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I went to Lexicanum to remind myself of a bit of related fluff and see this BS just sitting there in the main chapter info panel. The only reference cited is a Deathwatch short story, the synopsis for which gives no clue where this info comes from(omniscient narrator? internal monologue? speculation of another character?); don't tell me some C-list bolterporn Black Library author has managed to completely cack all over the entire point of the chapter with an uninformed throaway remark

For those who might be wondering why this would be annoying; the Exorcists were created by the Inquisition using pretty Radical(borderline Xanthite even) methods specifically as an experiment to find out if they could find a shortcut to creating daemonically-resistant Marines that didn't require them to rely on the Grey Knights, who have to be super-duper-extra-pure or whatever it is. If they could just stick GK geneseed in any old chump there would never have been any need to create the Exorcists in the first place, nor indeed any need for any other kind of Space Marines.

This is why shared continuities need iron-fisted top-down management in the style of Disney's handling of Star Wars.

Spiritual Successors. That simple.

pm713 wrote:
Spiritual Successors. That simple.

Sorry, not following.

 Yodhrin wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Spiritual Successors. That simple.

Sorry, not following.

They spiritual successors in that they follow the Grey Knights dedication to fighting Daemons.

pm713 wrote:

 Yodhrin wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Spiritual Successors. That simple.

Sorry, not following.

They spiritual successors in that they follow the Grey Knights dedication to fighting Daemons.

I can see that they just follow the grey knights ideal even with them not being "Blood" related.

Would need some seriously interesting fluff to explain them.
Combating the demonic is all about obtaining knowledge about them.
The more you learn, the more your path leads to corruption.
Read how the GK's have a group that is dedicated to boiling down the information to something that would not blast someone's sanity.
Even the serfs used to fly their ships have equipment implanted to perform targeted mind wipes.
I could see the Exorcists being treated much like BloodAngels: having to lock-up or put down brethren as they descend into madness.
What would make them more resistant than a Black Templar for instance?
I remember there was some chapter that was "radicalized" that was known to use chaos artifacts to combat chaos, I wonder if that was them? (that was some 3rd edition fluff...).

 Talizvar wrote:
Would need some seriously interesting fluff to explain them.
Combating the demonic is all about obtaining knowledge about them.
The more you learn, the more your path leads to corruption.
Read how the GK's have a group that is dedicated to boiling down the information to something that would not blast someone's sanity.
Even the serfs used to fly their ships have equipment implanted to perform targeted mind wipes.
I could see the Exorcists being treated much like BloodAngels: having to lock-up or put down brethren as they descend into madness.
What would make them more resistant than a Black Templar for instance?
I remember there was some chapter that was "radicalized" that was known to use chaos artifacts to combat chaos, I wonder if that was them? (that was some 3rd edition fluff...).

This part is actually explained. As part of their induction, they are willingly possessed by a lesser daemon and have to exorcism the daemon out of their own body. The particular process of doing so effectively burns out their soul, creating the equivalent of artificial blanks. They don't have the anti-warp auras of real blanks, but it acts as an extremely effective self-defense against corruption. However, only a small number of marines are successful in the self-exorcism, which is why the chapter maintains three companies of scouts. It is believed that this whole process is overseen by a squad of Grey Knights, to ensure it is performed as safely as possible. This last fact is most likely where the rumor that the chapter is derived from Grey Knight geneseed. That said, it's really not a huge deal if they do use Grey Knight geneseed, because it's not just the geneseed that gives the Grey Knights their protection. That's only part of it. It's also their particular extreme drive for self-purification, as well as the wards that are surgically engraved onto their bones as part of their implantation. By contrast, the Exorcists use far more profane and radical methods, not just against daemons, but against all enemies of the Imperium, whereas the Grey Knights are more focused on being an anti-daemonic force.

Also the chapter you were talking about were the Relictors.

It's from the internal monologue of an Exorcist member of the Deathwatch.

And a key difference is that while GKs induct psykers that go through an insanely harrowing process to become not only immune to the daemonic, but anethema to them, the Exorcists use daemonic possession and exorcism therapy on normal inductees to make them invisible/uncorruptable to daemons. It makes sense that they would use GK geneseed, as that would give them a built in boost to resisting the daemonic, making the failure rate a lot lower.

At the same time it makes no sense, because GK gene-seed is frequently unrecoverable. So by using it in a chapter that is not even doing its duty to the extent GK do they are wasting a precious resource that can be wasted if failure happens.

But hey wasted resources... never stopped Imperium before, especially the Radicals..

As I understand, they may be genetical succesors of the Grey Knights and furthermore their goal is erradicate the chaos. But, in my opinion, there are two big differences: They don´t follow the combat doctrine of the Grey Knights and the Exorcist were born under a radical inquisitorial doctrine.

They are not the only chapter to serve the Inquisition, the Red Hunters are another secretive chapter very similar in scheme and colours to the Exorcist that could be their father chapter.

Anyway, these are the kind of questions that are left under a veil of darkness in the fluff.

 Quickjager wrote:
At the same time it makes no sense, because GK gene-seed is frequently unrecoverable. So by using it in a chapter that is not even doing its duty to the extent GK do they are wasting a precious resource that can be wasted if failure happens.

non-2nd founding chapters are created from a single set of implants. If the Grey Knights can survive the frequent loss of their geneseed then they can survive a single marine's progenoids.

The GK had fully-stocked banks of geneseed when they appeared. They are in no danger of running out any time soon.

The Exorcists are rumored to be a Successor Chapter, but this remains unconfirmed.

As for top-down control of the canon? Never going to happen. If you don't want Exorcists to be at all related to the GK in any way? Then they aren't. It's that simple.

I think the Relictors are cooler than the Exorcists, as they are more unique than "almost Grey Knights".

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I think the Relictors are cooler than the Exorcists, as they are more unique than "almost Grey Knights".

Well, the Relictors have actually been excommunicated, making them renegades, not loyalists so...

Anyway, the Excorcists were never supposed to be "almost Grey Knights." They were an experiment to make garden variety Space Marines more resistant to Chaos; an experiment that was mostly successful, although with a high body count as a trade off. In short, they were supposed to be more practical.

I agree that this random snippet of fluff tying them more to Grey Knights is annoying. It's like when they kept upgrading Ollanius Pius to a Spess Mehrine and a Custodes before finally making him a Perpetual. Not everything has to be the most uber in the galaxy.

 Psienesis wrote:
The GK had fully-stocked banks of geneseed when they appeared. They are in no danger of running out any time soon.

The Exorcists are rumored to be a Successor Chapter, but this remains unconfirmed.

As for top-down control of the canon? Never going to happen. If you don't want Exorcists to be at all related to the GK in any way? Then they aren't. It's that simple.

That's a cop-out and always has been, the wooly approach to canon only works when you have ambiguity, or where both parts of information that are in conflict come from unreliable narrators. I can pretend the Iron Hands weren't butchered and turned into a Codex-adherent chapter of Robo-Vulcans all I like, they were, no ifs no buts.

In this case an internal monologue is apparently the source, which is unreliable, but there's no conflict there since I don't actually recall the original fluff having an explicit provision that they weren't using GK geneseed, so it's ignorable only in the sense that the source story isn't one of the "big name" books and the faction isn't one most people will have formed a previous opinion of(and if you think that's not an issue, try making a proper Iron Hands army and enjoy all the gak being flung at you for "powergaming" by using the Space Wolves 'dex for a Codex-adherent chapter). It's a piece of fluff that by rights I should assume to be correct, but can get away with refusing because it's highly unlikely I'll meet anyone else who cares - properly managing the IP would mean that kind of situation shouldn't even arise.

 fallinq wrote:

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I think the Relictors are cooler than the Exorcists, as they are more unique than "almost Grey Knights".

Well, the Relictors have actually been excommunicated, making them renegades, not loyalists so...

Anyway, the Excorcists were never supposed to be "almost Grey Knights." They were an experiment to make garden variety Space Marines more resistant to Chaos; an experiment that was mostly successful, although with a high body count as a trade off. In short, they were supposed to be more practical.

I agree that this random snippet of fluff tying them more to Grey Knights is annoying. It's like when they kept upgrading Ollanius Pius to a Spess Mehrine and a Custodes before finally making him a Perpetual. Not everything has to be the most uber in the galaxy.

Indeed, and it also grates because it makes it harder to justify the radical edge to the chapter. The Exorcists were a nice way to hook Space Marines into the story of your Radical Inquisitor without having to explain why they weren't chopping his head off because of all the Daemonhosts floating about the place, but involving GK geneseed makes the whole affair of their creation seem much more widely known and sanctioned since I find it highly unlikely the GK are going to let some Xanthite stroll onto their super-sekrit moonbase to pinch a six pack of astartes-making-goo.

The story is 'Headhunted', and the Exorcist is Rauth, and it is essentially an in-universe inner monologue from one of them.

Who better than an Exorcist to watch over one such as Karras? Even the mighty Grey Knights, from whose seed Rauth's chapter had been born, could hardly have been more suited to the task.

For those who might be wondering why this would be annoying; the Exorcists were created by the Inquisition using pretty Radical(borderline Xanthite even) methods specifically as an experiment to find out if they could find a shortcut to creating daemonically-resistant Marines that didn't require them to rely on the Grey Knights, who have to be super-duper-extra-pure or whatever it is. If they could just stick GK geneseed in any old chump there would never have been any need to create the Exorcists in the first place, nor indeed any need for any other kind of Space Marines.

They're effective as line troops who aren't at risk of being corrupted. They're actually a lot less effective against daemons per se, because the end result is something not a million miles from 'untouchable', and the Grey Knight's psyker abilities is a big part of their capabilities.

To be fair, if you're a militant member of the Ordo Malleus, then Grey Knight geneseed is probably as practical to get hold of as any other.

They are not the only chapter to serve the Inquisition, the Red Hunters are another secretive chapter very similar in scheme and colours to the Exorcist that could be their father chapter.

The Exorcists and Red Scorpions are both 'secretly created chapters', so it happens fairly often. There's a pretty good chance you'd have found an inquisitor or two in the cabal responsible for the almighty feth-up that was the Cursed Founding, too.

Iocarno, I agree with your point of view. But only I want to hightlight that I was referering to the Red Hunters, not Scorpions.

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Red_Hunters

The Red Hunters are a Second Founding Inquisitorial Chapter that appeared in the Imperial Armour Books of Forgeworld. (The siege of Vraaks)

Their idiosincrasy is that they are specialized in fight chaos but they erase their own memories after that. (Mnemonic purgation).

I see them more close to the Exorcist that the Grey Knights, and a possible explication of their gene-seed. The Red Hunters even share the same colours.

But, in my oppinion, that is futile speculation and probably we will never know the answer.

Even an internal monologue can be unreliable, after all someone had to tell him that.