An Antioch Orb, known also as a Holy Orb of Antioch, are individually master-crafted, custom grenades empowered with the holy wrath of the Emperor and filled with sacred unguents that burn the faithless with their purity. A Holy Orb of Antioch is among the rarest weapons sacred to the Black Templars Space Marine Chapter. First created several thousand years before by Techmarine Antioch of the Black Templars, they are -- by any measure -- many magnitudes more lethal than the standard grenades available to other Chapters among the Adeptus Astartes. Consecrated oils and sacred acids are blended with compacted explosives, making each incendiary a personal masterpiece, inscribed with its own damnations, blessing and High Gothic mandalas. A grenade will kill the righteous and unrighteous alike, but an Antioch orb will ensure the blasphemous burn in agony as they meet their end. These lethal weapons are proof against the impure and wicked servants of the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and the daemons of the Warp.
Trivia
The Holy Orb of Antioch is a weapon that is based upon the visual satire of a type of royal regalia known as the Sovereign's Orb of the United Kingdom. The Sovereign's Orb similarly has a band of jewels running along the centre, and a half-band on the top hemisphere, with a cruciform at the crest. This humorous prop was used by the questing knights in the classic British comedy film, "Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail".
Sources
- Codex: Black Templars (4th Edition), pg. 28
- Blood and Fire (Novella) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden