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Hey guys I am currently playing a Deathwatch RPG campaign with some friends. It's been the first ever RPG I have played and have grown attached to my character who is an Iron Hands tactical named Settra (paying homage to the greatest warhammer fantasy character, Settra the Imperishable). If he survives his tour of duty I was thinking of modeling the chapter master of my primarily Primaris marine chapter as him. I had some lore ideas on how this would come to be, but I wanted to get the feasibility checked and critiqued before I did so.

So the TLDR is that before before we reached the Indomitus crusade and the return of Guiliman, Settra served in the Deathwatch. During his service he developed a friendship with an Imperial Fist (name TBD). During the time of the great rift opening up an especially violent conflict at a minor watch station far off from his previous watch station of service, Erioch, left him the sole survivor of the conflict and only then due to the sacrifice of the Imperial Fist whom he had served for a great many years with. It is at this point Settra suffers some serious insanity point gain (nod to all the Deathwatch RPG vets) and decides that by all rights the Imperial Fist was the better marine. He was the strong one. He should have lived and Settra should have died. By no right should he still draw breath while his brother lay died. He decides that his brother's tale will not yet end and decides to take up the mantle and become the fallen. So he replaces his shoulder pad with that of the Fist and upon making contact with the greater Imperium claims to be such. He has minor dealings with the Deathwatch thereafter where he makes his report leaving out the events where he is in fact not who he says he is. Queue some sad scene where he sees his own burial and his own name added to the list of the emperors finest. The Deathwatch then receive a request from the Imperial Fists seeking any captain level individuals available to return to their chapter and take up the head of a new founding of Primaris marines as their chapter master.

Settra heeds the call and returns to "his" chapter and now finds himself as an Iron Hand leading a Imperial Fist Primaris successor chapter. Now I figure the chief apothecary of the chapter would be aware of his actual origin, but beyond that none would know by design.

So how feasible is this to happen? Beyond examination at a genetic level or run ins with people who were familiar with Settra or the Imperial Fist he is impersonating (Which the narrative is crafted to avoid) I don't think it would be too unlikely to occur. Settra would for sure have a high level of cybernetics as befitting an Iron Hand, but nothing proprietary to them as his cybernetics were supplied by the Deathwatch and not his own chapter. As far as physical appearance (barring the cybernetics) to my knowledge Imperial Fists and Iron Hands do not look entirely different or have noticeable features such as the skin tones of a salamander or raven guard.

Sounds like a cool story. Dunno how "feasible," but the galaxy is a big place, and you can do as you please with your dudes IMHO.

He would have to avoid spitting acid or using his hibernation abilities, since regular imperial fists don’t have use of those organs. Primaris have had all those problems fixed, though.

I’m not sure why he’d have to be the founding chapter master. Just have his deathwatch mate be from chapter X, and when he goes back pretending to be the dead friend, he gets promoted to chapter master. Helbrecht, Dante, and Calgar are hardly the first masters of their chapters, but they seem to be some of the greatest.



To me, the background has always indicated that chapters sending officers to command new chapters is very irregular and it was just made up by internet people and recently somewhat adopted by hired hands at GW. It seems more in keeping with the fluff of the codes that whole chapters are trained by one or probably a succession of senior chapters, and all the personnel have to be contained within their own chapter to prevent contamination of ideology, politics, or genetics.

Definitely sounds like a cool backstory!

I like it, but are you sure you want him as Chapter Master?

It kind of constrains you into using a chapter master when often a captain will do, and if he's 'just' a company captain, that gives you an angle for potential friction between your character and the other companies in your chapter?

I'm actually considering doing the same thing, interestingly enough. My chapter's background includes a big moment where, after standard blood angel doctrine has failed them time and again, they put a controversial, petulant former watch captain in the chapter master seat after the Alpha Legion assassinates their first chapter master.
He shakes things up for a while and basically reorganizes the chapter to operate like the Alpha Legion.