Oblivion Knight

Knight-Commander Jenetia Krole of the Sisters of Silence and Raptor Squad, her elite bodyguard cadre of Oblivion Knights.

An Oblivion Knight is a senior officer of the Sisters of Silence who commands other sisters of different ranks within the Chamber of Oblivion, the Silent Sisterhood's martial elite, on various missions on behalf of the Emperor and the Sisterhood. Oblivion Knights also sometimes form elite units of their own kind led by one of their number called an "Oblivion Knight Mistress."

The warrior knights of the Chamber of Oblivion are a martial elite sub-sect of the Silent Sisterhood selected both for their proven record as warriors, and most importantly, the strength of their ability as psychic Untouchables. Their service required against the most dangerous of foes, the Oblivion Knights are observed usually only in large-scale deployments such as the retrieval of alpha-level psykers, the quelling of major psyker-instigated uprisings or population purges, and as such are seen rarely by the mortal armies of the Imperium save in the direst of circumstances.

This, combined with the harrowing dread caused by the Null aura projected by the Sisterhood, gives the Oblivion Knights their profoundly sinister reputation and makes them an object of dread and fear among the masses of the greater Imperium and the Imperial armed forces past and present. Even among the the notoriously fearless Adeptus Astartes, the pervading unease cultivated by the Oblivion Knights' presence is a palpable phenomenon, but one perforce tolerated as a necessary evil when the Oblivion Knights are assigned to fight alongside the Space Marines against some powerful psychic or Warp-based menace.

Oblivion Knights may be deployed either as full cadres led by officers called "mistresses," or individually as commanders for other cadres of Silent Sisters with different tactical compositions.

An elite cadre of Oblivion Knights known as the "Raptor Guard" formed the honour guard of Knight-Commander Jenetia Krole at the time of the Horus Heresy.

Unit Composition

• 4-9 Oblivion Knights

• 1 Oblivion Knight Mistress

Wargear

• Vratine Armour

• Voidsheen Cloak

• Execution Blade

• Power Axe (As replacement for Execution Blade)

• Proteus Neuro-Lash (As replacement for Execution Blade)

• Bolt Pistol

• Hand Flamer (As replacement for Oblivion Knight Mistress' Bolt Pistol)

• Needle Pistol (As replacement for Oblivion Knight Mistress' Bolt Pistol)

• Plasma Pistol (As replacement for Oblivion Knight Mistress' Bolt Pistol)

• Frag Grenades

• Krak Grenades

• Psyk-Out Grenades

• Kharon Pattern Acquisitor (Dedicated Transport)

Notable Oblivion Knights

• Amendera Kendel - A former Oblivion Knight who commanded the Storm Dagger Witchseeker Cadre before the Horus Heresy, Amendera Kendel was later be recruited by the Regent of Terra, Malcador the Sigillite, as one of his senior agents and granted the rank of Agentia Tertius. Following the Horus Heresy, she was one of the founding members of the newly-created Holy Ordos of the Inquisition.

• Emrilia Herkaaze - Emrilia Herkaaze was a member of the Excruciatus of the Silent Sisterhood during the Horus Heresy who was known to believe that the Emperor was a god. Herkaaze was recruited from a world in the Belladone Reach by the Silent Sisterhood. She met Amendera Kendel in the hold of a Black Ship and the two became fast friends during their aspirant trials. At some point Herkaaze and Kendel encountered a fire-witch on Sheol Trinus. Unwilling to fall back and regroup, Herkaaze was struck by burning debris that blinded her left eye and badly scarred her face. The friendship between the two Silent Sisters soured afterwards as Herkaaze blamed Kendel for not supporting her during the battle. After the eruption of the Horus Heresy, Herkaaze served as an Oblivion Knight in command of the Black Ship Validus when it went missing. The prisoners escaped from the vessel and were able to survive because the system that was supposed to release the Life-Eater Virus that was intended to kill all of the captive psykers on a Black Ship in the event of a breach had been sabotaged. The Validus was located by Kendel, now also an Oblivion Knight, and together the two sisters tracked down the psyker gestalt that had taken over the ship. After it claimed to be a future version of Leilani Mollitas, a Silent Sisterhood aspirant accompanying Kendel, Herkaaze attacked Mollitas in the present to end the threat before it began. Left alone with Kendel, Herkaaze broke her Vow of Tranquility, chastising Kendel for thinking that the message from the future was worth hearing and claiming only the God-Emperor had the right to change the course of history. Herkaaze went on to become a Sister-Excruciatus of the Chamber of Judgement. When Kendel returned to the Somnus Citadel as the Imperial Regent Malcador the Sigillite's Agentia Tertius, Herkaaze met her and called her an oath-breaker, claiming that Kendel had shamed her cadre and ought to have been executed. When presented with the sigil of the Regent of Terra, Herkaaze reluctantly allowed Kendel to see The Seventy, the 70 Loyalist Death Guard battle-brothers who had accompanied Nathaniel Garro aboard the frigate Eisenstein when it fled the Battle of Isstvan III to report Horus' betrayal of the Emperor. Herkaaze had a topknot of rust-red hair and wore lightning bolt symbols on her shoulders as a mark of her senior rank. Her left eye was replaced by a blue augmetic. After becoming a Sister-Excruciatus she wore a heavy necklet and black steel torcs on her arms.

• Kaeria Casryn — Kaeria Casryn was an Oblivion Knight of the Steel Foxes Cadre of the Sisters of Silence during the Horus Heresy. During the War Within the Webway Casryn was paired with the Custodian Diocletian Coros and the two grew to become close comrades. Coros understood Casryn's meaning because of his ability to comprehend even her most simple facial expressions and she did not have to engage in sign language to communicate with him. As a result, she accompanied Diocletian outside the Imperial Webway as they attempted to recruit reinforcements for the secret war against Chaos. Later, Casryn oversaw the implementation of the Unspoken Sanction within the Imperial Palace, sacrificing the life energies of a thousand captured psykers to the Golden Throne so the Emperor could leave it for a single solar day to throw back the Daemonic forces hammering upon the Webway gate that led into the Imperial Dungeons beneath the palace. During the Siege of Terra, Casryn was chosen to come before Malcador the Sigillite before he ascended the Golden Throne to replace the Emperor when He launched His assault upon Horus' flagship in what would be his final act. The Sigillite tasked her and others with carrying out his last orders. She proceeded to gather captive psykers to sacrifice their lives to provide more energy to the Golden Throne so that Malcador could triumph in his struggle to power the ancient device until the Emperor returned from the assault on the Vengeful Spirit.

• Oblivion Knight-Centura Calistis Merovin - Calistis Merovin was an Oblivion Knight-Centura of the Sisters of Silence during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. Calistis was assigned to accompany the White Scars on the Chondax Campaign, overseeing 63 sisters during the battles in the Chondax System. After the White Scars learned of the eruption of the Horus Heresy and decided to escape Chondax, Calistis was with Tsolmon Khan's forces on Byfurst and took part in the battles against Alpha Legion forces on that world. All of her fellow Sisters of Silence were killed in the battle, and Calistis herself was badly wounded. However Tsolmon Khan was able to have her evacuated to the vessel Hawkstar, which was eventually recovered by Jaghatai Khan's fleet.

• Oblivion Knight-Centura Dessima - Dessima is a Knight-Centura who led the forces of the Silent Sisterhood that served as part of the Adeptus Custodes Shield-Captain Tyvar's Torchbearers strike force. The strike force had been sent to give the gift of Primaris Space Marines and the technology to create them to the Brazen Drakes Chapter and faced much hardship to reach the Chapter's homeworld of Khassedur. However, to Dessima's dismay, the Torchbearers found it gripped by a rebellion seemingly unleashed at the Brazen Drakes' hands. After discovering the Chapter's traitorous actions, Tyvar declared them to be Hereticus Diabolus Extremis and ordered the Primaris Marine Greyshields sent to reinforce the Brazen Drakes detained. When the Greyshields tried to declare their innocence aboard Tyvar's flagship Lux-Imperatus, a battle ensued between the two sides. The Greyshields' Captain Gerion informed his forces that they had been betrayed by the Imperium and the battle soon spread to the entire fleet. An enraged Tyvar killed Gerion and declared that his strike force would not rest until they had destroyed all of the Brazen Drakes. Dessima welcomed this new mission to eliminate traitorous Imperial forces unworthy of the Emperor's trust.

• Ordela Grendoth - Ordela Grendoth was an Oblivion Knight-Centura who, in the wake of the Great Rift's creation, was among the Imperial forces defending Gathalamor from a Daemonic invasion. The Chaos Daemon invaders were able to carve a path across much of the world, but Grendoth led its final defence. Her powers as a psychic Null kept the Daemons at bay until Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman and a fleet of the Indomitus Crusade arrived to come to Gathalamor's aid. Grendoth then fought beside the crusade forces, but was killed in the final battle which ended with the Daemons' defeat. Afterwards, the Knight-Centura's bones were placed inside a reliquary that still possesses a fraction of Grendoth's power to repel the Warp and its entities that is sometimes used as a relic weapon by Space Marine forces.

• Tanau Aleya - Tanau Aleya was a Witchseeker within the Sisters of Silence who fought during the 13th Black Crusade. She has since become an Oblivion Knight-Centura after Roboute Guilliman restored the Silent Sisterhood to a full, official place within the Imperial hierarchy following the start of the Indomitus Crusade in the Era Indomitus.

• Asheera Voi - Asheera Voi is an Oblivion Knight who took part in the Plague Wars of the Era Indomitus. She was part of the forces Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman assembled to liberate the world of Parmenio in the Realm of Ultramar from the Heretic Astartes of the Death Guard. When they arrived above the invaded world, however, they discovered a buildup of Warp energy emitting from Hecatone, the capital city of Parmenio's eastern continent. Guilliman knew this meant a Warp Clock was located there, as those devices played a key part in aiding the Death Guard assault on Ultramar. Unfortunately, the capital was protected by a Warp-based force field that prevented Guilliman's warships from destroying the Warp Clock with an orbital bombardment. So a Psyk-out missile was used instead to temporarily disable the shield, and this allowed Tetrarch Androdinus Felix to lead a strike force through it before it activated again. Voi was part of this strike force, which targeted a corrupted power generatorum where the force field generator was located. As most of the strike force drew the Death Guard to them, Felix led Voi and a small group of Space Marines to find the generatorum's reactor. It contained the device that was controlling the force field and Felix's group permanently destroyed it with a Psyk-Out bomb. Voi played a key part in this assault as her Blank ability allowed Felix's group to go unnoticed. This deception held until they were discovered by the enemy just as they neared the reactor. With time now of the essence, the group raced towards the reactor, but before they entered it, Felix stopped them to warn that it was likely the reactor was emitting deadly radiation and his power armour would allow only him to safely enter the room. Voi chose to ignore Felix's orders, as the Death Guard were closing in, and she raced into the generatorium. Once inside she saw a massive, cancerous biomechanical heart had taken over the room and was drawing the reactor's power to maintain the force field. Voi did not hesitate at this gruesome sight and immediately cut the heart open as an astonished Felix looked on. The group then quickly activated the Psyk-Out bomb and threw it into the opening Voi made in the Nurglish heart. The group waited and then were forced to defend the bomb for five solar minutes before it could destroy the force field generator. The Heretic Astartes of the Death Guard soon arrived and fell upon the defenders in waves. Despite their skills, the group lost two members and the rest were nearly killed before the Psyk-out bomb finally detonated. The bomb contained the remains of slain psychic Blanks and this negatic psychic force slew many of the attacking, Warp-corrupted Death Guard, whose souls had long been tainted by the Empyreal touch of the Chaos God Nurgle. Even Felix and his group were greatly affected by the explosion -- all save Voi, whose status as a Blank left her unharmed. Afterwards, Guilliman contacted them and confirmed their mission had been a success and the force field surrounding Parmenio had been permanently brought down. Voi and the group proceeded to slay any Death Guard that survived the explosion, before rejoining the rest of the Imperial strike force. With their task complete, Voi, Felix and the other surviving members of the strike force were evacuated back to Guilliman's fleet before the warships levelled the corrupted generatorum and moved on to their next target.

Sources

• Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pg. 185
• Dark Imperium: Plague War Second Edition (Novel) by Guy Haley, Chs. 10-12
• The Horus Heresy Book Seven: Inferno (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 253–263
• The Horus Heresy Book Eight: Malevolence (Forge World Series), pp. 83–109
• Tales of Heresy (Anthology) edited by Nick Kyme and Lindsey Priestley, "The Voice" by James Swallow
• The Master of Mankind (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Ch. 3
• Watchers of the Throne: The Regent's Shadow (Novel) by Chris Wraight, Ch. 6
• Warhammer Community - Psychic Awakening: Consequences