chaos legion colors

[Brother Rathul]

I was looking at some pre-heresy art the other day and wondered why the some of the tratior legions changed their colors. Was it like the black legion for remorse and sadness, or dishonour they didn't beat the emperor? It dosen't make very much sense to me to change their colors. Are they not proud of their legion colors?

[Iron Father Ferrum]

You'll notice that not ALL of them changed their colors or heraldry. For some, it was done out of devotion to their patron god -- Khorne is the blood god, red is the color of blood -- not blue and white. Abaddon changed the name and colors of his legion as a sort of severing of ties, trying to erase the stigma of Horus' failure from the minds of his marines by calling them the Black Legion instead of the Sons of Horus.

[Pcm979]

Let me see. DEF's covered the WE and the BL. The Thousand Sons went blue because that's Tzeentch's colour, Death Guard armour is actually unpainted but covered in green filth and the Emperor's Children are just plain enamoured with bright colours. The Word Bearers changed their colours before the Heresy for unspecified reasons, but most likely to somehow represent their conversion to Chaos. Their Horus Heresy book will probably explain. The Alpha Legion has no explanation, but they're not supposed to care about heraldry anyway, and anyway it's only off by a few shades of purple.

 

Did I miss anything? :D

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

i seem to remember one of the HH books mentioning the Word Bearer's color change, but cant remember it in detail.

 

WLK

[Brother Rathul]

But you'd think they would be more devoted to their legions though.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Why? Their legions name, heraldry, and colors were part and parcel from the Emperor, yes? Frankly, I'm amazed that they didn't all change the names of their legions too as a way of separating themselves further from the Imperium they rebelled against.

[Cyrox]

I think the Iron Warriors and Night Lords remain largley unchanged, they just have added a bit of chaos bling :cuss

[Brother Rathul]

And I respect your opinion, but it would be just like changing your last name....Not very easy now is it?

[Brother Aristeo]

Aside from the reasons already provided, I don't think it's ever been established in the background why certain Legions changed their colors.

 

The Dark Angels changed their colors from black to green, so it's not just the Traitor Legions. I haven't read any of the Dark Angels Horus Heresy books so this may have changed.

 

Actually, now that I think of it, I think all of the Legions may have had different names and color schemes before their respective Primarch was given command of their Legion. It was mentioned that Horus was the last to change his Legion's name and color, from the Luna Wolves to the Sons of Horus. Garro talked about how the Death Guard had a different name and color scheme before Mortarion took over. I think they were formerly the Dusk Raiders, and the World Eaters were the War Hounds before Angron took over.

 

So my point is that the Legions changing colors (or names) isn't that strange of a thing. It seems to have been the norm, Traitor or Loyalist.

 

There's also the fact that a lot of color schemes have changed over time from edition to edition. The Alpha Legion's color scheme from the Rogue trader days was green and yellow with a bit of red thrown in and their symbol was a crazy looking bull. :lol: The 2nd edition Chaos codex introduced the hydra symbol and their color scheme was what their Pre-Heresy color scheme is now. Now there's like six different variations of their color scheme, the common thread amongst most of them being the hydra scale motif.

[Pcm979]

The White Scars were renamed (and maybe coloured, but that's not confirmed) from something too, but we don't know what. Was there something about the Ultramarines being named and coloured after the hue of Macragge's oceans, or was that just fanon?

 

Edit: Also, it was implied in After Desh'ea that the World Eaters were named something else before the War Hounds too, so they're tied with the Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion for Most Renamed Legion.

 

Damnit, now I'm making a spreadsheet. Someone stop me!

[Inquisitor Malaclypse]

all good responses, and the are other things to consider:

 

the fact that post Heresy, many traitor Legions found the ability to maintain, repair armor adequately, so they may have had to use anything salvaged from the dead of their and/or other Legions, and try to make it match as best they could.

 

also, not all Traitor Legions were pro-Chaos, they're more like renegades (just finished Soul Hunter and read up a bit on Honsou of the Iron Warriors) in that they feel the Emperor betrayed their Legion, but don't care to be enslaved by the Ruinous Powers like other Legions.

 

that's what i got, so i hope it helps.

[Imperialis_Dominatus]

If I remember correctly the Imperial Fists were straight gold before the Heresy. Switched to banana afterward.

 

Dark Angels also made a change from black to Caliban green.

 

Luna Wolves'/Sons of Horus'/Black Legion's various lackadaisical heraldries has been mentioned.

 

Word Bearers made the change for their faith, as did the World Eaters... unfortunately. Blood-spattered blue and white looks badass.

 

Who knows what's going on with the Alpha Legion.

 

I believe the Thousand Sons changed in the wake of the Rubric of Ahriman, but I don't think it's stated as such.

[Kizzdougs]

pretty sure the World Eaters never repainted their armour. isn't it just the result of the thousands of litres of blood they have spilled for Khorne. I don't think a berzerker would be to worried about painting his armour a new colour.

 

i think this is mentioned in "Ravens flight".

[Skirax]

From what I remember, the Emperor's Children didn't change their name because it was meant to be an insult to the Emperor and his failure - that a Legion so close and devoted to him could fall so far was their final laugh.

[Jamafore]

pretty sure the World Eaters never repainted their armour. isn't it just the result of the thousands of litres of blood they have spilled for Khorne. I don't think a berzerker would be to worried about painting his armour a new colour.

 

i think this is mentioned in "Ravens flight".

 

 

 

That accounts for the red, but what about the bronze/gold/whatever?

[Captain Tezdal]

From slaying all the gold custodes...errr

[Pcm979]

There are plenty of illustrations of World Eaters that show a uniform paint job, not a mass of congealed blood. When they found time out from random mayhem to buy paint supplies and produce an even coat is another matter.

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

pretty sure the World Eaters never repainted their armour. isn't it just the result of the thousands of litres of blood they have spilled for Khorne. I don't think a berzerker would be to worried about painting his armour a new colour.

 

i think this is mentioned in "Ravens flight".

 

 

 

That accounts for the red, but what about the bronze/gold/whatever?

 

Red and Bronze are the colors of Khorne.

 

example: the COllars of Khorne are usually made of Bronze, according to old fluff.

 

WLK

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Brass, I thought, not bronze.

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

Brass, I thought, not bronze.

 

oops, screwed that one. thanks for the catch.

 

i usually associate the two colors myself.

 

WLK

[Priest33]

Yeah the colour change is weird but whats more weird is the "horn growth" they all got on their helms... I suspect that Khorne had a hand in both the mod of their colours and their change in armor.

[Brother Aristeo]

I don't like the idea that living in the Eye makes their armour sprout spikes and horns.

 

I always figured that as the Traitor Legions conquered and settled on daemon worlds that they killed a lot of daemons in the process and adorned their armour with the horns to make themselves look badass.

[Priest33]

Was talking more about the bunny ears that the world eaters have.. but yead not a huge fan of the random horn growth...

[Jarl Kjaran Coldheart]

as far as i know, there is no good fluff reason for the horn growth.

 

however, from a modeling/game perspective, it makes perfect sense. i easy, lazy way to distinguish loyalists from traitors.

 

WLK

[Hobo Willie]

I think it had more to do with making them look like the Chaos Warriors of WHFB.