I have to ask about the Black Templars

[Valkyrion]

I've been a 40k player since 2nd ed, when Black Templars were just an example in the painting guide.

We had Blood Angels (renaissance), Space Wolves (Vikings), Dark Angels (hell and/or monks, I guess) and Ultramarines (Romans) as the main players.

Then 3rd came along replete with Black Templars as poster boys for the grimdarkness (but not a codex for another edition, weirdly)  and they became the Knight chapter.

 

All of that is fine, no arguments from me about the whys and wherefores but I have to ask;

 

Why are the Black Templars so popular? 

 

To all intents and purposes they could have been Hawk Lords, or Executioners, or Novamarines as the poster boys and I know for surely certain that we wouldn't have the same level of fandom that we have today for any of those chapters. 

 

This isn't meant disparagingly at all. I welcome the fevered zealots with open arms. 

 

But the thought of new Templars has got people salivating with righteous fury far more so than say, a new Salamanders unit or Raven Guard squad. 

 

It's not new. They've been like this from 1998 until now.  

 

So what is it?!

[SvenIronhand]

It's like you said. People like the knightly aesthetic.

[Marshal Loss]

Why are the Black Templars so popular? 

 

To all intents and purposes they could have been Hawk Lords, or Executioners, or Novamarines as the poster boys and I know for surely certain that we wouldn't have the same level of fandom that we have today for any of those chapters.

If any of those chapters had been made the posterboys for an entire edition of WH40k & were fleshed out in great detail & had some popular BL books written about them & were given a unique (and awesome) theme & unique units/upgrades & their own codex etc etc they absolutely could have enjoyed an enduring popularity similar if not equal to the Templars. Once upon a time the BTs were just another codex compliant chapter like everybody else, after all.

 

The colour scheme probably plays a role as well.

 

But as above, knights, crusades, purging, etc. They've always felt very 40k to me compared to many of the mainstream chapters which I imagine is a part of their appeal.

[MARK0SIAN]

The Knightly Aesthetic plus the colour scheme plus the fact they’re melee focussed adds up to their popularity:)

[Scribe]

The real question is, will the go back to the Emperor not being a god. ;)

[Warhead01]

It's a weird thing for me. I liked the black armour and the gritty art as I remember it back in 3rd. I'd played dark Angels for years  at that point and felt that that is what the DA's should have looked like, clad in black and being grim knights. I never collected the Black templars. more recently with the animation on youtube, every time I watch Helreach I get this urge to collect Black Templars. I blame this on the story and the feel. I got more hype from the Black Templar trailer video than I really did from the Orks models. And we saw less in the trailer.  
Sadly I already have a black army, my first legion. still the temptation he enormous. I do have the droppods....  So, I'm like halfway there...  
 

[jaxom]

There is purity in faith. No other Chapter has the same buy-in to the over-the-top, absolute certainty of Humanity's primacy in the galaxy. No other Chapter has the (organizational) doubt-free psychology that comes with religious faith.

[redmapa]

People like 40k and to me there is no Chapter that evokes the whole aesthetic of Warhammer 40k more than Black Templars, they are clad in these baroque armors covered in purity seals and oaths evoking this imagery of medieval gothic knights, they are zealous to the point that other chapters view them as fanatics, its a chapter thats anachronistic in a setting that loves to take imagery from humanity's history and put them in a futuristic setting . If Space Marines as a whole are described as "Monk-Knights super soldiers" then Black Templars are the chapter that runs the deepest with that idea, so thats why I think BT are a fairly popular army.

[Bung]

Black Templar get everything.

Historical based french name (Knights Templar).

Historical based German color sheme (Teutonic Knights).

A Battle cry from a popular 80s movie (Terminator)

Plus the option of puns from Well known movies (Holy Handgrenade).

 

Plus they where Features in 3 TH Edition with their own armylist and the only chapter that could bring more than one LR Crusader and had the big squads for them.

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

I think it's the tabards. Every other chapter is basically just running around naked with their power armor exposed for the galaxy to see. Black Templars and Dark Angels are the only ones with class and a sense of decency.

[ThePenitentOne]

As a Sisters player, I respect Faith. I think Templars are the Sororitas' equal in zeal; I don't know what cannon has to say about it, but it seems to me they would work well with Sisters. Obviously, army purity rules have laid the boots to actual game alliances like this, but if you imagine two forces coordinating attacks against heresy... It's pretty legendary.

[Closet Skeleton]

Historical based German color sheme (Teutonic Knights).

 

Black Templar colour scheme is more Maltese Knight based. Teutonic knights are usually portrayed in white while the Knights of Malta wore black. But both of those were cloth colour schemes and the BT cloth is beige so its really not straight forwards.

 

Modern Teutonic Knights are mostly made up of Catholic priests so wear black under their white cloaks. 19th century photos from before the priesthood took over post WW1 also look like they're wearing black but that's 19th century photography for you.

 

 

 

They didn't retcon them, they clarified a ambiguous codex in a way that contradicted a Black Library novel. Contradictions between novels and codexes are so common they can't really be called retcons, not when those are really two partially overlapping fandoms.

 

The old lore was that most Space Marine chapters didn't treat the Emperor as a god but that several unspecified ones did. Eventually that got made specific for the BT.

Edited July 11, 2021 by toaae
Removed quote of hidden post

[Bung]

 

Historical based German color sheme (Teutonic Knights).

 

Black Templar colour scheme is more Maltese Knight based. Teutonic knights are usually portrayed in white while the Knights of Malta wore black. But both of those were cloth colour schemes and the BT cloth is beige so its really not straight forwards.

 

 

 

 

I should have said Heraldy.

Teutonic Knights had the Black Cross on a white base.

 

While the Knights of Malta had a white Cross on a red base.

[Doghouse]

For me they are the chapter that capture the insane over the top feel of 40k the best.

 

They are over the top gothic knightly crusaders hell bent on bringing the Emperor's wrath to Witch, Heretic and Xenos alike and their imagery embodies that so well.

 

Easily my favourite chapter, I think my dream army would be them leading a crusade force with elements from the sisters, guard and ad mech and a few knight titans thrown in. 

[Rik Lightstar]

The real question is, will the go back to the Emperor not being a god. ;)

He's not a God, he's a VERY naughty boy!

 

Rik

[Cerberus1775]

Pardon a bit of a ramble in my answer, as it includes some speculation on my part.

 

Part of the appeal of the BT is the "point and launch" assuredness they bring.   They do not doubt that they are right.  You are with them or you are next to be purged.  In a way in 40K this is quite reassuring.  They dont have the "correct by the bookness" of the Ultramarines, the "dourness" of the Fists, or the pulled in several directions of the Chaos legions.   The Orks might be the only Xenos faction that comes close to them in just "bring the dakka" aspect of the universe.  The BT show up, everyone knows what they are going to do, and they do it.  Whether tabletop or lore, its just them.  In a world that is never assured, the assuredness of the BT is quite reassuring.

 

I think the nobility of Sigismund also plays a part.  Although he also understood that winning was more important than always following the rules.   He lived to the age of 1000 and almost put down Abaddon. Then Sigismund giving a rousing F.U. speech as he lay dying adds to the characters luster.  What is not to like about the character?  I am not even touching his standing up to Dorn and remaining loyal, which is an excellent counterpoint against the Primarchs, even after finding himself on the outside looking in after he did so.

 

Which leads to a slightly off topic train of thought.  Could the BT be descended not from the sons of Dorn, but from one of the two lost legions?  Could Sigismund have been the equerry to one of the lost primarchs?  Made Dorns equerry by Malcador to follow the advice of, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" to be watched.  We know from the HH series that the two lost Primarchs are locked in vaults, heavily shielded by Psy and automated defenses.  We know those marines of the legions were spread at a minimum between Guilliman and Dorn.  If not three or four Legions in total. 

 

Most of the eighteen Legions are mirrors of at least one of the other legions.  The Word Bearers have no mirror.  There is no original Legion that shows a  need to worship or follow something greater.  Enter the Black Templars.  Now the Word Bearers have that mirror in the Black Templars.  When the second founding occurred it has been written that they tried to place marines of similar temperaments or views into Chapters so as to prevent fractures forming in the new Chapters.  Would it be so hard to find 1000 marines of the former forgotten legion, who despite the best efforts of Malchador maybe didnt suppress the drive of their original primogenitor quite as well as he would have liked to? 

[N1SB]

Brother Valkyrion, I know where you're coming from, because I was there with you. I started in 1st ed and 3rd ed was a seismic shift from the rules to the feel of the game (remember how Mike McVey...he's like the Peachy of that time...was telling us to always basecoat white for more vibrant colours, then suddenly I'm supposed to basecoat everything black?) I came to B&C because of its famous ZEAL when I considered a Black Templar army myself.

However, it's only now, having read your framing of the issue, that you've triggered an epiphany in me.

I've been a 40k player since 2nd ed, when Black Templars were just an example in the painting guide.

We had Blood Angels (renaissance), Space Wolves (Vikings), Dark Angels (hell and/or monks, I guess) and Ultramarines (Romans) as the main players.

Then 3rd came along replete with Black Templars as poster boys for the grimdarkness (but not a codex for another edition, weirdly) and they became the Knight chapter.

You're analysing the Black Templars, like what changed with them, to become such a prominent Chapter.

I think what we should be analysing is, what changed with Warhammer 40,000, so that Black Templars would become the obvious poster boys.

My personal answer now is, it was actually 3rd edition that Warhammer 40,000 actualised its grimdark gothic science fantasy nature.

+++ Let's take a look back +++

1st ed 40k, the look & feel was sci-fi of the '80s, Beakies were in these cyber/steampunk industrial/urban sprawls, grimdark basically meant Blanchejutsu:

Old photo of me with my friend playing 1st ed 40k, that's his cat in the background

2nd ed, 40k was in bright '90s cartoon colours, it's not just the look but also the feel, things really felt like all sorts of toy space soldiers. Even Dark Angels were bright:

Let's really emphasise how it's a Dark Millennium by typing it in CHROME GOLD

Then 3rd ed came and the look & feel was quite different. It actually seemed gothic. The books had that stony border on their covers like it was carved out of stone, opening a Codex was like entering an ancient cathedral. In that new environment, something like how Dark Angels should be and Black Templars definitely looked more representative of the overall gothic Imperium setting.

Thus, I don't think it's something that happened to the Black Templars, but rather, it's 40k that changed so that Black Templars became the more fitting poster child. The idea for a grim darkness of the far future was there since 1st ed, but it's like it took until 3rd ed everything else to catch up with that vision.

I've long pondered this issue and this is my answer, mostly for myself. It's like when people talk about Star Trek: the Next Generation, they're remembering Season 3 onwards as the show was still figuring itself out in the 1st 2 Seasons. When we think about 40k now, it's really about how things were 3rd ed and beyond.

+++ Here's why I think this is such an useful exercise +++

The setting of 8th ed, 9th ed and beyond is also quite different from 3rd ed to 7th ed. Cadia has fallen. The Great Rift has opened. There's the Primaris now. I'm asking myself, which Chapter would best reflect the current status quo? I really don't know, but I think it's a good creative exercise.

[jaxom]

N1SB, hitting the nail on the head. I remember thinking the Dark Angels were where it was at when I first was introduced to 40k at the tail end of 2nd edition. The Angels of Death codex was full of images that were predecessors to the 3rd edition cover. They were the successors of the knights of Caliban, a monastic brotherhood that never gave ground even when it might be better to do so.

 

Then, as time rolled on, there was a split. The Knights Templar, as archetypes, tend to be presented in one of two ways. They're either zealous crusaders or the focal point of conspiracy and weird stuff. Black Templars got the former and the Dark Angels got the latter.

 

I think what really drove it home was the audiobook Templar. I cannot recommend it enough. There's great characterization for Sigismund, Khârn, and Alejos; along with an excellent side-by-side of the Knights of Caliban compared to the Knights of the Temple.

[MARK0SIAN]

I think Brokejaw has hit on another key area. Just how different they are compared to other chapters. Whether you like the differences or not, they’re unique in a lot of ways that even the other non-codex chapters struggle to match.

 

They don’t have librarians

They’re well above standard codex size (when that was a big deal)

They don’t really go for devastator squads

Their neophytes are trained alongside an initiate rather than in a separate company

They didn’t have much in the way of formal squad structures

They invented a land raider variant

Their oaths

 

Chapters like DA and BA had a lot of unique stuff but as chapters they still largely followed codex structure. Space Wolves probably come closest in terms of raw difference and uniqueness but I’d still say BT were more unique. They already had the cool colour scheme and knightly aesthetic going for them, them being so unique sealed the deal I think in terms of their popularity.

[Lord Marshal]

Historical based German color sheme (Teutonic Knights).

 

Isn't the scheme the Knights Hospitaller?

 

 

Anyway, I part of it might be the 'dark horse' nature. They had no codex for several additions and no supplement either, but the expectation they inevitably would receive new stuff was always potentially there, which probably led to this ongoing sort of, "it could just be around the corner!!!" excitement from collectors. Compare that to Blood Angels and such, who were likely never going to see their support dropped. In 40k that always breeds an extremely loud "We want XYZ!" in the same way Sisters and Dark Eldar (pre-2010) did.

 

Also, meme factor. PURGE THE HERETIC BLAM HERESY FOR THE EMPEROR and all that have pretty much become the Imperial fandom's WWAAAAAGGGHH and a lot of that gets amped up to eleven by the fandom's depiction of the Black Templars. You can see this with Krieg; you'd be mistaken for thinking more people bought them than Cadians based on how much memery and fan imagery has revolved around them in recent years, especially spinning off from meme culture. Obviously a lot of people collect Black Templars anyway by virtue of being Marines and having readily available plastics, but you get what I mean. The fanbase often posting, ahem, 'in-character' a lot is probably a sign of it too.

Edited July 11, 2021 by Lord Marshal

[Toldavf]

back in the day they where one of the few chapters that had a supplement.  Blood angels, Dark angels and Space wolves had their own book. Salamanders and Black templars where in the codex Armageddon. They got their own book in 4th/5th? and have been a staple since then. 

[Rik Lightstar]

I also remember the seismic shifts of 1st > 2nd and 2nd >3rd. I think in the build up to Third Edition they needed a new Chapter to switch the focus to. First Edition was Crimson Fists and Second was Blood Angels.

 

By the time they were approaching Third they new they wanted to go grimmer and darker, the Primogenitor Chapters already had pretty well defined traits and it had to be a lesser known Chapter to take that direction.

 

At the time the Black Templars were largely just a colour plate with very little detail having been written about them, the same treatment could have gone to pretty much any of those brief mention Chapters. The name however was probably the biggest draw for driving home the "warrior monk" ethos that had been developed over the course of 2nd Edition.

 

The Black Templars have a certain "what have the Ultramarines ever done for us?" appeal.

 

They have a "rebellious hero" aspect to them, they're the heroes that follow their own rules like Batman and Wolverine, rather than the more straight laced Superman and Captain America vibe of the Ultramarines and most of the Codex Chapters. They've got that "dark and edgy" vibe that has always been popular with teenage boys.

 

Rik

[Sword Brother Adelard]

What's interesting about the Templars is they don't really have any negative jokes or press.

 

A lot of the other big chapters have automatic banter, and as soon as they're brough up, you can throw the jokes at the players: The Ultramarines are all swotty book loving nerds, the Dark Angels are traitors, Space Wolves animalistic bludgeons, Blood Angels all secret Twilight fans etc. There isn't really anything people can throw at the Templars which is negative. For example:

 

"Ah, Black Templars, you're all angry witch hating nutters!"

 

And we're like, "yes."

[Evil Eye]

Probably helps that they're an Imperial Fist descendant Chapter (my favourite Loyalist First Founding Chapter) and that aesthetically they just work. Like, of all the tragically OOP Chapter-specific Mark IV Dreadnoughts, the Black Templars one is absolutely my favourite, and of the Loyalist ones is tied with the Chaplain Dreadnought and the standard "blank" Mark IV for my favourite. Like, if you're gonna be entombed in a horrific walking armoured iron lung, you'd want it to look like this.

 

I also read a theory somewhere that they're descended from mindwiped survivors of the purged 2nd and 11th Legions, which whilst probably not true is certainly intriguing.

[Bung]

 

 

Historical based German color sheme (Teutonic Knights).

Isn't the scheme the Knights Hospitaller?

 

Black Templar use a Black Cross on White like Teutonic Knights and a Red Cross for veterans as per 4th Edition Codex.