As I've noted we need more votes for me to write the results chapter. Please vote for things.
@FractiousDay I've noticed that you've described many of our marines as beautiful at times especially those dudes we have in Solland. Were looks chosen as a factor for their deployment? I know you mentioned our dudes are all scarred but that seemed to be less from innumerable surgeries and more from pain glove...??overuse?? if thats the right word for this context?
I was watching this analysis video and it felt mostly reasonable to me, I think it overestimates premature aging and equates it to premature maturation, I also think It overemphasizes acid damage when acid spitting is usually a thing marines tend to employ as a last resort.
Otherwise it seemed very sensible to me and I am wondering what your thoughts are on vis a vi how much implantation should effect the appearance of Astartes?
This is a very cool and interesting video, however, it makes a load of assumptions which aren't really appropriate.
Firstly, it begins from the premise that marines are monsters, which they are, but it proceeds with earlier lore. The early lore is interesting, but it's really really far removed from later stuff. The difference between Rogue Trader and, for example, 3rd Edition which is the sort of time I'm more familiar with is pretty stark. For example there used to be trolls in 40k like there were in fantasy I seem to recall. Other assumptions include stuff like the Emperor not, y'know, sorting this stuff out. In the words of the Emperor, that masterful inventor, scientist, general, statesman, etc etc, '
They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.'
Similarly, the video uses on data point of a model holding a progenoid gland to say 'they must be this big', which is clearly nonsense. We know that GW models using a heroic scale for example that makes heads and hands bigger, but that doesn't mean the various models are that big 'in real life'.
The depiction would seem to be more appropirate to the Thunder Warriors. For example: 'the Thunder Warriors were known to be physically stronger, more savage, more resilient and more potent in combat than the later Astartes, though they were not as long-lived and
suffered from often dangerous mental instability and early metabolic collapse when their bodies began to reject their augmentations.'
Similarly, the video alleges that the acid spitting would be problematic. Why? In normal operations Marines have little reason to spit acid at anything. As far as I'm aware it's more of a last resort weapon.
So while it's an interesting video, I don't think they'd look like that no. They are, after all, superhumans. They're meant to be the best of humanity, they're not disposable like the Thunder Warriors, they're transhuman, magnificent, the next humans, just as the Emperor elevated the Primarchs to his finest servants rather than just some more weapons.
They are monsterous, but they're monsterous in the way angels are, something so much higher than a mortal human that they must be great and terrible, their appearance, their wargear, their abilities, are all so outside of the human norm, and the culture around them is so extreme that them being the Emperor's Angels is a legitimate title.
I've described the Lions as beautiful for the same reasons the video notes, usually Marines are described as being like statues, they're conventionally handsome, if usually quite rugged. They have the usually masculine features of strong jaws, clear brows, broad shoulders, and so on. But there's always difficulties in the medium, for example they're really fast and that's difficult to represent in games or films. They tend to feel quite plodding actually. I would also assume that the Apothecaries are pretty good at their jobs and don't leave massive ragged scars everywhere.
I think a Marine would be pretty difficult to depict. They would be massive, larger than life, almost comically powerful, yet still gentle, graceful, condifent, menacing. Their bodies would indeed probably be pretty scarred, but mostly from combat rather than from crude surgeries. They'd be 'perfect', unaturally so. I think I've used the analogy once of a supermodel being stretched over a statue's size. They wouldn't necessarily be ogrish as such a stretching 'should' produce, but they'd still look proportionate, rather than hideous.
For the Lions specifically, I've again looked their ambigiously African origins. I'm imagening that they'd have various artifical scars, probably something like western african populations sometimes have, for example long scars
represent royal birth in particular nigerian tribes.
The Imperial Fists chapters have an extensive history of self-mutilation. I've not defined exactly what the Jagged Claw, the Lion's special pain glove, is but I imagine some sort of Iron Maiden type thing. The Fists and their descendants have various reasons for their rituals and I don't really want to go into that now, but the Lions will do the same, just with more African inspired sorts, just like the Black Templars go more for Catholic flaggelation.
To address your other point, though I hadn't specifically considered it, yes the Lions sent to the Empire would indeed have been those which look relatively 'normal'. They'll have relatively few scars, no visible augmentaion and so on. Comparably, Sergeant Sido who's shown up a few times has been noted to have extensive bionics because of his injuries during the crash. Sending someone with half a their face made of metal and a big glowy bionic eye would be fearsome to the Empire, and much more likely to provoke a hostile response.
I'll address the points on reader engagement separately so I can threadmark this.
I have noticed you have mostly caught up to the quest, leaving upvotes up to page 99.
