[Grand Master Raziel]

Couldn't get the whole thing in one post, so I've divided it up. - GMR



The Don't's of DIY Creation



Gene-seed

Don’t claim your chapter is founded from traitor gene seed.
There’s simply no reason to do this, the Imperium has plentiful stocks of loyalist gene seed, and although they have stocks of the traitor gene seed, they are kept under time locked stasis seals. Of course there’s no reason you can’t have your chapter unaware of the origin of their gene seed (through loss or destruction of chapter records, for example), and instead hint (but without ever explicitly stating) that maybe they might have been created using a traitor geneseed…

Don't use Space Wolf gene-seed for your chapter.This goes along the lines of using Traitor legion gene-seed for foundings. Only one other chapter to use the SW gene-seed, the Wolf Brothers, and they are no longer in existence. After this, the use of SW gene-seed was forbidden. The only fluffy way you can get away with SW gene-seed is by creating a Cursed (21st) or Dark (13th) Founding chapter, but it is highly unlikely that they would know who their gene-seed is from. It's easier to use the SW rules and come up with some other explination for their rules. Rename equipment and come up with a new idea why they have the rules they do.

Don't claim your Dark Angels successor chapter hunts the Fallen.
The established fluff clearly states that only the Unforgiven chapters (the DAs and their second founding chapters) are aware of the Fallen's existence. None of the 3rd founding or later chapters are aware of the Fallen. Your chapter is no exception. If you use the DA rules, there are plenty of reasons to provide an alternative fluff explanation for the ‘Hunt the Fallen’ rules. Just be creative.

Don’t mix or tamper with gene seeds.
Mixed/combined geneseed is a bad idea, those few occasions where manipulation of the geneseed has occured have resulted in bad thing happening to the Chapter in question (look at the Relictors or Lamenters, for example). Gene seed is the holiest of holies, it is part of the Primarch himself which is implanted into a Marine and makes him truly superhuman. To dilute or manipulate holiest remnants of the Primarch is surely the highest heresy possible.

The only real occasion you can get away with combined geneseed is by creating a Cursed (21st) or Dark (13th) Founding chapter, and even then, I’d recommend against it.

Don't say that your Chapter has solved the Curse of Sanguinius.
The Sanguinius geneseed affects its recipients more than any other type. As well as their great longevity, they are cursed by the Black Rage and Red Thirst which has thwarted their Apothecaria for ten thousand years. While the ill-advised geneseed splicing of the Cursed Founding moderated the effects, it had its own serious side effects.

Blood Angels successors are most suited to Blood Angels Codex rules rather than traits unless you have a really good explaination of how they have defeated the Curse of Sanguinius.




Chapter Origin

Don’t claim that your chapter is one of the missing legions.
Part of the charm of the 40k Universe is that we don't know everything, we don't know what happened to the two missing legions, we don't even know why all records of the two legions were destroyed. That's good though, and GW knows better than any of us that if they told us every little detail, and didn't keep some mysteries, people would lose interest pretty quickly.

Don’t claim your chapter is a loyal remnant of a Legion that turned traitor in the Heresy.
It’s a safe bet that any remnants of a traitor Legion that showed up in Imperial space today would be met with all guns blazing, and wouldn’t last long enough to have the chance to convince anyone they were still loyal…

Don’t claim your chapter is from the 2nd founding.
GW have the 2nd Founding locked down – the only leeway is with the UM 2nd Founding chapters – the Apocrypha of Skaros claims 23 successor chapters were formed from the UM, but GW has only named about 15 of them.

Chapters are not formed from lost/forgotten companies.
Any company or detachment of a chapter lost or forgotten by the parent chapter does not get to create their own chapter just because they paint their armour a different colour and change their name. A company of Dark Angels separated from the Chapter for however long, are still Dark Angels, and would simply be reabsorbed when they made contact with the Rock..

Don't claim your Chapter was created whole from another Chapter.
Having a cadre of Marines from Chapter X form the command nucleus of Chapter Y is reasonable, but a Chapter building up to the point where 1000 Marines break off to form another Chapter just isn't going to happen...

Don’t claim your chapter was created by (fill in your favourite Primarch here) in secret before the Heresy.
It just wouldn’t have happened. Before the Heresy, marines were formed into Legions. Why would any Primarch choose to dilute his power rather than simply add more men to his Legion? More to the point, with 20 Legions in existence, there was no need for “secret” chapters, there was more than enough manpower available.

Don’t claim to have your chapter created from a secret 21st Primarch.
There were 20 Primarchs. No more, no less. Don’t try and rip up 25 years of fluff by creating your own secret Primarch, it’s just stupid and pointless. When creating a DIY, you can define the chapter’s character however you want, and when it comes down to it, gene seed plays little or no role in this. Creating a new Primarch and gene seed line does nothing but ruin any credibility your chapter may have. Along much the same lines, don't claim the Emperor proivided your chapter's gene seed - only the GKs can claim this, and even then, it's only a rumour...

Don’t try to make your chapter fulfil one of the role of another Imperial organisation.
This usually turns out to be the Officio Assassinorum, for some reason. The role of Marines is not to assassinate enemy leaders, or hunt down heretics, or police a planet or any of the other roles fulfilled by other organs of the Imperial machine (Officio Assassinorum, Ordo Hereticus, Adeptus Arbites in case you were wondering!). Space Marines are the Emperor’s Angels of Death – they are a surgical strike force of near unstoppable bio-engineered killing machines. Whilst they may be called in when the situation escalates beyond the abilities of other Imperial Organisations, they deal with the problem then leave. They don’t suddenly decide that having pacified a rebellious planet (for example) that they will take over the duties of the Arbitrators on that planet. There are one million planets in the Imperium and only a million marines to guard them. Marines are too valuable to be wasted on roles that can be fulfilled by lesser men.

Don’t claim your chapter was founded by anyone other than the High Lords of Terra.
Only the High Lords of Terra (speaking on the Emperor's behalf) can order the founding of a new chapter. End of Story. Based on the established fluff it is extremely unlikely that any Inquisitor (or AM renegade or whoever) could obfuscate the AM sufficiently for them to embark on the creation of a new chapter (which would undoubtedly be a significant undertaking even for the AM) One way past this is to have your group (=][=, AM or whoever) lobby and petition the High Lords of Terra for the Chapter to be created at the next founding, thereby keeping them official but with the option of including outside influences.