Using different Marine Codex?

[Bryan Blaire]

Oh, I'm a firm believer that Chapters can wildly deviate from their progenitor - for instance, if there are no physical differences, such as those of the Blood Angels, Imperial Fists, Raven Guard, or Space Wolves, then it's going to be the training of the Marines that is going to most influence what they act like. If they are tutored by the Ultramarines, then the Chapter is most likely going to act and respond similarly to them, and even if there are physical differences, you'd only be able to realize they weren't Ultramarines when those physical differences manifest.

 

I think that's actually what happened with the Swords of Haldroth, they were Ultramarines Successors (probably what they trained as and what they were told for some reason) until they physically weren't. Things went a little sideways, they tried to hide it, and somehow Astorath was drawn to the suffering of their Marines. I do think that there's something about how the Blood Angels work, and that's why they are all similar, however, I think that plenty of other Chapters could vary a lot because their flaws are less drastic and aren't subject to possible control, such as Dorn's sons loss of their Betcher's Gland and Sus-an Membrane, so the Sons of Dorn would likely exhibit wider variance than the Sons of Baal. Look at the Iron Snakes or Mortifactors and their divergence from the UM line.

 

I'd actually like to see a known Salamanders Successor, just to see if GW would be brave enough to diverge them...

[Lord_Caerolion]

I do agree that in some cases, there are actual mental traits that are associated with particular gene-seed lines, such as the stubborn nature of the Dornian line. How much this is true seems to vary though, as the Crimson Fists largely lack that trait, or at least not to the extent that other "truer" lines do. It is interesting, as you've pointed out, that the Chapters that tend to stick closest to one central theme are the ones with more unstable geneseed. The exception to this is the Dark Angels, who culturally are all almost clones of their parent Chapter, but again, the question remains as to whether they inherently have those tendencies, or because the Dark Angels induct the Chapters into the Unforgiven at the earliest possible opportunity, with all the changes that come from that.

[Trevak Dal]

Back in fifth I fought in a parallel universe where Leman Russ wrote the codex Astartes (because it had better rules and cooler characters) so I fought Black Wolves, Dark Wolves, Chaos Wolves, Ultra Wolves etc.