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Can Chaos Space Marines decide to leave Chaos and return to the Imperium as a regular Space Marine?

Are there also Daemons and minor chaos gods that would fight for the Imperium as well?

The Heretic can be shown the errors of his ways and, through Death, find Absolution.

Will they ever be allowed to be heretics and *live*? Haha. No. This is the IoM we're talking about here.

The Warp holds all sorts of sentiences within it, including those that may not be violent or harmful to humans. Such entities have probably long been wiped out by the warp-entities that *are* violent and harmful to humans.

Thinking of 2 other Chaos Gods who have appeared in GW works in the past, Malal and Necoho... neither of them are very powerful. Nechoho doesn't believe in any of the other gods, anyway (He is Necoho, the Unbeliever, the God of Atheism), so will not fight them... he doesn't believe they exist, and so there is nothing to fight. Malal would fight them, to be sure, and is probably a good patron for a Radical Inquisitor or Renegade Legion... but Malal is small-fry compared to the Great Gods of Chaos. Extremely small-fry. So small-fry that you will probably be giving the god more power and prestige by your presence, and getting nothing in return except the random tentacle and glowing, white slugs for blood or something.

Also, by and large, the Imperium will not welcome the assistance of Chaos gods or Warp-entities, regardless of how benign they seem. Certain radical factions might, to be sure, but on the whole? No dice.

Deamons and minor warp entities are definitely not going to side with the Imperium (unless the sucess of the Imperium somehow suits their goals?), but it's not out of the question for Chaos Marines to perhaps return to the fold.

IF they do somehow decide to ammend their ways, if they want any chance of surviving and not being killed on site they will have to pretend that they never betrayed the Imperium in the first place (meaning that an overuse of spikes and mutations is out of the question).

A Chaos Space Marine that repents will be given a quick painless death. No way he'll be able to just repent and live though.

repent....these are miniatures were talking about ;D

It will depend on how they decide to return. If they're like the LotD and simply turn up, aid the Imperium in their fights and disappear again then they'll be free to do that so long as they aren't caught, but they won't be a true part of the Imperium.

They could turn themselves in to a somewhat more radical Inquisitor who will spare their lives if they do something for him in return, and he could potentially shield them from investigation if he had enough reputation and connections.

They might also reveal themselves to a Chapter who feels sorry for them and inducts them into their ranks, as long as they're not investigated at any length by the Imperium then nobody should know the difference.

But if you mean marching up to the nearest Ordo Malleus Battlefleet expecting a slap on the wrist but general welcome, then there's very little to no chance.

In a similar vein, what if you are a loyal SM and you are tricked by warp magicks into fighting for Chaos, but released when your enslaver is killed? You did not turn and you were far from in control of your actions or even your mind, contrary to most traitor SM who willingly switch sides.

See the last quote in my sig...

Avatar 720 wrote:
In a similar vein, what if you are a loyal SM and you are tricked by warp magicks into fighting for Chaos, but released when your enslaver is killed? You did not turn and you were far from in control of your actions or even your mind, contrary to most traitor SM who willingly switch sides.

Crusade of Penance, as was the fate of the SM chapters supporting the Tyrant of Badab during his shindig who were found to be otherwise Loyalist.

This is assuming you aren't walking around with eight-rayed star-sigils burned into your flesh or signs of physical mutation.

Well only if they side with chaos they will be killed because in the babad wars the spacemarine chapters that sided with the Astral Claws were allowed to live because they didnt side with chaos but had to go one a crusade of penance

Chapter's Due spoiler

Wasn't there something about that in the Souldrinkers books?
Being misled by chaos and then trying to help the imperium - there you can see where this path leads ...

there would be no quick no quick death, the soul must be purified through pain.

Like other posters have stated the chapters that sided with Huron during the Badab war but didnt turn to chaos got damn near suicide missions in the form of protracted unsupported crusades that saw their numbers decimated. Imagine what a chapter designated excommunicae traitoris would need to do!

That is assuming they could actually persuade any imperial force to stop shooting them for long enough to get themselves heard. I hink it pretty much impossible tbh.

As for daemons and the like occasionly a radical inquisitor will bind a demonhost to use however this daemon is bound nd controlled tightly not acting out of free will, any daemon who wanted to thwart a rival or enact some part of a greater plan would have to do so independantly of the IoM as they would never be seen as allies, its even more stupid than if someone were to suggest the necrons and the BA would not want to kill each other at any point, and we all know how ridiculous that sounds

Ashrag wrote:Wasn't there something about that in the Souldrinkers books?
Being misled by chaos and then trying to help the imperium - there you can see where this path leads ...

Soul Drinkers are different in that (spoiler deals with parts from the Soul Drinkers novels; be warned!)

It is mentioned that one chapter that was gone renegade ( Lamaters ) where given forgiveness and for their punishment they where send on a crusade for 100 years.

As for traitor legions: no, there is no penance but death.

Why would you even want forgiveness? Why return to the corpse Emperor? He is dead. Only the Chaos Gods live as true gods.

Anyway, a friend of mine's home made chapter is super different. It's composed of bits and pieces of lost marines and dead chapters formed together to make another chapter. It's watched over constantly by the inquisition and has it's own personal inquisitor asigned to it to keep it in check. The captain of... i think the 3rd is an ex-beserker. i don't think this could actually happen, but it's a pretty cool concept.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Deathwatch_Black_Shield

I don't think that a Chaos Marine could return but renegades certainly can. However to atone for what they have done they are sent on suicide missions.
For example in Dead Sky, Black Sun

Flying Pooo wrote:I don't think that a Chaos Marine could return but renegades certainly can. However to atone for what they have done they are sent on suicide missions.
For example in Dead Sky, Black Sun

Spoiler:

Uriel and Pasanius have a Death Oath to redeem themselves

Uriel and Pasanius aren't renegades though...

^Maybe not but I thought they were after they went against the codex or something.
Edit: Death Oath there is a difference.
Still shows what one would have to do to get back in favour with the Imperiium,

Flying Pooo wrote:^Maybe not but I they were after they went against the codex or something.

They still weren't renegades...
They wanted to stay in the chapter but were forced to go on a death quest before they could come back...

Basically any marine with the taint of chaos is killed.

reds8n wrote:http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Deathwatch_Black_Shield

I was very surprised that nobody said that before you

But yes, it's not really a "return to the Imperium" so much as "Join the Deathwatch and hope nobody ever figures out you were a traitor".

its happened, The last of the Astral Claws, he went to the Ultramarines, they in turn sent him on a mission to kill Lugt Huron... it didn't end well

Kanluwen wrote:

reds8n wrote:http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Deathwatch_Black_Shield

I was very surprised that nobody said that before you

But yes, it's not really a "return to the Imperium" so much as "Join the Deathwatch and hope nobody ever figures out you were a traitor".

And it's not really that Space Marine who was the traitor, rather he exiled himself from his original chapter rather than turn traitor with them.

Formosa wrote:its happened, The last of the Astral Claws, he went to the Ultramarines, they in turn sent him on a mission to kill Lugt Huron... it didn't end well

He went to the White Scars...
He was on a mission to gather intelligence on the Corsair's next target...
He was actually an Astral Claw then a Red Corsair before he was captured...
But, the point still stands. If the IoM is desperate enough and the right/wrong people make the choices pretty much anyone canbe pardoned... though suicide missions are very possible as a result.

purplefood wrote:

Formosa wrote:its happened, The last of the Astral Claws, he went to the Ultramarines, they in turn sent him on a mission to kill Lugt Huron... it didn't end well

He went to the White Scars...
He was on a mission to gather intelligence on the Corsair's next target...
He was actually an Astral Claw then a Red Corsair before he was captured...
But, the point still stands. If the IoM is desperate enough and the right/wrong people make the choices pretty much anyone canbe pardoned... though suicide missions are very possible as a result.

Ah yeah White scars, not sure about that, but cant remember.
He was sent to kill Huron AND gather intelligence.
He always was an Astral Claws, thats the whole point of the story.
Shame what happened to him... Harsh

Thought I read somewhere in the Soul Drinkers Omnibus about having to have their "flesh purified"...? I do not hold out much hope for any repentant traitors.

Grubwart wrote:Thought I read somewhere in the Soul Drinkers Omnibus about having to have their "flesh purified"...? I do not hold out much hope for any repentant traitors.

The mutation from abraxes caused their gene-seed to spiral out of control...

Avatar 720 wrote:It will depend on how they decide to return. If they're like the LotD and simply turn up, aid the Imperium in their fights and disappear again then they'll be free to do that so long as they aren't caught, but they won't be a true part of the Imperium.

They could turn themselves in to a somewhat more radical Inquisitor who will spare their lives if they do something for him in return, and he could potentially shield them from investigation if he had enough reputation and connections.

They might also reveal themselves to a Chapter who feels sorry for them and inducts them into their ranks, as long as they're not investigated at any length by the Imperium then nobody should know the difference.

But if you mean marching up to the nearest Ordo Malleus Battlefleet expecting a slap on the wrist but general welcome, then there's very little to no chance.

In a similar vein, what if you are a loyal SM and you are tricked by warp magicks into fighting for Chaos, but released when your enslaver is killed? You did not turn and you were far from in control of your actions or even your mind, contrary to most traitor SM who willingly switch sides.

There was also the bit about where a Sensai could exorcise them if they had seen the light and were willing. All chaos taint would leave their body and they would then join the Sensai's army.

There are some chapters like the Lementers, Mantis Warriors, Tiger Claws, and many other chapters that redeem themselves through a crusade, and thus lose their homeworld.