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Overview
- "Before the Emperor, before the stars, we hunted the green beasts. Now, clad in steel and wrath, we hunt still. We are the Greenskinners — the bane of the Green Horde, the flayers of monsters. Let them come. We will skin them all."
- —Anonymous
The Greenskinners are a savage and uncompromising Space Marine Chapter, forged in the crucible of one of the most violent death worlds known to the Imperium: Chīchīltlāl, or the Red Earth. Known for their brutal efficiency, tribal warfare traditions, and symbolic adoption of Orkoid aesthetics, the Greenskinners are as feared by their enemies as they are misunderstood by their allies.
Clad in armor the color of Ork flesh and bearing the skull sigil of the greenskin, they are a grim parody of the xenos that continuously plague their homeworld — and a living testament to humanity’s ability to overcome even the most savage threats through sheer force of will.
The Greenskinners do not fight for glory, honor, or the accolades of High Lords. They fight because war is all they have ever known — and because the legacy of their world demands blood.
History
There is a place where even the stars seem afraid to gaze.
A world where the jungles breathe rot and the rivers run thick with blood — both red and green.
Chīchīltlāl, the Red Earth, has never known peace.
Long before the Imperium, before the first whispers of the Emperor's light reached the void, the tribes of Chīchīltlāl waged endless war against a ceaseless foe. The greenskins fell from the heavens in rusted iron beasts and bred like spores in the steaming jungles, choking the land with their filth.
Generation after generation, the humans of Chīchīltlāl learned one truth: to survive was to kill. No mercy. No quarter. Only blood answered blood.
The tribes fought with stone blades, obsidian-tipped spears, and shields adorned with the flayed skins of their enemies. Warriors marked themselves with the blood of the slain, believing each Ork killed fed the spirit of the world — a desperate, savage faith born of unending war.
When the Imperium came, it found a world already baptized in slaughter. The crusading forces thought to tame it, to bring "order" to the howling death-world.
They failed.
Only the strongest survived Chīchīltlāl’s rites. Only those who had feasted on endless war could endure its curse.
From these blood-tempered survivors, the Greenskinners were born — warriors who had known no life but the hunt, whose every breath was a promise of vengeance.
Even clad in ceramite and wielding the thunderous weapons of the Imperium, the sons of Chīchīltlāl have never forgotten their origins.
Their armor is the green of Ork flesh, a living echo of the skins their ancestors once wore. Their banners bear the black skull of the greenskin, a grim trophy. Their rituals echo the old songs of the hunt, sung to the rhythm of drums carved from bone and silence.
They do not fight for glory. They do not fight for honor.
They fight because it is all they have ever known.
The Red Earth calls for blood — and the Greenskinners answer.
Recent Notable Campaigns
| Campaign Name | Date (M40–M41) | Location | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sundering of Grukk-Maw | M40.873 | Suthanex Cluster | A brutal jungle war against a rising feral Ork empire; the Chapter refused orbital support in favor of ritual ground-cleansing. |
| The Silence of Gorespire | M41.017 | Hive Moon Golgorath | A shadow war fought in the dark corridors of a Mekworld hive; ended with the hive's machine-spirit silenced and broken. |
| The Nine-Day Hunt | M41.088 | Chīchīltlāl (Homeworld) | A ritual cleansing of a feral Ork resurgence; conducted entirely on foot and blade in the jungles of the Red Earth. |
| The Red Sky Massacre | M41.122 | Orbital Shipyards of Pelliax-VI | A reckless but successful boarding assault on an Ork void-fleet, crippling a Waaagh! before it could invade Segmentum Pacificus. |
| The Green Funeral (Ongoing) | M41– | Unknown – Waaagh! Kragblud | The Chapter’s long war of vengeance against a massive, migratory Ork horde believed to descend from Chīchīltlāl’s first invaders. |
Homeworld
Chīchīltlāl — The Red Earth
Designation: Chīchīltlāl (Ordo Cartographica Reference: 744-Δ-8)
Classification: Death World
Primary Export: Astartes Recruits (Greenskinners Chapter)
Status: Conditionally Compliant
Threat Assessment: Persistent Ork Infestation; Localized Xeno-Fungal Corruption
Chīchīltlāl, colloquially known as the “Red Earth,” is a death world of significant strategic difficulty. Dense, hostile jungles dominate the terrain, and the soil is saturated with iron oxides. However, field records and Chapter archives attribute the planet’s blood-red hue not to geology, but to millennia of ceaseless warfare.
Initial Imperial compliance efforts suffered catastrophic losses. Indigenous human populations, though primitive by pre-Compliance standards, displayed extreme environmental hardiness and a hyper-militant culture centered on the eradication of local Ork populations. Anthropological data recovered from early survey teams indicates widespread ritual flaying, blood offerings, and the crafting of war-gear from xenos hides — practices that, in modified form, remain embedded in the traditions of the Greenskinners Astartes Chapter.
The Ork threat on Chīchīltlāl is classified as Persistent Endemic. The planet cannot be fully purged without planetary sterilization — a measure deemed inefficient given the Greenskinners’ ongoing suppression campaigns.
Of special note is the presence of widespread xeno-fungal contamination. Several jungle zones exhibit a phosphorescent green luminescence post-dusk, believed to stem from latent Ork spore saturation. Local fauna and flora exhibit aggressive mutations, including predatory behaviors and resilience patterns consistent with Orkoid influence. Clearance protocols mandate full quarantine measures beyond secured perimeters.
Pre-implantation cogitation logs and observed trials of Chīchīltlāl-born aspirants indicate extreme aggression, ritualized behavior, and congenital xeno-hatred — all traits actively cultivated by Greenskinners indoctrination protocols.
Recommendation: Maintain a minimal Imperial presence. Grant the Greenskinners full recruitment rights and operational autonomy under Segmentum Command oversight. Compliance is sustained through their dominion, and continued suppression of the Ork threat is judged adequate to fulfill Imperial strategic goals.
Chīchīltlāl is a cursed world — but a useful one.
Excerpt From: Imperial Field Manual 889-M / Segmentum Tempestus / Clearance: Serrated-Aqua
Operational Notes: Chīchīltlāl"
Caution Level: Omega-Red - Death World.
Primary Threats: Ork infestation (persistent endemic), hostile native fauna, mutated flora, unstable weather patterns.
Survival Tips for Imperial Personnel:
- Never move alone. Patrols of less than five are statistically 78% more likely to be lost without trace.
- Do not eat local flora or fauna. All surface life is suspected of latent xeno-fungal contamination.
- Respect the local Astartes. The Greenskinners tolerate no disrespect. Outsiders who mock their traditions are often found dead — victims of "Ork attacks," as recorded.
- Bleed before you fight. Observing the local blood-offering rite (even superficially) has been noted to significantly improve relations with Greenskinners patrols.
- Avoid glowing vegetation. If encountered, quarantine protocol dictates immediate evacuation and purgation by fire.
- Orks do not "invade" on Chīchīltlāl. They are always here. Assume any jungle sector beyond base perimeters is under hostile control.
Remember:
- "Chīchīltlāl does not forgive weakness.
On the Red Earth, you are either a hunter — or you are meat.
The Emperor Protects."- — Greenskinners mantra
Recruitment
“We do not raise warriors. We raise retribution.” — Cuāuhtlahtoani Ozekotl Many-Moons, Chapter Master of the Greenskinners
The Greenskinners draw their recruits exclusively from their homeworld of Chīchīltlāl, a death world so savage it has defied complete Imperial compliance for centuries. The planet remains locked in eternal conflict — a crucible of feral Ork infestation and ceaseless tribal warfare. The Ork threat is not occasional — it is pervasive, cyclical, and cursed. For the people of Chīchīltlāl, survival is not a matter of strength. It is a declaration of purpose.
And that purpose is vengeance.
The Blood-Tithe
When the Chapter’s fleet returns to Chīchīltlāl — sometimes once in a generation, sometimes thrice in a decade — the Blood-Tithe is declared. This is not a selection, but a sacrament of hate. Every tribe answers the call, not with pride, but with grim inevitability. To be chosen is not an honor. It is a death sentence wrapped in ritual.
Candidates are not nominated. They emerge from brutal tribal contests, blood-duels, and jungle hunts. To qualify, an aspirant must present the skull of a slain Ork, scorched and blackened in ceremonial flame — not as a trophy, but as a vow to the Red Earth.
Each skull is burned in the Bone-Furnace, a sacred brazier at the heart of the Chapter’s fortress-monastery, its smoke rising as a silent oath to the spirits of the dead and to the Emperor, whom the Greenskinners venerate as the Bringer of Vengeance.
Trials of the Chosen
Those who survive the Blood-Tithe must undergo the Trials of the Chosen — a brutal gauntlet designed not to test strength alone, but to awaken righteous fury. These rites are forged from Chapter doctrine and ancestral war-rites, each echoing the eternal conflict against the greenskin plague.
- The Ashwalk A survival ordeal in the deepest jungle swamps. Aspirants are cast into spore-choked territory, unarmed, to stalk and slay a feral Orkoid beast before it reaches maturity. The tusk they return with is a symbol not just of strength — but of the Greenskinners’ central belief: “Kill the seed before the Waaagh.”
- The Tlāltikpak Rite Ritualized combat beneath the blood-moon. Aspirants duel one another in sacred pits encircled by captive Orks, who jeer and roar from behind ritual cages. The fights are rarely to the death, but the Orks sometimes claim the fallen. Those who survive are judged not only on skill, but on fury, resolve, and clarity of hatred.
- The Silence The final ordeal. Aspirants are interred within the Caverns of the Forgotten, burial sites of ancient greenskin massacres. There they endure hunger, solitude, and the psychic echoes of Ork cruelty — the residue of centuries of Waaaghs burned into the stone. Some emerge broken. A few emerge reborn, their vengeance crystallized into faith.
Becoming Greenskinners
Those who endure the Trials are no longer tribesmen. They are not merely Astartes. They are weapons of memory — forged not by forgetting the past, but by becoming the instrument of its retribution.
The Greenskinners do not erase culture. They elevate it.
Initiates are taught to hunt with bolters as once with spears, to paint kill-glyphs in Ork blood, and to burn the names of slain warbosses into bone-totems worn upon their armor. Their first Ork kill as Astartes is not a skirmish — it is a ritual execution. The hide is flayed, scorched, and sealed into the Chapter’s Book of Vengeance, its name added to the Litany of the Dead Green — a chant whispered before every deployment.
The Doctrine of the Seed-Kill
To a Greenskinner, an Ork is not an enemy. It is a disease — a spore that must be cleansed with absolute finality. Initiates are trained in spore-burn tactics, taught to never leave a corpse unscorched, and punished for failing to deliver redundant execution.
Mercy is apostasy.
Survival of the enemy is a spiritual failure.
Every kill is marked, every skull scored, every Ork death added to the Chapter’s blood-count, a sacred tally that stretches back to the first greenskin killed on Chīchīltlāl’s soil.
Born of the Red Earth’s Fury
Though clad in ceramite and wielding the most sacred relics of Imperial war, the sons of Chīchīltlāl remain bound to their ancestral oath — to hunt, to kill, to never stop.
Their tactics reflect generational hunts:
Ambush. Intimidation. Ritual marking of kills.
Their war cries echo with the names of fallen Ork warlords, shouted not in fear, but in triumph.
To be a Greenskinners Space Marine is not to seek honor, glory, or even salvation.
It is to be the vengeance of a world, wrapped in flesh and steel.
It is to walk among the stars as the Red Earth’s wrath —
A living weapon born to end the Ork race.
Combat Doctrine
Overview
The Greenskinners do not wage war for glory or for the Imperium’s grand designs. They fight one war, and one war only: the utter extermination of the Ork race. Their doctrine, their rituals, even their identity — all revolve around this singular goal. When Orks are involved, there is only one acceptable outcome: total annihilation. This is not war — it is retribution.
Their methods are direct, brutal, and intensely personal. Every engagement is a hunt. Every Ork is a debt to be repaid in blood. Chainswords roar through bone, and the air is thick with ash, smoke, and hate.
Tactics
Relentless Assault: The Greenskinners favor aggressive, overwhelming charges. Complex battle plans are shunned in favor of instinct and fury. Once contact is made, they close the distance with terrifying speed, seeking to rip through the enemy line in a storm of blades and fury. Many choose to forgo longer-ranged weapons, favoring bolt pistols and close-combat arms that allow them to feel the kill. The chainsword is not just a weapon — it is a sacrament of vengeance.
Shock and Awe: When faced with entrenched Ork mobs, the Greenskinners will deploy flamers, heavy bolters, and thunderous artillery — not out of tactical preference, but necessity. Such firepower is seen as a means to an end: to clear a path toward the real work of slaughter.
Assault Squads: These warriors form the spear-tip of every engagement. Armed with chainswords and jump packs, they descend upon enemy lines with a fury that borders on suicidal. Their purpose is simple: get into the thick of the fight, tear the foe apart, and let the Red Earth drink deep.
Vengeance Hunts: Beyond the battlefield, the Greenskinners engage in ritualized vendettas, tracking Ork warbosses and lieutenants across campaigns and systems. These are not mere kill-missions — they are ancestral rites. The death of a powerful greenskin is not a tactical victory; it is a sacred act.
Strategy
The Jungle is Their Ally: Raised in the death jungles of Chīchīltlāl, the Greenskinners are expert ambushers and guerilla fighters. They use terrain as a weapon, baiting Orks into ravines, root mazes, and spore-choked valleys before striking with calculated savagery.
The Ork Hordes Fall to Wrath: Where most see the endless tide of greenskins as an overwhelming threat, the Greenskinners see opportunity. Orks respond to fury with fury — and the Chapter excels at turning rage into precision. Their charges break mob cohesion. Their hate burns hotter than Ork ferocity.
Revenge as a Weapon: To the Greenskinners, vengeance is more than a motivation — it is a method. Ork leaders are hunted relentlessly. Kill-marks are carved into ceramite. Warcries echo old tribal chants, invoking the spirits of lost clans and blood-debts still unpaid.
Signature Weapons and Methods
Chainswords and Combat Blades: Adorned with glyphs, fangs, and the teeth of fallen beasts, these are the favored tools of the Chapter. Each blade is a record of battle, and many are soaked in the ichor of slain warbosses.
Flame and Fangs: Flamers and inferno weapons are used to break Ork lines and purge infestation, but they are always followed by the blade. To simply burn an Ork is insufficient — it must feel death at the edge of a chainsword.
Power Fists and Thunder Hammers: When raw strength is needed to crack skulls or breach war engines, the Greenskinners do not hesitate to unleash their heavy weapons. These tools are used with the same ferocity as their lighter blades — blunt instruments of utter ruin.
Final Philosophy
To the Greenskinners, strategy exists only to further the hunt. Every warzone is another battlefield in an eternal blood-feud. Every Ork slain is a step closer to vengeance.
They serve the Imperium — but only as far as it allows them to pursue their sacred war. The Green Tide never ceases.
And neither do they.
Organization
- "A warrior’s worth is measured in Ork blood."
- — Anonymous Greeeskinners Astartes
Ranks and Hierarchy
Among the Greenskinners, a title is not given — it is earned in blood.
Unlike many Chapters, rank alone is not enough to command respect among the Greenskinners. True status is earned through blood-counts — tallies of Orks slain in battle, verified by ritual trophies and witnessed by senior warriors. A young warrior who slays mighty Ork warbosses may rise faster than a veteran who kills sparingly. Each confirmed kill is marked, recorded by the Chapter’s lore-keepers — an order of sacred record-wardens who burn blood-counts into bone totems worn upon the warrior’s armor.
Promotions are accompanied by ancient rites: bathing in the blood of the fallen, the chanting of tribal war-songs, and the recitation of ancestral deeds. To rise is to be consecrated in the very ichor of the enemy.
Though they outwardly follow the structure of the Codex Astartes, the Greenskinners wear their ranks like warpaint — layered in ritual, scarred by tradition, and consecrated by the hunt. Their hierarchy is as much spiritual as it is martial: a brutal meritocracy where command flows not from decree, but from the fury one inspires and the Ork heads piled in one’s wake.
Each rank echoes the warrior-castes of Chīchīltlāl’s ancient tribes, translated through the lens of Astartes doctrine and reforged in the crucible of endless war. Below is a list of known roles and their sacred designations, recorded by the lore-keepers and whispered in blood-slick rites before battle.
| Codex Astartes Role | Greenskinners Title | Meaning / Translation | Function / Cultural Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter Master | Cuāuhtlahtoani | "He Who Speaks for the Eagle" | Supreme commander and voice of the Chapter's vengeance oath |
| Company (Tactical Unit) | Tlāhuiztli | "Sacred Battle-Dress" / "Warband" | Mobile hunter-kill teams modeled after tribal Ork-hunting packs |
| Company Captain | Tlacochcalcatl | "Keeper of the Armory" | Warband leader; responsible for command and ritual preservation of weapons |
| Veteran 1st Company | Ocelotl | "Jaguar Guard" | Elite anti-Ork warriors; honored through ritual scarring and trophy-bearing |
| Assault Marines | Cuāuhocēlōtl | "Eagle-Jaguar" Warriors | Shock troops; fast and deadly aerial assault specialists |
| Neophyte / Recruit | Tēōcuitlatl | "Blood Sons" | Aspirants undergoing trials to earn the right to wear the green |
| Chaplain | Teomiqui | "Those Who Cause Divine Death" | Spiritual leaders and ritual masters; oversee rites of vengeance and oaths |
| Librarian | Tlālticpactl | "Earthbinders" | Shamans who channel ancestral rage and psychic force |
| Apothecary | Tlazopilli | "Children of Flesh" | Gene-seed preservers and sacred butchers; perform death-rites and harvesting |
| Techmarine | Tēcciztlacohtli | "He Who Knows the Bones of Iron" | Iron-Singers and spirit-smiths; maintain wargear and commune with machine spirits |
| Champion | Cuāuhxōchitl | "Eagle-Flower" | Duellists and personal champions; ritualized fighters of honor |
| Ancient / Standard Bearer | Xiquipilli | "Bearer of the Spirit-Wind" | Keeper of totemic banners made from bones, hides, or flayed greenskin remains |
| Dreadnought | Teōtlcalli | "Divine House" | Living tombs of honored dead; venerated as walking shrines of vengeance |
| Scout / Initiate (field-ready) | Itzquauhtli | "Obsidian Eagles" | Final-phase Neophytes deployed in stealth and tracking operations |
| Chief Librarian | Tlacatēuhctli | "Lord of Men" | Arch-shaman; supreme psychic seer and voice of the ancestral spirits |
| Chief Apothecary | Tlazotlāni | "He Who Preserves the Flesh" | High priest of the fallen; sacred guardian of gene-memory |
| Master of Sanctity | Tēzcatli | "Mirror of the Dead" | Chief spiritual authority; leads great rites and interprets omens |
| Master of the Forge | Tlāltepēhuani | "He Who Speaks to the Mountain" | Overseer of forges and sacred engines; communion with steel-spirits |
Beliefs
The Will of Chīchīltlāl
The Greenskinners' belief system is born from the blood-soaked soil of their homeworld, Chīchīltlāl. There, Orks are not simply invaders — they are the eternal curse. Their filth has stained the land for generations, shaping every facet of the planet’s culture, survival, and faith.
To the Greenskinners, Orks are not merely enemies to be defeated. They are a plague to be cleansed, a cancerous corruption that infects reality itself. Slaying them is not warfare — it is sacrament. Each kill is a sacred act of purification, an offering to the memory of their ancestors and to the land that bore them.
This is hatred forged into religion. This is vengeance sanctified.
The Green Tide — A Holy Crusade
For the Greenskinners, there is only one war: the war against the Ork race. The Green Tide is not a campaign, not a threat to be managed — it is an abomination. Every battle is a step toward its extinction.
Their world demands vengeance, and they have answered. The Greenskinners see themselves as the living wrath of Chīchīltlāl, bound by a blood-pact to exterminate the greenskin menace. There is no end. No retreat. No peace. The hunt is eternal.
The Holy Rite of Vengeance
Vengeance is more than motivation — it is the Greenskinners’ faith. To kill an Ork is to fulfill a divine duty. Each death is an offering to the land, a ritual cleansing of its corruption.
The Chapter teaches that the more Orks they slay, the more they redeem Chīchīltlāl. The blood of the xenos nourishes the wounded soil. Their skulls serve as totems of wrath fulfilled.
After a kill, a warrior offers a silent oath to his ancestors. It is a vow — that each slain Ork brings them one step closer to their sacred goal: the eradication of the Green Tide.
The Eternal War
The Greenskinners do not believe in "victory." There is no endgame. They fight not for territory or glory, but for one outcome: total annihilation of the Ork species.
They see this as a war that must never end. Each Ork spawn is a failure of the last battle. Each new Waaagh! a reminder that the work is never done. They fight without rest, because to stop is to abandon everything they are.
Their culture, their rituals, even their training of aspirants revolves around this eternal struggle. To tire, to hesitate, to look away — these are sins.
The Green Sacrifice:
Perhaps the most extreme aspect of their belief system is their ritual treatment of slain Orks. After battle, Greenskinners conduct blood rites — displaying skulls, marking kills, and sanctifying the ground in ritual fashion. To them, this is not gruesome excess; it is sacred duty.
The skull of an Ork is more than a trophy. It is a relic — a physical embodiment of vengeance fulfilled. These remains are carefully stored in Chapter halls, inscribed with the name of the slayer and the blood-count it represents. Their presence serves as both reminder and vow.
The Green Curse:
To the Greenskinners, Orks are not simply a species — they are a cosmic affliction, a malignant presence. They believe their homeworld has been cursed by the Orks for millennia, and that only by killing every last one can balance be restored.
This belief permeates their entire culture. The Chapter sees itself as the final line of defense, the last warriors capable of saving Chīchīltlāl from total defilement.
Their hatred is not just ancestral — it is existential. They do not simply want the Orks dead.
They want them gone — erased from memory, purged from existence.
Gene-Seed
- "Brothers in Blood — But Feral by Choice."
- — Greenskinners mantra
Genealogy:
The Greenskinners are descendants of the White Scars, bearing the untainted gene-seed of Jaghatai Khan. Their genetic legacy remains strong and stable — a rare treasure in an Imperium plagued by mutation. Though their blood is pure, their path is their own — forged not in the steppes of Chogoris, but in the jungles of Chīchīltlāl, where vengeance is a birthright and survival is sacred.
Genetic Traits:
The Greenskinners display no known abnormalities or corruption. Their gene-seed is robust, mirroring the natural resilience of their primarch’s line. Physically, they embody the White Scars' legacy: lightning-fast reflexes, high endurance, and exceptional agility. Yet their expression of these traits has shifted over time.
Where the White Scars favor speed and precision, the Greenskinners have adapted their gifts for feral, close-quarters warfare. Their combat style is raw and vicious, honed in the endless blood-feuds of their jungle world. They embrace their animalistic instincts with pride — using speed not for maneuver, but for the kill.
Cultural Perception of Their Bloodline:
- Respect for the Feral: The Greenskinners feel a deep kinship with other feral-leaning White Scars descendants — Chapters that, like them, embrace the primal core of the Khan’s legacy. These are seen as true sons, warriors who understand that honor is not in order or doctrine, but in the thrill of the hunt and the fury of combat.
- Contempt for the "Softened": In contrast, the Greenskinners regard certain other White Scars successors with contempt. Those who cling too tightly to the Codex Astartes, or who deny their own battle-rage, are seen as having diluted their heritage. “Blood without wrath is blood wasted,” they say. To the Greenskinners, these Chapters have lost their edge — warriors in name only, far removed from the predator-spirit of the Khan.
- The Path of the Hunt: The Greenskinners believe that to honor their gene-seed is to embody the hunt itself — to strike like beasts, kill like men, and revel in vengeance. For them, battle is not strategy. It is instinct. It is rite. It is truth.
Gene-Seed Rituals:
- Blood-Fury Trials: Initiation into the Greenskinners involves brutal trials of rage and survival. Neophytes must face feral xenos beasts — often Orkoid fauna — in one-on-one combat, armed with only crude weapons. These trials are symbolic reenactments of ancestral hunts, designed to awaken the warrior-spirit within and test not just strength, but the will to kill.
- Bloodline Rituals: To honor their heritage, the Chapter holds sacred rites involving blood offerings and ancestral invocation. Warriors anoint themselves with xenos ichor and chant the names of fallen heroes, believing that each drop spilled in combat brings them closer to their forebears. Though these rites are symbolic, some among the Chapter’s Librarius believe there are lingering echoes — not warp-bound, but spiritual imprints — that haunt the blood-soaked places of Chīchīltlāl. Officially, these beliefs are tolerated. Unofficially, they define the Greenskinners’ identity.
Notable Members
Chapter Fleet
The Green Fleet
The Greenskinners' fleet is a tightly unified, highly ritualized force designed for planetary assault, Ork extermination, and spiritual preservation. Each vessel is viewed as a sacred extension of Chīchīltlāl’s wrath — both a weapon and a reliquary. The fleet rarely operates in isolation and considers its cohesion a matter of both strategy and spiritual strength.
The Bloody Covenant (Battle Barge)
The Greenskinners' massive flagship, the Bloody Covenant, is less a vessel than a floating fortress. Bristling with macro-cannons and bombardment turrets, it serves as the Chapter’s mobile bastion of vengeance. From its blood-slicked command throne, the Cuāuhtlahtoani — Chapter Master and spiritual war-chief — directs planetary purges and extermination campaigns.
Its hull is painted sacred Ork-green, adorned with blood-red glyphs invoking the war gods of ancient Chīchīltlāl.
Tlālticpac's Fury (Battle Barge)
Slightly smaller than the Covenant, Tlālticpac’s Fury is tasked with defending Chīchīltlāl during off-world campaigns.
It houses reserve companies, ancestral relics, and battle standards predating Imperial records. Command of this vessel is a sacred honor, granted only to revered veterans marked by vision and valor.
Strike Cruisers
- Jaguar’s Howl Designed for swift insertion and orbital assault, Jaguar’s Howl is the favored transport of the Cuāuhocēlōtl — the Eagle Warrior Assault Companies.
- Wrath of Chīchīltlāl A venerated warship used for planetary bombardments and purges, particularly against entrenched Ork warbands. Its prow is crowned with a black Ork skull effigy, a reminder of the Chapter's sacred cause.
- Spear of the Red Dawn A heavily modified Strike Cruiser, equipped with siege munitions, Drop Pods, and void-hardened breaching claws for close-orbit assaults.
Escort Vessels (Gladius-class Frigates and Rapid Strike Vessels)
A modest but elite cadre of escort ships serves the fleet, often operating in tight wolf-pack formations. Their primary roles include:
- Guarding supply convoys and reinforcement lanes
- Interdicting Ork shipping and Rok convoys
- Maintaining sensor screens around the Green Fleet’s core ships
These vessels are often piloted by semi-autonomous crews drawn from battle-tested Chapter serfs and machine-wrights, deeply loyal to the war cause.
Support and Reserve Craft
A handful of ancient transports are used to carry gene-seed vaults, training chambers, and cultural relics of Chīchīltlāl. These are held sacred by the Chapter and are never risked lightly — their loss would be seen not as strategic failure, but as spiritual catastrophe.
Fleet Doctrine
Tight Proximity
The fleet operates as a unified war-host, maintaining tight astropathic and vox-augur contact. Ships rarely stray more than a few warp-hours from one another.
Reluctance to Disperse
To the Greenskinners, isolation is spiritual weakness. They avoid long-range deployments or detached operations unless absolutely necessary.
Homeworld Above All
If Chīchīltlāl faces danger, the fleet will return regardless of external campaigns. The world is sacred — to let it fall is to let the Chapter die.
Orbital Warfare
The Green Fleet excels at:
- Rapid planetary assault
- Low-orbit fire support
- Targeted extermination of Ork War Moons, Roks, and xenos-held bastions
Each strike is executed not for conquest, but for purification — a void-born extension of their eternal hunt.
Chapter Relics
Chapter Appearance
Chapter Colors
- "To wear the skin of the enemy is to walk in the shadow of the Emperor."
- — Anonymous Greenskinners Astartes
The Greenskinners’ armor is a bold, unmistakable reflection of their brutal purpose and ancestral rites. Every warrior is clad in the hue of Ork-flesh green — not as mimicry, but as ritual defiance. In the ancient wars of Chīchīltlāl, their ancestors wore the flayed hides of fallen beasts into battle. Now, their successors wear armor colored in that same spirit — not for intimidation alone, but to remind all who see them that the Greenskinners are vengeance given form.
Their trim, painted in a deep blood-red, runs along armor edges, vambraces, and chestplates. It represents not only the blood they shed but the devotion with which they shed it. Red is the color of sacrifice, rage, and the ancestral fury of their world — a sacred pigment earned in combat, not inherited.
Shoulder pauldrons and knee guards are painted a stark white — a symbol of the purity of purpose that guides the Chapter. In this white lies no innocence — only the fury of warriors uncorrupted by ambition or pride. Upon this canvas, the Greenskinners display their Chapter sigil: a black Ork skull set before crossed ceremonial blades, a message broadcast in blood and fire to all who dare face them.
Veterans often allow the white to remain stained and scarred, believing such marks to be holy inscriptions of past battles. Likewise, the green of their power armor is seldom repainted. Each gouge and burn is a memory of a kill, a crack through which oaths echo.
In ceremonial gatherings — before mass deployments or rites of ascension — warriors will adorn their armor with Jaguar spots, bone-carved glyphs, or the fresh blood of a slain Ork, drawn in ancient runes across chestplates, helmets, and vambraces.
These acts are not for show. They are part of a spiritual ritual — a conversation between warrior, armor, and the mountain of their home. To wear this armor is to carry the burden of history, to speak in the voice of vengeance, and to walk in the Emperor’s shadow with blood on your hands.
Helmet & Insignia Guide
- "The blood upon my helm is the promise of more to come."
- — Anonymous Greenskinners AstartesAmong the Greenskinners, a warrior’s helm is more than protection — it is a herald of deeds, a marker of oaths fulfilled, and a canvas upon which history is painted in blood, bone, and fire.
Base Helmet Color (All Ranks)
- Standard Battle-Brothers: Helmets match the Chapter’s signature Ork-green, blending seamlessly with their armor. No markings are permitted unless a warrior earns distinction through blood-counts and rite-sanctioned deeds.
Rank-Specific Variations
- Sergeants (“Tlahtoani” – Blood-Speakers) Helmets are painted deep crimson, denoting leadership earned through violence. A white glyph of the jaguar or eagle may be painted above one brow, symbolizing their right to speak for the hunt.
- Veterans (“Ocelotl” – Jaguar Guard) Helmets are bone-white, marking warriors who have survived countless greenskin battles. Often decorated with black warpaint — jaguar spots, death glyphs, or kill-count spirals. Senior Ocelotl may inlay their helmets with ceremonial bone, gold teeth, or the fangs of slain Ork beasts.
- Captains (“Tlacochcalcatl” – Warchiefs) Helmets remain Ork-green, but bear blood-red streaks across the jaw, brow, or cheeks — stylized to mimic the blood-trails of prey. The more victories a commander claims against powerful Ork foes, the more elaborate these markings become.
- Chaplains (“Teomiqui” – Priests of Death) As with other Chapters, Chaplains wear pure black armor and helms — but among the Greenskinners, these are often accented with bone glyphs and blood-red sigils. Many carry fetishes woven from Ork-skin, worn like totems of war beneath the grille.
- Librarians (“Tlālticpactl” – Earthbinders) Helmets are white, adorned with green and red symbols of storms, jaguars, or eagles — representing unleashed psychic fury. Their armor is a darker earth-green, trimmed in bone and white, echoing their spiritual role as keepers of the ancestral voice.
- Apothecaries (“Tlazopilli” – Flesh Carvers) Their armor follows tradition — bone-white — but their helmets bear blood-stripe runes, each red line etched to honor the gene-seed of a fallen brother recovered in battle.
Decorations & Honours
Upon a field argent, a skull of the xenos Orkoid affronté sable, surmounted by two blades ceremonial in saltire, all sable; enclosed within a bordures serrated gules.
- Ork Teeth Trophies:
- Warriors often stud their armor or helmets with the teeth of particularly powerful Ork foes.
- It is considered a sacred honor to craft a gorget (neckguard) from the fangs of an Ork Warboss.
- Blood Glyph Tattoos:
- Some Greenskinners ritually paint their helmets and pauldrons with temporary blood glyphs before a major battle.
- These glyphs often represent death, fury, storms, or ancestral spirits.
- Sacred Fetishes:
- Strips of flayed Ork skin, painted with white blood-runes, sometimes hang from belt-hooks or are attached as battle-banners atop backpacks.
- Symbolizes personal oaths to destroy the Ork race.
Chapter Badge
The Chapter Badge of the Greenskinners is a black Ork skull before two black ceremonial blades on a white field.
Relations
- "We do not ask for your trust. We ask for your rage."
- — Anonymous Greenskinners Astartes
Other Space Marine Chapters
White Scars and Savage Lineages
The Greenskinners feel a strong kinship with other feral or aggressive Chapters — especially those descended from the White Scars who maintain nomadic, tribal, or savage traditions. Chapters such as the Mantis Warriors, Rampagers, and Storm Lords often receive wary but genuine respect. However, they regard White Scars successors who have embraced structured tactics or urban warfare with thinly veiled contempt. These Chapters are seen as having betrayed the Khan’s primal legacy, choosing order over the sacred fury of the hunt.
“Blood must flow. If it doesn’t, what was the point of the gene-seed?” — Greenskinner veteran
Codex-Adherent Chapters
Relations with Ultramarines and other Codex-compliant Chapters are frequently strained. These more orthodox forces often view the Greenskinners' single-minded brutality as reckless and undisciplined. The Greenskinners, in turn, see such Chapters as hesitant cowards, too mired in doctrine to wage the war that needs to be fought. Joint operations are rare, and when necessary, command disputes and philosophical clashes are common.
Dark Angels and Secretive Chapters
There is deep mutual distrust between the Greenskinners and more secretive Chapters such as the Dark Angels, Raptors, or Exorcists. To the Greenskinners, secrecy is a form of dishonor — a refusal to confront the enemy openly. Conversely, these secretive forces see the Greenskinners as a liability, their bloodlust an unpredictable element in delicate campaigns.
Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard):
Mixed Relations
Among frontline troops, the Greenskinners are often revered — viewed as avenging angels whose arrival means certain death for Orks. Their efficiency in exterminating greenskin warbands has earned them a fearsome reputation. However, high-ranking Guard officers — especially those from aristocratic or Scholam backgrounds — often find the Greenskinners terrifying and uncontrollable. They rarely adhere to chain-of-command structures, and will bypass orders if they believe their path leads to greater Ork destruction.
“They’re like fire. You don’t direct it. You just hope it burns what you wanted.”
— General Ardek Valnöt, 88th Siege Army
Adeptus Mechanicus:
Strained Relations
The Greenskinners have little patience for the Mechanicus' relic fetishism. They often retrieve scrap, salvage, and wargear from Ork battlefields without invoking proper rites or awaiting Tech-Adept clearance, viewing these trophies as spoils of war. Tech-Priests label them as unsanctioned salvagers and ritual heretics, though some grudgingly respect the Greenskinners’ resourcefulness and adaptive engineering.
Ecclesiarchy and the Sisters of Battle:
Tense but Respectful
The Greenskinners practice a fierce, animistic form of Emperor-worship, venerating Him as the Bringer of Vengeance. Their blood rites and sacrificial battles are seen as worthy — if alien — forms of faith. Militant Orders of the Ecclesiarchy, particularly those who emphasize martyrdom and purification through fire, sometimes view the Greenskinners with cautious respect. That said, doctrinal disputes are frequent. The Greenskinners disdain ornate sermons and sacred pageantry, believing that a blade in the enemy’s gut is the only true prayer.
Inquisition:
Highly Divisive
Inquisitorial opinion is sharply split. Ordo Xenos Inquisitors focused on the greenskin threat see the Greenskinners as brutal but effective instruments of extermination. However, more puritan Inquisitors — especially from the Ordo Hereticus — regard the Chapter’s blood rites, trophy-taking, and cultural deviations as deeply suspicious, potentially indicative of xenos-taint, warp-influence, or proto-heresy. The Greenskinners, for their part, despise the Inquisition — viewing its inquisitive nature as meddling and dishonorable.
“We do not lie. We do not hide. We kill the foe you refuse to name. If that offends your robed cowards, so be it.”
— Chaplain-Vindicator Xal-Tep of Chīchīltlāl
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Inquisitorial Assessment: Adeptus Astartes Chapter: Greenskinners
Subject: Adeptus Astartes Chapter — "Greenskinners"
Lineage: Primogeniture traced to White Scars gene-stock (unknown founding).
Current Strength: Approx. 780 battle-brothers (fluctuates due to constant active deployment).
Primary Theater of Operations: Chīchīltlāl Sector and surrounding systems.
Cultural Note: Chapter spiritual practices heavily influenced by Chīchīltlāl native customs — extensive use of blood rites, trophy-taking, and ritualistic warfare.
Behavioral Observations:
- Combat Doctrine: Singular and unrelenting focus on Ork extermination. Will prioritize engagement with greenskin forces over strategic objectives if allowed. In battle, demonstrate exceptional savagery, often using massed melee assaults supported by close-range firepower.
- Relations with Imperial Institutions: Generally cooperative when campaigns align with their hatred of greenskins. Demonstrate impatience or outright disdain for prolonged diplomacy, political maneuvering, or dogmatic ceremony. Refuse to deviate from "the Hunt" — their term for the destruction of all Orks in a given region — once committed.
- Religious Observances: Worship the Emperor as the "Bringer of Vengeance." Minimal adherence to the formal Ministorum liturgy; reject ornate ritualism in favor of blood-oaths and battlefield offerings. Notable disdain for overly "civilized" or "effete" interpretations of Imperial doctrine.
- Command Structure: Chapter organized into martial orders inspired by ancient tribal warrior societies. Ranks and titles often indecipherable to external observers without diplomatic mediation. Unlikely to formally integrate with wider Imperial command hierarchies except under direct pressure.
Concerns and Anomalies:
- Insular Tendencies: Maintain a deep-rooted loyalty to Chīchīltlāl and its people, sometimes to the exclusion of wider Imperial interests.
- Autonomy in Field Operations: History of ignoring orders that would remove them from Ork-theaters, even under Inquisitorial authority.
- Savage Rituals: Trophy-taking from Ork corpses is widespread, including ritual skinning of slain foes (culturally symbolic, but alarming to outside observers).
- Potential for Overreach: If not carefully monitored, Chapter zeal may lead them to disregard non-Ork threats or mis-prioritize strategic objectives in multi-front conflicts.
Final Assessment:
- "The Greenskinners are a dagger aimed at the heart of the greenskin menace — but they are a blade that cuts only where it wills, not where it is directed. Their faith is fierce, their loyalty sure, but their judgment is shackled to their ancient hatreds. Use them as a weapon, not as a tool."
- — Inquisitor-Commandant Malzador VI, Ordo Xenos
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