A Brotherhood Champion of the Grey Knights confronts a daemon of Chaos.
A Grey Knights Brotherhood Champion is a specialist rank unique to the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter.
These Astartes Champions stand at the forefront of each Grey Knight brotherhood (the equivalent of a standard Space Marine company), a superlative warrior who has forsaken all other martial disciplines to pursue perfection with the blade.
A Brotherhood Champion holds foremost responsibility for the martial training of new aspirants to the Chapter, but on the battlefield they play a vital role that is pivotal to the survival of the Chapter. Their chief duty is to act as a bodyguard to their brother-captain.
They will willingly sacrifice themselves if necessary, but this ultimate sacrifice is rare, however, as few foes are skilled enough to defeat a Brotherhood Champion of the Grey Knights in combat.
Role[]
A Brotherhood Champion holds chief responsibility for the training of newly recruited Chapter aspirants, but on the field of battle, his primary role is to act as his brother-captain's personal bodyguard. The skill and knowledge of such an officer is not easily replaced, and it is only proper that they receive the foremost protection that the Chapter can provide.
Each Champion therefore stands ready to die in his captain's stead. That said, such a heroic sacrifice is seldom necessary, for only the deadliest (or luckiest) of opponents stand any chance of breaking a Brotherhood Champion's guard, let alone surviving his vengeful return strike.
Should a Champion be struck down, it is unwise to count him out of the fight too readily. Upon receiving a mortal wound, a Brotherhood Champion unleashes a pulse of psychic energy into his Aegis Power Armour -- one final burst of forbidden magic for one final portentous deed.
This dying impulse impels the suit to temporarily re-knit sinew and bone, and gives the fallen Brotherhood Champion the opportunity to strike one last blow for his battle-brothers -- an attack all the more deadly for its unexpected source.
This last act thus performed, the Champion's soul finally passes beyond the veil of realspace, his body to be later recovered and interred in the Vaults of Anarch on Titan, so he may continue to guard against evil in death as he did in life.
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.
- Heroic Sacrifice - Though his body be rent and torn, the Brotherhood Champion reaches into his inner reserves to animate his failing form for one final, fatal blow.
Wargear[]
- Artificer Aegis Armour
- Iron Halo
- Anointed Blade - The Nemesis Force Swords traditionally borne by Brotherhood Champions are said to be amongst the oldest of all the Chapter's blades.
- Wrist-Mounted Storm Bolter
- Frag Grenades and Krak Grenades
- Psyk-Out Grenades
- Liber Daemonica - The Liber Daemonica is an enduring symbol of the Grey Knight's devotion to his mission, and contains the cardinal tenets of lore culled from the dark knowledge caged within the Sanctum Sanctorum's walls. Every Grey Knight carries a copy of the Liber Daemonica in a ceramite case on his breastplate. These gnarled tomes contain the Chapter's rites of battle and detail the traditional duties of every Grey Knights' rank. 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.
Sources[]
- Codex: Grey Knights (5th Edition), pg. 26