Custodes Background and Special Rules

From: talos402000 <talos402000_at_...>
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 03:11:13 -0000

The Custodian Guard

Legio Custodes-Adeptus Custodes-The Immortal Guardians-The Emperor's
Bodyguard


"These men are my bodyguards, their lives forfeit to the guarantee
of my physical safety. Of their loyalty to me there shall be no
question or doubt. I, and I alone, shall have the authority to stand
in judgment over them. No other commander shall they have in battle
nor in service. None shall bar them from me and none shall hamper or
stall their mission. So it is decreed!"---The Emperor of Mankind.

   
   The Legio Custodes ar the Emperor's personal bodyguard. They
first appeared at his side during the Age of Strife, and since then
have maintained a constant vigil over his person. In battle, a
double-strengh company called the Ares Guard alwayse fights beside
him, and a detachment of the Guard called the Companions even
accompanies the Emperor when he retires to his private chambers
within the Imperial Palace.
   
   The beginnings of the Legio Custodes are shrouded in myth and
legend, but they were apparently founded before the Great Crusade as
the proto-template for all later legions. They were raised from the
Emperors personal bodyguards during his rise to power on war-torn
Earth, and some say that the Custodian Guard are to the Emperor what
the Space Marines are to the Primarchs; that the Emperor's own
genetic-matrix was used in their creation and through this their
loyalty to him is assured. Others argue that the Custodians are not
like the Emperor in the way that a Space Marine is like his
Primarch, and that some other source was used as a template for
their physical and psychological form; a source that was lost in the
Age of Strife. The truth will likely never be known.
   
   Each Custodian is an awesome warrior, stronger and more resilient
than a normal human, or even a Space Marine. They are without peer
in battle and have an unshakeable devotion and loyalty to the person
of the Empeeror. Although they do not appear to have any psychic
powers of their own, their willpower is such that they can resist
assaults from the most powerful of psykers, save perhaps the Emperor
himself.

   There are reckoned to be only a thousand of these elite warriors
in total, although this is highly speculative. Only the Emperor and
his inner circle know their exact number. Certainly no more than a
thousand have ever been seen together at any one time, and then only
once at the famous Battle of Gyros-Thravian, fought during the Great
Crusade against the ork warlord, Gharkhul Blackfang and his vast
greenskin horde.

   The Primarchs Horus, Rogal, Mortarion, and their Legions were
vastly outnumbered and close to defeat when the Emperor led an
assult from his golden battle barge, the Bucephelus. At the head of
a thousand Custodians, the Emperor struck at the very heart of the
ork horde, confronting Gharkhul atop a towering Gargant. As the
Emperor decapitated the giant black-skinned ork, the Custodians laid
waste to the warlord's private guard of huge Nobz. It is said that
within moments over a hundred-thousand greenskins died and the
Waaagh! was broken. Legend has it that only three Custodians fell at
the battle, their names enshrined forever, engraved on the Emperor's
armor.

   Other than the Battle of Gyros-Thravian it is known that the
Guard defended the Inner Palace during the Horus Heresy, and
accompanied Leman Russ on his assult on Prospero, and surely some
accompanied the Emperor during his attack on Horus's Battle Barge as
well as participating in the War in the Webway, but no other records
have been kept. Other than their intervention during the age of
Apostasy against Vandire, the Adeptus Custodes have kept a low
profile in the Imperium. Occasionally the Captain-General acts as a
High Lord of Terra but only during emergencies when stability is
needed.

   The Legio is still organized as a Legion and not a chapter
divided by cohort and not chapter. One of the rumors about them is
that no new recruits have been initiated since the Battle of Terra
and that the cohorts of the Legion take turns defending the Golden
Throne one by one while the others stay in stasis. Only in the
rarest of circumstances would the Legion take the field, such as
when a threat to the entire Imperium arises or a direct threat
aginst the Golden Throne itself.

   The colors of the Legio Custodes before the Horus Heresy were
gold with red-highlights, afterwards as a sign of their failure to
protect the Emperor and remorse they changed their colors to gold
with black hightlights as a token of mourning.

Ave Imperator!

Special Rules:
1. The Ares Guard may only be taken in a Custodes Codex army and
only if the Emperor is going to be present and must then be the
first company card chosen. The only special card the Ares Guard is
allowed to take is the Emperor. Only one Ares Guard Card per Army.

2. If you are using the Custodes as Allies for another army, you may
only take the special card and only one ot them per army. During the
time of the Hersesy it was relatively common for detachments of the
Guard to accompany the Astartes Legions or the Imperial Army to make
sure the Emperor's orders were carried out and this rule reflects
this.

3. Close Combat Mastery: Any Custodes unit in close combat may re-
roll any 1's.

4. Bodyguards Special Ability. Anytime the Emperor misses his armor
save outside close-combat any Custodes unit within 1" may roll 2+ on
a d6 to take the hit instead. If successful, the hit is negated and
the unit is then automatically lost.

5. Hoy Light Special Ability. Any non-Imperial unit within 15" of a
unit with Holy Light suffers from Fear. Any Imperial unit within 15"
become Fearless.

6. All Custodes units are Fearless when defending the Emperor, i.e.
whenever the Emperor is present in the game.

7. Only the Emperor or Custodes command stands may command Custodes
units. They recieve no bonuses from any other Imperial command
units, including Primarchs.

8. Allies. The Custodes Guard may take up to 50% points in allies
from any Imperial list and may take any unit, even if the unit is
normally restricted to a codex army. For example, taking a Blood
Angels Sanguinary Priest or Black Templars Emperor's Champion is
allowed. This reflects the Custodians ability to requisition troops
from anybody, anywhere, anytime.

9. Gravitic Vehicles are rare even for the Emperor's personel
troops. You may not have more gravitic company cards than regular
company cards or more gravitic support cards than regular cards.
Received on Thu Dec 08 2005 - 03:11:13 UTC