On a homeworld, whose location is only known to the Ordo Malleus, the Grey Knights recruit and train neophytes taken from the Black Ships.
Via our good friends at Lexicanum
Considering the role of the Grey Knights, potential recruits are put through even more stringent trials than other Space Marine Neophytes. Unlike most Space Marine Chapters, the Grey Knight recruits are often drawn directly from the Black Ships after they return to Terra they are then brought to Titan for testing.
The most advanced bio-engineering and psycho-surgery available is utilized to condition the Neophytes, and each recruit must pass the six hundred and sixty six Rituals of Detestation, to prove that he is capable of withstanding horrors that would break even the greatest of ‘normal’ Space Marines. Upon success, the recruit also has the majority of their memories and personality erased, to better ensure their absolute and unwavering loyalty to the Emperor. One of the main criteria for selection is that the recruit must show great psychic potential, as the entire Chapter is made up of psykers.
Once accepted into the chapter and undergoing the standard process to transform into a member of the Adeptus Astartes, the new Grey Knight is also implanted with silver purity wards under his skin which cover his entire body.
During training each recruit is designated a number to be referred by, and only upon completion of training are they given a new name; they must discard their original birth name and be given a new one. This is in part to signify being reborn, but also in part because the training a recruit undergoes is so intense that they are unlikely to remember their past and original name anyway. Furthermore, each Grey Knight name is actually a fragment of magical lore that acts in perfect opposition to the true name of a particular Daemon, making even a Grey Knight’s name a deadly weapon.
The fortress-monastery of the Grey Knights is based on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and is carved entirely of basalt. Within the fortress hang pennants, banners and flags commemorating the victories and sacrifices made by the chapter in their war against the daemonic, but none other than the Grey Knights would recognize the names of these campaigns.
The chapter operates in oppressive secrecy, beyond the knowledge of the Adeptus Terra and even the High Lords of Terra – as a part of the Ordo Malleus, the Grey Knights are answerable only to the Ordo and the Emperor. Even the location of the fortress-monastery is known only to the Ordo Malleus. Titan itself is surrounded by the rings of Saturn and multiple confidential Malleus-controlled moons: Mimas, the prison and execution center of the Ordo Malleus, Enceladus, home of the leaders of the Ordo Malleus and other influential Malleus Inquisitors, and several other worlds.
Beneath the fortress lies a cool, damp crypt. It is here that every Grey Knight wishes to finally reside, in the hallowed halls of the glorious dead. Almost every member of the chapter will have their body recovered and brought to this crypt beneath the Emperor’s Temple. As a final tribute to those that have given their lives, the names of the dead are carved ceremoniously into a great basalt wall in the heart of the fortress. Among these names are some of the Imperium’s greatest heroes who died in the most heroic circumstances imaginable.
And like all other matters in regard to Grey Knights, they will remain almost completely unknown. The fortress-monastery also contains the Librarium Daemonica, the Imperium’s foremost repository of Warp lore and daemonology. The Librarium is a forbidding place, filled with the tens of thousands of the ancient tomes of diabolic lore the Ordo Malleus has accumulated over the millennia.
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About the Author: Juan Lopez
