Non canon, obviously, but does anyone have any ideas for All Female (or co-ed) Chapters of Space Marines?

I suggest:-

Spitfires

Hellcats

Black Widows - presumably they ride Giant Spiders (and Widowmakers would probably work better as a female chapter)

Some from RPG.net:-

>>>>>The 2nd Legion had a female Primarch, Lilith who inducted female marines and modified their alterations and geneseed so that instead of just two progenoid glands the female marines modified wombs would regularly produce geneseed that rejected far less. She was cast out by the Emperor for making Astartes that could replace humanity.

The Black Lamias:
Her legion, hold true to her beliefs and choose only the best of humanity to encorporate into their geneseed and raise to Marinehood. they seek to raise humanity to a level where each person is strong enough to fight on their own without relying on being protected by a handful of marines.

The Iron Maidens:
A contengent of Black Lamias were sent to the Forge World of Vasche to bring an end to the hereteks turning to follow Chaos, the Lamias were ambushed on arrival and only a single Marine, Sister-Seargent Accica escaped. Accia spent ten years on the planet recruitng new sisters, then in one nights violence overthrew the corrupt Fabricators and took over control of the Forge World, and formed the Iron Maidens to steward the system and fight the enemeies of mankind. The Iron Maidens now produce arms and armour for their sister Legions.

The Twisted Sisters:
Whereas other sister chapters restrict their geneseed to only uptake suitable human DNA or clone themselves perfectly, the Twisted Sisters have modified their geneseed to uptake traits from Xenos species and even non-sentient animal life. Rather than being a uniform order of marines, the Twisted Sisters bear such strange alterations as claws, wings, venemous sprays, hugely increased physical abilities all at some dreaful cost. The chapters philosophy is to let the strong thrive, the rest of them the Law of the Jungle may claim.

The Crimson Sirens:
The Crimson Sirens are infiltrators par excellance. Having encorporated into their geneseed a gland which can secrete polymorphine, they can take on any humanoids form, though their physical abilities suffer while emplying this ability.

The Shining Gorgons
Lillith's Brood
Choosers of the Slain
Blood Swans
Death Weavers<<<<<<

I love the Iron Maidens and the Twisted Sisters.

How fun. Develop this idea further. Though those iron sisters would have been stomped by a hundred titans if they "stole" a forgeworld. The Mechanicus does not kid around with these things.

Troll harder.

Including female space marines is like excluding females in L5R from the bushi class.

Or creating a Tau Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos.

You have Sisters of Battle in the Blood of Martys so use them if you want female mahreens rather than doing something that is equal to being a furfag.

Cheers.

Harry of the Clock said:

Why? Sisters are completely rubbish compared to Marines. All the Sisters can do better is die and suck.

I'm all for thinking around problems for making female marines. 40k is meant to a hobby that's meant to reward creativity, not stamp it out and demand you march to it's tune. We may as well just save the money and go play video games if that was the case.

Well if someone want's to play as a genetically engineered, 8' 5" tall, square jawed, killing machine with **** that looks more like novadays Dolph Lundgren than a woman... well... ok. Sounds kinky to some. I think.

Creativity is allright as long as it makes any sense compared to the rest of a given universe.

It's not allright when it does not.

Baron_Von_Noplace said:

And have a load of awesome anti-demon abilities...

Harry of the Clock said:

The OP clearly stated that this was non canon and that he would like some ideas. Either give him ideas or don't post in the thread.

Now for my part, I don't think female marine chapters would need 'feminine' chapter names. Star Wardens, Eagle Claws, Shadow Hate etc are all fine. You don't need 'hellcats' for female marines. They're marines first, females a distant second.

Some of those suggestions from RPG.net seem a little too 'unique snowflake'. Marines are marines, there aren't any that just stick other creatures' genes into their holy geneseed to gain Kroot-esque powers. Their demeanours and abilities derive from the genomes of their primogenitors, the Primarchs (Primatrixes?).

I did have an idea ages ago about the primarchs all being female brood mothers that produced female drones to fight for them. The Emperor was the male 'king' that mated with them. When a new chapter was created the queen would gestate another queen to go start it. the custodes were designed to be compatable with the queens so after the emperor's ascension to the golden throne the custodes began making annual pilgrimages to the chapter houses of the astartes to mate with the chapter mistresses and further the chapter's line.

Pretty much any marine chapter now could be female. The femaleness isn't what makes a marine, so Ultramarines led by Roboutina Guilliwoman would be the same as male Ultramarines.

So the only things that I can think of that would be unique for female marines are the ceremonies of the organ implantation. Females already possess more internal organs than males so they'd have to be modified or removed to fit the extra kidneys liver etc that goes into a marine. Perhaps some chapters offer their hysterectomy up as an offering, their sacrifice to be mothers to become mothers to the Imperium and die in her defence?

This is the sort of thing I'd expect the Sororitas to go through, they are soldiers for life where reproduction is not an option. I can imagine that sort of thing being a highly ritualised 'joining' for an inducted sister, sacrifice of the flesh to fight for the emperor. It's the sort of self sacrifice the sisters would do and it's in keeping with the brutal surgical methods performed on astartes initiates as well.

Hellebore

i never understood the fascination in this forum for the idea of female Astartes.

It simply makes no sense, why wanna "downgrade" from an Supersoldier to a Super Barbie? Man are simply better suited to be Soldiers, why should Old´Daddy Emperor have ever thougt about turning Ladys to Astartes?

Vendettar said:

Well, hard as this may be to believe, some of us DO have female gamers sitting at the table. And some of those female gamers MIGHT want to play a space marine without having to play a male character. I can't speak for everyone, of course, but woe betide the cocky, pre-pubescent geek who dared suggest to these ladies that Super Barbie would be a "downgrade" just because of the ****.

Personally, I am on the side of "no female space marines" in general. I wouldn't consider using them unless a player (a FEMALE player - I have personal issues with cross-gendered player-character relationships) came to me asking to play such a thing, and having reasons why a Sister of Battle was not acceptable to her. In that situation, however, I would happily conspire to invent a non-canon female (or at least female inclusive) Chapter to help her play out the character she wants.

I have a healthy respect for the fluff, but fluff takes a back seat to fun every day of the week as far as I'm concerned.

To the OP: It looks like you have some good ideas there. My only critique would be that you should stick with "Black Widows" over "Widowmakers" as the latter implies (to me) that they go around killing married men to recruit their initiates (which I suppose still fits into the dark and twisted 41st millennium in it's own way =P.)

^This.

If I had a woman at the table who didn't want to play a Sister of Battle (but would be fine playing a SM? That seems odd!), then rather than dream up a Russian Shot-putter Chapter, I'd perhaps wave the potential of an Assassin or Inquisitor under their noses.

Have one of the vault doors open in the Omega Vault and inside is a female space marine in stasis.

Once she has been taken out and checked by the Apothecary she is a Adeptus Astartes, she has no memory of her past life or how she got in there, all she remembers is her trainning so is ready to fight in the Emperors name.

This is my way that i would let a female Astartes be in a game and would on ever let it happens once so if they die then no more female space marine

Your world your story. If one of players dont want to play marine in game about marines maybe Deathwatch isnt for him/her? In my team of 6 players we have 2 girls, playing marines as rest, no harm done to them. As mentioned above, if one of girls want to play creature that looks more like mr.universum that woman fine, their choice.

And as chaplains i suggest cheerleadermarines, no hate inspiring speeches but a bit of cheer leading and sexy dancing.

Harry of the Clock said:

See this is what I never got about the whole female marine thing. It's not like the whole of the 40k universe rest solely on the fact that Marines must have willys, like if a few marines were girls the whole **** thing whole fall in on itself.

Siranui said:

See that seems a little insulting to me, given that all an Inquisitor can do to a Marine in polite ask him to fight the big mean deamon and if the Inquistor has a problem with the Marine's habit of eatting people, then she can have her heart ripped out for her troubles.

13k worth of skills, tallents and some unique abbilities.

Yeah, SoBs suck.

Same goes for, let's say, a Moritat Reaper I believe. Not that anybody would be able to hit such a character but it's always better to make a female Dolph Lundgren just to be sure.

Primarchs were a group of twenty altered clones of the Emprah. I know that there is a bit of woman in every man but I seriously do not believe that the Emprah would not see that one of his clones is lacking a *****.

As for the "Quisitor can't do a thing to a marine". HELLO! Ordo Xenos anyone ? Inquisition ? Joint operations ? Ascension characters that can do a whole lot more ?

Baron_Von_Noplace said:

Can you say "Servitor, pass me the the drink?" I knew you could.

Space Marines and Inquisitors act as partners, as equals. If a DW Marine would murder an Inquisitor of the beloved Emperor over such a petty thing, what would the Inquisitor of the Chamber and next the Master of the Vigil have to say about, hmm? Would they shrug off such a callous behaviour of a Space Marine? Or would the Inquisitor of the Chamber call for harsh punishment and would the Master of the Vigil reluctantly but firmly concur? I say: yes, they would.

As for the rest, I am no fan of female space marines myself but I will stand up to protect the freedom of self-expression who has anything remotely meaningful to contribute to the subject and isn't here just to troll. As such I have to defend Aluminium Wolf here even if I am not personally interested in adapting his ideas into my campaign.

Everyone else, let people express their creativity freely. If you don't like it, either express your dissenting view respectfully or ignore. I don't want anyone to not post their ideas here out of fear for getting flamed.

Alex

As for the ideas the "female chapters" like these, apart from these Black Lamias, would be mostly destroyed due to xeno worship, heresy and being too bad ass.

Polymorphine is an expensive drug used by Callidus Assassins.

Ok, lets say that there "are" some female marines. Even though the idea is terrible. Still they would not be anything near what OP presented.

Spieder mounts ? Probably heretical. Bikes are a lot better. Incorporation of xenos genome into the pure form of a space marine? Now thats heresy.

In case you didn't notice: we're not in Canon-land anymore. Not even close.

Anything goes.

Alex

Female Ork Marines Loyal to the Emperor and loved by the imperial citizens. Sounds fun.

Harry of the Clock said:

Parallel universe.

Alex

Harry of the Clock said:

You spilled my tea.

I like the idea of finding one in the stasis vault, though. It's wierd but would work, isn't canon-breaking and does not require the creation of several Chapters off femme-marines.

We're not actually starting this discussion again, are we?

Look, its your universe, do whatever you want. But if your goal is to find the path of least resistance for allowing female space marines (presumably for female players who take objection at playing a male character, but still want to be a space marine), then just say that all chapters are co-ed, and marines accept any who survive their initiation rituals/show promise, and just alter all that pseudo-science stuff about only males due to genetics and what not to fit your own ends. And from that point, play as space marines.

I will say that I think OP's suggestions do not mesh well with established canon (and yes, I realize they intend this to be non-canon, but I personally think being close/meshing well is a good thing, and something to work for), and implementing female space marines in that manner would require far greater liberties with the fluff as opposed to my above idea (in that it requires the imperium to be "fine" with some of the almost heretical sounding activities of the listed chapters, that the deathwatch would accept them as anything other than blackshields, etc.).

I think the general objection to this though, is the attempt to make a big deal out of it. Currently, canon says no female space marines (due to scientific, not cultural reasons). If the pseudo-science wasn't an issue, I don't think the Imperium is as restrictive in the case of gender as some act that it is; the Imperium needs all of its resources, and cannot afford to allow any tool to go unused on the basis of something as petty as gender. Adding in female space marines is a change to the pseudo-science of 40k, not the culture of 40k. Of course, the sometimes used "some tech-priest's secret experiment" doesn't work too well as a means of producing a female space marine . Such a background puts forward the idea that a space marine is only a human with augmentations, failing to recognize the importance of the primarch, the rituals of training, and the warrior-monk fraternity that is a chapter. These shape them into a space marine, not the implants (those just allow them to survive).

tl;dr:

Just say all chapters are co-ed and be done with it. Easiest fix, least painful, takes fewest liberties with canon, fits well with established setting, while only changing maybe 1 detail. I believe people dislike the female space marine argument because it smacks of an attempt at political correctness, focuses on the superficial, and fails to recognize what actually matters about a space marine.

How about this:

For those who really want it....

1 millenia agi a Magos Biologis was asked by Sister Superior de Witt to create a female super soldier, for this they captured a space marine and the Magos Biologis dissected him.
The organs were implanted into a orphaned girl and she was raised in the way of the Schola Progenium to be a sister of battle.
Years later, just after the final implant an Inquisitor of the Ordo Heretics whiped out the convent, purified (read burned alive) the Magos and the Sister Superior and put the girl through a couple of tests.
The girl would have died too was it not for her ability to manifest faith powers.
She was put into statis and was forgotten, now almost a thousand years later an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos found her and defrosted her.
He indoctrinated the girl even further, and equiped her, now she is a liason for the Ordo Xenos to the Deathwatch.

Character Creation:

Use Tactical Marine but instead of a Special Ability give her the Pure Faith Talent and allow her to buy two faith talents per rank starting at rank 1


And what do we have: A God Emperor ordained heresy and a saint in the making....

Great stuff. I think I'll start a book on how many pages this runs too ...

Great ideas, I like the idea of the spider-riders, I may have to take that one.

I'm currently working on the idea of Female Space Marines being developed in secret by the Ordos Ministorium, then once found out (and finally sanctioned), they were given their own Adeptus. I call them the Adeptus Angeles. I hope to have a rough draft up sometime by the end of the month.

Haters will hate, but whatever. Keep being creative, sounds like you're onto something.

If Eldar will fall in love with female Space Marine and she will love him too will their progeny be Half-Eldar or half-Space marine ?

And why we forbid eldar joining space marines? (eldar ears dont fit power armour helmets ? ok i get it...)

...