Ultramarines (novel)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Broken Base: On the Ultramarines being one of the more "noble" and "heroic" chapters.
    • Also on Uriel Ventris and his series. Some Ultramarine players enjoy his deviations from the codex and his travels, while others dislike the near-exclusive focus on him and would prefer a more standard Ultramarine protagonist.
  • Complete Monster: Honsou, of course, but the worse would have to be Leto Barbaden.
  • Fan Dumb: There's an unfortunately large number of Ultramarines players who buy into the fluff of the fifth edition codex. They seem to think that the codex should mean they are unbeatable, all chapters "do" want to be them and praise Guilliman over their primarch, and frequently state that everyone is inferior to them. These were previously just a Vocal Minority, players usually trying to back up their statements with fluff from three editions ago, but have been steadily growing over the years.
  • Boring Invincible Hero: Many fans complain about how ridiculously skilled some of the higher ranking Ultramarines are, what with a captain that's earned more medals by himself than any other entire chapter, and a scout sergeant who's responsible for the Ultramarines "having the best marksmen in the entire galaxy".
    • To make matters worse, Matt Ward, the author of the most recent codex, has taken to ramming how awesome all Ultramarines are down peoples throats. This is done to the point where one small paragraph notes that Ultramarines scouts can have the same level of experience as most captains from other chapters by the time they don power armour. The second company is also described as being the "greatest fighting force in the Adeptus Astartes."
    • Graham McNeill actually tried to tone down some of the more overt fanboying in Chapter's Due. Matt Ward then tried to retcon some of it out (especially how they lost big battle against a Necron force).
  • Magnificent Bastard: Honsou can make anyone dance to his tune.

I always have plan.

  • Mary Suetopia: Ultramar is a little empire of prosperity, especially compared to the rest of the Imperium. A lot of this is due to the Ultramarines' rebuilding strategies during the great crusade. The fact that there are seven civilized worlds whose only responsibility is to support the Ultramarines[1] helps a lot too.
    • It's actually brought up in The Chapter's Due, where it's noted that Ultramar is a warrior society who disdains people who don't pull their weight, and also lacks the crushing hopelessness of the forge and hive worlds so common throughout the Imperium.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Honsou crosses it with destroying Tarsis Ultra. Leto Barbaden and Verena Kain crossed it with the Khartuian Massacre. Prelate Culla crossed it with beating Mykola Shonai to death with his bare hands.

  1. Other Space Marine Chapters generally have only a single world supplying innitiates and supplies, and it's often a savage world or a death world. And because the planets of Ultramar are responsible for maintaining the Ultramarines, the only tithes they pay to the main body of the Imperium are gene seed tithes, which have no effect on the common population. Normal worlds, on the other hand, have to tithe some combination of food, supplies, manpower or the like, which can place a lot of stress on the population during hard times