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Hey guys, so I'm starting a imperium army with sisters of battle and maybe the inquisition as the army base, and a space marine chapter as allies. My first thought, since the armies all will revolve around being from a single system (I outlined it in Dakka Fiction already, so I'll spare you guys the details), is that the Space Marine Chapter was a political gift to the system from other parties in the imperium. Anyways, here's the fluff question: Would/could a space marine faction realistically be used as currency like that? I imagine they would, but I'm not sure.

If it's a new founding, absolutely. If its an existing chapter, it gets a bit stickier.

A former world of the 500 in Ultramar, but has a lot of military might and isn't terribly inclined to get back in and be controlled by Ultramar.
Here's a nice bribe of 1000 space marines to garrison your planet, (possibly with the implied threat of: if you don't take them, we'll make them take you...).
Or something like that.

Space Marine honor guard to the govenor of the System?

As far as the Marines are concerned, they're an Honor Guard for the Seat. And so don't listen to every whim of the person sitting in it.

Which leads to political asshattery between said Governer, his sycophants, and the Marines themselves?

Or, the Marines could be present to face some "Once and Future" threat/prophecy that should reoccur in the system at "some point" in the future?

Perhaps the space marines could work through a complex system of 'honour debts' within a system. A lord governor could negotiate X number of years or events that the chapter is honour bound to oblige or remain under their custodianship. These leaders would fulfill some kind of covenant with the space marines. something that sounds old, full of religious ceremony and completely unwieldy because of these factors.

A space marine chapter isn't given to a planet, a planet is given to a space marine chapter.

BrianDavion wrote:
A space marine chapter isn't given to a planet, a planet is given to a space marine chapter.

If the planet is actually worth something you don't waste it on marines. A Chapter formed for a specific task could well be given a base in-system and recruitment rights among the population without any power to rule.

But ofc, there's about zero Imperial Governors (or Inquisitors) who could manuever the High Lords into "giving" them a Space Marine Chapter. Founding a new Chapter is a very expensive undertaking, well beyond what even an Inquisitor can command. They'll need a small fleet of ships, over a hundred ground vehicles and battlegear for a thousand and a few more marines - this investment isn't going to be approved because someone wants shiny toys. Political gift? What comparable gift did the Inquisitor bring the High Lords?

If your goal is to tie your imperial forces together, why not go with a crusading force like that under someone like lord solar macharius did, they can even be currently fighting in a system to tie in the PDF.

This might last until a chapter master figured out his men are being used for selfish political gain by a person in power.

Then, HOLIUS SHITTIUS!

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
This might last until a chapter master figured out his men are being used for selfish political gain by a person in power.

Then, HOLIUS SHITTIUS!

yeah keep in mind Space Marines are, legally, independant, they answer ONLY to the Emperor. they're not going to tolerate being used for a political game.

I could see a clever governor or something like that tricking marines into being used for his gain and possibly getting away with it, for a while. But if the marines figure it out, by the time they're done killing him he'll wish he was dead.

What about an Inquisitor using their connectors and power to forgive the crimes of a chapter (loyal or non Chaos renegades) in exchange for some period of service, mission, etc? This would allow the Inquisitor to maybe use that servitude as a bargainning chip for other deals or achieve some sort of objective.

I'm diggin' it. The idea has a lot of potential, especially as a background for tying your forces together. There are a lot of really neat places you could go with that.

Honor debt or ancient pacts are easy ways to send Marines to their doom, I'm sure you can get them to trail around with some army with them too.

As a political favor? Someone else is owed the Marines fealty and it has been bargained off to the people who are using it now. Perfectly workable in the lore, but odds are marines will chafe against being paraded around or otherwise put into positions other than those that involve blowing things up or being used inefficiently.

Thanks you guys for the replies! I've been busy and am just now checking this thread since a bit.

How about this: The space marines (Which I decided are Salamanders successors, called the Harem Brothers by the people of my system (they are seen as the lady-governors husbandry or something)) were formed recently in this system to combat a chaos incursion in the region. I already had it that the system itself is a imperial hold-out in Imperium Nihilus, and it is owned by the Inquisition. So the inquisitor in charge knew she wasn't going to repel the incursion alone, so the space marines were called for and sent as reinforcements. I'm coming up with all sorts of conflict around this, being that the system is a matriarchy and the balance of power was upset by the space marines inclusion.

'Harem' Brothers sounds a little too on the nose for me, though it's not a terrible name. Try looking up courtiers or suitors and see if those give any other inspirations. I personally like the idea of courtiers being part of their name since a few monarchies employed eunuchs for the role. Very ironic for space marines.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
This might last until a chapter master figured out his men are being used for selfish political gain by a person in power.

Then, HOLIUS SHITTIUS!

yeah keep in mind Space Marines are, legally, independant, they answer ONLY to the Emperor. they're not going to tolerate being used for a political game.

They answer to lots of people besides the Emeperor including RG and the High Lords. Otherwise, unless they are a super special snowflake (Wulfs) they get destroyed.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
'Harem' Brothers sounds a little too on the nose for me, though it's not a terrible name. Try looking up courtiers or suitors and see if those give any other inspirations. I personally like the idea of courtiers being part of their name since a few monarchies employed eunuchs for the role. Very ironic for space marines.

Space Marines are eunuchs. They are all incable of having children and have no or very little sex drive. I would go for Sacred Band personnaly. It would be a different usage of the name, but still in the same style.

Now, I have a note on that name, though it might change (I picked it for lack of a better option): They are called the Harem Brothers, not because they are functionally husbands to the governor, since I know space marines are asexual, It's how the population of the system sees them. It's in-universe propaganda, I was thinking, referencing their purpose of protecting the governor and her seat (She's this systems first governor and is becoming a bit polarizing, in my fluff).

In that case, I think you’re looking at a chapter stronghold (it may not necessarily be the actual fortress monastery) built at the request of the Inquisition. The system provides supplies as a courtesy. The marines operate in the area out of choice: they deem the heretics a worthy foe, but their independence from the governor and the resource tributes proves to be a bit of a culture shock for the locals, so the Inquisition seeds rumors about them to ease integration. This gives the chapter reason to deploy in force without making them pawns of local politics.

I agree with others that Harem Brothers doesn’t sound quite right; at most I’d confine it to commoner slang in the fluff. It might be better to emphasize an ‘official’ name unrelated to the matriarchy, to highlight their status as outsiders.

vizier wrote:
In that case, I think you’re looking at a chapter stronghold (it may not necessarily be the actual fortress monastery) built at the request of the Inquisition. The system provides supplies as a courtesy. The marines operate in the area out of choice: they deem the heretics a worthy foe, but their independence from the governor and the resource tributes proves to be a bit of a culture shock for the locals, so the Inquisition seeds rumors about them to ease integration. This gives the chapter reason to deploy in force without making them pawns of local politics.

I agree with others that Harem Brothers doesn’t sound quite right; at most I’d confine it to commoner slang in the fluff. It might be better to emphasize an ‘official’ name unrelated to the matriarchy, to highlight their status as outsiders.

Perhaps "Imperial Brothers" "Eagle Brothers" "*insert colour here* Jannissaries"?

 Lazzamore wrote:
Now, I have a note on that name, though it might change (I picked it for lack of a better option): They are called the Harem Brothers, not because they are functionally husbands to the governor, since I know space marines are asexual, It's how the population of the system sees them. It's in-universe propaganda, I was thinking, referencing their purpose of protecting the governor and her seat (She's this systems first governor and is becoming a bit polarizing, in my fluff).

Harem brothers sounds more like a slaaneshi warband. A harem is the collection of a man’s wives, female concubines, and children. The dudes ho guard it aren’t part of it.

In DoW2 they solve the SM interest amongvother things by having it be areecruitment world, if I remember correctly?