HappyDaze was just talking about armor histories, and it made me think for a second, how do you think a space marine is given his armor? I mean, we all know that armors are supposed to have long and vaulted histories, passed down and modified by the artificiers. They all have a machine spirit and a history. But how exactly is a new space marine initate's armor chosen for him?

Considering how ritualized everything else is in a space marine's life, I'd think that getting what is essentially your second skin for the remainder of your carrier would be a pretty big deal and issue. I can see all the tech marines standing infront of empty suits of armor lined up, but what's the criteron? Where you are in line when everyone's recieving doesn't seem holy enough, nor does who fits into it best. It's clearly not based on what's most effective, because who's to know what is most effective when they're an innitate? And they don't trade them out it seems when a specialty is picked, or all Assault marines would be Mk. 6 beakies.

So what is it? Do the tech marines bash you on the head with a wrench and read the dents in your skull to divine your armor? Or are iniates blindfolded and have to play duck-duck-goose with the empty armors to find they one they need to pick? Emperor's tarrot?

Anyone else wanna venture a guess?

In The Ultramarines Movie, it looks like servators and tech-priests help them get into it and bless the equipment. If have not seen the movie it is decent, hard to find a hard-copy of though.

Frostfire said:

Sorry for the double post ment to put this in the originial, As far as choosing the armour I would guess it would be seniority, and your watch-captain. Special armours would require other things, like termenator honors, grey knigh ageis armour. ect.

Yeah, but I'm talking about your regular run of the mill armor you came with from your chapter. Later, you can obviously pick what type of artificer armor or other things you want, but not so sure about the basic armor.

Frostfire said:

Oh, yeah that might be part of an even bigger question, why were you choosen to go to DW? As a chapter master are you going to give up your best guy, or your not so best guy? Probably same with equipment, though in a way it would seem new unit, new stuff you want to be uniform to some degree, sure you can paint your chapter logo on your armour but in Rites of Battle where it talks about all those older versions of armour, might look a bit goofy to have a kill-team all wearing differant stuff. That is probably just the military dress-right dress indoctrination surfacing, anyways I am rambling on alot today, ya that is a good question.

Given that armours are passed down from one Space Marine to another, any new marine might just get whichever armour that has been without an occupant for the longest and is in working order.

There might not be that many armour to chose from unless the chapter has recently suffered a major loss.

Maybe it even varie from chapter to chapter. I could imagine Ultramarine sergeants consulting with a techmarine, prior to selecting armour suits for his scout trainee squad, while Crimson Fists, with their low numbers, might be just thrown into whatever suit is spare at the time. Space Wolf scouts might go through a runic ritual with a Rune Priest, to find the suit that suits them.

Whatever happens, the armour then be adjusted to account for the new wearer's size - as power armour is rigid and designed to interface with the wearer's body through ports in their flesh, it needs to fit extremely closely.

Also remember that every suit has likely already seen lifetimes worth of war and bloodshed, and that all designs but Mark 8 entered service before or during the Heresy ten millennia before, meaning that any given suit will likely be several thousand years old and extremely valuable to its Chapter.

I imagine that each Chapter has a variety of ancient and solemn rituals that determine which warrior is granted which suit of armour, upon elevation from the Scout Company (or equivalent), with the selection done individually rather than lining up all the newly-elevated Battle Brothers for that week and doing it all at once.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Counterpoint: Mk6, Mk7, and (of course) Mk8 are all in current production. It's quite possible to have a suit of one of those models that's fairly new, and considering that there are armours lost and unrecoverable as often as gene-seed, it's not too unlikely that a given set of power armour might not be several thousands of years old.

well space marines are only initiated into a reserve company from scout company if the replace someone who has died. maybe they get that guy's armour under ideal conditions, although obviously sometimes armour is lost and they need a new set

I would imagine process is highly individualized given the insular and individual nature of most chapters. There are practical concerns like attrition and availability as others have mentioned, but I'd imagine the ultimate process depends on the rites and traditions of each chapter.

The Ultramarines book Courage and Honour has a chapter early in it where Uriel Ventris chooses (or is chosen perhaps) his replacement armour after his original armour was dismantled by the Arch Enemy. It's a good and inspiring read.

I would make up my own fluff to illuminate the process if you want to cover it for role-playing purposes.

I imagine the Dark Angels have very solemn ceremonies where armor is chosen for each initiate.

The Black Templars probably award armour based on a tradition of heroic deeds and what the initiate has done to prove him a worthy inheritor of Brother "so and so's" armour.

The Blood Angels, who knows, probably based on ow pretty it would look on the initiate (just joking =P)

The Space Wolves are probably, as with most things, very informal. "Who wore this armour?" "Brother Blackfang." "What'd he do?" "Died drinking an ork under the table." "I choose HIS armour!"

I imagine that in the spirit of the military everywhere, you get whatever fits, is in pretty-much-working-order and is nearest the entrance to the stores.