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I heard mention that there was some old fluff about half Eldar Space Marines & I was drawn to this bit of fluff due to how cool it is. Is it still canon?

no

At the time, space marines were really tough guys in armor who took drugs. They made navigators full battle brothers, they made a single guy, whose non-consenting mother was a human and whose father was an eldar pirate, a full battle brother. They are not really "space marines."

Unless you are talking about the old rules for harlequins I think it was, when you could use any space marine tank, as long as it was painted like it came from the circus. But those are stupidly old rules.

Its no longer canon. If it was, the Ultramarines are still a new chapter forced to scavenge their equipment from the ruined husk of a desert planet.

Wasn't tigurius of the ultra's listed as being half eldar in like early second/late RT? It's definitely not canon now, but still there was a precedent for it at one time.

Well, he's at least proof that Humans and Eldar can breed successfully, despite Eldar predating humanity by a good sixty million years or so.

Not this again. No; there's no way 'modern' Astartes much less Imperials would tolerate the presence of half-breeds.

 Kain wrote:
Well, he's at least proof that Humans and Eldar can breed successfully, despite Eldar predating humanity by a good sixty million years or so.

Well, there's also some fluff in the 5th Edition Dark Eldar Codex about hybrids in Commoragh.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Its no longer canon. If it was, the Ultramarines are still a new chapter forced to scavenge their equipment from the ruined husk of a desert planet.

The what and the what now?!

Where did I miss that! That sounds awesome!

Pretty sure it was from the very early days when Half elves seemed ok as Sm were just humans and 40k was just goofy fantasy in space.

In ye olde days perhaps. Now, though, it is:

 thenoobbomb wrote:
In ye olde days perhaps. Now, though, it is:

Yeah, that's the way.

put your silly heresy bags over your heads then..

But in the RT days things were a bit different.


And had a bit more character sometimes.

Join Chaos. We have all the Pointy eared Space elves you could possibly want.

That was from WD90s.
Just before the Harlequins were released.

Back in the good old days when WD was something worth reading.

It wasn't just Harlequins who could yoink imperial tanks - almost all the armies could use them in some shape or form (but there were fewer armies back then).

cerbrus2 wrote:
Join Chaos. We have all the Pointy eared Space elves you could possibly want.

What?

That particular piece of fluff, while entertaining and insightful, has been retconned into oblivion since. There are a number of things that no longer flew with 2nd edition fluff changes, never mind now:

1) If Eldar/human crossbreeding is possible, such an individual would likely be an outcast if not hunted and run down. They certainly wouldn't be considered pure enough to become a Marine or an Astropath.
2) Astropaths don't get to become Marines later. The soul-binding ruins them physically in ways that would make them useless on the battlefield.
3) Aside from the Deathwatch, and *very* rare cases nearer the Heresy, Marines don't change Chapter. Certainly no Dark Angel would go on to become an Ultramarine.
4) We know who the Ultramarines Chief Librarian is - Tigurius - not this guy. The date makes it impossible for him to have been a previous Chief Librarian.
5) 76 years is not old for any Marine. Youthful appearance wouldn't be worthy of mention, nor attributed to Eldar heritage.

 Super Ready wrote:
That particular piece of fluff, while entertaining and insightful, has been retconned into oblivion since. There are a number of things that no longer flew with 2nd edition fluff changes, never mind now:
3) Aside from the Deathwatch, and *very* rare cases nearer the Heresy, Marines don't change Chapter. Certainly no Dark Angel would go on to become an Ultramarine.

Do not also forget new chapter foundings would be drawn from established chapter members in most cases.

Of course this still does NOTHING to prove a Dark Angel would become an Ultramarine. Even the Deathwatch that arrive without Chapter markings to atone return to their original chapter after their mission at Deathwatch is completed.

He wasn't actually a Space Marine at all. He was an astropath assigned to a Space Marine Chapter. He was with the Dark Angels before being attached to the Ultramarines.

40K just worked a lot differently back then. Anything prior to 2nd Edition, you'll have a hard time reconciling it with the modern fluff.

The release of 2nd Edition was basically a complete overhaul of the universe and fluff. It's more or less what you could call the start of "modern" 40K.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
He wasn't actually a Space Marine at all. He was an astropath assigned to a Space Marine Chapter. He was with the Dark Angels before being attached to the Ultramarines.

40K just worked a lot differently back then. Anything prior to 2nd Edition, you'll have a hard time reconciling it with the modern fluff.

The release of 2nd Edition was basically a complete overhaul of the universe and fluff. It's more or less what you could call the start of "modern" 40K.

And even then, the Aesthetic kind of just wasn't...there yet.

Take a look at 2e Tyranids and snicker.

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
He wasn't actually a Space Marine at all. He was an astropath assigned to a Space Marine Chapter. He was with the Dark Angels before being attached to the Ultramarines.

I see where you're coming from with this, buuuuut am inclined to disagree because he's marked out as Chief Librarian. Even back then, Marines were the only ones to call their psykers Librarians.

Ah, the old days, when even chatrooms didnt exist to let us know the error of early 40k fluff and canon

 Super Ready wrote:

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
He wasn't actually a Space Marine at all. He was an astropath assigned to a Space Marine Chapter. He was with the Dark Angels before being attached to the Ultramarines.

I see where you're coming from with this, buuuuut am inclined to disagree because he's marked out as Chief Librarian. Even back then, Marines were the only ones to call their psykers Librarians.

That's all well and good, but look at the description of his background. At no point does it say "Space Marine", or "Adeptus Astartes". Chief Librarian is just a title. Maybe it was a brevet rank that he was assigned when he was attached to the Space Marines.

What we know about him is the was "recruited into the Administatum as an Astropath". That's not a Space Marine, even by the older definition of a Space Marine. He then helped to "run the Adeptus Terra's Advisory Senate". Also not a Space Marine post.

And lastly, he "undertook four years service with the fleet", and then "with the Dark Angels" (not as a Dark Angel), and was "appointed as chief of the Macragge interstellar communications link under the jurisdiction of the Ultra-marines."

Nowhere in there is there any mention of him actually being a Space Marine. In fact, the only think that suggests it is that he has power armor with a U on it. Which, honestly, doesn't mean much in the old Rogue Trader days. He was an astropath and psyker, and was assigned to a Space Marine chapter. That meant he wore the markings of a librarian. It doesn't make him a Space Marine. But again, Space Marine had a different meaning back then. They were just psycho-indoctrinated murderers, tribals, hard cases, etc. Nastase's background didn't have any mention of that training, so he wasn't a Marine.

You're thinking in "Modern 40K' terms. Like I explained, they don't mean anything in Rogue Trader era fluff. Space Marines occasionally carried shuriken catapults back then too.

cerbrus2 wrote:
Join Chaos. We have all the Pointy eared Space elves you could possibly want.

Already have, loyal thousand son since 2001, still curious though

I've not got my copy to hand but I'm pretty certain the issue in question also explained the organisation of a Chapters Librarium and that it included the Chapters Astropaths as well as its marines with psychic powers. That's why he's labelled as "Chief Librarian", he may not have been a marine but he still held position within the Chapters Librarium. IIRC likewise the Master of Sanctity was an Ecclesiastical appointee rather than a marine.