Editing Adeptus Custodes (section)

==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). 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; rumour 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.
** Participated in the Burning of Prospero instead of preventing it by simply, y'know, ''actually enforcing and obeying the Emperor's orders.'' Instead, accepted and obeyed changes to orders delivered by someone other than the Emperor supposedly passing on a message from the Emperor despite the Emperor being fully capable of sending his own astropathic messages or at least ordering an astropath to do so for him. [[FAIL|And not bothering to verify with the Emperor himself. Despite the change in orders being the ''opposite'' of what the original orders were.]] That is to say, "murder everyone and burn their world to ashes" is the opposite of "go to Prospero and arrest Magnus and bring him to me in chains."
** He might be around in the 41st Millennium as the enigmatic "King in Yellow" (who is building an army in the Webway for unknown reasons). [[Eisenhorn|Alizabeth Bequin]] recently recovered a book from a Webway pocket dimension that supposedly contained the true identity of the King in Yellow; the very first words within the book were "Constantin Valdor." However, this doesn't really line up with the other depictions of the KiY, who is heavily connected with the heretical Chaos-connected Cognitae group.

*'''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 Emperor's plan from all the info he shared with each one), which was 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 and mouthing off to Dorn during a briefing. He makes it abundantly clear that the Custodians fight for the Emperor and '''NOT''' the Imperium, and holds the attitude 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 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. He also wrote a book about the Emprah, ''the Master of Mankind'' (no fucking joke), which is apparently still a best-seller among the present day Adeptus Custodes.
** TL;DR: He's [[That Guy]] at his nicest, a [[Marines Malevolent|Marine Malevolent]] turned into a Custodes at his worst.

*'''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, having been saved by a formerly-crippled [[Blood Angel]] in a display of utter [[awesome]]. Also, that whole "Only in death does duty end" quote? That canonically originated with this guy, as the Emprah inscribed it on his shell.

*'''Vettranio Shapura:''' One of the third or fourth Custodians to be put into a dreadnought, a Galatus pattern, after sacrificing himself for the Emperor. Notorious as a Custodes commander in the Horus Heresy: Legions card game, where he is a mostly defensive character hiding behind his shield (instead of the murder-machines Galatus-pattern Dreads are in tabletop [[crunch]]). His name comes from three people: Jack Vettriano (a Scottish painter); Vetranio (with 1 t) who was one of the lesser roman Emperors, originally a decorated officer acclaimed by his rebellious soldiers, he ended up losing in a contest of charisma to determine the true Emperor against his Constantinian rival, who turned Vetranio's troops against him, forcing the would be usurper to beg for mercy, Constantius II forgave him (even calling him "father" out of diplomatic kindness) and he left to end up his life in peaceful and happy retirement (which is where it ties with the painter); and finally, the [[Chaos|Shapur kings of the Sassanid empire]], the most infamous of whom, Shapur I, treacherously captured Emperor Valerian during pourparlers, forced him into slavery and humiliation for years, until Valerian begged him to be released, promising to pay whatever ransom if he was allowed to see his family again one last time, a request to which Shapur I answered... ''by flaying him alive''. Ahriman of the Thousand Sons was a descendant, a prince, of the Achaemenid royal dynasty; and Vettranio Shapura was among the Custodians who went with Constantine Valdor and Leman Russ to censure Magnus the Red and his Legion.

*'''Diolos Akrodius:''' A member of the Ephoroi who got his ass handed to him alongside the Blood Angels during the Signus Campaign by a demon horde. Afterwards the Blood Angels conspired to keep him in the dark about Imperium Secundus while they brought him to Terra. This proves prescient, as afterwards he finds out what Guilliman was up to in Ultramar and is absolutely done with this shit -- proceeding to immediately found the '''Dankanatoi''', a chamber of the Custodes dedicated to hunting down and executing traitors that fled Terra during the Horus Heresy. Basically a Custodes Inquisition. No word on if the Dankanatoi survived to the 40th millennium; their color scheme was effectively Shadowkeepers with Purple Cloth and Shoulderpads.

===Age of Apostasy (M36)===
*'''Longinus:''' Centurion Longinus was the one who brought Alicia Dominica and her companions into [[God-Emperor of Mankind|the Emperor's]] presence, thus providing the catalyst for the fall of [[Goge Vandire]], the end of the [[Age of Apostasy]] and the creation of the [[Adepta Sororitas]]. Although not absolutely confirmed to be the same individuals, Amon Tauromachian was given the name Longinus during the Siege of Terra.
** Longinus also assists [[Saint Celestine]] on San Leor after the [[Cicatrix Maledictum]] opened.

===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 enraged groxes armed with heavy chainglaives and other assorted heavy weapons in literally seconds, after kicking a really big door inwards within the Imperial Palace. It doesn't really need to be said, but this guy's a fucking badass. He's also the only named HQ in the Custodes' codex.
** After Guilliman returns and fires half the High Lords for being incompetent self-serving twats, Valoris is ordered to ensure that the inevitable backlash doesn’t succeed in reversing Guilliman’s reforms. What follows is a series of frankly incredible manipulations: Valoris plays the traitor and loyal High Lords, Imperial Navy, Imperial Guard, Officio Assassinorum, the ''entire'' [[Minotaurs]] chapter, Imperial Fists, Sisters of Silence and even his own Ten Thousand like damn fiddles all at once! Seriously, he plays everyone so well that the Imperial Chancellor remarks that the Custodes got exactly what they wanted and nobody outside of an extremely select few (like, maybe five individuals at most) would know that they were a relevant factor in quashing the rebellious high lords.
** TL;DR the guy is basically [[Creed]] and [[Kharn]] put together.

*'''[[Valerian]]:''' Protagonist of the ''Watchers of the Throne'' series of novels. 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). Gets rewarded with a laurel wreath by Guilliman for his actions, which some of his brothers are apparently none too happy about since Custodes don’t usually accept rewards, especially not from Astartes.
** 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. Admittedly, this is something of a [[Skub|contentious statement]], considering the strength of the Imperium's enemies and the lack of proper military forces beyond poorly-trained and equipped PDF (and maybe a Guard regiment or two) on most worlds. If we’re being charitable, his belief that violence isn’t working for the Imperium might be about keeping the Imperium intact and preventing rebellion instead of a reference to war with invading space monsters.
** Gets completely played by Valoris in the second Watchers novel, ending up rescuing the Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum (who was pretending to be one of the traitor High Lords) from the Minotaurs. Almost gets into a duel with Asterion Moloc, one which he wasn’t at all sure he’d win due to being unable to detect any weaknesses in Moloc’s gear or technique to exploit. Thankfully, Moloc is little more than an attack dog for the High Lords and with all the traitors dead, he stood down once the loyal High Lords told him to stand down. Is currently pursuing a chaos cult leader who escaped Terra through the galaxy.

*'''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, including the Ecclesiarchy as Colquan is a hardcore believer in the Imperial Truth (though he does recognise the utility of faith to the masses). 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. Technically a heretic or even a traitor because he’s openly against a Primarch doing both what he was created to do and what the Emperor personally wants him to do. He is furious about how much the Imperium has lost yet is against the only person able and willing to fix all of that actually acting on that ability to do said fixing. It must be noted though that by the time ''Godblight'' happened, Colquan has learnt to trust Guilliman and believes the Primarch has nothing but the best for the Imperium in mind.

*'''Heraclast Vadrian:''' Mentioned in the 8th Edition Codex, Vadrian watched across centuries as the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] [[Derp|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 the AdMech being stubbornly ignorant (coupled with their stranglehold on Imperial tech) 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. In a way he and the Companions as a whole have failed their duty by not making sure the Golden Throne can be repaired and maintained with or without the Mechanicus.

*'''Pertinax''': Sheild Captain. Recently delivered Primaris reinforcements to the [[Blood Ravens]] Chapter 7th Company Captain Atanaxis.

===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. His exact identity is a (deliberate) mystery, with later episodes and shorts confirming that he is neither Constantin Valdor nor Trajann Valoris. 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! Also manage to beat a million tons worth of [[cheese]] in [[Yu-Gi-Oh|a children's card game]]. [[Just as planned|Twice]]. The other Custodes (baring the Fab-Stodes) make clear that they elected Kitten to the position of Captain-General because despite being a mild-mannered people-pleaser rather than a Warmaster, he alone cares more for the well-being of the Custodes than anyone else and takes the often thankless job of Caretaker very seriously.
**Retroactively, he is '''Longinus''', see above.

*'''"[[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device#Imperials_(So_sorta_good_guys)|Fab-Custodes (Wamuudes, Custodisi, Karstodes)]]"''' - aka the Pillar-stodes, See 4th 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. Over time each of the Fab-Custodes gained additional characterization from one another; Karstodes regularly bullies a vox-serf to cover his insecurities concerning his illiteracy and general lack of intelligence (though he gradually warms up to the boy), Custodisi had a rather unhealthy fixation on Magnus (though learned to tone it down after receiving a near-death experience from the Emperor), and Wamuudes is the most detached of the three from humanity, but is a neat freak par excellence and is committed to the less-glamorous aspects of serving as the Emperor's caretaker (meaning cleaning out the sewers under the golden throne). The Fab-Stodes gain a newfound respect for Kitten following their stint as the new Caretakers, and seeing Kitten using his authority as a High Lord to get shit done on the Emperor's behalf.

*'''"Santodes"''' - A fourth 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 (<s>erotic</s> well-crafted enough to arouse [[Skitarii]]) that could show off his luscious golden locks, and now his thermic reactor puuUUlsaaAAttes with EXCITEMEEEENT! Santodes may be every bit as looney as the other Fab-Stodes, but he's also clever enough to know how to use his archeotech body to seduce Skitarii into allowing them to see the Fabricator-General.