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Is there any examples where a fan created chapter has been turned into canon by GW?

Would this not make an interesting competion? Perhaps now could be a good time for this

Chapters not that I know of, but I think the Sa'cea sept was a forum thing during one of the global campaigns that got a canon nod.

Didn't ADB put his wife's chapter into Helsreach and then promptly kill them off?

FFG made a few 4chan things canon, namely LIIVI/Love Can Bloom, Commissar Dan and Castus Grendel.

Depending on how you view it, the Blood Ravens were created specifically because Relic and THQ wanted a chapter they can do anything to without messing up fluff, only to have them become popular enough that they got a few official mentions in the codexes and (now) actual models.

Ging wrote:
Is there any examples where a fan created chapter has been turned into canon by GW?

Would this not make an interesting competion? Perhaps now could be a good time for this

Well FFG did get it's Storm Warden Chapter canonized, alongside Blood Ravens from Dawn of War. In a technical sense.

The White Panthers were the winners of a 'Create Your Own Chapter' competition in White Dwarf around '96 or '97 - entrants had to submit a painted tactical squad. They showed up here and there as a colour scheme in 2nd and 3rd Edition, and in the first 3rd Edition Space Marine Codex they got a whole story in which they responded to Inquisitor Bastelak Grim's call for aid and basically annihilated a rebellious Imperial world, much to his annoyance. Bearing in mind the first generation of 3rd Edition codecies had hardly any fluff at all (and what they did include was always presented as short excerpts from 'primary sources'), them having that much that was actually quite a big deal.

Not sure much has been heard from them since though...

Hive fleet Moloch,
I'm not 100% certain, but I definitely saw that on a wd as a fan army, and it was referenced in a later Tyranid codex.


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I assume it started on the internet , by ADB has canonized CHOOOM as the sound volkite makes


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Hive fleet Ouroboros by the same guy has also been canonised

Sons of Orar were a homebrew chapter from one of the studio team that were made canon around 4th, I believe. The Imperius Reavers were a chapter that someone at Warhammer World created and ended up getting a campaign based around them.

If I worked for GW, that's one of the main things I'd try to implement. I think there's massive potential for engaging with the playerbase in a way not many other IPs have done before, and using that to drive sales, increase tournament participation and build popularity around the brand.

Basically, I'd run a rolling programme of (probably quarterly) officially-affiliated tournament campaigns in the same vein as the old Eye of Terror campaign. Minimal entry fee to cover the costs of setup. Each of these campaigns would centre around the events occurring in a particular system, and the result of the campaign would determine what happened to the system in question.

The issue with the EoT campaign was that the result of it has universe-changing implications which is difficult to implement, can result in unpopular retcons, and is completely unnecessary. These campaigns would invent a whole random new world, give it background, and let people fight over it.

The results of the each of these campaigns would be written into the ongoing and evolving fluff of the 40k universe, including a roster of those who fought there. If anyone's army was particularly impressive/interesting, or pulled off any death-defying feats, they could be candidates for further development and mentions in future codices. It doesn't have to be much, but how thrilled would you be if your own homebrew chapter gets a little mention in one of the fluff-snippets at the foot of the next SM codex? How cool would it be if you're reading the next BRB and there's mention of 'The Ereban Crusade' and you can say 'My dudes were there! We kicked all kinds of ass'.

That's what people would be fighting for. Not the fate of the galaxy, but for the personal glory of their army and the chance to become enshrined in the official fluff.

I think it would be immensely popular

Pretty sure Howling griffons started as an 'army of the month' article back in the late 90s? Unless they were in rogue trader before that.

Fellhammer I think came from bols or d4chan?

Nah, Howling Griffons were around before the big White Dwarf article. That was just showing off an army (and namely because the guy was a GW retail employee).

Blood Ravens.

Newcrons, Smurfs, Draigo.

 ProwlerPC wrote:
Newcrons, Smurfs, Draigo.

...the return of Gully-face ...that bit in the 5E BA codex that said that Tactical Marines are closer to promotion to captain than anyone in the veteran company...