"... and they are the judgement of the righteous man upon the impure. They bring the wrath of the God-Emperor against those creatures who cannot be understood by the faithful..."
- — Inquisitor Octus Enoch
A Grey Knights Paladin in battle.
A Grey Knights Paladin is an elite warrior without peer within the ranks of the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter. To prove himself worthy of a place amongst this cadre of the Chapter's elite, a prospective aspirant must complete eight quests to establish his character and cause, each more difficult than the last. Only when this is done will the aspirant have earned his ascension to the rank of Paladin.
Once his quests are complete, the new Paladin will leave his former brotherhood and take his seat in the hallowed Hall of Champions in the Citadel of Titan. The Paladin is then bound in service not only to his Chapter, but also to one of the Grey Knights Grand Masters for whom he will act as bodyguard, champion and advisor.
Upon the field of battle, a Paladin is always wherever the fighting is thickest and the peril greatest.
Quick Answers
What quests must a Grey Knights Paladin complete to prove worthiness?
How do Grey Knights Paladins embody the wrath of the God-Emperor?
What makes a Grey Knights Paladin an elite warrior in Warhammer 40k?
How do Grey Knights Paladins differ from other Space Marines?
What role does a Grey Knights Paladin squad play in battles?
Role[]
If a Grey Knight wishes to prove himself worthy of a place amongst the Chapter's Paladins, bravery and skill are not enough -- he must complete eight quests to establish his character and cause. First, the aspirant must spend a day and a night in the haunted caverns beneath Mount Anarch on Titan without losing sanity or purpose. Should he endure, he must match his will against the unsleeping evil of the dread tome Abbiallach, which lies chained in the Chapter fortress-monastery's Sanctum Sanctorum.
His mental fortitude thus tested, the Aspirant will then be called upon to prove his strength at arms. He will make a pilgrimage to Lansel's Tomb on the doomed moon of Tethys, bearing no armour to preserve him from the Warp-spawned beasts trapped there.
He must seek out and deliver a deathblow to each of the four types of Daemon Herald in service to the Chaos Gods, returning with a horn or tooth from each to prove his victory.
Four more quests are there, each more gruelling than the last, with the final one being the most difficult of all. The candidate will hunt down and banish one of the six hundred and sixty-six most powerful Daemons to ever manifest in the mortal realm, armed only with his Nemesis Force Sword and the beast's true name, gleaned from the pages of the Iron Grimoire. Only when this is done will the aspirant have earned his ascension to the rank of Paladin.
Given the perilous nature of these quests, it is little wonder that only the boldest Grey Knights become Paladins. Nevertheless, it is almost unheard of for an Aspirant to the rank to abandon his quests, as to do so is to incur grave dishonour. Whilst the cost of pursuing the Paladin's quests is high, it ensures that nowhere in the Imperium can so noble an assemblage of warriors be found as in Titan's Hall of Champions.
Once his quests are complete, and the night of triumphant feasting that marks his ascension is over, the new Paladin leaves his original brotherhood and takes his seat in that hallowed hall. From the moment of his elevation, each Paladin is bound in service not only to his Chapter, but also to one of its Grand Masters for whom he will act as bodyguard, champion and advisor. Henceforth, his place upon the battlefield will forever after be at the fore, where it is the most perilous and vicious.
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. 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 Glands -- and the precious gene-seed created from the genome of the Emperor Himself within them -- with his Reductor should the wounds be too severe.
Without Apothecaries, the Grey Knights' genetic heritage would be lost amidst the ruin of battle, and the Chapter would cease to exist within a matter of decades. Thus the Apothecaries receive the foremost guardians the Chapter can provide.
When Paladins gather into a squad, the potent warrior who leads them is known as a "Paragon."
Unit Composition[]
- 2-9 Paladins
- 1 Paragon
Wargear[]
- Aegis Terminator Armour
- Storm Bolter
- Nemesis Force Sword
- 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.
- Incinerator (As replacement for Storm Bolter)
- Psilencer As replacement for Storm Bolter)
- Psycannon (As replacement for Storm Bolter)
- Any Nemesis Force Weapon or 2 Nemesis Force Falchions (As replacement for Nemesis Force Sword)
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 in close combat -- given blade or warhammer there is little limit to what they can slay.
- Holocaust - Uniting their sorceries in a gestalt attack, the Grey Knights' Paladins are able to conjure a searing ball of white-hot flame, purging the foe from the field of battle with the cleansing flames of righteousness.
Sources[]
- Codex: Grey Knights (5th Edition), pg. 30
- Codex: Grey Knights (9th Edition), pp. 12, 24, 92