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Reading through codex/books, etc, you'll occasionally read references to a chapter's geneseed being particularly pure (Dark Angels, Ultramarines) or less so (Blood Angels, Thousand Sons).

Where in a ranking do y'all think the 18 known legions fall compared to each other?

Hmm, well, not sure about the rest, but I reckon Sanguinius is at the very bottom, with Magnus above him and Night Haunter just above that.

Sanguinius being a hyper-psychic freak with wings, of all things, and Magnus being just a hair better (at least his psychic power was deliberate on their father's part), and Kurze had all that filthy darkness adaptation going on.

I don't think any of the Primarchs had gene-seed. Otherwise an Apothecary could've made new Primarchs from an old ones post-Emperor (well, I suppose they did try to clone Horus.. not sure if that counts).

As for the (Loyal) Space Marines, they used to have that little chart

Word Bearers was quite high up there (had a tendency to be slightly fanatical) and so was the Emperor's Children. I also imagine that the Luna Wolves was also pretty good, seeing as they had one of the largest legions.

That chart is inaccurate for gene seed purity

100% of Imperial Fists have to no acid issue... yeah basically the whole thing is wrong

I feel like Space Wolves as much as I love them, would probably be towards the incredibly unpure what with the whole genetic mutation thing >.>

jakejackjake wrote:
That chart is inaccurate for gene seed purity

100% of Imperial Fists have to no acid issue... yeah basically the whole thing is wrong

Is that a mutation though? If it happens 100% of the time, then surely it's no longer a mutation of such. The same with the Raven guard, all their skin goes white and their eyes jet black... It's not exactly a mutation any longer as it's expected to happen.


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 Furyou Miko wrote:
Hmm, well, not sure about the rest, but I reckon Sanguinius is at the very bottom, with Magnus above him and Night Haunter just above that.

Sanguinius being a hyper-psychic freak with wings, of all things, and Magnus being just a hair better (at least his psychic power was deliberate on their father's part), and Kurze had all that filthy darkness adaptation going on.

There is a distinct chance that Sanguinius' wings were not a mutation that grew unexpectedly, but were by design from the big E.

Salamanders have a 90% mutation rate? I thought they were pretty stable as far as geneseed goes

jakejackjake wrote:
Salamanders have a 90% mutation rate? I thought they were pretty stable as far as geneseed goes

Their skin goes black as coal and their eyes are red. They are also slightly slower than your average marine, although they are tougher.

 welshhoppo wrote:

jakejackjake wrote:
Salamanders have a 90% mutation rate? I thought they were pretty stable as far as geneseed goes

Their skin goes black as coal and their eyes are red. They are also slightly slower than your average marine, although they are tougher.

And none of that is due to geneseed but from being on high gravity radiated planet

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Hmm, well, not sure about the rest, but I reckon Sanguinius is at the very bottom, with Magnus above him and Night Haunter just above that.

Sanguinius being a hyper-psychic freak with wings, of all things, and Magnus being just a hair better (at least his psychic power was deliberate on their father's part), and Kurze had all that filthy darkness adaptation going on.

No, Magnus is the worst. The Thousand Sons can't even create new astartes with their gene seed last I checked, with everyone reduced to either chaos spawn or rubric marines/chaos sorcerers. It has absolutely zero stability. The Blood Angels are actually fairly stable compared to some of the other legions like the Space Wolves. Magnus/Thousand Sons is at the bottom, Guilliman/Ultramarines is at the top. However, I don't think that the Salamander's obsidian black skin counts as a mutation, as it's simply a trait inherited from their primarch. If anything, they're incredibly stable. The only question for their mutation is if the Black Dragons are actually descended from the Salamanders.

jakejackjake wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:

jakejackjake wrote:
Salamanders have a 90% mutation rate? I thought they were pretty stable as far as geneseed goes

Their skin goes black as coal and their eyes are red. They are also slightly slower than your average marine, although they are tougher.

And none of that is due to geneseed but from being on high gravity radiated planet

I'm pretty sure the radiation has butchered that poor geneseed over the millennium.

 welshhoppo wrote:

jakejackjake wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:

jakejackjake wrote:
Salamanders have a 90% mutation rate? I thought they were pretty stable as far as geneseed goes

Their skin goes black as coal and their eyes are red. They are also slightly slower than your average marine, although they are tougher.

And none of that is due to geneseed but from being on high gravity radiated planet

I'm pretty sure the radiation has butchered that poor geneseed over the millennium.

No, it's because that's what Vulkan looked exactly like. Every Salamander is a near perfect example of what Vulkan looked like. It's not due to any radiation or defect, it's simply how Vulkan always looked.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:

jakejackjake wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:

jakejackjake wrote:
Salamanders have a 90% mutation rate? I thought they were pretty stable as far as geneseed goes

Their skin goes black as coal and their eyes are red. They are also slightly slower than your average marine, although they are tougher.

And none of that is due to geneseed but from being on high gravity radiated planet

I'm pretty sure the radiation has butchered that poor geneseed over the millennium.

No, it's because that's what Vulkan looked exactly like. Every Salamander is a near perfect example of what Vulkan looked like. It's not due to any radiation or defect, it's simply how Vulkan always looked.

It's debatable whether it is the planet itself or the geneseed. (Referenced from Lexicanum)

Their Index astartes says their geneseed is stable if I remember right. It's a little ambiguous as everything in 40k

And no Vulkan looked that way because of Nocturne not his genetics

If the no acid of the Imperial Fists isn't a mutation and that happens 100% of the time then neither are the Red eyes and stuff that happens to 100% of Salamanders C wut I did Thur?

Alpha Legion must be incredibly stable. I mean they fell to chaos and there still is virtually no mutation in the gene.

 Silverthorne wrote:
Alpha Legion must be incredibly stable. I mean they fell to chaos and there still is virtually no mutation in the gene.

that we know about

 Zweischneid wrote:
I don't think any of the Primarchs had gene-seed. Otherwise an Apothecary could've made new Primarchs from an old ones post-Emperor (well, I suppose they did try to clone Horus.. not sure if that counts).

As for the (Loyal) Space Marines, they used to have that little chart

I had always assumed that chart was created under the understanding that, the standard for determining the purity of gene-seeds of the astartes are based on that of the Ultramarines -- after all, I believe it's mentioned somewhere that most chapters are descendents of, or otherwise created with stocks mostly taken from the Ultramarines. Therefore those chapters that exhibit the most "impurity" are those that are the most physically distinguishable from your everyday smurfs (which would makes sense consider how SW with their whole canis motif, BA with their winged and psychically potent primarch, Salamanders with their... eh, immortal gene-father, etc.).

I'd find it unlikely if there were such standards before the heresy (in the current settings, anyways), considering at that time, Mars had nothing to do with storing gene-seeds. Also, missing Progenoid Glands might not count as deviation from the norm, it's just that, some chapter might have a few abilities... missing, is all.

that chart is perhaps best viewed as "gene seed stability" in short how likely it is to vary from the core gene seed

We'll this I can say: Dark angels and Ultramarines probably have on of the stablest gene seeds. Oh and are you forgetting that the Space Wolves cannot create sub-chapters (or whatever their called?)

I believe the DA codex puts their geneseed at even more stable than that of the Ultramarines, which makes their lack of successor chapters something of note to those who are aware of this

 Dannyrulx wrote:
We'll this I can say: Dark angels and Ultramarines probably have on of the stablest gene seeds. Oh and are you forgetting that the Space Wolves cannot create sub-chapters (or whatever their called?)

quite possiably, it also explains the imperial fists low percentage chance. even then it already has lost something, by and large it's stable and the chances of additional changes is unlikely

 Zweischneid wrote:

Wow, looks like GW used to be pretty racist...

Pre-heresy the Emperor's Childrem were obsessed with gene seed purity which was a reason they recruited much slower than the other legions... They had a disaster with their gene seed early on and since then made sure all their seed was as 'perfect' as possible


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dannyrulx wrote:
We'll this I can say: Dark angels and Ultramarines probably have on of the stablest gene seeds. Oh and are you forgetting that the Space Wolves cannot create sub-chapters (or whatever their called?)

This is correct, the space wolves cannot create successor chapters thanks to Magnus

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Hmm, well, not sure about the rest, but I reckon Sanguinius is at the very bottom, with Magnus above him and Night Haunter just above that.

Sanguinius being a hyper-psychic freak with wings, of all things, and Magnus being just a hair better (at least his psychic power was deliberate on their father's part), and Kurze had all that filthy darkness adaptation going on.

Actually the Night Lords gene seed is still quite pure as they mainly stay out of the eye of terror, the only problem that it has are the foresight abilities Kurze had. The skin tone, eyes, and hair were in the genetics of those born on Nostromo as it was in perpetual night. The Haunter's enhanced physiology adapted to the Nostroman environment, leading many of the marines to have pale skin and night vision, on top of those recruited from the home planet itself.