Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Origin Of The Grey Knights

"We are the warriors of the Grey Knights, armored in faith, shielded by devotion, and armed with purity of purpose. But greater even than these, we carry the light of the divine Sigmar into the dark places to purge the demonic wherever it may be found."

-Kindred-Captain Arvann Stern

The Grey Knights are a secret and mysterious Chapter of Space Marines, and the only Astartes unaffiliated with the Coalition outside of Chaos, specifically tasked with combating the dangerous demonic entities of the Warp and all those who wield the corrupt power of the Chaos Gods. They were created by the grey Steel Order under Chamber Paramount member Malcador the Sigillite at the time of the Horus Heresy to serve as Humanity's greatest weapon against the threat posed by the existence of Chaos.

They have the honor of being the only Astartes not to be made by the Coalition, whose gene-seed is a mixture of the loyalist chapters.

The Grey Knights act as the military arm or "Chamber Militant" of the Ordo Malleus, the Daemonhunters who form the oldest branch of the virtually omnipotent Order. The Grey Knights' fortress-monastery, the Citadel of Titan, is based on Titan, the coldest zone in the north of Gaiaterra. It is kept as a private preserve of the Order.

The existence of the Chapter is virtually unknown outside of the Order, and is a well-guarded secret enforced by mind-wipes and even assassination of citizens if necessary.

Unlike other Astartes, every Grey Knight is a potent psyker. Yet, in the years of their creation, no Grey Knight has ever been corrupted by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.

Due to the unique manner in which the Grey Knights are recruited and trained, each warrior progresses through a series of pre-ordained ranks and will operate in a particular squad led by an individual of higher rank, rather than being assigned to a particular Battle Company. These squads may be called upon to act independently from the main body of the Grey Knight force, and often times fight alongside other forces of the Order, and have to operate at full efficiency even when miles away from the rest of their Chapter or Order forces.

As such, the kindred-captain who is the leader of each Grey Knight squad is obeyed immediately and without question by those under their command.

Humanity's Shield
A light against the darkness, the Grey Knights stand against the greatest threat Mankind has ever faced. They are the champions of reason, order, and righteousness, holding back Demons and the scions of the Dark Gods.

They are the Order's mightiest weapon against the Warp, transhuman Space Marine psykers, and its single enduring hope for salvation. There is no greater threat to Gaiaterra than the denizens of the Warp and the Ruinous Powers that rule them.

Demons and gods, these otherworldly horrors tear at the veil between the Realm of Chaos and reality, hungry for the souls of Humanity and the ruin of worlds. If left unchecked and unopposed, Demons would claim the universe for their own, pulling down the pillars of creation and fashioning a never-ending nightmare where once the galaxy had been.

Daemons are unlike any other foe Gaiaterra faces, and against their unnatural horror men and women can find themselves powerless. From the vast air fleets of the Aquilans, the endless ranks of the Voshkod, to the superhuman Space Marines of the Coalition. Mortal foes cannot stand against these armies when it is roused to war, but the Daemon is not mortal.

History has proven that all people can be corrupted and even the mighty Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes are not immune to the unholy temptations of the Dark Gods. And as the Order witnessed the Horus Heresy unfolds, they knew the threat of Chaos would remain to forever even if Horus fell.

The Order knew that out of their many foes, the demonic was the greatest threat, and so they created a brotherhood of incorruptible warriors to fight Daemons by doing the unthinkable, stealing the Coalition Gene-Seeds, and while they succeed the cost was great. The result were the Grey Knights, and they would stand as Sigmars ultimate weapon against the gods of Chaos.

A Blade Against Chaos
The Grey Knights are the most mysterious of all the Grey Steel Order warriors. Their creation was the culmination of a plan conceived in the dying days of the Horus Heresy, hidden from even their own armies lest it be uncovered by their foes.

Even now few in the Order know of their existence and those that do possess only fragments of the truth. Legends and myths surround the Grey Knights, and those tales told about them are filled with broad misconceptions and fanciful lies.

The vast population of Gaiaterra knows nothing of the Grey Knights, and the handful of citizens that have heard the name uttered assume them to be an arm of the so-called Inquisition or a Chapter of the mythical, superhuman Space Marines.

Some of the stories and fables hold the barest hints of the existence of the Grey Knights, but they are portrayed as silver-armored angels, ghostly manifestations of Elysea, or shimmering reflections of the saints themselves as often as not.

Those soldiers that have fought alongside the Grey Knights and retained both their lives and their minds recall them only as Astartes of an unknown Space Marine Chapter, their unique weapons and psychic powers attributed to forgotten technology and tactical doctrine.

Other Space Marines are further confused about the Grey Knights, often considering them a specialist successor chapter.

Even the greatest of the Grey Steel knights had proven fallible to the temptations of the Dark Gods and so Malcador set out to create a new soldier in his bid to continue to protect Gaiaterra, even from his own mistakes. This new breed of Space Marine would be far stronger of will than their kin, and unwavering in their loyalty to Humanity, able to stand naked before the power of the Warp and survive unscathed.

He took it upon himself immediately after news had reached the Triumvirate of Horus' betrayal during the massacre of the Loyalist Astartes on Isstvan III, to gather a group of dedicated sigmarites whose loyalty, courage, and strength of mind was unquestioned.

As the Siege of Karaz-A-Karak began, Malcador went across Gaiaterra, searching corpse-choked battlefields and worlds drowning in blood for those who met his requirements. No other person could have been given such a task and hoped to complete it. And it was only by the end of the Heresy that Malcador finally returned.

When the Triumvirate looked upon those Malcador had brought before them they knew that there was yet hope for Gaiaterra. Twelve in all had been gathered, four noble lords and governors of the highest order, complemented by eight Space Marines, though each group met the Triumvirate separately at different times in the final days before the Siege of Karaz-A-Karak began.

These eight selected Space Marines all possessed paranormal skills as psykers that had been kept dormant. These warriors had all willingly cast aside their former loyalties to their given Space Marine Legions and primarchs, either because of the corruption of these Legions by Chaos or because they realized that loyalty to the Coalition required them to sacrifice all ties to their former battle-kins.

All had served for a time with the Knights-Errant, Malcador's cadre of independent Space Marines that had served as his special agents throughout the course of the Horus Heresy.

That some of these battle-brothers came from Legions that had turned Traitor proved the depth of their loyalty to Sigmar, for there can be no greater challenge for a Space Marine than to defy the word of their primarch.

After meeting the candidates, the Triumvirate is believed to have responded, "Malcador, you have judged well. These eight Space Marines do indeed have a vital role to play in the future of the Order, though veiled in secrecy will they be." Content that their plans could proceed, the Triumvirate bade Malcador and his charges leave for Titan.

The Grey Knights were created alongside what later became the Inquisition and their goals intertwined. They would be the staunch allies of this new organization, fashioned in the image of the Space Marine Chapters, their battle-kindred augmented by advanced science and genetic experimentation of the order and/or stolen from the Coalition.

Blessed with both transhuman physiology and the most advanced Imperial weaponry, the Grey Knights would be the elite of the Order. However, it would not be enough for them merely to be strong of body and skilled at war, though in this they surpass even other Space Marines. To fight the Demon the Grey Knights would need to be pure of heart as well, with an unblemished soul in which the corruption of the Warp could find no purchase.