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Hi all,

I'm preparing to write a battle report, Orks vs Marines. Much like this battle report, I intend to write a short story for the reason behind the encounter and my opponent will write a piece from the Ork perspective. I was going to write about a Scout Sergeant with a vendetta against an Ork Warboss due to his one of his family being killed by said warboss... but this led to an interesting point. Do Space Marines have families? Do they have kids?

I haven't read any of the official fluff for years... I know they're all genetically modified, I'm vaguely aware of the term "gene-seed", but do they actually have kids or even relationships? What about Scouts? Any clarification would be appreciated before I write a short story that makes no sense

Space Marines are sterile and recruited at a very very young age(mostly 6-8 years old and then go through the motions of being a Chapter Serf before even becoming a Scout), so...

From what I understand they leave their past lives behind when they're inducted as children. So in effect, no families.

Although...
"Tim, they've got your wife!"
"But I'm not married!"
"You are now... to The Emperor!"

...so...the Space Marines get to stick it to the Emperer one last time?
No wonder he's been sitting in that chair so long... wait...wut?

Some marines still have contact with humans on their plannet. Salamanders live with the human population.

I am sure I read some information about a chapter that lived on the planet but stayed seperate from the humans but they sometimes left their SM are and spent time among the humans. I belive each marine had an area which was "his". This was more of a ceromonial thing than having any purpose but the marine could grow to be attached to them

Of course this may be a bit off asd I read it a long time ago.

alot of marines DO have family, and its been established in fluff.

In the realm of ultramar, families consider it a great honor to have one of their sons selected for service in the ultramarines. Uriel Ventris, for example (4th company captain of the ultramarines) had a family member in the ultramarines 1st company, who died fighting the tyranids.

I've also heard that salamanders maintain family ties with members in the chapter.

I'd say most chapters maintain some family ties to their previous lives, though they consider their battle brothers their more immediate family, saying they don't care at all about their birth family would be an over-simplification.

Excellent, excellent information so far guys. It's very much appreciated!

To touch on a point that was mentioned earlier, the progression route... is it Serf --> Scout --> Marine or is there more to it than that?

Serfs are not where they start...failures through the tests can end up as serfs.
Their earliest engagements would prob. be Scouts....according to the 'new' SMurf codex, the then go into Dev squads when they get power armor, then Assault marines if they like that more, and then the top position is funny enough: Tactical Squads.......I think it's poo though... Space Wolves ftw.

Different chapters have different progressions.

strict codex adherent chapters have progression like sanctjud stated.

The only exception I know of other than space wolves (though there are many exceptions, this is just the one I know off the top of my head) is the iron snakes.

All members of the chapter who are not battle brothers are kept on the homeworld, and when a squad suffers losses, the sergeant selects from the pool of petitioners on the home planet to replace his losses. Notable squads (considered the best of the tactical squads) seem to have priority of candidate choice, with regular tactical squads taking their pick from those not chosen by the notables.

Sanctjud wrote:Serfs are not where they start...failures through the tests can end up as serfs.
Their earliest engagements would prob. be Scouts....according to the 'new' SMurf codex, the then go into Dev squads when they get power armor, then Assault marines if they like that more, and then the top position is funny enough: Tactical Squads.......I think it's poo though... Space Wolves ftw.

Wrong.

"Serfs" are not just failures throughout the tests, they're also the positions given to recruits before they're the proper age to begin getting the modifications that would then lead to them becoming Initiates/Scouts.

After that, the "Codex" advancement is:
Scouts(due to them lacking the Black Carapace and being unable to interface properly with Powered Armour)-->Devastator Squads(it's a role that allows them to be trained in how best to support their Battle-Brothers, while still allowing them leeway while they master the Power Armour)-->Vehicle Crews, mostly Bike Squadrons and Land Speeder Squadrons(same reason as for why they're put into Devastator Squads)-->Assault Squads-->Tactical Squads.

Following enough time in any of those, they'll potentially be brought into the Terminator fold.

I think it's poo though

Yes it doesn't really make sense. Giving the best gear to the new guy isn't the best idea.

I usually go with the old way which was in a previous codex.

Initiate- scout- tactical- Veteran, Devastator, assualt marine, terminator, ect - Chapter masters guard - Chapter Master.

it doesn't make sense for any other chapter but Dark Angels. They Dark Angels have so much gak to throw away on newbies =/.

Devastators have always been where the newly initiated Battle-Brothers go, from what I've seen. The problem is that they're not giving the newbies the Heavy Weapons. Those extra Marines you can get that only can take Bolters?

Those are the newbies. They're there to observe and learn the Art of War from the Veterans.

so green or blue it seems

I think you're fluff idea makes sense.

Obviously by the time a Space Marine reaches full battle brother status, his psycho-indoctrination would be at the point where his family identity is only amongst his battle brothers. A scout however, is still young enough to feel like the regular humans he lift behind are his family unit. For example, this play a significant role in Sons of Dorn, where the three main characters have a burning hatred for each other (due to some dead fathers) which only settles as they become full battle-brothers.