Ultramarines Timeline

[Capt tyranus]

Folks are starting to slack off. U.S. WD 342 has been out for almost a week! :D

 

Let's see....

 

- 797.M41 The Siege of Zalathras. Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, holds the gate alone against the Greenskins for a night an a day. WD 342, p.33

 

- 963.M41 The Ultramarines clash with a Tau expeditionary fleet for control of the cursed planet of Malbede. When the conflict awakens the Necron tombs hidden on Malbede, the Ultramarines and the Tau join forces to defeat the emerging Necrons. In the wake of the battle, Marneus Calgar initiates Exterminatus on Malbede, but generously allows the Tau to evacuate before the planet is completely destroyed. WD 342, p.35

 

- 999.M41 The light of the Astronomicon grows dimmer. Contact is lost with Ultima Macharia and is intermitent at best with Macragge and Cypra Mundi.

[Brother Pariah]

Whoo! I haven't been by lately (Magic cards have been eating my brain). Thanks for the update. I'll add the new entries to the top post when I get a chance.

 

*Shadow Rifts back into Dominia.*

[Brother Pariah]

Okay, I've updated the front post to include Capt Tyranus's additions, and I also picked the NEW COLOR FOR 5TH EDITION!!!

 

Capt Tyranus, we need a page number reference for that 999/M41 entry, please (I don't buy WD regularly any more).

[Capt tyranus]

I'll take care of that this afternoon or early tomorrow morning.

 

I think there's at least two more entries I can make from the fluff section in the new rule book.

[Brother Pariah]

Awesome! That means I can use the NEW COLOR!!! (I think I've been reading too much "Turn Signals..." :) ) Edited July 22, 2008 by Brother Pariah

[Capt tyranus]

You should be able to use the new color on all of these items.

 

Let's see:

 

- 797.M41 The Siege of Zalathras. Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, holds the gate alone against the Greenskins for a night an a day.

 

WD 342, p.33 and also on p. 127 of the 5th Ed. rule book

 

 

- 963.M41 The Ultramarines clash with a Tau expeditionary fleet for control of the cursed planet of Malbede. When the conflict awakens the Necron tombs hidden on Malbede, the Ultramarines and the Tau join forces to defeat the emerging Necrons. In the wake of the battle, Marneus Calgar initiates Exterminatus on Malbede, but generously allows the Tau to evacuate before the planet is completely destroyed.

 

WD 342, p.35 and also on page 128 of the 5th Ed. rule book

 

 

- 999.M41 The light of the Astronomicon grows dimmer. Contact is lost with Ultima Macharia and is intermitent at best with Macragge and Cypra Mundi.

WD 342, p. 37 and on page 129 of the 5th Ed rule book.

 

 

The following items are from the new rule book:

 

- 997M41 Elements of the Ultramarines and Mortifactors Space Marine Chapters make a stand against one spur of Hive Fleet Leviathan on the world of Tarsis Ultra. The defenders defeat this tendril with a biological plague, but the remainder of Hive Fleet Leviathan rampages on unabated. p. 129 (note the year)

 

- 999M41 The Ultramarines from the 3rd Company liberate the Lagan system from the Tau Empire. p. 129

 

 

- 973M41 The Planetary Governor of Damons - a mining world in the eastern Ultima Segementum - sends a desesperate request for aid to the nearby Ultramarines to try prevent a Necron emergence from taking over the planet.

 

- 974M41 Units of the Ultramarines 2nd Company arrive shortly after the last bunkers in Kellenport - the planetary capital - fall to the Necrons. They launch a series of daring raids to rescue the few survivors of the Necron onslaught and withdraw to deep space. Damnos now belongs to the Necrons.

 

Both entries are on page 181 (even though you can't read the number)

[Seahawk]

015/M31 - Roboute Guilliman becomes a Lord of Terra on the first council; he takes the title of Lord Commander of the Imperium, the first to carry that title and the only man ever to command the entirety of the Imperium's armed forces. (Codex Ultramarines, pg 8)

 

021/M31 - Second Founding Successor chapters formed: Eagle Warriors, Silver Eagles, Doom Eagles, Novamarines, Patriarchs of Ulixis, White Consuls, Black Consuls, Libators, Inceptors, Praetors of Orpheus, Genesis, Aurora

(Codex Ultramarines, pg 9)

 

Sometime after the heresy (I'm guessing) - Roboute Guilliman takes what will become the Gauntlets of Ultramar from a mighty Champion of Chaos.

[Brother Pariah]

- 973M41 The Planetary Governor of Damons - a mining world in the eastern Ultima Segementum - sends a desesperate request for aid to the nearby Ultramarines to try prevent a Necron emergence from taking over the planet.

 

- 974M41 Units of the Ultramarines 2nd Company arrive shortly after the last bunkers in Kellenport - the planetary capital - fall to the Necrons. They launch a series of daring raids to rescue the few survivors of the Necron onslaught and withdraw to deep space. Damnos now belongs to the Necrons.

 

Both entries are on page 181 (even though you can't read the number)

 

Is it "Damons" or "Damnos?"

[Capt tyranus]

Damnos

 

 

:(

[Brother Pariah]

Thanks, Brothers. I left the material that appeared in the White Dwarf as gray because the June issue fails to exceed the arbitrary cut-off date of July 2008 (the new edition's official release month). I've put Seahawk's entries in as well, despite the lack of dating cues in the original source material, because it seems safe to do so, and they were interesting tid-bits. I'm leaving out the Gauntlets of Ultramar until we have some sort of reasonable date information. Edited July 25, 2008 by Brother Pariah

[Seahawk]

Printed in 1995.

[Brother Pariah]

LOL. No, I meant reasonable data upon which to date Guilliman's acquisition of the Gauntlets. If I recall correctly, there is no real mention of when he found them, anywhere.

[Seahawk]

Alrighty then, new events from the Battle of the Abyss book!

 

~ a month before the Battle of Calth (other parts say they've received word that Horus was heading to Istvaan III to quell a rebellion against the Imperium, etc).

 

- The Fist of Macragge returns from a successful three-year campaign against the Vektates of Arkenath, carrying 500 battle-brothers of the 7th company and their captain. It is ambushed and destroyed by the Furious Abyss, a secret Word Bearers' ship on its maiden voyage.

 

- Brother-Captain Cestus and nine of his brothers finish up their duty acting as an Honour Guard for an Imperial dignitary at nearby Ithilrium. This had lasted over a month, and they stayed on board the Vangelis space port during that time.

 

- Brother-Captain Cestus and his Honour Guard, along with Fleet-Captain Mhotep of the Thousand Sons, Captain Brynngar of the Space Wolves and his Blood Claws pack, and Skraal and his squad from the World Eaters, waylay, ambush, and eventually destroy the Furious Abyss as its making its final approach to Formaska, a moon of Macragge. This is done at the cost of all loyal Astartes involved (which all of the above were).

 

 

And here's the most descriptive I can find about the acquiring of the fists:

The Gauntlets of Ultramar are ancient artifacts reclaimed from a fell Champion of the Ruinous Powers slain by Roboute Guilliman after the Gamalia Reclusiam Massacre. Still no date, but I have a name, and it was after the actual heresy but before his death, for truths. Looks like a traitorous World Eater marine that got smacked down.

Edited July 30, 2008 by Seahawk

[Seahawk]

From another new book: Planet Kill, released recently. It's a collection of short stories, and one is written for between Dead Sky, Black Sun and Killing Ground.

 

It's rather interesting...long story short, Honsou annihilates Tarsis Ultra. One of his Magos concocts a virus bomb that mirrors the Tyranid effect of explosive plant growth. "A few short years after the invasion" it says (timeframe). He launched 15 orbital missiles from his ship, each one ten meters long (interesting; now we know size of things) Huge angry plants grew kilometers in seconds. Within a month, all of the atmosphere was stripped away. Solar radiation bombarded the planet, and soon all that was left was a barren rock, with the skeletons of cities being the only evidence that humans or even life existed.

 

It's much like Tyranids scouring a planet, as I like to think. It would be awesome though, better than exterminatus, as there is still stuff to assimilate. This leaves a floating spheroid rock for the Tyranids to suck on. If only the Imperium had that, they could do backburns to keep them away...maybe.

[The Emperor's Champion]

And here's the most descriptive I can find about the acquiring of the fists:

The Gauntlets of Ultramar are ancient artifacts reclaimed from a fell Champion of the Ruinous Powers slain by Roboute Guilliman after the Gamalia Reclusiam Massacre. Still no date, but I have a name, and it was after the actual heresy but before his death, for truths. Looks like a traitorous World Eater marine that got smacked down.

I think it's important to stress they were REclaimed, meaning they are not Chaos in nature as many people seem to misunderstand.

[Kabal]

amazing... just amazing

[Brother Pariah]

I've added the entries from Battle for the Abyss. Seahawk, do you have page number reference for the statement that the book takes place 1 month before the Battle of Calth? I managed to track down the others without trouble. I'm placing this book in 007/M31, as it appears that the Heresy has not yet broken out. If anyone can find compelling data to the contrary, let me know.

 

The Planet Kill stuff doesn't really fit into the scope of the project. We can't keep track of every planet that the Ultramarines ever saved.

 

It's getting late, so I can't do it now, but next update I'll put the Gauntlets / Gamalian Reclusiam Massacre stuff into the "Unknown date" section at the bottom.

Edited August 4, 2008 by Brother Pariah

[Seahawk]

True, and I suppose it doesn't really involve the Ultramarines. Maybe include at the end of the Tarsis Ultra mission in the timeline as a footnote or something. "Planet and population were annihilated anyway within a few short years by the Iron Warriors."

 

There's no reference for that, at least not directly. I could find that the fighting for the ship took a week or two until they hit the warp stream to Formaska. Then that journey took a couple weeks; it was in there somewhere, referenced after they left warpspace, but I couldn't find it again. I confess I finished the book in less than six hours, and while I remember the whole story, I can't recall that detail. I think it's in where Skraal is thinking about how he'd been hounded.

 

Of course, I didn't take time dilation into account from the warp travel, so it could be longer or shorter.

 

If we have a definite time for the battles on Istvaan III, then I would put it as during the same time. The time taken for the message about Horus moving on the "rebels" probably took long enough that these events were happening at the same time or very close to each other.

Edited August 4, 2008 by Seahawk

[Brother Pariah]

True, and I suppose it doesn't really involve the Ultramarines. Maybe include at the end of the Tarsis Ultra mission in the timeline as a footnote or something. "Planet and population were annihilated anyway within a few short years by the Iron Warriors."

 

Nah, if I did, I'd feel compelled to include mentions of Armageddon 3 and such. No sense cluttering up the timeline with irrelevant trivia (let's stick to relevant trivia!).

 

There's no reference for that, at least not directly. I could find that the fighting for the ship took a week or two until they hit the warp stream to Formaska. Then that journey took a couple weeks; it was in there somewhere, referenced after they left warpspace, but I couldn't find it again. I confess I finished the book in less than six hours, and while I remember the whole story, I can't recall that detail. I think it's in where Skraal is thinking about how he'd been hounded.

 

Of course, I didn't take time dilation into account from the warp travel, so it could be longer or shorter.

 

If we have a definite time for the battles on Istvaan III, then I would put it as during the same time. The time taken for the message about Horus moving on the "rebels" probably took long enough that these events were happening at the same time or very close to each other.

 

I'm only halfway through the book, so I'll keep my eyes open. For now, I've just simplified the entry to mention Isstvan III (which I am pretty confident in dating at 007/M31 as per the Final Liberation User Manual, which states the Heresy began in this year).

[Seahawk]

US WD 297, pg80, October 2004

 

- 001.M42 From the Severian, Captain Agemman, some 1st Company terminators, and the 4th Company (and possibly more) made a drop pod/Thunderhawk deployment on a Tau outpost on Nimbosa. They left none alive. ("The recent loss of the 4th Company's Captain and its senior Sergeant" gives the timeframe)

[Brother Pariah]

807/M30: The First Crusade begins. (Warhammer 40,000 Compendium, p. 6 states that it took 200 years; I am backdating from the Horus Heresy's start-date.) Edited September 3, 2008 by Brother Pariah

[Seahawk]

Well, I'll have to take a bite out of history, with info that predates the incorrect Apocalypse book, and when you read, you can see how they made the mistake:

 

Imperial Armor 2, pg 67

- "The fragmentary records of the development of the Vindicator indicate that it was first deployed during the Dark Age of Technology, at approximately the same time as many other Rhino variants, such as the Predator. The Vindicator was a response to the high casualty rates suffered during close quarters battles, such as street fighting or jungles. Evidence indicates that the first Vindicators were built specifically for street fighting on the planet of Rostern. A request was received /.../ from a General Vindictis for a self-mobile weapon system of high calibre, capable of following up advancing troops /.../ It is widely held that General Vindictis was personally responsible for instigating the idea of the "Vindicator", subsequently named after the general. /.../ Records mention very little of the Vindicator throughout the time of the Great Crusade, it is assumed that the Vindicator fell out of favor. /.../ It was not until Roboute Guilliman laid down the "Codex Astartes" that the Vindicator is mentioned again, when it was specifically designated as a Space Marine vehicle and included in a Chapter's "codex" order of battle, where it has remained ever since."

 

 

Basically, they took parts from this history, and purposely made the vehicle Ultramarine. I will stand by this original bit that it's far older, since it's among the qualitatively written official history of all vehicles, not the turd in the Apocalypse book. Oh well though...

[The Emperor's Champion]

Actually the Vindicator has been noted as created by the Ultramarines multiple times. I just can't remember where else. B)

But I do know I'd never read the Apocalypse thing before.

Edited September 2, 2008 by The Emperor's Champion

[Brother Pariah]

The Vindicator's history goes back well before Imperial Armour vol 2. Codex Titanicus puts it development during the Horus Heresy, with the loyalists inventing it and the traitors copying it. A somewhat garbled version of this eventually evolved into the "Ultramarines" version that appears in WD231, five years before IA vol 2. My guess is that both the IA account and the WD 231 version used Codex Titanicus (or some other RT-era source that I'm unaware of) as a reference independently of each other. Obviously the Apocalypse version used WD 231 as a reference. If any source is guilty of deviating from established background, it's the Imperial Armour book, in my opinion. All other sources that I'm aware of are quite consistent in every source that I have available. It's kinda weird, since the IA boys obviously did their homework where the Rhino is concerned, but dropped the ball for the Vindicator.

 

EDIT:

Top post updated to include Seahawk's new (and correct, I think) interpretation of the date of the Nimbosa action, and the start of the Great Crusade!

Edited September 3, 2008 by Brother Pariah

[Sigismund Himself]

Anyone care to update the Librarium article? Thanks :)