Monday, January 24, 2011

Characters: Warhammer 4000 part 1

Characters: Warhammer 40000

The universe of Warhammer 40000 contains many characters, but none are more significant than the various factions fighting it out for survival and control. These groups can be divided into three broad categories: Imperial factions, Xenos factions, and Chaos factions.
Imperial Factions


In an empire of a million worlds, how much can one man truly matter? Only one being is truly essential to its continued existence, hail his name, the Master of Mankind. And he has not spoken in ten thousand years...
The Imperium of Man, ruled from Holy Terra, is The Empire of the setting, and a particularly brutal and dystopian one at that. After the collapse of galactic civilization, a being known only as The Emperor of Mankind led his Great Crusade to reunify humanity in an enlightened new order. But just when a new golden age seemed imminent, the newly-forged Imperium was wracked by civil war as half of the Emperor's sons turned against him. The Horus Heresy was ultimately quashed, but at a terrible price: countless worlds were left in cinders, untold millions were dead, and the Emperor himself was mortally wounded and forced to "ascend" to the Golden Throne, an arcane life-support machine.
Ten thousand years later the Emperor is venerated as a God, the Imperium's technology has barely progressed, Witch Hunts are commonplace since every rogue psyker is a potential gateway to the Legions Of Hell, each day thousands of souls are sacrificed to power the psychic navigational aid known as the Astronomican, planets deemed tainted beyond salvation are subject to Exterminatus, and the sheer size of the Terran bureaucracy means that entire planetary populations can be forgotten due to filing errors.
Though it is by far the largest and most powerful faction in the galaxy, the Imperium is nonetheless an empire under constant siege from the rival powers of the galaxy. But its greatest threats come from within, in the form of heretics undermining the authority of High Lords of Terra or Ecclesiarchy, recidivists who understandably want to get the hell out from under the heel of such an oppressive government, or mutants and rogue psykers who threaten the purity of the human race itself. This siege mentality makes the Imperium a paranoid and superstitious place, but also keeps much of the populace in line - though it is a far cry from the Emperor's original vision, it is the only thing standing between mankind and extiction. Atleast, that's what the various higher ups like to believe...

Tropes associated with the Imperium

  • Age Without Youth: The Golden Throne has kept the Emperor alive for ten thousand years, but he's gone from a mortally wounded man to a shriveled, mummified husk.
  • A House Divided: Many Imperial institutions were deliberately designed to monitor and check the others' power, which reduces their effectiveness but keeps one man from seizing control. For example, the Ecclesiarchy is banned from keeping "men under arms" to stop cardinals from becoming warlords, while the Imperial Guard is wholly reliant on the Imperial Navy for troop transport for the same reason.
  • Belief Makes You Stupid - ...kind of. Since Warhammer 40K's magic system is based on Clap Your Hands If You Believe, belief can have power. It should be noted that while belief isn't treated nicely, outright atheism is treated as even worse. The reason no one saw the Horus Heresy coming and didn't believe it once it started was because the Imperial Way had outlawed all belief in demons, magic, etc.
    • Well, it would be silly to not believe in the Emperor - his existence is a simple matter of fact.
    • Of course, part of the reason the Imperial way had outlawed such beliefs was because the Emperor had determined the relationship between the Warp and physical beings, and wanted to avoid making the Chaos entities stronger.
      • Which in the most recent additions to the Horus Heresy series is revealed to have backfired rather badly, since, even without active belief/worship, the Chaos gods are still strengthened simply by humans going about their day-to-day existence of fighting, loving, planning, sickening and dying. The only effective way to combat this is fervent belief in something else (i.e. the Emperor).
  • Blind Seer: Astropaths, sanctioned psykers that act as the Imperium's communications network, are rendered blind by the Soul Binding ritual that reshapes their minds.
  • Body Horror: As Navigators age they transform into ugly frog-octopus things. It's an accepted fact of life for them and even during the brutal inter-house coldwars both sides will respect this secret and ensure that nobody breaks the masquerade.
  • Catchphrase: "For the Emperor!" and "the Emperor protects!"
  • Central Themes:
    • The Fallen Greatness of Man: Everywhere in the Imperium there is decay, of mind, body and spirit. Once, the armies of Man were led by Demigods; now, the forces of the Imperium are fragmented and distrustful of each other. The God-Emperor conquered the galaxy in a few centuries, but the Imperium now struggles to merely survive. Men once rearranged the stars to better suit themselves, but Imperial technology has been largely stagnant for over ten thousand years.
    • Mortality and Insignificance of the Individual: The Galaxy is a big place, trillions battle for humanity's survival, thousands of wars rage unchecked, and against this backdrop the death of millions and destruction of entire worlds is rendered insignificant. Imperial Dogma reflects this, there are death and skull motifs everywhere, Imperial culture is an especially fatalistic one, "Serve the Emperor, for tomorrow you may be dead."
    • The End Justifies the Means: The Imperium's war is ultimately one of survival, merely living to see the next day is hailed as victory and the price of defeat is extinction of the human race and destruction of the very fabric of reality. Against that what is a few million lives, or even an entire world? What mercy can one afford to those who would bend knee to the Xeno or Daemon? Better that they all die. And of the loyal souls lost? Well, "The Martyr's Grave is the Keystone of the Imperium."
  • Church Militant: The Adeptus Ministorum, or Ecclesiarchy, exhorts Imperial citizens to kill and die in the Emperor's name. Though restricted from having their own armies, they do supply priests and preachers to help whip the Imperial Guard into a zealous frenzy.
  • Dark Messiah: For all his noble intentions, the Emperor's crusade killed more people than all of history's dictators combined.
  • Designated Hero: Yeah, you're basically rooting for the Space Nazis.
  • The Empire: Pretty self-explanatory.
  • Extra Eyes: Navigators are a caste of psychic humans who possess a "Warp eye" allowing them to see the currents of the Immaterium and guide ships through it. This is not a poetic turn of phrase.
    • Evil Eye: Staring into a Navigator's Warp Eye is commonly said to cause either insanity or death. No one wants to test it, and Navigators must wear hoods, scarves, or headbands of psyk-resistant material around normal humans.
  • Fantastic Racism: Fantastic in that how bad it can get. The Imperium will only show you any niceness if you're human. A lot of times, not even then if you're not human enough.
    • A degree of genetic deviations is tolerated, abhumans like Ogryns and Ratlings are useful. However, the human genome is sacred, and creating retroviruses that seek to change it is among the greatest of sins.
    • For a non-fantastic example of racism, there's that famous joke about the Imperium: "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only white people."
    • There's also the fact that the Imperium's most hated foes are the Gue'Vesa infantry of all people. Not because they're especially vicious or anything, but rather because they're viewed as race traitors..
  • Forever War: Ten thousand years and counting.
  • Feudal Future: A necessity given the Imperium's sheer size and the unreliability of interstellar communication. But note that a planetary overlord is not neccesarily a baron or other hereditary title: so long as a governor provides the necessary tithes in manpower, sends their psykers to the Black Ships, and keeps things in some semblance of order, the High Lords of Terra don't care if it's a monarchy or republic.
  • God Emperor: The Emperor spent his entire life denying his divinity, and even during the Great Crusade there was a suppressed movement that worshiped him. After his sacrifice and ascension to the Golden Throne, he was in no position to argue and the Imperial Cult became the state religion.
    • Arguably, the rebuke of Primarch Lorgar for his cultivation of Emperor-worship on worlds he conquered was one of the key events that led to the Heresy - Lorgar fell to Chaos and his legion brought about a plot to make Horus amenable to corruption.
  • Hopeless War: The Imperium is dying, the vultures are circling, but it has a lot of fight in it yet. A mere hundred years ago it was at its strongest ever, conquering a thousand worlds in a mere decade, and it still has men and tanks enough to throw into the meatgrinder.
  • Humans Are Bastards: With the Imperium's religious fanaticism, aggressiveness in taking over the Galaxy, overzealous anthropocentricism (see above), and their ability to make Nineteen Eighty Four look like the cliched portrayals of 1950s America, it doesn't take a genius to see why fans sometimes call the Imperials "Catholic Space Nazis."
  • Humans Are Morons
  • Human Resources: Psykers are rounded up on the Black Ships and taken back to Terra for testing. Those with potential are trained as battlefield psykers or astropaths, while others are sacrificed to power the Astronomican or maintain the Golden Throne.
  • Intrepid Merchant: Rogue Traders are starship captains who seek fame and fortune on the galactic frontiers, discovering long-lost human settlements, exploiting alien species before the inevitable genocide campaign, or searching for ancient archeotech. The more successful ones own military-grade capital ships, if not their own worlds to govern.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Bastards that they are, it's really easy to see why they act that way. Everything Is Trying To Kill You.
  • Judge Jury And Executioner: The Adeptus Arbites are basically expies of Judge Dredd.
  • Just Before The End: The current epoch has optimistically been labeled The Time of Ending.
  • Lawful Evil
  • Light Is Not Good: Uses quite some angelic imagery and themes, but its not really that much better to any other side. Of course, the Imperials say they're the good guys.
    • Did you miss the skulls and impaled heretics?
      • The skull is a holy symbol, a symbol of the holy human form. It doesn't represent death as in our culture.
  • Martyrdom Culture: This telling line of wisdom from the Imperium: "Even a man who has nothing can still have faith. Even a man who has nothing can still offer his life."
  • Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: The Imperium was founded as an enlightened, secular society disdainful of "daemons" or afterlives, not because the Emperor thought such things didn't exist, but because he was trying to starve the Chaos gods and keep his people from delving into matters best left unknown. This backfired spectacularly, and today the Imperium clings to their belief in the God-Emperor because they know damn well what's out to get them.
  • Physical God: The God Emperor said he wasn't, but he was really powerful.
  • Praetorian Guard: The Adeptus Custodes are elite even compared to Space Marines, golden-armored warriors who guard the Imperial Palace on Terra.
  • Putting On The Reich
  • Tarot Motifs: The Imperial Tarot is occasionally consulted as another manifestation of the God-Emperor's will and foresight.
  • Treachery Cover Up: After the Horus Heresy, attempts were made to excise that dark period from history with varying success. Some worlds are dumbstruck when they are confronted by Traitor Marines, while on others Horus' fall to darkness is common knowledge.

The various Imperial Factions are:
     Space Marines 

... And They shall know no Fear.
Ten thousand years ago, when the Emperor led his Great Crusade to reunify humanity, he did so at the head of twenty legions of genetically-engineered super men: the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, the Angels of Death. Each of these legions was based off of and led by one of the Primarchs, the Emperor's clone-sons who were blessed with the strength, wisdom, and charisma to become great leaders of men. But in the hour of mankind's greatest triumph, fully half of these legions turned upon the Emperor, and nearly undid all that he had accomplished. After this grand betrayal, the loyalist legions were reorganized into thousand-man strong organizations called chapters, and new ones were founded to help protect the Imperium. Today there are around a thousand chapters of Space Marines, either based on specific homeworlds, ruling entire regions of space, or patrolling the stars in formidable fleets. Semi-independent, Space Marines either lead their own crusades to fight the enemies of mankind, or answer petitions for assistance. They stand apart from the Imperium despite serving it, just as they protect humanity despite transcending it.
The Space Marines are the iconic faction of 40k; they are power armored, genetically-engineered super soldiers, and fanatics to the Imperial creed to a man. They do not feel fear, do not know doubt; pleas of mercy and terror-inspiring battle cries alike fall on deaf ears. They will never compromise, never surrender, never tire; the Emperor demanded the galaxy be his, and the Space Marines have fought for the past ten thousand years to make it so. They have become figures of religious awe and terror: the Emperor's Angels of Death. "The enemies of man fear many things," goes the Imperial slogan. "They fear discovery, defeat and death. But most of all, they fear the wrath of the Space Marines!"
The Space Marines can be split in terms of style among their founder legions:
The Grey Knights, owing to their specialization, have no successor chapters. Many chapters do not have their primarch identified in game materials; indeed, some, such as theBlood Ravens, canonically do not know which founder legion they came from.
Depending on which version of fluff you read, they can be invincible gods of war or just gene-enhanced elite soldiers.
On the tabletop, Space Marines are a well-rounded and forgiving army. They are a very popular starting army, coming in the box sets and with a decent ten-man squad coming in at £19.95/$35. The average Space Marine is very effective in both ranged and close combat, not to mention as well-armed and -armored as most armies' elite soldiers. Needless to say, elite Space Marine soldiers are terrifying prospects to face, be they veteran marines in hulking nigh-invulnerable armor, or critically-wounded soldiers entombed in a walking tank. However, this makes Space Marines expensive in terms of point costs, so they are almost always outnumbered by their opponents. Not that this should particularly worry them...

Notable Space Marine tropes include:


  • Abnormal Ammo — The standard small arm for every Space Marine fires .75 caliber armor-piercing explosive rounds. The elite Sternguard have ammunition for their small arms that makes them pretty much capable of dealing with any sort of infantry threat.
  • Awesome Personnel Carrier — The signature ground transport for Space Marines is the humble Rhino, a simple but incredibly durable and versatile vehicle that serves as the basis for most of their tanks, and due to being based on a tractor template can run on almost anything. If necessarily, they'll power it with wood.
    • Or corpses.
  • Badass Teacher: By design, the relatively young Mentors chapter are this to the Imperial Guard, and conversely consider older, more established chapters to be this to themselves. The Adeptus Mechanicus also tends to use them as field-testers for their latest designs and upgrades.
  • Berserk Button — Mention targeting civilians in front of the Salamanders. I dare you.
    • And don't get us started on anyone who dares blasphemize the Emperor (or the chapter's Primarch) within earshot of the more zealous chapters...
    • Suggest shaving or haircuts to Space Wolves, or, if you're an inquisitor, declare exterminatus around these guys. See how long you survive.
      • Similar to the Salamanders above, targeting civilians is a huge no-no for the Space Wolves, as chapter master Seth of the Flesh Tearers found out the hard way.
    • Mention treachery and heresy around the Dark Angels. You'll live just long enough to regret it.
      • Because they'll KEEP YOU ALIVE THROUGH HORRENDOUS TORTURE UNTIL YOU DO. Then they'll kill you.
  • Big Brother Instinct - The nicer chapters towards non-combatants.
  • Big Book Of War — The Codex Astartes
  • Big Damn Heroes — For many of the Imperium's battles, the turning point came when the Space Marines arrived from orbit.
  • Bio Augmentation — The source of their Super Soldier status, particularly embodied in the 19 specifically-engineered organ implants that are present in all Space Marines. See this for the entire process.  *
  • Bizarre Human Biology — The result of all the aforementioned extensive Bio Augmentation.
  • Bling Of War — Oh, yes. Purity seals, prayer inscriptions, shiny battle honors, wolf pelts and fangs, giant fireproof lizard skins, suits of solid gold power armor... the Marines love their bling.
  • Boisterous Bruiser — The Space Wolves in general. Their current Great Wolf, Logan Grimnar, is a charismatic and unquestionably heroic individual in a galaxy of well-intentioned extremists, who actually objects to the Inquisition killing off Imperial Guardsmen who know too much. Leman Russ, the Space Wolves' Primarch, only joined the Emperor after a drinking contest.
  • Bruiser With A Soft Center - The "nicer" chapters outside of battle, namely Ultramarines (and their offshoots), Salamanders, Blood Angels and Space Wolves. Ultramarines are stoic yet fair rulers who treat their subjects with respect and dignity, something of a rarity in the vast morass of the Imperium. Salamanders are the only chapter that live with their human families outside battle, and hence have closer ties to their humanity than other chapters do. The Blood Angels and Space Wolves in particular are open sentimentalists who are prone to Manly Tears and Tender Tears, and are textbook examples of the Gentle Giant when it comes to innocent civilians and chidren.
  • Canon Immigrant — The Blood Ravens chapter, invented for the Dawn Of War video game and embraced by Games Workshop.
  • Chainsword Good - a most common melee weapon amongst the Space Marines that is arguably signature of them.
  • Chaotic Good — The Space Wolves.
  • Church Militant — The majority of Space Marines maintain that the Emperor was a powerful man, but a man nonetheless. Their general devotion to him, though, frequently approaches the line to this trope, while other chapters, such as the Black Templars and White Consuls, are this more outright.
  • The Combat Pragmatist — Chapter Master Gabriel Seth of the Flesh Tearers. He has a special rule stating that anyone who rolls a 1 to hit him in melee immediately takes a Strength 4 hit as he punches them in the face or knees them in the crotch.
    • As per the entry on the trope page...
      • Lukas the Trickster in Warhammer40000 is the dirtiest fighter in the Space Wolves Chapter, making him the dirtiest fighter in an army of dirty fighters. Making him the dirtiest fighter in the Imperium, easily. He went so far to win a fight through trickery, he had one of his hearts replaced with a bomb, just to make sure he takes the other guy out with him.
      • And said bomb is a stasis grenade that traps those caught in the blast in a stasis field, where they can only hear Lukas' laughter for the rest of eternity.
  • Crazy Prepared — Their Bio Augmentation. A lot of it makes sense - the secondary heart, ribcage-turned-bulletproof-armor, ultra-fast clotting, night vision, and increased muscle mass all make sense for improving a soldier...but the ability to darken their skin to resist radiation, go into suspended animation to as a response against mortal wounds, be treated to resist a vacuum and extreme temperatures, an extreme sense of taste to be able to identify many common chemicals in what they taste, and spitting metal-corroding acid seem like The God Emperor of Mankind kinda overdid it, despite being useful.
  • Determinator — "A fortress will not stop the Space Marines, although it may slow them down." The Imperial Fists in particular are legendary for their determination even for Space Marines
  • Dark Is Not Evil — Well, no more evil than average. The Raven Guard is actually noteworthy for using subtlety in battle, specializing in covert operations, guerilla warfare, and surgical strikes. One of the more intellectual chapters, they generally lack numbers and brute force, but prefer to disable the enemy with pinpoint strikes and leave the mop-up to others. The Dark Angels aren't evil so much as paranoid, neurotic, and obsessive over their chapter's dark secret.
    • Raven Guard Captain Kayvaan Shrike actually makes a point of rescuing beleaguered civilian populations and defense forces, long after all other Imperial commanders had given them up as a lost cause. So, not only is dark not evil in this case, it's genuinely heroic.
  • Dead Man Switch — Space Wolves hero Lucas the Trickster had one of his hearts replaced with a stasis bomb. If he's killed it goes off, freezing him and his killer into an imperishable monument to his ego.
  • Death From Above — Space Marines typically arrive via the ubiquitous Thunderhawk gunship and/or drop pods. Jetpack-equipped Assault Marines tend to make their presence known by suddenly landing on their enemies before breaking out the chainswords.
    • Blood Angels also air drop their Land Raiders (a cross between an APC and a main battle tank)
  • Drop The Hammer — Thunder Hammers are ginormous mallets wrapped in an electrical field that stuns whatever they don't pulverize. The Salamanders chapter in particular favors them as part of the Cult of Prometheus, rituals tied closely with their Primarch's history as a legendary blacksmith.
  • Due To The Dead — All Chapters are fanatical about reclaiming their geneseed; individual chapters have distinctive, and often elaborate, rites and honors for their dead.
  • Dynamic Entry — Assault Marines, jump pack-equipped close combat specialists, often find that hundreds of pounds of armored Space Marine is an effective weapon in itself.
  • Emergency Transformation — Mortally-wounded Space Marines with enough fighting spirit are interred within life-support sarcophagi that can "pilot" the walking tanks/tombs called Dreadnoughts.
  • Famed In Story
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture — The Ultramarines are Greco-Roman, the Space Wolves are Vikings, and the White Scars are Mongols on motorcycles.
  • Fearless Fool — "And they shall know no fear" — but in the tie-in novels, this is generally depicted as hyperbole: they can and do feel fear, but they have utterly mastered it, often with the explicit observation that they would be fools not to; and within the tabletop game, all Space Marines have the ability 'Combat Tactics' to choose to fail a morale test (which causes them to retreat) should their player consider it prudent - though some characters allow you to play this trope straighter and trade this ability for something else.
  • Genetic Memory — The curse of the Blood Angels chapter. Combat has a chance of triggering the genetic memory of their Primarch's violent death, causing the Blood Angel to slip into the Black Rage as they start reliving the event and forgetting their own identity. Such unfortunates are grouped in the Death Company and sent into the worst fighting in search of a merciful death in combat.
  • Genius Bruiser — The average Space Marine is trained under a Big Book Of War that tries to predict every tactical situation ever, and how to deal with it. A Space Marine may find himself stagnant in their training and end up staying as an Assault or Devastator Marine instead of becoming a Tactical Marine, as a Tactical Marine is meant to be able to adapt and be fluid in any battle situation while the formers stick with melee and ranged combat, respectively. Commanders from Sergeants on up are The Same But More. Then we have Librarians — as befits their name, they are record-keepers and tactical advisers to the Chapter, as well as terrifying psychic warriors just as adept with their conventional weapons as any other Marine.
  • Gentle Giant — Salamanders, Blood Angels and Space Wolves when it comes to innocents.
  • Glory Seeker — Some, though their indoctrination causes many to feel being a Space Marine is already achieving glory.
  • Good Is Not Nice — A trait of all "good guys" in this universe...
  • Heroic BSOD — The downfall of Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard. After his chapter suffered terrible losses in the Horus Heresy, he turned to highly dangerous growth acceleration techniques to boost its numbers. This resulted in a nightmarish horde of misshapen monsters, most of which couldn't even hold a boltgun, and who had to be herded into battle. When the Heresy was over, Corax locked himself in his tower for a year and a day, finally emerging to personally give each one of his creations "the Emperor's peace" before leaving for parts unknown, his last word being "Nevermore."
  • Heroic Willpower — All Marines have this in spades, but Chief Librarian Mephiston of the Blood Angels takes the cake. He succumbed to the Black Rage while trapped in rubble, but somehow remained in control and sane, ultimately fighting the bloodlust off. The Blood Angels, an army of blood-crazed eight-foot killing machines armed withchainsaw swords, call him "The Lord of Death," making him clearly a man not to trifle with.
    • Chaplain Lemartes from the recent Blood Angels Codex is a close second. Like Mephiston, he succumbed to the Black Rage, but by willpower alone managed to stop himself from going completely batshit insane.
  • Highly Conspicuous Uniform: "The uniforms of the Imperial Guard are camouflaged in order to protect their wearers by hiding them from sight. The principle is that what the enemy cannot see he cannot kill. This is not the way of the Adeptus Astartes. A Space Marine’s armour is bright with heraldry that proclaims his devotion to his Chapter and the beloved Emperor of Mankind. Our principle is that what the enemy can see, he will soon learn to fear…"
    • A suggestion this troper has seen in fanfic and elsewhere is that many xenos races (and chaos marines) see different spectrums than humans, so camouflaged uniforms wouldn't necessarily work well... and meanwhile make it easier to have a friendly fire incident.
  • Honor Before Reason - Space Marines take pride in their chapter colors, and the overwhelming majority of them refuse to wear camouflage. This results in scouts of theImperial Fists chapter trying to sneak through terrain in bright yellow armor...
  • I Gave My Word — Keeping oaths is an important matter to many chapters.
  • In Harms Way — Once the battle's done, the Marines are off to the next warzone.
  • Its Raining Men — Drop Pods are basically capsules containing a squad of Space Marines that are fired at a planet from orbit, and hit without noticeably slowing down. Drop Pod assaults are a signature tactic of the Space Marines, as few foes can recover from a surprise attack that instantly drops dozens of super soldiers in the middle of your base camp.
  • Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Gulliman was an ass but he actually cared about the people and believed that anyone can rise to greatness through merit regardless of class. His efforts led the Ultramarines mini empire to becoming one of the least corrupt (and nicest places to live) in the Imperium.
  • Kill It With Fire — As befits their namesake, the Salamanders like flamers and meltaguns. Pretty much all the Space Marines will consider it, though.
  • King In The Mountain — The Ultramarines have the poisoned body of their primarch in stasis, and some members of the chapter insist that Roboute Guilliman is slowly healing himself and will someday reawaken. Some Dark Angels similarly believe that Lion El'Jonson is somewhere deep within their traveling asteroid base, The Rock. He is, on life support. The Salamanders, Space Wolves, White Scars, Raven Guard and Imperial Fists (according to some accounts) Primarchs left their chapters behind and disappeared into myth, many saying they would return for the final battle.
  • Knight Templar — Most Space Marines to some extent, but especially the Black Templars chapter. They run around the galaxy in crusades known for (occasionally) wiping out entire planetary populations, and their extreme zeal even has the Inquisition worried, especially since they ignore the recommended thousand-man maximum for Chapter size and thus might number somewhere around 6,000 50,000 or more, but no one outside of perhaps the Black Templars' own chapter masters can say for certain what the Black Templars' true numbers are, other than that if they were ever assembled in one place, they would be a force vast enough to easily constitute a significant threat to the entirety of the Imperium if they wanted to (which they very much do not).
  • Lawful Good: The Salamanders, Blood Angels and Ultramarines are the closest thing this universe has to a lawful good faction. Being 40K, Good Is Not Nice.
  • Lawful Neutral: The Dark Angels, who are neither particularily malicious or benevolent, but very stoic and aloof, and with a rather low tolerance rating towards heresy. Also, the majority of space marine chapters.
  • The Mario — The Primarch of the Ultramarines, Roboute Guilliman, penned the Codex Astartes, the book detailing Space Marine organization and tactics. His chapter tries to follow the book religiously, resulting in an extremely well-rounded fighting force that defines the Space Marines.
  • Meaningful Rename — Several Legions were renamed when they found their primarch.
  • The Medic — The Apothecaries. And as the Grim Darkness of the far future lacks anything even remotely similar to the Geneva Conventions...
  • Mercy Kill: The Emperor's peace. Also the motive for civilian kills commited by Grey Knights (given 40k and how daemonic corruption works, not that far fetched)
  • Mysterious Past — Many chapters have their share of secrets, but the Blood Ravens in particular has a past shrouded in mystery. Their records don't extend back very far, so they have no idea where their homeworld is or what "parent" legion they were based off of. Furthermore, one of their commanders destroyed Blood Ravens relicsrecovered on the planet Kronus before anyone else could examine them, and in the same campaign Chaos forces mockingly called him "brother." The Blood Ravens chapter motto is "Knowledge is Power, Guard it Well."
  • Neutral Good: Shrike.
  • No One Gets Left Behind — The Space Marines take care to recover their fallen brothers' progenoid glands, which contain the genetic information necessary for creating the next generation of Space Marines. Also Shrike to people in need during Ork waaaghs.
  • One Gender Race — Apparently all the implants just don't work right on women. Of course, the Sisters of Battle come very close to female Space Marines. Not that it stops many fans, and the outrage from suggesting such a thing.
  • One Man Army — In the propaganda, anyway. They're powered appropriately in order to be competitive on the tabletop.
  • Our Vampires Are Different — The Blood Angels chapter makes extensive use of blood in religious ceremonies, and as part of their transformation process spend a year in a casket-like chamber. This despite the fact that the Chapter's founder Sanguinius was known as the Angel for his good looks and feathered wings, and most Blood Angels inherit his physical beauty.
    • Additionally, Blood Angels that are afflicted with the Black Rage would eventually suffer from the "Red Thirst", developing a literal bloodthirst and cannibalistic tendencies.
    • Older fluff used to give them all pale skin, red eyes, and black hair. It's been retconned since.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different — Oddities in the Space Wolves' gene-seed manifest as lengthened canines, as well as heightened senses allowing them to detect enemy locations and morale purely by sense of smell. In rare instances, however, these defects result in a neophyte Space Wolf succumbing to the Curse of the Wulfen, transforming into a slavering, bestial monster.
    • More precisely, in rare instances they result in the Marine turning into a ravening monster again after the point in their induction where it happens to every single Space Wolf aspirant. There are three possibilities at that initial point: either their body stabilises and they become a full Marine, it doesn't and they... don't, or itappears to stabilise, only to manifest the Curse of the Wulfen in the heat of battle.
    • Fittingly, the Space Wolves and Blood Angels don't get along too well, though not to the extent of their other rivalries.
  • The Paladin: Grey Knights. Being that this is 40K, well...
  • Papa Wolf - Quite literally in the case of the Space Wolves when it comes to protecting innocents.
  • Power Fist — The trope namer is a piece of wargear usable by most characters, but standard issue for Space Marine Terminators.
  • Powered Armor — A standard Space Marine has better protection than other races' elite troops. Then there's the Tactical Dreadnought or "Terminator" armor, which can carry miniguns one-handed and survive being stepped on by Titans.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy — Space Marines are an analogue of medieval knightly orders, and possess a chivalry of sorts. They don't let this get in the way of genocide or xenocide, however.
  • Raised By Wolves — Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves. Well, after he crawled out of the volcano he made planetfall in...
  • Really Big Gun — The bolt pistol, the standard-issue Space Marine sidearm, is fully automatic and shoots rocket-propelled armor-piercing explosive rounds capable of coring a man's torso and blasting apart light vehicles. Their standard-issue longarm, the bolter, is the same thing with even better range.
  • Red Oni Blue Oni — Leman Russ and Lion El'Jonson. Their chapters (the Space Wolves and the Dark Angels) have inherited the rivalry.
  • Scary Black Man — Averted by the Salamanders chapter, who are among the nicer forces in the Imperium. Well, mostly averted... a weird interaction with their gene-seed results in red eyes for a demonic appearance only heightened by their love of flamer and melta weapons. They also have a very nasty army list, so all such weapons count as twin-linked, and any Thunder Hammers are master-crafted.
    • They're not actually "Black" though. The aforementioned gene-seed mutation that causes the glowing eyes also makes their skin onyx-coloured.
  • Shoulders Of Doom — Proudly displaying the Chapter badge.
  • Space Marine — Duh. They specialize in planetary assaults. And everything else, for that matter.
    • Games Workshop has also trademarked the words.
  • Spotlight Stealing Squad — The Space Marines in the game as a whole, and the Ultramarines amongst the Space Marines themselves.
  • Super Soldier — Eight feet tall, a lifespan measured in centuries, spend every waking moment either in battle or training for it... and those are your basic Space Marines. Now consider their veterans. Or Chapter Masters. Or the Primarchs.
  • The Stoic — The Dark Angels, a trait inherited from their Primarch, Lion El'Johnson. he did not get along with Leman Russ.
    • Actually, that was only their first encounter. Though their rivalry remained, Russ and El'Johnson did develop a strong friendship over following encounters, as noted in the latest Space Wolves codex. Mostly ignored by their legacies, however.
  • Tank Goodness — While the humble Predator tank is a versatile fighting vehicle, the baddest thing on tracks beyond the Imperial Guard's super-heavy vehicles is the Land Raider, the Space Marines' transport from hell. Essentially a rolling bunker, it packs a punch with two twin-linked lascannons and a twin-linked heavy bolter, has the highest armor rating in the game on all facings, and can carry a squad of Space Marines (or worse yet, Terminators) right to the enemy's front line.
  • Training From Hell — Starts when aspirants are in their early teens, and tries to whittle down a hundred to a single neophyte. They're actually deployed as Scout squads before they've finished the transformation into full-fledged Space Marines.
  • Treachery Cover Up — The reason the Dark Angels chapter call themselves the Unforgiven. During the Horus Heresy, a faction of their soldiers rebelled out of confusion or jealousy. These Fallen Angels are hunted mercilessly by the Dark Angels, so that they may grant them absolution after vicious torture, and finally restore the chapter's honor. There is also the theory that the Dark Angels are the traitors, who sat out the Horus Heresy to see who would win...
  • Vitriolic Best Buds — Surprisingly Lion El'Johnson and Leman Russ. They hated each other for a while, but eventually patched things up, becoming firm friends while paradoxically remaining bitter rivals. Their descendants however, lack the 'best friends' part of the relationship.
  • Warrior Monk — Not only do Space Marines possess nigh-unshakable faith in their role as favored champions of the God-Emperor, they also live in Fortress-Monasteries and refer to each other as "Brother."
  • The Wesley: The Ultramarines have been having a bit of overexposure in the newer codexes.
  • The Worf Effect — Due to the Adeptus Astartes' toughness, new threats are often expressed in terms of how many Space Marines they killed. The Tyranids for example are introduced by wiping out the Ultramarines' 1st company and nearly overrunning their homeworld, while the Necrons are shown blowing holes in both sides of a Land Raider with a single energy weapon.
  • Would Not Shoot A Civilian — depending on the chapter

See also Blood Angels, Space Wolf, Ultramarines, Grey Knights, Soul Drinkers, Blood Ravens, Imperial Fists, Salamanders
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