Editing Adeptus Custodes (section)

==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 Guilliman. 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 a 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.]] But you can do it after the battle if you fought well. They seem to keep a number of them around Roboute Guilliman at all times, partially to protect him, and likely also to stick spears in him if he ever seems too close to going traitor (not that this would actually happen as intended, since 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.