Help me understand heraldry of different orders

[Reshnaut]

From lore stand point do different orders have some common rules? Like colors? I see some orders for veterans have only white helmets, some also have white pauldrons and some have only white pauldron trim. Some have order icon on knee, some don't and etc. I wan't color my Astartes in different orders (Ultramarines, Black Templars, Iron Fists, Raven Guard) and make it as authentic as possible, but I got confused in details. Like can pauldrons be different colors? Or their trims? Can Black Shield have icon of veteran on his shoulder and white helmet? Where I can find info about all that?

[MrSoul]

Been some like painting guide kinda books published over years that touch in heraldry. Chapter codices contain bit of “paint guides” too.

Beyond that it enters realm of fluff versus true lore on these kinds of things as…in short, ya, all different. All follow codex astartes to varying degrees, all have own traditions etc. even guards regiments, so varied in number, organizational structures etc because every world has its own culture, and way of doing things. For all the totality of the imperium, it truly is a myriad harbour when it comes to this stuff.

But for what worth, if I was trying to find a starting point? I’d search up painting guides with google images etc on a specific chapter looking to make.

[Prussian Wolf]

So.... it's complicated as ♥♥♥♥, because the different "Orders" (chapters is correct term for loyalist space marine groups in current times) have different rules. The Ultramarines and some directly follow the "codex" and thus are simple-ish but then Dark Angels literally show rank by having robes and hoods. Some denote companies by pauldron trim, some use markings on various spots, some use helmet color, because... idk.

2 points:

1. The best way to find this info is to look at the wiki page for a chapter and specifically go to the section that says "Chapter Appearance". Not all of them are extremely detailed, and a lot will end up with personal choice for individual Marines.

2. And I hate hearing this, but it is important to realize: all of this color nonsense is specifically to give you ideas for tabletop painting. Meaning - you can paint what you want, hell even Games Workshop will put out models with "technically" wrong painting on the artwork, because it looks cool. So if you're ever in doubt, do what looks cool, and making up new chapters is encouraged, there's >1000 of them.

[Reshnaut]

Thank you!

[Ghom]

There's a lot to it but at the core... Big Emps grew 20 sons in test tubes. 2 of them were considered failures and consequently destroyed and stricken from all records. The remaining 18 each then created their own soldiers by injecting their DNA referred to as gene seed and a bunch of extensive surgeries. Due to each space marine sharing some part of their primarchs dna each chapter has their own genetic quirks and proclivities. For example all of the salamanders chapter have charcoal black skin and red eyes. There's a ton more to it from the chaos marine chapters and divergent chapters but that's the essence and the reason that every space marine isn't exactly the same.