WARNING: This update contains unambiguously inaccurate information, see the comments from Sister Vandire in the next threadmark for details. Ynathe's sources are not ideal.
Good evening, everyone. My name is Ynathe, and I will be your hostess for the time being. When we last read these books, we covered my people. I ask that the readership be civil and respectful to those Imperials who happen to be reading these reviews. They are people too, and their perspectives are valuable and important.
Our current work to explore is
Codex: Adeptus Custodes, for the Ninth Edition game. I find it unsatisfactory. I hope my Imperial readers will find my review worthwhile. It is always worth exploring new perspectives.
"Ours is the duty absolute. Ours is the vigil that must never end. Ours is the timeless honour, the willing sacrifice, the penitence enduring. We stand a watch that will never be relieved, and we stand it gladly out of adoration for He who gave us life, and whose life we must, in turn, preserve. We will never earn absolution, for we do not deserve it, but those who believe that would give us pause are fools." - Shield-Captain Tybalus Maxin
This is a deeply noble sentiment. While this work is, of course, Imperial propaganda, it bears noting that the Imperium is not bereft of good men. I am certain that at least some of the Custodes bear this burden and live this truth. It is not my way of life, but I cannot help but respect this attitude. There is beauty in devotion, even to a living corpse.
Welcome, auramite-clad Custodian, to Codex: Adeptus Custodes. Within the hallowed pages of this relic-tome, you will find pages replete with lore on the most ancient and powerful Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence, as well as means to deploy them on the battlefield . Beauteous artwork and glorious photography also lie within , depicting the manifest greatness of the Talons of the Emperor.
...Well, this is a change from talk of "arrogant" and "degenerate" xenos, is it not? A truly noble one does not boast of his nobility, and while I doubt a Custodes wrote this it does seem quite clear that whoever did write it had some pride invested in the depiction of their idols.
This mighty host of warriors have access to the most fearsome weaponry and nigh on impervious armour in the Imperium. The Adeptus Custodes are a highly flexible force with a range of hard- hitting infantry, indomitable combat walkers, lightning-fast jetbikes and thundering battle tanks. Supplemented by the haunting and graceful Sisters of Silence, they are almost invulnerable to the enemy's psychic attacks. Combining all these elements can give you a highly versatile and extraordinarily powerful force on the tabletop - shattering the enemy when on the attack and withstanding enormous punishment in defence.
Sometimes, the propaganda is right. The Adeptus Custodes are true titans of the battlefield...when they can be bothered to fight together. As for the Sisters of Silence, one must be warned. Those blackened souls do not think like most sophonts, and they are the poisoned fruit of the Lord of Order, that most nightmarish deity of them all. The corpse on the Golden Throne is alive, and he
hungers.
There is not much that scares a child of blessed, prosperous, ancient Commorragh, but the Sisters of Silence and the Lord of Order calling himself the God-Emperor do.
Using the lore and rules in this volume, you can create a compelling story for what your army's purpose is in the galaxy - whether it serves as part of a Torchbearer fleet, is striking out on a devastating pre-emptive assault against an enemy of the Emperor or is seeking an evil artefact to prevent it from falling into the clutches of an enemy.
Ha! A "pre-emptive assault"? That is some truly absurd nonsense. Talk of seeking out evil artifacts to "prevent it from falling into the clutches of an enemy" is similarly dissolute. The Custodes are no children's heroes.
Thanks to the unique Crusade rules in this book, you can grow and develop your army with each battle you fight, enabling you to write the glorious history of every squad and hero as they slaughter enemies and suffer injuries in the course of their perilous missions.
This isn't very subtle propaganda. The goal is to get the reader to see the Custodes as supermen. They are supermen, of a sort, but their mistakes and their foibles are as grand as their might and ambitions.
In this book, you'll find everything you need to rally a mighty host of your own , ready to eliminate threats to Terra and the Emperor himself. There are datasheets for every model in the range, alongside Warlord Traits, Stratagems, Relics and unique rules for a number of the Adeptus Custodes' shield hosts. With these fabled secrets, you can hone your collection of golden warriors into such a force that even the Emperor's greatest foes will tremble at the thought of facing you.
A common fantasy of these codices is that they give the Imperial player the ability to slaughter "xenos" as some great war leader. I find this unsettling, but I will refrain from commenting further. Fantasy, after all, is harmless.
THEY ARE THE EMPEROR'S BODYGUARD, HIS TEN THOUSAND, THE GOLDEN DEATH. THEY ARE HIS NOBLE EMISSARIES AND HIS PITILESS EXECUTIONERS . BY THEIR HANDS ARE HIS SECRETS PROTECTED AND HIS VAULTS GUARDED . UNSWERVING IN THEIR LOYALTY AND UNSHAKEABLE IN THEIR PURPOSE, THEY ARE THE SYMBOLS OF THE EMPEROR'S UNSTOPPABLE WRATH. FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS HAVE THEY STOOD SENTINEL OVER THE MASTER OF MANKIND AND DEFENDED HIS GLORIOUS PALACE .
THEY ARE THE FINEST WARRIORS IN THE IMPERIUM , PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY FASHIONED TO A DESIGN NONE BUT THE EMPEROR HIMSELF CAN EVER TRULY UNDERSTAND . THEY ARE AN ELEVATED ELITE , WHOSE RAW STRENGTH AND WILLPOWER ARE INSURMOUNTABLE. EACH IS HIGHLY INDEPENDENT AND IS AN ARMY UNTO HIMSELF. CLAD IN NIGH ON IMPREGNABLE AURAMITE ARMOUR, IT IS WITH INDIVIDUALLY CRAFTED WEAPONS THAT THE CUSTODES CUT DOWN ANY WHO THREATEN THE EMPEROR...WOE BETIDE THOSE WHO OPPOSE THEM
The message here is obvious: The Custodes are not men, they are gods, gods that walk, gods that fight, and gods that kill. That is an image. The Custodes are more man than anyone. They squabble, they bicker, they fight, and their superhuman ambitions destroy all around them. They are superior in so many ways, but they are imperfect, self-absorbed, and are boxers in a world made of tissue paper.
No student of Imperial history knows how far back in time the Adeptus Custodes can trace their origins. Even the oldest and most fragmentary accounts recovered by Roboute Guilliman's Logos Historica Verita include quotes that refer to the Emperor being escorted by tall and mighty warriors clad in gold. Debate rages as to when the Emperor first crafted the Custodians. Most agree, however, that he would have inherited vast amounts of knowledge on gene forging from numerous scientist-kings and technodemagogues those that ruled over Terra's disparate tribes during Old Night and the dark periods that followed. Legend has it that the Emperor rose around this time, and with his unimaginable intellect was able to make use of accumulated troves of genetomantic lore. It is this, the learned few argue, that allowed the Emperor to make the Custodes. The truth is hidden within crude cave etchings, hieroglyphics, stasis-locked scads of parchment and gene-sealed tomes no living person can open. These fragments speak of trusted bodyguards and advisors, and great victories won against monstrous beings. Some historitors know such texts exist, and are frustrated to no end by the fact that they can never access them. Most are lost or hidden, whether that be on Terra, Mars or a handful of other worlds.
This is simply not the case. The Unification Wars were one of the most well-recorded parts of Terran history. The so-called "techno-barbarians" sought to illuminate their names in history, and so we have elaborate records. The Merican Akashic alone puts the lie to this. The Adeptus Custodes originated as the violent Thunder Warriors, the super-soldiers created so that the Imperium could reunite Earth after the Great Collapse. The historians of the Imperium claim that the brutal, posthuman Thunder Warriors were slain by the Emperor as his last act before proclaiming a United Terra. This is a lie. The Emperor, back then, was only a man, and he cowered before his creations. The Thunder Warriors persist, having ruled the Imperium and dueled over it from then to the ascension of the Lord of Order. Now, only the psionic spirit of the God-Emperor holds sway over his creations. With the Merican Akashic and its copies, we know that the Thunder Warriors persisted. The great Master of Merica Exalted, a scholar-dictator, wrote extensively about the Thunder Warriors. He was haunted by their image.
There is a similar lack of detail about the Custodes' role in the Horus Heresy, that goes even beyond the usual sparsity of apocryphal sources that refer to that dark time. It is thought that the first Custodes leader was a warrior named Constantin Valdor, who disappeared from records after the Horus Heresy. Many scholars with decades of experience - or in some cases more - believe that the Custodes fought against the Thousand Sons on the traitorous Legion's home world of Prospero, and defended the Imperial Palace during Horus' assault against the Throneworld . A handful suggest that the Custodes fought a war parallel to that of the Horus Heresy before the Siege of Terra, one that only they could have won, the details of which are now lost to time.
Again, the detail is censored rather than lost. Constantin Valdor was not the first Custodes leader, though he was the first one to call himself by the name of Custodes rather than the previous name. His disappearance was due to
shame. After all, the Thunder Warriors chose to play deity and create the Orks. He erased himself from history rather than admit his mistake. We know this as it is written in the Book of Ursha, which has been dated to the Horus Heresy by credible historians. The "parallel war" they fought was the War in Heaven, attested by period sources. The War in Heaven was a war between factions of the Custodes to determine whether to make more of their kind. It ended with the resolution to turn only the most worthy into Custodes, and to limit their number. The name of the war was well-chosen, it truly was catastrophic and divine.
If the Space Marines are the scions of the Primarchs , then the Custodes are the progeny of the Emperor. His might permeates them, burns in their eyes and flows through their veins as surely as their blood. Potential Custodians are taken in at a very young age to better survive no older than late infancy - and it is a great honour for those of Terran noble houses to submit a son.
This is true. Just as the Emperor is now the Lord of Order, the Primarchs are children of something divine and horrifying. Behind their eyes there is no mercy and the love in their hearts melts planets to slag. Most sons do not survive the Awakening which makes them Custodes. Most minds and bodies simply cannot handle it. All the better, the Thunder Warriors think. They prefer to weed out the weak.
The Adeptus Custodes' inductees are remade at a genetic level, their baser drives rendered inert and their beings turned towards aggression, fulfilment of duty and goal acquisition.
This is not true. The Custodes are not at all remade to be aggressive or dutiful. The great secret of the Thunder Warriors is that while they once valued those goals, only a scant few still do. Custodies are truly made to be ambitious, hyper-intelligent, strategically savvy, entitled, and driven by cold logic and nuclear emotions. Custodes have every trait critical to Terrans, from compassion to heartlessness, just exaggerated a thousand times. These are not Space Marines. These are humanity exaggerated to minor godhood.
What is done to the Custodes inductee is several degrees
more exact and changing than work carried out to create a Space Marine, producing warriors much tougher, faster, stronger and with greater intelligence than the Adeptus Astartes. Some argue that the process even affects a Custodian's soul.
...They have far greater intelligence. The Custodes have an almost supernatural sense of what to do and when to do it. I am certain that the process affects a Custodian's soul. The Dukes of Order are what they are. Truthfully, I find them unsettling.
It is quite possible that the alchemists who create the Custodes do not themselves understand what they are doing, and are simply following procedures passed down
to them by rote.
Most things in the Imperium are done through rote memory, so I would not be surprised if this was the case.
It is not just the body of a Custodian candidate that must change. Their mind must also be forged anew. A Custodian must be totally loyal, remorseless, vigilant, and tireless. Their sense of duty to the Emperor must be all that matters to them, their discipline reaching deeper into their psyche than unconscious desire. A Custodian becomes duty. He becomes discipline. For this to happen, every inductee is mentally indoctrinated—their psyches are rebuilt from the ground up, creating mental architecture as well fortified as the Imperial Palace itself...They must learn diplomacy, statecraft, astrogation, interestellar geography, history, philosophy, art, theosophy, artistry and countless other subjects—all of which they become true masters of. The Emperor once demanded their counsel, and so they have to be versed in any manner of subject that he might consult them on.
Two truths and a lie.The truths are that the Custodians must learn all of these studies, and that the Emperor once did seek the advice of the former Thunder Warriors. The lie is that the Custodians are anything but disciplined. To be a Custodes is to be a superhuman viper, a scheming genius playing games so complex even Tzeentch might be impressed. The Custodians are anything but disciplined, and they have no sense of duty beyond the superficial impression of it. They bicker, they outmaneuver each other, and they in many ways rule the Imperium from the shadows. They are the Thunder Warriors, and they are beyond everything.
Additionally , the threats to the Emperor are so myriad that they may manifest in any way. A Custodian can trace the most innocent-sounding philosophical question to outright treachery, or forsee how a marauding alien force might grow to threaten Terra - even if it currently terrorises a remote system at the edge of the galaxy.
Many of these threats do not exist. A Custodian uses the threat of treachery to advance his interests like a Rogue Trader writ large, he uses the claim of an alien threat to justify his own baronial rule, and of course he uses the legend of his subservience to justify his conquests.
The Custodes are also aware of truths that no one else in the Imperium has ever learned . They know some of the galaxy's gravest secrets, for they must be able to face down and defeat the darkest terrors of the galaxy. They recognise how far Mankind has fallen from the original ideals of the Emperor, of enlightenment and common sense . The inductees learn that many truths cannot be shared, that some would cause wholesale damage to the Emperor's Imperium as corrupted from his original vision as it has become. Some cannot handle this knowledge, or bear the tragedy of what the Human race has descended into since the Horus Heresy - when their forebears failed in their solemn duty. These candidates do not become Custodes, and so through this learning are the unworthy and the weak culled.
This is largely untrue. While the Custodes do generally comport themselves as enlightened and followers of rationality, this is not a secret. Indeed, most who associate with the Custodes are aware that they are largely atheistic rationalists. This is not some dark secret to be hidden, it is simply obvious. The Custodes do not maintain the spiritualist nightmare of the Imperium out of some grave bargain to keep the Imperium alive, they do it because the faith they are apostates of is an excellent way to maintain their power.
The weak, however, are culled from time to time, though typically failed Custodes serve as advisors or subordinates rather than as bodies for the pile.
Those survivors of the induction process that emerge as Custodians are changed in every way imaginable, their minds so altered that they have entirely new personalities. They are rendered physically perfect and their skills with all kinds of weapons are sublime. Custodians even change their names, choosing those of gods, kings or heroes drawn from the most ancient texts. With enormously extended lifespans, they do not grow old as Humans do, but they can be slain in combat. Members of their own families would not recognise them , should they be alive to see what has happened to their son , nephew or cousin - though many would claim they could out of pride.
Again, we see the myth of the Custodes-as-soldier. They are leaders as much as they are soldiers. Still, the rest of this is essentially accurate, and it does display the arrogance to be found among the Thunder Warriors.
Also known as the Pale Scourge, the Soulless Ones, the Eyrine, the Null-Maidens and the Daughters of the Abyss, the Sisters of Silence are highly specialised witch finders. They are experts in hunting down rogue psykers, dangerous warlocks and depraved sorcerers - both Human and alien. Their remit to hunt down magi and witches ensures that they are constantly at war, for these nefarious foes dwell everywhere. Hardened warriors all, they pronounce the Emperor's judgement with bolt, flame and blade.
We have our own names for the Sisters of Silence. We call them the Empresses of Madness, the Vile Ones, or simply the Hatred. They hunt and violate all who they are told. They do not think like humans, they do not act like humans, and where the Custodes seek conquest and empire the Hatred seek only to snuff out the light of those who practice psionics. They are not animals, for animals have the capacity to love.
They are rightfully called Pariahs—soulless in the most literal sense. While the Imperium claims their origins are "shrouded in mystery", the truth is that the Sisters of Silence have a more mundane past than that. They were once T'au. Female T'au, abducted and experimented on, were turned into these abominations through cruel science and dark wizardry, made hulking mutant beasts. Their minds were twisted and shattered beyond repair. They are abominations, as unlike T'au as T'au are like Tyranids. Their creation was evil in the blackest sense, and so are they.
They take the Vow of Tranquillity upon completion of their training, in which they swear eternal duty and silence.
Of course. The last thing the Imperium needs is for its people to realize it has "xenos" fighting for it.
What is clear is that they fell from grace in [the Horus Heresy]'s aftermath . Their numbers were much reduced by the fighting, and many of those that survived were scattered or lost. Without the Emperor to support them, and with the Custodians looking inward after their failure to protect the Master of Mankind, the natural aversion many felt towards Blanks led the Sisters' political enemies to drive them out of positions of influence. With their numbers so depleted and spread out, they lacked the strength to assert themselves against the growing power of the Ecclesiarchy which argued that soulless creatures could not possibly have faith. For years, many of those who had been aware of the Silent Sisterhood's existence believed the order to have been disbanded. They were wrong.
The Horus Heresy was a conflict over the fate of the Imperium between the Emperor's prodigial son and the Emperor himself. It is true that the Ecclesiarchy dislikes the Sisters of Silence, unaware of their true nature. However, rumors do spread, and there are many questionable tales of the origins of the Sisters.
The Talons of the Emperor have permission to access gene-sealed vaults and adamantine-shielded archive bunkers deep beneath the Himalayic Shelf that are closed to all others. To protect them is just one of many responsibilities held by these ancient and esoteric orders. Their duties are varied, specialised and fathomless in their complexity. Should they fail, the consequences for the Imperium would be beyond disastrous. Thus, they are never allowed amomentof laxity or introspection.
There are many sources, and the archive bunkers under the Himalyic Shelf are not the only historical references in the galaxy. They are, however, one of the few completely unedited sources within the Imperium of Man, and as such their value is significant. The truth usually is prized.
The most learned of Imperial historitors cannot even imagine what treasures and horrors are kept within the Imperial Palace's vaults, archives and gaols. There are more chambers and cells than anyone can name, and much of what lies therein is so dreadful that they could bring about the fall of Humanity, or shatter the sanity of any unaugmented Human that learned of them. Relics of the Dark Age of Technology - such as the Lament of Unreason, the Black Periapt of Rai'Then'yl and the hideous Tri-blight Amulet - are kept under psychically charged lock and key, behind metres- thick slabs of gene-sealed adamantine that are covered in runic wards. There are also xenos artefacts, some all that remains of civilisations that became extinct millions of years ago. The vaults not only hold artefacts and relics, however. They also hold beings. It That Craves, Subject XI and One Of The Fell are but a handful of thousands . At times, the Custodes have even had to hold back the horrifying denizens of the rune-locked vaults from breaking free of their imprisonment.
I cannot say for certain whether this is true or false, but I sincerely doubt that it is true. The idea that the Custodes are spending their time preventing abominations and horrors from escaping caves on Terra seems absurd to me. Frankly, they are usually too busy for such trivial matters. This is likely an unintentional falsehood inserted by the Codex writer.
Only the Adeptus Custodes may decide who can have an audience with the Emperor. Such an honour is granted in only the most unusual circumstances. Not one enemy has gained access to his throne room in ten thousand years. This responsibility falls to the Companions - a three-hundred strong force of Custodians who serve as the direct bodyguards of the Emperor. Each is hand -picked by the Captain-General following a painstaking assessment based on the candidate's performance in battle, mental acuity and spiritual fortitude, alongside many other factors. Rank and veteran status have no bearing on selection. For the Custodians, there is no more important duty. When about their duties, the Companions are arranged in ranks around the Golden Throne. They stand completely still, unspeaking and poised on the cusp of readiness. This they do for incredible amounts of time, though they can rotate out of their position for rest.
This is true in a literal sense, but omits that the Companions serve a similar role to the Praetorian Guard of ancient Rome. They do not simply defend the Emperor, they influence him and use their service to him as justification for their own games of power.
The list of duties that fall to the Custodes is long and ever-adapting as new threats emerge. Custodians oversee the soul-bonding ritual, in which thousands of psykers each day are drained of their life force to sustain the Emperor, and thus
the Astronomican.
There are alternate ways to travel. The T'au use Ether Drives, and we use the Webway. Surely if there are alternate means to engage in faster-than-light travel, thousands of murders each day are simply unnecessary?
Known also as the Psyker Cull, the Hunt That Never Ends, the Grand Harvesting and Terra's Due, the Great Tithe is the process by which the Imperium deals with its population's psykers . Every world in the Imperium is required to hand over its psykers when the Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica arrive. The Sisters of Silence garrison these dark vessels, their presence ensuring the collected witches cannot use their powers.
Black Ships are cruiser or battle cruiser variants uniquely optimised for gaoling psykers and transporting them. They often travel alone and may encounter worlds in the throes of upheaval of rebellion, so are heavily armed, even carrying exterminatus-grade weaponry. Black Ships are rigged for extended operations and can function for years without resupply. They are outfitted with complex stealth systems which mean they can travel unnoticed by signal and auspex scan. Internally, a Black Ships' structure is interlaced with systems designed to block the psychic powers of those wretched souls held within its cells . It also has cryo-crypts and stasis chambers for the most dangerous prisoners, and many of its systems are automated, so fewer vulnerable Human crew are required.
When a Black Ship is full of prisoners , it returns to Terra, where its captives are handed over to the Scholastica Psykana for processing. Before this, however, many vessels will have their Human cargo processed at any one of numerous secret worlds, anchorages, outposts and collection-node stations, to prevent overcrowding around Terra and also to shield it from additional risk. The Sisters of Silence rule these places and give few outsiders access.
By Ynnead, may they feel blessed agony, as befits their hatred and vice.
No world in the Imperium is better defended than Terra. It is shielded by layer after layer of protections of all kinds, and defended and maintained by all manner of organisations against the endless threats the galaxy holds. Even with all of these in place, however, the Custodes must be eternally vigilant. Dangers and foes continue to lurk in Terra's darkest places.
This is a bad joke. Terra is thoroughly under Imperial control, and it has been for millennia. They continue to invent enemies for themselves so as to justify a permanent war footing. "In the grim darkness, there is only war" is not a statement of fact, it is a
mission statement. There is no beauty or loving agony in war, only slaughter.
The Imperial Palace is the largest and most impregnable fortress in the Imperium. Sprawling across an entire mountain range, the circumference of its walls is thousands of miles long. Once it was a structure of incomparable beauty - a testament to Mankind's engineering, architectural and cultural achievements. Since then, necessity as well as devastation inflicted during the Siege of Terra - has made it brutish , ugly and functional, as endless ordnance batteries, bulwarks, towers and other defensive placements were added.
The Imperium is obsessed with the idea of the "fall from grace". They are nostalgics. Everything was better in the past, everything must return to the past, only the Emperor can bring the past back. The idea is simplistic and leads almost inevitably to murderous dissatisfaction with the galaxy as it is. I suppose I am vulnerable to this thinking as well, but I do try and remind myself that the Peak of the Aeldari was merely different to now rather than better.
...Many other Space Marine Chapters also have little idea that some of their serfs report to the Ten Thousand [the Custodes] in secret...The threat of the Genestealer Cults is insidious indeed.
Paranoia is a very efficient means of social control, and it is funny that Thunder Warrior infiltration is treated as benign while Genestealer Cult infiltration is assumed to be a massive problem. In truth, the Genestealers are an overstated problem, and often new religious movements are labeled "Genestealer Cults" simply to justify cracking down on heresy and heathenry.
The Ten Thousand know that it is only a matter of time before the latest threat is uncovered.
Of course, when there are no threats to justify their actions, they'll make one. The Orks are proof of that.
The Sol System's inviolability surpasses that of any other system in the Imperium. An attacking foe would find themselves under near overwhelming assault from the moment of their arrival , and the deeper they plunged into the system , the more intense the response would be . The outer-system is laced with colossal fields of void mines and sentry turrets. The halo-belt boast countless star forts, garrisoned by dedicated Astra Militarum and Militarum Tempestus regiments who drill night and day in counter- invasion manoeuvres. The system is prowled by monitors and vacuum - hardened hunter servitors , as well as squadrons from Battlefleet Solar - such as the 1st Terran Battle Cruiser Armada. Weapons platforms gaze out into space, their augur systems ever searching for targets. Dock- fortresses and fighter bases litter the void , the craft that call them home ready to strike out on a moment's notice.
The Imperium worships their military even more than they worship their Lord of Order, and this sort of gushing monologue only confirms their loathsome conformity.
Theodorik's lips were dry. He tried to lick them, but could not .
Even after a year I'm still not used to it , he thought.
The Custodians had taken his tongue on completion of his fifteen years of scribal training . A precaution in case of capture - one of many to keep the knowledge he had safe . Others were far less visible , and much more painful . He had already learned many things eagerly sought after by the wrong kind of people , or creatures.
Such a Custodes would simply communicate with sign language. These grand gestures of security serve less as actual tactics and more as dramatic "proofs" of sacrifice and obedience, neither of which a Custodes must bow before.
Praise be to Him, Theodorik prayed. Our enemies will know the true meaning of fear when the impaling spear of the auric demigods reaches across the stars to skewer them wherever they are. What can our Imperium not achieve with the Ten Thousand marching abroad en masse? How many false idols will be toppled? How many xenos races put to the spear? How many traitors purged and their foul domains made sacrosanct? The Emperor protects - as threats to his people arise, he reaches out to shield them with his own guard!
...and the Imperials sincerely believe they are feared by their enemies due to their enemies iniquity, rather than their own savagery.
Nonetheless, the Custodes are not an army per se, and are not expected to prosecute war. Instead, their purpose is to utterly dominate any battlezone they fight in. They are a paramilitary force, not a strategic one, created to serve as bodyguards and eliminators of specific threats.
What doublespeak! They are "not an army", but they are meant to "dominate any battlezone"! How silly. The Custodes are not paramilitary nor military. They are
heroic, closer to Gilgamesh and Hercules than Napoleon or Gilles de Rais. They are conquerers, kings by their own hand.
The Magisterium Lex Ultima also means that none can give the Custodes orders besides the Emperor himself. Even Guilliman can only request their aid, and it is to the Imperium's great benefit that Valoris agreed that the Custodes should take a more active role in the galaxy. In fact, the Captain-General was more than willing, having already begun preparing his order for greater activity beyond the Sol System.
They are privileged nobility, heroes in the classical sense. For devoted servants of the Imperium they certainly reign far more than they serve. This work is also unsubtle in its bias, with talk of "great benefit" and phrases like "a more active role" to obscure the violence and machinations of the Dukes of Order.
Nothing is spared to ensure that the Custodes have the very best wargear
in the Imperium, in any volume they require. In acquiring their vast arsenal of weaponry, the Custodes have no regard whatsoever for the amount of resources required, nor the rarity of the components necessary. They are armed deliberately to be able to deal with threats both within the realm of Mankind and without - being better equipped in every way imaginable is just one way in which the Custodes assure their superiority.
...I feel as though I am sounding like a "broken voxcaster", as the Terrans say, but this text infuriates me. The superiority of the Thunder Warriors is not some natural gift, it is a structure created by the Custodes and by the Imperium, one that is unjust and earned not by merit but by resource hoarding and naked control.
Every Custodian's weapons are handcrafted especially for him by entire generations of hereditary artisans, whose families have only ever worked for the Custodes . These craftsmen themselves have been gene -forged to enhance
traits of dexterity and extreme patience, which improve their skills even further. Every weapon and piece of wargear is an individual masterwork...
Slaves! You mean their weapons are made by slaves! You can call them "serfs", or "hereditary artisans" or whatever nonsense you wish, but the Adeptus Custodes keeps slaves!
[Primarch Guilliman] remembered the Sisters' value and importance, and knew that with the forces of Chaos being never more powerful, he would need warriors with the Sisters' unique skills.
...The Forces of Chaos fight for compassion, joy, life, and hope. The Vile Ones fight for a corpse that birthed a monster like an egg.
He also appointed Sister Asurma of the convent on the planet Yllax - as Sister-Commander of the entire Silent Sisterhood. She has vowed to grow her ranks, as well as never let her Order's power be weakened by other Imperial bodies. There is much work to be done in this regard, as new prison - fortresses are built for the ever swelling numbers of psykers claimed by the Great Tithe, and old and abandoned keeps that the Sisters once managed are restored. This has not been easy. Even with Guilliman's support , the Sisters' old enemies the Ecclesiarchy to name one have not gone away, and are very concerned with the Silent Sisterhood's sudden renaissance.
I do not often agree with the Ecclesiarchy, but it is a well-known truth that many of those who serve the Lord of Order are genuinely good people. As far as I know from my friend Sister Vandire of the Sororitas (no relation to the infamous Goge Vandire), the Ecclesiarchy is not opposed to the Sisters of Silence on some absurd fascist logic. They are opposed to a sect of superhuman, inhuman monsters preying on the innocent. They recognize the Sisters of Silence for the beasts they are. I hope that the Ecclesiarchy manages to win this struggle.
I have no hatred for those who serve the Lord of Order without engaging in monstrous acts, and there are many who fit that description.
The Sisters of Silence have played a significant role in the Indomitus Crusade, with a portion of their number joining every fleet.
Isn't that interesting? The Sisters of Silence are joining "every fleet", almost as if they are agents of the Emperor and the Thunder Warriors acting in a soft coup against the Ecclesiarchy, who the Lord of Order and the Thunder Warriors are known to dislike on religious grounds.
Still, the Sisters are a relentless force who answer to none but the Golden Throne. They are coldly rational, possess great tactical discipline and are as adept at utilising stealth and counter-surveillance as they are at launching rapid, overlapping assaults of bolter, flamer and blade.
My, I wonder why the Sisters—who are absolutely
not mutated T'au—would fight like Fire Warriors? What a mystery.
The equipment the Sisters still have is, as it always was, extremely resource-intensive. The required materials are rare and obscure, and even harder to acquire in quantity since the emergence of the Great Rift. Nonetheless, Asurma has ordered their acquisition to be made a priority, and is backed by Roboute Guilliman.
...Guilliman's Abominations continue to serve him, even in these days where half of the Imperium has lost contact with Terra.
Many claim that Trajann Valoris is the greatest warrior to have ever held the title of Captain-General, one of the most powerful military appointments in the Imperium. Valoris is responsible for the overall defence of the Sol System , Terra, and the Emperor himself. He has stood amongst the ranks of the High Lords of Terra and leads great military campaigns of the Ten Thousand.
Trajann Valoris does not exist. He is a propaganda hero. He is a legend, a story, an old wives' tale. He is a name used by any Imperial leader who wishes for his deeds and his dark actions to remain anonymous. He has been sighted in so many disparate places he could not possibly have been in any of them. He is said to be a slayer of entire Necron tombs, a vanquisher of Alpha Legion cells, a breaker of Ork factories, and so much more. He is said to be an expert at the perfect, devastating strike, but every strike he supposedly makes is done in such disparate ways that the chances they are all one man are slim to none. Allegedly, he even wields the Moment Shackle, a relic from the Age of High Technology (or the "Dark Age of Technology" as the Imperials put it) that can slow time itself. Such a thing is likely not even possible. There probably never was a Trajann Valoris.
Unlike the soldiers of other branches of the Imperial military, the warriors
of the Custodes commonly fight as individuals, rather than in cohesive units . The Adeptus Custodes are more akin to a warrior aristocracy than a hierarchical fighting force like the Astra Militarum or Adeptus Astartes. Custodians operate within a system of meritocracy that sees success and ability afforded great honour, regardless of an individual's experience. This does not bring them disadvantage, however; in battle, it makes every squad - known to the Custodes as a sodality - a highly flexible unit that can be trusted to fulfil a role without overt command and control protocols being in place.
Half-truths. The Custodes do indeed operate in an informal, meritocratic fashion, but this is a detriment as much as an advantage. In fact, it means that their strikes are uncoordinated, their leaders are prone to bickering, and their battle-plans as likely to backfire or succeed only on raw force as they are to succeed on merit.
Over the course of a Custodian's genetically extended lifetime, he will accrue a number of honour-names and titles. These are based on his glorious battlefield deeds, personal characteristics, life history and the given role he currently holds. Many names are derived from those of tyrants and lords from Terran legend. All lend to a culture that harks back to a history deeper than any other Imperial organisation, which separates the Custodes further from the rest of the Imperium and ties them closer to the timeless nature of the Emperor.
It is worth noting that the Custodes often operate as a secret society, and that these names and titles signify rank and place in the often-clandestine group. As for how I know of all of this, I am extrapolating from all I have heard and read, which is no small number of sources. Some more specific guesses on their secret operations may not be completely accurate, but I have done my best.
Dreadnoughts use technology the Imperium can no longer replicate , such as atomantic shields that dispel laser blasts and incoming artillery shells . Auto-repair protocols, motive shrines and auto-sanctified backup systems take the strain should the auramite-clad chassis come under severe trauma. What is strangest of all about these combat walkers are their pilots . Should a warrior be so severely wounded he can no longer fight, he may be interred within a Dreadnought. These Custodians are reduced to nought but their brain and vital organs , placed within an amniotic tank and fused permanently with the Dreadnought's life support systems. From then on , they become one with the Dreadnought and live a twilight existence the robotic body's legs become their legs, its vox emitter becomes their mouth and its sensoria becomes their eyes and ears. There are some tales of unharmed Custodians volunteering to be interred, perhaps as a result of some self-perceived shame, or an act of self -sacrifice to ensure the Ten Thousand always have these engines of destruction.
I pity the men interned in that metal Hell, and I find it darkly amusing that our Wracks are so disdained in the last Codex, but that this utter horror in the name of a vile Lord of Order is something the Codex expects us to see as acceptable and necessary. This is genuinely chilling. What ugly, boring pain.
The next page discusses the Shadowkeepers, the Custodian jailors who allegedly keep horrifying abominations under control.
For ten thousand years the Shadowkeepers have performed their duty, yet the coming of the Great Rift changed everything. With the power of Chaos spilling raw and seething into the spaces between the stars, new abominations have come to light. Worse still are the cells that stand suddenly empty the entities and artefacts once contained within spirited away by some unholy force to curse the galaxy once more. Fearing the consequences of this, the Shadowkeepers have sent more warriors than ever before out into the galaxy. These gaolers must trammel that which should not be, slaughtering all who seek to impede them, before returning their foul prizes to the cells where they belong.
It is true that the Shadowkeepers are jailors, but it is untrue that they are noble heroes keeping ancient horrors from escaping. They are simply jailors for powerful entities, such as Avatars of Khaine or Greater Daemons. These entities are often not any more harmful than any other being, and are kept under lock and key for more mundane concerns. Most importantly, however, the Shadowkeepers jail rogue Custodes, of which there have been many.
The Aquilan Shield are an informal brotherhood laced through the ranks of the Adeptus Custodes. They typically operate in small warrior bands, journeying across the stars to stand watch over their charges wherever they may be. No warning is given, nor permission asked - the warriors of the Aquilan Shield appear as if from nowhere, avatars of the Emperor's will who announce their quarry to be under the protection of the Master of Mankind.
The Aquilan Shield are the most noble of the Custodes, but also the most fearsome. They are associated with true charity and devotion, but also with ruthless extermination of all they find to be a danger to the ones they protect. Such beings are as impressive as they are horrifying in their severity. I fear and hate them, but I cannot understand them, and a rare few are actually compassionate.
The Aquilan Shield fight to ensure such a future comes to pass, guarding their charges from harm until the exact moment the usefulness of the person under their protection is deemed spent. At that point, they depart without a word , leaving those they guarded to look to their own defence. Tragedy often follows, but this is of no concern to the Aquilan Shield - providing it does not jeopardise the safety of the Golden Throne.
Rare compassion, indeed.
I did purge the depraved Aeldari from Bajil, before Aetropas destroyed their bloodstained, spike-walled arenas and heinous torture pits. Each one screamed as they died. I only hope that whatever they suffered equalled what they had inflicted on those we freed. My task is not complete. The tendrils of Leviathan constrict the Segmentum Solar. The Archenemy runs rampant still. The Nachmund Gauntlet burns . The boiling cauldron of Octarius threatens to bubble over and drown sectors in blood. The nightmarish silence of the Pariah Nexus grows ever deeper.
And, of course, when one stares into the abyss, one often finds himself going mad. This quote from a Custodes displays their true face and blackened hearts.
The Dread Host represents a breathtaking concentration of military might. It numbers hundreds of Custodians , organised into multiple shield hosts and transported aboard a trio of pre-heresy warships - the Aetropas, the Clotis and the Lakesis - collectively known as the Moiraides. The nature of this army is simple: it is the deliverer of the Emperor's judgement, his anger and his punishment made manifest.
Rage destroys, and it cannot be controlled for long.
They slaughter the enemy's warriors and reduce their war engines to wreckage. They cast down false idols and set them aflame. They topple their foe's cities, sunder their strongholds, butcher their allies and decimate their followers. The Dread Host makes grisly examples of those who would dare lead such a challenge to the Emperor's dominion, accepting no surrender and foiling all bids at flight.
If these were Night Lords, the Imperium would condemn them. I often get the sense that the Imperium is not opposed to immoral acts so much as it always prefers to be the one doing the deed rather than having it done to them.
Humanity maintains hundreds of strongholds throughout the Sol System . Billions of weapons point menacingly into the dark gulfs of space, ready to unleash spectacular devastation upon any foolish enough to threaten Mankind's seat of power.
Humanity is once unstoppable and in critical danger. How typical of the fascist mindset.
While their authority technically extends to the Red Planet, the Adeptus Custodes are wise enough to maintain cordial relations with the servants of the Omnissiah, and so travel to that world only occasionally. They keep their distance, expecting the Tech-Priests of Mars to censure their own deviants.
This vastly overestimates the cordiality of the relationship between the Custodes and the Mechanicus, which at times resembles a series of terror attacks or even a very low-level civil war.
Amidst the snow-coated ruins of a mountain -top basilica on Sansha XII, Custodes and Sisters of Silence purged a warband of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion. The Heretic Astartes dared to attempt to enact a grave ritual close to the Sol System itself.
Even as the Imperium falsely claims that heresy contributes to evil gods and must be stamped out entirely, the cruelty of its agents against those of other faiths is unparalleled. The ritualists were not Word Bearers, they were civilian Chaos worshippers who the Word Bearers were escorting. "Civilian" in High Gothic translates to "target", ha.
The hotter the forge , the finer the blade, or so they say. The forge of war in which we now find ourselves blazes hotter than anything the Imperium has seen in ten millennia. We of the Adeptus Custodes were built to endure these fires. They will not be our end. Instead, we will be honed to the finest cutting edge, that we may be the bane of even the foulest heretics.
This quote from the alleged Trajann Valoris is a description of what the Custodes would like to be seen as. Here is a quote from Sister Vandire of the Adepta Sororitas, which I believe is more accurate.
"A servant of the God-Emperor of Mankind must balance her mercy with just fury. She must bring fire and death to those who would endanger the innocent or the faith, and bring kindness and care to all else. She must be true in word, spirit, and deed, and she must fear nothing. She must serve the many nearly as devoutly as she serves the One. Above all, she must serve. Not rule, serve. My Fathers in the Custodes who serve are mighty and blessed, but I know the God-Emperor will smite those who seek to parasitize his mantle. May he scourge this blight, and may His will be done."
Her faith may be questionably placed, but her words are true.
