I love reading other peoples homebrew lore of their space marine chapters, so I figured I would encourage everyone to write a little more.
In this video I am going over a few steps that you can follow to come up with your own lore for your own successor chapter.
Step 1: The scales of corruption
Every space marine chapter comes with some form of corruption. The Space Wolves are corrupted of body, the Blood Angels are corrupted of mind and the Dark Angels are corrupted in their soul.
You need to figure out where on these scales your chapter sits. Does their geneseed corrupt their mind and make them strong psychically? Or do they suffer from mutations, either malicious or beneficial.
This step also gives you great ideas for conversions and paintschemes. After all, if they are mutating, then you can stat adding bits and pieces to show those mutations!
Step 2: How do they fight?
The way your space marines fight is ingrained in their souls. The geneseed determines if they are better in melee or better at range, if they are stealthy or savage animals and if they are tactically flexible or just single minded killers.
This is an important step to take since it will allow you to push your chapter into the direction that you like best. Do you want to fight with tanks? Or jump-pack infantry? Then write this into their lore and have fun.
Step 3: Which chaos god would they fall to?
Of course your space marine chapter is loyal to the Emperor, but what if they would fall to chaos? Which chaos god would they fall to?
Even if you go for a completely pure space marine chapter and you don’t want to have any corruption at all, it can give your chapter a lot of character if you think about which chaos god would corrupt them.
Ultramarines are a lot more interesting if you consider that their drive for perfection could make them fall to Slaanesh. The Graeco-Roman aesthetic helps there too and you can incorporate little bits of the god into your conversions and paint scheme!
Step 4: How do they fit in the Imperium?
Your space marine chapter is not alone in the Warhammer universe. They are part of the Imperium of Man and so you should think about how they relate to the wider imperium.
Are they close with the Mechanicum and thus have a lot of high tech weapons and equipment? Do they work with the Inquisition or do they have something to hide?
Step 5: Why are they here?
Your custom space marine chapter needs a reason to be. They need a big goal that they are striving to achieve so that they can justify the casual warcrimes that space marines usually commit.
The bigger the goal, the better!
Conclusion
It’s a lot of fun to write your own homebrew lore and with these easy steps you can get started and get some good ideas for conversions and kitbashes to give your chapter a lot more flavour and character.
