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Hi all, I’m creating a custom space marine chapter and I have the colours sorted for the army but that’s about it. I have ideas for the chapter background but would like so if your thoughts and ideas please.

I’ve thought about them being from the 2nd legion of one of the lost primarchs but I’m unsure as to the true fate of 2nd legion Astartes. Were they all wiped out by the Space Wolves or were they inducted into the Ultramarines. I’ve seen bits of information to suggest both of these as a possibility for the space marines outcome.

I also thought about Belasarius Cawl creating them from one of the lost legions. He has their gene seed and has asked Guilliman if he could use them but was told no. Crawls entire history has never been planned out so whilst in the absence of Guilliman and whilst building the Primaris could he have used the gene seed of the lost legions to great experimental chapters?

How about a ship got lost whilst travelling the warp and didn’t make to Istvaan in time. They then find out about the Jorus Heresy and want to seek redemption against the forces of chaos and their traitor brothers. They conceal their true primarch from other chapters and the inquisition as to not be cast in the same light as their original legion.

Any other ideas would be gratefully appreciated please

Many thanks

I believe that the two removed legions were gone between the discovery of all primarchs and the Istvaan massacre. But sure, we have the warp, so your company could have been lost in the warp since before the Primarch was killed. If that's the case then you would expect MkII, MkIII, and MkIV armour - all pre-heresy.

With regard to the missing legions I think the best information we have is that one of them possibly fell or was dishonoured during the Rangdan Xenocides, and that those battle brothers who remained were inducted into other factions (possibly/mainly Ultramarines). We know that the other primarchs know the name of the disgraced primarchs - they all swore to the Emperor to never speak of it. It's also hinted that Leman Russ was used to execute one of the disgraced primarchs.

Is your army both loyal to the emperor and also Imperial-aligned? There's certainly room for a blackshield force, hunting for clues as to the final outcome for their lost primarch.

Thanks that helps a lot and it’s a good deal of information there for me to go and research more on.

I’m hoping to have my chapter loyal to the emperor but I don’t like the idea of the High Lords of Terra, I understand the Imperium has to be managed but having a council of greedy politicians usually means bad trouble lol so I’d like to have my chapter not like them but just tolerate them if that makes sense.

I’ve never heard of Blackshields so I’ll go look into them now

Would blackshields be able to recruit or be recognised by the Imperium as loyal? I don’t want a story where my chapter isn’t liked by the Imperium and considers traitors. I want to build relationships and heroic stories for my chapter and their characters.

Your chapter has existed for over six thousand years. In that time they’ve had 30 different chapter masters, which would be like if your country had had the same leader for as long as the US has been a country. In that time they have almost never let an outsider step onto their ships, even a thunderhawk. The captain of whatever company you play is compared to the history and reach of his chapter and its high masters just a speck. How about that?

6000 years and 30 chapter masters would be a lot of writing for. I was hoping for more a young but heroic chapter. I’m just not sure on how they would fit in properly either before or during the Horus Heresy, thanks for the suggestion though


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Would the Blood Ravens from the Dawn of War Series be considered Blackshield? They nor the Adeptus Terra know their origins.

It is pretty Common amongst new Users to create this Kind of backstory. Tbh I dont like this kind of super Mary sue mysterious uber chapter. It is not as original as you might think since pretty much everyone who first jumps into marines likes to create this kind of cheesy backstory. Lost in the Warp, the Lost Legions/Primarchs, heard it all before and it never had substance to it or was represented by particularly special Models.

All of your ideas are neither new nor original. Sorry.

IF you were to recreate one of the Lost Legions I'd at least expect them to originate from a second human Imperium which hast not yet been discovered. And i'd expect the Models to be vastly different from normal marines.

Azkallean wrote:
6000 years and 30 chapter masters would be a lot of writing for. I was hoping for more a young but heroic chapter. I’m just not sure on how they would fit in properly either before or during the Horus Heresy, thanks for the suggestion though


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Would the Blood Ravens from the Dawn of War Series be considered Blackshield? They nor the Adeptus Terra know their origins.

No. Black Shields are chapterless either by choice or by being thrown out of their chapter. The blood ravens are a canonical mess created by a video game series but they are also a chapter.

Ok thanks for the blood ravens info, as for originality I understand where your coming from but wouldn’t you agree that There is no way of creating an original storyline as pretty much all that can be written has already been done? I am trying to think of ways to create a unique story for my chapter but every aspect has been covered in some way already.

I would give a lost primarch a go but like you said they’d be different models, although not very different as the Lunar Wolves fought the Technocracy that had very similar armour thanks to STC technology. The only notable difference if I remember correctly was the wearers weren’t genetically modified


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Also you said an empire for the lost primarch, there dubbed The Purged and The Forgotten. Unfortunately either lost primarch having an empire would have meant it was discovered and either claimed by the emperor or wiped out for not showing the correct fielty to the emperor. As they have both been discovered I can’t see how an empire could exist without the emperor knowing about it

To make your chapter your own it doesnt take lost Primarchs or time travel through the warp. This is stuff that has already been used over and over again to create marines with mysterious origins. Mysterious origins are not original.

Take a step back, read up the fluff on lesser known chapters like the Lamenters, Minotaurs, Carcharodons (which do have a "mysterious Origin"), Mortifactors or even Marines Malevolent.
You'll see there is plenty of ways to create an interesting Background. There is no need to overdose on the "specialness" of your guys.

Edit: You also may want to rethink your desire of a "heroic" chapter. What do you mean by that? All Space Marines are "heroic" in a way. They all like to kick Xenos teef in and fight for Humanity. Some more, some less. You have to consider the setting we play in. EVERYONE is the bad guy. There are no real good guys in 40k. There is no Marine chapter which is known for running away from a fight and there also is no Marine chapter known for its mercy. So: What do you mean by "Heroic"?

Ok some good points there thankyou, so what about then the possibility them being previous works of experiments by Cawl?

If you want your chapter to be young, that’s really easy. Make most of the current batch of captains and marines really young. Just make them youthful and slightly new to command. The previous groups of officers all had to take a version of early retirement for some reason.

I was hoping for more a young but heroic chapter. I’m just not sure on how they would fit in properly either before or during the Horus Heresy, thanks for the suggestion though

There is no way of creating an original storyline as pretty much all that can be written has already been done? I am trying to think of ways to create a unique story for my chapter but every aspect has been covered in some way already.

A young chapter, I see, that would be about 2000 years old with 19 chapter masters. So the same time as between the modern era and the birth of Christ. That’s pretty young for a chapter.

The GW chapters you read about are almost all over 9000 years old, and they don’t have lists of their histories and leaders anywhere. There’s no reason to make a history for the whole of your chapter. It’s also pretty much impossible to make a young chapter, until recently. Since you said you wanted leftovers from the Heresy, it seems like you want to do conventional marines as well as primaris.

It’s really easy to make a new story, very easy. It’s also easier than you think to make a young chapter. The Crimson Fists have a very young character, and yet here they are at about 10,000 years of existence. They’re young for two reasons. One is that way back just after the heresy, which again was 9000 years ago, they were formed from the freshest of the Imperial Fists and they were the most eager to conform to the codex, unlike the willful or cantankerous older marines of their old legion. Latterly they had a disaster that killed most of their marines and so for a time they had a few veterans and a much larger number of young marines. They’re young, they’re also a 10k y/o chapter.

Yes I would like to start my chapters story before or just after the HH. At the moment I’m not a big fan on Primaris and much favour the older marines so for the time being I’d like to keep them out of it. I understand what your saying about young captain with a younger mentality that can adapt easily. Now my question for you is this, under what circumstances would a young captain be given a chapter for? I mean he’s doing his job so what must a space marine do to get the honour of having his own chapter

Well there are lots of chapters that promote based on merit or valor instead of seniority, and probably many that promote based on honor duels. The White Scars get their new chapter master when their Librarians take a few officers off to a cave, and come out with only one left, the others never to be seen again. You could very easily have a chapter that’s been around for any number of years promote someone because he happens to have won a great victory - the force commander is duelling an enemy champion somewhere, when it turns out the real threat emerges somewhere else. A junior officer in the area seized up the fallen standard, rallies the line, and gains a field promotion that sees him lead a multi company crusade across ten systems. That or the whole chapter leadership is wiped out by a teleport accident and he’s the best officer left. That’s how to gain command of a chapter. Maybe the original chapter master is a jerk. Maybe the original chapter master is killed by a traitor and the young officer uncovers the plot and purges the senior leadership of culture of decadence.

Ok that’s brilliant I’ll research on the rituals and procedures of the different chapters.

An idea that you have help give me is this

A young captain of Ultramarine who fought in the first tyrannic war was mentally disturbed and went on a one man crusade to kill loads of tyranids. But on his travel a rogue tyranid spore and a civilian transport collide and the tyranid threatens everyone on board. Onboard is a high dignitary one route to Terra and the rogue captain saves most on board and gets promotion from their. What do you think?

I think Terran dignitaries don’t have the power to promote a random marine to the head of the chapter he’s in and that marines don’t get taken out of their chapters and put in charge of other ones.

One idea that might work is shroud the origin story of the chapter in mystery and focus on the heroic exploits of the chapters heroes instead. As many have said before, the three pitfalls most first time homebrew chapter designers fall into are: The two lost legions, chapter lost in the warp, and loyal chapter of a renegade legion. They have been done to death. I got so sick of trying to devise my own authentic homebrew chapter that instead of making one up, I adopted an obscure chapter with virtually no existing information. Even better, the chapter was only mentioned once and then only in a battle roster in the old Epic 40k rule book. Lexicanum and 40k wiki are full of these chapters. Hope this helps!