Deathwatch Shoulder Pads After Sevice

[Guest Royal Cactus]

Hello everybody, I would like to spice things up with my Dark Angels successor chapter and so I would like to include one or two Deathwatch Veterans that returned to the chapter in my army. So my question is: On which shoulder do Space Marines put their DW Shoulder pads after serving the DW?

 

I know in the older fluff it used to be the right shoulder but in the "Space Hulk; Deathwing" game for example the heavy-terminator is having it on the left one, including his powerfist that is modeled in the Deathwatch-style. Is the old fluff still relevant/correct? I have a left DW arm including shoulder. would it be fluff-friendly to have the whole arm including his shoulder in silver just like in the game?

[Brother Tyler]

Deathwatch past service

Marines after DW service

Lore questions re: Deathwatch shoulder pads

Those are just the more recent discussions on this topic that I've participated in. There are probably more than few others scattered about the site, some being very old. 

 

Short answer - the most common practice players use is for veterans of the Deathwatch to wear their Deathwatch shoulder pad on their right and resume wearing their Chapter badge on their left after returning to their parent Chapter. There are lots of alternatives, however.

[Debauchery101]

From what I've read in books, what I do and what other people do is that they keep the left arm and shoulder as if they were in the DW but the rest of their armor is back to Chapter spec with their Chapter logo on the right shoulder.

When and if they return its most likely they will be put into a leadership position, the 1st company or a specialist role like sanguinary, blade or Wolf Guard...which offers a lot more freedom on you uniform so to speak..most likely DW vets will be that dude at the front armed with knowledge and tactics that span centuries and 100s of other space marine chapters. He aint got time for squad markings...hes a badass the rest are trying to keep up with

Edited October 4, 2020 by Brother Tyler
Profanity removed

[Black Knight]

It comes down to personal choice, there isn't any specific lore that ties it down to concrete rules. It truly depends on what the returning Chapter and what they allow the Marine to adorn on his Chapter's armour.

 

Just a reminder though, not all marines sent to the Deathwatch are sent because of merit, its sometimes because they are a right pain in the backside and the Chapter wants to mould, even punish them into something they can use but in other chapters it is a true honour and they act as Ambassadors to their chapter.

 

Some marines do not show any markings with regards to their time in the Deathwatch where others will paint/adorn their shoulder pads and even carry equipment that was earned in their time there.

 

It comes down to personal choice so I would suggest creating some lore for your chapter that determines how the returning marines are allowed to show their service. If I were to ever do it, I would choose an entire arm(even using the DW arms with the crest on the elbow) and a DW shoulder pad but I don't know what side I would pick as of yet.

Edited October 5, 2020 by Black_Knight

[Debauchery101]

It comes down to personal choice, there isn't any specific lore that ties it down to concrete rules. It truly depends on what the returning Chapter and what they allow the Marine to adorn on his Chapter's armour.

 

Just a reminder though, not all marines sent to the Deathwatch are sent because of merit, its sometimes because they are a right pain in the backside and the Chapter wants to mould, even punish them into something they can use but in other chapters it is a true honour and they act as Ambassadors to their chapter.

 

Some marines do not show any markings with regards to their time in the Deathwatch where others will paint/adorn their shoulder pads and even carry equipment that was earned in their time there.

 

It comes down to personal choice so I would suggest creating some lore for your chapter that determines how the returning marines are allowed to show their service. If I were to ever do it, I would choose an entire arm(even using the DW arms with the crest on the elbow) and a DW shoulder pad but I don't know what side I would pick as of yet.

the part you mention about some who don't show their DW shoulder reminds me of a short story that I have not been able to find for a couple years now.

It was about a Dark Angel who joined and he was in a kill team with a lone wolf who at one time he witnessed said lone wolf fight his sgt in one of their chapters Honor Duels. It lasted for a good time. The Wolf decided to get tricky and slip a frag grenade in between the Sgt's sword arm shoulder pad and chest armor...forcing the sgt to freeze in place so the spoon wouldn't come off and detonate...then the Wolf with a smile gave the marine a small cut under his eye to make him look like he was crying blood.

 

So yeah dude definitely did not like this guy and they constantly bickered. Each others need to outdue each other became uncontrollable. They were both assigned to a biker squad with a Ultramarine Sgt. After 5 decades of combat together the salt only grew between them...they fought vs an Ork encampment which had acquired some highly advanced weaponry from the age of strife...the Dark angel was struck with an energy weapon vaporizing his leg from the knee down and splitting his bike in half...when the Big Mekks Dreadnought who shot him was about evicerate him with a gnarly klaw the Wolf hit a jump flying over the Dark Angel. Laughing as he said "you'll never be able to tell your brothers about me saving your life! Hahahaha!!!"

As he lept from his bike which was caught midair by the Mekks dread...the Dark angel sees the wolf roll as he lands...still laughing...the Dark angel confused, then notices the melta bombs strapped to the bike in the Dreads grip....it explodes...but the crazy weapon the mekk had integrated into his Dredd exploded with a blinding flash and static wave and for a split second a tear in reality formed that disoriented the marine. After his vision returned a huge crater was in front of him and it appeared it was just teleported away.

 

He had finished his service. But when he returned he did not wear his DW honors. There was no way he'd let that Wolf's bitter joke be a constant reminder to him. He became a company champion of great renown. When he was selected to join the Deathwing he was so prideful that he was not able to give up all his secrets and speak full truth to the Interrogator Chaplain...no damn way he was going to admit that the only reason he's alive is because a wolf who did it as an insult...he returned to the DW as a black shield.

 

I made my first outrider squad to represent those guys in the story. There was a lot more to the story. There was a lot of dialogue. I wish I could find it. Its one of the best short stories I've read in 40k

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Debauchery101

[Guest Royal Cactus]

Thank you Guys for your input! I thought about it and I will have the entire right arm of my company master in silver including the little shield on the ellbow,

 

@Debauchery101 really cool fluff, I still had a DW-Shoulder in my bitzbox and I had a little bit of headcannon that I wanted to do with my company master.