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So here's a chapter I imagined following my adherance to the Dark Angels army Sorry if there are errors in my words (english is my second language)

Summary
The Dead Angels are a successor chapter of the Dark Angels, and as such are part of the Unforgiven Space Marines chapters. The thing that make them unique compared to their fellow Unforgivens is that all its members are aware of the horrible truth concerning the Fall of Caliban and that it is their sacred duty to make sure no one outside the members of the Inner Circle become aware of even a glimpse of information about it. They are in a way the secret police of the Unforgiven, always acting in the shadows of their brothers and ready to strike anyone that can become a threat. However, their duty do cover more than the successors of the Dark Angels, and they often come in conflict with anyone that learn to much. In this regard, they sometime even have to battle and exterminate members of the xenos race, and even members of the Imperium if it is needed. They take great care to leave no trace behind them that could reveal their existence or the truth about the fall of Caliban. Because of their duty, they do not actively participate in the hunt for the Fallens, but if the occasion present itself, they can act but only if it do not endanger their first mission.
The Dead Angels are true angents of Death, leaving nothing alive after their passage, and killing without remorses. To them, the duty come first, and the morality of an action is judged by its contribution to it. The only member outside of their chapter to know their existence is Azrael, Supreme Master of the Unforgiven Chapters. It is him that direct them where to go and what to do, andf they only report to him outside of their own chain of command. However, their loyalty lay to the position of Supreme Master of the Dark Angels, and not to Azrael himself. Should ever he become a traitor of endanger the sacred duty of both the Dead Angels and the other Unforgivens, they have the sacred obligation to neutralize him and make him disappear by any means necessary.
The Dead Angels follow this combat doctrine : By any means necessary, do what must be done in regard of the Duty. In combat, Dead Angels Space Marines never retreat and go so far as endangering themselves and their allies if it serves the cause. Thsi make them dangrous allies because if the sacrifice of their own allies can serve them, they will make it happen.
Dead Angels armors are jet black and white, and most of them wear ceremonial robes in combat. They are an extremely religious organization, passing much of their time either to battle, train or participing in religious rites. Even their combat strategy have something of religious to it, their warriors thinking of the act of battle as a prayer to the Emperor and the Lion, and even shouyting prayers will slaughtering or be slaugthered.
The Dead Angels do not follow the standards of the Codex Astartes in reason of their Doctrine of ''By any means Necessary'', and as such could be considered heretics if ever discovered. This is also a reason why they make sure to leave no witness of their acts behind them.

Key Figures

Chapter Lord Uriel : Uriel is the master of the Dead Angels, a position he rose to by being selected by Azrael from amongts the other Dead Angels. Uriel is famous for always leading the chapter in battle even in its most desperate moments, and there is nothing more appealling to him than do deliver death to the enemies of the Unforgiven or die trying. On the battlefield, Uriel bears his consecrated terminator armor and his feared pair of lightning claws, bringing dead and woe to his enemy by himself. As Chapter Lord of the Dead Angels, he is also the master of the DeathWave, the Deathwing counterpart of the Dead Angels chapter.

High Chaplain Cyrus : The religious leader of the Dead Angels, Cyrus make sure that no heresy infect the mind of any Dead Angels Space Marines, and make sure that each of them is totally devoted body and soul to the Duty. This can make him threat new recruits in ways that could seem to be torture for any outsider, but Cyrus goal is really to make sure that no Dead Angel will ever betray his duties. This can take the form of physical or psychological torture where the recruit is tested by telling him the only way for him to survive his by revealing the chapter secrets to a figure that pass for an enemy. Cyrus take his task really seriously, and no recruits can tell whenever they are tested or not. Sometime, a recruit that think he has been captured by enemies who torture him for information discover that in fact this was just all part of a big scenario to test his loyalty. Only those who have achieved to pass these test are welcomed as true Dead Angels and are then admitted to go on real battlefields. Those who fails are then delivered the Emperor's Justice by a olt in the head.

Grand Librarian Archemedius : The supreme Psyker of the Dead Angels chapter, Archemedus is the keeper of forbidden lore concerning the chaotic enemies of the Imperium. It is also him that decide who can and can't become a librarian in the chapter. Those he accepts become mighty psykers, those he refuse are eliminated to make sure they do not use their power for evil causes. He and Cyrus are a little at odd, for the second see the first as an heretic tolerated by the Imperium, while the first see the second as a conservative simple-mindeed being. However, both work with each other for the sake of the Duty. Whenever Cyrus needs to have a second opinion on a recruit he just tested, he goes for the help of Archemedius. When Archemedius needs to be sure if a recently obtained knowledge must be destroyed or preserved, he goes for the help of Cyrus. However, both of them prefer it when they don't have to need the help of the other.

Relations

Space Marines : The Dead Angels consider the Dark Angels and all other Unforgiven Chapters as the ''true'' space marines because of the rumour that the Dark Angels were the first Legion to be made. As such, they consider all non-Unforgiven chapter as being made-up of flawed imitations of what a Space Marines should be. In this regard, they see other space marines as nothing more than tools that can be used and destroyed if needed.

Imperial Guards : The Dead Angels look at them as if they were nothing but a meat shield.

Grey Knights and the Inquisition : The Dead Angels avoid all contact if possible with these organizations. If their existence could even be sensed by them, almost nothing could be done to preserve the secret of the Duty. If ever Dead Angels come in contact with any memeber of the Grey Knights or of the Inquisition, the order is to silence them immediatly, for leaving them alive is to great a risk (in reason of their power and ressource)

Chaos Space Marines : The ultimate enemies with which no pact is tolerated. Even thought the Dead Angels have a ''by any means necessary'' doctrine, collaboration with the heretics is absolutely penalized with death sentance by anyone that dare cross the rule, be it Dead Angel or simple civilian. Dead Angels see Chaos Space Marines as the perfect example of what might happen if they ever fail in their duty of policing their brethren.

Eldars and Tau : Dead Angels are ready to colloborate with these xenos scum, but when the work is done, they will make sure their secret of their existence is safe by any means necessary.

Tyranids, Orks and Necrons : No collaboration is possible with these aliens, and by such they must be exterminated at sight. For the religious Dead Angels, these abominations aren't better than daemons of the warp. However, the Dead Angels are partially intrigued with the Necrons technology that could seal of permenantly the immaterium from the materium. However, their religious belief stop them from ever truly using it.

Daemons : The source of the Burden. To destroy the Fallen is but the first step in making sure such a thing as the Fall of Caliban ever happens again. The final is the permanent elimination of the Chaos Gods.

To resume : the Dead Angels are ready to work with anyone that isn't to much alien, but once the work is over, they will backstab them to make sure no one even know they were there. For they rest of the Galaxy, they must be nothing more than nothing if they hope to accomplish their goal.

Combat Doctrine
Dead Angels are relatively few compared to other Space Marines chapter, the reason being that they don't often have to go to combat and that they specialize in fast special operations. However, they are highly trained in the art of war, and most of them are challenged by a deadly training. Most Dead Angels that are alive have survived trials that make war look like vacations in a hot spa summer, and each of them is always at risk of dying during training, for the training is never completed. Even the most battle-hardened veteran must continue to train when not at battle or participating to the religious rites.
In battle, the standard tactic of the Dead Angels are quick and lethal strike. First go the bikers with homers and soon after ward the dreadnought and devastators in drop pods come in, followed by the terrifying terminators of the Deathwave.
Of course, the Dead Angels have the doctrine ''by any means necessary'' which make them never retreat, always using all the options they can find. If the only way for them to win is to litterally go to death, then they will. This berzerker-like attitude as often been costly, but since they are a black ops-like army, they have more than plenty of time to refill their ranks, and much of the time only a small battleforce is necessary to do the job.
In battle, the Dead Angels favor close combat, seeing something religious in the attack of gutting the enemy with blades and claws. However, they understand they will not always be facing simple soldiers, but also huge warmachine, which is why they are often equipped with melta weapons.


So here's for now, I will continue later !

Not bad at all. However, I always say that. I like it

So...
They police the Unforgiven chapters?

Police is cool! (when theyre Russian )

yep, that and anything that could reveal the truth. Example : a bunch of Ultramarines led by a psyker battle a group of Chaos Space Marines led by a Fallen Angels. The psyker of the ultramrines for whatever reasons discover the identity of the Fallen and the truth about the Fall of Caliban. If the Dead Angels hear about it (and THEY WILL!), it his their duty to litterally make sure that no one else learn this, and to make sure of it, they will litterally exterminate those ultramrines that learned it.

That's a nice concept...
I suppose they don't much care for civilian casualties either?

The only thing that count is the Duty, and the Duty doesn't concern the well being of civilians. If a whole galaxy must burn to make sure no one learn the secret of the Unforgiven, then so be it (of course this is the last resort).

Nice...

so I just added a new section, next time a little history.

I'd Change Inquisiton and GK to: Not overtly hostile but do not like to co-operate with either organisation. They will attack either if they discover their secret but fortunately they haven't been forced to take any action againt them as yes.

yeah but I would find it risky if I was a member of a secret police that have the task to protect the secret of a unknown heresy to work with someone that could discover the truth and then decapitate me easily with the swing of a force sword and then spread word of Caliban. I'm gonna think about it still.

I like this army; very well thought out. The Secret Police aspect is very unique for Space Marines.

Khornate25 wrote:yeah but I would find it risky if I was a member of a secret police that have the task to protect the secret of a unknown heresy to work with someone that could discover the truth and then decapitate me easily with the swing of a force sword and then spread word of Caliban. I'm gonna think about it still.

Thing is, if they lost or somehow the word got out they would be purged faster than 'the swing of a force sword'.
Secret police are sneaky buggers, they won't attack what might bite them in the arse until they have no other choice.

Thx Lone Lictor
The idea came to me when I was thinking about the Inquisition and latter saw then end cinematic of the Space Marine video game, where an Inquisitor is escorted by Black Templars but with chaplain-like helmets. So then I thought : what if there was something as an Inquisition-like Space Marine chapter (except the GK in their shinny armors)? Then I thought the Dark Angels, with all their mysteries and secrets should fit for the progenitors of a chapter with the sole duty of ensuring their secrets and traking down anyone that would know to much(akin to the CIA or KGB or even the Gestapo). When I will began to assemble this army, each member will have a chaplain helmet! MUAHAHAHAHA!

I'm going to ask a lot of questions that you may not like, so feel free to ignore them.

How did they find out about the secret? Mu understanding is that it is only discussed amongst the Inner Circle of the various chapters/chapter masters. Why would an entire chapter find out?

Are they only concerned with hunting the fallen and covering up their tracks? If so, not only does your 'silence the inquisition whenever they get close' anger the inquisition, but having a chapter not do what Space Marines do, would further send the Inquisition into a rage the likes of which would wipe the chapter from existence.

The idea is cool, but its very hard to work in the confines of the 40k universe. Simply put, killing members of the Inquisition will end up killing your chapter when the Inquisition brings its mailed fist down on your chapter. You really just can't kill the inquisition, its their job to monitor everything and a series of disappearances of high ranking officials will quickly end with them purging your chapter's existence.

Again, neat idea, but you'd have to create a plausible reason as to either; a) how they all found out, or b) why they were founded for this purpose (i.e. creating an event that led to the creation of a chapter bearing Dark Angel geneseed).

Having a chapter know about the SUPER SECRET of the fallen is akin to having a Blood Angel chapter with no Red Thirst/Black Rage, or a Space Wolves successor. Its just...not right. Granted, with a good plot and reason, it can work. But don't tick off the inquisition, seriously. You can't touch them. They're that powerful.

Ok, so to answer this the more correctly possible :

First, this chapter didn't find out the secret, they were litterally told the secret and given the task of making sure no one outside the Inner Circle know it.

Second, their priority is to cover up their track and that of their brethren, but if the occasion to deal with a Fallen present itself without endangering their first goal, they can act.

Third, no one outside of the Inner Circle know about them. They aren't recorded no where, have no real place to call home, and all their servitors, wargears and other things are supplied by the Inner Circle. So if the Inquisition wanted to find out about them, they should have to litterally find them in person... which would lead to an execution. To put it simple : if someone see them and there is no reason to keep this guy alive for a brief moment of time, kill him. If he can be useful, use him and then kill him. So basically, for the rest of the Galaxy, they don't even exist.

Also, to explain why they were made : They were kinda made to make sure no one learn the secret while the rest of the Unforgiven was tasked with hunting the fallen, and also to make sure none of the Unforgiven joined the Fallen by becoming corrupted.

And as I said, they are called a Chapter, but they are considerably less numerous than a Codex Astates chapter, more like something akin to the Death Watch. So in a way, yeah, all of them know about the secret, but because of it, no one know about them. To the rest of the Galaxy, they don't exist and they don't have the right to make themselves known to the rest of the galaxy. None of their name are known outside of their own Chapter and Inner Circle.

So in a way, you have to see them as a small elite army that navigate in the space, then when they are called for duty they come in a kill everything that is their target plus anything that hear and see them, then go out. The idea of never collaborating with the Inquisition is because it's risky to work with someone who will turn you in (see it as the assassin of a senator who encounter a FBI agent : Hey mister FBI! Did you knew that Senator X had it's own private killer? Guess what? I'm him!). Also, I think if they ever crossed path, even if the Dead Angels didn't want to attack them, most of the Non-Radical Inquisitors would attack them and brand them as Heretics.

So stay tunned for soon I will post 3 little stories concerning this sinister organization that kill anyone that is to much curious about you know what.

Okay, so I think the idea needs some more refining. Instead of being a chapter, why not make them an extension of the grand Inner Circle? Basically a hand-picked team of the best from the Deathwings and Ravenwings of various Unforgiven chapters to create this pseudo-deathwatch. That idea makes more sense in every respect yet still achieves what you want to do. They would fight in a variety of manners and be supplied with a couple strike cruisers and escorts and sent around the galaxy in small detachments.

You could do something cool with their heraldry, like making them all a set colour but retaining a shoulderpad from their parent chapter, like the Deathwatch.

Just an idea, but remember that space marine chapters are founded by decree from the HLoT, and then supplied by the admech. Chapters are forgotten and rediscovered, yes, but eventually, they will be identified as a chapter by the inquisition, and their records pulled from somewhere. So they can't really be a 'secret' space marine chapter that no one has ever heard of. The Grey Knights are the exception, and those chapters that have suddenly appeared with no record have submitted to the Inquisition for investigation.

Food for thought.

The DA have been know to successfully petition the HLoT for permission to found a new chapter.
This chapter is more internal police rather than external which the Deathwing and Ravenwing are.
The DA successors and DA are pretty much just one massive Chapter in alll but name due to their relations with each other.