He wouldn't have dropped a lore bomb like that if it was so easily explained away. Otherwise it wasn't a lore bomb. But lore bomb it was. I'm pretty sure Ben Counter invented the Soul Drinkers in every way but the name. He certainly wrote all of their books and is probably the one who declared they were an IF successor and then that they in all probability weren't. Ben Counter wrote the whole thing, start to finish, in a similar way to Pete Haines writing both sides of the Iron Cage incident. Not much you can do when one man knowingly refutes his own lore.
But he didnt write what chapter they hail from? Thats kinda stupid. Nope they aint from the Imperial Fists any more, and im just gona leave the answer to any questions related to that out of it. His other books i have liked alot (havent read the sould drinkers series yet) and this just reeks of bullshit. They have been part of the successors of IF since the second founding but then arent IF... interesting
The only two chapters that were originally IF second founding successors in the lore were Black Templars and Crimson Fists. The Soul Drinkers were later personally added to that list by Counter, and then the next Codex: SM retconned them in. Soul Drinkers have been around in name since 1st-2nd edition, but weren't "promoted" to an IF Second Founding Chapter until after Counter wrote that in and their book series became famous. I'm pretty sure it's just back to CF/BT now, as it should be.
There have been some others added, Exoriators and Iron Knights. But i gues the only idea left for the Soul Drinkers not having the geneseed of dorn, since they dont come from the imperial fists, is that they are the part of the loyalists within a traitor legion. That or their geneseed was mutated by exposure to chaos.
It seems Counter may have started a trend. All these Second Founding retcons!! The Excoriators sound more like Imperial Fists with Blood Angel envy!! So silly.
If one of those damned authors atempts to change the Black Templars any more than they have,,,, i will personaly go and put my size 47 steel toed boot up his arse! But yes, GW seems to be giving people bit to much freedom in changing stuff.
At least the Black Templar changes have been through the form of Codexes written by actual, GW game design staff, as opposed to random novels by random authors trying to make a buck off the IP.
Well those GW staff must have skiped reading the codex before their new ones,,, in one codex, there exists no chapter that hates psychers as much as the Templars, In the next they admire them (loyalist librarians, Astropaths and the Navigators) but will go back to the extreme hate on xenos and any enemy psychers. And some A-hole removed the Sword Brethren squad from BT list
You'd be surprised actually. I get where you are coming from given their own genetic flaw, but beyond the opening point to one novel it actually doesn't come up that much. Unlike (unfortunately) so much Blood Angels lore of recent years their entire existence doesn't revolve around it and almost nothing else. Hell, they even have a potential cure for it, albeit a very risky one. Though to clear up the point being discussed, there's two things which need to be mentioned. The first is that Phalanx's ending actually does leave the whole situation behind the Soul Drinker's gene-seed in serious question. The actual extract taken and examined to deny any link to Dorn was actually taken from only a single marine, one which had been thought to have been killed years ago but was somehow alive and among them. Allied with Daenyathos, he was one of the traitors within the Flock who turned against the chapter, leading to some people believing that they might have had assistance from another force, possibly the Alpha Legion or someone similar. That's admittedly only a fan theory, but a more important point comes towards the end when Sarpedon himself is shown to still have Dorn's blood in his veins. The Soulspear, after all, was gene-locked to his scions and the Warp Gate which caused so much strife in that book was bound by the primarch's blood, so this does mean at least several members of the chapter did have legitimate gene-seed. Plus Sarpedon's speech before the end does allude to some of them bearing his blood, either a belief or a reassurance. As for the idea of limiting the number of Second Founding chapters though, in all honesty i'm not exactly against expanding the Imperial Fists' numbers. Put it down to personal opinion, but if you compare them now, they seem woefully low by comparison to others. Rather than the ten thousand they were supposed to be when each Index Astartes was written, they're supposed to be a hundred thousand, and even counting the Iron Cage, the numbers made up to form two additional chapters seems to be an exceedingly low number. Especially when the Blood Angels, having fought at Terra and out of the trap at Signus, could found several times that many when the Fists are supposed to be the Second most numerous behind the Ultramarines. Also, Galen, Avatos, BikerTroll, thank you, I do appreciate the compliments.
