Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-91.224.27.226-20131031140001/@comment-24332685-20131226061415

As I said I am ruling out nothing because all of these could be possible. However, while I do understand how pre-heresy company structures were much larger just because the Ultramar region consisted of 500 worlds doesn't mean every world is a recruitment world. Every legion have particular worlds they would recruit from. Also while I understand the system of training and implementation was more streamlined pre-heresy you must also take into account the fact that this was during the prosecution of the Great Crusade. The Ultramarines took casualities (some believe more then most other legions) during the Crusade which obviously required recruitment to replace. I also realize that a short period of time doesn't mean one year, however, from the purging of the II or XI to the decision incororate the survivors into the II I doubt it would have been 50 years. Such a thing would be a crisis and would be given priority to complete. Also factor in Russ's impatience and I doubt he would enjoy 50 years of prosecuting the purge of those legions. I agree that your theory is not too much of a stretch it is possible, however, there must have been some survivors from such a purge who know the truth. Also even the Primarchs themselves take note of how the Ultramarines swelled in size, Primarchs who are aware of the process of creating Astartes from implementation to the completion of training. This does indicate some kind of surprise or curiousity at how such a thing happened in such a short period of time.