| abstract | - The Ultramarines are considered one of the strongest and most honoured of all the Space Marine Chapters in the Imperium of Man, and were responsible for almost single-handedly holding the Imperium together after the Horus Heresy. Highly disciplined and courageous warriors, the Ultramarines have remained true to the teachings of their Primarch Roboute Guilliman for 10,000 standard years. The Ultramarines were originally the XIII Space Marine Legion before the reforms that initiated the Second Founding and reshaped the Imperium after the Heresy on the orders of Guilliman himself. The name "Ultramarines" is a nod to both the Chapter's standing amongst the other Space Marine Chapters and their role as the source for the gene-seed of more Chapters of Astartes than any of the other former First Founding Legions combined. The culture of the Ultramarines is loosely themed upon the culture of Old Earth's ancient Roman Empire, as exemplified in their Astartes' pseudo-Latin names and their strict adherence to the Codex Astartes, as well as the society of their homeworld of Macragge and the Chapter's method of recruitment. The Ultramarines directly rule the sector of space in the Eastern Fringe known as Ultramar as a fief of the Imperium and their Chapter Master is also considered the Lord of Macragge and the Master of Ultramar. Of all the thousand and more Space Marine Chapters, it is the blue-clad Ultramarines that, in the mind of the countless billions of the Emperor's subjects, personify everything that the Adeptus Astartes stands for. The Ultramarines and their many Successor Chapters have stood at the very forefront of the war against the Traitor, the alien, and the fiend since the very foundation of the Imperium. Across the domains of the Emperor, the Ultramarines are celebrated as heroic, virtuous, and noble defenders of Humanity, their deeds celebrated in devotional works the length and breadth of the galaxy. Even amongst the Space Marine Chapters themselves, the Ultramarines occupy a position of special honour. The gene-seed from which the original Ultramarines Legion was founded is considered the purest, and it is estimated that some two-thirds of Chapters share their inheritance, being either direct successors or created from tithed Ultramarines genetic material. This shared inheritance often ensures that when the Ultramarines go to war, they are supported by many other Chapters, and that when Space Marine commanders gather to consider common strategy, the counsel of the Ultramarines is greatly valued. Often, the presence of even a small number of Ultramarines units in a larger military undertaking will ensure the participation of many more Chapters, so highly are the sons of Roboute Guilliman held in their brothers' esteem. When Hive Fleet Behemoth struck the Eastern Fringe, it was the Ultramarines Chapter that turned the tide, even at the cost of the Chapter's entire 1st Company. At the Chapter homeworld of Macragge, one of the largest battles seen in centuries was fought, with the Ultramarines, led by their Master Marneus Calgar, at the very forefront. In addition to the great honour won by the Chapter in that titanic struggle, the Ultramarines gained invaluable experience in fighting these vile xenos, which they have passed on, often via service in the Deathwatch, to many other Chapters. When the Horus Heresy struck, Guilliman was leading his mighty Legion in a massive campaign in the galactic south. So successful was the campaign that the Legion had been carried far from the Imperium's heart, so that by the time Guilliman received word of the Warmaster Horus' treachery, the Siege of Terra was underway. The Ultramarines fought their way towards Terra, and although they defeated a massive Traitor space fleet, were unable to intervene in the final battle. It is Guilliman's actions subsequent to the Horus Heresy that made him the figure of adoration that he would become. With the Traitors scattered and the Emperor to all intents and purposes lost to Humanity, the Imperium stood at the precipice. It was the genius and leadership of Roboute Guilliman that saw the Imperium through its first century after the Heresy, as he kept invaders at bay and saved the scattered worlds from collapsing into anarchy. Roboute Guilliman fell at the hands of his erstwhile brother, Primarch Fulgrim of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion. Poisoned unto death, Guilliman's barely living body was placed in a stasis-field, and later enthroned in the Ultramarines' Fortress-Monastery. There it remains to this day, and some say that within the timeless aura of the stasis-field, his body heals, and he may one day be returned to defend the Imperium he strove so hard to build. The Ultramarines are by far the best known and most celebrated Adeptus Astartes Chapter in the long and bloody history of the Imperium of Man. Statues of their Primarch and their greatest heroes rear high above countless plazas and city gates, and images of their myriad victories glow from stained glass windows in the mightiest basilica imperialis. The Ultramarines Legion was the largest of those bodies raised to prosecute the Great Crusade so long ago, and as a result it provided the largest number of Chapters when the Second Founding occurred in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. In addition, the Chapter's gene-seed is generally held to be the purest of all the Adeptus Astartes, and it is so stable that even 10,000 standard years after its inception, mutation is well within tolerable limits. For this reason, a majority of Space Marines Chapters extant in the late 41st Millennium are thought to be related to the Ultramarines, whether either is aware of it or not, and as such, inheritors of all that made that Legion so great. The Ultramarines Chapter is at once the exemplar of everything a Space Marine aspires to, and the template by which he acts, fights and worships. Every Chapter has its own traditions, histories and battle-honours, but the Ultramarines are the standard by which many others, especially those of their genetic lineage, judge themselves and their peers, whether they acknowledge it or not. It is through the dictates of the Codex Astartes that the 10,000 Terran years of wisdom and expertise gleaned by the Ultramarines are enshrined. This vast reserve of lore was started by the Ultramarines Primarch, Roboute Guilliman himself, wherein he laid the foundations of the Imperium's Reformation in the aftermath of the calamitous wars of the Horus Heresy. Guilliman was a leader of prodigious intellect, and not just in the military fields. With the Imperium brought to its knees by galactic civil war, he turned his mind to uniting and codifying the highest echelons of the Imperium's government, imposing order on institutions that had been split asunder by the anarchy of the Heresy. Only a Primarch, a gene-son of the Emperor Himself could have conceived such an undertaking, for the scattered worlds that had survived the Heresy were on their knees, riven with plague and famine and rife for rebellion or invasion. The task was gargantuan, and no mere mortal man could have faced it without going mad. Guilliman offered leadership and hope, and he became a figurehead for the reborn Imperium. Countless billions came to know his name, and while he could never replace their beloved Emperor, Guilliman was a firm hand when it was needed most, and the Imperium endured. In committing his wisdom to the first volumes of the Codex Astartes, Guilliman must have known that he would not see his most cherished ambitions fulfilled. After all, none had ever imagined that a Primarch might know death, but the Heresy had seen several slain or otherwise lost, and in the years that followed more would suffer similar fates. When Guilliman was lost to the Imperium, he left behind him countless works of wisdom and insight, and the greatest of these was the Codex Astartes. Though the Imperium would again rise to heights rivalling those of the Great Crusade, and descend to depths of despair as dark as the Horus Heresy, Roboute Guilliman's wisdom would prevail. The Ultramarines were and are the guardians of that wisdom, and the exemplars of all their Primarch embodied. The Codex Astartes has become a holy text, a blueprint describing the ideals by which the majority of Chapters organise themselves, fight, recruit, train and operate. The Ultramarines rule over a region of space called Ultramar, an autonomous realm that owes no tithes to the Imperium and looks entirely to its own defence. The peoples of the various worlds of Ultramar look to the Ultramarines as both beneficent rulers and as distant figures of legend. While the vast majority of Humanity will never even see a Space Marine, let alone speak to one, the people of Ultramar are more familiar with these mighty warriors. Some even have the honour of being distantly related to one, perhaps some distant ancestor having been accepted into the Chapter. The Ultramarines regard it as their sacred duty to rule their domains justly, and to protect them as the source of their recruiting and resources. In this the Ultramarines are continuing the legacy of their Primarch, whose teachings each warrior studies and memorises over the course of his service. The Codex Astartes is such a vast body of wisdom that even the prodigious, genetically-enhanced mental capacity of a Space Marine is taxed with absorbing it all. Yet the Ultramarines regard it as their duty to do so, and choose to eschew the blunt tool of psycho-conditioning in favour of learning every passage by remorseless study. Each Battle-Brother absorbs and analyses entire chapters of the Codex, so that after several standard centuries of service he is at once a master and a scholar of his chosen area of expertise. With a company, especially a low-numbered one consisting of numerous long-service Veterans, it is likely that the entire Codex Astartes will be known by the Battle-Brothers, allowing the Captain to draw upon an enormous pool of wisdom as well as experience. A Veteran Ultramarines Battle-Brother is therefore a deeply learned individual, schooled in every nuance of the arts of war and the wisdom of his Primarch.
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