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How is a space marine chapter founded? What are the steps involved? How long does it take?

There are a few theories as to how the chapter is trained by it tends to be a bit like this...
The Founding is decreed by the High Lords.
The chapter gene-seed and implants are grown using samples taken in gene-seed tithes. (Takes 55 years)
The gene-seed and implants are... well implanted into the recruits.
After that it gets a bit hazy since someone has to have trained the new chapter and also there isn't anyone to lead them who has experience...

I already discussed that with BluntmanDC, you can ask him for details.

"Chapters are only formed at the will of the High Lords of Terra (and ergo the Emperor), chapter's may petition the High Lords but it is not up to them. "

" it's formed through growing new progenoids and creating an entirely new set of marines, trained by veteran members from their source chapter."

"Every Chapter is required to send a tithe of geneseed to the Mechanicus/High Lords so that their purity can be monitored and new foundings can be made, the Mechanicus use vat grown humans to develop the organs for transplantation from geneseed stored in Mechanicus vaults."

"The only example of a successful petition was for the founding of The Disciples of Caliban by Anaziel, which as described as 'unheard of for a Chapter Master to make such a request'. So it is very, very rare."

"The Inquisition has only one recorded piece of fluff about founding a chapter and that is the Exorcists. However the Lord of the Inquistion is usually a member of the High Lords of Terra anyway and the founding of the Exorcists was fully supported by the Ad Mech as well"

"Chapters pay a tithe of geneseed. It's stored somewhere (probably Mars) and when The IoM deems it neccesary they will create a chapter. Now whether its The High Lords who give the order or The Inquisition I'm not sure but I was under the Impression it was the Inquistion. Pretty much every founding after the second was made this way."

Hope this helps you

This is taken whole from Aurelius Rex at the Bolter & Chainsword forums:

This comes up periodically, and while GW has been unclear on the subject, this particular theory has gained acceptance on Liber as logically being a good explanation. The first three points are GW canon, and inviolate, with the rest being the favoured way to explain the known facts. The High Lords may have done things differently over the last ten thousand years, but this should give a template to work from.

1. The High Lords of Terra, speaking for the Emperor, decree a new Founding of Adeptus Astartes Chapters. There is great jubilation and much quaffing.

2. The Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars selects geneseed from the tithed stocks, say from the Ultramarines / Roboute Guilliman gene-line, although as there are only nine First Founding Chapters out of the thousand possible, it is most likely that the geneseed selected will actually be from a successor Chapter.

3. The Adeptus Mechanicus cultures some more geneseed from the original sample selected using mindwiped subjects floating in big glassteel tanks. They would also supply some equipment (Rhinos, ships, armour) to get them started, with the rest expected to be produced by the new Chapter's Forges, or requisitioned like every other Chapter does.

4. A small cadre of experienced marines from the chapter that supplied the geneseed is given the honour / responsibility of training the initiates from the fledgeling chapter. This would ensure that they follow (broadly) in the footsteps of their parent chapter from a doctrinal and philosophical point of view, although there is still the potential for deviations... children never turn out exactly like their parents.

5. The cadre could be made up of a captain from the parent chapter to be the first Chapter Master, along with experienced marines to become the training scout sergeants, and eventually marine squad sergeants and captains. There would also be specialists like a Chaplain, Techmarines, Apothecaries and Librarians to get the chapter going and train up a new generation from among the initiates.

6. This would number between 20-40 marines, and there is no way that the First Founding chapters could do this for multiple (up to 20 at a time) successors. Again this supports the idea that later Founding Chapters would have to have a hand in founding the new Chapters, so while two thirds of Chapters are from the Guilliman geneline, the actual geneseed and initial cadre of Marines might have come from the Mortifactors, Black Consuls, Eagle Warriors or any other Chapter with Guilliman geneseed as well as directly from the Ultramarines themselves. For ease of explaination GW (and the Administratum) may call all of them with the Guilliman geneline 'Ultramarines successors', and there is always the chance of snobbery existing, with a chapter wanting to call itself an Ultramarines successor when technically it is the successor of a 25th Founding Guilliman Chapter that no-one has ever heard of.

7. The Chapter will recruit and grow in numbers until after many decades it reaches the full compliment. It will participate in battles and campaigns as its numbers allow, perhaps fighting alongside other Chapters until it has sufficient numbers to conduct independant actions. Remember that a Chapter will rarely send its whole compliment of ten companies to war other than in the most dire of circumstances, so squad and company level actions are common and will be possible quite early in the Chapter's history.

8. The initial cadre of marines may return to their parent chapter once they have got the new Chapter running - they may always be Crimson Fists at heart. Alternatively they may elect to stay. Going back to being a Captain after having been a Chapter Master might not appeal to many. It could depend if the secondment was temporary, or of a more permanent nature.

Excellent discription ty for all the detailed info.

Now I must ask something: can they use gene-seed from second or even 3'rd founding chapters?

First, daddy space marine and papa space marine get together, and love eachother very much...

Brother Coa wrote:Now I must ask something: can they use gene-seed from second or even 3'rd founding chapters?

yes,


often what happens is this.


a group of Veterans from a chapter will be taken to begin the new one. they will be given the new supplies of Genestock and will spend the next 50 or so years training new recruits.


the new supplies of Genestock are created like this,

the selected samples are taken and placed in Humans that have been specifically bred for this purpose. the Geneseed multiplies in their bodies and is then harvested. once they have enough to found the chapter they stop. this is fatal for the humans involved.

the stock is sent to the new marine chapter, who will have been provided with stockpiles of armor and weapons as well as a small fleet(usually a Strike Cruiser or 2 and some escorts)


the Marines then usually look for a new homeworld, though they can remain a fleet based chapter.

Melissia wrote:First, daddy space marine and papa space marine get together, and love eachother very much...

And here I thought that they love only the Emperor

Brother Coa wrote:Now I must ask something: can they use gene-seed from second or even 3'rd founding chapters?

The 'Ultramarine's' genestock is made up of nearly all successors of the Ultramarines, seeing as the geneseed is very stable.

As a from fluff example, the Astral Claws had 3 successors, one of them being the Tiger Claws. The Astral Claws were not one of the greatest chapters so to have had 3 successors would mean that it may be usual for later foundings to be used for successors.