Chaos armour question...

[Seaglen]

ok, this has been bugging me since the year dot.

i am fully aware of the differing armour Mks used by the astartes.
i am also fully aware of the armour varients used by traitor legions.

The one thing that i still am unsure of are the backpack/power cores.

Why do chaos have extended venting systems?
all pre heresy marines still had imperial style backpacks, so this leads me to believe that the chaos backpacks are either a modification, or a new varient.

(obviously the tabletop answer is to determine the two sides, and to give a more defining feel to traitor legions, but what is the fluff behind this?)

one theory i have is that the chaos marines may have extended the vents as a sign of disrespect to the emporor (like the scotts arranging their kilts on the left instead of the right to show allignment to different clans). I imagine the vent 'balls' to spring out on the arms for servicing etc.

any info on this fluff would be appreciated.

[IBBoard]

I've never actually seen anything about this in terms of actual fluff, although some of the Chaos background books may mention something.

I'd always assumed the same as you - they look different from a gaming perspective, and the longer shapes look a bit more evil/corrupted (somehow!)

I'd be interested to know if anyone can find anything official out, with references, or whether it's something that GW never clarified.

[Seaglen]

yeah. its always striked me as odd.
if it is just an older form of armour then why do the pre heresy marines have imperial (but older versions) style backpacks.

stfas mentioned on hangar's site that it may just be mutation.
(this could be argued as being backed up by the older khorne beserker backpacks looking more 'organic' but i'm not really 100% on the mutation thing.

[IBBoard]

That was my general assumption on a "looking cool" thing. I remember the first plastic Khorne berserkers, and they did have a slightly more warped version of the stretched vents from what I remember. Having said that, I don't remember what the standard Chaos Marines at the time had for backpacks!

[stfas]

i thought the armor mutated, aren't the backpack included in the armor?

[IBBoard]

Yeah, backpacks are part of the armour. Without the backpack the Marines would have trouble with a lack of power source and ventilation (amongst other things). Given some of the mutations to helmets it would make sense that the backpacks changed as well. Other bits of armour difference could just be additional sculpting by traitor artificers (things like the Chaos arrows on the trim).