Chapter Concept (Warning Mechanicum Spoilers)

[Exark]

Currently I am uncertain what direction I want to take my current project the Steel Archons in. I've fleshed out most of their background, however I am still in the process of changing it.

 

One concept that occurred to me is the possibility of the gene-seed providing some form of latent psychic (albeit faint/inconsistent) link

like Dalia Cythera as spoken of in Mechanicum.

 

My original concept with the chapter was to have it centered around Koriel Zeth's ideals, however that fell through.

 

 

 

Would this be possible at all? If yes, what would be a way I could accomplish it (I plan on having the chapter believe they are touched in particular by the emperor, reinforcing their belief in progress).

Granted it would come with some severe drawbacks, gene-seed stability wise.

[Stigus Adeptus]

There isn't really a reason why it can't. The Thousand Suns gene-seed made more than an average number of psykers.

 

It could be connected to the warp in a way, maybe the chapter has its collective conscious bound together. While it's connected to the warp, it's only a peripheral link, something that is almost unnoticeable. That way it explains the link while providing a drawback. Maybe it could provide a boon to the chapter at times like the Sisters of Battle have their miracles.

[voi shet magir]

I believe - as in, this is the primary reason I like the setting - that warhammer has very mystical meaning. As is relevant to your topic, yes, all marines of a chapter are aligned with each other in the warp. Marines have always been battle-brothers, regardless of the aesthetic trappings like superhero-knight-monk-soldiers. People who live and train together, practicing the same religion, will always develop camaraderie. Of course this is warhammer, where intangibles like that have an "Immaterium" or empyrean to exist in and be, as it were, tangible. The Esprit de Corps is in fantasy and in 40k, probably a literal spirit. You can think of them as having simultaneous causes. When a group of distinct individuals are implanted with organs from a single gene seed, it makes them more similar and draws the patterns of their souls into harmony.

 

This esprit de corps is why marines were created in the first place. The Emperor did not plan on making gene seed when he ran the primarch project. Only when the primarchs were lost in the warp did he begin developing a way to implant their genetic material into humans and make little soldier-ant proxies of the primarchs. Of course, it was partially because instead of moving at a more measured pace, the Emperor need get out into the galaxy and find the Primarchs before something happened to them. However, he definitely had super soldier technology, he did not need to tie his new troops to the primarchs.

 

He tied his new troops to the primarchs so that they would draw him to what he was looking for. The primarchs all found their appropriate niches. It is remarkable they ended up on planets, that are habitable, and that had human societies. It is even more remarkable that the most psychic primarch found a planet of psychics and the primarch with lupine dna was adopted by wolves. Obviously, they traveled through the warp according to sympathetic attraction. The Emperor somehow understood that he could best draw himself to the primarchs by using an even stronger sympathetic attraction: huge bodies of people whom the primarchs had more in common with than they did the people of their homeworlds. Of course, if Magnus were drawn to Prospero, so would his dupes.

 

The afriel strain show that there are pronounced intangible problems with trying to make a physical copy of anyone, especially dead people. Each body needs its own distinct soul attached. What the Emperor needed was a way to take existing souls and bend them in specific directions. The genes and circumstances of a farmer dictate his destiny: he will be one shape and have one of a range of professions, with this much wealth. When implanted with the powers of a primarch, that farmer will never be the same farmer he was going to be, or even a blacksmith or mortal soldier, and this modifies his soul as well.

 

This is the only reason for space marines to exist as a literary object or whatever, and if you do not think of things this way I kind of question your taste and judgement. There are no other substantial differences between warhammer and iron kingdoms, horatio hornblower novels, or pat the bunny, except the superficialities of shape and color that have been deprived of edifying meaning.

 

Of course, most space marines of a chapter do not have a hive mind or anything, but put in separate rooms and given the same set of problems, they will arrive at similar answers. They know each other intimately without needing to meet each other. Of course, some chapter should use this for something, like an alternative to astronomy for terrestrial navigation. Do something with it.

[LordEnki]

Somewhat related: I haven't looked into this myself, but I've been informed that Zeth's noosperic (spelling?) communication has found it's way into the 41st millennium. And as far as her ideals, look up a group of hereteks called logicians. I've been working on a chapter that still follows the idea of Imperial Truth (no such thing as gods or magic, etc.) that's involved with a group of them.