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Now hear me out: we all know that the Space Wolves don’t have successor chapters or, well, we kinda know there are no successor chapter of the Space Wolves.

What Are the Missing Successor Chapters of the Space Wolves?

When the time came for the Second Founding, nearly all Space Marine Legions spawned successor chapters. The Imperial Fists gave us the Black Templars, the Blood Angels gave us the Flesh Tearers. They all had successor chapters, but the Space Wolves–who already were something of rebels–would not allow a successor chapter. This lasted for ten millennia, from the Horus Heresy to the present day of Warhammer 40k.

Except for the Wolf Brothers. At the Second Founding, half of the Space Wolves left to become the Wolf Brothers. They were going to be the successor chapter to the Space Wolves–and there may have been many more chapters in the planning stages.

But the Wolf Brothers fell apart. For reasons not entirely known, the gene seed deteriorated and what was left turned to Chaos (or were destroyed by Chaos). The Space Wolves determined then and there that there would be no more successor chapters of the Space Wolves.

The Ultima Founding

Then came the Ultima Founding, which, for the uninitiated, is where Robute Guilliman returned and Belisaurius Cawl revealed that he had spent the previous ten thousand years working on Guilliman’s orders to create a better, stronger, and smarter Space Marine: the Primaris Marines.

The Primaris Marines were formed from the gene seed of every loyalist chapter–including the Space Wolves–which meant that there were suddenly tens of thousands of new Space Wolves, jacked up with extra organs and better armor, ready to become either Space Wolves themselves, or successor chapters to the Space Wolves. There is one canonical successor chapter to the Space Marines that we know about: the Wolfspear. There are very likely others.

In fact, Codex Supplements have listed special war gear that can be carried by the successor chapters of the Space Wolves. It seems clear that there are such chapters. They may (they likely are) looked down upon by the Space Wolves themselves, because the Space Wolves are so entrenched in tradition and worthiness and rites of passage. But they are out there.

Why Do We Never Hear About Successor Chapters to the Space Wolves?

My personal guess is that although they do carry the Space Wolf gene seed, and therefore are biologically the offspring of Leman Russ, the Space Wolves don’t consider the successor chapters to be true successor chapters of the Space Wolves. They were not born on Fenris and they have not gone through the same rituals.

Where Do the Rock Badgers Come Into This?

The Rock Badgers are my homebrew chapter that is an all-Primaris successor chapter to the Space Wolves. Everything beyond this point is pure non-canon, and is just the lore that I have come up with in my head about the Rock Badgers. So, be warned.

The Rock Badgers were a successor chapter to the Space Wolves, and the two chapters were begrudgingly working together to cleanse the galaxy of Xenos. Of particular interest to the Rock Badgers was the Genestealer Cults, and they were in the process of rooting them out of every world they would come across.

The Rock Badgers were led by Chapter Master Taymor, who had risen in the ranks through acts of valor in rooting out the vile Genestealer Cults from numerous worlds. Originally known as the Sons of Blood, Chapter Master Taymor’s tactics and acumen at digging down into the earth and purging the Xenos would earn him the honorific name of Taymor the Badger.

The Warp Storm of Jusner See

When the Sons of Blood were dispatched from their fellow Space Wolves, prying the Xenos from their deepest and darkest holes in on planet Jusner IV, all of the Sons of Blood underground, they missed the communication with the Space Wolf fleet orbiting the planet. A warp storm, which would come to be known as the Warp Storm of Jusner See, beset the Space Wolves plunging them into a battle with the hordes of Tzeentch.

The Sons of Blood were stranded. Completely out of communication with their fleet, they eradicated all of the Genestealer Cults that remained on the planet–but taking heavy losses. For two years the Sons of Blood were cut off from the fleet. The Sons of Blood, under the direction of Chapter Master Taymor, helped the humans (and Abhumans) to reorganize their planet to pre-battle levels.

The planet was lush and vibrant, and despite the Warp Storm which could be seen in the skies above even during the day, and soon the forests, fields, and verdant grasslands were coming back to life.

Digging Too Deep

But the Sons of Blood, who were beginning to gain the nickname The Rock Badgers from the general population, spent their time underground. Taymor the Badger had a feeling that he couldn’t shake: he knew that something else lay deep in this world, deep underground. The sites of old battlegrounds with the Genestealer Cults were scoured again and again, looking for the smallest sign of Xenos.

Soon The Rock Badgers–they had adopted the name fully by now–began digging, going further into the earth’s mines and core. Something was down there–and it wasn’t just a feeling that Taymor the Badger had anymore. There were signals coming through on their sensors. Something was underground, stirring.

The Rock Badgers, their numbers diminished by the long wars with the Genestealer Cults, worried that they might be seeing signs of more Warp energy, that there might be a Tzeentchian force further below the ground.

Lacking power, the Rock Badgers accepted the help of the Imperial Guard that was stationed on the planet–the Imperial Guard that had proved themselves as good allies during the Genestealer Wars. Guardsmen became their scouts, Ogryns became meatshields. And, lacking war gear that could be used underground, the Rock Badgers commandeered the mining vehicles that the Genestealer Cults would use.

Everything about the Rock Badgers, from their name to their comrades to their weaponry, was against the Codex Astartes. But this hardly bothered them. Space Wolves never cared for the Codex Astartes and, although they had the pride of their Space Wolf brothers, they prepared for the war which would ruin this lush world.

The Uncovering

Then, all at once it happened. Taymor the Badger received news that an expeditionary force had disappeared. Communications were poor underground and they cautiously attributed the loss to that, but as time wore on they knew that more was at stake. Was this the incursion by Tzeentch that they had so feared?

300 Rock Badgers, flanked by Imperial Guard units and Bullgryns, making use of their retrofitted Goliath Rockgrinders and Achilles Ridgerunners, aided by some small contingent of Space Marine weaponry in the Vindicators that had proved so useful in moving the earth and rocks of the tunnels, proceeded to the last known location of the missing expeditionary force.

But they weren’t ready for what they found, for deep in the soil of Jusner IV a new force had awakened: this planet was a Tomb World of the sleeping Necrons. Necrons who had just awakened and were going to raze the world in conquest.

Thus began what became known as The Uncovering, or The War Below as the citizens of Jusner IV called it. Had it not been for the presence of the Rock Badgers, successor chapter to the Space Wolves, they would not have stood a chance. Perhaps the Warp Storm had saved the lives of all the people on the planet…

Or was that so? We’ll find out as my army collecting shifts from Rock Badgers to Necrons. For now, we’ll have to wait, just as the population in the world above has to wait, to learn the fate of the Rock Badgers.