How are Marine Chapters founded?

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**H.B.M.C.**

I'm just been thinking about all the various 'Foundings' that the Adeptus Astartes have gone through, and I wondered how these things come about, as in what the process for creating Chapters is.

Is it like a divorce where they take a Chapter, split its assets in two, one of them gets a new name and is painted a different colour, and then the half that didn't get the house has to find a new homeworld, or is there more to it than that?

BYE

**Cheese Elemental**

From the Lexicanum:

A Founding is an occasion where several new Chapters of Space Marines are created.

A founding does not occur at any set interval but is ordered when it is deemed necessary by the High Lords - the creation of new chapters is completely in the hands of the High Lords as a Founding can only be ordered by the Senate of High Lords of Terra. The gene-seed used to create new chapters is stored by the Adeptus Mechanicus, originally tithed by existing chapters. New progenoids are created using human test-slaves. Zygotes are grown from gene-seed and implanted into the slaves - the zygotes develop into progenoid organs and are removed. A single slave is used in this way to create two progenoids, which are then implanted into two more slaves, and so on. One thousand sets of organs are created, taking over half a century of constant reproduction.

As chapters are occasionally completely destroyed, Foundings are often meant to ensure that a thousand chapters exist at a time. The latest founding was the Twenty Sixth, in 738.M41.

Each Founding creates a number of new chapters. The exception to this was the creation of the Grey Knights who were created before the Second Founding.

The First Founding occurred at the beginning of the Great Crusade and was the creation of the original Space Marine Legions. ve The Second Founding, following the Horus Heresy, was the division of these Legions into the smaller Chapters which remain the Space Marine's foremost unit of organization to the present. One chapter of each parent Legion maintained the original colours, symbol and name of the Legion - these are known as the Chapters of the First Founding.

That is specifically what a founding is, but if that's not enough, I think that several First Company marines leave their chapter and become the new Captains, Chaplains, and Librarians. One Captain becomes the Master of the chapter, and they choose a homeworld. They then proceed to recruit as normal.

**H.B.M.C.**

Hmm... seems like a long way to get a chapter up and running. Almost seems akin to arming a chapter with no actual members (grow 1000 sets of internal organs, but have no one to put them in to start with).

It'd make much more sense for two Companies worth of Marines from one Chapter to break away, taking 20% of the Chapter's assets with them, and then receive the 1000-organs to implant in 1000 new recruits. By the time training is finished (and some will die during that time no doubt), you've got a chapter.

Also seems that a Founding doesn't really give you a new Chapter until many, many years later. Sure, you might have all your organs sorted out, but you haven't actually got full Companies of Marines for decades.

BYE

**Kilkrazy**

People should never look closely at the practicality of 40K.

**Orlanth**

You can grow the organas for a chapter from a singkle pair of zygotes in 70 years. The zygotes are implanted in persons stored in vats and harvested in 2 and 4 year cycles.

Growing marines is not difficult, the problem is rate of losses. Material problems being ignored if one entire chapter was withdrawn from service for a century you could double the canon strength of the Adeptus Astartes from the geneseed generated.

Between the suspicion that 'thousand marine' chapters is suspect anyway in many cases, the pressing need to marines to fight, the heavy casualties they suffer the above statistics might not be too far off.

**Kilkrazy**

The marines also need to be recruited as children, grow to maturity, undergo training and so on. They need weapons, vehicles and other support equipment, a base, ships and auxiliary personnel who also need to be recruited and trained.

More importantly, there is the issue of formation of the chain of command. A brand new chapter created from scratch would by definition have no veterans. I imagine that some of the senior officers and vet sergeants would have to be supplied from existing chapters.

**Flachzange**

Either that, or they are simply trained to be officers by existing veterans. Obviously some will be found lacking, but at least youll have some to start with.

I find HBMC´s reasoning pretty sound though. Seeing how a part of another chapter would be drawn to become at least the command structure of a new chapter, makes much more sense than starting a new one from scratch.

**dietrich**

It takes a long time to develop a new chapter, and even longer to get it to full strength. I would guess it's a couple decades to have enough marines to really take the field, and then at least a century before they're at full strength (or close to it).

**Lord Bingo**

i think it would more than century, took the ultramarines 150 years just to rebuild the first company

**Kilkrazy**

The first company are specially selected veterans.

**Attack_Squig**

I thought there was fluff in the latest codex, or maybe in the Ultramarines book that said basically a few first company guys head of to start the new chapter with the gene seed from the High Lords of Terra. Once the chapter is up and running, and things are moving along, they have the choice of returning to their original chapter or staying on as the head ( whatever ) of the current chapter.

I also vaguely remember a fifty year period or so for this to go into effect, and the first companies from the new chapter to start seeing action.

**Ozymandias**

There's also fluff in the Dark Angels dex about Azrael petitioning to have a Chapter created. Eventually, he tasked this chapter with hunting down Cypher.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

**AzurePhoenix**

Does the removal of a progenoid from a "test slave" necessarily end in the slaves demise or can they be precise about it?

**sonofruss**

they die they only remove then from space marines when they die