2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Primarch

2020-08-28T09:17:15Z

2001:1C03:4118:C200:0:0:0:65:

[[Image:Primarchs big.JPG|thumb|right|500px|Several of the Primarchs at the Triumph of the Ullanor Crusade. From left to right: Sanguinius, Mortarion, Magnus the Red, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Lorgar, Rogal Dorn, Horus, and Fulgrim.]]
{{Topquote|Man must become stronger, more profound and more evil.|Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None}}
{{Topquote|According to the word of God, the meek would someday inherit the earth. Someday. But God never accounted for the mighty.|Norman McCay, Kingdom Come}}
{{Topquote|There is but one good, and that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. It's not out of bad mice or bad fleas you make demons, but out of bad archangels.|C.S. Lewis}}
The '''Primarchs''' were the twenty ([[Omegon|-one]]) genetically-engineered sons of [[The Emperor]] and the female Perpetual Erda. Using both His and Her DNA in their creation, the Primarchs were designed to be far superior to even <s>[[Space Marines]]</s> the Adeptus Custodes: they were taller, stronger, faster and more intelligent. Artificial Perpetuals, to replace the Perpetuals that left His great plan throughout history. Certainly faster and stronger, but the intelligence they display, especially in the Horus Heresy books, seem to be limited to their own specialities, making them [[Roboute Guilliman|oddly]] [[Vulkan|normal]] in some cases and [[Perturabo|fatally]] [[Magnus the Red|underdeveloped]] in other areas. They were also incredibly charismatic and were well suited to their role as the generals and leaders of the Imperium of Man.

Problem was, despite all that they were only human, and ultimately their sibling rivalries (and Chaos corruption, in the case of several of them) boiled over and ultimately developed into the [[Horus Heresy]].

==History==
[[File:Warmaster's_Coronation.jpg|300px|left|thumb|Horus Lupercal being made Warmaster of the Imperium in Ullanor. From center counter-clockwise: Horus, the Emperor, Magnus, Mortarion, Lorgar, Angron, Jaghatai Khan, Rogal Dorn, Rogal Dorn's mustache, Fulgrim and Sanguinius.]]
The Primarchs began as a continuation of the Emperor’s [[Thunder Warriors|Thunder Warrior]] legions and were successors to [[the Angel]]. Each of the 20 proto-legions were led by a general analogue called a Primarch. Unlike the later leaders of the Legiones Astartes, the thunder warrior Primarchs were the same as the troops they led and were hand picked by the Emperor for their skill and command ability. The instability (both physical, genetic, and mental) of the thunder warriors led the Emperor to try and find more stable and powerful generals to lead his armies. It can be safely assumed that the original Primarchs were killed in the line of duty or purged before history could record them thoroughly. The only one named thus far was Ushotan of the 4th Legio Cataegis - then known as the Iron Lords. Valdor considered him almost an equal in terms of his martial and command ability but was disturbed by his innate bloodlust and susceptibility to the then nascent effects of Chaos.

The modern Primarchs were created in a secret underground laboratory on what used to be the Himalayas, under the tightest security. All of them were derived from a subset of both the perpetual Erda and the Emperor's DNA that served as a template, which was altered differently for each of the Primarchs; it is also thought that he engineered them spiritually as well using long-forgotten psychic techniques. As the [[Raven Guard]] discovered after the Emperor granted them access to the original data from the Primarchs' creation, many of the Primarchs' gene-samples were wildly divergent from the original template- some had long gene sequences deleted, while others had non-human DNA spliced into them for reasons only known to the Emperor. (A particularly intriguing discovery was one sample labeled "[[Leman Russ|Subject VI]]", [[Furry| which had extensive amounts of canine DNA added to it]].)

[[File:BabyPrimarchs.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Master of Mankind raises his eighteen babies as devoted father. The [[Grimdark|truth]] is less [[Anime|kawaii desu]].]]
The Emperor's original plan was to have His superhuman creations mature safely in His lab and guide them from 'birth' toward the role He'd foreseen for them. However, Erda did not want for her sons what the Emperor had planned for them and herself, caused the Scattering. Much to the delight of [[Chaos]] and in spite of the safeguards the Emperor had set up, the Ruinous Powers were able to spirit the Primarchs away from the laboratory right before they would emerge from their pods and scatter them across the universe (Conveniently, the canine sample get scattered to a wolf-planet) [[Just as planned]]. For whatever reason, the Emperor did not punish Erda and she was allowed to live out her immortal life in seclusion, in the remnants of Africa. She would always love her sons. Somehow, the Emperor knew his sons were still alive but had no clue to where they could be nor any immediate way to search for them. So he took it in stride, shrugged it off as a minor setback (unknowingly, this would come to bite him back in the ass nastily later on) and went ahead with the second part of his plan: his Space Marine project. Using DNA samples from each Primarch before they were abducted, the Emperor created twenty legions of [[Space Marines]], in what would later be called the [[First Founding]]. They would form the core of the armies He needed to conquer the galaxy, and the absence of the Primarchs leading those would only serve as a motivation for the warriors to search for them.

One consequence of the abduction, however was that each of the young Primarchs were forced to adapt to the lifestyle on their new homeworld, something which would influence and mold them throughout their lives. The Primarchs rapidly grew to adulthood and quickly rose to power, often becoming the leaders of their world. As the Emperor crusaded to unify the galaxy he would occasionally stumble upon another long-lost son. When this happened, the Emperor would hold a celebration in honor of this discovery, give the Primarch their Legion to command, then tell them to [[Angron|fuck]] [[Mortarion|off]] [[Lorgar|and start]] [[Alpharius|conquering]] [[Perturabo|worlds]] while he [[Horus|fapped]] [[Rogal Dorn|to]] [[Sanguinius|his]] [[Leman Russ|favoured]] [[Roboute Guilliman|offspring]]. The Emperor was a [[Eldrad|dick]] like that. (Or rather, he never saw the Primarchs as 'sons', just as carefully crafted tools to enforce his will and vision so he in essence made them get at it on the double to catch up with His schedule. Which is actually even more [[Cegorach|Dickish]].)

The first Primarch the Emperor discovered was Horus, who would become the Emperor's favoured son. The majority of Primarchs somehow recognized the Emperor on sight, immediately pledging their allegiance to their father. A few (such as Leman Russ and Vulkan) only swore allegiance after being bested in a contest. The only exception is Angron, who outright refused to follow the Emperor as he preferred to die in battle along with his rebels brothers and sisters in their fight against the oppressive Not-Romans. The Emperor simply shrugged and abducted his son, leaving Angron's followers to get slaughtered. Angron never really got over that dick move.

Primarch discovery order:
*1.Horus
*2.Leman Russ
*3.DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*4.Ferrus Manus
*5.Fulgrim
*6.Vulkan
*7.Rogal Dorn
*8.Roboute Guilliman
*9.Magnus the Red
*10.Sanguinius
*11.Lion El'Jonson
*12.Perturabo
*13.Mortarion
*14.Lorgar
*15.Jaghatai Khan
*16.Konrad Curze
*17.Angron
*18.DELETED FROM IMPERIAL RECORDS, DAMNATIO MEMORIAE IN PERPETUAM
*19.Corax
*20.Alpharius Omegon

At the end of the period known as the [[Great Crusade]], Horus, who had recently been promoted to the title of Warmaster, fell to Chaos and rebelled. It didn't take long for eight other of his fellow Primarchs to join his side against the Emperor, resulting in a full-scale civil war known as the [[Horus Heresy]]. Funnily enough, most of the Primarchs who sided with Horus were those who felt that the Emperor had taken a giant, steaming dump on them. So while the Emperor is the greatest tactician, biologist, warlord, and leader in the history of mankind, he's worse than a crack-addled transient junkie as a father.

As mentioned above, the Emperor's attitude toward his Primarchs was also heavily divergent to that of the greater Imperium. Whilst he indulged them in the idea that they were his "sons", privately, he didn't view the Primarchs as his literal children, analogising himself as Gepetto to 20 (21) different Pinocchio's. The Emperor even referred to Angron as "The Twelfth" rather than refer to him by name. Although this seems like typical Emperor douchebaggery, he may have behaved in this way because the Primarchs themselves prompted that dynamic, and it was easier to just go along with it. [[Leman Russ]] once boasted to [[Adeptus Custodes|Constantin Valdor]] that the Custodians would never understand the Emperor like the Primarchs could because they weren't "family", even calling the Custodians the "instruments" to be tossed aside when He cared to; Valdor's response was ''"there are so many errors there, I do not even know where to start"''.

Malcador also claimed that the Primarchs were but a means to an end; designed to be ''"conqueror's tools and nothing more"'', built to dominate and compete with each other, eventually intended to challenge each other and eventually confront the Emperor himself, he further claimed that the Primarchs had no free will and that a civil war like the Horus Heresy had always been part of the Emperor's design, although he later admits that he had to lie to spare his servant sorrow on her deathbed, so it is probable that the Primarchs were simply beyond expected control. In a separate instance: Valdor claimed ''"we turned on one another, driven by pride and human resentment"'' which assumes some measure of responsibility for the Heresy rather than completely blaming the Primarchs, and after that point he wasn't prepared to challenge [[Rogal Dorn]] over decisions regarding the fate of the Custodes, even though he believes he had the capacity to challenge Dorn on the matter, calling the Primarchs ''"creatures of power, built to dominate"''; all hinting that while they may have had an original function, they probably turned out quite differently from expected and the final result might not necessarily have been them turning on each other and fucking up the human webway. Although Valdor did once angrily claim that the entire debacle could have been avoided if the Custodians had just intervened at the Primarch's births.

Despite all this, the Emperor still refers to the Primarchs as his "sons" in private revelations with Malcador, though in the same instance while playing out the strategy of the Horus Heresy using their destinies he is absolutely aware that in order to win the game against Chaos they need to be played against each other: sacrificed or [[Tzeentch|manipulated]] in order to get the best possible outcome. Malcador does point out that there are different ways to play the game and realizes that destinies can unfold in different ways and that the Emperor is forced to make certain decisions in order to avoid losing outright, so the battle unfolds the same way no matter what strategies are used. Only the final outcome was kept from Malcador until it became clear that the only way to win was for his piece ''("the Fool")'' to switch places with the Emperor in the final move, quite possibly at an absolute cost to his immortal soul and leave the [[Roboute Guilliman|"Uncrowned King"]] piece to play [[Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition|"Salvation"]]. So seems that the Emperor manipulated '''everybody''', but only did so to achieve the best outcome for humanity based on the plays available to him. Of course, whether or not this was as the Emperor planned, or just him being forced into these decisions by the more subtle actions of Chaos, is up for debate.

==Primarchs and Legions==
{|align=center border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0"
|-
|align=center|'''Legion Number'''
|align=center|'''Name'''
|align=center|'''Homeworld'''
|align=center|'''Name of the Legion'''
|align=center|'''Allegiance'''
|align=center|'''Description/Current Status'''
|align=center|'''30k/40k'''
|-
|align=center|'''I'''
|align=center|[[Image: Lion_El%27Jonson_portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Lion El'Jonson]]
|align=center|[[Caliban]]
|align=center|[[Dark Angels]]
|align=center|ULTRA LOYAL, maybe even more than Rogal Dorn.
|align=center|
*Crushes the horrors of Old Night, destroys worlds, whole civilizations, erase stuff from history.
*Sees himself as a man that no one else can compare to and constantly toils to maintain this standard (although he wasn't as excessively vainglorious as Fulgrim).
*Unlike Fulgrim however, The Lion's greatness caused him to be a hardcore pragmatist and largely detached from everyone around him. The Lion just couldn't relate to anyone else not even close to his level (even most of his brother primarchs couldn't fit the bill), so he always felt alone in the universe.
*Was a bit of a loose cannon with a long but explosive fuse. The Lion is as smart and introspective as he is merciless and brutal. He wasn't necessarily easy to piss off like Angron, but anyone who manages to cross his threshold of patience will find themselves on the business end of his weapon. Several times. And possibly dismembered to boot.
*Fought Luther during his betrayal at the end of the Horus Heresy, where he was wounded from their duel. He survived however, and was spirited away and tended to by the [[Watchers in the Dark]] in a super secret chamber in [[The Rock]] (that not even the Dark Angels knew about), where he spent the last millennia healing his wounds. As of the current edition; The Lion is now supposedly fully healed and all he's waiting for is the Emperor to tell him to wake up from his millennia-long power nap.
|align=center|[[Image:Lord of the First.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[File:Lion vs Curze.jpg|150px|thumb|right|]][[File:Horus-Heresy-Lion-Great Crusade.jpeg|150px|thumb|right|]]
|-
|align=center|'''II'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''III'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Fulgrim_Ancient_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Fulgrim]]
|align=center|[[Chemos]]
|align=center|[[Emperor's Children]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A patron of the arts, who wanted to enjoy the finest and most exotic things in life.
*Believes that he and his legion should be the avatar of humanity's perfection, and so everything about them should be flawless, everywhere from appearance and actions to their fighting style. Due to this, Fulgrim's battle tactics revolved around utterly perfecting their strategies. Everything from his soldiers to their strategies were intensely drilled until their fighting was closer to a intricately-choreographed play of death than anything. To him, war is an art, and he wanted to perfect his arts.
*A master blacksmith in his own right, capable of forging weapons that even [[Ferrus Manus]] couldn't help but deem "perfect". His artwork however, wasn't always the best in the universe due to being so perfect it hit uncanny valley levels.
*Was initially corrupted by Chaos through the Laer blade, a Slaaneshi-possesed daemon sword he looted as a trophy, but wasn't aware of what Chaos was. He would fully give in to the temptations of the sword after he beheaded Ferrus Manus, where his utter grief at the act caused him to succumb to the daemon within the sword.
*Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, ruler of the Pleasure World. <s>Fulgrim's actual consciousness however, may or may not also be still imprisoned within his own body by</s> the daemon who possessed him in the first place was eventually conquered by Fulgrim's inner will or whatever, but his new personality is generic "DEMON PRINCE OF THE DARKNESS AND EVIL".
*Managed to incapacitate Guilliman at one point by slicing his throat with a poisoned sword.
*Still has a soft-spot for his brother Ferrus. He asked [[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bile]] to clone his brother several times so that he could attempt to lure Ferrus into Chaos' side again. All his attempts have ended in failure, which he has blamed Fabius for due to his certainty that a "perfect" clone would join him.
*Heard about [[Roboute Guilliman|Big G]] waking up and is a bit buttmad about it at the moment. He tried to give Guilliman a cursed artifact during his return party, but was found out and subsequently banished. Needless to say: he mad.
|align=center|[[Image: Fulgrim.30k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.fulgrim.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-fuldrim-lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Perturabo_Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Perturabo]]
|align=center|[[Olympia]]
|align=center|[[Iron Warriors]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man who already had the knowledge to create the best at everything he did from birth. Perturabo considered this a curse however, feeling it robbed him of any sense of accomplishment while growing up, contributing to his eternal grumpiness.
*Originally preferred diplomacy and was an admirer of the arts during his time in Olympia, but meeting the Emperor (who had no time for such things) caused a violent switch to flip inside Perturabo's mind, turning him into a ruthless warlord throughout the Great Crusade, likely because he wanted things to be different from Olympia once he joined E-money, but once he realized that The Great Crusade was basically Olympia 2.0; he just gave up, flipped the table, and accepted how things really are and played the part.
*Just as much as a master of siege warfare as Dorn (both in offense and defense), but the lack of opportunities and recognition led him and his legion to be specialists of tearing shit down.
*Unlike Dorn however, Perturabo's general strategy is a combination of stubbornness and ice cold-calculating efficiency, orchestrating war like it was one giant math problem. The problem with this is that he didn't even see his sons as people. As far as he was concerned, they're just armored meatbags who pull triggers and push buttons and were about as expendable as guardsmen.
*Suffers from a massive inferiority complex, partially due to his certainty that the Eye of Terror was always watching and judging him. Nobody believed him when he said this, so it was mostly attributed to Rogal Dorn, whom the Emperor ''greatly'' favored over Pert, despite having similar skillsets.
*Daemon Prince, ruler of Medrengard. Described as the ultimate Obliterator; so expect him to be carrying around titan grade weaponry and millennia of pent-up [[Rage|RAEG]] when he finely shows up. Given that Magnus, Fulgrim, and Mortarion are back in action; he'll probably come out eventually as well.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Perturabo.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Pert-Angron.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''V'''
|align=center|[[Image:Karn.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Jaghatai Khan]]
|align=center|[[Chogoris|Chogoris/ Mundus Planus]]
|align=center|[[White Scars]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A hard and stern Primarch, he rarely smiles and almost never laughs. Throughout the Heresy he’s often depicted as an introvert who only keeps the counsel of a hand select group. Though rather than making him into a recluse, he's fully capable of being charismatic when he needs to. The Khan is quiet, but he can quickly become the warrior: smile, laugh, bellow and be powerful when he sees the need.
*Encourages a painfully 'liberating' leadership structure on the White Scars. Every Khan (basically Chapter Master) has an extremely high level of autonomy - a byproduct of the steppes. Causes a lot of problems for logistics and cooperation with allies.
*Many Primarchs became a product of their homeworld, the Khan definitely did. He idolises the ways of [[Chogoris]] and venerates its lifestyle. A very Taoist and Confucian way of seeing things, no one else in the Imperium truly understands this, a fact that further isolates the White Scars from the wider Imperium. The White Scars is the amalgamation of Asian culture in the HH, it’s the most different and alien Legion simply because it tries to adopt a Asian-centric style.
*Has a strained relationship with the Emperor. On one hand he recognises the need of the Imperium and has always directly supported it. On the other hand, a major identity point for the Khan's character is his hatred of Empire and Emperors. On Chogoris he killed a lot of emperors and destroyed a lot of Empires. He sees Emperors and Empires as ultimately flawed and has a very low respect for them.
*Tying in with this hatred of Empire is his hatred of stagnation. Every Emperor he killed was fat, and this made him become a person who hates the easiest path. A big motivator for him during the novel Scars was his rejection of the path most travelled. The Khan's greatest fear is stagnating, so he will likely always chose the hardest option because of that. Emphasising this, The Khan is also described as being a compulsive, a part of him is always moving.
*The Khan really didn't like the Imperium, in Warhawk of Chogoris he flatly stated that the White Scars would leave the Imperium if he felt the Emperor was not respecting the White Scars enough.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Webway]] while hunting [[Dark Eldar]] after they raided Chogoris.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Khan.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The path of heaven .jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait..Leman.Russ.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Leman Russ]]
|align=center|[[Fenris]]
|align=center|[[Space Wolves]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Had a high opinion of himself and his legion, if only because he felt that he's earned that kind of respect through the centuries. Of all the Primarchs, Leman was the one most willing to cross any line to do what the Emperor asked, at least at first. Later on, he decided to become his own man and protect the people of the Imperium. Also notable for curbing the more savage tendencies of the Wolves and teaching them to control their ferocity, unlike [[Angron|some]] [[Konrad Curze|people]].
*Wanted to test his legion all the time, to prove he is the best.
*Unknown, disappeared into the [[Eye of Terror]] with the 13th company but promised to return one day. Magnus supposedly knows where he is, but he isn't telling. The Wolves found <s>his armor in a Khornate Shrine</s> an armor rumoured to be his on the Temple of Horus on Rudra, implying he either; turned into [[Wulfen]], to [[Chaos]], is dead, or is murdering his way through the warp [[Conan_the_Barbarian|as a half-naked barbarian]]. Allegedly a figure resembling him was spotted with the 13th company during the 13th crusade.
|align=center|[[Image:30k.Russ.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Scouring of Prospero2.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus_vs_Leman.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Rogal_Dorn_Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Rogal Dorn]]
|align=center|[[Inwit]]
|align=center|[[Imperial Fists]]
|align=center|MEGA DUPER Loyal
|align=center|
*A brutally honest and steadfast man, but was equally indifferent to those around him. Dorn's personality is akin to a wall, he was a man you could take at face value; he would never lie or deceive you, and he would always speak his mind without a hint of falsehood, even if it ends up working against his favor. That said, he could never properly relate with other people's emotions. He will speak the truth, but lacked any glib of tongue to express it in a way that wouldn't feel like he was delivering it with the bluntness and intensity of a power fist to the face.
*Embodied the "soul" of the Great Crusade unlike any other; he received the most accolades from the Emperor and fought alongside him most often.
*A master of siegecraft, although fortifications was his forte. So much that he was tasked with fortifying the Imperial Palace. He would also build grand fortresses on the worlds they conquered.
*Assumed deceased, disappeared while boarding a Chaos cruiser during a Black Crusade. One of his fists were recovered and its skeleton is placed in a shrine, where each new Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists engraves their name upon it. Rumored to still be alive, though that begs the question of whose fist is in the Phalanx, though he could just be missing a hand.
|align=center|[[Image:The horus heresy praetorian of dorn by raffetin-dae3g5k.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Dorn-Sang-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Warhammer-Dorn-malc.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''VIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Konrad_Curze_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Konrad Curze]]
|align=center|[[Nostramo]]
|align=center|[[Night Lords]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A man of justice who believed that he needed to instill absolute fear into people to ensure lasting peace.
*Possessed psychic powers that allowed him to perceive the future in short glimpses. The problem was that they were uncontrolled and they constantly subjected him to see the worst possible future in the darkest, most vivid detail possible, including the deaths and fall of his brother Primarchs as well as the Emperor's own entombment on the Golden Throne. This only served to widen his ever-growing insanity.
*An unstable sociopath, to say the least. Curze's visions, upbringing, and perceived need for brutality took a heavy toll on his sanity, but he held firm under the belief he was making the galaxy a better place, like what he did with Nostramo. This all came crashing down after Nostramo reverted back to its old ways when he was away; deciding that nothing would ever change, he chose to bombard his home planet into rubble.
*That said, he was a master at infiltration and unconventional warfare, just as much as he was a master of scaring the shit out of people. His crowning achievement is that he managed to fuck up Guilliman's Imperium Secundus by himself, no aid from his legion what-so-ever, something his brothers couldn't even come close into doing.
*Lost what little sanity he still had after destroying Nostramo. By this time, Konrad stopped justifying his methods to himself and fully embraced the depraved side of his "Night Haunter" persona, spreading untold terror and pain wherever he went. By the time of the late Horus Heresy, the Emperor wanted to put a stop to it and sent a Callidus assassin named "M'shen" after him.
*Curze knew about her mission from the get-go but he made sure the assassin could reach him unimpeded. He did not resist when she entered his chambers and asked the Callidus to kill him. There are believed to be two reasons why this might have been. One is that Konrad realized he became the very thing he sought to rid the galaxy of and knew what had to be done- a perceived hero who lived long enough to see himself become a villain. The other is that the assassination vindicated everything he'd ever said and done; he punished and killed evil-doers and now the Emperor used his own methods to kill him, thus proving that all his atrocities were both justifiable and necessary. Whatever the case, Konrad was already a jaded, broken man after the Nostramo debacle and wished only to die.
|align=center|[[Image:Konrad-Curze-Primarchs-Warhammer-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Night Haunter 8th Ed.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-Curze-Lion.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''IX'''
|align=center|[[Image:SanguiniusArt5mt.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Sanguinius]]
|align=center|[[Baal]]
|align=center|[[Blood Angels]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A noble but unparalleled warrior, known for the angel-like wings that grew from his back.
*Was known as the greatest exemplar of the Emperor himself, mirroring many of his father's best traits, instead of only one or two of them like his brothers. If anything, Sanguinius is a reflection of what the Emperor could have been as a truly benevolent being, concerned not just for mankind's future, but man as individuals as well.
*A pretty cool guy to be around. Despite being a fabulous, angelic demi-god of war; he had mankind's best wishes at heart and fought for it with graceful ferocity, hell even the Primarchs couldn't resist Sanguinius being so bro-tier. He is essentially the vampiric, bishie version of Vulkan.
*Showed the same amount of concern for his legion. Sanguinius did all that he could to hide the Red Thirst from being exposed to the wider Imperium, knowing full well that the Blood Angels would receive the II/XI Legion treatment if it came to light.
*Psychic, and capable of seeing glimpses of the future.
*He was powerful as he was nice, Sanguinius was one of the most powerful of the Primarchs in terms of martial prowess. Feats include; ripping the wings off a bloodthirster and literally throwing him to the warp, single-handedly holding a defensive point during the Siege of Terra against numerous traitors, and managing to damage Horus' armor ''even after being exhausted from literally soloing entire armies''.
*Deceased, slain by Horus. His body is currently in a stasis crypt in Baal, so his corpse remained fabulous for the last 10,000 years. Commemorated during Sanguinala, a holiday dedicated to his memory.
|align=center|[[Image:Heresy-Sang.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:The horus heresy book 26 unremembered empire by raffetin-dap4ekw.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor Sanguinius Echoes of Imperium.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''X'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Ferrus_Manus_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Ferrus Manus]]
|align=center|[[Medusa]]
|align=center|[[Iron Hands]]
|align=center|Extremely Loyal
|align=center|
*Wants to get things done quickly, without needless philosophizing.
*Contrary to his sons; Ferrus wanted to advocate the strength of one's flesh, rather than relying completely on bionics and mechanical augmentations as shown by the Iron Hands, if any he was appalled at the idea of turning man completely into machine. He wasn't able to realize this after getting a viking crewcut by his best friend, however.
*A master artisan, thanks to his metal arms, which allowed him to practice his craft with incredible precision and detail.
*Deceased, slain by Fulgrim and his head offered to Horus as a gift. Fulgrim still has the body, which he repeatedly clones and murders again in a futile attempt to make him turn traitor. Some claim he is still alive on Mars, though [[Void Dragon|it may be not actually be him]].
|align=center|[[Image:Ferrus.30k.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XI'''
|! colspan="5" |+++Records expunged+++
|-
|align=center|'''XII'''
|align=center|[[Image:Angron.port.jpg|thumb|250px|]][[Angron]]
|align=center|[[Nuceria]]
|align=center|[[World Eaters]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*Embodies the name "World Eater". He and his legion consumes entire worlds in a whirlwind of indiscriminate slaughter until nobody but them is left, pre and post-Great Crusade.
*No real ambition beyond endless slaughter, thanks to the butcher's nails augment jammed into Angron's brain. It also made him incredibly violent and quick to anger. At first it was to satiate the unending bloodlust generated by the butcher's nails, but now its to glorify Khorne.
*One of, if not the most, powerful of the Primarchs in terms of sheer combat prowess. Rivaled only by Sanguinius in terms of single combat capability. That said, his ability as a general is lacking. He could murder armies sent against him, but he lacked the tactical acumen (or anything resembling sanity) to focus on the objectives truly needed to win a war. His Leeroy Jenkins behaviour during Horus Heresy is the greatest example of that. (although in Angron's head: murdering all of his opponents '''is''' the only way to win a war).
*Daemon Prince of [[Khorne]]. Spend most of his time Getting Shit Done and being banished to the Warp for a hundred or so years after Imperum responds to his blood crusades.
*Was one of the largest reasons for fucking up the Horus Heresy. If Angron kept his murderboner down for just a few more minutes and let Horus finish off the remaining loyalists on Istvaan with another Exterminatus strike; they would have been able to march to Terra faster and with much more manpower and have a better chance at winning. Whether this was Angron just being Angron or a secret ploy by Khorne to keep the blood flowing by thinking past the Horus Heresy is unclear (after all, if Horus won; Chaos eventually starves to death. If Horus lost; he has a aeons' worth of blood and conflict to revel over.).
|align=center|[[Image:World-Eaters-Warhammer-40000-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angron .jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Angrondemon.jpg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Robute Guilliman.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Roboute Guilliman]]
|align=center|[[Ultramar|Macragge]]
|align=center|[[Ultramarines]]
|align=center|Loyal, barring [[Imperium Secundus| that one episode he doesn't like to talk about]]
|align=center|
*A proud but fair visionary who always looked towards building a better future for humanity. Guilliman never did anything without thinking what would happen at the end of the day and he always tried to plan a better outcome for whatever he did, whether its building an empire or subjugating an enemy civilization.
*Was more for the people than the Emperor, hence why he thought preserving his Imperium was more important than the survival of the Emperor himself.
*A general first and warrior second, which was the key to his success throughout the Great Crusade. He wasn't the best at crossing swords or gunfights, atleast in comparison to his brothers; but he was exceptional at commanding his forces and resources, ensuring all wars he fought in were running at optimum efficiency.
*The greatest statesman among the Primarchs. Guilliman was best remembered for his ability to set up an efficient form of government on every planet his legion conquered, turning them into model, self-sufficient worlds in order to prepare them for the future after the Great Crusade. This is best exemplified by Ultramar, which still remains one of the most powerful and idyllic planetary systems in the Imperium, even after 10,000 years.
*He's also a logistical genius, and invented the organizational model that 8 of the 9 First Founding Chapters still use (more or less).
*Previously kept in a stasis chamber after his throat was sliced by Fulgrim with a poisoned sword.
*Recently revived with the help of Belisarius Cawl and the Ynnari and their new soul manipulation powers. Is now active once more, and not very happy with how badly the Imperium has gone to shit since he was not-quite-dead. Currently back in his old role of Lord Commander of the Imperium, trying his hardest to keep the Emperor's work from going completely down the drain while while waging an unending war against the forces of Chaos and the Imperium's equally monstrous bureaucracy.
|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Guilliman.png|thumb|150px|]][[Image: Primarchs-Guilliman-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Roboute-Guilliman-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIV'''
|align=center|[[Image: Mortarion Portrait.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Mortarion]]
|align=center|[[Barbarus]]
|align=center|[[Death Guard]]
|align=center|Traitor
|align=center|
*A bitter yet petty man, kind of like the edgy goth kid of the group. Mortarion didn't want to associate anyone who hasn't gone through the same brand of abuse he has during his childhood and also hated those who had relatively comfy ones in comparison (like Guilliman or Dorn). He would only find some friendship with Konrad Curze (due to his "raised alone and became psycho-Batman" origin) and Horus (because just about everyone likes Horus).
*Has an immense abhorrence for psykers and the warp, due to his experiences in Barbarus. As a daemon prince, he is the very thing he hated in the first place. He takes the resulting bitterness out on everyone else in the form of horrible diseases.
*Stubborn to the core. Mortarion's favored tactic that he passed onto the Death Guard is a combination of attrition and unrelenting assaults; they take the pain while dishing it out in greater amounts, non-stop. He also valued individualism throughout his legion, largely leaving it up to his troops to figure out the best strategy in a conflict, rather than micro-managing them.
*Was already disenchanted by the Imperium by the start of the Horus Heresy (Seeing the Emperor and his works as total hypocrisies), so he threw his lot in with Horus. However, due to a ruse by Typhus; he and his legion ended up being infected by a virulent Nurglite plague while in the warp, which caused them to be in a constant state of agony but remain alive due to their Astartes-grade toughness. Unable to bear the pain and see his sons suffer; he pledged his loyalty to Nurgle and the god "cured" them of the plague (cure is probably incorrect, it was more of mutate their bodies to be compatible with the plague). From here, he became a daemon prince.
*Went back to the warp after the Horus Heresy, where Nurgle gave him dominion over the Plague Planet, which he shaped into the image of Barbarus.
*Was banished by [[Kaldor Draigo|Grey Knights]] during the Battle of Kornovin, which was the origin of [[Kaldor Draigo|Draigo]] carving a name onto his plague-ridden heart (how Draigo did so is a mystery, so we'll just chalk it up to him being too high on drugs to be infected by Mortarion's plagues).
*Helped Abby by creating the zombie plague, along with other contagions, after he got the Hand of Darkness artifact.
*He eventually got better and waged a full-scale invasion of Ultramar when he heard that Guilliman's finally awake. Had to retreat after he had to deal with the other Chaos Gods' typical shenanigans (mainly encroaching on his strongholds in the [[Scourge Stars]] while he was off campaigning).
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-Horus-Heresy-Mortarion-2073409.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Mortarion-40k.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XV'''
|align=center|[[Image:Magnus-The-Red-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4995855 (1).jpeg|thumb|250px|]] [[Magnus the Red]]
|align=center|[[Prospero]]
|align=center|[[Thousand Sons]]
|align=center|Traitor, though he never planned this
|align=center|
*An optimistic scholar who thirsted for knowledge and always believed that information should be preserved for the greater good of mankind, regardless of its origins or the danger it might pose.
*As a psyker from birth, he was sympathetic to the discrimination faced by his fellow psykers and labored for his kind to be accepted. He did so by training psykers to control and enhance their powers, in the hopes of showing to people the benefits of his kind's gifts. This had mixed results with his brother primarchs, especially in the face of the Emperor's "psykers are bad" standing orders.
*Defying the Nikea council's rulings, Magnus continued to experiment with warp powers and during a Tzeentch-induced prophesy that involved Horus' betrayal; he attempted to warn his father with a psychic message. During the sending process; he accidentally destroyed the Emperor's webway project, causing him to be arrested by Russ and the Wolves to answer for his disobedience.
*As Horus was already corrupted by this point, he altered the orders to instead destroy the Thousand Sons' homeworld. Realizing he's been played like a damn fiddle by Tzeentch, Magnus' resolve was broken and initially accepted his destiny of being destroyed by the wolves in an attempt to spite Tzeentch, but eventually decided to attempt to rebel against his fate but ultimately failing after Leman Russ beat him up badly. He then made a desperate deal with Tzeentch to save his legion in return for his servitude. He and the Thousand Sons were teleported to the Planet of Sorcerers, where more hijinks ensued with his [[Ahzek Ahriman|first captain]]'s certain ritual.
*Now a daemon prince, one of his first major campaigns was to invade the Space Wolves' homeworld. Was banished, but the Wolves were all but ruined; most of their upper command structure and progress with stabilizing their flawed gene seed was gone. Feeling they weren't down for the count yet; he went in again and bloodied the entire star system of Fenris itself, irreparably damaging the Wolves' home system.
*Appeared during the Gathering Storm, where he trapped and captured Guilliman and his retinue in the warp. After he escaped, Magnus chased and confronted Guilliman all the way to Luna, but was banished by the Custodes and Sisters of Silence. Now currently biding his time for another offensive.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Magnus.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 30k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image: 40k.magnus-the-red.jpeg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVI'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Warmaster_Horus_Remembrancer_Sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Horus|Horus Lupercal]]
|align=center|[[Cthonia]]
|align=center|[[Black Legion|Luna Wolves/ Sons of Horus/ Black Legion]]
|align=center|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1rT6Vi5Ln4 DOUBLE TRAITOR link dead :(]
|align=center|
*A charismatic strategist who overwhelmed his enemies through sheer numbers and precision tactics, with an emphasis on wiping out the leadership structures of enemy forces.
*Big E's most favored son, always being held in the highest regard, second only to the Custodes. This was a combination of him being the first Primarch found and his long rap sheet of victories throughout the Crusade.
*Due to his position and experience, he was the most well-liked of the Primarchs during the Great Crusade. Just about everyone looked at Horus as the greatest among them.
*For all his charisma and leadership, Horus was still wracked with self-doubt once appointed Warmaster, constantly afraid that he was unable to live up to the title. Being overall commander of the Emperor's forces AND being his personal favorite was a lot to live up to. This was one of the reasons why he succumbed to the temptations of Chaos.
*Was one of the few Primarchs who was suspicious of the Emperor's plans for the Astartes post-Crusade, fearing they'd be disposed of like the Thunder Warriors and was mistrustful of the Emperor's intentions in the long run in general, to say nothing of his resentment about how the worlds he and his brothers had conquered would be governed by ordinary humans. The Ruinous Powers would also use this to their advantage.
*Rebelled against the Emperor after being fed a vision of the future by the Chaos Gods, in which the Emperor was being worshiped as a god and many of his fellow Primarchs (including himself) were reviled or outright forgotten. Little did he know that this was to become a self-fulfilling prophesy.
*His essence has been erased from existence. When the Emperor mustered up the resolve to finally end Horus, he shot him with a psychic blast powerful enough to obliterate his very soul, ensuring that the Chaos Gods couldn't just bring him back from the dead. His body was recovered and brought to the Eye of Terror, but was later destroyed after an incident involving [[Fabius Bile]] and a clone of Horus.
|align=center|[[Image:Horus-the warmaster.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Horus-Primarchs-.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Emperor vs Horus.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Lorgar_Aurelian_sketch.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Lorgar|Lorgar Aurelian]]
|align=center|[[Colchis]]
|align=center|[[Word Bearers]]
|align=center|Traitor Prime
|align=center|
*A charismatic diplomat with a golden tongue, who relied heavily on his unparalleled speaking abilities to bring worlds into compliance during the Great Crusade. Lorgar would always prefer to talk out a peaceful solution, rather than resorting to violence. That said, Lorgar did know how to slap a bitch when needed.
*A deeply spiritual man, due to growing up in a theocratic society during his time on Colchis. Due to this, Lorgar saw The Emperor as a literal god and decided to spread the good word of the God-Emperor throughout the Crusade. During this time, he penned the "Lectitio Divinitatus", a book detailing how awesome the God-Emperor was, and always built grand cathedrals in all the planets he conquered. As you can imagine, this didn't sit well with the Man-Emperor's secular Empire ,so he decided to bloody one of Lorgar's grandest cities to send a message with Guilliman. Little did the Emperor know what this act of dickery would lead eventually to.
*With Lorgar being completely disheartened and defeated; Kor Phaeron and [[Erebus]] lured him to the worship of the Dark Gods, who were more than happy to accept his rabid fanboyism. He would eventually corrupt Horus and ignite the [[Horus Heresy|single biggest clusterfuck in Imperial History]], ruining everything that the Emperor has striven to build since the [[Age of Strife]].
*Rules as a daemon prince of Chaos Undivided and currently located in Sicarius, the Word Bearers' home planet.
*Previously a shut-in NEET that left command to his legion to his Dark Apostles: Lorgar has finally gotten out of his tower and is personally leading the Word Bearers now. He has recently been seen evangelizing about Chaos in the material realm, with a large legion of Word Bearers behind him.

|align=center|[[Image: 30k.Lorgar.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Lorgar_portrait.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XVIII'''
|align=center|[[Image: Portrait.Vulkan_sketch.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Vulkan]]
|align=center|[[Nocturne]]
|align=center|[[Salamanders]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*A true man of the people, concerned with the preservation and welfare of humans. Vulkan saw all humans in the Imperium as equals and would protect any servant of the Emperor with great ferocity regardless of their class or status.
*Growing up in a blacksmith society allowed him and his legion to craft some of the finest wargear the Imperium has ever seen. Its also the reason for their fire fetish in combat.
*Inherited the Emperor's perpetual powers, granting him the ability to reincarnate after dying.
*He and his legion took some of the worst losses during Istvaan, and he himself was eventually captured by Konrad Curze.
*Curze wanted to get his torture fetish on, so he tortured Vulkan to death. Several times. Vulkan's status as a perpetual ensured he always came back, but less and less sane as Curze's treatment got worse and worse.
*He eventually managed to escape, but accidentally teleported over Macragge's atmosphere, crashing down on the planet like a green comet of insanity. By this point, anything remotely resembling sanity had left Vulkan's mind. He was eventually "killed" by another perpetual, in a well-meaning attempt to reset Vulkan's brain. It worked (sort of. At least he wasn't a howling maniac anymore) and after taking a short death nap, he got better and disappeared for a while.
*Resurfaced during [[The War of The Beast]] and was recruited to lead the Imperial forces against The Beast's forces. Then disappeared after ramming The Beast into a plasma reactor and killing them both in a squall of gore. The Salamanders claim he continued to lead them for a few more centuries after that death, then left them with the Tome of Fire, claiming he had a special mission that they could not accompany him for.
|align=center|[[Image:Past Vulkan.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan Lives.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Vulkan-Primarchs-Warhammer-40000-фэндомы-4123369.jpeg|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XIX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Corax Portrait.png|thumb|250px|]] [[Corvus Corax]]
|align=center|[[Deliverance]]
|align=center|[[Raven Guard]]
|align=center|Loyal
|align=center|
*Sought to overthrow oppression, bringing justice to tyrants.
*Possessed some kind of perception-manipulating psychic power, giving him the ability to be "invisible" to organics (He's still there clear as day, but your mind just can't process that he's right there).
*Preferred covert warfare, sabotaging, fast strikes and assassinating the enemy from the sides, and only striking in the open when the time is right. Basically one of the few primarchs who uses tactics of actual special forces units.
*He and his legion were bloodied during Istvaan and forced out of the conflict. Corvus wanted desperately to help the Imperium's deteriorating situation, so he asked the Emperor for assistance. Emps obliged and gave him the template to create the Primarchs themselves, giving him the ability to train marines at an even faster rate. This was wrecked after the Alpha Legion tampered with the creation process, resulting with the majority of the aspirants coming out as horrible mutants and aberrations.
*While it weighed heavily on his conscience, Corax had to be pragmatic. He made do and used his newly obtained mutant horde as shock troops and it worked; they were able to disrupt the traitors long enough to buy Terra some time to put up a defense.
*After the Heresy ended, he was reluctantly forced to euthanize his creations, wracking Corvus with a huge amount of guilt.
*Went missing after heading for the Eye of Terror to atone for his sins, saying only "Nevermore" before leaving. His status is currently unknown, but the Raven Guard believe he's still alive and will return once again. In reality, he is indeed alive and hunting his fallen brothers, although the Warp has changed him into a living, shapeshifting shadow.
|align=center|[[Image:Warhammer-Corvus-Corax-Primarchs.jpeg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Hh-walpaper-raven-Copy.jpg|thumb|150px|]][[Image:Corvus Corax.jpg|thumb|150px|]]
|-
|align=center|'''XX'''
|align=center|[[Image: Alpharius2.jpg|thumb|250px|]] [[Alpharius]] [[Omegon]]
|align=center|They're not telling
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion]]
|align=center|[[Alpha Legion|Alpharius: sort-of loyal. Omegon: even Tzeentch can't keep track.]]
|align=center|
*Shrouded in mystery. It's not even known what their homeworld is, let alone what their upbringing was like. Forge World gave no fewer than four mutually irreconcilable origin stories, all of which were dismissed as lies. That said, the only discernible fact we can give about them is that the two primarchs did not always agree with each other, exemplified with Omegon actively sabotaging Alpharius' operations during the Horus Heresy.
*As primarchs of the Alpha legion; the two frequently exchanged roles whenever needed with nobody ever noticing, but officially; Alpharius is the primarch of the legion while Omegon is commander of their elite covert forces.
*Masters of psychological warfare and manipulation. They didn't need regiments of soldiers or weapons to do his heavy lifting; all he needs is a handful of spies to plant paranoia, deceit, misinformation, and dissent in his targeted worlds. By the time his agents are done: the enemy would either be tearing each other apart and/or distrustful of each other; making them isolated, easy pickings for the main Alpha Legion forces once they're called to reign the planet in.
*Alpharius bought the Cabal's story about letting Horus kill all of humanity to kill off the Chaos Gods in the long run, and was eventually beheaded by Rogal Dorn during a battle on Pluto. Maybe. Quite frankly, with these two one can never be entirely sure '''what''' the truth really is.
*Omegon took on his mantle officially ("the jest made real") and this new "Alpharius" may or may not have been killed by Guilliman (the Ultramarines suspect they may have only killed a body double). His loyalties are unknown, but he was against the Cabal's proposal, indicating he either thought sacrificing his entire species was too big of a price (which would mean he's still loyal to humanity), or he wanted Chaos to survive by feeding off humanity (which would mean he was a traitor).
|align=center|

|}

==Their Eventual Fates==
[[File:Heresy_Time.jpg|300px|thumb|right|An accurate retelling of the final stages of the rebellion.]]
===Traitors===
*General downside to those who became Daemon Princes is that the further they go from the Eye of Terror, the more their power wanes. Also most of them spend most of their time in the Great Game (eternal war in the Warp), growing increasingly distant from the real world affairs.
* '''Horus''' was killed by the Emperor during the Siege of Terra, who utterly destroyed his soul. His legion enshrined his corpse until the Emperor's Children stole it. [[Fabius Bile]] managed to successfully clone him, but [[Abaddon]] killed the clone to cement his position as his successor as Warmaster of Chaos. While "Horus" is supposedly ''very'' dead, which was his fault for being a fuckwit, shards of his soul which were broken off in the Warp remain. Including one in the realm of Khorne...
* '''Angron''' is a Daemon Prince of Khorne. Still gets shit done, but did get his arse handed to him by the Grey Knights on Armageddon.
* '''Mortarion''' is a fucktwit who rarely does anything of interest (still sulking over his eternal existence as the thing he hates the most), but is a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. Apparently now holds the largest domain in the Eye of Terror, rather than just one planet he had in the old fluff. Got some open heart surgery, courtesy of Draigo/Ward. Created zombie plague from one of the artifacts Abbaddon used in his XII crusade. He invaded Ultramar after hearing news that Guilliman's finally awake, though he ultimately had to go back to the [[Scourge Stars]] due to his poor fortunes in the war as well as being summoned back by his patron God.
* '''Fulgrim's''' soul was trapped in a painting while his body was possessed by a daemon for a brief time before swapping places with the daemon and taking its powers (or so he claims). The first Primarch to become a Daemon Prince, although he aimed at achieving (demi)godhood instead (by sacrificing Perturabo). Abandoned what remained of his legion to rule his pleasure daemon world, and [[Troll|didn't tell them how to get there]] (yet Abaddon somehow manages to contact him anyways).
* '''Lorgar''' is a lazy fucknut who does nothing since they fled to the Eye of Terror, and handed the rule over his legion to the council of Dark Apostles, but still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Taught Abaddon how to summon daemons. Lost a duel with a powered-up Corax during sometime after the Heresy.
* '''Magnus the Red''' got broken into several pieces during his fight with Leman Russ, with several of them actually believing they were the real Magnus and going their own way. Some pieces were eventually put back together to form "the Crimson King", the Daemon Primarch form of Magnus who joined Horus in his rebellion. This sometimes also gets shit done, leading armies to the [[Space Wolves]]' planet and screwing with the Imperium, keeping his big red trollface on all the time until he gets his ass tossed back into the [[Warp]]. Other fragments seem to be floating around throughout history, appearing to have their own agenda, pretending to be daemons or helping the Imperium from time to time. By the time of the Gathering Storm and the 42nd Millennium the disparate fragments have mostly recombined to the Crimson King ''(leaving out a few key elements, namely the ones who embodied his best qualities; for example, the part of Magnus that embodied his love for his Legion chose to fade into nonexistence instead of being reabsorbed into the Crimson King)'' making him as whole as he can be.
* '''Perturabo''' becomes irrelevant after he goes on to drop largely out of post-Heresy fluff, but is still a Daemon Prince of Chaos Undivided. Rules the most stable planet in the Eye of Terror, where he does nothing but watching his sons sieging each other. Helps Failbaddon in a couple of Black Crusades by giving him some Daemon Engines. It doesn't really help, but it's more than Lorgar's done for Chaos Undivided. He is also leading his Legion after the 13th Black Crusade in their new offensive against the Imperium.
* '''Konrad Curze''' allowed a Callidus assassin to infiltrate his lair and kill him, either because he himself became the thing he hated the most, or to justify to himself that every atrocity he has done in the name of justice was a necessary act. Except...there was that crown he always wore, the one with a stone in it that looked oddly similar to a soulstone...
* The Alpha Legion's story is a bit complex:
**'''Alpharius''' was slain by Rogal Dorn in combat during the Battle of Pluto. He is very much dead as he did not bargain with the Dark Gods and had his head split open by a fellow Primarch's chainsword. Conspiracy theorists will speculate that it wasn't really Alpharius, though the death is strongly corroborated by Omegon's response. So unless Alpharius used a body double to trick Rogal Dorn AND ''his own twin'' into thinking he was dead and allowed Omegon to take his place and identity permanently; there isn't any hard evidence to suggest that the dead "Alpharius" was anything other than the actual Primarch, but knowing the Alpha Legion that doesn't mean too much without definitive proof.
**'''Omegon''' reluctantly took Alpharius' identity after he sensed he was dead, and his legion a bee-line for Ultramar after the Horus Heresy, where he met his end after dueling [[Roboute Guilliman|Big Bobby G]]. However, because the rest of the Alpha Legionaries did not break even after the death of their primarch ''(in fact they managed to beat the Ultramarines in the conflict altogether);'' nobody could truly confirm if they did indeed kill the real deal, or if it was a body double.
**While it's been established that a decent amount of Alpha Legionnaires were surgically altered to resemble their Primarch and even ''believe'' they were Primarchs themselves; that and the figurehead role of "Alpharius" has been largely interchangable between both the twins and their sons, which makes sense for a legion whose MO is flexible leadership. While we can be reasonably certain that at least one of the twins is dead, whatever "Omegon-Alpharius" or at least whichever person who thinks he's Alpharius have been up to following the Heresy is a matter of fierce debate and speculation.
**One warband of the Alpha Legion believes that Omegon is still alive in the 42nd millennium and somehow certain elements of the Necron knows where he is. And there is that one big guy in scaled armor trapped in Trayzn's toybox...

===Loyalists===
*It is believed by Mortarion that they are now returning to realspace.
*'''Ferrus Manus''' was killed by Fulgrim during the Drop Site Massacre. His body was not recovered, so some Iron Hands think he might still be alive, and for a time it seemed like he did survive. However, Vulkan later exposed the "Ferrus Manus" leading the remaining Iron Hands as a marionette-like machine with one of the Primarch's hands attached to it, destroying the fake soon afterwards. The fact that Ferrus was decapitated by Fulgrim after being defeated and had his head delivered to Horus makes this claim fairly dubious. Just don't say that to the Iron Hands, though. Unless you want free open-heart surgery from a ceramite and steel power fist. Fulgrim did try to clone him (several times) in the hope one of them would join the traitors, but every clone so far has refused and been subsequently killed by him. An apparition of an iron handed giant - the 10th son - was seen leading the charge in an army of human souls against an army of daemons when the Emperor entered the Webway).
*'''Sanguinius''' was killed by Horus. His body was recovered, and he's the only Primarch who doesn't have any legends about returning, though there are some theories on the identity of the [[Sanguinor]] which were later proven <s>incorrect</s> half correct (he is able to manifest Sanguinius to Dante during the events of the Dark Imperium). Sanguinius foresaw his death and accepted it as a necessary sacrifice for the future of the Imperium, in no small part because his visions also warned him that he would only survive the Horus Heresy by becoming corrupted himself. The trauma of his death by the Talon of Horus left a psychic manifestation of him still on the Vengeful Spirit. As of late it turns out his soul has been wandering the warp ever since, only deciding to make himself known to revive Commander [[Dante]] when he ended up as [[Swarmlord]]-shishkabob after stomping that bug.
*'''Lion El'Jonson''' returned to Caliban only to discover <s>that his friend Luther had stabbed him in the back.</s> THAT LUTHER HAD A PLANET-WIDE PARTY AND EVENTUALLY PASSED OUT INTO A COMA AFTER DRINKING 200 TANKARDS OF SPACE WOLF-GRADE ALCOHOL. He sleeps deep within the Rock, originally on life support and now fully-healed (but none of the Dark Angels seem to know this). Perhaps this is a sign of a coming advancement of the storyline, DUN DUN DUN!
*'''Jaghatai Khan''' disappeared into the Webway after chasing a group of Dark Eldar. The White Scars think he will return someday, and when you consider the fact that time is just as weird there as it is in the rest of the Warp, there is a small possibility he's still around.
*'''Leman Russ''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror but promised the Space Wolves that he would return for the Final Battle. Magnus appears to know where he is now, but he sure as hell isn't telling the Space Wolves. Reports during the Thirteenth Black Crusade claim that a figure matching Russ's description was seen leading the 13th Great Company have surfaced, but were never verified. Numerous crusades by the Space Wolves to find Russ have resulted in failure, although they did find <s> his armor in a shrine of Khorne in the Eye</s> an armor believed to be his in the Temple of Horus on Rudra - so either he succumbed to Chaos, was killed by a Khorne champion, devolved into wulfen, or is [[Conan the Barbarian|currently pillaging The Warp as a muscle-bound, half-naked barbarian hero]].
*'''Rogal Dorn''' disappeared during a [[Black Crusade]] in a desperate ship boarding action. Only his severed hand was recovered and its skeleton enshrined. Debate rages about whether the Zerg rush of World Eaters killed him, or whether he's still out there, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIJTvEo4N4Q murdering his way through traitors with an Astartes-pattern shotgun and a chainsword grafted where his hand used to be]. Original 40K novels stated his entire skeleton was on display on Terra, but it's been retconned to only his hands. Still, a Primarch without a skeleton would be bad-ass, if not a little amusing.
*'''Roboute Guilliman''' was formerly preserved in a stasis field, seconds from death after he was poisoned by Fulgrim. Fast-forward a few thousand years and some Eldar flubdubbery, however, and Big Bobby G is back in action, and he's mad at the current state of the Imperium. After a private meeting with the Emperor, he assumed direct command of the Imperium itself as Lord Commander of the Imperium. When he isn't curb-stomping traitors to death or otherwise trying to keep the Imperium afloat, Guilliman is busy re-vamping the Imperium with numerous reforms in an attempt to realize his father's dream for humanity. Needless to say; a lot of people are unhappy about this, but they can't exactly tell off one of the Emperor's actual sons and expect not to be on the business end of a Custodes guardian spear. He's also taken the time to rewrite the Codex Astartes as well.
*'''Vulkan''' got the shit kicked out of him during the Drop Site Massacre, whereupon his fluff gets a bit hazy:
**The old ''Codex: Space Marines'' states that his body was never found, only a book containing only the names of nine powerful relics and a bunch of annoying riddles as to where they might be found, penned by Vulkan himself. In the 41st millennium, the Salamanders believe that he is still alive and that collecting the nine relics - they've found five so far - will reveal his location.
** In the Black Library novels, starting with ''Vulkan Lives'' the big V had to be dragged into a Thunderhawk in bloody tatters. Kurze captured him and tortured him to death... repeatedly; as a [[Perpetual]], Vulkan would not stay dead. After an indeterminate amount of time and deaths, Vulkan managed to escape by teleporting himself into orbit around Macragge and reentering its atmosphere. When he recovered and learned that Kurze was planetside, he [[Rage|flipped out]] and went after him. A well-meaning Perpetual stabbed him with a fulgurite (a spearhead-shaped piece of stone that contains a bit of the Emperor's power), hoping to either cure his madness or kill him for good. Now apparently dead, Vulkan was put in a stasis capsule inscribed with the words "Unbound Flame," with an honor guard of Salamanders until his remains could be returned to Nocturne. As of the end of ''Deathfire'', he somehow managed to return to life again, although there's no indication as to whether or not he's still a Perpetual. As of the War of the Beast, he's still alive in M.32, after the wounding of Guilliman. He's apparently been wandering the Imperium for a millennium fulfilling his own oaths, but returns to Terra to take command and reclaim Ullanor from the united Ork race. Even with one of the greatest forces assembled since the Horus Heresy, with the remnants of the VII Legion Chapters, the fight devolved to Vulkan facing off with The Beast one-on-one, and sacrificing himself in The Beasts temple-gargant's core detonating it with both himself and The Beast inside it. Whether both of them died is highly unlikely. He hints that Dorn is also alive, meaning he is either privy to some secret information, doesn't know of his brother's death, or is going insane.
**The 8th Edition Codex reconcile these stories somewhat, by claiming that sources within the Salamanders themselves believe Vulkan led them for three millennia ''(which accounts for his appearance during the War of the Beast)'', sometimes falling in battle but apparently always returning ''(also accounting for his perpetual status)''. He eventually disappeared on some final undocumented mission, not without leaving his Tome of Fire and bequeathing his personal artefacts to the chapter but not actually saying where they were, giving rise to the legend that if they are all found he will then return.
*'''Corvus Corax''' disappeared into the Eye of Terror as an atonement for putting down the mutant hordes he created in trying to create Space Marines out of desperation. Quoth the Raven: "Nevermore." Beyond the Imperium's eyes, his wraith-slip powers began to mutate and he became a shadowy shapeshifter hellbent on killing all his traitor brothers. Corax was last seen beating Lorgar's ass so hard that the useless fuckwit had to run with his tail between his legs. Yeah, he beat a Daemon Primarch (who had Chaos Marine and likely daemon backup) into up and running, while Corax himself was on his own. Basically the battle between Guilliman and Magnus on Luna, in reverse. Eat it, Papa Smurf.

==Two Missing Primarchs | The Forgotten & The Purged==
Who are the two missing Primarchs, you ask? [[Sigmar|Sigmar Heldenhammer]] and [[Archaon The Everchosen: Lord of the End of Times; Chaos Incarnate; Herald of the Apocalypse|Archaon]] (depending on how WHFB fits in with 40K, if it does). Or maybe (per /tg/ canon) [[Rachnus Rageous]] and [[Tialoc Ekans]]. [[Samus]] and [[Berserk|Guts]] are also contenders, and many Bolter and Chainsword regulars consider Icarion and his [[Lightning Bearers]] to be their headcanon II Legion.

The Legions in question are the Legio II (Second Legion) and the Legio XI (Eleventh Legion).

What, you wanted a serious answer?

Okay, fine. Nobody really knows. It is very intentional that no lore exists about these two chapters, making them completely unknown. References to their existence are common in canon, but no details are ever explicitly mentioned. This is a feature of the lore, an intentionally kept mystery. What has been established is that they got killed for some reason and the existence of their Legions was wiped from record by the Emperor. [[Malcador the Sigillite]] claims that the Primarchs had been manipulated from the start, and were to be maneuvered into their proper roles prior to the Horus Heresy and those which would not be manipulated would be removed. Although Malcador's own testimony is tainted by the fact that he later admits he had to lie, though many of his statements do mirror what we have seen from the Emperor's own statements.

[[Games Workshop]] have mentioned Primarchs besides the eighteen above on other occasions, but they backtracked since. Back in the [[Rogue Trader|first edition]] of [[Warhammer 40,000]], all twenty [[First Founding]] Chapters were known, as were their Primarchs (though, at the time, the Primarch was just the first Chapter Master). Of these, the [[Valedictors]] and [[Rainbow Warriors]] were declared in a later [[White Dwarf]] to have been founded after the [[Second Founding]].

Later, in the short story '''Hell in a Bottle''' from the novel Into the Maelstrom, a chapter known as the Iron Hearts get fucked over by a [[Chaos Lord]]. The short story also mentions that the Chapter has a Primarch known as Rubinek. Of course, this was just a huge cock-up on the author's part, who himself admitted that he meant Chapter Master.

=== The [REDACTED] Event ===

*'''The First Heretic''' shows that by the Razing of Monarchia (43 years before the Isstvan V Drop Site Massacre of 006.M31), the II and XI Legions had already been stricken from the records. It also states that the remaining Primarchs had to swear an oath never to speak of their missing brothers and that the missing Primarchs' corresponding legions were personally purged by the Emperor, so it had to have been something extraordinarily bad. However, Lorgar still remembers something about them, saying "I still remember how they-", before Magnus cut him off. Lastly, it is revealed that the Emperor had considered purging Lorgar and the Word Bearers (making them the third legion to be purged) for starting a religion around him, but Russ had talked him out of it. #BlameLemanRuss
*In '''The Lightning Tower''' Rogal Dorn says that the lost Primarchs' disappearances were "separate tragedies", so it seems like they disappeared in two different incidents.
*In '''Descent of Angels''', which takes place as of the time Lion El'Jonson had been rediscoverd, Chief Librarian Israfael tells the then initiate, Zahariel El'Zurias, that the Lion has 19 brothers; indicating that as of that time they had not committed whatever atrocity lead to their demise.
*In '''Dark Imperium''', Roboute Guilliman declares "I was one of twenty. Two failed. Half the rest turned on my Father."
*'''The Chamber at the End of Memory''' has Rogal Dorn note that he was one of the few Primarchs who ever met with the II and XI Primarchs. It also reveals that not only was the entire Imperium forbidden to speak of the missing Primarchs' existence, but every non-Primarch save for Malcador who had ever interacted with them was mind-wiped so they would remember nothing about them - including their own gene-sons, presumably other than the fact that they were purged from all record and be left unable to speak even about that. Even the other Primarchs had their memories altered so they couldn't recall much more about their lost brothers beyond the fact that they existed - Dorn is dumbstruck by this discovery, and even more so when Malcador tells him that it was his own idea (and Roboute Guilliman's) to have his fellow Primarchs' memories altered. Malcador also states that '''whatever it was that the II and XI Primarchs did, it was against the very ideals of the Great Crusade and would have ruined everything the the Great Crusade had accomplished to that point.''' Their old living quarters in the Imperial Palace are protected by extremely powerful psychic wards, and when Malcador briefly restores Rogal Dorn's memories of them he realizes the '''''hateful truth'''. That '''the entire Horus Heresy up to the Siege of Terra was not so awful or threatening to the Imperium as what had happened to the Missing Primarchs'''; in fact, '''if they were still alive, the Imperium would have long since fallen'''.
*'''Deliverance Lost''' suggests that whatever happened to the missing Primarchs occurred sometime before the Emperor found Corvus Corax, as Corax asked the Emperor why there were only sixteen other Primarchs waiting for him if he was the nineteenth (it's unsure whether this was referring to him being the Primarch of the nineteenth Legion, or him being the nineteenth found); the Emperor avoided the question, claiming that "it would be a discussion for another day". This is no longer the case, somehow, as he is [[Retcon|now the third-to-last primarch found]], right before the second missing primarch.
*In '''Prospero Burns''', Leman Russ mentions that the Space Wolves had fought other Space Marines before the attack on Prospero, which may have something to do with the purge. A senior Space Wolf describes Russ' "wyrd" as being "the Emperor's executioner". Several books since have backed this up, though [https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/8q7qyg/the_space_wolves_what_were_they_really_for_little/e0hih9h/ ADB denies this].
*In '''Scars''' there's a reference to rumours and "whispers of past atrocities" that only a Primarch could kill another Primarch. Russ also turns up and talks a bit about fighting Magnus, and the resulting "shame". So if he's responsible for offing one or two of his brothers, they must've done something pretty fucking heinous.
*In '''The Dark King''', when asked if he will report the Night Lords for censure, Dorn remarks that he feared to add another empty statue to the Emperor's palace, implying that the missing legions were exterminated for committing severe atrocities.
*In '''The Last Council''' Malcador states that one of the missing Primarchs was '''fallen and disgraced'''. Alpharius mentions that one of the primarchs had died. While the lost Primarchs and their Legions were wiped before he was rediscovered, its Alpharius....you can't keep info like that from him.

=== Name of one of the missing Primarchs ===
*In '''The Last Council''', [[Horus]] (who had been outraged by the erasure of his brothers from Imperial records) struggles to mutter the name of one of the lost Primarchs while Malcador is using his psyker powers to seize his nerves so as to prevent him from saying it. '''Horus managed to say"M-Mal...al..." ([[Malal]])''', which pissed Malcador off to the point that it required Alpharius and the Khan to convince Malcador not to kill him outright. Some have claimed that Horus was begging Malcador to stop by saying Malcador's name. However, this makes no sense when in context of the story as Horus was still resisting Malcador's control, and saying the name "Malal" made Malcador remember something that stirred up a spiteful hate (Malice's primary emotional aspect). Others contend that Horus was trying to say "Har har harder...."

=== II Primarch ===
*The 2nd Primarch was the third primarch rediscovered. After Leman Russ, but before Ferrus Manus.
*'''Fulgrim: The Palatine Phoenix''' mentions that the 2nd Legion's "normally contemplative", "quiet" and "humorless" Primarch had accused Fulgrim of arrogance for boasting he would bring a world under compliance with only eight total Astartes (& that Fulgrim considered the remark high hypocrisy, even bringing to mind the old adage of pots and kettles), which means that at least one missing Primarch was found early enough to have some kind of interaction with his brothers and make a contribution to the Great Crusade (being 3rd in line after Horus and Russ, actually).
*In '''Fabius Bile: Clonelord''', Flavius Alkenex mentions that Fulgrim once described one of the two (likely the 2nd since the 11th was almost last to be recovered) having made a pilgrimage to the Attila System of Ultima Segmentum to make an archaeological expedition inside the [[Necrons|Ymga Monolith]] for [[C'tan|unknown]] [[Heretek|reasons]] during the earliest days of the Great Crusade.

=== XI Primarch ===
*The 11th Primarch was nineteenth primarch rediscovered. After Corax, but before Alpharius Omegon.
*In '''The First Heretic''', when Argel Tal and the other Word Bearers are in the Emperor's gene-labs, they find the 11th's gestation pod. It is mentioned that the 11th was still "innocent and pure" prior to the Primarchs being scattered.

=== The Lost Legions ===
*The Regimental Standard article '''Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound''' makes reference to the II and XI legions taking part in the Rangdan Xenocides, but cuts off before their names are given. Given it references the rank of "Warmaster", it means this was during the tail end of the war.
*'''The First Heretic''' specifies that the missing Legions were purged at least 43 years before the Drop Site Massacre, so we can conclude that neither one took part in the Horus Heresy. At the same time, members of the Word Bearers Seventh Company travelling through time with Ingethel the Ascended reveal rumors that the surviving members of the lost Legions were folded into the Ultramarines (their Chaplain thinks the rumor is a load of grox-shit, but their Captain does note that the Ultramarines are on record as receiving an increase in troops however it should be noted that Ingethel is a Daemon Princess and could easily have been bullshitting herself).
*In '''The Chamber at the End of Memory''', Malcador stated that when both the Primarchs were purged, it left their legions leaderless. Indicating that the the II and XI legions were around when both Primarchs did the thing. And that Dorn and Guilliman had spoken up to convince him that just purging the two lost legions completely would be a waste of good soldiers. Instead, Dorn and Guilliman created the plan to wipe the Legions' memories and integrate them into their own legions, possibly confirming the fanon explanation of the [[Rainbow Warriors]] and [[Valedictors]] existence.
*In '''Fear To Tread''', Sanguinius admits to Horus that he had not told the Emperor about the Red Thirst because he feared that the Emperor would purge the Blood Angels in the same way as the missing Legions, indicating that some form of gene-seed flaw caused at least one of the Legions to be purged.
*'''Visions of Heresy - Book One''' has a pictographic list of all the original legions. Interestingly, the II Legion pict-capture is labeled "-ERROR #CDIV- file not found", while the XI Legion pict-capture is labeled "-CENSORED- by Imperial decree". This seems to indicate that the XI Legion was merely censored, while the records of the II Legion were wiped entirely.

=== Known Timeline ===
*'''792.M30''', the Primarchs were created . The 11th is still "innocent and pure". The Primarchs are scattered.
*'''798.M30''', The Great Crusade began.
*The 2nd Primarch is found and reunited. He is the 3rd Primarch found, after Horus and Russ.
*Sometime during the early years of the Great Crusade, the 2nd Primarch leads and expedition to the Ymga Monolith in the Attila System of the Ultima Segmentum.
*After the discovery of Guilliman, the (then) 8 found Primarchs all met up. The 2nd accused Fulgrim of hubris. Fulgrim feels the 2nd was guilty of the same and called him out on hypocrisy.
*Magnus is found and all (then) 9 found Primarchs meet up.
*Around the time Lion El Johnson (11th to be found) was discovered, the the two lost Primarchs had not yet done whatever made them get un-personed.
*'''Between the 890s.M30 - 930s.M30''', both the 2nd and 11th Legions were deployed along with the Solar Auxillia to the Rangdan Xenocides. This is the last recorded action of either Legion. ''Something'' happened to them during this war. An Alpharius (who may or may not be THE Alpharius) met Lion and offered to manage the mess here in his stead. Clearly any non-Primarch person can just march in to meet Lion and ask to take away his job!
*'''approx. 898.M30''' Corax, the 18th Primarch discovered, is found "around a century" after the start of the Great Crusade.
*'''Between 898.M30 - 963.M30''', the 11th Primarch is discovered. At some point he is reunited with his legion.
*The information of the lost Primarchs and their Legions is wiped, leaving Alpharius as the only non-lost Primarch to not see all others at least once (if the Rangda's Alpharius is someone else entirely) .
*'''981.M30''' Alpharius Omegon is discovered and (or at least) given leadership of the XX Legion (the at least is because Horus found him/them first and took a while to tell others this).
*'''Between 981.M30 - 000.M31''' Horus confronts Malcador about the destruction of the lost Primarch's statutes in the Reliquary. Says that one of them is "Malal" or was trying to beg Malcador to choke him harder (giggidy).
*'''000.M31''', Magnus mentions its the first time since [REDACTED] '''9''' Primarchs have met up in one place. Its likely that Magnus wanted to say something like "Since the 2nd was with us.".

=== Other Info ===
Lion El'Jonson wouldn't lead the fight against the Rangdan xenos until 890s.M30, and not until the 6th year of his involvement did the title of "Warmaster" get thrown around. Adding this to the document in "Field Dressing a Lasgun Wound", means that the 11th Legion's participation in the Rangdan Xenocides didn't happen until at least 8 years after Lion El'Jonson took the helm. The Xenocide would end by 930s.M30, meaning the 11th only participated in the war for a possible 32 to 42 years. The Horus Heresy didn't begin until 005.M31, and the 2nd and 11th had been expunged and condemned 43 years before the Dropsite Massacre which occurred at 006.M31, disproving the dates 965.M30 & 969.M30 as being the period where they were exterminated by the Space Wolves. By the time the Rangdan Xenocides ended, there would have been a possible 23 to 33 year gap between 930s.M30, the end of the Xenocides, and 963.M30 for them to have committed whatever atrocity called for damnatio memoriae, assuming it didn't occur during the Xenocides.

Considering that the 2nd was around for at least a century with no issues before the 11th showed up and they both got expunged three decades after the end of the Rangdan Xenocide, it's a strong possibility that [[that guy|the 11th was the ring leader of the two & dragged the 2nd Primarch down with him]].

Out of universe, [[Rick Priestley]] admitted that the unknown legions were supposed to be a reference to the three Roman legions wiped out in the [[Wikipedia: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest| Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]], whose numbers were never reused after they were slain to a man by Germanic barbarians. The intention was to [[Your Dudes|let fans design their own Legions to fill in the gaps for themselves]], though the implications that this would have on the setting clearly weren't thought through. Nowadays, it doesn't even really let people do much with homebrew fluff since the setting has developed in such a way that it's almost impossible for someone to connect a homebrew chapter to the missing primarchs without getting laughed out of their [[Local Game Store]]. If you play in the privacy of your own home, however, there's nothing stopping you and your friends from nailing it down and having your Self-Insert Primarchs show up and give the Imperium a Noblebright/even GRIMDARKER (Delete as appropriate) kick in the ass.

It seems likely, given the frequent references to betrayal relating to these two Primarchs, that the Lost Primarchs did something rebellion-related or perhaps [[Imperium Secundus|tried to carve out their own empires]]. Perhaps they realized that there could be peaceful coexistance with the [[Xenos]] (as was the case of the [[Interex]]), and ended up thinking the Imperium was Evil. Either way, they did something massively damaging (or nearly pulled something off) that would have crippled the Imperium for its myriad enemies to finish off.

The one concert name we have regarding the two legions is "Malal" (or, Horus couldn't get the full name out while being force choked?) which brings to mind a host of warhammer related meanings, the important one being '''a rogue Chaos God who wants to destroy the Four'' [[Malal]]', made even more likely by the fact that Malal's holy number happens to be 11 so it's <strike>likely</strike> totally the 11th Primarch. Worshiping chaos itself would be perhaps the biggest no-no one could do as far as the Emperor was concerned and the unpersoning the legions got is not unprecedented when it comes how the Imperium (at least in the 41st) deals with chaos, namely burying the information that it even exists so deeply that nobody it can find it. So it's possible another explanation is similar to what happened during the [[Armageddon#First War for Armageddon|First War of Armageddon]] were all participating guardsmen and civilians were to be 'liquidated' almost literally, and the wolves mind wiped, only the Emperor went one step further and just erased both legions, even if only one fell to chaos. But again 'Malal' again, is the chaos god who fights other chaos gods, so it may not have been that clear cut.

It should further be noted that, in the 42nd Millenium, when asked why there were 11 symbolic chairs rather than 9 for the Primarchs, Guilliman replies something along the lines of "Of the 20, two failed and half the rest turned on my father.", explicitly distinguishing this "failure" from heresy/treason and keeps ceremonial seat for them out of honor. Come to think of it, of the 20 Primarch plints on Terra, 9 were destroyed but 2 were covered up. So it might be that they weren't traitors, but went '''TOO FAR'''.

==The Angel | The Prototype Primarch==

A page covering the Primarchs as a whole can't be complete without covering their predecessor, [[the Angel]], who was created during the [[Unification Wars]] & is implied to be the template from which all 20 Primarchs were modeled after, thus the colloquial names hes given such as "Primarch Zero" or the "Prototype Primarch". For one thing, of all the sons of the Emperor, the Angel's DNA is the least adulterated (save for the literal angel wings), making him more or less a direct clone of the Emperor himself; he's an immensely potent psyker that looks almost exactly like Him but younger and he even wields a flaming sword with blue flames instead of the orange flames of his Father. He even had a blindingly beautiful aura just like the Emperor. Whether or not Erda had a hand in creating the Angel is unknown.

The Angel is effectively the answer to the question of "What if the Primarchs were never scattered & remained pure?" & like the traitor Primarchs, the Angel was obedient at first, but quickly went on a rogue rampage on a planet of humans (not Terra, thankfully) because he could sense they all had very, very minor amounts of chaotic taint and thus deemed them unworthy of the Emperor's love & fully worthy of [[Exterminatus|extermination]]. The Emperor had to put the kibosh on this genocidal maniac from doing any further damage by sealing him in a sarcophagus with an enchantment that would put the Angel into stasis until his casket was abducted in transit to Terra, rediscovered by the Inquisition, then set loose on a daemon prince before being lured back into the sarcophagus again where he now remains in stasis.

==Rules on the Tabletop==
Thanks to Forge World, not only do we have models for the Primarchs, but rules as well. As you can guess, they are ungodly death machines who can easily win their points back and more. That's not to say they're invincible, though; they can still be killed if you screw up badly enough. Do be sure to see [[Primarchs in 8th Edition]] and the google drive link on that page as well, should you want to play 30k using the modern rule set. All currently released Primarchs have the following statlines (the Lion remains the last to be released, with his rules currently undergoing play testing):
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv || Invul || ML || Points
|-
| '''[[Horus]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 500
|-
| '''[[Angron]]''' || 9 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 7 || 6(10)|| 10 || 3+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Fulgrim]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 380
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 7 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Ferrus Manus]]''' || 7 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or steal his hammer for 415
|-
| '''[[Konrad Curze]]''' || 8 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 435
|-
| '''[[Vulkan]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 425
|-
| '''[[Lorgar]]''' || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=2.5 | 2 or 3 || data-sort-value=375 | 375 or Chaosify him for 450
|-
| '''[[Perturabo]]''' || 8 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=455 | 455 or give him Forgebreaker for 490
|-
| '''[[Rogal Dorn]]''' || 8 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 385
|-
| '''[[Corvus Corax]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6/5 || 7 || 6/5 || 10 || 2+/3+ || 5++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=450 | 450 or fuck him over for 350
|-
| '''[[Alpharius]]''' || 7 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 5 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || data-sort-value=415 | 415''.... or is it?''
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4+1 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 400
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]] (40k, 7e)''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 3++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 350
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 7 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 4 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || 5 || 495 or charge up for 670
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]] (Daemon, 40k 7e)''' || 7 || 7 || 8 || 7 || 7 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 4+ || 4++ || 5 || 650
|-
| '''[[Leman Russ]]''' || 9 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 455
|-
| '''[[Jaghatai Khan]]''' || 7 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 6+1 || 10 || 2+ || 5++/3++ in CC || data-sort-value=0 | || 385 or give him a bike for 460
|-
| '''[[Lion El'Jonson]]''' || 8 || 5 || 7 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 5(7) || 10 || 2+ || 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | ||
|-
| '''[[Sanguinius]]''' || 9 || 5 || 6 || 6 || 6 || 7 || 6 || 10 || 2+|| 4++ || data-sort-value=0 | || 485
|} 
*'''Special Rules (not counting the ones specific for each Primarch)'''
**''Primarch''
***''Adamantium Will''
***''Independent Character''
***''Eternal Warrior''
***''Fear''
***''Fleet''
***''Fearless''
***''It Will Not Die''
***''Master of the Legion''
***''Precision Shots''
***''Precision Strikes''
**''Sire of the [Legion]''

As of 8th edition (special rules not included):
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="left" class="wikitable sortable"
! || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv || Points/Power level
|-
| '''[[Roboute Guilliman]]''' || 8" || 2+ || 2+ || 6 || 6 || 9 || 6 || 10 || 2+/3++|| 360/18||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Magnus the Red]]''' || 16 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 7 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 445/21||data-sort-value=0 |
|-
| '''[[Mortarion]]''' || 12 || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || 6 || 10 || 3+/4++ || 470/24|| data-sort-value= 0 |
|} 

Each of them have one or two close-combat weapons, all of which are AP2 or 1, backed by some decent gun to lay some dakka down while they run to the glorious melee. Their Primarch rule acts like a big bundle of USRs wrapped up together in one package, and as ICs they can join squads as well (though most of the Primarchs are better run solo). Each of them have a page worth of special rules and unique wargear, both of which can be stupidly powerful to the point of broken, but that's OK since even the cheapest of the Primarchs costs no less than 350 points and eats an extremely valuable Lord of War slot that might otherwise be spent on a [[Thunderhawk]] or a [[Fellblade]].

===Pimpin Rides===
Also worth mentioning, that Perturabo and Rogal Dorn are special enough to get their own personal special/unique vehicle, other primarchs may get their own vehicles in the future (who knows?). However, rules dictate that neither vehicle can be taken in games under 3000 points. Meaning you can only use it in 3000+ matches.

*'''Perturabo''' gets to ride in ''The Tormentor'', a Shadowsword with the Command Tank upgrade. Not only that, but Perturabo is so awesome, he managed to somehow give it 15 troop capacity, meaning it can take 12 Power Armoured dudes + himself, or 6 Terminators for his bodyguard. But, it doesn't stop there! It also has a single Void Shield! It costs 25pts more than a normal Shadowsword with the same upgrades, but following FAQs it also has BS4, free sponsons, and gains Tank Hunters/Monster Hunters any time it fires all its guns at one target.
*'''Dorn,''' on the other hand, gets a customised Thunderhawk Gunship, the ''Ætos Dios''. This ship has Turbo Laser as standard, plus a single Void Shield to protect it, it also has It Will Not Die so can regenerate some of its hull points and finally it ALSO has a 4+ invulnerable save against missiles, all on top of being a flyer which means you can only snap-shot at it, all for the bargain cost of 600 points - which is actually 175 points CHEAPER than a normal Legion Thunderhawk with a Turbo-Laser, though you obviously still have to pay for Rogal.
*'''Khan''' gets his own bitching jetbike: the Sojutsu Pattern Voidbike. I has two master crafted heavy bolters, ups his toughness to 7 and lets him do d3 hammer of wrath attacks.

==Douchebagginess==
It is well known that most of the primarchs were douchebags to varying degrees.

From least to most douchebag. Note, the scale really drops off into [[dick|'''fucking''' douchebag]] after Jaghatai, and straight-up villain after Fulgrim and '''FUCKING CUNT''' after Lorgar. Also, depending on what they did, the Lost Primarchs may be even worse than all actions depicted here. Generally speaking, we'll be grading these guys on their personalities, treatment of their legion and others, and their motives and reasons for their actions. Also, we'll be adding more weight to their actions during the Great Crusade rather than the Heresy, not many Primarchs had a clear head during the Age of Darkness. Keep in mind that, as charismatic and badass as they may be, the Primarchs are responsible for a level of warmongering and genocide that would appall even the worst of Earth's dictators. How they feel about these atrocities, and why they did it (is it grim necessity, standard Imperial procedure or baseless sadism?) is what separates the [[Sanguinius|"good"]] from the [[Konrad Curze|"bad"]].

# '''The Nice Guys'''
## '''Vulkan''' - The least douchebaggy primarch by far. Vulkan routinely put the life of him and his men on the line for the sake of the Imperial citizens. Vulkan would throw himself to the defence of a no name human tribe with the same ferocity and zeal as he would Terra itself. A total bro. Also was the largest, strongest Primarch (Ferrus' metal arms were determined as cheating) and held back in sparring for fear of hurting his brothers. His only real fault was that, despite his strong distaste for terror weapons, he had a thing for setting people on fire. The only times he was an asshole were when he forgot who he was due to Curze's torture driving him mad. Of course, he's still a Primarch and a '''fiery''' general, and he ''will'' leave you a pile of ash if you end up on his shitlist.
## '''Sanguinius''' - Despite some... [[Red Thirst|unorthodox tendencies]], he is reported as being the most charismatic of the Primarchs, perhaps second only to Horus. He taught his men humility and nobility, and put the well-being of humanity above any personal glory. A pretty all-round nice guy (except for that little aforementioned bloodlust problem). And he can also lapse a bit, as seen in his treatment of Curze by denying him a chance of changing his fate & earning forgiveness, and he regrettably had to kill many of his Red-Thirsted men when they got too batshit even for him. Like Vulkan though, he can still be a ferocious force if riled up, he once beat the shit out of guy for daring to imply the Signus III campaign was a trap (it was, but he had no reason to suspect Horus at that point).
## '''Magnus the Red''' - For his faults, Magnus was one of the nicest Primarchs right up there with Vulkan and Sanguinius. Before the whole Prospero thing, this guy's MO was all about the advancement of humanity: always trying the diplomatic approach to preserve what could be preserved, using shock and awe tactics to limit damage when fighting, happily taking remembrancers along his legion (Although all remembrancers amongst the fellowship were psykers to some degree). Magnus was a friendly and open-minded idealist, which makes it all the more tragic when he gets deceived, framed, backstabbed and then coaxed into selling his soul to the [[Tzeentch|Cuttlefish of Keikaku]]. He is easily the most sympathetic of the traitors, considering he only joined them after being backed into a corner; had Jaghatai been at his side during and after Nikaea things might have turned out differently. He was also the only traitor primarch who actually cared about his men, even after ascending to daemonhood. The novel ''Deathfire'' also ups his bro-ness quite a bit, as he proved himself the only traitor-aligned Primarch to ''sincerely'' do something very helpful for one of his loyalist brothers after the Horus Heresy was already in full swing. This "special favour" is made all the more striking given how it took place ''after'' Magnus had his adoptive homeworld burned out from under him. Perhaps his skin was red not only because of mutation, but because it also showed [[Lovedagger|the greatness of his heart?]]. On the other hand, this was done by one of the fragments of Magnus that embodied his love for his gene-sons and fellow Primarchs (which ultimately self-destructed to keep the Crimson King from absorbing its power), so any hope that he kept that good heart died after Ahriman's failure at his Second Rubric on Prospero. While his soul was still in one piece, Magnus's main character flaw was his arrogance. While he wasn't an in-your-face type like Fulgrim, Magnus and his legion were still entirely convinced that they knew the Warp better than anyone else, which led to them disregarding many warnings and red flags that could've been avoided, leading almost directly to their awful, [[Rubric Marines|awful]] fates. Also, Magnus wasn't ENTIRELY innocent as he had implanted sleeper agents and spies throughout the Imperium, ruining the lives of those brainwashed while betraying the trust of his brothers. Why he did this isn't exactly clear (it's very unlikely to be chaos related) though it's most likely an attempt to obtain information and records his brother might otherwise destroy.
## '''Corax''' - Even after being raised under the tyranny of the Kiavahrans, he refused to take after their tyrannous ways, wanted to make things right, and asked the Emperor to end the civil war he started while liberating his homeworld of Lycaeus. Seeing the ruthless tendencies the Terran members of his legion had, he quietly shipped them way the fuck away from the rest of the Great Crusade to go fight xenos or had them all slaughtered during the Battle of Gate 42. One of the only primarchs to readily admit his own mistakes, which were many and sometimes tragic. Developed a brutal habit of folding Chaos Space Marines into pretzels when shapeshifting into a tangible shadow during his hunt against his Daemon brothers Post-Heresy but left the slaves alone.
## '''Jaghatai Khan''' - Despite him being modeled after [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|the guy who holds the high score on raping and pillaging]], Jaghatai was actually very reasonable and [[Kharn|a pretty fun guy to be around]]. His main hobbies included [[Dark Eldar|raiding and jetbikes]], but he had an appreciation for [[Blood Angels|the fine arts]] as well. He was very good friends with Magnus and very pro-psyker. However he also kept his distance from pretty much everyone else, save Horus, not wanting to deal with other people's bullshit, unless they were really worth the effort - as the result very few people knew and trusted him (especially once his only bros turned traitor). While the Khan didn't seem to care too much about the whole Great Crusade thing and spent most of his time doing his own thing, he never turned his back on the Imperium and sincerely believed in the idea of an Empire in the starry skies. And this was despite being the one of the few Primarchs to understand how bunked the whole [[Imperial Truth]] secular atheist propaganda really was (remember that the Chogorisian had Shamans, who also are the ones who select the White Scars' Chapter Master through mysterious initiatic trials); and of the Emperor himself he declared that he was "neither a monster nor a simpleton", mostly because he knew that [[Chaos]] was far worse (of course). So, the Emperor knew all along that the Khagan had his priorities right and would therefore not betray him, even when Malcador brought up the topic; and this was in spite of the personal relationship of father and son being explicitly awkward.
# '''The In-between'''
## '''Guilliman''' - R.G. is a jerk with a (or rather two) heart(s) of gold or a nice guy with a nasty mean streak, depending on how you look at him. Some people might say this dude was a statesman in the same vein as Augustus Caesar- he was great at building states and making life generally better for people, but only if you ignore the deported and murdered people who didn't agree 100% with the new regime. For somebody more reasonable, Guilliman was perhaps one of the most responsible and human among his brothers. He cared about the common man, personally planned post-war reconstruction and political integration into the Imperium of the planets he conquered and (unofficially) tolerated moderate presence of religion in Ultramar. But for sure the guy had a big ego, as he constantly spoke and behaved like he knew what was best for everyone, at least until proven wrong (multiple times). And you better not get on his shit list, although to be fair he was mostly a complete jerk with people he considers being [[Konrad Curze|psycho]] [[Angron|mass murderers]] with [[Perturabo|no respect for their own sons]] or [[Alpharius|civilian populations]]. And despite what [[Matt Ward|some people]] would have you believe, he knew he couldn't plan for every situation and expected people to use their own judgment rather than blindly follow his [[Codex Astartes|codex]]. Like Jaghatai Khan, we know Guilliman recognized that the Emperor was a horrible father (likely since he's one of the few among his brothers to have had actual decent adoptive parents) and that the ideals the Emperor espoused were far more important than the Emperor himself ever was, and after learning that his whole [[Imperium Secundus]] plan was based on bad assumptions he's been beating himself up about it all the way into the 42nd millennium. While he's grown more cynical since his revival and subsequent realization of how badly the Imperium had devolved in his absence, he has refused to abandon his noble ideals or his faith in humanity as a whole and has privately considered the possibility that in retrospect he had been overly dismissive of Lorgar's ideas about the Emperor's divinity. He also seems to be a bit more irritable than he used to be, but given [[Great Rift|his]] [[Age of the Dark Imperium|current]] situation it would be more surprising if that wasn't the case. Also, may have actually imprisonned [[Cypher]] and the Fallen so that the Emperor wouldn't discover [[Assholetep|who broke Lion El'Jonson's best sword]], ultimately causing him to die in battle in Emprah's mini-me's own pseudo Horus Heresy.
# '''The Douches'''
## '''Horus''' - Pre-Heresy he was a surprisingly chill dude, except if you crossed his sensibilities. Got along well with the regular people and his brothers, but he gradually started treating some of them like shit after becoming Warmaster and resented the idea that he and his brothers would not be able to rule over the planets that they had conquered. His insecurities may have also made him vulnerable to the Dark Gods' lies when he received a vision of the Imperium 10,000 years into the future where the Emperor was worshiped as a god, he and many of his brothers were forgotten, and everything was Grimdark--a future that, unbeknownst to him, he would be directly responsible for creating specifically as a result of his own attempts to avert it. The whole [[Heresy]] thing just sort-of kills his position on the list. After going full Chaos, he rapidly became a much, much bigger dick.
## '''Rogal Dorn''' - Although one hell of a masochist, and at times thick-headed, he did see the idea behind the Imperium, and actually agreed with it. Honest and dependable, while Rogal didn't make for interesting conversation, he would always do his job without complaint. Had as much empathy and subtlety as one of his fortresses and ended up hurting a lot of people (mostly emotionally, but sometimes physically too) with his over-the-top brutal honesty. The prime example was when he betrayed Fulgrim's trust after they had a discussion regarding Konrad's visions, and provoked Curze into slashing him across the face. However, he could occasionally get quite philosophical, and is perhaps the only Primarch to admit that his own nature and power unsettled him.
## '''Leman Russ''' - Nowhere near as much of a dick as butthurt Magnus fanboys would have you believe. He was indeed savage and brutal, but ultimately always keeping the larger goal of betterment of humanity in sight and having good reasons for that myopia. Prone to picking fights with his brothers and destroyed Prospero under questionable circumstances. That said, he used the culture of his homeworld to give his Legion control over its savagery, and made the Space Wolves focus on protecting people from monsters instead of just butchering civilians. He did use terror tactics, mass killings, and the destruction of knowledge, but he did so out of loyalty to humanity and the Emperor, not just because he felt like it. Bottom line: Russ certainly had his fair share of flaws, but as belligerent and myopic as he could be he always tried to make the galaxy safe for humanity in the longer run.
## '''Lion El'Jonson''' - The Lion was complex, to say the least. He had an arrogance that matched Fulgrim or Horus's worst moments combined with a difficult early life fighting Chaos beasts on Caliban. This "do-or-die" attitude spilled over into his interpersonal skills, hard. Too hard. Put simply, you had one chance with Johnson and if he ever decided you wasted it, then it was over and you went on his shitlist forever. The end result was a Primarch who was aloof and taciturn, whose poor communication skills made him unsuited to lead the Primarchs but whose ego made it impossible for him to accept the seniority of Horus or Russ. At the same time, there was a competitive, spiteful, and self-centered side to the Lion, which led him to execute one of his own Dark Angels over a conflict of authority and nearly kill Russ over an argument about kill-stealing. There's been speculation in-universe and out of it that he wasn't wholly loyal to the Emperor, but he made it clear to Curze that he sees loyalty as "its own reward". The only reason he's below Russ is that Russ at least admitted his own faults and tried to interact with people, while the Lion was too stubborn to admit when he was wrong and came off as distant at the best of times.
## '''Ferrus Manus''' - A big dude with a penchant for bursts of choleric anger. Between his resting bitch face and his Social Darwinist ideals, he seems at first glance to be a natural candidate for a traitor. However, his honesty and loyalty to the Emperor mean he certainly wasn't as bad as Perturabo or Mortarion, and he did sincerely believe that weakness would cause the Imperium to collapse. He was... really a pain to deal with, however. Unlike, let's say, Dorn, who was only really mean when you made it on his shitlist, Ferrus was only nice to people who made it on his ''friends''list. Anyone else could, as far as he was concerned, either stay out of his way or get introduced to his fists. Most of the Loyalists and even some Traitors (at first) viewed the protection of the innocent as their goal, while Ferrus encouraged tactics that led to massive civilian casualties, and where Primarchs like Curze or Angron took Legions that were bad about mortal deaths and kept up such practices, Manus took a Legion that had tried to minimize mortal deaths and made them worse about it. All this said, he was loyal unto death to the Emperor's ideals and he also understood that his sons' fetish for cybernetics was beyond unhealthy and wanted to help them overcome it. His death ensured that last part would never happen, and indeed made them double down on their hatred of the flesh.
## '''Alpharius Omegon''' - Damned if anyone knows. You just can't trust that/those guy(s), which does make him/them a pretty big dick by default. The fallout from some of the Alpha Legion's Crusade-era shenanigans suggests a certain inclination to showing off at the expense of civilian lives, probably due to an enormous inferiority-superiority complex. Still, they rebelled under perhaps the best intentions among all the traitors with Alpharius at least recognising Chaos had to be defeated (we think- it's still ambiguous as to their end goals) Omegon is possibly a bit better, in that he wasn't willing to sacrifice all of mankind to do so (maybe). After Alpharius's probable death by Dorn at Pluto and Omegon taking his mantle to (allegedly) die at Guilliman's hands, the legion debatably turned into a schizophrenic monster, though this is better than what Fulgrim's actions turned his legion into by far.
## '''Fulgrim''' - Not as much a dick as some other Primarchs. Still a dick to humans and Marines who didn't match his ridiculously high standards. He also can't keep a secret, betraying Konrad Curze's trust and causing him to go nuts on Dorn's face. Other than Horus and Sanguinius, was the only Primarch to really get along with all his brothers (save Jagatai, but that's his fault. Oh, Mortarion thought he was a prancing idiot. And Fulgrim considered Russ a dumb hick. And he didn't seem to like the Second very much), and was BFFs with Ferrus Manus, of all people. That is, until he chopped his head off. Rude. Also took pride to the extremity of arrogance, hence his fall to Slaanesh. Interestingly, his bizarre fixation on friendship with Ferrus never left him, constantly cloning him with help of Fabius Bile and trying to win him over his side. Needless to say, he's failed thus far.
# The '''Self-righteous Jerk'''
## '''Lorgar''' - The dude who brought this whole fucking mess into fruition. If only he had strangled Erebus and Kor Phaeron at the first mention of Chaos. Instead he decided he was going to ruin everything for everybody because his daddy was a NAYtheist and none of the brothers really supported him. He started off as a well-intentioned idealist who sought to use what he knew best to uplift humanity, religion, before the Emperor's actions on Monarchia destroyed his psyche, allowing Erebus and Kor Phaeron to let him know about [[Chaos|the other gods who would appreciate his worship]]. While it's true he shouldn't have been treated so harshly by the Emperor (even Malcador and Guilliman privately said as much), and even though he believed Chaos was necessary for humanity to survive and continue existence, the fact that Chaos & the Horus Heresy caused the 10,000 year old Imperium to become the grimdark, bloody, corpse-littered cesspool we all know and love would normally outweighs all of the slivers of sympathy that he might have had. And yet, there are people far, far worse than him. To be honest, he was one of the nicest primarchs before the destruction of Monarchia, comparable to Magnus before the Burning of Prospero. He tried to befriend everyone and was one of the primarchs that mostly conquered planets by words and faith, instead of by fire and sword and along Dorn and Guilliman, was one of the rarer ones that wouldnt leave conquered worlds as utter shitholes, instead rebuilding them and integrating its population. All this make his downfall even more sad and tragic, and even after his fall, he seemed to be generally concerned about his brother Angron's (of all people) life, which was a primary reason that he was in a hurry transforming him. Also, confrontation with Corax shows that he genuinely cares for his son's lives, putting him above the disgusting fucktards below. Then again, he was completely blasé about the ''horrific'' fates the Forces of Chaos inflicted on people (see the Gal Vorbak for reference), regardless of whether they wanted it or not. Also, he's arguably the only Primarch who is completely unrepentant about his crimes towards the Imperium (even Horus acknowledged what a piece of shit he himself had become, and Fulgrim sometimes expressed regret when the pink haze wasn't clouding his mind). In sum, Lorgar is why we can't have [[Noblebright|nice things.]]
# The '''FUCKING CUNTS'''
## '''Mortarion''' - Rubbed everyone the wrong way. EVERYONE, excluding Eidolon who he actually got along with somehow. Downright bigoted against psykers. He resented pretty much everyone who he felt had it easier than him. He was also notorious for using chemical and radiological terror weapons and generally not giving a fuck about who got killed by them. However, his reputation is slightly misleading. Mortarion was the Primarch who was the most driven to slay monsters and bring down tyrants, and would rather go kill more monsters than rebuild the planet. He and his Legion were almost always deployed in the most hellish and war-torn locations, so their use of chemical weapons didn't do as much damage as Morty's detractors would have you believe. Maybe not, but he'd still deploy them in almost any theatre as a matter of course. Over time, he became more and more disgusted with people's acceptance of [[Emperor|tyrants]] and [[Magnus the Red|psykers]], and became much more likely to kill everything in the vicinity of what he considered evil. Interestingly he did care deeply for his own people, which is why he was so driven to take down both monsters and tyrants after witnessing the rule of his foster father oppressed the populace, though he didn't exactly do much, if anything to show it. Then [[Nurgle]] made him his plague-ridden bitch, at which point he decided to just take his bitterness out on everyone lacking the Plaguefather's "gifts".
## '''Angron''' - Loved killing people and not much else. Most of the casualties within his legion were a result of him being a team-killing psycho because quite frankly he didn't care what he got to kill as long as he got to kill it. That said, Angron at least had an excuse for being such a rampaging dick all the time. The Butcher's Nails had effectively turned him into a half-mindless killing machine, as it actually has not just remapped but ''replaced'' parts of his brain, effectively removing from him any emotions other than pain, hatred and battle-lust. One may wonder what sort of guy he would have been without the implants, maybe someone more akin to [[Conan the Barbarian]]? Just consider even with the nails biting at his mind he became life bros with the other gladiators of Nuceria and stopped himself from killing worthy adversaries back during his life as a slave, such an act must have meant getting brain-roasted by the Butcher's Nails. But he stick to his guns despite the suffering. On top of that, he got fucked over pretty hard by Big E when they first met, so it's no wonder he went traitor the moment Horus made him an offer, we may even credit him for enduring years fighting for the Imperium instead of just getting himself killed in any of the battles. At the end of the day, Angron was probably the primarch who gave least fucks about his legion and was content to let it run itself without his leadership, although he never really wanted one to begin with. As a result, many of the saner parts of his legion ''loathed'' him, to say nothing about his general reputation (Isstvaan III wasn't the first time...). The action that places him so low on this list is the fact that he allowed the spread of Butcher's Nails throughout his Legion, despite his own hatred of the damn things and the fact they cause him so many issues, not least going psycho rage-monster most of the time; which is a pretty fucked up thing for him to condone. Then again, many of his sons accepted the mini-Nails to get closer to their Primarch, psykers, however, died horribly, not that Angron gave a shit. Perhaps he allowed it because seeing his sons with Butcher's Nails reminded him of his fallen gladiator brothers and sisters on Nuceria, but then again he blew up the planet along with all of the people he once fought to liberate just because they were bad-mouthing him. He really wasn't all that great of a guy even during his moments of lucidity, and he was one the few Primarchs to willingly kill his own men during the Great Crusade, an act even ''Horus'' thought was unthinkable.
## '''Perturabo''' - Initially, Pert was a fairly relaxed architect, swapping lore with Magnus and dreaming up untold wonders (we get a look at this more reasonable side during Angel Exterminatus). During the crusade, though, he and his legion were given the very shittiest jobs and the least recognition, going so far as to have the Iron Warriors' credit in a campaign handed to other legions [[Galactic Partridges|swiped]] least a few times. Understandably pissed, Perturabo spiraled from a not-very-high start to rock bottom, caring even less about the life of his legionaries and civilians than Mortarion. Unlike other Primarchs like Angron and Mortarion, Perturabo didn't really have that tragic of an upbringing to justify his shitty personality. And while he did have a sympathetic foster sister, Calliphone, who tried to help him cope with his dreams being belittled and court politics plaguing him in his childhood, any sympathy went out the window when he choked her to death for pointing out his flaws and foolishness causing the planet's rebellion after he devastated Olympia (even though he did cry afterwards). Like Angron, Perturabo was one the few Primarchs who willingly killed his own men. Unlike Angron, who usually did it in a spur of rage and madness, Perturabo's decimation of IVth Legion was cold, calculated, and entirely deliberate. It is this act, along with many others, that led to the Iron Warriors being a top candidate for the title of "[[Daemonculaba|evilest]] [[Honsou|motherfuckers]] in the setting". Angron at least had the flimsy justification of the nails. Perturabo simply fell to his emotions. By the end we was just an envious, petty bastard who was always complaining whenever things didn't go his way (which was always).
## '''Konrad Curze''' - Arguably the most sadistic of all primarchs, Konrad really got off to torturing people and manipulating the masses through fear. Warped as it may have been, he did at least have a sense of justice. Unfortunately, his desire to protect the innocent was eviscerated and left to die in a gutter by his desire to punish the guilty. Nostramo was a grade A five star bona fide shithole and it shows in the actions of the King of the Night. The man who was supposed to be the ultimate harbinger of justice ended up as an unholy combination of Batman and Joker. Any ideas of mercy or decency he may have harbored had been long buried under a massive pile of flayed guts. Angron may have not really cared about his Legion, but Curze actively despised his own long before the Horus Heresy ever started. He did admit that what he had done was wrong, but instead of trying to atone for his atrocities, he used that fact he was going to be assassinated as validation of his actions. In fact, the only two things that genuinely seemed to scare him were the possibilities that the Emperor '''wouldn't''' order his death ''(and render his life choices meaningless)'' -- or even worse, be forgiven for his behavior. The fact that he refused to turn back to heroism at so many opportunities because he felt himself a puppet of fate makes one unable to decide whether he is contemptible or pathetic. Curze skirts this foul line.

==See Also==

[[Return of the Primarchs]]: A What IF? series filled with pure [[AWESOME]] and [[Fist of the North Star|MANLY TEARS]].

A little side note, if you want an awesome look at the Primarchs in all their Crusadey goodness, go look at Aerion the Faithful's Libris Primaris project. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/152862-artwork-libris-primaris/

==Miniatures==

* The official 30K miniatures are produced by [[Forge World]]
* [https://www.hitechminiatures.com Hitechminiatures] has good alternative models
* [https://wargameexclusive.com Wargame Exclusive] also has very good alternative models but a smaller selection - yet.
* [https://cadwallon.com/ Cadwallon] has [https://cadwallon.com/wargames/chibiprimes Chibi Primes]

==Gallery==

<center>
===Loyal===
<gallery>
File:Lion El'Jonson.JPEG|[[Lion El'Jonson]]
File:JaghataiKhan-1-.jpg|[[Jaghatai Khan]] (can't hate a man who wears heeled calfboots)
File:LEMAN RUSS.jpg|[[Leman Russ]]
File:Rogal Dorn Portrait.png|[[Rogal Dorn]]
File:Sanginuscool.jpg|[[Sanguinius]]
File:Ferrus Manus Pre-Haircut.jpg|[[Ferrus Manus]]
File:Robute Guilliman.jpg|[[Roboute Guilliman]] (Big Bobby G)
File:Vulkan's Face.jpg|[[Vulkan]]
File:Corax Portrait.png|[[Corvus Corax]]
</gallery>

===Traitor===
<gallery>
File:Horus Portrait.png|[[Horus Lupercal]] (THAT ONE FUCK-UP)
File:Fulgrim by slaine69.jpg|[[Fulgrim]] (look at his sexyness)
File:Perturabo Portrait.jpg|[[Perturabo]]
File:Konrad Curze Mugshot.jpg|[[Konrad Curze]]/Night Haunter/Batman
File:Angron Butchers Nails.jpg|[[Angron]] (GETS. SHIT. DONE.)
File:Mortarion Portrait.jpg|[[Mortarion]]
File:Magnus.jpg|[[Magnus the Red]]
File:Lorgar Handsome.jpg|[[Lorgar Aurelian]] (goldboy)
File:Alpharius2.jpg|[[Alpharius]]/[[Omegon]]
</gallery>
</center>

{{Template:Primarchs}}
{{Imperium}}

[[Category:Chaos]]

Emperor's Children

2020-07-31T17:50:27Z

2001:1C03:4118:C200:0:0:0:65: Ferrus is not amused.

{{Promotions}}
{{heresy}}

{{Infobox Traitor Legion
|Name = Emperor's Children
|Heraldry = [[File:Emperorschildrenlogo.jpg|250px]]
|Battle Cry = "Children of the Emperor! Death to your foes!" (Pre-Heresy; now said in mockery), Whatever garbled [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypgltnMSTvw "music"] they're playing through their vox-hailers today (Post-Heresy)
|Number = III
|Primarch = [[Fulgrim]]
|Original Homeworld = Chemos
|Current Homeworld = Pleasure Planet, which they can't find.
|Champion = [[Lucius|Lucius the Eternal]], [[Fabius Bile]]
|Specialty = Emissary protection, tactical superiority (pre-heresy), [[Sonic Weaponry]], being on drugs (post-heresy)
|Strength = Back to Legion strength by the 13th Black Crusade (Implied to be bigger now than during the Heresy)
|Allegiance = [[Slaanesh]]
|Colours = Pink, black, gold
}}

{{Topquote|Pleasure is sweetest when 'tis paid for by another's pain.|Ovid}}
{{Topquote|Captain, the loyalists have a Titan! What shall we do?" "Well first we do some warp dust, then we FUCK THAT TITAN.|Emperor’s Children Captain}}
{{Topquote|The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom....for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.|William Blake}}

The Emperor's Children are a [[Chaos Space Marine]] Legion and are basically what would happen if Dr. Rockso designed a space marine legion. They worship [[Slaanesh]], wear pink and black, and were part of the original [[First Founding]] [[Space Marines|legions]]. They are also the [[/d/|sickest fucks]] on every side of the [[Eye of Terror]].

In other words, the Emperor's Children are the army that some [[Neckbeard|fa/tg/uys]] would... ''consider'' joining based on the fact that this Legion revolves around [[Lucius|sex]], [[Doomrider|drugs]] and [[Noise Marines|rock'n'roll]]. Except they are not all about that: Games Workshop dummied out most of the sexual imagery out of Slaanesh on the tabletop in order to not offend Little Johnny's parents and keep a PG-13 rating. Though in the Heresy Novels it depicts a Slaanesh-inspired orgy and the Space Marines just started a killing spree. Yeah, they get off on combat, not sex... remind you of [[Khorne|someone]]? Add to the fact that Slaanesh is the god(dess?) [[/tg/]] associates with furries and other things best left unsaid, it makes most anons reluctant to join the cul/tg/ratification. Then again, they are following the Prince of Excess... the followers are bound to be indulging themselves far beyond normality.

The [[Red Scorpions]] may or may not be a [[Traitor Legion Loyalists|loyalist offshoot]], based on their demeanor and secrecy over their unknown Primarch. The [[Death Eagles]] chapter are another possible loyalist offshoot, this time speculated in-universe due to the fact that there was a loyalist contingent of Emperor's Children during the Horus Heresy who were called the Death Eagles. The [[Sons of the Phoenix]] may also be a successor, considering some [[Fulgrim|not-so-subtle parallels in their name]] and colour scheme, the fact that [[Belisarius Cawl]] has been experimenting with making [[Primaris Marines]] from traitor gene-seed, and [[Dark Angels|their insistence on]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_lady_doth_protest_too_much,_methinks over-the-top demonstrations of loyalty and devotion]. However, the [[Bullshit|official line]] is that the Sons are [[Imperial Fists]].

''NOT REALLY [[Sensei|CHILDREN OF THE EMPEROR]].''

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsPFDzAGb4A Here is their theme song.] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBR3a_YNfYo Alternate theme.]

==History==

=== Pre-Heresy ===
[[File:6f89d3843c1387e46a590262c7ecc473.jpg|400px|left|thumb|The Emperor's Children are the best pimps in the galaxy. Chaos! Fuck Yeah!]]

Back during the [[Great Crusade]], the Emperor's Children were unswervingly loyal, which is how they got their name. Now they just use the name as a form of mockery to [[troll]] the loyalists. Their [[Primarch]], [[Fulgrim]], was buds with [[Horus]], so when Horus did his [[heresy]] [[Horus Heresy|thing]], Fulgrim went straight to Horus and said "Dude; what the fuck? For reals." Horus knew that Fulgrim was a perfectionist with mild OCD and, straight out of an 80's afterschool special, Horus convinced Fulgrim that he could get that perfection [[Doomrider|if he tried some of these diet pills... and meth... and speed... ]] and by the time Fulgrim was on [[Doomrider|cocaine]] he did a one hundred eighty turn and devoted himself and his legion to [[Slaanesh]].

Before their fall to Chaos, the Emperor's Children were exemplars of what it meant to be an Astartes and were initially drawn from the Terran noble families rather than the chaff of the hive cities. They were noble, strong, excelled in all matters and above all were loyal to the core. Interestingly, a sizeable number of recruits after Fulgrim was found came from far less aristocratic sources (one Marine mentions being one of many children born to an underhive prostitute). They weren't experts in any sort of warfare (if there was an especially tough fortress to crack the Lords of Terra would bring in the Imperial Fists and not the Emperor's Children, for example) but could do everything very well and constantly drove themselves to learn as much as they could. Naturally, they were hyper-competitive and as a way to entertain their notions of superiority, engaged in lengthy duels against other Astartes. This is how you get somebody like [[Lucius the Eternal|good ole Lucy here!]]

Unfortunately in the early Great Crusade their gene-seed suffered a form of [[AIDS|Space-Cancer]] that caused their organs to develop tumours and shut down their bodies. It's thought that this was due to sabotage by the Selenar gene-cults of Luna, which is supported by the disappearance of gene-seed reserves last seen near Luna. In an effort to stem the tide they "[[derp|mercifully]]" executed those who suffered the condition and destroyed them; by the time Fulgrim was discovered there was only a few hundred Astartes left in the "Legion". Also, Fulgrim's return did not actually cure the problem, but merely sidestepped the issue by allowing untainted new gene-seed to be produced. It's quite possible that [[Fabius Bile]] is the only sufferer remaining but he likely gets around the symptoms through [[Dark Eldar|advanced medical sciences]], although even he has found that all that's done is stall for time.

After finding Fulgrim, it is probably safe to assume that they were friends with the people of the Imperium and popular with other Legions. Firstly Fulgrim had a lot of friends among the Primarchs, most namely Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands and Horus himself.''(The Emperor's Children are also battle-brothers with the Salamanders, but Vulkan is friends with everyone.)'' In addition the Legion was noble in conduct and aspect, a shining example to other Legions. Starting off from this high place, perhaps it is not a surprise that pride began to poison the noble heart of the Emperor's Children.

The Emperor's Children were not so much known for their number of victories (especially since they got sort of a late start because of the whole gene-seed thing) but for the way they were won. Other Legions would take their mode of war and apply it in every situation. The Emperor's Children did everything, and were good at everything. In addition no other Legion could claim as many individual unit and Astartes honors as the Emperor's Children. In their waging of war was a perfection that perhaps echoed their fall.

A good example of the Third Legion's style of war was a battle known as the Defense of Tranquility. Basically there was a nebula that had a series of (probably Eldar) gates. The Imperium came to claim them, and the Emperor's Children (still only 500 strong at the time) were ordered to defend the poisonous crystal world of Tranquility, the Imperium's forward base of operations. All was pretty quiet until lo and behold a xenos fleet emerged from the [[Warp|warp portal]] hanging above Tranquility's Geographic North Pole. The xenos were crystalline and emitted powerful beam rays that could cut [[ceramite]]. They dropped from their ships in their thousands, and the Third Legion was ready for them. Every Legionary had studied and memorized the surface of the planet, and as the aliens came, the Emperor's Children knew exactly where to lure them in, where to run, and where to prepare kill zones. The aliens soon began to lose so many troops they were forced to direct their ships' weapons onto the planet, which gave the Imperial Navy ships also in orbit a chance to get close and destroy the fragile vessels. Praetor Abisare of the Third is noted as having said it was not a battle but "an execution of considered intent". For the Emperor's Children war was an art, a craft to be honed and practiced!

As time went on, though, the Legion's pursuit of perfection started to take a bit of a wrong turn, at least to outsiders. During the Murder campaign the [[Luna Wolves]] found that [[Eidolon|Lord Eidolon]] had opted to take his entire force into a warzone which had already swallowed up a bunch of [[Blood Angels]] and [[Space Marines|Imperial Army]] troops. Eidolon then threw some weak insults at [[Torik Targaddon]] and took credit for his subordinates' achievements. Unsurprisingly, Torgaddon started fretting that egotistical arseholes like Eidolon might indicate something unhealthy in the EC's legion culture.

Anyways even before they were getting genuinely chaotic, they were already doing weird ass shit in the pursuit of 'perfection', like genetic enhancements and what not, and that's a big no-no for [[Space Marines]], even if it is a bit hypocritical for the genetically engineered super-duper-awesome-power-humans to get all shitty about a few enhancements on top of that. But, shitty they were - what gets skimmed over is the fact that all this stuff [[heresy|was based on a Slaanesh-worshipping alien race's modifications]], so waaay more dodgy than anything the Emperor had devised for the SMs. If you're going to get more awesome, then you have to [[Iron Hands|chop bits off]] and [[Adeptus Mechanicus|replace them with robot]] [[Dreadnought|like everyone else]]. Anyhow they did it anyway because they wanted to be perfect THAT hard.

Aaaaand that's where [[Fabius Bile]] came in. He was the [[Apothecary]] that was fucking with everyone's genes to turn them "perfect", among other things rewiring their nervous systems so that pain actually caused them pleasure. While not generally focused on, Slaanesh is also the god/ess of perfection, in addition to excess. Therefore, the Space Marines that are obsessed with perfection turn to Slaanesh. And don't forget that [[Fulgrim]]'s mind was eaten by a demon. Although he got better. So yeah, they are Slaaneshi now.

=== Heresy and after ===

[[File:Wolfandsister1.jpg|450px|left|thumb|Back in previous editions, [[Noise Marines]] had awesome guitar weapons instead of Sonic Cannons! [[Awesome]].]]

The Emperor's Children were most notorious for their engagements during the Battle of Istvaan III and the [[Drop Site Massacre]]. By the time of the latter battle many of them were straight-up [[Noise Marines]] (due to Bile's machinations) and they engaged the [[Iron Hands]] and other loyalists in the disaster that cost Ferrus Manus his head. Later on they along with Fulgrim started drifting off from the Heresy, engaging the [[Iron Warriors]] in Fulgrim's attempt to achieve Daemonhood, for example.

During the siege on [[Terra]], the Emperor's Children were supposed to help with getting back at the Emprah but they got bored, broke off and went pillaging the civilians. Most of the innocents they found were ground up and distilled into drugs, anyone left over was raped to death. After the Siege, they [[Dark Eldar| dragged a shitton of slaves with them]] back with them into the [[Eye of Terror]]. After snorting / smoking / [[Dranon's_delight|raping]] / defenestrating / dogwelding them all, they started stealing slaves from the other Legions, which started all the in-fighting. Considering they suffered few losses on Terra proper, they had the upper hand at first and even managed to steal Horus's corpse from the Sons of Horus. But then they had the poor idea to poke the [[World Eaters]] a bit too hard and [[Khârn|a certain swell guy]] went to town on their asses (and his own Legion's asses, [[Khorne]] cares not where the blood flows from!) at the [[Battle of Skalathrax]].
Reeling, the Emperor's Children retreated to their Stronghold of [[Harmony]] where [[Fabius Bile|this fabulous sicko]] managed to clone [[Horus]] himself!

However, [[Abaddon]], in a rare moment of awesomeness assembled various Marines from his Legion and others, launched an attack on Harmony, and won by having one of his sidekicks hurl a warship at the capital in a massive colony drop before killing the fully grown clone of Horus and ruining Bile's labs. It's implied that a bunch of Emperor's Children went over to Abaddon and made up the nucleus of the [[Children of Torment]] (the BL's Slaaneshi contingent) worshippers, as the EC views them as traitors to Fulgrim.

After the battle of Harmony, most EC went their own merry way. Marines of the Emperor's Children legions are always looking for the next high, and eschew tranquilizers and depressants (like booze) for hallucinogens and stimulants (like cocaine). It started out as a quest for perfection with performance-enhancing drugs, but now that they're full-blown corrupted by [[Slaanesh]] it's about peak experiences. Also have an obsession with [[Noise Marines|noise]], [[furry]] [[Promotions|porn]], [[Tyranids|tentacles]], and gettin' high. Hey, who's the bastard who forgot about their [[Matt Ward|chronic masturbation]] problem?

The Pre-Heresy paint scheme for their minis are purple and gold, while the Post-Heresy paint scheme is pink and black. (Or any clashing pastel colours and ugly patterns.) They are the Legion that created the original [[Noise Marines]], and are still the go-to Legion for expertise in [[Sonic Weaponry]].

Among the most infamous members of their Legion are [[Lucius|Lucius the Eternal]] and [[Fulgrim]]. [[Fabius Bile]] was once part of the Emperor's Children, but went renegade from them. He's still labeled as a champion here, though.

It is speculated that the [[Pretty Marines|Pretty Marines']] unknown Primarch was actually an Emperor's Children Captain that remained loyal to the Emperor during the [[Horus Heresy]] and convinced the [[High Lords of Terra]] to allow him to re-create the example of human flawlessness using his own gene-seed.

==Daily Routines of the Emperor's Children==
05:00 - The Emperor's Children and Daemonette girlfriends awake from their drug-induced hangover in their party lounge, ready for another day of sex, drugs and rock and roll.

05:10 - Grooming period. The Emperor's Children groom their body parts so they could look absolutely ''fabulous''.

05:30 - Morning Meal. A <s>light</s> heavy, quadruple-portioned meal consisting of cocaine, drugs, and the bodily fluids of Eldar victims are consumed by the Emperor's Children. The legion's personal sex slaves are forbidden to be molested for now.

06:00 - Morning Prayers. The Emperor's Children pray to Slaanesh for the best pleasures while masturbating and jizzing everywhere in an orgy of sadomasochism. Eldar and Dark Eldar are usually used to satisfy any needs during the prayer.

07:00 - Morning Firing Rites. The Emperor's Children begin morning target practice on captured slaves. Sometimes they use their cocks instead of their guns to 'hit the target'.

09:00 - Battle Practice. The Emperor's Children begin <s>playing</s> training with one another. Foreplay is also included.

10:00 - Tactical Indoctrination. The Emperor's Children are indoctrinated on the best drugs and sexual position in the galaxy.

11:00 - Midday Meal. A medium meal is prepared by the legion's sex slave. This time the Emperor's Children are allowed to rape their slaves while eating their meal at the same time.

12:00 - Local Raids. The Emperor's Children do their local raids in capturing more sex slaves for their pleasure. Special "rewards" are given to those who manage to capture Eldar or Dark Eldar Women (or men, if that's what they go for).

16:00 - Evening Meal. A feast is prepared by the legion's sex slaves. Usually the feast includes several young girls and boys, who are then slowly eaten and raped alive. Their still living bodies are then paraded through the streets where they whimper in pain as they are then transformed into the legion's next generation of sex slaves.

17:00 - Torture an Eldar Period. The Emperor's Children torture, rape, penetrate and humiliate captured Eldar women and men. Most of the Eldar often drown in their own bodily fluids as the Emperor's Children decide to photograph their defiled and violated bodies and then post it on any near Eldar Craftworld to [[Troll|troll]] them. Captured Dark Eldar are not allowed to participate. Instead, they are used in pornos, which they send through the warp to /tg/ to make them jealous.

20:00 - Rock'n Roll Time. The Emperor's Children decide on who can play the best Rock'n Roll while snorting as much cocaine and warp dust as possible while gang banging multiple chained and helpless sex slaves. Daemonettes also join the fun, having hot, erotic ball-busting sex while committing in an act of mass orgies and drugs. Some Emperor's Children put the face of [[Sanguinius]] on a dart board in which they defile and poke holes at; either due to innate jealousy that the Angel is better then them or that they realize they and Fulgrim can [[Spiritual Liege|never, ever become as fabulous as Sanguinius.]]

24:40 - Rest Time. The Emperor's Children, their Daemonette companions and the sex slaves all pass out in an ocean of jizz, bodily fluids, juices and powdered drugs in their party lounge. /Tg/ is sent more pictures, causing them to [[Rage]] due to being left out.

24:50 - Finding Fulgrim. A small detachment of Emperor's Children not committed in the orgy are sent out to find Fulgrim and co. It lasts a week and they do not succeed as usual.

== See Also ==
*[[Miriael Sabathiel]]: a sister of battle who was corrupted by the Emperor's Children
*[[Codex - Fallen Sororitas]]: a fully playable homebrew army for Chaos Sisters of Battle. Being fellow worshipers of Slaanesh, they get along great with these guys.
*[https://www.moddb.com/mods/emperors-children-modfor-the-glory-of-slaanesh The Emperor's Children mod for Dawn of War]: full of heretical goodness
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnzuRnKnO7E You should turn the volume up before clicking this]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
image:Fulgrim.png|Emperor's Children's primarch Fulgrim. Despite common belief, they do LSD too.
Image:1271835294177.jpg|The Emperor's Children in a nutshell.
File:Emperor s Children by megalaros.jpg|The Slaaneshi noise marine, the real reason why Rock is banned in the Imperium.
Image:Horny Marine.gif|'''Your average Emperors Children marine
</gallery>

{{Emperor's Children}}
{{Template:Chaos-Official}}

Mortarion

2020-07-11T22:10:18Z

2001:1C03:4118:C200:0:0:0:65:

{{heresy}}
[[File:Mortarion Portrait.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Mortarion, the Death Lord, is in serious need of some chapstick.]]
{{Topquote|Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster . . . for when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.|Friedrich Nietzsche}}
{{Topquote|Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.|Robert Oppenheimer, quoting the Hindu religious text, the ''Bhagavad Gita''}}
{{Topquote|Forget no insult, my sons, as I have never forgotten those of my father, of the Emperor, nor those of Horus. Forgive no slight or grievance. Hold your bitterness deep within, and there let it fester. Let it roil and squirm and churn, until you are filled with bile so poisonous that all you touch falls to ruin. Thus shall you serve Nurgle best. Thus shall you spread his virulent gifts across the false Imperium, and watch its final rotting…|Mortarion}}

Also known as the '''Death Lord''' or the '''Pale King''' - and the '''Prince of Decay''', after he got sick of [[Emperor|Daddy's]] shit -, '''Mortarion''' is the [[Primarch]] of the [[Death Guard]] (XIV), a particularly gross legion of [[Chaos Space Marines]]. HAD an absolute hatred of psykers, is a staunch believer of the Darwinian principle of "Survival of the fittest", has some serious beef with the new and improved [[Roboute Guilliman|Robert Gilligan]] and is [[Nurgle|Grandpappy Nurgle's]] big special boy.

==Biography==
Mortarion was left on the plague planet [[Barbarus]] by the [[Chaos]] gods. He was found by Necare, the xenos overlord of Barbarus. Necare for years was only known as something that was less human than Mortarion, but he is an alien now. The Overlord, naming him Mortarion (to mean "Child of Death") took the infant Primarch and raised him, teaching him the arts of combat and warfare, after caging the child on a mountain top to acclimatize to the poisonous atmosphere. Mortarion's curiosity led him to leave home and set up shop in one of the human villages in a less plague-filled valley, where he simply helped with the harvest. When the village was attacked by a marauding warlord, Mortarion charged into the fray, defending his home with his scythe. After the battle was won, Mortarion taught the villagers, and other humans on Barbarus, the same lessons of warfare he had learned from his adoptive father. Soon, they were strong enough to take the fight to the warlords of Barbarus until only the Overlord remained. The Emperor showed up in a modest robe, as he feels like doing sometimes, and challenged Mortarion to slay Necare alone or swear loyalty to him.

Mortarion wasted no more time and went to kill his adoptive father, but he was too weak and succumbed to the poisonous upper atmosphere. Cue [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]] time and one hit kill. The Emperor stole Mortarion's kill of evil adoptive father (Mortarion resented this as a trivialization of his struggles against the warlords, and this resentment eventually caused his fall to Chaos).

===Great Crusade===

He was discovered 130 years into the Great Crusade and was taken to Terra, like all his other brothers were, to learn the ways of the Imperium. But unusually he was held for a bit longer on Terra than his brothers were on the reasoning that they were going to get all of the poisons and toxins out of his system, though this would obviously hit a snag since he got his armour customised to supply him with the Barbarus gases on demand ''(maybe he was dependent on them?)'', naturally all this waiting around got him a bit frustrated and annoyed.

Mortarion managed to sneak his way through the Imperial Palace and to the construction site of the future [[Golden Throne]] ''(yeah, despite being all giant and pungent, he was an excellent [[Ninja]], also evidenced by his rules below)''. When he demanded of [[Malcador the Sigillite|Malcador]] what it was, he wouldn't accept the regent's excuses that it was nothing to concern himself over, since Mortarion knew [[Heresy|warp-tech]] when he saw it, and considered the Emperor & Malcador big giant hypocrites. The same went for his three brothers who set up the Librarius, and he didn't get on that well with the others. Apart from maybe the Khan, Mortarion had the least central role in the Crusade of all the Primarchs.

Thus Malcador revealed to Mortarion the Emperor's greater plan; which was to remove the reliance on psykers and warp travel entirely, and that they were already planning the [[Council of Nikaea]] in advance and that Mortarion would be the one to make the case for reining it in.

Mortarion got his own legion and swore allegiance to the big E. Weirdly, for all his dad and Malcador's worries about him, they didn't see fit to keep him fighting alongside the Emperor like (clearly sane and well-adjusted) Vulkan. Regardless, he wasted little time in transforming the Dusk Raiders into the Death Guard, and proved himself one of the Great Crusade's best frontline generals. Despite his skill and ambitions, however, he found himself at the margins of the war. Combined with the genetic heritage of Barbarus, Mortarion's gene-seed produced insanely tough Astartes, which made them the obvious choice for prosecuting campaigns in the most inhospitable climates. Perhaps as a result, the Death Guard also doubled down on their use of alchemical weapons, the kind that most Legions would only entrust to their Destroyer units. Consequently the Death Guard found themselves ever further away from the centre of the action.

After a few years of raping and pillaging those filthy Xenos he becomes best buds with [[Horus]] and that [[Konrad Curze|creepy pseudo-batman]]. He wasn't that bad of a guy, but he resented pretty much everyone whose upbringing hadn't been as awful as his, except Horus. There's a bit in Scars where he bitches and moans at Sanguinius, Jaghatai and Fulgrim about how they had it easy before snapping at the Khan that he ''doesn't resent it''. Hmm. The newly renamed Death Guard was moulded to resemble Mortarion's old army on Barbarus, as it began prioritising endurance over everything else. In combat Mortarion relied on his raw strength, which according to Jaghatai Khan, only Ferrus Manus had a hope of matching(He probably never fought [[Vulkan]]). In a primarch-on-primarch duel he just absorbed damage, tiring his opponent out.

===Horus Heresy===
When the [[Horus Heresy]] began, of all his traitor brothers, we don't quite yet know ''why'' Mortarion joined the Traitors since there haven't been many books with him as the protagonist. But it was presumably for [[Perturabo|ideological reasons]] rather than being outright [[Fulgrim|corrupted]], [[Angron|broken]] or [[Konrad Curze|renegade already]] since we know he already considered the [[Emperor]] and the [[Imperial Truth]] to be hypocritical and had never forgiven the Emperor for being the one to kill his foster "father" instead of him. He also felt that the whole goal of the Imperium was the wrong one- viewing non-combatants as unworthy, and hating the influence that civilians began to wield post-Ullanor. Horus' rebellion promised an order based on Might Is Right, and if the Warmaster died in the process of overthrowing the Emprah, then Mortarion might get a shot at the top job. So he was probably like "Yeah I won't worship Chaos, but I'll follow you anyway!" with Horus. Then again, a flashback with Malcador tells us that Mortarion might've had mental scars just as big as Curze's and Angron's, between the jailkeeper relationship with his adoptive dad, wanting to kill said foster parent, failing and watching his real dad kill said evil dad and finally finding out that his real dad was also a psyker (basically everything that Mortarion hated).

If he was telling Jaghatai the truth, in Horus he saw a leader who could give the strong freedom to dominate the galaxy, driving out the weak and impure. At the same time, Horus might not keep the throne once he got it; there would be "room to rise" when the war was over. Specific, room for him to take Horus's place.

However, that wasn't as easy as he thought, especially when he saw just how many despised psykers, witches, and sorcerers were running around all over the place. As a last-ditch attempt to change the balance, he tried to recruit [[Jaghatai Khan]] on [[Prospero]], using the Warrior Lodges to subvert the [[White Scars]]. Being an architect of the [[Librarian|Librarius]] and a generally cool guy, the Khan told Mortarion he was an idiot and went to town on the Death Lord. Mortarion gave Jaghatai the fight of his life, but eventually ran away to take his butthurt out on the rest of the Prosperine system, all the while brooding over the Khan's taunts. He'd thrown his lot in with the thing he hated the most and now that he'd run out of allies, it was going to claim him. Scars kinda retcons the start of Mortarion's descent here- the Khan thinks that Mortarion's "power" has grown (probably psychically) and that the guy's face looks discoloured around his rebreather. Despite this, he still insisted on claiming he was the only "pure" Primarch.

Just after getting into that scrap with the Khan, he travelled to a library world that once belonged to the [[Thousand Sons]] and set about [[Exterminatus|purging it]] to find a particular person possessed by a daemon. This would prove a turning point, as he kept the daemon in order to [[Inquisition|extract knowledge on how to defeat daemons]], but ended up getting goaded into using sorcerous powers to blast the creature into a mushy pulp and declaring that he would learn all he could about his [[Daemon|enemy]] in order to learn how to [[Fail|better eradicate it]]. Which the daemon had forseen as the beginning of Mortarion's descent into [[Fifteen views of Asscrack|Nurgle's Pocket]]. The retcon continues here, as Mortarion's claims to "purity" are mocked to his face and we're told that a Chaos God has already staked a claim on him. It's also pretty clear that Mortarion's close to going nuts even before this push, as his quarters are littered with Scientific Anti-Warp Devices (AKA shit tons of charms, incantations and numerical codes which do hurt Daemons... once he starts using the Warp). Oh yeah, and he makes speeches about how destroying worlds is good for the soul.

Following this he went on a psychic binge on [[Molech]], using the daemon prince who his old captain Ignatius Grulgor had become to wipe out entire cities. However, he also [[Awesome|took a blast from a Stormhammer cannon in the face, stayed on his feet, and destroyed the Goddamn superheavy tank.]]

Apparently the tank shell was loaded with the rare substance known as "common sense" (and admittedly with his regular author back) so Mortarion retreated from the Warp again, smashing up his trinkets, locking Grulgor away, banning sorcery again (although that only applied to his own Legion and he was more lenient on his allies) and generally treating the whole thing as some kind of lost weekend. His paranoia only got worse when First Captain [[Typhon]] disappeared, and then Horus assigned him the task of destroying the White Scars. Mortarion was so suspicious that he accused Horus of trying to get him killed, not appreciating that he was the only one Horus could trust to Get Shit Done in this scenario until Horus explained that the other Primarchs had [[Fulgrim|fucked off]], [[Angron|were]] [[Konrad Curze|uncontrollable]], [[Perturabo|disillusioned]], [[Alpharius|not really fans in the first place]] or were [[Lorgar|too busy pursuing personal vendettas]].

To that end Mortarion worked alongside [[Eidolon]] of the Emperor's Children, and despite Eidolon being a glory-whore who was all for using Chaos to modify himself wherever he could while also employing sorcerers (while Mortarion's the polar opposite), the two got along really well (mostly because Mortarion made it clear Eidolon was working '''with''' him and not '''for''' him). Surprisingly Mortarion arguably treated Eidolon better than Eidolon's own Primarch, given how Mortarion was supportive and didn't cut Eidolon's head off. The mission would have gone swimmingly, if the Scars' head psyker hadn't opened up a [[Dark Glass|Webway gate]]. Still, Mortarion was able to break open the Khan's flagship and teleported aboard with three hundred Terminators... only to find the ship empty, with the Khan and co evacuated to another ship (admittedly Jaghatai hated doing it, feeling like he was a coward for running away). Next thing he knew, the shields came back and his force was zerg rushed by the last of the Sagyar Mazan death squads formed from disgraced(attempted to usurp the Khan) White Scars. So he watched as his nemesis escaped and the warriors he'd once hoped would force the Khan to join them redeemed themselves by delaying him. And best of all? They were laughing.

And all the while, all his ships were getting grimier and the mortals were getting sicker...

Eventually Mortarion got fed up with Typhon fucking around the galaxy on his own and tried to use Eidolon's sorcerers to locate him, but his first captain didn't turn up again until the very last stage of the Heresy. He rejoined the fleet and convinced Mortarion to lead the assault on Terra from his ship, ''Terminus Est''. After they entered the Warp, Typhon ordered all the [[Navigator]]s killed, claiming they were secretly loyalists, and convinced Mortarion that he and his other psykers could get them safely to Terra. Why Mortarion trusted a psyker who revealed himself as his first captain after butchering the navigators who served him quite well isn't fully known yet since those books haven't been written (hopefully there's a plausible explanation). As it turns out, according to ''The Buried Dagger'', Typhon planted some evidence that showed the Navigators were scheming to drive the fleet into a supermassive black hole on orders from Malcador, then executed them all before Mortarion could stop him. Morty was pissed, but recognized that he had no other choice but to trust Typhon. It also turns out that Typhon was literally the first normal human Mortarion ever interacted with on Barbarus and was one of the first recruits for his original Death Guard, so Mortarion trusted him probably as much as he trusted anyone anymore. Of course this bit him on the ass, since his big ol' fleet got caught in a Warp Storm on its way to Terra, where they had to suffer diseases which would kill anyone else. The Death Guard's legendary endurance was turned against them, holding them just on the edge of death, suffering so hard that it makes a [[Dark Eldar]] torture feel like massage (no, really). Well, what would be the best way to stop the disease? [[Derp|Start the worship of the God of the Diseases, of course!]] To be fair, Typhon was already doing that- in fact, he was the one who arranged for them to be caught in the warp storm in the first place. [[Nurgle]] was pleased as the Death Guard swore loyalty to him, and he ended their suffering (but made them walking sacks of meat that simply won't die, our beloved [[Plague Marines]]). Mortarion instead became... actually he didn't change all that much. Seriously, aside from getting a scabby face he looks nearly identical to how he used to be, aside from the fuckhueg pair of wings Papa Nurgle gave him.

This act of "swearing loyalty" takes on a different context when you realize that Mortarion utterly despised the Ruinous Powers (even if he may have been getting some assistance from them towards the end of the Heresy, if the events of Scars are to be believed) and only submitted to Nurgle because he physically couldn't suffer any longer or watch his sons do the same. Certain fluff sources literally state that as Mortarion lay in agony he pictured himself once again defeated atop his daemon-father's lair, too weak to fight on in the face of certain death, only this time he knew the Emperor wasn't going to save him from his fate (when you consider the importance he placed on strength and the refusal to surrender, this becomes an even bigger nightmare). And so, after a lifetime of striving to become the toughest, grimmest, most unstoppable motherfucker in the galaxy, he crumbled when the stakes were highest, and lost his soul to Chaos, becoming everything he hated most. [[Grimdark]].

===Post Heresy===
[[File:Mortarion,_Prince_of_Decay.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Seriously, Morty was playing Ol'Grimmy before the [[C'tan|Nightbringer]] was ever thought up! So much for originality [[GW]].]]

After Horus got his ass kicked, Mortarion made epic formations, and marched his ships (yes, marched them!) to the [[Eye of Terror]]; as a reward for his service and his ability to keep his Legion from disintegrating on the way to the Eye, Nurgle made Mortarion a Daemon Prince and gave him a nice new home, known as the Plague Planet, which they started decorating and uhh... "cleaning". Yes, seriously. Mortarion changed the Plague Planet to resemble Barbarus which caused Typhon (now Typhus) to abandon him in disgust of the sentimentality (not to mention he was more interested in getting shit done). Nurgle on the other hand, likes good gardeners and wholly approved of the whole venture. Though Mortarion was somewhat displeased with Typhus' insubordination, he allowed Typhus to leave rather than trying to control his former Captain as the Emperor sought to control him.

Surprisingly, his appearance barely changed from how he used to be, and if you ignored the wings (and the immortality) you could be forgiven for thinking he wasn't a Daemon Prince at all. He even stayed about the same size as before (at least until GW released a new model that makes him as big as Magnus). [[Angron|Very different to]] [[Magnus|Nearly every other]] [[Fulgrim|Daemon Prince in the setting]].

Incidentally, did we mention that he built his fortress atop the high mountains shrouded in toxic miasma and rules over billions of slaves? You know, exactly like the Overlord of Barbarus all those millennia ago?

Ever since getting the Plague Planet Mortarion hasn't done all that much (though he's far from being the laziest Primarch in the setting). The whole enslavement and broken-by-plague thing has probably hurt Mortarion's motivation a little bit, whereas Fulgrim, Angron and Magnus all get to have some fun with their Chaos abilities, Mortarion is just stuck in a mess of self-hatred. He's basically ended up like his adoptive father, punishing all his subjects for being too weak to rebel against him - by proxy, punishing himself for his own weakness. In those moments he was not completely consumed with self-loathing, though, he got creative and designed toys for his sons to play with like the [[Plagueburst Crawler]].

To his credit, he did make himself useful in the Fall of Sanctia in 437.M36 by sending an army of diseased [[Orks]] to soften the planet up, then made their corpses explode into a massive horde of Nurglings when he and the Death Guard landed, wiping out all life in less than a day. It's also emerged that he helped Typhus concoct the Plague of Unbelief, which helped raise the curtain on Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade. More recently, he led the Death Guard's invasion of [[Ultramar]] to kick off the Plague Wars.

Apparently at some point in time after his ascension Mortarion spent a millennium tracking down the soul of his foster "father", which he now keeps in a clockwork thing on his flagship. Said device now plagues the former Overlord with unimaginably awful diseases and poisons...and he's promised him that after the Imperium falls the ''real'' torture will begin. You know what they say, better late than never.

===The Draigo Incident===

'''TL;DR''': he got his ass handed to him by [[Kaldor Draigo]] who carved the name of the previous SUPREME GRAND MASTER, Geronitan, into one of Mortarion's hearts.

The longer story, as told by the Audio Drama ''Mortarion's Heart'': Geronitan more or less baited Mortarion and allowed whole sectors to die under the Primarch's massive force (every Nurgle cult and warband within 100 sectors) until he showed up at Kornovin, which was one of the few places the Grey Knights could perform the ritual to bind his soul and kill him for good. It failed due to the fact that Geronitan forgot to wear a helmet so Mortarion just Plague Winded him to death and laughed as the entire Grey Knights Chapter cried (yes this happened). But when you think that just a Hive-World has between 10 billion and 500 billion humans on it, and that one sector will probably have dozens of these types of planets (plus Shrine Worlds, at the very least one or two Forge Worlds, at least one Astartes Chapter, Knight Worlds, etc.), this retarded death was probably the Emperor' punishment for his [[Abaddon|massive faillures]].

Afterwards, Kaldor got elected, mostly because he's the most expendable Grand Master who's also skilled enough to fight the Death Lord. Grand Master Crom gave Kaldor a potent weapon, the true name The Emperor gave to Mortarion.

After a laughably short and one sided fight, which was really just Mortarion punching Kaldor in the face over and over again, Kaldor was able to light Mortarion's cape on fire when Mortarion eventually got a hand cramp. Mortarion paused for a second because that was his VERY favorite cape and became distracted enough to allow Kaldor to slip Mortarion's true name into the Death Lord's mind, which caused him to [[wat|FUCKING EXPLODE]] somehow, regardless of the fact that in every other instance of true names ever the worst that can happen is being completely immobilised, such as when Azrael fought a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch (in the audio book "Trials of Azrael"). Though it might be because in this case the name itself originated from the Emperor, and anything that has to do with the Big-E will mess up anything Daemonic big time. Kaldor then crawled over to a helpless, nearly broken in half Mortarion and wrote Geronitan's name on Mortarion's heart in magic marker.

He is still incredibly bitter about his loss. More so than usual, anyway.

===[[Plague Wars|The Plague Wars]]===
Mortarion was sulking in a pile of slime as usual when the winds of the Warp whispered that his brother [[Roboute Guilliman]] had finally been pulled off life-support and took the position of Lord-Commander of the Imperium. Morty was [[RAGE|not pleased]] that Rowboat got a second chance at life while he remained in Grandpa Nurgle's clutches, so the Death Lord decided to finally get off his ass and start acting like a Daemon Primarch for once!

He brought the Death Guard to real space after [[Abaddon]]'s 13th [[Black Crusade]] succeeded in expanding the Eye of Terror (and nothing else). [[Magnus]] failed to kill Guilliman when he had the chance so, prepared to [[get shit done]], Morty Boy planned out a massive campaign called the Plague Wars to meticulously rot and plague every single planet in [[Ultramar]]. He released many different plagues, including several variations of Typhus' [[Zombie Plague]]: Shoot the zombies and you only [[FAIL|make it worse]] since they explode into a swarm of full-grown [[Nurgling]]s. For a guy who spent 10,000 years sitting on his ass and getting beat up by [[Mary Sue]]s, he proved surprisingly effective at [[Anal circumference|penetrating]] deep into Ultramar before Gorillaman was able to halt his advance. Nurgle's little scythe boy managed to carve out 3 whole star systems for the Death Guard to use as their base of operations in real space: '''[[Scourge Stars|The Scourge Stars]].'''

Alas, Mortarion's big Ultramar come-back tour was bound to end eventually. Guilliman's waifu [[Yvraine]] headed into the Warp and retrieved an eldar artifact called the Rose of [[Isha]], which let the [[Ynnari]] take back the Hand of Darkness and slow the spread of the Death Guard's plagues, leading to the Ultrasmurfs pushing the rotting bastards back. Mortarion and Guilliman clashed personally on the hospital world of Iax. Unlike his duel with Magnus, Robby G didn't have the [[Adeptus Custodes]] or [[Sisters of Silence]] backing him up, so the two were at a complete stalemate, Mortarion's strength and resilience vs. Guilliman's [[Creed|tactical genius]]. The Death Guard eventually had to retreat, as [[Khorne]] and [[Tzeentch]] had grown jealous of Nurgle's fledgling empire and were sending forces to take it for themselves while the Death Guard was away.

*'''''Nurgle: I'm so proud of my little plague bringer, he's finally giving my love to the galaxy like I always wanted! *sluuuuurp*

Also at one point after the Great Rift appeared to fuck shit up, Perturabo led the Iron Warriors to attack a temple planet. However, the Death Guard had the same idea too and were attacking. What's more was that they were led by Mortarion. As to be expected the two Primarchs had a grand old family reunion (a big fight resulting in heavy losses on both sides with Titans being destroyed). The duel lasted for seven hours but Mortarion managed to beat Perturabo and drive him off. Being the salty Primarch he is, Perturabo detonated a series of explosives before he left.

During a talk with one of his Chaos Lords, Mortarion states that he has no desire to go back to Terra or wreck havoc on the Imperium on such a scale as the Heresy. He said that the damage inflicted on Terra was beyond horrific and would never heal (considering just how downtrodden the Imperium is he is definitely right) and he also states that his fellow Brother-Primarchs ARE RETURNING TO REALSPACE! (Holy Shit, Mortarion vs Khan ROUND 2!)

==Tabletop==
After [[Magnus the Red]] got a Daemon Primarch model, rumor was that either Mort or Angron would receive one next. In early 2017, an image of Daemon Mortarion started floating around the internet. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BceinBiT9jQ A recent video] on Warhammer TV confirmed that he will have a model, as well as plastic Plague Marines. He came out in force to help the first ever Death Guard codex as the third 40k Primarch release.

===Heresy===
[[File:FW_Mortarion.jpg|260px|thumb|right|Here's his mini teaching all of us how to properly wield a scythe.]]

{| class=wikitable
! || WS || BS || S || T || W || I || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Mortarion:''' || 7 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 7 || 5 || 5 || 10 || 2+/4++
|}

Mortarion is a tough opponent : with the Primarch rule, T/W 7, flat dice wounds like poisoned and fleshbane wound on 6's, rerollable IWND and Toughness tests, 2+ armor save and a 4+ invulnerable save, he's basically a Gargantuan Creature for all intents and purposes. He negates Maledictions affecting him or his unit on a 4+, ''(which isn't a Deny the Witch, so Adamantium Will doesn't help and you get his 5+ DtW after, though it works out to being exactly the same as nullifying them on a 3+ anyway)'', Death Guard gain Stubborn and Poisoned (4+) on all frag grenades and missiles which is pretty sickening. For weapons he has the Lantern pistol which is almost a pistol meltagun, phosfex bombs (an unlimited supply of them, and he can throw them at double the range!), frag grenades and Silence, a S7 AP 2 no longer unwieldy power scythe with sweep attacks that causes Instant Death and reroll failed penetration rolls. Great for getting rid of that annoying Praetor or captain. Notably, he's also one of the only characters in fiction who knows how the hell you're supposed to hold a scythe! Take that, Poldark!

they also gave him the Shadow Of The Reaper rule. It makes enemy units take a fear check at -1 leadership. By itself in normal 40k rules, it's situationally great, making it pretty mediocre on the whole, but in the pre-ATSKNF 30k setting, it's much more useful. But much more importantly, it gives him a special move in the shooting phase: if Mortarion isn't locked in combat or embarked and doesn't shoot or run, he can take a leadership test and teleport 10 inches away from his current position. It does not count as moving, does not scatter, and does not prevent him from charging (But he does count as making a disordered charge. Not that big of a problem, seriously). There are some other caveats, but he effectively has a minimum 18" charge range without factoring in his base size, and he is fleet to boot. [[Awesome|Because he's fucking terrifying.]]

Mortarion is among the top 3 best Primarchs for his points, as SotR lets him reach combat by turn 2 unless you fail your Ld test. Furthermore, Stubborn is an absolute game-changer in 30k, as it drastically reduces your odds of breaking in Assault and Poisoned allows you to functionally ignore [[Iron Hands|certain legions]] [[Imperial Fists|Toughness shenanigans]] (and it makes it easier to hurt Mechanicus). He doesn't really need a transport or retinue, giving you more points to put towards dakka, and provided you're smart enough to avoid concentrated AP2 you're very likely to see the end of the game. He can't fight Land Raiders, but with 5 S7 Sunder attacks you shouldn't underestimate his ability to fuck up Dreadnoughts. Ultimately, his biggest strength is that unlike [[Angron]] or [[Vulkan]] he is an effective force multiplier who gives a lot to his army while needing almost no support in return.

His model is equally as badass as his rules, if you can get past the fact that he doesn't have a rebreather (it's a part of his armor's chest piece now, which still begs the question, why not just give him a rebreather and shut fa/tg/uys up on the subject?). Although the designer probably thought that he didn't really need to breathe, and he's probably immune to anything poisonous anyway (on Prospero the Khan had to go in totally suited up, whereas the Death Lord just strolled in dressed just the same as normal, and Girlyman established that Primarchs can breathe in an incredibly thin atmosphere - he can apparently fight in near-vacuum for hours on end without a helmet, because [[Heresy|fuck physics]]). (Even in-universe, Guilliman's ability to fight in the void without a helmet and little oxygen has Imperial scholars going "WTF?")

====Mortarion VS other Primarchs:====
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">
Primarch fighting, while fun to see isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both Primarchs for the entire game without either of them dying (especially with Mortarion who can mathematically always go the entire game in a Primarch duel), with that in mind this section is how Mortarion fares against other Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities, with the exception of Blind, are taken into account (Blind is ignored because it never changes the outcome of the fights, the winner is still the winner with or without it) and the match-ups assume the Primarchs are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

* Mortarion VS Horus
**Horus will use Worldbreaker (as wounding on 2's is better than re-rolling to wound) and hits 3.999 times, wounds 3.332 times, 1.666 after saves and IWND will take that down to 1.111 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222.
**Mortarion loses this fight.

* Mortarion VS Angron
**Round 1: Angron has Hatred, so on the first turn he will instead hits 5.333 times, wounds 3.555 times, 1.777 after saves, and IWND take it down to 1.222.
**Round 2: Angron hits 4 times, wounds 2.666 times, 1.333 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.5 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion just barely loses this fight by one turn as his extra wound almost allows him to outlast Angron.

* Mortarion VS Fulgrim
**Fulgrim hits 5.333 times, wounds 2.666 times (Fireblade)/1.777 times (Laer Blade), 1.333 times (Fireblade)/0.888 times (Laer Blade) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778/0.333 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.222.
**Mortarion loses this fight either by a little or a lot depending on whether or not Fulgrim has Fireblade or not.

* Mortarion VS Ferrus
**Ferrus with Forgebreaker: hits 2 times and 0.5 with his servo arm, wounds 1.666 times with Forgebreaker and 0.333 with his Servo-Arm (1.999 total), 0.999 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.444 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Ferrus with Bare Hands: hits 2 times and 0.5 with his servo arm, wounds 1 time with his hands and 0.333 with his Servo-Arm (1.333 total), 0.666 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.111 times at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.25 times, 0.416 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.083.
**Even though Mortarion is tough in the end Ferrus wins pretty easily thanks to his superior save and damage.

* Mortarion VS Konrad Curze
**Curze hits 4 times, wounds 2.221 times, 1.11 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Mortarion wins as even though he does less damage he'll outlast Curze.

* Mortarion VS Vulkan
**Vulkan hits 2 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.278 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.25 times, 0.415 wounds after saves and 0 wounds after IWND.
**Mortarion loses as mathematically he's incapable of harming Vulkan.

* Mortarion VS Lorgar
**Lorgar hits Mortarion 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.833 after saves and IWND will take that to 0.278 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Round 1: Mortarion hits 2.961 times, wounds 1.752 times, 0.876 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.543 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Round 2: Mortarion hits 3.333 times, wounds 2.222 times, 1.111 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.778 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Even with forcing Mortarion to re-roll 5's and 6's for the first round Mortarion still beats Lorgar. He also loses to invisible Lorgar Transfigured just like every other Primarch (mathematically he causes 0 wounds to him).

*Mortarion VS Perturabo
**Perturabo hits 2.666 times (both types), wounds 1.333 times (Normal)/2.221 times (Forgebreaker), 0.666 wounds (Normal)/1.11 wounds (Forgebreaker) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.111/0.555 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666 times, 0.555 wounds after saves and 0.222 wounds after IWND.
**Mortarion wins but only if Perturabo doesn't bring Forgebreaker.

* Mortarion VS Alpharius
**Alpharius hits 2.92 times and wounds 1.136 times, 0.568 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.0124 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.667 times, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Mortarion wins

* Mortarion VS Rogal Dorn
**Dorn hits 2.666 times (Normal)/1.333 times (Sundering Blow), wounds 1.48 times (normal)/1.183 times (Sundering Blow), 0.74/0.59 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.185/0.035 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666, 0.833 wounds after saves and 0.5 wounds after IWND.
**Mortarion wins in 12 turns as Dorn does a lot less damage in return.

* Mortarion VS Corvus Corax
**Corvus hits 4 times (Scourge)/3 times (Shadow-walk), wounds 2.221 times (Scourge)/1.666 times (Shadow-walk), 1.11 wounds (Scourge)/0.833 wounds (Shadow-walk) after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.556/0.278 wounds at the start of the next turn.
**Mortarion hits 2.5/1.666 times, wounds 1.666/1.11 times, 1.11/0.74 wounds after saves and 0.777/0.407 wounds after IWND.
**Mortarion wins either way in this fight, he causes more overall damage, has more wounds, and regenerates faster. In addition even if Corax runs away Mortarion's ability to teleport will mean he'd catch Corax very quickly after he re-appears so he cannot run away to heal which would render this a stalemate.
**Note: Corax could attempt to "cheat" his way to victory thanks to his special rules, especially Sire of the Raven Guard (which grants him Super-Furious Charge) and Hit & Run. With this he could disengage at the end of Mortarion's assault phase, in order to charge him again during his turn. Using this tactic he would Shoot with his pistols for 1.9444 hits, 0.648 wounds, 0.108 wounds after saves, then charge in with Hammer of Wrath gaining 0.333 wounds, and 0.0555 wounds after saves, then attack with the Panoply which hits 4.5 times (scourge), wounds 3.375 times, 1.6875 after saves and 1.132 with IWND for a total of 1.296 Wounds. This, combined with Shadow-walk during Mortarion's assault phase in order to mitigate his retaliation barely lets Corax win if he goes charging scourge in round 7, then scourge again in round 8 as he strikes before Mortarion, compared to 8 rounds needed for Mortarion to kill Corvus (this is including Overwatch with The Lantern).
**Though this looks like a close fight at first glance, this tactic relies completely on Hit and Run (which is more akin to Corvus's fighting style), as well as assumes the Charging always works out in Corvus's favour and so the strategy will mathematically fail over the eight rounds needed to kill Mortarion (as there's mathematically one turn that either Hit and Run or Charging will fail when Mortarion consolidates away from Corvus's consolidation) giving the victory to Mortarion again. But that's actually the same chance of Corax Blinding Mortarion (Not included in the fights), so the odds are still the same.

* Mortarion VS Roboute Guilliman
**Round 1: Guilliman hits 2.5 times, wounds 2.083 times (With Hand of Dominion), 1.042 after saves, and IWND take it down to 0.486.
**Round 2 and after: Guilliman hits 3.333 times (Thanks to Preternatura Strategy), wounds 2.777 times, 1.388 times after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.833.
**Mortarion hits 2.5 times, wounds 1.666, 0,833 after saves, 0.417 wounds after Armor of Reason, and after IWND they become 0.083 wounds.
**Guilliman wins in 8 turns as Mortarion's damage is almost irrelevant.

* Mortation vs. Leman Russ
**Mortarion: Hits 1.66 times, wounds 1.1 times, Leman's invul save brings it down to 0.55 and IWND brings it down to .363
**Leman Hits 4 times, wounds 2.64 times (with his Axe), Invul save brings it down to 1.32 and IWND brings it down to .8712.
**Not even a contest, as usual with the Space Wolves Primarch. It will take Leman just over 8 rounds to drop Mortation (8.03 to be precise) while it will take Mortation over 16 rounds to kill Leman, so even without the Sword (and Sever Life) Mortation is a goner. Leman is the executioner Primarch, so all the Primarch lose to him.

* Mortarion vs Jaghatai
**Jaghatai hits 4 times, wounds 1.333 times, 0.666 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.111
**Mortarion hits 3 times, wounds 1.5 times, 0.5 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.166.
**Mortarion wins after several ice ages.
***Jaghatai could probably bag this fight if he hits-and-runs, but it'll stick take a loooooong time.

* TLDR version: Mortarion's good against Konrad Curze, Vanilla Lorgar, Hammerless Perturabo, Alpharius, Rogal Dorn, Corvus Corax and bad against Horus, Angron, Fulgrim, Ferrus, Lorgar Transfigured, Vulkan, Perturabo with Hammer and Guilliman, putting him quite in the middle of the road for Primarch duelling.

* Dirty Trick: Use Morturg and put Endurance on Mortarion, if you do this Mortarion can beat everyone (including Lorgar Transfigured) except Horus, Fulgrim (with Fireblade) and Vulkan as his damage output will exceed theirs or his extra wound will allow him to outlast them and/or they will be unable to hurt him at all mathematically. The reason Horus Vulkan and Fulgrim still win is because Mortarion will eventually be unable to hurt Horus thanks to Disabling Strike, Fulgrim just causes too much damage (and some of his attacks ignore FnP) and Vulkan's Instant Death hammer ignores FnP.
</div></div>

===40k===
This is Mortarion's stat line in 40k:

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
! Name || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv || Power
|-
| '''Mortarion''' || * || 2+ || 2+ || 8 || 7 || 18 || * || 10 || 3+/4++/5+++ || 24
|}

His movement/attacks are based on his wounds remaining.

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
! Wounds || Move || Attacks || Host of Plagues
|-
| 9-18 || 12" || 6 || 4+
|-
| 5-8 || 10" || 5 || 5+
|-
| 1-4 || 8" || 4 || 6+
|}

'''Toxic Presence''': Enemy models with 7" must subtract 1 from their Toughness characteristic.

'''Host of Plagues''': Depending on Morty's remaining wounds, roll a die for each enemy ''unit'' within 7"; on a success, the unit takes D3 mortal wounds.

So what do we get? With 18 wounds, a 4++ save, and Grandaddy's trademark Disgustingly Resilient rule, he will prove quite hard to bring down, and his survivability can be boosted further with Nurgle's stratagems. He has the best (at the moment) anti-horde weapon in the game, his huge scythe ''Silence''. It can dish out Ax3 (18 base!!!) S:U AP:-2 D1 Plague Weapon attacks per phase of combat (and incidentally, his WT lets him and everyone near him using a Plague Weapon reroll all failed to wound rolls), which will annihilate tarpits like there's no tomorrow. To deal with anything requiring more killing, ''Silence'' has a second profile being S:x2 AP:-4 D:1d6 Plague Weapon. His 'command aura' affects every enemy unit standing within 7" of him, giving them -1 toughness and they will receive 1d3 mortal wounds on a roll of 4+ (scaling down as he takes wounds, alas). He still carries his old ''Lantern'' pistol that can cause quite a bit of damage to lined units for it hits automatically every unit in a straight line between him and the one he aims for, but only once per shot. He still carries his phosphex bombs that deal 2D6 S5 AP-1 hits (They're not Plague Weapons, though), and he can perform a bunch of weaker attacks on top of his normal ones thanks to his retinue of Nurgling helpers. Cherry on top, he's now a psyker. (Yeah, the very thing he hated back in the days but, hush. No more tears, only Nurgle's happiness now!) He knows 3 powers from the Contagion discipline, he's able to cast two and deny three every turn. All this is in addition to the fact that he is the fastest piece in the army, moving 12" with FLY. And as ultimate finger flip, if he does somehow go down he explodes like a vehicle for a few parting mortal wounds. All in all a really, REALLY strong big daddy.

Unlike Magnus, Mortarion's command aura doesn't boost his sons but weaken his enemies so there's no reason whatsoever to hold him back. Do note however that while he's tanky he's far from invulnerable and always keep in mind that he is a massive fire magnet. Just like in 30k, you'll need supporting units and a plan to get the most of ole Morty. [[Deathshroud]] Terminators are a shoe-in for that role, of course, especially if Mortarion buffs them up first.

All of that being said, it should be remembered that Mortarion is [[Nerf|much weaker]] than he would have been in older editions. Apotheosis as a Dæmon Prince gets Toughness +1; a gift consisting in having a larger, monstrous build and supernatural endurance granted Toughness +1; and the Mark of Nurgle granted Toughness +1... in other words, Mortarion [[Nerf|could]] have been [[Munchkin|Toughness 10]], without the possibility to cancel the bonuses through Deny the Witch and assimilated (Collars of Khorne, Null Maidens, Cullexus, Psychic Hoods...), allowing him to shrug even missiles, thunder hammers and las-canon. All of this while attacking at a relatively high initiative (at least 3, and more like 5 or 6), having Feel No Pain 4+++ (5+++ as a Primarch, improved by Nurgle's gifts & mutations) or better and Invulnerable Save 4++ or better... meaning even a charging full squad of Assault Terminators with Chaplain would be in [[Chapter Master Smashfucker|a world of pain]]. This kind of [[The Guy Who Cried Grendel|extremely impressive feats]] would have explained in full why some Primarchs fell to temptation of Chaos, much like indeed [[Horus|the arrogance and vanity of Lucifer]] in [[Ecclesiarchy|Theology]] which caused him to [[Fulgrim|seek perfection in himself]] [[Angron|while rejecting reliance on what is outside of his own self]], an arrogance reflected by an high cost in points causing him to show up with less legionaries and bodyguards than he would have otherwise, and making Kaldor Draigo's feat of defeating him and carving Geronitan's name upon his heart actually really impressive.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Past-Mort-Art.jpg|
File:Past-Mort.jpg|
File:I am the bringer of Death by SharpWriter-1-.jpg|Seriously badass.
File:Mortarion.jpg|
File:Mortarion sneak peak.png|Cool model from what we've seen so far
File:DaemonMort.png|The Rotten Angel Cometh.
File:Daemon Primarch Mortarion.png|The official model of Morty, with no Slaaneshi colours, unlike the leaked model.
</gallery>
{{Primarchs}}
{{Daemons-Characters}}
[[category:Chaos]]
[[Category:Death Guard]]

Adeptus Custodes

2020-07-09T20:18:30Z

2001:1C03:4118:C200:0:0:0:65: Considering that lions are notoriously lazy, the tiger comparison might be more fitting.

[[File:Adeptus Custode.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Paladins of the 31st millennium. The 41st ones are marginally less clad in gold and [[TTS|a lot more naked.]]]]
{{Topquote|Each one of the Ten Thousand represents genetic lore acquired over many lifetimes. Each one of you is unique, a work of art never to be repeated. I am miserly with your lives, where I would spend so many others without a thought.|[[Emperor|Big Emps]] making it clear who his favourite creations are.}}
{{Topquote|We were never soldiers... To them, it must seem as if we are wrath incarnate. To them, it must seem as if we were created for destruction and nothing else. But we were His companions, once. We were the ones in whom He confided. We were His counselors, we were His artisans. We were the first glimpse at what the species could become if shepherded aright and unshackled from its vicious weaknesses. Of course, we were taught to fight. He knew that war would come. It was a necessary part of the ascension, though it was never destined to last for eternity. We were the guardians of a new age, and had to be strong enough to keep it secure.|Shield Captain Valerian, explaining what Custodians were meant for}}

The '''Adeptus Custodes''' (known as the '''Legio Custodes''' in the [[Great Crusade|good old days]]) are the guardians of the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Humanity]] and the most badass group of genetically engineered/enhanced warriors/motherfuckers the galaxy has ever known (excluding the Primarchs and arguably some of the assassins, although the latter and even to some extent the former, although OP as shit, were specialized, and the Custodians were meant to be generalists, as Valerian explains above.) Their chapter master equivalent being their Captain-General, and their equivalent of a Primarch being [[awesome|the Emperor of Mankind]].

==Origins & Design==
[[File:1264391028586.jpg|700px|thumb|center|And people bitch about Space Marines and Grey Knights having overdone armour...]]
The Custodians are warriors unmatched in the galaxy, genetically-engineered by the Emperor himself. The Emperor first created these elite warriors back in the old days of his conquest of Terra, making them souped-up and more long-lived versions of the already hilariously OP [[Thunder Warriors]]. In a somewhat dickish move, his preferred recruits for the Custodians were the children of his conquered enemies. In the "present", they are instead taken from Terran nobility. While the Thunder Warriors were eventually replaced by the far more stable and far less brawny Space Marines, the Custodians apparently still use those ancient methods (but geared towards producing far more stable warriors) and as such lack a gene-seed. Instead, they use a much more complex process of bio-alchemy to attain their superhuman abilities, and this process modifies them at a cellular level. Unlike Space Marines, prospective Custodians are selected in infancy, long before they have any ability to prove themselves as Space Marine aspirants might be able to. As a side-effect, many candidates are driven mad or killed in the process of becoming a Custodian. Also, the process of creating Custodians is only partly standardized: certain unorthodox-but-useful traits may be created or amplified if an initiate shows the unique potential (making Golden Bodyguards quite an internally-diverse bunch of matchless warriors) - much less like Space Marines and much more like ''the witchers'' from Sapkowski's books. Custodians are unique as they have neither a [[Primarch]] nor do they use gene-seed to produce their genetic modifications. They stand a full head taller than a Space Marine. '''Constantin Valdor''', Chief Custodian to the Emperor during the Horus Heresy, was the same size as the traitor Primarch [[Alpharius]] of the [[Alpha Legion]] (though he was the smallest of the primarchs).

Although the Adeptus Custodes were among the first genetically-modified warriors to be created by the Emperor and still the most advanced of them, they were never intended to be part of a conquering army; such a role was to be filled by the latter [[Adeptus Astartes]] armies. This is revealed both in their mindset and training: While Custodians share a semblance of kinship with one another within the formation, they do not foster the same spirit of brotherhood that is instilled within the Astartes to help them function together as a unit. Indeed, when the Emperor remarks that it is humanity's nature for brothers to fight brothers, one of His Custodians responds that he wouldn't know anything about it because he has no brothers. None of this is to say they weren't made to be extremely potent warriors, they were but their purpose was to fight alongside the emperor as bodyguards rather than as a conquering army. As shown in the webway they were perfectly capable of acting as an army in even the worst imaginable circumstances; it just isn't their primary purpose.

As far as personalities go, Custodians can be as wide and as varied as Astartes. Some, like Diocletian Coros, were single-minded to the point of myopia, and considered the nameless masses not worth his time. Others, like his contemporary Aquillon, were shown to be capable of bonding with a Space Marine and regretting the human costs of a Compliance action. Ra Endymion didn't give a shit about saluting Jenetia Krole because only the Emprah deserves it, but at the same time, he tried to look kind with the Soulless Queen's nine-year-old aide by giving her his winningest smile, which results in a [[fail]] of epic proportions. Tribune Maldovar Colquan in ''Dark Imperium'' is a contemptuous bastard that harbours dislike and distrust of everyone ranging from guardsmen to Guilliman while Valerian and Navradaran from ''Watchers of the Throne'' are surprisingly tolerant and level-headed when dealing with mere mortals showing [[Heresy|blatant weakness]].

When preparing for war, each Custodian prepares and inspects his equipment individually, rather than on military parade. The individuality of each Custodian is further promoted by the fact that the processes required to produce them are not as refined or as simple as that of the Astartes and thus they are not "mass-produced" as the Astartes are; meaning that each Custodian is a unique investment for the [[Imperium]].

Each weapon used by the Custodians is gene-coded to only be used by only that Custodian, although this isn't all that consistent. Argel Tal stole some and used his daemonic powers to unlock them so that they could be used to kill loyalists, which at least is a sort of explanation (albeit a weak, hand-wave-y one), unlike the fucking [[Blood Ravens|bloody magpies]] who have working a Custodian bolter in their armoury, or the [[Minotaurs|Greeks]] who have a Halberd (and let's not even mention the fucking [[Watch Master|Deathwatch]]). The weapons used to be given to each Custodes personally by the Emperor, a practice he's presumably stopped doing after his confinement to The Golden Throne and as such one of the highest [[Heresy|heresies]] possible is to allow a non-Custodian to handle the weapon. Perhaps the most notable thing about the Adeptus Custodes is the radically different combat approach between them and the Adeptus Astartes: Custodians are not brothers (though more recent fluff seems to dispute this; in both ''Watchers of the Throne'' and ''The Regent's Shadow'', Custodians frequently address each other as brother, and indeed even refer to themselves as such during inner monologs). While Space Marines are trained to support their battle-brothers in combat, each Custodian fights by himself, never intending to receive support from their fellow Custodians, though they can work together if needed.

While fighting as individuals, they seem to have an instinctive sense of coordination without needing hierarchy or orders, each warrior knowing exactly how to fight alongside his peers without burdening them. It is also implied that Custodians apply the logic of Blood Games to warfare, gathering and assimilating any information they can about their adversaries as they fight, and probably spending thousands of hours studying the strategies of every opponent met during the Great Crusade. Astartes included? Very likely, in fact, the Legio Custodes probably knows more about the Legions than the Legions may think, while only a few Astartes have fought alongside Custodians, let alone ''against'' them. Ra Endymion, in particular, was seen mowing through hordes of proto-Khorne Berzerker World Eaters, chewing through captains with little difficulty. The custodians compare so favorably to the Space Marines, a loyal Blood Angel wonders to himself whether trouncing space marines was, in fact, the real reason they were created in the first place.

One ritual that the Adeptus Custodes do share with Adeptus Astartes is the recognition of mighty deeds, manifested in their case with the awarding of names, which are added to the Custodian's title to represent the actions he has performed in service to the [[Emperor]]. ('''Constantin Valdor''' obtained 932 names prior to Horus' siege of Terra.) Such names were inscribed onto the inside of the warrior's battle armour (or directly into their bones) as marks of individual pride. The first name of a Custodian is supposed to be taken from various elements from Old Earth such as mythological figures (Ra, Amon, Aquillon...), historical ones (Constantin, Diocletian, Arcatus...) or places (Beyreuth). Now open a book and try to catch all the references.

The training of the Custodians also differed immensely from the Adeptus Astartes, since they were intended to be bodyguards rather than soldiers. It is clear from their '''Blood Games''' that Custodians are trained in the arts of assassination -- both improvised and professional -- to counter possible assassination attempts on the Emperor. It is common for several Custodians to be on detached duty for these Blood Games so that the organisation remains vigilant against developing threats. Even pre-Heresy, they were clued up enough to recognise Warp-sorcery for what it was.

Furthermore, it is clear that the Custodians are also well-versed in the political etiquette of Terra, and have been known to act outside of Imperial law, to infiltrate influential Noble Houses and to investigate any potential threats. (A role that a Space Marine would ''never'' be expected to fulfill.) This aspect of the Custodian mindset is advantageous, given that the Captain-General of the order often shares a seat with the [[High Lords of Terra]] and thus allows him to navigate the political maneuverings of the Imperium's various agencies, while remaining an awe-inspiring warrior.

===Origin of the Name===
The name Adeptus Custodes comes from the custom of filling the armour with Custard before each battle. This has been confirmed by [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155012076396123&set=p.10155012076396123&type=3&theater| Games Workshop]

Jokes aside, however, the word "custodian" means someone who is charged with looking after and maintaining someone or something; the Custodian Guard exists to protect the Emperor and the imperial palace. <strike>When this name is "Latinized" as the Imperium does, they become the Adeptus Custodes.</strike> Nobody would ever expect that from GW but ''Custodes'' is actually the '''unaltered''' (!) and even '''correct''' (!!) Latin declension for "watchers / defenders / guardians". Whoah.

==Combat Effectiveness==
[[File:War in the Webway.jpg|350px|thumb|right|Custodians getting shit done during the 5 years spanning War in the Webway, giving the [[Death Guard]] and [[Iron Warriors]] resilience envy.]]
How effective Custodes are, especially in relation to Space Marines has varied. Generally their depictions have come in 3 flavours as weaker than Astartes, superior warriors but worse soldiers or flat-out superior to the Astartes, mostly because for the longest time the writers couldn't get their shit together on what to go with.

When they're portrayed as weaker than Astartes you get events where a Harlequin troupe (mainly the Shadowseer and Death Jester) were able to slay dozens deep in the Imperial Palace itself in a fight that included the Captain-General. You'll also see a World Eater was able to kill a Custodes by punching through his armour while being unarmed and unarmored (considering an Astartes cannot punch through power armour this is Goto levels of stupidity). [[Brother-Captain|Captain]] [[Nathaniel Garro]] was also able to defeat a Custodes during a training duel though unlike other examples the Custodes was portrayed as been extremely skilled; Garro outwitted him and won by playing to his overconfidence (Garro being awesome helped).

Many of the novels in the heresy, especially those from a space marine PoV, see the Custodes as individually superlative warriors but without the cohesion or unity of Astartes, being "tigers" to the Astartes "wolves". Essentially the Custodes are portrayed as having a different skill set and role than the marines as they were better warriors individually but did not work together as soldiers like the Astartes. Some events indicate this is an incorrect assumption from the Astartes, as Custodians fight as an organized force in the webway and on Prospero and a Custodes called Aquillon also fought in perfect lockstep with Argel-Tal showing they are capable of fighting alongside others. The marines making this assumption is understandable as they were seeing very small groups of Custodes rather than the hundreds deployed on Prospero and the thousands fighting in the webway.

In other fluff, they're portrayed as being among, if not being the most powerful group of warriors in the setting. During the invasion of Prospero, the Custodes were capable of taking on multiple marines and come out on top, a squad of 10 led by Valdor taking on a thousand members of the [[Thousand Sons]] legion didn't suffer a single injury and Custodes were shown to be able to fight 4 marines at once and win (while a different novel portrays single TS able to kill multiple Custodes with a flick of the wrist, thanks to their psychic powers). A Custodes has also been shown killing 3 Heresy era Chapter Masters in a second and 3 Custodes killed 7 of the original Gal-Vorbak before been killed themselves.

This is typical GW/BL, with different authors having different interpretations (the 8E SM codex claims a SM is worth an entire IG regiment, while the 8E custodes codex claims a Custodian is worth a mere few thousand men). Overall they seem similar to the ''[[Grey Knights]]'', the militant arm of the [[Ordo Malleus]] branch of the [[Inquisition]], in that both are elite, secret organizations with close ties to the [[Emperor]] and have a skill set as well as resistance to corruption that elevates them beyond Astartes. Generally the depictions in “Master of Mankind” and “Book 7: Inferno” should be taken as most accurate. Dembski-Bowden was tasked with really defining the Custodes on a detailed level and the HH campaign books (being proper lore guides like Imperial Armour) take precedence over any codex or novel (excusing the aforementioned HH41).

Funnily enough, their tabletop counterparts in 7th edition showed even better teamwork than any of the Astartes rules, contrary to the typical Custodes style of fighting as individuals. Custodes could team up with one another using their block rule to practically guarantee that whatever attacks did hit would be nullified, and there were no restrictions on it. This rule also allowed them to cheat in challenges, as you'd have beings like Chaos Lords and Ork Warbosses failing to cause even a single wound in a challenge due to the assholes outside of the challenge blocking all of their successful hits on the challenger.

===In the 41st Millennium===
[[File:Regretting_His_Life_Choices.jpg|600px|right|thumb|The face of a Black Legionnaire regretting every single decision he has made in his lifetime.]]
Occasionally you see questions raised on forums regarding their effectiveness after apparently spending 10,000 years on guard duty, suggesting that despite their biological augmentations; without any actual combat experience they might have simply become a symbolic organization since Terra is so well defended by other means. In fact, the Custodians sat through most of the [[Age of Apostasy]], not participating until the last moment to bring order when the fighting made it to the Imperial Palace. They also were mysteriously absent during [[The Beheading]] when the [[Officio Assassinorum]] started leveling city blocks. Added to the fact that the ''admittedly'' very old pictures of Custodians show them not even bothering to wear their armour any more indicates that they don't have very much to do these days.

That being said with the massive retcons to the Custodes lore it is now apparent they have been secretly fighting for the last 10,000 years. Expanding their mandate to cover anything that might think of attacking the Imperial Palace. Even GW might not know what's going on with them anymore.

For all that, they have grown detached from the greater Imperium, something which they believed was part of their duty (their function is to serve the Emperor rather than the Imperium) but ends up proving to be a problem nonetheless. When Guilliman returns, he orders the old orders rescinded, and the Adeptus Custodes starts being dispatched to various war zones, including Guilliman's own [[Indomitus Crusade]]. It's shown some Custodes such as Colquan are incredibly angry about the state of the Imperium and seem to be somewhat ashamed they did so little. Doing nothing with “we serve the Emperor not the Imperium” doesn’t fly, even for them, when they see the Emperor’s entire reason for BEING Emperor twisted and broken and knowing without a shadow of a doubt that they could have prevented it...but explicitly and willingly chose not to.

'''Technology and Equipment'''

It seems the 10,000 have not lost any technology, retaining all their units from 30k in 40k. Although the fact they are using Contemptors is weird and implies a lack of resources as the 10,000's own dreadnoughts are superior. Notably when introducing the 30k range to 40k FW did not decide to include the new 40k units in their 30k rules update. This suggests the Dawneagle Jetbikes and Allarus terminators were created after the heresy. This would explain why the Codex describes them as each the best equipment in their class, and why their users are given special titles not awarded to the Aquillion or Gryfalcon Custodes.

==Adeptus Custodes and the [[Grey Knights]]==

''The Emperor's Legion'' gives us more than a glimpse into the Adeptus Custodes of M41. We discover several things: that they didn't choose to be confined to the Imperial Palace, but were bound within it by Imperial law enacted by Guilliman, Dorn, and Valdor after the Heresy; that they never fully respected this limitation, sending brothers on missions abroad and maintaining their own network of informants, spies and allies all over the galaxy; and that their martial capabilities have been maintained in top shape by constant training against all manner of opponents (often by capturing dangerous foes, like Chaos Space Marines or [[Tyranids]], and then [[What|releasing them inside]] deserted and cordoned portions of the Imperial Palace for a Custodian to hunt down). This isn't as insane as it sounds, if any enemy got out of hand during training there's thousands of Custodes and Gun Servitors in the palace that can be called in to put them down very quickly.

Shield-Captain Valerian thinks it possible that M41 Custodians are individually '''more skilled''' than their Great Crusade era counterparts, owing to ten thousand years of extra experience and information gathering on mankind's enemies. However, he does recognize that the Custodians are not a self-contained army the same way as Space Marine [[Chapter]]s are, since that was never their intended function, nor are they possessed of any prescient gifts or supernatural abilities that would assist them against the [[Chaos|Great Enemy]]. In this way he compares the Custodians to the [[Grey Knights]], both being descended from the Emperor directly, were incorruptible and immune to the temptations of Chaos; the key difference is that the Grey Knights are a weapon of singular purpose against the Warp while the Custodians had been intended to be the guardians of mankind in a future without the Warp. Valerian privately believes that it might be the Grey Knights who more faithfully embody the Emperor's final legacy considering how the Imperium eventually turned out and isn't so sure about which agency is the finest or most faithful, and that shared sentiment skulks around the other Custodians like a foul odour.

The missing element in their deployment had always been the [[Sisters of Silence]], noting that they were always intended to fight together. Sister Tanau Aleya believes that there is no physical opponent that the Custodians could not destroy, thus it was the role of the untouchable Sisters of Silence to anchor supernatural or warp tainted enemies into the physical realm where they can be wounded and destroyed. Thus they act on the opposite end of the scale to Grey Knights, who fight against the warp on its own terms, where the Talons of the Emperor deny the warp any purchase in reality (and in doing so reflect the attitudes of the Emperor at the time of their creation - when the Talons were created it was all about keeping reducing the influence of the warp, so they try to deny the warp from permeating the veil completely, while in 40k the Imperium is so reliant on the warp and its touch is so prevalent that its pretty much here to stay now, hence the GKs using the warp to (try and) destroy the warp).

The book is not all about Custodians being uber-powerful killing machines, however, as it evokes how they spent the last ten millennia cultivating their skills as '''theologians''' (unlike atheists crowd leaders, which actually tickles the age-old fan idea that the Emperor might not have been a real atheist), historians and philosophers, so they can decipher the Emprah's plan for Mankind before everything was screwed by Horus. They are now basically an order of warriors-scholars, more prone to mysticism than their [[Imperial Truth|hardcore rationalist]] ancestors from the Great Crusade era (now that ten thousand years of space magic bullshit had hammered home that their logic is stupid and wrong) but still way more "enlightened" than most of the Imperium. They also seem to suffer some inferiority complex caused by their [[Imperial Fists|failing at]] [[Rogal Dorn|protecting the Emperor]] when He most needed them, something that has dragged them even more into isolation but has also taught some of them humility when dealing with other humans seeing as it was not only normal humans who did the bulk of the asskicking in the Horus Heresy on both sides, but also continue doing nearly all the asskicking for the past ten thousand years. Hence most of the Custodians depicted in the book are rather nice guys to be around - by 40k standards of course - far from the "single-minded autists" stereotype which has recently become abusively prominent after ''Master of Mankind'' (bear in mind, the same author gave us Aquillon, who was an alright chap). Now it's up to you to decide whether it makes Custodians cooler and more subtle than before or insufferable [[Mary Sue|Mary Sues]], though if Colquan is indicative Custodes can still be absolute golden dickheads in the 41st millennium (Valerian's narration says that not all Custodians get on). That, or he missed the humility and mysticism lessons. Alternatively, the Custodians are stated to be very mistrustful of the Space Marines in the 42nd millennium, their (not unreasonable) theory being that "anything that has once proven fallible can do so again" (seriously, they even have plans to destroy Phalanx if the Fists aboard it turn traitor). Therefore, Colquan may be simply keeping himself emotionally distant and unattached from [[Roboute Guilliman|someone]] that has the potential to be a traitor.

==Disposition==
[[File:Shirtless custode.jpg|300px|left|thumb|Chest armor is for pussies anyway...]]
For the longest time, much like the fate of the [[Sisters of Silence]] after the Heresy, what the Custodes have been doing in the last ten thousand years have been the subject of speculation (and jokes) among the fandom. Thanks to the ''Carrion Throne'' and ''Watchers of the Throne'' novels, as well as getting their own codices for 7th and 8th Edition, the fandom FINALLY has something to chew on.

In Rogue Trader it was stated that the Custodes had all locked themselves in the Imperial Palace to mourn the loss of the Emperor and their failure. As penance they stripped off their armor, guarding the Golden Throne wearing naught but their helmets. This plot point was never touched on again but was shown to still be canon in 4th edition. This little nudist colony would have been forgotten were it not for a little web series known as [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device]], which unearthed the naked glory of the '''Fabstodes''' for a new generation.

It went memetic. A little too memetic; in fact Lexicanum and the 40k Wikia had to lock their pages to stop the flood of [[/a/|Jojokes]]. Then GW's writers finally got off their butts and decided to make some real lore for the Emperor's bodyguards. One of the first things they did was rid themselves of nudist Custodes. Then the real worldbuilding began:

First off, the Custodians had been quietly building up strength in the wake of the Horus Heresy. Although [[Rogal Dorn]] had judged that the Custodes were spent as a fighting force, it can be assumed that the Custodes had recovered enough that, by the 32nd Millennium during the [[War of the Beast]], a Shield Host numbering in the ''hundreds'' was on hand to intercept a strike group of [[Harlequin]]s trying to get into the Imperial Precincts. In ''Watchers of the Throne'', the Custodes are still known as the Ten Thousand and Captain-General Trajann Valoris clearly states that their forces are only slightly below this number.

By the closing days of the 41st Millenium, a four-thousand strong army of Custodians marched out to defend the Palace during the Second Siege of Terra. While the day was won, more than half of the defending Custodes there lost their lives. According to Valerian in ''Watchers of the Throne'', those were staggering losses and a reminder that Custodes were far from invincible as a defensive force. Why they didn't march all or most of the 10,000 out is <s>a mystery</s> probably because the Palace is the size of a continent and the Custodes were quite spread out throughout that mass, so couldn't respond fast enough to the threat. In addition, Valoris likely didn't want to commit all his forces to an all-out assault in case something went horribly wrong; therefore, if it had gone wrong, there were still 6000 demigods waiting in reserve to defend the Emperor while Guilliman arrived from Luna.

Otherwise, the internal Hierarchy of the Custodes has remained (mostly) unchanged. The Ten Thousand are still led by the '''Captain-General''', a post inherited since the disappearance of Constantin Valdor millennia ago. Although it is a martial rank, it is also a ''political'' one, as a Captain-General may elect to take a seat on the [[High Lords of Terra]]. Few Captain-Generals have taken this option over the centuries (not surprisingly, politics being messy as it is), but when they do they have had profound effect on Imperial politics -- see how Trajann Valoris being on the High Twelve was more than enough to quell [[Heresy|a brewing coup d'etat]] against Roboute Gulliman. The fact the high lords even considered a coup against a Primarch that had directly talked to the emperor shows why the custodes wanted fuck all to do with them.

Beneath the Captain-General is the '''Custodian Tribunate''', a group of ten veteran Custodians who act as the Captain-General's advisors. This is a non-combat role, and once part of the Tribunate a Custode is expected to serve at least a decade, where they turn all their prodigious skills to support the Captain-General strategically and diplomatically.

Below this group are the [[Shield-Captain]]s, who are the war leaders of the Custodes. They lead strike forces, referred to as shield companies, on whatever mission the Captain-General deems fit. '''Valerian''', one of the narrators of ''Watchers of the Throne'', is a Shield-Captain, though it's noted that he's a somewhat unusual one, as he is more of a Philosopher than a warrior. Doesn't stop him from kicking ass though.

Finally, after this is the line Custodian. It is noted that each of the Custodes has similar status to the others, but even then they form loose warrior bands called '''Sodalities''' -- for example, the sodality that Valerian roped in for the Battle of Vorlese was the Palaitologian Chamber. Beyond this, each Custodian gravitates to a particular strategic role, whether as members of the fast-moving '''Vertus Praetors''', heavy support '''Allarus Custodians''', or the grim '''Wardens'''. Otherwise, the Custodes remains a meritocracy, and as such is Custodian is afforded whatever honor his peers believe him to be worthy of.

It is said that, barring rare circumstances, your bog-standard shield company will include no more than a single Shield-Captain, and maybe thirty to forty Custodians. Rarer still are the situations where more than one Shield Company is required; these bigger formations are called Shield Hosts and feature several Shield Captains leading hundreds of Custodians. It is said that such a momentous undertaking is only assembled to accomplish a task no other Imperial force can achieve, and not be done lightly.

===Current Status===
[[File:Custodian_&_Guard.jpg|350px|right|thumb|Custodians can be quite the bros once you get to know them. Just don't ask them to take a selfie. [[FATAL|It may accidentally end in terminal damage.]]]]
Although the Heresy reduced them to about 10% of their fighting strength, they could still have reaped a kill tally far greater than their own number; it was [[Rogal Dorn]], defence obsessed bastard that he is, who determined that they were ineffective as a fighting force and relegated them to defending the throne room. After the Heresy, they were bound by a decree issued jointly by Constantin Valdor, the High Lords of Terra and Roboute Guilliman that prevented them from deploying as a military formation (which a lot of the time they ignored, leaving in secret to do their own missions as Valdor was the only one able to order Custodes around, they don't give a damn about both Lords of Terra and the Primarchs). The High Lords of Terra brought up the subject of abolishing this decree numerous times, but the issue was always stopped by deadlock until [[Roboute Guilliman]] returned and finally realized how stupid his decree was, asking the Custodes to head out into the galaxy rather than sitting at home, being glorified tourist traps (but not before getting daddy's permission first).

The Custodes left the palace on their own in full force after Daemons broke out on Holy Terra itself (and Luna), which caused the Custodes to realize how stupid it is to sit behind high walls of the Palace and Trajann Valoris decided it's high time to venture out and help out their fellow <s>meatshields</s> comrades once in a while. Suffice to say, the Custodes are back and woe to any poor unfortunate soul who happens to have to be part of the opposing force of the Custodians. This has worked out well for the Custodes as apparently they were starting to get a little stir crazy after 10,000 years of being stuck on Terra and were more than happy to get out and start purging the enemies of the God-Emperor in His name. They also managed to restore their numbers to pre-heresy ones, so they are as numerous as ten Chapters combined.
On a side note, it is not wise to ask a Custodes to take a photo op for bragging rights especially when he's in a battlefield busy using his Guardian Spear. [[FATAL|Accidental collateral damage from attempted selfies. Too many.]] They seem to keep a number of them around Roboute Guilliman at all times, partially to protect him, and likely to stick spears in him if he ever seems to close to going traitor (not that it would help, as the Custodes themselves have noted even ambushing a naked Primarch is suicide). This means wherever Guilliman goes he has quite literally the best bodyguards in the Imperium watching his back.

==Divisions and ranks==
The Legio Custodes (and later the Adeptus Custodes) are divided into five castes based on their combat roles, each with a fancy Greek-ish name:
*'''Hykanatoi''' (from Ἱκανάτοι/''hikanatoi'', "the able ones", [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikanatoi one of the regiments of the 9th century Byzantine army]): These appear to be the rank-and-file Custodians, comprising the Custodian guard, the Sentinels and the [[Companion|Hetaeron]]. Based on what was seen in ''Master of Mankind'', they function as an infantry role in battle. In 40k this also includes Wardens (veteran Custodians) and the Companions (assumed to be the modern incarnation of the Hetaeron).
*'''Kataphraktoi''' (κατάφρακτοι, "fully covered", Greek designation for heavily armoured cavalry): The [[Gyrfalcon Pattern Jetbike|Jetbike]] squads, serving as mobile fast attack units. During the War in the Webway, they also served as couriers, relaying messages to other spots when the Vox was on the fritz. Other grav vehicles such as the [[Caladius Grav-Tank|Caladius]], the [[Coronus Grav Carrier|Coronus]] transport and the [[Pallas Grav-Attack|Pallas]] speeder are also part of this entity. In 40k this includes the Vertus Praetors (elite jetbike units) and Venetari (elite jetpack units).
*'''Tharanatoi''' (probably a mix between the Celtic word ''taran'', "thunder", and θάνατος/''thanatos'', "death"): The [[Aquilon Terminator|Terminators]] of the Legio Custodes and the Sagittarum Guard squads, they are the specialists among the Legio. The Aquilon were armed with Lastrum storm bolter, Adrathic destructors and [[flamer]] weapons known as Infernus "firepikes" (yes, it's also the name of the weapon used by [[Exarch]]s of the [[Fire Dragons]]) and acted as shock troops for high-intensity warfare, while the Sagittarum were multipurpose ranged support squads. In 40k this also includes the Allarus Terminators (a lighter suit, basically tartarus while Aquillion is Cataphractii).
*'''Ephoroi''' (from έφοροι, "overseers"): Those Custodians specializing in covert operations, intelligence gathering and assassination. All those engaged in the Blood Games were temporarily attached to the Ephoroi for the duration of their service. In 40k this also includes eyes of the emperor, retiree Custodes who monitor for threats. Probably can be called upon to take up weapons and armor and kick a ton of ass, too. Just because something has caused you to no longer be able to defend the Emperor doesn't mean you can't kill a whole lot of fools.
*'''Moritoi''' (from Latin ''mortis'', "death", with the same Greek-ish flavour): Finally, we have the [[Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought|Dreadnoughts]], Custodians who have been mangled too much to continue living without the Dreadnought. Being a very philosophical-minded group, the Custodians often hold debates on whether or not the warrior inside is alive or dead, and have come to the conclusion that all that matters is that the Emperor has decided to keep the Custodian living.

In terms of rank, the Legio Custodes are less rigid in their ranking structure than the Space Marines and the Imperial Guard, with "ranks" being more like signs of respect for senior veterans. Indeed, given the Legio's often solitary mindset, they rarely give orders to each other. That said, their familiarity with each other manages to avoid the destructive lack of cohesion this would entail in other armies. The known "ranks" are as follows:

*'''Captain-General''': the "leader" of the Legio/Adeptus Custodes and Chief Custodian to the Emperor of Mankind. By the time of the Horus Heresy, this position comes with the Magisterium Maxima (GWardization of Latin ''magisterium maximum'', "utmost control/governance") which grants him absolute authority over anything in the Imperium (yes, even the [[Primarchs|Boss's petulant children]]). Since the Custodes codex makes it clear that the Ten Thousand still exercise the full authority of the Magisterium Lex Ultima in M42, it is safe to assume that the Captain-General's power is theoretically absolute should the need for extreme measures arise (like say, the Emperor being incapacitated and his Regent dead). Custodes in general seem to use their authority with great caution however and captain-generals rarely used it openly during ten millennia of imperial history. Clearly he comically missed the point of the Emperor giving him absolute power over the Imperium wasn’t to sit on it but to use it to protect the Emperor’s vision for humanity. Nice going Cap, really a bang-up job.
*'''Tribune''': The most senior officers under the Captain-General, they are the war council of the Legio Custodes and have absolute authority on everything relating to the protection of the Emperor or the Palace. During the War in the Webway, three of them served as the senior commanders of the combined Legio Custode/Silent Sister/Mechanicum forces : Kadai, Jasaric and Ra Endymion. They were believed to be ten in number, so the seven other were probably killed in the first years of the war. The modern-era Adeptus Custodes is led by two tribunes, one of whom personally leads the [[Companion]]s.
**40k Tribunes are slightly different from their counterparts of the old Legio Custodes. The Tribunate is composed of ten Custodians who formulate policy and advise the Captain-General, but unlike the Tribunes of old the members of they do not serve in combat, and must serve on the Tribunate for at least ten years, while the Tribune not leading the Companions is expected to see combat and will hold the post of Tribune for the rest of his life (indeed, one Tribune died during the battle of the Lion's Gate when [[Bloodthirster]]s attacked during [[Roboute Guilliman]]'s return).
**While it has often been assumed that they were distinct entities, 40k Tribunes are probably the members of the aforementioned Tribunate. The HH Tribunes being ten in number and sharing sooooo many similarities with the modern tribunate doesn't let much place for doubt,and while "Tribunes" are explicitly mentioned in every novel expanding on 40k Custodians, there is not a single mention of them in the Adeptus Custodes codex; the Tribunate is the closest thing we have from a reference. It is also worth noting that ''Watchers of the Throne'' features some pieces of lore that aren't canon anymore according to the Codex (Valoris wielding a spear instead of an axe, Custodes serving among the Companions forever, etc.). Which isn't that surprising since BL authors often have limited insight on (and zero control over) upcoming official GW material; some elements they genuinely believed to be legit at some point of the writing process may have been revised by GW in the meantime.
*'''Proconsul''': A senior rank below Tribune. A rank that holds martial and militairy importance. Bestowed by the Emperor to veterans of the Legio.
*'''Prefect''': A mid-level rank below the tribunes, the title is awarded by the Emperor and indicates veterancy. Its duties are mostly unknown at this time.
*'''Lictor''': A rank supposedly below that of Prefect, it, too, indicates veterancy. Its duties are are unknown at this time.
*'''[[Shield-Captain]]''': Within the Legio Custodes, there exists a range of ranks and seniority of commands, far from transparent to outsiders, to which the more general application of ‘Shield Captain’ is applied, During the 41st millennium, A Shield-Captain is the leader of a battle group of Custodians, charged with seeing the mission done. First among equals for the sake of said mission, a Shield-Captain can be a member of the Legio or Adeptus Custodes of any rank, for each is a peerless warrior and master tactician.

==Specialty Factions and [[Your Dudes]]==
The 8th Edition Codex has covered several specialty groups of Custodians, each with their own color scheme and basic [[Your Dudes]] style fluff. It also briefly discussed how to customize the paint scheme for the army. Kill Team: Elites adds Custodes to [[Kill_Team_(Specialist_Game)|Kill Team]], and gives a similar but genericized listing as to the reasons a Custodes force would be out in the wild.

When considering [[Your Dudes]], it's important to remember that Custodes are not an army or a military force like a traditional 40k faction, they are instead a group of stupidly overpowered individuals -- more akin to a 40k army made entirely of Space Marine Captains or other HQ characters, or a Transhuman version of a Necromunda gang. They come together not for some standing military force reason, but to do certain tasks or achieve certain goals -- assassinate a specific target, prevent any threats to Terra, recover an artefact, etc.

One example is given in the 8E codex, where a Custodes named Heraclast Vadrian finally realizes the AdMech being too stupid to maintain / fix the Golden Throne is going to fuck the Imperium over in a few centuries' time, so he gathered up some of His Dudes to go out and investigate a lost Forge World that might know how to fix the damned thing. This provides not only fluff for a Shield Host (an [[Apocalypse]] sized Custodes army) but opens up all kinds of interesting options -- Mars AdMech? They'd be all for joining in. Imperial Fists? I bet Heraclast could get them to join. Imperial Guard? They're everywhere, so why not?

A Custodes force can be something as generic as "Custodes that defend Terra" to something as specific as "Custodes that hunt Orks to prevent another repeat of The Beast." Like all Your Dudes headcanon, you can go as far with this as you want.

=== Custodes Paint Schemes ===

By default, Custodians are shining gold -- a "incredibly rare substance known as auramite." This can be changed -- not painted over, but changed via alchemy of all things -- to other metallic tints or changed into non-metallics altogether. Custodians often have leather pieces, especially the Jet Bikers, and also wear tabards, robes, and loincloths on top of their armor that are by default a crimson red color; this color is usually, but not always, the same between the cloth and shoulderpad. This cloth color is also used in secondary colorings on other models -- for example, the Dreadnought or Terminator shoulderpads, or plates on the vehicles. Custodians also have a variety of gems, all of which are the same color across a given army.

An Adeptus Custodes force -- known as a Shield Company or Shield Host if it's big enough -- will have a given color to the auramite bits (the armor), the auramite trim and other embellishments on top of the armour, the leather, and the cloth bits and shoulderpad. Special colors for certain aspects -- for example, the face mask -- are not unheard of.

How this all shakes out with some of the descriptions of the Specialty Factions in the codex -- for example, the Dread Host description suggests his White and Sable cloth parts are specific to "his shield host, which is itself one of several that currently wear the colours of the Dread Host," whereas the Aquilan Shield specifically mentions their cloth colors are Royal Purple -- is unknown. To this end, the cloth colors in the examples are included in parentheses.

=== "Default" Custodes ===

As detailed in early Horus Heresy material, before the specialty groups were conceived, the Custodes had a fairly generalized color scheme. Duncan covers this paint scheme [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm8J-kaezWM here], but in general: The armor is almost entirely gold, with some silver bits such as the faceplate and some cables and some pipes. The plume and some bits -- decorative cords over the leather -- are red (other GW painters during the era paint the cords a sky blue), but the pauldrons are not given this base color with gold trim, instead remaining entirely gold. The guardian spear is majority black in both the haft and bolter, with gold trim, some silver mechanics, and a blue power blade. Gemstones are painted silver and then a blue technical paint is used to make them gemstones.

The differences between this and the later paint style can be seen throughout page 44 through 55 of the new codex, with page 48 and 49 showing some of the Specialty Adeptus Custodes Groups such as the Solar Watch and the Shadowkeepers, while page 46 has detail pictures of 3 miniatures in the old style, while a batrep style army photo of models in the newer style behind them.

In general, the newer style picks a secondary color -- usually red -- to break up the gold by giving the pauldrons a base of that color, using gold instead to color the trim and detail on top of the pauldrons. For those who have used Space Marine Pauldrons that have 3D detail, it's basically that. Newer models such as the Custodian Warden or Terminators also have more cloth material which is also (but not always, see below) this color. The newer style also seems to use more silver, although this may be the result of modern GW's addiction to edge highlighting everything like it's something out of a bad Tron themed fever dream.

=== Specialty Adeptus Custodes Groups ===
These are the example Adeptus Custodes Groups mentioned in the 8E codex, alongside their color schemes. It is unknown if these are intended to be canonical "chapter equivalent" like AdMech Forge Worlds, or if these are just examples of ways you could take [[Your Dudes]]. At the moment, the absence of Chapter Tactics-equivalents, alongside a generic version of this list in Kill Team, suggests the latter.

The colors used in official color schemes, generally speaking, are:
* '''Armor:''' Gold, Black, or White base, with Gold Trim and Detail. Facemasks are sometimes painted Silver or the non-standard armor color (adds contrast to the face).
* '''Cloth:''' Red, White, Black, Purple, consistent across a shield company or shield host, with the latter taking precedence. This includes the left shoulder guard's color -- the right shoulder guard is the Imperial Aquila and is usually entirely gold; this is different on units other than the Custodian Guard. The Shoulder Guard often (but not always) matches the tabard / robes.
* '''Leather:''' Brown, White, Red. Gloves are brown even if the other leather is not.
* '''Gems:''' Blue, although other gemstone colors are mentioned, Red is shown in art. Noted that they are explicitly the same across an entire organization (shield company, not necessarily a shield host).
* '''Weapon:''' Black hafts/hilts/frame with gold detail, although a gold hilt/frame is shown in art, and a silver hilt / black frame is shown in one display model. Blades are power weapons, often with a blue lightning effect, although silver/white/etc are also seen.

This leaves many colors to take [[Your Dudes]] if you would like to go your own way. None of the official color schemes use Green (possibly due to the [[Sons of Horus]] using that color during the Hersey), Blue, Yellow, or Orange for their cloth. /tg/ has seen some amazing Custodes that use all silver, bronze or brass instead of Gold, or even faux stonework instead of metal. Tinted metallic colors, like a base of silver with contrast paint on top, is also an option. Black leather isn't used in any official color scheme either, but black leather with some grey lines to indicate some light battle damage or wear could work.

* '''The Shadowkeepers:''' Black Armor with Gold Trim. (Crimson red cloth bits.) Keeps watch over the various warp-terrors and archeotech artifacts that the Emperor kept locked up in his basement on Terra since the Age of Strife, each and every one something or someone that would destroy the Imperium if they were ever let loose or even merely known about at large. After the Great Rift opened a large number were spirited away across the galaxy. Whoops. Their leader is called the Lockwarden and hasn't stepped foot back on Terra since the Great Rift occurred.
* '''The Aquilan Shield:''' Gold Armor with Gold Trim. (Royal Purple cloth bits specifically mentioned.) Bodyguards of Fate. When the Imperial Palace's personal psykers find someone who is "likely to avert [disaster] before it threatens the Golden Throne," these people are marked for protection. These fated people are then protected by the Aquilan Shield whether they like it or not -- a small informal sect of wandering Custodians who watch over them up until the exact moment they do whatever it is that will ensure the Emperor's safety, at which point they leave. This often occurs just in time to see said now-useless person die horrifically to whatever the Custodians were protecting them from. The example given is of a Guardsman whose unorthodox tactics had him slated for execution due to "insubordination" (probably a jealous officer ordered it, even commissars have to follow orders unless it contradicts their mandate). Under the Aquilan Guard's protection, he rose through the ranks to become Warmaster of a Crusade that successfully repelled an Ork WAAAGH! that would have otherwise threatened the Sol system - at which point the Guard left him to [[derp|be executed by the Commissariat in spite of his success]], because Commissars are assholes like that. Interestingly, this would make the Commissariat itself guilty of treason as the Custodes said backoff...which the Commissariat reneged on. It is also strange the Guard wouldn't make sure the Commissariat and militarum knew to leave him alone permanently as his success and position meant that him remaining Warmaster would have continued to protect the Emperor as a result due to his competence by defeating enemies.
* '''The Dread Host:''' Gold Armor with Brass Trim, White Faceplate. (White cloth and "Sable" (Black) shoulder pad bits.) The Emperor's "anger and punishment made manifest." They determine direct threats to Segmentum Solar and the Emperor and wipe them off the face of the galaxy. Specifically a terrorist organization in the literal sense of the word -- once they determine a target, they attack, prevent them from surrendering or fleeing, and utterly raze everything to the ground; the goal being not just to destroy any threats they deem appropriate, [[Night Lords|but to put the fear of the Emperor into anyone who hears about what happened]].
* '''The Solar Watch:''' White Armor with Gold Trim. (Crimson red cloth bits.) The first and last line of defense of the Sol system itself. Heavily mechanized -- lots of Land Raiders. Constantly patrolling between the worlds of Sol, the various space structures, and the travel lanes from Sol to the nearby systems and back. Have been known to destroy various cults, Inquisition coups, and even the occasional Eldar or Genestealer infestation, on every world except Mars. In order to honor the autonomy of the Adeptus Mechanicus, they take a "better not to ask" approach to Mars and their... deviants. That's the job of the Ordo Machinum of the [[Inquisition]] anyhow. Gives those kooks something to do besides blowing up planets and acting on their petty internal squabbles.
* '''Emissaries Imperatus:''' Gold Armor with Gold Trim. (White cloth bits and Crimson shoulder pad bits.) Originally the Emperor's gophers and messengers, now his representation in realspace. Some Custodians can supposedly hear the Emperor's voice when they meditate/sleep; they do not see this as divine inspiration but rather his human will working to direct them like he did before being enthroned. Some can hear him more than others, those that do become Emissaries Imperatus; they gather together and debate what the Big E wants them to do. This might include giving special messages to the occasional commander, or giving special wargear from Terra to someone who will need it soon. When the Primaris Marines were about to be unleashed by Guilliman the bulk of the Custodians nearly stopped him (in part because they were wary of the "flawed" nature of the Space Marines and didn't want to risk a repeat of the Horus Heresy), only allowing it once the Emissaries intervened, who made it absolutely clear that the Emperor wanted it to happen. They were also vital in making sure the various chapters accepted the Primaris Marines, going with the Indomitus Crusade and informing the Space Marines that they were a gift from the Emperor himself. (This went up to and including threatening to declare any reluctant Chapters to be traitors on the spot if they refused. Obviously some Chapters were more eager to accept Primaris than others. [[Dark_Angels|Even the most secretive]]. Due to dire need of reinforcements from the resulting crapfest caused by the Great Rift.)
* '''Eyes of the Emperor:''' Not actually present on the tabletop, but represented by a Stratagem. While the Custodians are formidable, even they aren't entirely immune to old age or injury or at least their effects. When a Custodian judges himself no longer able to serve in combat (bear in mind that this is relative- to a Custodian, one's reaction time slowing by one tenth of a second is considered "unacceptable for active duty" even if a normal human wouldn't even notice the decline), he gives up all his gear in exchange for a black robe and travel the galaxy. Some work alone and others build networks of agents and informants, but all keep watch for any situation that might pose a threat to Terra or the Emperor. If they come across such a situation, they use special channels to inform the Captain-General in order to pre-emptively eliminate said threat. No slouches either, one took out a daemon host that had already ambushed and killed a member of the Aquilan Shield.

==Notable Custodians==

===Horus Heresy-Era===
[[File:Constantin valdor.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Constantin Valdor, murdering stuff for the Emprah since the Unification Wars.]]
*'''Constantin Valdor'''- The big cheese of the Custodian Guard, Constantin Valdor was the Captain-General of the Legio Custodes during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, the first of the Ten Thousand and personal bodyguard of Big E since <strike>his debuts as a bloody-handed and megalomaniac tyrant</strike> the Unification Wars and His glorious crusade to make Mankind great again. A monster of a man, he was described as being a head taller than Amon (who was already significantly larger than an Astartes) and the size of a Primarch (Alpharius to be exact). At one point he defeated Horus himself in a sparring match, however, it is never stated how old Horus was when the duel took place (though considering even a baby Angron with his head smashed up took down an entire eldar assassination group this is still impressive no matter Horus's age). Valdor was one of the Emperors closest friends and his second most trusted advisor (Malcador the Sigillite being #1). He was described as being the mightiest warrior in the entire Imperium with the exception of the Primarchs and Big E himself (he was almost killed by a warp-boosted Phosis T'Kar on Prospero however, only surviving because Phosis [[Chaos Spawn|accidentally rolled 22 on Chaos Boon]] and realized he'd become the 'flesh-change' monster he so hated). Naturally he shared a close relationship with a number of the Primarchs, the most notable being Horus, Rogal Dorn, and Leman Russ. Also, he rolls with the [[Officio Assassinorum]], so he earns massive bonus points there. At the end of the Heresy, he was one of the high lords of Terra, but stepped down sometime after that to be able to look after the Emperor personally. He has since been replaced as Captain-General: in M32 the Custodians are commanded by a new guy called '''Beyreuth'''. According to the Codex, he disappeared without a trace some time after the Emperor was ensconced on the Golden Throne; rumor has it that he is still alive and serving the Emperor. It is hinted in ''Master of Mankind'' that Valdor is named after an "ancient king" of Old Earth, probably [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great|^ Constantine the Great], famous for being the first Christian Emperor of Rome. The ''Apollonian Spear'' and sun-shaped iron halo worn by Valdor foster the reference to Constantine, whose tutelar deity before his conversion was Sol Invictus. His spear is one of a pair, infused with a portion of the emperors foresight, with the other held by Leman Russ. Valdors version of the spear specifically imparts him with a flashback of the life of it's victims, and every key(sad) moment in their history that led to them being at the end of the killing edge. Really testing the loyalty of your servants, what a pal E-money was. Unsurprisingly considering the blood games Valdor was a skilled assassin, able to sneak into a palace undetected to assassinate a target, according to the target he has Albian features perhaps meaning that was his birth place.

*'''Amon Tauromachian'''- One of the most notable Custodians. In combat, unarmoured, versus three " Migou" ([[H.P. Lovecraft|I see what you did there]]) or Genestock Ogres from Nei Monggol (Ogryns anybody?) Amon is impressive, he is apparently strong enough to effortlessly break an Ogryn's arm, relieving it of its punch-dagger, then ram it through the poor sod's skull. One of them grabs him from behind in a bear hug, which he literally shrugs off, then punches his hand through the Ogryn's chest and rips out its heart. Mary Sue you say? All this is from Dan Abnett himself from his short story ''Blood Games''. Also, he is probably referred to in ''The First Heretic'' as an instructor of at least 2 other Custodians, even though the "last" (well, gene-stock/family) name of said Amon is not revealed. Protected Kasper Hawser at the Edict of Nikea, was held in place by Magistus Amon of the Thousand Sons, but then subsequently kicked his ass with the help of Bjorn the Fell-Handed. Has managed to get within striking distance from TEH EMPRAH during the Blood Games.

*'''Aquillon Marithamus'''- the "Oculi Imperator" (eyes of the Emperor) and Prefect who was charged with leading four other Custodians, watching over Lorgar and the Word Bearers after the Monarchia kerfuffle. They were kept in the dark about the Heresy until Isstvan V, but left alive because Erebus wanted their blood. Aquillon embarked on a tragic bromance with [[Argel Tal]]. Tal seems to have been born for tragedy in general, and perhaps the most perfect example is how, having already become friends with the Custodians and seen one murdered on Lorgar's orders, he had to spend four decades getting closer to Aquillon and pulling the wool over his eyes. In contrast with how most Custodians viewed Space Marines, Aquillon actually came to view Argel Tal as a close friend (well, for Custodians, anyway)... until Isstvan V, accompanied by the revelation that the Word Bearers had been ritually torturing astropaths to keep Aquillon's messages from reaching Terra. It ended badly - Aquillon killed Argel Tal's mortal waifu [[Cyrene]], and the possessed Astartes [[Rip and Tear|bit his head off]].

*'''Ra Endymion:'''A veteran Custodian (871 names bitch !) among the first thirty members of the Legio, and perhaps the only person truly privy to the Emperor's whole plan to elevate humanity into the webway and cut them off from Chaos (or at least the only one given a direct crash course & debate on why the Emperor had to be a totalitarian dick | Custodes as a whole have inferred the emperors plan from all the info he shared with each one). Told to him in a series of psychic dreams gifted from the Emperor. One of the three Tribunes, he was left in command of the Webway armed forces after the other two were killed while fighting the forces of Chaos that forced their way through in the wake of Magnus's Folly. When the Emperor briefly rose from his chair to burn out the Daemons and give time for his forces to fall back, Ra was forcibly possessed by '''Drach'Nyen''', the [[Chaos Undivided|undivided]] daemon born from humanity's first act of murder. Since the Emperor couldn't kill it, he figured it would be safely stored in a Custodian's body, and the reason Ra was told the Emperor's plan was to give him a reason to keep fighting against the Daemon in his mind. By 40k we can assume something went horribly wrong, as Drach'Nyen is now literally in the hands of [[Abaddon]] as his sword and was given to him by some "golden figure". He is also an absolute beast in battle, slaughtering Astartes legionaries like Astartes do with regular humans (fluffy as hell considering the [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Talons_of_the_Emperor_(30k)|Legio Custodes Tribune's rules for 30k]]). Smiles like the Joker from Batman.

*'''Diocletian Coros:''' The big cheese in charge of the Terran side of the War in the Webway. An unapologetic arsehole with zero time for anything not covered by his orders, to the point of almost shooting child refugees because they delayed him. He makes it abundantly clear that the Custodians fight for the Emperor and '''NOT''' the Imperium, and considers that if enough of the Astartes felt the same way then the Horus Heresy would never have happened. Basically, he is the reason why people think that Custodians are all heartless autistic bastards. Still, have to feel a bit sorry for him, as he was told by the Emperor that the dream of humankind was dead after the webway was sealed. That's got to be rough. He also wrote a book about the Emprah, ''the Master of Mankind'' (no fucking joke), which is apparently still a best-seller among the nowadays Adeptus Custodes.

*'''Sagittarus Malacque:''' One of the original Custodians and the first to become a [[Custodes Contemptor Dreadnought|Dreadnought]]. Noted to be choleric and wild, he was nearly killed during the battle in the [[Webway]] but survived.

===41st Millenium Onward===
*'''[[Trajann Valoris]]:''' In the novel Watchers of the Throne: The Emperors' Legion Valoris is the Captain General of the Custodian Guard during the time of the 41st millennium, because there are no records of him in the Imperial banks and no details on his conquests or ascent into the order, he could be a 100 years old, or 5000 years old... nobody outside of the Adeptus Custodes know. Rumour has it he also has over 1000 names inscribed on the inside of his armour and before the return of [[Roboute Guilliman|the Primarch]], was the most powerful and deadly individual in all of the Imperium both martial and militarily. Only a handful of the greatest warriors, mightiest Inquisitor Lords, and a few High Lords gained an audience to speak to him. He killed 20 huge vat-grown rampaging combat servitors as large as enrage groxes armed with heavy chainglaives and other assorted heavy weapons in literally seconds, after kicking a really big door inwards within the Imperial Place. It doesn't really need to be said, but this guy's a fucking badass. Is also the only named HQ in the Custodes' codex.

*'''[[Valerian]]:''' Protagonist of ''Watchers of the Throne''. An intellectual among the Custodes, he does not consider himself to be a warrior but a philosopher, and spends most of his free time studying the Emperor's acts and motivations. Was originally slated to join the 300 Companions, but he failed the first ritual when his body locked up and froze when the time actually came to visit the Golden Throne in person. Its implied later on that this was because the Emperor had another purpose for him, as he eventually ends up going rogue, leaving Terra with a squad he convinced to come with him, and establishing the precedent for the Custodes to finally get their asses out of the Imperial Palace and join the Indomitus Crusade (deepstriking into an enemy battleship and preventing a battleship full of heretic astartes from pushing a big red button would do that). Says that if violence could solve the Imperium's problems, it would've started working after trying it for ten thousand years, making him one of the few individuals in the Imperium to have common sense. Ironically, his not killing heretics fast enough was the initial cause of the 2nd invasion of Terra.

*'''Navradaran:''' A member of the Ephroi featured in ''the Carrion Throne'' and ''Watchers of the Throne''. He specialized in covert operations outside the Imperial Palace, which is quite an achievement for a giant in golden armor. His time seeing more of the Imperium than just the Palace led to him appreciating regular humans for their potential and not their weakness (compared to other transhumans). He was a mentor for Valerian. Before Guilliman returned, he spent a lot of his time trying to reunite the Silent Sisterhood.

*'''Maldovar Colquan:''' A Tribune, newly elevated to the position on the death of Italeo during the Second Battle of Terra, he was assigned to be the Custodes to the newly-returned Guilliman. Given a passing mention in ''Watchers of the Throne'', and a cameo in ''Devastation of Baal'', Maldovar gets some focus in ''Dark Imperium'', where it is shown that he's rather pissed at just how much the Imperium has lost over the last ten millennia. Often comments on minor shortcomings of the common humanity under Guilliman's command, which just strengthens Guilliman's opinion that the Custodes' experience as ''actual'' leaders had dulled. He is also known to have been one of the most vocal opponent of the Primarch's back to power, which led Bobby G to keep him around while crusading among the stars.

*'''Heraclast Vadrian:''' Mentioned in the 8th Edition Codex, Vadrian watched across centuries as the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] slowly forgot how to maintain and repair the [[Golden Throne]], leaving it slowly starting to break down with no one left alive anywhere in the Imperium knowing how to fix it. He decided that despite the AdMech claiming dominion over everything technological in the Imperium that the AdMech being this stubbornly ignorant was a direct threat to the Emperor, and got permission from Trajann Valoris to figure out a solution. Vadrian then gathered a Shield Host in the cruiser ''Scion of Argo'' and set off following a lead to a lost forge world named ''Morvane,'' which presumably has knowledge of the technology needed to fix the Golden Throne, created components of it and thus might have blueprints, or might have Hereteks on it that can figure out how to fix it.

===Non-canon===
[[File:Pillarstodes.jpg|400px|left|thumb|[https://youtu.be/R9w_uoUHgiE?t=1m40s ''"After the confinement of the Emperor within the Golden Throne, the Custodes abandoned, among other things, the use of their armour, and their traditional colour of red was changed to black."''] - Horus Heresy: Collected Visions. Hence, the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDEbsZpweDo Pillarstodes] meme isn't actually too far from the truth.]]

*'''[[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device#Team_Emperor|Little Kitten]]''' - known on /tg/ as the Captain-General of the group during ''If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device'', whose art you might've recognized from the second picture in the article near the top. May or may not be Constantin Valdor, it's kept deliberately contradictory - though considering that Kitten is black and Valdor is shown to be white, they may not be the same person. What IS known is that he was the Custodian who brought Alicia Dominica to the Emperor during the [[Age of Apostasy|Reign of Blood]]. He's known for basically telling Big E what is everything, and is called "Kitten" for purring up the ranks of the Custodes. Kitten has a vaguely British accent, and he hates [[Tau|Communist fuckers]] with a passion. <s>(It's actually because [[Shadowsun|one]] was tsundere enough that she dropped him before he could tap that ass.)</s> SHIT'S NOT CANON! What is canon though is that he is a black guy, as in normal human black guy, not [[Salamanders]]-Class black ("No, I'd call it...uh like, brownish?"). Also manage to beat a million tons worth of [[cheese]] in [[Yu-Gi-Oh|a children's card game]]. [[Just as planned|Twice]].

*'''"[[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device#Imperials_(So_sorta_good_guys)|Fab-Custodes (Wamuudes, Custodisi, Karstodes)]]"''' - aka the Pillar-stodes, See 2nd picture for an idea of what they look like. They are the codifiers of the Fabulous Custodes from [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader|First Edition]] (see above), and they are NUTS. The Fabstodes are oily, snickering, gay as [[Slaanesh]]'s hell and love it. Seriously, even Kitten knows this and is worried for the Emperor's safety around them, saying that none of this was his idea. This said, they are as loyal to humanity as they come, and they're also Tribunes with all the martial skills that go with the rank, which means they can also fuck shit up when needed. This is demonstrated when they took on [[Magnus the Red]] and did not get reduced to a smear, despite fighting almost naked and while he was raging in his Daemonic True Form.

*'''"Santodes"''' - A forth among the ranks of the Fabstodes, Santodes is no less FABULOUS for his lack of screentime. He was present during the sacrifice of [[Ollanius Pius]]. Little Kitten seems to hate the guy... to the point of shoving Santodes right in front of Fucking Horus after Pius died. Santodes "survived", and commissioned a custom Dreadnought body shaped like his muscled naked body that could show off his luscious golden locks, and now his thermic reactor puuUUlsaaAAttes with EXCITEMEEEENT!

==Getting a codex==
[[File:1474071012706.jpg|300px|right|thumb|From the Burning of Prospero Horus Heresy boxed set]]
The Adeptus Custodes ''finally'' received their own rules at the tail end of 7th Edition, with a mini-Codex that was bundled along with the [[Sisters of Silence]] mini-dex in the '''Talons of the Emperor''' boxed set.

Suffice to say, the rules didn't disappoint. Each line-Custodian [[Awesome|having stats equivalent to or ''better'' than your average Brother-Captain]], on top of having ''Eternal Warrior'' built-in. On the flip side they were ridiculously expensive (though oddly enough ''cheaper'' than a [[Grey Knight Paladin]]), and barring catching a ride on a Land Raider or deep-striking, they were stuck foot-slogging across the table. Hmm.

The Golden Boys of the Emperor also received a much-expanded and stand-alone Codex for 8th Edition. It expands on the lore (seemingly trying to make a point that, no, the Custodians were NOT idle for the past ten millennia), introduces specialist groups within the Custodes [[Your Dudes|whose paint schemes players can use]], and fills out the missing Force Organization slots for the Army. [[Trajann Valoris]] also gets a tabletop-playable model plus rules as well. As an army, they're still extremely expensive per model, but at least they have more options available to them now - especially now that FW has finally released 40K rules for the 30K Custodes units.

A slight failure on GWs part was not putting the sisters of silence in the codex, considering they're meant to fight together (which is why they're collectively called the "Talons of the Emperor") and the sisters have been made almost useless with the battle brothers rule change. A shame too since they complement each other quite well and fill in whatever weaknesses the other had.

==See Also==
*[[Grey Knights]]
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Adeptus Custodes(8E)]]
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold Gold]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jMlFXouPk8| The one song that sums up everything about Custodes in 40k]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9n6iMeIW8A| Absolutely definitely their theme song]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYfK8VlSf6M| Custodes: The Musical]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Custard.jpg|Custard Cream. Illustrated by Jon Scrivens. Such a talented little bumpkin, well done Jon!
Image:Custodies-pic-1.jpg|A Custodes. Pimped out beyond recognition? Maybe. Awesome? Hell yes!
Image:Custodes_01.jpg|Custodes Squad.
Image:Custodes-size-comparison.jpg|Size comparison between a Custodes and a Spess Mehreen.
Image:Seeing double.jpg|I see no difference, do you?.
File:Custodes_groove_meme.jpeg|Watch yourself around the EMPRAH.
File:J8l1oms9p1i01.gif|Typical Custodes in action.
File:Psychic Awakening Consequences in a nutshell.jpg|The Custodes are apparently not as intelligent as previously assumed.
</gallery>

{{Custodes}}
{{Imperium}}
{{WH40k-Factions}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Imperial]]