Working on a Homebrew chapter I plan on featuring in an upcoming fic (basically Iron Hearts, but with Loyalist Space Marines rather than Chaos Space Marines), and wanted to run the description by you guys. The basic concept of the Chapter is “the Doom Patrol of the Astartes”; a bit of a hot mess of a Chapter that isn’t as organized or well-equipped as other Chapters, and thus doesn’t have the time or energy for the xenophobia and fanaticism most Space Marines display. If you have advice, suggestions, or questions, please leave a comment. Thank you.

The Scions of the Konic

The Scions of the Konic are a Fleet-Based Loyalist Successor Chapter of the Ultramarines, created during the 20th founding in response to a prophecy that never came to fruition. Bereft of purpose as a result, the Chapter became shunned and looked down upon after an immensely stupid decision on the part of their Chapter Master led to the deeply undignified death of the whole Chapter Command. Since that hot mess, they’ve quickly gained something of a reputation as incompetent morons barely worthy of the title Astartes.

Chapter History

The Scions of the Konic came into being in response to a prophecy of a great, unspecified threat to everything the Imperium stands for. The exact date of their founding and precise nature of that prophecy have been lost to history, but it is known that the prophecy never came to fruition, leaving the Chapter largely bereft of purpose. It was also known that the Chapter Master complained about the anticlimax for years... at least until they somehow came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to go on an extended trip into the Sea of Souls to track down and kill the Chaos Gods.

To call the old Chapter Master’s insane plan a complete and unmitigated disaster would be an understatement. The entire Chapter Command died screaming their heads off in incredibly undignified fashion, and the only reason that the rest of the Chapter managed to escape with their lives, sanity, and purity of body and soul intact was because Chaos Gods were feeling uncharacteristically merciful that day, and let them do so for reasons known only to them. Since that disastrous and embarrassing affair, the Chapter has fallen from grace, quickly gaining a somewhat-undeserved reputation as a bunch of disorganized, incompetent morons barely worthy of the title “Astartes”.

Chapter Flagship: The Unquestionable Perfection

The flagship of the Scions and the closest thing the Chapter has to a Fortress Monastery, the Unquestionable Perfection is a Gloriana-Class Battleship, entrusted to the Scions long ago due to the nature of the prophecy that led to their Founding. Not much is known about its purpose before it was entrusted to the care of the Scions, though the most commonly-held belief is that it was the flagship of either the 2nd or 11th Primarch before. What is known is that the Scions have since been allowed to keep the vessel despite their low standing, by virtue of the fact that nobody else wants it.

You see… the Unquestionable Perfection is not exactly in the best of shape. Whole sections of the ship’s 20-kilometer length are sealed off on account of being damaged to the point of being unsafe. Its once impressive arsenal of devastating void-weaponry is now only 5% functional at the best of times. Oh, and the Gellar field is persnickety, and far, far more prone to mid-warp jump failure than its design specifications indicate. Worse, the Scions, due to their low standing and reduced access to equipment and resources, cannot do much to remedy the many maladies plaguing the old vessel, and have to make due with slapdash, jerry-rigged repairs, which range from heretical xenotech retrofits to sealing off compromised rooms and corridors to little yellow notes bearing warnings such as “door exposed to voidspace, do not open without warning”, “beware leaky plasma tubing”, or (with alarming regularity) “do not touch this button/switch/door/panel/lever”. All that being said, the vessel is far more durable than it looks, and is in fact the current galactic record holder for “most theoretically crippling damage sustained during operational lifetime while still retaining at least 3% functionality”.

Chapter Organization

At first, the Scions were Codex-compliant, and thus identical in structure to other Codex-compliant Chapters. As the years have dragged on however, the organizational structure prescribed in the Codex has quickly collapsed into disarray. The Chapter is now only semi-Codex compliant, and displays several glaring deviations from the Codex, the most notable of which is that the Chapter Command and the 1st Company’s six-member Command Squad are one and the same.

The unusual level of camaraderie and informal cooperation that the Chapter displays within itself also serves to further blur the Codex command hierarchy. Individual companies are very close-knit, and friendly rivalries and bonds between Battle-Brothers frequently cross Company boundaries. Infighting among the Scions is almost unheard of despite the wildly different personalities of its individual members and nearly nonexistent discipline. Every Battle-Brother is close friends with at least four fifths of his Company, and is at least acquainted with half of the rest of the Chapter’s Space Marines.

An upshot of the Chapter’s very close-knit nature is that command hierarchies are far more fluid than they are in most Space Marine Chapters. While a chain of command still exists and is still respected, the leaders of the Chapter are willing to listen to Marines who offer up better plans and strategies than the one they present, and are very lax in disciplining Marines who disobey orders if they did so for the benefit of the Chapter as a whole and their reasoning for doing so is sound. This flexible, open-minded approach to leadership also renders the Scions practically immune to decapitating strikes; killing the leader will just piss the Scions off, and they’re more than capable of successfully winging it on the battlefield.

Chapter Beliefs

Like most Space Marine Chapters, the Emperor is not worshiped as a god among the Scions. Unlike most Chapters, he isn’t worshiped at all; the Scions, like Roboute Guilliman, fight for the Emperor’s ideals and the Imperium’s continued survival, and not for the Emperor’s or the Imperium’s beliefs. As a result, they do not possess the fanaticism that plagues most Space Marine Chapters, and are thus keenly aware of the flaws and failings of the Imperium in a way that most Chapters are not. Despite this, they continue to fight on the Imperium’s behalf, and their willingness to do so is utterly unquestionable, though the Imperium’s more fundamentalist elements frequently object to the methods they use to defend the Imperium from the many threats that menace it.

Chapter Combat Doctrine

The Chapter’s limited access to resources and low standing has fostered a ruthlessly pragmatic approach to combat unique to the chapter. For one, they show a shocking propensity for avoiding open, armed conflict when possible; xenos and mutants who aren’t a threat to the Imperium, the Chapter, or the Imperium’s citizens are frequently ignored, and may even become allies to the Chapter if circumstances allow. That being said, while the Chapter does not actively seek out conflict, it is no slouch on the battlefield. Quite the opposite; their ruthless practicality makes them just as much of a threat as stronger, better-equipped Chapters, if not more so.

This pragmatism is most evident in their extreme flexibility when it comes to battlefield tactics. The tactical flexibility displayed by the Ultramarines is taken to an extreme by the Scions; while they specialize in Guerilla Warfare, they also utilize other strategies and methodologies, both traditional and unorthodox, and won’t hesitate to employ heretical tactics and tools that most chapters would balk at, up to and including the usage of Xenos-designed weaponry, non-sanctioned modified equipment, and (*gasp*) calling upon alien allies on the battlefield.

Chapter Gene Seed

The Scions of the Konic’s gene-seed, despite being a product of one of the most stable gene-seeds in the Adeptus Astartes, has a small, ingrained flaw in the form of the ‘Variance Defect’, a product of the slightly rushed process of putting the Chapter together in order to counteract a threat that never came. This flaw manifests itself in completely unpredictable deviations from the psychological profile of the typical Space Marine of variable (albeit usually minor) severity; examples include—but are far from limited to—a near-constant upbeat attitude that continues to persist in even the grimmest of circumstances, an abnormal degree of compassion and empathy expressed toward others, and even one or two cases of transgenderism. While the personality changes that result from the flaw's influence are never more extreme than those caused by any other Chapter flaws, they are far more unpredictable and random, and prevents the Scions from maintaining the same amount of discipline as most other Chapters.

Allegiance: "Fidelis, sed ad longinquitatem servandam"

Due to their outlook on the galaxy differing wildly from the other chapters, it's not too surprising that the traditional dispositions the Scions possess differ somewhat from most Space Marines. As a result, bitter feuds and intense resentment between the Chapter and some of the more fundamentalist divisions of the Imperium are all too common. Most of the bitterness and resentment is on the part of the fundamentalists, though; the Chapter itself, in keeping with its pragmatic beliefs, considers itself above such petty infighting.

Livery and Heraldry

Their symbol is a silver emblem of a winged horse skull superimposed over a silver ultima symbol (the horse skull had something to do with the prophecy, don't ask what because the Scions don't remember). Their colors are similar to those of the Ultramarines, but with the gold replaced with silver.