# Marine Rank Structure



## Captin Nathaniel (Dec 10, 2009)

I know that Sergeants are promoted to Captains in the Battle companies, or to the 1st company, it happened in the Salamander novel, but wouldn’t a veteran from the 1st company out rank one of those sergeants from the battle company? And where do the Chaplin, Librarian, Standard Bearer, Company Champion, & Apothecary fit in? I think it may look like this:

Chapter Master
1st Captain
Master of the Chapter
Captain
Librarian, Chaplin
Veteran Sergeant
Sergeant
Company Champion, Standard Bearer, Apothecary
Techmarine
Brother


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## Carnivore (Aug 4, 2009)

Captin Nathaniel said:


> I know that Sergeants are promoted to Captains in the Battle companies, or to the 1st company, it happened in the Salamander novel, but wouldn’t a veteran from the 1st company out rank one of those sergeants from the battle company? And where do the Chaplin, Librarian, Standard Bearer, Company Champion, & Apothecary fit in? I think it may look like this:
> 
> Chapter Master
> 1st Captain
> ...


Duh... What's the matter with your "Chapter Master" and the "Master of the Chapter" ?
By the Way, the Librarians and the Techmarines are kind of outside the usual hierarchy.


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## dark angel (Jun 11, 2008)

In my opinion it would look more like this.

Chapter Master.

First Captain.

Chief Librarian.

High Chaplain.

Master of the Forge.

Captains/Librarians/Techmarines/Fleet Commanders/Chaplains.

First Company Marines/Sergeants.

Other Veterans.

Dreadnaughts.

Standard Brothers.

Scouts.


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

I'd be willing to bet its similar to what dark angel posted, though many of the titles would be of similar 'position'; something like this:

Chapter master
Chief librarian, master of sanctity, master of the forge
Captain, librarian, chaplain, techmarine, dreadnought
Veteran, sergeant
Battle brother
Scout

Marines who are librarians, chaplains, and techmarines fall outside of the normal ranking of the chapter as a whole, they are advisors and support to the main body of the chapter.

I personally make no distinction between any type of dreadnought, as they are generally an aged veteran of the chapter who can often see a function outside of combat similar to that of a librarian, chaplain, or techmarine.


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## Kale Hellas (Aug 26, 2009)

chapter master
captains, chaplain
veteran sergeant
veteran
sergeant
battle brother
scout

librarian and techmarine are outside of the ranks, and standard bearer, apothecary and champion are more of a title and role than a rank


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## Rixnor (Dec 23, 2007)

It's really tough to take a military rank structure and linearized it so much. An efficient military organization will largely be flat to minimize bureaucratic delays. As such there are really only a couple of people in the COMMAND structure:

Chapter Master
Captains
Sergeants

Many people are not in the COMMAND structure but still have alot of clout in the chapter. These are typically in a SUPPORT/ADVISER structure. The thing to remember is that they still deserve respect based on where they are but because of what they do will never take command. An example is: a captain will always bow to a chaplain (because he is one of the chapter masters advisers), but if the chapter master dies it is a captain that will assume command not a chaplain.

This gets a little confusing when dealing with veterans and lower level commanders. It is common to think that a veteran has more experience and therefore better suited to command. This is not always the case. Speaking from experience, I will tell you that a combat experience and command experience are two completely different beasts. I would hypothesize that a sergeant might be better suited to command than a 1st company veteran.

Rix


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