Chapter Cult and the Imperial Truth

[ElectricPaladin]

I was wondering if anyone with more experience with the fluff of Warhammer 40k could help me assemble a list of the most important Space Marine chapters and their degree of adherence to the Imperial Truth. Some chapters, like the Ultramarines, seem like they are as rational and atheistic as the Emperor himself, while others like the Blood Anels seem atheistic, but with a fondness for rituals, while yet others, like the Dark Angels and their successors, seem almost religious in their veneration for the Emperor and belief that he 1) watches over them and 2) cares about their sins and redemption.

So, in your opinion, where are the chapters in terms of religion?

[Chris*ta]

I'm going to provide the fvollowing links from Lexicanum as examples of Chapters with atypical beliefs:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Fire_Angels#.UEj9B3aI2kI
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Novamarines#.UEj_2naI2kI
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Red_Hunters#.UEkA83aI2kI
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/White_Consuls#.UEkHE3aI2kI

But someone who knows more about Imperial religion can probably say something far more sensible than I to actually answer your question :D

[Nabterayl]

As far as the most important space marine chapters, I don't think there really can be such a list. We can only list chapters that have done important things that we know about. The distinction there is that GW never comes out and says something like, "This chapter is more important than other chapters because they did Great Deed X," to leave room for them (and players) to say, "But let me tell you about this other chapter, who did Even Greater Deed Y, which you have never heard of before now!" The closest they've really come is saying that the Ultramarines are the known progenitors of over half the extant marine chapters, which most people would probably consider fairly important. So we could tell you about how the Space Wolves and Blood Angels saved Armageddon each on different occasions, or how the Ultramarines held off Hive Fleet Behemoth, or any of that stuff, but there's no way to put that on a "most important" scale because GW is deliberate in not telling us what else might be on the scale. And there are plenty of people (including myself) who could point you to the threads in the fluff that let somebody say with perfect reasonableness that no space marine chapters have performed important deeds when compared to other branches of the Imperial armed forces, if you happen to like that point of view in your science fiction.

As for the Imperial Truth, basically none. The Imperial Truth died a slow death beginning with the Emperor's Ascension. All or nearly all space marine chapters differ from the Imperial Creed, but the Imperial Truth - the Great Crusade-era idea that faith, religion, and superstition hold humanity back - is adhered to by nobody. Even Ultramarines, to use your example, survive on the strength of their religion. The Ultramarines' chapter cult may not deify the Emperor (few space marine cults do, which is the principle distinction between them and the Cult Imperialis) - indeed, it's unclear whether many space marine cults even worship a god - but by any other measure the Ultramarines cult, and other space marine cults, are still a religion. And space marines are absolutely rife with superstition. One need look no farther than their attitudes about technology to know that. Do you know how a space marine forge turns out a Vindicator? At a certain point in the fabrication ritual, when the new vehicle exists as a partially completed Rhino chassis, the master of the forge asks the new machine's nascent machine spirit what kind of vehicle it is. If he's convinced that the baby machine is a Vindicator, they finish up with the Vindicator fabrication ritual. If he's convinced that the machine spirit told him that it's a Rhino, well, you get a Rhino instead. And this continues throughout space marines' treatment of their wargear. Ever wonder how a chapter can have only six suits of terminator armor, each of which is hundreds of years old and a relic of the chapter, and still take those suits out into battle? It's because they believe that the armor has a spirit that wants to fight. To a space marine, keeping your terminator armor in the closet isn't like putting a Ming vase in a museum. It's like locking a destrier up in a stable.

So ... I guess we could argue about whether chapter A is less irrational than chapter B, but the truth is, in the 41st millennium, nobody even knows that there was an Imperial Truth, let alone that the Emperor himself preached it.

[Chris*ta]

As far as the most important space marine chapters, I don't think there really can be such a list. ...

Huh. I just read most important here to mean first founding. And Black Templars.

[ElectricPaladin]

Huh. I just read most important here to mean first founding. And Black Templars.

I just meant "written of with any frequency," as opposed to "they were mentioned in this one book this one time."

[Nabterayl]

Oh. Then I pretty much agree with Chris*ta: Ultramarines, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, White Scars, Salamanders, Raven Guard, Imperial Fists, and Iron Hands - all nine First Founding chapters - Black Templars, and I'd add Red Scorpions, if you just mean how frequently people talk about them. Pretty much every chapter on that list doesn't get nearly as much coverage as (i) it deserves or (ii) compared to some other chapter on that list, according to some people :p

[mjasghar]

Well the Imperial Truth was atheistic.
I think you mean the current Eccleisarchy/Ministorum idea of the God-Emperor? In that case, things are weird.
The background has them seeing the Emp as just the greatest Human ever. BUT....
The background is that there is a divine aspect to the Emperor, and it is clear that Astartes in the modern age pray to the Emp and their Primarch. it is certain they have witnessed Faith powers when fighting alongside SoB and Living Saints (witness Saint Sabbat in the gaunt's ghost series) and the fiction reflects that. But they dont follow the Imperial Creed, probably because most versions portray the Emperor as a creator god.

[Nabterayl]

Bear in mind too that the idea that you can only "pray" to a deity is very Protestant-centric. While enough of the English speaking world is Protestant that this is a legitimate meaning, in its older sense (and in its more ecumenical sense), "pray" just means request. So there's nothing necessarily contradictory about a space marine "praying" to a person he believes to be a non-divine incredibly powerful psyker for aid.

The Imperial Creed is a very ... well, imperial religion, by which I mean it is extraordinarily accommodating of differing beliefs - its purpose is not I answer man's need for answers but to ensure that you continue to pay your taxes. It requires that you believe the Emperor is a god, that the Emperor is the sole rightful ruler of mankind, and that you believe that the Emperor is the defender of mankind. Those are really the only three points of doctrine it insists upon. Obviously most space marine chapters subscribe to the second and third points, so it's a difference of belief on the first that marks most chapters as not belonging to the Imperial Creed.

Of all the chapter cults we know of, I'd say that the Space Wolves are closest to the Imperial Creed, because they do believe that the Emperor is a god (the Allfather of Fenrisian religion). The only real sense in which the Space Wolves chapter cult is not part of the Cult Imperialis is that the Space Wolves do not consider themselves part of the Ecclesiarchy, and the Ecclesiarchy returns the favor.