Was each Legion created with a role in mind?

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**SirSertile**

Ealdwulf wrote:
Firstly, go easy on me - first time poster!

Was each founding Legion made with a specific role in mind?

Some of them are more obvious than others, but what do you guys think of some of the missing chapters? I've taken a stab at a few of them but my knowledge is probably quite limited compared to some on this forum.

1. Dark Angels - Role Unknown?
2. N/A
3. Emperor's Children - Training/Martial Prowess?
4. Iron Warriors - Siege Specialist
5. White Scars - Scouting/Lightening Warfare
6. Space Wolves - The Loyal Hounds - sent to hunt down with overwhelming force and brutality
7. Imperial Fist - The Emperors Champions/Fortification Experts
8. Nightlords - Psychological Warfare/Night Warfare
9. Blood Angels - Assaults
10. Iron Hands - Machinery and Bionics
11. N/A
12. World Eaters - Brutality in force
13. Ultramarines - Emperor's dutiful host
14. Death Guard - ?
15. Thousand Sons - Keepers of Knowledge
16. Luna Wolves - Leadership and Strategy
17. Word Bearers - To spread the Emperor's Word - Evangelize his cause
18. Salamanders - Masters of the Forge
19. Raven Guard - Masters of Guerrilla Warfare/The Unseen
20. Alpha Legion - Subterfuge

As I said I have quite a few holes, and I'm not sure my assessments are are even correct, but it was something fun to think about. Any ideas to fill in the gaps would be awesome.

What do you folks think?

This whole discussion brings up an interesting point. What was the Emperor's Post Crusade plans for the legions? It's been mentioned a little in the books, and many of the protagonists in the hh novels ask what they will do after the crusade.

Here's my guesses as to the Legion's peacetime uses

1. Dark Angels - Role Unknown?
2. N/A
3. Emperor's Children - Cosmetics/Beautification/System Optimization
4. Iron Warriors - Demolitions
5. White Scars - Transportation
6. Space Wolves - Animal communication/survival
7. Imperial Fist - Construction
8. Nightlords - Police(in a really messed up grimdark 40k way)
9. Blood Angels - ???
10. Iron Hands - Prosthetics/Bioengineering
11. N/A
12. World Eaters - ???
13. Ultramarines - Governors/Leadership/Logistics and organization
14. Death Guard - Disease resistance/Poison/Toxin resistance
15. Thousand Sons - Keepers of Knowledge
16. Luna Wolves - Leadership and Strategy
17. Word Bearers - To spread the Emperor's Word - Evangelize his cause/ possibly screwing with the Chaos Gods by experimenting with belief, possibly to control the masses
18. Salamanders - Masters of the Forge/Manufacturing
19. Raven Guard - ???
20. Alpha Legion - Intelligence on governors

**2BlackJack1**

Would it not be possible for humanity to expand the reach of the astronomicon outside of just the milky way? And if so, couldn't some legions act as frontiers men?

**Lammikkovalas**

SirSertile wrote:

Here's my guesses as to the Legion's peacetime uses

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. Space Marines weren't made for peace.

**Formosa**

Lammikkovalas wrote:
SirSertile wrote:

Here's my guesses as to the Legion's peacetime uses

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. Space Marines weren't made for peace.

"astartes are excel at war because they were made to excel at everything"

They were not built for war exclusively, otherwise the big e would have just built thunder warriors by the butt load, and not even bothered with the primarchs.

**ChazSexington**

To me, the Alpha Legion's purpose is a mix of the CIA, FBI, and the NSA, but this backfired into becoming way too similar to Marvel comics' Hydra. They were different when GW first made them as simple overly prideful warriors much more similar to pre-Heresy Emperor's Children, but both can be mixed with each other.

**SirSertile**

Lammikkovalas wrote:
SirSertile wrote:

Here's my guesses as to the Legion's peacetime uses

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. Space Marines weren't made for peace.

That's 40k, but in 30k, there might have been some peacetime after the Space marines kicked EVERYONE else's collective ass. I'm guessing that the emperor probably had a plan for this so that he didn't just have random superhumans sitting around.

**JamesY**

SirSertile wrote:
Lammikkovalas wrote:
SirSertile wrote:

Here's my guesses as to the Legion's peacetime uses

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. Space Marines weren't made for peace.

That's 40k, but in 30k, there might have been some peacetime after the Space marines kicked EVERYONE else's collective ass. I'm guessing that the emperor probably had a plan for this so that he didn't just have random superhumans sitting around.

Yep, exterminating them all, just like the thunder warriors on terra.

**Reality-Torrent**

The Iron warriors were not only siege masters but also defensive masters, just like the Imperial Fist.

**dusara217**

Deadshot wrote:
The Blood Angels favoured ariel assault due to Sanguinius mutating wings due to Baal radiation. Ferrus Manus loved forging and technological development, and the current Iron Hands are the way they are due to the death of Manus. Angron turned the War Hounds into the World Eaters..

Sanguinius did not develop wings due to radiation, he was immune to radiation's effects, he had the wings from the moment he crashed down on Baal. He may have been engineered with them, they may be a result of his brief exposure to Chaos (unllikely, but possible), but they are most definitely NOT the result of radiation.
lol, I love how the only thing that happened to the War Hounds was a name change. Literally nothing about them under Angron was different from their previous commander (except that they now had an unstoppable God of War on their side).

**Deadshot**

dusara217 wrote:
Deadshot wrote:
The Blood Angels favoured ariel assault due to Sanguinius mutating wings due to Baal radiation. Ferrus Manus loved forging and technological development, and the current Iron Hands are the way they are due to the death of Manus. Angron turned the War Hounds into the World Eaters..

Sanguinius did not develop wings due to radiation, he was immune to radiation's effects, he had the wings from the moment he crashed down on Baal. He may have been engineered with them, they may be a result of his brief exposure to Chaos (unllikely, but possible), but they are most definitely NOT the result of radiation.
lol, I love how the only thing that happened to the War Hounds was a name change. Literally nothing about them under Angron was different from their previous commander (except that they now had an unstoppable God of War on their side).

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sanguinius

**dusara217**

JamesY wrote:
SirSertile wrote:
Lammikkovalas wrote:
SirSertile wrote:

Here's my guesses as to the Legion's peacetime uses

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. Space Marines weren't made for peace.

That's 40k, but in 30k, there might have been some peacetime after the Space marines kicked EVERYONE else's collective ass. I'm guessing that the emperor probably had a plan for this so that he didn't just have random superhumans sitting around.

Yep, exterminating them all, just like the thunder warriors on terra.

Space Marines were some of the best sculpters, painters, smiths, etc. around. Space Marine art is supposed to be fantastic, and Legions like the Iron Hands and Ultramarines demonstrate remarkable acumen for non-war-like activities. If the Emperor exterminated the Space Marines, he would not only incur large-scale rebellions on almost every planet in his domain (Space Marines were the allstars/rockstars/action heroes of the 30k IoM) for destroying their much-loved heroes, but would be wasting boatloads of talent that could be used in his peaceful domain. The only ones that he actually WOULD have to purge would be the World Eaters, and that's just because of the Butcher's Nails.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Deadshot wrote:
dusara217 wrote:
Deadshot wrote:
The Blood Angels favoured ariel assault due to Sanguinius mutating wings due to Baal radiation. Ferrus Manus loved forging and technological development, and the current Iron Hands are the way they are due to the death of Manus. Angron turned the War Hounds into the World Eaters..

Sanguinius did not develop wings due to radiation, he was immune to radiation's effects, he had the wings from the moment he crashed down on Baal. He may have been engineered with them, they may be a result of his brief exposure to Chaos (unllikely, but possible), but they are most definitely NOT the result of radiation.
lol, I love how the only thing that happened to the War Hounds was a name change. Literally nothing about them under Angron was different from their previous commander (except that they now had an unstoppable God of War on their side).

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sanguinius

From Codex: Blood Angels (7e)

The infant Primarch was found by one of the wandering tribes of humans who called themselves the Folk of Pure Blood, or simply the Blood.The young Sanguinius’ life almost came to an end then and there, for the touch of Chaos had changed him.Tiny vestigial wings, like those of an angel, emerged from his back. Many wanted to kill the child as a mutant, though in all other ways he was as perfect a child as had ever been seen. Eventually innate compassion prevailed and the child was spared

**ImAGeek**

dusara217 wrote:
Deadshot wrote:
The Blood Angels favoured ariel assault due to Sanguinius mutating wings due to Baal radiation. Ferrus Manus loved forging and technological development, and the current Iron Hands are the way they are due to the death of Manus. Angron turned the War Hounds into the World Eaters..

Sanguinius did not develop wings due to radiation, he was immune to radiation's effects, he had the wings from the moment he crashed down on Baal. He may have been engineered with them, they may be a result of his brief exposure to Chaos (unllikely, but possible), but they are most definitely NOT the result of radiation.
lol, I love how the only thing that happened to the War Hounds was a name change. Literally nothing about them under Angron was different from their previous commander (except that they now had an unstoppable God of War on their side).

The World Eaters definitely did change under Angron. They didn't have the Butchers Nails before Agron, that's a pretty big change.

**dusara217**

ImAGeek wrote:
dusara217 wrote:
Deadshot wrote:
The Blood Angels favoured ariel assault due to Sanguinius mutating wings due to Baal radiation. Ferrus Manus loved forging and technological development, and the current Iron Hands are the way they are due to the death of Manus. Angron turned the War Hounds into the World Eaters..

Sanguinius did not develop wings due to radiation, he was immune to radiation's effects, he had the wings from the moment he crashed down on Baal. He may have been engineered with them, they may be a result of his brief exposure to Chaos (unllikely, but possible), but they are most definitely NOT the result of radiation.
lol, I love how the only thing that happened to the War Hounds was a name change. Literally nothing about them under Angron was different from their previous commander (except that they now had an unstoppable God of War on their side).

The World Eaters definitely did change under Angron. They didn't have the Butchers Nails before Agron, that's a pretty big change.

They were berserkers before Angron, the only change the Nails brought on was making them mindless berserkers... I see your point.