Ultramarines (novel)

"We are the Ultramarines, the Sons of Guilliman. Whilst we draw breath, we stand. Whilst we stand, we fight. Whilst we fight, we prevail. Nothing shall stay our wrath."

- Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines

"Agitatis Ultramarini! Dominitis Ultramarini! Non praestatis Ultramarini! Nobilitis Ultramarini!"

- Ultramarines' Chant, Chaos Gate

The Ultramarines series by Graham McNeill delineates the adventures of one member of the titular Ultramarines, Captain Uriel Ventris: Nightbringer; Warriors of Ultramar; and Dead Sky, Black Sun (in the omnibus Ultramarines); The Killing Ground, Courage And Honour, and The Chapter's Due.

The Ultramarines (fan nickname Ultrasmurfs) are a chapter of Space Marines in the Warhammer 40000 universe. They're one of the more generic chapters within the Crapsack World that is the Warhammer 40,000 universe. In the game, they are considered the poster boy Space Marines, with about half the chapters deriving from the parent legion and Games Workshop using them for the majority of the artwork and material about Space Marines.

Their Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, wrote the Codex Astartes, his treatise on Space Marine tactics. The Ultramarines and most of the Ultramarine spin-off chapters rigidly adhere to it almost religiously, refusing to deviate from its teachings. Others, such as the Space Wolves, ignore it entirely - often a source of friction.

Should not be confused with the DC Comics superhero team of the same name. Also should not be confused with the pigment, although the Ultramarines do wear ultramarine-coloured armor. And Games Workshop has a paint color entitled Ultramarine Blue, which is (you guessed it) ultramarine, and intended to be used to paint Ultramarines.

Please resist the urge to put examples on this page or link to this page on tropes unless you are citing from 40K novels in which the Ultramarines feature. Examples which are specific to rulebooks or other in-universe fluff should go on either the 40K page or in the Space Marines section of the Warhammer 40000 page.


 * Afterlife Express: The Omphalos Daemonium is a daemon train that transports souls.
 * Alien Geometries: Honsou's fortress in Medrengard.
 * Alien Sky: Medrengard has a dull grey one in Dead Sky, Black Sun.
 * Almost-Dead Guy
 * And There Was Much Rejoicing: In Courage and Honor when the Tau blow up the Administratum Tax Bureau.
 * A Million Is a Statistic: A short story in Planetkill ends with the annihilation of Tarsis Ultra, the same planet whose citizens the Ultramarines spent an entire book saving.
 * In Warriors of Ultramar itself, the huge amount of deaths caused by the Tyranid invasion is oddly understated.
 * Armed with Canon: There seems to be an ongoing war between Graham McNeill and Matt Ward. The former has repeatedly tried to lessen the Ultramarines recent depiction as God Mode Sues who everyone wants to be in his novels. The latter has made repeated efforts to Retcon McNeill's novels out of existance.
 * Arcadia
 * The Atoner
 * Back-to-Back Badasses
 * Bad Dreams
 * Badass Creed: One finally appears for them in the film. Captain Severus: "You must be steel! You must be doom! We march to face down Chaos, and banish it! WE MARCH FOR MACRAGGE!" Others: "And we shall know no fear!"
 * There is also their other motto, "Courage and honor."
 * Bait and Switch Gunshot
 * Beauty Equals Goodness: Subverted in Dead Sky Black Sun with the Unfleshed. They appear evil and purely animalistic at first, but later are shown to be just as Emperor worshiping as the Space Marines.
 * Because Destiny Says So: The Omphalos Daemonium is a Chaos...creature, but apparently it doesn't always operate on pure self-interest.
 * Big Book of War: The Codex Astartes, which Roboute Guilliman wrote after the Horus Heresy suggesting organization and tactics for virtually any scenario that Guilliman could have thought of at the time. However, by the 41st millennium there are new threats which Guilliman never foresaw. One of the underlying themes of McNeill's series is the Ultramarines learning when and when not to follow it.
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Bittersweet Ending: All six books:
 * Nightbringer:
 * Warriors of Ultramar:
 * Dead Sky, Black Sun:
 * The Killing Ground:
 * Courage and Honour:
 * The Chapter's Due:
 * Bling Bling Bang
 * Blood From the Mouth: When Uriel is stabbed by a Norn Queen.
 * Blood Magic
 * Bottled Heroic Resolve
 * Buy Them Off
 * Cain and Abel
 * Cards of Power: In Killing Ground, Grey Knight Leodagarius performs cartomancy using his deck of the Imperial Tarot, a psychically-imbued deck of Tarot cards with a spiritual link to The Imperium's God-Emperor.
 * Children Are Innocent
 * Cold-Blooded Torture: The Dark Eldar enjoy torturing people in Nightbringer.
 * Comes Great Responsibility
 * Cool Gate
 * Dead Guy on Display
 * Dead Person Conversation
 * Dem Bones
 * Determinator
 * Dirty Business: In Dead Sky, Black Sun, Uriel gets stuck between a rock and a hard place more than once. He doesn't like it.
 * Divided We Fall
 * Dreaming the Truth
 * Dressing as the Enemy
 * Driven to Suicide
 * Drowning My Sorrows
 * Due to the Dead: He that is dead, take from him the Chapter's due.
 * Dying Alone
 * Dying as Yourself
 * Egopolis
 * Eldritch Location: Medrengard and the rest of the Warp.
 * Empathic Weapon
 * Enemy Civil War
 * Evil Eye
 * Evil Is Deathly Cold
 * Evil Tower of Ominousness: Dead Sky, Black Sun and The Killing Ground
 * Exact Words
 * False-Flag Operation
 * Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Ultramarines are Romans. Or at least very Romanesque.
 * They appear to be more Spartan than Roman, for example, on Macragge, unsuitable infants are left to die.
 * Fatal Family Photo
 * Faux Death
 * Feed the Mole
 * Fire-Forged Friends
 * First-Name Basis
 * Five-Bad Band: The Bloodborn leadership in The Chapter's Due. Some roles are shared:
 * Big Bad: Honsou and M'kar. And neither is happy about sharing it.
 * The Dragon: Cadaras Grendel.
 * The Evil Genius: Adept Cycerin.
 * The Brute: Xiomagra and Votheer Tark.
 * The Dark Chick: Kaarja Salombar.
 * Sixth Ranger Traitor: The Newborn and.
 * Fix Fic: A lot of bits people complained about in the fifth edition codex were addressed in Chapter's Due. Mostly by showing that while exceptionally good at their jobs the Ultramarines were still fallible and could be outdone in some areas by the rest of the Imperium.
 * Friend or Foe
 * Get It Over With
 * Ghostly Chill
 * Glory Hound
 * Good Is Old-Fashioned
 * Good Old Ways
 * Go Out with a Smile
 * Grand Finale: The Chapter's Due.
 * Green-Eyed Monster
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Plenty of them, including several from non-Space Marines.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard
 * Honor Before Reason: Their motto is "Courage and honor!"
 * Hulk Speak
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate
 * I Gave My Word
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Uriel and Pasanius. They even get tested on this trait.
 * In the Back
 * It Has Been an Honor
 * It's All About Me
 * Kill It with Fire: Pasanius loves his flamer.
 * King in the Mountain
 * Knight in Shining Armor
 * La Résistance: The Sons of Salinas in The Killing Ground.
 * Large and In Charge: The lord of the unfleshed, Marneus Calgar, the tyranids... Honsou is one of the few exceptions.
 * Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid
 * Least Is First
 * Light Is Not Good
 * Living Shadow
 * Man Hug
 * Manly Tears
 * Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
 * Mercy Kill: in The Killing Ground.
 * Mind Screw Traveling through the Warp in the Omphalos Daemonium's traincars does this to our heroes, and the reader.
 * Mobile Maze
 * The Mole
 * Mordor: Welcome to the Eye of Terror! You'll be spending most of Dead Sky, Black Sun there.
 * Never Hurt an Innocent: Pasanius almost strangled an Inquisitor to death for declaring exterminatus in Warriors of Ultramar.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Uriel seems to do this alot. Whether he's  he seems to leave places much worse than when he found them
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown
 * No One Gets Left Behind
 * The Nose Knows
 * Pirate
 * Powder Keg Crowd
 * The Power of Friendship
 * Power of Trust
 * Praetorian Guard
 * The Promise
 * Punny Name overlapping with Meaningful Name: They are Marines, wearing lapis-blue (i.e. ultramarine) armour, who are the ultimate examples of the standard Space Marine doctrine, and are based in the territory of Ultramar. Said name is the Spanish version of Outremer, the collective name for the medieval Crusader states founded by knightly orders (a rather good analogy for their sub-empire), and also (in its more general meaning of "overseas") the root of the pigment's name.
 * The Quest
 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Revenge
 * Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves
 * Rule of Three
 * Sand in My Eyes
 * Sarcastic Clapping
 * Secret Test of Character
 * Separate but Identical
 * The Siege
 * So Much for Stealth
 * So Proud of You
 * Sour Supporter
 * Space Romans: The Ultramarines are Space Greco-Romans.
 * Survivor Guilt
 * Take My Hand
 * Take Up My Sword: In the short story "Chains of Command", Captain Idaeus gives his sword and legacy to Uriel.
 * Talking in Your Dreams
 * Tear Jerker (Warriors of Ultramar in particular.)
 * Tears of Remorse
 * There Are No Coincidences
 * They Call Me Mister Tibbs
 * They Have the Scent
 * Think Nothing of It
 * Title Drop: Nearly every book.
 * Too Dumb to Fool
 * Training From Hell: Since they're space marines, it's part of the program.
 * Unwilling Suspension
 * Weird Sun: Dead Sky, Black Sun, of course.
 * We Need a Distraction
 * What You Are in the Dark
 * Writer on Board: Matt Ward in the codex.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Nightbringer does not enjoy the thought of sharing power.
 * You Just Had to Say It