Founding

Overview

A Founding is an occasion when several new Space Marine Chapters are created.

A Founding does not occur at any set interval, but is ordered when it is deemed necessary. As Chapters are occasionally completely destroyed, Foundings are often meant to ensure that a thousand Chapters exist at a time. This also means that many Chapters are created during unstable times of strife and rebellions that have caused many Chapters to lose the knowledge of their Founding or even the millennia of that Founding. This is especially common to Chapters created before or during Age of Apostasy as during the Reign of Blood many Imperial records were shamelessly destroyed forever.

Space Marine Chapters have been created outside of official Foundings, however. Exceptions to Foundings include the creation of the Grey Knights who were created before the Second Founding by order of the Emperor Himself during the Horus Heresy, the Sons of Medusa, who were ratified by unprecedented edict in 011.M37, and the Red Seraphs as well as Angels Numinous which represent splinter factions of the Blood Eagles.

History

At the beginning of the Great Crusade, the Emperor created the Space Marine Legions after He had lost His twenty sons. Every Legion was made at least 10,000 Marines strong bolstered by the very best equipment and armoury the Imperium could offer and packed up with unflinching loyalty to the God Emperor of Mankind. This event, the creation of the Legions, is known as the First Founding.

Codex Astartes

Following the Horus Heresy's aftermath the Primarch of the Ultramarines, Roboute Guilliman, wrote a mighty tome of wisdom that included strategies and tactics for the Space Marines. The most lasting and significant decree of the Codex Astartes, as the tome was known, was that those then existing Space Marine Legions were to be divided into Chapters of 1,000 Marines strong. This was to ensure that no such rebellion as the Horus Heresy was to happen again because no one man could command such a terrifying force as 10,000 Space Marines again. It also made Space Marine forces more flexible and tactical on their own as every Chapter was fully independent and self-sufficient fighting force. After the remaining loyalist Primarchs accepted the Codex Astartes, the Legions were divided into Chapters. One Chapter of each parent Legion maintained the original colours, symbol, and name of the Legion, and they became known as the Chapters of the First Founding. The other Chapters took their own insignia and heraldry and are known as the Chapters of the Second Founding.

Subsequent Foundings

It is believed that approximately one thousand Space Marine Chapters exist at all times though extremely violent warzones, attrition, space phenomena and other factors change the number of Chapters so radically no one can track them accurately. Over half (60%) of all Space Marine Chapters were descendants of Ultramarines genestocks, by the start of the 41st millennium, this percentage had increased to over two-thirds (67%) of chapters. This massive proportion of Ultramarines successors is partly due to the stability of Ultramarine gene-seed, and also due to the large quantity of avaliable gene-seed.

Creation of New Chapters

The creation of new Chapters can only be ordered by the High Lords of Terra, and it is said ultimately only from the Emperor Himself, although the actual process of creation is performed by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The gene-seed used to create new Chapters is stored by the Adeptus Mechanicus, originally tithed from existing Chapters. New progenoids are created using human test-slaves. Although these test-slaves are conscious and aware of their "existence", they are completely immobile, forever remaining in static experimental capsules and serving as little more than hosts for the zygotes growing and progenoid organs growing. A single slave is used in this way to create two progenoids, which are then implanted into two more slaves, and so on. One thousand sets of organs - the notional number of Marines in a Chapter - are created, after more than half a century of constant reproduction. Some Chapters' geneseed is mutated in a way the zygotes grow at a faster rate and so are able to recover rapidly from heavy losses within their Chapter.

Space Marine Foundings

Founding	Date	Notes
1st	M29	The creation of the twenty Space Marine Legions.
2nd	021.M31	Many Chapters were created as the Legions splintered into Chapters.
Unstated	M31	Creation of the Angels Porphyr.
Unstated	M31	In the glorious times of Age of Rebirth.
3rd	4.001.001.M32	Creation of the Dark Paladins. Unconfirmed Founding of the Executioners, and the Charnel Guard.
4th	546.M32	Formed after the War of the Beast. Chapters created during this time were the Sable Swords and Halo Brethren.
Unstated	M32	Creation of the Marines Malevolent.
Unknown	M33	Creation of the Howling Griffons
Unstated	M33	Creation of the Sons of Guilliman
Unstated	831.M33	Alongside the honoured dead during the Year of Ghosts.
Unstated	Early M34	Right before the Howling 401.M34.
7th	Unknown	Creation of the Iron Shades
8th	Mid-M34	Unconfirmed Founding of the Mantis Warriors.
9th	Unknown4	Creation of the Angels Resplendent.4
10th	Mid-M35	Unconfirmed Founding of the Astral Claws.
Unstated	M35	During the time of the Nova Terra Interregnum.
13th	Late M35 / Early M36	The "Dark Founding," the only one for which the Adeptus Terra does not have a gene-seed sample.
17th	Unknown	Creation of the Sons of Pertinax.
21st	991.M35	The "Cursed Founding" which created Chapters which fell victim to mutation, heresy, rebellion, or simple bad luck.
Unstated	M36	Soon after the culmination of the Reign of Blood.
Unstated	M36	Founding of the Angels of Fire, Celebrants and Relictors.
Unstated	Early M37	Right before the Great Cull in 020.M37.
23rd	Late M37 / Early M38	The "Sentinel" Founding. Creation of the Marines Errant, Imperial Harbingers, Star Phantoms, Celestial Lions and Steel Cobras.
Unstated	M38	500 years after the defeat of the Apostle of the Blind King.
Unstated	M39	At the time when Age of Waning begins.
24th	Unknown	Creation of the Hospitallers.
25th	Late M40	The "Bastion" Founding. Creation of the Fire Angels, Emperor's Spears and Star Scorpions.
Unstated	M40	Creation of the Omega Marines.
26th	1a	Creation of the Mentor Legion.
Ultima	~999.M41	The latest founding to date, consisting of Primaris Marines

First Founding

The twenty Space Marine Legions, also known as the Legiones Astartes, were created by the Emperor to take part in the Great Crusade in what was later known as the First Founding.

Second Founding

The Second Founding, of Space Marine Chapters occurred seven years after the Horus Heresy.

The remaining loyal Legions after Horus Heresy (sometimes referred to as the "Progenitor") were divided into smaller Chapters that became known as the Second Founding Chapters. Each Second Founding Chapter initially shared their parent Legion's gene-seed, but subsequently each Chapter's gene-seed was isolated, forming new genetic lines and forging their own histories and traditions distinct from their Progenitors, while still remaining proud of their roots.

It is unknown how many Successor Chapters were created - exactly how many Chapters were founded and from which Legions is unclear. The Apocrypha of Davio attempted to categorize them all, but was never completed. Some survive to this day, the proud inheritors of their Legion's histories and the traditions of their Primarch. One of the earliest known accounts is found within a version of the Codex Astartes known as the Apocrypha of Skaros claiming that the Ultramarines Legion sired twenty-three Primogenitor Chapters, but omitted to list them all.

The vast majority of the Second Founding Chapters were created from the ranks of the Ultramarines Legion; other Legions were not large enough to be divided more than once. The Salamanders, consisting of only 7 Companies at the end of the Heresy, produced no recorded Successors in the Second Founding at all. The division of the Space Wolves Legion produced only one additional Chapter known as the Wolf Brothers.

Third Founding

The Third Founding was initiated at the suggestion of Rogal Dorn. After more than forty years of preparation, the High Lords of Terra had approved over a hundred writs of succession to both First and Second Founding Chapters. The Ultramarines were granted nine writs of succession.

Fourth Founding

The Fourth Founding took place shortly after 546.M32 after the costly Imperial victory in the War of the Beast. It was overseen by the Grand Master of Assassins and de facto dictator of the Imperium at the time, Drakan Vangorich, as well as the Lord Commander of the Imperium and Imperial Fists Chapter Master Maximus Thane.

Seventh Founding

It is unknown exactly when a Seventh Founding took place.

Eighth Founding

The Eighth Founding took place in Mid-M34.

Ninth Founding

The Ninth Founding occurred at an unknown time.

Tenth Founding

The Tenth Founding took place in mid M35.

Thirteenth Founding

The Thirteenth Founding or Dark Founding was one of the instances where new Space Marine Chapters were created. The details of the Thirteenth Founding are almost completely unknown; it is unknown to the Imperium how many, and which Chapters were created, and if they still exist. This Founding is the only in which the Adeptus Terra does not possess the original gene-seed of the founded Chapters.

Seventeenth Founding

The Seventeenth Founding occurred at an unknown time.

Twenty-First Founding

The Twenty-First Founding was the largest Founding of Space Marine Chapters since the Second Founding. It took place shortly before the Age of Apostasy, in 991.M35 It's believed that the Magos Biologis charged with overseeing the Founding manipulated the gene-seed used to create the Chapters of this Founding, and that at least some of it was done under the sponsorship of Thorian Inquisitors involved with 'Project Homo Sapiens Novus'.

The Twenty-First Founding is also known as the Cursed Founding, because of the appalling bad luck that seems to dog the Chapters created in it. Worse still, some of these Chapters have developed genetic idiosyncrasies, mutations that strain the tolerance of the Inquisition and threaten the Chapters' survival.

Many of the Chapters of the Twenty-First Founding are known to be lost; some mysteriously disappeared while travelling through the Warp or while in action, while others were found tainted and destroyed.

Twenty-Third Founding

Sometimes referred as "The Sentinel Founding". This Founding of early M38 was established to aid Imperium's defences in many vulnerable fronts. It was also done to repair the power and reach of the Imperium's Space Marine forces after considerable losses in the prior millennia that saw the loss of no fewer than 57 Chapters over events such as the Age of Apostasy and Plague of Unbelief. Origins of many Chapters of this Founding are as shrouded as they were even during the Founding itself.

Twenty-Fourth Founding

The Twenty-Fourth occurred at an unknown time.

Twenty-Fifth Founding

The Twenty-Fifth Founding or Bastion Founding[32b] took place in late M40.

Twenty-Sixth Founding

The Twenty-Sixth Founding was a recent founding of Space Marine Chapters, taking place in 738.M41.

Ultima Founding

The Ultima Founding is the most recent Space Marine Founding, created at the direct order of Roboute Guilliman following his resurrection shortly after the Thirteenth Black Crusade. This Founding is one of the largest and most significant, as it consists mainly of the new Primaris Space Marines. Moreover, the Primaris Marines from the Ultima Founding will be used to refresh and reinforce depleted Chapters in addition to creating new ones. The Ultima Founding is at the forefront of Guilliman's Indomitus Crusade.

According to the Logos Historica Verita, roughly 4 years into the Indomitus Crusade there were around 105 Chapters within the Ultima Founding.