Primaris/Ultima Founding Chapters and backstory

[Ryno]

I've been out of the hobby for well over a decade at this point, but I've been thinking about lightly returning to it with a homebrew primaris chapter. My biggest question, though, is how much backstory, lore and history can we realistically give an Ultima Founding chapter?

I have several ideas for a chapter, with a homeworld, local myths and legends, pivotal events that lead to certain organisational differences, etc, to fluff out a chapter, but I'm concerned that it might be too much backstory for a chapter which is, essentially, brand new. I won't claim to be an expert in the 40K lore, but what kind of timeline can we realistically work within for a primaris chapter? Are we talking a scale of only a handful years at this point, or are we up to multiple decades? How long have the Primaris marines been on the scene at this point in the lore? The people of the homeworld could have their own established traditions and mythology, but I don't think the chapter can really pull from that in a huge and meaningful way in such a short time period.

 

The customization of the armor would likely be very minimal, I'd imagine. The chapter wouldn't have been around long enough to earn pivotal victories, or tragic defeats that really build up its character. Heroes would yet to be really established.

Or am I just overthinking this?

[Commander Dawnstar]

Going by Dark Imperium, half of the total stock of Primaris were arranged into new Chapters from the outset and Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade lasted approximately a century, so it's not out of the question that your Primaris Chapter could have the best part of a century of independent development if it was one of those given its permanent assignment during the early years.

[Ryno]

Going by Dark Imperium, half of the total stock of Primaris were arranged into new Chapters from the outset and Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade lasted approximately a century, so it's not out of the question that your Primaris Chapter could have the best part of a century of independent development if it was one of those given its permanent assignment during the early years.

 

That's great news, much more time than I had thought there would be to work with.

 

As an additional question, would a new Ultima Founding chapter have any pre-primaris units? Did Reivers take over for scouts in terms of being the newbies, or would a primaris chapter still have conventional scouts? What about vehicles; would they still have any Rhinos or other vehicles, or would they only use the new primaris models?

Edited January 25, 2018 by _MAGGOT_

[Kelborn]

Honestly, we don't know yet.

 

Everything is possible.

Just my two cents:

 

Reivers are more like elites, imho

 

I have the idea that my SW Primaris is accompanied by a squad of their cousin chapter in order to support and help them to

- find their place in 40K

- stay true to the Wolves' cause, which turns out to be More difficult as expected as the Primaris see themselves as the true sons of Fenris and Russ

 

Lot of opportunities. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until a Primaris chapter will get some screentime to clarify stuff. :)

[Ryno]

Since posting, I've done a considerable amount of reading and searching to try to find some answers, and was kind of surprised to find out that, as you said, we just simply don't know, yet.

From everything I've seen, it seems to me that scouts would still be a part of a chapter's recruitment. Which is good, because I want some. I probably won't get going on the minis in earnest for a few months anyways, so hopefully in the next couple months we'll have some more answers.

[Brother Lunkhead]

In the 40k timeline a century doesn't seem like a long enough time to establish much history for a Primaris chapter, but consider this.....

 

In realworld history a lot has happened in the last century; two world wars, the rise and fall of an empire (the USSR), the ascendancy of the United States as a world power, and the rise of a new power (China). That and so much more in a mere hundred years. There is definitely a lot of story you can put into your chapter.

 

Despite the fact that we still don't have a clear picture of the Primaris, I encourage you to proceed with your story and make your mark. You can always retcon later.... GW does it all the time  

[Wargamer]

I can only give my own headcanon here, as there's not much else to go by. However, here are the rules I try to work with:

 

First, not all Primaris are equal.  The "1st Generation" Primaris are more like the Legionaries of old; indeed, some of them have slept in cryo-stasis since those legendary days! These warriors are very different to Space Marines of the 41st Millennium, as they were raised to believe in a completely different vision for the Imperium. They likely hold a great deal of reverence for Guilliman, and are potentially quite at odds with their brethren.

 

2nd Generation Primaris are much more like proper Space Marines. They are recruited from the Chapter homeworld, indoctrinated into the Chapter Cult, etc. Within a purely Primaris Chapter, these Marines will likely adopt the 1st Gen outlook on the Galaxy, but their views will be impacted by the fact they will almost certainly have been born and raised in a completely different environment - specifically, one where ignorance, blind faith and unfettered zealotry are virtues, not vices as they were for the 1st Gen.

 

The easiest way to reflect this, in my opinion, is to make any 1st Gen Primaris more warrior-scholars than warrior-monks.

[chamberlainskeksil]

In the novella Crusade, a small group of Ultramarine Primaris from the Indomitus Crusade ends up on a separate mission from the larger Crusade fleet and then gets damaged and separated for longer. I imagine it was very common for sections to be split off and sent on all sorts of missions over the hundred year period. So even if they aren't formed into their own Ultima founding chapter until after the Crusade ends, you can still have them operating as their own group for the entire Indomitus Crusade-- or have them officially founded at any point during the crusade as others have suggested.