What would you think about Primaris Space Marines after never seeing them until now? See how a new player reacts to the craze sweeping 40k.
We dive into all the angles of how certain chapters jumped whole-heartedly aboard the Primaris train. Choo choo…
A New 40k Player Reacts To Primaris Space Marines
I was asked to write on the chapters of the Space Marines that maybe should never be infused with companies of Primaris Marines. Ones that should never “grow up”. The first thing I think is… What’s a Primaris Marine? My newness is showing again. So I figured it was time to delve into the backstory once more!
The first thing I found was that while Space Marines come in what I consider to be several different models, IE: Salamanders, Imperial Fists, Raven Guard, Gray Templars, etc… I didn’t know they came in different MAKES as well. While the original Astartes Space Marines were biologically implanted with something like 19 gene-seed organs, these more robust Primaris Space Marines had 22. This was to make them a lot more resilient against mutation and of course, harder, faster, better, stronger… as the song goes.
Primaris: A New Era of Weapons
Ohhhhh, I thought. Well, that explains the big hoo-hah about the new Vanguard Space Marines I saw a while back in the Warhammer Community pages. They’re the ‘brand new 41k Space Marine, now with extra organs for toughness!‘ hotness. It turns out that in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, before the Primarch Roboute Guilliman died, he set Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl to work on improving the design of the Emperor’s Space Marines on Mars. Well, fast forward ten-thousand years to 41K. You now have the result of these Martian-developed Marines: the Primaris.
To match these upgraded versions of already-upgraded human warriors, they were given bigger, badder armor. They got mo’ betta’ guns and vehicles to go after the forces of Chaos with. And a bunch of newer Chapters of Space Marines were created that were Primaris exclusively. However, the Primaris were also seeded in the existing Chapters and ranks of the Astartes. And a lot of those guys were like, “NEW HOTNESS BATTLE BROTHERS! AWESOME! WELCOME-WELCOME! LET’S GO CELEBRATE WITH SOME CRUSADING!”
And there were others that were not so much about the new hotness. And that’s human. No one likes being out-evolved or replaced in the evolutionary sense. (SEE: The X-Men vs. Humanity.) But emissaries of Emperor Pyrrhus (whom I will keep calling that) essentially asked these reluctant chapters, “Are you actually refusing the Emperor’s will?” Which for the most part put an end to that.
The new Chapters went out to the lines at the rift and much kicking of Daemonic ass commenced. Chapters like the Ultramarines and the Crimson Fists were pretty much, “BROTHERS! WELCOME TO THE PARTY!” and there was much rejoicing. (yaaaay.) And at this point, Cawl goes back to Mars to work on even more Primaris improvements and new Chapters. He’s also working on the idea of upgrading EXISTING Astartes to the new Primaris standard. And the Astartes are a bit divided and iffy about that too. The Chapter Master of the Ultramarines volunteered himself for that and died for a bit in the process, but ultimately survived.
Characters That Surprisingly Made the Primaris Conversion
So while all the original Astartes might eventually be destined for replacement by attrition, it may be that upgrades eventually sunset the Astartes project if the Primaris work out. And they do seem to be working out. More and more of the ‘firstborn‘ Astartes are ‘Crossing the Primaris Rubicon‘ and undergoing the traumatic upgrade process. Some I wouldn’t even expect. I would’ve thought the Raven Guard wouldn’t have wanted to try upgrades at all. Given their last failure with accelerated replenishment programs. And I certainly wouldn’t have thought the Iron Hands would have gone in for it given their disdain for the weaknesses of the flesh. But here’s the Chapter Master of the Ravens and an Iron Father of the Iron Hands, both successfully ascended to Primaris.
So ‘Torchbearer‘ ships were sent out to the homeworlds of the Marine Chapters that Cawl upgraded with their Primarch’s upgraded gene-seed. “Here guys! Here’s all the machinery we need to install so your new recruits can be Primaris from the get-go. Here are examples of some of your upgraded models we made on Mars. If you want to hop on the slab and try to see if you can survive the upgrade, we can do that for ya too! Here’s yer future folks! EMBRACE IT!”
However… some of the more UNUSUAL Chapters did not get the Primaris upgrade/influx.
And I suppose that makes sense. Your Noobness here is learning about how the flaws in different Chapters’ gene seeds kind of individualize these chapters and how they participate in the forever war. And I haven’t looked into the ALL flaws of some of these Chapters. Up until now, I’ve been seeing chapters like the Salamanders and the Raven Guard. And generally, Chapters that seemed to mostly benefit from the quirks of their gene seeds. But some of the flaws in some Chapters… you don’t really want to see those communicated to bigger nastier versions of themselves?
The idea of the Primaris to me is a hopeful one. One that shows the continued evolution of the story and the concept and the people within it. And if things can still change… I can hope that things can still change for the better.
What do you think about some Chapters saying “no” to Primaris upgrades entirely? Would they be excommunicated from the Imperium?
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About the Author: Caleb Dillon
