Chaos purity seals?

[Lord Kallozar]

Would it be possible to have chaos renegades that still wear their purity seals but which have now been corrupted and chaos-ified as a mockery to the Imperium?

[Brother Dallo]

In short, yes. It sounds like a very Word Bearer-y thing to do, but I can see pretty much any renegade doing it, as a hate filled gesture towards the rotting carcus of the Imperium. Another option is to take a leaf out of JackDaw's book ( pretty sure it was him) and paint them black to represent "death notes" . They signify that the marine is a dead man walking, and has come to terms with this. It's also an anime reference, if that floats your boat.

 

Dallo

[Kierdale]

They could be prayers beseeching their new dark masters.

Just try to paint (or cut) an 8-pointed star into the seal.

[MaliGn]

What I think often gets overlooked with chaos marines is that they are still Astartes, twisted bitter Astartes, but still Astartes. The monastic warrior life of a space marine is still going to be brainwashed into them, they see the world through transhumanist eyes and perceive it through a filter of indoctrination. The imperial rituals may have been debased and replaced with new rituals, but the new rituals would follow the same logic as the originals but aimed at different powers. They will still take vows of penance, or oaths of vengeance, because their function remains the same.

 

So, yes, put purity seals on chaos marines, they suit them better anyway.

[Phantomzero17]

I view the ones on some of my Night Lords as oaths of moment, or impurity seals (ie: devotionals to the dark gods for the deluded / enlightened ones of my force depending on your views) made from human skin.

[Loesh]

What I think often gets overlooked with chaos marines is that they are still Astartes, twisted bitter Astartes, but still Astartes. The monastic warrior life of a space marine is still going to be brainwashed into them, they see the world through transhumanist eyes and perceive it through a filter of indoctrination. The imperial rituals may have been debased and replaced with new rituals, but the new rituals would follow the same logic as the originals but aimed at different powers. They will still take vows of penance, or oaths of vengeance, because their function remains the same.

 

So, yes, put purity seals on chaos marines, they suit them better anyway.

 

Well....yes and no, it depends on which Chaos Marines we're talking about. New recruits to the legions and renegades from stuff like the Abyssal Crusade might have that indoctrination built into them. The old great crusade legions didn't have stuff like their childhood wiped from their memory or undergo brainwashing quite as fierce, that's why there's a generational divide between Chaos Marines and Space Marines, or even the new Chaos Marines and old Chaos Marines.

 

Which isn't to say old Great Crusade legions wouldn't wear something like that, I could very easily see Thousand Sons, Word Bearers, and Emperors Children wearing purity seals made of human flesh or oaths they have undertaken, it's just that they are a bit more free minded then their modern incarnations and might have invented entirely different traditions or done away with tradition altogether in the last ten thousand years.

[Lucio]

I tend to leave the purity seals on my models, but paint them in flesh tones, for my Crimson Slaughter, they're a twisted parody, tattered flesh-scraps taken from their prized enemies and sealed onto their armour to commerate their victories.

[totgeboren]

I have purity seals on almost every single CSM model in my army (I think my Noise Marines are the only ones lacking).

I do play WB, so purity seals are a bit more fitting than in some other cases.  

[HJL]

I put them on my word bearers. I make them myself though so that they are unique. a small rectangle of plasticard that i have scuffed up a bit with a piece of basing gravel glued to the top to look like a crude nail.

[Tenebris]

Now now, even before the purity seals were taken by the loyalists as a ritual, the legions of old used the same medium as a way to affix Oaths of Moment, mementos and various texts to their armor. Some of this seals were used to affix commendations, some other were used to lock a verse, a phrase or a decree while in some other legions the medium was used as a way to remember past deeds, famous citations by their primarchs or in the case of the Word Bearers to present verses from the Book of Lorgar.

 

The fact that the seals were used way way before the "modern" astartes corrupted their meanings with religious citations or as marks of their purity, the legions of old were much more liberal with this custom and the use of such marks upon one warrior's armor was very much part of their legion creed more than a standardized icon. 

 

In fact I can recall numerous occasions when the Word Bearers affixed the seals to their armor, in the Night Lord series we read of them as a way to affix an Oath of Moment where in a novel which I do not recall the title atm it was used as a way to remember the words of their primarch.

 

In short, it is a legion-wide ritual which has many meanings, which gained even more meanings in the days post Heresy and it is still practiced by almost any legionary of old in a "liberal" fashion, while I suspect that recent converts and renegades use them more to honor themselves and the spirit of their brotherhood and even armor before battle. 

 

Said that I think most of our legionaries practice the tradition of the "purity seal" in some fashion. 

[Loesh]

Now now, even before the purity seals were taken by the loyalists as a ritual, the legions of old used the same medium as a way to affix Oaths of Moment, mementos and various texts to their armor. Some of this seals were used to affix commendations, some other were used to lock a verse, a phrase or a decree while in some other legions the medium was used as a way to remember past deeds, famous citations by their primarchs or in the case of the Word Bearers to present verses from the Book of Lorgar.

 

The fact that the seals were used way way before the "modern" astartes corrupted their meanings with religious citations or as marks of their purity, the legions of old were much more liberal with this custom and the use of such marks upon one warrior's armor was very much part of their legion creed more than a standardized icon. 

 

In fact I can recall numerous occasions when the Word Bearers affixed the seals to their armor, in the Night Lord series we read of them as a way to affix an Oath of Moment where in a novel which I do not recall the title atm it was used as a way to remember the words of their primarch.

 

In short, it is a legion-wide ritual which has many meanings, which gained even more meanings in the days post Heresy and it is still practiced by almost any legionary of old in a "liberal" fashion, while I suspect that recent converts and renegades use them more to honor themselves and the spirit of their brotherhood and even armor before battle. 

 

Said that I think most of our legionaries practice the tradition of the "purity seal" in some fashion. 

 

Well that's what I am saying really is that the purity seals and the like probably vary a lot more then their religious minded off-shoots. I would even go so far as to say that many Chaos Legion Warbands probably practice something like the purity seal, just distorted or changed in such a way that they wouldn't recognize it as such. The same way as there are probably still World Eaters who continue the practice of Victory Ropes, though over the last ten thousand years it might of acquired a different name and slight variation.

 

It's a long time, even for Space Marines and while they probably remember the big points of the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy i'd reckon some things have gotten lost in translation. More so because, even back in the day, there were already divides in exactly how tradition should be carried out.

[Chaeron]

I didn't want to remove them on my World Eater's Terminators, so they became Blood Oaths or Litanies or Hatred. Simple.