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"The mind-curdling cacophony of the battlefield! Shape it, savour it, add to it until your senses shake and your minds quiver with deafening bliss!"

— Anonymous Noise Marine of Slaanesh

A Noise Marine of the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion armed with a Sonic Blaster and a Doom Siren.

Noise Marines are Chaos Space Marine foot soldiers deeply dedicated to the Chaos God Slaanesh who are most commonly found in the Emperor's Children Traitor Legion, but also in other Slaanesh-devoted Heretic Astartes warbands such as the Flawless Host. Their trademark is the use of devastating Sonic Weapons that confuses and demoralizes enemy forces in a wild show of "deafeningly loud, psycho-sonically and pyrotechnically explosive attacks."

The origin of the Noise Marines goes back to the days and nights when the Primarch Fulgrim and his Emperor's Children Legion first heeded the silky whispers of Slaanesh, just before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. Claiming inspiration from the tribesmen of the Chaos-corrupted world of Davin, the Warmaster Horus introduced Fulgrim and his chief lieutenants to the practice of elaborate feasting and drinking, including the use of exotic narcotics and indulgence in other pleasurable diversions.

Entranced by the ecstatic celebrations, the officers of the Emperor's Children took these debased customs back to the rest of their warriors. In this way, the cult of Slaanesh first began to take root in the IIIrd Legion. Ever since then, the Emperor's Children have sought to indulge every excess and depravity they can imagine, pushing the boundaries of their minds as far as possible as they hone their bodies to the limit of blissful endurance.

Noise Marines are perfect hedonists, completely dedicated to pushing their corrupted minds and bodies to the absolute limits of sensation. All have spent centuries enraptured in the throes of Slaanesh's service, and their ceaseless devotions have corrupted their bodies until only the most extreme sensations hold any satisfaction for their pleasure-addled synapses. Now their every thought is bent wholly towards their own self-gratification, and their imaginations incessantly overflow with insane visions of reckless and loathsome indulgences.

Along with the fabled transhuman physiology of an Astartes, Noise Marines also possess an extraordinary sense of hearing. This auditory acuteness is a blasphemous mutational gift from Slaanesh himself, extending far beyond that of a normal human, and is sensitive enough to distinguish subtle changes in pitch and tone within even the most cacophonous noises.

This foul blessing also warps the way their brains interpret aural stimulations, causing them to undergo feelings of intense euphoria and emotion that increase in proportion to the volume and frequencies of the sounds they experience. Noise Marines relish these sensations above all others and are entirely obsessed with indulging their unique abilities, often subjecting themselves to the most overwhelming and chaotic noises imaginable at the slightest provocation.

The Emperor's Children Noise Marine Threshling Vainglariadh of the Kakophatine Temple of the Unsated Shriek armed with a Sonic Blaster.

The most beloved way for a Noise Marine to indulge this craving for deafening sound is to immerse himself in the frenzied clamour of battle. There, the harsh cacophony of combat and the shrill screams of the dying are like music to a Noise Marine's callous ears, and his mind quickly fills with powerful emotions of unrivalled intensity that rapidly overpower every other concern.

However, the deafening roar of the battlefield is still not enough to a Noise Marine, and he adds to the ear-splitting din with devastating blasts from the sonic arsenal for which they are named. Such weapons are frequently incorporated into the Noise Marine's corrupted Power Armour, along with other auditory devices, in order to enhance his already substantial destructive and sonic capabilities.

Noise Marines are completely devoted to the Prince of Pleasure, and the unfettered depravity with which they worship their foul divine patron is infamous among his many followers. Though their brutal attacks rarely leave any survivors, these Traitor Marines occasionally require sacrifices in their unspeakable rituals to appease Slaanesh. Such victims are truly damned, as they are gradually subjected to the full horror and cruel decadence of their captor's insane and debauched imagination.

Fear is simply another sensation to these servants of Slaanesh, and they delight in inflicting pain as much as they enjoy experiencing it. Yet, despite the novelty and pleasure of death, Noise Marines are in no hurry to partake in it, preferring instead to sample the myriad delights to be found in the service of Chaos. They readily accept the many boons of Slaanesh and eagerly deal with any daemon or warlord able to offer them a delicious new excess. Many even gaze with undisguised envy upon the seemingly immortal daemonic entities who serve Slaanesh and long to experience the limitless freedom these diabolical beings enjoy, and so pursue the path of daemonhood.


Captain Marius Vairosean, in the thralls of the Maraviglia, picks up one of the strange sonic instruments created by Bequa Kynska.

The first creation of the Noise Marines goes back to the days immediately preceding the Horus Heresy. The Noise Marines' name comes from their preference for weapons that use concentrated sound and sonic waves: the Sonic Blaster -- outwardly resembling a Bolter -- produced discordant blasts of sound; the Blastmaster -- a rifle-like weapon that produces different sonic frequencies that overpower senses and can even destroy flesh; and the Doom Siren, a loudspeaker surgically melded into the Chaos Space Marine's body that enhances his own screams into violent torrents of pure sonic force that can knock even the largest enemy off his feet.

All of this sonic weaponry is descended from the musical instruments invented by the famed composer Bequa Kynska of Terra, who accompanied the Emperor's Children's 28th Expeditionary Fleet as a Remembrancer aboard the Battle Barge Pride of the Emperor during the Great Crusade. Kynska was a jaded musician always in search of further sensations to create more exhilarating and all-encompassing music, which made her an easy target for Slaaneshi corruption.

After Kynska accompanied many of the 28th Expedition's Remembrancers to the temple dedicated to Slaanesh on the Xenos World of Laeran, she was touched by the Chaos corruption of that foul place and slowly sought to create the ultimate orchestral piece that she believed could capture the wondrous sounds she had heard within the Laer temple. Her ultimate masterpiece was a symphony she named the Maraviglia and which she performed for Fulgrim and all the assembled Astartes of the Emperor's Children and their support personnel within the Remebrancers' lounge called La Fenice aboard the Pride of the Emperor.

To recreate the sounds she had heard, Kynska created new musical instruments whose sonic powers could also be used for destruction when employed by an individual already corrupted by Slaanesh. As the Maraviglia began, the cachophony of sound unleashed by these instruments acted as a sorcerous ritual that opened a link between realspace and the Warp and allowed the power of Slaanesh to directly touch the audience. During the "performance" it was noted that the musical instruments were able to produce effects variously disorienting, stimulating and downright murderous.

The first Noise Marines fought against their Loyalist brethren among the Emperor's Children during the Istvaan III Atrocity.

Chaos mutations ran rampant through the audience and Astartes and humans alike were so overwhelmed by sensation and uncontrollable emotions that they unleashed an orgy of both sensual hedonism and the most base forms of murder upon one another. Ultimately, the music summoned five Lesser Daemons of Slaanesh known as Daemonettes from the Warp who possessed the bodies of Kynska and several of her singers and joined in the slaughter.

During this part of the concert, several Emperor's Children Astartes left their seats and took up the instruments to try and keep the Chaos music playing and in the course of their untrained fumblings with the instruments discovered that they could unleash waves of destructive sonic power filled with the strength of Chaos. When the Emperor's Children engaged the Imperial Loyalists during the Drop Site Massacre on Istvaan V, some Emperor's Children Space Marines took to the field armed with these modified sonic weapons, becoming the first Noise Marines.

The Noise Marines present in the IIIrd Legion soon organised themselves into a unit known as the Kakophoni which was under the command of the Legion's Third Captain Marius Vairosean. After the Heresy, the early Noise Marines took their deviant behaviour to a new level through their dedication to their patron Chaos God and over the years of bloody warfare with the Imperium have honed their bodies to possess such extreme sensory perception that nothing can stir their emotions other than the din of battle and the screams of the dying.

Noise Marines in the Screaming Vortex

"Slaughter them all! Let the air ring with the snapping of bone and the squeals of the dying!"

—Carmine, Auditorix of the Emperor's Children

A Noise Marine in battle.

The Emperor's Children are perhaps the most depraved of the Traitor Legions to venture into the notorious Warp-realspace interface known as the Screaming Vortex on the boundary between the Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse in the Segmentum Obscurus. Many journey to this turbulent realm to sample firsthand the unique worlds and vile delights of its denizens, while others harbour unspeakably cruel designs for those wayward souls who fail to escape them. These deranged warriors undertake such despicable pursuits with complete disregard for the Vortex's many dangers and eagerly brave all manner of foes in their unending quest for excessive indulgence.

Though small warbands of Emperor's Children are not uncommon when it suits their purposes, lone members of this abhorrent Traitor Legion are generally the norm. The most common of these are Noise Marines, whose insane yearning for the deafening clamour of battle leads the slightly saner denizens of the Vortex to avoid dealings with them if at all possible.

Heretic Astartes from other Traitor Legions have also attuned themselves to similar auditory excesses, equally as devout in their pursuit of Slaanesh's gift of song and equally as deadly. Often such encounters end violently or -- if the victim is particularly unlucky -- the Noise Marine might instead take the miserable wretch alive. The destructive power of these fallen Space Marines cannot be denied, and many amongst the Heretics of the Vortex deem the benefits of harbouring them well worth the risks.

An Emperor's Children Noise Marine utilising a Sonic Blaster.

A Noise Marine in the Screaming Vortex can indulge in a plethora of uniquely vile experiences and sensations in order to assuage his unrelenting yearnings. Yet, of the many temptations that await them within this turbulent realm, the lust for auditory stimulation is the most enticing of all. Whether achieved through pitched battle, arcane devices, or the abilities of one of the Screaming Vortex's inhabitants, Noise Marines go to any lengths to attain their desire and are an increasingly common sight among its many denizens.

The following are some examples of the many pursuits a Noise Marine might undertake in his continuous quest for the most extreme excesses:

  • Cacophonous Chorus - Disdaining all thoughts of material gain or honour, these servants of Slaanesh pledge their allegiance to whichever Chaos warbands produce the most frenzied clamour before eagerly adding their own destructive notes to the terrible din. This eccentricity often causes the band to change sides multiple times throughout an engagement as the roar of battle ebbs and flows. If the noise is pleasing enough, they might even turn on their would-be allies after the assault has ceased in order to delight once more in the battle's cacophonous fury.
  • Xenoticants - There are many forbidden xenos artefacts and devices within the Screaming Vortex capable of bestowing indescribable sensations on all who dare wield or even look upon them for any length of time. Noise Marines frequently encounter such items in their travels, and many even develop a taste for these exotic delights and inhuman vibrations. Yet their pleasure often turns to obsession as these warriors attempt to contrive ever more imaginative and novel ways of incorporating their discoveries into their ceaseless indulgences. The other inhabitants of the Screaming Vortex refer to them as Xenoticants, and their frantic mania can be either a boon or a bane to those who become entangled in their endless passion for additional relics and alien sensations.
  • Choir of Aberrance - These cruel Noise Marines demand tribute in the form of slaves, which they then incorporate into their own horrific glorifications of the Prince of Pleasure. Each captive is fitted with a bizarre array of sonic amplifiers and Vox speakers, which cause the recipient great pain and amplify every tortured cry and terrified gasp to skull-shattering heights. Thus prepared, these pitiful creatures accompany their masters into battle, staggering behind their captors in vast processions bound together with golden chains each adorned with savage and delicate hooks. There, the many cries of intolerable agony, encouraged with blows from cruelly barbed and toxic lashes, rise together in screeching and discordant adulation for the many pleasures of Slaanesh.


Ancient Remembrancer sketch depicting one of the so-called Kakophoni, based upon various pict-captures in the Segmentum Obscurus war zone during the Horus Heresy.

Regardless of the faction, warband or Traitor Legion they belong to, Noise Marines wear Power Armour painted in all manner of striking and bold colours. Pinks, blacks and purples are used predominantly in bizarre patterns all over the armour's legs, arms, gauntlets, helmet and shoulder plates. Their senses are so distorted that only the most extravagant shades and patterns register as pleasing to their minds.

Though the staccato bark and blast of the Bolter is music to the Noise Marine's ears, many specialise in the use of a variety of outlandish sound-based weapons. The most common of these is the Sonic Blaster. The champions of these twisted hedonists instead use the Blastmaster and the Doom Siren, each of which produces a series of deafeningly loud attacks that disintegrate the target with extreme-frequency psychosonic waves. Noise Marines are also prone to displays of extremely grotesque mutations or surgical alterations, which are considered "gifts" of Slaanesh and are very common amongst all Slaaneshi devotees.

Sonic Weaponry

A Sonic Blaster, one of the primary Sonic Weapons of the Noise Marines.

The Noise Marines of Slaanesh are warriors whose senses are jaded and dulled by centuries of hedonistic excess. Only the most extreme sensations stir them, hence their use of Sonic Weapons. The louder and more discordant the noise, the more extreme the emotional reaction provoked in the Noise Marine. Sonic weapons use sonic waves to inflict deafeningly loud, psycho-sonically and pyrotechnically explosive results upon their victims.

The weapons of the Noise Marines are surreal indeed, so peculiar that their energies can blast through solid walls without losing potency. They are not fired by the twitch of a trigger so much as played like hellish musical instruments, their bursts of psychically resonating noise sliding, thumping and screeching across a dizzying spectrum of sound. By holding his ground, a Noise Marine can coax a deeper, more sustained frequency, or a discordant wail that can literally shake its target apart. Alternatively, should the wielder be overcome with the need to taste the deathly results of his sonic barrages first hand, he can let fly a wave of crippling harmonics even as he strides towards his victims. These salvoes of killing noise hammer the enemy with explosive crescendos that can burst eyeballs and rupture internal organs no matter how well-protected the target.

  • Sonic Blaster - The Sonic Blaster is a Chaos Space Marine sonic weapon used by the Noise Marines. It unleashes waves of crippling and distorted harmonics to rip targets apart. Many Noise Marines equipped with such weapons use them with manic intensity. They run up and down through the various chords and sliding scales so that these devices perpetually howl with a mixture of agony and ecstasy.
  • Doom Siren - The Doom Siren is a Chaos Space Marine sonic weapon used by Noise Marines. The device is made up primarily of an arrangement of pipes and tubes that connects to a Power Armour helmet and magnifies the bearer’s war cries and howls of ecstatic pleasure into a manic shockwave of destruction. The Doom Siren mounts onto the bearer’s shoulders, leaving both of the bearer’s hands free to carry other weapons or perform other tasks.
  • Blastmaster - The Blastmaster is a Chaos Space Marine sonic weapon used by the Noise Marines. It produces a throbbing bass note which is strong enough to burst eyeballs and rupture organs. At different frequencies the weapon can produce different effects, either harming individuals with a varying frequency or destroying an entire area with a single pulsing frequency.

Unit Composition


Notable Noise Marines

  • Marius Vairosean - Marius Vairosean was once the Third Captain of the Emperor's Children Legion during the latter days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the late 30th and early 31st Millennium. He was present during many of the most infamous campaigns of the Heresy, including the Istvaan III Atrocity and the Drop Site Massacre of Istvaan V. Marius' own quest for perfection would lead him and his entire Legion along the foul path of Chaotic corruption. Due to the influence of Slaanesh and the hideous ministrations of the Apothecary Fabius Bile, Vairosean was soon consumed by the corruption of Slaanesh and became one of the very first Noise Marines in service to the Prince of Pleasure. He eventually became the leader of the Kakophoni, the Noise Marines unit that formed within the Traitor Emperor's Children Legion after their fall to Chaos. During the joint expedition undertaken by both the Emperor's Children and the Iron WarriorsLegion into the Eye of Terror to seek out the forbidden xenos weapon known as the Angel Exterminatus, Vairosean was killed by the Drop Site Massacre survivor Ignatius Numen, an Iron Hands Morlock.
  • Emmesh-Aiye - A powerful Noise Marine and warlord of the Emperor's Children, Emmesh-Aiye was not a veteran of the Long War, or a member of the original Legiones Astartes. He could no longer recall his origin. Nevertheless, he was a notorious raider and degenerate architect of perversity and excess. He continuously subjected himself to both nerve toxins and high-pitched noises in order to elicit some kind of stimulation from his heightened senses. Emmesh-Aiye kept a retinue of mutilated and terrified slaves, which he had personally broken and turned into fanatical bodyguards. Like many of his fellow Emperor's Children, he continuously modified and mutilated his appearance. Sometime in the 41st Millenniu, Emmesh-Aiye was one of many Chaos Lords invited by the Warsmith Chengrel of the Iron Warriors to bid upon a rare collection of Eldar Spirit Stones, by recounting to him a tale of destruction. After listening to the various tales, Chengrel flew into a rage when he found out that none of his guests were members of the original Legions. This resulted in a free-for-all, and the Chaos Lords all began to fight amongst themselves. After he slayed the Chaos Lord Hodir, a Night Lords warrior, for possession of the stone, Emmesh-Aiye faced Khrove, a Chaos Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons. The sorcerer was able to use his powerful arcane abilities, and turned the ground that Emmesh-Aiye and his slave-warriors stood upon, into a bottomless pit of quicksand-like metal liquid. Emmesh-Aiye and his retinue sunk into the hole and died.
  • Rapturous Voice - There are stories of notorious champions of the Emperor's Children who continue to cause havoc within the Screaming Vortex, the great Warp Storm that separates the Calixis Sector of the Segmentum Obscurus from the Koronus Expanse. The reviled Rapturous Voice, a Noise Marine whose inconceivable melodies issue from a massive vox inset between grotesquely distended jaws and ornate pipes that envelop his extravagant armour, has become especially infamous in recent centuries. His discordant harmonies inspire ecstasy, terror, pain and a host of other intense and conflicting emotions, and are unbearably disturbing, yet strangely enthralling, to all who hear them. This intoxicating quality ensnares unwitting listeners, who become his willing slaves and excitedly engage in their erratic master's depraved whims so they may delight in his hypnotic croons. The influence of the Voice has insidiously spread throughout the Vortex, and many powerful Noise Marines and formidable warlords have heeded his dulcet notes and pledged their heretical souls to his every desire. In combat, these units fight in a euphoric daze, oblivious to the horrors of battle and their own safety as their master's heady music urges them ever onwards towards rapturous annihilation.
  • Volupus - Volupus is a notorious son of Chemos who opts for the use of close weapons exclusively, enjoying the buzz of the Chainsword and its shrill scream as it grates upon bone or armour. Volupus went off to form his own warband -- the Flickering Blades. These warriors stride into combat wielding lithe swords that sing a song of death with every swing. From out of their twisted armour stretches numerous writhing tongues, each mutant maw licking its lips in lewd anticipation of the blood-splattering of close combat.


  • Black Crusade: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 160-161
  • Black Crusade: The Tome of Excess (RPG), pp. 26, 28-29
  • Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pp. 86, 143
  • Codex Heretic Astartes - Chaos Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 84, 135
  • Codex: Chaos Space Marines (4th Edition), pg. 39
  • Warhammer 40,000: Index Chaotica - Noise Marines (Digital Edition)
  • White Dwarf 230 (US), "Bitter and Twisted - Chaos Space Marines"
  • Fulgrim (Novel) by Graham McNeill
  • Angel Exterminatus (Novel) by Graham McNeill
  • Treacheries of the Space Marines (Anthology), "The Masters, Bidding" (Short Story) by Matthew Farrer
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