Disclaimer: I can never claim to know the whole lore of each legion, nor could I say I understand their tactics in full so I ask for those in the know to take it with a grain of salt as this is for those that don't know 30k and to show what has changed in each legion. This is also just a simple overview and gives a short summary of each legion
1st legion: Dark angels
Primarch: Lion El Johnson
knight themed space marines all round good in combat, but what separates them is their paranoia leading to having lots of specialized units so overall a jack of all trades but in singular units over specialized in one area making them open to unexpected attacks. They are in possession of a lot of dark age tech due to them being the first legion used by the emperor in his campaigns. Considered the template for other legions. Each astartes holds large amounts of paranoia towards those not of their number and is an isolated legion compared to the rest due to this. Thanks to this paranoia and Konrads push for expanding information on most legions, and his culling of criminals set a domino effect of paranoid wariness toward the Nightlords and with other legions overtaking their merits made plenty of its brothers solitary and craving for victory no matter the cost.
As they stand now, they are a highly effective fighting force isolated from other legions due to their distrust of the rest as they make plans upon plans for all situations but as of late greater paranoia grows in each marine like their father with their minds in Flux as their paranoia leading to never ending change to plans with a severe hate for things outside of their control like psykers and beings with future sight like Konrad and his sons.
2nd legion: Redacted Primarch:Redacted
info: redacted
Relation : redacted
>Inquisition would like to know your location<
3rd legion: Emperors children.
Primarch: Fulgrim
one of the smallest legions but one that constantly seeks perfection in all things from combat to art. They preform fast attacks and glorify melee combat with great flourishes or when engaging at range they would try and keep perfect accuracy and flair.They are symbols of the providence of astartes, and each have a great devotion to the emperor's will. Each of these purple clad twinks would hold great amounts of pride in their accomplishments. By far, they are the most aristocratic of the legion they are viewed as pompous and gaudy. To many other legions, the emperors children remain cold and aloof, but to their friends in the Iron hands legion.
As for the relation with Konrad, it is quite cold due to the quick exterminatus of the home planet of the laer xenos, and this mindset would not change until explained later to fulgrim during the council of nikea.
4th legion Iron warriors
Primarch Perturabo
One of the most reliable of all legions but also most bitter. To them, they see all as puzzles to solve or a wall they must break. They specialize in siege warfare, both defense and offense. They want glory but don't seek it. They want acceptance but don't seek it. They wish to not be sent into the grinder, but with all these grievances, they keep moving forward in grim acceptance. They grind their enemy to dust with almost cold efficiency, with both mechanized warfare supported from both air and artillery.
Before their campaign with the night lords, most of the Iron Warriors could be described as stoic machines, but they could not hide their bitterness from the sons of the judge. With time, the night lords would break their shells, allowing them to finally feel some form of acceptance and with the efforts of Konrad they received greater acceptance from their father as the longer the campaign drew on in their fathers mind they moved from pieces on a board to full fledged sons that with hope would get to build great wonders as both legion and prinarch gained a goal. Victory is not for duty or honor but for a brighter future to build, not destroy, and they seek it not with grim despair but with hope, hope given from the imperium's boogeyman.
They hold great respect for the night lords and Konrad and think themselves in debt to them.
5th legion White scars.
Primarch Jaghatai Khan
The white scars could be one of the most mysterious legions aside from the sons of the hydra. They strike without warning with great speed. They hold great mobility as they specialize in hit and run tactics as the cause of great disorganization before striking with a hammer blow to destroy their enemies. They, like the dark angels, are quite reclusive due to their almost nomadic lifestyle as they hunt enemies across the stars. They hold not much loyalty to the imperium itself but to their primarch above all else as the great khan would not serve tyrants. To their enemies, they would show no mercy.
To other legions, they are viewed as savages and people that revel in war along with their wild nature and shaky loyalty to the emperor. Due to their seclusion, they rarely met the nightlords, but due to the legions' fear tactics, many sons of the khan view them as cowarda, butJaghatai holds his opinions close until the council of nikea.
6th legion: Space wolves.
Primarch: Leman Russ
The emperors executioners and attack dogs, and while they may seem feral at the first look but to look deeper, they hold some intelligence. Many of its astartes are skilled mele combatants as they charge in with their blades drawn and bolters raised. They leave nothing behind as they kill all that they are released upon as they feel it is their duty to wipe out the enemies of the emperor. They, unlike other legions, have waged war on other astartes due to [Redacted]. They hold a curse as some would mutate into wolf like monsters, only good for bezerkers, and due to this mutation, most of the legion can't be raised outside their homework, limiting their numbers
AN: While I do like Leman, they have horrible naming sense and show a bit of naivete toward the warp due to their stubbornness to their culture and their obsession with wolves in all their names.
Due to Konrads' acceptance of psykers and the use of future sight, they are viewed as cowardly tricksters and show clear disgust to their backhanded tactics.
7th legion: Imperial fists.
Primarch: Rogal Dorn
A cold and blunt legion with most lacking any humor as they use cold logic in all dialog. A master of defense and siege works. While they hold many similarities with the iron warriors, they would not enter a grinder determined to win but would instead break the enemy upon their defense as they are the saying (a good offense is a great defense) given form. They also hold a lot of pride in their accolades, and they seek to bring more honor and glory to their legion. They have a rivalry against the iron warriors due to their stubborn personalities, but what sets them apart is their pride that in another time would break them due to their borderline zealous anger[ don't forget the black Templars came from them]. They are also one of the imperium's greatest strategists, with one of dorns resourcefulness being a key trait hammered into his sons as truly they could be said to be the best at defense among the legions
Due to konrads calling out of the favoritism to the fists over the iron warriors and standing to defend Perturabo from such injustices have led to cold relations but with cold logic they are one of the few that see merit in the nightlords tactics as they see the lack of damage in their campaigns. Due to the cold demeanor, the imperial fists tend to hold no mercy for innocent lives, seeing them as acceptable casualties to ensure a successful defense, making the night lords hold a similar cold attitude to the sons of dorn.
8th legion: Night lords.
Primarch: Konrad Kurze(MC)
The legion of fear and judgment are viewed in two common lights as either butchers of life sowing fear into the galaxy or as harbingers of justice and order. Among all legions, they hold some of the longest campaigns, but each has low casualties on both sides, and with each victory, they leave behind bastions of efficiency and orderly civilizations that those in power forever fear to bring the wrath of the sons of night upon them a second time. They strike from the shadows behind enemy lines, leaving most command structures a horrific mess of macabre displays of their victims' fates. They specialize in infiltration, assassination, terror tactics, and policing as no other legion besides the alpha legion could say they leave the least devastation. They are one of the largest legions matching in number with the ultramarines but due to their policing nature they ate the most split legion with a son of Konrad could be found all over the imperium constantly updating legal codes and ensuring law and order in ilenforced upon all planets outside the direct control of other legions with some even inviting them to test their legal codes. This legion holds two faces the judge and the night haunter. While the judge must hold all law and order above all else, it could be a detriment to war, so the Night haunter must be envoked but never embraced. In war they target random soldiers/officers to torture over open vox channels to demoralize the enemy and each unit both mortal and astartes would mark their armor with human bones or even synthetic flesh colored to look human but to those who embrace the darker tendencies of the legion mark their gauntlets in blood to silymbolise the innocent blood on their hands due to their fall to sadism and should they live most seek to redeem themselves practice control over their wants.
The legion also holds a high amount of psykers mostly used in interrogations by inflicting the targets greatest fears upon them through illusions and for thr stronger ones even able to cast such illusions as an aura as they clad themselves in the fears of others and none could protect themselves from their blades as each legionary holds a power weapon using xeno tech that literally deatomizes the target upon impact for a time as the enemy watches their allies turn to dust.
To other legions, they are seen as monsters, so most fear them, but with the blessings of the emperor, they seek out traitors upon conquered planets as destroyers of desenters. To most planets that have received their touch, have their entire policing force be almost fanatics loyal to Konrad over their own planetary government, leading a great weariness to the more paranoid of his brothers as konrad has been set up where if a primarch wanted the galaxy to burn none could succeed unless it was him that sought the fire.
9th legion: Blood angels.
Primarch: Sanguinius
The most noble of legions and ones that show great kindness to all cirltzens of the imperium. They would seek diplomacy first in all campaigns and would seek to be the sigil of noble astartes to the entire imperium but they hold a curse as each son of the angel craves blood and bezerker rages and should they fall to it will mutate to monsterous batlike forms seeking the life blood of those around them. This curse leads to a very unstable gene seed as it takes them longer to replenish their numbers.
They hold a great closeness to the sons of horus,but out of all the primarchs, the angel is the most liked due to their humble outlook and great charisma that could rival horus's own.
10th legion:Iron Hands.
Primarch: Ferrus Manus
One of the most obsessed with strength this legion seeks to be the strongest as they live by survival of the fittest they are the coldest of all legions as they view weak men and weakness itself deserves only death. They hold the closest relations to the mechanicus as they even feel their flesh as weak. They would often fight alongside the emperors children as their dull way of war would match well with fulgrims style over substance as both primarchs developed a great friendship that would spread to their legions.
While Ferrus supports Konrads' push for greater use of better tools and equipment, they never see eye to eye on the matter of civilians.
11th legion :Redacted. Primarch: Redacted
info: redacted
>Inquisition would like to know your location<
12th legion: War hounds.
Primarch: Angron
Shock troops that excell at melee combat with chain axes in wide use they would be held in reserve to help other legions due to their bloody work but to any of their friends they would be great empaths helping their cousins end their troubles creating a duality of savages upon battlefields but off them they hold great care for humans and would seek to give freedom to those oppressed unjustly by human or xeno. More often than not, they would support the nightlords in correcting many wrongs in any form of slavery. While the regular warrior would be great champions of combat their psykers are completely opposite specializing in bringing soothing peace to those in great distress and remove pain from others as they work as not just librarians but as apothecaries. Due to their over specialization in CQB, they often work alongside the legions lacking in this area, like the night lords and raven guard in open combat.
Due to Konrads saving of Angron from a terrible fate many in the legion would always seek to help the night lords as their way to pay back the deed of saving their father and as both legions are feared they developed a close brotherhood as each of their warriors would duel and unknowingly create for both legions the greatest of duelists when paired together with one being a unrelenting blur of blade and the other an all knowing storm of strikes blocking any blow.
13th legion: Ultramarines.
Primarch: Robute Guilliman
Perhaps one of the best legions due to ever adapting tactics and complete control of logistics, they hold the matter and might win almost any campaigns. As far as rivals go, they only have two, the luna wolves in victory and the nightlords in resourcefulness in logistics. They holdbgreat skill in all ways of war but specialize in none making them a great legion to support any war but to others they are seen as glory seekers and their only true skill lies in administration and in a way they would be better suited to such roles as they excell at long term planing laying down logistics.
They dislike the nightlords for their use of terror tactics but complement them for adapting to the cut-off from mechanicum support.
14th legion: Death Guard
Primarch: Mortarion
If attrition warfare was personified, it would be this legion. They use a form of radiation weapons called fossfex, which is like nuclear napalm, and they use this often, leaving many of their campaigns irradiated wastelands. They among all legions have the most reseliance, and with the help from Konrad, their librarians have become walking tanks compared to their cousins in other legions. They despise sorcery, and if it wasn't for Konrad, they would've swore off all its forms. Due to the change, they now only dislike the external use of pysker powers as they focus on increasing their strengths in their physical bodies and protection of the mind. They hold great respect towards the 8th legion for the saving of their primarch, but the wide use of sorcery has led to some strain on diplomacy but by all means both would come to the others aid with no questions asked.
15th Legion: Thousand sons
Primarch: Magnus the Red
The legion of magic and knowledge. For the most part, they hold the most power as individuals as almost every astartes is a psyker from those only able to use more subtle arts to those able to crush titans with their minds. Sadly, they also buy into their strengths too much as they tend to only use psyker powers as they believe it's the best tool for anything. They also have the largest number of scholars as each of their number seeks greater knowledge, some even to a reckless degree as this goes also for Magnus and his obsession to know everything related to the warp even when it's forbidden knowledge.
16th Legion: Sons of Horus
Primarch: Horus lupercal
The spear tip legion. If a single word could describe them, it would be assault. They are a, for the most part, a glory seeking legion out to earn glory and honor for their legion and primarch. I sadly know little of the legion pre heresy outside of their high levels of pride, and that horus seems to be pretty touchy about anything that damages his pride or image, and it passes down to his sons.
17th Legion: Word Bearers
Primarch Lorgar Aurelian
Out of all the primarchs and legions, few could have the 17ths religious fervor as they crusade across the stars, creating cults across the stars. In another universe, they would openly worship the God Emperor, but due to the interactions with Konrad, this worship would become a lot more discreet due to fear of bringing judgment upon themselves and their flock by the great judge enforcing the emperors edicts. With proper warnings given, they seek out any heretic and possible worshipers of chaos as they drew the conclusion that chaos is the devil to the emperors holy light. With this worship, the legion and its primarch hold unshakable loyalty to the emperor.
18th Legion: Salamanders
Primarch: Vulkan
One of the few legions to not put themselves above the regular citizens. They specialize in flamer weaponry as each astartes is equipped in some type of flamer on their person. While Vulkan holds unconditional kindness to imperial citizens, Konrad holds only the same kindness for lawful citizens, which causes some friction between the brothers. Vulkan does find his tactics cruel but respects Konrads want to punish criminals in the name of those who couldn't. On a personal note, if you want to read about space marines that truly care for the common man, read about these guys.
19th Legion: Raven Guard
Primarch: Corvus Corax
The stealth specialists of the legions but also the greatest scouts. They have a similar rivalry with the nightlords like the iron warriors with the imperial fists. By far, they seek revolution from tyrants while the nightlords maintain order as both fight for justice just from different angles. This rivalry has reached the point where the raven guard would try to screw over any nightlords supported arbites, usually causing freedom based uprisings or supporting pushes against the use of the arbiters. Corvus holds great hostility to Konrad due to him reminding the raven of the prison guards on his home moon as cruel enforcers.
20th Legion: Alpha Legion
Primarch: the split twins Alpharius and Omegon
One of the most secretive legions specializing in corvert operations. They have a habit of hiding in other legions in disguise to gather info or to force certain situations as they all believe themselves to be in the right as they believe they understand their task better then the ones that gave them such tasks. While arrogance is the most obvious flaw visible, it can be only one of many due to their confusing lore. They do have a dislike for most legions for looking upon them with constant sucspison and in the case of the nightlords and dark angles stopping most of their operations due to the two primarchs paranoia.
while I do know I left some stuff out, I have not read all the lore books, so I would rather not work in definites. I'm also sorry for the wait. I've been playing the shit out of starfield, but I'm still working on chapters.