In the wake of the Horus Heresy there were those amongst the
Primarchs who recognised the need for a system of checks and balances on the
power of the Legions (cf Bureau Astartes).
Despite the predicable difficulties, Gulliman figured out that 1000
Adeptus Astartes would still be a significant military force. An easy spilt of
any Legion[1]
using existing quasi autonomous fighting units, hiving them off from their
Legion hierarchy and formally making them independent.
 |
| Sons of Gulliman |
The size limit would also greatly assist those monitoring
the Chapters (Inquisitors of the Ordo Hereticus) in that the Chapter would not
be so great an entity that it could not be thoroughly investigated. A politically autonomous Chapter Master would
answer to no one for the disposition of his forces, but was still subject to
scrutiny regarding his policies and devices.
Dorn’s argument appears to be based on the idea that the
Primarchs are the Emperor’s Sons and that therefore the Astartes themselves are
from the Emperor’s own genetic material; and that also they are bound by common
purpose (the safeguarding and furtherance of humanity) and being beset by
traitors, their motives should be beyond question and that therefore continuing
to wield the power of Legion was necessary; their opponents were still
theoretically Space Marine Legions and itty-bitty little Chapters would just
not cut the mustard. Dorn recognised that having unified command and overwhelming force was pivotal to military success, Gulliman believed that the combination of unified command and overwhelming force was too great a risk for the Imperium to bear; that a multitude of Chapters, all still loyal to the Emperor, would suffice. Could Dorn's Legion have saved the Orpheus Sub Sector ? We will never know.
 |
| Ultramarines - not all pink and fluffy. |
The level of political autonomy they have is down to
compromise. Gulliman must have had such
a hard time getting (for example) Corax and the Great Khan on side that his
carefully balanced to be sustainable bands of warrior monks in space that he’d
given little thought to their governance.
Not enough, anyway. Dorn’s
eventual capitulation on the brink of another civil war (his ships had been
fired upon by the Imperial Navy) must have given him a strong position from
which to insist that that a Chapter Master should have the absolute right to
deploy his warriors as he saw fit; size of force deployed, force composition
and choosing who to fight and when.
 |
| Imperial Fist - Son of Dorn |
This may well have been expressed in terms of picking one’s
own fights, there is every chance that no thought was given to force size and
composition; there may have simply been an assumption that the new Chapters
would deploy en masse, as they had before, and therefore no definitions were given for deployments;
allowing later Chapter Masters to scatter their force across space according to
their own whimsy.
In the immediate post heresy these new Chapters in all
probability deployed as formed units; each of them being a sub division of a
pre heresy Legion anyway; used to fighting as a body of 1000 Astartes plus
attachments. It is only as time passes
and the Chapter Masters (perhaps the second and third generations of Chapter
Master) become more used to their autonomy and begin to see their Chapter as
the focus for their loyalty, rather than themselves as simply collective inheritors of the might of their first founding Legion.
Once this mindset has taken hold, that the 1000 warriors
become an ideologically isolated brotherhood, each having its own doctrines and
belief system that become more and more divergent over time. Just look at the number of Chapters in the ‘modern’
Imperium who do not know who their primarch is.
After ten thousand years of autonomy, the Chapter Masters are much less likely to
risk their entire force in one engagement.
Also as their autonomy drifts to isolation, their need larger fleets and
to cover more territory, which itself leads to smaller deployments and more of
them. Soon it becomes difficult to mass
a Chapter for an en masse deployment; their Legion staging posts have evolved
into a fortress monastery which has become the hub for the Chapter’s recruiting
campaign.
All pictures randomly culled from t'interweb with apologies to the owners.
I'm still posting on Tuesdays and Fridays, at least until the end of September.
I'm still posting on Tuesdays and Fridays, at least until the end of September.
[1]
P30 of Horus Heresy Book 1. It is clear
from this that Gulliman’s idea was not actually that radical at all. He possibly intended each Chapter to take a
larger Auxillia with it. Oh well…
No comments:
Post a Comment