I'll answer at main question, supported by post of creator: Wh40k knows 2 situations, where a space marine could be not only redeemed, but remembered not as a traitor, but as a faithful. 1st: Isandor of the Blood Ravens. Fallen to tricks of an Chaos sorcerer, when fought with Gabriel Angels and was defeated - his senses came back to his mind and he asked his old friend for... redemption. And Captain Angelos granted it to him. 2nd: Not true ending, but one of endings of DoW2: Chaos Rising. Another Blood Raven's librarian Jonah Orion: Possesed by a daemon. He led the Blood Ravens to traps, misguided them all the time. Yet, his brothers knew - it was not him. He was a victim. They have killed him and so -banished the daemon to the warp. And Jonah Orion did not die as a traitor, for even possesed he did his best to stop and disturb this devil. "The Emperor protects the souls of the faithful, and Jonah Orion has proven himself true." - Brother Sergeant Tarkus of the Blood Ravens. Even daemon told him and his brothers, that if they kill Jonah, there will be nothing, what could help Jonah. And then, Tarkus said: "The man who has nothing can still have Faith." So... In my opinion redemption is possible, but must come to heart truly pure, who was victim of Chaos' lies and whispers. Death is the only rest that the Mankind may know. And as long, as they have Faith, there is hope for them.
I have read the lore regarding this. Redemption is null void, you can only be redeemed by 1 factor. "DEATH", that is how you are redeemed in order to go back to the imperium. Inquisition however, do not redeem chaos traitors but in some cases brainwash them and use them as their own troops. That is the lore options.
Redemption to the Imperium is a bolter round to the head. So no i doubt any of them can actually be redeemed in the sense if going back to the Imperiums side. Maybe in death but i also doubt this. Once you pledge yerself to the Chaos gods you are stuck with them from what i have seen. Especially if the corruption has had root for thousands of years which is the case with many of the Chaos Space Marines..
Curze was more complex than that. On one hand... true desire for order and peace and prosperity, to fulfill his role as general. On the other hand? Sway of madness. Maybe Chaos. Maybe just insanity. (role-play-disengage) It will probably be never be cleared up, there's a lot of funky minor inconsistencies with the Night Lords in particular, although as of late a lot of authors are agreeing on Night Lords being more so truly renegade rather than chaos followers. It changes from war-band to warband, too inconsistent to label the entire legion - as they do not operate in such a way. On the other hand, you have the World Eaters, who are also 'not a legion', but you can definitely say that they are 'of one mind'. Two sides to a coin, hm? You have the old-canon found in Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier - which dates back to 4th edition days, back when the Eighth had no novels besides the one. Back THEN the lore was dis-ambiguous in that the Night Lords were certainly betrayed by the Emperor. *A minor spoiler* in that Krieg Acerbus, the Axemaster, a Night Lord captain - who supposedly leads the largest of the scattered Night Lord warbands - his warband is truly of chaos. Undivided, of deities that eat and devour fear, and he is a daemon prince - and he had thus at the time hinted that Curze had two sides - the righteous - and the side that chaos whispered to, one that he embraced more towards the end - becoming more feral in his late days. Bowden kind of supported the 'two personas' thing to a point. Anyway, as a Night Lord enthusiast I DO want to know what the feth the other Night Lord captains are up to, dropping cool characters left and right and not hearing a word of their existence in years x) And before I derail the thread completely - Are they redeemable? Short answer - not as we typically view religious or honorific redemption. There are some that perhaps would desire it. Remember - lots of legions 'betrayed', or joined with Horus for lots of reasons. Word Bearers. Don't care for redemption, they just want to deshackle the Imperium as we know it, and bring forth a new zealous age - should this come to pass -they would probably wage war with the mono-god legions for not following the poly-god, or pantheon path. Thousand Sons. Some probably harbor regrets - but as it is mainly sorcerers now - they won't abandon their powers and research for the Imperium now. Iron Warriors. Lots of them feel betrayed for what happened to them. Just want revenge, to put it simply and bluntly. the Death Guard and the Emperor's Children and all their off-shoots are too embraced in their paths to go back. The Night Lord's goals vary too much. Warband agendas range from dismantling the Imperium, raiding/piracy, surviving, eating fear. There's a lot of good posts in this thread, but what SonofLorgar said on page 3, I think it was, tops it. 40k isn't just black and white. It's why we love it, no?
Redemption? hahahaha, youre a funny christian if ive ever seen one. In my belief i actually think its the imperium whos beyond redemption, its a corrupt fascist regime who worships a corpse. Btw, do not bring religion into this, 40k is a game-universe, not some metaphorical base for converting/recruiting
