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So, another two questions here, if you don't mind.

1. Why is the natural progression for a Slaaneshi Cultist to Noise Marine? Why of the five senses is Noise the only one that they focus on? There's no cannibalistic Devourer Marines of taste, there's no sniping marines of sight, or smell marines, or touch marines. Why is there only Noise Marines?

2. How sentient are Rubric machines? While they're referred to as automatons, they still have the soul inside them. Are they sentient? Conscious? Can they talk, and if so is it only in monotone answers to respond to their master or can they lament their position as souls bound to power armor?

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
So, another two questions here, if you don't mind.

1. Why is the natural progression for a Slaaneshi Cultist to Noise Marine?

Cultists do not become Noise Marines, you have to already be a CSM first.
As a CSM continues to indulge in pleasure they become more and more like a noise marine(fearless, using noise weaponry, faster)

Why of the five senses is Noise the only one that they focus on? There's no cannibalistic Devourer Marines of taste, there's no sniping marines of sight, or smell marines, or touch marines. Why is there only Noise Marines?

Touch marines are basically DE. They thrive on Pain. GW probably decided not to add them to CSM because they would be too similar to khorne troops. Smell wouldnt be a very effective weapon of war, considering that you need to waft said particles over to the other party. (Sound wouldnt work in space either). Sight marines would be possible, they could use a strobe light that induces siezers or vomiting.

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:

2. How sentient are Rubric machines? While they're referred to as automatons, they still have the soul inside them. Are they sentient? Conscious? Can they talk, and if so is it only in monotone answers to respond to their master or can they lament their position as souls bound to power armor?

They are not at all sentient. They need a sorcerer to direct them to do basically anything.

 Exergy wrote:

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:

2. How sentient are Rubric machines? While they're referred to as automatons, they still have the soul inside them. Are they sentient? Conscious? Can they talk, and if so is it only in monotone answers to respond to their master or can they lament their position as souls bound to power armor?

They are not at all sentient. They need a sorcerer to direct them to do basically anything.

If I recall, they also showed signs of their old selves in the heat of battle or during times of massive psychic upheavel or something like that. But like you said, they are generally not aware and act more like dust-bucket robots.

Why is there only Noise Marines?

It's the easiest to weaponize. Also Slaanesh loves metal apparently.

I would think a taste marine with cannibalistic urges would kind of blur into being more Khornate since they're more about the slaughter and blood everywhere. Scent marines would be too hard to represent unless you had goofy cloud pieces everywhere and that would drift (pun intended) into being too Nurgly with the chemical warfare aspect.

The Noise Marines are noise marines because when the 3rd Legion conquered Laeran there was this unnatural 'music' playing in the Laer's temple cities (The Laer were dedicated to Slaanesh).
So then Bequa Kynska tries to recreate this ungodly 'music' and in doing so sends the Legionaries into a frenzy and summons daemons.
So now they spend their time trying to recreate the perfect sound to please Slaanesh.

Also I think it's better this way because Taste Marines would be too creepy to handle.

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
So, another two questions here, if you don't mind.

1. Why is the natural progression for a Slaaneshi Cultist to Noise Marine? Why of the five senses is Noise the only one that they focus on? There's no cannibalistic Devourer Marines of taste, there's no sniping marines of sight, or smell marines, or touch marines. Why is there only Noise Marines?

Noise doesn't just mean sound, for example visual patterns can be described as noisy. If you read the unit entries of Noise marines, you'll see they are also fans of lurid paint schemes, and appreciate the visual din of battle as much as the acoustic (bright flashes and so on).

Secondly, just because cannibalistic devourer marines of taste aren't described in the rules, doesn't mean they couldn't exist in the background.

Solar-powered_chainsword wrote:
2. How sentient are Rubric machines? While they're referred to as automatons, they still have the soul inside them. Are they sentient? Conscious? Can they talk, and if so is it only in monotone answers to respond to their master or can they lament their position as souls bound to power armor?

It varies depending on lots of factors. Many are essentially statues when no Sorceror is around. Their lucidity comes and goes, but even in battle (when they are at their most lucid) they are far from the people they previously were.

There is even a story of a rubric dread that dose not seem to need a sorcerer but dose not seem to do more then follow and attack with his brothers

The older books they were not as sorcerer dependent but they were still like robots

 TheManWithNoPlan wrote:

Also I think it's better this way because Taste Marines would be too creepy to handle.

They will taste everything with their tongues... Including your face. Sadly the rare "Taste marines" are stuck on frozen planets. They got their tongue stuck on ice.

I actually imagine a marine carrying a cooking set everywhere they go. "Food for the excess god!"

Anyway. There are Slaneshi marines going perfecting other stuff. They just don't have a dedicated unit for those random things.

When you think about it Rubric Marines should really have Feel no Pain.

As I understand it they dont even have physical bodies anymore. No body, no real sentience, no nothing.

No pain to feel. But I guess thats Nurgle's thing

 dan2026 wrote:
When you think about it Rubric Marines should really have Feel no Pain.

As I understand it they dont even have physical bodies anymore. No body, no real sentience, no nothing.

No pain to feel. But I guess thats Nurgle's thing

The rules at the time I started they had 2 wounds and were immune to shooting strength less than 5
Oh and were the same point cost they are

 dan2026 wrote:
When you think about it Rubric Marines should really have Feel no Pain.

As I understand it they dont even have physical bodies anymore. No body, no real sentience, no nothing.

No pain to feel. But I guess thats Nurgle's thing

All the cult marines should really 'feel no pain'

Is a khorne bezerker going to go down with a scratch or is he going to shrug it off and continue cleaving through bodies with his chain axe?

I think at this point most of the cult troops at some time had feel no pain. Maybe not rubrics, but I think they are the ones that deserve it most!