Black Templars army rules, detachment abilities, stratagems and lore for Warhammer 40k, with links to the full unit datasheet table.
The Black Templars are a Loyalist Second Founding Space Marine Chapter derived from the Imperial Fists' gene-seed and their primarch, Rogal Dorn. Their origin can be traced back to the Imperial Fists' defence of Terra during the Horus Heresy.
Since that time, the Black Templars have been on the longest Imperial Crusade the Imperium of Man has ever known to prove their loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind. They are not a Codex Astartes-compliant Chapter and maintain a very different Chapter structure and culture than is the norm amongst most of the Adeptus Astartes. They are also deeply unusual amongst the forces of the Adeptus Astartes for venerating the Emperor as a literal god, just like the mortal adherents of the Imperial Cult.
After the Horus Heresy, Rogal Dorn, primarch of the Imperial Fists, resisted the break-up of the Space Marine Legions into smaller Chapters. It was only when the Imperial Fists were almost branded Heretics that Dorn relented, allowing his beloved Legion to be subdivided into Chapters. One of the new Chapters born of this time was the Black Templars.
To prove his loyalty to the Emperor in the wake of the Imperial Fists' opposition to the Second Founding, the first Chapter Master of the Black Templars -- the High Marshal Sigismund -- assembled a massive war fleet and began the greatest Space Marine crusade in the history of the Imperium. It has lasted for 10,000 standard years.
Eschewing the establishment of a Chapter planet, the Black Templars took to the stars in a mighty war fleet. Rather than constructing a single Chapter fortress-monastery as most Space Marine Chapters do, the Black Templars determined to establish a Chapter keep upon each Human-settled world they conquered or liberated, to keep watch for treachery, to stage future crusades, and to recruit new battle-brothers. The ten-millennia-long Imperial Crusade of the Black Templars has seen its warriors embroiled in some of the most momentous conflicts ever to engulf the Imperium.
The subsequent High Marshals of the Chapter have followed the example of their founder and taken the fight to the realms of the alien, the Heretic, and the witch. The Black Templars are crusaders, holy warriors battling to bring the truth and light of the Emperor to the unconquered worlds of the galaxy.
With bolt shell and chainsword, the Black Templars convert the benighted to the light of the Master of Mankind and destroy those who refuse to welcome His truth. Each Crusade fleet is directed by the will of the Marshal in command, and each is despatched by the decree of the High Marshal of the Black Templars to fulfill their prime mission to cleanse the stars.
The Black Templars are the best-known example of a Crusading Chapter in the whole Imperium; their doctrines, traditions, and organisation reflect their particular approach to prosecuting the Imperium's wars. The Chapter is divided into a variable number of self-contained and highly mobile forces known as "Crusades," each commanded by an officer known as a "Marshal," who is equivalent to a captain in a Codex Astartes-compliant Chapter and whose only superior is the High Marshal (Chapter Master) of the Chapter himself.
Under most circumstances, the Chapter is divided into no more than three separate Crusade fleets, though during especially calamitous times the number has risen to several times more. Crusade fleets are such large and powerful bodies that they are usually sub-divided into tactical bodies known as "fighting companies," analogous to a standard Codex Astartes company, and each of these is led by an officer with the title of "Castellan", equivalent to a lieutenant in Codex-compliant Chapters.
At the Siege of Terra during the Horus Heresy, many Champions of Chaos arose from the Traitor Marines' ranks. During this time, the primarch of the Imperial Fists, Rogal Dorn, chose the Imperial Fists' First Captain Sigismund to fulfill the role of the Emperor's Champion.
First Captain Sigismund was given the best armour and weapons the Legion possessed, and he swore a holy duty to seek out and destroy the foul Champions of Chaos. He did so by challenging over two dozen of the enemy leaders to single combat and slaying them or banishing them back into the Immaterium.
At the end of the Horus Heresy, each of the Space Marine Legions was broken down into smaller organisations known as Chapters, each composed of one thousand Astartes, as part of a plan to spread the power of the Imperial armed forces so that no one man could bring to bear the influence that the Warmaster Horus had over the Space Marines.
Rogal Dorn, as primarch of the Legion responsible for the defence of the Emperor's homeworld, Terra, initially refused to have his Legion broken down. Dorn fought with his fellow primarch Roboute Guilliman over the issue, calling the Ultramarines' primarch a coward, and Guilliman in turn accused Dorn of heresy and disloyalty to the Emperor.
The primarchs Leman Russ of the Space Wolves and Vulkan of the Salamanders favoured Dorn's stance while Jaghatai Khan of the White Scars and Corvus Corax of the Raven Guard supported Guilliman's position on the issue.
It was only after an attack on the Imperial Fists' Strike Cruiser Terrible Angel by the Navis Imperialis and the threat of a renewed civil war between Dorn's Legion and the newly-formed Successor Chapters of the other First Founding Legions that he decided to relent and allow the Imperial Fists to be divided.
One of the Imperial Fists' first Successor Chapters, the Black Templars have since become one of the largest and most feared Space Marine Chapters. The surviving Imperial Fists were split into four Chapters during the Second Founding. The younger warriors became the Crimson Fists, while Dorn's chosen warriors remained the Imperial Fists, and the orbital assault specialists were long believed, erroneously, to have formed the ranks of the infamous Soul Drinkers Chapter.
The fourth Imperial Fists Second Founding Successor Chapter were the Black Templars. Sigismund, named the Black Templars' first Chapter Master, took with him the most zealous of the Imperial Fists brethren and those that shared his fervour took on the black and white panoply of Sigismund's armour, and then they embarked on an Imperial Crusade to prove their loyalty to the Emperor.
Sigismund refused to adhere to the Codex Astartes, seeing the foundational treatise written by Roboute Guilliman as an insult to the teachings of his own Primarch, Rogal Dorn. Instead, he led his warriors into the depths of space, taking the war directly to the enemies of the Imperium.
In the centuries since, the Chapter has diverted even further from the standard tenets of the Adeptus Astartes. Embracing their faith and acknowledging the God-Emperor's divinity, the Black Templars have developed a fanatical zealotry and aggressiveness. This deviation from orthodoxy disturbs many of their fellow Space Marine Chapters, though the Black Templars' dedication to eradicating the enemies of Humanity cannot be questioned.
Sigismund swore an oath "to prove his loyalty, never resting in the prosecution of his duties against the enemies of the Emperor." It is an oath that every succeeding High Marshal has renewed, resulting in the longest Space Marine crusade in the history of the Imperium.
The Black Templars have no Chapter homeworld, instead opting to live within their Crusade fleets. They are ever-vigilant, and are always ready for battle. They do establish Chapter keeps on every world they conquer or reclaim for the Imperium, both to provide a source for new recruits and to act as staging posts for Crusade fleets operating across the galaxy. They have been known to abandon these keeps, only to return and reclaim them later, usually exterminating anything foolish or unlucky enough to have taken up residence in their absence.
Each Crusade fleet is overseen by an officer with the rank of "Marshal" (equivalent to a captain or force commander in a Codex Astartes-compliant Chapter), while the Chapter Master, known as the "High Marshal" (currently High Marshal Helbrecht) travels between Crusades on his personal flagship, the battle barge Eternal Crusader.
There are usually at least three Black Templar Crusades operating at any one time, although at one stage there were 14 known to the Imperium (during the "Treachery of Dalmark"), with each Crusade ranging in size from the deployment of a hundred Space Marines and their fleet support to Crusades containing several standard Codex Astartes companies.
It is said that only the High Marshal has any idea of the Black Templars' full numbers, but it is rumoured in the Inquisition that they actually number close to 6,000 Space Marines. That would make them nearly as large as some of the original First Founding Space Marine Legions after the terrible losses of the Horus Heresy, and means that the Black Templars are one of only three Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes (the others being the Space Wolves and the Grey Knights) thought to violate the 1,000 Space Marines to a Chapter limitation as proscribed by the Codex Astartes.
Such a force united would be nigh unstoppable in the Imperium of the 41st Millennium. The potential size of the Black Templars has resulted in close scrutiny by some of the more Puritan members of the Inquisition. Each Space Marine Chapter is limited to a strength of approximately 1,000 Astartes by ancient tradition and the orders of the Imperial Regent and Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman in the wake of the Horus Heresy, so that no one person can ever again command enough military power to start another successful rebellion against the Emperor.
The Chapter's history of zealous loyalty to the Emperor and the inability of any Inquisitor to find evidence supporting the claims of unusually high standing troop numbers has spared the Black Templars from further revelation of their true numbers. However, this has not prevented the Inquisition from trying to reveal the hidden size of the Black Templars.
The larger Black Templar Crusades contain multiple fighting companies, each led by a Sword Brethren of the Chapter who has been raised to the rank of "Castellan", equivalent to a lieutenant in a Codex-compliant Chapter. The largest Crusades will be personally led by the High Marshal (as High Marshal Helbrecht did during the Armageddon Crusade called during the Third War for Armageddon).
Since the individual squads of each fighting company tend to form and disband on an ad-hoc basis, most fight together out of familiarity and comradeship more than any imposed organisation. Rough squads form with 5 to 10 initiates (fully-fledged Black Templar battle-brothers) with no more than an equal number of neophytes (Black Templars-in-training). These squads have no sergeants, because the experienced members are quickly elevated to the rank of Sword Brethren, who take on the role of non-commissioned officers.
Since the Black Templars have no Chapter homeworld, all of their recruiting is done via their Chapter keeps. Chapter keeps are built on most worlds conquered by the Black Templars, and are used as staging ground for crusade forces and recruitment posts for the Chapter. A Chapter keep only recruits a few individuals in a Terran year.
Only the most skilled aspirants are allowed to join, and if they pass the initial tests, they are implanted with the gene-seed organs that will eventually transform them into full Space Marines and neophytes of the Chapter. When roughly two dozen neophytes are available at a Chapter keep and have been approved by the keep's Castellan and the Chapter's Apothecaries and Chaplains, they are despatched to a crusade fleet for the next stage of their induction.
Upon reaching a crusade fleet, the neophytes are put through many gruelling tasks and trials by the Initiates of the Black Templars. These trials test the neophytes to their limits, separating out the weaker recruits from the stronger. Unlike other Space Marine Chapters, the Black Templars have no dedicated Scout Company in which its aspirants are trained. Should a survivor of the trials impress one of the assembled battle-brothers, an Initiate may take it upon himself to personally mentor the neophyte in the art of war.
From that point on, the Initiate takes sole responsibility for his pupil's training and conduct. He swears an oath to prepare the neophyte for his entry into the brotherhood that is the Chapter, teach him of its history, and guide him through its holy rites of worship to the Emperor.
In return, the neophyte pledges obedience to his master and vows never to bring dishonour to his name. Neophytes also act as servants to their mentors, waiting on them at the great banquets and seeing to their day-to-day requirements. The crusade's Chaplains oversee this training and make sure the neophyte learns the history of the Chapter, and watch for any signs of weakness in the neophyte's faith.
The neophyte will also accompany his Initiate into combat, and should his master fall, another brother will take up his training. The bond between the Initiate and his neophyte pupil is strong, and if the neophyte meets his end, the Initiate will swear a death oath to avenge his apprentice, or die trying.
It is the Initiate's prerogative to say when his apprentice's training is complete. Once he has proven his valour and skill, a Black Templars neophyte submits to the Chapter's Chaplains to undergo the final trials of purity before, in a ceremony of great reverence, he is elevated into the ranks of a full battle-brother of Initiate status and honoured with a suit of Power Armour. He is now truly a Black Templar, possessed of great power, and sworn to use it in the Emperor's service unto death.
The Black Templars' zealous hatred of mutants and the Warp prevents them from recruiting any man who bears genetic impurities, including the mutation that allows an individual to wield psychic abilities. This is why the Black Templars' order of battle contains no Librarians.
Once accepted into a crusade's fighting company, an Initiate fights alongside his other Black Templar battle-brothers, forging a name for himself within the Chapter and perfecting his fighting abilities. If the Initiate lives long enough, he will eventually apprentice a neophyte of his own. In this way, the skills, traditions and experience of the Chapter are preserved and passed down, master to neophyte.
The Black Templars have continued in the style of their first High Marshal, preferring close, melee combat to ranged warfare. This is further emphasized by the fanaticism of the Black Templars' Initiates, whose righteous anger makes them impulsive and headstrong.
They launch themselves upon the enemy with a merciless, focused aggression, bellowing battle-oaths as they carve their foes apart. They carry a particularly intense hatred for xenos witchkin and rogue psykers, and will purge these hated foes wherever they are found.
When making war, a Black Templars Crusade will focus on two main tactics. The first is orbital assault; the Crusade will use Drop Pods and Thunderhawk gunships to perform a mass-landing in the wake of a heavy orbital bombardment.
If enemy resistance is still strong after this initial assault, the Templars will land their heavy armour and launch an armoured spearhead against the weakest link in the enemy's defensive line.
Lore excerpt from Warhammer 40k Wiki on Fandom, available under CC BY-SA 3.0.