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So, I was looking back over the foundings and various chapters when I had a theory

The 21st Founding was the Mechanicus experimenting with the Traitor Legion's gene seed.

There are a few well known Chapters coming out of that founding, Minotaurs, Lamenters, Flame Hawks/Legion of the Damned.
Now, I also got thinking about the Blood Ravens = Sons of Thousand Island Dressing. Blood Ravens history only goes back as far as 37m, with the cursed founding being the 36m, which puts them at around the same founding

So,
Blood Ravens = Hundreds and Thousands Sons
Minotaurs = World Eaters
Sons of Antaeus = Death Guard

Stretch the imagination and you could add the other legions too

Silver Skulls = Iron Warriors
This could be where Loyalist Warsmith Barabas left his men, since they had a strong Ultramarine link at the end of the Heresy.
Founding doesn't match the others, but if they had men already there then they wouldn't need the Mechanicus.

Red Scorpions = Emperor's Children
Unknown founding, who prize perfection in the codex above all. Hate Xenos and mutants. Ring a bell?

Iron Snakes = Alpha Legion
Bit of a stretch, but there is a few theories about Omegon splitting off from his brother. They have the same sort of tactics, especially with the diguise wearing Chapter Master.

Carcharodons = Night Lords
They both use fear and barbarity to win conflicts rather then frontal assault. Founding was the 37m, which could match up.

Only two Legions are left unaccounted for, the Word Bearers and the Sons of Horus. It would be kinda understandable why they wouldn't try to recreate the Sons of Horus, with they whole 'Horus murdering God' thing.

I used to consider that Carcharodons were night lords in origin, but Foreworld's Horus Heresy makes it almost for certain that they are the descendants of the Terran born Raven Guard whom Corax didn't take a liking too and sent off to the galactic rim to perpetually handles threats that may arise out there (He apparently disliked them so much that after the Istvaan Massacre, he didn't even bother to call them back to help bolster his ranks). And their founding is listed as unknown with records indicating their being active as early as M32 in the Solar Rebellion (alongside the Minotaurs, Angels of Absolution, and Death Eagles).

I'm personally a strong believer that the Silver Skulls are loyalist Iron Warriors and that the Ultramarines are covering for them. Their chapter emblem closely resembles that of Barabas Dantioch's helmet.

I agree with everything Pariah said above, and I'm a strong believer in the Red Scorpions - Emperor's Children link and especially the Blood Ravens - Thousand Sons link. The Iron Snakes I can kind of see, but as you said it is a little stretch, not an unrealistic one for 40k, but still a stretch. And of course it's still cool.

I like the idea, I agree with what Pariah and Man with No Plan have said, but that still doesn't discount the theory really. The Mechanicum, and the HLOT could have been fiddling around with the geneseed in the hopes of getting more stable Marines. After all a lot of the loyalist geneseed is flawed. Pretty much only Dark Angels and Ultra Marines are clean, and they don't want to wear that stuff out do they.

The subtle Carcharadon-esque iconography on the Raven Guard in Extermination pretty much seals the deal as to their founding legion, but there's a flaw in the Terran Predation Fleet theory: said markings are described (on the sidebar to the Tartaros Terminator IIRC) as being *Lycaean* in origin, so I doubt exiled Terrans would use them.

A note about Minotaurs: FW's Minotaurs are noted as being suspected by some Imperial scholars to be a different chapter from the Cursed Founding chapter of the same name. There's a fella going round claiming that they're based on his homebrew Minotaurs who are descended from the Iron Warriors, which ordinarily I'd dismiss but IIRC I've seen Andy Hoare (who is active in a few Facebook groups) drop a comment saying they do have an Iron Warrior connection.

 General Kroll wrote:
I like the idea, I agree with what Pariah and Man with No Plan have said, but that still doesn't discount the theory really. The Mechanicum, and the HLOT could have been fiddling around with the geneseed in the hopes of getting more stable Marines. After all a lot of the loyalist geneseed is flawed. Pretty much only Dark Angels and Ultra Marines are clean, and they don't want to wear that stuff out do they.

Let's not forget the story in Index Astartes 2 where an explorator team finds the secret base where the Cursed Founding chapters were engineered, and the records they found heavily implied that the Cursed Founding was being manipulated by Fabius Bile.

This makes it even more likely that traitor geneseed found its way into those experiments.

 fallinq wrote:

 General Kroll wrote:
I like the idea, I agree with what Pariah and Man with No Plan have said, but that still doesn't discount the theory really. The Mechanicum, and the HLOT could have been fiddling around with the geneseed in the hopes of getting more stable Marines. After all a lot of the loyalist geneseed is flawed. Pretty much only Dark Angels and Ultra Marines are clean, and they don't want to wear that stuff out do they.

Let's not forget the story in Index Astartes 2 where an explorator team finds the secret base where the Cursed Founding chapters were engineered, and the records they found heavily implied that the Cursed Founding was being manipulated by Fabius Bile.

This makes it even more likely that traitor geneseed found its way into those experiments.

Hark unto thee!

http://redelf.narod.ru/w40k/ia/w40k_ia_cf.html

I struggle to accept that the HLoT and the Mechanicum would willingly use Traitor Gene - seed after they were made aware of the inherit flaws in said Gene - seed. I can though get behind the idea that new Chapters were created using traitor Gene - seed by the machinations and interference of Mr Bile. I know the Imperium can be dumb, but I hope not this dumb. Sure there are reasons to use the Gene - seed of the Traitor legions for the benefits that they bring. But there's a big no no, which is they went traitor and the gene - seed was locked away in stasis on Terra because of this.