OK, not going to parody the song any more than that. Well, maybe later...

What I'm curious about is playing members of the dedicated Legions - the World Eaters, Emperor's Children, Thousand Sons, and Death Guard.

I've read that not every member of the Emperor's Children has the Mark of Slaanesh (although that is the only mark they can get) and most of them are not Noise Marines. Seems fine for making all manner of CSM starting characters.

Now with the World Eaters and the Death Guard I'm a little less clear. Is every member of the World Eaters a Berserker with the Mark of Khorne? Is every member fo the Death Guard a Plague Marine with the Mark of Nurgle? If these are the only options within these Legions, that really pushes belonging to them out of the realm of starting PCs.

With the Thousand Sons, Sorcerers are obvious and easy, but shouldn't they all have the Mark of Tzeentch (the Rubric of Ahriman somehow enhanced their powers, so it could be this and/or Warpsmith or simply always counting as Aligned to Tzeentch)? But what about non-sorcerers of the Thousand Sons? Is the Rubric of Ahriman still converting non-psykers implanted with Thousand Sons gene-seed (harvested from Sorcerers post-Rubric) to dust, or is it simply that the Sorcerers just don't/can't recruit non-psykers?

I'd assume that PCs coming from those legions temporarily fell out of favor with their deities, possibly for leaving the main body of the legion. As they haven't yet managed anything great, the gods are watching for them to prove themselves worthy of regaining their dedication.

Alternatively, just hand out enough XP that players can start aligned and put the first alignment check at 0 CP.

Cifer said:

You do start with 5 CP per extra 1,000 starting XP, so that may not be necessary.

I think that there was some write-up some time ago about extra rules for playing with Chaos Space Marines from the various Legions. But if you really wanted too I think that most GM's might allow you to change some talents and skills to better follow the image of the Legion that you're going for.

I'm still hoping someone has input on whether all World Eaters are Khorne Bererkers, all Death Guard are Nurgle Plague Marines, and whether it's technically possible to have non-Tzeentch (and possibly even non-Sorcerer) Thousand Sons.

Well to be honest most of the Cult-Legions (I think its the right term at least) seems to be pretty hardwired in their background to one specific deity. With the Death Guard you've got Nurgle's Rot that captured them onboard of their space ships and with the Thousand Sons you've got the Rubric stuff with Ahriman for the Thousand Sons. But for the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children I think its more open actually. This how I look at it.

Death Guard got the whole Nurgle's Rot going on so I don't see how you can play a character who isn't a Plague Marine or at least dedicated to Nurgle.

With the Thousand Sons you've got the spell Ahriman cast to preserve the Thousand Sons from mutation and thus would probably be pretty kill the idea of having non-sorcerer memembers from the Legion. But I do however think that it should be possible to play a Thousand Son sorcerer who isn't a follower of Tzeentch. But I personally can't see you play a Rubric Marine like that.

In terms of the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children I could easily see you playing characters who are not Berzerkers or Noise Marines, or indeed follow another deity than Khorne respective Slaanesh. Hence these two Legions are probably the best bet you have for breaking the mold in that regard.

Now of course you could probably play a Death Guard or Thousand Son who isn't afflicted by the same thing that happened with the rest of his comrades. The single question would be how to orchestrate things to allow for this to happen. The eaiest way would probably be to say that through the strange nature of the Warp the characters somehow was absent when Nurgle's Rot or Ahriman's spell struck.

Not all Death Guards turn traitor, all of them did get on the Eisenstein...

- Some traitor may have felt the call of Khorne of Istavaan and stayed behind to slaughter the reamaining loyalist hidding on Istavaan.

- Some loyalist unable to flee on the Eisenstien may have wnet into the warp (like the 13th) to try and bring war to chaos but eventually chaos corruptas all or many...

That is what I play right now, an ancient forsaken Luna Wolf, he refused to join Horus and tried to fight the Sons of Hours by reclaiming is Luna Wolf colors. Then went in the warp after the retreating Sons of Horus.

Now after eons in the warp, he is a shadow of what he was, an honor less bastard looking to bring violence to all and a special hate for all Space Marines...

As an alternative a Cult-Legion Marine could simply have not gained enough to earn the notice of their god. As for the Thousand Sons, I heard they have a way to ressurect their dead so they really don't recruit. No one knows what effect putting their gene-seed in someone would produce.