Grey Knights Grand Master

"Today's ally is merely tomorrow's traitor. We will be watching you"

- Grand Master Agraveld Tor speaking at the Antares Conclave

A Grey Knight Grand Master is the second-highest rank that can be attained within the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter. A Grand Master is - by virtue of his esteemed rank - a member of the Inner Conclave of the Inquisition and the council of Grand Masters whom govern the Grey Knights Chapter. By tradition, there are eight Grand Masters of the Grey Knights. Each is the spiritual heir of one of the eight founding Grand Masters all those long millennia ago. A master daemonslayer, the Grand Master always wears Terminator Armor 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.

Role
By tradition, there are eight Grand Masters of the Grey Knights. Each is the spiritual heir of one of the eight founding Grand Masters all those long millennia ago. To reach this rank is to have battled on ten thousand worlds, to have slain Daemons unnumbered and to have stood stalwart as an unfailing example of honour and purity, not only to your Battle-Brothers, but to every soul in the Imperium. Even then, a new Grand Master can only be appointed by the will of those whose ranks he would join. Before he can be raised, those already established must be unanimous in approval.

Grand Masters hold responsibility for maintaining the Chapter's many alliances, whether with other organisations within the Imperium, or the various alien races with whom the Grey Knights have covert dealings. The actual detail of such treaties, pacts and accords are worked out by the Chapter's scribes- a warrior's time is too precious to be expended on such bureaucratic detail. The Grand Master's chief role in these matters is to attend in full regalia of war. He speaks as little as is necessary, his grim and martial aspect a stark warning to any who would think to abuse his Chapter's trust. The threat in his manner is clear: betray us, and a thousand warriors such as I shall seek revenge.

Of course, as one of the Chapter's finest warriors, a Grand Master's principal duty is to take charge of those battles so pivotal or perilous that even the hardened warrior-skills of a Brother-Captain are deemed insufficient to the task at hand. Such a campaign is sure to see the Grey Knights at the very pinnacle of their abilities, for a Grand Master has a keen eye for strategy, and an uncanny skill for ensuring his troops fight at peak efficiency. Under a Grand Master's guiding will, a Grey Knights strike force will often adopt non-standard doctrines with a precision and speed that is nothing short of uncanny. Indeed, it is said by some that a Grand Master is apt to control his subordinates' minds if it will bring victory. Others claim it is simply the hallmark of a remarkable leader, but none can truly say where the truth lies.

Wargear

 * Artificer Aegis Terminator Armour
 * Iron Halo
 * Storm Bolter
 * Nemesis Force Sword
 * '''Frag Grenades & Krak Grenades
 * Psyk-Out Grenades

Psychic Powers

 * Hammerhand - Focusing the raging power of their minds, Grey Knights can augment their already prodigious might. Even unarmed, such a warrior can crush flesh and bone -- given blade or hammer there is little limit to what they can slay.
 * Psychic Communion - By concentrating his psychic potential, a Grey Knight commander can make contact with the minds of his fellows, guiding them to the battlefield at the very moment they are needed. Many a battle has been won or lost on such a timely arrival.

Notable Grey Knight Grand Masters

 * Lord Karas Vaurmand, Grand Master of the Third Brotherhood – His face betrayed his advanced age – he was a warrior that would never see four hundred again – while his burnished armour dictated victory upon victory in gold-leaf script. During the First War for Armageddon he was honour-bound by Chapter tradition, to remain on Titan, guarding the Grey Knights' Fortress-Monastery in his brother's absence.
 * Grand Master Mandulis - One of the few Grey Knights that died during the First War for Armageddon, Mandulis led a force of three hundred Grey Knights on the Chaos-corrupted world of Khorion IX in an attempt to vanquish the daemon Ghargatuloth back into the Immaterium. His Nemesis weapon becomes a plot device in a sequence of events that come into play after he vanquishes the daemon into the Warp for one thousand years. The sacrifice of the three hundred Grey Knights results in the banishing of Ghargatuloth. None, save the body of Grand Master Mandulis and his Nemesis weapon, were recovered. His sword is thought to be the only weapon capable of destroying Ghargatuloth again.
 * Grand Master Vorth Mordrak - The sole survivor of the attack upon the Fortress World of Mortain by the Renegade Space Marines of the Red Corsairs, Grand Master Vorth Mordrak has continued to be protected by the ghostly apparitions of his fallen comrades. Determined to finally lay the fallen to rest, Mordrak has sworn to end the despicable individual responsible for his Battle-Brothers' deaths, the powerful Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart.