As we all know, Grey Knights are tasked with destroying the daemonic entities of the Warp. But who’s the man behind the founding of this mysterious chapter?
Malcador the Sigillite is the man behind the founding of the Grey Knights? Let’s take a look.
Via our friends at Lexicanum
The origins of Malcador remain a mystery, and are unknown save to the Emperor himself. According to Malcador himself, he is a surviving member of an ancient order known as The Sigillites which sought to gather and preserve the greatest and most powerful artifacts in Human history. Nonetheless many rumors said he was the Emperor’s kin, but this can not be verified. Malcador first appeared in Imperial records during the Unification Wars, where he served as the Emperor’s adviser and administrator. The cradle of his ancient order became the foundations of the Imperial Palace.
As the Emperor’s primary representative, Malcador often acted in his stead, or preceded him, the intent being for the Emperor to make his presence known only in the event of Malcador’s failure. One such event was the humbling of the Word Bearers in the ruins of Monarchia. During the incident, an enraged Lorgar slapped Malcador 20 metres through the air with the back of his hand, but he not only survived but got up afterwards.
Very soon after the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Emperor told Malcador to summon “men of character, skill and determination” who would be tested and trained to become an elite group of investigators with the task of rooting out treachery and Heresy. This marked the founding of the Imperial Inquisition. Among the first Malcador approached for this duty were Death Guard hero Nathaniel Garro and former Sons of Horus Captain Iacton Qruze. Malcador would subsequently task Garro with recruiting a select group of individuals for him in aid of this endeavour; these individuals would be termed (at least for a time) Malcador’s Knights-Errant, and later formed the root of the Grey KnightsSpace Marinechapter. Qruze was retained closer to home, acting as Malcador’s “hand” in investigative matters such as the case of Solomon Voss. Malcador is noted for having given the Chaplain Edict at (presumably) Nikaea: a group of Marines that would maintain the order and discipline of their fellow Marines, and to keep watch for heresy and psychic powers, the former to be dealt with summarily, the latter to be referred to the Legion Librarium.
Malcador was active in many ways during the Heresy. As well as orchestrating the above inquisitive endeavor and aiding Rogal Dorn in organising the defence of Terra, he would use his secret position as Master of Assassins to attempt to have Horus assassinated several times. Whilst several of his dispatched Assassins – including the first ever Execution Force – came close to their target, none connected, and the attempt was eventually permanently given up, on the orders of the Emperor himself. Malcador later worked with Leman Russ to assassinate Horus with the Knights-Errant as the traitor Warmaster fought on Molech. Malcador selected Garviel Loken, only recently recovered from insanity following Isstvan III, to lead the mission.
During the final chapter of the Heresy, Malcador would complete his ultimate project. He brought twenty men before the Emperor to set his ultimate man in motion. Four were lords and administrators, and eight were Space Marinesfrom both loyalist and traitor legions. These included many of his Knights-Errant such as Nathaniel Garro, Amendera Kendel, Tylos Rubio, Macer Varren, and Garviel Loken. Many of the Space Marines that joined the cause hailed from Legions that had turned traitor, though they themselves had remained loyal to the Emperor. Once they had been gathered, the Emperor surveyed the chosen recruits and granted both his approval and consent to proceed with the project. So the recruits split ways to go off towards separate tasks; the four lords ventured off to lay the framework of the Inquisition, whilst the Space Marines and Malcador traveled to Saturn‘s moon of Titan.
Titan, through Malcador’s mystical means, had been hidden away from the ravages of the Horus Heresy. When they arrived they found a Fortress-monastery already fully prepared and stocked with everything necessary to create a new army of Space Marines including supplies of gene-seed, which is suspected to have been taken from the Emperor directly, and all the necessary armaments. The fortress was also already populated with hundreds upon hundreds of suitable recruits from across the Galaxy. Some were raw and untrained, whilst others were selected in secret from among the ranks of loyalist Legions. This new army would be a Chapter – a smaller, tighter brotherhood of Space Marines than a Legion. Malcador could no longer remain and thus he appointed Janus, one of the eight original Space Marines, to be the Grey Knights leader and take the title of Supreme Grand Master. Before leaving, Malcador cast his greatest enchantment yet; he hid Titan away from Horus in the most unlikely of places, inside the Warp itself. Titan was protected by Macro-Geller fields and sigilic rites whilst the final battles of the Heresy took place in Real Space. When Titan reemerged into the Materium, the war was over and due to the longer passage of time within the Warp Titan had raised an army of a thousand Battle Brothers: the Grey Knights.
Later at the height of the Battle of Terra when the Emperor decided to face Horus aboard the Vengeful Spirit, he told Malcador that he had to take his place on the Golden Throne – providing the psychic sheath to protect the human-built sections of the Webway. His original choice of replacement on the throne had been the PrimarchMagnus but since he had sided with Horus, Malcador was now his chosen successor. Though he was a powerful psyker in his own right, Malcador’s mental powers were nothing compared to that of the Emperor, and so when Rogal Dorn brought the severely injured ruler of mankind back to the Golden Throne, he found Malcador sitting wasted, energy lashing across his shrivelled body, tortured by the psychic bombardments of the Webway. He was almost dead. Tech-priests then made the exchange – disengaging Malcador from the machine. As he was removed, the last flicker of life left him and the dust of his corpse blew across the stone floor.
At the instant of Malcador’s death, the Emperor awoke from his coma – Malcador had saved a last kernel of strength and passed it on to the Emperor so he could give his servants their final orders.
Find out more about Malcador.
About the Author: Zeb Barrett
