Sigillites

The Sigillites were an ancient, secretive organisation of men and women present on Terra in the millennia before the appearance of the Emperor of Mankind and the start of the Unification Wars. They were dedicated to the collection, rescue and protection of the greatest cultural artefacts in the history of Mankind, including ancient weapons technologies, from the chaos and tumult that afflicted Terra during the Age of Strife and destroyed humanity's early interstellar civilisation. According to their only known and perhaps last surviving member, Malcador the Sigillite, the Regent of Terra, they had existed during the Age of Technology even before Old Night had consumed the galaxy. At some unknown time before the Emperor's rise the Sigillites were disbanded or scattered, but their ancient fortress in the Himalazian (Himalayan) Mountains and the artefacts and knowledge they had managed to collect became the foundations of what would later become the Imperial Palace.

Malcador took his byname of "the Sigillite" from his membership in the group, and two of the treasures they had once protected, the ancient paintings Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci and Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh, were his most prized possessions, proudly displayed in his quarters in the Imperial Palace.