For a Chapter with a long history like one of the First Founding, there will be dozens of these venerable and venerated flags in the great hall, each one carefully preserved and honoured by the Space Marines.Įvery Chapter has its own heroic tales and legends associated with its battle standards. Furthermore, new Chapter banners may be fabricated to mark great victories or to honour mighty heroes who have fallen in battle. Eventually these banners age or are damaged beyond repair and will then be retired to grace the great hall of a Chapter's fortress-monastery. In battle the banner is used to inspire the Space Marines to superhuman feats of martial prowess and woe betide the enemy that threatens this holiest of relics. This battle standard will have been consecrated by the Chapter's senior Chaplain and dedicated to the heroes of the Chapter's past, present and future. It is quite likely that a Chapter will in fact own a number of Chapter Banners although one, and only one, will be in use at any given time. The specific design varies greatly from banner to banner, but all will evoke one of the Chapter's greatest triumphs or some other key moment from its long history. The Codex Astartes limits its comment on the Chapter Banner to simply saying that the standard should carry the colours and icon of the Chapter and should display such honours as the Chapter Master deems worthy. The banner is as individual as the Chapter itself and there are few rules to govern its design. Old, tattered and fragile banners are devoutly restored, and new battle honours added to them. Many of these standards are ancient and venerable relics which have been carried into battle time and time again by generations of Astartes. When not in battle, these ceremonial standards are usually hung in the Chapter's Reclusiam and revered as sacred embodiments of the fighting spirit of the Chapter. They bear the insignia of the Chapter, together with sacred motifs and battle honours acquired in past wars and campaigns. Each standard is an ancient relic, steeped in history and heavy with the glories of the Chapter. These banners are ancient and are only ever carried into battle by the appropriately named Chapter's Ancient. These Astartes were members of Legion Command Squads, had access to the finest wargear available to the Space Marine Legion's rank-and-file and embodied the Legion's honour in war.Ī Blood Angels Ancient holds aloft his Chapter's standardĬhapter Banners, or Ceremonial Standards, are the most sacred artefacts belonging to a Space Marine Chapter of the 41st Millennium. These specially-chosen individuals were consummate warriors, selected for the great honour of carrying one of the Legion's standards, making them a rallying point on the battlefield for the Legion's troops. Often a hand-picked Veteran Marine was chosen to become his Legion's Standard Bearer, or Ancient. This tradition was continued amongst the Space Marines of the ancient Legiones Astartes. The practice of carrying a standard into the heat of battle was re-instituted during the Wars of Unification in the late 30th Millennium to reunify Terra beneath the single rule of the Emperor of Mankind, by His ancient Thunder Warriors, gene-enhanced warriors created by the Emperor who served as the precursors to the present-day Space Marines. As armies became more professionally trained and adopted set formations during the early modern period of the Age of Terra, each regiment's ability to maintain its formation was crucial to its, and its army's, success. Their use was formalised in the armies of Europe in the High Middle Ages, when standards were emblazoned with the commanding noble's coat of arms. The Romani Empire also made battle standards a part of their vast armies in the form of legion vexillum or standard poles. The use of standards in battle is thought to have originated in Ancient Gyptus (Egypt) many millennia ago. In the chaos of battle, soldiers needed to be able to determine where their surrounding unit was and to distinguish between friend and foe. Standards are often used as a rallying point for troops and to mark the location of an army's commander. Since ancient times, standards have been used as an inflexible but mobile image, which displayed (and often honoured) as a formal, visual symbol of a powerful individual, nation, or military unit. Brother Amsu, Legion Standard Bearer of the Thousand Sons Legion
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