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I think fluff is the correct term...

Anyways! I was reading through parts of the Chaos Codex, and it got me curious. Are chaos marines all Corrupted SM? Or am I right in thinking that some of them are raiders, pirates, and groups of individuals who follow the Daemon gods for power and believed fortune? I know the basics of te Horus Herrasy, but that's about it. The codec is a bit vague on the tendencies of the Chaos marines, outside of a few distinct chapters and name characters. But I'm wanting to create my own chapter, based around raiding/piracy, so I want to know I that would work for true CSM lore/fluff.

Most Chaos Space Marines are former Imperial Space Marines.

They are everything from raiders to pirates and Legionaries.

Awesome. Now a followup question:

How colonized are settlements in 40k? Are we talking just full blown cities with imperial forces guarding them, or are there smaller areas that would be considered "marks" by a raiding troupe? Sort of like the small back water towns, without any real protection.

Many worlds are semi-primitive.

Read Brothers of the Snake sometime, good read. One of my favorites hence my screenname. The planet in the opening and closing of the novel is semi-primitive as the inhabitants have no space faring vehicles nor do they employ high technology.

That depends on the world in question.

We, howere have data from codex that there are around 32.000 Hive Worlds ( that's planet city in short ), rest are agri worlds ( farming worlds ), ocean worlds, death worlds ( Krieg, Catachan ), shrine worlds ( like Ophelia VII ), Forge Worlds, Adeptus Astartes Homeworlods etc....
And population vary from world to world. Taros for example had "only" 12.000.000 Humans ( Ecclesiarch said that was "pitiful" amount of population ). Meridian ( Hive World from DoW II ) have 32.000.000.000 people. So it depends on world in question.

Ouch. Seems I need to just find a world and start learning all the lore about it. I forgot how in depth 40k could be :x And my newbie mind barely knows anything xD

Chaos Space Marines sometimes recruit Chaos Cultists and put 'em through Marine training, but most CSM start out as regular Imperial Space Marines.

Best bet would be Lexicanum. Its a good place to start any 40k related story...
But if you want to know more about 40k read codex, Imperial armory, White Dwarf articles and BL books.
If you are interested in certain thing ask question here and we will see that we aid you as best as we can.

At this point for my custom chapter, I'd have to find a good world to base them on, primarily for their roots. I planned for them to just literally be raiders and pillagers who operate for the gods to inherit their daemonic power, like the Berserkers but not dedicated to one god, and with more tactics compared to the "Burn, kill, pillage" idealism I get from their and Kharnes entries in the CSM codex.

"Chaos Space Marines" are traitor Astartes who have made pacts with the Chaos Gods/Daemonic forces on any kind of level. Some like the Word Bearers are fanatical worshippers of Chaos while others like the Night Lords may have very little if any contact with the Gods of Chaos. They can engage in piracy, mercenary work, raiding, etc.. though.

"Renegade Space Marines" tend to be the more non-ideological cutthroat pirates/brigands. Though some like the Soul Drinkers can still be loyal to the Imperium in spirit.

For the sake of convenience GW put both these categories of Marines in the CSM codex.

A chaos space marine chapter called the blood gorgons even have recruiting worlds just like loyal space marine chapters.

Sei wrote:At this point for my custom chapter, I'd have to find a good world to base them on, primarily for their roots. I planned for them to just literally be raiders and pillagers who operate for the gods to inherit their daemonic power, like the Berserkers but not dedicated to one god, and with more tactics compared to the "Burn, kill, pillage" idealism I get from their and Kharnes entries in the CSM codex.

It's a big galaxy, just make a world up. Dealing pragmatically with Chaos, bartering services for power, is perfectly viable within the background - it's how everybody (well, everybody except Lorgar) starts. From there, of course, it's a slippery, Faustian slope to becomming a dribbling, formless spawn.

Harriticus wrote:For the sake of convenience GW put both these categories of Marines in the CSM codex, and failed to do justice to either.

Fixed that for you.

Look into the Red corsairs.