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So basically I was reading through the newest blood angels codex specifically the profile for Mephiston lord of death, and it talks about a second activation of the gene seed, the exact reference being "His gene seed, dormant these many long years, had awokened and wrought further changes, granting exceptional strength and vigour." I wasn't aware gene seed activated twice, I was under the impression that when a recruit is selected and goes through the organ implants / hypnotherapy / chemical treatment and emerges as an initiate that that was it, Does this happen frequently or is Mephiston a genetic anomaly ?. If this has happened before has it occurred in other chapters ?, and what exactly are the changes other then augmented strength and vigour ? I mean I know shortly after overcoming the black rage and being reborn Mephiston swiftly rose up the librarian ranks to head librarian, so I assume it also increased his psychic power. A rather off topic theory which I think is pretty cool is that certain very rare individuals of certain genetic make-up (so specific that the imperium doesn't have the technology to identify them so there recruitment as space marines are utter chance) are able to assimilate so much genetic information from there gene seed that they eventually become clones of there primarch. Growing first in strength, speed and aptitude, then experiencing memories and learning knowledge from there primarchs lifetime, and eventually even physically taking the appearance of there Primarch. Keep in mind the probability of finding a compatible host would be EXCEEDINGLY rare, you'd need someone who is of the same basic dna structure but also suceptible to the creation process, this coupled with the fact that space marine chapters only recruit from a handful of worlds (marginalising the genetic variety thats available to them) could explain why Mephiston might be the first such individual. Im speculating on this cause it says in the blood angels codex that the ragged recruits scarred from the radioactive wastelands of baal take on a hauntingly handsome appearance as space marines, and generally most space marines tend to resemble there primarch in some way or another, well that and I'd love the idea of Sanguinius returning in one form or another to save his doomed children / the imperium at large. I was kind of basing the memories of a predecessors / genetic information overtaking there scion / host from for example the assassins creed games or the D.Grey man manga series, but regardless that's neither here nor there just an analogy. Wacky speculation appreciated as always as they help me write my own material.
C-3

The flame falcons may be an example of a chapter undergoing a 'secondary mutation' with them suddenly bursting into flame.

This could be a new direction for space marine fluff as it doesn't seem to fit with the rest.

The implants are designed to remake the marines using the genetic template of their primarch. So I think the idea behind Mephiston's gene-seed "reawakening" is that it brought him that much closer to Sanguinius which would explain the heightened physical and psychic power. One could make the argument that he now falls somewhere between a regular marine and a primarch.

Argh! Wall of text!

purplefood wrote:Argh! Wall of text![/quote

Errr sorry dude .. :(

@Purplefood: Oh please. This took two minutes to read.

@ChronoCupcake: I think its an interesting theory, to be sure. I'm unable to furnish a stance for or against your theory, but I will say that I can recall Calistaruis being the only individual undergoing a "second awakening" of the geneseed. At this point, Chapters only know the initial ritual of activation for neophytes, let alone how to "reawaken" it. I believe I once read about the BA's trying experiments to recreate the conditions that created Mehpiston, but they all ended in disaster. For the life of me I can't remember where I might have read this, though.

I'm not saying it's too long to read. It's too damn hard too read it. Everytime i try and concentrate on a line my vision goes all funny.

Basically the primarch DNA becomes unmethalyated in some areas allowing further genetic development...

Sounds reasonable.