For ten thousand years the great mass of the Adeptus Custodes never strayed from the Throneworld, content to guard the Emperor in silent, unbroken vigil. The Emissaries Imperatus embody the change wrought upon that ancient tradition. When the Imperium was riven asunder by the opening of the Great Rift and the primarch Roboute Guilliman raised the banner of the Indomitus Crusade, a host of Custodians answered the call to war beyond Terra, and the Emissaries were foremost among those who chose to carry the fight into the wider dark.
They go forth as more than warriors. Each Custodian of this host is an ambassador of the Emperor's will, bearing His authority into star systems that have not looked upon such splendour in living memory, bringing hope to the faithful and terror to the traitor. Their very presence lends weight to the crusade's purpose, for where a Custodian walks, the common soldiery of the Imperium know that the Master of Mankind Himself has not forgotten them.
In battle the Emissaries Imperatus are renowned for the shattering force of their first strike. They fight as though the outcome were already ordained, ignoring the doubts and hesitations that stay a lesser warrior's hand, and their opening blows fall with such flawless conviction that enemy champions are laid low before the fight has truly begun. They are the spearpoint of the Emperor's reach, the proof that His guardians will no longer wait behind the walls while His realm burns.
Adeptus Custodes
Order of battle
The Emissaries Imperatus field the units of the Adeptus Custodes — a detachment from the roster:
Kindred formations
Other Adeptus Custodes formations
Aquilan ShieldThe first and most storied of the Shield Hosts, marching under the double-headed eagle to defend worlds Terra cannot afford to lose.
Dread HostWardens of relics and interred war machines, the Dread Host answers when the enemy's threat calls for annihilation rather than defense.
ShadowkeepersThe Shadowkeepers are the grim wardens of the Dark Cells, the black-armoured shield-host that keeps watch over the forbidden things imprisoned in the deepest vaults beneath the Imperial Palace. Theirs is the duty of the jailer, to hold entrapped the dread entities and heretical technologies too dangerous to destroy. Should any such horror ever slip its bonds and appear abroad, it falls to the Shadowkeepers to hunt it down and drag it back into the dark.
Solar WatchThe Solar Watch, styled the Castellans of the Blessed Worlds, is the shield-host charged with the eternal defence of the Sol System and the sacred worlds of the Segmentum Solar. Held always at the highest pitch of readiness, its warriors are the first of the Ten Thousand to answer any threat to the Throneworld's approaches, striking with a swiftness that grants the Emperor's enemies no chance to draw breath. Their pale, gold-trimmed ranks stand as a living rampart about mankind's holiest ground.