I just finished the section on the Black Templars. I imagined that they would be the biggest offenders since their existence is more or less a gigantic middle finger to the Codex, to the Ultramarines, and to Guilleman. On page 50-51, it says: "Ever since their creation, the Black Templars have been a stubbornly independent Chapter... clinging to the belief that the Primarch Guilleman was attempting to erode the proud legacy of Rogal Dorn, the Black Templars are one of the minority of Space Marine Chapters that eschewed the Codex Astartes... perhaps their biggest aberrance is how they view the creator of the Space Marines, the Emperor of Mankind... the Black Templars believe [the Emperor] to be a divinity[.]" That was the strongest pro-Ultramarine criticism I could detect in the Black Templar's section of Codex: Space Marine. Calling the Black Templar's behavior as "aberrant" is accurate since that is what makes them unique to the other chapters. It would be aberrant since it is abnormal and otherwise different.
Except the same treatment is given to the Space Wolves and any other chapter who does not completely follow Guilliman's teachings. There is less emphasis placed upon how different they are or simply following another path, and far more terms used to emphasise "THEY ARE DOING IT WRONG!!!" An aspect Ward goes out of his way to slam into the reader over and over again with his terms, something which was never present in previous books. The pro-Ultramarine criticism also extends to the author declaring all chapters want to be Ultramarines, and that Guilliman's techings should be followed and his alone. Those who actually follow anything from the other primarchs are ultimately seen as doing it wrong, and as the passage quoted points out those who are of a different gene-seed to the Ultramarines are somehow considered failures who can only attempt to emulate Guilliman's chapter. What also wasn't quoted was the paragraph above the two brought which turns Ultramarines successors into effective pawns of Calgar. One of the two sources of the infamous "Spiritual Liege" term, it describes all successors as coming at his beck and call and suggests they are more an extension of his power than a force in their own right. Ones who only have their own traditions, names and colours, not because they want to have them but because they are forced to do so. Atop of this, the book also inflicts multiple retcons on a number of forces to make them seem weaker or more inefficient. Well over half of the battles meant to outline the glories of other chapters feature massive casualties, the chapters barely holding the line or even being completely wiped out. Others, such as the Raven Guard and White Scars, have rivalries and feuds invented to prevent them effectively working together. It goes so far that the single most effective victory without casualties is led by Captain Sicarius, with countless other chapters running at his whim and placing themselves under his command for a crusade.
Space Mongols are a facet of Warhammer that can make for an extremely interesting addition to the novels, such a concept properly expanded upon would definitely not include them prescribing to standard tactics. Hopefully if they ever explore this faction they'll take a page from the fans and just disregard these fanboy quips.
Authors effectively already do to a great degree. Those who do deal with his creations seem to spend more time trying to repair the damage he caused thanks to his lack of respect for established canon or even getting things utterly wrong. Mortarion's Heart effectively had the author throw everything Ward had written out the window and started over, right down to trying to downplay his massive retcons within the Grey Knights chapter itself.
Well, I read the section detailing the White Scars and the Imperial Fists next. It didn't say a whole lot about the Codex, Guilleman, or the Ultramarines. It spoke very favorably of both chapters saying that they represent some best qualities of Space Marines. It did mention that Rogal Dorn thought that Guilleman was full of crap when he presented the idea of the 2nd founding, but it didn't try to ostracize him or demonize him. The text references to the Ultramarines frequently, but I've yet to read any extreme pro-Ultramarines propaganda type messages. Maybe you're quoting from an older edition of the Codex? This is my edition of the Codex right here.
Ah. Yes, we're talking about the one right before that by Mat Ward. Namely this one: The one you have was by Rob Cruddance who actually corrected a lot of the mistakes he made, though he did get a lot of things wrong with the Black Templars. My apologies, I did think of asking this and should have done so earlier.
I'll give credit where credit is due I do have a strange fondness for Sons of Guilliman. Only because of the novel Killing Ground, they were not in it but I did like how they said their color was a sea green and a dark blue.
That makes sense. Your quotes were too... Codex-like to be fake, so I didn't feel like disagreeing with a hard line. The only logical explanation was different Codex editions. I've no knowledge of the Ward authored Codex, so I'm not qualified to argue this anylonger.
