Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:How do!
Question from a lack of personal knowledge.
We know that in creating the Primaris, Cawl had access to sample Geneseed from the original Loyalist (and
possibly Traitor) Legions. And we know that part of the Primaris Project was at least attempting to purify said said Geneseed, and remove some of the original flaws.
And so, when the Indomitus Crusade took to the stars? The then Greyshield Primaris were taken along, and dished out to reinforce depleted Chapters, including in some instances saving them from extinction, as well as provide the technology and training (if not already trained Apothecaries) to look after future recruitment.
But what I don’t think is covered is how Primaris of a given lineage were assigned. For instance, the Blood Angels, Flesh Tearers, Lamenters and Blood Drinkers all of course carry Sanguinius’ Geneseed. And all received fresh Primaris into their ranks. But who, if anyone, decided which Primaris went where? I mean, there’s a lot of prestige in being a Blood Angel over the successors, and a certain “Aha, nae joy, sucks to be you” for those assigned to the Lamenters.
Is this covered anywhere in literature?
Two points to consider:
1. Cawl did not only have access to sample geneseed, he had access to the literal motherlode: an artifact from Luna, called the Magna Mater (and later Sangprimus Portum) that did contain material from all twenty Legions and was even more potent than geneseed directly sourced from the Primarchs. It is a major plot point in
Sons of the Selenar and in the exciting Cawl/Bile crossover Novel
Genefather. It's probably also why Cawl has mysterious pseudo-Primaris-Primarch running around, who is the second major plot device in
Genefather - the conclusion to this particular plot is yet to be decided.
2. The circumstances of the Ultima Founding and the subsequent fate of the torchbearer fleets are deliberately left vague - novels like
The Emperor's Spears go into it to some detail, in that particular case stating that allocating Primaris to Successor Chapters was sort of a bet anyway, because due to the Circatrix and related shenanigans communication was a problem, and reaching almost half of the galaxy physically almost impossible. Many fleets were lost, others found only desolation when they arrived at their intended locations, and others yet were thrown so far off-target that their original plans could not be executed. The
tl:dr version is that so much is terminally unstable now, and so many fleets were forced to act on their own best judgement, that basically anything goes, even if it was orignally intended to mostly match the (loyalist) genelines when possible.