In the lore, an Ultramarine isn’t actually a super Space Marine. It’s a Space Marine from the planet Ultramar. Seriously.
There’s some handwaving about the recruits from Ultramar having a reputation for being badasses, kind of like Space Gurkhas, who epitomize the ideal Space Marine, which is supposedly why that one planet, and only that one planet, is singled out that way. And it’s just a pure coincidence that the term for “inhabitant of this one random planet” can also be parsed as “Super Marine”…
In universe, the Ultramarines are the chapter that most closely follows the Codex Astartes. The Codex outlines the way each Space Marine chapter is to be organized, tactics and equipment to be used, etc., etc. Many other chapters diverge from it one way or the other, in the case of the Black Templars the divergence is pronounced, but the Ultramarines stick to it pretty closely. And any potential recruit for any Space Marine chapter is going to be a badass. The Iron Fists are known to recruit from the hives of Necromunda. (Goddamn! Why didn’t anyone tell me I was such a nerd?)
Anyway, Warhammer was created by a bunch of white middle class British people in the 1980s and diversity wasn’t on anyone’s radar back then. In recent years, Games Workshop has made a concerted effort to add a little diversity into their models and fiction. If you go to their website now and look at the models for Space Marines and Sisters of Battle, you’ll see quite a few miniatures painted with darker skin tones than lily white. Something you didn’t see a whole lot of in 1992.
And this upsets some people. The same asshole I mentioned who only grudgingly accepted a black Ultramarine, bitched and moaned about some children’s 40k books because one of the main protagonists was a teenage girl with a high melanin count. This was a fairly popular YouTuber and I can only imagine the damage he’s done to the hobby.
The thing I like about 40K is that it operates at a large enough scale that the planet could plausibly have been named Ultramar for the specific purpose of creating a chapter of space marines named Ultramarines.
Well, since the train has left the tracks anyway, I just want to state that I wont have anything to do with Warhammer due to Games Workshops unscrupulous and unethical business practices.
Not to mention they screw over their players on a regular basis by changing the rules to make good troops bad, and thus sell more figures.
The latest chapter in the house of Games Workshops’ legal troubles is here, as they are being sued for $62.5 million dollars amid 6 criminal complaints.
Game store owner, and legal counsel David Moore has filed a criminal complaint in the US Federal Court of Southern Florida alleging six criminal violations of US law and is seeking $62.5 million in equitable relief from Games Workshop.
Moore alleges violations of the U.S. Law and RICO under 18 & 15 U.S. CODE, including but not limited to Fraud, Price Fixing, Tortious Interference, Breach of Contract, Unjust Enrichment, Restraint of Trade, Conspiracy and Antitrust Violations.
In the same way there’s no black or white in the US Army only green.