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Hello. I just grabbed a few Blackstone Fortress minis in advance of the Imperial Agents codex. I'm excited to add some special Characters into my (Crimson Fists) Marine force. I know we don't quite know what buffs the Priest and Missionaries are going to bring, but for now I am considering what fluff justifications there would be for adding them in.

Lone survivor? Crusader against the foul Xenos scourge? Would the Ecclesiarchy have any authority? (or would the Marines merely ask them to keep up and stay out of the way.)

My Company are themed as Ork Hunter specialists, and I do enjoy bringing a Chaplain along, so the simplest reasoning would be that the Priest/Missionary is just along for the ride.

Do we have any written examples of a Priest or Missionary joining up with Space Marines?

Most marines (barring Black Templar) are not big on priests and the ecclisarchy. They have their own chaplain to tend to their faith. And the faith of the SM is not aligned with the mainstream imperial creed.

Now most should be fine fighting along side them. But the priest would have roughly zero authority over them. If said priest was part of an inquisitional retinue, they may be able to “borrow” a little authority from there, acting as his/her agent.

If the SM are fighting in some kind of theological schism civil war, they might have a priest attached as an advisor? Or if they run across one on the battlefield, they might be impressed and take them along for the ride?

It’s a big universe and anything can happen. I can’t think of any general examples, as the two factions don’t normally work together. But the fluff certainly could be bent to make it work.

Good breakdown from Nevelon. Have an exalt.

But yeah, generally priests aren't integrated into a chapter or encouraged to tag along. If the marines need a prayer or a pep talk, that's what the chaplains are for.

In the Emperor's Spears, we see a Mentors marine who works without any other astartes support and instead has a handful of humans including a somewhat religious human, but even then their role is more to like, mark targets, operate serve skulls, etc.

In that same book, one of the Mentor's human aids gets a little bloodthirsty with her servo skull during the fight, and one of the Spears calls her out and says it was nice fighting alongside her before rewarding her with a power sword taken from the enemy commander.

All of which is to say, while marines probably wouldn't go out of their way to add a priest to their entourage and would probably make it clear the priest should avoid getting in their way, some chapters might acknowledge a fellow warrior and let him ride along in the rhino.

To my knowledge, Crimson Fists are a relatively practical bunch. Maybe they expect to come across a bunch of human slaves/survivors while they're purging a planet of orks and see the priest as a useful tool for rallying those humans/getting the humans out of the way. He kills orks well enough for them to respect him, and he takes on the annoying tasks of organizing the rescued humans and preaching them back into a condition to reinforce the nearest allied fortress or whatever.

That said, that type of relationship doesn't seem like it would last once it was time to leave the planet. If you really want a pet priest to stay attached to your guys indefinitely, you might need to come up with some sort of, "He saved my life, so I adopted him," type scenarios.

Unless the lore has changed, the CF used to be dangerously low in number. Maybe they just appreciate having an extra chapter surf to take on administrative chores.

Another thought, where I honestly don’t know the answer for.

Chapters have serfs, humans who do things around the chapter monastery, ships, etc. who tends to their faith? Do they follow the normal imperial creed? Do they worship like the marines?

If they don’t follow the chapter’s faith, they would need their own priests. And I could easily see the priest who’s job it is to tend to the souls of the faithful auxiliaries on the strike cruiser popping down to the warzone to burn some heretics.

 Nevelon wrote:
Another thought, where I honestly don’t know the answer for.

Chapters have serfs, humans who do things around the chapter monastery, ships, etc. who tends to their faith? Do they follow the normal imperial creed? Do they worship like the marines?

If they don’t follow the chapter’s faith, they would need their own priests. And I could easily see the priest who’s job it is to tend to the souls of the faithful auxiliaries on the strike cruiser popping down to the warzone to burn some heretics.

I am fairly confident the vast majority of serfs follow the Chapter cult.

As noted above there is nothing to stop you subbing a priest in. If you want to go fluffier, then maybe take an inquisitor or rogue trader and have the priest in as part of their retinue. I’m assuming the Agents book will be flexible enough for that.

The Angels Resplendent Repentant had a priest basically change their entire culture.

Would Recruitment worlds follow Imperial creed?

They would know next to nothing about Astartes culture. Just that every so often the Sky Angels come and grab their strongest children who are never seen again....

A crusading force like the Crimson Fists recruit from many worlds. Perhaps a Priest would be brought along for their recruitment drives?

Edit: I do like the idea of a lone survivor of an ork Waaagh/Tyranid attack. Fits the Preacher Zealot model quite well (the one with the flamer chainsword). The Pope Hat Missionary is gonna need a bit for brainstorming. Thank you all for the comments so far!

Edit 2. The Missionary dealing with the local population of survivors while the Marines do their thing is another angle I could work in. Crimson Fists did alot of heroic actions on Rynns World protecting the local population. The Marines wouldn't necessarily want to deal with that burden very often. The Missionary would be their Humanitarian Aide!

Are the Crimson Fists crusading now?

Generally, and broadly? Whilst each Chapter has its own faith, it’s very unusual for a Chapter to view The Emperor as a divinity. But, each Chapter has its own take, from “he’s just a powerful dude and our Grandad” to the Black Templars “no he’s definitely a God”.

If I recall correctly, the Ministorum has some modicum of oversight over Chapter Cults, essentially ensuring whatever the Chapter preaches isn’t massively heretical. And that can lead to censure.

In terms of rough real world comparison? I guess it’d be ensuring their faith is Abrahamic, and not overly worrying about the various branch faiths, sects, factions etc etc. As long The Emperor is at the centre, they’ve a decent amount of leeway.

And much the same is true of the wider Imperial Cult. When a new world is conquered or brought into the fold? Existing faiths are adapted. So if it’s a primitive world? Hey look guys, that Mighty Sky God was The Emperor all along! And Heaven was really Terra, where The Emperor lives! The exact minutiae from there can vary quite considerably.

 Haighus wrote:
Are the Crimson Fists crusading now?

I misremembered them as being so, but they were on founding.

"The Crimson Fists were a crusading fleet-based Chapter for the next nine Terran millennia much like their brother Chapter the Black Templars. The Crimson Fists travelled throughout the Imperium, defeating the enemies of the Emperor. Their Battle Barge Rutilus Tyrannus served as their mobile fortress-monastery, though a large fleet of additional Strike Cruisers supported it."

I may be getting ahead of myself anyhow. We still don't know what units the Priest/Missionary can join up with!

Armies of Faith from 9th ed allowed players to combine Sisters, Marines and Guard. This doesn't necessarily mean that priest from sisters or guard units have any authority over units from the other factions, nor in the current edition would it necessarily confer an ability to join a unit from one of the other factions.

We do know that priests are classified as Agents- Warcom mentions it in one of the articles. What we don't know is whether they're classified as requisitioned units, Agent Keyworded or Ordo Keyworded.

Now I know all of that is rulesy, and this is the background forum, if you want to generalize about relationships between Imperial forces, the rules material is your best bet- the BL stuff sometimes depicts exceptional circumstances for the sake of spicing up the story rather than showing us the way it tends to work generally, or the way it is supposed to work under normal circumstances.