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Has anyone noticed that some of the more odd Space Marine abilities: spitting poison, eating metal, turning half their brain off, gaining someones memory by eating their flesh, etc. almost never appear in fluff? It makes me wonder how canon this stuff is anymore even though it was in the last codex.

Hum? This has been part of Marine style since the earliest days (except probably the 1E Rogue Trader version of the Astartes), and there are some short stories in various codices that incorporate these organs. For example, I remember something from the 3E 'dex (iirc) where it mentioned that the ability to shut down half their brain allowed some Marines to fight on for three(?) days without pausing to sleep.

There isn't much about these organs because there are few stories in the studio material to begin with. Okay, you've got the Black Library, but many of its authors take quite some artistic license from the available fluff and cannot even agree on how big their Marines should be. I wouldn't hold that against what GW themselves have written.

Just keep these abilities in mind as part of their background. They may not use them very often, but they could turn out to be very useful tools in the right situation. Exactly like all those gadgets in their armour.

Makes me wonder if one ever got the munchies and tried to nom nom on a Necron...

If they can spit poison... don't you think that should be some sort of special ability. Like poisoned weapon or something? I mean if I could spit poison I'd rather use that than whacking my enemy on the head with a boltgun.

I would rather keep my helmet on in a CQB.

Well if this is the 41st millenium than I bet they could make helmets with holes for spitting poison

Harriticus wrote:Has anyone noticed that some of the more odd Space Marine abilities: spitting poison, eating metal, turning half their brain off, gaining someones memory by eating their flesh, etc. almost never appear in fluff? It makes me wonder how canon this stuff is anymore even though it was in the last codex.

See: Deathwatch roleplaying system.

I do believe in the blood gorgon's novel they mentioned the acid spit to try and get out of prison

Melissia wrote:

Harriticus wrote:Has anyone noticed that some of the more odd Space Marine abilities: spitting poison, eating metal, turning half their brain off, gaining someones memory by eating their flesh, etc. almost never appear in fluff? It makes me wonder how canon this stuff is anymore even though it was in the last codex.

See: Deathwatch roleplaying system.

Darn tooting, nothing like an unhelmeted Devastator being surprised by a Genestealer but getting off his spit attack and blinding it before it could gut him.

The article noting the phases and timings for the implantation processes for the organs was a RT WD article, but it was reprinted in its entirety in a 3rd ed annual (twice).

Extracts from it have also been in the last two SM codices.

It has been noted that some chapters do NOT have all of the abilities or organs.

The Night Lords book has a lot about the poison, and the consuming of flesh to obtain genetic memories. Dead Sky Black Sun features a part where Uriel nearly stops his own heart in order to escape some beasts.

Isn't the poison not really supposed to be an offensive thing (and isn't it acid and not poison?) I thought its original intention was to allow captured marines to chew through prison bars and such. Or is the acid thing separate from this poison?

lledwey wrote:Isn't the poison not really supposed to be an offensive thing (and isn't it acid and not poison?) I thought its original intention was to allow captured marines to chew through prison bars and such. Or is the acid thing separate from this poison?

I think we're all mixing up acid and poison. They have acidic saliva, fairly sure it's poisonous as well, but it's mainly used as an acid, probably to do exactly as you said.

In the original Space Marine the three brothers use their Preomnor to learn how to control a Titan (by eating the crews brains), their Catalepsean Nodes to rest, and while resting they dscover a Bllod Drinker marine who had used his Sus-an membrane.

Of course, they didn't use the Betcher's Gland as Imperial Fists don't have that implant (or the Sus-an).

The poison in that book is described as being corrosive so I guess it can serve as both.

I've never seen a reference where Space Marines can eat metal.

Harriticus wrote:Has anyone noticed that some of the more odd Space Marine abilities: spitting poison, eating metal, turning half their brain off, gaining someones memory by eating their flesh, etc. almost never appear in fluff? It makes me wonder how canon this stuff is anymore even though it was in the last codex.

As already said they produce an acid not a 'poison', but on the main point as it is in the present codex (not last) it is thee most official of canon sources.

There many peices of fluff that use these abilities as a narritive device but they are mainly used to show the level of detail the Emperor went into when creating the Space Marine.

Space Marine, the biological swiss army knife

The Karkasson Campaign:
Imperial Fists scouts were sent in to scout on a chaos infected world, they saw some Chaos titans, What they do?
They went and found the crew of the titan and ate there friken brain and were able to pilot the titan and cripple the deffences befor the full scale assult, the scouts were then promoted into full fledge space marines.

If you want the whole story i can send link but thats the break down of it, so their abbilities do serve alot on the field and are in the fluff if you look hard enough

RogalDorn69 wrote:The Karkasson Campaign:
Imperial Fists scouts were sent in to scout on a chaos infected world, they saw some Chaos titans, What they do?
They went and found the crew of the titan and ate there friken brain and were able to pilot the titan and cripple the deffences befor the full scale assult, the scouts were then promoted into full fledge space marines.

If you want the whole story i can send link but thats the break down of it, so their abbilities do serve alot on the field and are in the fluff if you look hard enough

Wouldn't eating a chaos brain and then using a chaos titan put you at risk of chaos?

nomotog wrote:

RogalDorn69 wrote:The Karkasson Campaign:
Imperial Fists scouts were sent in to scout on a chaos infected world, they saw some Chaos titans, What they do?
They went and found the crew of the titan and ate there friken brain and were able to pilot the titan and cripple the deffences befor the full scale assult, the scouts were then promoted into full fledge space marines.

If you want the whole story i can send link but thats the break down of it, so their abbilities do serve alot on the field and are in the fluff if you look hard enough

Wouldn't eating a chaos brain and then using a chaos titan put you at risk of chaos?

That's what I was thinking. Plus, don't Titans require that the crews literally plug into the machine?

daveNYC wrote:

nomotog wrote:

RogalDorn69 wrote:The Karkasson Campaign:
Imperial Fists scouts were sent in to scout on a chaos infected world, they saw some Chaos titans, What they do?
They went and found the crew of the titan and ate there friken brain and were able to pilot the titan and cripple the deffences befor the full scale assult, the scouts were then promoted into full fledge space marines.

If you want the whole story i can send link but thats the break down of it, so their abbilities do serve alot on the field and are in the fluff if you look hard enough

Wouldn't eating a chaos brain and then using a chaos titan put you at risk of chaos?

That's what I was thinking. Plus, don't Titans require that the crews literally plug into the machine?

Not back then - Space Marine was written in 1993.

the Poison isn't produced by their own body.

they take poison that they have either ingested or been injected with and store it in the Beltchers Gland for use later.

some chapters will deliberatly allow themselves to be poisoned by creatures native to their homeworlds(Brothers of the Snake) so they have the venom and/or poison.

Marine saliva is highly corrosive and can eat through metal.

The acid spit isn't there so much for combat purposes but more for utility, to free themselves from captivity or scour flith off stuff and break down foul foodstuffs and the like. Lets be honest, spitting on an enemy in combat and landing it anywhere that's going to be incapacitating isn't going to be too terribly effective, the basic CC attack more than covers this available weapon.

Depends on what you're fighting, I guess. Against a human opponent... doesn't really matter. Spit on them, wait a half-second, and then their arm, leg, hand, foot, cheek, whatever starts smoking and painfully dissolving... that guy is probably going to freak out.

Psienesis wrote:Depends on what you're fighting, I guess. Against a human opponent... doesn't really matter. Spit on them, wait a half-second, and then their arm, leg, hand, foot, cheek, whatever starts smoking and painfully dissolving... that guy is probably going to freak out.

Or they could just punch their head off.
That's bound to freak him out a bit

Maybe its a built in torture device.

"Tell me where the Cultist camp is or I'll drool on you!"

If you are a Space Marine, you are probably big as feth so some guy won't mess with you.

Leonus Cohol wrote:If you are a Space Marine, you are probably big as feth so some guy won't mess with you.

I don't know there are some really cocky guardsmen out there

Melissia wrote:

Harriticus wrote:Has anyone noticed that some of the more odd Space Marine abilities: spitting poison, eating metal, turning half their brain off, gaining someones memory by eating their flesh, etc. almost never appear in fluff? It makes me wonder how canon this stuff is anymore even though it was in the last codex.

See: Deathwatch roleplaying system.

Spitting acid is an acceptable method of diplomacy. Or our group's Ultramarine thought so.

The Ultramarines Omnibus using all of those except the Poison one but I didnt read the middle story so it could be in that one.

The acid spit was done in "The Purging of Kadillus" by a Dark Angels Chaplain whose power armour was damaged beyond being functional. He spit in an Ork Nob's face, and it barely did anything outside of inconvenience the Nob and scar the Nob's helm where it landed.

It's not really powerful acid, not to the point of being useful in combat.