Novamarines - Chapter Beliefs: The Novamarines believe that it is their right and duty to follow the example set by their primarch and their parent Legion. It is their understanding and firm belief that the only appropriate way to maintain this is by adhering strictly to the dictates of the Codex Astartes.The sacred text represents a beacon for their lives, as it guides them through their decisions and constantly enables them to act in accordance with their duties. Keeping true to it is one of the most vital aspects of their existence as a Chapter. Such loyalty to the text has aided the Novamarines in keeping their traditions largely unchanged since the time of their founding.In sharp contrast with their secular views of Imperial religion like most Space Marines, they consider the Codex Astartes to be a divinely-inspired work. They never comment upon what deity might have inspired it, but the work is considered to be more than just a treatise on war. For the Novamarines, the tome is a guide for how to perform virtually every action.It must be considered, obeyed, and applied constantly through their lives. While they acknowledge that not all Space Marine Chapters are so devoted in their rigourous application of the Codex's instructions, they prefer to set themselves as an example for how it must be obeyed.Like most Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, the Novamarines are not adherents of the Imperial Cult. They hold the deepest respect for the Emperor, their primarch, and those Space Marines who have served their Chapter in past eras.They do not, however, worship any of these individuals as gods or divine beings. Rather, they believe that all of these were supremely talented but still mortal men who reshaped the galaxy and are thus worthy of emulation and veneration.For the Novamarines, these people serve as the ideal examples of Human behaviour to emulate. While this may require that they hold themselves to an impossibly high standard, they are readily accepting of that responsibility. These battle-brothers gladly embrace the challenge of perfection, and rigourously accept punishment and perform penance for those times that they fail to achieve it.During their ten Terran millennia of service, the Novamarines have fought against countless foes and established a well-respected history of successful endeavours. Though they have served the Imperium in diverse ways, one of their primary focuses has been against the threat of xenos encroachment. Since its founding, the Chapter has preserved a devotion to eliminating all xenos, which dates back to the time of the Great Crusade.This Monodominant belief, as the political factions of the Inquisition now term it, is a core of the Chapter's beliefs and creates a characteristic theme through many of its most famous campaigns.The Novamarines' homeworld of Honourum is an Imperial Feral World that has a small population made up of barbaric, Stone Age hunter-gatherer tribes. These simple and hard people have provided recruits to the ranks of the Novamarines since their founding. During a neophyte's indoctrination into the Chapter, all vestiges of his former life are stripped away and replaced through mental conditioning and psycho-indoctrination with the pattern of thinking and culture of those native to Ultramar.The only idiosyncrasy of Honourum's tribal natives that is retained is the practice of ritually tattooing their skin. Each battle-brother's skin becomes an illustration of his career and his life, with designs and sigils depicting where he has travelled throughout the galaxy and the campaigns he has fought in.When the Chapter's members reunite, they often spend hours displaying their most recent tattoos as they recount the successes and tragedies that led to the latest artwork. Their tattoos take on the quartered appearance of the Novamarines' own colours, which is itself based upon Lucretius Corvo's original personal heraldry.The members of the Chapter believe that these tattooed images serve to armour their soul from the predations of dark spirits, and that it is by this roll of deeds recorded on their skins, when they reach the realm of Death, that the Emperor will judge their worth.