How to act like a Space Marine

Originally written by James "Eddy the Friendly Rasta" Fanning.
Additions by Thraxus

(Taken from Games-workshop.com)

OK, apparently one or two of you are having trouble knowing just how a Space Marine behaves, it's understandable, their minds work far different to the head cases in Black Amber and in the rest of the Imperial Guard.

Being better than the rest. As a Space Marine, you are superhuman, the best of the best. You were selected because you were superior to the rest as a normal human, and with all your biological enhancements, no human can compare to you. Your power armour just enhances this. You are faster, stronger and smarter than any normal human, and, what's more, you know this. You are a higher order of humanity, the Emperor's own creations. Anything else is below you, and you treat it as such. (This applies in varying degrees to different chapters, do research on your chapter to find out their attitude)

Lesson 2: The Emperor. You are the grandchildren of the Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind. The Primarchs were His sons, and they were your fathers. The Inquisition is the word of the Emperor, and as such, you respect Inquisitorial orders as though they came from He on the Golden Throne. You should not doubt what you are told, for you are told all you need to know, and you need to know all you are told.*

Lesson 3: Rituals. You are religious to the extreme, you make Televangelists look mild compared to your holy will. Every piece of equipment you have is cared for with ritualistic importance, anointed with sacred oils, blessed to the extreme. Your very armour and weapons contain the spirits of all warriors past who have used them, and so you treat them with the same respect you treat the graves of the dead. The Space Marines have litanies for everything, for marching, for firing, for cleaning equipment, for working on consoles, for waiting. In situations such as the ones Terrastus are always in, pretty much all the time you spend not talking is spent chanting quietly as you wait for the enemy or obey your important orders. The most common one for the Deathwatch is the Catechism of the Xenos, which you will find yourself uttering as you search and wait for the alien.

To be Unclean
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Impure
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Abhorred
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Reviled
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Hunted
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Purged
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Cleansed
That is the Mark of the Xenos

Lesson 4: Orders. The words of your commander are obeyed without question. A good solder obeys without question, a good leader commands without doubt. Any instructions given by the Captain are followed to the letter. However, as trained, experienced alien hunters and elite super soldiers able to survive the harshest experiences, most things you do by instinct, such as cover areas while moving, watching for any movement. Your opinion shall be given when you are asked for it.

Lesson 5: Technical Skills. You all know how to work basic consoles, electrical and mechanical equipment. You've been trained from adolescence to use just about any form of weapon in existance. You can even operate crude ork shootas as alien hunters. It's in your very subconscious how to operate human machinery and how to fix various faults.

Lesson 6: Speaking. Every hour of every day not spent in battle is spent up to your oesophagus in religion, you have been brought up to pray for your very soul, to pray for the machine spirits. It would not even occur to you to make a sudden exclamation of suprise such as "FARK!" or "GOD DAMNIT THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!" Every word that you utter sounds as if it has deep significance. When in battle, all you say are words condemning your enemies to a hellish eternal torture. There is no casual talk, and no abbreviations.
C'mon, Odin, I've got your back becomes Brother Starwolf, I am covering you, return, quickly. You ensure you sound as superior as you feel, speaking like a commoner is beneath you.

Hope this has helped some of you. It was a bastard to type up, and no doubt a pain to read, but it might answer your questions. Any more, just post here.


*Although I've said this, not all may be as it seems, it's down to the conscience of the individual Marine whether to probe. (Basically, the RP would be bloody dull if you all just obeyed orders without question and shot everything that moved, so I've tried to liven it up a touch with one or two mysteries.)





The Initiation Rites of Space Marines - including Information on the organs of a Marine.
http://uk.games-workshop.com/spacemarines/initiation/1/

The Daily Rituals of a Marine
http://uk.games-workshop.com/spacemarines/rituals/1/

This post has been edited by Commissar Molotov on Jul 10 2005, 09:46 PM

Hmm.... that is pretty accurate. 1 major problem. I know of few chapters that have anything to do with the inquisition. All chapters are feircely independent and would not react well to the inquisition ordering them around. I know that the Inquisition and the Space Wolves were on the brink of open warfare once. And the Dark angels have had many fights with the more radical of inquisitors because of their past. But usually Space marines would follow an Inquisitor if they had similiar objectives. as soon as those end, the Space marines would be out of there.

But how about in their life when not fighting?

In the SM Codex, you can read that they pretty much spend ALL DAY training. They usually have two/three hours of free time.

The 'free time' is always occupied by personal prayer, meditation and reflection. So you aren't likely to bump into a gang of surly Imperial Fists out on the lash on a friday night.

but surly space wolves....

Being a Space Wolf player, I feel I should answer to that.

Space Wolves hardly get drunk anywhere else than in Fenris. The organs of a Space Marine are powerful enough to ignore poisons that would kill a man in a few minutes. Therefore, alcohol isn't a great worry for them.

It is suggested that Space Wolves have found a chemical substance that reduces the filtering power of their body, allowing them to get drunk. Such a thing is possible, but I am 100% sure that such a substance would be allowed ONLY in the Fang. Drunk Space Wolves are dangerous to others, and to themselves. That would be a good reason for Logan Grimnar and earlier Old Wolves to forbid such a chemical from being used out of the Fang.




Space Wolves' famous feasts aren't just to get drunk beyond any possibility of proper eye-sight work. It is also a social meeting (yeeeeah, it is). It is in these feasts where bonds are renewed, friendships are created (or destroyed). Not to mention the incredibly important event when Rune Priests sing the sagas of past heroes.

To sum it all up:
Space Wolves do not trust the Inquisition, but are smart enough to understand that not all Inquisitors are "baaaaaaad". As for discipline, Space Wolves are just as disciplined if not more than other chapters, but their manners are more familiar and less ironed than other chapters' .

It was my impression that the =][= and the Adeptus Astartes worked together only by convenience and opportunity.

As the Astartes are by nature, completely independant of the Imperium and its various agencies, Chapters respond to calls for help by their own accord.

If an Inquisitor set out a call for aid on a particular world, for example, any Astartes chapters that recieved the message would have the choice of responding to the call to arms or not, though this would definetly be a high priority call if it was coming from an Inquisitor, clearly one that does not have time to wait for his own forces to arrive.

This, again, varies depending on which chapter recieves the call, which Inquisitor sends the call, what Order he belongs to, along with a truck-load of other things that are taken into consideration.

However, this is on a larger scale. For the average battle brother of an average chapter, if an Inquisitor gave them an order, they would most likely do their best to carry it out. Though I would say that a brothers loyalty would lie with his chapter rather than any arm of the Inquisition.

Also, an Astartes would likely only respect an order if it came directly from the Inquisitor him/herself. I highly doubt that even the youngest battle-brother would allow himself to be ordered around by an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper.