Custodian Tribune

A Custodian Tribune is a senior-ranking Custodian of the Adeptus Custodes and a member of the Custodian Tribunate that stands directly below the Captain-General of the order in rank and acts as his chief advisors and councilors.

During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, below the absolute authority of the Captain-General was the Custodian Tribunate; a senior cadre of perhaps ten Custodian Tribunes in number, which formed the Legio Custodes's council of war and policy. This body had the incomparable privilege of providing their services as counsel to the Emperor Himself should He so desire it, and in the matters of the security of the Imperial Palace's inner sanctums and the person of the Emperor, no higher authority existed.

By the era of the 41st Millennium, sadly, there were only two such positions that were still maintained by the Adeptus Custodes, though the rest of the Custodian Tribunate of senior Shield-Captains still existed in an advisory capacity. One of these two Tribunes, known as the "Tribune of the Stratarchis," served as the commander of all the cadres of Custodians operating off of Terra and spread across the wider galaxy, taking the fight to the myriad enemies of Mankind. The other served as the Tribune of the Hetaeron Guard -- the personal Companions of the Emperor -- who oversaw the security of the Sanctum Imperialis and the Golden Throne itself.

Role[]

The Custodian Tribunate are among the keenest minds after the Captain-General in the Ten Thousand. Once a Custodian joins the Tribunate they must serve for at least ten standard years, though their membership is rotated periodically to ensure a blend of established wisdom and fresh ideas come to the fore. To join the Tribunate, a Custodian must have earned at least ten names and won three great victories.

During their time of service, no member of the Tribunate takes to the battlefield unless in the most extreme circumstances -- their entire focus is supporting the Captain-General in strategic and diplomatic matters.

The tribunes of the Legio Custodes are among the most powerful warriors in the Imperium, for not only are they skilled in the arts of battle beyond even the capabilities of the finest Space Marines, but they also stand high in the Emperor's council. Only the most dangerous and vital of duties can call them away from the Emperor's side to the battlefield, and when they do choose to sally forth it is at the head of a mighty Shield Host of the Legio Custodes.

Unit Composition[]

• 1 Custodian Tribune

Wargear[]

• Custodian Armour

• Guardian Spear

• Misericord

• Frag Grenades

• Melta Bombs

• Arae-Shrike

• Archaeotech Pistol

• Praesidium Shield

• Teleport Transponder Array

• Pyrithite Spear (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• Adrasite Spear (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• Sentinel Warblade (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• Guardian Axe (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• Meridian Swords (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• Solarite Power Gauntlet (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• Solarite Powertalon (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• 2 Solarite Powertalons (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• Paragon Glaive (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

• Paragon Blade (As replacement for Guardian Spear)

Notable Custodian Tribunes[]

Horus Heresy[]

• Helios - Helios was a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy. He commanded the Custodians fighting the War Within the Webway until he was killed in action and his responsibilities were assumed by his successor Jasaric.

• Jasaric - Jasaric, also known as Jasac, was a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy. One of the original thirty Custodians first created, he had served the Emperor since the Unification Wars, and was present for the Battle of Maulland Sen. He was killed in action five standard years into the War Within the Webway after assuming command of the Custodians fighting within the Webway from his predecessor Helios.

• Ixion Hale - A consummate veteran of the Legio Custodes, Ixion Hale stood ready to face any foe who dared approach Terra and aided in its defence when the Throneworld was invaded by Warmaster Horus' Traitor hordes in the Siege of Terra.

• Kadai Vilaccan - Kadai Vilaccan was a Tribune of the Legio Custodes during the Horus Heresy. He was killed in action five standard years into the War Within the Webway, two solar weeks after the death of Jasaric. Against the counsel of Tribune Ra Endymion and Commander Krole, he advanced far into the tunnels beyond the Impossible City after the adepts of the Mechanicum calculated that the foray would prove a crushing victory over the forces of Chaos. This calculation proved to be a grave error. After his death, Ra Endymion was the last Tribune remaining within the Webway and took command of the remaining Custodian forces.

• Ra Endymion - Ra Endymion was a Custodian Tribune of the Legio Custodes and a close confidant of the Emperor during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. As a Tribune, Ra Endymion commanded the force of Custodians who fought in the War Within the Webway against the servants of Chaos following the death of his predecessor Kadai Vilaccan, following the folly of the Thousand Sons Primarch Magnus the Red. The Crimson King's use of forbidden sorcery to communicate with his father, the Emperor, in order to warn Him of Horus' fall to the Ruinous Powers, shattered the wards of the Imperial extension into the Webway deep beneath the Imperial Palace, which opened the way for the Daemonic legions of the Ruinous Powers to attempt to force their way into reality through the portal beneath the Imperial Palace. Ra is one of the only living souls who learned the entirety of his master's dreams and ambitions for Humanity, a great gift provided as recompense for his ultimate fate. During the War Within the Webway, Ra Endymion saved Mankind by becoming the vessel of flesh that caged the Daemon Drach'nyen in its form as a sword. After being impaled by the Daemon Weapon at the command of the Emperor, the Master of Mankind ordered his most faithful praetorian to run forever into the Webway, as far as he could, imprisoning the Daemon for as long as he lived.

41st Millennium[]

• Heracleon, Tribune of the Hetaeron Guard - Heracleon is a Tribune within the the Adeptus Custodes who commanded the Hetaeron Guard during the 13th Black Crusade. It was during that time that the name of Shield-Captain Valerian came to him in a dream -- a matter of great import, as Custodes were rarely capable of dreaming. In fact, Heracleon was the first Custodes in a millennia to do so and he felt that this signified that Valerian was a candidate to join the depleted ranks of the Hetaeron Guard. Shockingly, however, Valerian failed in his first trial to join the Companions of the Emperor, as he was physically unable to make himself enter the Sanctum Imperialis of the Golden Throne which held the Emperor's ravaged body.

• Italeo - Italeo was a Tribune within the the Adeptus Custodes who commanded the Custodians who protected the walls of the Outer Palace, during 13th Black Crusade. He was later mortally wounded while fighting in the Battle of Lion's Gate when the forces of Khorne used the onset of the Noctis Aeterna after the birth of the Great Rift to launch a great assault upon the Imperial Palace, but managed to kill one of the Bloodthirsters leading the Khornate legions before he was slain. Following Italeo's death, Maldovar Colquan was chosen to replace him as Tribune.

• Maldovar Colquan, Tribune of the Stratarchis - Following Tribune Italeo's death at the Battle of Lion's Gate, Colquan was chosen to replace him as a Tribune in the Adeptus Custodes and served as the liaison between Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman and Captain-General Trajann Valoris. Colquan joined the Indomitus Crusade's Fleet Primus and led its Adeptus Custodes contingent for over a solar decade, including taking part in the Battle of Raukos, which signaled the end of the first phase of the crusade with the stabilisation of the Imperium Sanctus. While Colquan served alongside Guilliman, the primarch noted that the Tribune's time on Terra had dulled much of his strategic sense, and he displayed a level of disdain for unaugmented mortal Humans that deeply disturbed Guilliman. Unlike most of the other Custodians, Colquan maintained a barely concealed rage towards those he considered his inferiors and was not known for his diplomacy when dealing with other Imperial officials. He also deeply distrusted both Guilliman and the new Primaris Space Marines, seeing them as usurpations of the Emperor's perfect works. Colquan later directed Shield-Captain Achallor to Gathalamor to conduct reconnaissance in reaction to Asuryani Farseer Illiyanne Natasé's vision of a threat from Chaos growing there that could threaten the whole Imperium. Colquan strictly instructed Achallor to only report on what he found on Gathalamor, not wishing for any of the Ten Thousand to expend their lives in fighting a threat that could be faced by other Imperial forces. However the Shield Host of Achallor soon became swept up in the fighting against the forces of Chaos present there, and at the climax of the battle Colquan arrived with a force of 50 Custodians which dramatically turned the tide of the campaign. After hearing of Achallor's death and burial on Gathalmor with the trappings of an Imperial Saint provided by the Ecclesiarchy, Colquan saw the superstitious ritual as a necessary act to exert control over the Imperium's population and maintain morale in the face of the growing threats to the galaxy. Colquan came to believe that he had seen the hand of the Emperor in how the campaign on Gathalamor had played out to the Imperium's advantage. During the Plague Wars Colquan remained at Guilliman's side, and remained highly critical of the increasingly militant religious movements growing up around the primarch such as those led by the priest Mathieu. During the climax of the Plague Wars campaign against the Daemon Primarch Mortarion and the Death Guard on Iax the Tribune organised an operation to rescue Guilliman and other Imperial servants from the doomed world before the orbiting fleet unleashed an Exterminatus action.

Canon Conflict[]

In the Watchers of the Throne novel series by Chris Wraight, it is stated that there are only 2 Tribunes still within the Adeptus Custodes by the time of the 13th Black Crusade in the 41st Millennium. However Codex: Adeptus Custodes for the 8th Edition states that the Custodian Tribunate is made up of 10 officers during the Era Indomitus, according with the structure seen during the Horus Heresy.

Sources[]

• Warhammer: The Horus Heresy Second Edition - Liber Imperium (Specialty Game), pg. 20
• Codex: Adeptus Custodes (8th Edition), pg. 20
• The Master of Mankind (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Dramatis Personae, Chs. 2, 4, 6, 9
• Dark Imperium (Novel) by Guy Haley, Ch. 6
• Dark Imperium: Godblight (Novel) by Guy Haley, Chs. 32, 37
• Avenging Son (Novel) by Guy Haley, Ch. 19
• Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor's Legion (Novel) by Chris Wraight, Valerian Chs. 1, 2, 9
• The Gate of Bones (Novel) by Andy Clark, Ch. 9, 37-38
• Forgeworld 2017 Forge World Legio Custodes Tribune Ixion Hale Event Only