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My dad send me stuff to read. And there was a part in it about what the legions did before they joined their primarchs. And SW and BA were not nice legions. SW had , according to the book, the biggest contingent of military police and the biggest number of post engagment executions.

the officers from the space marine military police even had their own squad markings, and were in generaly disliked even post joing with the primarchs.

They even gave them the same markings they had in RT:

Depending on the new fluff, might have to work that marking onto the new guy. Give him a link to the past.

Even though I never played rogue trader I do love all these throw backs in the new Primaris line. Though rogue trader marines had jet bikes lol

what if he's not internal police but external? Perhaps they're Marine officer's tasked with in the aftermath of reclaiming a world for the Imperium, "ensuring the worlds compliance by excising corrupt elements" I mean.. the indomatus crusade is the first time in a long time the IoM's had to wage a wide scale galatic war of reunification in ages, sure sectors have gone dark, but following the opening the the rift, planets everywhere where plunged into darkness, and for some.. they spent centuries in the dark. this is a near unprecidented situation and I could see specialist officers being needed for it...

just sort of a "thinking a bit outside the box" as it where

BrianDavion wrote:
what if he's not internal police but external? Perhaps they're Marine officer's tasked with in the aftermath of reclaiming a world for the Imperium, "ensuring the worlds compliance by excising corrupt elements" I mean.. the indomatus crusade is the first time in a long time the IoM's had to wage a wide scale galatic war of reunification in ages, sure sectors have gone dark, but following the opening the the rift, planets everywhere where plunged into darkness, and for some.. they spent centuries in the dark. this is a near unprecidented situation and I could see specialist officers being needed for it...

just sort of a "thinking a bit outside the box" as it where

That sounds more plausible than internal policing based on the bare minimum info we have on Judiciars.

I thought it was space marine version of a commissar ngl.

 Khalith wrote:
I thought it was space marine version of a commissar ngl.

Nominally that's the Chaplain, in terms of being a black-clad melee-support HQ whose primary role is to enforce loyalty and doctrinal purity; the major difference is that Chaplains don't summarily execute Space Marines for cowardice.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Khalith wrote:
I thought it was space marine version of a commissar ngl.

Nominally that's the Chaplain, in terms of being a black-clad melee-support HQ whose primary role is to enforce loyalty and doctrinal purity; the major difference is that Chaplains don't summarily execute Space Marines for cowardice.

I was hoping it would be summary execution but instead of shooting them he just summarily beheads them.

“If you flee from battle, heads will roll.”

 Khalith wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Khalith wrote:
I thought it was space marine version of a commissar ngl.

Nominally that's the Chaplain, in terms of being a black-clad melee-support HQ whose primary role is to enforce loyalty and doctrinal purity; the major difference is that Chaplains don't summarily execute Space Marines for cowardice.

I was hoping it would be summary execution but instead of shooting them he just summarily beheads them.

“If you flee from battle, heads will roll.”

From a fluff standpoint Space Marines are supposed to be brutally indoctrinated to the point that they don't have a sense of "fear" in the way normal humans do ("And They Shall Know No Fear"), which makes having someone chop their heads off if they run away to make the rest of the squad stand their ground thematically inappropriate. From a mechanical standpoint squad sizes and leadership values mean it's really rare for any Space Marines at all to actually run away to morale (usually either not enough models to force a check die or the whole squad dies and nobody's left to take the test), so having someone chop their heads off if they run away to make the rest of the squad stand their ground wouldn't really do anything in the game.

 Nevelon wrote:
Depending on the new fluff, might have to work that marking onto the new guy. Give him a link to the past.

Are primaris the past though? If they were implanted and made durning and post heresy, and then frozen, then a lot of them are older then all marines besides Bjorn and some of the chaos ones. As kids they probably seen and heard stuff that would be considered out right heresy in the 40th milenium. Like all the stuff about religion and similar stuff.

No wonder they need an officer to keep them in check, so they don't start blabbering about the good old days, in front of some high ranking official. Or start getting ideads that talking is something that works on imperial officials to convince them of anything.

Karol wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Depending on the new fluff, might have to work that marking onto the new guy. Give him a link to the past.

Are primaris the past though? If they were implanted and made durning and post heresy, and then frozen, then a lot of them are older then all marines besides Bjorn and some of the chaos ones. As kids they probably seen and heard stuff that would be considered out right heresy in the 40th milenium. Like all the stuff about religion and similar stuff.

No wonder they need an officer to keep them in check, so they don't start blabbering about the good old days, in front of some high ranking official. Or start getting ideads that talking is something that works on imperial officials to convince them of anything.

There are 3 kinds of Primaris

Old frozen ones
Classic marines from modern times that have underone the highly risky upgrade process
Fresh baked primaris, who go through the implant process just like scouts, but with the extra bits.

Where you are in the timeline will determine how many of each there are. But the ones in stasis will eventually all die off.

I just like keeping the old lore alive and working into new minis when I can.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Khalith wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Khalith wrote:
I thought it was space marine version of a commissar ngl.

Nominally that's the Chaplain, in terms of being a black-clad melee-support HQ whose primary role is to enforce loyalty and doctrinal purity; the major difference is that Chaplains don't summarily execute Space Marines for cowardice.

I was hoping it would be summary execution but instead of shooting them he just summarily beheads them.

“If you flee from battle, heads will roll.”

From a fluff standpoint Space Marines are supposed to be brutally indoctrinated to the point that they don't have a sense of "fear" in the way normal humans do ("And They Shall Know No Fear"), which makes having someone chop their heads off if they run away to make the rest of the squad stand their ground thematically inappropriate. From a mechanical standpoint squad sizes and leadership values mean it's really rare for any Space Marines at all to actually run away to morale (usually either not enough models to force a check die or the whole squad dies and nobody's left to take the test), so having someone chop their heads off if they run away to make the rest of the squad stand their ground wouldn't really do anything in the game.

The classic field police mentioned above did have the power for summary executions, but not for cowardice. Instead, it is to ensure obedience and discipline and to rein in excessive collateral violence on civilian populations and infrastructure.

Perhaps the Judiciar is a sign that the Primaris marines are not as perfect as Cawl would like and are prone to excessive destruction in operations, requiring oversight by the more measured Chapters.


I do really like the idea that they also have a role in "rehabiliating" reconquered worlds back into the Imperium by exercising extrajudicial Imperial law onto the governing structures. Sort of like an Arbites Marine.

 Haighus wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
...From a fluff standpoint Space Marines are supposed to be brutally indoctrinated to the point that they don't have a sense of "fear" in the way normal humans do ("And They Shall Know No Fear"), which makes having someone chop their heads off if they run away to make the rest of the squad stand their ground thematically inappropriate. From a mechanical standpoint squad sizes and leadership values mean it's really rare for any Space Marines at all to actually run away to morale (usually either not enough models to force a check die or the whole squad dies and nobody's left to take the test), so having someone chop their heads off if they run away to make the rest of the squad stand their ground wouldn't really do anything in the game.

The classic field police mentioned above did have the power for summary executions, but not for cowardice. Instead, it is to ensure obedience and discipline and to rein in excessive collateral violence on civilian populations and infrastructure.

Perhaps the Judiciar is a sign that the Primaris marines are not as perfect as Cawl would like and are prone to excessive destruction in operations, requiring oversight by the more measured Chapters.


I do really like the idea that they also have a role in "rehabiliating" reconquered worlds back into the Imperium by exercising extrajudicial Imperial law onto the governing structures. Sort of like an Arbites Marine.

Doesn't fix the mechanical weirdness of how little a Commissar-type rule would actually do to most Space Marine lists. Maybe he'll be a soup-Commissar and able to execute fleeing Skitarii and Battle Sisters.

I mean that would be kinda cool to be fair.