Sorael from Ragnar Blackmane: Captain versus Master

[Phoebus]

Dear A D-B,

In the event that you peruse this topic, let me say this right off the bat: this is not a query aimed at getting a "right versus wrong" answer. I'm just a sucker for insight from the folks who pen the lore for this setting.

That disclaimer aside, I was curious as to why you went with "Captain" versus "Master" or "Company Master" for your character, Sorael, in your novel Ragnar Blackmane.

I imagine the reason could be something as simple as you forgetting Dark Angels have Company Masters (I sincerely doubt this was the case; you seem like you know your lore, to put it lightly) or that you simply favor the classic rank over the comparatively more recent, Chapter-specific one. Or was something spicier driving that decision? You know, different ranks for outsiders versus those in the Chapter, or different ranks for those who haven't (for whatever reason) been initiated into the Inner Circle (or would that be higher into the Inner Circle?) after graduating from the Deathwing/Deathwing Knights?

Just please don't tell me something like, "It's whatever you think is best" - that's probably the one answer that would leave me stumped!

Dear Everyone Else,

What are your theories? That is to say, how do things work in your personal canon? Do the Dark Angels stick with just the Inner Circle ranks, or do they maintain a more complex, covert rank structure?

[Candleshoes]

I looked at it in one of two ways:

 

1) As an interchangeable rank - ala every Company Master *is* a Captain.

2) Of non-standard Chapters, they keep what's theirs to themselves and only show others the stock and generic. A good example of this is seen in the short "Howl of the Hearthworld", where there is a very multi layered conversation between a pack of Space Wolves and a bureaucrat, where he asks their names and ranks.