HI!

A question:  If all SMs are Emperor's clones do they all look exactly alike?  If this has been already discussed, please, remit me to the answer - thanks!

L

They are not clones.. but rather taken from planets in the Imperium, trained, and surgically augmented with gene-therapy and organs to "grow" into Space Marines.  Thus, they all look different, unique, different personalities (tho all indoctrinated and brain washed Im sure) all that jazz. The gene seed tech is what is "cloned" I reckon.. I don't know the specifics.

Well they're not cloned, but I think I remember reading in one of the Horus Heresy books that the geneseed did slightly alter the way some marines looked... I swear reading in 'Horus Rising' something about some members of the Lunar Wolves being named 'Sons of Horus' (Before the whole legion was renamed) due to the resemblance they bore to their Primarch... Or something like that... I think... Maybe?

Technically the primarches were created with the DNA, or what not, from the Emperor and the space marine legions were each created from the DNA, or what not, of their respective Primarches. That's why some of the first space marines bore a striking resemblance to their Primarches(Horus rising for citation). Most notable I believe were the little Horus's(sp?) from in the Luna Wolves Legion.

I do not believe, however, that sparce marines were ever cloned (Except for the raven guard mess) or vat grown. Any apperance they had came simply from the pure gene-seed from pre-heresy. Now a says, after so many generations they Gene-seed may have mutated to lose that ability to created images of their Primarches. Or, perhaps, they still do look like their primarches but they don't realized it because the true face of their primarches are long forgetten. 

Examples of Gene-seed mutating the apperance of Space marines are the Blood Angels and the Salamanders, the BA always being somewhat Handsome and the Salamanders for their ebony skin.

Space marines are not cloned, and their implants aren't either (they are grown out of the geneseed).

The geneseed itself can mutate to change the appearance of the whole chapter. For example, the Space Wolves develop large canines and the Salmanders get black skin due to mutated implants. 

The question that will probably be asked is "why aren't the mutations of the implants removed by replacing them with unmutated ones?"

That's not that simple, first of all the implants are grown from an implant that grows them inside the SM during his first years as SM. This means that in order to get new implants you need to allow them to be grown in an existing SM  (who has mutated implants who were grown in a SM who had mutated  implants inside etc.). Second, most chapters developed their mutations either due to specific circumstances, like the Salamanders who live on a radioactive and tectonically unstable world of Nocturne, or due to the influence of the Primarch from which the geneseed originally came from, as is the case with the Blood Angels. Third, replacing the working but mutated implants with unmutated ones from a second source (most likely the smurf-marines) might cause even more mutation due to the fact the new implant would not share a genetic origin of the rest.

Dartneis-Is-Back said:

Some of them did indeed look a lot like Horus.  

 As has been already stated, marines aren't cloned but the geneseed can alter their appearance.  Aside from Horus Rising, Legion is another book that talks about this.  The some (most?  all?) of the Alpha Legion had a striking resemblance to Alpharius their Primarch(s), so much so they could impersonate the primarch to those who couldn't tell the difference between a marine and a primarch.

Each Chapter recruits from a different world (and some from several) and the characteristics of that world will have a strong influence on the overall appearance of the Chapter. Also, the appearance of the Primarch will tend to skew their features in a certain way.

Within a Chapter, there's generally a lot of variation (as is natural) though there may be fundamental similarities due to their shared background and the connection to their Primarch. Between Chapters (with different Primarchs) there will be even greater variation (compare the obsidian skin and crimson eyes of Salamanders to the Space Wolves, who are more evocative of the Viking archetype, or the Blood Angels, who lean towards angelic beauty and have fangs).

There should be no trouble telling characters apart! ;)

Thanks for the clear up!

L

Hereticool said:

Yeah, but that wasn't via the geneseed.

All of the Alpha Legion had surgical procedures to make themselves look identical...to most scrutiny. John Grammaticus wasn't fooled, and he only saw something like 3-4 of them before figuring that out.

As noted by others - the process of creating Space Marines can radcially alter the appearance of the recruit.  In particular the Blood Angels have a huge transformation into Angelic figures - whilst the Salamanders change colour.

re John Grammaticus - wasn't he able to see things others could not as a result of his patrons?

Actually, that was part of the reason he was recruited by them, IIRC.

As to the topic:

Creation of a Space Marine on Lexicanum, essentially the main 40k Wiki.

 By the time you have grown to the regulation 8 foot or so, packed on 400 pounds of pure muscle and got the chapter hairdresser to give you a cru-cut, not only will you look different from before you will also start to look like the other kids at the disco, natch. Marines are buff, not only can they kick butt, they can also seriously bench press. 

For some excellent fluff about the implantation process, I recommend finding a copy of "Space Marine" by Ian Watson.  Although a good deal of this is no longer cannon, it gives a pretty good insight into the creation of a space marine of the Imperial Fists chapter.  This book is now available again as one of Black Library's "print on demand" line, although you may also be able to pick one up from a second-hand book store. 

Another interesting read (from a very different perspective) is the first book of the "Space Wolf" series by William King. 

Both of these books give some pretty cute insights into the mental states of their respective chapters as well, and "Space Marine" blew my mind back in 1993.

 Check this out.  

It details the implants and process of becoming a Space Marine.  Each Chapter has its own way of testing Recruits to see who is worthy enough of becoming one of them.  

Don't all humans look the same already?