Fate of the Astartes Praeses

[DogWelder]

The Astartes Praeses are a group of twenty Loyalist Space Marine Chapters whose sole purpose is to guard the Eye of Terror in the Segmentum Obscurus.  Although the brotherhood of Space Marines included in the Astartes Praeses originally included 20 Chapters, one has been destroyed by the Forces of Chaos and two other Chapters, the Relictors and the Sons of Malice, were both declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the High Lords of Terra. 

 

Since the eye of Terra exploded outwards and swallowed up a whole bunch of worlds around it, what happened to these Chapters? So far we only know the fate of two chapters (White Consuls and Black Consuls) in M42.

 

The White Consuls had their homeworld destroyed but a bulk of their chapter was able to escape safely and become a fleet based chapter. The Black Consuls (previously on the brink of extinction thanks to the Iron Warriors and Word Bearers) received hundreds of Primaris Marine reinforcements and are now an active Chapter operating from their homeworld of Cyclopia.

 

Let me know if you guys have any lore info as well as your opinion on what you think should happen with the rest of the Chapters.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

One of the issues with the Praeses is that we never had a categorical list of their membership...

[DogWelder]

Angels Eradicant

Black Consuls

Brothers Penitent

 Crimson Scythes

Excoriators

 Iron Talons

 Knights Unyielding

Marines Exemplar

Night Watch

 Reclaimers

 Relictors

 Sons of Malice

Subjugators

 Viper Legion

White Consuls 

Edited July 25, 2017 by Caius Tadius

[deathspectersgt7]

I have not heard anything about the other 18 . And Being a Big Excoriator fan it can be disheartning  to not know. 

[Brother Casman]

8th Edition Rulebook: pages 160-161 The Fall Of Cadia has a brief mention of the Astartes Praeses as an organization. The implication is that they are still in the fight for the region, assisting the defence from Belis Corona and Agripinaa.

[helterskelter]

I thought the dark hunters were one of these chapters? They had an ace little short story too

[Draakur]

I've been interested in the Praeses for a long time now, especially the Subjugators and to a lesser extent the Marines Exemplar. I'd love to know more too.

 

The details of their general organisation and overall state has always been at least unclear, if not outright conflicting. The most commonly cited description we get is that they were founded with 20 Chapters, and have lost two. When did this start, though? We have them as disparately founded as the Excoriators being of the Second Founding, and the Subjugators being from either the 23rd or 24th. So was the Praeses a recently started endeavour, with the Subjugators perhaps being created for the express purpose of being part of the new Astartes Praeses organisation, and others like the Excoriators were brought in and added to the fold? Or perhaps the opposite? Or more likely perhaps, something in between or entirely different?

 

Perhaps there's some sort of replacement policy, where they try to maintain ~20 Chapters and petition some to join if another is wiped out, to maintain a minimum guard to keep the region as stable as possible? So many questions. There are a lot of gaps to be taken advantage of, at least, if you want to utilise the concept for your own fluff, but I personally would love more hard canon detail... :)

 

+edit+

I thought the Dark Hunters were cited to be so at some point too, but looking at both Lexicanum and 40kwiki, neither entry mentions it... are we both insane?

Edited July 29, 2017 by Draakur