Heretic Astartes [Primaris] - Prediction! I'm calling it first!

[mini_painting_mike]

We all know that Orks are going to be the next '(Big?) Bad Guys' of the 11th edition launch next year, yada yada yada - but I think something bigger is coming...

 

Primaris Heretic Astartes (Chaos Space Marines)

 

Hear me out...

 

1. The Heretic Astartes are due an upgrade to keep up with the space marine range - they just don't look as 'big' as their loyalist brothers. That's the 'business reason' I think it will happen.

 

2. Cawl has made the Primaris Marines with gene seed from both loyal and traitor primarchs, and this just happens to coincide with the return of some of the traitor primarchs? 

 

3. Things are too optimistic for the Imperium at the moment with the return of Guilleman and the crusade etc.

 

My theory is that some Primaris Chapters will themselves fall to chaos, the forces of chaos will somehow themselves get hold of the technology - or a combination of the two.

 

Tell me I'm wrong! 

 

I'm calling if first! 

Edited December 24, 2025 by mini_painting_mike

[jaxom]

The design lines are theoretically separate. One reason for Primaris tanks going tread less was Goodwin wanting loyalists to be more “high tech” and heretics still using “old tech.” 
 

Not saying it won’t or can’t happen; just seems contrary to the ~15 year tenent that heretics should be more than loyalists with spikes.

[FabiusV4lcoran]

39 minutes ago, jaxom said:

The design lines are theoretically separate. One reason for Primaris tanks going tread less was Goodwin wanting loyalists to be more “high tech” and heretics still using “old tech.” 
 

Not saying it won’t or can’t happen; just seems contrary to the ~15 year tenent that heretics should be more than loyalists with spikes.

Is there a lore reason that Primaris couldn't go renegade?  Given the number of retcons going on, plus the renegade aspect, makes me think it's probably a little more open than this.  

[Kommisar_K]

It kinda looks like the Chaos lines have already been rescaled. Newer legionaries, plague marines, rubrics, berserks, etc all look bigger than their sculpts of yore. Still a tad smaller than Primaris in most cases, but still. GW may be going with more of a warp- mutation scale creep thing than new biotech. 

 

That said there's zero reason for Chaos to not have Primaris tech. Come on, it's Warhammer 40,000! The moment 2 of the grayshields woke up one probably turned to the other a took him apart for a sacrifice to Khorne. In all seriousness tho, with Bile running around (with pieces of Alpha Primus?) there's every chance at least some CSM have Primaris. 

 

And that doesn't even touch on renegade Primaris. 

[jaxom]

5 hours ago, FabiusV4lcoran said:

Is there a lore reason that Primaris couldn't go renegade?  Given the number of retcons going on, plus the renegade aspect, makes me think it's probably a little more open than this.  

Lore reason, nope; and I think converting Rengade Primaris would be really cool. At the end of the day, Goodwin has control of the design process and he’s a faction aesthetic first, lore second kind of guy.

[FabiusV4lcoran]

31 minutes ago, jaxom said:

Lore reason, nope; and I think converting Rengade Primaris would be really cool. At the end of the day, Goodwin has control of the design process and he’s a faction aesthetic first, lore second kind of guy.

Gotcha.  I see your point; I tend to ignore the industry side of things, which is kinda silly given they're who'll make the decisions.

[Indy Techwisp]

Another reason why no primaris Chaos Marines would be that a very vocal part of the community is still irrationally mad about Primaris even existing.

[Lathe Biosas]

I could see Alpha Legion Primaris,  as they make the jump to better infiltrate Loyalists. 

[lansalt]

If we look into the CSM kits, there are a few bits that look like chaos marines versions of primaris stuff. Like the backpack of the Havoc champion, or several shoulder pads in the new WE berzerkers kit. So it's certainly possible to chaosify primaris models, or at least add a few primaris to CSM armies.

 

And GW already made primaris berzerkers "canon": At the end of the 9th ed. Angron campaign book, an Indomitus Crusade fleet is hit by a warp attack that makes everybody become khornate worshippers, including Sisters of Battle and Primaris marines (Only Custodes and SoS kept their sanity). The book notes how they went on becoming a problem for the loyalists.

 

 

[WrathOfTheLion]

I tend to agree that there's no real lore reason why it wouldn't be the case, but a faction aesthetic one. Existing Legions, like the Word Bearers and Night Lords would be less likely to have any large representation, given they're still producing new Legionnaries/Chaos Marines, so there's sort of a balance between correctly representing those and representing new renegades. Existing warbands would of course still also have a large amount of older marines, such as the Red Corsairs, given Badab was around a century prior.

Edited December 26, 2025 by WrathOfTheLion

[Dr_Ruminahui]

While I agree that GW is unlikely to make its own renegade primaris (for all the reasons given above), to me it seems like a really cool hobby project for someone inclined to convert up their own.  As noted above, there's no reason for such not to exist according to the lore/background/fluff, and (to me anyway) it would be super cool to see someone make it happen, even if I have no such inclination to do so myself.

[Galron]

No reason at all that there arent already primaris marines in the Red Corsairs since most of their current members and recruits come from Imperial defectors. You could do traditional RC paint schemes for a painting project and have Primaris individuals from all the different cool schemes they have come out with but you never wanted to paint a full army of and do a red X over the heraldry. Or you could do the more coherent and less painful on the eyes version of red and black or a mix of the two with the remaining OG Astral Claws being in red and black and new guys being in their X'd colors. Either way, its a fluff accurate army for bad guy primaris even if  we cant bring along repulsor tech.