Adeptus Ridiculous - SPACE MARINE CHAPLAINS | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://shop.orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousWarrior-priests, they fight alongside their battle-brothers, chanting the Chapter's sacred battle creeds, and inspiring their brethren to greater feats of bravery. To enemies they appear as terrifying and sinister figures in black power armour and skull-visaged helmets.Each Chapter has its own unique cult, which is often thousands of years old. As these cults often predate the rise of the Ecclesiarchy, the Chapter cults are not simply facets of the common Imperial Cult. While the Ecclesiarchy and its lay followers worship the Emperor of Mankind as a deity, several Chapter cults regard him as merely a brilliant and inspirational man, though with scarcely less reverence. As in all things, this view of the Emperor's divinity, or lack thereof, varies from Chapter to Chapter. The chapter's own Primarch is also a major part of the Chapter's specific cult, revered as much as the Emperor.Support the show

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Adeptus Ridiculous podcast. My name is D.K. Diamanties, his name is Bricky. And Keriath is here. Everyone welcome, Kariath. But before you get too loud about it, if you enjoy today's episode, and maybe you want to support the podcast and over to patreon.com slash adeptus Ridiculous, where you get access to the Discord, bloopers if they happen, $15 tier gets you access to all of our posters in digital form,

which we'll talk about that later. but Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridicis if you want to support us and Bricky has news. But before we get too deep into that, this week is the book club as well. Don't forget to finish up Flesh and Steel from the Minecraft movie.

And then after that, Simian's a bit of a shitter. I like him. Yeah, it's a good book. He's a sassy man. It's good stuff. But also, I am told we have a poster today. We do.

And brothers, I think you'll like this one. Brothers. Brothers. I never know whether you're being genuine when you say that based on previous experience. I mean... I'm completely at a loss every time.

I never really know. Good Lord. That first click... Right? Okay. Gentlemen. Gentlemen. Please.

Such is the power. Such is the power of... Yeah. right great poster right such is the power of that so yeah yeah what is the what is the power of decay what is such the power of

well it could it could be a number of different things in that poster right but it's a it's a nagash themed poster such as the power of negash right like wow what a poster Bricky where where

wow where where where where where where can people get this just enormously magnificent poster. You know, they can get it on the link in the description of the video.orgaday.com.

It's down there and stuff. You can see such as the power. Hell yeah, brother. You can have the power. On your wall. Yeah, yeah, you're going to have the exactly the power on your wall. What is the power? I have no idea what the power is, but that's the power.

Oh, shy, you include a work in progress progress is now? That's, that's actually a dope idea to show like the progress of it and the iterations it went through. Hell yeah, brother. I can't complain. Anything the gash related is good. The gash is quality. Yep. You know it. You know, especially this poster.

But Keryoth, hi, welcome back. What's, what's, what's the quote that I'm going to get wrong today? I guess he might get it too. He might get it too. Yeah, I could also be a problem. You know, No. Hey, don't get all the glory. I can also be an issue. Brick is like, I'm stupid too. Guys, come on.

Don't you dare limit me. Okay, this one, I think you could be in for a slide challenge with this, purely because we cover a variety of subjects at this point, don't we really, over the course of Adrick. So I've got faith, but it's where the faith lies is probably the problem. To the darkness, I bring fire. To the ignorance, I bring faith. Those who welcome these gifts may live,

but I will visit naught but death and eternal damnation on those who refuse them. Oh, boy. I feel like I know this one. So every, every... Every time Kyrieff's here, a part of me is like, oh, man. You know, that maybe it's something 40K, but I'm like, man, could be, this could be more trench crusade shenanigans.

Right? Like, this could be some, like, eternal damnation from, from hell thing. And it's just, and I, I never know what to think when Kyrieff's here and which, which topic we're actually doing. Or is it, is it, you know, is it, is it a red herring? I have swerved you in the past, so I totally understand. But it, to be, to be fair, it, it is 40K this time. Is it, um, is it a sisters thing? Oh. It's not, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, it's not a, bad guess, but it's not this time. Hmm, okay, because like the, the, you know, ignorant, bring, like, blast, that kind of thing, you know?

Yeah, for some reason, it sounded Celesteen coded, but I, I, I guess it's not. I, I, I don't really even have a guess. It is very specific. To be fair, too, it's, it's quite, quite, quite specific. Yeah, I, my brain pigeon, my brain pigeonhold into being like, oh, yeah, this is another, trench crusade swerve and when you're like, nope, it's 40K, I was like, oh no, my brain

is, I pigeonholed into that so hard, I'm like, I got nothing else. Like, there's no other ideas coming to mind. I just, I kind of, I kind of boned myself a little bit. You got locked in and then that was it. It was over. Once it wasn't the thing you were locked into,

it's fair, it happened. The bottom dropped out of the barrel. So this time round, It's not Trent Crusade, it's not sisters, but it is very sort of faith and fire related because we're going to talk about Space Marine chaplains. The best-looking lads in every army. Let's be honest. Okay, the classic boys.

Yeah. Like, arguably one of the most iconic and oldest models in the space marines from like got from like the 90s. Yeah. And that's a skull helmet boy from Space Marine too, right? Yeah. That's a big reveal. Skull helmet boy. Well, so I remember him because he's got the cool skull helmet.

Yes, yes. It's Leandro's that bitch. Yeah. Spoiler alert. How long is that game been out? Almost a year, actually. It was September last year, I think. Oh, no, was it?

Yeah, I think so. Almost a year. I'm going to crumbling to. dust. I didn't need to know that. I shouldn't have asked. Yeah. You are correct, though, D.K. The least surprising reveal of the game. But it's the man, the boy, the, uh, shouting.

The lad with the school mask. Yeah, the law with the school mask. Uh, excuse me, I said skull helmet boy. I said nothing about a mask. My apologies. God, puts her respect on my name. As we have, see, we have the old photo of Grimmie D.

right there, the man, the boy. Chaplain is such a bit of art. Oh, man. Yeah, it's a great bit of art. I love that stuff. Well, funnily enough, we have already touched on how visually striking the chaplains are, but they are pretty much the most visually striking when it comes to units of the space marines. Absolutely iconic.

Been around forever. Everyone knows what a chaplain looks like. Covered in holy relics, yelling the holy words of their brothers. all with that amazing skull helm that reminds everyone around them that death is always watching. This is the war prophet of the trench pilgrim. No, it's not.

It's the chaplain of the space marines and is the wrath of the emperor. And the faith of the chapter all wrapped up in one horrible, excellent package. So today we're going to talk about them. We're going to talk about the early history, their implementation, their evolution, the different chapter variants,

we can hardly talk about these guys without just touching on their slightly more evil I'm going to say slightly I mean very more evil counterparts so your early chaplain history essentially don't want to blame it all on logar but he definitely didn't help the history of chaplains is a bit of a domino effect within the confines of the early history of the space marine legions and it goes right back to the man himself laurgar But before we get to him, one thing that is very clear within the history of the space marines is that even though he was the real driving force behind what we now know as chaplains, they kind of just sprung up naturally in some respects before that. So two very early proto-chaplain organisations include the wardens of the blood angels and the voices of fire from the salamanders. So the wardens were essentially early initiation mentors for new recruits to the Blood Angels.

Sort of a kind of guidance counsellor, but with a degree of authority as well, they'd provide tactical advice and they'd uphold the laws of the legions. So they had quite a wide role. And one of their more like solemn duties was to oversee the ceremonies of remembrance for fallen Battle Brothers. coincidentally, these wardens would usually be clothed in dark cloaks, and they'd have darkened armor. They would carry a Crozius Archonanum, which is the iconic mace famously associated with the chaplains of the modern settings. So they've got quite a deep, like a deep rooted connection to the chaplains that we know now. The voices are firing.

Sorry, God. Sorry, I was thinking a little bit on the point. So Blood Angels Ironically were one of the earlier ones Yes, they kind of had like a proto-chaplain thing going Before they were widespread That's actually kind of surprising I guess my first thought

I mean I guess it would make sense for blood angels I don't know I kind of assumed dark angels But I guess this is Would this be pre-heresy right Yeah this is like this is early crusade stuff Like right in right in when the space marine lesions were first going out there and making their presence felt on the wider galaxy.

Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Okay. All right, all right. I was also very unsurprised when you were like, oh, yeah, chaplains, Lorgar. And it's like, yeah, that does kind of fit the bill, doesn't it? Yeah. Once again, Lorgar stays winning, man. 100%.

Well, unless you're monarchy, then. Well, yeah, that's kind of the part of it. Whatever, man. I'm just saying that was a big L, all right? It was one L in a career full of Ws, all right? Kind of. So not really, but you know. Yeah.

So there's also the voices of Fire of the Salamanders. There is sort of similar thing here where they were in the process of coming up with like a specific member of the Legion that was supposed to be a combination of overseer and like a faith leader. super, like, deeply shaped by the histories of Nocturn, and they would have served as a kind of proto-chaplain as well. During the time that this was happening, the Lesions did have some units that kind of fit the mould when it came to a bit of a, like, disciplinary mediator. So you've got the console, and I still don't know how to pronounce this,

Opusquari, that's not what that is. Take your best guess. All right, you'd... Oh, man. listen, when it comes to like trying to pronounce some of these 40K words, like, I feel like you just do your, you do your best. And this is one of those that, yeah, it's like opus quari. I got, I'm just as boned on saying that as you are, dude. I got nothing. I'm not even going to attempt it. Just we'll let it roll. Yeah, you came damn close, Kyriot, and I, yeah, y'ay. I think that's the best. I think that's the best we're going to do for today. But like, thought, Those guys, that I'm not going to say again, the console, that would,

they were like a lot closer to the idea of a commissar as opposed to the chaplains that we have now in 40K. Ultimately, the idea of a chaplain, it's something that would have naturally progressed over time within the various chapters at some point, but things got a bit of a kick in terms of speed of adoption thanks to a few things that happened before the heresy really took off. So at this point, we can shift back to the pre-log our word bearers.

Random question or sudden question. What number is that Legion? Oh, word bearers? I don't think he's going to get it. It's one of the legions that don't have a really associated number that makes it very striking and obvious. Yeah, I feel like I know like one through five. five pretty well, but past that it gets kind of murky for me in the numbers. 17, baby.

Oh, would not have guessed that. Yeah, no, it's one of the weird ones. Once you get to like 15 up, they start to kind of blend. Yeah, I feel like I've got like one through five pretty well. But then, yeah, like I said, after that, it gets a little like, uh-oh. I don't know which one's which anymore. I'll be honest, D.K., I'm the same with the upper numbers. for some reason at a certain point,

I just forget which ones are which and I have to look it up every time. And for some reason, I don't know whether it's, I don't know, like I love word berries, so it's not like I'm just throwing shade unnecessarily. 17 feels like a nothing number,

and I can't explain why that is. It's just not memorable. You're so right, because like one through 10 have like a bit of strength to them. I also think that for some reason, the higher level numbers are just like a little less interesting.

Like, if I'm not mistaken, 20 is Alpha Legion, which is like, that's fine. 19, I think, is Ravengard, which are not particularly, like, the most, you know, it's a lot of Legion. I think it's a lot of legions that got their ass kicked in Isvon. Like, isn't 18 Sally's? You know what? Now you're saying it. It does sort of feel like the higher. the number the worst, like the worst the hand they were dealt, somehow, which...

Yeah. Also, it's just now registering with me. Why did I guess Eighth Legion when I know that's the night lords? I mean, probably should get into that. I'm going to interrogate you about this later. Like that just dawned on me. I was like, skulls for the... Why did I...

Skulls for the night? That I may have... Well, they do say skulls for the Eighth Legion. And I'm like, and I knew that. Because that's the funny thing, right? Because it goes like Alpha Legion, Ravenguards, Salamanders, word bearers, and then sons of Horace. It's a very nothing world there. I mean, 15 is 1,000 sons.

And then like 14 is obvious. And then from there things get to, like, the problem is 1 through 5. And even 5 through 10 rock, like dark angels expunged, emperous children, iron warriors. years, five and six people tend to forget because they're white scars and space wolves. And then there's fists, night lords, and blood angels. Like, that's pretty good. I only forget, because Games Workshop also forget that white scars exist. So, yeah, they do.

Yeah, but I got a new bike dude now and that's sick as hell. I love it. It looks like a flying brick. I'm 100% on board. It's great. No wonder, Brickie loves the bike. It's him, but flying. All space marine vehicles that are.

aircraft or flying bricks. That's the best part. It's true. It's true. Oh, no. I feel like even by the usual standards, though, there's something particularly brick-like about it. And when I first said that during the reveal stream, I got people going, how dare you? And I was like, no, no, it's brilliant. Don't misunderstand. It's great because it's a flying brick. Don't think it's an insult. It's not. It's praise, 100%. Anyway, also what I said. The most aerodynamic vehicle in all of Warhead's.

hammer is the docker shit. Yeah. Also, what Shai said, when you think of word bears, you think either burning skull book or Erebus. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Not numbers, yeah. Numbers nothing to do with it. It's all about the intent to be a little shit 100% of the time.

Let's go back to the actual word bears themselves. So, prior to Logar showing up, that legion was not known as the word bearers. They were known as the Imperial Herald. And they were horrifying. I mean, word bear is horrifying. The Imperial Herald's also horrifying. They'd get sent out to deliver the Emperor's ultimatum, which was recant or be destroyed.

And to give this edict, they would send a lone warrior out as a herald of this message, and the Herald, no joke, presence-wise. So, D.K., if you could do the honors on this one, Sure. Wow. Clad in black armor, his face hidden by a skull helm and hearing the eagle-winged mace, the herald would speak the truth offered by the emperor and the futility of resistance. These bears of the word and death were chosen from those who had shown supreme devotion to the imperial truth. Such a mantle once bestowed was never removed. Some on seeing such a warrior would surrender and renounce their false belief. beliefs. Others would refuse, but always after the black-clad herald, the gray warriors would come with fire and the thunder of change. Damn. It's pretty cool. I love that idea for a Legion, where it's just, we're going to send one guy out. He's going to look terrifying, and he's going to

say, join us or die, and that's the entire thing. You don't get anything else. I was going to say, that's a chaplain all right. It's, it's, yeah. He's a herald. He's a herald. He's a herald. He's a boom. Yep. He sure is. So when Lawgarde joined his Legion, he began his work to readjust

it to his liking. Very slow, very meticulous. First, by changing their name to the word bearers, and then by promoting the idea that the emperor was a god to his sons. So during this process, he took a look at the heralds that they used and was like,

hey, I love the energy. Love that. But instead of being missionaries, have you considered telephangelism, and reformed the heralds into chaplains. So give them a distinctly, like, religious slant, as opposed to being simply a glorified messenger, so to speak. The early chaplains worked in a very dedicated spiritual manner within the chapter to improve the morale and the psyche of the battle brothers, but it was also to reinforce the word of the emperor in a very religious manner. They dressed pretty much the same as they did

when they were the heralds of the Imperial Herald's, but the armour colour was changed to match that as the other members of their Legion. That changed quite a bit, however, after the whole burning monarchy due to religious heresy thing, the armour worn... It was a notable moment. The armour worn by those chaplains, it was repainted to a dark black to reflect a state of mourning for Monarchia and to reflect the ashes of the burnt planet,

which I love that that's persisted. Because chaplains in 40K, nine times out of ten, you have got black armor. And it's just one more thing from Lorgar slash the word bearers that is still reflected. I was going to say, damn, Kieryath, your first heretic, the first heretic written by Aaron Dembsky Bowden is showing

but honestly, that book is sick as hell, so I'm okay with it. But it is so true. It's another Lord Guard W. Also, they wear black armor with skulls and a giant trench coat. I mean, you just can't get better than that. Yeah, it's the best. Stylistically, it's really hard to beat him. Yeah.

And I stand by the fact that that's the best book in the entire Horacee series. Anyway, we're going to jump. You're right. So far, it's pretty good. I will say I have become a little bit of a Garville fan. The Horace Rising is pretty good. Yeah, Garvials. I love Garviel.

He's so, he's so weirdly innocent for a genetically altered killing machine. Yeah. Oh, Garville. He's so weirdly naive for a genetically enhanced killing machine. I mean, he is. He's all like, hey, my principles. And it's like, my guy, have you seen what you're doing? But he still stands by them, fully honorable.

Yeah, yeah. I stand by my important principles. Also, by the way, Garvey, I need you to go, like, send this one planet into work camps because they don't, like, do they didn't give us, like, enough taxes. Although they do specifically say that's what makes Garveyol so special and why. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's because, like, wow, you actually question. stuff. You don't just mindlessly slaughter the innocent. You're just like, maybe we can save them. And they're like, wow, that makes you a really good

advisor, actually. Yeah, but also, it's funny. It's that good combo. It's what makes Garville so interesting. Oh, Garville's actually thinking about this. That's really good and nice to hear from Garville. And then he's like, damn, I don't know if I should be doing this while he's doing it. At least he's thinking about it. At least he's thinking about it. That's the important bit, you know. Baby steps, baby steps. So we're going to jump forward a little bit here. We're going to jump to the Council of Nikea. So for those who don't recall, the Council of Nike was a meeting convened on the planet

in IKEA by the emperor to address the potential threat that Sykes have on the Imperium and the legions of space marines. So after a significant amount of debate, the Emperor issued his decree that Sykes were not to be used in battle by any Space Marine Legion. and those who had psychers needed to reassign them back to being standard units who were forbidden to use their powers. Also, the scene of the worst debating technique known to man, where if you want people to be on your side, Magnus,

you should not stand up and essentially say, look, I'm really smart and you should trust me on this. That doesn't work, it turns out. Just throwing that out there. Wait, which book was this that Magnus did this in? That was burning a prospero, right? Was it a thousand sons? It was one of the two, but they had the council of Nike, and Magnus's whole thing was telling a parable about humans living in a cave and one of them, you know, trying to seek the light outside the cave, finding it and then going back in and being like, look at this wondrous light I found.

Come and join me. And then they joined him and everything was great. And it didn't go down great. It wasn't the best? And like, wasn't the emperor, like, actually like trying to be like, oh, you know, I kind of see where you're coming. coming from Magnus, and then I forget who it is. Aren't one of them like, you know, Magnus is convening with demons over like his lost eye and his sons, and that's the kind of warp shenanigans that I think are bad news,

and Magnus is like, uh, and the emperor's like, you what? And that kind of just causes everything to go in a downward spiral and no more sighters. It wasn't great. It was also the thing of having a space walls. I think it was, oh God, I can't remember the unit name now. I think it was the wolf priest. But he had been joining Aramon and they'd become quite close. And Aramon was like, look at all this stuff we do.

Like having weird warp demons as tutelaries and they follow us around. And the guy's like, oh, yeah, this is great. Oh, this is awesome. Yeah. And then when they got to the council, the Space Wolf was like, they're consorting with demons. They're full of shit. They're absolutely a massive threat to the Imperium.

I've seen all of it firsthand What the fuck is this? Wait, Wait, Hold on, That's fucking awesome. Who's this wolf priest? This dude sounds great.

I wish I could remember his name. I will have a quick look once we're done, but it's great because he spends like the whole book learning from Arriman. And then at the council of Nikeir, he's like, yeah, these guys are full of shit and they're doing full on demon nonsense. And he just absolutely backstabs him.

That's so sick. Nothing happened to his eye. I love that. It's just like this wolf priest who clearly knows it's a crock of shit is just going around being like, oh, interesting, interesting, interesting. And Aramon's like, do you see the power? He's like, I'm kind of seeing it. Goes to the court stand.

Kill this man. That's the one Otheir, weird make. Yeah, it's so good. There's also a lot of Aramon going like, you see what you do is the same as what we do. Look, it's the same thing. And then Othier's like, oh, interesting. And then the end just goes, no, it's bullshit. What we do is way different.

He just accepts none of it. He's having none of it at all. This has the same vibe to me as that one meme where it's SpongeBob staring at like the horrible creature in his house. And it's like me looking at the horror is beyond my comprehension. I don't get him. And it's just kind of like, I don't know, it has this vibe of like this really long diatribe argument. No, it's the one word, say, arm in the left side. And it's the really long paragraph about, like, why we're the same.

And then it's the wolf priest on the other guy with three words that are like, fuck this guy. It's got that same vibe. That's great. I love that. Yeah. I'm sure we're horribly, I'm sure we're horribly simplifying it. But it sounds really funny. Yeah.

It's honestly, from what, it's been a while since I've read those two books, but I don't think We're 100% off the mark, honestly. It really does have the energy of, like, Othea Wynne make. It's like, we're going to educate you. We're going to show you what we do and how we do it. And at the end of it is just like, they don't know what they're doing. They're just, they need to be stopped. And it's just this whole buildup of this nice friendship and, you know,

this kind of exchange of information followed by, now, fuck these guys. And it's like, nice. Well, well done, Space Wolf. You are not having any of that. Can you imagine a crazy parallel universe where that friendship thing worked and Othier was like, wow, we are the same. We're going to be best friends. And like, space wolves and thousand sons become best buddies and are forever linked in unity

and friendship. Space walls are all wolf and nothing else. There's no, it's not a single. But you know what would have stopped? No, no. This is not off the rails shy. This, this, in his sense, has an important thing because it's all about why you need God, and the space when the chaplains are there to teach you how to find God.

Thank you for reeling it back in for King. So we know, the emperor went, no psychers, not having that, go back to your normal duties, don't use your powers ever again. Daddy says no. The emperor was confident that this would be self-regulatory, because he's an idiot, but, you know, Malkador was like, no, I don't think this is going to work. As the legions are pretty, pretty much autonomous. There's no real way to guarantee that they would uphold the edict of the emperor, especially since plenty of the legions had become really reliant on the librarians. So Malkador saw how successful the chaplains of the word-bearers were at keeping things together morale-wise,

and this resulted in the issuance of the order of observance at his behest, but with the emperor's seal. Now that order required that the other primarks appoint chaplains to their legions. Another massive Logar W. These chaplains would have a dual function, ensure the personal and spiritual well-being of the Battle Brothers, and ensure that the Psyche ban was enforced to the fullest extent. So the hope was that these chaplains would be there to calm the minds of the now-removed librarians as they shifted back to a more like military role. and Logar, funnily enough, big fan of this.

He was all in on this idea. I don't know why, but I was expecting him to not be in on it and just be kind of like, oh, I guess I'll begrudgingly do it because God told me to. Well, you've got to remember that something that Logar did off the back of this order was somewhat to send his own chaplains out to support other legions. So he essentially, he,

offered the usage of his own chaplains to help with the creation of chaplains in other legions. And a lot of the prime marks were fine with that, and they were like, okay, fine, they either established the role themselves or they took Lorgar up on his offer of his own chaplains for their legions. Sanguineas, not particularly interested, fine with just retweaking the established role they already had. But the grand irony is that in the process of all of this, like before this even went down, Lorgar had already fallen to the ruinous powers and he was actively working against the emperor and yet he was still able to spread his ideas

into the other legions through these chaplains. This thing that he had kind of created and come up with was now being implemented amongst a big group of loyalists who otherwise had no idea that, you know, there were effectively traitors in their midst for quite a while before things really kicked off. I guess, for some reason, I didn't realize that he had fallen already, but that actually makes sense in the timeline. And this probably is like, he's just like, oh, this is a huge opportunity. That's fair. Well, now, fallen is a bit of a strong word.

Sorry, sorry. I didn't, hey, Dark Angels fans, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't, I'm stepping away from the mic. Fallen assumes that, you know, fallen assumes that he was, like, corrupted by chaos and didn't, like, run into their arms willingly. Willing, yeah, arms outstretched, dad. Yeah, that's fair. Archel tall, what happens when I, I sent you out there entirely knowing what was going to happen.

There's a lot of energy of like, oh, man, oh, that's, that's, that's awful. How long did it take did you say? When was it? Okay, let me just, uh, yeah, yeah, he was enlightened. He found the gods that were worthy of worship, as said. Yeah, I mean, he, again, he did nothing wrong because he just went to seek out the truth. And he found it. What more could you ask?

Perfect character arc, 10 out of 10, no, no. reaching from my bedroom revolver, Kirothus is starting to say some interesting words. So over time, like over the next 10,000 years, the role of the chaplain, it becomes deeply ingrained within the legions, and it's become an inseparable and essential part of every legion. The responsibility of the chaplain in the modern setting

morphed quite a bit, but the core remains the same. So you've got the well-being and betterment of the Battle Brothers under his wing, but additionally, the chaplain is very ingrained and versed within the mythos and knowledge of each chapter's, like cult, if you will. So for those who aren't aware, each chapter of Space Marines has their own unique law and belief system. Deeply ingrained within them makes them very unique, and that is the basis of the chapter's cult. So sometimes this cult can be very similar to the imperial cult and their deification of Big E, but with the added pillar of their prime arc having a similar deity role, others are more kind of history-based and they view heritage as something as its own form of divine right. Regardless,

it varies from chapter to chapter. And this belief system is something that helps drive any and all space marines to stick to their guns and gives them something to fight. for. We'll get more into the functions in a bit, but we should cover the ranks first. Shy. You got to show that in the video. Jesus Christ. Shai said all space Marines have unique histories and cultures, space Marines, and then just a picture of all the buzz light years lined up on the shelf, all looking the exact damn same.

It's harsh. Is it, is it, is it untrue? true. You be the judge. This is why we like chaos in this podcast, baby. Yes! So, before you become a chaplain, you've got to be trained. Those trainees become

a, I, again, a judicier, judicier, judicier, judicier, I'm going to say. Judiciar? Judiciar? That makes sense. Oh, yeah. Okay, I've never thought to read it

like that, but I think you're right. a Judiciary I'm not going to lie I'm really like after I don't know how many years of playing 40K and reading 40K stuff the words are starting to get away from me

the other day they showed off the new kill teams and there was an actual word in there and I didn't know it's an actual word and people in the comments were like that's a real word and I thought can you blame me with some of the stuff games workshop comes out with that I didn't know that was real this is one of those

ones where it's never clicked Say it again, Bricky. It's gone again. Judiciar. Judiciar. Okay. Right. I'm going to try and commit that one, so I never mispronounce it again. They become those. Those brothers, they take a vow of silence as their training stresses that their actions are to showcase what they preach more than their words. So they're responsible for carrying out the will of the chapter master, and they do so with a slightly menacing executioner blake. that they carry in a sort of guts-like way. The primaries version of, it's gone again. I'm going to leave.

Come on, I believe you. Judiciary. Judiciary. Judiciary. There we go. I also love you. Oh, no, I'm going to commit this to memory. Like, it's a word you use every day, right?

How often does the word judiciar come up, right? Yeah, but it went immediately, and that's bad. That's worried. I love the fact that I click type in Judiciary, like Judiciary or like Judiciary as she or whatever into Google and the only thing I get is Warhammer so I think it's a fake word it might actually be

it might be like a 40k take on like oh god the pain of shame shy shy's pain the pronunciation I've I've disgraced myself nah don't worry you haven't truly

made it on this podcast until shy has taken the time to humiliate you like that You're one of us for sure now, dude. So the primaries version of the Judiciary also carry with them a temperamortis device, which is a time-manipulating device on a chain that looks like a blinged-out hourglass. The extent of which you can manipulate time isn't clear, but it can essentially offset its flow in a small area around them

and their adversary to give them the upper hand in battle. otherwise it seems more like a representation of the Dudishyar's need for patience than anything else. It's such a good model except for the helmet. I am in so much agreement with you. I think everything is great except for the fucking Judge Holden Blood Meridian looking ass head. I hate that head so much. It just doesn't work. It just does not work.

I honestly, I thought that was just one of the options. I thought they had like a special skull helmet or something. And this is just like, oh yeah, this is just one of the head options. Is that the only one that's available for this guy? I'm pretty sure it's the only one in the kit. That's the one. I mean, it's the only one in the kit, but you will have 45 left over helmets from your other Facebook. Yeah, just put it.

Literally anything is better. Also, don't use that one. It's fucking red skull has. Yeah, I love those swords. I think it's specifically an executioner sword, right? Because it's got no pointed end because that's not what it's for. It's an executioner's blade. It's got one goal.

Yeah. I don't know what it is about those swords that have sort of the squared off end or like, even like a broken sword. I just love that aesthetic so much. I really like those as well. It's not just the fact that it is like an executioner's blade. There's also like a weird element of, I don't know, I might not be able to stab you, but I can still beat you to death. I don't know.

There's just something about that to it where it's like, it feels like it's equally dangerous no matter which part is hitting you, even though it's missing the tip. So, yeah. It's very, very soul bad guy if, you know, just happened recently. Also, the old, the old, like, hourglass. that he holds is it's so extra it's really it's so big

it's ridiculous things I haven't heard in too long for a thousand Alex shut up okay the next but yeah the judiciary is sick

he gives fights first in the tabletop which makes him very good I mean of course he does have you seen his hourglass like of what I was going to say If, yeah.

Ooh, you're going to be slow in combat. That's like, I just, I love hearing things in like the tabletop that are just like, oh, yeah, it makes sense. He has an hourglass. Of course he's going first. He manipulates time. Yeah. Yeah. What are you, an idiot?

Don't you realize he has the hourglass? Yeah, he has the hourglass. I just think it's cool when, like, it lore makes sense that they do stuff in the tabletop like that. Yeah. I just, I know what you mean. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah.

So the next step up above the judiciary is the chaplain, but a step above that is the reclusiarch. So the reclusiarch is charged with the oversight and care of the reclusium in the fortress monastery of whatever chapter it is. So that involves training new chaplains, but also includes the maintenance and care and sometimes activation of all holy relics within the reclusiarch, which we'll get into in a little bit. The top role within the chaplaincy, though, is the Master of Sanctity. Solid title. As the title suggests, they are one of the masters of the chapter, and they are responsible for the effectiveness of all of the rungs below them. Some of the masters of sanctity also have access to quite a strange and powerful artifact,

known as the Emperor's Judgment. And I'm going to put this in for Ricky to read. Oh, legend has it that the golden skull face mask known as the emperor's judgment was crafted in the years following the, or wait, I lost it. Sorry, my Discord scrolled up. Let me try that again. Legend has it that the golden skull face mask known as the emperor's judgment was crafted in the years following the Horace heresy, and its crimson crystal islands is armed with droplets of his own lifeblood. Regardless of the truth of its origins, several influential masters. sanctity have been granted the honor of wearing

the Emperor's judgment in battle. Both Heretics and Zeno's cower in the face of its grim majesty. That's so cool. The Emperor's blood, huh? It's pretty good. It's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Is that the one that that must have been

the Emperor's, that was the picture shy showed earlier, right? Or no, never mind. It doesn't have red eyes at all. Okay, sorry, I'm dumb. I mean, to be fair, a lot of the A lot of the chaplain stuff, like, you will see a, like, a red-eyed skull helm. So it's, it's, it could be that or it could not be. Look at this holy master of sanctity.

Nice, uh, nice, my astrath. Boy, Astorath. Yeah, Astorath the grim. Yeah, one name. I see. How do you get that name? Just a couple. A couple methods.

Uh, you. He had this really mediocre old miniature, but I must say, okay, well, I don't know. Okay, he's kind of, he's kind of sick. But he is a little stubby. And then they updated him. And they basically just did the thing where they make him the exact same, but updated. And I think that was the right call. He looks kind of sick.

Well, you mean did the best update you can do? Make it the same, but newer. Nah, no, some. Listen, blood angels are a weird one, man. I feel like whatever they do for photography is doing them disjustice. Like the sanguinary guard update, bad, not good. 100%. Where are the wings?

But then, especially, yeah, where are the wings? But I specifically saw the sanguador in person recently, and it's kind of good. Okay. I don't know. Honestly, it would be crap. It's like their characters all have the same issue that sanguinius had from, the like the Horace-Heresy range, where the pose of the model means that if you see it from a static angle, it looks goofy. As soon as you can turn it round, it's like, oh, that's actually sick.

What the hell is this? This is great. But it needs to be seen from more than one angle. And it feels like a lot of the Blood Angel stuff is like that for some reason. Yeah, I don't know. It's weird. I actually liked it in personal. I also like Lamardi's his funny little ball gag. I think it's sick. I'm still. I'm still. not. I'm still not convinced on that one. I don't know why they did it. The what? I mean, um,

listen, I don't know. I think the mask is cool, but like, yeah, it is a little bizarre, but I don't know. I don't mind it. Okay. Also, I'm not, the, the, the, the, the, well, what's his name? The, the grim boy. I, I don't know what it is. There's something I find more charming about the old one. And I don't really, like, the new one is fine. But like the old one has like that just like, oh yeah, that's 40K, baby. For me, it's the, it's the very, very long purity seals and parchments. And those are what are keeping him aloft.

Like, he's hovering because of those. And those are missing on the new one. That's, that's the only thing I don't like about the new one. I agree with you on that one. And I agree with you specifically because the exact same thing is happening with the sanguador. Yes. I think Celesteen is also held aloft by

Yes Deerty Seals which is very sick But that's Lamarthe's and that's his ball gag So you can decide for yourself DK whether you think that works or not I'm not convinced

But DK before you make a choice here Look at the old Lamarties Oh boy The old Lamarthes is very busy But he still looks back ass. He does. He's fucking great. Look at him. I mean, you know, I'm not sure how I feel about the golden toes, man. I don't know. Yeah, that's just a pain in choice. It's fine. The rest of it. Solid. I got to be honest, I kind of like the old one more. It is very busy and it does feel a little clutter.

But I'm sorry. It's fine. I can, I can be in the minority here. That's fine. It's fine. It's just a mini. You can pick whichever one you want. Roll the one you like. I don't mind the funny ball gag. I don't know, man. Looks like golden toes from the other foot now, Ricky. It goes so shy. Okay, well, can we at least all agree that the new Dante looks fucking sick? Oh, yeah, that it's insane. Yes, 100%. Now, those are golden toes. I'd suck. All right. Boy, howdy. So how about those chaplains? What does a chaplain do? As we say, as we say,

I had to mention Dante because I, even though we're only going to talk about Dante for 10 seconds, I need Possum to have us add the featuring, or Ted, to have us add the featuring Dante from the Warhammer 40K series symbol on the thumbnail. So, so that's the only reason. It's the only reason I brought it up. All right, continue. What do chaplains do? I hear you ask. after that like 10 minute

derailment oh what a transition oh dear it's a look sometimes you just got a brute force it right as we mentioned before

the chaplain is responsible for the RAL which is lacking currently well-being and spiritual health of the members of the chapter

so chaplains are present at virtually every stage of a space marine's life from being a neophy onwards

they're present for the indoctrination their progression and eventual transformation into a space marine. In fact, indoctrination-wise, they are fully responsible for really beating neophytes over their head with all the histories and rights of the chapter, and it's this indoctrination that helps when it comes to battle-hardiness. Because of this direct link, the chaplains are able to casually observe and monitor the actions of a neophyte,

and they can determine who may or may not be a good fit for the chapter as a whole, by sifting through and weeding out those who seem to be spiritually unfit. As Shai says, if you play Space Marine 2, you know, chaplains do that by calling you a chaos-corrupted cock every five minutes. That is very true. That is. Yeah. I loved the influx of memes of So Titus, you have successfully stopped a full,

like 15th Black Crusade single-handedly. But the stench of chaos can never true. be removed. In order for you to have stopped the Black Crusade single-handly, it's spent a lot of time near people who've worshipped chaos. I'll be watching you tight to sit in the eyes on you.

Oh, Leandroz, you lovable scamp. So, because of their full-on dedication to the cult of a chapter, the chaplain can be seen as fairly intimidating and eccentric. But another side effect of their deep knowledge of the law

is that they have some, like they are some of the fiercest combatants any chapter has. They are deeply passionate about their chapter and they will fight for them in an unrelenting manner. They make sure that everyone around them does exactly the same.

So while they're fighting, you'll hear them shouting battle creeds, hymns, words of motivation, praise to the brothers around them for doing well in the eyes of the emperor and their prime arc. They are... effectively, not just incredibly skilled in combat themselves,

but they are also power-armored cheerleaders at the same time. That is some sick art as well. I have to assume that on the tabletop, if you have a chaplain, that being in his vicinity will give you like X amount of buffs, speed buffs, power buffs, especially if you like, I don't know, kill X amount of like enemy combatants or something, you get like a bonus because Chaplin is very proud of you and says lovely words to you and praises you. You know what? I'll never be proud of you.

Yeah, there's not fair. Okay. Yeah, sure. But like, I'm assuming there's like a tabletop thing that goes along with that where chaplains are really great because they can, you know, do that to your whole squad. I'm afraid this is over to you, Bricky. I've only been playing tanks for like the last. Yeah. No,

chaplains are a little bit, a little bit personally a type of mediocre. The main thing is that they roll up and they give you X plus one a wound in melee, which is just basically like, yeah,

he's reciting the resuscations of hatred and therefore you beat the shit out of people in melee. And then you, I think normally you have something that's like, oh, you get to like a re-roll a battle shock test because of your litanys of faith. They're pretty mid.

Oh, that's disappointing. Yeah, named chaplains are a little better. Like Astorath hits kind of hard. But like besides that, they're normally pretty mid. It's a little unfortunate. Back in the day, in 9th edition, they used to like be able to chant specific litanies that gave you special buffs. And that was a lot more fun and a lot more flavorful.

They took it away from us, those bastards. That's what I was kind of thinking they should have because that sounds like a chaplain thing to do. It's a lore accurate chaplain. Yeah, they were 100% should. I think when it comes to like the streamlining of, of data sheets and stuff, there's a few things where they were like, we're just going to make this nice and easy

and in the process, like, removed some of the things that make it fun. Like, I'm still annoyed about the fact that Sponsons stopped costing things on Neiman Russes. I still don't like the fact they did that in the first place. And it gets on my nerves as someone who, I think at the moment, I'm running seven of them. So it's like, any chance, lads, what are you doing? No, the war gear thing I actually, I don't mind as much. I mind the, the lack of the, the fun abilities.

I will, I will forever hate the fact that the custodian's army rule is like, choose lethal or sustained hits in the beginning of combat. Like, what an absolute dog water ability for such an interesting faction. We need, we need, we need, we need, I'm pretty sure everyone agrees with that. We need, we need to bring back some of that flavor. It just needs to not be. be insanely overpowered like it was at 9th. I mean, you can do fun without it being overpowered. I still, I want things that are related to orcs to have a chance to explode.

That's just more fun. But also, that's not great if you're in a tournament. But at the same time, I'm like, yeah, but I remember when things did explode all over the shop. You know what you chose. Yeah. Who cares about that? Like, no one is going to be like, oh, God, this is so terrible for my tournament. if they just add plus one to deadly demise rolls for orcs.

Like that's fine, man. Like, I'm going to do that. Yeah. Anywho. We're going to talk about weapons and armor. So, as we touched on earlier, the primary weapon that's part of the formal, like, regalia of a chaplain, is known as the Crozius Archonum,

which is, by the way, an amazing item name, which translates to Arcane Cross. It's viewed as a sacred staff of the chaplains, but it's also an exceptionally violent and vicious close combat weapon. The duality is intentional. It's meant to showcase the beauty of the will of the emperor and also the brutal way in which it's dispensed. So it's covered in your go-to imperial iconography,

and it tends to have some form of a quiller on it, but the Crozius Archonum tends to also be a relic weapon within the Legion, and it tends to reflect something more personal within that Legion. So for example, the salamanders have Crozius Icarum that look like forge hammers, or they'll have a dragonhead at the top. The Blood Angels will quite often have something a bit more thematic to their chapter as well. But it's not just a big stick that you whack something with. Embedded inside most of them is an energy field that can cause extreme knockback once a hit is landed on a foe. And some legions have also modified it so it can be used in a round.

range sense. So the best example of this is the storm rod used by Carnac of the Imperial Fists. The power field embedded in this Crozius can strike down a fo at a distance as if it's some form of divine smite, which is badass.

Oh, that's so cool. I've always I love the Crozius. They're absolutely awesome. I've always been weirdly annoyed with how stubby they are. feels like they should be like a good foot longer, but yeah, a little bit. You almost think it should be a staff, right?

Yeah, yeah, I kind of feel like it should be like two-handed instead of one. Like, it's fine, like it just feels like a shock mall. It's kind of just like, it's like the bonk stick, you know? It feels like a bonk stick. Also, I don't know if I just haven't seen a lot of chaplains, but whenever I think of their, They're, I was almost going to say, they're bongstick. They're croceous. I always think of like that one that shy posted, the one on the right, that's like a skull in the middle and just wings.

I haven't seen too many, like, unique ones. And that's why I really like the one that has like the skeleton on it with the sort of circular thing. And he's like holding the dagger. That looks really dope. Yeah, I've always just seen like that one. It's just like, oh, yeah, it's the, you. It's the winged eagle deal, and it's like, oh, well, yeah, it's cool. But, like, I didn't realize there were so many, like, specialized different-looking ones of them.

That's the thing. I think when it comes to, like, model ranges, games workshop are, like, here's the chaplain. And then if you've got a specific version for whatever chapter it is, then if it's established or popular enough, then it'll get its own version. But for the rest of them, it's, like, you use the generic one, whereas in practice, like, actually in universe, they're a lot more tailored. to what each chapter kind of, like what each chapter identifies around. And then, yeah, the one. Oh, no.

I, okay, I simultaneously, that one. Yeah, I, I, I both, I like, I love it, and I don't like it at the same time. On the one hand, it doesn't have any wings. So it, it just looks like, like, a goth's pimp cane. But, to be fair

being smacked with the goth pimp cane is fucking incredible so I quite like it so the visual for me is him walking holding the skull like a walking cam just like flinging up in the air slightly grabbing it by

the handle and then just whacking you with it and that to me that just has this this feeling of like he's firing you with the other pistol and he just like wallops you on the side with a skull stick. And see, for me, I like that one,

because even though it's shorter, it's just kind of, I don't know. I think I don't like the wings. And that's, it sounds that way. Yeah, it sounds like you're just not a big fan of the big bulky gold. Like, oh, yeah, we see this iconography

everywhere. We don't need a giant shining version of it on, you know, on the Crozias 2. The rest of the month is great, though. Like, that, that ain't true. That ain't true, though. You like that chaplain because it reminds you of the witch burn a general from trench priestess. Yes, the trench must say, dude.

Fair! That's the first thing. Oh, yes, that's exactly what I like about him. I love funny imperial wings everywhere. The wings are sick. I just think the wing on the stick is weird. Okay, okay, okay. I assume, like for room priests, like when you've got, like, there's different, there's different, there's different Crozius iconum.

when the wings are more in a traditional, like, battle axe formation, where they're not curved, it's just straight across the top, and then they're even, and they are flat. Then it just looks like a fancy stick to hit people with. It looks more like a mall or a warhammer, but fancy. When they're curved, I always think to myself, that looks like a pain to actually hit someone with.

So like the Blood Angels, um, is it the, oh God, what are they called? They're chaplain equivalent. The guy with the, the guy with the goblet full of blood

and the Crozius Iqarnum, where it's, it's very, very curved at the front. And a jump pack, it looks so hard to hit people with because it feels like the, the shape of it is really off. Like, I don't like that type of Crozius

where it's all curved at the top with the wings. They need, to be flat, and then it seems like a viable weapon. But at the same time, it's like, why get hung up on that? They are, you know, biologically engineered living weapons who have been brainwashed into murdering people. So why do you care what the weapon looks like? But there's still that little bit where it's like, oh, it just doesn't look convenient

to use, if that makes sense. I mean, it's a holy symbol, you know? and so I feel like more than anything it's kind of you use it almost simultaneously to like knight someone like bless them in a way. Yes. Yeah. Ooh, that Croesus is really dope actually,

I kind of did that. The super big one is actually kind of rock star. Is the, is the Rune Priest just the best version of the, we'll get onto that in a minute. Okay, look, the other secret item that the chaplains have is a

surprising amount of power within their Rosarius. So the Rosarius is a chap of a chaplain, which is also known as the Soul's armour, is a powered amulet that serves as a defensive conversion field for that chaplain. It's provided to them by the ecclesiarchy

as a sign of good faith. The shape can vary, but more often than not, they tend to be a quiller-shaped or a cross that's fairly stylised and either worn on the sash or around the neck on a string of prayer beads. the conversion generator within the Rosarius channels the energy of an impact into light in the direction the hit came from, making it seem like the light of the emperor shot down the attack, and it is strong enough to basically make a plasma gun shot completely harmless, which is Matt. Wow.

Represented in video, or in tabletop as a four-up in vulnerable save. Oh, that everyone has. cool that's that's good right four four up is it's pretty pretty good yeah it's it's quite common nowadays but it's like like harlequins have a four up in full save because they just they just like dance fast dance around like it's it's whatever it's fine it's just it's that that art is crazy yeah nice right oh it's a little bit really good old school art with the old chaplains and stuff they're a very iconic like John Blanche look

yeah definitely I mean that like the most striking the most striking feature of the chaplain is the look so the armour is ancient it's a living relic of the history of the chapter it's covered in symbols and iconography related to that chaplain

as well as the Imperium but like the immediate visual that you see is the skull helm and the armor that's quite often looks like a full-blown skeleton. And as we talked about earlier, that's just 100% taken from the heralds of the proto wordbearers.

The skeletal features are meant to evoke a few very specific things to their brothers. For starters, the helm has been repurposed to represent the sacrifice the emperor made during the heresy. So it being on the battlefield is a representation of the emperor's wrath and what he gave up. And it's a permanent reminder of mortality

to everyone around it. The skull helm as well as the other skeletal features on the armour is also a threatening and imposing feature. It makes them stand out and the normally fully black armour that accompanies these features, it makes them stand out even more. Prior to becoming a full-on chaplain, the trainees tend to keep their standard armour but with a few exceptions. Their helmets, right shoulder plates and right arms tend to be painted black to represent their separation from the chaperies. chapter and their path to the chaplaincy. But then once they don the skull mask, their training is complete and they become a bit more mysterious to the rest of the chapter.

I love the, there we go. Yeah, the wolf priest. It's, look, you take what should be a human school, make it an animal skull, and it immediately becomes more scary. I don't know why, but it just does. Is it just like, because the art is maybe a little weird, But to me, the ultramarine one almost looks... Dirty as hell?

Well, yeah, well, not derby, but it almost looks like a gorilla skull or something. It looks sort of like a feral primate. Yeah. That is old art, to be fair. That is getting on a bit. I'm not sure. That to me, my guess is that is like second to third. edition art that's shown up somewhere.

Okay. It's just because the wolf-graced one looks like a wolf. The Blood Angels one is like, oh yeah, that's sort of like your normal human skull. That's like maybe a little dated art. That's fine. But then like the ultramar one looks almost like, yeah, like a, like what I would assume a gorilla skull would look like. I mean, I will say, yeah, what is, what, it's not a space where you're not a shaved gorilla with a shotgun? I've only recovered from reading that.

I took a drink right as I read it and I didn't die. I mean, you know that one metaphor that I mentioned about Eldar and space marines, right? I've said it a few times now. I don't, but go ahead and say it. Oh, you know, it's like Eldar looked down on humanity as like savage primates, right? And it's like, but Eldar is still scared of space marines the same way you would be terrified if a silverback gorilla wearing full plate through your walls waving a shotgun around. True.

Yeah. That's totally. You'd be like, you know, you'd still be like, holy shit. Shit. I'm in danger. By the craft world. Run. Oh, yeah.

Fair, fair. Also, you're right, Chad. That is the worst version of the skull mass. There is no question about it. Space Marines together, strong. Oh, God. It's like the skull is eating him. Yeah, it's like the face mask grabbers from Katachin.

Yeah, exactly. I can't see any screenshot from any of those films about remembering the first time I tried to watch a, like a rebooted Planet of the Apes film, and didn't know that there were subtitles, except subtitles weren't appearing. And I got like half an hour in, And I was like, wow, what am I supposed to do with all this grunting?

I'm getting nothing from this. Where's the emotional connection? Then I was like, oh, hang on. Something's gone wrong here. Me during pornography. I'm only hearing grunting. Where's my no emotional connection? It got a lot better when I refreshed the page and actually got subtitles.

It became a lot more interesting. Jesus. Anyway. Something that needs to be covered right about now is the identity of a chaplain and how it's changed and how it varies from chapter to chapter as there is no one-size-fits-all standard for it.

Traditionally, in the older law, a chaplain would wear their skull helm at all times. They wouldn't remove it unless they were in the reclusium or in the presence of higher-ranking members of the chapter. Upon taking the helm, most chaplains would take the name associated with the helm and its armour, which we see in Space Marine 2, where I've already made this joke but spoiler alert, we find that Leandroos has taken the name Quintus,

Quintus being a known chaplain named to folks, including Titus. The reasoning behind all of this is to affiliate the concept of the chaplain with the immortal belief behind the chaplain, so that when a brother sees them, they see the ideology and presence and not the individual. And on the other side of the coin, this helps when it comes to their work and their disciplinary actions. It's like how churches have private confessions. There's no direct known individual connection, making it much more transactional. And for dispensing something more organisational and disciplinary,

it's as if the actions coming from the chaplain are just coming from the important. bodiment of moral authority as opposed to just some guy you know or someone you can relate to. We also need to talk about reclusiums. So all things considered, virtually all the ships and bases in a space marines' retinue can be described as some form of space cathedral. But the real space cathedral within these space cathedrals is the reclusium, which also has, in Possum's opinion, one of the funnier, unexpected symbols representing it. Most of the time these reclusiams are found within the fortress monastery of a chapter, but for the more fleet-based chapters, you'll find it in the flagship.

And this is where all the holy relics of any given chapter are displayed proudly, and all the sanctimonious rituals of a chapter are held here under the eye of the reclusiarch. For those with really fond memories of early Warhammer, this is where the poop vault and the pea chalice of Rokledorn would be located if it was still canon. I forgot all about that. Okay, so a side note, that image of the Black Templar chaplain that Shia just posted was my phone wallpaper on like a shitty flip phone in like when I was like 14. or something along those lines. Honestly, it goes hard.

Like, I don't blame you. There's a couple artists that make stuff that look kind of like this. And yeah, like, it's good stuff. I don't know. I used to have a ton of this as like phone wallpapers and stuff. And stuff.

It was great. I'll be a hundred. I thought you were going to say it is your current phone wallpaper. And I was like, yeah, sure. It's dope. I don't blame you. that's a cool wallpaper. As if the current one would be anything

other than something bilateral related. Come on. Okay. Okay. That's fair. Okay. All right. Is he wrong? He is wrong.

You want to know why actual... I'm going to send you a fucking... I'm going to send you a fucking screenshot of what my goddamn... Oh, if not him. He's getting flustered. Okay. He's changing it.

He's changing it. He's changing it. He's changing it. like, God, got to find another picture besides the clown picture. You're going to think I'm a goddamn insane person, okay? All right, hold on. What did I think before? There you go.

There's my phone wallpaper. I get distracted when I keep changing my wallpaper, so I just made it black. No, that is. You know what? That's fair, because I remember you saying you were trying to make it so your phone wasn't as distracting and you didn't get caught up looking at your phone all the time. That makes sense. That, I don't know why, but that feels, that feels kind of like, I don't, I don't know how to phrase this, but that it's sounding awful. That's like some psychopath shit.

What? No, no, this is so Patrick Bateman coded. It's so Patrick Bateman coded. You're so right, I know. I love how curiosity is your phone wallpring, he's like, God, what a sociopath. It's just so, it's so blank. It's so blank in plain. Would you, would you like to hear something worse? Yes. Well, now this is worse. We have to find out if the viewers will think this is worse. I don't use Spotify or Apple Music. Whenever I listen to music, I just look up on YouTube.

I just look up the YouTube video randomly and try to find it on YouTube and then play it in the car. That's fine. That is kind of weird that you wouldn't use Spotify. But I get it. Are you paying for Spotify? No. Okay. That's, yeah.

I mean, if you were paying for it, that would be mad. but like, yeah, I can see that. All right, all right. Shai, your wallpaper is not more well adjusted. It's fancy art. It does look good. My phone wallpaper is just my cat that passed away earlier this year. Not to bring it down, but, you know, it's just.

I'm going to make things slightly worse because I put my phone wallpaper up earlier like a couple of seconds ago. And my, my desktop is the same. but across three monitors because Okay messing you're kind of a fan of I'm sorry I have to

I have to discuss this because this is I'm sorry episode this is a tangent that's very important I think I think this sets a very interesting precedent

for the kind of people we are so you've got me Patrick Bateman with my blank phone wallpaper so I don't get distract him

we have Kiryoth with a much more classic gamer wallpaper of transistor by Super Giant Games, an incredible game. Great game. Great game.

You have Shies, maliciously horny, like, granted, very, very good-looking artwork, but... It looks great. I love the phrase maliciously horny,

and I will be stealing that for future use. It's very maliciously horny, despite it looking also simultaneously tasteful and somewhat decent. And then, And D.K. has the emotional one with the cat. Yeah.

I would like all to meet a psychiatrist, like always Sunny in Philadelphia style, and see what we can gleam from this information. That feels like an excellent bonus episode. I mean, to be fair, there's no to be fair for this. My wife did ask me, I've got, like, she has pictures of our children

has her phone wallpaper. and she was like, you've had the same wallpaper on your phone for like your last four phones and it's read from transistor. What's the deal? And I'm like, I just like it. And that's the best I could come up with. So I don't know. I don't know what that says. Resistant to change?

I don't know. This is the most male coded thing of all time. News will have like an Instagram profile and post nothing. And then randomly there'll be a person. picture of a sunset that just says looking kind of neat. And then that's the only story they'll have for four months. All right, excellent. This was extremely enlightening for everybody.

Okay. So what happens when a chaplain dies? Or alternative title, promotion to a walking confessional booth? We're going to get more into the chapter unique stuff in a second, but right about now, you might be thinking, Kiryoth, you Christ, a possum, for God's sake, Kiryoth, you awe-inspiring dignitary.

What happens if a chaplain dies in battle? I actually kind of was curious, yeah, because I'm assuming... Well, Kirioth, you awe-inspiring dignitary, what does happen to a chapel when they die in battle? Generally speaking, this results in one who is, in training to assume the role of the fallen chaplain, and they put on the helm, al-Aqcubon from Pokemon, which gives the trainee full authority

as the spiritual leader for the duration of the battle. After the battle is won, we assume, he is then given full rights to become the official chaplain. But sometimes a spiritual leader is so good that you just can't say goodbye to them fully, especially if they're only quote unquote gravely injured. These chaplains are then given the dreadnought treatment and become a walking shrine for the chapter.

Like most dreadnoughts, the chaplain dreadnoughts are devastating in battle. They have immense strength, but they also provide all the benefits of your regular old chaplain and they're a walking beacon of devotion and faith to the law of the chapter. They go to that. That's the other option. that Cue bone reference is brutal for the weeds out there

that's awful Isn't it the skull of their mom or something horrible? Yes, the skull of their dead mother that they put on. What the hell? The skull of their mother marrow action is oh no, God, don't do that. Why? Oh God, I wish they stole the chaplain Dreadnought. Astor at the

Gris. That's true. I mean, the chapel dreadnought was sick. It was insane and they stopped making it and it's just more proof that Game's Workshop doesn't care about their customers because they should still sell it today. I need more, I need more like, they don't need to sell the damn Chaplin dreadnought. I need them to have like dreadnought upgrades for points. And so you can like take a redemptor and be like, here's your librarian dreadnought blood

angel fans. Yes. It's psycher. It does this. It does this and does this. It's 20 points. more, model it how you want to make it cool as fuck, you know. Is there a specific reason they stopped doing Chaplin dreadnoughts?

Like, did they just think it didn't make any sense, or they figured it didn't make money? No, it's part of the whole, like, it's, yeah, it's like, it's a kind of, the whole thing of Forge World being a separate company, but not really, because they're both games workshop, but they had separate branding, and then they started to kill off the boxnorts and boxnoughts. So you ended up with, what do you mean? What? You know what I mean? I sell box knots and box nuts derivatives.

Also, it gave me a bit of a director, Krennick and Andor thing where you're like, box nots, box not alternatives. Box not substitutes. All right. Yeah, they're really cool. They cut down a load of like sort of special units. and unfortunately the Chaplin Dreadnought was one of them, which makes me sad because it was a great model, and I loved it. I'm actually quite surprised they haven't updated, like,

because they could, the box knot is still iconic. Like, you could still make a good-looking box-not in the modern day. I'm surprised they never updated Bjorn. Yeah, where's, where is you then to Bjorn, at least? Like, come on, you've got the, yeah. Yeah, surely someone at Games Workshop has been like, you know, we could make Bjorn a massive chunky boy.

We could do that. That would work. I mean, they've updated the goddamn Dreadnight, and that's an absolute crock of shit. So, you'd think they'd do it with something that actually, you know, people care about. I'm sorry, Grey Knight's fans. I'm so sorry, I'll shut up. I apologize.

It's fine. We're treating Grey Knight fans about as well as a game's workshop. It's been 10 years. You can have one camera. character and an upgrade to your worst unit visually. Enjoy. But also, by the way, just so you know that we can do it, right? Here's Castle and Crow.

It looks so good, and the rest of them look old as fuck. It's not fair. It's so bad. Shy and shit lore. Wow. I like some of the great night lore. It's stupid, but it's got some charm. Yeah, you wait for the,

the two-hour episode on the terminus degree. Anyway, you need that variance. A title variance. The needs of a chapter dictate the duties of the chaplain, as we discussed with the more hands-on approach of the Blood Angels chaplains. The Dark Angels, for example, have two different sets of chaplains.

They've got your standard chaplains that do all of the normal stuff, but they also have interrogated chaplains. So good. These are part of the inner circle, and they are tasked with the duty of seeking out the fallen and making them repent. As their name suggests, it's not really a do-a-few-a-few-larees at the altar and show up next Sunday. Instead, it's a bit more Spanish Inquisition. So the interrogator chaplains are a very menacing lot, and to quote-unquote successful repentances

result in a black pearl being added to their Rosarius as a commemoration for this achievement. For the furries out there, we're going to talk about wolf priests. I didn't say that. Possum said it, blame Possum. As said in the apothecary episode, the wolf priests are a combo of chaplain and apothecary. On the chaplain side of things, they are pretty much the same as their non-furry counterparts, except for the very visually obvious and badass aesthetic they have with the wolf skull and fur cape. They, to be fair, look the best. They just do.

Wolf school, better than human school, in this specific instance. Day-to-day life, probably not so good. In place of a Rosarius, they carry an item known as a wolf amulet, terrible name, which functions as the same thing. It's probably just disguised as one of those three wolf moon shirts instead of an aquila. We talked about the Iron Fathers before, but they should be brought up again because why not? So in short, the Iron Fathers or the Iron Hans' unique variant is known as the Iron Fathers, and they're a combination of Chaplin and Tech Marine, and they are a relic from the Dark Age mystics on Medusa

that were rolled into the Legion once Ferris Manish showed up. So the Iron Fathers formed the Iron Council of the Chapter. They don't just oversee the members of the chapter, but they also oversee the armoury as well. Now, as we said earlier, the Rosarius provided to the chaplains tends to be done so by the Ecclesiarchy. Considering how deep in the reeds the Iron Fathers are with the Machine God,

The Ecclesiarchy keeps saying, oh, I'm sorry, the Rosarius must have got lost in the mail or something. We'll send one out some other time, and that has left the Iron Fathers high and dry without them. But we're talking iron hands here. They are resourceful. So the Iron Fathers make it a part of their duty to manufacture their own versions of this device as a right of passage.

So in the more sort of holy legions, there are some more interesting variants too. The Black Templars have the Execrators. Far more reserved. Relaxed. They tend to just cheer everyone on from the sidelines. None of that's true. In fact, the headline of the Warhammer Community Article that introduced them is

the Execrator will make sure you keep your vow to kill absurd amounts of heretics. Chaplains are there to make sure you stick to your guns. the Black Templars don't need that. So instead, they have something a bit more extreme. D.K., do you want to read this out for me? I shall. It is the divine duty of the execrators to ensure the Black Templar's holy vows are fulfilled in battle,

inspiring comrades with their own feats of martial prowess. They are often the first through the breach and the last to fall, terrifying enemies with the sheer brutality of their assaults and spurring allies to join them in the melee Hell yeah Hell yeah Hell yeah Oh, the minis

Shockingly plain actually Yeah, but it's I think it's alright I think it works well This is a moment of I'd say less is more I think that's a perfectly fine miniature And for some reason His Judge Holdenhead isn't as

bad as the judicious one. Yeah, it's perfectly normal and fine. I don't even mind the wings, honestly. Huh. I will say that the wings on that crozier, that's what I'm talking about with like weirdly, like the angle is weird, but the alternate build where there's a big skull and the wings are much, like they're much higher on either side, they, that looks great. That's like my, that's the.

That's the platonic ideal of a Crozius iconum for me, where it's just, it looks like a religious symbol, but it also looks like you could whack someone in the face with it, and it wouldn't make it hard to swing. So that's the perfect one for me. Yeah, the other one looks like just every piece of art I've ever seen of the Croesus ever. It's just like that's the standard, like, yep, if you're going to see a chaplain, they're going to be wielding that one with that design, with the skull and the gold and the wings. Like, that is like, in my brain, for like, oh, yeah, it's the chaplain weapon. I'm like, yep, that one.

I feel like with the ones with the angled wings, if it was a full staff, it would look more like a librarian staff, but it would look more like a symbol of office, whereas the ones where it's much flatter looks like a weapon that also happens to be a weapon, like a symbol of office. The helm is great, though.

It's so much better than the Judiciary, where you've got that kind of, it looks like a, it just looks like a bald man covering his face because he's got COVID. That's what it looks like. He almost looks more like a bandit than a chaplain with that head on. Yeah, this feels proper, like proper chaplain, that help. Full-on skull. Looks way better. So we also have the Grey Knight Chaplains. and they are more or less the most powerful members of the chapter outside of the Grandmaster.

So due to the nature of their work demon-wise, Grey Knight chaplains are exceptionally on top of things when it comes to making sure there is absolutely no inkling of warp taint in any way, shape or form. To be a Grey Knight chaplain is to be effectively impossibly pure in mind and, spirit. There's a couple of non-OG chapters that have some neat little variants too. The Emperor Spears, who are a successor chapter of the Ultramarines, have combined the roles of librarians, tech marines, apothecaries and chaplains under the blanket term of druid. So, I mean, for 5E fans out

there, that does not mean they can turn into a black dragon indefinitely. It's way more different than that. The druids of the Emperor Spears are separated into one of three separate orders that are related to their skills. They are all trained in some basic mutual skills, like being able to harvest gene seed. This occurred, potentially, in part, due to their isolation from the Sol system. So because of the separation, they've had to improvise, and a lot of these skills are developed in-house and without the help of terror or Mars. Emperor Sires, Emperor Shadows, Emperor's

Shadows, Emperor's Shields, Emperors... There's a lot of... There's a lot of emperors when it comes to Space Corps. No, Kyriott. There's only one Emperor. Oh, sorry, no. Heresy detected. Someone's knocking on my door.

Send for the chaplain. To be fair, the Emperor's sides have a great colour scheme. Top ten. If any of them existed. We're going to skip a bit. We're going to skip a bit. we're going to go straight into Dark Apostles, okay?

We'll cut a massive chunk out. So, before we end, we've got to talk about Dark Apostles. We can't close out an episode on Chaplains without talking about what happened to the rest of Lorgaas Chaplains now that they've gone full-blown traitor, as they have a neat title that would also fit perfectly in Trench Crusade. So the Dark Apostles kept the zealous tone they'd been preaching about the Holy Emperor,

but they just switched the book out. And now they just praised, the lords of chaos. Their religious fervor, their charisma, it's strong, it's passionate, and they are capable of causing guardsmen and even space marines to defect to chaos just by preaching alone. Their presence on the battlefield is an immediate red flag and a call for extermination. It's like playing AOE 2 and you see one of those priests that goes, walla lo, and immediately turns your unit to the other side. You have to get rid of it straight away.

Man, what a reference, but I know what you're talking about. A-O-E-2? Age of Empire? Yeah. Oh, I've never, never played it. Yeah. Oh, my God, right.

It's fine. It's fine. Yeah, we're moving. We're fine. Yeah, yeah, we're good. I'm going to be on that for a bit. Oh, my God. The Dark Apostle, Jesus,

they carry with them a tainted and corrupted Crozius that's referred to as an accursed croesus, which serves as a direct link between the apostle and the warp itself, and the most well-known of these is the cursed crozius, not the same as an accursed crozius, the cursed crozius, and it's wielded by,

it's important to make the distinction, it's wielded by one of Logar's original chaplains that were sent out after the ruling on Nikea to serve as a chaplain for another legion. In a rage during his tenure, the chaplain who have this Crozius beat a white-scar's librarian to death with it. And to this day, the cursed Crozius is said to emanate an aura around it that instills those nearby with the knowledge on how to slay a loyalist space marine.

Because of course it does. That's so dope, though. Pretty cool. It's pretty good. Oh, man, I love that. The cursed Crojas'est. Also, once again, Lord Garstay is winning. Naturally. At least as the underlings do.

Also, in the tabletop, the dark apostle has some little underlings, and you can send them into people, and they blow up. Yeah. And it's pretty great. It's great. It's good. That's chaplains. All the chaplains.

Well, most of them. Damn, chaplains are really cool. They are. Whoa. Are those? Are those dark apostle minis? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh man, those are so rock star. Chaos stays winning every time. The man's book is bleeding lava. And it's on fire. Yes. And it's on fire. And it's on fire. And he's got the crucius that you like, Brickyware doesn't have too much stuff on it.

It's just a whack and stick. He's got the pimp cane. Maybe that's why I like it because the chaos one's got the pimp cane. Hey, it makes sense to me. Also, all the fire in the world on the dark apostle, the guy who's carrying the book with a speaker for a face, he can only keep two candles lit. What an idiot.

Yeah, his faith is not strong enough. That's true. All the fire in the dark apostle and his dumb ass with the candles only got two of them laid. What a loser. Fair and bound. Oh, man. Hell yeah. Let's go, chaplains.

Hell yeah. I think to end this episode out, we should have, for every hip, hip, hooray, Leandro's gets punched in the face. All right, everyone ready? Yep. Hip, hip, hooray. Hip, hip, hooray. Hooray. Hip, hip, hooray.