Lore restrictions on master wargear

[Vulshra]

Is there a lore reason company masters cannot take flails of the unforgiven, maces of absolution, or corvus hammers? Balance wise I see it, but is there a lore reason I'm missing?

[Marshal Loss]

Nope. In reality they'd be able to use pretty much anything they wanted. There's rarely a connection between the lore & wargear restrictions

[jbaeza94]

I imagine some of it may have to do with badges of offices. For example the crozius. Not the best weapon, being a power maul, but it’s a symbol. Just like the knights have the mace of absolution/Corvus hammer. Conversely, the master may have a heaven fall blade or other relic that is the relic of the 4th company Master and so on. A lot of things marines do is because of tradition and ceremony Edited March 9, 2021 by jbaeza94

[Syphid]

Real reason - GW only makes rules for the weapon options that come in the box the unit was sold in.

 

Fluff reason - lots of reasons! Jbaeza makes a great one, space marines have a strongly symbolic tradition, especially Dark Angels where the secrets of the first legion and the initiation into the deathwing are heavily steeped in ceremony. Another reason is that there may just not be that many Flails lying around and the chapter doesnt know how to make more. Not all Captains have been initiated into the Deathwing, so its possible they dont have the training or rank to use one.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Syphid

[bigtrouble]

In the case of the flail, i would note that in the lore, there would be only one knight master, thus only one flail.