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The title says it all really, I'm not sure this is the right place to put this but I was just wondering. Other races are never corrupted by Chaos apart from Eldar.

So, why is this?, is the marine's geneseed reactive to Chaos taint?

Tyranid Horde

Well humans and eldar can be corrputed by chaos, not just space marines, and I wouldnt call it easily. Orks have their own gods in the warp and so most dont care about the chaos gods (although they can get possessed by demons). Tau and necrons have no presence in the warp and so the chaos gods dont care about them. I'm not sure about nids, but your average tyranid doesnt exist for long enough do become corrupted.

The process isnt overnight either. You dont suddenly wake up one day and wonder why you're worshiping a corpse, paint an eight pointed star on your armour and wander off to enslave a planet.

Well, if you view it like I do this is how you'd see it;

Orks love death, destruction and chaos - so I'd say they are already evil.

Tyrnid are unstopable killing machines

Necrons are the legion armys of "gods" set on destroying and eating all sentiant life in the galaxy

Tau are to big of pansies for chaos gods to bother with.

IG, there are some traitoris IM legions in the fluff

I knew Eldar and IG could be corrupted but there seems to be way more SM corrupted by chaos

From the Lexicanum (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Chaos), via Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned:

The rise of Chaos and the first three Chaos Gods, as described, seems to correspond to the development to humanity, implying that Mankind, of all the sentient species, were primarily responsible for the disharmonizing of the Warp and the birth of the first three Chaos Gods. Although, without question, all sentient species played a role in the birth of the Chaos Gods, it seems that mankind has an especially close relationship with Chaos, or that mankind's nature is particularly aggressive and unstable.2

So maybe there's something in the human emotional/psychic makeup that is especially impactful on and susceptible to the Warp.

In the old days of the game there was all kinds of Chaos infected crazyness, like Ork Stormboyz of Khorne, Tzeentch Genestealer cults and so on. They've cut that out for the most part (though you can still see it in Codex: Daemonhunters) and focused on the humans.

For the marines themselves, I think several factors can contribute.

*They do a lot of warp travel, and are more likely than others to fight and survive Chaotic forces, increasing their exposure. Plus they are key to clearing out space hulks, which may have all sorts of Chaotic influences aboard.
*They are fairly isolated from the bulk of humanity, and the hubris of being above and apart with limited oversight can lead to excess.
*With a very hierarchical structure, if a leader is corrupted it may be easy to get those below to follow along.

Even so, with all the renegades and such poking around I think it's a pretty rare thing. While there are many cases of marines, units, and even whole chapters going over, I still think that if you look at 1000 chapters with 1000+marines at any given time over 10,000 years that the "renegade rate" is going to be pretty small, and not all of those even go over to Chaos.

Well if I were one of the big four and I had to choose between marines and guard I would probably go with marines. So maybe they just focus so much more on them that everyone else is sort of on the fring. I mean during the Heresy they could have chosen to use some generic human commander rather than Horus, but I don't think that things would have turned out quite the same. Plus, corrupted marines are so cool.

Guard actually get corrupted alot more ofton than marines.

According to old fluff the human race is basically hitting psychic puberty. Humanity is an immature psychic power, immensely powerful, but uncontrolled and unprotected.

Humanity produces some of the most powerful psychers in the universe. Even the vaunted Eldar don't produce alpha and alpha+ level psychers. But due to humanities psychic immaturity they are also easy prey to creatures of the warp, almost always being devoured if they are not conditioned and trained properly.

Space marines are actually designed and conditioned to be very resistant to the warp. The fluff shows that most humans can become corrupted by chaos just by SEEING daemons or warp sigils and are easily possessed or demented due to fluctuations in the gellar field during warp travel.

In contrast Space marines are regularly exposed to warp creatures and heresy. They spend large portions of their lives traveling through the warp. It takes a particularly strong concentration of chaos to corrupt them...which of course they are exposed to on a constant basis.

So basically it is kind of like asking why solders are so susceptible to bullets. They are drilled, trained, armored and equipped to deal with them, and do it much better than the average citizen. And then they are thrown in front of a 50cal machine gun.

As a side note, other races are OFTEN corrupt by chaos. The fluff shows that the imperium quite often runs entire entires civilizations that have been corrupted by chaos. The more powerful the races psychic imprint the more likely they are to be corrupted, unless the have some form of special defense. The Eldar were very mature and have excellent psychic defenses, so they are very rarely just currupted. It took their entire civilization descending into debauchery for hundreds of years to give chaos a way into their souls. Of course, now the door is open...

As for humans, again, humans may have even more potential than the Eldar, but none of the defenses. The old fluff stated that the reason for the Emporers existence may have been the human race trying to protect itself long enough for it to mature psychically.

No is loyal, everyone is heretic.

Ah ok then, thanks.

I'd rather have a Space Marine worshiping me over a green skinned fool who is more focused on making himself "da Orkest Ork out der". The same applies to mindless gaunts, and a windows 98 powered skeleton... Ok i was a little harsh on the necrons, but they're already corrupted by another god. The Tau aren't really an easily corrupted race either, it's all "the greater good this" rather than "we captured it for CHA-OS" The Dark Eldar are evil enough, and the Space Elves already know about the threat of chaos, so they're a bit harder.

Riplikeash said it all just about.

Eldar had their touch of chaos over 10000 years ago. Ever since they arnt too bad although some of the younger Eldar can be corrupted. Eldar produce children but can loose them as scouts (they have a need to explore) or they turn to pirating\dark eldar\chaos\whatever. Hence they're a dieing race.

Humans, as said by Riplikeash, are still new to all this warp magic and so chaos tend to pick on the human race. Also, the humans take up a massive chunk of the galaxy thanks to the crusades. So, because of that, seem to be effected a lot more.

Space Marines from time to time become corrupt. Either due to a flaw in their gene seed or some unforgivable mistake they make. But mainly only during the horus heresy when they didnt know about the chaos gods. what a fk up that was!!

IIRC Chaos codex said most space marines have it gnawing at them all the time, and only chaplains/heros/being with their battle brothers kept them from succumbing. Then when they get spread thin they snap, and use their power for themselves.

Similar to a disgruntled employee, you can only push someone so far before they decide that the nearest loyalist needs a bolter round to the face.

Zed wrote:Similar to a disgruntled employee, you can only push someone so far before they decide that the nearest loyalist needs a bolter round to the face.

Yeah, hence why I worship Khorne in my spare time.

Space Marines are tough in the physical world, but their soul is as 'tough' as a regular human in the warp. There is no organ implant they receive that strengthens their soul. Only psykers can protect themselves, and that's why Grey Knights are all psykers.

Of course, discipline and strength of mind count for something, but there's little a bolter or power armor can do to protect you when a daemon is pushing your soul about in the warp. Pulling your strings, as it were.

Rube wrote:Space Marines are tough in the physical world, but their soul is as 'tough' as a regular human in the warp. There is no organ implant they receive that strengthens their soul. Only psykers can protect themselves, and that's why Grey Knights are all psykers.

Of course, discipline and strength of mind count for something, but there's little a bolter or power armor can do to protect you when a daemon is pushing your soul about in the warp. Pulling your strings, as it were.

thats not true, all space marines receive psycho conditioning to control themselves and their emotions. if you read Hero's of the Space Marines near the back theres a story about the death watch and it the librarian attached to the unit talks about he's freaked out by the exorcist (or some chapter descended from grey knights) that he had no psychic presence and that "his Bolter had more of an impression in the warp then he did"

humanity as a whole is not evolved to handle psychic power however when they recruit for the 10th company they pick up thousands upon thousands of humans and at the end they have 10 guys. their looking for everything they can to be a space marine and that includes psychic controls. its how evolution works some people in the population can handle it, and those are the ones that live. the survival of the fittest isn't correct.

I seem to recall from some source that many marines who have been sent on guard duty for decades in an area that presents them with no threats they may decide that thier talent are wasted, after training thier whole lives and feel the desire for battle overwhelms thier loyalty to an Emperor they have no contact with

wash-away wrote:thats not true, all space marines receive psycho conditioning to control themselves and their emotions. if you read Hero's of the Space Marines near the back theres a story about the death watch and it the librarian attached to the unit talks about he's freaked out by the exorcist (or some chapter descended from grey knights) that he had no psychic presence and that "his Bolter had more of an impression in the warp then he did"

The psycho-conditioning is essentially mind scrubbing followed by brainwashing. It cements their discipline and strength of mind, which I mentioned. It doesn't provide them any kind of psychic defence.

The Exorcists aren't regular Space Marines. Read this; they're a special chapter, and aren't indicative of regular Space Marines. Grey Knights are similar - they're psykers, and can therefore protect themselves in the warp.

wash-away wrote:humanity as a whole is not evolved to handle psychic power however when they recruit for the 10th company they pick up thousands upon thousands of humans and at the end they have 10 guys. their looking for everything they can to be a space marine and that includes psychic controls.

No they don't. Several chapters specifically eschew all psychic powers which they view as heretical, such as the Black Templars (which is why they have no Librarians). The selection process is so exact because you have to be physically and mentally tough to survive the training and the implants. Psychic capacity isn't a major consideration even for chapters that include Librarians.

wash-away wrote:its how evolution works some people in the population can handle it, and those are the ones that live. the survival of the fittest isn't correct.

You're right, survival of the fittest isn't correct. Survival of the most adaptable would be correct.

Given that Space Marines are sterilised and repeatedly put in immense danger, any trait they are selected for is going to be weeded out of the gene-pool. If they're being selected because they're strong and brave, by extension only the weak and cowardly are left behind to survive and breed. Then you end up with a population that is weak and cowardly.

Desirable traits in this situation are weakness and cowardess. Those that can 'adapt' to these traits will survive. Those that are the 'fittest' will get turned into Space Marines and die.

Why are space marines are corrupted so easily? So you can have space marines for your space marines to fight.

I wouldn't say easily. Theres what maybe a few tens of thousands of marines in the universe and many millions of guardsmen? With entire subsectors of humanity under chaoses sway I think its pretty safe to say your average human is more susceptible when it comes to numbers ( millions at least ). Plus post heresy it seems a lot of the chapters that turned traitor are either due to being betrayed/persecuted unjustly by corrupt/mislead imperial/inquisition leaders. Or by becoming fascinated with the possibility of using chaos to fight chaos. leading to a gradual corruption. Plus not all the traitor legions went right to chaos. They just rebelled and use chaos as a way to survive cut off from supplies they no longer have.

Catyrpelius wrote:Orks love death, destruction and chaos - so I'd say they are already evil.

Orks love fighting. These are merely side-effects of fighting.

Regardless, Marines are corrupted easily because they are independent and, frequently, quite prideful about it.