Wyldhunt wrote:
I've often wondered if the marine recruitment process is doing more harm than good on the whole. The success rate of recruits seems to be really low with wash-outs typically either dying or being put into roles in service to the chapter. Which means you're taking a lot of extremely promising whipper snappers and killing most of them all for the sake of pumping out a few super soldiers.

Obviously marines have had their successes, but I do wonder how different things might look if chapters started with gene screening first and then made a point of *not* killing their promising recruits and then sent the washouts to the schola progenium or put them into positions on imperial worlds where their skills could be utilized.

Ultimately, the number of promising recruits a chapter actually accepts are probably a drop in the bucket of humanity, but it does make me wonder. What if instead of making a bunch of teens Hunger Games eachother for a chance at maybe being recruited, you instead just... gave the promising among them some training and support and gave them a sergeant rank in some guard regiment?

mrFickle wrote:
Have the Custodes ever considered all flying into the eye of terror and smashing the place up? All of the custodes should be able to do some serious damage although I suppose we have no way of knowing how many planets and what forces would be waiting for them

 Void__Dragon wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
IIRC the Custodes are basically all one-off custom creations meant to do a specific role in the Custodes, and all together are just meant to be peerless warriors/bodyguards.

Nope.

"We were never soldiers.

Whenever we are seen outside the walls of this place, as rare as that is, it is in our martial aspect. We are clad in gold, just as it was in the earliest days when He was our living captain, and mortals fall on their faces as if before gods. To them, it must seem as if we are wrath incarnate. To them, it must seem as if we were created for destruction and nothing else.

But we were His companions, once. We were the ones in whom He confided. We were His counsellors, we were His artisans. We were the first glimpse of what the species could become, if shepherded aright and unshackled from its vicious weaknesses.

Of course, we were taught to fight. He knew that war would come. It was a necessary part of the ascension, though it was never destined to last for eternity. We were the guardians of a new age, and had to be strong enough to keep it secure.

We failed in that, and now wear the mark of that failure in the black robes that cover our auramite. It is a permanent reminder, replacing the cloaks of blood-red that once adorned our battle-plate. It weighs heavy with every one of us, for we know more of the nature of the fall than most. We still recite the old stories, and we study in the lost archives where we alone are suffered to tread, and so do not have the comforting illusions of ignorance to salve the wound. In a galaxy defined by ignorance, we remember. We cultivate the shards of the thing that was broken, and remain aware of what would have been.

I think sometimes that this knowledge is the most severe of our many burdens. Any brutal soul may fight if he has the goal ahead of him. We fight knowing that our truest purpose lies behind us, and all that remains is faithfulness to an extinguished vision.

But still we preserve. We tend the things of value that have survived. We seek to embody His will in all things. We cleave to His light as the darkness gathers. We interpret, we study, we delve into the philosophy of the ages.

We have many duties. But that is just as it should be, for we are not simple creations. The aeons have changed us in so many ways, but not in that.

We were a thousand things to a thousand souls, but we were never soldiers."
- Shield Captain Valerian

The Custodes were made for more than just war, let alone bodyguarding the Emperor.

 Da Boss wrote:
I reckon with the Custodes off running around doing other stuff Abbadon or some other ambitious chaos warlord or daemon prince should do a decapitation strike at Terra and gank the Emperor. There's only a 1000 Imperial Fists on Phalanx and half it's systems are offline now anyway.
Just properly knock out the Astronomican and let the entire Imperium rot.

 Wyldhunt wrote:
They tried an organized crusade into the Eye back in the day (I forget the name of it). Scary numbers of the chapters sent just ended up getting corrupted and becoming new enemies the imperium had to deal with. So I'd think there'd be some trepidation about something similar happening with custodes.

 RaptorusRex wrote:

 Da Boss wrote:
I reckon with the Custodes off running around doing other stuff Abbadon or some other ambitious chaos warlord or daemon prince should do a decapitation strike at Terra and gank the Emperor. There's only a 1000 Imperial Fists on Phalanx and half it's systems are offline now anyway.
Just properly knock out the Astronomican and let the entire Imperium rot.

Good luck getting there.