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Reversing a prior premise, has there ever been an example of a chaos marine warband attempting to or succeeding in turning back from Chaos? Obviously, they likely wouldn't ever become buddies with the IoM again, but more .. " I realize now the depths we've fallen," and either out of.. personal pride, concern for their legacy, or perhaps just a desperate bid to escape damnation, attempted to extricate themselves from the dark forces with which they have aligned. I think I read somewhere on here an idea about making Luna Wolves as a break-off Black Legion war band who got sick of putting up with Abaddon's failed leadership.

Any cannon examples?

Night Lords do not worship any of the chaos powers.

The soul drinkers did something like that. However they would still be seen as renegade but you could do that they would just have little to no friends among the IoM.

Onc a traitor always a traitor unfortunately, I don't think there would be any way for a Black Legion warband to return back to the Imperium, especially as they were the Legion of the Arch Fiend himself. Perhaps they could break off and do their own thing, keeping to the ideals of the Imperium but attempting to remain as distant from repercussion as possible.

As Pilau said, I doubt that the IoM would ever accept a warband that decided it no longer wanted to be a traitor warband. That coupled with the fact that the ruinous powers are highly unlikely to let you go would make it difficult. Also, mutations are hard to ignore and reverse.

Would pre- Horus Heresy people count?

Some of the Fallen apparently regret what they did. They try to live out peaceful lives, either in solitude or helping whatever society they land in. If they are ever found, they are the only ones to receive a quick death at the hands of the Dark Angels Interrogator Chaplains.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

SkavenLord wrote:
Would pre- Horus Heresy people count?

Spoiler:

I think there was a death guard captain named Nathaniel Garro that abandoned his legion to warn the emperor of Horus's treachery

What about the Blood Ravens then? The entire Blood Raven campaign in Dawn of War Retribution was to redeem said chapter.

Artistic license. Its a non-canon game.

SkavenLord wrote:
Would pre- Horus Heresy people count?

Spoiler:

I think there was a death guard captain named Nathaniel Garro that abandoned his legion to warn the emperor of Horus's treachery. Afterwards, Garro was accepted back into the Imperium.

He never went traitor though, he was loyal throughout

Okay, first a clarification: Night Lords don't worship Chaos, but they use Chaos as a tool. Those who use the argument that the Night Lords aren't a "real" Chaos Space Marine Chapter/Legion need to drop that line of thought because they very much are just as much as any of the others.

Now, there really is no "turning back" from Chaos, becoming a servant of Chaos is just as much a physical transformation as it is mental and spiritual. The mental part of you can decide to abandon that path, and spiritually you might be able to get into some sort of grey area, but physically there is no salvation... and when it comes to the IoM, your reward for turning back from the forces of Chaos is a quick death at the hands of an Inquisitor.

As for things like the Blood Ravens and penitent crusades, etc. Those are punishments issued out to those whose faith is found lacking, in the case of the Blood Ravens, the fact that one (or a handful) of their battle brothers were turned is the sign of a moral failing on the part of the Chapter as a whole, thus they have to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Emperor by way of victory on the field of battle.

SkavenLord wrote:
What about the Blood Ravens then? The entire Blood Raven campaign in Dawn of War Retribution was to redeem said chapter.

Small correction, the campaign was to purge the chapter of the portion that had fallen to Chaos ("redeeming" the chapter in a way similar to what the Dark Angels have in mind for "redeeming" their own chapter). No Chaos-aligned marines turn away from Chaos in that campaign, they are all executed (or devoured... ).

But anyway, the only thing I can think of that remotely resembles a person being freed from Chaos would be the Eldar Solitaires if the Laughing God manages to win their souls back from She Who Thirsts, but even then they aren't so much turning away from Chaos as much as being reclaimed by a different entity...

I stand corrected on both counts.

There's the Deathwatch Black Shields - http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Deathwatch_Black_Shield

There's a fallen Raven Guard in the Ultramarines series of novels that eventually decides to turn away from Chaos and sacrifices his life to help the Ultramarines. His geneseed is recovered to be given to the Raven Guard.

I don't think his level of corruption was particularly high though, but I don't know that much about the novel in question. Certainly, it would seem difficult to turn back once you've sworn your soul to the Dark Gods, but I don't know if this Raven Guard guy ever got that far in the first place. Highly doubt he did, assuming his gene seed turns out to not be tainted and warped.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Ardaric_Vaanes#.Uk7Z_9_D_oo

Don't forget that the ruinous powers have used otherwise loyal people (looking at you Kasper Hawser) as conduits to keep an eye on loyalist marines.

If you were to try and defect back, there's every chance in the world that you would be a huge liability to everyone around you. You are damaged goods, so to speak...even if your intentions are pure.

From a pragmatic point of view, the best you can hope for as a two-time traitor is a quick death to repent for your betrayal.

Redemption makes for a great storyline. However redemption isn't GRIMDARK. So it's not endorsed by 40k's mythos.

You have no idea how much i'd love to go the John Marston route with my Night Lords warband.

But the Alpha Legion screwed that for you. They went Chaos, came back, "repented", caused a gak-storm of chaos and destruction, and then said "nah, just foolin' ya" and gave the IoM a big middle finger as they disappeared into deep space.

I didn't put inb4 Alpha Legion soon enough.

 Lord Arturius wrote:
As Pilau said, I doubt that the IoM would ever accept a warband that decided it no longer wanted to be a traitor warband. That coupled with the fact that the ruinous powers are highly unlikely to let you go would make it difficult. Also, mutations are hard to ignore and reverse.

The idea was never to "return" to the Imperium again and pretend everything was fine and dandy. The scenario to come to mind was more along the lines of a company of men from some chapter who had a kind of eye-opening moment, and suddenly realized how far they have fallen from the ideals for which their chapter stood. Or from another angle, a commander who realized the depths of the perversion and mutation that their alliance with chaos has caused, his warrior pride seeing all of this as a weakness that they have succumbed to. In either case, they gather like-minded individuals into a warband of their own and make to flee the eye of terror, hopefully to end up somewhere on the edges of civilized space where IoM forces are a remote concern.

General Duf wrote:Artistic license. Its a non-canon game.

Artistic license applies to pretty much anything in 40k, though.
It's why so many novels contradict each other or the codices when it comes to details.

But if we want to exchange opinions ... then no, turning from Chaos doesn't seem very likely. It is a corruption of both the mind and the body, and the more an individual turns to Chaos the harder it becomes to turn away again. The tricky thing is that the followers do not even realise how they are being used as tools and pawns as they are so immersed in reveling in their acts, driven by immense egoism and being well aware that they have pretty much "burned all bridges behind them", so to speak.

SkavenLord wrote:
Would pre- Horus Heresy people count?

Spoiler:

I think there was a death guard captain named Nathaniel Garro that abandoned his legion to warn the emperor of Horus's treachery. Afterwards, Garro was accepted back into the Imperium.

I had much lolz from this being classed as a spoiler.

I remember one notable example in the book Daemon World.

Y'know, if we're talking BL novels, I just remembered "Daemonblood". It's a short story from Ben Counter about Ultramarines Sergeant Castus and Seraphim Sister Aescarion.


Pretty cool story.

Here's an impressive fanfic from 1d4chan about a Thousand Son marine turning against chaos. I know it's not cannon, but it's good.

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Wayward_Son

 Guardsmen Bob wrote:
Here's an impressive fanfic from 1d4chan about a Thousand Son marine turning against chaos. I know it's not cannon, but it's good.

http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Confessions_of_a_Wayward_Son

This is an excellent example and honestly, I'd consider it one of the better 40k fanfics. It's worth the read just for the characterization.

It really depends on how much contact they have with the warp itself... contact with chaos gods or significant time spent in proximity to warp energy will irreversibly taint you, regardless of how might feel about it. You can't remove the taint. But OTOH you can resist the power of the warp, 'just say no' and pull away from making that deal with the devil, it's a theme in many books. However there's also a theme that once you let it in you can't go back.

If you were only renegade, there is a chance you might regain some kind of place in the Imperium (elements of the imperium have fired on each other before), with some kind of penitence like going straight to the most lethal warzones where there is little chance you will survive, and dying for the emperor.