| “ | All is dust...All is dust...All is dust...All is dust...All is dust...All is dust... | „ |
| ~ The whispered battle cry of the Rubric Marines |
Rubric Marines are recurring antagonists in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, appearing across various media. They are Chaos Space Marines of the Thousand Sons traitor Legion, who turned to the service of Tzeentch, and now live on as undying, barely-sentient dust fused to their own power armor.
History[]
Horus Hersey[]
In the grim darkness of the far future, the Emperor of Mankind created the Imperium of Man to return humanity to its lost golden age. However, in the Great Crusade of the 31st Millennium, a devastating war known as the Horus Heresy ripped the galaxy apart. Horus Lupercal, one of the Emperor of Mankind's twenty transhuman sons, known as Primarchs, had fallen under the control of the Chaos Gods, bringing several of his brothers with him, including Magnus of the XVth Space Marine Legion, known as the Thousand Sons. By the time of the Heresy, Magnus was already at odds with the Emperor on the question of sorcery, which was outlawed in the Imperium, and in the opening days of the war, Prospero, the homeworld of Magnus and the Thousand Sons, was destroyed by the Space Wolves Legion. Turning to Chaos, Magnus teleported his capital city into the Warp, the realm of the Chaos Gods.
Their allegiance now sworn to the Chaos God Tzeentch, the Thousand Sons were given a new homeworld, the Daemon World Sortiarius deep in the Eye of Terror, which they knew as the Planet of the Sorcerers. The energy of the Warp began to mutate the Thousand Sons in drastic ways, stemming from a pre-existing imperfection in their gene-seed. In a bid to save the Legion from being completely overtaken, Thousand Sons Chief Librarian Ahzek Ahriman formed a cabal of like-minded Chaos Sorcerers, cast an arcane spell known as the Rubric of Ahriman on the Thousand Sons, thinking it would save the Legion. However, the spell only worked on the Thousand Sons who were psykers, drastically boosting their psychic potential and purging them of the mutations. Those who were not psykers were instead instantly reduced to dust, their power armor sealing up at every joint. However, their souls remained trapped in their armor, keeping them alive as little more than barely-sentient dust, caught between life and death, now irreversibly fused to their own power armor. These Thousand Sons were forever known as Rubric Marines.
The Rubric Marines would never again suffer mutations, but were now effectively mindless, undying automatons, animated power armor incapable of free thought. Regardless, their armor was still functional, and they were still battle-capable, for they could be controlled by the minds of Chaos Sorcerers, and would follow battle orders as if they were still living. These Sorcerers would enchant their weapons into fearsome Inferno Weaponry, capable of tearing apart a target's very soul as easily as their flesh. In battle, Rubric Marines could shrug off incredible amounts of damage, as there was no body under their ceramite plating to be injured, meaning that only the complete destruction of their power armor could end these undead soldiers. Additionally, in the throes of combat, what appears to be a semblance of their former selves returns to the Rubric Marines, allowing them to move with apparent clarity and purpose. They are otherwise almost completely mute, except for their whispered battle cry.
Post-Heresy[]
Rubric Marines, when not given orders, would become practically inanimate, appearing to be statues. As such, they were often used to guard the vaults of the Planet of the Sorcerers, for the Rubric Marines had no desire of learning and were unable to turn on their masters, able to stand guard for centuries on end, yet able to leap into action at a moment's notice. It is unknown how, or even if, the ranks of Rubric Marines are reinforced, with some suspecting that the Rubric of Ahriman was replicated on other Chaos Marines, while the possibility remains that the dust from fallen Rubric Marines is retrieved and sealed in new armor. By the 41st millennium, Rubric Marines have stayed enemies of the Imperium, being used as shock troops in Chaos incursions to slaughter the ranks of humanity and raid as much arcane knowledge as their masters want. Additionally, Rubric Marines were used by the Thousand Sons to attempt to reach the Black Library of the Eldar, battling Eldar Harlequins in the Webway. While the Thousand Sons were ultimately driven away, many sections of the Webway were forever lost to Chaos.
Following the opening of the Great Rift, in the 4th Tyrannic War of M42, Rubric Marines were used by Thousand Sons sorcerer Imurah to invade the Recidious System in a bid to lure in and imprison Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar. These Rubric Marines, including Terminators, were destroyed by famed Ultramarine hero Lieutenant Demetrian Titus and the Ultramarines 2nd Company, and the remains of the Rubric Marine forces were presumably banished back to the Warp after Imurah was destroyed.
