Differences Between Chaos Space Marines and Space Marines
The Chaos Space Marines have the same origins as the Space Marines. Due to their allegiance to Chaos, Chaos Marines can be mutated or willingly possessed (except for the Thousand Sons Rubric Marines who are now empty suits of walking armor with the souls of their owners trapped within because of The Rubric of Ahriman, other Thousand Sons have shown signs of mutation), thus making themselves into monsters, faster or otherwise superior to the Space Marines and other inhabitants of the Warhammer 40k universe. Chaos Marines have extended lifespans due to the time-warping effects of the Eye of Terror, and the fact that space marines as a whole are unable to die of old age, and their millennia of experience gives them levels of mastery with more advanced skills and tactics that Loyalist Space Marines do not have. Regular Chaos Marines have also lost the "and they shall know no fear" ability. However, regular Chaos Marines are still extremely hard to break due to their newfound loyalty in the pantheon of Chaos, and some of the more veteran or bloodthirsty Chaos Marines are more fearless than their loyalist brethren. However, the reason that they haven't yet caused any major hit to the Imperium is their own anarchy. If they were to organize and form an army equivalent to the tactical army of the Imperium, then they would be a much graver threat than they are now. That is what Abaddon is trying to do: to unite all of the Chaos forces from the tiniest warband to the greatest legions and lead them to a last Black Crusade against the Imperium by attacking on Terra once more.
Chaos Marines are equipped with the power armour and weapons they had when they initially betrayed the Imperium, which are broadly the same as those used by Space Marines (although differences now exist with jump packs etc.). The current setting of the Warhammer 40,000 game is about 10,000 years after the Horus Heresy, and, while the Imperium has made some technological advancements, Chaos Marines have far more limited access to the handful of new inventions that have appeared on the galactic scene. In general, anything developed since the Heresy is unavailable to them unless it has been captured or traded to them by black market merchants; for example, Iron Warriors are known for capturing and using Imperial tanks. This is not a strong differentiating factor though, as the Imperium merely replicates or rediscovers technology designed during the "Golden Age of Technology" (equally well known as the "Dark Age of Technology") and has very little understanding of it; thus there have been very few developments during the last 10,000 years. While Chaos Space Marines have mostly older technology, they compensate by having access to daemons and daemonic technology.
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