Space Marines

The Space Marines are the Imperium's supreme warriors. Genetically enhanced to be the ultimate fighters they are far stronger and tougher than ordinary human beings.

Space Marines are organised into chapters. Nobody knows how many chapters there are in existence at the moment. From the ones that do exist a blessed few can trace back their beginnings to the original Space Marine Legions, created by the Emperor himself. But most chapters were subsequent foundings. The second founding is the most notable, when the legions were split and the chapters created. So some Space Marines can call members of the original legions their founding members.

Later foundings were created from the gene-storage on holy Terra. This is the only place gene-seed can now be created and stored and every chapter founding has to be approved by the Adpetus Terra and the High Council. Most chapters in later foundings were created with the Ultramarine's gene-stock.

A Space Marine chapter consists of roughly a thousand Space Marines and is broken down into ten companies. All the rules for a Space Marine chapter are laid down in the Codex Astartes, written by Roboute Guilliman the Primarch of the Ultramarines.

A Space Marine is a towering warrior, his brute strength tempered by inhuman skill. He is armed with thefearsome bolter and he is protected by a suit of power armor. He is the product of intensive training and genetic manipulation, which transforms mortal men selected from the deadliest warrior races in the known universe into the most lethal of superhuman killing machines in the Imperium's arsenal.