Guide:How to make a fanon Chaos Space Marine Warband

Okay, we all love to make up our own Warbands, and we want to make them the biggest, most badass ass-kickers this side of the Eye of Terror. Fact is, a lot of people need a little help keeping it canon-friendly. So that's what this is for: just a few tips to help make a canon-friendly Warband; please feel free to add to or edit this if you see anything missing. Jochannon 10:03, October 28, 2010 (UTC)

Note: much of the text here has been copied from Lexicanum under the Fair Use doctrine

What are Chaos Space Marines
The Chaos Space Marines (aka Traitor Marines, Chaos Marines and Traitor Legionnaires) are counted among the most favoured and powerful servants of the Powers of Chaos; they are Space Marines who have fallen to the influence of Chaos, or were made to serve Chaos, and are some of the most dangerous enemies of the Imperium.

Origins
Ten thousand years ago, Horus, Warmaster of the Imperium and most trusted 'son' of the Emperor, was corrupted to the service of Chaos. Besides the Space Marine Legion under his direct command, the Sons of Horus, eight of his brother-Primarchs and their legions also joined him in rebellion against the Emperor.

Only when Horus was slain at the ultimate conflict of the Heresy, was the rebellion broken and the defeated Traitor Legions hounded into the Eye of Terror, which remains both their prison and sanctuary to this day.

The Eye of Terror
Within the confines of the hellish zone of the Galaxy known as the Eye of Terror, the banished Chaos Space Marines, along with their exiled allies and slaves, have created their own Imperium of Chaos. In the most Chaos-saturated region of the galaxy, few in the ten thousand years of their exile have escaped mutation in some form.

Within the Eye, the legions fight among themselves for gene-seed, resources, slaves, or for the greater glory of the Chaos Gods. The legions however are far more driven by their hatred of the Imperium than by internecine rivalry. From the Eye the forces of Chaos Marines emerge to exact their vengeance upon the Imperium, continuing "the long war" begun ten thousand years ago.

History Since
Chaos incursions range from the small scale but brutal raids which can occur anywhere in the galaxy, to the apocalyptic Black Crusades led by the Warmaster of Chaos, Abaddon the Despoiler, when the forces of Chaos in all its forms unite to batter the fortress worlds close to the Eye.

Inevitably, during the ten thousand years following the Heresy, entire chapters of once loyal Space Marines have fallen to Chaos; some have joined the Legions in the Eye of Terror, while others have gone to other areas of Chaos, such as the Maelstrom, or have stayed in the Material realm, continuing their unholy war against their former brethren.

Traitor Legions
Though the Legion remains alive to the Chaos Marines as an identifying concept, in reality all of the Chaos Legions have over time been scattered into separate war bands following rival Chaos Champions; these warbands are roughly equivalent to the Renegade Chapters which have abandoned the Imperium.

Creation of new Chaos Marines
In every Warband, Apothecaries, or their Chaos Marine equivalents, are still charged with the important task of retrieving the gene-seed organs from their fallen brethren.

The Chaos Marines still maintain the process of gene-seeding - the transformation of humans into superhumans through organ implantation and associated psychological and chemical conditioning - in order to create new Chaos Marines; this is the only way to mintain their strength in the midst of unending war.

The children that are turned into new Chaos Marines are bred from slave stock and captives acquired from raids on Imperial worlds. The process is a brutal ordeal, differing from the carefully measured program of development used by Imperial Space Marines: it is said that not one in a hundred survive the process of conversion.

Champion of Chaos
To have a Warband, you must have a Champion, so it seems a good place to start: mightier even than other Traitor Marines.

He might be the old Chapter Master of his Renegade Chapter, or a warrior from one of the Legions who has broken away from his brethren to reap glory and power in the name of Chaos!

When making your Champion, please refrain from using phrases like 'almost as mighty as a Primarch' or 'Nigh Invincible'. Okay, they're really tough, we get that; he's a flipping Chaos Space Marine. Belaboring the point will only make him look like a poser.

Chaos Dedication
Every Legion and Warband have dedicated themselves to one of the four Gods of Chaos, or to Chaos undivided, worshiping the Chaos Gods as an unholy pantheon.

Blessings and Curses of Chaos
The powers of Chaos grant their worshipers blessings and powers beyond those of moral men. But they also curse their followers with mutation, possession, and other, even more terrible fates.

Minor Chaos Gods
Alternatively, your Warband could be dedicated to a minor Chaos God, such as the following:

Ans'l, Mo'rcck and Phraz-Etar are minor Chaos deities. Chaos Space Marines were rumored to praise them by putting spikes on their power armour.

Malice is an entity worshipped as the Renegade God of Chaos and Hierarch of Anarchy and Terror. The Renegade Chapter Sons of Malice are among his followers.

Equipment
Over the millennia the energies that saturate the Eye of Terror have worked their transformative effects on both the living flesh and the inanimate weapons and armour of the Chaos Space Marines. As far as weapons and equipment, the Chaos Legions retain much of their Legiones Astartes heritage. The bolter remains the main weapon even when it has been refigured into a fusion of biological and inorganic parts, or redesigned into strange and baroque forms by the whims of Chaos or the user himself. Although power armour is often unrecognisable as once being Astartes-issue, the suits continue to function the same, and include standard auto-sensory technology, communicators and respirators. Armour has been recoloured and redecorated to show allegiance to the Legion's Chaos patron.

Home
Be it a floating warship, a space station, an uninhabited moon, defiled Imperial planet, or a Crone World deep in the Eye of Terror, every Warband needs a fortress from which to lash out against the cowardly followers of the False Emperor.

Some Warbands make their homes in gigantic Space Hulks which wander randomly through the immaterium, permitting them to strike without warning throughout the galaxy.

Favored Tactics
Every Legion, Warband, and Renegade Chapter has a role they tend to fill in battle: deep penetration, pin-point assaults, jungle warfare, tunnel fighting, terror strikes or they could be your simple everyday unstoppable psychotic super-soldiers.

Background
If it's a Renegade Chapter, when did they fall to Chaos? How? Why? If a Warband, how did your Champion gather his followers about him? Why are they dedicated to the Chaos Power they are?

Enemies
You cannot be a Chaos Warband without getting some favorite enemies; followers of rival Chaos Powers, Rivals for the affections of your Patron, some Imperial planet that has thus far stymied you on your path to Galactic domination. ..

Colors
Your Warband might not have any particular colors, each member just wearing whatever colors he pleases, but most people give their Warbands their own colors and symbols. If you do, I suggest you go check out the Bolter and Chainsword Chaos Space Marine Painter http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?s=d28f772f6ed81e468e368f4bca88e30d&autocom=pages it can help give you an idea of what the colors will look like on a Marine, and you can download the pictures you make.