The Emperor’s Children are the III Legion of the Adeptus Astartes, a Traitor Legion wholly dedicated to Slaanesh, the Chaos God of excess and pleasure. Once the most honoured Legion in the Imperium — the only Space Marines permitted to bear the Emperor’s own name upon their armour — they fell further than any other, transforming from paragons of martial perfection into depraved hedonists who pursue sensation without limit. Their story is one of the most dramatic falls from grace in all of Warhammer 40,000 lore.
Who Are the Emperor’s Children?
The Emperor’s Children were the III Legion of the original twenty Space Marine Legions created by the Emperor of Mankind for the Unification Wars and the Great Crusade. They were the only Legion permitted to bear the Palatine Aquila, the Emperor’s personal heraldic symbol, on their armour. It was a mark of the Emperor’s personal favour, and the Legion treated it as proof that they had to be worthy of his name in everything they did.
Today, the Emperor’s Children are a Chaos Space Marine Legion devoted entirely to Slaanesh. They are known for their Noise Marines, their pursuit of extreme sensation, and their complete abandonment of any pretence of discipline or honour.
Fulgrim’s Legion
The Emperor’s Children were Fulgrim’s Legion — and more than any other Primarch-Legion pairing, the Emperor’s Children were a reflection of their gene-father. Fulgrim’s obsession with perfection became the Legion’s defining ethos. Every battle-brother strove to be the perfect warrior: flawless in combat technique, impeccable in appearance, superior in every measurable way.
This pursuit of perfection was, initially, a genuine strength. The Emperor’s Children had some of the finest swordsmen in the Legiones Astartes. Their tactical coordination was superb. Their record during the Great Crusade was exemplary. But perfection is, by definition, unattainable — and the frustration of endlessly pursuing it created a vulnerability that Chaos would exploit.
The Legion nearly died out early in its history, when a flaw in its stored gene-seed left it with barely two hundred battle-brothers. Fulgrim rebuilt the Legion from that low point, which only intensified their drive to prove themselves worthy of the Emperor’s name.
The Great Crusade
During the Great Crusade, the Emperor’s Children fought alongside many other Legions and earned widespread respect. They were particularly close to the Luna Wolves (later the Sons of Horus) and the Iron Hands. Fulgrim and Horus maintained a strong friendship, while Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands became the closest of brothers among the Primarchs.
The Emperor’s Children’s style of war emphasised precision, speed, and elegance. They favoured rapid assaults, surgical strikes, and individual martial excellence over the grinding attrition favoured by Legions like the Death Guard or Iron Warriors. Their officers were expected to be not just warriors but artists, diplomats, and scholars — polymaths of the 31st Millennium.
The Laer Temple
The turning point for the Emperor’s Children came during the compliance of the world of Laeran. The Laer were a serpentine xenos species who had secretly dedicated themselves to the worship of Slaanesh. When the Emperor’s Children conquered Laeran and stormed the Laer’s greatest temple, Fulgrim claimed a beautiful silver sword from within — a blade that housed a bound Greater Daemon of Slaanesh.
The corruption spread outward from Fulgrim. Senior officers like Lord Commander Eidolon, Captain Lucius, and Apothecary Fabius began exhibiting increasingly extreme behaviours. Eidolon became obsessed with the perfection of his voice, eventually undergoing surgical modification to amplify his screams into a weapon (a precursor to the sonic weaponry of the Noise Marines). Lucius became fixated on the perfection of his swordsmanship, eventually descending into a narcissistic obsession with combat as sensation. Fabius Bile began conducting genetic experiments on his battle-brothers, seeking to “improve” the Space Marine form beyond its design limits.
The Fall to Slaanesh
The Emperor’s Children’s fall to Slaanesh was gradual and insidious. It began with Fulgrim’s corruption by the Laer blade and spread through the Legion like a contagion. The pursuit of perfection — originally a noble, if demanding, ideal — twisted into a pursuit of excess. Why be the perfect swordsman when you could experience the perfect sensation of killing? Why create beautiful art when you could experience beauty so intense it shattered the mind?
The Emperor’s Children began using combat stimulants, then moved to narcotic compounds that enhanced sensation. Their artistic pursuits became increasingly grotesque — paintings created with blood and viscera, music that used screams and agony as instruments. Their armour was modified to incorporate sonic amplifiers that transformed warfare into a cacophony of overwhelming sensation.
This descent happened over months and years during the Great Crusade, accelerating dramatically during the Horus Heresy. By the time of the Siege of Terra, the Emperor’s Children were barely recognisable as the disciplined Legion they had once been.
The Horus Heresy
The Emperor’s Children sided with Horus during the Horus Heresy, though their motivations were less about political loyalty to the Warmaster and more about Fulgrim’s personal corruption and the Legion’s accelerating descent into Slaaneshi worship.
The Drop Site Massacre
The Emperor’s Children played a key role in the Drop Site Massacre on Isstvan V, one of the defining battles of the Heresy. They were one of the four openly traitorous Legions dug in at the Urgall Depression, alongside the Sons of Horus, World Eaters and Death Guard. The loyalists made planetfall to attack them, and the second wave of supposed reinforcements then turned its guns on the loyalists from behind. During the battle Fulgrim killed Ferrus Manus, beheading his closest brother in a moment that ended any hope of redemption.
The Drop Site Massacre resulted in the near-destruction of three loyal Legions: the Iron Hands, the Raven Guard, and the Salamanders. The Emperor’s Children’s role in this betrayal was particularly bitter given their former closeness to the Iron Hands.
The Siege of Terra
During the Siege of Terra — the final battle of the Horus Heresy — the Emperor’s Children’s depravity reached its zenith. While the other traitor Legions focused on breaching the walls of the Imperial Palace, the Emperor’s Children turned their attention to the civilian population of Terra. They rampaged through the planet’s hive cities, committing atrocities against billions of defenceless civilians in pursuit of ever more extreme sensations.
By this point many of the Emperor’s Children had abandoned any pretence of military purpose. For them the war had become simply an excuse for excess on the grandest scale imaginable.
Emperor’s Children Today
For most of the ten thousand years after the Heresy, the Emperor’s Children were a scattered Legion of warbands rather than a unified force. They operated from the Eye of Terror and raided into realspace for new sensations, slaves and victims. Each warband was led by its own champion of Slaanesh, on its own obsessive quest for the ultimate experience. For much of that time, Fulgrim had withdrawn into his daemon world.
That has changed in the current storyline. Fulgrim, now a Daemon Primarch, has returned to lead his Legion in person, and the Emperor’s Children fight as a gathering Legion under their gene-father once again. The standalone Emperor’s Children range and codex are built around this, with Fulgrim himself available as a model.
Notable figures within the Emperor’s Children include Lucius the Eternal, a champion of Slaanesh cursed with a dark form of immortality — anyone who kills Lucius and takes even a moment’s satisfaction from the act is transformed into Lucius, their body reshaped into his form. Fabius Bile, the former Chief Apothecary, has become one of the most notorious figures in the galaxy, though he operates independently of the Legion.
The Kakophoni and Noise Marines
Noise Marines are the iconic unit associated with the Emperor’s Children and Slaanesh. Their origins lie in the Legion’s experiments with sonic weaponry during the Heresy. The precursors to Noise Marines were known as the Kakophoni — Emperor’s Children warriors who discovered that specially modified weaponry could produce sonic blasts of devastating power while simultaneously providing intense sensory stimulation to the wielder.
Modern Noise Marines carry sonic weapons — Sonic Blasters, Blastmasters, and Doom Sirens — that project waves of destructive sound. These weapons shatter bone, rupture organs, and can bring down fortifications with concentrated sonic energy. For the Noise Marine, firing these weapons is a transcendent experience. The feedback from the sonic blasts stimulates their Slaanesh-modified nervous systems, providing sensations of pleasure so intense that normal stimuli are rendered meaningless.
Noise Marines are often depicted with garish, brightly coloured armour — pinks, purples, and golds — adorned with Slaaneshi symbols and fitted with speakers and amplifiers. They advance into battle accompanied by a wall of sound so loud and so distorted that it drives enemies mad before the sonic weapons even fire.
Collecting Emperor’s Children
The Emperor’s Children are now a standalone faction in Warhammer 40,000, separate from the generic Chaos Space Marines codex, with their own codex, units and army identity. In 11th Edition, existing codexes remain valid until a faction’s 11th Edition codex arrives. Check the Warhammer 40,000 app and the Munitorum Field Manual for current datasheets, detachments and points.
Key units and models for an Emperor’s Children army include:
- Fulgrim: The Daemon Primarch himself, a huge centrepiece model.
- Noise Marines: The signature unit, armed with sonic weaponry.
- Lucius the Eternal: Named character, champion of Slaanesh and a deadly duellist.
- Infractors and Tormentors: The Legion’s core infantry, built for close-range shooting and fast assaults.
- Flawless Blades: Elite melee warriors obsessed with perfect swordsmanship.
- Legion characters such as the Lord Exultant and Lord Kakophonist: Dedicated Emperor’s Children leaders rather than generic Chaos Lords with Slaanesh upgrades.
The Emperor’s Children colour scheme is traditionally purple and gold, with pink and black as accent colours. Pre-Heresy Emperor’s Children wore regal purple with gold trim, while post-Heresy warbands tend toward more vivid and garish colour schemes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are they called the Emperor’s Children?
The III Legion was given the unique privilege of bearing the Emperor’s own name. They also bore the Palatine Aquila, the Emperor’s personal heraldic device, on their armour, a privilege shared by no other Legion. Both were signs of his personal favour, and they fed the Legion’s obsession with being worthy of it.
What Chaos God do the Emperor’s Children serve?
The Emperor’s Children are devoted to Slaanesh, the Chaos God of excess, pleasure, and perfection. Their fall from perfection-seeking warriors to sensation-obsessed hedonists mirrors Slaanesh’s nature.
What are Noise Marines?
Noise Marines are Chaos Space Marines who wield sonic weaponry — guns that project devastating waves of sound. They are the signature unit of the Emperor’s Children and Slaanesh-dedicated forces. The sensory feedback from firing these weapons provides them with intense, addictive pleasure.
Are the Emperor’s Children a separate army?
Yes. The Emperor’s Children are a standalone army in Warhammer 40,000, with their own codex, unique units and rules separate from the generic Chaos Space Marines faction. That codex remains valid in 11th Edition until an 11th Edition replacement arrives.
Who is Lucius the Eternal?
Lucius the Eternal is a champion of the Emperor’s Children cursed with immortality by Slaanesh. Anyone who kills Lucius and takes even a moment’s satisfaction from the act is transformed into Lucius, their body becoming a new vessel for his consciousness. His old form becomes a screaming face on his armour.
Can I play Emperor’s Children in Horus Heresy?
Yes. The Emperor’s Children are playable in the Horus Heresy game system, where they can be fielded as either loyalist (pre-corruption) or traitor forces. The Horus Heresy range includes specific Emperor’s Children upgrade kits and character models.
What is the Emperor’s Children colour scheme?
The traditional Emperor’s Children colour scheme is purple and gold. Pre-Heresy, they wore regal purple with gold trim. Post-Heresy warbands tend toward more vivid, garish combinations including bright pinks, purples, and blacks with gold accents.
What was the Emperor’s Children gene-seed flaw?
Early in the Great Crusade, a catastrophic flaw in the Legion’s stored gene-seed wiped out most of its stocks. That left the III Legion with only about two hundred Space Marines. They fought alongside the Luna Wolves until Fulgrim was found and rebuilt the Legion. Nearly being wiped out fed their desperate need to prove themselves perfect, which later made them so vulnerable to Slaanesh.
What is the Emperor’s Children homeworld?
Chemos, the harsh, industrial world where Fulgrim’s pod landed. Fulgrim rose from labourer to ruler there and turned Chemos into a thriving society, and it became the Legion’s recruiting world. His drive to perfect Chemos was an early sign of the obsession with perfection that would later define and doom the Emperor’s Children.