# Cannibalism!?



## SoL Berzerker (May 5, 2009)

So, I was fishing around the Lexicanum website, looking up stuff about the Chaos gods and found the minor god Malice and his followers, Sons of Malice. They were a cannibalistic chapter, while that was disturbing enough, the following quote made me question the Space Marines as a whole... 

"Although flesh-eating rituals are not uncommon among the Space Marines..." http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sons_of_Malice#.UJSQ7MXA_px

Ummm... What!? I have never heard such a thing?

Can anyone please expand my knowledge on this topic?


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## Zion (May 31, 2011)

SoL Berzerker said:


> So, I was fishing around the Lexicanum website, looking up stuff about the Chaos gods and found the minor god Malice and his followers, Sons of Malice. They were a cannibalistic chapter, while that was disturbing enough, the following quote made me question the Space Marines as a whole...
> 
> "Although flesh-eating rituals are not uncommon among the Space Marines..." http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Sons_of_Malice#.UJSQ7MXA_px
> 
> ...


One of the Marine's implants allow them to gain a kind of genetic memory from the flesh they eat. Some chapters take it too far though (like the Flesh Eaters).


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## Archon Dan (Feb 6, 2012)

As Zion said, Space Marines have an implant that lets them learn by eating. They can track by eating something on the ground and determine how long ago "something" passed. They can identify a myriad of substances by taste, including alien species, toxins and other things. They can also learn by eating flesh and brains. Want to learn to speak to the Tau, eat Tau brain. This implant has led to some desires and cravings for flesh among certain chapters. But not all. Those with the Blood Angel gene-seed are particularly susceptible to the cravings of this implant. But for every chapter that commits atrocity, slaughtering civilians to quench their blood lust, there are others that endeavor to control this desire. Hence the rituals. They drink donated(hopefully) blood before battle so that the cravings won't take control.


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## Brother Subtle (May 24, 2009)

The Mortificators (spelling?) chapter eat and drink the blood of the dead to induce visions in Defenders of Ultramar.


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## Rems (Jun 20, 2011)

Whenever the Blood Drinkers show up local inhabitants tend to go missing. 

Some chapters do have flesh eating and blood drinking rituals. Others are so savage they do it out of enjoyment. It's not particularly common though, i can only think of a handful of references. The Ultramarines saw the Mortifactor's practices as very barbaric and indication of the chapter's decline. 

@Archon Dan, any sources for the information about chapter's craving flesh and having blood rituals before battle? i can't recall any info on that.


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## SoL Berzerker (May 5, 2009)

Wow.... I had no clue about any of this. Thanks a lot guys!


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## Shag (Jul 12, 2009)

Thanks Sol Berzerker for bringing this up and thanks guys for the info. This had been pretty cool to learn!!


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## Archon Dan (Feb 6, 2012)

Rems said:


> Whenever the Blood Drinkers show up local inhabitants tend to go missing.
> 
> Some chapters do have flesh eating and blood drinking rituals. Others are so savage they do it out of enjoyment. It's not particularly common though, i can only think of a handful of references. The Ultramarines saw the Mortifactor's practices as very barbaric and indication of the chapter's decline.
> 
> @Archon Dan, any sources for the information about chapter's craving flesh and having blood rituals before battle? i can't recall any info on that.


I was operating under the assumption that one would have a blood ritual as a means of control. Drink blood before to avoid succumbing to the craving in the heat of battle. 

Intercepted Communication:
Captain: "Where are my reinforcements?!"
Sargent: -screaming of civilians and beastial roaring in background- "Umm. They stopped for a picnic."

Not to mention if an Inquisitor stumbled upon the scene of Marines eating fallen foes or civilians. Might cause an issue. 

But I re-read some Blood Drinkers info to find I was wrong. Blood Drinkers are not trying to control the thirst for blood. They've come to embrace it. Better than the Knights of Blood I guess, who will actually attack other Marines in their blood lust.


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## Deadeye776 (May 26, 2011)

I honestly think that SM chapters that get into these kind of practices should be exterminated wholesale. Tell me what's more horrifying? Daemons of Chaos or Tyranids devouring your population wholesale? Or the Emperor's angel's arriving, defeating previously stated threat, and then turning on you? The religious ramifications of that would be horrifying to the people and to any suvivors. Canibalism should be seen as a taint, and any Inquisitor would be right to call for Tratoris Extremis on any legion he witnessed this occurence with. If your eating humans or drinking their blood, how are you any different from Chaos or Tyranids?


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## HOGGLORD (Jan 25, 2012)

Archon Dan said:


> Not to mention if an Inquisitor stumbled upon the scene of Marines eating fallen foes or civilians. Might cause an issue.


I can just imagine a conversation related to that.



> Inquisitor: Well done captain, we saved thousands of imperial citizens from the tyranid invasion!
> 
> Space Marine Captain: *Coughs awkwardly* Yeah, about that. The, erm, _tyranids_ ambushed the civilians and somehow, chased them onto the conveniently placed roasing fires, then cooked them and my company kind of accidentally fell over after defeating them and somehow all the civilians ended up in their mouths, and well, you know, after they were there, there's no point letting them go to waste...
> *Looks hungrily at the Inquisitor, licks his lips* By the way, lord Inquisitor, how would you like to join me in my quarters for dinner?


Or posters for morale about Space Marines:

Adeptus Astartes - If the aliens don't eat your flesh, we will! :good:


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

I don't think they get very much information from what they ate - recent vague memories, perhaps, nothing so complex as language, otherwise the Astartes would probably be driven insane as they would learn an entire new species' way of living every time they ate anything with meat in it. I doubt you'd persuade any Space Marine to eat a bit of xenos though, they take their purity very seriously. I see it being a valuable tool for Chaos Space Marines though, although if anything they're even more concerned with the 'purity' of the gene-seed as there's not an awful lot to go round.

Plus, cannibalism would be Astartes eating other Astartes. Eating bits of humans, or of anything really, is merely omnivorous.

Midnight


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## Archon Dan (Feb 6, 2012)

Speaking of Chaos Marines. There's a passage in Dues Encarmine where a Blood Angel is wounded by a sentient Chaos dagger. The dagger spits his blood into the air as vapor and not only can the nearby Word Bearers taste it but they can identify it as Space Marine and their Dark Apostle can tell his age from the taste of the blood. 

But you are probably right about the extent of what they can learn. Though given potential Marine intelligence they could probably learn the basics of a new language quite quickly, with short-term immersion. And while I can't find the reference, somebody did tell me of Marines who ate a Tau's brain to learn where his base was.


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## Dicrel Seijin (Apr 2, 2011)

Archon Dan said:


> And while I can't find the reference, somebody did tell me of Marines who ate a Tau's brain to learn where his base was.


I vaguely remember this, though I also don't remember what book this was from. It was a pair of scouts. The scout that did it was reluctant to do it and I know the other one had serious reservations about the wisdom of eat even a small bit of the Tau's brain. 

The upshot was that the scout gained an instinctive sense of how to pilot the Tau's flyer to complete their recon mission, which as stated above was to confirm the base location.


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## Worldkiller (Jun 16, 2010)

Dicrel Seijin said:


> I vaguely remember this, though I also don't remember what book this was from. It was a pair of scouts. The scout that did it was reluctant to do it and I know the other one had serious reservations about the wisdom of eat even a small bit of the Tau's brain.
> 
> The upshot was that the scout gained an instinctive sense of how to pilot the Tau's flyer to complete their recon mission, which as stated above was to confirm the base location.


It was Courage and Honor by GM, UM book number five. 
In Ian Watson's Space Marine the aspirants have a feast where they eat various animals and test their new organs to see if they work. One unknowingly eats a bit of pregnant woman and gains a few of her memories.


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