The 4th Founding
The 4th Founding of Space Marines occurred several standard decades after the disastrous events of the War of the Beast -- the massive WAAAGH! of the Ork Warlord known only as The Beast -- which laid waste to much of the known galaxy and threatened to destroy Terra itself. Following the successful eradication of the massive Greenskin invasion force and the defeat of its Warlord, the Lord Commander of the Imperium Maximus Thane, the former Chapter Master of the Fists Exemplar, and now the newly-appointed commander of the reconstituted Imperial Fists, decreed that the Imperium would raise as many new Chapters as they had gene-seed in the great vaults of Terra to sustain. All Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes were ordered to release a portion of their Veterans to provide the initial basis for this Founding, the greatest since the First Founding. Gene-seed tithing would be doubled for the next standard century to replenish the vaults. When it was done, there would be hundreds of Chapters to ring the Imperium in adamantium and ceramite instead of dozens.
After enough gene-seed had been collected in the vaults on Terra, the High Lords of Terra authorised the 4th Founding of the Adeptus Astartes, sometime in the fifth century of the 32nd Millennium, to help bring order to an Imperium rife with civil strife and insurrection, and to help restore Imperial law. This Founding occurred several standard decades after the catastrophic event known as The Beheading of 546.M32, in which the Grand Master of Assassins Drakan Vangorich deployed the elite Assassins of the Officio Assassinorum to slay the High Lords of Terra to a man. Afterwards, the Imperium descended into a period of anarchy, and was ruled by the iron hand of Vangorich for nearly a standard century.
In 626.M32, nearly eight Terran decades after Vangorich seized total control over the Senatorum Imperialis, two of these newly created Fourth Founding Chapters, the Halo Brethren and the Sable Swords, fought alongside the newly returned Crusading Imperial Fists Chapter, to help forcibly remove Vangorich, who had become a mad tyrant, from power.
Select 4th Founding Chapters
| Carcharodons | Raven Guard (Allegedly) | Corvus Corax (Unconfirmed) | N/A, Fleet-Based | The Carcharodons are a savage and ruthless Loyalist Space Marines Chapter who are an alleged Successor Chapter of the Raven Guard. The exact origins of this infamous Chapter are hard to pinpoint in Imperial archives as the Carcharodons have left no records of their activities in recent history. Supposedly created during the 23rd Founding, extant accounts dating back to the unknown era that surrounds the Astropath Wars of the late 32nd and the early 33rd Millennia, state that the Carcharodons might have been created far earlier than originally believed. But this particular time period is now shrouded in myth and allegory, and its true nature has been purged from Imperial history so thoroughly that less is known of it than of the Horus Heresy or the Great Crusade. |
| Halo Brethren | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | The Halo Brethren are a 4th Founding Chapter created from an unknown lineage sometime during the middle centuries of the 32nd Millennium. They would fight alongside their newly created cousins, the Sable Swords Chapter, and the Imperial Fists, to help forcibly remove the mad tyrant Drakan Vogorich from power. There is little other information on this obscure Chapter in official Imperial records. |
| Imperius Reavers | Ultramarines | Roboute Guilliman | Praedis Zeta | The Imperius Reavers are a 4th Founding Successor Space Marine Chapter of the legendary Ultramarines, created sometime during the 32nd Millennia. The Chapter's homeworld is the Hive World of Praedis Zeta in the Vidar Sector, which is located in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy at the farthest edge of the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar. This volatile region is under constant siege by the twin threats of the alien and the daemon. The Imperius Reavers Space Marines are adept at hunting aliens, having been embroiled in many wars with the Tyranids in years past. Their 2nd Company, know on Praedis Zeta as 'The Stormbringers', are veterans of the First Tyrannic War and experts in rooting out Genestealer hybrids. |
| Marines Malevolent | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown | The Marines Malevolent are a Loyalist Space Marines Chapter that was Founded sometime in the 32nd Millennium and are of unknown genetic origin. While loyal to the Emperor of Mankind and deeply dedicated to the eradication of all of the Imperium's enemies, they have at times shown a disturbing and callous disregard for the lives of the civilians of the Imperium as long as their mission objectives are obtained, which has brought them into conflict with the Salamanders Chapter of Space Marines and many other Imperial organisations, including the Inquisition. |
| Sable Swords | Unknown | Unknown | Obsidia | The Sable Swords are a Loyalist Space Chapter created in the latter years of the 41st Millennium, making them one of the newer Chapters Founded within the Adeptus Astartes. But there are conflicting records which indicate that the Sable Swords had been created much earlier, sometime during the middle centuries of the 32nd Millennium. They would fight alongside their newly created cousins, the Halo Brethren Chapter, and the Imperial Fists, to help forcibly remove the mad tyrant Drakan Vogorich from power. There is little other information on this obscure Chapter in official Imperial records. |
Sources
- Adeptus Astartes: Successor Chapters (Limited Release Booklet)
- Deathwatch: Honour the Chapter (RPG), pp. 89-96
- Imperial Armour Volume Two (Second Edition) - War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes, pg. 17
- Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War, Part Two, pp. 13–14, 19, 60-61, 69, 86, 114-123, 127, 134, 178
- Imperial Armour Volume Thirteen - War Machines of the Lost & the Damned, pg. 21
- Index Astartes "Emperor's Shield - Space Marine Chapters of the Armageddon War," by Chris Cook and Pete Haines
- The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination, by Alan Bligh, pp. 134, 138, 140
- Warhammer 40,000: Campaign Weekend - Vidar's Fate: Praedis Zeta (Campaign Supplement)
- White Dwarf Magazine #248 (UK), "The Third War for Armageddon", pg. 76
- White Dwarf Magazine #101 (UK), "Index Astartes", pg. 71
- Angels of Death - Bitter Salvage (Short Story) by Nick Kyme
- Angels of Death: The Judges, In Their Hunger (Short Story) by David Annandale
- Devil's Trappings (Ebook) by Nick Kyme
- Salamander (Novel) by Nick Kyme
- Legacy of Russ: The Lost King (Ebook) by Robbie MacNiven
- Vengeful Honour (Ebook) by Nick Kyme
- In The Depths Of Hades (Ebook) by Nick Kyme
- Machine Spirit (Ebook) by Nick Kyme
- The Beast Arises (Novel Series):
- The Beheading (Book 12) by Guy Haley
- Third War for Armageddon Worldwide Campaign - Forces Disposition, Imperial Forces: Marines Malevolent