What is the Codex Astartes?

[Brother Pariah]

True dat. Most of the block quotes from the 40K section of the old Warhammer Siege book are from Leman Russ. Well, you know how these projects go; we document everthing, even the most poorly-considered dreck.

[Walter Payton]

Regarding the authorship and 'ground covered' of the Codex Astartes:

 

"The newly created High Lords established the organisation of the Imperium that remains to this day...One of their most important accomplishments was the re-organisation of the Imperium's armed forces. This task was undertaken almost single-handedly by the primarch of the Ultramarines Legion of Space Marines, Roboute Guilliman, who quickly and efficiently codified the structure of the Imperial Guard, Fleet and Space Marines. Of all his works the most influential is the Codex Astartes, the great prescriptive tome that lays down the basic organisation and tactical rules for Space Marines."

 

Source: Index Astartes I, Page 13, Codex Astartes: The Holy Tome of the Space Marines Priestly/Chambers

 

This quotation would indicate that, whilst Guilliman did dictate the structures of the Guard and Navy, the Codex Astartes pertains only to Space Marines. It also indicates that he wrote the Codex Astartes only as far as the physical act of writing-it does not directly rule out the inclusion of the works of others, such as is described here:

 

"Perturabo excelled in siefe and trench warfare above all else, and his treatise on fortifications and their destruction was retained by Guilliman for the Codex Astartes,"

 

I can't find the WD in which this is described (it is the one that has the battles of the Space Marines in it), so I am paraphrasing here.

[Legatus]

The Perturabo thing is mentioned in the Imperial Fists's Index Astartes article (under "The Iron Cage") which is included in the 2nd Index Astartes book, but I don't know which US/UK WD number that had been published in. The IF Index Astartes only refers to Perturabo as a "Master of Fortifications" though. A similar remark was given in the 3rd Edition Codex Chaos Space Marines (page 32, "The Iron Warriors"), where it remarks about Perturabo "excelling in siege and trench warfare above all else" and his "treatise on fortifications and their desctruction" forms the basis of several sections of the "Tactica Imperium".

[Hrvat]

I have just got my hands on Insignium Astartes and there are some very interesting comments what defines a codex chapter and what doesn't.

 

Quoting sections would be IP infringment so I will try and rephrase these things once I read through the entire book.

 

 

Cheers

 

Hrvat

[Brother Pariah]

Quoting short passages falls under the definition of Fair Use, and is perfectly fine for the purposes of this project.

[Hrvat]

Ok, here goes.

 

About the Codex in general:

In the wake of the Horus Heresy the newly formed ruling council of the Imperium, the High Lords of Terra, set about rebuilding and repairing the damage wrought during this terrible civil war. In most need of reorganising and restructuring were the devastated Space Marine Legions as these great armies had borne the brunt of the treachery done by the Warmaster Horus and his traitors. The High Lords tasked the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman with the job of reordering the Imperial military forces. His first duty was to revise the organisation of the Space Marines and to codify their institutions, doctrines and armorials. His conclusions became the almost mythic book known as the Codex Astartes, a work so important its contents still form the basis of Space Marine organisation and tactics ten thousand years after it was originally compiled.

Thus it was that Roboute embarked on the creation of the Space Marine Chapter. The exact means and timescale of his efforts are lost to memory or record, the result however was that each of the Legions was split into a number of Chapters of roughly a thousand fighting Marines. There is some debate among scholars as to whether the older Legions were already subdivided into Chapters but there is no record of this prior to their reorganisation.

The vast majority of the newly created Chapters took up the Codex Astartes and its doctrines as their guiding law. These Chapters were and are still known as the Codex Chapters. They pride themselves on following the ancient text and applying its principles of warcraft and devotion to the Emperor. In the 41st Millennium there are relatively few of the original Codex Chapters surviving as they have been either destroyed in battle or disbanded. Through the ages other Chapters have developed organisations and heraldries that are so variant with the Codex that they can no longer be considered as such. In truth most Chapters retain the basic organisation and markings or something close to the original though only a few can claim to be Codex Chapters.

Roboute Guilliman's greatest work describes and prescribes how the entire Imperial military should be organised and how it should fight. Within its hallowed pages are long treatises on all manner of tactics and strategies for virtually all of the soldiers, warriors and war machines known to the Imperium. Of special interest is the volume devoted to the Space Marines. This volume sets out how a Chapter should be structured, recruit, train, fight and dress. In fact every aspect of being a Space Marine is covered in some detail.

The original Codex was compiled approximately ten thousand years ago in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. It is not known what form the original took: it may have been a manuscript or it may have been a compilation of holo-files or even some combination. Of course manuscript copies were made and distributed. The oldest surviving copy of the Codex is reputed to be the Apocrypha of Skaros. The Liber Arcanum of Grand Marshall Tolof and the Holo-Record 442/33508; Gant Manuscript v2 of the Ceris Archive have some claim to this honour as well. Over the millennia the copies have been copied and recopied many times in order to preserve them. Inevitably, mistakes occur and so it is unlikely that any two copies of the Codex will be identical. Furthermore, the work is constantly being reanalysed and reinterpreted. The original prose style of Roboute is at best archaic and in some cases almost unintelligible. This has led to many varied interpretations over the centuries and to many situations where two entirely different doctrines have been legitimately claimed as 'official Codex' at the same time.

About Organisation:

The Codex Astartes has a large section devoted to the organisation of a Space Marine Chapter. It states that a Chapter should consist of ten fighting companies each numbering a hundred Space Marines. Each Company consists of ten squads of ten warriors of which one is a Sergeant. In addition to the squads each Company has its own Captain, Chaplain, Apothecary and Standard Bearer.

In theory, the actual number of combatants in a Company can exceed the notional one hundred Space Marines noted by the Codex. However in practice the Companies are rarely at full strength as constant battle takes its toll and replacements are not always available to fill the ranks.

The Codex stipulates that a Chapter should reserve one of its Companies for its most experienced warriors and that they should be exclusively trained in the use of Terminator armour. Although the Codex is not clear about which Company this should be, the Eirst Company is invariably chosen for this honour. The Company can be deployed as Veteran Squads or as Terminator Squads. This is the Chapter's most awesome combat element and it is rare for the entire Company to be fielded en masse. Most often the elite units of Veteran and Terminator Squads are attached to the other Companies or formed into smaller task forces for special operations.

Of the remaining Companies the Codex states that eight shall be divided into the 'Companies of Battle' and the 'Companies of Reserve'. Again the ancient tome is not clear about how many of each type of Company there should be or rather the various copies of the Codex do not agree on this point. In some versions the Companies are referred to as 'Companies of the First Line' and 'Companies of the Second Line' and in others as the 'Companies of the Van' and 'Companies of the Rear'. Traditionally, however, the Codex Chapters organise the eight main units into four Battle Companies and four Reserve Companies.

Battle Companies comprise a mix of squad designations, usually six Tactical Squads, two Assault Squads and two Devastator Squads. This can vary however and some Chapters may organise to include more or less Assault and Devastator Squads but never more than the number of Tactical Squads in the Company.

The last or tenth Company is referred to in the Codex as the Scout Company. In some Chapters this Company acts as a training battalion since their Scouts are generally younger, less experienced warriors who are in the process of becoming fully fledged Space Marines. However, in other Chapters the Scout Company includes troops who are every bit as experienced as their more armoured brethren in the main Companies. Not withstanding this all of the Tenth Company's squads are armed and armoured as Scouts. There is no formal size for a Scout Company as the rate of recruitment to a Chapter is not fixed.

Cheers

[Brother Pariah]

That's good stuff, Hrvat. Thank you! Can you please edit your post so it cites the page numbers, please?

[Brother Pariah]

"[The Armour of Antilochus's] every surface was engraved with minute lettering, almost too small for the naked eye to see, the lessons of the Codex Astartes. Hundreds of thousands of words were etched into [Marneus Calgar's] armour, but it was still only a fraction of the entire tome." (The Chapter's Due, p. 96)

 

"'I know what the Codex says,' snapped Agemman. 'I wrote enough of it.'

'By Codex principles, you don't have enough warriors to defend a wall this long, said Tigurius.'" (The Chapter's Due, p. 236)

 

"His missile launcher was standing upright between his knees [inside a Rhino], the blue and red warhead already loaded. It was a violation of every safety protocol in the Codex..." (The Chapter's Due, p. 241)

Edited August 13, 2010 by Brother Pariah

[Octavulg]

For some reason, Agemman's statement conjures up generations of Ultramarines rewriting and pontificating pointlessly upon the Codex in order to make themselves feel better, while not actually adding that much (and sometimes managing to take out important stuff).

 

A whole Codex academia, if you will. ;)

[Captain Idaho]

No, no, no, one of the Lexicanium spilt a cup of tea on the Codex and Agemman had to rewrite it.

[The Emperor's Champion]

I think it implies that in his 384+ years Agemman has gained some insight and found success in things not yet covered by the Codex.

Perhaps primarily relating to Tyranids, since he's basically been 2nd in charge of the main Tyranid fighting Chapter in the galaxy since right after the "first contact" battle. It would put him in the perfect position to pioneer sections of the Codex that had no reason to exist before that.

[Balroth]

For some reason, Agemman's statement conjures up generations of Ultramarines rewriting and pontificating pointlessly upon the Codex in order to make themselves feel better, while not actually adding that much (and sometimes managing to take out important stuff).

 

A whole Codex academia, if you will. :P

 

I think it's a badly worded sentence. It's well known that the Codex can be and is added to as new situations are encountered, but the wording of the sentence suggests that he wrote a significant portion of it. Which is nonsense of course. At best he'd have wrote a tiny portion.

 

-B

[The Emperor's Champion]

Maybe he was given the task of recording the entire section on how to fight Tyranids that all of the Ultramarines more or less developed???.... That would be a SIGNIFICANT portion of the document, even if it IS relatively tiny.

[mega_marines]

Maybe he was given the task of recording the entire section on how to fight Tyranids that all of the Ultramarines more or less developed???.... That would be a SIGNIFICANT portion of the document, even if it IS relatively tiny.

 

Hear, hear! The Codex is indeed a living document in which Tactical-Insights and ideas are added as either footnotes or new sections, so I could readily picture an individual such as Agemman(who has a prime position) adding a section on the Tyranids. Reason being is that he has had some of the largest portion of experience fighting them, while having a deep understanding of the Tyranids; and also leads a Company that is essentially half Tyranid-Hunter.

 

Maybe it's just me, but that seems ideal to me. In the book, I felt his comment of writing the Codex struck me as a mix of impatience, minor fatigue, dry wit, and the fact that he did add a major contribution to the Codex. It is also possible he added prior mentioned footnotes and insights to other portions of the Codex.

[Phlegon]

Well this maybe a dumb question but it has occured to me that if there a 1000 Space Marine Chapters and each Chapter Master has a copy and each Chapter Master has added his on insite to his copy, then wouldn't it stand to reason that there are atleast 1000 different copies of the Codex Asartes. Or is there a big convention where all the Chapter Masters get together and update there copies. And not to mention that if the Imperial Guard have copies I'm sure theres would look much different than say the Ultramarines copy. Sorry in advance if this is a stupid question/comment.

[Seahawk]

The Imperial Guard don't have any copies of the Codex, as they are not Space Marines. They have the Tactica Imperialis to guide them.

 

There are many, many copies and variants of the Codex, and each chapter does indeed have their own. However, the Ultramarines have what can be considered the unabridged 1st edition of the Codex. It's incredibly sacred...I believe it's actually three massive volumes. It was featured in one of the books in the series...Courage and Honor perhaps.

[Captain Idaho]

Was it not 4 volumes in Courage and Honour?

 

Anyway, I would imgagine that Chapters periodically visit Maccragge on pilgrimage to compare their renditions of the Codex to the original and potentially update it.

 

We know that the Imperial Fists wanted to include their experience in engaging and destroying Iron Warrior vehicles with crews that were implanted into them, yet the Iron Hands vetoed it. This shows us that other Chapters can make amenddums to the Codex, whilst it also shows there has to be consensus on what is added. Crucially, from the Chapters involved, it implies it needs consensus from the 1st Founding Chapters, but not other Chapters (logical as getting 1,000 separate Chapters to do something is going to be impossible).

Edited August 19, 2010 by Captain Idaho

[Seahawk]

Could've been four. Like I said, don't really remember. At work now so I can't check.

[Arikel]

A little bit of who wrote the book, Page 9 of the Current Space marine Codex, First paragraph

 

The Codex Astartes further defines the tactical roles, equipement specifications and uniform identification markings of the space marines. These guidelines have been have been heavily modified over the centuries, and the Codex Astartes of the 41rst millenium is a highly developed treatise combining the wisdom of hundreds of military thinkers throughout history.

 

It goes on a bit, but the codex astartes was not completely authored by gulliman, merely compiled, and it is very likely a living document that is constantly being updated and revised as new strategies, enemies and tactics come to the attention of those who maintain it(various space marine librarians, I presume). I would not doubt it in the least if new sections have not been added detailing special methods to fight tau and tyrannids.

[The Emperor's Champion]

As I understand it, the ORIGINAL Codex Astartes was 4 volumes waaaaay back like 10,000 years ago. There's no telling how much bigger it is now.

[Brother Pariah]

As I understand it, the ORIGINAL Codex Astartes was 4 volumes waaaaay back like 10,000 years ago. There's no telling how much bigger it is now.

 

We do have some references. I'll try to dig them up. It's many volumes now, if I recall correctly.

[Hrvat]

I am sorry Brother Pariah I completely forgot about this and it would have remained forgotten had I not been searching for information for my DIY project.

 

Unfortunately I can't give you pages from which I have quoted because - edited for security reasons - .

 

Maybe some with the real book can provide the page numbers.

Edited October 24, 2010 by Hrvat

[Brother Pariah]

Oh, OK. I'll try to look 'em up at some point and edit them into your post. Thanks for letting me know.

[Legatus]

From the Deathwatch Rulebook. Maybe not entirely canonical. The first paragraph is taken from the Index Astartes (I dismissed the previous paragraph about how the Ultramarines follow the Codex), but the second one is new:

 

"For any given tactical situation, the Codex offers hundreds of pages devoted to how it may be met and overcome. Each warrior of the [ultramarines] Chapter is required to memorise whole sections of the Codex so that within a company there exists an entire record of the Codex's tenets. The wisdom of thousands of the Imperium's warriors has contributed to the Codex, and details on everything from unit markings to launching a full-scale planetary assault are contained within its pages.

This is not to say that the Ultramarines are hidebound or unimaginative in their thinking, for it must not be forgotten that Primarch Roboute Guilliman is regarded as one of the most imaginative and innovative military thinkers of all time. It is rather a deep-seated belief that every problem can be solved with recourse to the Codex Astartes, that there is no need to reinvent solutions to dilemmas solved long ago. By their strict adherence to the Codex, the Ultramarines are in fact freed by it. The success of this doctrine is self-evident in the countless thousands of battle honours the Chapter has earned over then millennia of loyal service to the Imperium." (Deathwatch Rulebook, p. 54)

 

I find it interresting that the FFG authors added the last paragraph. The Codex Astartes is regarded by a lot of players (and GW authors...) as a restricting element, despite the fact that the Ultramarines are supposedly the most successful and at the same time the most Codex adherend Chapter.

Edited October 29, 2010 by Legatus

[Cptn. Palladorus]

"'I know what the Codex says,' snapped Agemman. 'I wrote enough of it.'

I know it's a bit late, but I took the semester off from 40k and I'm just now reading through the five pages of threads I missed; I'll throw in my two cents here. I haven't read the novel so I couldn't say for sure, but isn't it possible that the Ultramarines copy the manuscript as a devotional exercise, much as medieval monks copied and illuminated the Bible? Couldn't that be what Agemman was referring to?