Valerian

Among the Custodians who marched forth when the ancient vow was finally set aside, Valerian rose swiftly to prominence as a Shield-Captain whose victories seemed to arrive with almost effortless inevitability. Where some of his brothers approached the unprecedented act of leaving Terra with visible unease, Valerian carried himself as though the galaxy beyond the Palace were simply one more hall to be secured, a confidence that steadied the warriors serving beneath him during a period of genuine uncertainty for the entire Order.

His reputation was forged especially in battles against the encroaching tyranid menace and the schemes of the Word Bearers' most fanatical servants, campaigns in which Valerian repeatedly demonstrated the terrible efficiency the Custodians are capable of when unleashed at full strength. He fights with a precision that borders on serene, treating even the most desperate engagements as problems to be solved methodically rather than crises to survive, and it is this quality, as much as his considerable skill with blade and spear, that has made him something of a herald for what the newly deployed Shield Hosts represent: proof that the Emperor's finest have lost nothing by finally stepping into the wider war.