Novamarines - Novamarines: The Novamarines is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and Second Founding successor of the Ultramarines Legion. An ancient and proud Chapter, the Novamarines are hard-line adherents of the Codex Astartes who consider the writ of this sacred text, penned by their blessed Primarch Roboute Guilliman, to be divinely ordained law. In the past, they have been known to draw blood against those who would stray too far from the Codex.The Novamarines' virtue and honour are such that they have been held up as an example to other Chapters of what it means to be of the Adeptus Astartes, much like their parent Chapter.They have no known Successor Chapters, at least not officially, but they are believed to have had the honour of their brethren being selected to provide a portion of the gene-seed used in the Founding of several Ultramarines Successor Chapters in the past, notably the Dark Sons and the Angels of Fury.While the Angels of Fury are officially counted as an Ultramarines Successor, they were aided and trained from their inception by the Novamarines.The Novamarines is one of the proud Primogenitor Chapters, the Firstborn Successor Chapters sired by the Ultramarines Legion during the Second Founding.The Chapter's homeworld of Honourum is to be found in the galactic north of the Ultima Segmentum, a great distance from the Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar. The region is sparsely populated and its proximity to the Halo Stars means that the Chapter's sphere of influence and area of operations are large indeed.The Halo Stars, as well as the vast tracts of unexplored Wilderness Space around Honourum, are host to all manner of ancient threats, nascent alien empires and as-yet undiscovered lost Human colony worlds from the Age of Strife.As a consequence, the Novamarines have seen action against a wide range of enemies, from terrible xenos monstrosities to isolationist Human realms that refuse to bow to the rule of the Emperor of Mankind.Perhaps partly because the Novamarines operated across such a wide area, the Chapter has very rarely gathered all 10 of its companies in one place. As far as can be ascertained, this has not occurred since the 37th Millennium, so active and far-flung are its companies' operations.As a Primogenitor Chapter of the Ultramarines, the Novamarines maintain close links to the present-day Ultramarines and their other Successor Chapters. The great distance between Honourum and Macragge means that the Chapter is unable to send representatives to the court of Marneus Calgar as often as its brother Chapters, but every Novamarine aspires to make a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Primarch on Macragge at least once in his lifetime.Those that have done so traditionally mark the fact by adorning their battle helms with a laurel wreath, a mark of honour that the Chapter's Scout Marines behold with awe and dream of one day earning for themselves.The Novamarines contributed a large force to the continuing battle against the expansion of the T'au Empire during the Damocles Gulf Crusade in the mid-8th century of the 41st Millennium, based far to the galactic south of the Ultima Segmentum.This deployment surpassed the demands of normal operations on the Chapter and took on the dimensions of a full Imperial Crusade, scouring the upstart aliens from several star systems in and around the Lithesh Sector and earning many glorious battle honours in the process.When the crusade force was ordered by the Inquisitor Lord Kryptman to redirect to Macragge to face the onslaught of the Tyranids' Hive Fleet Behemoth, the Novamarines sped to the side of their Progenitors. In the aftermath of the Battle of Macragge, the Novamarines' contingent remained in the region for several solar months, rearming and refitting before making for the Jericho Reach.The Chapter's first battles in the Reach were fought exclusively against the T'au of the Velk'han Sept, which included a series of fleet engagements rimward of the Black Reef.The Novamarines have recently taken losses from which they are rebuilding following a series of less-than-successful assaults on the traitorous Human warlords of the world of Iphigenia.