GW Space Marines Primaris Reivers (2017)

Warhammer 40.000 never really appealed me. It was born as "Fantasy in Space", and I always considered it a product for those who are not into Fantasy, but would rather have adventures in a Sci-Fi setting. Not that I don't like Sci-Fi, it's just that Space Elves and Space Dwarfs are not really my cup of tea.

On top of this, I disliked Space Marines. Their bulky, disproportionate figures just looked silly to me.

Everything changed in the Summer of 2017. Games Workshop launched the Primaris Space Marines, and presented them in a great White Dwarf issue, which I happily delved into while at the beach or at the hotel, when the little ones slept.

That's how I got hooked. In September I went to the local GW and bought a small box of new Space Marines just to test them. They were, to me, everything Space Marines should have been and never were until now. I surfed online, read articles and watched youtube videos to learn about the setting. By the end of the year, I had painted all three Reivers and had conceptualized three Chapters.

The Kimeliarchs

The Kimeliarchs are a refounded Chapter dating from the aftermath of  the Age of Apostasy (36th Millennium). Their precursor Chapter, the Guardians of the White Light, was a Second Foundation descendant of the Imperial Fists, but they had been involved too much with the Ecclasiarchy and were sentenced to dissolution. The survivors joined the Crusade of Atonement of Sebastian Thor and were established as Kimeliarchs, guardians of holy shrines in the system of Aeglea in the Segmentum Ultima.

Their armours are brown and white, like the bricks and marble of the Great Temple of Phanor, like the pale, pure light of the White Dwarf Aeglea and the shadows cast by those who confront it. Their device are crossed keys, for they are the keepers of sacred relics and the guardians of the holy places of the Aeglea system. Unlike most Astartes, the Kimeliarchs are deeply devoted to the Imperial Cult and worship the Emperor Saviour and St. Barnabas the Preacher, who first converted the inhabitants of Aeglea. These Space Marines are specialized in operations in inhabited worlds: they possess good intelligence and diplomacy skills, and the discipline to limit damage when confronting enemies. They are often deployed against Chaos or Xeno cults trying to erode Shrine Worlds or Hive Worlds from within.

The Mountain Spirits

The Mountain Spirits are a new Chapter, exclusively composed of Primaris Space Marines, dating from the Ultima Founding. Deriving their geneseed from Jagathai Khan, they can be considered a successor Chapter of the White Scars.

The Chapter has been stationed on Altanar, a barren, volcanic planet located in the Ultima Segmentum. Tucked between the Maelstrom and the Ork world of Golgotha, and not far from the Rift and the ruins of Prospero, Altanar and its population have survived in time only because of their dearth of resources that made the planet an unattractive stop along the routes of pirates and invaders.

The Mountain Spirits are hardy and reclusive as the planet itself, not trusting strangers and relying on fortifications to weather the Warpstorms and Ork Invasions. Their Chapter culture is rich in secret rituals and many of them are gifted psykers. Their military focus is on disguised fortifications and ambush.

Their armour is green with a red left pauldron, but psykers among them wear a dark armour with a left green pauldron. Their device is a mountain surrounded by clouds.

The Ravana Hunters

Another new Chapter from the Ultima Founding, the Ravana Hunters derive from an unspecified geneseed and take their names from their homeworld, Ravana, located in the Segmentum Pacificus. A planet of recent discovery, situated at the edge of the Imperium, Ravana is a deathworld that has never been settled before the coming of the Adeptus Astartes. Its dense jungles and barren deserts are notably inhabited by an autochtonous megafauna of invertebrates divided in countless species competing for survival.

The Astartes have not only been able to carve their own place in the deadly environment of the planet, but they also have learned to make good use of the local creatures' teeth and carapaces for the production of equipment. For example their knives are obtained from the teeth of the Gawah, a local giant mollusc and, when cut properly, are far more resistant and sharp than plasteel.

Ravana Hunters are skillful scouts and excel in guerrilla warfare. They wear black armour with red pauldrons, and their device is a Gawah conch-shell.


That's all for a start... but there's already something else on the working table. Have you started painting Primaris? Did you invent your own Chapter? Let me know in the comments!