“Adulator”, from “adulation” meaning “excessive admiration or praise”.
When I found the name Adulators in a list of Space Marine chapters I immediately checked the dictionary to see what the name meant and found the above. From there I could create a rough idea of background for this mysterious chapters.
I decided that the Adulators would be one of the few chapters that venerated the Emperor as a God. This is rare amongst the Astartes though notable exceptions include the Black Templars and the Fire Angels. Both of these chapters followed the Imperial Faith to some extent. I saw the Adulators being a more extreme version of the two, like religious fanatics in power armour.
Friends of mine drew comparisons of my vision to pre-Heresy Word Bearers, and they would be right to do so. The difference being that before the Heresy, venerating the Emperor as a god was strongly dissuaded by the Emperor himself. This drove the Word bearers to chaos. In the 41st millennium however, a space marine chapter venerating the Emperor as a god would be positively encouraged by the likes of the Ecclesiarchy.
Therefore I saw the Adulators having close ties to the Ecclesiarchy. I saw them calling the Adulators only in the most dire situations, where the Adepta Sororitas would not be enough, and a heavier hand than the Fire Angels would be needed. The Adulators would be fanatics utterly loyal to the Imperium and their god on his golden throne.
From here I plan to make more detailed background. So far all I have is that the chapter master will be called Darius and will wield a meteor hammer (because it just sounds awesome!).
In terms of painting I have made a (slow) start on a unit of ten marines. I spray the arms separate from the bodies so as not to get any red on the white of the main body.
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