Editing Grey Knights (section)

==Gene-Seed==
Unlike "regular" Astartes, the Grey Knights' gene-seed is made with [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Big Daddy Emps]] own unmodified genetic material. This buffs their natural psychic abilities and makes them even less appealing to daemons. Exactly ''HOW'' the Emperor managed to make this gene-seed, produced a full gene-vault's worth, got it to Titan, while stuck in the world's least comfortable recliner trying to keep the Chaos-gods from kicking in Terra's door, and his favorite son having an angsty rebellious teenager phase with half his Empire's military forces right in his front yard, is unknown.

In point of fact, the novel, Saturnine, makes it clear that the first Astartes ever produced were made with gene-seed directly from his own stock (Perhaps a number of First Legion Astartes include these first Marines and their gene-seed produced via Progenoids). The experiments were conducted and the ones that successfully produced the kinds of warriors Astartes were needed to be were deemed "templates" and then the Primarch gene-stock was integrated into the system to produce warriors that matched the template with the exceptions of qualities that suited the Primarch whose image they were made in. This directly contradicts decades of lore that said he made the Primarchs first then based the Astartes off of them, but then again Saturnine isn't known for [[Erda|sticking to the lore.]] That said, since the Emperor's body is just a biomancy creation of his, he would have to have created the gene-seed the very hard way in a lab from his DNA. He doesn't have a Progenoid, after all.

...Or ''is'' it the Emperor's?

Let's ignore for a minute that the Grey Knights like to claim they're descended from The Emperor's own gene-seed because: A) that's kinda stupid, and B) the [[Sons of the Phoenix|Sons of the Phoenix]] probably like to claim that they ''totally'' carry the gene-seed of Rogal Dorn (and may even believe it themselves).

In ''Fury of Magnus'', we have a bit of dialogue during the Siege of Terra between Big E and Magnus about creating a second legion under his command as a replacement for the Thousand Sons. The Emperor tells him that he's free to come back and be a part of the Imperium again, but between the Flesh Change and their dark sorceries further corrupting them, the Thousand Sons are a lost cause.

But Emps tells Magnus that he's already building him a new legion. A legion better than the Thousand Sons. Outright better than any of the other 19 too. A legion "Whose flesh will be flawless. Whose fists are steel. Whose hearts are armored in adamantium. And they would be the pride of the new Imperium,". A legion fit to be lead by the second greatest psyker to ever walk the galaxy.

Remind you of any silver (alleged) mary-sues?

Obviously Magnus turned it down despite [[Vulkan]]'s pleas to accept it and officially declared his loyalty to Chaos on the spot. But, according to Emps, the new legion was already in the process of being created anyway. And it's not like founding a chapter [[Carcharodons|from]] [[Blood Ravens|traitor]] [[Shadow Wolves|legion]] [[Minotaurs|stock is]] [[Silver Skulls|unheard of]], [[Red Scorpions|either]]. This could also lend itself to better explaining the Grey Knights' resistance to chaotic corruption. The Rubric which would turn the vast majority of the Thousand Sons into dusty suits of armor also had an effect on the surviving members. Any psyker strong enough amongst the legion had their psychic powers supercharged and were untouched by any (unwilling) mutations. With the Grey Knights recruiting exclusively from already powerful psykers, and unlikely to willingly give into the gifts of chaos, perhaps the spell that became the ruin of the first sons of Magnus was also a bulwark protecting his second sons.

However, that particular possibility has been thrown into significant doubt due to the fact that, most recently, Vulkan revealed to Magnus that his final interaction with the Emperor hadn't gone down quite as he remembered. Instead of rejecting command of the Grey Knights, Magnus's last pure soul shard had apparently burst into the throne room, begged the Emperor to save him, and been rejected. There was never an offer of a new Legion or a place at the Emperor's side. Tzeentch, and Magnus's own psyche, had clouded his perceptions to the point that what he remembered seeing and doing was completely different to what actually happened. While we still don't know with 100% certainty which version of events is correct, the final version makes far more sense. The idea that the Emperor would have given Magnus control of the Grey Knights after everything Magnus had done, and knowing Magnus's character, makes absolutely no sense. Funnily enough, Vulkan actually made a point of that when explaining the situation to Magnus.