I had a player who was frenzied say "I WILL F**K YOU FOR THE EMPEROR!" as he flew through a window using his jetpack. One of the two Shapers who witnessed this was paralyzed by fear.

Actually this makes me think that the marines might revert back to pre indoctrinated childhood language when under extreme stress like frenzy. It would depend how young they were when recruited I guess. Red Scorpions for example are

To recruited as babies so may not ever be exposed to swear words.

They don't speak English. They speak Pig Latin and Pig Old German.

If you really want something with verissimilitude, use those sources. The graffiti on the walls of Pompeii has lots of Latin, and for late medieval Germanic curses you can't get a better source than Martin Luther's insults http://ergofabulous.org/luther/

I just had a mental immage of a group of Black Templars doing the french taunting from Monthy Python and the holy grail.

Assault marine: "Go boil your bottom you son of a silly person! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"

In my experience, as psycho conditioned warrior monks, Space Marines (also being sons of the Emperor) are typically above base cursing and epithets. Their language protocols are discussed in the Core book. They don't use contractions for crying out loud. Why would they then use f-bombs and the like? (Space Wolves excluded - the character of the Chapter lends itself to good old fashioned cursing). I see for most other Space Marines however, steeped in veneration of the Emperor and the Primarchs as they are, cussing focuses on religious tones. "Dorn's Teeth!!!" "Emperor's Bones!" "By the Holy Throne!!!"

Consider our own cultures, for example. Typically for American and British curses, they focus on matters of sex and biological functions. "Eff you!!!!" being the penultimate curse. Blunt, vile and direct. For myself, as a Canadian, I've noticed Québécois cursing is directed toward the church. "Tabernaque!!!" - it's an insult to the tabernacle, the locked repository found in some Christian churches that contains the bread and wine, blood and body of the communion.

You can imagine with the Astartes and cursing, they've essentially moved beyond sex and poop insults. Not so much with matters of belief and faith. Each game of course will come down to the players, but again, this is the experience I've had with the "flavour" of 40k - Marines are conditioned be better - faster, more resilient, better combatants. Reasonably this also seems to extend to their psychology, behaviour and language as well. But again, that's just my observation...

In my experience, as psycho conditioned warrior monks, Space Marines (also being sons of the Emperor) are typically above base cursing and epithets. Their language protocols are discussed in the Core book. They don't use contractions for crying out loud. Why would they then use f-bombs and the like? (Space Wolves excluded - the character of the Chapter lends itself to good old fashioned cursing). I see for most other Space Marines however, steeped in veneration of the Emperor and the Primarchs as they are, cussing focuses on religious tones. "Dorn's Teeth!!!" "Emperor's Bones!" "By the Holy Throne!!!"

This has already been addressed earlier on in this thread and we are all pretty much on the same page that the whole "Warrior Monk" thing does not apply to every Chapter across the board.

The examples have been cited numerous times: Space Wolves, Flesh Tearers, Carcharadons, etc. etc.

They don't speak English. They speak Pig Latin and Pig Old German.

If you really want something with verissimilitude, use those sources. The graffiti on the walls of Pompeii has lots of Latin, and for late medieval Germanic curses you can't get a better source than Martin Luther's insults http://ergofabulous.org/luther/

Well funnily enough although High Gothic is represented as Latin it is actually closer to modern languages like English and French. Low Gothic is a vast mix of languages that developed during the dark ages if technology and beyond. The languages would be completely incomprehensible to anyone from present day.

@pearldrum1 I am aware that this does not apply across the board. Nor did I say it did. However, typically, yes, the majority ARE and behave accordingly, based on the material from Games Workshop, Black Library, White Dwarf etc. that I've been reading since the early 90s.

I think Visitor Q couched it nicely as having most Astartes express verbal distate in the form of "fundamental indignation." I rather like that. Again, each player will player as to how they wish and if you want to be a smack talkin' f-bomb droppin' Ultrasmurf, have at and have fun. Me, I like the fact that they aren't typically crass. Leave that for the lesser mortals like the Guard.

Honestly, I admit in most of my reading, I haven't seen examples of the Fleshtearers speaking in a manner differently than their brothers. Yes, in behaviour, they are MUCH different - bloodthirsty and brutal and such like. But their language, again, as I have experienced it, has been more in the vein of clearly spoken, lacking contraction and with frustration, wrath and the like expressed pointedly and neatly, but with no less effect than a more common curse.

I guess for me, it works better considering who and what the Astartes are. Consider the above Fleshtearer. Yeah,they're brutal and bloody and a titch sadistic. However, some of their gravitas is lost when they start cursing like your average Navy rating.... It reduces their standing as superhuman, but again that's my experience.

If there are curse words in High Gothic, then they have been used by the Astartes. The mere fact that they do resort to frustration in the heat of battle, often invoking their Primarch's name or the Golden Throne is indicative of this.

It doesn't necessarily mean that they immediately jump to Cockney Low Gothic and start swearing like a Navy rating. What it means is that they are fundamentally capable of swearing and whether they do so or not is on the individual player - perhaps to highlight some fundamental difference that sets their PC apart from other Astartes in the personality department.

As it stands, GMing a group of 6 "warrior monk" kill bots is not fun for anyone involved. Personality is about flavor and if that happens to involve swearing, so be it.

I would be boring and say that Space Marines don't swear. They use much more archaic and formal speech than the normal humans in the Guard or Navy.

I would be boring and say that Space Marines don't swear. They use much more archaic and formal speech than the normal humans in the Guard or Navy.

Space marine: What is a heretic? A miserable pile of secrets. But enough talk... Have at you!

I would be boring and say that Space Marines don't swear. They use much more archaic and formal speech than the normal humans in the Guard or Navy.

Space marine: What is a heretic? A miserable pile of secrets. But enough talk... Have at you!

I'm terribly sorry but I didn't get this joke.

I would be boring and say that Space Marines don't swear. They use much more archaic and formal speech than the normal humans in the Guard or Navy.

Space marine: What is a heretic? A miserable pile of secrets. But enough talk... Have at you!

I'm terribly sorry but I didn't get this joke.

It's a (slightly altered) quote from a castlevania game. Your comment about marines using more archaic and formal speech made me think of it. Admitedly its not very funny, but i do like that line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMTizJemHO8

They don't speak English. They speak Pig Latin and Pig Old German.

If you really want something with verissimilitude, use those sources. The graffiti on the walls of Pompeii has lots of Latin, and for late medieval Germanic curses you can't get a better source than Martin Luther's insults http://ergofabulous.org/luther/

Well funnily enough although High Gothic is represented as Latin it is actually closer to modern languages like English and French. Low Gothic is a vast mix of languages that developed during the dark ages if technology and beyond. The languages would be completely incomprehensible to anyone from present day.

French is modern Latin.

Anyway, the style of Marines is late Medieval knights as imagined via British pop culture. This is especially true with the Black Templars but also true elsewhere,

They won't say "crap!" They will say, "by the Emperor's martyrdom!" and suchlike.

Incidentally, "Emperor's Teeth" (well, "God's teeth") actually was a medieval curse. As were "God's blood" and "God's wounds" (later corrupted into "Zounds!") and "God's balls."

French is modern Latin.

-But since the Gauls were basically the 'hillbillys' of the Roman Empire, it can be thought of as "Like modern Latin, but with a thick Southern drawl..."

@Robin Graves - HA! I like it. I love Symphony of the Night. Perfect illustration of the point. Not boring, but a sophisticated and memorable means to get ones point across.

French is modern Latin.

-But since the Gauls were basically the 'hillbillys' of the Roman Empire, it can be thought of as "Like modern Latin, but with a thick Southern drawl..."

tangent: technically the Romance languages are all dialects of Modern Latin, or, as you imply, all of them but Italian (the real deal) are Latin with influences from other languages, so Spanish especially is Latin + an Ostrogoth accent (it was the Ostrogoths, right?) + a lot of Arabic vocabulary. This stuff is fascinating.

I know both French and Latin to greater and lesser extents, and French really is Latin spoken really fast with word order substituting for grammatical cases with the first and first syllables often cut off of words. So "hoc ille" becomes "oui."

end tangent