The SECOND FOUNDING and EVERY Space Marine Chapter it Created! | Warhammer 40,000 Lore

[@Nomand55]

The 2nd founding was always so interesting to me. Its basically the heroes of the heresy establishing their own chapters.

[@collecter343]

Fun to look up characters as you go through the Heresy books and realize “Wait, these guys formed their own Chapters”

[@Xick]

Or... probably the other way around for most of them: Long-existing chapters getting new founding heroes as prequels were written.

[@The-Avien]

Yeah most of these heroes were created for the heresy series and based on the chapters that already existed in 40k. It’s a nice way to tie them together but I do think they tend to make the successor chapters less interesting than more to be honest. They took chapters with specific traits, then created a hero character that personified those traits and they become the founding chapter master. Rather than diverging over time to develop their own character, they just took on the traits of their master. *shrug* just seems less interesting to me

[@tridonstrident6785]

@@The-Avien I think it depends how many of the total Space Marine Chapters got turned into second-founding. If enough were left as later founding Chapters that came about as you described, I think it's fine.

[@MobiusCoin]

Now I'm just imagining some kid at some recruitment fair and there's like a thousand different Space Marine recruiters, each in their differently coloured power armour, handing out flyers and trying to get the kid into the tent to watch their hype video being like "forget the Ultramarines, you really want to be a Space Shark!"

[@aguywithalotofopinions412]

That’s such a fun image omg

[@malcadorgaming9318]

If it would be that easy there would be way more astartes around. Sadly you have to be a real anime protagonist to be even considered as a recruit. Then go through insane trails and survive the progress of becoming an astartes

[@maturin1919]

But seriously, forget the f**king Ultramarines.

[@sargonixofur1234]

“So young man, you finally admit you’re a Furry?” “Erm… yes sir, it’s really embarrassing….” “Excellent, welcome aboard the Space Wolves!”

[@psychoobst33]

Upon joining a chapter, the kid gets a space marine sized t-shirt with their new chapter emblem. The kid could use it as a tent without problem. "Dont worry, you'll grow into it" the recruiting marine simply says...

[@angusjamieson9236]

I just got on a 3 hour bus ride, this could not have come at a better time

[@sergiocrowe9848]

Warhammer lore is perfect for long-ass bus journeys!

[@daveeol1987]

Enjoy

[@heralds]

You got 2 hours leftover

[@Nemeroth888]

1 hour to go, watch it a third time?

[@freddie4901]

This guy is on a blackship

[@JoeMagician]

All these space marine chapters that picked some variation of skulls as their sigil probably need to watch that Mitchell and Webb sketch "Are we the baddies?". Although I suspect a lot of the chapters would answer proudly "Yes we are".

[@ThorGiske]

A lot were the destroyer chapters of the legions

[@OljeiKhan]

Calling an Astartes "bad" or "evil" or anything of the sort would get you a blank stare or I AM WRATH! I AM FURY! I AM HIS VENGEANCE, DELIVERED! I AM THE SKIES OF YOUR WORLD TORN ASUNDER! I AM DESTRUCTION UNCHAINED! I AM THE BREAKER OF GODS AND THE SLAYER OF KINGS! I HAVE NO NEED OF YOUR PATHETHIC *COMPLIMENT* PUNY MORTAL!

[@Xick]

I always thought the skull thing was a symbol of the decaying Imperium's morbid death worship embodied by their horrible Corpse Emperor, but it turns out the Empire does that in Fantasy too, and they have perfectly alive emperors and a founder who went out to buy milk one day and never had his death recorded.

[@Pipes7472]

@@Xickthat’s a good take. I think the emperor says it has to do with something that even in its morbid form, humanity is beautiful. Or someone

[@nakenmil]

I've noticed that one of the (many) things the Horus Heresy novels have influenced about the 40k fandom is that people nowadays, especially newer entrants, tend to think of Space Marines much more in terms of the Legions than they latch onto Chapters. Back in the 90s and 00s the legion geneseed was obviously an element, but you could just as well obsess about the Black Templars, Crimson Fists, Mantis Warriors, Flesh Tearers, Lamenters, or any of the other wacky 21st Founding chapters, or even the goddamn Legion of the Damned (not actually a legion). I kinda miss when not EVERYTHING was seen through the lens of the HH.

[@armata_strigoi_0]

I agree. It's conflicting, because some of the best fluff is from Heresy, but when you zoom out and see the big picture, I think it was a mistake to explore it so thoroughly. To go on a slight tangent, the bigger issue to me is that it's created something of a "forest for the trees" effect, by focusing the eye of the observer through the lens of character-driven narrative. IMO, 40K is not a place for characters who are agents of the world. Their agency should be self-contained because they're reactionary, the world acts upon them and not the other way around. There may have been a time of grand, world-changing heroes, but it has long since passed into myth. Now they're just our view into this place, in some ways just observers like we are. Candles scattered in the darkness. Or to put it more simply lol, setting rather than narrative.

[@nakenmil]

@@armata_strigoi_0 I agee. If the Imperium is intended as a dystopia (and it is), then it's a lot easier to create sympathetic protagonists when they're essentially powerless to improve things. They're trying to stay afloat amidst the cruel whim and horrific structures of the Imperium and wider galaxy, just barely holding on. But when you make 40k more character-driven, with powerful characters who are in a position to actually change things, like Guilliman, it becomes a bit harder to treat the Imperium as something that's just there, as it were. It goes from being something that shapes the characters to something the characters shape. Should people expect the Imperium to gradually improve now that more sympathetic characters are in charge? I'm honestly not sure what GW has in mind, they seem to flip-flop a little from book to book. I don't expect the Imperium to ever turn into a NICE place, but I worry that they'll lean into the whole narrative that the Imperium is only bad because of outside influences and not its own utterly corrupt, self-serving and hidebound elites as well.

[@aguywithalotofopinions412]

@@nakenmilI don’t think they’ll ever go that route. If there’s one thing that’s been kept consistent is that the Imperium is an evil entity. There are good people in it, and even good factions, but overall it’s still a warmongering, authoritarian, needlessly cruel regime who started because one guy wanted to control everything. Even Gulliman and the Lion are starting to come to terms with how messed up the crusade was.

[@nakenmil]

@@aguywithalotofopinions412 I think the issue is that we have major power-players that are aware, in-universe that the Imperium is shooting itself in the foot and isn't justified a lot of the time. This implies that they're going to try and change it, doesn't it? Guilliman has already kinda started. We now have a bunch of characters in the High Lords that are presented as kinda competent and even kinda sympathetic, whereas previously the High Lords were generally presented as mostly just working to amass power for their own insitutution at the cost of the wider imperium.

[@aguywithalotofopinions412]

@@nakenmil And is that bad?

[@bentilbury2002]

Be funny if Johnson owns up to Guilliman about Luther and his rebellion, and Guilliman goes, "oh *that* old story, yeah we all knew about that, bad show... what about it? I hope your boys haven't been worrying about that all this time?". 😁

[@disposable157]

"Did you think no-one noticed you blew up your own home world? You know, the thing the Night Lords got censured for?"

[@903lew]

”Yeah bruv, shit happens innit? Yeah whatevs, I had some of mine go rogue, what-cha-gonna-do?”

[@Hewrin88]

Would love to see Asmodai's face when this happens

[@Nobody-zl3kk]

@@Hewrin88 Have you seen the video of the skeleton with its mouth wide open and then it collapses into the ground? yeah that.

[@TheCityofTownsville]

Since Guilliman has returned, he should be able to recall (from memory) his UltraLedger of all Second Founding chapters.

[@Yurt_enthusiast7]

I always liked that the DA simply painted their armour in different colours and then kept on like earlier

[@ArbitorIan]

Don't forget to keep quiet about the Firewing and Dreadwing. They wouldn't like those!

[@ZaKRo-bx7lp]

1000 marines always seemed too low, but it makes sense if you think of them as raiding shock troops instead of being the main force like in the heresy or the Great Crusade

[@lazyc0mmander277]

A thousand marines per chapter is fine, especially if you consider there can always be multiple chapters present on a front if need be. It's that there are supposed to be only a thousand chapters that seem ridiculous. Even if we take the idea of a million imperial worlds, that still leaves about a thousand that need to be protected by each chapter.

[@WozWozEre]

Exactly, hyper elite shock troops more like reusable cruise missiles than feontline infantry? Yep, 1000 is perfectly reasonable. Dumbass BL fiction showing them doing the Guards job of fighting chaff on pointless frontlines and taking casualties all over? Yeah we need more than 1000. If only GW/BL were more consistent in how they portrayed them in lore.

[@Nukefandango]

It's still really, really low regardless, but sci-fi writers have always struggled with scale.

[@SmokesKwazukii]

It feels way too low for former legions like the Blood Angels, Imperial Fists and even the Ultramarines. There just seems to be way fucking more of those guys than 1000

[@ZaKRo-bx7lp]

@SmokesKwazukii Progenitor chapters have a bunch of closely aligned successor chapters or extra companies that are at their beck and call at any time. Blood Angels pretty much were nearly at legion strength at the defence of Baal.

[@Bluecho4]

The Silver Skulls "definitely not Iron Warriors" illustrates that at least some of the 2nd Founding chapters might have actually been loyalist members of traitor legions. Given new designations as a way of obscuring their origins, so they could be returned to the Imperial fold with minimal friction. During the post-Heresy years, there was bound to be lots of lingering resentment and paranoia about traitors. So being able to erase the histories of those Blackshield warbands would have sidestepped the issue. Perhaps posted to far-flung territories, away from those loyalist legions with considerable animosity towards their traitorous parents. While some of these chapters might have continued doing their own thing in terms of organization, others likely hewed very close to the Codex Astartes. Reasoning that they couldn't afford suspicion.

[@jaredwasserman1092]

The difference is we have out of setting statements from the authors that the Silver Skulls are fully Ultramarines.

[@Kubulin24]

They still can be tribute to Dantioch. He earned honors post mortem from Guilliman. Why not a chapter heraldry, right?

[@GoldenKaos]

⁠​⁠@@jaredwasserman1092 And imo they shouldn’t have said that and ruined the mystery, so I disregard it.

[@jaredwasserman1092]

@@GoldenKaos By mystery do you mean how people were saying they were Iron Warriors explicitly with zero evidence? Or how half the community hears, "Implied/rumored" and interprets it as, "Absolute fact?"

[@GoldenKaos]

@@jaredwasserman1092 The community take the ball and run with it on wild theories all the time, and as they should. Theorycrafting and joining in by creating your version of the Warhammer setting(s) - YourHammer - and sharing headcanon is an integral part of the Hobby. Interpreting the Silver Skulls as Iron Warriors loyalists is a neat fit and a popular headcanon. In 40k of all settings there should be room for contradicting accounts and mysterious origins, and I think it’s a mistake for a creator in that setting to see people get fired up about a cool alternative theory and then use the authoritative God Voice to pour cold water all over it.

[@Frosty4427]

I always thought the Dark Angel's shame of the Fallen was funny. Every legion had traitor elements, but oh no, not the first. They promise.

[@Mugdorna]

The hubris of the 1st legion

[@kevinoliver3083]

The things the Dark Angels have done to keep their secret will be far more damaging, than just admitting that they had a few traitors.

[@collecter343]

I imagine it was small at first but because the Fallen kept on appearing over time, the DA’s actions to hide them snowballed into things being way worse than if they just admitted to having a few turned marines.

[@GoldenKaos]

They were definitely overly prideful about it, and secretive from the start, but I don’t think any of the other loyalist Legions went full 50/50 loyalist/traitor as the DA did. Plus at the time they were written, loyalists from Traitor Legions and traitors from Loyalist legions (during the HH) was a much rarer occurrence in the fluff. The DA being split down the middle was huge and unique, most of the work give other legions more shades of gray on this front came years later.

[@singtothesilence]

You know the kid who takes a bite from a cookie, but then it's obvious that one of the cookies has been eaten, so he takes a bite of every other cookie to try and cover his tracks? That's the dark angels to me.

[@kitsoskitsou]

Ah, the feeling I get when Arbitor Ian videos drop is like seeing Astartes droppods at a warzone as an imperial citizen

[@6dragondaddy913]

Wait, why are there spikes and weird symbols on those pods?

[@glandhound]

Most imperial citizen doubt that astartes even exist.

[@kitsoskitsou]

@@glandhound i want to believe :p

[@lorddashdonalddappington2653]

uuuh a sense of impending doom?

[@MrBoemmel]

Untill you see they're the Marines Malevolent xD

[@BlastastiC]

Brazen Claws enjoyer here. I like their Iron Hands nutter-ness and the colour scheme blue + red + white, they look like a War of the Roses House of York historicals army. The Brazen Claws also have their roots in the Clan Morragul, though they are specifically the 34th clan company, so they also have a pre 2nd founding heritage. This is why their heraldry is also (confusingly) the red talon.

[@seancorcoran26]

The Dark Angels "grave secret" that half their legion turned traitor is so funny nowadays where entire Chapters have had similar schisms or there are recent chapters that are heavily implied to be founded using traitor geneseed. I like to think that one day the Dark Angels realise how much time they wasted hunting the Fallen and keeping secrets when their dark secret is finally revealed and everyone just goes "Okay whatever we don't really care"

[@Yacovo]

Angels of Absolution: The First Legion successor chapter that got all the Legion's therapists. Thanks for the video.

[@Dustind1211]

Woah, a whole hour of listening to the Arbitor? What have we done to be blessed by such a wonderful gift! Praise the Arbitor for sharing such lovely lore with their incredible voice!

[@haiironezumi]

Space Marines: Genetically engineered to be able to glean information from eating their enemies. Space Marine Lore: Eating enemies bad! Weird behaviour! No do!

[@PrimitiveBeast]

This should make a come back

[@TaleNodati]

So Guilliman takes precaution that no one primarch can wield a lot of power. Yet irony upon irony. When he comes back in 40, he's pretty much given the rule of the Empire.

[@ThorGiske]

Hes the only one who should get it

[@Warpwaffel]

And then there are the Space Sharks...um I mean Charcharodons. They may be a Second Founding (or older?) successor of the Raven Guard. Or maybe something completely different, who knows.

[@ArbitorIan]

Yeah I left them out because I think the consensus is that they just sorta showed up one day and people were like 'er...how about you be a chapter now?'

[@Ryan30z]

It's extremely heavily implied that they descend from Terran veterans of the Raven Guard who were banished by Corax

[@Bluecho4]

They're definitely not loyalist Night Lords. Totally.

[@TheSniperGTO]

Pretty sure they are Loyalist Night Lords. Nobody knows what happened to Sevatar. And several Night Lords were like Talos, in that they wanted to be a hero, and felt that brutality and terror, correctly applied to the proper recipients, was the best means of bringing justice. They are known as having black eyes, pale skin, and can operate unnaturally well in darkness, even for Astartes. They also rarely speak, but when they do, it’s in a soft, sibilant language that nobody understands. Since Nostraman was also described as a soft, sibilant language, and only one planet spoke it, and said planet was destroyed over 10,000 years ago, it seems plausible that the language the Carcharadons is speaking is Nostraman. Add to that their patchwork, cobbled together armor and equipment, and their incredibly violent, murderous, bloodthirsty tactics, I believe they are descendants of Night Lords who want to serve the Imperium, but are under no illusions that if their heritage was discovered, they would face annihilation, which is why they take such extensive measures to ensure their genetic history remains undiscovered. I doubt GW will ever definitively answer the question, so I make this theory based on available information. They may be a lost chapter of Iron Hands, or Death Guard, or remnants of one of the 2 Lost Legions. Believe what you want.

[@Dokari-l9m]

@@TheSniperGTO I’ve heard so many different theories, lore bits, and head cannons so I just rub with a simple idea. They are raven wing that adopted loyalists world eaters and night lords and mixed over the years.

[@ZaKRo-bx7lp]

Ian's lore dives are always so well researched. You can tell that he knows most of this by heart.

[@CrimsonTemplar2]

Excellent history lesson. I cooked up my DIY chapter during the Rogue Trader days & have tweaked its backstory over the editions. I went with the successor chapter to a successor chapter angle.

[@soupalex]

is your diy chapter named "the fighting tigers of veda"? 😃

[@joaovitorreisdasilva9573]

Wait, writters actually made a homage to Carandiru? It was a massive prison in São Paulo, where a NASTY massacre of inmates occurred.

[@Pipes7472]

Blood angels “we should really hide our curse like the other legions have been doing and shroud our history with mystery” Also Blood angels: *creates chapter called the blood drinkers and flesh tearers*

[@redman18904]

Ian really putting in the work. You should get a shout out in some book as "remembrancer Ian" or "the Arbitor Archivist" or something man. Awesome work!

[@peterhiggins2325]

Arbitor Ian's videos are definitely my favourite warhammer lore videos on youtube. Always so informative with a nice presentation style. I always come away with a greater appreciation of armies/factions I don't know much about or don't collect.

[@lucaswest5078]

Please could you cover the Cursed Founding soon?

[@Tsotha]

Would be interesting to see an Arbitor Ian video about the 21st, for sure! He would probably go in depth about how the lore surrounding it has changed between different editions of WH40K.

[@overseastom]

The grasp you have on all this lore is truly incredible. It sure seems like there's a *lot* of history & nuance to it all. You make a good video, brother.

[@aidanmckeown4791]

Wow, you're really uploading at an increased pace these days, love it!

[@hedonismbot3798]

"Never again would one person, even a Primarch, command as much power as the expeditionary fleets or legions of old." Roboute Guilliman returns: "Forget all that stuff, I'm in charge of the enormous Indomitus Crusade." No unilateral dictators!* *unless it's me! Just another example of the Imperium's hypocrisy! :D

[@Yandarval]

To be fair. Its his position of Imperial Regent/Lord Commander that gives him the authority. Not him being a Primarch. Someone has to be in charge of all Imperial forces. The in place humans are the time of his return have already proved they are not up to the job.

[@QuixoticCowboy]

To be fair, Guilliman is probably the only leader that isn't just the absolute worst and a net positive for not just the imperium but the galaxy as a whole.

[@hedonismbot3798]

@@Yandarval So you're saying it's his position of MASTER over the entire WAR effort that gives him the authority. Well I'm glad that someone thought to give a single man (primarch in this case) the power over the entire force. I hope there are no precedents in 40k history for that going wrong... :P

[@Yandarval]

@@hedonismbot3798 Hmm. More that he picked up the title he had had at the end of the Heresy, Lord Commander. This "nebulous" title, to me, looks to combine the top uniformed officer AND the political head of of all Imperial forces. Like the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defence rolled into one. He has the defacto title of Imperial Regent. As he had a chat with Big E and walked out in one piece. So the presumption by the Imperium, is Big E is fine with what he is doing. So he has the political authority of the head of state and Government too. From the state of the Imperium upon his return. The obvious corruption and lack of ability in the High Lords. Bobby G is the only one, Primarch or not. That could do the job singlehanded. Even he is suffering under the strain. In his mind. No one seems to be competent, loyal or selfless enough to be given any of the job roles. Empire building is why the Imperium is in the state it is. Bobby knows that the Tetrarch system would not wash on Terra. Astartes in charge like they are in Ultramar would cause another war. So having Astartes be given such political roles is out too. its mainly, due to being A. Bobby G, B. Primach and C. Emperor's son D. the Imperium's first real hope in millennia. That he has not got much pushback, apart from the initial fun with the High lords at the start. It says a lot about how those in power, are starting to see that he is their only hope of keeping the wolves from the door now.

[@hedonismbot3798]

@@Yandarval Oh I get the reasoning, and I even agree that for the Imperium to survive it makes sense to give him the job. I'm just pointing out that he was specifically against this level of power concentration when he had the job last time. And the Emperor also signed off on Horus, so his judgement is... provably flawed. But I think it does highlight that Imperium has always been a snake eating its own tail - even at the height of the Great Crusade there were the seeds of its own destruction (Emperor's mistreatment of the Primarchs and refusal to warn them about Chaos, trust in a single warmaster, and the structure of the legiones concentrating logistics and power). To me, 40k is a tragic, nihilistic setting, and these contradictions are what make it interesting!

[@TheMrFishnDucks]

Great video. Informative and entertaining. Thank you for having great pacing, this went through smoothly. Keep up the good work.

[@brunorochaleao]

The prison world of Carandiru is a deep cut of Brazilian recent history

[@michaelstevens5712]

A tremendous film as well.

[@Gee_359]

Thanks, love going through videos like these. The flesh tearers just confirm as the most hardcore Blood Angels chapter ever (and imo better than the original lol)

[@MortalCosta]

Here is where I get to shout out my chapter, Lets Go White Consuls!!! We are so cool we have two chapter masters Edit; I think both of them are dead though

[@UKscalemodeller]

An hour? An HOUR! Well I know where my evening is headed now 🙂

[@totalCoolerUsername]

This is a lengthy one, very nice! Thanks Ian ^^

[@samurairex7825]

40k kills me because realistically most legions would have like 10 successors at a minimum while others like the ultramarines should have well over 50 in the 2nd founding

[@ArbitorIan]

I mean, if the UMs were anywhere near there old size, they'd have 200 successors! But who knows, maybe they were all lost in the mists of time time time time....

[@soupordave]

@@ArbitorIan Or there were a lot more Renegade Space Marines out there than the Imperium would like to admit to...

[@jaredwasserman1092]

Part of this is the current legion numbers we have do not take into account losses taken during the Heresy. Plus there likely were plenty of other 2nd founding chapters that simply didn't survive to M41.

[@Bear-form]

​@@ArbitorIanThe chapter master would rule over 1000 Astartes. Decentralization.

[@richtheunstable3359]

Earlier lore on size of legions often mentioned 10,000 or 10s of thousands. Also had something like only 3 survivers of the drop site massacre. If Horus's forces are supposed to have breached the Emperor's inner palace during the siege you would expect those legions to have ridiculously high casualty rates

[@fujoyoshi4368]

The funniest thing about all these successor chapters is when you make up you own unique colour scheme only to find out its been done like 5 times

[@Tejbegrizzly]

Holy fuck you uploaded it a day ago, I just started to exactly explore this topic as I want to see all the chapters. God bless dude!

[@Tsotha]

Good job as usual Ian! Lots of information even I hadn't encountered - like 2nd founding chapters I've never heard of, or surprisingly in depth background for rather obscure chapters like the Novamarines.

[@DJC_8819]

Needed this video for around 20 years, emperor knows I LOVE THIS CHANNEL

[@Rhyside]

Fun thing in lore is that, there is always place for more chapters. For example: If second founding split Legions in 1k strenght chapters. And we have only 3 official dark angels successors that means whole Horus Heresy survived only 4k dark angels. It is really low number. There is no official records about how many space marines survived in every Legion. So we can keep adding new and new 2nd founding chapters.

[@philipkelly7369]

Yeah it's meant to leave room for you to be able you invent your own guys and say "These are the Angels of Fightin' Real Good and they are a 2nd founding Dark Angel successor"

[@KurgantheLurker]

@ArbitorIan The poster that is at 9:26 of the video, where is that from?

[@NicholasSisneros-g1c]

50+ mins of Ian is time well spent

[@Abir-cb4ii]

I love you dude especially for these Lore videos your just so good at it even when it's stuffs I already know.

[@samlynch8760]

Absolutely LOVE your longer videos dude! Please keep it up!

[@Clottedone]

Just finished a 12 hour shift…. And this is exactly what I needed

[@gordlarson3917]

Absolutely amazing. This is a great video. Your channel really stands out with work like this. Thank you for all the hard work for our silly hobby. Cheers

[@ElCid_1099]

Great to see the Silver Guard get a mention. Really enjoyed this one and hoping you cover some of the other major foundings

[@lloydjohns441]

I like it when Ian uploads new videos I enjoy watching them

[@August-p9g]

Me too, man

[@randyrinesmith1081]

Where could I find a.copy of the poster shown at 9:20? Also, where can I find the pictures of armor color for each unit.

[@sdzerog7166]

Really enjoyed this video, Ian. The one question I had. I didn't see the Praetors of Orpheus addressed as an Ultramarine 2nd founding chapter, though it's listed in several of the codexes and editions as a 2nd founding chapter (I believe the earliest instance was the 2nd edition Ultramarine codex). Have I missed updated lore that changed them?

[@Th3Shyguy]

Seeing the silver skulls is funny having listened to the infinite and the divine

[@michaelstrange2285]

Am I the only one who wants to paint up a marine from each of these Second Founding chapters? Thanks, Ian, for the video.

[@Malky24]

Soul Drinkers lore is crazy if you really get into it. There's a whole video on it if you want to go that far.

[@alexandervega79]

Hi Ian, I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet but you missed one of the successor chapters of the Dark Angels; the Guardians of the Covenant chapter. In fact they are my favorite successors of the DA. They took part in a number of cooperative missions with their founding chapter including the Siege of the Fenris system in ~999.M41. Their home world is Mortikah VII located in the Segmentum Pacificus sector, where they have their fortress monastery which resembles a large, gothic cathedral. They have a adopted a very monastic existence and this is even apparent in the choice of weaponry as they tend to use a lot maces, clubs and hammers for close combat. The Grand Master of their chapter is Master Himmaeus who has interacted with Supreme Grand Master Azrael on many occasions including in the Battle of Idolatros in part 5 of the Arks of Omen storyline. They wear red, black and silver with their iconography being two downward crossed swords which is the old symbol of the Deathwing during the Horus Heresy, minus the halo or ring encircling the swords. Their current strength is unrecorded but it is presumed to be in accordance with the Codex Astartes. They have only listed one of their ancient relics which is the Record of Oblivion which is a data tome that apparently has an extensive record of the many Xenos civilizations which the Imperium of Man has laid low. Hope this was informative.

[@ArbitorIan]

They're also from an unknown founding!

[@alexandervega79]

@@ArbitorIan Guardians of the Covenant? No sir, I’m certain they are successors of the Dark Angels.

[@HABmapper]

​@@alexandervega79Number of founding being the key operator, though.

[@alexandervega79]

@@HABmapper I’m not sure I understand. I assume you mean they’re young as far as successor chapters go. Like what year were they founded? Which I now see might’ve been what Ian also meant, at least I think 😅. Initially I misunderstood Ian thinking he meant to say their founders are unknown. My mistake. Regardless I very much enjoyed the video. Thank you for all the content you put out and please keep it up 👍

[@markman11111]

​@alexandervega79 yeah, the second founding refers to the successor chapters established *immediately* after the Heresy. Later chapters created are considered the third founding, fourth, and so on.

[@saul6134]

Thanks for the vid, my marines are mainly charnel guard so its nice to see them mentioned!

[@LocSec]

“You didn’t even bother to paint your minis for the game!” *me looking down at my chapter of Fist Exemplars*

[@richtheunstable3359]

Strange how the 2nd founding has changed over the years. Now it is enacted by an all powerful Regent, who simply thinks its a neat idea. When previously it was a comprimise between R.G and the high lords of Terra who saw the Astartes as a problem and were potentially against the idea of them rebuilding at all. It was space marines who wounded the Emperor and rore up the Imperium after all. I miss the days when the Imperium was supposed to as suspicious as much as they are in awe of the Astartes.

[@AlastairPaterson]

Great video. Really enjoy listening to your lore work whilst I’m working 👍

[@flaviomonteiro1414]

The Consacrators are basically similar to the Blood Ravens portraid by the memes. They have a love for relics and some books said that they were created with that objective in mind, collect relics that maybe related to The Fallen.

[@felipemelo5832]

39:25 Carandiru was an actual prison in São Paulo, Brazil where over a 100 inmates were killed by police after a riot took place. Just a (morbid) piece of trivia I wanted to add to the video. Cheers!

[@Hebwastaken]

I got a pain reliever advert just after you started talking about the Fists’ pain obsession 😂

[@republ33k]

Really fascinating video! Would love to see more about the other foundings, although they might not be as interesting as the second one!

[@Dustind1211]

Fantastic video! Would love to see an episode on the Cursed Founding and on the Pentarchy of Blood!

[@mkstarstorm8822]

This is a great Video! It would be cool to see something similar for chaos warbands.

[@Tw0Three]

I always found it kind of poetic the Emporer that lived on earth through it's history entirely but yet used legions which have proved problematic with coups. The one primarch that is heavily influenced heavily on Roman astetics and lore was the one that said no more, break the legions up. It's fitting.

[@stevekearns6173]

Great job man, really great!

[@gninalex]

Your intro/outro song I find exceptionally moving

[@MJC1891]

Man I recently found out about warhammer and it’s has some of the best lore there is.

[@iamstephen1128]

Where do the graphics in the intro come from? the ones like at 0:10 that show the various color schemes and heraldry?

[@troym8]

Codex Space Marines

[@london_TC]

You forgot the Master Baiters who's heraldry is a fist around a snake

[@docterfantazmo]

A Flesh Tearer was mad about the new rules, colour me surprised.

[@dalgafaik966]

This was a genuinely lovely way to spend an hour, listening to the lore behind the different chapters that have always been on the periphery of my knowledge... and some surprises there for me (Sons of Medusa weren't 2nd Founding?!) but brilliantly put together. Would love to hear your thoughts on the Soul Drinkers novels, because I was not a massive fan, and really interesting that the Chapter has reappeared as Ultima founding...

[@alexmikelson8529]

That's cool af , just started my dive into the lore !

[@Astuar]

Correction. Crimson Fists were initially fleet based chapter. They got custodianship of the Rynn's World after they help defend it sometime pre 40k. During the book "Rynn's World" it is said there were there for some long time already and the Fortressed is partially build form the Flagship itself.

[@hafajulz]

@arbitor ian What book are you pulling these wonderful images and descriptions from 1:01 for example? Please I need to know, I will buy it RIGHT NOW!!!

[@CICellDirectorCairmann]

the white consuls and the lords of silence is one of the coolest clashes of loyalist vs traitor in any of the books and i will die on that hill.

[@jeffjstock]

Great video! Love diving into chapter lore. This is patreon calibre content.

[@DaftDart]

Great lore video Arbitor lan

[@MartyFreeze]

Thanks for another great lore dump, Ian!

[@laurenbastin8849]

Libator: care for a refreshing beverage, my lord primarch? Guilliman: thank you my son, I actual- oh god, what in the warp is that?!

[@philvalz]

Ian, our favorite narrator of future history.

[@leodhasw-s3739]

I always thought it odd that Salamanders never recovered their numbers in 10000 years, but my head cannon is that when the Death Guard assaulted the world around the time Vulcan returned (Vulcan lives, * stomp stomp *) they wrecked absolutely havoc and all sorts of Nurgle nasties! The planet only not being infected still as the contagion was burned away by the natural environment

[@Tyracus]

The salamanders usually stick in to some of the battles which seem like lost causes, have a smaller recruiting pool, and take longer to raise/train their scouts (washing out is less likely to be fatal barring rejection of the surgical procedures). They also tend to win the day at great cost for the sake of humans who may have been in theatre.

[@konkejoe]

Hello, im just starting in Warhammer 40k universe and i was wondering where can i find those pages of info that are shown in the video. Im looking for info on the exact colors and insignias of the different chapters that exists and the wiki simply isnt enough.

[@brianpj5860]

Wasn’t the carcharadons Chapter rumored to be a 2nd founding of Raven guard exiles?? Or is that wrong?

[@ArbitorIan]

They're pretty heavily implied to be raven guard exiles but we have no idea when they 'returned' and what, if any, founding they were lumped in with

[@vinvenal4243]

Ian! This is the thing I can never get my head around when it comes to space marine lore. There's meant to be 1000 marines per chapter, and there's sposed to be about 1000 chapters, so about a million marines in the galaxy. The galaxy apparently has, at the lowest estimate, about 5 quadrillion humans in it (could be much more). That means there's meant to be 1 space marine per billion humans. Now there's obviously no way to compare space marines to military units on earth today, but if we look at the elite of the elite, say Navy Seals, the equivalent numbers are roughly 1 Navy Seal per 3 million people on earth. To write that out that's a difference between 1:3,000,000 and 1:1,000,000,000. So compared to the number total humans, there's minimum 300 times more Navy Seals on Earth now than there's supposed to be space marines in the galaxy in 40k. And thats using the most Conservative numbers possible, and not even accounting for all the humans outside the empire. So my question is, considering the magnitudinous scale of the imperium of man, and the scale at which its wars are fought, how are space marines supposed to be a significant force in the galaxy at all, let alone a single chapter, like the ultramarines, who seem to be at the centre of nearly every significant event? It seems infeasible. Like the scale of combat in 40k is inconceivable. 14 million Krieg soldiers died in one day in the seige of Vraks. There were significantly less than 5000 marines there in total by my reckoning. Unless each marine is literally killing hundreds of thousands of men, what difference do they even make, and why would the imperium even go to the trouble of creating them when it could just draft another billion guardsmen in a fraction of the time it takes to create 1 spacebro? You feel me?

[@Capt.DanInJapan]

GW fluff is infamous for not doing numbers well. Same as its game design team, I guess... Thanks to GW enjoying the concept of unreliable narrators, there are all kinds of things you can do to make the numbers make more sense. Increase them by a magnitude or two, create more chapters, maybe there are two or more Chapters that share history and name. The world is your toaster!

[@samhunter1205]

Also I think it is heavily implied that some chapters do not stick to the 1000 limitation, and with the Primaris marines there may well be far more than 1000 chapters now . . . not to mention the various chapters the Imperium has lost track of, like the Carcharadons

[@samurairex7825]

There have to be well over 1000 chapters. forgetting the number of humans in the galaxy just the sheer size of what they have to protect and patrol would require well over 2000 chapters

[@Ryan30z]

Hopefully someone else can remember where it's from and who says it (I think it's Guilliman). But some character says the idea that there's only 1000 chapters is a commonly held misconception, and that there are far more.

[@jaredwasserman1092]

>14 million Krieg soldiers died in one day No. That is the number of Krieg who died across the entire 17 years of Vraks. Please read the actual sources. And the reason space marines work is because they don't need to be at every battle. They don't even need to be at the majority of battles. They only need to be force multipliers at the ones that matter. They are a force for when you simply can't shove more guardsmen into a space because of simple physics. Astartes aren't protecting every population center or every world. They're protecting 2 or 3 on only the most important worlds. They're protecting the space port at the sector capital and no where else. Keep in mind that the majority of Imperial Guard, who have way more galactic mobility than the rest of humanity, will never see an astartes in their life. There are whole sectors of space with no astartes presence because nothing there is considered vital enough.

[@betobrakmo9157]

I could be wrong but I think the Soul Drinkers always thought themselves to be descendants of the Imperial fists but during their trial in the final soul drinker book Phalanx they were proved not to be.

[@timhough]

Yeah the book confirmed they definitely aren't Descendant from Dorn. Was surprised Ian didn't allude to them likely being loyalists from a traitor legion like he did with the Silver Skulls. Thousand Sons seems to line up the most given the nature of their demise.

[@michaelinnes2754]

@@timhough I think "Master of Mankind" hints that they may be from the Lost Legions.

[@shaneomac5038]

At 1:04 seconds where it shows the space marines, what book is this from please?

[@drew-drewzilla-borham9276]

It’s probably the Space Marine codex. I have the Chaos Space Marines codex and all of the Chaos legions are displayed like this. You can also google “Space Marine Legions” and most of them one up. Hope this helps.

[@jonnowocky8179]

I never can reconcile with the numbers stated in the lore - sometimes low thousands - but also populating planets? There’s hundreds of pieces of artwork spanning decades that depict 100 x these numbers, huge cities, clouds of ships, battles spanning into the distance. The stated quantities just dont support the armour and fleet capacity they’re always shown to control - a single aircraft carrier can house 3000-6000 navy crew

[@gubgub4182]

Bro it's 6:30 am where I live.... Perfect for a pre work video

[@Krulltårta]

I loooove this,pleaase make more longer vids!

[@chilihobbes6244]

Outstanding and fascinating video from the apex 40k loremaster.

[@grandadmiral8173]

The second founding is always fun to create chapter's with questionable heritages such as the space sharks, silver skulls, doom eagles etc while also creating your own fun homebrews. For example I have 2 homebrews from lost world eaters and Luna wolves companies who just labeled themselves as blood angel and ultramarine successors

[@Rog2theD]

What picture is that at 4:52?

[@MidwestMountainMan]

22:30 easiest paint scheme of any chapter

[@delshadsaid731]

Love your content brother

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

I wouldve thought that the Soul Drinkers were one of the weird ones. I thought it was discovered during their trial that their geneseed wasn’t Dorne’s, but they had always been present at the feasts of blades for it’s entire history, so it was at some point assumed they must be a Dornean successor.

[@muratferguson4534]

GREATEST Video for all newcomers

[@dannyketch7683]

I loved this one. Could you do a similar one for the Cursed Founding?

[@merocaine]

I always thought games workshop kind of messed up the second founding. 1000 men in a chapter and 1000 chapters in a laughable size for a military force. They were a couple of orders of magnitude too small.

[@merocaine]

@@nekiyia I honestly think they just came up with it on the spur of the moment and didn't really give it much thought, 1000 is kind of a cool round number, very Mongol, bit mystical. In reality, a lose a ship and you can lose half a chapter in a go. So then your deploying individual companies and squads, how useless is that in a million world imperial empire. This was why they had to bring back RG, to put an end to this nonsense 😁