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So, how do the Deathguard(present time) make more marines? Do they give recruits untainted geneseed and turn them into plague marines later on? Or are they given some sort of infected geneseed that turns them into plague marines from the start?

They are doing new marines ? In Dark Imperium, they fight plague marines and they make it pretty clear that they are old marines from the Heresy

 godardc wrote:
They are doing new marines ? In Dark Imperium, they fight plague marines and they make it pretty clear that they are old marines from the Heresy

I recall some vague bits of information about the Chaos Legions recruiting new members. It does happen. However, iirc, that information didn't include what's going on with the geneseed. But given that Chaos is involved, I think it's highly unlikely that the geneseed has somehow remained uncorrupted.

I wouldn't be surprised if some deathguard are created via twisted experiments along the lines of growing them like insects or something

I mean if they aren't demons(which I don't think they are), there's no way you can tell me that they are still numerous enough to attack all of Ultramar all this time later, even taking warp time into account it just seems entirely unrealistic. At the start of the Heresy the Deathguard had around 95,000 marines. Then we have Isstvan III where they lost about 30,000 men, assuming the casualties (traitor and loyalist) were somewhat even between the 4 Legions involved. Even assuming assuming they took minimal casualties in every other action they participated in the rest of the HH that would still leave them somewhere between 60,000-65,500 marines when they get infected by the destroyer hive. Then comes the siege of Terra where the Deathguard took heavy casualties being the first wave through the breached walls of the Imperial Palace then being reassigned to reclaim the Lion's Gate Spaceport from the White Scars. Then after that a lot of them probably died evacuating from Terra. and fleeing back into the Warp. so after all that I would say there would most certainly be less than 30,000 of them left. I'm sure by now yall see my point, even if every single one was a veteran of the long war, there would be so much attrition. in all those thousands of years of war. I know the undivided legions still make marines the old fashioned way, maybe they try and skim Nurgle marines from other legions? Maybe every once in awhile a poxwalker is noticed for having marine genes and then made into a plague marine? Or maybe they can zombify loyal marines in battle? that would make more sense than anything I suppose...

I’ll have to check again but deathguard were described as having more marines now than they had in the heresy, something about them spreading like a virus

 Formosa wrote:
I’ll have to check again but deathguard were described as having more marines now than they had in the heresy, something about them spreading like a virus

can confirm, thats in codex death guard. It notes that the death guard had a robust recruitment set up to account for their attrition based method of warfare, they cojntinue the recruitment drive on the same level today but because they are so much harder to kill now their numbers have grown to be greater then their great crusasde height

I can't remember the source, might have just been on Lexicanum or something, but they suggest most traitor legions geneseed is too far gone to be used for new recruits.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Formosa wrote:
I’ll have to check again but deathguard were described as having more marines now than they had in the heresy, something about them spreading like a virus

can confirm, thats in codex death guard. It notes that the death guard had a robust recruitment set up to account for their attrition based method of warfare, they cojntinue the recruitment drive on the same level today but because they are so much harder to kill now their numbers have grown to be greater then their great crusasde height

I wonder how this recruitment process works, probably set up a cult of nurgle and corrupt the population of a relatively unimportant human world and then search for boys with DNA compatible with the Deathguard geneseed for training I suppose, but my question still remains; are they turned into plague marines from the get go? or do they create normal marines and turn them into plague marines later on? It seems like the latter would be much more effective for training purposes in learning tactics and discipline.

You know, even while fighting in The Heresy, they were recruiting. They could have been more during the destroyer hive thing
In Dark Imperium, again, there is a battle between the forces of Nurgle and the Imperial Guard. There are tens of zombies, but only 7 Death Guards. They don't need to be hundreds of thousands !

The Iron Warriors use Daemonculaba. Perhaps the Death Guard use something equally unpleasant?

 godardc wrote:
You know, even while fighting in The Heresy, they were recruiting. They could have been more during the destroyer hive thing
In Dark Imperium, again, there is a battle between the forces of Nurgle and the Imperial Guard. There are tens of zombies, but only 7 Death Guards. They don't need to be hundreds of thousands !

Seems unlikely, once a human males is done with puberty they can no longer receive the geneseed as it would kill them. A marine's training begins at ages 10-12, they don't usually receive geneseed until ages 16-18. The Horus Heresy was only a 7 year war and time in the materium moves faster than it does in the warp, so going in the warp wouldn't be a solid answer either. I'm sure they had neophytes that completed their training during the war but how many could that possibly be? This all seems even more odd when (as people have mentioned) it seems that their legion is even larger at the start of the plague wars than it was at the start of the Heresy. Which it would have to be as they would need a formidable fleet to successfully invade a single system in Ultramar let alone 7 at the same time...

*Chaos Marine sneezes*

"Welcome brother, it's so nice to have some new blood!"

Presumably the same way all of the other Legions do.

Post-Heresy marines turning, things like the Daemoncubala, Recruits from the various human tribes of the Daemon Worlds, Captured loyalist gene seed and deals with Bile and The Consortium.

The short story Endurance deals with this - certain plagues can 'turn' Loyalist marines into Plague Marines.

Well, the DG have their own Plague Surgeons who were former Apothecaries. Their organ extraction methods probably don't have to be so clean and neat ....

Also, if the Plague Planet is a mirror of Barbarus, it would have the civilian slave population below the mountains of fog. Those that climb the peaks just may be "rewarded".

Then there's the whole God of Corruption thing. Papa Nurgle would have a jolly old time warping Loyalist geneseed.

I recall at least three 40K Chaos Marine novels deal with recruitment of one form or another. The Word Bearers series has an episode where they steal geneseed from loyalists. The Iron Warriors attack a geneseed vault on some backwater planet and take off with it. Then there is all of that Fabius stuff and geneseed.

I thought the World Eaters were the first through the walls of the palace?

Plague marines are NOT always Deathgaurd, Berzerkers are not always World Eather, etc. Rubric marines however are ALWAYS Thousand Sons. There should be no reason Death Guard are not still continuing as before. I would imagine as soon as a recruit "embraces" Papa Nurgle, the gifts start working thier magic until he is just like the rest of the legion. Without the marine physiology, shouldn't the 'gifts" kill you?

Final thought, if the DG went into the Eye with 15K or so, thats still far and away more then enough to wreak havoc on the Imperium.

Heybiff

Isn't Garro's buddy turned into a plaguebearer or some such aboard the Eisenstein?

I imagine loyalist marines could be corrupted by the Death Guard viridae.