The Family

== The Fall of the Sons of Mars ==
During the 21st founding a group of space marines found that they could reproduce with normal human women. Their sired a legion of natural-born marines who had all the organs (save the black carapace) already born to them. They believed that these new guardians would defend the Emperor’s glory and bring the Imperium into a new golden age. This, however, did not go as planned because the mutation was actually planted by Slaanesh. Slowly the chapter fell, electing to care for their children and their family more than their duty. Their training lapsed and their performance dropped. Their relationship with the Imperium became strained as the chapter attempted to convince the Inquisitors that this was a miracle rather than the taint of Chaos. Eventually they were declared heretics and mutants and an order of destruction was handed down.
Several chapters were called in to aid the destruction of this heretical chapter. These were the Emperor's Spears, the Brazen Minotaurs, and the Star Marshals. They were joined by the Black Orthodoxy chapter, whom arrived unbidden but provided assistance nonetheless and supported by the armored elements of the Ilen 1st Armored Regiment. One chapter might have been enough but the Brothers of Mars had grown so numerous though procreation that, though inferior, they had reached over a ten thousand natural born marines.
The battle was bloody and savage with marines fighting marine- both sides believing they were fighting for the Imperium’s future. In the end the siege of the planet was broken when the chapter master of the Brothers of Mars gave his life in service to Slaanesh and his Captains were made powerful by Slaaneshian magic. They escaped into the warp to a garden world called “The Nursery” located in the Eye of Terror where they re-christened themselves “The Family”.
While in the Nursery they raised their families and continued to prosper. They live an idyllic life in a bubble of compressed time. Those descended from the marines are called out of this bucolic paradise to “protect their families” against the darkness of a cruel universe. They are pulled out this this time bubble, never to return, and join the never-ending legions of the The Family. This compression of time (time flows faster in their little bubble-world) is used to allow them to produce more natural-born marines than would normally be possible. Nothing changes in The Nursery- everything is wonderful and nothing seems to advance. It is safe, it is quiet, and it is a breeding ground of lies...
The Family is not a flashy chaos space marine warband- the build of their scout marine-like forces are always under-equipped and under-trained by marine standards (as they are almost exclusively natural-born marines raised in a peaceful space-time bubble). They are also unique in that they have all genders in their mix, as natural-born marines can be of any gender. They make up for their deficiencies with numbers and crack-squads of Chosen. These chosen are the ancient marines of the old Sons of Mars chapter who are considered the patriarchs of all marines born unto the Family (“From them, all are descended and all good things are attributed”). In their twisted view of reality Slaanesh is the mother of all and they are the fathers, with their former chapter master styled as “The Greatest of Grandfathers” and venerated as an ancestral god. They have a cult of ancestor worship and even amongst the chaos space marine warbands form tight relationships (often resulting in marriage or at least children). Those natural-born marines (essentially scouts) that prove themselves in the fires of battle are trained as true marines and join the heretical ranks of “The True Family”, an inner circle of elder chaos space marines who form the main fighting force of the chapter.
In their eyes the Family believes that they are just doing “a little heresy” so they can save the Imperium; a lesser evil to do a greater good. To represent this and remind themselves of their sacred task they take a single drop of extremely toxic poison with every meal. Because of this many of their veteran marines have a toxic breath that they can exhale thanks to Chaos’ mutations.
== Arbitrator Eliot Gardner & Marcus Wilder the Elder ==
During their initial escape though the warp, senior Arbitrator Eliot Gardner and his squad of veteran Star Marshals followed the Sons of Mars. Stranded, alone, and in the middle of the Eye of Terror the Arbitrator and his squad decided that the only path they could possibly take would be to arrest the traitor marines. Though subterfuge and cunning the Arbitrator’s men were confirmed to have killed a hundred heretics and “arrest” the Captain of the 1st company of the Sons of Mars- Marcus Wilder the Elder (the acting chapter master at the time). They dragged their bounty kicking and screaming out of the Eye of Terror but at the cost of several of the lives of the remaining members of the squad. They dropped the traitorous marine Captain in front of an Ordo Astartes Inquisitor before Arbitrator Gardner succumbed to wounds suffered during his escape and was placed in a Dreadnaught for his valor. Marcus Wilder the Elder is believed to be still held in the deepest pit of “The Box”, a secret prison overseen by the 3rd Precinct of the Star Marshalls. Because of this The Family has mounted several incursions on Imperial worlds to try to locate it and free him.
== The Family vs Chaos ==
The Family doesn’t like what they, somewhat arbitrarily, define as “more heretical” chaos space marines and regularly fight against them. Imperial forces are sometimes confused by the writhing mass of unarmored chaos space marines that come pouring out of a craft, only to attack their foes. Confusing to be sure but The Family is famous for its hatred of other Chaos factions, though it is believed that they are just one of the way that Slaanesh culls out other groups of Chaos groups that oppose its plans. For their part The Family is generally seen as a “kill on sight” foe by the rest of the Chaos forces for this reason.
It has been theorized that the Lost God, the anarchist chaos god who works against chaos, may have a hand in their creation or governance. As The Family works so regularly against other forces of Chaos, as does the Outcast God, it is a reasonable assumption that they fall under its patronage. This is all rumor and supposition and most in the Ordo Malleus believe this Renegade God to be nothing more than rumor or to no longer exist (if it ever did).
== The Family & Deamons ==
The Family’s hatred for Orks is matched only by their hatred for Deamons (ironically) who they see as the pure manifestation of everything their ideal of a reborn Imperium should be without. Slaanesh occasionally tosses a few deamons at them to keep them on their toes to maintain the illusion that they are still “the good guys” but by in large the deamons just stay out of their way. They are an effective lure for The Family- if they need to be called somewhere they are simply told that “there are deamons infesting this area” and given transport.
== Self-Denial / Delusions ==
The Family is pretty easily lead on and that’s partially because of the sort of lies they are feed in The Nursery but also because they seem to know, on some level buried really deep, that they are doing “the wrong thing” but their conscious minds would shatter if they ever really accepted that. The champions of the chapter and the veteran marines seem to be clean of this delusion but the powers of Slaanesh seems to warp the minds of The Family to see everything they do as a “just and good” cause. It is all perfectly illogical and stems from the profoundly very screwed up and unhealthy way they are raised in this fake-ideal world of The Nursery.
== Notable Campaigns ==
Robbing the Cradle (Horseflesh the Mind-Freak): The Orks are a common foe The Family faces. Because of their copious numbers, The Family is particularly well suited to defeating the Orks and has been used. An Ork warboss by the name of “Horseflesh the Mind-Freak” successfully penetrated deep enough (entirely by accident) into Slaanesh’s domain that they entered The Nursery. For a period of time the marines who had left The Nursery returned and did battle to save their home. They quickly repelled the Orks and, due to the accelerated time in The Nursery, it has already long since passed into legend and parable. The common folk remember it as a time when their ancestors came from the afterlife and saved them from deamons. Since then the chaos space marines of The Family have a particular distaste for Orks.
Bitter Flesh Campaign: Guided by the powers of Chaos to an out of the way world, The Family was unleashed upon a Temple of the Officio Assassinorum. The battle was fierce and the death toll to The Family was unimaginable but they are said to have slain no less than 30 assassins, or at least assassin candidates and assassins-in-training, during this campaign.
War of Broken Dreams: The Family was dispatched to "gallantly guard chemicals vital to the Imperium's continued war effort" which, in reality, was actually an order to guard the psychotropic vats of an Important chaos cult. Klan Nork, the orks in question, had been raiding it for the drugs they so desired and a system-spanning conflict developed between the two powers. Eventually they attracted the notice of the Aquila Legion who helped turn the tide against the ork klan. In the end the 5 worlds of the systems were dusted with hallucinogens, covered with diseases, and laid to waste.
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