The Space Marines, or Adeptus Astartes, are genetically enhanced warriors who serve the Imperium of Man. Their power armour, implanted organs and intensive training distinguish them from ordinary human soldiers. They are comparatively few beside the Astra Militarum, and fight as self-contained brotherhoods called Chapters.[1]
From Legions to Chapters[edit]
The Horus Heresy was a civil war in which many of the Emperor's Space Marine Legions turned against him. Their descendants include the Chaos Space Marines who oppose the Imperium in the later setting.[4] A Legion in a Heresy-era story and a Chapter in Warhammer 40,000 therefore belong to different organizational contexts; sharing a name does not make their rosters or histories interchangeable.
The familiar thousand-warrior Chapter is a useful starting model for understanding the faction, but individual Chapters follow different traditions. Their identity encompasses recruitment, ritual, markings and preferred ways of fighting. Armour colour is one visible expression of that identity.[1]
How Chapters differ[edit]
The Space Wolves depart from Codex organization with formations such as Blood Claws and Wolf Guard. The Black Templars emphasize faith, sworn vows and close combat, with Sword Brethren among their specialist warriors. The Blood Angels carry the Red Thirst and Black Rage, flaws that shape both their stories and their specialist formations.[2]
The Deathwatch brings warriors from other Chapters together for specialist alien-hunting service. It should not be treated as simply another hereditary Chapter with a single shared recruiting culture. These distinctions make the Chapter directories below useful: a general account of Space Marines cannot substitute for the history of a particular brotherhood.[2]
Gene-seed and the Apothecaries[edit]
Gene-seed connects a Chapter's fallen warriors with its future recruits. Apothecaries recover progenoid glands from dead battle-brothers, preserving the material needed to create later generations. The Imperium also requires a genetic tithe, used to check purity and support the founding of Chapters.[3]
This gives recovery missions a purpose beyond retrieving armour or honouring a casualty. In the official introduction to The Tithes, recovering the dead is explicitly tied to a Chapter's survival. A claim that Chapters owe no obligations to wider Imperial institutions would miss that relationship.[3]
Recognizing the force[edit]
Bolters fire explosive projectiles; chainswords use powered cutting teeth. Intercessors, heavily armoured Terminators and vehicle crews fill different roles. A Dreadnought houses the surviving remains of a severely wounded warrior in a combat walker.[1]
For a collection, choose a Chapter and a small group of models whose appearance you enjoy before attempting a complete company. For play, check the rules for the actual edition and format: the cited 2023 Chapter article contains historical rules previews, not a current army list. The rules guide explains that check.
Units
- ApothecaryElites · InfantryPart battlefield surgeon, part geneticist, the Apothecary preserves both the lives of his brothers and the precious gene-seed that will father the Chapter's next generation.
- Assault Intercessor SquadTroops · InfantryTrading range for raw close-quarters violence, Assault Intercessors are Primaris warriors trained to close the gap and break the enemy line by hand.
- Baal PredatorHeavy Support · VehicleA swift, fast-firing battle tank found only among the sons of Sanguinius, the Baal Predator is named for the Blood Angels' desert homeworld and built to scour the foe with a storm of shells and flame.
- Bladeguard VeteransElites · InfantrySworn guardians bearing master-crafted blades, Bladeguard Veterans are the elite swordsmen of the Primaris Marines, an unbreakable wall of steel around their commanders.
- Blood ClawsBattleline · InfantryThe youngest and most headstrong of the Space Wolves, the Blood Claws are packs of newly made warriors who hurl themselves at the foe with reckless abandon, hungry for the glory that only youth dares chase.
- CaptainHQ · InfantryA company's supreme battlefield commander, a Captain combines veteran mastery of war with the authority to bend an entire Chapter's strength to his will.
- ChaplainHQ · InfantryThe spiritual wardens of a Chapter, Chaplains guard its soul and drive its warriors to feats of holy violence. Robed in black and skull-masked, they are the grim voice of faith upon the battlefield.
- Company AncientElites · InfantryThe Ancient bears his company's banner into the storm of battle, a sacred standard whose presence steels every brother who fights beneath it.
- Company ChampionElites · InfantryThe Company Champion is a duellist without peer, sworn to shield his commander and to seek out the enemy's greatest warriors in single combat.
- Death CompanyElites · InfantryBattle-brothers lost to the Black Rage, the Death Company are doomed warriors who relive their primarch's death agonies and are unleashed as a final, unstoppable tide of grief and fury.
- Death Company DreadnoughtElites · DreadnoughtA revered warrior interred within a walking war-engine and then lost to the Black Rage, the Death Company Dreadnought is a maddened giant of adamantium and rage, restrained until the moment it can be loosed upon the foe.
- Deathwing KnightsElites · Terminator InfantryThe most exalted warriors of the Deathwing, these Terminator-armoured champions bear relic maces and storm shields into the Dark Angels' most desperate battles.
Characters
- Adrax AgatoneNocturne's HammerCaptain of the Pyroclasts and Master of the Arsenal, Adrax Agatone forges his own weapons and wields them with grim resolve, a smith and warrior in the truest Salamanders tradition.
- Antaro ChronusSpear of MacraggeNo Ultramarine understands the machine-spirit of a battle tank as Antaro Chronus does. Bearing the ancient honorific Spear of Macragge, he is the Chapter's peerless master of armoured war.
- AsmodaiBane of the FallenAsmodai is the oldest and most feared of the Dark Angels' Interrogator-Chaplains, a zealot without mercy whose sole purpose is to wring confession from the Fallen, whatever the cost.
- Astorath the GrimThe Redeemer of the LostHigh Chaplain of the Blood Angels and executioner of his own kind, Astorath the Grim travels the galaxy to deliver a merciful death to those lost to the Black Rage, granting the doomed sons of Sanguinius one final, glorious end.
- AzraelKeeper of the TruthAzrael is the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels and the head of the Inner Circle, guardian of the Chapter's darkest secret and one of the most tight-lipped warriors in an already secretive brotherhood.
- BayardThe Fallen Champion of HelsreachBayard was an Emperor's Champion of the Black Templars whose death at the hands of the orks during the defence of Helsreach became a rallying cry of vengeance for his brothers.
- BelialMaster of the DeathwingBelial is Grand Master of the Deathwing, commander of the Dark Angels' veteran First Company, a relentless perfectionist who leads the Chapter's finest Terminators into its most desperate wars.
- Bjorn the Fell-HandedThe EldestThe oldest living Space Marine in the Imperium, Bjorn the Fell-Handed fought beside Leman Russ himself in the age of legends and endures still, interred within a Dreadnought as a revered living relic of the Chapter's founding.
Subfactions
- Angels VermillionSecretive to the edge of paranoia, the Angels Vermillion are a Blood Angels successor who bear their bloodline's curse in bleak isolation, shunning their brother Chapters and guarding their darkest secrets with quiet menace.
- Angels of AbsolutionThe Angels of Absolution are a Second Founding successor of the Dark Angels who wear their gene-sire's shame more lightly than any of their kin. Armoured in stark bone-white, they hold the singular conviction that their sins were washed clean in the fires of Caliban's fall, and so they have set aside the very name of the Unforgiven. Serene where other successors are haunted, they nonetheless ride to the secret war with undimmed resolve, hunting the Fallen not to purchase their own salvation but because justice demands the guilty answer for their crimes.
- Angels of VengeanceThe Angels of Vengeance are among the grimmest of the Unforgiven, a Second Founding successor of the Dark Angels who wage the secret hunt for the Fallen with a cold, unrelenting fury. Clad in armour of funereal black, they are austere even by the standards of their tormented lineage, speaking little and forgiving nothing. Where their parent Chapter cloaks its shame in ritual, the Angels of Vengeance carry theirs like a drawn blade, and they will cross any gulf and shatter any oath of secrecy to see a single Fallen dragged before the Inner Circle.
- Black TemplarsZealous crusaders without a true homeworld, the Black Templars roam the stars in vast fleets, purging heresy and xenos wherever they are found. Sworn to unending crusade in the name of the Emperor, they answer doubt with faith and the sword, the most relentless holy warriors of the Adeptus Astartes.
- Blood AngelsNoble and haunted, the Blood Angels wage constant war against the twin genetic curses of thirst and rage inherited from their martyred primarch Sanguinius. From the blasted world of Baal they answer the Imperium's darkest calls, warriors of aching beauty forever poised on the edge of the abyss within.
- Carcharodons AstraGrey ghosts of the void, the Carcharodons emerge from the darkness between the stars to slaughter the enemies of Mankind, then vanish once more. Few know their origins, and fewer still survive their coming.
- Crimson FistsBattered but unbroken, the Crimson Fists rose from the ashes of near-extinction to become a byword for defiance. Sons of Dorn, they fight on when all hope is spent.
- Dark AngelsThe secretive First Legion, the Dark Angels wage two wars at once: one for the Imperium, and a hidden one to hunt down the traitors of their own broken past. Knightly, disciplined, and consumed by ancient guilt, they pursue the Fallen across ten thousand years, guarding a shame no outsider must ever learn.
- Flesh TearersCursed with the worst of Sanguinius's flaws, the Flesh Tearers wage war on the knife's edge of madness. They are the most savage of the Blood Angels' sons, forever fighting their own extinction.
- Howling GriffonsBound by oaths they will die to keep, the Howling Griffons pursue their sworn foes across the centuries. Their quartered heraldry marks warriors who never forget and never forgive a debt of vengeance.
- Imperial FistsThe Imperium's peerless masters of siege and defense, the Imperial Fists are the stoic sons of Rogal Dorn, sworn to hold the line where no other can. From the mobile fortress Phalanx they answer the most desperate calls, breaking enemy strongholds and standing immovable behind walls that must not fall.
- Iron HandsThe Iron Hands despise the frailty of flesh and replace it, limb by limb, with unyielding metal. Cold, methodical and unforgiving, they honour their slain primarch by becoming the machine he could not save.
- LamentersA sorrowful, star-crossed brotherhood sprung from the blood of Sanguinius, the Lamenters are held to be the unluckiest Chapter in the Imperium, forever seeking to atone through selfless sacrifice even as ruin stalks their every crusade.
- MinotaursBronze-clad and merciless, the Minotaurs answer only to the High Lords of Terra and turn their wrath upon Space Marines themselves. Their true history is sealed beyond even the Inquisition's reach.
- Raven GuardMasters of shadow and the sudden strike, the Raven Guard wage a war of ambush and misdirection, bleeding the enemy from the darkness. They are the silent sons of Corax, unseen until the killing blow.
- Red ScorpionsZealous guardians of genetic purity, the Red Scorpions hold to the Codex Astartes with obsessive rigour and abhor all taint of mutation. Their origins are a mystery even to themselves.
- SalamandersMaster smiths and compassionate protectors, the Salamanders of volcanic Nocturne temper ferocity in battle with a rare and genuine devotion to the common citizen. Sons of Vulkan, they wield fire and master-forged weapons against the Imperium's foes while sheltering the innocent none of their kin would think to save.
- Space WolvesWild, loyal, and fiercely independent, the Space Wolves scorn the Codex Astartes in favor of a savage saga-culture forged on the ice world of Fenris. Sons of Leman Russ, they fight as legendary heroes of old, boastful in the mead hall and terrifying in the charge, the Imperium's untamed executioners.
- UltramarinesThe disciplined heirs of Roboute Guilliman, the Ultramarines embody Imperial order, tactical doctrine, and the ideal of the philosopher-soldier. From the star-realm of Ultramar they wage a tireless crusade to hold a wounded galaxy together, exemplars of the very Codex their primarch wrote.
- White ScarsSwift as the tempest and pitiless as a steppe winter, the White Scars strike in lightning assaults and are gone before the foe can answer. They are the hunters of the Adeptus Astartes, sons of the Great Khan.
Sources & further reading
- Starting a Space Marine Army in Warhammer 40,000. Warhammer Community, , Space Marines Explained: augmentation, Chapters, equipment and vehicles. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
- Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Space Marine Chapters. Warhammer Community, , Chapter background introductions; game rules are publication-era examples. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
- What Tithes Do Space Marines Pay?. Warhammer Community, , Progenoid recovery, the genetic tithe and Chapter survival. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
- What Is Warhammer 40,000?. Warhammer Community, , A Galaxy in Flames: civil war and Chaos Space Marines. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
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Space Marinessubfactions · units · charactersshowhide
Subfactions
Angels VermillionAngels of AbsolutionAngels of VengeanceBlack TemplarsBlood AngelsCarcharodons AstraCrimson FistsDark AngelsFlesh TearersHowling GriffonsImperial FistsIron HandsLamentersMinotaursRaven GuardRed ScorpionsSalamandersSpace WolvesUltramarinesWhite Scars
Units
ApothecaryAssault Intercessor SquadBaal PredatorBladeguard VeteransBlood ClawsCaptainChaplainCompany AncientCompany ChampionDeath CompanyDeath Company DreadnoughtDeathwing KnightsDeathwing Terminator SquadDevastator SquadEmperor's ChampionFenrisian WolvesFurioso DreadnoughtGrey HuntersHellblaster SquadIntercessor SquadLand RaiderLand SpeederLand Speeder VengeanceLibrarianLieutenantLong FangsMarshalNephilim JetfighterPrimaris Crusader SquadRavenwing Black KnightsRavenwing Command SquadRedemptor DreadnoughtSanguinary GuardSanguinary PriestScout SquadSternguard Veteran SquadSword BrethrenTechmarineTerminator SquadThunderwolf CavalryVanguard Veteran SquadVindicatorWolf Guard TerminatorsWulfen
Characters
Adrax AgatoneAntaro ChronusAsmodaiAstorath the GrimAzraelBayardBelialBjorn the Fell-HandedBrother CorbuloCato SicariusCommander DanteDarnath LysanderEzekielGabriel SethHelbrechtKayvaan ShrikeKor'sarro KhanLemartesLion El'JonsonLogan GrimnarLudoldusMarius AmalrichMarneus CalgarMephistonMerek GrimaldusNjal StormcallerOrtan CassiusPedro KantorRagnar BlackmaneRoboute GuillimanSammaelThe SanguinorTor GaradonTorias TelionUlrik the SlayerVarro TiguriusVulkan He'stan