What's It Really Like To Be A Chaos Space Marine? | Warhammer 40K Lore

no matter where you live life in the Grim dark future of Warhammer 40K is pretty miserable but there are some places that are far worse than others and by far the worst place to live is the nightmare realm known as The Eye Of Terror a wound in reality where the physical and immaterial universes overlap that was fun fact created when a bunch of space elves murder banged a chaos God into existence it's a place that's chalk full of nightmare planets hordes of demons Legions of Heretics Cosmic horrors of every shape and form and whatever the o insis is this is where the chaos Space Marines reside and carving out an existence in this nightmare realm is not an easy thing to do so what does their life actually look like how did they end up here in the first place and what kind of horrible things are they forced to do in order to survive well in this video we're going to be getting to the bottom of that and a whole lot more by putting ourselves directly in the shoes of a chaos champion and and following him throughout his career as he becomes a powerful warlord and slips further and further into damnation this video is going to be a little bit different than the other ones I've made in the past as everything that we're going to talk about today actually comes from a single Source a random obscure post that was made 10 years ago on the website hammerand Bolter tocom in a thread titled misconceptions about the chaos Space Marines and of all people the person who left this post was Aaron dipsky Bowden one of black library's premier authors and an absolute expert in all things chaos now I stumbled across this a few years ago and it's always stuck out to me as one of the most insightful pieces of chaos media that exists and I wanted to make it into a video so more people would hear what he had to say I've left a link to the original Post in the description of this video if you want to check it out for yourself so with all that out of the way let's find out what it's actually like to be a chaos Space Marine but first i'm just going to be honest with you I got bills to pay so a quick shout out to this video SP sponsor and then we're going to dive head first into the Grim dark today's video is sponsored by into the am makers of all of the dope graphic te's that you see in all of my videos I wear these things just about every single day and I can honestly say that in addition to their designs looking absolutely awesome there are also the comfiest shirts that I own not only that but they're also shrink and fade resistant as well and as a big fan of graphic teas I can tell you that that's incredibly hard to find there's nothing worse than when you have a favorite t-shirt and it gets all faded and shr in the wash I've had some of my into the am shirts for almost 2 years now still to this day haven't personally experienced any fading or shrinking at all if you want to pick up some of these amazing shirts for yourself but also want to save a bit of money then you can take advantage of into the am's custom pack deals where you can pick and choose any shirts that you want and bundle them together in order to save big they have a lot of different packs that you can make whether you're into graphic te's their more casual basic te's polos tanks button-ups or even underwear and if you want to save even more you can use my personal Link in the description of this video or code West Hammer at checkout to save an additional 10% off your entire order and remember that code works sitewide now personally I like to go to their on sale Section and then use my code on top of the discounts that are already there to get some pretty incredible deals what can I say I'm a Savvy and Frugal t-shirt fan go check out intotheam.com today and elevate your style click on the link in the description of this video or use code Wes Hammer at checkout to save 10% % off your entire order big thanks to in the AM for sponsoring this video it is the 14th year of the 31st Millennium the dreaded warmaster Horus lupre and his army of traitors and Heretics has made its way all the way to the gates of Tera this includes you a word Bearer Champion known as hiin the mner you co-lead a company of Marines Within A Word Bearer chapter known as the sacred Phoenix alongside your most trusted brother Captain villis a man that you have fought beside for decades and the two of you have saved each other's lives more often than you both care to count you trust him more than anyone else you have ever known although you and your forces fought with all of your might the loyalist eventually emerged Victorious after the emperor killed Horus everything started to fall apart in quick succession in order to survive you and your men fled the planet you and all of the other traitors eventually being pushed into Exile within the eye of Terror in an event known as the scout power ing a lot of time passes first decades and then centuries and things look pretty bleak and resources in territory are scarce within this thric damned wound in reality but you and villis were never ones to give up that easily things have changed and you and the men under your command have to do what needs to be done in order to survive so you begin to pray upon the sons of Horus they took some of the biggest losses of all during The Siege and after having lost their Primark are now a broken shell of their former eles they're an easy target now maybe you justify your actions as simply being done out of survival it's either you or them maybe it's a desire for strength that motivates you and they have ships weapons and resources that you can utilize or maybe it's something far more Petty maybe you still hold the Grudge from your perspective you would have won on Tera if it hadn't been for horus's weakness if his sons hadn't broken when he died things would have been different maybe you blame the traitor failure on their cowardice you kill them and take their ships their worlds their fortresses and their equipment all of this has certainly expanded your power but you realize that you're going to need allies your thoughts turn towards the dark mechanicum as they have the only functioning Forge worlds within the eye of Terror and would make for some pretty powerful allies as sometimes you make deals with them whereas other times you invade their worlds for supplies sometimes the dark mechanicum breaks their oath to you screwing SC you over in the process because that particular Forge got a better offer from a stronger War band or maybe they just secretly hated you all along and were just looking for an excuse to end your relationship as time goes on you read the Imperium over and over whether it be for supplies slaves or territory sometimes you do it simply out of the need for vengeance or a desire to teach the Unworthy Servants of the corpse Emperor the truth behind reality maybe you dedicate your raids to the glory of the dark gods maybe it's to humiliate a rival you lost a fight too long ago or maybe you do it because several of the aspiring Champions and Squad leaders under your command have been whispering behind your back they're spreading rumors that you're weak and need to be replaced you need to show your strength soldiers need victories so you make alliances with war bands from other Legions maybe it's to group up against a more serious enemy or because you genuinely consider them your allies sometimes you break some of those promises you made and and maybe an opportunity presents itself where you realize it's better for you to just kill your former allies and take for yourself their territory ships and weapons whereas with other allies you refuse to ever betray them you have fought by their side through hell itself you are God's damned brothers in arms and you would die for them only for a few thousand years later uh you end up killing them because you learn that they were planning to betray you first a surprise attack was imminent and you had to act only maybe that wasn't actually true and maybe you had been deceived by a third party a different War band leader a demon or another potential ally but maybe they really were planning on attacking and maybe they would have won leaving you either dead in the dirt or having to retreat with half of your Fleet and resources this kind of thing happens a lot within the eye of Terror you feel like you're fighting War bands from other Legions constantly for every Alliance that you forge you end up having to fight half a dozen battles but but you aren't the only word bearer's warband operating within the eye as sometimes you come into contact with other word Bearer companies chapters or hosts that are pursuing their own agendas and waging their own Wars sometimes you join up with them you share news of the legions movements and you view them as your blood brothers but other times it's not that simple these word bearers worship a different cult and Creed than you do and although you're both Servants of chaos the little differences in your faith are causing a lot of friction just just like how in the real world every major religion has tons of Splinter branches that sometimes come into conflict with one another it is the same with the worship of chaos simply on a much more massive scale maybe these word bearers rely too much on Zena's sorcery for your tastes using his gifts to peer into the future in order to win battles and you think this makes them weak whereas they see your view that corn is actually an honorable and Noble God as particularly diluted maybe you both view each other as taking your faith too far or perhaps not far enough you both have evidence that the other War band is weak maybe you attempt to work through your differences you meet on neutral ground and the discussion turns into an allout firefight maybe you're able to reconcile those differences in the name of your primarch and become brothers for the next 3,000 years both answering each other's call for Aid and eventually even merging into a new host of two chapters bonded by absolute loyalty maybe this Alliance will last for a year or maybe until the end of time during your time within the eye there will sometimes be calls for aid from other word bearers chapters and you will have to make a tough decision sometimes you set everything you were doing aside and immediately go to their aid bringing everything you have to bear because it doesn't matter that they're from a different chapter you're part of the same Legion and damn it that matters to you however other times you don't answer you pretend like you never received the call all because you realize if they get butchered then swooping in to claim all of their territory and resources will be a thousand times easier so you instead sit and wait like a hungry vulture other times you truly do want to help them but the warp can be finicky and its Tides end up delaying You by several years you show up too late and other times you block the call as soon as you see who's sending it because those guys are a bunch of oath Breakers and Heretics they were a nasty splin interfaction dangerously disloyal and you wanted them dead anyways except maybe they don't end up getting slaughtered maybe they win that fight without you and now they declare you as the oathbreaker and they tell all of the other word bearers warbands of your treachery now it's not just them coming after you but a plethora of other word bearers host as well unified in their hatred of you you're a nasty Splinter faction dangerously disloyal and you need to be destroyed but maybe loyalty and your Oaths meant something to you after all maybe you did go to their aid that day but when you showed up you found out that it was a w Bear's chapter known as the dark maw and they were fighting against a death guard chapter known as the venomous Rune and wouldn't you know it you owe your allegiance to both sides the only honorable thing to do would be to sit the fight out or maybe you do choose a side maybe you attack your own kind throwing your law in with the venomous Rune as you have an oath of Brotherhood with them from a past campaign you might might not think much of the deathguard war band's Faith their Creeds or their personal hygiene but they are proven allies they have fought by your side dozens of times in the past from where you're standing the alliances you forged in Blood and fire during your time within the eye of Terror are what ultimately matters to you you just met the dark maw they may be from the same Legion but you don't owe them a damn thing or maybe you do maybe you are ultimately loyal only to your bloodline knowing that it will never fail you so although you take no joy in it you Aid the dark maw and together you obliterate your former allies sometime later tragedy strikes Captain villis your oldest friend and co-leader of the chapter is assassinated leaving you the sole commander of the entire host you find yourself suddenly a lot more powerful than you were yesterday but also a lot more vulnerable and the aspiring Champions within your ranks can smell your weakness now is the chance that they have been waiting for they make their move rumors start spreading like wildfire throughout your Fleet that you are unfit for Duty they point to all of the Oaths that you have broken to all of the battles that didn't go in your favor there's a good portion of your War band that desires to replace you and they don't really care if this slander is fact or fiction but maybe all of this is just in your head maybe all of the choices that you have made have been stilled a great deal of respect in the men that you lead into battle and you're freaking out over glances and still Ed conversations and spy reports for nothing either way you can't take that risk so you form an elite guard of 20 of your absolute best warriors and you gift each and every one of them a suit of Terminator armor but what if you can't trust them either what if one of them is actually planning your assassination and now all you've done is put them in the perfect place to carry out their Grizzly Mission you've basically just handed them your head on a silver platter you don't have time to worry about that though there is a mutiny coming you know this to be true the rumors are getting worse the men are saying that the host is taking too many casualties specifically because you're holding back your Elite squads to protect you rather than teleporting them in for a Precision strike is this true or is it that the ship is just so old and damaged that large portions of it are no longer working properly including your teleporter arrays maybe your ship is becoming even more sentient as time goes on at this point it's basically alive and half a demon every minute it spins within the eye it becomes harder and harder to control so how do you fix this will maybe you spend even more resources to gain access to an ancient tone full of sorceress techniques that will help you bind demons more successfully thus staving off your fleet's mutation or maybe you decide that the secrets within your newly acquired Journal would be better used controlling your Rowdy crew but you're just a fledgling sorcerer at this point and you're not powerful enough to control everyone the rumors keep on gestating now your men think that you're over reliant on Magic to solve all of your problems is what they say true no of course it isn't and you shake away all feelings of doubt you have to make things secure for your warband how can your men not see that maybe some do and maybe some others are still planning on killing you a few more years go by a Black Crusade is called maybe it's one of abidon or another individual of great power the campaign lasts for 24 years and covers battles on 30 worlds now at one point during the Crusade you end up getting attacked by an Emperor's Children warband if for the life of you you can't remember ever doing anything to offend these guys so why are they attacking maybe they think you're weak maybe those rumors that were circulating on your ship have spread far past your realm of influence and have started taking on a life of their own or maybe a different War band hired them as mercenaries to attack you who was it who hired them is this just the precursor to an even greater assault why weren't you informed of this how did you not see this coming your spy Network didn't warn you of this attack it came out of nowhere maybe your spies can't be trusted maybe you decide to have them all executed and replaced with new more trustworthy spies at one point during the Crusade you end up allying with a cabal of thousand Sun Sorcerers and their host of rubric Marines you combine all of your ships resources and Manpower into an exceptional fighting force and over the years you developed an incredibly strong bond with them your loyalty forged in The Crucible of War like you have been forced to do in the past you could have betrayed them a dozen times over but you don't further you end up risking everything to save them on multiple occasions and they do the same for you except maybe at one point you do decide to betray them in order to steal all of their sorceress lore maybe you slaughtered them to a man after they had been weakened from trying to help you no one will ever know of this dark deed and you get away with it cleanly never hearing about the incident again except maybe a thousand years later the Thousand Suns come seeking revenge in full force to annihilate you or maybe it's a different thousand suns War band that approaches you they offer you Aid as payment for destroying their hated Rivals maybe another word bearer's warband ends up paying the price for your treachery the Thousand Suns wiping them out entirely believing it was them who attacked and not you now after the Crusade is over and you're back in the eye of Terror the black Legion comes to your stronghold they show up in force and offer you a choice you and your host can wear the black and be folded into the Legion or be destroyed maybe you refuse maybe you manage to negotiate peacefully or maybe you have to run maybe you manage to escape or maybe they catch you and this is where your journey ends your host is finally destroyed or maybe you do accept their offer maybe you and everyone under your command paints their armor black and is now officially part of the black Legion and maybe you absolutely despise it and are gearing up to eventually betray them or maybe you find it liberating and stick with it maybe you realize that other than the Armor's paint Scheme nothing has really changed your War band is the same your faith is the same and you still have the same complicated relationships that you had before this time it's with the black Legion warbands rather than the word bearers from before during the next Black Crusade your host ends up joining in with two other War bands one from the world leaders and one from the death guard and between you and those factions two other leaders you are by far the strongest thus you become the deao leader of this trium Brant and you weren't sure about this at first but by the dark Gods what an amazing blessing this ends up being who would have ever thought that you would have both corn Berserkers and plague Marines under your control this combined fighting force is truly a thing to be feared except there's a problem none of these factions actually get along with one another maybe you manage to keep them in line despite fights constantly breaking out between the rank and file Warriors and maybe there's a constant Clashing of faiths and mounting pressure from the other War band leaders who are trying to undermine you and take control for themselves or maybe you were never the leader at all maybe the death guard War band was Far stronger to you and it is the plague Champion that is in charge you view him as unfit to lead so you start spreading rumors that he is weak and needs to be replaced whatever the case may be the triumphant reputation casts a long dark shadow other War bands can't match you in size and begin to pay fty serve you or simply flee whenever you enter their territory although this started as a simple Alliance during a Black Crusade it is now morphed into a legitimately powerful war band maybe it will last for the next 8,000 years as a ruthless and terrifying force of Destruction that lays waste to its enemies and anyone that would dare stand in its way or maybe the whole thing falls apart in about a month or so you're alone again after all of the fighting the making and breaking of alliances the mutinies and the constant infighting your forces have dwindled to a third of what they were at their Peak you need more men in your studying of the ancient lore that you secured from the Thousand Suns many years ago you've discovered a sorcerous way to breed new Space Marines maybe you do it yourself or maybe you contract out the job to a fallen an apothecary from a different Legion his skills are legendary but he's also absolutely insane not to mention his asking price is high a lost artifact on a demon world or deep in the heart of the Imperium do you risk even more losses to pay his price and maybe you do it maybe you go on a crusade of your own for this lost Relic and lose even more men in the process and after you hand it over and he begins his work you realize just how unreliable he truly is he screws it all up and now you're in an even worse position than you were before but maybe the Apothecary is good on his word he's fully capable of doing this but the Sorceress method from before is a bust this is going to have to be done the oldfashioned way and he's going to need some raw materials Jean seed and lots of it in order to acquire this you're going to have to go hunting for Space Marines and they're not an easy target they don't just sit around waiting to be attacked so where do you find them do you target Target a loyalist world that is rarely defended do you lay an ambush for them out in the void or do you lure them into a trap with a distress signal do you go hunting for loyalists or do you Prey Upon your fellow chaos Space Marines how important is the purity of bloodline to you does it even matter do you start targeting warbands of the word bearers or do you care if the genan seed comes from the Imperial fists or the ultramarines maybe things just aren't going to work out with this Apothecary maybe you need someone who's a bit more capable and maybe you need to start cutting deals again with the dark mechanicum a faction that is also devolved into countless city states and independent worlds within the eye allying and oath breaking in much the same way that the chaos Space Marines do maybe you make a deal to protect their forges in exchange for them establishing genan seed and Marine production facilities for you but what are you signing up for a forge world within the eye of Terror is a rare and valuable piece of territory and what happens if they get invaded by a force much larger than you and you can't protect them maybe you run and earn the Eternal hatred of the local mechanicum or maybe you get away clean maybe you decide to fight it out and suffer horrendous losses maybe you win easily and the allies of the destroyed warband end up coming after you in the future maybe you fight this war only to be completely annihilated you're only left with a single ship and a couple of dozen Marines and the mechanicum having also been severely injured in the fighting can no longer follow through on their part of the deal you've wasted a lot of time ammunition and Marine lives in a campaign that profited you nothing you're not out of the game yet though you can call upon the members of your own bloodline and seek out word Bearer territories in order to use their facilities to make new Marines maybe they welcome you with open arms maybe they see you as one of the best Champions their Legion has ever produced or maybe they cast you out maybe they call you a traitor a deceiver an oathbreaker or maybe you sinned against them in some other way that you had never even considered maybe after all of that you get your Marines back up to fighting strength but there's another problem the Thal Army that serves you has mutated Beyond usability or maybe they were lured Away by another cult's Faith or maybe they just ended up getting slaughtered in a particularly bad battle now you're massively underpowered in terms of Traitor guard and human slaves what do you do do you raid a bunch of prison Worlds the slaves that you would pick up here would certainly be easy pickings but they would be untrained do you try to convert a guard regiment well that would certainly be a better option but it would require careful sedition work and your only trusted co-leaders spending multiple years away from your warband to convert the human armies maybe you could send your less trusted underlings but then who would the humans end up serving would they end up as an army secretly waiting to betray you maybe you go to the black Legion you sign a contract with them saying that you'll serve for a period of 66 years and in exchange they will teach your apothecaries and flesh Smiths the way of the Berserker surgery now you have Berserkers in your army but what if another word Bearer War band considers that a dangerous collusion with an enemy Legion even though up until this point you've been perfectly loyal and you know other word bearers War bands who took the same deal now you have another fight on your hands but what about that period of 66 years that you signed up for what happens to your stronghold while you're away raiding the Imperium is it hidden well enough within the eye of Terror maybe it is but what if time and space distorts and its location is revealed do you leave a Garrison of your best troops behind to defend it well maybe you do but then you're going to be taken to the battlefield without your best warriors maybe you return and another War band has destroyed your base or occupied it for themselves so now you have to begin a costly war in order to retake your own Fortress maybe you let it go and you carry on as a fleet-based war band forever suffering a lack of resources compared to those with fully operational and well supplied home worlds maybe you go back to sarus the word bearer's Capital Demon World and end up as just another minor host using it as a base of operations now instead of having your own world and your own Garrison you are one warband amongst hundreds sharing and competing over territory and if you thought you had problems before with grudges Oaths betrayals and future treacheries all of those things are now magnified tenfold you look around and you see War bands united only under the threat of Violence by an intimidating Commander whereas other War bands at least on the surface seem to honestly be bound by Brotherhood and then your eyes fall upon the fleet of the host of the shrieking wound you remember these guys all too well they failed to come to your Aid a few centuries ago and betrayed the legion at the Battle of Zahir by taking taking too long to commit to the fight constantly weighing their options rather than acting maybe they say the same thing about you tension is always rif even between bloodbound allies for Glory in the eyes of the legions Power Players and in the eyes of the Gods maybe you stay maybe you go maybe maybe maybe that's what it's like to be a chaos Space Marine

Channel: WesHammer

Views: 282,653

Keywords: weshammer, warhammer, warhammer 40k, 40k, wh40k, warhammer 40000, warhammer lore, 40k lore, 40k space marine, space marines, space marines lore, chaos space marines, chaos space marines lore, warhammer chaos, word bearers, deathguard.death guard, nurgle, khorne, tzeentch, slaanesh, chaos gods, daemons, primarch, emperor of mankind, orks, tau, necrons, eldar, chaos lore, 40k chaos, world eaters, games workshop, space marine, space marine 2, dark tide, thousand sons, warhammer explained

Id: vMAHF3I5YO4

Length: 26min 38sec (1598 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2024