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I noticed that every author seems to deal with the idea of recruitment differently...

CS Goto's Blood Ravens seems to like to recruit one dude at a time, because all their other aspirants murder each other in Blood Trials...


But I wonder how Grey Knights and other groups get new members?

Or Chaos groups like World Eaters, how do they pick new members?

For Loyalists, it varies between the Chapters.
Some will have rituals based on the cultures of their adopted homeworlds, while others will recruit from wherever they happen to be.

Chaos Warbands mostly rely on turncoats to swell their ranks or the services of Dark Mechanicum genesmiths or what passes for Apothecaries.

I was wondering because the lore that mentions aspirants being really young doesn't seem to apply to Chaos Marines.

Or so it seems to me... I could be wrong... again.

Nope, the process is the same. Still kids that get turned into post-human monsters wether they wear an Imperial eagle or the eight-pointed star.

Well. Good question, and it depends.

Some Chapters have homeworlds. The clearest example here would be Space Wolves, who recruit exclusively from Fenris. And given Fenris is a Deathworld, it’s an ideal recruitment world.

Other Chapters, who don’t necessarily have a homeworld, will recruit from a range of set worlds. For instance, Imperial Fists have a permanent presence on Necromunda.

Then we have weirdos like the Black Templars, a Chapter on a seemingly eternal Crusade, and recruiting whoever, from wherever, along the way.

If anything, fleet based Chapters are the closest to the Legions of old. As in, provided you meet arbitrary standard? It doesn’t matter where you are from/

Chaos? Again let’s look to the Crusade era. Where there was no upper limit by decree, only convenience. And Legion recruitment was much less fussy, including partial conversion for (whoops!) Kor Phaeron.

Certainly the Legions aren’t painted as being anywhere near selective as modern Chapters are. Which isn’t to say the Legions were reckless, so much as the modern Chapters are super duper selective.

In lieu of posting memes that will cause BorderCountess to hunt me down and murder me, is it stated anywhere how the Thousand Sons get new Rubric Marines?

I don’t think they do. Lexicanum has some references form 8th edition 1k Sons codex that might interest youz

 Flinty wrote:
I don’t think they do. Lexicanum has some references form 8th edition 1k Sons codex that might interest youz

Thanks... I was shocked by this though:

The Ynnari have demonstrated the ability to restore the Rubicae, using it as a ploy to throw off Ahriman during his battles with them. This process completely renews the souls of Thousand Sons with their personalities and full memory - continuing as if the Rubric of Ahriman was never cast.[6]


6: Gathering Storm: Fracture of Biel-Tan, pg. 85

I think for CSM, they actually have more options for recruitment than regular marines;
First of all, any kind of Daemonculaba kind of tech, where you make marines through Dark Mechanicum ad warp shennanigans with geneseed.
Next, simply get regular marines and corrupt them- though the Primaris were supposedly altered so this can't happen. There are tons of chapters that have fallen, but even though they have background they "didn't take" like the main 9. AdRic just did a vid on the Crimson Slaughter which were played up, but fans liked the old Heresy CSM better. (Also- Red armor with brass trim, have to kill to sate voices in head.... Angron would send a C&D letter if he would calm down for the 3 seconds to sign it).
In "Storm of Iron", a slave gets turned into a CSM because she has to polish this Marine's armor, and it gradually corrupts her, telling her to put it on and slay the original owner. Major warp whatsits there, but remember that 40k is based on Moorcock's writings, which are all about the evil item telling you to use it and gives you power so it can use you for a fleshmobile. So some CSMs may just be suits of armor haunted by a daemon or previous owners who can only corrupt mortals into putting them on and then boost them up to marine status, but they are now the armor's slave. (Insert any and all maguffins for armor such as daemon sword/ necklace, etc.-same outcome).
Both "Genefather" and "Storm of Iron" state that CSM also use techniques similar to Marines, and even regularly steal Loyalist geneseed stocks, as apparently it's better to insert stable DNA into aspirants vs corrupted. Bile gets a lot of favors when he parcels out either his "super enhanced fleshcrafted" geneseed or simple uncorrupted stock. CSM may not have traditional trials, and just put their cultists/ slaves through hell and whoever survives gets to be upgraded.
We've seen that even a Navigator/ Human hybrid can successfully be implanted- and with "glitchy" geneseed- in the form of Decimus from the Night lord books- so anything is possible.


Going back to OP- hate to say Grey Knights are in a weird grey area (no pun intended when I typed that, but I'll take it). They are listed as chapter #666, but each one has to be a Psyker of I'm guessing Eta or higher rank. So they come from the Black Ships but there's nothing that really states who gets to be a Knight vs. Librarian for other chapters. Initiation may just be if they accept the geneseed or not- because I will beat my "have to be spiritually prepared as well as physically and mentally" theory to death!

EDIT: Usually Memes are wrong, but in this case...

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
EDIT: Usually Memes are wrong, but in this case...

That's way more correct than you might think. Sorcerers can, indeed, use spells and rituals to gather the dust of their fallen warriors and then re-bind them into their armor. As for Sorcerers, they recruit psykers from their cultists, usually.

There was one short story in a codex where the Sisters of Silence got caught in a dust storm. In the middle of it, what appeared to be meteorites started crashing into the ground. In truth, these were suits of Rubric armor - the dust storm was really the Marines. What happened next was a complete slaughter of the Sisters.

During the Gathering Storm, Yvraine restored a couple of Rubric Marines to their formal selves to distract Ahriman - and they were then promptly booted into the Webway and lost.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
In lieu of posting memes that will cause BorderCountess to hunt me down and murder me...

I think you over-estimate my fan-girl-ness. Besides, Tzeentch loves a good joke!

I missed that story... but it reminds me of a thousand sons model I saw recently. I didn't want to bother the players, so I opted out talking (see I can be quiet... occasionally)
to them, but I had to abandon ship before they finished.

The thousand sons player had an odd model. The top half Rubric Marine, bottom half whirlwind.

Was this a real model or a conversion?

If its real, what is it?

Almost certainly a conversion.

The best way to show off the different types of marines.