Chaos Space Marines
Chaos Space Marines are, simply enough, Space Marines that have fallen to, or were inducted to, Chaos. They are also one of the main factions in Warhammer 40,000. The first Chaos Marines were born during the Horus Heresy from the nine Traitor Legions. Since then, many Space Marines (and even a few full Chapters) have gone rogue, becoming Renegades. However, this is mostly a fluff distinction, as the Codex does not differentiate between the two.
Many Chaos Marines eventually dedicate themselves to one of the four Chaos Gods, becoming little more than an extension of the god's will. This path has great risk and great reward, as the Chaos Gods are quite capricious; between two equally-dedicated champions, one will become a horrific beast that should not be named, whereas the other will achieve apotheosis and become a Daemon Prince.
- Khornate Champions: Those who worship Khorne (such as the World Eaters Traitor Legion) become close quarters badasses full of RAAAAAAAAAGGGEEEE!. Khornate champions are among the best dedicated melee fighters in the setting. They are insane, ruthless, and barbaric, and continually lust after BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! Marines dedicated to Khorne are usually called Khorne Berzerkers, after the Berzerkers of the World Eaters Legion, of whom Kharn (swell guy by the way) is the most famous. They are famed for their use of the chainaxe and their fucktastically fearless charges. They also get the best speeches. Although do note that Khornate followers are not all pure-CQC fighters, any weapon that spills blood in honorable combat like heavy weapons or vehicles is welcomed by Khorne. "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! KHORNE FLAKES FOR KHORNE!!"
- Tzeentchian Champions: All followers of Tzeentch are tricky and conniving, and many of them are also powerful psykers (as Tzeentch is the god of magic). Warriors under Tzeentch tend to rape anything in ranged combat with either enhanced weapons or SPACE MAGIC that would turn heroes into Chaos Spawn, squa-GRAABBRLBLLRBLRLRBLR
- Ahem. To continue where the previous writer left off... squads of infantry into ash, and vehicles into puddles of molten goo. The Thousand Sons Legion is dedicated to Tzeentch; their (former) chief diviner, Ahriman, is one of the better-known Tzeentchian sorcerers.
- Slaaneshi Champions: The followers of Slaanesh simply want to experience pleasure to the highest degree, most of which usually involves the euphoria gained from killing another person. Thus, Slaaneshi followers typically hype themselves up on drugs in order to intensify the sensations they experience, whether from sex or from slaughter. Slaaneshi Marines have taken so many drugs their bodies start to produce them normally. And yes, this is really canon. They also get penis fingers to give them the extra edge in combat (somehow) and hyperactive awareness, meaning that Slaaneshi followers typically move so fast that they're at par with Eldar reflexes. Doomrider is one of the most famous Slaaneshi champions (at least on /tg/), although he isn't from the Emperor's Children, the Chaos Legion that fell to Slaanesh; Lucius the Eternal, on the other hand, is.
- Nurglic Champions: These guys are rotting, diseased, decaying sacks of flesh who can take hits that would kill a squad of Terminators. They're something of a meat shield as far as Chaos is concerned (although not as much as Chaos Cultists). They've contracted every disease in creation and then some. Despite looking like a bag of things best not described, Nurgle's followers won't hesitate to give you a big, long, family hug. D'awww. The Death Guard fell to Nurgle, but it wasn't really their fault.
- Undivided: Back in the good ol' days, Chaos Undivided was the concept of worshipping Chaos as a combined entity or pantheon. The Word Bearers were probably the most well-known worshippers of Chaos Undivided. Since then, it has been largely retconned; instead, Chaos Undivided refers to Chaos Marines with the support of all four Chaos gods (such as Failbaddon). This has left the Word Bearers in something of a weird spot, as their core concept has been badly mangled. Although, this is not completely out of place: Undivided followers do have the support of all four Chaos Gods due to their doctrine, but because they don't swear complete servitude to one like what the Death Guard and World Eaters did, they don't receive the full power of each Chaos God either...well except Failbaddon, who for some reason does not seem to get that his position as the "Most powerful champion of Chaos" is an ironic joke. Also, 5th Chaos God Malice, there is a raging debate as to whether Malice is the weakest or the strongest of the gods. And no, its not another incarnation of Tzeentch as was thought many, many millennia ago. . .
Note that many bands of Undivided Marines exploit Chaos for their own gain and feel little devotion to the Ruinous Powers, seeing it as no more than a tool for their goals. The Alpha Legion, for instance, are closet loyalists (or not, or double heretics, or triple heretics, or Brotha's doin' it for themselves, nobody knows), whereas the Night Lords Legion only cares about spreading terror, which Chaos is undoubtedly useful for, but they look down upon the religious. Similarly, the Soul Drinkers, a Renegade Chapter with an entire book series, are enemies of both Chaos and the Imperium of Man (they fight for the Emperor's ideals... don't ask, it's complicated), although most in the Imperium would consider them "Chaos Marines."
- Malice: Way back when, Warhammer Fantasy Battle had a minor Chaos God named Malal. Malal was a paradox, in that he is the embodiment of Chaos' chaotic behavior. His main goal was the spread of chaos (not the Warp energies, as in actual chaos like anarchy and disruption) by screwing up the plans of the other Ruinous Powers, so he had dedicated Champions that hunted down other Chaos Champions and generally dicked over the Chaos Gods. However, Games Workshop had to remove him from the setting due to a trademark dispute with the author that invented him. In 40k, meanwhile, there's a warband called the Sons of Malice that hunt down other Chaos Marines and seem to worship a minor Chaos power named "Malice." This has led /tg/ to believe that Malal/Malice exists in 40k and can be invoked upon for power, although this is of dubious canonicity at best.
Overview
KHEYOS SPEHSS MEHRENS are basically Imperial Space Marines who have forsaken their oath to the Imperium of Man to serve the Ruinous Powers, which is Heresy. Marines do this for a number of reasons, although the cause of this is usually finding that the ways of Chaos suit them more than the Imperium or the classic case of the Imperium dicking them over (Largely the case for post-heresy chapters).
The origins of Chaos Space Marines go back to Erebus of the Word Bearers, the first Chaos Marine, who then corrupted the recently emotionally discouraged Primarch Lorgar to Chaos. Erebus would then set into motion the events that would lead to Warmaster Horus being wounded on Davin's moon, where he would fall to the corruptions of Chaos. Horus, supreme Warmaster of the Imperium, would then gather 8 more of his distraught brother primarchs to his cause, along with a good fraction of Imperial forces and the Adeptus Mechanicus in full-scale rebellion against the Imperium, resulting in the Horus Heresy. When Horus got roflstomped by the Emprah during their duel, most of the Traitors fled to the Eye of Terror because of the loss of leadership, resulting in what would be known as "Chaos Space Marines".
Naturally, they fight just like Space Marines, except on average they are stronger, more experienced, and older, given that the majority stood with their Primarchs during the Great Crusade. They keep using shit they were equipped with prior to the Horus Heresy such as bolters and the ever useful Space Marine plot armor, which would explain why they didn't fist fuck each other to death before reaching the Eye of Terror or why they would follow the lead of a particular Saturday morning cartoon villain. Chaos Marines are also commonly known to compensate their aging weapons (which didn't really age much considering how fucktarded Imperium tech support is) by using demon magic, giving themselves penis fingers for that extra edge in combat. (Daemon steroids for Khorne's followers, for example.)
For all their powers from Chaos, however, most of them are nowhere nearly as organized as their loyalist counterparts. Turning to Chaos tends to drive marines insane, causing them to usually lose much of the useful tactics they had when they were loyalists. Although, more organized chapters like the Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, and Black Legion do still remain much more of a competent military force than most of the other traitor legions.
Different warbands of Chaos Space Marines are every bit as prone to fighting each other as they are anything else for any number of reasons; evil doesn't get along with evil, they're all nuts and just want to fight something, other warband worships a different Chaos god. Yeah, these guys are nuts, infighting inside individual warbands is not unheard off, and their leaders always have to watch their back because every single marine has hopes of killing their superiors and taking over. So yeah, if they didn't have the Eye of Terror to hide in and the Imperium wasn't so idiot ball prone it probably would have killed them by now. However, when they DO get their shit together, they fuck up the Imperium on a scale undreamed of by every other race in Warhammer. See the Dominion of Fire or the Cholercaust Blood Crusade. GODDAMN IT, KHORNATE BERZERKERS ARE AWESOME.
They're the oldest fogies (or at least the ones from traitor legions are anyway) in the setting, barring the space elves, That one angry viking dreadnought, who's about their age, the Tomb King expys and maybe a few of the Omnivorous Space Bug Lizards things. Because of this, they irritably refer to the Loyalists as 'Pups', 'An army of Children' and 'little brothers'. Frequently mocking their methods of Warfare as un-manly, and shouting such phrases as "PUPS! YOU CALL THIS WAR?!" and "WAR WAS BETTER IN MY DAY!". Except when they meet Bjorn the Fell Handed, then they just crap themselves, or in the case of Khornates, they scream, "TEAR THE LOYALIST FROM HIS SHELL!" Of course, even the Khornates still get their shit fucked up by Bjorn, who slaughtered a shit ton of them in the first War for Armageddon.
They were supposedly going to get a giant dinobot designed to troll a Dread Knight but instead got a thing that possessed several engine exhaust ports in the shape and colour of anal orifices called a Heldrake. "Gaze into the eye of terror!" and "Glory to the Goatse of Chaos!" were only some of the reactions. Many lulz were enjoyed by /tg/ of its... ahem, questionable design aesthetics. This however says nothing of the fact that crunch-wise it is arguably the cheesiest flyer in all of 40K - praise the dark gods, indeed.
On the tabletop, Chaos Space Marines play similar to their loyalist counterparts, having access to most of the same wargear and vehicles, plus some unique stuff. They have many of the same strengths and weaknesses, powerful units and expensive units, are often outnumbered, but overall, they tend to play more aggressively. Their ranking amongst armies has varied from in the 3rd edition, where their codex was considered so overpowered it needed to actually be replaced (overpowered units and stuff like nasty Slaanesh psykic power that kept the caster from being shot, it's just as broken as it sounds), after which they fell somewhat in decline due to progressively weaker books. As of the 6E Codex, they are still weak due to Having a half-assed, unbalanced codex.
When it comes to the traitor marines themselves, /tg/'s opinions were divided. Some praised the new design for its focus on intricate trims and warp-induced mutations (eyes, tentacles), whereas others disliked it for its lack of Grimdark, claiming it looked too cartoonish and too playful.
The Traitor Legions
When the Horus Heresy struck, nine of the original twenty Legions turned against the Emprah. These guys are basically the original and the best. All of these survived the Siege of Terra and escaped into the Eye of Terror with a very large number of bodies (Space Marine legions frequently numbered up to 100,000 members by the time of the Heresy). Over time, they have become widely scattered, generally working in mixed warbands combining a variety of Traitor Legionnaires, Renegade Marines, and lesser humans (frequently rebellious Imperial Guard). However, it should be noted that quite a few Chaos Marines still fight as a Legion (generally drastically reduced in size) led by their original (now-Daemon) Primarch (if they're still alive, anyway). It's very rare to see more than a Grand Company (roughly equal in size to a Chapter of loyalist Marines) in any given battle unless it's an organized invasion (of which the most notable examples are the Black Crusades led by a certain armless failure), the Legion's primarch himself calls them to fuck some shit up, or you're dealing with the Word Bearers or Iron Warriors, who are generally more organized than anybody else. The following are the nine Traitor Legions:
- Emperor's Children: Also known as the Pretty Marines, their Primarch is Fulgrim, who is now a painting (or something). They don't operate as a Legion at all anymore, mostly because Kharn kinda fucked all their shit up. Anyway, they were basically OCD hyper-perfectionists that also really liked to party. They got ever-more hedonistic, attracted the attentions of Slaanesh, and the rest is history. Their Cult unit is the Noise Marines, which are (as their name implies) Chaos Marines that like to kill people with noise. This used to mean sweet heavy-metal guitars, but GW retconned that, so now they have less-impressive (but still cool)
bass cannonssonic cannons.
- Iron Warriors: The evil twins of the Imperial Fists, they really like to build shit and then tear (somebody else's) shit down. In other words, they are masters of siege warfare (basically, rooting out cover-camping bitches). Their Primarch is Perturabo. They're generally the second most coherent of the Traitor Legions, retaining most of their pre-Heresy organization and numbers, although their great companies are generally independent and only answer to Perurabo himself, who on his part don't give a fuck and let them fught each other just for lulz. Also, they probably created the Obliterator Virus, seeing as how they seem to have special connections with the Obliterator Cult. Sadly, they can no longer take Basilisks and don't have any special rules or Cult units (seeing as how that was quite broken back in 3rd), but GW did throw them a bone in the new book with the Warpsmith (not to be confused with a Warsmith, which is also Iron Warriors-related). One of their noted leaders is Honsou, a Warsmith in the running for "evilest villain."
- Night Lords: Their Primarch was Konrad Curze (also known as the Night Haunter). They're basically space-terrorists, which (unsurprisingly) means they created Raptors, the sociopathic, predatory answer to the loyalists' Assault Marines. They prefer ambush tactics, which is quite difficult when you're walking around in Power Amour and wearing stupid bat-wing helmets. They also like screaming like maniacs to cause terror. They are one of the few legions (in fact, pretty much the only one) who refuse to employ Daemons or live in the Eye of Terror. They're also pretty much the only Traitor Legion that has a dead Primarch, on account of Konrad Curze's desire to go down like an emo to rebel against daddy.
- World Eaters: Angron- Dissolved after Kharn turned the legion against themselves, what a guy. Now acting as roaming warbands and mercenaries. They still unite every now and then when Angron wants to fuck something's shit up, such as Cadia. The only legion known to get shit done when called up to do so.
- Death Guard: Mortarion - Don't show up much in the fluff, though plague marines and champions can be found in many other warbands and, next to world-eater berserkers, are the most common of the one-deity dedicated units. Also before Thirteenth Black Crusade Typhus's Blight Fleet kicked major ass in systems all around the Eye of Terror, turning entire planetary populations into zombies.
- Thousand Sons: Magnus the Red - Another legion that doesn't show up much at all in fluff after the Horus Heresy and rubric marines don't show up much in other legions' warbands and most warbands use their own sorcerers. Except for Ahriman; Ahriman goes out trolling the Harlequins and those few Inquisitors. Ahriman also does this because Tzeentch likes dicking Magnus over in his passive-aggressive way. Fluff-wise, Thousand Sons walk through the Universe, searching for knowledge like ancient books and artifacts to research and nerd out in their libraries, and majicking the shit out of anyone stupid or bold enough to stand on their way. Being smart and cunning motherfuckers they fight only where it really needed and only on their own terms (read: very rarely).
- Black Legion: Horus - Originally called the Luna Wolves and then the Sons of Horus. Unites every now and then when Failbaddon wants to launch another Black Crusade. It's a miracle they're still surviving with Abaddon's incompetent leadership and numerous failed black crusades, which should have probably left them extremely undermanned. However, their ranks are quickly filled by the
millions of volunteers who sign up because god damn that paint job looks coolactually its because Failbaddon keeps stealing other legion's troops or 'buying' them and daemons with big promises he can't keep. Basically he is like a compulsive gambler who has borrowed money from every money lender in existence, some of whom are gods. They are the largest legion by far, stated to outnumber the Word Bearers ten to one. They have no real central command structure outside of a Black Crusade, and even then Abaddon, being the failure that he is, can't keep the Legion's shit together for very long before they start breaking off every which way in search of a fight, usually getting slaughtered not long afterwards.
- Word Bearers: Lorgar - The Only Legion to have retained its Chaplains in the form of Dark Apostles, who can often lead a Word Bearers' Warband in the place of a Chaos Lord or Champion. They're one of the more organized and complete legions as they have a central daemon world of their own named "Sicarus". Sicarus is covered in dozens of temples and cathedrals devoted to Chaos. The Word Bearers are still united under the banner of their Primarch: Lorgar (even if the lazy bastard never does anything these days but sit around doing nothing). The most coherent after the Iron Warriors, seen as their great companies (or Hosts, as they call them) are still working together under the watchful eye of the Dark Council.
Alpha Legion: Alpharius/Omegon- No such legion or primarchs exists, further speculation on this issue is heresy and will result in execution. Said non-existent Legion has never trolled the Imperium for the last 10,000 years by faking the death of every member, any idea to the contrary is HERESY. Also masters ofsneaking around undetectedfucking enemies brains with multi-step Just As Planned schemes, that aren't overcomplicated or lack the fallback plans (unlike Thousand Sons ones). In fact their fallback fallback plans usually have their own fallback plans just in case. Pretty much everything Imperium knows about them is a misinformation, suspected to be one, or a truth no one believes in since it looks like a misinformation.
See Also
- Warriors of Chaos: The much more competent counterparts to the Chaos Marines in Warhammer Fantasy
- Tactics/Chaos Space Marines
- What it's like: A... less loony take on the subject.
Gallery
<gallery> File:1227181112539.jpg|The Typical Chaos Space Marine File:1174923365695wq1vj1.png|The dreaded Night Lords preparing an ambush File:Emperor s Children by megalaros.jpg|Slaaneshi noise marine. Because words can hurt. File:Lcw.jpg|They think that corpse on a throne is a god! File:Firstkeeper.jpg|Change we can believe in!