Space Marines are perhaps the most well-known warriors in the world of Warhammer 40,000. However, almost no one should know about one order – at least not within the world itself. These elite superhumans are so extreme that they are only deployed for very specific purposes and even overshadow demons.
The Grey Knights are an order of the very best and strongest Space Marines one can imagine. They stand outside most rules and structures that Space Marines typically adhere to.
Similar to the Adepta Sororitas, the Grey Knights are practically a part of the Inquisition. They serve as the fighting arm of Ordo Malleus, the part of the Inquisition dedicated to combating chaos.
If the Grey Knights were an official order and equal to all other Adeptus Astartes, they would undoubtedly rank at the top of the strongest Space Marines.
From their inception to their deployment, their weapons, and their abilities, nothing about the Grey Knights is normal – not even by Warhammer standards. And yet, in the Imperium of Man, hardly anything is as little known as this order.
In Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, you play as a Grey Knight:
An order born out of necessity of elite fighters
The order consists of the most loyal of the loyalists and was founded during the Horus Heresy. When Terra, the homeworld of humanity, was on the verge of being besieged, the Emperor tasked his closest confidant Malcador with locating the most loyal fighters of the Imperium and forming an elite force from them.
Among these “Knights Errant” were humans like Space Marines – including even members of the traitor legions who remained faithful to the Emperor. Eight of these Space Marines were ultimately chosen as the foundation for the Grey Knights.
In order to create an order from these eight grandmasters, Malcador eventually led the Space Marines to Titan, a moon of Saturn, where everything was already in place for a proper breeding program.
Big E personally ensures the creation of the entire order
The facilities on Titan were already designed upon the arrival of the grandmasters to breed a new order – including hundreds of suitable recruits and the essential gene-seed that turns a human into a Space Marine.
Unlike most Space Marines, they have no primarch from whom they descend. The gene-seed is said to come directly from the Emperor himself.
However, since the world was at that time engulfed in the height of the Great Crusade, this breeding station had to be hidden for the time being. Malcador, himself a powerful psychic, then quickly transported Titan into the Warp, the realm of Chaos – protected with numerous seals and rites.
As time passes differently in the Warp, the moon re-emerged shortly thereafter along with a whole order of fully trained Grey Knights who surpass almost every other Space Marine.
An order of the strongest magicians in the Imperium
Every Grey Knight is a powerful psychic, practically a “Space Mage.” Already during the selection, the order snatches the potentially strongest candidates from the Black Ships that otherwise collect psychics in the Imperium, and trains them.
Only those among the chosen who pass the 666 rituals are admitted into the order. In these trials, the recruit must prove that he can withstand even the worst terrors of the Warp.
As a result, the Grey Knights end up being so well protected that they cannot be corrupted by Chaos, no matter how intensely they use Warp energy. Even their names are said to be so powerful that they function as weapons against demons. While this information is in the official codices, it’s hard to say how much of it is lore from the world itself in Warhammer.
Almost no one knows the Grey Knights
The Grey Knights are regarded as a myth in the world of Warhammer 40,000. This is because any record mentioning them has been erased. And more: Almost everyone who knows about them is killed or similar.
For Space Marines, only the memory is erased so that they no longer know they have ever seen the Grey Knights. Members of the Imperial Army are simply executed if they fight alongside the order.
The only ones who officially know about the Grey Knights are the Inquisition, the Grey Knights themselves, and the Space Wolves. However, this is only because the Space Wolves and Grey Knights have fought a few bloody battles.
The Space Wolves have refused to sacrifice the innocent – which they probably owe to their stubborn primarch. During the course of the conflict, the Space Wolves even killed one of the order’s grandmasters.
The Grey Knights stand outside the rules of Space Marines with what they are. Nevertheless, they broadly adhere to the Codex Astartes. Another order interprets the provisions a bit … more creatively and thus becomes extremely powerful: Space Marines are only allowed to have 1,000 members per order in Warhammer 40,000 – but the largest order ignores this.
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