Genesis of a Chapter

[Nabterayl]

Remember what is actually suspect about the Space Wolves though. It isn't that they have a variant TO; it's that their great companies are self-sufficient expeditionary units (traditional battle companies are not). Just like the Black Templars' massive fleet, that raises the spectre of the Heresy - marines gone wild. They also have such a serious flaw in their geneseed that they occasionally become werewolves, which are a bit hard to rationalize as a variant of homo sapiens. And then their chapter master has the balls to threaten the entire Administratum. Even if he pretty clearly didn't mean it, that is a bit different from the usual run-of-the-mill "make me" when somebody tries to tell the chapter what to do.

It isn't variance from the codex that makes space marines suspect to the Imperium at large. It's acting like you are a threat, or planning to be a threat, or might accidentally become a threat, to the Imperium.

[rusty84]

Just wanted to say that this is the most interesting/useful thread ive seen, and I really love the sound of your Lion warriors. I created my own chapter using C:SM (Knights of the Emperor) but did it peicemeal as I went along, rather than sitting down and planning things out before hand. This thread would be really useful for anyone plnning to start their own chapter.
Best of luck for the army and would be great to see some pics as you go along!

[Nabterayl]

As far as "codex compliance" goes, I would point out that the spirit of the chapter organization that is a part of the Codex Astartes is all about checks and balances. Suppose the captain of 3rd Co. of the Supermarines decides to be naughty and, say, go knock off a forge somewhere. The codex imposes the following limitations upon him:

1. In order to get to his target, he needs spaceships. That means asking permission of the Master of the Fleet.
2. The entire chapter has less capital ship firepower than a single Navy battle squadron, and so is incapable of achieving space superiority against a well-defended target even if the Master of the Fleet is complicit in 3rd Co.'s naughtiness.
3. In order to get armored support, he needs to ask the permission of the Master of the Forge.
4. In order to get crews for his spaceships, he needs to ask one of the captains of 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th Co. to borrow some of their men.
5. In order to have anybody to fly his Thunderhawks (which he gets from the Master of the Fleet to begin with), he needs to ask one of the captains of 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th Co.
6. In order to have anybody to drive his company's own Rhinos and Razorbacks (even though they are assigned to his company), he needs to ask one of the captains of 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th Co.

So unless he wants to hijack a ship and then fritter away his company's strength on mechanization and extraction, he's got to get buy-in from at least two other officers of the chapter, and more likely three or four. There's a system of checks and balances in place to make sure that anybody who just goes rogue will do so severely hampered.

Even though your Lions' prides are more centralized (and thus have fewer checks and balances) in some senses, in others they are even more compartmentalized. For instance, the captain of a codex battle company has three types of marine squads, Land Speeders, and motorbikes assigned to his company. The captain of a pride in the Lions doesn't have any of those things. So in order to field a balanced (and thus threatening) strike force, a Lions captain would still need to get the buy-in of several of his peers. Any one captain who goes rogue does so without a full bag of tricks (even in the case of the Great Pride ... yes, 600 rogue tactical marines would be a problem, but they won't be that hard to outmaneuver without bikes and speeders, and they won't be that hard to outgun without devastators and armored vehicles). I think that key fact would make their variant organization more of a curiosity than anything else, at least to non-space marine observers.

[Crazy Jedi]

There can always be trouble with the Inquisition over anything, always (fluff wise at least). I am prone to exaggeration but I do remember it being armor color which was the reason as to why the Flesh Tearers are still Loyalists, but the Soul Drinkers are Excommunicate Traitorous.
Seriously though, I thought I had read in the fluff (CA) that one of the biggest fears of the big I is "Legion Building" and so you'd better have a darn good reason to have more than a 1,000 Marines. Otherwise I think that a non codex compliant chapter wouldn't be a huge issue, especially if they aren't a force where one corrupt captain can take a self sufficient expeditionary force and convert to chaos with them, like Nabterayl said.

Otherwise I agree with what most people have said, and think your idea is really cool Jake. As I do recall, I think Scibor miniatures has lion pauldrons and some lion themed power armor gear.