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Why are Grey Knights limited to only 1000 Marines?

They are specialized Chapter for Daemon hunting, outside regular Chapter order and Code Astartes. And they are militant army of one of 3 major Inquisition orders to that.
There is no fear of rebellion fro, their side as they are "incorruptible" to Chaos, and giving the sheer size of Daemonic forces per planet invasion and in galaxy as a whole they in fact lack numbers to answer most of it.
So why they have only 1000 and not 3000 or 6000 Marines?

Codex Astartes, traditional restrictions? To be honest, IMO the Grey Knights should be legion size, not chapter size. Better that way, and it would make them more effective.

In the previous Codex, Daemonhunters, they were closer to 6000 strong.

Isn't it something to do with their training being incredibly brutal and a smaller number being easier to monitor?

I've heard "3000" thrown around
I think GK are supposed to be 1000 strong but no one really monitors them or has a desire to keep their number at that size

I would imagine the Ordo Malleus "monitors" them, given that it's (as far as I know) still one of the Inquisition's own fighting formations. That being said, we all know how the Inquisition thinks about rules.

The Chambers Militant of all three Ordos seem to be comparatively small, but I too see no reason why the GK should be capped at "just" 1.000.

To be slightly pedantic about the matter, the new codex never explicitly states the total number - only that the main eight brotherhoods are formed of 100 grey knights each. However, if you include the 40ish Purifiers, the Paladins and the officers we could safely assume it's close to 900-1,000 marines anyway.

Where the 3,000 number comes from I don't know / can't remember. I'm pretty sure it isn't in C: DH but I am confident it's from a pre-C: GK source (if at all) and may no longer be valid.

I wouldn't think they are capped. As a part of the ordos they are above the law, but it's such a long and intense process of training that I doubt they can manage high numbers of them.

IIRC the Grey Knights used to actually number three thousand, but the very notion that the greatest Space Marine chapter of all did not adhere to Codex number restrictions was anathema to Matt Ward's very being, so as a form of self-defense he cut their numbers to a thousand.

Lynata wrote:I would imagine the Ordo Malleus "monitors" them, given that it's (as far as I know) still one of the Inquisition's own fighting formations. That being said, we all know how the Inquisition thinks about rules.

The Chambers Militant of all three Ordos seem to be comparatively small, but I too see no reason why the GK should be capped at "just" 1.000.

In the stories it says they treat the inquisitors wih great respect and work with them due to a similar cause but that they are only truly loyal to the emperor not malleus itself. Hence why a good number of the gk are helping in the defense around the eye not following malleus guys around. Then if the inquisitor finds a threat he annot stop the knights will send a squad. The speed of the gk ships is said to be top notch allowing them a little lee way.

Draigo wrote:In the stories it says they treat the inquisitors wih great respect and work with them due to a similar cause but that they are only truly loyal to the emperor not malleus itself. Hence why a good number of the gk are helping in the defense around the eye not following malleus guys around.

Are these stories Black Library novels, perchance? A number of their authors (not all!) like to deviate somewhat from GW fluff, just like FFG does. Or was that actually in one of the GK Codices?

"It is clear then that wherever possible it is best if the Inquisition can deal with a threat using its own resources, avoiding the dangerous entanglements that may result from involving other agencies and military forces. It is for this reason that the Inquisition maintains its own fighting formations, foremost amongst them being the Kill-teams of the Deathwatch Space Marines and the daemon-hunting Grey Knights Space Marines."
- http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1320032_Thorian_Sourcebook.pdf

Forces from both the Deathwatch as well as the Grey Knights may often operate "independently" (as in: without an Inquisitor on-site), but both organizations are ultimately still under command of the Inquisition. At least that's what I've "grown up" with.

Note that I'm following only the studio version in this; I am aware that there are other, overlapping yet differing interpretations by novel authors, RPG designers and gamers that are just as viable. Such inconsistency is the price to pay for a franchise that does not have a solid canon policy in place.

Draigo wrote:The speed of the gk ships is said to be top notch allowing them a little lee way.

That's because, along with the Imperial Fists, they're the closest Chapter to Mars, and so have access to better technology. Those same novels imply GK ships are based on DAoT ships.

The training for a grey knight is very difficult, so their numbers would be small. also thier are only physkers and physkers are rare so the ones that do pass the trials would be slim to none.

So actually they may even have more them 1000?
I tough so, because the number 1000 only appears at the beginning when they emerge from Warp, and after that there is nothing to speculate their current strength.

To be honest, I would like to think that after millennia, they're already legion strength.

Brother Coa wrote:So actually they may even have more them 1000?

Apparently their 5E Codex explicitly says 1.000 - and the 3.000 number given above was nothing more but fan speculation that, as happens every so often, became accepted as "official" by the community due to hearsay/circulation.

This thread on Bolter & Chainsword talking about the retcons in the new GK Codex was quite enlightening: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=226872&st=0

(only read this just now, btw!)

I think they keep it low so the training can be better