I recently saw a thread on another forum discussing the likelihood of Eldar getting a marine-like traits system; the author noted that this seems unlikely, because GW won't want to give the impression that there are very many craftworlds compared to the number of imperial armies out there. That got me to thinking about the number of marine chapters, and it seems like the 1000-chapter figure doesn't really fit the universe as GW describes it.
First of all, numbers. There are roughly a million settled worlds in the Imperium, each of which is supposed to field a defense force for its own protection and also provide a detachment to the overall Imperial Guard organization. Let's say that each has a million soldiers under arms - conservative, given the militarized nature of the Imperium and the existence of entire garrison worlds (Cadia, anyone). After all, the US alone fielded more than that in WWII, but let's just assume. That's a trillion troops - a million space marines is practically unnoticeable by comparison.
In addition, not all of those soldiers are always behaving themselves - the marines often have to put down heresies and rebellions. If only one in 10,000 worlds are in rebellion at any given time, and you go with the "give me 100 space marines, or 1000 other troops" thing, a full ten thousand chapters would have to be devoted full-time just to equal the rebel troops, not including transit time between worlds, etc. Of course, the IG does a lot of this fighting itself, but the marines are also busy fighting all of the various Xeno races, countering black crusades, transiting the warp, and gallavanting around on their own business as well (Dark Angels.. ahem.) In the galaxy, there are more Orks than humans, 11 traitor legions, a host of craftworlds, the fledgling Tau empire, and some pretty hefty hive fleets - 1000 chapters isn't enough to even leave a smear mark, let alone form mankind's first and greatest line of defense.
Also, in practical terms - I bet a lot more than 1000 people have decided to make up their own chapters.. =)
Pointless speculation, but it's interesting to see how even a seemingly large number of chapters breaks down in the truly vast setting GW's come up with.
First of all, numbers. There are roughly a million settled worlds in the Imperium, each of which is supposed to field a defense force for its own protection and also provide a detachment to the overall Imperial Guard organization. Let's say that each has a million soldiers under arms - conservative, given the militarized nature of the Imperium and the existence of entire garrison worlds (Cadia, anyone). After all, the US alone fielded more than that in WWII, but let's just assume. That's a trillion troops - a million space marines is practically unnoticeable by comparison.
In addition, not all of those soldiers are always behaving themselves - the marines often have to put down heresies and rebellions. If only one in 10,000 worlds are in rebellion at any given time, and you go with the "give me 100 space marines, or 1000 other troops" thing, a full ten thousand chapters would have to be devoted full-time just to equal the rebel troops, not including transit time between worlds, etc. Of course, the IG does a lot of this fighting itself, but the marines are also busy fighting all of the various Xeno races, countering black crusades, transiting the warp, and gallavanting around on their own business as well (Dark Angels.. ahem.) In the galaxy, there are more Orks than humans, 11 traitor legions, a host of craftworlds, the fledgling Tau empire, and some pretty hefty hive fleets - 1000 chapters isn't enough to even leave a smear mark, let alone form mankind's first and greatest line of defense.
Also, in practical terms - I bet a lot more than 1000 people have decided to make up their own chapters.. =)
Pointless speculation, but it's interesting to see how even a seemingly large number of chapters breaks down in the truly vast setting GW's come up with.