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did all of the legions have chapters?


Thedarkprincesnun

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Most Legions (though not all) had organizational detachments roughly analogous to chapters, if not chapters themselves. The X have their Clans, the Imperial Fists have Households/Crusades, and the Iron Warriors have their Grand Battalions. Hell, even the Space Wolves' and the Death Guard's Great Companies might be considered chapter analogues. I also recall mention of the Death Guard possessing Chapters within the 7 Great Companies, and the XIX Legion prior to Corax had them and following the division into exiled Predation Fleets kept this organization (two are named in the Forge World books: The Pale Nomads Chapter, and the Ashen Claws Chapter.) What little we know of the Blood Angels tells us that the First Chapter of the nascent IX Legion was named the "Hell Riders", IIRC. Every Legion, in fact, prior to the Primarch taking over would have had chapters, as defined by the Principia Bellicosa (the document setting out the organization and regulations of the early Crusade military) as every Legion adhered to it.

The Sons of Horus didn't, as Horus preferred being able to swap companies around as he or his senior captains felt necessary. The White Scars had an equivalent - Ordu, which were each led by a Noyan-Khan, but I don't think the entire Legion fell under that umbrella. The Emperor's Children were all about hierarchy, and so you have their Millennials under their Lord Commanders.

 

What do we know about the Ravens under Corvus and the Alpha Legion? To my mind, those are the most likely Legions after the Luna Wolves to eschew large formal bodies.

The White Scars had an equivalent - Ordu, which were each led by a Noyan-Khan, but I don't think the entire Legion fell under that umbrella. 

From my understanding, the Ordu was the entirety of the V. Legion in their own vernacular, with the respective Brotherhoods varying in size (100-1000 maybe. The Brotherhood of the Storm numbered 400 at the beginning of Scars), and Noyan-Khans commanding several Brotherhoods. This seems to be in line with the White Scars seemingly being rather unconcerned with the regimented, organizational aspects of warfare.

 

Whether that counts as Chapters or companies is anyone's guess :D

After quickly skimming Scars, it seems that there's a Subdivision between Legion and Brotherhood, namely Horde, which is Ord in actual Mongolian, and probably also Ordu in BL's Korchin, so I think it's safe to assume that Ordu means both a group of Brotherhoods, and the Legion as a whole :)

Dark Angels had chapters.

Depends on what you're reading. Dark Angels had Orders in some of the BL novels, which I much prefer.

 

On topic: Horus Heresy Betrayal had a solid Legion breakdown but you can probably find it online too. Basically, all Legions had some kind of "chapter" but most were known under different names. Also, once the Primarchs got involved things got even more varied.

 

On topic: Horus Heresy Betrayal had a solid Legion breakdown but you can probably find it online too. Basically, all Legions had some kind of "chapter" but most were known under different names. Also, once the Primarchs got involved things got even more varied.

 

 

In think this is really the main point of this topic, regardless of whether a legion called a chapter, be it order, grand company, brotherhood, millennials, etc each legion had its own subdivision of the legion between the high command of the primarch and company commanders. I mean just considering how big legions were, most of which were tens of thousands strong, it would have been incredibly impracticable for the command structure to have no subdivision between the company and the legion. 

 

It's the same deal with preator level commanders, their exact title varies widely from legion to legion based on what the legion's culture is and what the primarch's preferences were. 

Technically yes, but also technically no. As stated above many times, every legion called there chapter equivalence something different, even having vastly different numbers in them, if you are meaning chapters in the sense of what they are in 40k then no legion had chapters. I don't have the books on me at the moment, but I believe that an ultramarines company consisted of 1000 marines, and each chapter was made of multiple companies. It's a very grey area

Now i know word bearers and ultramarines did but did any of the other legions have chapters too?

You would have to define Chapter. If you simply mean "above the company level", then yes and no.

 

Take the Night Lords. There is nothing beyond the Company level. However, for certain campaigns, Companies will come together and temporarily form something similar to a Chapter and whoever got to be in charge would even often keep the title and rank, assuming they survived the experience. They are Night Lords after all.

 

The XVIth Legion follows a similar procedure where they keep their Companies so modular that they can easily combine them, break them apart and recombine the constituent pieces into new formations they call "warbands".

 

And some Legions actually have a Chapter-equivalent. Most of which have been listed here.

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