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So I have returned to the hobby, and excited on getting a home brew chapter on the go.
I am looking for advice and help in the current state of affairs of the game, (as I haven't been into the game since 4th edition!) and writing some background for my chapter. I have some basic knowledge of 40k lore, I am reading the Dark angles omnibus at the moment and listen to various youtube lore videos and have my old codecies still.

Models wise I have the dark angel figures from the Dark Vengeance boxset, a tac squad, rhino, additional terminators, a dreadnaught and the old black templar conversion box.
Needless to say I am a big advocate of robed space marines, I think they look super cool, and fit with the dark knightly / templar aesthetic I'm going for, I am also planning on getting a MkIII tac squad and more DA veteran boxes and kit bashing them together. The colour scheme will be black power armour, red accents, and a mixture of black / red / cream / purple robes. depending on the unit or character. Oh and I love chainswords!

Background wise I was thinking that this particular group of marines may have derived from the DA's as they still have alot of heraldry on pads etc (I am happy to overlook that though as they are just winged swords.) and have been given a task to secure chaos artefacts and destroy them. The marines in question are a super secret sect that have a monestary among a deep forest covered planet (Don't know where). They are known to meditate for decades at a time, between missions to secure the artefacts and are stirred only when there librarians catch wind of such. They are swift fighters, using their presence of mind and clear thoughts to guide them in battle, utilising stealth and speed to apprehend the enemy and conquer victory. To explain the black templar heraldry I may include in my fluff that they came across an abandonded band of Black Templars on a planet that had been cut off by reenforcements of there company and left to fend for themselves, needless to say the Shadow Templars took them in and vetted them and knowing the righteous zeal the BT's hold in there hearts, they knew they would fit the mold of the Shadow Templars.
Either that or it was a band of BT's and DA who were matched together for there tactical array, combined zeal and contempt for xenos to undertake said missions to acquire choas artefacts without the risk of succombing to chaos forces.

I may field them with DA rules, or Ravenguard, or with the stealthy and master artisan rules, I still need some guidance on that too.
It's have been mulling this over for weeks and like the idea, however I could use some additional knowledge, especially on whether two distinct chapters would send some of there best soldiers out together to take on the ruinous powers without the security of their parent chapters.
I am sold on the idea of them being very monk like in practice and attending lots of seemingly simple and mundane tasks with great care and attention and living rather humbly and wholesomely on their forest planet, whose skys are almost always dark due to the huge stature of the trees and canopies that shield the sky.
I have also thought about running them as loyal fallen before due to the aesthetic, but I think I like this path more, as I feel like I can develop it my own way in the future.
Also is there a known successor chapter to the DA's that haven't necessarily thought it was the best thing to hunt the fallen, and that maybe looking out for fellow chapters and the imperium is the right way to go about things rather than endangering everyone around them to protect their dirty little (little bit lame) secret?
And one last thing whats the rules of chainswords being heavily fielded, like with tac marines or assault squads? I know BT's used to have crusader squads and they could be armed with chainswords, are there any other exceptions? Or is it less feesable to run CC marine army?

Thanks in advance look forward to getting some ideas flowing

Hey, welcome back to the hobby.

Your idea sounds cool.

I don't think you need to incorporate the Black Templar thing into the lore. Dark Angels used to have Black Armour before the Heresy anyway, you could just make your chapter a second or third founding of the Dark Angels who kept their black armour instead of changing it green.

Obviously they are swift and stealthy and prefer close quarters combat just like the Raven Wing. I'm not sure if Raven Wing has it's own specific rules this edition, but you could try those out.

As far as Chainswords are concerned, Marines don't have that many options. Black Templars are definitely one of them and Space Wolves are another option.

TBH, I think the Space Wolf rules might suit your armies needs more than any other rules set. Their basic guys can all take chainswords, and the Space Wolves rely heavily on stealth in many cases. You can ignore the Wolfen and Thunderwolf thing and just use their standard marine rules.

If you really wanted to go full on with the Knight theme, you could run Thunderwolf Cavalry as just regular Knights on Horses and convert your own models up. Imperial Guard have Rough Riders, so it's not completely out of character.

It's definitely less feasible to run close combat anything, but it's your army. Do what you want to do with it. Unless you are playing tournaments, you shouldn't have a problem.

Also, check out 3rd party websites for various shoulderpads, Icons and accessories that you can add to your marines to make them more unique.

Thanks for the advice, its nice getting some feedback, as I dont have any friends who play currently, to bounce ideas off.
The more I look into it the more options I realise I have. I have just heard that you could have a chapter with gene seed from a traitor legion, which is an interesting angle, as that could be a reason for my chapter being loners out in space, meditating on their primarchs sins, and making sure they don't fall to the same fate.
I do love the space wolves as a chapter, albeit except the CC I'm not sure they'll bare much resembelance.

I think there are elements from a few chapters eg. DA, BA, RG and I guess space wolves as well!
But also nothing too cemented in any of them to feel ready to commit.
I guess my real issue is not knowing which codex to go for at this moment, as the price and variety of them makes it hard to experiment with the options first.

I have also considered a few times due to the amount of options space marine players have, and me not able to make a decision, is to flip my lore idea on its head and run a renegade army, not affiliated with chaos, but use their codex and rules, just to narrow down my options and cement me to a single book.

Right, so i guess the issue here is mainly that you need to focus your ideas a bit and create a real identity for your chapter.

That might force you to drop some of the ideas you had floating around in order to create a stronger narrative for them. An idea can get bogged down and unfocussed and ultimately suffer if there's too much going on.

So focus on what makes the chapter unique.

Name two things they're good at.

Name one thing they're bad at.

What's their short term goals?

Whats their long term goals?

What is their temperment?

Maybe create a list of how you want the chapter to operate on the battlefield and then compare that to all the other GW chapters out there and see which one fits the most. Then use those rules.