Fire Breathing Space Marines?

[Bishoujo]

I know the idea sounds like nonsense, but hear me out.

 

A lot of work was done (poorly) in attempts to repair gene-seed during the cursed founding.  What if they tried to fix the essentially non-functional Betcher's Gland in the Imperial Fist's gene-seed - and had this an alternate effect instead?  Instead of the two glands mixing to become corrosive, the two glands would mix upon being spewed out of the mouth, combining into a highly volatile compound and igniting.

 

Is this just too far fetched?

 

For starters, I'm not talking about marines walking around with no helmet and acting like living flamers / metlaguns.  This would be nowhere comparable to that.  Maybe something comparable to a quick burst of hairspray while holding a lighter in front of it.  Not huge, and not continuous.

 

I feel like this would be something that the chapter would try to keep secret.  But could they?  Would a visit/inspection by an Inquisitor be able to find such a thing?  What about the gene-seed tithe?  And would this be enough to declare the chapter tainted and send them down the road of exterminatus?

 

An expanded idea to the above - if the idea flies, then I'm thinking of having another side effect be that the gland is somewhat unstable, and at extreme levels of adrenaline a marine can lose control and spew fire involuntarily, damaging himself and his equipment - with the most extreme cases having burned themselves alive within their armor.

 

Just want to get some general feedback on the idea before I consider putting it into my custom chapter IA that I'm drafting.  If the idea is too crazy, then I'll drop it - but I thought it could be an interesting flaw - and trying to keep it a secret could be interesting as well.  

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Kilofix]

As a primarily Chaos player, I wholeheartedly approve.

[Sanguine_Knight]

Flaws are hard to come up with in my opinion, That's why I've avoided it with my DIY Chapter. I think you have a good one here. I like the idea of trying to hide it. I don't think its too crazy

[Chiv]

Cool idea, could lead to the chapter secretly developing a special rebreather/helmet that when excessive heat is detected it vents, allowing said marine to carry on, perhaps causing fear to opponents, as firebreathing marines = scary. Just my 2 cents. Cheers!

[Bishoujo]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.  This is my first time looking into writing an IA for my custom chapter, and I imagine there's a fine line between "I want my chapter to have something unique about them" and "look at how awesome my marines are".  That's why I went with a flaw.  I figured it walked that line of "this is cool" - because, come on, marines that can breath fire - but tried to attach some uncertainty behind it.

 

I'm toying with the idea of having the chapter practice methods of keeping calm in combat, as to not lose control of their flawed gland.  Somewhat more methodical and less black rage.

 

I definitely feel it's something they would try to hide from others, as well as trying to control among themselves.  All it takes is one Inquisitor to see a marine breathing fire and the next thing you know the Grey Knights are knocking on your Fortress Monastery.  Just ask the Flame Falcons.

[Kilofix]

Cool idea, could lead to the chapter secretly developing a special rebreather/helmet that when excessive heat is detected it vents, allowing said marine to carry on, perhaps causing fear to opponents, as firebreathing marines = scary. Just my 2 cents. Cheers!

 

I support the idea of enlarged rebreather / helmets with special vents. They could hide their 'affliction' as just a tech gimmick.

[Lysimachus]

You could make it something that grows more dangerous as the Marine ages, more volatile and harder to control, and therefore the Chapter has problems maintaining it's Command staff?

 

Or go the opposite way, and say that new recruits struggle more with it until they learn to control themselves, meaning lots of losses during recruitment/training and therefore lower Chapter strength?

 

Either way, it makes for a nice curse, good idea.

[Urael]

Canoness Celestia, there is a chapter of Astartes that contains a few fire breathing brothers. The Fire Lords chapter, descendants of Dorn, have at least one chaplain who has been witnessed to breathe fire. (Legion of the Damned novel)

However, I am fairly sure a mutated betcher's gland was not the case here.

[That Guy Matt]

Yeah, I wasn't sure of the source but I've read that Fire Lords can breath fire. I think they swill enough promethium that it just gets on their breath. They replace their teeth with flints too so it can cause sparks. The combination being some fire breathing. Pretty cool.

[Gulag]

Legion of the Damned novel, particularly at the Feast of Blades where Kersh is facing down the Fire Lord in the ring.

[Bishoujo]

Hmm. I didn't know about the Fire Lords until mentioned here. It seems they have Prometheum-swilled breath, and get their teeth replaced with sharp stone, allowing them to spark when biting down and send a gout of flame into an enemy's face.

While my idea was that of a mutated Betcher's Gland, and something they sometimes cannot control and are trying to hide - at the end of the day the "fire breathing marines" idea is one that has been done.

I suppose I will scrap this idea and continue my search for a unique yet believable (within the setting) flaw for my marines.

Thanks again to all who commented. A lot of helpful feedback, plus I learned a lot.

[Reyner]

You could still do it, they weren't suffered from a mutation. They just enjoy drinking napalm...

[Phoros]

Damn it, I was beaten to the suggestion. As you can probably tell, I'm well-aware of the existing Flamethrower Marines.

[Plague Angel]

I say do it. It may have been done a few times, but you could use that as a springboard for your identity. And the idea in general isn't that much of a step up from spitting acid already, IMO. You're basically going from green dragon to red dragon.

[Lord-Captain Cepinari]

Huh.  I thought up something similar for my Imperial Fist Cursed Founding Successor Chapter too.

[fivepointedstar]

I thought of something simular with the Belcher 's gland. Where the Blood Dragons ( link below) will siphon the build up of a nitro-methonal like fluid and use it as a short ranged flame projector. (mainly to scare/intimadate/ singe beard hairs on Space Wolves, etc.) This only works if the marine involved has an over active belcher's gland to create enough fluid to prompt use of the mandible like projector.

I initially wanted to do fire breathing marines .But with the prior topic on my IA, and census of the posts recieved I routed it to a deviance in the Belchers Gland that if siphoned can be use in close combat roles. So its not so far fetched as you would seem, and like Plague Angel stated they already spit acid, whats not to say they can light their own BBQ's with out a flamer..