to utilise those weapons and those tactics which will ultimately bring them closer to their target, and so closer to the bloody slaughter.
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Chaos Warfleet - Floating Palaces of Slaanesh: Those vessels favoured by Slaanesh are nothing short of palatial -- the finest and most delicately crafted of starfaring galleons, carefully maintained and lovingly restored, their every metre bedecked in the most precious metals and glittering gems, smothered in the richest and most extravagant of dressings, details and iconography, decorated with the most exquisite portraiture, sculpture and art, invariably portraying acts of extreme perversity and artistic horror.Within the followers of Slaanesh slumbers a malaise of ecstasy, drawing themselves into action only to further their exhausting pursuit of pleasure and new sensations. Such are the delights within that these palaces of Slaanesh are as beacons of seduction to those that look upon them. Vessels nearing them might find their vox-links bombarded not by the expected hails of identification, allegiance and intent, but rather by a cacophony of giggles, screams, moans and gasps, both disorienting and enchanting, broadcast by the fickle followers of Slaanesh, seemingly uncaring, perhaps even unknowing. For those whose inadvertent frequency scanning or attempts at communication open up such a channel, it is a voyeuristic gaze at pleasure beyond comprehension and an aural enticement that would bring the weak to their knees.But pain is pleasure also, as the incautious should not forget. To turn their guns upon the entranced crews of nearby ships is as much ecstasy to the followers of Slaanesh as it is agony to their victims. To board their vessels and take what captives may be found for purposes that may not be spoken is, to Slaanesh, not remotely a betrayal of the apparently harmless sensation which first proved so alluring to those same unwary victims. Such is the fate of any fool enough to stray close to the screaming Palaces of Pleasure which are the vessels of Slaanesh.Command vessels of Slaaneshi fleets have also used Warp-based powers. Some command vessels can fire a short-range cone of Warp energy at enemy vessels which seems to be infused with the psychic essence and desire of Slaanesh itself. This attack, often called "Slaanesh's Promise" by the Dark Prince's devotees, briefly enraptures the minds of enemy crews so that they feel the need to welcome the inhabitants of the Slaaneshi vessel into their own; the result is that the enemy crews deactivate their defensive energy fields, turrets and engines for a few solar seconds, giving the Slaaneshi fleet the opportunity to destroy them unopposed.Other Slaaneshi command vessels appear to have the essence of Slaanesh imbued directly into their weapons. These so-called "Siren Cannons" unleash small psychic blasts upon an enemy ship after striking the hull, slowly demoralising the enemy crew with each strike.
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Chaos Warfleet - Beasts of Tzeentch: Alone amongst the Dark Gods, Tzeentch cares little to bring the starfaring vessels of Mankind under his service. The Warp is as much home to these vessels as the material universe, for they must travel through it at great length, and at greater peril, and cunning Tzeentch knows that it is within the Immaterium that his true power lies.Within the Warp exist countless writhing entities, beasts of the Warp, born there or forged there by powers unspeakable. It is Tzeentch's great gambit that in his service these beasts are changed into the forms by which Mankind might know and fear them most -- great, hungry leviathans and all consuming serpents are the pets of Tzeentch, creatures born from the hellish depths Mankind has conceived of since first their eyes gazed out upon the great oceans of Terra and knew that something truly terrible must lie beneath. That Humanity's own origins and birth lie also in such murky waters only adds to the instinctive dread and insurmountable fear such monstrosities awaken.When his power is at its greatest, and when his loyal followers offer conduit and sacrifice enough that it might travel beyond the Immaterium, Tzeentch sends such beasts forth into the material universe itself, riding upon the tides of Chaos which surround the warfleets of the Ruinous Powers, buoyed along by the surging waves of sorcery and eddies of unreality which Tzeentch's followers bring in their wake.Given form for a time, these leviathans fall upon Tzeentch's enemies like great predators, rending metal, flesh and soul apart with equal ease. The only mercy, perhaps, of such horrors is the inescapable impermanence of such Warp-spawned nightmares.When a Tzeentchian fleet contains more standard Chaos warships, the command ships within such a fleet have also been seen to use strange, Warp-based powers. Some command vessels have been seen temporarily surrounded by a cloud-like miasma that envelopes both them and nearby allied vessels. This miasma, known as the "Winds of Change," by Tzeentchian voidship crews, obscure the Chaos ships from enemy vessels. While the miasma itself is clearly visible from a great distance, unless the enemy has additional targeting data from something like a nearby attack craft squadron, sensor probe or an ally vessel at very close range, the Chaos vessels within the miasma are unable to be targeted by enemy weapons. The Chaos vessels within the miasma, however, are fully capable of seeing and targeting enemy vessels.The mortal followers of Tzeentch are often granted the psychic powers of sorcery, and this extends to the assault crews of Tzeentchian vessels. These boarding parties, known as "Tzeentch Flamers" after the Tzeentchian Daemons of the same name, can target enemy crews and vital voidship subsystems that result in the outbreak of deadly fires on multiple decks of a boarded enemy vessel.
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Chaos Warfleet - Plaguefleets of Nurgle: Just as the Death Guard have retained cohesion better than many other Traitor Legions, so they also maintain much larger and more organised fleets of voidcraft. These so-called "Plaguefleets" comprise ancient, Horus Heresy-era battleships, stolen Navis Imperialis warships, and even space hulks gathered from the tides of the Warp. It falls to the warriors of the 6th Plague Company, the Ferrymen, to master and garrison these voidcraft, and to liberate new starships that may be added to the Death Guard's rotting armada.The Plague Fleets are vital to the Daemon Primarch Mortarion's gene-sons, for they are the vector by which the Death Guard spread Nurgle's blessings to the wider galaxy. Embarking onto these craft, the Plague Companies of the Death Guard ride the tides of the Warp like wind-blown contagions, emerging into realspace wherever Nurgle wills.While their voidcraft plough through the Immaterium, they fill up with thick clouds of revolting, fat-bodied plague flies and other Daemonic insects that hatch from walls and bulkheads. When the Death Guard land upon enemy worlds or board their victims' spacecraft, these seething fly-storms come with them, spreading infection wherever they go. This has also been used in void combat; Nurglish command vessels can unleash a wide cloud of so-called "void-locusts" around them that start eating away at enemy ships' hulls, while simultaneously regenerating hull damage inflicted on themselves and allied vessels.Should ships of the Plague Fleets be lost or abandoned, they eventually find their way back to the Plague Planet as drifting derelicts to be crewed again. Some believe this is the will of Nurgle. Others claim that once a ship joins the Plague Fleets, its corrupted Machine Spirit is cursed to obey Mortarion until the end of time.Additionally, starships whose crews met their end through disease and decay are the most pleasing sacrifices to Nurgle. Voidships are cramped, claustrophobic places at the best of times, and the air which feeds their living crews is a commodity that must be endlessly recycled and filtered back into the vessel. Such lifeless air as this often becomes stale, and the stench of sweat and grime hangs heavy in it. Additionally, Nurglish voidships often have more numerous crews than would typically be seen on other ships of equivalent size.Under this mask of filth, Nurgle and his dedicated followers find little difficulty in spreading something rather more virulent throughout a vessel. Such plagues aboard ships are not uncommon and Nurgle laughs gleefully at such works. A ship's entire crew may weaken beneath this malady, and in such desperation they will turn to Nurgle for protection -- and so a new Plagueship is born, its crew spared the sorrow of death, but instead gifted an eternity beset by the same plague which first laid them low.But decay does not affect merely the living. Nurgle beams all the more proudly to see the creations of mortals broken down by decay. The most virulent of his ills do not only strike at flesh, but also bring with them a noxious, stinging acidic feel to the air which can sicken even the metal of a warship.Like the bloated and pocked carcasses of his Human followers, Nurglish Plagueships bear these scars of decay like a badge of worship -- liquified rust running like blood across the hull of his Plagueships, cankered and broken power supplies, plasma coils and radiation conduits seeping their magmas like pus. Such decay defines the vessels whose crews serve the Plague Lord.
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Chaplain - Chaplain: A Chaplain is a Firstborn and Primaris Marine specialist officer of the Adeptus Astartes and serves as the appointed spiritual leader of a Space Marine Chapter.Chaplains are the warrior-priests that minister to the spiritual and psychological well-being of their fellow battle-brothers, instilling in them the values and beliefs of the Chapter and promoting the veneration or in rarer cases the actual worship of the Emperor of Mankind.Chaplains lead from the front as awe-inspiring warrior-priests, fighting wherever the foe is most fierce, leading their brethren and praising the Emperor through the destruction of His enemies. Rejoicing in the glorious act of war, Chaplains exhort their battle-brothers to ever greater deeds of bravery and devotion.In battle, the Chaplains will be at the forefront of the Chapter's battlelines, rousing their fellow Space Marines through their words and actions. Their power armour is black and often incorporates Imperial gothic skull iconography, most commonly in the form of a skull-shaped helmet. Most Chaplains wield a Power Weapon that takes the form of a mace and is called a Crozius Arcanum. They are also equipped with an Imperial holy symbol known as a Rosarius.Individual Chaplains are assigned to each company within a Space Marine Chapter. Others, including the Reclusiarch who cares for the Chapter's sacred Reclusiam and the Master of Sanctity who is the chief Chaplain of a Chapter and an officer whose rank is usually subordinate only to that of the Chapter Master himself, operate within the Chapter's command structure independent of any specific company.A Chaplain is fanatically loyal to his Chapter and to the Emperor, and works to instill a similar devotion in his fellow Astartes. Chaplains are the true spiritual leaders of a Space Marine Chapter. They are awe-inspiring warrior-priests who administer the rites, preserve the rituals and perform the ancient ceremonies of initiation, vindication and redemption that are as important to a Space Marine Chapter as its roll of honour or its skill at arms.Chaplains are daunting figures even for other Space Marines to behold. Their power armour is jet black and adorned with icons of battle and tokens of ritual and mystery; their Skull Helms are death masks that evoke the stern visage of the immortal Emperor. Every aspect of a Chaplain's garb serves to remind all who gaze upon him of mortality's impermanence and thus the importance of preserving the immortal soul. Beneath this stern cladding is a man no less grim of aspect and manner.Chaplains are notoriously strict individuals. They are responsible for the spiritual and psychological well-being of their battle-brothers and renowned for their unwavering sense of duty. Through tenet, dogma and catechism, they armour their brother Space Marines against heresy and false pride, instilling the wisdom of both primarch and Emperor in those who are their most trusted servants.Every company in a Space Marine Chapter has its own Chaplain. He acts as a leader in both devotions and combat and is second only to the company captain in rank. A Chapter's Chaplains are also the keepers of the Reclusiam, a hallowed place overseen by the greatest and most veteran of their number, the Master of Sanctity.The Reclusiam is the fortress-monastery's central shrine, where prayers and meditations are conducted. It is a place of great spiritual reverence, where the Chapter's battle standards hang from hallowed walls and the very stones echo with remembrance. Here are kept the Chapter's most holy relics: fragments of armour, banners from times of legend, and the raiments of ancient heroes who long ago passed beyond mortal service. However, the Chaplains teach that the presence of a formal chapel is not necessary for a Space Marine; the fires of battle serve as their places of worship, the roar of bolters and chainswords their prayers and the righteous slaughter of their foes their truest offerings.The first Space Marine Chapters were founded centuries before the development of the Imperial Cult or the Adeptus Ministorum, and with the exception of the Black Templars and several others, Space Marines have never acknowledged the doctrines or religious supremacy of the Ecclesiarchy. Space Marine Chaplains care little for the ravings of the Ecclesiarch's priests and ignore the dictates of the Imperial Cult in favour of their own ancient traditions. While the Adeptus Ministorum has gradually extended its influence throughout the Human-settled galaxy, it has failed to sway the Space Marine cults, which remain as stubbornly independent as they ever were in millennia past.When war calls, a Chaplain takes the fight to wherever the conflict is fiercest. He leads from the fore, rejoicing in the righteous slaughter of his enemies, all the while rendering thunderous praise to the beloved Emperor of Mankind and his primarch. A Chaplain chants the liturgies of battle with every breath, punctuating his oration with strikes from his Crozius Arcanum -- the battle staff that is both the symbol of his office and his chosen weapon of war.Through his example and his devotion, the Chaplain exhorts his fellow battle-brothers to the pinnacle of their dedication, so that they might conquer with valour those most dire threats which would resist all else.
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Chaplain - The Chaplain Edict: The position of Chaplain was created during the Great Crusade in the early 31st Millennium by the edicts of the Council of Nikaea -- an Imperial conclave that was called on the world of Nikaea to determine whether the use of psychic powers represented a boon or a grave danger to Mankind and the newborn Imperium of Man. After the Emperor rendered His Decree Absolute in regards to the use of psykers, the Space Marine Legions were instructed to abolish their Librarius divisions.The Emperor had decreed that henceforth no Legion was to employ psykers in battle, nor were they to continue their studies into the mysteries of psychic talents. Those Legions who had Librarians -- psychically empowered Space Marines -- were instructed to reassign them to standard fighting units and to forbid the use of their abilities.The Regent of Terra, Malcador the Sigillite, leader of the Council of Terra, was not satisfied that all of the Legions would follow the Emperor's edict. He knew that many of the primarchs placed great value on their Librarians and the powers they could unleash on the battlefield. For some of the Legions, the deployment of psykers had become central to their strategies and tactics.He resolved to find a way to ensure these Legions obeyed the Emperor and observed the psyker ban. His thoughts turned to Lorgar and the Word Bearers Legion. Whilst the Emperor worked His secret labours in the Imperial Palace vaults, Malcador the Sigillite issued a new edict through the Council of Terra in the name of the Emperor. This was the Order of Observance, more commonly known as the Chaplain Edict, and its inspiration was the Word Bearers Legion.The Word Bearers primarch, Lorgar, had been raised on the highly religious world of Colchis. In time, Lorgar had become Colchis' martial and spiritual leader. His first meeting with the Emperor was believed to be a fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, an event that reinforced the religious fervour of the people of Colchis, and Lorgar himself. On becoming a primarch, Lorgar had introduced officer-clerics to his Legion. These warrior-priests were named "Chaplains," and their role was to minister to the spiritual needs of the Space Marines and ensure that their faith in the Emperor was strong.Word Bearers Chaplains had extolled the virtues and divinity of the Emperor of Mankind to every world the XVII Legion brought into Imperial Compliance, though this was a violation of the secular Imperial Truth that ultimately resulted in the castigation of the XVII Legion at the world of Khur, setting them on the path to betrayal in their humiliation.Inspired by this, Malcador ordered the other Space Marine primarchs under the seal of the Emperor to appoint Chaplains who would ensure the spiritual well-being of their Legion and enforce the psyker ban. These officers were to be picked from those Space Marines who were the most steadfast in their duties, and who had demonstrated the strongest loyalty to their primarch and to the Emperor. Most of the primarchs loyally followed the edict and began to appoint officers to the rank and duties of Chaplain. Some did not.Lorgar was quietly amused by the irony of the new edict -- his Legion had already secretly fallen to the Ruinous Powers. Given the vagaries of communication across the vastness of the galaxy, it would not have seemed unusual or suspicious to Malcador that not all of the primarchs had voiced their consent to the edict immediately. It was also certain that some of the primarchs behaved duplicitously, and while they assured him they were doing as the Emperor had ordered, they were not. In time, with the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, their dishonesty became clear.The esteemed position of Space Marine Chaplain would later change to become one of spiritual and moral leadership in the centuries after the Horus Heresy as the Imperium's culture became increasingly centered on the worship of the Emperor as a god.
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Chaplain - The Reclusiam: Within each fortress-monastery of the Adeptus Astartes, or primary battle barge (for the fleet-based Chapters of Space Marines), lies a central shrine known as the Reclusiam.The Reclusiam is greatly revered as a sacred place for the Chapter's Astartes and contains precious relics drawn from the Chapter's history: fragments of armour from fallen champions of the Chapter, blessed weaponry that has drunk deep of the blood of the Heretic, the xenos and the Daemon in millennia past and captured banners and shattered icons of defeated foes.In the Reclusiam the sonorous voices of the battle-brothers are raised in honour of the primarchs and the Emperor, and the catechisms of hate and repugnance are spoken. Amongst these relics of past glories, the Chaplains proselytise on the sacred duties and the virtues of service to the greater glory of the Emperor. These ceremonies are carried out under the guidance of the Chaplain with the rank of "Reclusiarch" and his superior, the Master of Sanctity, who is the spiritual head of the Chapter (though sometimes these ranks are combined into the same post). The Reclusiarch is also tasked with the training of new Chaplains, while the Master of Sanctity assigns the Chapter's Chaplains to the various companies.Only these two ranks of Chaplain serve the spiritual needs of the entire Chapter, as all other Chaplains are attached to individual companies. But Chaplains also teach that the time for prayer and worship is not only within the Reclusiam but also on the battlefield. Where the roar of bolters is the loudest and where the fires of righteous fury burn the brightest, Space Marines can exercise their most sacred duty and give praise to the Emperor with the slaughter of His enemies.
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Chaplain - Company Chapels: The importance of faith to the Space Marines is further reinforced in the Company Chapels. All ten companies within each Codex Astartes-compliant Chapter have their own chapel where battle-brothers can observe the rites of the Chapter and those special to their own company.Here the worship is supervised by one of the Reclusiarch's subordinate company Chaplains. It is the Chaplains, living and fighting alongside their battle-brothers, who are responsible for the spiritual health of every Astartes in the companies.
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Chaplain - The Imperial Cult: Each Chapter officially follows the basic tenets of the orthodox Imperial Cult of the God-Emperor even as they maintain the older spiritual traditions of the Space Marines that hold that the Emperor was not truly divine but an inspiration and example of everything that a Human being could become if he or she achieved perfection.In many cases, the veneration of the Emperor by the Astartes long predates the birth of the Imperial Cult as the official state religion of the Imperium in the mid-32nd Millennium. The Astartes views of the Emperor's divinity or lack thereof vary widely between Chapters. Individual Astartes Chapters have extended the Imperial Cult's standard creed to include ceremonies, liturgies and rituals which have relevance only to their own members.For example, a deep reverence for each Chapter's founding primarch is often equal in intensity to that held for the Emperor. This belief is widespread amongst the Adeptus Astartes, as is the practice of honouring the heroes of each Chapter who fell in battle and upheld the honour and traditions of the Space Marines in a particularly notable fashion. A Chapter's collection of primarch relics and wargear is entombed in the Chapter catacombs, placed upon sepulchres or hung in the Reclusiam of the fortress-monastery or flagship battle barge.The Chaplains of a Chapter often display the Imperial holy symbol known as a Rosarius which is taken as a sign of fellowship between the faith traditions of the Adeptus Astartes and the orthodox teachings of the Ecclesiarchy. A Rosarius usually takes the form of a necklace, brooch or amulet in the shape of the Imperial Aquila or the Crux Terminatus. Often given as a gift to the Chaplains of a Space Marine Chapter by cardinals or other high-ranking priests of the Adeptus Ministorum, the Rosarius is intended to represent the common faith of both the Space Marines and the members of the Ecclesiarchy in the Emperor.In truth, there is often a great deal of friction between the Ecclesiarchy and the Adeptus Astartes, as the Astartes claim to be the direct descendants of the Emperor and to have carried out His will from the moment of the Imperium's birth, while the Ecclesiarchy is an Imperial institution that only developed long after the Emperor had already been interred within the Golden Throne.The dislike is often mutual, but the current decentralised, feudal structure of the Imperium makes the Astartes largely independent of any legal authority outside of direct decrees made by the High Lords of Terra in the Emperor's name.
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Chaplain - Chapter Role: Chaplains are those Astartes appointed to minister to the spiritual well-being of their brother Space Marines. Their stern demeanour and critical eye watches over every action of a battle-brother from his initiation to his last breath in service to the Emperor, ever alert for signs of a slackening zeal or any wavering in belief.Above all, Chaplains remind their fellow battle-brothers to honour the primarchs and keep their faith with the Emperor. Chaplains are well-versed in all matters of their specific Chapter's faith traditions, having spent many standard years studying the battle liturgies and scriptures stored in the Chapter Librarius. This study includes memorising all the rites of their Chapter and of their individual company.This knowledge is also put to practical use. Chaplains are responsible for the spiritual care, discipline and faith of the battle-brothers in their companies. Young neophytes must also be monitored and indoctrinated as they progress towards becoming full battle-brothers.Chaplains are treated with awed respect by their battle-brothers, and in many Chapters it falls to them to choose which supplicants will undertake training to become Space Marines. During the Trials for new aspirants, the Chaplains are the ones who inculcate the culture and values of the Chapter into them, as well as weeding out the spiritually weak and faithless individuals they find unworthy to become an Astartes.The development and guidance of such transhuman warriors is only entrusted to the wisest and fiercest members of the Chapter, mighty heroes that have demonstrated their own enduring devotion and uncompromising zeal on countless occasions. Chaplains are renowned for their sense of duty and responsibility to their battle-brothers, knowing that only through unshakeable faith can a Space Marine stand firm against the darkness rampant across the galaxy.
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Chaplain - Variations by Chapter: Chaplains of certain Chapters have unique duties in addition to those laid out in the Codex Astartes. These are related to the Chapter's background and individual cultural traditions. In the Blood Angels Chapter and its successors among the Sanguinary Brotherhood, Chaplains are tasked with seeking out signs of the Black Rage and leading the various Death Companies into combat.A special class of Chaplains of the Dark Angels and their Unforgiven successors, known as Interrogator-Chaplains, is tasked with interrogating captured Fallen Angels and forcing them to repent their sins against the Emperor before executing them.The Iron Hands have the Iron Fathers, officers who combine the duties of a Chaplain, Apothecary and Techmarine into a single role.The Chaplains of the Space Wolves are known as Wolf Priests, and serve a function that appears analogous to that of both a Chaplain and an Apothecary in that non-standard Chapter's Great Companies.
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Chaplain - Becoming a Chaplain: Chaplains are drawn from the ranks of the Chapter, although only those Space Marines who have earned both Merit and Devout badges are considered for a Chaplaincy. These awards may be displayed as actual badges, or for example as diagonal stripes painted across the right shoulder plate. As a first step, a Space Marine is singled out to aid the Chaplain of his company as a "novice" (or sometimes "initiate"; the terms are almost interchangeable in each Chapter). Duties often involve little more than assisting the Chaplain during company rituals, but deep study of the liturgies under a Chaplain's personal direction is also necessary.Should a Chaplaincy fall vacant, the most advanced and promising of the novices are sent to the Solitarium. This small cell is situated in a secluded part of the Chapter's fortress-monastery and there the novice meditates and fasts for a time. He may be left there for up to a solar week, while his investiture by the Reclusiarch and the Master of Sanctity is prepared. Then, in front of the whole Chapter, he is formally given his symbols of office and presented to the company who are now under his spiritual guidance. At this point the new Chaplain takes the name of his predecessor.When a Chaplain is killed in battle, a formal ceremony often has to wait. The senior novice immediately dons the Skull Helm and shoulder plates of the deceased Chaplain. From the moment he puts on the old Chaplain's wargear he has full authority as one of the Chapter's spiritual leaders. He is formally invested as a new Chaplain only when the battle is won and the dead are absolved.
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Chaplain - Chaplains in Battle: Chaplains are a puritanical and sometimes eccentric group. Their religious zeal has a strong practical slant that often horrifies orthodox priests of the Ecclesiarchy, as befits a warrior.In battle, Chaplains are frequently found where the fighting is fiercest. They can be seen chanting the Chapter's battle creeds, ministering to the fallen and granting absolution to the dead. They are also Astartes, which means that they fight with as much savagery as any of their brothers, praising the Emperor through the destruction of His enemies. They rejoice in the glorious act of war and exhort their battle-brothers to ever-greater deeds of bravery and devotion.They fight alongside their battle-brothers, reciting extracts from the Chapter's Creed and Liturgies. Indeed, their dedication adds considerably to the fearsome reputation of the Space Marines. Their inspirational sayings and constant exhortations harden the determination of every Astartes to serve the Emperor and relive the former glories of the Chapter's primarch (if their primarch is known to them).The bond between Space Marines and their Chaplains is a strong one. Chaplains preside over each battle-brother's indoctrination as a recruit; they teach loyalty to the Chapter, reinforce its precepts through rituals and ceremonies and perform inspiring acts of valour upon the field of battle.
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Chaplain - Reclusiam Command Squad: The Reclusiam Command Squad is mustered in times of dire need. It is formed when the finest warriors within a Space Marine company -– the Command Squad –- grant their protection to a Chaplain. In this way, a Command Squad becomes a Reclusiam Command Squad –- a defiant rallying point and an inspiration to their battle-brothers. A Chaplain's guardians in a Reclusiam Command Squad include some of the most experienced Veterans in a company.When these warriors protect the Chaplain they are known as "Reclusiaries". They form up around the Chaplain, shielding him with their own flesh, so that he might be free to inspire their brothers to greater deeds with his fighting and oratory.The Reclusiam Command Squad can be used to devastating effect as, with the Chaplain in their midst, all Space Marines around them fight with more passion and savagery than before. Indeed, the Reclusiam Command Squad is more than a mere symbol of the true spiritual power of the Adeptus Astartes -- its presence pushes the full fury of the Space Marines to even greater heights.A Reclusiam Command Squad consists of the following personnel:Chaplain - The core of any Reclusiam Command Squad is a Chaplain, one of the spiritual leaders of a Space Marine Chapter. Assigned to one of the ten companies within a Chapter, he is a commanding figure on the battlefield. As an overseer of sacred rites and a conductor of solemn rituals, a Chaplain is vitally important to the strength and morale of his company.Apothecary - Every Apothecary is a skilled battle medic, trained in the use of the narthecium to keep his battle-brothers in the fight, but it takes an Apothecary of unimaginable bravery to perform this task amid the thickest combats where a Command Squad must fight.Standard Bearer - The Standard Bearer in a Reclusiam Command Squad has a weighty responsibility. He carries the Company Standard into battle, a worthy and honoured burden. A company has many banners, and a Chaplain may authorise the Standard Bearer to bring out one of the oldest and most glorious banners in order to inspire his battle-brothers against a potent enemy.Company Champion - The Company Champion steps forward to engage in any duels on the Chaplain's behalf in the same way that he would for his company's captain. In rare examples, the Company Champion represents more than a surrogate combatant. In those Chapters where Chaplains are especially honoured, Company Champions may have duties within the Reclusiam. For example, in the Silver Skulls Chapter they play a crucial role in many of the rituals within the fortress-monastery's Reclusiam, often standing ceremonial guard outside the hallowed shrine whilst their Chaplain tends to the ancient artefacts within.Razorback - Reclusiam Command Squads require transports which can quickly deliver their wrath to where the fighting is heaviest. The tank most commonly used for this purpose is the captain's command tank, the Razorback. The Reclusiaries find that its speed, armour, and considerable firepower perfectly suit their battlefield role. A variant of the Rhino armoured personnel carrier, the Razorback can be armed with weaponry to scythe through infantry or duel with heavy battle tanks as the situation demands, clearing the path for the Chaplain and his guardians.
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Chaplain - Deathwatch Service: Deathwatch Chaplains act in a similar role to those of other Chapters by serving as the spiritual leaders of battle-brothers undertaking their Long Vigil with the Deathwatch. However, the challenges facing a Deathwatch Chaplain are unique.The rigours of serving in the Deathwatch can be sorely vexing for Space Marines accustomed to the rigidly ordered life of their own Chapters. Long periods of isolation and privation await them, only punctuated by chaotic, often-desperate combat against wildly diverse enemies. The need to work alongside battle-brothers of other Chapters in the Deathwatch can be challenging in itself, particularly amongst those from Chapters with long-running rivalries and past antagonisms.Most of all, battle-brothers in the Deathwatch are exposed to horrible truths about the true threat of the xenos lurking just beyond the circle of the Emperor's light. They will witness sights that can shake their faith to its very foundations and yet are often asked only to watch and report back on what they have seen.This corrosive poison of seeming impotence and frustration can drive Space Marines to insane acts of self-sacrifice in a hopeless effort to overcome star-spanning evils. A Deathwatch Chaplain must always stand ready to renew a battle-brother's devotion when he falters, and to remind him of his duty and his vows when hope seems lost. On the most difficult missions a Deathwatch Chaplain will lead his battle-brothers personally to ensure that their fervour is directed towards victory even if it comes at the cost of the sacrifice of the entire kill-team.The fierce dedication of a Chaplain to his own Chapter usually makes them unsuitable to become Deathwatch Chaplains, although examples of such broad-minded individuals do exist. More typically, battle-brothers find their calling through apprenticeship to an existing Deathwatch Chaplain who has noted their unflagging zeal in pursuit of the alien. Once a Deathwatch Chaplain takes his vows he will seldom see his old Chapter again, instead giving himself entirely to the Long Vigil and the duties of the Deathwatch.A Deathwatch Chaplain must study extensively during his training. He must know the beliefs and values of a thousand different Chapters and their sometimes contradictory legends of the primarchs by heart. A Deathwatch Chaplain must become a dedicated scholar of the primarchs and of Chapter histories originating at the very dawn of the Imperium.Thus, when a Deathwatch battle-brother stands at the brink of despair or impotent rage, the Chaplain will know the right liturgies and catechisms to speak, and which Chapter heroes or legendary battles of the past to cite that will inspire the warriors of the present.Deathwatch Chaplains also make it their business to know of every potential motivation, conflict and agenda amongst their battle-brothers before battle is joined. Many battle-brothers are amazed by the knowledge of Deathwatch Chaplains, and in some cases that knowledge extends even unto the deepest mysteries known only to the inner circle of Chapter hierarchies.A Deathwatch Chaplain takes no sides and makes no judgments about individual Chapters and their long study grants them a perspective denied to most. Deathwatch Chaplain doctrines hold that all Space Marines are united in their purpose of service to the Emperor and those bound by their vows to the Deathwatch must be united more than most.
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Chaplain - Armour and Appearance: In battle, Chaplains are sinister and foreboding figures. The armour of a Space Marine Chaplain is a daunting sight, adorned with icons of battle and death. Every aspect of a Chaplain's garb serves as a reminder of mortality's impermanent nature, and thus, the significance of preserving the immortal soul. They often wear variant types of standard-issue Mark VI, Mark VII, Mark VIII or even the new Mark X Power Armour.A Chaplain can appear stylised and archaic in his power armour when compared to his fellow Astartes, which makes him stand out and act as a focus for his brethren in battle. Some or all of a Chaplain's power armour is usually painted in the traditional black. Chaplain novices usually wear standard Space Marine power armour. However, the helmets, right shoulder plates and right arms of their armour are painted black rather than in the Chapter's formal colours.The black shoulder plate replaces the previous Devout markings which were shown there. Once declared as a novice, the Space Marine's devotion needs no further advertisement. Chaplains often also wear or make use of one or more primarchal relics or pieces of wargear which are worn or carried into battle. It is believed that something as trivial as a single gauntlet from the armour of a Chapter hero passes on a little of the primarch's fortitude and faith to the Chaplain.A skull insignia usually adorns the right shoulder of a Chaplain's power armour and this is often displayed on both shoulder plates. A skull is a common symbol in the iconography of the Imperial Cult and it is used to represent the sacrifice of the Emperor in giving up His conscious life so that He might ascend to a new state of spiritual being in the Immaterium through the use of the Golden Throne. It is a symbol of His willingness to suffer to protect Humanity from the evils of Chaos, xenos and Heretics. Skulls are a motif often repeated throughout a Chaplain's armour.One of the most iconic elements of a Chaplain's wargear is his macabre Skull Helm, a stern visage that depicts the face of the Emperor mordant, evoking the Emperor's wrath. These helmets may take many different forms and have been crafted by numerous Space Marine Artificers across the galaxy. Universally, however, they are all fearsome in aspect. The Chaplain's upper chest armour or even the whole of the torso armour may also be cast in the shape of a skull. Skull-shaped groin-guards are also not unknown.The formal regalia of an Astartes Chaplain includes a deadly staff of office called the Crozius, which is used during Chapter ceremonies. Many Chaplains carry them into battle, a visible sign that battle is the highest ritual in the Chapter's devotional calendar. The Crozius is usually adorned with the Imperial Aquila or symbols that reinforce the Chaplain's role, such as winged skeletons or skulls. Some Crozius Arcanums are shaped by the Chapter's iconography, such as a smith's hammer or a dragon's head for the Salamanders.Within the Crozius is a generator that produces a powerful energy field capable of disrupting matter in the same manner as a Power Weapon. Chaplains are powerful warriors, and the blows struck with a Crozius can overwhelm nearly any defence. The most ancient of these staffs is the rare Crozius Arcanum; a mace forged from an alien relic which contains a neuro-disruptor in the haft.Chaplains are also often recipients of the treasured Rosarius, a symbolic gift from the Ecclesiarchy to express spiritual unity in spite of deep differences in creed between the Adeptus Ministorum and the Adeptus Astartes' Chapter cults. This usually takes the form of a gorget or amulet worn about the neck.The Rosarius often bears the image of the Imperial Aquila and serves as the "armour of the soul" for the Chaplain. The most common form of the Rosarius is a Crux Terminatus richly embellished with gemstones and precious metals. Concealed inside it is a potent personal shield generator that symbolically bestows the blessed prayers of protection from the faithful for their champions to triumph in the battle against evil.To this existing panoply Deathwatch Chaplains also commonly add many xenos trophies: strips of tanned alien hide, strings of bones, skulls or shrunken heads inscribed in High Gothic with liturgies of hate and remembrance. Their passion for killing aliens is without peer and each trophy will mark a noteworthy foe or memorable battle. A Deathwatch Chaplain is a deep well of tried and trusted techniques for slaying xenos, not only from personal experience but from the vast tracts of Chapter legend and lore that they can draw upon. A Deathwatch kill-team led by a Deathwatch Chaplain will plunge into the fires of hell and emerge victorious no matter the price.
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Chaplain - Typical Chaplain Uniform Variations: Black is the official colour for all Chaplains' power armour both by tradition and as outlined in the Codex Astartes. However, over the millennia of the Age of the Imperium, Space Marine Chapters often incorporated their own colours and insignia into a Chaplain's armour, resulting in wide variations from the basic colour scheme.Many of these changes come about as a result of a Chaplain repairing his armour from the available resources while on a campaign. Some modifications are later adopted permanently for all of the Chaplains within a given Chapter. Hybrid power armour schemes can also appear if the Chaplain dons archaic power armour patterns kept by the Chapter since the time of the Great Crusade or the Horus Heresy as a relic.Of course, apart from the organisations they belong to, Chaplains themselves have a long lifespan, so there is plenty of time for them to stamp their own personality on their armour.
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Chaplain - Litanies of Battle: Space Marine Chaplains are exemplars of righteous wrath. Powerful orators and accomplished warriors both, they provide bellicose counsel to their comrades and act as spiritual bastions for their Chapter. The litanies that Chaplains intone on the battlefield imbue those around them with fresh determination and martial fury.Litany of Faith - The Chaplain exhorts his charges to steel themselves against even the most dangerous weapons the enemy can bring to bear.Catechism of Fire - The Chaplain calls upon his brothers to unleash a relentless storm of close-range firepower.Exhortation of Rage - The Chaplain bellows his fury at the enemy, his brothers surging forwards to strike them down in close combat.Mantra of Strength- The Chaplain focuses his mind on the purity of the blood that runs through his veins, bestowed upon him by the Primarch himself, granting him newfound potency in melee combat.Recitation of Focus - The Chaplain recites creeds that focus the minds of his brothers to ensure their shots strike true.Canticle of Hate - Bellowing his hatred of the foe, the Chaplain leads his brothers in the wholesale destruction of the enemy.
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Chaplain - Firstborn Chaplain: The Codex Astartes lists the standard equipment usable by a Space Marine Chaplain as including, but not limited to:Power Armour with Vox communicator, respirator, built-in Cogitator and Auto-senses, Augur and Auspex sensor arrays (Any Firstborn pattern)Skull HelmCrozius ArcanumRosariusAstartes Combat KnifeBolt PistolFrag GrenadesKrak GrenadesBolter (As replacement for Bolt Pistol)Chainsword (Optional)Plasma Pistol (Optional)Grav-pistol (Optional)Power Sword (Optional)Power Fist (As replacement for Bolt Pistol)Terminator Armour (as replacement for power armour, Bolt Pistol and Frag and Krak Grenades)Storm Bolter (if wearing Terminator Armour)Combi-flamer, Combi-melta, Combi-plasma or Combi-grav (as replacement for Storm Bolter when in Terminator Armour)Jump Pack (Optional for combat drop)Some Chapters allow their Chaplains to carry a variety of close combat and heavy weaponry as well as grenades.
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Chaplain - Primaris Chaplain: Mark X Tacticus Power ArmourSkull HelmCrozius ArcanumAbsolvor Bolt PistolFrag GrenadesKrak GrenadesRosarius
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Chaplain - Chaplains and Vehicles: A Chaplain will often be needed at many points on the battlefield. He must serve as an inspiration for his company's squads, check on the purity of action of those in his care and carry out a hundred other duties.Units frequently assign Rhino armoured personnel carriers or Land Raiders to their Chaplains to allow them swift and safe passage across the battlefield to wherever their ministrations are most needed.Where possible, these vehicles are painted in the Chaplaincy colours of black and marked by a skull insignia, although line vehicles in the Chapter's standard colours are also issued.
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Chaplain - Chapter Chaplain Variants: Legion or ChapterLoyaltyHonourific or TitleSummaryImageDark AngelsLoyalistInterrogator-ChaplainThe Dark Angels Chapter and their Unforgiven Successor Chapters maintain "normal," Codex Astartes-compliant Chaplains for every company, but also created non-standard Chaplains known as Interrogator-Chaplains who possess a rank that stands above the company-level of organisation and who serve as members of the secretive Inner Circle of the Chapter. Interrogator-Chaplains are all entrusted with the secret of the Fallen Angels' existence and are tasked with tracking down each of these ancient Traitor Marines and compelling them to repent their sins against the Emperor. This is a process that usually involves the use of torture and physical coercion so Interrogator-Chaplains are often hard men with the vaguely sinister mien held by their counterparts amongst the Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus. Those Fallen Angels who confess their crime and repent are given swift, painless deaths as a mercy; those who refuse are forced to undergo a horrific penance of pain leading to their execution at the hands of the Interrogator-Chaplains. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/2f/Dark_Angel_by_andreauderzo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111010232330" class="image"><img alt="Dark Angel by andreauderzo" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/2f/Dark_Angel_by_andreauderzo.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20111010232330" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="100" height="197" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Dark Angel by andreauderzo.jpg" data-image-key="Dark_Angel_by_andreauderzo.jpg" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/2f/Dark_Angel_by_andreauderzo.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20111010232330" /></a> Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain ExecutionersLoyalistDeath-SpeakerA Death-Speaker is a specialist officer unique to the Executioners Chapter. They serve in a spiritual role similar to that of the Space Marine Chaplain commonly found in Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters. It is the Death-Speakers' task to recount the slaughter-tallies of the Chapter's honoured dead during holy feasts and memorial ceremonies held deep within the catacombs of their fortress-monastery, the Darkenvault. Their second but equally important task is to keep order within the ranks of this often fractious Chapter. Consequently, the Executioners maintain an unusually high number of Chaplains, with three Death-Speakers assigned to each company by tradition. They report to the overall Reclusiarch, known within the Chapter as the Lord Speaker of the Dead. As part of their duties, the Death-Speakers are responsible for maintaining precise records of the Chapter's battles, so that lessons of both victories and defeats are never lost for future warriors of the Chapter. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/23/Death_Speaker.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180223193611" class="image"><img alt="Death Speaker" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/23/Death_Speaker.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20180223193611" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="100" height="146" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Death Speaker.jpg" data-image-key="Death_Speaker.jpg" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/2/23/Death_Speaker.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20180223193611" /></a> A Death-Speaker of the Executioners Chapter Iron HandsLoyalistIron FatherThe Iron Hands Chapter does not have Chaplains but instead a rank of specialist officers known as Iron Fathers who combine the roles of the Chaplain, Techmarine and Apothecary in Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters into one. They are trained on Mars by the Adeptus Mechanicus and believe deeply in the doctrines of the Cult of the Machine rather than the Imperial Cult. As a result of this belief that the Emperor is actually just one aspect of the Mechanicum's Omnissiah, the Ecclesiarchy refuses to provide the Iron Fathers with Rosarii, as these holy symbols are intended to be a sign of a common faith in the God-Emperor of Mankind, a faith that the Iron Fathers do not truly share in the Ecclesiarchy's view, who see these Astartes as heretical much like their allies in the Mechanicum. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/c/c5/Iron_Hands_Iron_Father.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120505011752" class="image"><img alt="Iron Hands Iron Father" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/c/c5/Iron_Hands_Iron_Father.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/150?cb=20120505011752" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="150" height="188" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Iron Hands Iron Father.jpg" data-image-key="Iron_Hands_Iron_Father.jpg" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/c/c5/Iron_Hands_Iron_Father.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/150?cb=20120505011752" /></a> Iron Hands Iron Father Blood AngelsLoyalistChaplainThe Chaplains of the Blood Angels Chapter and their Successor Chapters have a special duty: to care for those members of the Chapter who succumbed to the Flaws of Sanguinius, including the Black Rage and the Red Thirst. Only Blood Angel Chaplains are still able to communicate with those battle-brothers who are lost to the Black Rage and so they lead these unfortunates in the Blood Angels' and their Successor Chapters' feared Death Companies. They are also believed to care for those members of the Chapter who must be locked away for their own and others' safety on the Blood Angels' homeworld of Baal. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/1/10/Chaplain_Lemartes.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110726012924" class="image"><img alt="Chaplain Lemartes" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/1/10/Chaplain_Lemartes.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20110726012924" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="100" height="183" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Chaplain Lemartes.jpg" data-image-key="Chaplain_Lemartes.jpg" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/1/10/Chaplain_Lemartes.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20110726012924" /></a> Blood Angels Chaplain Space WolvesLoyalistWolf PriestWithin the non-standard Space Wolves Chapter, the Wolf Priests take on the roles of both the Chaplains and Apothecaries found in other Chapters. Wolf Priests are intended to care for the spiritual and physical needs of their battle-brothers, but their most important duties are to oversee the recruitment, indoctrination and implantation of new Space Wolves Neophytes so that the Chapter's Great Companies can continue to flourish. As a result of these duties, several Wolf Priests can always be found traveling across the Death World of Fenris where the Chapter makes its home, going from village to village to observe the native Fenrisians and determine which of their warriors has the strength, courage and spirit required to become a new Space Wolf. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/e/e3/Ulrik_The_Slayer.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110306233840" class="image"><img alt="Ulrik The Slayer" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/e/e3/Ulrik_The_Slayer.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20110306233840" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="100" height="217" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Ulrik The Slayer.jpg" data-image-key="Ulrik_The_Slayer.jpg" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/e/e3/Ulrik_The_Slayer.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20110306233840" /></a> Space Wolves Wolf Priest Ulrik the Slayer Word BearersTraitorDark ApostleThe Astartes of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion are the only remaining Chaos Space Marines to still make use of Chaplains as spiritual leaders, albeit in this case, priests who serve Chaos Undivided. These Chaplains, called Dark Apostles, are skilled orators and propagandists for the Forces of Chaos and also the ultimate leaders of the Word Bearers as part of that Legion's ruling Dark Council since their Daemon Primarch Lorgar has remained in seclusion from the rest of the Legion since the end of the Horus Heresy and the Word Bearers' retreat into the Eye of Terror. Dark Apostles are powerful servants of Chaos who constantly scheme and plot to unleash the Forces of Chaos upon the Imperium and possess the ability to summon legions of daemons from the Immaterium to supplement their mortal troops. A Dark Apostle always wields his Chaos-corrupted Crozius Arcanum, now called an Accursed Crozius, which serves as a weapon, a symbol of his office and an implement for calling forth the powers and entities of the Warp. <a href="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/6/6b/Erebus_Unit_by_andreauderzo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110321080957" class="image"><img alt="Erebus Unit by andreauderzo" src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/6/6b/Erebus_Unit_by_andreauderzo.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20110321080957" decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="100" height="95" class="thumbimage" data-image-name="Erebus Unit by andreauderzo.jpg" data-image-key="Erebus_Unit_by_andreauderzo.jpg" data-relevant="1" data-src="https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/6/6b/Erebus_Unit_by_andreauderzo.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/100?cb=20110321080957" /></a> Word Bearers Dark Apostle
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Chaplain - Notable Chaplains: Asmodai - Asmodai is a venerable Interrogator-Chaplain of the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter. At the present time, Asmodai is the oldest and most successful Interrogator-Chaplain within the ranks of the Dark Angels. He is totally single-minded in his determination to force any of the Fallen that come into his hands to repent. During his long career he has only been able to make two Fallen Angels repent of their sins. But those that fall into his capable hands cannot resist his finely honed and wicked craft, for it is said that his enemies would rather die than fall into his clutches.Carnarvon - High Chaplain Carnarvon is known as the Watcher of the Lost, the Flesh Tearer who commemorates every member of the Chapter who dies in combat or ultimately succumbs to the Black Rage. He alone bears the terrible responsibility to watch over the remaining 400 battle-brothers of the Flesh Tearers Chapter for the onset of the Black Rage. He has occupied this position for nearly 250 standard years and it is whispered by many that the strain of watching so many of his friends and comrades descend into this dreaded affliction has started to take its toll on his sanity. Carnarvon has the final word as to who is to be inducted into the Death Company and who amongst these afflicted brethren must be permanently incarcerated in the Tower of the Lost when they fall so far into madness that even he cannot control them.Ortan Cassius - Ortan Cassius is the senior Chaplain and Master of Sanctity of the Ultramarines Chapter of Space Marines. He is also the currently oldest active member of the Ultramarines Chapter not contained within the armoured chassis of a Dreadnought. Though Cassius is close to 400 standard years old, his sturdy presence on the Ultramarines' line of battle still fills the hearts of his younger brethren with pride and valour. A survivor of the First Tyrannic War, Chaplain Cassius fought alongside the Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar against the monstrous Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth. He barely survived the failed rescue attempt of the doomed 1st Company at the polar fortress of Macragge during that great conflict. Cassius was laid low by a rampaging Carnifex, and managed to sustain himself only through the application of his formidable will until such time that the Chapter's Apothecaries could tend his ruined body. He is now kept alive by extensive bionic enhancements and what little organic skin that remains on his body is gnarled and battle-scarred. His one remaining biological eye burns with unfulfilled vengeance against the Great Devourer.Grimaldus - Chaplain Grimaldus, the Hero of Helsreach, is the Reclusiarch of the Black Templars Space Marine Chapter. Grimaldus is also a noted veteran of the Third War for Armageddon. During the Battle for Hive Helsreach, Grimaldus led the defence of the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant, which had stood since Armageddon's colonisation. The battle became so heated that the building itself collapsed around the combatants. It was believed that all had perished in the building until Grimaldus, bloody but unbroken, climbed out of the rubble bearing three of the temple's artefacts -- a column from its Major Altar, the Banner of the Emperor Victorious, and holy water from the Stoup of Elucidation. Those Black Templars Apothecaries who examined him later were amazed that Grimaldus had survived, much less found the strength to climb from the ruins. When the war ended, the citizens of Hive Helsreach honoured him with the title of "Hero of Helsreach."Lemartes - Lemartes is a Space Marine Chaplain and the warden of the Blood Angels Space Marine Chapter's infamous Death Company. Under his guidance, the Death Company has reached a new level of potency and lethality. Though Lemartes himself is afflicted by the accursed Black Rage, his formidable willpower has allowed him to remain in control of his actions, leaving him free to lead the Death Company in glorious charges that eclipse all the deeds of legend.Ulrik the Slayer - Ulrik the Slayer, also known as Grandfather Lupus and the Guardian of the Sons of Russ, is the Wolf High Priest of the Space Wolves Space Marine Chapter and is the oldest of all the Space Wolves other than the Chapter's Dreadnoughts. His great mane is white as the slopes of the continent of Asaheim on the Space Wolves' Chapter homeworld of Fenris. Ulrik is older even than the mighty Great Wolf Logan Grimnar, the Chapter Master of the Space Wolves who has fought in the name of the Emperor for over 700 Terran years.Xavier - Chaplain Xavier was the most legendary Reclusiarch (High Chaplain) of the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter, and was granted the honour of carrying one of the Chapter's most revered relics into battle, the great warhammer known as Vulkan's Sigil. Though long-deceased after being slain by the Dark Eldar on the world of Drykccna, Chaplain Xavier continues to inspire the Salamanders as they forge their way through the fires of war.
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Chaplain Dreadnought - Chaplain Dreadnought: A Chaplain Dreadnought, also known as the Chaplain Venerable Dreadnought, is a variant of the Castraferrum Dreadnought combat walker used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes. Dreadnoughts are cybernetic combat walkers that house the mortal remains of a fallen Space Marine hero so that he may continue fighting for the Emperor of Mankind and his Chapter even after his body has been fatally crippled.Chaplain Dreadnoughts are also considered a variant of the Venerable Dreadnought, as all Chaplain Dreadnoughts are just as highly venerated by their Chapter as the oldest of the Ancients amongst them. Chaplain Dreadnoughts differ from standard Imperial Dreadnoughts in that their occupants are Astartes Chaplains.A Chaplain is a specialist officer of the Adeptus Astartes that serves as the appointed spiritual leader of a Space Marine Chapter. Chaplains are the warrior-priests who administer to the spiritual well-being of their fellow Battle-Brothers, instilling in them the values and beliefs of the Chapter and promoting the veneration or, in much rarer cases, the actual worship of the Emperor as a god.When a Chaplain falls in battle and is damaged beyond repair he may be placed in a Dreadnought, as Chaplains offer their Battle-Brothers unparalleled morale benefits. A Chaplain afforded the honour of being encased within a Dreadnought chassis becomes a highly respected living shrine to the glory of the Chapter. Chaplain Dreadnoughts are unwavering in their faith and conviction and show righteous hate for the enemies of Mankind. They will take to the field of battle with their Vox and speaker systems shouting a booming oratory that stokes the fires of wrath in the hearts of their Battle-Brothers.Much like Venerable Dreadnoughts, Chaplain Dreadnoughts are veterans of countless wars and have gained vast amounts of knowledge and insight into the ways of war over the course of their long lifetimes. These warriors have such faith in the Emperor that they become almost impervious to damage, and can only be stopped by the complete and total destruction of their armoured sarcophagus. These Dreadnoughts will use their wisdom and spiritual teachings to shape generation after generation of new Space Marines for their Chapter.
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Chaplain Dreadnought - Armament: Chaplain Dreadnoughts can be armed in the same manner as all other Castraferrum Dreadnoughts. Chaplain Dreadnoughts are usually armed with a Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon and a long-range weapon arm. The most common close-combat weapons found on these Dreadnoughts are a bladed version of the common Dreadnought Powerfist that is sometimes referred to as a Dreadnought Power Claw.These weapons are most common on Dreadnoughts of any type that utilise the Mark IV Dreadnought chassis. There are rarer patterns of Dreadnought Powerfists that take the shape of a four-fingered human hand, and rarer ones still that feature a full five fingers. These rare patterns allow Dreadnoughts the use of an opposable thumb, which provides a greater degree of manual dexterity when picking up objects or enemies.Chaplain Dreadnoughts can take any of the long-range weapons used by other Dreadnoughts, such as twin-linked Lascannons, Heavy Bolters, Heavy Flamers, or Autocannons, along with weapons such as Plasma Cannons, Flamestorm Cannons, Assault Cannons, and Multi-Meltas. The combat walker can forgo the use of long-range weapons entirely and be armed with two Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons.Much like all Dreadnoughts, Chaplain Dreadnought close-combat weapons are usually outfitted with either built-in weaponry or weapons that are attached to the underside of the walker's chassis, such as a Storm Bolter or a Heavy Flamer. Chaplain Dreadnoughts can also be outfitted with Extra Armour Plating, usually in the form of ostentatious icons of gold that depict the entombed warrior's status as a Chaplain and spiritual leader of the Chapter.Chaplain Dreadnoughts are outfitted to appear similar to the common iconography of a Space Marine Chaplain's Power Armour, so that they are all black in colour and possess a skull-shaped helmet and other skeletal ornamentation. These Dreadnoughts can be equipped with both Searchlights and Smoke Launchers and any other upgrades that may be unique to their respective Chapters.
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Chaplain Dreadnought - Known Chaplain Dreadnoughts: The following are all known Imperial Chaplain Dreadnoughts:Nalr - Nalr is a Chaplain Dreadnought of the Red Scorpions Chapter. Nalr fought with his brethren during the Siege of Vraks against the Vraksian Traitor Militia and the Forces of Chaos.Armand Titus - Titus was a Chaplain Dreadnought of the Howling Griffons Chapter. Titus fought alongside his Chapter during the Badab War where he was destroyed by the forces of the Secessionist Executioners Chapter. The Howling Griffons later discovered that the Executioners had honoured the Chaplain Dreadnought's sacrifice by laying out the wreck of his sarcophagus within a ring of broken weapons, and placing one of their own shattered standards in the warmachine's lifeless grasp.
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Chaplain Dreadnought - Unit Composition: 1 Chaplain Venerable Dreadnought
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Chaplain Dreadnought - Wargear: A standard Chaplain Venerable Dreadnought is armed and equipped with:Two Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons (Dreadnought Powerfists or Power Claws) with built-in Storm BoltersExtra Armour PlatingSearchlightSmoke LaunchersReliquarius - A Dreadnought version of the Rosarius carried by Space Marine Chaplains. The device houses a powerful protective Conversion Field emitter that grants additional protection from enemy fire.Heavy Flamer (A Chaplain Venerable Dreadnought may replace one or both of its built-in Storm Bolters)A Chaplain Venerable Dreadnought may replace one of its Dreadnought Close Combat Weapons (Dreadnought Powerfists or Power Claws) with built-in Storm Bolter with any of these options:A Dreadnought Inferno CannonA Multi-MeltaA Flamestorm CannonA Heavy Plasma CannonAn Assault CannonA set of twin-linked Heavy BoltersA set of twin-linked Heavy FlamersA set of twin-linked LascannonsA set of twin-linked Autocannons
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Chaplain Dreadnought - Adeptus Mechanicus Technical Specifications: Chaplain Dreadnought Vehicle Name:Chaplain DreadnoughtMain Armament:Weapon Arm-mounted twin-linked Heavy BoltersForge World of Origin:MarsSecondary Armament:Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon with attached or in-built Storm BolterKnown Patterns:I - IVTraverse:360 degreesCrew:1 Implanted OperatorElevation:-90 to 90 degreesPowerplant:Thermic ReactorMain Ammunition:2,000 RoundsWeight:12 TonnesSecondary Ammunition:1,000 RoundsLength:2.2 metresArmour:Width:3.4 metresHeight:3.7 metresSuperstructure:75 millimetresGround Clearance:N/AHull:75 millimetresMax Speed On-Road:10 kilometres per hour (approx.)Gun Mantlet:N/AMax Speed Off-Road:5 kilometres per hour (approx.)Vehicle Designation:8681-756-0115-DR 040Transport Capacity:N/AFiring Ports:N/AAccess Points:N/ATurret:N/A
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Chaplain Dreadnought - Also See: Imperial Vehicles
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Chaplain Dreadnought - Sources: Imperial Armour Volume Six - The Siege of Vraks - Part Two, pp. 128-130, 132Imperial Armour Volume Seven - The Siege of Vraks - Part Three, pg. 73Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War - Part One, pp. 134, 158-159Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two, pg. 208Imperial Armour Apocalypse (2nd Edition), pp. 30, 35Imperial Armour Index: Forces of the Adeptus Astartes (8th Edition), pg. 27
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Chapter - Chapter: A Chapter is a completely autonomous military unit made up of one thousand transhuman warriors known as Space Marines and their related vehicles, starships and support personnel. Each Chapter serves collectively with the others of its kind as part of the Imperium of Man's Adeptus Astartes. Every Chapter is entirely autonomous from every other adepta of the Imperium, including the Inquisition, and takes its orders only from the High Lords of Terra themselves.Most Chapters have feudal title to an entire planet of the Imperium which serves as its Chapter homeworld or to a large fleet of powerful and massive starships that serves as a mobile headquarters if the Chapter is fleet-based.The majority of Space Marine Chapters follow the dictates of the Codex Astartes, a sacred tome written by the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman. The Codex Astartes details the proper organisational structure and mobilisation methods for a Space Marine Chapter. The Codex has been adopted by the vast majority of Space Marine Chapters as their organisational blueprint.Consequently, most Space Marine Chapters are considered "Codex Chapters" or "Codex-compliant Chapters" due to their adherence to the Codex Astartes. It is believed that there are about 1,000 Chapters of Space Marines operating throughout the galaxy at any one time, though this number can fluctuate greatly as time and circumstances determine.
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Chapter - History: During the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium, the Space Marines were originally organised into 20 Legions each of which was further divided into companies. The XIII Legion, the Ultramarines, led by Roboute Guilliman, became the largest of all the Astartes Legions as a result of Guilliman's tactical mastery and a steady flow of new recruits from the Realm of Ultramar as well as the terrible losses suffered by other Legions such as the Dark Angels during the Rangdan Xenocides.The Ultramarines became so large, growing to a size that included over 100,000 Astartes, that a new, larger unit of division, the chapter, was created to better organise the XIII Legion's forces. This form of organisation was also adopted by many of the other Legions of comparable size.These chapters, alternatively designated as great companies, harrows, millennials, etc., depending on each Legion's particular culture, were originally composed of roughly 1,000 line Legionaries, but as the Legions grew, this number began to vary substantially by Legion, and also through the vicissitudes of war and the availability of replacement recruits. At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium, the Ultramarines Legion was divided into twenty Chapters, each composed of ten companies, with each company composed of roughly one thousand Astartes.Following the end of the Heresy, Guilliman, as the new lord commander of the Imperium, ordered during the event known as the Second Founding that the remaining Loyalist Space Marine Legions be divided and re-organised into smaller, one-thousand Space Marine Chapters, to ensure that no future rebel such as Horus could gain control of such a large and power military unit as a Space Marine Legion again. Newly-formed Chapters created at this time that were carved out of the remaining 9 Loyalist Legions became known as Successor Chapters.As a result of this change in organisation, the Space Marines' military purpose changed as well. Where the Space Marine Legions had once served as the Imperium's primary frontline military forces, that role was given over to the newly created Astra Militarum, which had been created from the remains of the Imperial Army in the wake of the Heresy.The Imperial Army had been used primarily as a reserve force of garrison troops during the Great Crusade, but its successor would now bear the primary burden of the Imperium's defence. In the wake of the Second Founding, the Space Marine Chapters were intended to primarily serve as highly mobile planetary assault and special forces troops, who would be deployed only for the toughest missions confronting the Imperium for which the forces of the Astra Militarum were simply insufficient.
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Chapter - Chapter Founding: New Space Marine Chapters are not created piecemeal as required by the Imperium's strategic needs, but rather in deliberate groupings called "Foundings." The process by which a new Founding's creation is approved by the Imperial government is mysterious and arcane, subject to decades or even centuries of planning before it is announced. It is only by an edict of the High Lords of Terra that such an undertaking as the creation of new Chapters can be instigated, for it requires the cooperation and mobilisation of countless divisions within the Imperium's monolithic and vast governmental organisations. Establishing new Astartes Chapters on an individual basis is nigh impossible--the mobilisation of such vast resources is beyond the ability of any single segment of the Imperium.The Adeptus Mechanicus plays an essential role in the process of a Founding, for its highest echelons are tasked with creating, testing and developing the gene-seed samples that will provide the genetic foundation of the new Chapters. By ancient custom, the Mechanicus has the right to expect a tithe of 5% of the gene-seed of every Space Marine Chapter to assist it in the creation of new Chapters and to check that the purity of the existing Astartes Chapters' DNA has remained untainted by mutation or exposure to Chaos.Each Chapter is created from the gene-seed of an existing donor Chapter. The zygote derived from each type of gene-seed is implanted by the Magos Biologis of the Adeptus Mechanicus in a human test-slave who spends his entire life in a static experimental capsule, immobile and serving as nothing but a medium from which two Progenoid Glands will develop. When the Progenoids are fully developed, they are extracted from the original test-slave and then implanted into another two test-slaves, producing four Progenoids, and so on.It takes 55 Terran years of this type of reproduction to create a healthy set of 1,000 new Astartes organs. These must be tested for purity and genetic consistency before they will be sanctioned officially by the Fabricator-General of the Adeptus Mechanicus and then by the High Lords of Terra, speaking for the Emperor of Mankind, who alone can give permission for the creation of a new Chapter.Entire Forge Worlds may be turned over to the manufacture of the mighty arsenal of weaponry, ammunition, Power Armour, vehicles and starships that any such force will require. There are a myriad of other concerns as well. A suitable homeworld inhabited by humans must be identified for the new Chapter, which will likely provide not only a secure and defensible base of operations, but also a source of new recruits as well. Such worlds might have been reported by itinerant Rogue Traders and earmarked centuries before by Adeptus Mechanicus Explorators as potential Astartes homeworlds. A degree of environmental terraforming might be required and the natives of the world (if they are to become the source of the new Chapter's Aspirants) must be studied and tested by the Mechanicus' Magi Biologis and Genetors for many generations to ensure they are genetically pure and free of any strain of mutation that might later affect the Chapter itself.The construction of a Chapter's fortress-monastery may be one of the greatest undertakings of all, drawing on the genius of the Imperium's most accomplished military architects and engineers. If the Chapter is to be fleet-based, then even more work must be put into the construction of a massive Chapter Barque or an unusually large Battle Barge to serve as the Chapter's mobile fortress-monastery and all of the related capital warships and Escorts such a highly-mobile Chapter will require.The already extant Space Marine Chapters may also have a role in this process, though to what degree can vary greatly from Founding to Founding. Many of the First Founding Chapters maintain close links with Chapters created using their own gene-seed stocks, and the Chapter Masters might have a hand in planning future Foundings using that genetic material. It is said that the Disciples of Caliban, a Dark Angels Successor Chapter, was created following the direct appeal of the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels, an extremely rare request.In the more than 10,000 Terran years that have passed since the First Founding of the 20 original Space Marine Legions by the Emperor, there have been 26 subsequent Foundings of new Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes; with the most recent, the Ultima Founding of the Primaris Space Marines, occurring in the year 999.M41 at the time of the birth of the Great Rift.Even before a new Founding is announced, entire generations of Imperial servants may have toiled in preparation. Even once the process has been declared and is underway, it is likely to be at least a standard century before the new Chapters are ready to begin combat operations.In times of dire need for the Imperium, faster development has been attempted, but this has often resulted in disaster. Gene-seed cultured in haste is likely to degrade or to mutate, and a great many other factors can lead the entire process astray. And there is no foe more dangerous to the Imperium of Man that a Space Marine who has been corrupted by Chaos or gone Renegade for another reason.
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Chapter - Traditional Chapter Organisation: Each Codex-compliant Space Marine Chapter before the era of the Great Rift consisted of 1,000 fighting Space Marines plus support staff which are divided into 10 companies. Each Chapter is led by a Chapter Master. Unlike the Astra Militarum, the Adeptus Astartes has no leadership above the Masters of the individual Chapters. Also unlike many other Imperial military forces, the Astartes has no members to represent the organisation as a High Lord of Terra on the Senatorum Imperialis.Each of the ten companies of a traditional Chapter is comprised of one hundred Astartes, led by a Captain -- a veteran officer of countless wars. A company is organised into ten squads of ten Space Marines, each led by a Sergeant.Besides the Space Marine fighting brethren, there are many non-combat personnel, fully part of the Chapter but generally not involved directly in combat. These include the Chapter's hereditary slaves or bonded Chapter Serfs, Astropaths, Navigators, etc.The following outline defined all Codex-compliant Space Marine Chapters until the Ultima Founding, when the creation of all-Primaris Space Marine Chapters and the heavy reinforcement of existing Space Marine Chapters with Primaris Astartes altered this traditional organisational scheme for the first time in 10,000 Terran years.
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Chapter - Headquarters Staff: Each company of a Codex-compliant Chapter before the Ultima Founding had its own command or headquarters staff, consisting of at least one of the following:CaptainChaplainLibrarianTechmarineApothecaryMost companies were usually accompanied by a Command Squad of five Veteran Space Marines that included:Company CaptainCompany ChampionApothecary - For a Space Marine Chapter to have a future it must carefully protect and preserve the organic implants created from gene-seed that turn an Aspirant into a full-fledged Space Marine. An Apothecary serves as a Chapter medic and biological researcher and the overseer of the Chapter's gene-seed and implantation process for the creation of new Space Marines.Ancient - Ancients or Standard Bearers were Veteran Astartes who carried the company banner that displayed the company's feats and prowess. Captains may also display their personal heraldry in the banner. On rare occasions, the Chapter Banner might be fielded by a particular company's Command Squad.
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Chapter - Company Structure: The 1st Company of any traditional Codex-compliant Space Marine Chapter was an elite force made up entirely of Veteran Marines. These skilled warriors are the only members of the Chapter trained in the use of Terminator Armour.The 2nd to 5th Companies of the Chapter are referred to as Battle Companies and serve as the Chapter's frontline combatants. Each Battle Company consists of:Six 10-man Tactical SquadsTwo 10-man Assault SquadsTwo 10-man Devastator SquadsSupport Vehicles - Predator and Land Raider tanks of different patterns, Assault Bikes, Land Speeders, Rhinos and Razorback armoured transportsDreadnoughts - Dreadnoughts are revered Astartes warriors who have been mortally wounded and entombed in a cybernetic Dreadnought sarcophagus which serves as a heavy support combat walker as well as serving a life support fucntion for the injured Space Marine.The 6th to 9th Companies of a traditional Space Marine Chapter are its Reserve Companies. These are entirely composed of squads of the same combat specialty designation. For instance, the 6th and 7th Companies are usually composed entirely of Tactical Squads, the 8th Company is comprised of Assault Squads, Assault Centurions and Bike Squads, and the 9th Company is comprised of Devastator Squads and Devastator Centurions. Each of the Reserve Companies maintains its own transports, Dreadnoughts, and additional air and armour assets like Stormtalon gunships, Rhino APCs and Predator tanks. The Reserve Companies normally act in support of the Battle Companies and provide a source of replacements for any casualties suffered by the frontline formations.The 10th Company of a traditional Space Marine Chapter is the Scout Company composed of Space Marine Neophytes who are being exposed to actual combat for the first time. Those Scout Marines who survive this tour of duty are then welcomed into the Chapter as full Initiates and are granted a suit of Power Armour. They are then moved into one of the Reserve Companies to begin climbing the Chapter's hierarchy -- if they survive.
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Chapter - Post-Ultima Founding Chapter Organisation: As before, the organisation of a Space Marine Chapter in the wake of the Ultima Founding of the Primaris Space Marines comprises 1,000 Battle-Brothers. In comparison to the teeming multitudes of the Emperor's original Space Marine Legions this is few indeed, yet history has proven time and time again that such an elite gathering of martial strength can conquer star systems and even alter the fate of the galaxy itself.After the resurrection of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman in ca. 999.M41 and his restoration as the ruling Lord Commander of the Imperium, the Codex Astartes was revised for the new era that began with the birth of the Great Rift.Under the revised organisational scheme for a Space Marine Chapter the updated Codex prescribed, each of the ten companies of a Chapter still boasts one hundred warriors, led by a Captain -- a veteran of countless wars -- and often two Lieutenants as sub-company leaders. A company is still organised into ten squads of ten Space Marines, each led by a Sergeant.However, the guidelines in Guilliman's updated Codex provide for up to twenty squads of five Battle-Brothers. Furthermore, recent precepts allow for each Battle Company to be reinforced with auxiliary warriors. These additional squads are reassigned from the Reserve Companies.Of the ten companies, the 1st still consists of the Chapter's most experienced Veterans, and is therefore the most powerful. The Veterans of the 1st Company are still trained to fight in Terminator Armour. It is extremely rare for the Veteran Company to be deployed en masse -- its units normally take to the field alongside the Chapter's Battle Companies.The revised Codex Astartes decrees that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Companies are designated Battle Companies, and generally carry the weight of a Chapter's combat duties. Battle Companies consist of at least six Battleline Squads, two Close Support Squads and two Fire Support Squads. Assault Squads, a type of Close Support Squad, may be deployed as Bike Squads or Land Speeder crews and, just as with their Fire Support brethren known as Devastators, may take to battle as Centurion warsuit pilots. Most Space Marine deployments will consist of a single Battle Company, reinforced by elements of the Veteran, Scout and Reserve Companies as needed.The Reserve Companies are entirely composed of squads of the same designation. They normally act in support of the Battle Companies and provide a source of replacements for any casualties suffered by the frontline formations. The 6th and 7th Companies are Battleline Companies, each consisting of between ten and twenty of the different types of Battleline Squads. The 6th Company also trains in the use of Assault Bikes and may be deployed entirely as Bike Squads. Similarly, squads of the 7th Company are trained to fight with Land Speeders and Stormtalons, often acting as a light vehicle reserve formation.The 8th Company is the Close Support Company, and consists of ten to twenty Close Support Squads. It is most often used in an invasion role, or wherever a strong hand-to-hand fighting force is needed.The 9th Company is the Fire Support Company, consisting of ten to twenty Fire Support Squads. It is the most heavily equipped company in the Chapter, and its heavy cannon-toting Astartes provide unparalleled fire support to their more lightly equipped comrades.The 10th Company is still made up entirely of Scout Marines -- new recruits whose physical transformation and training is incomplete. The Codex Astartes now dictates no formal size for the 10th Company, as the rate of recruitment is not fixed.All companies, except the Scout Company, maintain a fleet of Rhino, Razorback and Repulsor armoured transports. The Veteran Company also has a permanent complement of Land Raiders of different patterns and Stormraven gunships for carrying Terminators into the heart of battle. A Chapter's other armoured vehicles form a pool, maintained by the Armoury, that Captains can draw upon. Many companies also include a number of Dreadnoughts, which remain a part of the company in which they served before being interred in the cybernetic sarcophagus.Every Space Marine Chapter also includes a number of officers and specialists as before, who provide essential battlefield support, spiritual leadership, psychic capability and destructive combat prowess. These individuals are collectively known as the headquarters staff, and include Apothecaries, Chaplains, Librarians, Ancients, and Techmarines.Over all of these mighty warriors presides the Chapter Master, elevated from the greatest of the Chapter's Captains. He alone is responsible for the deeds of the Chapter, and answers directly to the Administratum. Chapter Masters may select an Honour Guard that are in addition to the company roll, although not all Chapter Masters choose to do so.
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Chapter - Battleline Squads: The most numerous and strategically versatile warriors in a revised Codex-compliant Space Marine Chapter form Battleline Squads. They are flexible enough to press home an attack, or hold a position with withering firepower. Whatever the strategic challenge, the Battleline Squads are equal to the task. The Battleline Squads include:Tactical SquadsIntercessor Squads
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