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What Is The Black Rage And How Do SM Affected By It Act?

The Black Rage is a psychic affliction. Blood Angels who fall to the Black Rage lose all sense of self and believe they are Sanguinius during the Siege of Terra. Their senses are twisted, enemies they are fighting appear to them as Chaos Space Marines, or even Horus himself. They are gripped by a constant rage at the betrayal of their "brother" Horus, and will throw themselves headlong into anything to sate Sanguinius' bloodlust. Mephiston is the only marine to ever overcome the Black Rage.

 Orblivion wrote:
The Black Rage is a psychic affliction. Blood Angels who fall to the Black Rage lose all sense of self and believe they are Sanguinius during the Siege of Terra. Their senses are twisted, enemies they are fighting appear to them as Chaos Space Marines, or even Horus himself. They are gripped by a constant rage at the betrayal of their "brother" Horus, and will throw themselves headlong into anything to sate Sanguinius' bloodlust. Mephiston is the only marine to ever overcome the Black Rage.

Ah, Thanks.

As Orblivion says. However, I will quickly add that another, the Chaplain called Lemartes, is somewhat able to resist the Black Rage and retain his senses outside of battle.

Generally speaking, an Astartes who falls to the Black Rage is inducted into the Death Company: Their armour is painted back and they are sent off as a suicide squad. Just point them at the enemy and stay out of their way. Any that survive the battle are executed for preservation of their honour and their battle brother's safety.

Lemartes however, is the exception. He is seemingly able to retain his senses in the Rage and act rationally enough to be statis frozen and held in stasis until the next battle. He can direct his Death Company brothers and lead them as the "sane" Chaplains and Captains cannot.

There is a recent book from BL called Lemartes which follows him before and during a battle and gives some narration about his control of the Black Rage.

I wouldn't recommend it though as I thought it was a fething bad book.

Mephiston apparently survived through the black rage after being trapped under rubble for an amount of time (and being completely immobilized). When he came out he apparently conquered it and will never fall prey to it again, but many whisper that ever since that day, Mephiston hasn't seemed like himself, nor very normal for a blood angel at that. It also massively amplified his psychic potential.

I think in one of the older codexes they mention either other marines being trapped like that or they tried reproducing the results by restraining a rage marine, but none survived like mephiston did. There are rumors he may be possessed by a daemon as a result.

Dose The Black Rage Alter The Marines Appearance, A Few Pictures Of DC Marines Have Different Appearances Compared To Most BAs.

 Prime259 wrote:
Dose The Black Rage Alter The Marines Appearance, A Few Pictures Of DC Marines Have Different Appearances Compared To Most BAs.

Depends on the writer. Some writers have the Red Thirst turn the marine more "vampire-like" with fangs, sunken pale skin, etc. Some have the black rage do the same. Generally speaking, the Black Rage induces a glassy-eyed, fevered look that the Chaplains pick up on. Imagine it would be similar look to hallucinigenic drugs: They are seeing things that aren't their, so their eyes would focus on things not in the physicl room, they mutter and whisper to themselves as they relive Sanguinius' death, and they shake as aggression and adrenaline floods their body.

 Deadshot wrote:

 Prime259 wrote:
Dose The Black Rage Alter The Marines Appearance, A Few Pictures Of DC Marines Have Different Appearances Compared To Most BAs.

Depends on the writer. Some writers have the Red Thirst turn the marine more "vampire-like" with fangs, sunken pale skin, etc. Some have the black rage do the same. Generally speaking, the Black Rage induces a glassy-eyed, fevered look that the Chaplains pick up on. Imagine it would be similar look to hallucinigenic drugs: They are seeing things that aren't their, so their eyes would focus on things not in the physicl room, they mutter and whisper to themselves as they relive Sanguinius' death, and they shake as aggression and adrenaline floods their body.

You're thinking of deliriants. Psychedelics wouldn't do that.
As for talking to yourself, that would be uncommon even on a deliriant. Unless Death Company marines walk around laughing, wide eyed and possibly dancing, they won't look as if they're on psychedelics :p

Back in 2nd Ed black rage was followed by the red thirst that litteraly made the blood angels thirst for blood. Mephisto had a special rule that he had to drink the blood of defeated enemies. Speaking of Mephisto he actually bested the black rage on Armageddon, previously named Ullanor, a planet deamon Angron once invaded in the 40k era. There's some conspiracies tying theese things togheter. I like to think that being a psyker he somehow overcame it through willpower. A psyker more or less fights enemies in his head every day after all.

 Nerak wrote:
Back in 2nd Ed black rage was followed by the red thirst that litteraly made the blood angels thirst for blood. Mephisto had a special rule that he had to drink the blood of defeated enemies. Speaking of Mephisto he actually bested the black rage on Armageddon, previously named Ullanor, a planet deamon Angron once invaded in the 40k era. There's some conspiracies tying theese things togheter. I like to think that being a psyker he somehow overcame it through willpower. A psyker more or less fights enemies in his head every day after all.

The codex mentions an unwritten rule among the chapter's librarians that any librarian fallen to the Black Rage should be immediately "dealt with" (can't remember the exact wording), due to their increased risk of possession. One would assume that there were no other librarians present when Calistarius fell, so he was inducted into the Death Company just like any other Blood Angel.

Worth to notice The Black Rage and The Red Thirst are 2 different afflictions and while both may lead a Blood Angel to join the Death Company each o e have different effects.

Black Rage can't be cured or contained (aside Lemartes strong will) and a marine afflicted by it becomes delusional believing he is Sanguinius. If he somehow survives all the battles the chapter will put him down for good ( By Astorath hands)

The Red Thirst it's a bloodcraze feeling that makes the marine to desire and even drink the Blood of his enemies while the marine can mostly retain his common sense it's a dangerous condition as they often go Berserk triying to satiate themselves.

Blood Angels who survive the battle under the Blood Thirst cam be reasoned to a point and are locked into the Tower of Amareo in Bhaal ( they are like crack addicts without control) And they often join Death Company to avoid the shame of suchs cravings.

Unless i'm mistaken Mephiston was afflicted by Red Thirst and not Black Rage.

Death Company is solely for those who have fallen to the Black Rage. Mephiston fell to the Black Rage.

The Black Rage also gives the BA a fraction of Sanguinius' power.

The Thirst is more like an addiction and it's why the Blood Angels are close combat specialists. If I remember, the flaw existed even during Sanguinius's time, albeit much rarer than it is now.

The Red Thirst is survivable, and often only lasts for the duration of a single battle, but a Battle Brother can be permanently lost to it and would be inducted into the Death Company as well (since they would be just as insane as anyone who fell to the Black Rage). However the Thirst is tied to the Rage on some level, as Sanguinius's psychic death (the one that created the Rage) also caused the Thirst to become more pronounced and uncontrollable.

Mephiston officially triumphed over the Black Rage. However in the 3rd Edition Codex interchangably used the Black Rage and the Red Thirst, as the latter was considered a symptom of the former (indeed the original incarnation of the "Red Thirst" rule is actually called Black Rage) rather than a separate affliction that later editions have noted as.