"We are the warriors of the Grey Knights, armoured in faith, shielded by devotion and armed with purity of purpose. But greater even than these, we carry the light of the divine Emperor of Man into the dark places to purge the Daemonic wherever it may be found."

The Grey Knights is a secret, mysterious Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines specifically tasked with combating the dangerous daemonic entities of the Warp and all those who wield the corrupt power of the Chaos Gods. They have the honour of being implanted with gene-seed engineered directly from the genome of the Emperor Himself. The Grey Knights act as the military arm or Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus, the Daemonhunters who form the oldest branch of the virtually omnipotent Inquisition. The Grey Knights' fortress-monastery is based on Titan, the largest of the moons of the gas giant Saturn in the Sol System, that is kept as a private preserve of the Inquisition. The existence of the Chapter is virtually unknown outside of the Inquisition and the highest echelons of the Imperial Adepta, and is a well-guarded secret enforced by mind-wipes and even assassination of Imperial citizens if necessary. Unlike other Astartes, every Grey Knight is a potent psyker. Yet, in the 10,000 standard years of Imperial history, no Grey Knight has ever been corrupted by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.

Unlike almost all other Space Marine Chapters, the Grey Knights do not follow the tenets of the Codex Astartes in the matter of force organisation. Due to the unique manner in which the Grey Knights are recruited and trained, each warrior progresses through a series of pre-ordained ranks and will operate in a particular squad led by an individual of higher rank, rather than being assigned to a particular Battle Company. These squads may be called upon to act independently from the main body of the Grey Knight force, and have to operate at full efficiency even when light years away from the rest of their Chapter. As such, the Brother-Captain who is the leader of each Grey Knight squad is obeyed immediately and without question by those under his command.

Combat Doctrine:
Most engagements of the Chapter will involve a single squad of Grey Knights supporting an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, or a local force of planetary law enforcement, military forces or Imperial Guard. For the most serious daemonic incursions, several squads of Grey Knights numbering usually about 20 Astartes are collected around the presence of a senior Captain, or even a Grand Master. In these circumstances, Tactical Squads will attempt to establish a beachhead in the Chaos-tainted area, before the Terminators and senior Astartes teleport down to the surface and engage the primary daemon, banishing it back to the Immaterium.

The very presence of Grey Knights upon the field of battle is painful to daemons and other Warp entities. The Grey Knights' gestalt psychic purity and powers are combined through a squad's Justicar into the Aegis, a psychic "choir" that is amplified by the presence of additional squads "singing" in tandem. These normally inaudible sonorous chants of detestation act as a weapon that repels the daemonic and makes it hard for these entities to maintain a presence in the physical universe. The presence of Telekines in Grey Knights squads enhances the potency of the Aegis: by raising psychic shields, the Telekines allow their Battle-Brothers to advance on targets with relative impunity. This means that Grey Knights gain immense advantages against Chaotic opposition, but the high expense to the Imperium of creating even a single Grey Knight leads to its own tactical problems -- for all their power, Grey Knights will always be badly outnumbered and must focus upon the fast and lethal application of force. A byproduct of the use of the Aegis is the absence of any warcry for the Chapter. Grey Knights attack in seeming silence, and take care of their objective with remarkable economy of both action and communication.

A Grey Knights force also contains a high proportion of troops who can teleport through the Warp into battle, a high-risk maneuver which can turn the tide of combat if deployed well. Teleportation may also require complicated battle-related arrangement and positioning and depending on the mission, can involve large number of squads teleporting in sync.



Squad Types:
Grey Knights Terminator Squad - Grey Knight Terminator Squads are the mainstay of the Chapter. Heavily-armoured warriors armed with Storm Bolters and a variety of Nemesis Force Weapons, these formidable warriors are always at the forefront of any Grey Knights attack. These are also the first weapons a Battle-Brother must master when he completes his initial training, learning to move in the bulk of Terminator Armour with speed and grace, while wielding his Nemesis Force Weapon like an extension of his arm. That the standard troops of the Grey Knights utilise the finest weapons and armour of the Imperium is a testament to their elite status and the perilous nature of the foes they face. In battle Terminators excel in shock assaults and cracking open enemy defences, their armour proof against most attacks while their complement of heavy weapons proves deadly at close range.

Grey Knights Strike Squad - Strike Squads often form the vanguard of a Grey Knights' strike force. Strike Squads are used to capture vital locations and key objectives, deployed via fixed teleporter to ensure a swift seizure of isolated or inaccessible locations. Once in place, a Strike Squad can lay down a punishing stream of Storm Bolter and Psycannon fire in support of the main assault.

Grey Knights Interceptor Squad - Interceptor Squads carry personal teleporters -- backpack-sized devices that allow the squad to teleport site-to-site, without the massive arrays of machinery employed by conventional devices. Grey Knights equipped with personal teleporters can react to battlefield circumstances on the fly and cover huge straight-line distances by "shunting" themselves through Warp space. Of all the warriors in service to the Imperium, only Grey Knights could hope to utilise such technology.

Grey Knights Purgation Squad - Purgation Squads are the Grey Knights' foremost means of delivering punishing firepower. Each squad carries not one, but up to four of the Chapter's heavy weapons. In aspect, a Purgation Squad appears little different to the Devastator Squads employed by more conventional Space Marine Chapters. In doctrine, however, the two are markedly different. The weaponry wielded by a Purgation Squad is twice as deadly, a hundred times rarer and ten thousand times more valuable than the more commonplace armaments carried by Space Marine Devastators. Devastators will normally advance behind the main assault, seeking out suitable locations from which to unleash covering fire; Purgation Squads are ever required to keep pace with the main attack, all the while picking out suitable targets for their weaponry.

Grey Knights Purifier - The Purifiers are an order apart from other Grey Knights, distanced from their Battle-Brothers by their nature and tradition. The Purifiers epitomise the Chapter's sanctity of purpose. Purifiers recruit only from those amongst their Battle-Brothers whose souls are considered to be utterly incorruptible and resistant to the temptations of the Warp -- even by the exacting standards of the Grey Knights. So careful is the selection that there are seldom more than a few score Purifiers.

Grey Knights Paladin - Paladins are Grey Knights who are warriors without peer. If a Grey Knight wishes to prove himself worthy of a place amongst the Paladins, bravery and skill are not enough -- he must complete eight quests to establish his character and cause. Given the perilous nature of these quests, it is little wonder that only the boldest Knights become Paladins. From the moment of his elevation, each Paladin is bound in service not only to his Chapter, but also to one of the Grand Masters for whom he will act as bodyguard, champion and advisor. Henceforth, his place upon the battlefield will be wherever the fighting is thickest and the peril greatest.

Chapter Ranks:
Grey Knights Supreme Grand Master - This is the highest rank that it is possible for a Grey Knight to attain within the Chapter. This venerable rank is equivalent to a Chapter Master of other Space Marine Chapters. Also referred to as the Chapter Lord, the Supreme Grand Master has complete authority over the rest of the Chapter. However, a Grey Knight can only be appointed as the Supreme Grand Master with the unanimous consent of every other Grand Master on the Chapter Council, thus ensuring that an unsuitable candidate does not attain dominion over the Chapter.

Grey Knights Grand Master - The second highest rank attainable by a Grey Knight, a Grand Master is -- by virtue of his esteemed rank -- a member of the Inner Conclave of the Inquisition and the Chapter Council that governs the Grey Knights. By ancient tradition, there are eight Grand Masters of the Chapter. Each is the spiritual heir of one of the eight Founding Astartes of the Chapter during the Horus Heresy who are now recognised in Chapter tradition as the first Grand Masters. A master daemonslayer, a Grand Master always wears Terminator Armour and wields a force weapon in combat, and is also a powerful Psyker. Few, if any, Daemons have been able to stand against a Grand Master of the Grey Knights and survive. The death of such a powerful defender of the Emperor's will is always mourned by the Grey Knights and the Ordo Malleus -- though no common citizen of the Imperium will ever know of him. Due to the amount of experience, and enemy kills, needed to become such a warrior, Grand Masters are typically ancient, millennia old, Space Marines.

Grey Knights Captain - A Grey Knights Brother-Captain is a senior officer of the Grey Knights Chapter. They stand amongst the Chapter's foremost warriors, and are second only in rank and battle-prowess to the Chapter's Grand Masters. They have direct command and authority over one of the Chapter's Brotherhoods, making them equivalent to a standard Space Marine Captain of Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters. In matters of strategy and planning, these Brother-Captains answer to no-one, not even to the Grand Masters themselves. The heavy burden of command over a Grey Knights Brotherhood is one of control of nearly unmatched power. A Captain of the Grey Knights is above such things as corruption by the power that they command in battle, for their souls are hardened against the promises and blandishments proffered by the daemons of Chaos.

Grey Knights Terminator - A Grey Knight Terminator is a superlative warrior whose status as an elite amongst the elite form the heart of the Grey Knights' fighting forces. These warriors pursue the endless war against the daemons of Chaos, armoured in superior suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, facing the vile horrors of the Warp, always outnumbered by the baying foe. In addition to possessing more powerful armour, they also use their psychic powers actively as opposed to passively in combat. They wield the special weapons only found within the Armouries of the Grey Knights -- Incinerators and Psycannons (although they use wrist-mounted variants rather than the standard two-handed version) -- as their standard Power Armour-wearing Battle-Brothers. A Terminator's primary armament is a Nemesis Force Weapon of some kind, selected from the Chapter's Armoury according to the skills and preferences of its wielder. As there is no doctrinal restriction on the types and numbers of weapons carried, it is rare for two Terminator Squads to bear exactly the same weapons combination. Some prefer the crushing force of a Nemesis Daemon Hammer, others the flurry of attacks granted by a matched pair of Nemesis Falchions.

Grey Knights Justicar - Justicars are the officers who lead the latest recruits to the Grey Knights -- although it should be noted that such recruits may already have been fighting the Emperor's foes for up to a century. Holding this command is the first step on the path for a Grey Knight to become a Grand Master of the Chapter. Justicars also lead Grey Knight Terminator Squads, although such officers are usually referred to as a "Brother-Captain" rather than Justicar. Justicars are the equivalent of a standard Sergeant of Codex Astartes-compliant Chapters.

Grey Knights Battle-Brother - The standard Grey Knight. Equipped with the famed suit of Aegis Armour, the standard armament of a Grey Knight also includes a wrist-mounted Storm Bolter of perfect craftsmanship and a Nemesis Force Weapon. Each weapon is unique to its owner, having been attuned to his particular psychic signal. They can take the form of a Halberd, Sword, Axe, Hammer, Mace, Maul, Scythe or even a Morning Star. Newly accepted Battle-Brothers will be inducted into fresh squads led by a Justicar, eventually developing their abilities in leadership, weaponry, psychic ability and armed/unarmed combat. Upon demonstration of above average ability in one of these areas they take their place in either the Assault Teleport, Heavy Purgation squads or become Justicars themselves to lead new batches of recruits.
Specialist Ranks
Grey Knights Apothecary - Few Battle-Brothers are as important to the Chapter's future as an Apothecary. It is his task to tend to fallen Battle-Brothers, healing them with his Narthecium, or reclaiming the Progenoid organs -- and the precious gene-seed within -- with his reductor should the wounds be too severe. Without Apothecaries, the Grey Knights' genetic heritage would be lost amid the ruin of battle, and the Chapter would cease to exist within a matter of decades. Thus do the Apothecaries receive the foremost guardians the Chapter can provide. On those occasions in which one of the Grey Knights' Apothecaries takes to the battlefield, his protection will be given over to a squad of Paladins.

Grey Knights Brotherhood Champion - A specialist rank, a Brotherhood Champion holds foremost responsibility for the martial training of new recruits, but on the battlefield, his chief duty is to act as bodyguard to his Brother-Captain. This deadly warrior has forsaken all other forms of combat to become a master of the blade. They will willingly sacrifice themselves if necessary, but this ultimate sacrifice is rare, however, as few foes are skilled enough to defeat a Champion in combat.

Grey Knights Chaplain - Grey Knights Chaplains fulfill the same function as Chaplains in other Space Marine Chapters, albeit on a much higher level, administering to the spiritual needs of the Chapter's Battle-Brothers whom must face and fight the horrors of the Warp. These individuals are rare indeed as the Chapter has precious few of them. Yet, thanks to their vigilance in their duties, not one Grey Knight has fallen to Chaos.

Grey Knights Librarian - Chapter Librarians are Grey Knights who have proven to possess a strength of mind far greater than that of their fellows and are able to wield their psychic abilities freely. These formidable Librarians possess a will of iron. They must, for the sorceries they wield are far more powerful than those of their Battle-Brothers. They are privy to secrets that even the rest of the Chapter is unaware of -- secrets that they are never to divulge.

Grey Knights Prognosticator - A Prognosticar is a powerful, highly specialised Astartes psyker who serves within the Grey Knights Chapter and who is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in the Immaterium. The Prognosticars read psychic tremors to predict the location and severity of forthcoming daemonic incursions. Based on the information they are able to gather from tremors within the Warp, they can predict a daemonic incursion before it happens.

Grey Knights Techmarine - Techmarines are warrior-smiths of the highest calibre, responsible for the creation and repair of all the equipment employed by the Grey Knights. Techmarines are forever apart from their Battle-Brothers, for long years of training on Mars inculcate an entirely new set of traditions and rituals upon them. Many of these traditions and rituals stand in direct contradiction to the aims and goals of the Chapter. So it is that a Techmarine is called upon to balance these two opposed sides of his nature on a daily basis: to serve the goals and ideals of his Chapter, but according to the traditions of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Chapter Wargear:


As the Grey Knights are an elite Space Marine Chapter engaged in fighting Daemonic infestation, they have access to specialised equipment not available to other Chapters. Ancient pacts with the Adeptus Mechanicus guarantee the most technologically advanced weaponry will be available to the Chapter. Highly unorthodox pacts with Xenos races have resulted in the availability and use of alien technology by the Chapter's warriors. Among these powerful and arcane items is the Psycannon, a powerful heavy weapon, armed with ritually inscribed silver and blessed "bolts" which are capable of damaging Daemonkin far more than the standard Bolter. Another heavy weapon used by this Chapter is a sanctified Incinerator which utilises Promethium which is mixed with sacred oils and then ritually blessed to give it an even greater effect on the daemons that it is used upon. Grey Knights may also utilise standard Space Marine weapons or equipment, although this is much rarer. In addition, Ordo Malleus Inquisitors and Grey Knight Hero units obtain powerful equipment designed to weaken the resolve and skill of Warp-spawned foes. This equipment can range from simple Storm Bolters to the powerful Psycannon or relics such as the Grimoire of True Names, and even a legendary Daemonhammer. Finally, all Grey Knights use Trecenti code, an encrypted language known only to themselves, which is often applied in battle cant.

Nemesis Force Weapons

The most distinctive weapon of the Grey Knights is the Nemesis Force Weapon, most commonly the Nemesis Force Sword and its variants. Finely tuned to the wielder's mind, it is a perfect weapon to use against daemons and other denizens of the Warp. Nemesis Force Weapons are sanctified Force Weapons, usually taking the form of a sword, halberd or spear. Sometimes a rare Nemesis Hammer or Nemesis Mace will appear, though Nemesis Weapons can take the form of any close combat melee weapon. Each Nemesis Weapon is consecrated and anointed with sacred oils, psychically-charged, and inscribed with religious scripts that are anathema to daemons. The first Nemesis Force Weapons had Storm Bolters built into the shaft of the weapon, but newer models separated the ranged weaponry from the melee blade. It is said that the secret lore required to create Nemesis Force Weapons was first developed by the Emperor Himself before the Unification Wars began, and that this knowledge was one of the gifts He gave to the Grey Knights when the Chapter was founded.

Like all Force Weapons available to the psychic warriors of the Imperium, the power of the weapon itself directly corresponds to the psychic talent of the wielder. As the Grey Knights are some of the greatest psykers in the galaxy, Nemesis Force Weapons prove to be truly devastating in their hands. Because of this quality, the entire Chapter is able to wield these weapons, and every member is a hero in his own right. However, due to the inexperience of younger recruits, the Nemesis Force Weapons delegated to lower ranks will be weaker in terms of strength than their higher-ranked counterparts. This makes a weapon effectively "evolve" as the bearer progresses through the ranks, his psychic powers intensify and he slowly masters the weapon. In the hands of a Grand Master, these Force Weapons are some of the strongest in the galaxy, as a Grey Knight Grand Master is more than capable of beating a Daemon Prince or a Carnifex with a single cut.

Known variants of Nemesis Force Weapons used by the Grey Knights Chapter are:

Nemesis Force Halberds - As ancient in design and purpose as the Grey Knights themselves, Nemesis Force Halberds are finely-crafted polearms with long, curved blades and sturdy hafts. A Grey Knight can easily use such a weapon one-handed in short deadly chops. However, the weapon becomes even more dangerous should he wield it two-handed.

Nemesis Daemon Hammers - The most common Nemesis Force Weapon to be used by non-Grey Knights, the Nemesis Daemon Hammer is often used by high-ranking Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus. It combines the crushing power of the Daemon Hammer with the arcane construction of the Nemesis Force Weapon to craft a deadly bane of all things daemonic.

Nemesis Doomfist - A variant of the massive Power Fists found on Dreadnoughts, the Nemesis Doomfist is a massive weapon easily able to crush a man in its grip.
Nemesis Doomfists are only found as part of the Dreadknight battle suit.

Nemesis Falchions - Always used in a pair, Nemesis Falchions can be carried by a Grey Knight with a Storm Bolter thanks to the Storm Bolter's wrist mounting. The falchions contain monofilament circuitry that greatly enhance the speed at which they can be brought to bear.

Nemesis Force Swords - A lighter version of the Force Halberd, a Force Sword can take many forms. Force Swords are crafted using arcane magicks and complex scientific formulae and incorporate a power field that is enhanced by the psychic strength of its wielder like all Nemesis Force Weapons. Its balanced grips and nearly indestructible construction makes it the perfect weapon for parrying the attacks of even the most powerful daemonic foe.

Nemesis Greatsword - Found only on the Dreadknight battle suit, the Nemesis Greatsword is a massive blade of silver and iron so large that not even an Adeptus Astartes in Power Armour can lift it. Despite its immense size, it is perfectly balanced in the hands of a Dreadknight, and is a powerful tool against even a Greater Daemon.

Nemesis Warding Staves - Of the many weapons forged in the Grey Knights' fortress-monastery's subterranean foundries, few require the same complexity and care in their crafting as a Nemesis Warding Stave. Like any Nemesis-breed weapon, its inbuilt power matrix is a shielded, inert core awaiting psychic activation, and just like the more traditional blades, its functions can only be activated by the thoughts of the warrior it has been built for. And there the similarities end. Every stave bears a headpiece of punishingly rare purity -- a small handful topped by the armoured skulls of Imperial saints, or Imperial Sanctioned Psykers of great majesty. Some are topped with something that is rarer still -- the skull of a Grey Knights Justicar or some other Chapter hero, haloed by consecrated gold. Veined by mercury-threaded circuitry, ceramite plating will preserve the relic for centuries to come.

Ranged weapons:
Like other Space Marine Chapters, the Grey Knights favour Bolter weapons. Their brutal damage and potent armour penetration make them ideal assault weapons -- not to mention the demoralising effect on the enemy that seeing a comrade torn apart by a .75 calibre bolt round may have. Grey Knights also employ a number of special ranged weapons such as Incinerators and Psycannons, all of which are designed for maximum effectiveness against daemons, Warp-entities and psykers:

Astartes Storm Bolters - Grey Knight Bolter weapons function in much the same way as standard Astartes Bolter weapons, albeit they are of a larger design and more robust manufacture. The advantages they gain from their size and superior ammunition quality is included in their profile. These weapons are common to the Grey Knights and always mounted on the wrist so that each Astartes might have a free hand to wield their Nemesis Force Weapon two-handed. Essentially incorporating two Bolters side-by-side, these weapons are often issued with Psybolt Ammunition.

Astartes Incinerator - Incinerators are actually Heavy Flamers that use a psychically impregnated form of Promethium that burns hotter and more fiercely and is particularly damaging to daemons.

Astartes Psilencer - The Psilencer does not fire traditional ammunition. Rather, it focuses and amplifies the psychic might of its wielder into an amplified energy pulse that is released as a beam of unstoppable force. These arcane weapons harness the psychic potential of the user, who must unleash a bolt of psychic force into the containment core of the device. This burst of energy is then amplified and directed by the crystals in the weapon. It is unknown how the Psilencer came to become part of the Grey Knights' arsenal. The technology is surly of xenos origin, for it is unlike almost anything else that can be found in the armouries of the Imperium. It is not known whether the Psilencer was constructed from stolen technology or technology given freely. The Grey Knights remain silent on this matter.

Astartes Psycannon - An ancient weapon whose manufacturing process has long been lost to the Imperium, the Psycannon was specially designed for the Grey Knights. Psycannons always use Psybolt ammunition and incorporate special anti-gravitic suspensors which reduce their weight and make them easier to fire on the move.

Aegis Armour-The iconic symbol of the Space Marine, Power Armour is among the finest protections a warrior of the Imperium can ever hope to wear. The unique suits of Aegis Armour and Aegis Terminator Armour worn by the Grey Knights are incredibly well-crafted; anointed and inscribed with prayers and wards, ritually consecrated and psychically-charged. Working in tandem with the Grey Knights' formidable psychic powers, the Aegis warding within the armour protects the wearer from psychic attack unleashed by the effects of the Immaterium and the daemons it spawns, using the wearer's own psychic power. The armour's ritual blessings and psychic resonance also serve to confound the psychic perception of any enemy, resulting in an effect called the Shrouding. As well as its psychic properties, the armour itself incorporates a Storm Bolter weapon that is similar in function in much the same way as a regular Storm Bolter, albeit with a larger design and more robust manufacture. These weapons are common to the Grey Knights and often mounted on the wrist so that they might have a free hand to wield their nemesis Force Weapons two-handed. Essentially incorporating two Bolters side-by-side, these weapons are often issued with psychic force-touched ammunition known as Psybolt Ammunition. When combined with the skill of the Grey Knights' themselves, this lethal weapon can be used with equal effectiveness in both ranged and melee combat.

Common Wargear
The following is a list of the panoply of wargear commonly worn by members of the Grey Knights:

Crusader Helm - Grey Knights use older patterns of helms -- known as Crusader Helms -- for both their Aegis Power and Terminator Armour, giving their squads a distinctive appearance when placed alongside other Adeptus Astartes.

Nemesis Force Weapons - Every Grey Knights Terminator carries a force blade attuned to his psychic will. The ritual to dedicate these weapons is long and arduous and so it falls to the Battle-Brother to preserve and honour his weapon in combat. After years of battle a Grey Knight's force weapon will retain a piece of his psyche imprinted upon its blade that will live on long after its wielder has fallen.

Armour Etchings - A Grey Knight's armour is often an ancient relic drawn from the Chapter's armouries and has been worn by many warriors before him. Sometimes their names or deeds will be etched upon the plates and edges of the armour, a preserved memory of their lost glory.

Purity Seals - When a Grey Knights Battle-Brother dons his armour its seals are blessed in complex and ancient rituals to preserve their integrity and keep the warrior safe from attacks both mundane and mystical. When a Battle-Brother returns to Titan it is a measure of his skill in battle and strength of will should these seals remain unbroken.

Oath Shield - Battle-Brothers display their personal heraldry upon their shields, the simple designs displaying their deeds and glories. As a Grey Knight advances in rank he might add to his shield to reflect his elevated standing within the Chapter.

Storm Bolter - Grey Knight Terminator armour incorporates a wrist-mounted Storm Bolter, an ancient pattern of that weapon that allows them to wield their halberd unimpeded.

The Codicium Aeternum
This dread tome contains the Grey Knights and Ordo Malleus' knowledge on many of the daemons the organisations have faced and defeated in the long millennia of their existence. In the tome's madness-stained pages reside knowledge and calculations on where and when various daemons will manifest again and the means by which they can be defeated.

The Liber Daemonica
A copy of this arcane book, the Liber Daemonica, its contents drawn from material taken from the Librarium Daemonica on Titan along with the ancient battle rites of the Grey Knights Chapter, is carried into battle by every single Grey Knight, in a compartment in his armour's chest plate. The Liber Daemonica is an enduring symbol of a Grey Knight's devotion to his mission, and contains the cardinal tenets of anti-daemonic lore culled from the dark knowledge caged within the Sanctum Sanctorum's walls. The books themselves are also potent psychic talismans in their own right, with pages illuminated in silver and bound to a spine carved from the thigh bone of a martyred saint of the Imperial Cult. The book is also represented in the Grey Knights' iconography, on the chest plate and pauldron of both their Power Armour and Tactical Dreadnought Armour. It is a symbol of the greatest weapon of Mankind against the Forces of Chaos -- an unshakable faith in the Emperor of Mankind.

Psychic Abilities of the Grey Knights

The Grey Knights have many abilities that standard Space Marines lack. These powers are psychic in nature and work on a gestalt principle much like that of the Orks in which the more Grey Knights that are present in one location, the more powerful their psychic abilities manifest. Beside these powers, the Grey Knights are highly-skilled close combat fighters. Most Grey Knights who are masters of melee combat are able to win against even the most seemingly impossible of odds. Unlike Space Marine Librarians or other psykers, their power is deemed free of the taint of the Warp and they are the only psykers allowed, for instance, in a Black Templars Chapter Crusade army.

All Grey Knights possess a degree of psychic ability and are highly-accomplished psykers, their abilities further developed and enhanced by their years of training on Titan. While only a handful of Grey Knights Battle-Brothers ever achieve the levels of power commanded by the Chapter's Librarians, they are all capable of manifesting certain powers and abilities, especially in the company of other Grey Knights where they can combine their gifts to create great effects and more devastating psychic attacks. However, those who prove to have a strength of mind far greater than that of their fellows will go on to join the ranks of the Chapter's Librarians.

Each Grey Knight is trained to channel his mental energies into protective wards and an array of battle-sorceries. The mightiest Grey Knights of all can banish daemons with but a touch, conjure psychic defences to protect their allies and unleash the destructive power of the Warp itself upon their foes. The Grey Knights' selection of psychic powers has been formed over a millennia of combat against the worst monsters the galaxy has to offer. While these powers are most commonly used by Grey Knights Librarians, it is not unheard of for an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor to learn these abilities or an Astra Militarum Primaris Psyker to train in one of these rare Disciplines. The psychic powers of the Daemonhunter are not subtle -- they are weapons of war against the most terrible foes of the Emperor of Mankind:

The Canticle of Absolution - This ancient rite is used by the Grey Knights to banish Daemons and purify locations where they have laired; it is also known as the Six-Hundred-and-Sixty-Six Secret Words.

Dark Excommunication - The Grey Knight weaves an enchantment that severs a Daemon's connection to its dark master, one of the Chaos Gods, causing it to dissolve into the Empyrean.

Holocaust - Units of Grey Knights Terminators are able to make use of the Holocaust psychic power as a whole. A group of Grey Knights can harness their collective psychic powers to manifest this ability as long as the entire group remains focused on the manifestation. If successful, a Grey Knights Terminator can incinerate opponents at close range using this power. It is a manifestation of the hate the Grey Knights feel for the daemonic, and is completely capable of burning a Daemon's physical body to ash. This power is especially terrifying because whatever is destroyed by the Holocaust power dies in the Warp as well, its spirit extinguished like a candle. It can burn the souls of mortals to nothing and can banish Daemons as if they were but a bad dream. This power is a lesser version of the extraordinary final burst of psychic power used by the Emperor of Mankind Himself to snuff out the soul of Horus in the Warp at the end of the Horus Heresy during the final battle on Horus' Battle Barge, the Vengeful Spirit.

Might of Titan - Summoning up the power of the Chapter's ancestors and calling on the sacred genetic heritage which all Battle-Brothers possess, the Grey Knight Librarian is able to harden muscles and boost the strength of those allies in close proximity to him.

Mind Blades - The Grey Knight imbues the blades and other melee weapons of his allies with unerring accuracy and the ability to seek out even the smallest of chinks in their foes' armour, helping his friends land devastating blows to quickly despatch their enemies.

Nemesis Hammerhand - When summoning this ability, a Grey Knight Librarian is able to put the strength of his mind behind the blows of his fists or weapons, striking fiercely enough to wound even the toughest foes.

Quicksilver - Quickened by the Grey Knights Librarian's uncanny mind, his fellow Grey Knights' reflexes are increased to an uncanny speed and swiftness.
The Shrouding - Through prayer and the combined gestalt psychic power of the Grey Knights, they are able to blind their enemies to their location through their sheer faith in the Emperor and the power from the Warp this faith can draw. This protects them from ranged attacks and enhances their stealth. The Shrouding extends out around the Grey Knight in a 20 meter radius and makes those within it hazy and indistinct when viewed from without whilst not restricting the vision of those within it.
Smite - Lethal bolts of lightning leap from the Grey Knight Librarian's fingertips, tearing his enemies apart in a barrage of psychic energy.

The Summoning - The Grey Knight Librarian is able to reach out through the Immaterium and call upon his allies, drawing them across the intervening distance in the blink of an eye. The Grey Knight can use this power on a number of allies, though he must have met each one personally and must know them by name so that he can recognise their presence in the Warp across space and time. When he invokes this power he "calls" to these chosen allies and they are instantly aware that he is summoning them. If they choose to answer the call they are instantly transported through the Warp to his side.

Warp Quake - The Grey Knight causes the Warp to tremor, causing denizens of the Empyrean to lose their hold on reality and any device or technology that uses its power for guidance to fail.

Daemonology (Sanctic) Discipline

Banishment (Primaris Power) - The psyker bends his will to dissolving the bonds that tether the daemonic to the mortal plane, casting them back into the Warp.
Gate of Infinity - The psyker punches a corridor through the roiling Immaterium, allowing him to cross great distances in the blink of an eye.

Hammerhand - Focusing the raging power of their minds, Grey Knights and other psykers trained in this skill can augment the already prodigious might of themselves and their Battle-Brothers. Even unarmed, such warriors can crush flesh and bone -- given blade or hammer there is little limit to what they can slay.

Sanctuary - Chanting words of warding, the psyker creates a zone of light and psychic turbulence around him that can both protect him from physical harm as well as repel daemonic creatures and other threats of the Warp. This barrier extends out around the Librarian or psyker in a 10-metre-radius and impedes all those who attempt to cross. The barrier does not impede a Grey Knight's movement in any way.

Purge Soul - The psyker draws upon every ounce of willpower he possesses to purge the evil of his foes' souls, scouring every trace of corruption even if it destroys them in the process.

Cleansing Flame - The psyker harnesses the very fire in his soul, creating a wall of white-hot psychic flame that blasts forth and purges his foes from the battlefield.

Vortex of Doom - The psyker rends the material realm asunder, tearing a rift between realspace and the howling madness of the Warp, condemning his foes to total oblivion.

Deamonhunters

The Grey Knights are anathema to Daemons, their very presence raw and painful to the creatures of the Warp. No other warriors of the Emperor are so adept at fighting Daemons, and each Battle-Brother is expertly trained in the many methods of banishing and destroying these deadly yet ephemeral foes. There are many ways to banish a Daemon, almost as many as there are Daemons themselves. So it is that the Grey Knights possess a myriad means for vanquishing the denizens of the Warp, though not every method works on every Daemon, or even twice on the same creature. The Chapter is therefore always adapting to combat the ever-changing face of their foe. It is a constant war of escalation that has been waged since the inception of the Chapter and before, when the Emperor first began unravelling the secrets of the Warp. For every weapon and tactic the Grey Knights develop and employ, the Daemons counter with Warp-sorcery and trickery.

True Names
Chief amongst the Grey Knights' strategies concerning the vanquishing of a Daemon is obtaining knowledge of the beast's true name. Knowledge of a Daemon's true name grants great power, which is why many Daemons adopt misleading pseudonyms or titles and seldom use their true names save in their most secretive of dealings. In the hands of a psyker or sorcerer, a true name can be invoked to bind or even banish a Daemon, regardless of its power. Ordinarily, these complex incantations take long solar hours, or even days. Each word must be carefully enunciated and each gesture precise, lest the sorcerer become corrupted by the magicks of the Warp. Invoking a true name is a daemonic pact of sorts -- albeit one in which the Daemon is at a severe disadvantage.

For a Grey Knight, however, a true name is a weapon as reliable and immediate as the Storm Bolter borne upon his left gauntlet. Even the lowliest Grey Knight can invoke a true name with practice, disorienting and weakening his foe, and leaving the beast open for a killing strike from a Nemesis Force Blade or a well-placed bolt round. In the hands of an accomplished veteran of the Chapter, a true name becomes even more deadly, able to destroy the Daemon's physical form and cast it back into the Warp, leaving only a lingering sulphurous stench and ectoplasmic residue. To banish a Daemon in this manner is the closest that the Grey Knights can come to a lasting victory -- a Daemon bodily slain will return to the mortal realm far sooner than one banished body and soul.

Alas, if true names are a Grey Knight's surest weapon against the Daemon, they are also the hardest of all to acquire. As with all things daemonic, a true name is born of the Warp, and its reflection in the minds and tongues of mortal men is as shifting and mutable as the beast to whom it relates. So it is that in the candlelit chambers of the Grey Knights' Augurium, a veritable army of ebon-cowled scribes toil in shadow, endlessly sifting through the visions reported by the Chapter's Prognosticars, searching for clues to the ever-changing true names. It is a long and dangerous process, for no scribe can ever be trusted with more than a fragment of a true name, lest he become corrupted by the raw power it contains and threaten the very Chapter he seeks to serve. Thus, each scintilla of lore is inscribed onto a blessed scroll in sigils of the scribe's own blood -- mere ink cannot cage such knowledge. Each is then presented for collation and interpretation by one of the Chapter's senior Librarians and, in turn, bound into one of the blessed grimoires within the Citadel of Titan's Sanctum Sanctorum.

Words of Banishment
Daemons are beings of the Immaterium, and are made up of the very stuff of Chaos. This makes them creatures of nightmare, rage and fear, crafted from the base emotions and thoughts of Mankind. When fighting such a foe, strength of will and faith are as deadly as blades and bolt rounds, flesh tearing and ichor spillings with but a word of power. A Grey Knight will learn these words by heart and use them in battle to weaken or destroy daemonic foes, chanting them as he fires hammering shots from his storm bolter or cleaves apart his enemies with his Nemesis Force Halberd. The words are key to the most complex rituals of the Grey Knights, woven into their prayers and their rites of exorcism to increase their potency. There are 666 known words of banishment, each one a closely guarded secret by the Chapter and learned at great cost. Most men that look upon a word of banishment will lose their minds, its eye-searing symmetry and terrible definition breaking all but the strongest of wills. Even a Grey Knight Battle-Brother must temper his spirit before he learns even the most basic of these words. To date, only a single Grey Knight, the first Supreme Grand Master Janus, has ever learnt all 666 words of banishment, the weight of this knowledge almost too much for even the most accomplished Battle-Brothers to bear.

Just like the Warp, the words of banishment are always in flux, each one changing and mutating. The Grey Knights Librarians and Prognosticars must be ever vigilant for subtle variations within the words of banishment while they search for the true names of Daemons. The creatures of the Warp and even the Dark Gods themselves are constantly altering, as is the nature of the Immaterium, so that a word that once held power inevitably changes or loses its meaning entirely. An invocation against daemonic enemies that could once enslave or bind is therefore robbed of its power. However, such is the fickle nature of Chaos that for every Daemon that unravels a word of banishment, another is creating more for its own amusement; and so the endless war continues.

Tesseract Labyrinths
Not all weapons the Grey Knights use to defeat Daemons are human in origin. Over millennia of war and strife, the Chapter has scoured the galaxy for secrets to use against the Dark Gods, some of them deriving from alien technology and ancient xenos empires. Humanity is not the only race to have suffered at the hands of Daemonkind; countless races and worlds were wiped from history by daemonic incursions long before Mankind even stepped out into the void. In the dead remains of alien cities or the dust-swept plains of remote planets, the Ordo Malleus has recovered many artefacts that now rest in the vaults on Titan. Equally, elements of the Inquisition have even made deals with living xenos races, trading technology and aid in return for their knowledge of the Warp and its inhabitants. One such temporary alliance with the Necrons has yielded the Tesseract Labyrinths: strange objects crafted with heretical science by cunning alien hands. Each one is a cube, roughly the size of a Space Marine's fist, covered in a precise geometric web of circuitry. The Tesseract Labyrinths possess the ability not only to trap Warp creatures but also to contain them within the esoteric energy field of its zero-point reactor. The power of the Daemon is then contained by its own essence; the more it fights against the Tesseract, the stronger the bonds of its prison become. However, luring a Daemon into a Tesseract Labyrinth is no easy task, as most Warp creatures will choose to abandon their mortal forms and return to the Immaterium before they can be bound to the alien devices. To date only a handful of "inhabited" Tesseracts are held in the vaults of Titan, each one the culmination of a great battle or epic campaign in which the Grey Knights were triumphant.