The Lore Explainer: The Ultramarines, Part 1 - The First Among Equals

In our Lore Explainer series we take a deep look at the lore of various games, settings, and factions. In this article we're looking at the lore behind the Ultramarines, the XIII legion of space marines and the ostensible poster boys of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

The Ultramarines are the gene-sons of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman, hailing from the world of Macragge on the galaxy's eastern fringe. They're widely regarded as the exemplars of the Adeptus Astartes, and the majority of Space Marine chapters in operation in the 41st millennium are derived from their lineage. They're considered masters of strategy and battlefield tactics, showing doctrinal excellence and unwavering discipline on the battlefield. The worlds of the Ultramar subsector, in which Macragge resides, are model Imperial worlds, showing outstanding discipline, production, and loyalty.

The Ultramarines are currently the face of Warhammer 40,000, and have been since the release of the game's second edition, despite only showing up as the featured chapter in the game's rulebook for the first time in tenth edition and only featuring in the game's starter box for the first time in fourth edition with the Battle for Macragge starter box. However long it took them to emerge as the game's primary chapter, they're currently the face now, and anyone who's played Space Marine II or its predecessor, the boomer shooter Boltgun, or watched the Amazon Secret Level episode about Warhammer 40,000 has seen the Ultramarines with their coolest possible representation.

In this five-part Lore Explainer series, we'll be looking at the lore of the Ultramarines - who they are, how they operate, what you need to know about them, and how their lore has changed over time. In Part 1, we're starting with the faction's current lore.

Who Are the Ultramarines?

The Ultramarines are perhaps the most famous and renowned chapter of Space Marines. They were founded in the First Founding as the XIII Legion of Space Marines, and are the gene-sons of Primarch Roboute Guilliman. Guilliman was known for his logistics and organizational skills, and under him the Ultramarines were known for being a highly disciplined force with an unmatched attention to detail and lethal efficiency. They inherited their Primarch's innate nobility and sense of loyalty and remained loyal to the Emperor during the Horus Heresy, but were detained by traitor forces from the World Eaters and Word Bearers during the Heresy and unable to reach Terra in time to defend against Horus' final attack.

Following the Heresy and the splitting of the legions into Chapters in the Second Founding, the Ultramarines returned to their homeworld, Macragge, where they distinguished themselves over the following millennia. The size and power of the Empire of Ultramar makes it an attractive target for humanity's enemies, and the Ultramarines have defended it successfully against the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth in the First Tyrannic War, Abaddon's Black Legion during the Thirteenth Black Crusade, and Mortarion's Plague Legions during the Plague Wars.

The Ultramarines are led by some of the Imperium's most distinguished heroes, including their Chapter Master, Marneus Calgar, Chief Librarian Tigurius, and Chaplain Ortan Cassius, just to name a few. These heroes give the chapter most of their mechanical identity on the table, though there are some notable units exclusive to the chapter - the Victrix Guard being chief among these. With the return of Roboute Guilliman, the Ultramarines have found themselves once again under the command of their mighty Primarch, though Guilliman's focus is primarily on the defense and governance of the Imperium.

Being showcased in video games and books more often can lead to an interesting dissonance when it comes to the Ultramarines - games like 2011's Space Marine and the Uriel Ventris books portray Ultramarine captains who chafe at the rigidity of the Codex Astartes and are subsequently sent away, only to return later. Meanwhile the vast majority of the Chapter's marines are loyal to the doctrines of the Codex Astartes and don't have these issues, but they make for less compelling stories. Following the return of Guilliman some Marine chapters have chilled out a bit on the Codex Astartes - that'll happen when the guy who wrote it is back to literally say "hey you can improvise sometimes" - but change doesn't come easy for a group of religious fanatics.

Chapter Organization

The Ultramarines wear blue armor with a white inverted omega symbol representing their chapter. As exemplars of the Codex Astartes they're split into companies, each with its own heraldry, coloring, and battlefield roles.

The First Company - Warriors of Ultramar

Veteran Company

The first company are the Chapter's most veteran warriors, often going to battle in Tactical Dreadnought (Terminator) armor. The first company features heavy armored support from Land Raiders and Storm Ravens, and is led by Captain Severus Agemman. It was the first company who were tasked with the defense of Macragge against Hive Fleet Behemoth, and they suffered grievous wounds in the process - essentially losing the entire first company. They were rebuilt under the vision of Chaplain Cassius and repopulated heavily with Tyrannic War Veterans.

Particularly promising veterans of the first company are sometimes chosen to become Victrix Guard.

The Second Company - Guardians of the Temple

Battle Company

The second company is typically the foremost battle company of a Space Marine chapter, tasked with setting a shining example for the rest of the chapter, and the Ultramarines' second company are no exception. The 2nd Company's notable victories include a crushing defeat of the Necrons on Damnos. Their cognomen "Guardians of the Temple" comes from their sworn duty to defend the Temple of Correction on Macragge. They more than lived up to this name when many of them fought and died during the end of the Celestinian Crusade to ensure the restoration of Roboute Guilliman.

Prior to the Great Rift, Cato Sicarius led these illustrious warriors across the Galaxy. However, Sicarius disappeared into the Great Rift soon after its formation, thus clearing the way for Sevastus Acheran to command the company. Captain Acheran was killed by genestealers on the Hive World of Trygg. The company is now again led by Demetrian Titus.

The Third Company - Scourge of the Xenos

Battle Company

The third company won notable glory during the Tyrannic Warriors, but even before that had a knack for hunting Xenos that earned them the respect of the Deathwatch. They see regular Secondment to Deathwatch forces as a result. They're led by Captain Mikael Fabian, a hard-headed and stubborn warrior with a fanatical hatred of Xenos.

The Fourth Company - Defenders of Ultramar

Battle Company

The fourth company are the most resolute and determined of the chapter, tasked with the duty of defending wider Ultramar from external threats. They've done battle with every manner of threat to the Imperium and have been charged with the reclamation of the wider worlds of Ultramar by Guilliman. They're led by Master of the Fleet, Captain Uriel Ventris, a warrior with a particularly rich history and a long list of enemies. Ventris, however, has delegated the actual duties of running the Ultramarines fleet to another Space Marine, Lord Admiral Lazlo Tiberius.

The Fifth Company - Wardens of the Eastern Fringe

Battle Company

The fifth company are the most diffuse and far-traveled of Ultramarines companies. They're the first battle company battle-brothers advance to when being elevated from the Reserve Companies. Led by Master of the Marches Captain Galenus, the fifth company are regularly dispatched throughout the Imperium to respond to distress calls.

The Sixth Company - Brethren of the Forge

Reserve Company

The foremost reserve company of the Ultramarines, the sixth provide battleline infantry to reinforce other companies. They're led by Captain Ferren Areois, Master of the Rites.

The Seventh Company - Defenders of Caeserean

Reserve Company

The seventh company is where Ultramarines are trained to be Battleline Warriors. They're led by Chief Victualler Captain Gerad Ixion. Warriors in the sixth and seventh companies are also trained to fight from light assault vehicles like Land Speeders, and trained to crew tanks like Predators and Repulsors.

The Eighth Company - Honourblades

Reserve Company

The 8th Company are the Assault company, led by Lord Executioner Captain Hellios. They're the most aggressive and unorthodox of the companies, favoring rapid strikes and melee combat.

The Ninth Company - Stormbringers

Reserve Company

The 9th Company are the Devastator Company, led by Master of Relics Captain Sinon. They're the most defensively-minded and static of the companies. This is also where a large number of the chapter's Eradicators and Hellblasters hang out.

The Tenth Company - The Scions of Ultramar

Scout Company

The 10th Company are the Scout company, led by Master of Recruits Captain Taelos. This company serves as the Chapter's training corps and also the source of its forward operations and infiltration efforts. One particular tenth company figure of note is Scout Sergeant Telion, who is one of the Chapter's most accomplished marksmen.

Credit; Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Roboute Guilliman

The Primarch of the Ultramarines was known for his logical mind and his knack for logistics and strategy. Raised on Macragge by Konor, one of the planet's ruling consuls, Guilliman was fiercely loyal to his adoptive father and, after his father was killed by his jealous co-consul, Gallan, was quick to enact justice and seize control of the planet. Under Guilliman, the planet prospered and its influence spread. Guilliman would go on to unite the entire sector under his vision of culture and unity, bringing worlds into the embrace of Imperial civilization and creating model worlds.

Mere years after the Second Founding, Guilliman was mortally wounded in a battle with the daemon Primarch Fulgrim and encased in a stasis field. He would remain in that state for ten millennia, until he was finally revived and resurrected by the combined efforts of Belisarius Cawl and the Ynnari prophetess Yvraine. Newly revived, Guilliman assumed control of his Chapter, fought back against the invading Black Legion, and made his way to Terra, where he was named Lord Commander of the Imperium.

The Codex Astartes

Following the Heresy, the Ultramarines' Primarch, Roboute Guilliman, penned the ultimate treatise on Space Marine tactics and organization - a document called the Codex Astartes. The Codex Astartes decreed that the Space Marine Legions be split into smaller fighting groups called Chapters, each 1,000 warriors strong. Each Chapter would be organized into ten companies of 100 warriors. In this event - known as The Second Founding - the surviving loyal legions were split into dozens of Chapters, with the largest number coming from the Ultramarines.

Genetic Legacy

From the Second Founding onward, no other Legion had the numbers or genetic banks to found as many new Chapters as the Ultramarines and this combined the stability of their gene-seed made the Ultramarines the Adeptus Terra's favorite choice for founding new chapters of Space Marines. By the start of the 41st millennium it was believed that more than two-thirds of Space Marine chapters were descended from Guilliman's bloodline. These successor Chapters include storied chapters like the Novamarines, Howling Griffons, the Hawk Lords, and the Silver Skulls.

Macragge

The Ultramarines' homeworld is Macragge, and it's also the heart of their stellar empire known as the Realm of Ultramar. It's a temperate world with gravity and days similar in length to Terra's, but without the rampant spread of pollution and nightmarish urban sprawl. Instead, Macragge is a shining beacon of what an Imperial world can be, its surface split between fertile agri-land and magnificent population centers and industrious manufactorums and munitions complexes. The planet is also home to the Ultramarines' fortress monastery and a number of planetary defenses and orbital platforms, ready to stop foes attempting to strike at the chapter's beloved homeworld.

The planet's capital is a city called Magna Macragge Civitas.

Ultramar

The Ultramarines are unique among Space Marine chapters in that they don't just rule over a single planet, asteroid, or fleet, theirs is a larger domain - the Realm of Ultramar. During the Great Crusade the Ultramarines spread out from Macragge and created a vast stellar empire comprising over five hundred worlds. Following the Heresy, Guilliman released many of these worlds from their ties to the Ultramarines' empire, but retained control of several systems within the sub-sector. The chapter thus draws from the entire sub-sector and not just a single world. Following his revival, Guilliman restored the Five Hundred Worlds, and revoked the autonomy of many of the worlds in Ultramar which had been granted following the Heresy.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The First Tyrannic War

One of the most defining features of the Ultramarines - and their biggest point of differentiation from other chapters early on - was their experience fighting off a Tyranid invasion of their home world. The lore for this invasion is surprisingly difficult to find now for something that was such a major part of the Chapter's history. Part of that is because the lore for this has always been more closely connected to the Tyranids than the Ultramarines - the first telling of this story comes from the second edition Codex: Tyranids, where it's used to position the Tyranids as a powerful threat only barely defeated at great cost. The most recent is in the eighth edition Codex Supplement: Ultramarines.

The general story is that after the annihilation of Tyran Primus - the planet which would lend its name to the faction - the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth overran one world after another, eventually driving toward Macragge. Under Marneus Calgar's command, the Ultramarines led a brilliant campaign to fight off wave after wave of the hive fleet's attack. Calgar determined the Tyranid threat was too large to oppose piecemeal, and combined his ground forces into three armies: One each garrisoning the planet's polar fortresses, to which they'd deliberately draw the Tyranid forces, and a third taking the fight directly to the Tyranid forces in a series of rearguard actions.

Over the course of the siege the Ultramarines used the Tyranids' numbers against them, funneling them into gorges and onto ice bridges where their numbers wouldn't be an advantage. Support forces launched strategic strikes to cripple hive-nodes and leader beasts. And the Ultramarines held back the swarming tide until the battle at Cold Steel Ridge, where they first encountered the Swarmlord, an enhanced Hive Tyrant with improved strategic acumen. In an effort to pull his troops back, Calgar was gravely wounded by the Swarmlord and many of his Honour Guard slain.

As the battle intensified, the first company began to launch daring counter-attacks, bleeding away the strength of the Tyranid swarms. Ultimately, they held on until the combined forces of the first company, the Ultramarines' battered fleet, and the arriving Battlefleet Tempestus could kill the Swarmlord and shatter the hive fleet. Splinters of Behemoth still persist and bedevil Ultramar into the modern era, and the Chapter's first company were killed to a man, with many of its valuable suits of Terminator armor lost or damaged beyond repair.

Following the Battle for Macragge, the first company was partially staffed with Chaplain Cassius' newly-formed Tyrannic War Veterans, a controversial move at the time that defied the teachings of the Codex Astartes. However on his return, Guilliman praised the move, immediately seeing the value of such Veterans and their collected experience in dealing with the Tyranid threat.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Damnos

Damnos was a world originally settled in the Great Crusade, rich in resources but otherwise low in value. It was also a Necron Tomb World belonging to the Sautekh Dynasty. Said Tomb World awakened in the latter years of the 41st millennium (974.M41) and swiftly reconquered the entire planet. By the time reinforcements from the Ultramarines' 2nd company had arrived to fight for the planet, it was too late - the planet was doomed and Captain Sicarius' forces were soundly defeated in their first engagement with the Necrons. They were forced to fall back and evacuate what refugees they could.

By the end of the 41st millennium (999.M41), word of the Necrons' resurgence had spread throughout the Imperium - despite the Inquisition's best efforts - and it was decided that the Ultramarines needed to go back to Damnos to score a moral victory, showing that the Adeptus Astartes could not be beaten by Xenos scum. Calgar ordered the 2nd Company to return to Damnos, this time supported by the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th Companies and led by Calgar himself. This larger force would prove successful, reclaiming Damnos for the Imperium as the Ultramarines felled the Flayer King and defeated a shard of the C'tan Yggra'nya.

Of course, nothing is forever in this galaxy, and in early M42 the Szarekhan Dynasty led an offensive against Damnos, kicking off the third war for the planet. By that point, the Plague Wars were in full force (see below), and the Ultramarines had little they could spare in terms of forces. They'd end up sending a small strike force and regiments of the Solar Auxilia to aid the planet while asking for help from other Chapters. It wasn't enough, and the Necrons would reconquer the planet.

Guilliman's Return

The Ultramarines played a key role in Abaddon's Thirteenth Black Crusade. As Abaddon's forces fought Imperial defenders around the shattered remains of the Cadian Gate, he had sent a fresh coalition of warbands to attack Ultramar at the urging of the sorcerer Zaraphiston. These forces - a coalition of Black Legion, Iron Warriors, Night Lords, and other renegade chapters - swarmed the worlds of Ultramar even as survivors from Cadia emerged from the Webway - an ancient gate connecting the frozen moon of Klaisus to the Aetheron Mountains on Hera. This coalition of Ynnari and Celestinian forces included Belisarius Cawl, who made haste to the Shrine Fortress housing Roboute Guilliman's stasis-trapped body. There, Cawl unveiled the Armour of Fate, whose mechanisms were augmented by the soul-sorcery of Yvraine. Working together, Guilliman's soul was captured within the armour and restored as both it and his body were cleansed of Fulgrim's poisons.

Guilliman stood, revived and confused, but immediately took to cleansing the Black Legionnaires from the shrine around him. After driving the foe from the Fortress of Hera he would learn that he'd been asleep for more than nine thousand years as the Imperium was plunged into darkness and superstition. Guilliman was heartbroken by these events, but resolved to fight on and rallied his forces, fighting a long and fraught campaign to return to Holy Terra at the head of a crusading fleet. His goal was to finally speak with the Emperor once more.

It was there Guilliman was named Lord-Commander of the Imperium and a new Crusade - the Indomitus Crusade - launched to reclaim the half of the galaxy which had not been cut off by the Cicatrix Maledictum. Guilliman would order the awakening of the Primaris Space Marines to reinforce the ranks of marine chapters across the galaxy and make up the bulk of his new crusade forces. These reinforcements would both be used to form entirely new chapters and reinforce existing Chapters. One benefit Guilliman noted was that this would finally ensure that Ultramarines successors were no longer the most numerous Space Marines in the galaxy.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The Era Indomitus

One of Guilliman's first acts is to declare a new crusade to reconquer the galaxy. Launched from Terra and led by Guilliman, a new Crusade of Primaris Marines, Adeptus Custodes, Sisters of Silence, Adepta Sororitas, and Astra Militarum and Adeptus Mechanicus forces struck out. In addition to new Primaris reinforcements, the Crusade also sent out Biologis Adepts able to fashion new Primaris battle-brothers for the Chapters. The Ultramarines were at the forefront of this Crusade as well, fighting to protect not just Ultramar but the entire galaxy.

Despite Guilliman's command, many of the older space marines feared obsolescence in light of these new, larger, more advanced warriors joining their ranks. It was Chapter Master Marneus Calgar who ultimately led the integration of space marine chapters with the new Primaris brothers, undergoing the extremely risky surgeries required to turn a traditional Space Marine into a Primaris Marine. It didn't go great - he died in the process - though several minutes later he gasped back to life. Calgar crossed the Rubicon Primaris and others would soon follow in his footsteps.

The Indomitus Crusade would ultimately pass through the Nachmund Gauntlet en route to the Imperium Nihilus, and Nachmund would host some of the Ultramarines' toughest battles. Particularly on the planet Vigilus, a world beset by forces of Chaos, Orks, and Genestealer Cults. Ultimately the Ultramarines would prove successful in their defense of Vigilus, though it nearly cost Calgar his newly restored life in combat with Abaddon.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The Plague Wars

The Indomitus campaign had scarcely wrapped when the Ultramarines would be thrown into a new series of conflicts. Grandfather Nurgle had set his sights on the realm of Ultramar, possibly even before the Great Rift opened. Formerly prosperous worlds suddenly became stricken with a host of new diseases such as the Crawling Pestulence, Eyerot, and the Plague That Walks. Meanwhile Daemons and fanatical cultists came out of the woodwork, spewing corrupt filth and turning comrades against each other. And all of this was just a prelude to the arrival of the Death Guard fleets, led by Typhus and the Daemon Primarch Mortarion.

The Death Guard claimed world after world in a series of conflicts called the War of Flies, attacking from a base of operations in the Scourge Stars. Mortarion's forces started by conquering smaller and more poorly defended worlds while Typhus terrorized the outer regions of Ultramar and destroyed shipping lanes. It was not until Guilliman arrived with Primaris reinforcements that the tide finally turned in the Ultramarines' favor.

Credit: Games Workshop

In an attempt to trap Guilliman's forces on Macragge, Mortarion launched a full-scale invasion of Konor, hoping to capture the system and use it as a staging point to attack the Ultramarines' homeworld. What followed was somewhat determined by Games Workshop's global campaign run in stores (the Fate of Konor campaign), the website for which is no longer available. Ultimately the Imperium were able to hang on, eking out a close victory in the Konor System and preventing Mortarion from advancing on to Macragge after a valiant and near-suicidal effort on the Death World of Loebos.

Guilliman's reinforcements moved swiftly, destroying the plague engines powering the Nurgle forces with a constant tide of undead reinforcements and cutting off their supply lines to the Scourge Stars. They won a key battle on the corrupted world of Parmenio, where they managed to fight off an attempt on Guilliman's life from Ku'Gath and Mortarion. The Ultramarines' Primarch was saved only by the intervention of a young girl named Kaylia who may or may not have been a Living Saint, burning with the power of the Emperor. However, the forces of the Plaguefather were successful in obtaining a drop of Guilliman's blood.

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

The final battle of the Plague Wars took place on Iax, a hospital world that had been corrupted early on by the Death Guard. There Mortarion and Ku'gath once again conspired to kill Guilliman, this time using a deadly plague known as the Godblight. This plague was made from the drop of blood stolen at Parmenio. Unfortunately for them, Tzeentch got jealous of Nurgle's conquests and war broke out in the Scourge Stars, drawing Nurgle's attention away from the conflict on Iax. Typhus' forces and many of the daemons were recalled, and Mortarion and Ku'Gath ignored Nurgle's orders to go through with the attack on Guilliman.

The two Primarchs would eventually have their fateful duel while a number of marines from his retinue fought with Ku'Gath. The marines were able to bring down Ku'Gath thanks to ~~another insane and literal Deus Ex Machina~~ the timely intervention of Militant-Apostolic Mathieu, who was also possessed with the power of the Emperor to become a Living Saint. Together they were able to destroy Ku'Gath and his Cauldron. Things didn't go so great for Guilliman, who was bested by Mortarion and infected with the Godblight, seemingly perishing again. But Guilliman rose again, infused with the power of the Emperor, defeating Mortarion and driving them back.

Where to Read More

If you liked this and want to read more about the Ultramarines well good news - there is a lot out there. Since the start of eighth edition they've more or less been the protagonists of 40k, in part due to Guilliman being the main character the Imperium revolves around. We've split this section up into three parts: Rulebooks, Black Library, and other media.

Rulebooks

The basic lore of the Ultramarines is laid out in rulebooks and campaign books, and you can get more or less everything you need from these:

Codex: Space Marines (10th edition). While light on Ultramarines lore, a lot of key stuff is in there, and this is the most up-to-date form of it.
Codex Supplement: Ultramarines (8th edition). The 8th edition supplement has all of the most recent lore on the chapter's structure and what they've been up to since the rift hit.
Gathering Storm III: Rise of the Primarch (7th edition). If you want to read about Guilliman's revival and the subsequent campaign, this is where it happens.
Codex: Tyranids (10th edition). The most recent lore on the first Tyrannic War and Battle for Macragge are in here.
Apocalypse War Zone: Damnos. The basic lore of the first and second battles for Damnos are in here.
War Zone Vigilus (Vigilus Defiant and Vigilus Ablaze, 8th edition). These books detail the Vigilus campaign, which includes Marneus Calgar's transformation into a Primaris marine and his nearly lethal fight with Abaddon.
500 Worlds: Titus (10th Edition). This book reconciles the lore from the Codexes, Supplements, Black Library novels, and video games while formally introducing Demetrian Titus as the face of the faction and franchise.

Black Library

We'll cover the Heresy side of things in our next article so here we're focusing primarily on books about the modern chapter and its lore. We'll also dive more into the character-specific books in our article on the heroes of the chapter, and not all of those are technically modern canon anyways.

Dark Imperium Trilogy (Dark Imperium, Plague War, Godblight). This trilogy of books by Guy Haley aren't my favorite from a writing perspective but they're the first books about Guilliman following his return, and detail the Plague Wars against Mortarion's Death Guard.
Indomitus. This Gav Thorpe novel follows the 9th edition plot and features Ultramarines clashing with Necron forces in the Pariah Nexus.
Dawn of Fire: Avenging Son. Another Guy Haley novel, this one takes place before the Indomitus campaign and reveals a great deal about the Primaris project and the state of the Imperium following Guilliman's return. There are a whole series of Dawn of Fire books, and they're not all about the Ultramarines. Books 1, 8, and 9 are the ones which feature the Ultramarines most prominently.
Leviathan. This Darius Hinks novel follows the 10th edition storyline, and sees Ultramarines clashing once again with Tyranid forces.

Other Media

Here's where the Ultramarines really shine, since three of the best 40k video games ever made are about them.

Space Marine (THQ, 2011) is a third-person shooter which tells the tale of Captain Titus of the Ultramarines' 2nd Company as his forces liberate a world besieged by Ork forces only to stumble into a greater conspiracy.
Space Marine II (Saber Interactive, 2024) sees Titus return in another third-person shooter, this time facing down a Tyranid invasion, only to stumble onto a greater conspiracy.
Boltgun (Focus Entertainment, 2023) has players take on the role of Sterngard Veteran Malum Creedo in this boomer shooter FPS, taking on Chaos Forces of the Black Legion on Graia.
Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar (Marvel Comics, 2020-2021) features the reborn Chapter Master of the Ultramarines as he gives his life's tale to a Tech Priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This comic has a surprising amount of insight into Macraggian society from outside the Ultramarines point-of-view.

Next Time: The Lore of the XIII Legion

That wraps up our look at the basic lore of the Ultramarines. The best part about being the game's star faction is that you get a lot of time and energy devoted to writing about you. But despite that, it's surprisingly hard to find up-to-date, current lore for them as Codex: Space Marines splits time between them and six other chapters. The good news is you've got a solid primer here and good places to look next.

Next time we'll talk about the chapter's history in the Horus Heresy - their origins, their role in the Heresy, and the secret, unremembered empire Guilliman aimed to build.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.