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Basically let's say there are two Imperial Fists successor Chapters.

A Captain in one gets killed, and there's this one Astartes in the other Chapter who's earned enough accolades in the battlefield to earn a promotion but thanks to Codex Astartes limitations, and his Captain not dying, would said Captain be allowed to transfer to another Chapter to a Captain position in order to fill out its needed Captain slot? This would sound quite a lot more productive as opposed to having a capable Astartes leader stuck in one Chapter waiting for their Captain to eventually kick the bucket, be interred into a Dreadnought or get promoted for maybe centuries.

The Imperial Fists are really a sort of special case in that particular regard, seeing how something similar to this has happened at one point during their history.



As a rule of thumb though, I'd say no. I don't think any chapter would accept an outsider entering their ranks and taking over a leadership position.

This would sound quite a lot more productive as opposed to having a capable Astartes leader stuck in one Chapter waiting for their Captain to eventually kick the bucket, be interred into a Dreadnought or get promoted for maybe centuries.

I don't think the Marines thought process works that way.

Not really, no. Space Marine Chapters are discrete feudal entities, not units part of a hierarchal military structure. Theres no overarching command above the Chapter level to make that call or decision to transfer a brother and install them in command of another chapter, nor would you want to because each Chapter is steeped in their own distinct culture, rituals, traditions, beliefs, languages, etc. You can't really just rotate officers in and out and expect the Chapter to remain a coherent and functional entity the way you would with a modern military organization.

That being said, its not to say its never happened. As pointed out, something similar occurred at some point in the Imperial Fists history - BUT, thats because of ancient bonds and oaths that were made at the time that the Legion was split. In the case of the Last Wall though, the last surviving Imperial Fist became the Chapter Master of the reconstituted chapter so that the traditions of the Imperial Fists could continue - but its unlikely that they could ever pull that off again, as it was mega controversial and the other chapters only went along with it reluctantly despite only having been recently split from the Legion within living memory of the Chapters in question. 9k years later all the chapters have established significantly more distinct identities for themselves, I don't think there would be any motivation for a repeat at that point.

More common, however, is that when a new chapter is founded, the leadership and training cadre of the Chapter is often formed from some of the brothers of the parent chapter. I.E. You might have a Lieutenant or a Captain and a handful of junior officers and senior battle brothers assigned to a newly founded chapter as the new Chapter Master and senior officers, and they take responsibility for inducting, indoctrinating, and training the new recruits of the Chapter and establishing the new Chapters identity.

Space Marine Chapters are discrete feudal entities, not units part of a hierarchal military structure. Theres no overarching command above the Chapter level to make that call or decision to transfer a brother and install them in command of another chapter, nor would you want to because each Chapter is steeped in their own distinct culture, rituals, traditions, beliefs, languages, etc. You can't really just rotate officers in and out and expect the Chapter to remain a coherent and functional entity the way you would with a modern military organization.

This is all totally right, and there are also many temporary command officer above chapter level. We see it all the time that a group of chapters take a senior marine from one chapter and submit to his commands for a while. So if there were a situation like described in OP where one chapter is short of officers, or something else like thunder hawks, of course they could have a temporary arrangement with another chapter to put some companies under their battlefield command.

That’s just battlefield command though, there’d be no changing of colors or permanent transfer, possibly just a campaign badge.

More common, however, is that when a new chapter is founded,

There’s a lot to be skeptical about this but there’s a different thread on it at the moment.

On a permanent basis?

Probably not like that.

There ar off occasions that come to mind such as the founding of the sons of medusa. There was a schism between the brethren of chapters descended from the iron hands (the moiran schism). Rather than internecine war, the adherents of this cult were given the opportunity for exile to their own ships.this was later rubber stamped as a somewhat unique founding. I can imagine later brethren, should they be attracted to the moiran teachings, could hypothetically be offered the chance for an 'exile' as well, though this is speculation.

However an 'inter-chapter liason' to foster ties of brotherhood could very likely be a thing. I wouldn't expect said liason' to have any kind of 'official' rank, however if he was of a high enough rank and commanded enough respect (say, sicarius was on loan to the novamarines), and his counsel was valued, I could see situations in the field where he may temporarily take charge. I doubt this would or could ever be a permanent arrangement. This would be especially true amongst chapters with a closer sense of brotherhood - like the dark angels in particular.

Whilst not the same thing, I could conceive of a cross chapter strike force where the ranking officer leads a coalition and would therefore command marines of other chapters.

A new chapter would have an initial influx of an officer cadre from a patent chapter, or several.

I can only think of one example -

There is also the Deathwatch. A marine could be sent to them to gain some experience and learn about working with other chapters, and when his tour is done, there might be a slot open for him leading a company.

Deadnight wrote:
On a permanent basis?

Probably not like that.

There ar off occasions that come to mind such as the founding of the sons of medusa. There was a schism between the brethren of chapters descended from the iron hands (the moiran schism). Rather than internecine war, the adherents of this cult were given the opportunity for exile to their own ships.this was later rubber stamped as a somewhat unique founding. I can imagine later brethren, should they be attracted to the moiran teachings, could hypothetically be offered the chance for an 'exile' as well, though this is speculation.

However an 'inter-chapter liason' to foster ties of brotherhood could very likely be a thing. I wouldn't expect said liason' to have any kind of 'official' rank, however if he was of a high enough rank and commanded enough respect (say, sicarius was on loan to the novamarines), and his counsel was valued, I could see situations in the field where he may temporarily take charge. I doubt this would or could ever be a permanent arrangement. This would be especially true amongst chapters with a closer sense of brotherhood - like the dark angels in particular.

Whilst not the same thing, I could conceive of a cross chapter strike force where the ranking officer leads a coalition and would therefore command marines of other chapters.

A new chapter would have an initial influx of an officer cadre from a patent chapter, or several.

Basically what he said. Most marines working with another chapter is generally considered to be "on loan" to another chapter. Generally that would be because they are specialists and are helping another chapter out, or are getting training on a speciality that the host chapter has a talent for. According to the 5th edition book: The Hawk Lords have a talent for using Thunderhawks and they host more than a few thunderhawk pilots from other chapters to hone their skills. What you are describing generally would not happen as those marines are not specialists but rather already part of the command structure. More likely a Space Marine Sargent that got to that level, would be considered to be part of the command structure for the company, and they would be basically an apprentice to their Captain until a company looses a Captain. I would also assume that they would be cycled back to the 1st company and lead a squad of veterans from time to time as well. It would be a waste to not pass on a Veteran Sargent's knowledge and experience to the newer crop of veterans who will one day be eligible to be Sargent's themselves. Its the concept of training your replacements as soon as you can while learning how to do the job the next level up.

Heavily depends on chapters and their relationships. It's not unheard of in say Ultramarine descendant, especially junior one, to request Ultramarine officer to teach them Codex and new strategies recently incorporated to it. Ultramarines are on the sane SM branch, though.

On the other hand, it's rare - SM in Badab War were shocked to learn Astral Claws granted refuge to nearly destroyed Tiger Claws chapter members and incorporated them into their own to the point captured "Astral" Claw captain was really a Tiger. By that point Huron was fielding dozens of companies, though, so finding one or two spare for 'outsider' officer to lead was easy, and Tigers were their close descendant anyway.

If I remember correctly, the Genesis Chapter are used to fill in gaps in the Ultramarines, if for an example they have a company fall below codex strength, or if the Ultramarines need to fill a specialist role. They even defer to the Ultramarine Chaplains if they have an internal disagreement over how parts of the Codex Astartes are interpreted to make sure their doctrine doesn't drift away from them.

In general, no, it doesn't happen.

There have been exceptions. The aforementioned recreation of the Imperial Fists and the Genesis chapter acting as an illegal Ultramarines 11th to 20th company.

I think SGT Telion of the Ultramarines gets seconded to other chapters to train their scouts occasionally. Or that his datasheet said so in 7th edition, anyway.

Because I purchase some of my models from second-hand sources and don't feel like repainting them completely, I don't have any qualms about claiming "this model has been seconded to my chapter from some other one for a couple of decades. Kind of like Techmarines training on Mars, Telion training other chapters scouts, or sending marines to be part of the Deathwatch."

Worst case, you have to make up three or four different marine chapters if you want to do it. Which is no big deal.

My Chapter is the Rainbow Legion, they all paint their armours in unique colours, to better honour the armour's Machine Spirit! It just so happens that this set of power armour was gifted to my chapter by the Most Honourable Dante of the Blood Angels, which is why this armour needs to be painted in Blood Angel regalia, otherwise the Machine Spirit will be offended and "accidentally" overload the fusion reactor.

 Esmer wrote:
The Imperial Fists are really a sort of special case in that particular regard, seeing how something similar to this has happened at one point during their history.

Spoiler:

The original Imperial Fists were wiped out to a man and their ranks silently replenished with Marines from IF successor chapters

As a rule of thumb though, I'd say no. I don't think any chapter would accept an outsider entering their ranks and taking over a leadership position.

This would sound quite a lot more productive as opposed to having a capable Astartes leader stuck in one Chapter waiting for their Captain to eventually kick the bucket, be interred into a Dreadnought or get promoted for maybe centuries.

I don't think the Marines thought process works that way.

Also Blood Angels, if I recall correctly.

Machs wrote:
Also Blood Angels, if I recall correctly.

The successors supplied the Blood Angels with aspirants to be implanted with the blood angels’ supply of gene seed

I suppose one of the exception to the rule would be when a new chapter is formed. I think we got a thread on that if you scroll down. The other only exception I can think of is when a marine becomes a permanent deathwatch member.