vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Adeptus Arbites - Suppression Shield: Hydraphur Pattern Suppression Shield - Suppression Shields are common equipment for the Adeptus Arbites, although upon seeing their effectiveness, many other organisations and individuals have moved to obtain them. The Suppression Shield is both a bulwark and a weapon, a heavy slab of ceramite large enough for the wielder to take cover behind. Each has a built-in arc-lumin at the top, and a powerful shock-plate in the shield's centre. If the wielder strikes with the shield, he can discharge the shock-plate on impact, delivering a powerful electrical blow. Suppression Shields have the Recharge quality, since the shock-plate takes time to build to dangerous levels. It can still be used as a weapon while it is still recharging. Arbites Suppression Shields are also designed with lockgrips on the upper corners. Crusader Suppression Shields are designed for combating the malefic and Warp-spawned powers, and are inscribed with hexagrammic wards.Synford Pattern "Lockshield" - The Arbites commonly make use of heavy ceramite shields during operations of all types. These are rectangular plates, worn on one arm, which are typically equipped with a heavily armoured viewport that offers protection to the operator. The Synford "Lockshield" is a relatively standard example of the type, but with one unusual and defining feature. The Lockshield, like most Arbites shields, is designed with an armourglass viewport and a firing port through which a basic or pistol weapon can be fired without penalty. It also contains a powered vox-hailer linked to the vox-torc of the most senior Arbitrator present, allowing that officer to rebuke and remonstrate over even the most deafening racket. It contains mag-strips on both sides, which enable prisoners to be secured directly to the shield by magnacles. Its most unusual feature is its ability to lock solidly with adjacent Lockshields to create an armoured wall behind which Arbitrators can advance as a unit, thus giving the shield its common name. The shield can be locked using mag-strips to shields adjacent to it; the Arbites use this to create walled "Lockshield" formations during particularly lethal riots, or to advance large groups of Arbites down wide, fire-swept corridors.
Adeptus Arbites - Adeptus Arbites Titles and Uniforms in the Calixis Sector: Lord Marshal Luthir Veremonn Goreman of the Calixis Sector, the commander of the Calixian Great Precinct, allows his Precincts to give titles that strike fear and awe into the local population. This practice allows a certain flexibility when interrogating suspects and determining duties. It is quite possible that no two agents in a Precinct have exactly the same title. Each Judge uses this freedom as they sees fit, some creating convenient ranks to identify specialisations, and others treating them almost as nicknames, easy monikers for identifying who is capable of a task.In an effort to make it easy for each Arbitrator to identify the role of their colleagues from other precincts, Goreman has instituted a system of armbands, sashes, and collars. A red collar, for instance, shows that an Arbitrator has been trained and proven capable of detailed investigations. Sashes are also used, so that an individual may be identified as having more than one area of expertise, such as the brown sash of the Chastener. Finally, a thin armband may be worn on an Arbitrator’s upper arm, to signify further specialised skills and experience.
Adeptus Arbites - Servitors: The Arbites will, on occasion, make use of servitors, but generally not to the same extent as other branches of the Adeptus Terra. The Arbites pride themselves on being a disciplined and self-reliant force, and there is an unspoken belief in many precinct-fortresses that excessive reliance upon Servitors fosters a spirit of dependence far removed from the proper, spartan ethic of the organisation.Despite this, some servitors do serve to the best of their limited abilities within the Arbites, typically performing duties which can free Arbitrators to carry out their law enforcement roles. For example, emplaced Gun Servitors are used extensively within Precincts for sentry duty, and a handful of other heavily modified designs are used for other more specialist roles.The Arbites also have in their service cyber-constructs such as Cyber-Mastiffs, cyborgs that incorporate the instincts of animals. Both canids and avians are employed for this purpose. Such animals are usually crafted in special Adeptus Mechanicus facilities, such as Hive Subrique, which provides the vast majority of such constructs for the Calixian Arbites.
Adeptus Arbites - Game History: Borrowing heavily from the British comic book Judge Dredd's imagery, the Adeptus Arbites were first mentioned in 1st Edition's Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, but were only introduced as a playable force in the 2nd Edition of Warhammer 40,000, and have since appeared in the spin-off games Necromunda and Inquisitor.They appear as "play-as" equivalents to Inquisitorial Storm Troopers (although armed with Shotguns) in the Witch Hunters supplement. Also, the organisation is the focus of three novels by Matthew Farrer -- Cross Fire (2003), Legacy (2004), and Blind (2006).
Adeptus Arbites - Sources: 13th Legion (Novel) by Gav Thorpe, Chs. 4, 6-7Black Crusade: Hand of Corruption (RPG), pp. 88-89, 128-129Codex Imperialis (2nd Edition), pp. 12, 34-35Codex: Sisters of Battle (2nd Edition), pp. 5–10Dark Heresy: Ascension (RPG), pp. 21, 38-39, 43-44, 47, 70-73, 141-142, 147, 154, 177-178, 180Dark Heresy: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 50-55Dark Heresy: Book of Judgement (RPG), pp. 6-8, 16-17, 23-29, 42-43, 44-45, 48-49, 54-55, 61-69Dark Heresy: Disciples of the Dark Gods (RPG), pp. 166-168Dark Heresy: The Radical's Handbook (RPG), pp. 54-55Dark Heresy: The Inquisitor's Handbook (RPG), pg. 143Dark Heresy: Purge the Unclean (RPG), pg. 103Dark Heresy 2nd Edition: Beta Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 32-33Rogue Trader: Hostile Acquisitions (RPG), pp. 6-11, 82-83Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook  (Digital Edition) (7th Edition), pp. 275, 280-281, 541, 544Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (6th Edition), pg. 148Long Arm of the Emperor's Law: Adeptus Arbites in Inquisitor (Specialist Game)Codex: Tyranids (1st Edition)Necromunda Enforcers: Justice in the Underhive (Specialist Game)Cross Fire (Novel) by Matthew FarrerLegacy (Novel) by Matthew FarrerBlind (Novel) by Matthew FarrerNightbringer (Novel) by Graham McNeillExecution Hour (Novel) by Gordon RennieWarhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1st Edition), pg. 139
Adeptus Astartes Aviation - Adeptus Astartes Aviation: The transhuman warriors of the Adeptus Astartes maintain their own combat aviation arms led by their Techmarines who serve as pilots to provide tactical air support for their ground-based battle-brothers.Space Marine aircraft squadrons hurtle down from orbit, spat from launch rails and embarkation decks aboard their sleek and deadly warships.These elite aerial formations punch through their enemies, executing fearless headlong attack runs to smash their targets from the sky or obliterate them on the ground.
Adeptus Astartes Aviation - Role: Well-armoured, heavily-armed and flown by warriors possessing superhuman skill and swiftness, few aircraft squadrons can match those of the Adeptus Astartes for combat effectiveness. Space Marine pilots do not have the numbers possessed by most of their enemies, but neither do they need them.From the sleek Stormhawk Interceptors to the hulking Stormraven gunships, Space Marine aircraft represent the pinnacle of Imperial vehicle technology.Replete with the secrets of the Omnissiah, built upon the ancient wisdom of treasured STC templates, these exceptional aircraft are as robust as they are festooned with firepower. The thrust generated by these centuries-old combat aircraft would be too much for an unaugmented human to handle, and would likely kill them with sheer g-forces.The pilots of the Adeptus Astartes have no such problems, applying their enhanced strength and reaction times to squeezing an incredible level of performance out of their aircraft.Every manoeuvre performed by Adeptus Astartes squadrons is perfectly coordinated, every volley of firepower deadly accurate. Return fire splashes from their armoured hulls, if it strikes home at all. So resilient and powerful are Space Marine aircraft that even a single squadron of them can tear apart a much larger air or ground force.The combat doctrines of different Space Marine air forces vary depending upon the temperament of the Chapter from which they hail. Blood Angels pilots take to the skies with the instinctive skill imparted by the legacy of their winged Primarch Sanguinius, for example, flying with an aggression that would be suicidal in lesser warriors. By comparison, White Scars pilots glide upon the winds like hunting hawks, circling their prey before striking in sudden stooping dives.Whatever differences of character exist between the Chapters, in almost all cases, it is their Techmarines who pilot their fighters and gunships. It is a testament to the versatility and skill of these warrior-artisans that the Techmarines who operate tanks and artillery, or effect battlefield repairs upon their Chapter's machineries, are the same that fly to war in the pilot seats of their aircraft.During isolated operations, it is common for Techmarine pilots to fly solo, supporting their battle-brothers on the ground with only the aid of their crafts' Machine Spirits (artificial intelligence routines). In more protracted campaigns, or when the enemy deploys a strong aerial presence, the Techmarines will instead band together into squadrons, groups and divisions in order to maximise their strategic impact and survivability.In such groupings, those Techmarines with the closest rapport with the Machine Spirits of their aircraft normally assume the role of squadron leaders. It is also during long and bloody campaigns that the greatest Techmarine pilots rise to ace status, earning unique honours within their Chapter for their feats of incredible aerial combat, while spreading abject terror amongst the enemy.
Adeptus Astartes Aviation - Grey Knights: Disciplined psychic warriors with minds hardened against the horrors of the Warp, Grey Knights Techmarines pilot their Stormraven gunships into battle no matter the insanity they face.Through skies of screaming fire and melting, ghoulish visages, the Grey Knights' Stormraven squadrons fly pure and true. The foul energies of the Empyrean cannot penetrate the wards worked into the gunships' hulls. The cacophonous howls of the daemons without find no purchase upon the souls of the holy warriors that ride within the Stormravens' holds.Most commonly, the primary role of Grey Knights Stormravens will be as combat transports, squadrons of silver-hulled aircraft swooping down to disgorge the elite battle-brothers of the Grey Knights into the very heart of battle. In the process, the Techmarine pilots may find themselves dogfighting with monstrous winged Daemons, weaving between coruscating Warp blasts or around savage axe swings that could split a gunship in two.Throughout it all, the pilots remain utterly fearless, their formations perfect and their blessed weapons blazing to hurl the Warpspawn back to the hell from which they came.
Adeptus Astartes Aviation - Dark Angels Ravenwing: Swift and sinister, the aircraft squadrons of the Dark Angels flit across the shadowed skies like flocks of ominous carrion crows. They are darkness and death, the shroud that falls inescapably upon the heretical and the guilty and erases them from the galaxy without a trace.The Dark Angels are unusual amongst the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes in that their aircraft are not piloted by the Techmarines of their armoury. Instead, these agile hunting craft are flown into battle by the expert operatives of the Dark Angels 2nd Company, the Ravenwing.The Ravenwing are tasked with rapidly locating and violently eliminating the enemies of the Emperor. They are an elite brotherhood, highly specialised in their methods of warfare to the degree that not a single Battle-Brother of the Ravenwing fights on foot. All are trained to ride into battle astride roaring Space Marine Assault Bikes, to pilot the anti-grav skimmers known as Land Speeders, or to fly the infamous Nephilim Jetfighters and Ravenwing Dark Talons that make up the Dark Angels air force.Ravenwing operatives are trained to gather extensive battlefield information at all times, drinking in every scrap of Vox-intel, energy signature recognition and augur-analysis to build an unparalleled strategic picture of the battlefield around them. They specialise in locating even the most elusive prey and running them to ground, forming an ironclad net of machines and potent firepower, all directed by warriors as meticulous as they are merciless.In short, the seamless coordination between the ground forces and aircraft squadrons of the Ravenwing makes them one of the finest hunting forces in the galaxy. The hidden reason for this specialisation is bound up with the Dark Angels' hunt for the Fallen.It is a quest that entirely consumes the shadowed upper echelons of the Chapter, and one that must never come to light in the eyes of any other Imperial institution. The Dark Angels field dozens of aircraft squadrons and can further augment these with the wings of their Successor Chapters -- the Unforgiven -- turning the skies black with aircraft should such measures be necessary to keep their secrets.
Adeptus Astartes Aviation - Space Wolves: Just as the longboats and spear-galleys of the Fenrisian tribes bear their warriors into battle, so do the Stormwolf and Stormfang Packs of the Space Wolves ply the storm-tossed skies of countless alien worlds, ferrying the warriors of the Great Companies into the Allfather's galactic wars.Fenris is a Death World, an elemental maelstrom of ice storms and fiery volcanoes in which only the hardiest can hope to survive. The skies of this deadly planet are wild and turbulent, riven by tempests whose winds scream at hundreds of Terran miles per hour. It is in such conditions that the Iron Priests of the Space Wolves learn their skills as pilots.Iron Priests fly by their instincts as much as by their instruments. They quickly learn to trust their guts amid magnetic fluctuations and blinding ice-storms that can render even the most powerful Augurs useless. The warriors of the Space Wolves possess the sharpest senses of any Chapter, and it is from these senses that the Fenrisians get their near-supernatural ability to retain pack coherency and locate their targets in even the most impossible conditions.Microscopic changes in air pressure, particulate scents scattered upon storm winds, the faintest visual shadows glimpsed in the corner of the eye, all provide the Iron Priests with a wealth of information by which to fly.This is not the only way in which the Space Wolves pilots allow instinct to guide them. Rather than deal in formal ranks, a group of Iron Priests forming a Pack will swiftly establish who amongst them is the alpha. This individual assumes Pack command, deferring in turn to those they sense are most worthy of the honour of being group and wing commanders.All Space Wolves are superstitious by nature, and their Iron Priest pilots are no exception. Alongside their ad hoc Pack markings, many pilots daub runes in wolf's blood upon the hulls of their aircraft, or else hang tribal fetishes from gunports and rivets; this is meant to draw the eye of Morkai, and ensure his blessing in the battles to come.
Adeptus Astartes Aviation - Adeptus Astartes Aircraft: Caestus Assault RamCorvus Blackstar (Deathwatch only)Dark Talon (Dark Angels and Unforgiven only)Fire Raptor GunshipNephilim Jetfighter (Dark Angels and Unforgiven only)Overlord (Primaris Space Marines)Space Marine Landing CraftStorm Eagle GunshipStormbird (Pre-Heresy Space Marine Legions, no longer in use)Stormfang Gunship (Space Wolves only)Stormhawk InterceptorStormtalon GunshipStormraven GunshipStormwolf (Space Wolves only)ThunderhawkThunderhawk TransporterXiphon Interceptor
Adeptus Astartes Aviation - Sources: Death from the Skies (7th Edition), pp. 8-11, 26-33
Adeptus Astra Telepathica - Adeptus Astra Telepathica: The Adeptus Astra Telepathica, known as the Divisio Astra Telepathica or simply as the Astra Telepathica before the Horus Heresy, is an adepta of the Adeptus Terra responsible for the recruitment and training of psykers in the service of the Imperium of Man.In the time before the reformation of the Imperium after the Horus Heresy in the Time of Rebirth, the Astra Telepathica was responsible for overseeing the psychic beacon of the Astronomican and for administering the communications duties of astrotelepaths. The former duty was eventually handed over to a new organisation, the Adeptus Astronomica, after the end of the Heresy. The Adeptus Astra Telepathica is currently headquartered in a vast palace complex on Terra called the Obsidian Keep.The Adeptus Astra Telepathica finds, recruits and trains the majority of Imperial psykers, who become known as Sanctioned Psykers. Most die during testing, but those who survive might become sanctioned into duty with the Astra Militarum or become astropaths of the Adeptus Astronomica. Some very few might even take up service with the Inquisition, rising to become psychically-potent Inquisitors themselves.Though never fully trusted, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica-trained Primaris Psykers or formations of Wyrdvane Psykers are valuable assets to any Imperial military commander, even if they are deeply feared by their superstitious comrades.
Adeptus Astra Telepathica - Founding: Before beginning the Great Crusade to reunite the lost Human colony worlds of the Sol Sector and beyond in the late 30th Millennium, the Emperor of Mankind first ordered the construction of the Astronomican on Terra. The purpose of this colossal endeavour was that the entire device was to serve as a focus through which the Emperor could direct His fathomless psychic energies to generate a partly self-sustaining navigational beacon for the commercial and military starships of the Imperium.The resulting psychic navigational beam generated by the Astronomican was able to cut through the Warp across the galaxy. Those attuned to its frequencies and modulations, the sanctioned Human mutants known as Navigators, were able to use it as a beacon and pole star when plotting journeys through the Immaterium, cutting travel times from solar months to mere solar days while dramatically increasing the safety of such traverses.In addition to this invaluable beacon among the stars, the forging of the Imperium during the Great Crusade would not have been possible without the creation and skills of the Astra Telepathica. This special corps of interstellar telepathic communicators was created by the Emperor during the final months of the Unification Wars, as the Emperor had foreseen the absolute future need for a means to communicate across the depths of space if a new interstellar Human empire was to be created.Though a psyker Himself, the Emperor did not favour the use of psychic talents in others, and was well aware of the dangers inherent in any contact with the Warp. The Age of Strife on Old Earth had been afflicted by many "witch-kings" and Daemon-possessed psykers whose existence embodied those dangers, some of whom the Emperor had personally slain. However, He was able to identify those psykers strong enough to resist the temptations of the Warp. These men and women were then employed in a variety of special roles in the newborn Imperium.Amongst these so-called "Sanctioned Psykers" were the astropaths, "astro-telepaths," capable of telepathically communicating with others of their kind over vast interstellar distances through phantasmal visions, empathic transmission and oenological vision allegory rather than words. This was an essential talent for the success of the Imperium due to the vast distances that separated its inhabited worlds. The only practical means for the Imperium to maintain any semblance of unity across interstellar distances was to make use of astropaths, but such psychic communication could prove as temperamental as the Warp itself.
Adeptus Astra Telepathica - Reign of Blood: During the Age of Apostasy, a second period of civil war in the Imperium of Man that occurred during the early 36th Millennium when the Imperium's government was essentially seized by the corrupt High Lord Goge Vandire, he ruled the Imperium according to his own wishes instead of in accord with the Emperor's will. This lamentable period of history is known in Imperial annals as the "Reign of Blood." During this time, Vandire had considerable trouble bringing the Adeptus Astra Telepathica under his control. Lord Phaedrus, the Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, was a potent psyker and as such was not swayed by Vandire's charisma or charm.Phaedrus saw through Vandire's veil of lies and deceits, and understood the corrupt high lord's true intentions. Vandire realised that Phaedrus was using his considerable psychic abilities to stay one step ahead of him, and simply killing Phaedrus would never do, for he would just be replaced by a powerful psyker of equal potency. To remove Phaedrus required a much more cunning plan.Luring the Master of the Astra Telepathica into a trap, Vandire utilised the innate anti-psyker abilities of a Culexus Temple Assassin to nullify Phaedrus' psychic abilities. The helpless Phaedrus was then strapped into a specially prepared life-support machine, where the Culexus Assassin permanently severed Phaedrus' ability to tap into the Warp, making him incapable of using psychic powers.Such an operation would have normally killed the powerful psyker, but with the life-support system and a bribed Magos Biologis, Vandire was able to keep Phaedrus alive. Robbed of his psychic powers, Phaedrus was utterly distraught, which resulted in his multiple attempts to take his own life. But Vandire was always there to thwart him, removing the blade from his hand or to loosen the noose around his neck. In the end, Phaedrus was broken and Vandire achieved his aim: control over the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.If Phaedrus did his bidding, Vandire promised that he would not disclose the loss of his psychic capabilities to his subordinates, who would have immediately replaced him, and even worse, pitied him. With his powerful position put in jeopardy, Phaedrus had little choice in the matter and acquiesced to all of Vandire's heretical demands.
Adeptus Astra Telepathica - Organisation: The Adeptus Astra Telepathica in the 41st Millennium is divided into a recruitment body (the League of Blackships) and a training body (the Scholastica Psykana).These two departments of the adepta are united under the leadership of the Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica and their advisory council of several hundred senior officials drawn from its two divisions.
Adeptus Astra Telepathica - Scholastica Psykana: The Scholastica Psykana, the training division of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, is a vast teaching institution devoted to the training of young psykers, who are taught how to develop and control their powers to serve the Imperium. Most of the psyker recruits are drawn from the levy collected by the Black Ships, others are handed over by the Inquisition, the Adeptus Arbites, the Scholas Progenium or through other Imperial channels.The future of each psyker depends on their abilities and character. Initial evaluation divides the levy into several groups depending on their innate psychic power, individual character and willingness to learn. The youngest psykers are preferred by the Scholastica Psykana, as these frightened boys and girls are the easiest to train and indoctrinate. Such psykers are soul-bound to the Emperor, a psychic ritual that reshapes their cerebral cortexes and hardens their minds and souls against possession by the Daemonic entities of the Warp. It is invariably those psykers recruited as children who are given further training to fill important positions in the Imperium as Sanctioned Psykers (one well known example being the Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor).Those psykers of a levy who are deemed weak in character or psychic power, too dangerous to train or too old to have their bad habits changed, are instead sacrificed to the Emperor, their life forces leeched from their bodies to sustain the Master of Mankind and power the Astronomican beacon that aids all Imperial interstellar travel.The first ranking of psykers (referred to as "primary psykers") are those whose powers and strength of character are sufficient to resist possession and Daemonic corruption under normal circumstances, and they are chosen to serve the Imperium in the highest capacities, rarely being forced to undergo the soul-binding ritual. After receiving five Terran years of basic training at the Scholastica, they are sent for further training and service in another Imperial organisation depending on where their abilities are judged best suited.The very young may be handed over to and indoctrinated into the Space Marines as Chapter Librarians; some may enter the Astra Militarum to begin their training as combat Primaris Psykers; the most talented may become Inquisitors or even Grey Knights.The majority of the discovered psykers in a given levy form the second rank of psykers. They are trained for service as astropaths (i.e. astro-telepaths). Astropaths are psykers specialised in interstellar astro-telepathic communication, being able to send and receive telepathic messages instantaneously over vast distances in the form of images and symbols that are psychically resonant with each astropath's own mind. The astropaths perform one of the most vital tasks in the Imperium; telepathy is the only practical means of instant interstellar communications in the galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man.Some primary and secondary psykers are given over to the Adeptus Astronomica, a smaller Imperial adepta in which the psychic recruits continue their training to serve and maintain the Astronomican.
Adeptus Astra Telepathica - Black Sentinels: Following the great Imperial conclave on Nikaea in 001.M31, new strictures were laid down by the Emperor in regards to the use of psykers within the Imperium. It was decreed that the astropaths within the Whispering Tower would remain under the constant vigil and scrutiny of the Black Sentinels, a specially trained force of psyker killers, gaolers and executioners all in one.Each of these stalwart warriors was encased in beetle-black armour with contoured breastplates of burnished obsidian, their faces concealed by a reflective tapered helm, not unlike an early make of Space Marine Legion power armour. Their helmets were specially lined with psi-shielding to protect them from the latent mental pressure generated by the innate powers of the psykers within the City of Sight.Each Black Sentinel was armed with long, black-bladed lances, their hafts topped with sparkling crystalline spearheads. But they were also trained in the use of the extensive arsenal of weapons possessed by the Imperium's armouries.The Black Sentinels were also responsible for protecting the physical aspects of the city from any threat without, as well as the psyker threat within.
Adeptus Astronomica - Adeptus Astronomica: The Adeptus Astronomica has the duty of maintaining the Astronomican for the Imperium of Man, the psychic beacon in the Warp directed by the mind of the Emperor that provides guidance for the mutant Navigators that pilot all Imperial starships in the galaxy. They recruit new members through the auspices of the allied Adeptus Astra Telepathica.The Astronomica is largely composed of psykers; its non-psyker members are hereditary servants. The organisation is based in Terra's Forbidden Fortress, where even the Adeptus Arbites' judges and Inquisitors must receive an invitation to lawfully enter.The adepta's head is the Master of the Astronomican, who represents the organisation as a High Lord of Terra and a member of their Senatorum Imperialis.
Adeptus Astronomica - History: Before expanding the Great Crusade to the stars beyond the Sol Sector in the late 30th Millennium, the Emperor of Mankind first ordered the construction of the Astronomican on Terra.The purpose of this colossal endeavour was that the entire device was to serve as a focus through which the Emperor could direct His fathomless psychic energies to generate a partly self-sustaining navigational beacon for the commercial and military starships of the Imperium.The psychic navigational beam generated by the Astronomican was able to cut through the Warp across the galaxy and those attuned to its frequencies and modulations, the sanctioned Human mutants known as Navigators, were able to use it as a beacon and pole star when plotting journeys through the Immaterium.Originally, the Astronomican was powered solely by the Emperor, but this duty was eventually shifted to a great choir of 10,000 psykers instead, heralding the birth of the organisation that would become the Adeptus Astronomica.In addition to this invaluable beacon among the stars, the forging of the Imperium during the Great Crusade would not have been possible without the creation and skills of the Astra Telepathica.This special corps of interstellar telepathic communicators was created by the Emperor during the final months of the Unification Wars, as the Emperor had foreseen the absolute future need for a means to communicate across the depths of space if a new interstellar Human empire was to be created.As a psyker Himself, the Emperor understood the use of psychic talents in others, and was well aware of the dangers inherent in any contact with the Warp.The Age of Strife on Old Earth had been afflicted by many "witch-kings" and Daemon-possessed psykers whose existence embodied those dangers, some of whom the Emperor had personally slain. However, He was able to identify those psykers with minds and hearts strong enough to resist the temptations of the Warp.These men and women were then employed in a variety of special roles in the newborn Imperium. Amongst these so-called "Sanctioned Psykers" were the astropaths, "astro-telepaths," capable of telepathically communicating with others of their kind over vast interstellar distances through phantasmal visions, empathic transmission and oenological vision allegory rather than words.This was an essential talent for the success of the Imperium due to the vast distances that separated its inhabited worlds. The only practical means for the Imperium to maintain any semblance of unity across interstellar distances was to make use of Astropaths, but such communication could prove as temperamental as the Warp itself.
Adeptus Astronomica - Present Mission: In the present-day Imperium of the late 41st Millennium, capable psykers not talented or disciplined enough for use by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica are handed over to the Adeptus Astronomica for a different kind of training. The task of the Adeptus Astronomica is to train the young psykers they receive from the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, so that they can serve in the Chamber of the Astronomican.The whole organisation is basically a training institute run by a class of older members known as Instructors. Some of the Instructors are given the title High Instructor and specialise in a certain area of teaching. The day-to-day administration of the Astronomica, such as maintenance of its facilities, are taken care of by a body of administrative functionaries and hereditary servants.Young psykers recruited from the Adeptus Astra Telepathica are initiated into the Astronomica as acolytes. They are taught not just how to use and control their psychic powers but are introduced to the Lore of the Astronomican. They learn the value of their lives, study philosophy and are gradually brought to a deeper understanding of the universe and the nature of the Warp.Those who achieve this mystic state become the Chosen and are eventually called to serve in the Chamber of the Astronomican beneath the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains alongside 10,000 other Chosen. Their psychic energies will be used by the mind of the Emperor in the Warp to power the Astronomican as He directs its psychic beacon across the galaxy.In only a few short solar months each Chosen will die, their psychic and life energies completely drained by the sheer intensity of the demands the Emperor's mind will place upon them. As such, new Chosen must constantly be culled from the populations of the Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.Due to their duties, members of the Adeptus Astronomica are rarely seen off of Terra, though the instructors and high instructors as well as the non-psychic functionaries who are responsible for the continued maintenance of the Astronomican are allowed to travel freely.Similar to the tech-adepts of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Adeptus Astronomica is considered a form of religious order in the 41st Millennium and its members wear clothing similar to other devotees of the Imperial Cult, including blue, hooded robes.The status of Chosen is considered a great honour among the Imperium's Sanctioned Psykers. To fall short of attaining this goal is not a failure; rather they go on to become instructors or are absorbed as administrative functionaries in the Forbidden Fortress.Those adepts of the Adeptus Astronomica who do achieve Chosen status are considered above the instructors and even the Master of the Astronomican in rank.Their heads are shaven and they wear yellow robes and the scarlet badge of the Chosen. The rest of their lives are spent in prayer and contemplation until they are called to serve in the Chamber of the Astronomican.
Adeptus Astronomica - No Victory Without Toll: Only the Emperor's mind is powerful enough to survive directing the raw forces supplied by the servants of the Adeptus Astronomica to shape the psychic beacon of the Astronomican. The same survivability does not hold true for those members of the Adeptus Astronomica themselves, for their fate is a sad one.The efforts of generating so much mental energy soon destroys them, leeching their souls and reducing them to empty husks. Many die every day, but they are not the only psykers who are asked to make the ultimate sacrifice, for the Emperor cannot eat as men eat, or drink or breathe air.His life has long since passed beyond the point where such things can sustain Him and the only viable sustenance for the Emperor is Human life force –- souls -– and He has an insatiable appetite. Not just any Human will suffice for the Emperor's table, for the donor must have psychic powers.Therefore, the Imperium is scoured by the vast flotillas of the Black Ships in a tireless search for emergent psykers. During their long, crowded journey back to Terra, some of the psykers will be found to have the strength of mind to be recruited into the Adeptus Astra Telepathica or become trained by the Adeptus Astronomica, but many more will serve their Emperor in a more gruesome way.They are given wholly to the weird machinery that surrounds the Master of Mankind and their souls are siphoned, slowly and agonisingly, to feed His mighty spirit. Many hundreds, even thousands, must die in this way every solar day for the Emperor, the Imperium, and all of Humanity to survive.The Emperor's dream of a new age of enlightenment, a time when Mankind was freed from superstition and ignorance, has turned into something far different. His Imperium has long endured, but only by virtue of an oppressive and necessarily harsh rule carried on in His name.It is an age of tyrants and of unreason, an era of stagnation and intolerance. His people have regressed into religious obfuscation while the Emperor sits immobile, His thoughts unknown; for the creature whose will extends over a million worlds is unable to lift a shrivelled finger for Himself.
Adeptus Custodes - Wrought by the Emperor's Hand: It is not an uncommon belief to suppose the Custodian Guard were themselves some variant of the Astartes -- if so crude a term might be applied, an "advanced" form, perhaps even a second, improved iteration. While this explanation might seem to fit the facts, particularly to those without intimate knowledge of the Imperium's birth pains during the final acts of the Unification Wars on Old Earth, it could not be further from the truth.The bloody chronicles of the Unification Wars, particularly in their earliest stages when the Emperor first rose from the nightmarish bloodshed of Old Earth's long night in the late 29th Millennium to cast down the reign of the warlords and monsters that had carved Mankind's birthworld into a thousand slaughter-haunted pieces, are difficult now to comprehend. Many are rightly sealed from the Imperium's scholars and even the Terran Court, the dangerous truths within suppressed. But in those dark chronicles the Custodian Guard, in some form or shape, have their part as far back as any can record or those few souls who survive yet from those times can remember.Upon the pillars of the Black Manse of Nas'sau, capital of one of the earliest of the techno-barbarian holds to submit before He who was to later be known as the Emperor, inscriptions record the "Lord of Lightning" coming before their warlord-kind flanked by His "four giants of crimson and gold," demanding surrender.Solar decades later, according to detailed extant records preserved in the Trans-Nordyc Akashic archives, a companion guard of thirty "Custodians," bearing Guardian Spears, clad in Augment Armour and personally commanded by the Emperor, fought at the head of the newborn Thunder Legion in the assault against the formidable Maulland Sen Confederacy. One of their number is even recorded as being responsible for striking the head of the Confederation's Tyrant-Prophet from its shoulders in the aftermath of the campaign's climactic "Battle of the Red Frost."Solar decades later, it would be the Custodian Guard in their hundreds, in a form akin to their most modern aspect, who would be charged with leading the cull of those same Thunder Warriors who had once served the Emperor and who had then rebelled against Him in the wake of their forcible disbandment and internment as their mental instability, metabolic collapse and anger over their shortened life spans led to violence.Only this time the Custodian Guard would be accompanied by the new gene-crafted warriors meant to replace the Thunder Warriors; the first few thousand prototype Space Marines, most of whom would go on to form the nascent Ist Legion, later known as the Dark Angels.The evidence then is clear; since before the first worlds were conquered as the Great Crusade left the Sol System, since before the taking of Luna and the Treaty of Olympus Mons, since before the Cataclysm of Ursh and the fall of the Yndonisic Bloc, before the Space Marines and before the Thunder Warriors, the Custodian Guard have walked at the Emperor's side.
Adeptus Custodes - Horus Heresy: After the breaking of the Orks upon Ullanor, the Emperor returned to Terra, taking His Custodian Guard with him. The seeds of doubt He left behind among the Space Marine Legions soon became the roots of treachery, for there is darkness in every Human soul, and the Ruinous Powers have always known how to exploit it. Before a single generation had passed, the insidious taint of Chaos had infected a full half of the Emperor's primarchs, Horus foremost amongst them. These Arch-traitors spread the moral decay to the Legiones Astartes they led, and the galaxy was lit with the fires of strife and civil war.At the climax of the Horus Heresy, the Custodian Guard fought monstrosities without number, for those in the Traitor Legions powerful enough to reach the gates of the Imperial Palace were twisted body and soul by the baleful gifts of Chaos. A thousand victories were won by the Custodian Guard, but they all turned to ash when the Master of Mankind teleported aboard Horus' flagship, the Vengeful Spirit, at the height of the Siege of Terra. There, a strike force of Legio Custodes fought the fiercest of Traitors to protect their master. They were found wanting.Though Horus was defeated by the Emperor in single combat at the last, it was at an unimaginable cost; the Warmaster cast down the angelic Primarch Sanguinius, and dealt the Emperor a mortal blow before being slain in turn. Though the Emperor's psyche remained active within His shattered body, since that day, the Custodian Guard have stood vigil over little more than a broken corpse, wizened and immobile upon a slowly failing life support system.
Adeptus Custodes - Time of Rebirth: The Custodians have long worn the shroud of shame after that fateful day. In grave ceremony they donned black cloaks to symbolise the pall of darkness that had fallen over their order. The Emperor's realm, wracked by the tempest of heresy, was reforged by those primarchs that survived the great upheaval. Largely through the efforts of the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman as the first lord commander of the Imperium, the byzantine organisations of the Imperium were reordered during the period remembered as the Time of Rebirth in such a way as to ensure that no one faction or power could again threaten Terra or the rule of the Emperor.In doing so, these organisations also relinquished some of their military strength. The Legiones Astartes were divided into far smaller Chapters of a thousand Space Marines each during the Second Founding.The Legio Custodes, though it kept its numerical strength of ten times that number, was reforged as the "Adeptus Custodes" before the time of the Second Founding, becoming castellans of the Imperial Palace whose sole and solemn duty was to protect the Emperor from final death.
Adeptus Custodes - Into a New Age of Darkness: The hour of action is nigh as the Era Indomitus dawns. With the surge of Chaos activity across the galaxy in the wake of the Great Rift's birth and the threat of eternal damnation more real than ever, the Adeptus Custodes have taken their vow of protection to its logical extreme -- they will see the destruction of those forces who pose a threat to the sanctity of Terra. First amongst these are the dread hordes of Chaos.The best form of defence is attack. It is a maxim that has survived through the millennia, and with good reason. Of late, it has become the mantra of all Adeptus Custodes commanders. In conjunction with the alpha-level astropaths and doomscryers that dwell within the Imperial Palace, these officers launch terrifyingly effective strikes at those whom they deem a threat to the Emperor's works. More than one galactic tyrant, laying plans for a crusade that he envisages culminating on Terra itself, has found the warriors of the Emperor descending from the heavens to strike him down before he has even taken to his ships.There are those who believe that the Adeptus Custodes stand immobilised by ritual and rote, but they are sorely mistaken. Only the Custodian Guard know what occurs behind the Sanctum Imperialis' colossal doors, and the lengths to which they have gone to keep their vigil. Their sacred task has by no means led to inactivity.Hundreds of wars have been fought by the Adeptus Custodes over the aeons -- some in Terra's defence, some in secret, and some further afield. Even when the din of war recedes, these warriors work to test and refine the protective aegis they hold before their master, sending agents into the Sol System to divine likely routes of infiltration and assassination so they can stay ahead of even the most inventive enemies. The Adeptus Custodes have long honed strategies and tactics in case they should be called upon to join the frontline fight for Humanity's survival. The day of that remit has finally arrived. The resurrected Primarch Guilliman, restored to his ancient role as the lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent, has met alone with his father, the Master of Mankind, and emerged with a clear vision of Humanity united in battle.Those Custodian Guard known as the Companions -- the three hundred warriors charged with the direct defence of the Emperor on the Golden Throne -- remain by His side, just as the colossal edifice of His palace continues to be bolstered by a standing army of golden heroes. The rest have taken to the stars. They have done so in no small force, for this majestic legion still numbers ten thousand blades and more.With the Sanctum Imperialis secure under the vigil of the Companions, the crusaders are free to pursue the war of aggression they have long desired, putting into place war strategies perfected over the centuries through fractal thought exercises, cogitator-spawned algorithms, long study and even simulated conflicts waged in hallucinariums. These give the Custodians a tactical edge that allows them to counter the enemy's actions before they have begun.
Adeptus Custodes - Rise of the Primarch: In the last days before the gathering storm broke and the Great Rift tore the void in two, a bright light of hope was kindled within the galactic empire of Ultramar. Through great sacrifice and unnatural artifice, Roboute Guilliman, primarch of the Ultramarines, was restored from the brink of death. His coming would herald great changes for the Imperium. When the Traitor Legions fell upon the Imperial Palace at the culmination of the Horus Heresy, Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines were too far away to fight in their father's defence. Perhaps, had it been otherwise, the fate of the galaxy would have been very different.Whatever the case, following his revival Guilliman was determined that he would not make the same mistake twice. Seeing the darkness rising to swamp the Imperium, he launched a desperate crusade across the stars that brought him by strange and bloody roads to the Throneworld itself. Guilliman was welcomed with all honour on Terra, permitted audience with the Emperor by Aquila Commander Kalim Varanor and reinstated as lord commander of the Imperium and Imperial Regent by an assemblage of the High Lords of Terra.Though the returned primarch remained outwardly stern and regal, he had been shaken to the core by what had become of his father's empire. He quickly began instating changes that would permit the Imperium to fight back against the onrushing hordes of Chaos, bulldozing the bureaucratic stubbornness and hidebound pedantry of the Adeptus Terra as he went.